Development of a simplified displacement-based procedure for the seismic assessment of RC wall buildings

In regions of low or moderate seismicity there may be cases in which a rapid, simplified and conservative seismic assessment may be sufficient to demonstrate that a building satisfies certain seismic risk requirements. In recognition of this, a simplified displacement-based seismic assessment procedure, initially formulated for RC frame structures, is formulated to permit the rapid seismic assessment of reinforced concrete (RC) wall buildings. The key aspect of the procedure is the simplified evaluation of the displacement demand as the maximum spectral displacement across all periods. The displacement capacity, shear capacity and shear demand are also estimated simply, using newly developed equations that are a function of wall geometry and material properties. By adopting such formulations for the displacement and shear, the need to evaluate the period of vibration, stiffness and flexural strength of the walls is eliminated. The proposed approach is evaluated through the design and assessment of several case study buildings. Although the procedure is likely to be conservative in most cases, it is foreseen that it would be used in an initial screening process whereby a pass would require no further assessment and a fail would trigger a more detailed investigation.