NEHRP Clearinghouse
- Title
- Contribution to State-of-the-Art Report of the Earthquake Committee of the IABSE-ASCE Tall Buildings Committee 'Economic and Social Aspects'. Optimum Seismic Protection for New Building Construction in Eastern Metropolitan Areas.
- File
- PB80118409.pdf
- Author(s)
- Whitman, R. V.
- Source
- National Science Foundation, Washington, DC. Engineering and Applied Science., March 1972, 16 p.
- Identifying Number(s)
- INTERNAL STUDY-5
- Abstract
- A possible methodology is outlined for analyzing the costs and risks associated with designing tall buildings against earthquakes. The methodology examines, in probabilistic terms, the damage which one earthquake will cause to a particular building system built with a particular design strategy. For each different design strategy, the initial cost required by that strategy is added to the present value of possible future losses. The earthquake occurrence probability is determined. By appropriate analysis of the historical record and of geological information, reasonable estimates for the earthquake intensity probability for any location may be made. The effect of various levels of ground motion upon the building system is expressed by a family of damage probability matrices. Each matrix applies to a particular building system and design strategy, and gives the probability that various levels of damage will result from earthquakes of various intensities. These levels of damage are described both by words and by the ratio, to replacement cost, of physical damage to the building and its contents. With each damage state, there is an associated cost. The total associated cost for each damage state includes, in extreme cases, injury and loss of life and impact on the community.
- Keywords
- Probability theory; Seismic design; Earthquake resistant structures; Tall buildings; Cost analysis; Damage; Risk analysis; Buildings; Earthquake engineering; Design standards