Researchers at University College London (UCL) Have Reported New Data on Earthquake Engineering (Classification and Seismic Fragility Assessment of Confined Masonry School Buildings)

2021 APR 28 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Engineering Daily News -- A new study on Engineering - Earthquake Engineering is now available. According to news reporting from London, United Kingdom, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “School buildings being a critical social infrastructure, assessment of their seismic behaviour is of utmost importance in ensuring safe schooling facilities in locations of high seismicity. This study presents two important aspects in analysing any existing building stock for seismic behaviour: the development of an appropriate taxonomy system and an appropriate analytical method to conduct fragility assessment.”

Financial support for this research came from University College London.

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from University College London (UCL), “A detailed desk study of existing schools’ databases and tailored field investigation in Guwahati, Assam, situated in India’s highest seismic zone, reveal that the majority of school buildings can be categorised within the confined masonry (CM) typology. This study discusses first, the addition to the World Bank promoted Global Library of School Infrastructure taxonomy of the specific category relating to CM as to include the buildings under study, which are non-engineered CM buildings with flexible roofs. Identifying the density of confinement and quality of connections as critical parameters for the seismic response of these buildings, varying seismic design levels are defined in relation to these indicators. Secondly, the paper presents an approach for carrying out nonlinear static pushover analysis of these buildings with flexible diaphragms and elaborates on the criteria adopted for determining the performance drift limits in buildings with varying levels of seismic design. Numerical analysis for the capacity assessment of selected index buildings is carried out using a commercial software that enables nonlinear extreme loading analysis. Different failure mechanisms as a function of the level of confinement are identified and the performance range for three damage states for three index buildings is obtained by using the N2 method. The study shows the influence of both choices of performance indicators and intensity measure on the resulting fragility functions.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Given the consistency of the educational building stock in Guwahati, the results can be used for investment on retrofit decision making at regional level.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Classification and Seismic Fragility Assessment of Confined Masonry School Buildings. Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering, 2021;19(5):2213-2263. Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering can be contacted at: Springer, Van Godewijckstraat 30, 3311 Gz Dordrecht, Netherlands. (Springer - www.springer.com; Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering - http://www.springerlink.com/content/1570-761x/)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Ahsana Parammal Vatteri, University College London (UCL), London, United Kingdom.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10518-021-01061-9. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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