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This paper aims to analyse the ductility of existing buildings to evaluate its influence in their seismic performance. This has been achieved through the retrospective analysis of an existing building in accordance with current seismic codes. This study has revealed the lack of guidance in the NCSE02 and the EC8 regarding the assessment of the ductility of existing buildings. This manuscript proposes a methodology to assess the ductility of Spanish existing buildings. For this purpose, this paper has implemented the American code procedure combined with the EC8 and the Spanish seismic code (NCSE02) requirements. A two-storey RC frame school located in the Spanish region of Huelva has been selected as a case study. Different versions of this school have been compared: as built, designed according to current best practice, EC8 provisions and NCSE02 provisions. To do so, different constructive features have been varied according to each of the ductility class requirements: geometrical properties and the reinforcement ratio of the structural elements. Nonlinear static analyses have been carried out to obtain the displacement ductility factor (μ) and the behaviour factor (q) of each model. Construction costs and the expected damage index have been determined and compared. Results have shown that the best performance, regarding the ductility and the costs, has been obtained with the models designed with deep beams. Conversely, models with wide beams, and where only the reinforcement ratios have been varied, have merely shown a slight enhancement of the resistant and ductile capacity. It has been concluded that the ductility affects the shear capacity, the seismic performance and the expected damage of RC buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has indicated that many European buildings are vulnerable to moderate-magnitude earthquakes. For example, during the L´Aquila (Italia, Mw 6.3, 2009) and Lorca (Spain, Mw 5.9, 2011) earthquakes, many old buildings were severely damaged and some of them collapsed. In specific, significant damage has been found in several school buildings after past earthquakes in Europe. This is due to the fact that many of them were constructed prior to the current seismic codes, thus considering only gravitational loads and with no seismic design whatsoever. Primary schools are even more vulnerable than other typologies because of their low adult/child ratio. The seismic activity of the Iberian Peninsula is low-moderate. However, the Algarve and Huelva regions, which are situated in the south-west, are influenced by large faults which have caused major earthquakes of long-return periods. The European project PERSISTAH (Projetos de Escolas Resilientes aos SISmos no Território do Algarve e de Huelva, in Portuguese) aims to cooperatively evaluate the seismic vulnerability of primary schools in the Algarve (Portugal) and Huelva (Spain) regions. The present work is framed under this project. The objective of this paper is to determine the most effective retrofitting scheme for a typical primary school building in this area, considering structural, architectural and constructive parameters. The scheme could be applied to several buildings of the same typology, decreasing costs and time. An existing reinforced concrete frame building has been selected for the study. This is one of the most commonly used typologies for primary schools in this area. A nonlinear static analysis has been carried out in order to study its seismic behaviour. The performance point of the building has been obtained through the capacity-demand spectrum method. The preliminary results have confirmed the poor seismic behaviour of this building. Specifically, soft-story behaviour has been identified in the ground floor and short columns have been observed in the upper floors. Therefore, specific seismic retrofitting solutions have been proposed and evaluated in order to identify the one that is the most efficient. The combination of reinforcements has been done considering the structural and architectural impact and constructive parameters. The calculations have shown that steel X-bracings are the best solution for preventing the formation of a soft-storey in the ground floor. Unfortunately, this scheme increases the deformation in the upper floor columns. The best solution for the upper floors' short columns has been the use of steel jackets. The results have also shown that this combination produces an important reduction of the expected general damage level. The resulting retrofitting scheme can be extrapolated to other buildings with a similar typology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]