Seismic performance

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It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Earthquake engineering. (Discuss)

Earthquake or seismic performance is an execution of a building's or structure's ability to sustain their due functions at and after a particular earthquake exposure.

Photo of a parking structure after 1994 Northridge earthquake

Basic concepts of the earthquake engineering, implemented in the major building codes, assume that a building should survive The Big One (the most powerful anticipated earthquake) though with partial destruction. Drawing an analogy with a human body, it will have dislocated joints, fractured ribs, traumatized spine and knocked out teeth but be alive and, therefore, quite O.K. according to the presciptive building codes [1]. This situation is a major barrier to implementation of any structural innovations in the earthquake engineering technologies employing the seismic vibration control and, particularly, the most effective brands of base isolation.

However, alternative seismic performance-based design approaches already exist. Some of them, for assessment or comparison of the anticipated seismic performance, use the Story Performance Rating R as a major criterion [2] while the Seismic Performance Ratio (SPR) is used for a rather accurate prediction of seismic performance of a building up to the point of its state of “severe damage” [3].

Now, there is a publicly accessible computerized procedure for prediction of the quantified level of seismic performance associated with direct damage to an individual building subject to a specified ground shaking. The name of software is Earthquake Performance Evaluation Tool or EPET.