European Journal of Environmental and Civil Engineering

ISSN: 1964-8189 (Print) 2116-7214 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tece20

Evaluation of different strengthening techniques’

efficiency for a soft storey building

André Furtado, Hugo Rodrigues, Humberto Varum & Aníbal Costa

To cite this article: André Furtado, Hugo Rodrigues, Humberto Varum & Aníbal Costa (2015):
Evaluation of different strengthening techniques’ efficiency for a soft storey building, European
Journal of Environmental and Civil Engineering, DOI: 10.1080/19648189.2015.1119064

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19648189.2015.1119064

Published online: 28 Dec 2015.

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 European Journal of Environmental and Civil Engineering, 2015
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19648189.2015.1119064

Evaluation of different strengthening techniques’ efficiency for a soft

storey building
André Furtadoa , Hugo Rodriguesb* , Humberto Varumc and Aníbal Costac
a
Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal; bSchool of Technology and
Management, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Leiria, Portugal; cCivil Engineering Department,
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University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal

(Received 23 June 2014; accepted 9 November 2015)

The assessment of seismic vulnerability and strengthening of existing buildings is a

topic of relevant importance and priority, as evidenced in recent earthquakes around
the world, particularly in Southern European countries. Some architectural solutions
adopted in the decade of 1970, combined with the common design and construction
practices at that time, particularly in what regards to the seismic design, influences
the seismic vulnerability of these structures. The objective of the present work is to
study, based on numerical analyses, different strengthening techniques to adopt into
an existing building with the behaviour potentially governed by soft storey mecha-
nism when subjected to seismic actions. The influence of the masonry infill panels
will be studied and the seismic safety of the building will be assessed. Also, different
strengthening techniques will be tested to fix/eliminate the soft storey like response,
namely: RC columns jacketing, addition of steel bracings with and without shear link
and addition of RC shear walls. The strengthened buildings results will be compared
with the results of the original structure, deducting about the structural efficiency by
each type of strengthening technique adopted. The costs associated to each solution
will be determined and compared with the market value of the building.
Keywords: RC building; infill masonry; soft storey mechanism; seismic vulnerability;
strengthening strategies; cost–efficiency

1. Introduction
The quality of existing buildings is the key for the people’s quality life, because the
interaction between building and user is present in every moment since the work time
to the leisure time. In particular, the building’s structural safety is a functional require-
ment by the society, but remains a big doubt about the buildings located in seismically
active areas. Recent earthquakes like Sichuan (China) in 2008, L’Aquila (Italy) in 2009,
Port-au-Prince (Haiti) in 2010 and Lorca (Spain) in 2011 showed that some reinforced
concrete (RC) buildings with infill masonry (IM) walls are vulnerable when subjected to
earthquakes. The presence of IM walls in the RC structures is very common in the Por-
tuguese building stock (Furtado, Rodrigues, Arêde, & Costa, in press), however, at the
design process of new buildings and the assessment of existing ones, the IM walls are
usually considered non-structural elements and their contribution in the structural
response is ignored. Although, it has been observed that numerous buildings were
severely damaged or even collapsed due to the structural modifications of the basic

