1 Professors, Academic Unity of Engineering, Autonomous University of Guerrero, Chilpancingo, GRO, Mexico, sstizapa@hotmail.com, arroyomatus@hotmail.com
2 Professor, Laboratoire Modélisation et Simulation Multi Echelle, Université Paris-Est, Cité Descartes, MARNE LA VALLEE, France, email Ahmed.Mebarki@uni-paris.est.fr
3 PhD Civil Engineer, Paris, France, nathalia.valencia@laposte.net
4 Engineer Structural Department, Subsecretary of Civil Protection, Chilpancingo, GRO, Mexico, jamg7114@hotmail.com
ABSTRACT
Acapulco city is located over the subduction zone between American and Pacific plates, which is the highest Mexican seismic hazard zone. For this reason, buildings are subjected to high ground acceleration and, sometimes, have been damaged by strong earthquakes. In order to assess the seismic vulnerability of masonry apartment buildings, a research Governmental project was developed. The procedure is composed by several steps as follows: a) A survey of a stock of apartment buildings was carried out in order to collect the most important characteristics of each building, age, construction materials and building dimensions, number of apartments and response design spectra; b) Different typologies were identified according to the area, wall characteristics, architectonic and structural features of the building; c) The shear strength was estimated for each building; d) The seismic capacity index was evaluated with respect to the design spectra in order to obtain the seismic vulnerability of the buildings. Due to large amount of buildings in Acapulco, it was necessary to define two limits: buildings with three or more stories; and residents with a lower or moderate income. Then, 1,387 buildings divided into 17 blocks and 41 typologies were surveyed. Structures are 3 – 9 story buildings with 5-20 apartments. Age of constructions goes from 1970 up to 1990. From this study, results show that 1,228 buildings (89 %) have a high seismic vulnerability, estimated with respect to the response design spectra.
KEYWORDS: buildings, capacity index, masonry walls, strength, seismic design, simplified method
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