Earthquake performance evaluation

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Performance evaluation of building structures at their earthquake exposure is one of the hotest topics of earthquake engineering [1].

EPET animation of a concurrent testing of building models (Courtesy of Sergey & Vladic Shustov)

Publicly accessible analytical research software called Earthquake Performance Evaluation Tool (EPET) enables concurrent virtual experiments on building models with and without vibration control using a kind of seismic base isolation called Earthquake Protector [2]. On demand, all virtual experiments on two identical building models can be animated [3].

Any building or its model is treated by EPET as an essentially nonlinear system. Major building seismic performance evaluation parameters are the following: Ground Acceleration Mitigation Factor, when only some maximum accelerations on a structure are available, and Story Performance Rating, when the story drifts are also known. The parameter called Seismic Performance Ratio is chosen as the primary parameter which would control anticipated losses due to a particular seismic exposure of the building under consideration.

NEEScentral portal hosts valuable data on experimental validation of EPET, including some movie clips on the comparative shake-table testing of 6- and 12-story building models [4]. EPET can use both real time-historis and earthquake simulations and predict seismic performance of a building up to the point of its virtual state of “severe damage”.