*Corresponding author. Email: hugo.f.rodrigues@ipleiria.pt

© 2015 Taylor & Francis

 2 A. Furtado et al.

structural system introduced by these elements (Vicente, Rodrigues, Varum, Costa, &
Mendes da Silva, 2012).
The seismic structural design codes are essential to reduce the seismic risk of the
buildings, but not enough. If the structural design codes aren’t properly applied at the
design process, or if there is an unappropriated control during the execution of the con-
struction, can be conceived vulnerable structures (Varum, 2003). To ensure a satisfactory
structural behaviour during the earthquake is necessary to guarantee the quality of the
design process and the construction. Recent earthquakes have shown that these two
aspects, in particularly the quality of construction is highly connected with the overall
performance of the structure when submitted to seismic actions (Romão et al., 2013).
It is common to assume that IM walls are always beneficial to the structural
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response but the contribution of these elements can be positive or negative, depending
on a series of a phenomena and parameters (Rodrigues, Varum, & Costa, 2010). The
presence of IM walls can increase significantly the global stiffness by acting as a com-
pressed diagonal strut, resulting thus in a possible change of the seismic demand due to
significant reduction of the natural period of the composite structural system (Rodrigues,
Varum, & Costa, 2008). This consideration associated with a vertical or plan irregularity
can induce unexpected mechanisms.
A very common type of irregularity in the Portuguese RC buildings is the existence
of soft storeys (mainly on the ground floor) for the location of parking lots, shops and
offices or simply associated with architectural options. This type of vertical stiffness
irregularity can introduce to the structure a soft storey mechanism, making these the
most vulnerable storeys since their columns suffer high deformation that can cause their
collapse (Dolsek & Fajfar, 2001), as observed in Figure 1. Many authors have
investigated this type of mechanism and have concluded that is characterised by the
concentration of the displacement at the floors which exist stiffness irregularity (caused
by the discontinuities of structural or non-structural elements) (Alinouri, Danesh, &
Bharam, 2013; Beigi, Sullivan, Calvi, & Christopoulos, 2012; Davis, Krishnan, Menon,
& Prasad, 2004; Dolsek & Fajfar, 2001; Guney & Aydin, 2012; Manfredi, Ricci, &
Verderame, 2012).
In this context, the main objective of this study is to investigate numerical and
analytically the effectiveness of different strengthening solutions to improve the seismic
performance of an existing RC building in Portugal. For this, four strengthening

Figure 1. Soft storey mechanism in building subjected to L’Aquila earthquake: first-storey

collapse.
 European Journal of Environmental and Civil Engineering 3

mechanisms were studied, namely: (a) RC column jacketing, (b) introduction of RC

shear walls, (c) introduction of steel bracing and (d) addition of steel bracing with
energy dissipation device. Numerical analysis was conducted with non-linear static
pushover analysis and non-linear dynamic time history analysis. The seismic perfor-
mance enhancement of the building under study was evaluated in terms of demand
capacity ratio of RC elements, capacity curve, maximum inter-storey drift ratio, base
shear, energy dissipation capacity of the structure and damage in the masonry infill
walls. Finally, it was also analysed the cost–efficiency relationship analysis for each
technique.
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2. Case study
2.1. Description and modelling parameters
The study of the seismic vulnerability of existing buildings in urban areas with moder-
ated/high seismic risk is of extreme importance to evaluate their safety according to the
recently proposed international codes and recommendations. In particular, present study
will focus on the existing buildings in Portugal constructed in the 50’s decade, which
had the particular modern architecture style influenced by Le Corbusier. This buildings
are characterised by the absence of IM walls in the ground floor with the main purpose
of these spaces become parking lots for cars, shops or simply serve as a passage for
pedestrians. The study of strengthening solutions for this type of building is of full
importance to reduce the seismic vulnerability and the probability of occur soft storey
mechanism which could cause the buildings’ collapse.
The building under study is located in Lisbon and is characterised by not have
masonry infill walls on the ground floor (Figure 2(a) and (b)). The block plan is

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 2. General view of the building under study (a) Front view (b) Numerical model (c)
Building plant.
 4 A. Furtado et al.

