Evaluation of Strength, Stiffness and Ductility Requirements of Reinforced Concrete Structures Using Data From Chile (1985) and Michoacan (1985) Earthquakes

310 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1988.In 1985, there were two major earthquakes in the American Continent: (1) a magnitude 7.8 event off the coast of Central Chile, with its epicenter located approximately 80 km southwest of Vina, and (2) a magnitude 8.1 earthquake, with its epicenter located in the Pacific coast of Mexico between Michoacan and Guerrero, 400 km southwest of Mexico City.These two events are of interest because: (1) they were strong enough to test the type of construction built in each country with current concepts of earthquake resistance, (2) at the time of the earthquake more than 400 reinforced concrete buildings ranging from 5 to 23 stories were in Vina del Mar and more than 70,000 buildings with more than 4 stories were in Mexico City, and (3) strong-motion instruments recorded the ground motion close to the buildings. Building code requirements in different countries tend to guide designers toward different combinations of the three important parameters for earthquake resistance: stiffness, strength and ductility. In this study, the performance of two different combinations of the three parameters were investigated.In Chile, the practice encourages to design very stiff structures, with moderate strength and no special details for ductility.In Mexico City, the practice encourages to design with low stiffness, low strength and with special details for ductility.A detailed study of selected buildings in Vina del Mar and Mexico City was made from the viewpoint of defining the role of each of the three parameters in the response during the 1985 events.The type of construction built in Chile was, on the whole, found to be quite successful in Vina del Mar, during the 1985 event.The mean drift ratio provided a simple and efficient index for rating damage vulnerability. The mean drift ratio was used to select the appropriate reinforced concrete structures system.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD