Seismic Retrofit for an Existing Apartment by Core Wall

Seismic Retrofit for an Existing Apartment by Core Wall

Many existing apartments in Taiwan were built in the 1970s. These apartments are commonly reinforced concrete(RC) buildings with four or five stories and without elevators, which is an inconvenience to the elderly. Providing accessible facilities in existing apartments via installation of elevators is a significant issue in the housing policy of Taiwan. In addition, existing apartments lack seismic capacity. A survey of past earthquakes in Taiwan indicates that many apartment buildings have collapsed or suffered severe damage to their bottom stories because of their seismic weakness. This paper focuses on an existing apartment building as an example to study its RC core wall retrofit. RC core walls will not only increase the seismic capacity but also facilitate installation of an elevator in the building. The existing apartment studied here is an RC building of four stories constructed in 1975. The seismic resistance of the original structure is insufficient as determined by pushover analysis. The seismic retrofitting plan is to remove the existing brick infill walls around the staircase and replace them with new RC walls. The seismic capacity of the retrofitted apartment is upgraded to satisfy the Seismic Design Code. An elevator and a staircase will be installed in the RC wall core. Consequently, not only can the seismic capacity of the existing apartment be upgraded but accessibility can also be improved.