rectangular with 11.1 m width and 47.40 m length (Figure 2(b)), and the building has the
height of eight habitation storeys plus the ground floor column’s height, making a total
of 27.40 m. The main structural system (12 parallel plane frames) restricts the architec-
ture. The layout of the units in the building block (floor type with six duplex apartments)
was defined in accordance with the structural system. The distance between the frame’s
axes is 3.80 m. Each frame is supported by 2 columns and has 1 cantilever beam on each
side with a span of 2.80 m, resulting in 13 modules. To simulate the structural behaviour
of the building presented, it was used the computer software SeismoSoft (2004), that
contemplates some important issues like the non-linear behaviour of RC elements and
the influence of the masonry infill walls in the global seismic response of the building.
The building was analysed in the both principal direction by a 3D model (Figure 2(b)).
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The model concrete material model developed by Mander, Priestleyand, and Park,
(1988) was adopted to represent the confined and unconfined concrete hysteretic beha-
viour and the Menegotto–Pinto (Menegotto & Pinto, 1973) material model for the steel
hysteretic behaviour. To represent the masonry infill walls, it was used the macro-model
proposed by Crisafulli (1997) and all the parameters required to define the hysteretic
behaviour were determined according to Smyrou calibration values (Smyrou, Blandon,
Antoniou, Pinho, & Crisafulli, 2011). For the numerical analyses, constant vertical loads
distributed on beams were considered in order to simulate the dead load of the
self-weight including RC elements and infill walls, finishing and the corresponding
quasi-permanent value of the live loads, giving a total value of 8.0 kN/m2.
The mass of the structure was assumed to be concentrated at storey levels. Each
storey has a mass, including the self-weight of the structure, infill walls and finishing
and the quasi-permanent value of the live loads, of about 4 M tons. For the dynamic
analysis, the storey mass is assumed to be uniformly distributed across the floors.
The validation of numerical model can be achieved through the comparison between
the experimental frequencies and the numerical or analytical ones. In this study, to vali-
date the numerical building model, some measurements were made in situ in the two
independent directions of the first natural structural frequency, using a seismograph, and
the ambient vibration.
Additionally, the first natural frequency of the structure was determined analytically
according to Eurocode-8 proposal equation (Equation (1)):
T1 ¼ Ct  H 3=4 (1)
where Ct is determined according to Equation (2), and H is the height of the building
since the foundation until the top of the building.
pffiffiffiffiffi
Ct ¼ 0:075 Ac (2)
where Ac is given by Equation (3):
X
Ac ¼ ðAi  ð0:2 þ lwi =HÞ2 Þ (3)
where Ac is the effective area of the walls in the first storey of the building, Ai is the
effective transversal area of the wall i in the first storey of the building and lwi is the
length of the wall i in the first storey.
In the Table 1 are indicated the obtained values for the natural frequencies of the
building experimentally, numerically and analytically. A good agreement was found
between the experimentally measure and the period estimated with the numerical
structural model, which constitutes the first validation of the numerical model.
 European Journal of Environmental and Civil Engineering 5

Table 1. Natural frequencies for longitudinal and transversal directions.

Natural frequencies (Hz)
Direction Experimentally Numerically Analytically
Longitudinal 1.08 .99 1.39
Transversal 1.75 1.75 1.92

2.2. Natural frequencies and non-linear static pushover analysis

The influence of the IM walls presence on the structural behaviour was been evaluated
through the comparison between the natural frequencies of the structure with and with-
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out infills and performing non-linear static pushover analysis (uniform, triangular and
adaptive). Adaptive pushover results are presented next as the reference result because
this type of pushover taking full account of the effect that the deformation of the struc-
ture and the frequency content of input motion have on its dynamic response character-
istics which represent better the real structural behaviour (Antoniou & Pinho, 2006).

2.2.1. Natural frequencies and modes

The dynamic characteristics, such in terms of mass or stiffness affect directly the
response of the structures. The study of the influence of IM walls presence was initially
made by comparing the natural frequencies of the model with Infill Masonry Model
(IMM) and without these elements bare frame model (BFM). It was observed (Table 2)
that the IM have higher frequencies than the BFM. This fact attracts higher forces due
to the increase of stiffness, which results in a reduction in the natural period of the
structures. From the analysis of the first vibration shape modes, illustrated in Figure 3,
in both directions, it is clear that the seismic structural response will induce soft storey
mechanism behaviour. This conclusion will be confirmed with the earthquake and
pushover analysis results in the next sections.

