TIME HISTORY ANALYSIS AND PLOT OF FRAGILITY CURVE

Abstract

In recent past, severe earthquakes have caused substantial physical losses and casualties. Parts of India are at high risk of facing devastating earthquakes. Since majority of population is living in earthquake prone areas, it is probable that such terrible events may take place in near future. Moreover it is not easy to cope up with substantial direct and indirect economic losses after each devastating earthquake for a developing country like India. Because in this country many reinforced concrete buildings are not designed according to the current building codes, seismic behaviour is not taken into consideration during selection of structural system and in most cases supervision in construction phases is not adequate which in turn indicates deficiencies like poor concrete quality, inadequate detailing of reinforcement etc. It is therefore vital to qualify the earthquake risk and to develop strategies for disaster mitigation.

This study describes the method by which it is possible to determine the vulnerability of existing engineering structures and building stock. The tool employed to assess the seismic performance of reinforced concrete framed structure is fragility curve. By definition, fragility curve provide estimates for the probability of reaching or exceeding various limit states at given level of ground shaking intensity.