Verification of Simplified Pushover Analysis of School Buildings with Brick Walls by In-Situ Tests

Verification of Simplified Pushover Analysis of School Buildings with Brick Walls by In-Situ Tests

Based on the capacity spectrum method from ATC-40, a seismic evaluation method by using pushover analysis is developed by the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering(NCREE). In civil engineering, ETABS and SAP2000 are used for pushover analysis to analyze the seismic capacity of existing buildings. However, for some people, this software may be too expensive therefore, a simple method called simplified pushover analysis is developed. This method can help engineers obtain preliminary analysis results of the seismic capacity for existing buildings without using software. The method of seismic evaluation for existing buildings needs to be confirmed. In the past, NCREE has conducted in-situ tests of school buildings. The capacity curve of a school building with brick walls has been established from the experimental results. The simplified pushover analysis is verified by comparing the results obtained with the experimental ones. The comparison indicates that the proposed analysis method can be used for low-rise buildings and is beneficial for engineers performing seismic evaluations for low-rise buildings.