2.2.2. Non-linear static pushover results

As observed in the analysis of the vibration shape modes, the structural response of the
building, in both directions, clearly induces soft storey mechanism behaviour (at the
ground floor level). This structural behaviour leads to large inter-storey drift demands at
the first storey, while the upper storeys remain with very low deformation levels.
The capacity curves resulted from the three pushover analysis performed are
illustrated in Figure 4(a), and the evolution of the natural frequencies during the analysis
in Figure 4(b). The capacity curves, represent the resistance of the structure when
deforming into the inelastic range, come in the form of top displacement vs. base shear
plot. It can be observed that the presence of the IM walls (IMM) have introduced

Table 2. Natural frequencies for IMM and BFM model.

Direction IMM BFM
Longitudinal .99 .3
Transversal 1.76 .64
 6 A. Furtado et al.

(a) (b)

Figure 3. Mode shape (a) IMM (b)BFM.

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(a) (b)
9000 1.75
Uniform_BFM BFM

Fundamental frequency (s-1)

8000 Triang_BFM IMM
Adapt_BFM 1.50 Experimental
Longitudinal direction

7000 Uniform_IMM
Base Shear (kN)

Triang_IMM 1.25
6000 Adapt_IMM
5000 1.00

4000 0.75
3000
0.50
2000
0.25
1000
0 0.00
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30
Top displacement (m) Top displacement (m)

9000 1.75
Uniform_BFM BFM
Fundamental frequency (s-1)

8000 Triang_BFM IMM

Adapt_BFM 1.50 Experimental
Transversal direction

7000 Uniform_IMM
Base Shear (kN)

Triang_IMM 1.25
6000 Adapt_IMM
5000 1.00

4000 0.75
3000
0.50
2000
1000 0.25

0 0.00
0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30
Top displacement (m) Top displacement (m)

Figure 4. Non-linear static Pushover analysis results (a) Capacity curves (b) Evolution of the
fundamental frequencies.

9 times higher initial stiffness, 1.5 times higher strength, but have much less ductility
than the BFM (.15 times less), as illustrated in (a).
Through the adaptive pushover analysis, the frequencies of the two models by each
step were determined. The IMM, in both directions, suffer the largest decreased the
initial frequency value during the analysis approaching to the BFM values (b) which is
given by the degradation of the infills.

2.3. Seismic safety assessment

The building under study was subjected to several non-linear dynamic analysis and par-
ticularly to one artificial earthquake that was been generated for a medium-/high-risk
scenario in Southern Europe (Rodrigues et al., 2008) for different return periods (RP)
 European Journal of Environmental and Civil Engineering 7

(Table 3). Hazard consistent time series of acceleration (with 15 s of duration) were
artificially generated yielding a set of 10 uniform hazard response spectra for increasing
RP. On Figure 5 is illustrated the ground motion acceleration of seismic action for the
RP of 2000 years.
The obtained results allow verifying the safety according to the hazard levels pro-
posed by the international recommendations SEAOC-Vision2000 (1995) and FEMA356
(2000) to evaluate the building safety. Another global drift limits have been used,
namely the Ghobarah proposal (Gobarah, 2004) recommended for non-ductile structures
which is the case of rehabilitation/strengthening of existent buildings. All the proposed
limits drifts are presented in Table 4.
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2.3.1. Non-linear dynamic analysis results

The non-linear dynamic analysis results confirmed that the absence of the IM walls on
the ground floor transforming this storey as the most vulnerable, focusing all the
deformation, as observed in maximum inter-storey drift for RP 475 years defined by the
Portuguese seismic code RSA (1983) as the reference period for assessment of existent
buildings.
Results show that, for the first storey, that the maximum inter-storey drift demand
for the longitudinal direction (LD) is larger than for the transversal (TD), being the first
one the most vulnerable direction of the building (Figure 6(a)). Through the comparison
of the maximum first-storey drift results it can be concluded that the building safety
isn’t guaranteed for both directions (Figure 6(b)). In the TD, the value of maximum
base shear is higher than the LD value, especially after the RP 475 years, which is more
than the double of the LD value (Figure 6(c)). The results of the maximum energy dissi-
pation (Figure 6(d)) show that TD always took higher values. After the analysis of the
non-linear dynamic analysis can be concluded that the building under study needs to be
strengthen to fix/eliminate the soft storey mechanism improving the seismic behaviour.

