Development of a fragility model for low-rise steel and reinforced concrete buildings in Iran

Abstract

Low-rise buildings in Iran, especially in rural areas, include a significant part of the country''s total buildings. Considering this issue, along with the high level of seismicity of the country, and the need for decision-makers to develop effective risk mitigation plans, confirms the necessity of a centralized investigation of estimated losses of these buildings in various earthquakes. To this aim, developing fragility curves can be effective. Therefore, this study aims to gather newly developed fragility models in the literature regarding low-rise steel and RC structures, focusing on models developed especially for Iranian buildings. Next, in order to reduce uncertainties, the collected fragility curves are combined and some new models are proposed for the buildings under investigation. Various parameters such as design/construction quality, structural system, along with infill effects are considered. Comparison of the proposed curves with observed damages of the previous earthquakes showed the acceptance of the results, especially for the low-level case of design/construction quality.

Keywords

• fragility
• low-rise building
• steel
• reinforced concrete
• damage estimation