Investigation on the Possibility of Matching Vulnerability Assessment with Field Observations for Real Structures

Abstract

Assessment of exiting structures is a challenging issue that is of increasing importance in the last decades. There are, however, a number of uncertainties, which may result in unrealistic estimations of the expected demand. It is widely accepted, for example, that the uncertainties in defining the seismic loads may be one of the main reasons of non-accurate estimations of the structural response. The misprediction of the overall response may however be significantly affected also by the use of different techniques and approaches in calculation of the expected demand on the structure. This paper is focused on two real case study structures that were built in the highly influenced areas from the 1999 earthquake of Kocaeli. The characteristics of the structures, as well as the field measurements allowed the authors to work on the structures in detail and calibrate their model and findings of the analyses and assessment. The assessment approach given in the latest version of the Turkish Earthquake Code (TEC) of 2007 has been adopted to approximate the structural demand as well as the observed structural damage distribution. Results of the structural analyses based on TEC and those of the structural identification have been combined to assess the building performances, paying special attention to the possibility of matching the assessment results with the observed field data. There exist inconsistencies between the reality and the estimations, the possible reasons of which will also be discussed at the end of the paper.