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Sensitivity of earthquake risk models to uncertainties in hazard, exposure and vulnerability components has been investigated. The study is conducted for two test beds with distinctive socio-economic characteristics; Zeytinburnu and Los Angeles. Results are evaluated in terms of overall damage estimates as well as damage estimates of individual building typologies relative to one another. The distribution of damage estimates shows that the respective earthquake risk models are significantly affected by the vulnerability model. Further, the vulnerability model used in the earthquake risk model also influences the ranking of the building typologies according to their damage estimates. In comparison to that, the quality and the level of details of the building exposure database and the selected ground motion prediction equation seem to have less effect on the damage estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the multihazard response of code-designed conventional and base-isolated steel frame buildings is evaluated using nonlinear response history analysis. The results of hazard and structural response analysis for 3-story moment-resisting frame buildings are presented in this paper. Three-dimensional models for both buildings are created, and seismic response is assessed for three scenario earthquakes. The response history analysis results indicate that the performance of the isolated building is superior to the conventional building in the design event. However, for the Maximum Considered Earthquake, the presence of outliers in the response data reduces confidence that the isolated building provides superior performance to its conventional counterpart. The potential causes of the outliers have been carefully evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A detailed seismic performance assessment procedure has been developed for reinforced concrete (RC) frame buildings with masonry infill walls. The procedure is based on member damage functions, in terms of interstory drift ratios. These functions are developed for the primary components, namely, columns, beams, and infill walls. For developing these functions, analytical investigations to determine the influence of several parameters on the damageability of components were combined with experimental data. A new approach has been developed to synthesize component damage states to determine the story and eventually the building level performance states. The procedure has been calibrated and compared with other procedures by predicting the observed performance of three buildings exposed to recent earthquakes in Turkey. It is concluded that the developed procedure can satisfactorily predict the damage experienced by most of the components of the studied buildings. Moreover, the procedure reasonably captured the observed building damage states. Accordingly, the developed procedure can be used for a reliable performance assessment as well as performance-based design of RC frame structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]