Rapid decision-making tool of piloti-type RC building structure for seismic performance evaluation and retrofit strategy using multi-dimensional structural parameter surfaces

Abstract

Piloti-type reinforced concrete building structures have vertically irregular configurations composing a moment frame for parking spaces in the lower story and heavy-weight shear wall system for residential spaces in the upper stories. Due to these vertically irregular configurations, such building structures are governed by a soft story mechanism, damage concentration on the first story. Since the 2017 Pohang earthquake led to severe damage to the piloti-type building structures on a regional level, a decision-making tool mitigating the seismic damage for future events is needed. This paper aimed to propose a rapid decision-making tool promptly estimating seismic damage with simple information and determining a retrofit scheme using a pre-developed extensive database, i.e., multi-dimensional structural parameter surfaces. The multi-dimensional surfaces were created using a simplified modeling approach with five structural parameters: period, strength ratio, and ductility controlling failure modes as the input, and peak inter-story drift ratio and demand-to-capacity ratio as the output. The proposed methodology was validated using a finite element model for the piloti-type building structure with a soft-story mechanism. The seismic responses detected from the multi-dimensional surfaces have a slight difference from those of the numerical model. Nevertheless, the rapid tool predicted a reasonable agreement with performance evaluation from the finite element simulation. In addition, the rapid tool provided feasible retrofit options to meet target performance using brief structural information. Due to its simplified process, the proposed tool can be implemented to the regional seismic assessment for the residential areas where the piloti-type building structures were highly concentrated.