Double pushover analysis of a RC wall building subjected to earthquake and tsunami in sequence

Abstract

Chile is located in one of the most seismically active areas in the world and has an extensive coastal zone that makes it vulnerable not only to earthquakes but also to tsunamis. Additionally, Chile has a typical type of residential building which is based on reinforced concrete walls with high wall density and with a floor plan configuration that resembles a “fish-bone” structure. Research has been focused on the seismic behavior and response of this type of buildings, however there is little information on the expected behavior of the typical Chilean building subjected to both earthquake and tsunami. Thus, the objective of this research is to analyze the response of typical Chilean buildings subjected to sequential loading of earthquake and tsunami by means of nonlinear pushover analysis. A real 20 story building damaged during 2010 Chile earthquake is taken as a case-study building, and a simplified nonlinear finite element model of the building is developed using the software DIANA. These models are first subjected to earthquake pushover until different damage states are reached. Then, tsunami pushover is applied following the variable height pushover (VHPO) approach. The response of the building subjected to the sequential action of both loading conditions is analyzed in terms of typical response variables such as lateral roof displacement and base shear. The results of this research will help to understand the vulnerability of this type of structures and evaluate how critical is the previous earthquake damage in the tsunami response of this type of structures typically used in Chile and other seismic countries.