1 Analytical Seismic Vulnerability Assessment for a Class of

ABSTRACT: A set of guidelines was developed for the Global Earthquake Model (GEM), aiming to offer a practical, yet sufficiently accurate, analytical method for assessing the relationship between the ground shaking and the repair cost for a building class. The present work illustrates the methodology for a class of modern low-rise steel moment-resisting frames (SMRFs). The structural analysis is performed using Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA). The selection of a single Intensity Measure (IM) to parameterize IDA results and, eventually, vulnerability curves is being tackled through an extended IM comparison study across the entire structural response range considering both interstory drifts and peak floor accelerations. It is demonstrated that scalar IMs, defined as the geometric mean of spectral accelerations values Sagm(Ti) estimated at several periods Ti can have an overall satisfactory performance. Once the uncertain structural response is determined, the methodology proceeds to the vulnerability estimation and consequently to loss assessment that is built upon a simplified component-based FEMA P-58 style methodology. The end product of this study is a high-quality set of vulnerability curves whose weighted moments are taken as the uncertain vulnerability function of the investigated building class. 1