Seismic assessment of existing precast RC industrial buildings in Portugal

Precast reinforced concrete (PRC) buildings are common on European industrial parks. In past earthquakes, namely in Italy and Turkey, this typology of buildings showed a poor performance, namely at structural level. One of the major concerns at structural level regards the connection between the beams and columns. Two types of beam-to-column connections are more common in this type of buildings: the pure friction and a mechanical one including steel dowels. The seismic performance of six existent Portuguese PRC buildings built with these two solutions are analyzed considering nonlinear static and dynamic analyses addressing both global (columns) and local (connections) response parameters. The seismic assessment in view of the regulation for existing buildings (Eurocode 8 -Part 3) showed that, overall, this typology of buildings, present an acceptable structural performance. Nonetheless, unsatisfactory performance was observed at the beam-to-column connection in one of the buildings built without steel dowels. In terms of non-structural performance, namely in terms of the cladding elements, a poor performance is foreseen, for regions of moderate to high seismic action, regardless of the period of construction of the building.

Automated summary

Precast reinforced concrete buildings are common in European industrial parks, but they have shown poor performance in past earthquakes. The connection between beams and columns is a major concern, with pure friction and mechanical connections being common solutions. Seismic assessment showed that overall, these buildings have an acceptable structural performance, but unsatisfactory performance was observed in the beam-to-column connection without steel dowels. Non-structural performance, especially in terms of cladding elements, is predicted to be poor regardless of the building's construction period.