Mitigation of seismic financial risk of reinforced concrete walls by using damage avoidance design

Abstract

Seismic financial risk analyses of rocking precast prestressed reinforced concrete hollow-core walls designed using the Damage Avoidance Design (DAD) philosophy and code compliant ductile monolithic walls are performed based on the results of experimental investigation on seismic behaviour of wall specimens representing the two different systems. Incremental dynamic analyses (IDA) are performed on nonlinear computational models of the two prototype walls and experimental results are used to calibrate different damage states. Fragility curves are then developed for the two wall systems and the expected annual loss (EAL) is calculated based on a probabilistic financial risk assessment framework. The structural performance and financial implications of the two wall systems are compared. The study shows that it is the structurally acceptable minor to moderate damage that is responsible for a major share of the financial risk. Damage avoidance philosophy avoids these minor– moderate damage and hence reduces the financial risk greatly.