2.4. Proposed strengthening techniques

The selection of the strengthening technique and the level of intervention is a rather
complex procedure, because many factors of different nature come into play. The
fundamental parameters governing the structural response of the building when submit-
ted to seismic actions are: stiffness, strength and ductility (Thermou & Elnashai, 2005).

Table 3. Peak ground acceleration and corresponding return period (RP).

RP (years) Peak acceleration (m/s2)
73 .889 (.09 g)
100 1.060 (.11 g)
170 1.402 (.14 g)
300 1.796 (.18 g)
475 2.180 (.22 g)
700 2.543 (.26 g)
975 2.884 (.29 g)
1370 3.265 (.33 g)
2000 3.728 (.38 g)
3000 4.273 (.44 g)
 8 A. Furtado et al.

4
3

Acceleration
2
1

(m/s2)
0
-1 0 15
-2
-3
-4

Figure 5. Ground motion acceleration time history for the 2000 years RP.

Table 4. Performance levels and corresponding maximum limit drifts.

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VISION 2000 (SEAOC- FEMA-356 Gobarah

Performance level Vision2000, 1995) (FEMA356, 2000) (Gobarah, 2004)
Moderate damage .5% 1% <.5%
(life safety)
Extensive damage 1.5% 1–2% .8%
(life safety)
Near collapse 2.5% 4 >1.0%

(a) (b)
9 6
LD LD
1st storey maximum drift (%)

8 TD TD
5 Vision 2000
7 Fema 356
Storey Number

4 Gobarah
6
5
3
4
3 2
2
1 1

0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4

Max. inter-storey drift (%) Peak ground acceleration (g)

(c) (d)
9000 3000
Maximum energy dissipation (kN.m)

LD LD
Maximum base shear (kN)

8000 TD TD
2500
7000
2000
6000

5000 1500

4000
1000
3000
500
2000

1000 0
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
Peak ground acceleration (g) Peak ground acceleration (g)

Figure 6. Dynamic results (a) Maximum first-storey drift (b) Maximum inter-storey drift (c)
Maximum base shear (c) Maximum top displacement (d) Maximum energy dissipation.
 European Journal of Environmental and Civil Engineering 9
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Figure 7. Member intervention techniques: (a) CFRP jacketing (b) steel jacketing (c) RC
jacketing.

There are factors that affect this process such as socioeconomic issues, cost–benefit
factor and importance of the building, work duration, conditioning of the utilisation of
the building, functionality and compatibility with the intervention and the original archi-
tecture of the building (Varum, 2003). In any case, the selection of the strengthening
strategy to adopt and its implementation should be developed based on the results of a
preliminary structural assessment. The strengthening strategies can be classified
according to these two major groups (Thermou & Elnashai, 2005):

