Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of Existing Buildings: It’s Importance
Th. Kiranbala Devi1, Nganthoi Naorem2
1Dr. Th. Kiranbala Devi, Faculties of Civil Engineering Department, Manipur Institute of Technology, Takyelpat, Imphal, India.
2Nganthoi Naorem, Faculties of Civil Engineering Department, Manipur Institute of Technology, Takyelpat, Imphal, India.
Manuscript received on 30 January 2015 | Revised Manuscript received on 12 February 2015 | Manuscript Published on 28 February 2015 | PP: 39-46 | Volume-4 Issue-9, February 2015 | Retrieval Number: I1978024915/15©BEIESP
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© The Authors. Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC-BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Abstract: Earthquake induced damage has been increased over the few years. Gujarat (2001), Sumatra (2004), Pakistan (2005) and Haiti (2010) are the examples of devastating damage due to earthquake. Collapse of non – engineered and engineered buildings and structures is the chief contributor to the loss of lives and injuries to people. Vulnerability Atlas of India states that there are about 11 million seismically vulnerable houses in Seismic Zone- V, while the corresponding figure for Seismic Zone – IV is 50 million. In all, there are about 80 million building units in India, which are vulnerable, and pose unprecedented risk, if earthquake strikes. However, severe damage was observed in a relatively small percentage of existing buildings even after damaging earthquakes in the World. Identifying such vulnerable buildings to future earthquake is important. To identify such buildings, three levels of seismic vulnerability assessment methods starting from simple to sophisticated procedure, (a) Rapid Visual Screening (RVS) , (b) Simplified Vulnerability Assessment (SVA) and (c) Detailed Vulnerability Assessment (DVA) can be carried out according to the problems detected in the building.
Keywords: Collapse, damage, seismic zone, structures, vulnerable
Scope of the Article: Earthquake Engineering