Framework development on the evaluation of the seismic retrofitting techniques for the rehabilitation of a four-story earthquake-affected public school building along the West Valley Fault System Available to Purchase

The Philippines is particularly vulnerable to natural hazards such as earthquakes due to its location on the Pacific Ocean’s Ring of Fire in Southeast Asia. As the country is considered seismically active, buildings must be strong enough to withstand minor earthquakes without damage and major earthquakes without collapsing. However, many existing buildings in the Philippines are likely to be insufficiently resistant, posing a serious threat. Studies showed that many public-school buildings near the West Valley Fault System are considered seismically hazardous and require seismic assessments due to building irregularities or noncompliance with the current standards. Furthermore, determining the most effective and appropriate seismic retrofitting techniques for a specific building, on the other hand, has proven to be a significant challenge. The researchers focused on the challenges of determining and applying the appropriate seismic retrofitting techniques for a four-story public school building along the West Valley Fault System by considering various seismic retrofitting techniques and developing a framework based on technical considerations that will provide information on the process of rehabilitation of four-story public school buildings along the West Valley Fault System in the Philippines. Using the as-built plans provided by the DPWH and site inspection, the researchers modeled the building through engineering software such as ETABS and conducted a nonlinear pushover analysis to evaluate the retrofitting techniques. Results showed that the buckling-restrained bracing with jacket columns was sufficient to provide lateral resistance in both X and Y-direction, out of the seven retrofitting techniques used. Moreover, the stiffness of the structural lateral force-resisting system was increased upon the application of the steel bracing, while the jacket columns with the 18 mm and 25 mm rebars significantly improved the building performance in terms of base shear. The results from the study, along with other published research works, were considered for the framework development. The framework was carefully evaluated by selected structural engineers of the Mapua SCEGE faculty, and their comments and suggestions were incorporated for its improvement.