Seismic Damage Quantification for the SHM of Existing RC Structures

One of the main issues in civil engineering is to estimate the level of damage for existing buildings subjected both to decay due to natural ageing and to additional loads that could affect their serviceability during lifetime. This paper looks at the process of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) in the context of seismic damage detection and quantification. The aim of the paper is to define ranges of variation for parameters commonly monitored as structural damage indicators, like fundamental periods, residual drift ratios and lateral stiffness, in relation with seismic damage levels. For this purpose, a methodology is proposed for simulating the seismic damage of existing reinforced concrete (RC) columns and assessing the correlation between the variation of such parameters with increasing damage levels. Seismic damage levels are defined based on the Park and Ang damage index, and preliminary ranges of variation of damage indicators are derived for the seismic damage quantification in existing RC columns.