ABSTRACT

The seismic evaluation of existing buildings has as its main objective decision-making about the need for rehabilitation of each individual building. On the other hand, any retrofitting activity aims at upgrading the seismic performance of the building to a level similar to that of new buildings designed and constructed in accordance with the Seismic Codes now in effect. Keeping in mind that the retrofitting cost (structural-non-structural) is very high, ranging around a mean value of 10-12% of the original cost of construction, it is apparent that an evaluation procedure must be established for screening the buildings under consideration in successive steps of accuracy and, until the number of buildings designated for eventual intervention has been minimised. At the same time, the reduction of the number of buildings from step to step also reduces the cost of evaluation of the whole procedure. For these buildings a detailed quantitative evaluation is implemented and eventually a retrofitting design is applied.