Rapid seismic visual screen method for masonry infilled reinforced concrete framed buildings: Application to typical Sri Lankan school buildings

Seismic rapid visual screening (RVS) methods are used when a large stock of structures is to be evaluated for seismic risk. Although several RVS methods are available, applications of those methods to appraise the seismic risk of reinforced concrete framed (RC) buildings with irregu-larities in masonry infill walls (MIWs) are limited. School buildings constructed in Sri Lanka are built with certain RC frame typologies; however, they vary in terms of MIW arrangements used. Therefore, a new RVS method is proposed to evaluate the seismic risk of masonry infilled rein-forced concrete (RC-MIW) buildings, particularly for the typical RC-MIW school buildings in Sri Lanka. The proposed RVS method incorporates irregularities of MIW arrangements in the typical RC buildings, the attributes of which are not well accounted in the available RVS methods. The vulnerability attributes such as short column and soft storey effects, arise due to the irregularities of MIW arrangements in the buildings, are explicitly incorporated in the proposed RVS method. The FEMA P-154 guidelines were followed to develop basic scores, score modifiers and minimum scores in the proposed RVS method. For that purpose, seismic performances of RC-MIW schools with various MIW irregularities were numerically analysed. The effectiveness of the proposed RVS method is compared with the existing RVS methods to evaluate the seismic risk of typical RC-MIW school buildings in Sri Lanka. It is shown that the proposed RVS method is capable of capturing the seismic risks of such typical RC-MIW Sri Lankan school buildings.

Automated summary

A new seismic rapid visual screening method is proposed in this study to evaluate the seismic risk of masonry infilled reinforced concrete (RC-MIW) school buildings in Sri Lanka. The method takes into account the irregularities of masonry infill walls (MIWs) and incorporates vulnerability attributes such as short column and soft storey effects. Numerical analysis was conducted to compare the effectiveness of the proposed method with existing methods. The results demonstrate that the proposed method accurately captures the seismic risks of typical RC-MIW school buildings.