Detection and Assessment of Seismic Structural Damage

Keywords: Damage Indices, Structural Analysis, Strong Motion, and San Fernando Earthquake.

Abstract: The problem of earthquake damage assessment is defined. The role of the analysis of strong motion records in damage assessment codes based on expert system is pointed out. A literature survey on damage assessment and structural system identification is presented. A program for the identification of linear structures, based on strong motion records, has been written out and implemented by the authors. The theoretical and computational aspects of the identification algorithm are discussed. Strong motion records from six buildings that experienced different levels of damage during the San Fernando earthquake (1971) are analyzed. The analysis of strong motion records of buildings that have been damaged during the San Fernando earthquake shows a good agreement between the numerical values of the damage indices and the levels of damage observed in the actual structures. If this result is confirmed by further analysis of both strong motion records from actual structures and small scale experiments, these damage indices can be used as a measure of structural damage. Areas of future research are outlined.