• Global structural system intervention techniques: in the most of the cases are less
costly than the intervention in all of the structural members, especially if these
types of intervention require temporary interdiction of the building, demolition
and/or reconstruction of non-structural elements such as masonry infill walls or
false ceilings. The most well-know, economics and efficient global strengthening
techniques are: addition of RC structural shear walls, addition of steel braces (SB)
with and without energy dissipation (shear link), base seismic isolation, mass
reduction or another technique including tuned mass and liquid dampers or hybrid
combination of active and passive energy dissipation device.
• Member intervention technique: this type of strategy aims to increase the deforma-
tion capacity of deficient components so that they will not reach their limit state
as the building response at the required level. Some of the structural elements
haven’t the adequate strength, stiffness or deformation capacity to satisfy the
strengthening objectives. Members without adequate strength, stiffness and/or duc-
tility can be strengthened using various types of techniques. The most common
member interventions are: RC jacketing (Figure 7(c)), steel jacketing (Figure 7
(b)), CFRP jacketing (Figure 7(a)), injection of cracks, epoxy resin injections,
shotcrete and others. This strategy tends to be the most economical approach to
strengthening when only a few number of buildings components are inadequate.

The global structural system intervention techniques are adequate if the most part of
the elements are weak and have a good behaviour when submitted to seismic actions. In
the case of structures in which many of their elements have a poor performance, the
 10 A. Furtado et al.

member intervention technique strategy will be sufficient to ensure a good structural

response. In most of the cases, the best solution for improving the seismic behaviour
performance of existing structures involves the combination of solutions belonging to
these two big families of strategies. Whatever the strategy adopted, this shouldn’t affect
the structural behaviour and particularly the safety of any structural member (Fardis,
1998; Rodrigues, Arêde, Furtado, & Rocha, 2015).
To improve the structural seismic behaviour, four types of strengthening techniques
were tested: RC jacketing of the ground floor columns, addition of RC shear walls and
addition of SB with and without shear links. The reinforcements design was performed
with the main purpose of fix/eliminate the vertical stiffness irregularity, and by taking
into account the stiffness of each IM panel given by Smyrou proposal (Smyrou et al.,
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2011).

2.4.1. RC column jacketing

When the member is considered to be of insufficient strength, a RC jacket may be used
to enhance stiffness, strength and ductility. This is one of the most commonly applied
methods of repairing and strengthening of RC member. Concrete jackets can accommo-
date longitudinal and transversal reinforcement to increase the flexural and shear
strength, enhance the deformation capacity and improve the strength of deficient splices
(Varum, 2003).
One of the strengthening techniques proposed to the building under studied is the
RC column jacketing (RCJ) of the ground floor columns. The SeismoSoft (2004) has
the possibility of consider RC jacketing columns, by considering the initial section and
the upgrade section (with the consideration of the disposition of the longitudinal rein-
forcement bars, confinement provided by the transversal reinforcement). The software
allows for the use of elements with lumped plasticity (with fixed-length, so-called plas-
tic hinge). Fibre discretisation was adopted to represent the behaviour at the section
level, where each fibre is associated with a uniaxial stress–strain law. The sectional
moment–curvature state of the beam and column elements was then obtained through
the integration of the non-linear uniaxial stress–strain response of the individual fibres
into which the section has been subdivided. The numerical model takes into account
with the jacketing material mass and the stiffness during the analysis. The plant disposi-
tion and the new sections of these columns designed according to the Eurocode 2 (EC2,
2004) (sections 6, 7, 8 and 9) and Eurocode 8 (section 5) (European Committee for
Standardization, 2003) and are illustrated in Figure 8.

2.4.2. Addition of RC shear walls

One of the most common strategies to improve the buildings’ behaviour is to provide
adequate number of structural RC shear walls distributed uniformly. The new structural
walls protect the existing elements by controlling the global lateral drift. Such shear
walls not only increase the lateral stiffness significantly, but also relieve the existing
frames from the lateral loads. The addition of RC shear walls can is a common method
to correct discontinuities (Varum, 2003).
The building was strengthened through four RC shear walls on the LD (LRCSW)
and two on the transversal direction (TRCSW) (as illustrated on Figure 9). The thick-
ness and the reinforcement were designed according to Eurocode 2 (EC2, 2004) (sec-
tions 6, 7, 8 and 9) and Eurocode 8 (European Committee for Standardization, 2003)
 European Journal of Environmental and Civil Engineering 11
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Figure 8. Plant disposition and cross-section of the new strengthened ground floor columns by
RC jacketing (RCJ) technique.

