In most parts of the developed world, the building stock and the civil infrastructure are ageing and in constant need of maintenance, repair and upgrading. Moreover, in the light of our current knowledge and of modern codes, the majority of buildings stock and other types of structures in many parts of the world are substandard and deficient. This is especially so in earthquake-prone regions, as, even there, seismic design of structures is relatively recent. In those regions the major part of the seismic threat to human life and property comes from old buildings. Due to the infrastructure's increasing decay, frequently combined with the need for structural upgrading to meet more stringent design requirements (especially against seismic loads), structural retrofitting is becoming more and more important and receives today considerable emphasis throughout the world. In response to this need, a major part of the fib Model Code 2005, currently under development, is being devoted to structural conservation and maintenance. More importantly, in recognition of the importance of the seismic threat arising from existing substandard buildings, the first standards for structural upgrading to be promoted by the international engineering community and by regulatory authorities alike are for seismic rehabilitation of buildings. This is the case, for example, of Part 3: Strengthening and Repair of Buildings of Eurocode 8 (i. e. of the draft European Standard for earthquake-resistant design), and which is the only one among the current (2003) set of 58 Eurocodes attempting to address the problem of structural upgrading. It is also the case of the recent (2001) ASCE draft standard on Seismic evaluation of existing buildings and of the 1996 Law for promotion of seismic strengthening of existing reinforced concrete structures in Japan. As noted in Chapter 1 of this Bulletin, fib - as CEB and FIP did before - has placed considerable emphasis on assessment and rehabilitation of existing structures. The present Bulletin is a culmination of this effort in the special but very important field of seismic assessment and rehabilitation. It has been elaborated over a period of 4 years by Task Group 7.1 Assessment and retrofit of existing structures of fib Commission 7 Seismic design, a truly international team of experts, representing the expertise and experience of all the important seismic regions of the world. In the course of its work the team had six plenary two-day meetings: in January 1999 in Pavia, Italy; in August 1999 in Raleigh, North Carolina; in February 2000 in Queenstown, New Zealand; in July 2000 in Patras, Greece; in March 2001 in Lausanne, Switzerland; and in August 2001 in Seattle, Washington. In October 2002 the final draft of the Bulletin was presented to public during the 1st fib Congress in Osaka. It was also there that it was approved by fib Commission 7 Seismic Design. The contents is structured into main chapters as follows: 1 Introduction - 2 Performance objectives and system considerations - 3 Review of seismic assessment procedures - 4 Strength and deformation capacity of non-seismically detailed components - 5 Seismic retrofitting techniques - 6 Probabilistic concepts and methods - 7 Case studies

This report examines the behaviour of individual frame members subjected to the cyclic actions arising in seismically loaded frames i.e. slender flexure-dominated beams, short columns and beam-column joints. The report also considers global inelastic frame behaviour and its modelling, and the peculiarities of the behaviour of masonry-filled frames.

The present volume contains a total of 23 papers centred on the research area of Seismic Assessment and Rehabilitation of Existing Buildings. This subject also forms the core of Project SfP977231, sponsored by the NATO Science for Peace Office and supported by the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey [ TUBIT AK ]. Most of these papers were presented by the authors at a NATO Science for Peace Workshop held in Izmir on 13 - 14 May, 2003 and reflect a part of their latest work conducted within the general confines of the title of the NATO Project. Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey serves as the hub of Project SfP977231 and coordinates research under the project with universities within Turkey, e. g. Istanbul Technical University and Kocaeli University, and with partner institutions in Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia: A few articles have also been contributed by invited experts, who are all noted researchers in the field. Altogether, the contents of the volume deal with a vast array of problems in Seismic Assessment and Rehabilitation and cover a wide range of possible solutions, techniques and proposals. It is intended to touch upon many of these aspects separately below. Earthquakes constitute possibly the most widely spread and also the most feared of natural hazards. Recent earthquakes within the first six months of 2003, such as the Bingol Earthquake in Turkey and the Algerian earthquake, have caused both loss of life and severe damage to property.

