The insufficient consideration of seismic risk caused hidden danger for structural safety in many areas. A promising retrofit method for these structures is base isolation. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach, a hypothetical RC frame based on actual situation is designed to be retrofitted using base isolation. Then, seismic fragilities for both un-retrofitted and isolated frames are analyzed, utilizing the results obtained from nonlinear finite-element analysis. The ground motion of the analysis contains 22 earthquake motions, and the results of considering mainshock-aftershock and those of considering only mainshock are compared. The study proves the well designed base isolation can reduce the seismic fragility of the RC frame effectively, and the exclusive consideration of mainshock will underestimate the seismic hazards for structures.
Rapid and in-depth analysis for seismic risk evaluation
