Historic and heritage have sustained severe damage and collapse in recent earthquakes, including in Italy (2009), Haiti (2010) and New Zealand (2011). The main vertical and lateral load bearing members for these buildings are typically comprised of unreinforced masonry stone/rubblewalls. These walls have experienced both in plane and out-of-plane failures […]
Seismic Isolation Retrofit of a Historical Cathedral in Haiti
The 2010 Haiti Earthquake devastated the country and resulted in many casualties and enormous damage to infrastructure. Following the event, the authors visited the country, conducted a damage assessment program, and developed retrofit programs. While the bulk of retrofit has focused on traditional upgrade of residential units, seismic protection devices […]
Seismic Isolation of 200 Year Old Heritage Cathedrals in Haiti
Historic and heritage building present a unique class of structures. These buildings form a cultural pillar of the communities and thus require preservation. However, given their vintage, they have sustained severe damage and collapse in recent earthquakes, including in Italy (2009), Haiti (2010) and New Zealand (2011). The main vertical […]
Next Generation Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering for Steel Moment Frame Buildings with Dampers
Steel Special Moment Resisting Frames (SMRFs) with Viscous Damping Devices (VDDs) have been used by authors for design of many new and retrofitted buildings. Design experience has shown that such combination is reliable and cost effective, with a higher confidence in meeting the performance levels than the conventional design. The […]
Survey Of Damaged School And Hospital Buildings In The 2008 Wenchuan Earthquakes, Retrofit Options, And Application To Turkey
On 12 May 2008, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck China, approximately 80 km west of Chengdu in the Sichuan (Wenchuan) province and 1550 km southwest of Beijing. The fatalities exceeded 70,000 and millions were injured or left homeless. Damage was estimated at over US $150 Billion. Thousands of unreinforced masonry […]
Identifying the Collapse Hazard of Steel Special Moment-Frame Buildings with Viscous Dampers Using the FEMA P695 Methodology
An innovative design using steel special moment frames sized per building code requirements for strength and viscous dampers to control story drift ratios results in longer period structures that limit floor accelerations with excellent performance in design-level earthquakes. However, the response of this design to extreme seismic events is not […]
