Rintc project: Assessing the (implicit) seismic risk of code-conforming structures in Italy

Abstract

RINTC, which started in 2015, is a joint project of ReLUIS and EUCENTRE, two centers of competence for seismic risk assessment of the Italian civil protection. The goal of the project, which is still ongoing, is to assess in an explicit manner the seismic risk of structures designed according to the code currently enforced in Italy. To this aim five structural typologies were considered: masonry, reinforced concrete, pre-cast reinforced concrete, steel, and seismically isolated buildings. In the framework of the project, multiple archetype structures have been designed for each typology according to standard practice at five sites across Italy, spanning a wide range of seismic hazard levels. The seismic vulnerability of the designed structures was assessed by subjecting 3D computer models to multi-stripe non-linear dynamic analysis. Integration of the probabilistic hazard and probabilistic vulnerability (i.e., fragility) yielded the annual failure rate, in terms of onset of non-structural damage and collapse, of each of the structures. Risk assessment takes into consideration record-to-record variability of nonstructural response and, for selected cases, structural modeling uncertainty. Results preliminarily show that, for each structural typology, the collapse risk tends to increase with the hazard of the site and that risk is not uniform across typologies.