Structural Evaluation of a Reinforced Concrete Building in the Coastal Zone of Ecuador

Abstract

In the case of existing buildings in Ecuador, not all of them comply with the specifications and parameters of earthquake resistance detailed in the Ecuadorian Construction Standard. Based on this, the structural behavior of a reinforced concrete building located in Bahía de Caráquez, Manabí province, will be evaluated. This building suffered structural and non-structural damage during the earthquake of August 1998 that occurred in that city, so it was reinforced by casing columns and implementing new walls in 1999, but despite this reinforcement it presented non-structural damage and cracks in cantilevers after the Pedernales earthquake that occurred in April 2016. This research focused on a non-linear dynamic analysis of the structure including the influence of the infill panel and calibration of the model with respect to experimental periods. The analysis used seismic records with characteristics similar to those of the study site. The response of the structure was assessed for the design earthquake using the limit drifts proposed in the Ecuadorian Construction Standard, determining that the maximum drifts obtained in the non-linear dynamic analysis in the Y direction, which is the most flexible of the structure, show that 5 of the 22 analyses exceed the maximum allowed, that is, the behavior of the building for 22.7% of the analyses is not acceptable, showing that the building needs new reinforcement.