Upgrading existing buildings to meet modern seismic standards is one of the greatest challenges in structural engineering today. This case study highlights how a typical 1970s reinforced concrete hotel was transformed into a safe, resilient, and code-compliant structure—without compromising its functionality or architectural value.
From the onset of structural analysis, engineers have employed linear elastic methods, implicitly assuming small deformations, limited damage to structural members, and an approximately elastic response of all structural components.
From the onset of structural analysis, engineers have employed linear elastic methods, implicitly assuming small deformations, limited damage to structural members, and an approximately elastic response of all structural components.
In the context of seismic assessment and retrofit of existing reinforced concrete buildings, practitioners prefer to employ linear analysis and in particular the Linear Dynamic Procedure that uses the well-known Response Spectrum Analysis.
A significant earthquake, measuring M7.7, struck near Mandalay, Myanmar [...]
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) recently released [...]
The current example employs a typical building built in the late 1980s. The building has 5 floors of approximately 180 m2 each, and a soft storey at the ground level. The infills of the upper levels are relatively strong with good quality ceramic bricks and mortar of relatively high strength. The combination of the soft ground storey and strong infill panels in upper floors is the most important characteristic of the building and constitutes a serious structural problem related to its seismic behaviour.
The current example employs a typical industrial building built in the late 1980s. The building has 2 floors of approximately 880m2 each. The infills are relatively strong with good quality ceramic bricks and mortar of relatively high strength.
The recent Turkey - Syria earthquake inspired us to write a blog post about the importance of seismic retrofit of existing buildings. The current example - case study - employs a typical building built in Southern Europe in the late 1980s. The building has 4 floors of approximately 200 m2 each, and a soft storey at the ground level.
SeismoSoft team passed the largest of the recordings to SeismoSignal and the findings were astonishing.
