The thesis presents an assessment of the seismic resistance of an existing two-story stone masonry
building. The assessment is based on the currently valid version of the Eurocode 8-3 standard and
partially on the new version of the same standard. The analyzed building is located near the town of
Ilirska Bistrica and is exposed to moderate to high seismic hazard. The building is approximately 200
years old and is constructed from limestone native to the Karst terrain. The assessment includes a
preliminary linear elastic analysis and a simplified nonlinear analysis and is performed for three limit
states: the damage limitation state, the significant damage state, and the near-collapse state. The
preliminary linear analysis shows that the ratio between walls’ shear force and strength varies
significantly across the structure, which means that proving seismic resistance should not be based on
the results of such analysis but rather on the use of nonlinear analysis. The nonlinear analysis is
performed in accordance with the N2 method. Due to the low mass on the upper floor, the displacement
in the pushover curve is equal to the displacement at the top of the ground floor. In the longitudinal
direction of the building, where the wall ratio is high, the requirements are fulfilled for the significant
damage and near-collapse limit states, but not for the damage limitation state. In the transverse direction
of the building, where the wall ratio is lower, the capacities for all three limit states are below the
demands. A separate verification of the ground floor strength is also performed, considering the assumed
force distributions along the building elevation based on triangular and uniform displacement
distributions. Due to the absence of a rigid diaphragm, seismic forces are determined for wall groups
proportional to their masses. The analysis of the ground floor strength shows that this floor is not the
critical part of the structure.
|
