A proposal of Visual Rating method to set the priority of detailed evaluation for masonry infilled RC building

In developing countries, an enormous stock of vulnerable buildings is to be considered for seismic evaluation, which requires a rigorous analysis with much expertise, cost, and time. Identification of most vulnerable buildings beforehand would be helpful in prioritizing the detailed seismic evaluation. This study aims to develop a quick seismic evaluation method, designated as Visual Rating method, in order to set the priority of vulnerable building to be gone through detailed evaluation. The proposed method approximately estimates the seismic capacity of a building, in terms of Visual Rating Index, considering cross-sectional areas and shear strength of RC columns and walls. This is followed by a modification of seismic capacity to reflect the effect of different building attributes such as structural configuration, buildings deterioration, and year of construction etc. Applicability of the proposed Visual Rating method has been investigated using post-earthquake damage database of the 2016 Taiwan earthquake. The obtained results show that the lower Visual Rating Index corresponds to severely damaged buildings in the 2016 Taiwan earthquake and the proposed method could be applied for identifying the most vulnerable buildings.