Field surveys after major disastrous earthquakes have shown that poor performance of buildings in earthquake affected areas is the leading cause of human fatalities and economic losses. The evaluation of seismic fragility for existing building stocks has become a crucial issue due to the frequent occurrence of earthquakes in the last decades. They are required for the estimation of fatalities and monetary losses due to structural damage in destructive natural disasters like earthquakes.
Field surveys after major disastrous earthquakes have shown that poor performance of buildings...
1Center for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction Technology (CEDIM) and Geophysical Institute, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Hertzstrasse 16, 76187, Karlsruhe, Germany
2China Scholarship Council (CSC), Level 13, Building A3, No.9 Chegongzhuang Avenue, 100044, Beijing, P.R. China
3General Sir John Monash Scholar, The General Sir John Monash Foundation, Level 5, 30 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia
1Center for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction Technology (CEDIM) and Geophysical Institute, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Hertzstrasse 16, 76187, Karlsruhe, Germany
2China Scholarship Council (CSC), Level 13, Building A3, No.9 Chegongzhuang Avenue, 100044, Beijing, P.R. China
3General Sir John Monash Scholar, The General Sir John Monash Foundation, Level 5, 30 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia
Abstract. The evaluation of the seismic fragility of buildings is one key task of earthquake safety and loss assessment. Many research reports and papers have been published over the past four decades that deal with the vulnerability of buildings to ground motion caused by earthquakes in China. We scrutinize 69 papers with studies of building damage for magnitude ≥ 4.7 events occurred in densely populated areas starting with the 1975 M7.5 Haicheng earthquake. They represent observations where macroseismic intensities have been determined according to the Chinese Official Seismic Intensity Scale. From these many studies we derive the most representative fragility functions (dependent on intensity) for 4 damage limit states of two most widely distributed building types: masonry and reinforced concrete. We also inspect 18 papers that provide analytical fragility curves (dependent on PGA) for the same damage classes and building categories. Finally, we check the consistency of fragilities as functions of intensity and PGA and derive corresponding relationships between macroseismic intensity and PGA. The intensity-PGA relationship developed in this study is fully compatible with results of previous research.
Field surveys after major disastrous earthquakes have shown that poor performance of buildings in earthquake affected areas is the leading cause of human fatalities and economic losses. The evaluation of seismic fragility for existing building stocks has become a crucial issue due to the frequent occurrence of earthquakes in the last decades. They are required for the estimation of fatalities and monetary losses due to structural damage in destructive natural disasters like earthquakes.
Field surveys after major disastrous earthquakes have shown that poor performance of buildings...