Figure 9. Plant disposition of reinforced concrete shear walls (RCSW).

(section 5). The cross-section of both RC shear walls are illustrated on Figure 10(a)
and (b).

2.4.3. Addition of SB with and without shear link

Concentric or eccentric steel bracing schemes may be used in selected bays of an RC
frame to provide a significant increase in horizontal capacity of the structure and also to
correct discontinuities. The building was strengthened through four pairs of SB HEA
650 and two pairs of HEB 650 in the longitudinal and transversal directions,
respectively, in the same plant disposition of the solution-composed RC shear walls on
Figure 9.
It was also tested another strengthening technique composed by SB with energy
dissipation device associated (SB-EDD), which can increase stiffness and the damping
of the building and consequently reduce the deformation demands. This strengthening
technique was based on the solution proposed by Varum (2003). The model was
 12 A. Furtado et al.

Figure 10. RC shear walls cross-section (a) LRCSW (b) TRCSW.

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implemented on the computer program and was calibrated with experimental results of
a full-scale cyclic test of a retrofitted frame with the same dissipative device (Varum,
2003). The hysteretic behaviour and the energy dissipation resulted from the calibration
analysis and the plant disposition of the SB-EDD are presented on the Figure 11(a)–(c)
respectively.

2.4.4. Evaluation of strengthening techniques’ efficiency

All the strengthening techniques improved the structural performance through a signifi-
cant reduction of the first-storey maximum drift, which complying the objective pro-
posed to fix/eliminate the soft storey mechanism. It was observed that the most efficient
technique in terms of reduction of the first-storey maximum drift was the SB, standing
out clearly from the others strengthening techniques which have similar results, as can
be observed in Figure 12(a). The SB solution has a constant value for all the RP

(a) 45 (b) 200

Numerical Numerical
40 Experimental 150 Experimental
Energy dissipation (kN.m)

35 100
Base shear (kN)

30
50
25
0
20
-50
15
10 -100

5 -150

0 -200
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 -0.03 -0.02 -0.01 0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03
Time (s) Displacement (m)
(c)

Figure 11. SB-EDD strengthening technique (a) Energy dissipation (b) Hysteretic behaviour
results from the calibration analysis (c) Plant disposition of the k-bracing.
 European Journal of Environmental and Civil Engineering 13

6 6
O O

1st Storey maximum drift (%)

1st Storey maximum drift (%)
RCJ RCJ
5 SB 5 SB
RCSW RCSW
SB-EDD SB-EDD
4 4
VISION 2000 VISION 2000
Fema 356 Fema 356
3 Gobarah 3 Gobarah

2 2

1 1

0 0
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
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Peak ground acceleration (g) Peak ground acceleration (g)

O O
20000 20000
Maximum base shear (kN)

RCJ RCJ

Maximum base shear (kN)

SB SB
RCSW RCSW
16000 SB-EDD 16000 SB-EDD

12000 12000

8000 8000

4000 4000

0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4

Peak ground acceleration (g) Peak ground acceleration (g)
7000 7000
Maximum energy dissipation (kN)

O O
Maximum energy dissipation (kN)

RCJ RCJ
6000 SB 6000
SB
RCSW RCSW
5000 SB-EDD 5000 SB-EDD

4000 4000

3000 3000

2000 2000

1000 1000

0 0
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
Peak ground acceleration (g) Peak ground acceleration (g)

Figure 12. Strengthening techniques results (a) Maximum first-storey drift (b) Maximum base
shear (c) Maximum energy dissipation.

eliminating completely the soft storey mechanism. The others strengthening techniques
reduces the original drift for half of the value.
It was observed that the largest increase of maximum base shear occur in the SB
solution which is seven times higher than the original and the lower increase belongs to
the SB-EDD solution (two times higher), illustrated in Figure 12(b). The results related
to the maximum energy dissipation show that the most effective technique is the SB in
both directions and the other techniques with a similar results in the LD. In transversal
direction, the RCJ and SB-EDD are the second and third most effective techniques.
It was also studied, in each way, the introduction of the strengthening techniques
have increased the maximum upper storey drifts, particularly if occur any damage of the
 14 A. Furtado et al.