A brief summary of the history of seismic design as given in chapter 1, indicates that initially design was purely based on strength or force considerations. When the importance of displacement, however, became better appreciated, it was attempted to modify the existing force-based approach in order to include considerations of displacement, rather than to totally reconsider the procedure on a more rational basis. In the last decade, then, several researchers started pointing out this inconsistency, proposing displacement-based approaches for earthquake engineering evaluation and design, with the aim of providing improved reliability in the engineering process by more directly relating computed response and expected structural performance. The main objective of this report is to summarize, critically review and compare the displacement - based approaches proposed in the literature, thus favouring code implementation and practical use of rational and reliable methods. Chapter 2 Seismic performance and design objectives of this report introduces concepts of performance levels, seismic hazard representation, and the coupling of performance and hazard to define performance objectives. In fact, for displacement analysis to be relevant in the context of performance-based design, the structural engineer must select appropriate performance levels and seismic loadings. A critical review of some engineering limit states appropriate to the different performance levels is therefore proposed. In chapter 3 Conceptual basis for displacement-based earthquake resistant design, the fundamental principles associated with displacement of the ground during an earthquake and the effects, in terms of displacement, in the structure, are reviewed. The historical development guides the presentation with a review of general linear and nonlinear structural dynamics principles, general approaches to estimate displacement, for both ground and structure, and finally a general presentation of the means to measure and judge the appropriateness of the displacements of the structure in section. Chapter 4 Approaches and procedures for displacement-based design can be somehow considered the fundamental part of the report, since a critical summary of the displacement - based approaches proposed by different researchers is presented there. Displacement - based design may require specific characterization of the input ground motion, a topic addressed in Chapter 5 Seismic input. In general, various pertinent definitions of input motion for non-code format analysis are included, while peak ground parameters necessary for code base shear equations are only addressed as needed for the definition of motion for analysis. Chapter 6 Displacement capacity of members and systems addresses the fundamental problem of evaluating the inelastic displacement capacity of reinforced concrete members and realistic values of their effective cracked stiffness at yielding, including effects of shear and inclined cracking, anchorage slip, bar buckling and of load cycling. In Chapter 7 Application and evaluation of displacement-based approaches, some of the many different displacement based design procedures briefly introduced in Chapter 4 are applied to various case studies, identifying and discussing the difficulties a designer may encounter when trying to use displacement based design. Results for five different case studies designed in accordance with eight different displacement based design methods are presented. Although in general case studies are considered a useful but marginal part of a state of the art document, in this case it has to be noted that chapter 7 is possibly the most innovative and fundamental part of the whole report. The conclusions of chapter 7 are the fundamental and essential conclusions of the document and allow foreseeing a bright future for displacement - based design approaches. The state-of-art report has been elaborated over a period of 4 years by Task Group 7.2 Displacement-based design and assessment of fib Commission 7Seismic design, a truly international team of experts, representing the expertise and experience of all the important seismic regions of the world. In October 2002 the final draft of the Bulletin was presented to the public during the 1st fibCongress in Osaka. It was also there that it was approved by fib Commission 7Seismic Design.

Provides a three-tiered process for seismic evaluation of existing buildings in any level of seismicity. This standard is intended to serve as a nationally applicable tool for design professionals, code officials, and building owners looking to seismically evaluate existing buildings. It considers various aspects of building performance.

Examines structural aspects of high rise buildings, particularly fundamental approaches to the analysis of the behavior of different forms of building structures including frame, shear wall, tubular, core and outrigger-braced systems. Introductory chapters discuss the forces to which the structure is subjected, design criteria which are of the greatest relevance to tall buildings, and various structural forms which have developed over the years since the first skyscrapers were built at the turn of the century. A major chapter is devoted to the modeling of real structures for both preliminary and final analyses. Considerable attention is devoted to the assessment of the stability of the structure, and the significance of creep and shrinkage is discussed. A final chapter is devoted to the dynamic response of structures subjected to wind and earthquake forces. Includes both accurate computer-based and approximate methods of analysis.