Deterministic and Probabilistic Earthquake Scenarios for the Seismic Risk Analysis of URM Buildings

Abstract

Barcelona, as well as a large number of cities in the Mediterranean basin, has a housing stock composed of a large number of unreinforced brick masonry buildings. Motivated by different factors, the enlargement of the city (Eixample in Catalan) was held from the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, a period in which a large number of buildings of this type were built, many of which are still used as dwellings. Although the buildings were built individually, some of them are linked to adjacent buildings by the side walls. This feature leads to the analysis of the buildings as isolated structures and also as an aggregate. Barcelona is located in a seismic region of low to moderate hazard, with macroseismic intensity between the grades VI and VII of the European macroseismic scale EMS'98. Based on the deterministic and probabilistic response spectra for the different types of soils present in Barcelona obtained in the work of Irizarry (2004), the seismic risk of four individual buildings and an aggregate is evaluated. The buildings are modeled and analyzed using the TREMURI program and MATLAB routines under the guidance of RISK-UE project.