Assessment of the seismic retrofitting for two precast RC buildings using nonlinear time-history analyses

The paper reports the main results of the analyses carried out on two precast RC buildings located in the Scientific-Technological campus of the University of Ferrara. The maximum tolerable PGA obtained from linear elastic analyses for the Engineering laboratories is about 53% of the reference value for new buildings. For the Physics laboratory, the maximum PGA is about 57% of the reference value if mass and stiffness of the precast concrete cladding panels are suitably taken into account, and 42% if these contributions are neglected. The seismic vulnerability is mainly governed by the failure of the columns subjected to combined bending and axial load. The effectiveness of the seismic retrofitting designed using linear analyses was then verified with a number of nonlinear dynamic analyses, that proved to be an important tool for calibrating the interventions in building not conceived for earthquake resistance.