VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT

• The term vulnerability means that the state of being open to injury or being
easily attack.
• Vulnerability assessment involves checking whether a building in a seismically
active area has sufficient robustness to withstand a specific magnitude
earthquake.
• This is done by analysing the building structurally in terms of its design,
construction and materials in terms of international standards and local building
codes, as appropriate.
• This work must be undertaken by suitably experienced and qualified Earthquake
Engineers,Where buildings are found to be non-resistant or have insufficient
resilience to an expected earthquake of a given magnitude-remedial measures
can be designed and costed for subsequent retrofitting. In extreme cases, the
buildings should be demolished and reconstructed.
 Seismic vulnerability depends upon;

• The material of which the structure is made.

• The mechanical properties of construction materials.

• The geometry and layout of a building and its structural components.

• The detailing of structural components as well as floor-wall

connection details.
 OBJECTIVE OF SEISMIC VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT IN
EXISTING BUILDING;

• To assess the seismic safety of existing buildings (Qualitatively and

Quantitatively.
• To assess seismic vulnerability (structural and non-structural) of buildings.
• To suggest appropriate strengthening measures to improve earthquake
performance of the building structures.
• To identify relatively safe and unsafe places .
• To create earthquake awareness in institutions and publics.
 SEISMIC ASSESSMENT IS CARRIED OUT IN TWO PHASES;

FIRST PHASE;
• Assessment of structural and non-structural earthquake vulnerability of
the buildings by qualitative method.
• Identification of relatively safe and unsafe places inside the building and
within building premises.
• Identification of best retrofitting option if retrofitting is required.
SECOND PHASE;
• Detail design of retrofitting by quantitative method(Structural analysis
& data/design).
• Cost estimate for retrofitting work.
METHODS OF EVALUATING SEISMIC VULNERABILITY

• Observed vulnerability
• Expert opinion
• Simple Analytical models
• Score Assignments
• Detailed Analysis Procedure
 OBSERVED VULNERABILITY

• This method of assessment is based on the statistics(collecting more data) of the

buildings' damage from the past earthquakes.
• The method is specifically suitable for poor quality non-engineered construction
whose resistance is difficult to calculate by analytical or numerical methods.
• First such type of a study was made by Whitman. He gathered the data of
approximately 1600 buildings damaged due to the San Fernando earthquake of
9th February, 1971.
• Based on the gathered data, he carried out a statistical analysis and developed
damage probability matrices (DPM). These DPM indicated the probability of
occurrence of various distress levels at various intensities of earthquake.
• The method has the disadvantage of requiring a substantial amount of the analysis
of the data, for the area under consideration, cannot be extended to other towns
and cities.
• The method does not possess the ability to calculate reduction in vulnerability of
buildings as a result of retrofitting or strengthening of buildings.
 EXPERT OPINION
• The DPM were developed by asking 58 experts to estimate expected
percentage of damage that a specific structural type would undergo under the
action of various intensities of earthquake.
• Each expert was asked to fill a comprehensive questionnaire by utilizing
their best knowledge.
• However, the drawback of the methodology lies in the subjective opinion.
Each expert, depending upon his knowledge and engineering judgment has
his own opinion.
• In addition, the results obtained for the target area cannot be extended to
other towns and cities.
 SIMPLE ANALYTICAL MODEL
• Vulnerability assessment methods of observed vulnerability or expert
opinions are applicable to areas with some past earthquake experience. For
other areas, analytical methods for determining the seismic vulnerability
are needed.
• Analytical methods have the advantage of analyzing a large number of
buildings in a relatively short period of time.
• The efficiency of a method increases if the input parameters required for
analyzing the buildings can properly capture the overall seismic behavior
of the buildings.
• One such method is developed by D'Ayala et al for earthquake loss
estimation of historical towns of Europe. The method has been used for
earthquake loss estimation of a case study in Alfama district
• This method, is carried out in order to determine the displacement
capacity and the displacement corresponding to various defined limit states
 SCORE ASSIGNMENT

• This method is aimed at identifying a seismically hazardous building situated in a

target area.
• Structural deficiencies, based on correlation between observed damage and
structural characteristics, are identified.
• Based on different structural deficiencies, scores are then assigned by experts.
• The method serves as a first phase for screening seismically hazardous buildings
in an area. Buildings with very low scores are then investigated in detail.
• First such type of methodology was proposed by the Applied Technology
Council.
• The methodology was aimed at developing a procedure in order to identify
hazardous buildings that can impose risk to human lives.
• The advantage of this vulnerability assessment of the buildings is that, in a
target area can be updated after the retrofitting or strengthening of buildings.
 DETAILED ANALYSIS PROCEDURE
• The buildings identified as hazardous from the method of score assignment
need further detailed investigation for a final decision.
• The method used for this purpose can be divided into two classes, namely,
static and dynamic procedures. Each method can be further sub-divided in
two methods, namely, linear and non-linear methods.
• This makes a total of four methods as follows:
1)Linear static procedure
2)Non-linear static procedure
3)Linear dynamic procedure
4)Non-linear dynamic procedure
However, these methods are time-consuming and not suitable for an
earthquake scenario project in which a lot of buildings need to be investigated.