BUILDINGS BEHAVIOUR TO SEVERE SURFACE EARTHQUAKES (CHILE 2010, NEW ZEALAND 2011, TAIWAN 2016).

The paper presents the analysis of collapse and damage state to some special buildings during recent severe surface earthquakes, The presented irregular reinforced concrete buildings (with irregular distributions of mass, stiffness, strength, geometrical configurations), especially the setback structures and tall structures, have exhibited a poor seismic performance. Through graphical representations of response spectra obtained from records, it is revealed that most of the damage occurred to buildings due to exceeding the code requirements, the level of accelerations and to the spectral composition, unusual to the surface earthquakes, which justify the shown interest. Comparative analysis of numerical data is shown in order to put into evidence the effects of surface earthquakes on buildings. It must be accepted that an important role in the overall behaviour of the presented buildings had the higher modes of vibration and shaking time, beyond the technical aspects. What is noticeable, also, are the long periods of motions, although the earthquakes are of surface. The more accelerograms recorded are, we find that the possible values may be higher than those from design codes and sometimes the codes provisions are taken from other design rules (with other local features). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]