IM walls when the strengthened building is subjected to seismic actions. The definition
of limit states for infills can be directly related with the inter-storey drift demand. Based
on the strut model, Magenes and Pampanin (2004) have proposed an empirical evalua-
tion for the damage level of the infills that corresponds to certain limit state, depending
of the axial deformation. The FEMA-306 (1999) document also provide reference val-
ues of inter-storey drift for RC buildings with masonry infill walls. The drift limit pro-
posed for brick masonry is 1.5%, and it can be also find in these documents the drift
limit for the beginning of the diagonal cracking which is .25% (Vicente, Rodrigues,
Varum, Costa, & Silva, 2012) as can be observed in Figure 13.
Through the results of the maximum inter-storey drift (Figure 14(a)), it can be con-
cluded that the SB and RCSW solutions increased slightly (5–10%) the upper storey
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drift. After analysing all the upper storey drift values for all the strengthening tech-
niques, it can be concluded that only occur diagonal cracking in the IM walls in SB
model for the RP of 2000 and 3000 years and in both directions. The introduction of
the other strengthening solutions didn’t cause any damaged to the IM walls.

2.4.5. Improvement of the structural integrity: cost–benefit analysis

In order to compare the cost efficiency of each strengthening solution studied one indi-
cator was used that would be take into account the value of the first-storey maximum
drift and the cost of each strengthening solution. The estimated costs of the strengthen-
ing solutions were attained from budgets solicited to specialised contractors in rehabili-
tation and retrofitting work, familiar with the strengthening techniques. From the
budgeting, high dispersion was attained; however, mean values were adopted, as shown
in Table 5. Patrimonial value of the building aggregate and cost of the strengthening
proposal solutions. The patrimonial value of this aggregate is evaluated as 9045500€.
In Figure 15 is represented the maximum first-storey drift, in function to the ratio
between the cost of the strengthening solution and the patrimonial value of the aggre-
gate studied. The solution resourcing to SB-EDD, represents only .12% of the global
patrimonial value, though its efficiency in the control of the drift in both directions, is
very modest. The RCJ and RCSW reveal to be most positive in the control of the first-
storey drift in transversal direction. However, the last three solutions are very far away

Figure 13. Relative drifts of masonry infill for different damage states.
Source: Adapted from Markulak, Radić, and Sigmund (2013).
 European Journal of Environmental and Civil Engineering 15

(a) (b)
9 O 0.6

Upper storeys maximum drift (%)

RCJ
8
SB 0.5
7 RCSW RCJ
SB-EDD
Storey Number

SB
6 0.4 RCSW
5 SB-EDD
0.3 Diagonal cracking
4 Collapse
3
0.2
2
1 0.1

0.0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
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Maximum inter-storey drift (%) Peak ground acceleration (g)

9 O 0.6

Upper storeys maximum drift (%)

RCJ
8
SB 0.5
7 RCSW RCJ
SB-EDD SB
6 0.4 RCSW
Storey Number

5 SB-EDD
0.3 Diagonal cracking
4 Collapse
3
0.2
2

1 0.1

0.0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
Maximum inter-storey drift (%) Seismic peak acceleration (g)

Figure 14. Strengthening techniques results (a) Maximum inter-storey drift (b) Upper storey
maximum drift.

Table 5. Patrimonial value of the building aggregate and cost of the strengthening proposal
solutions.
Estimated patrimonial value of the aggregate
9045500€
strengthening action cost
Retrofitting solution Strengthening action cost (€) Patrimonial value of the aggregate ð%Þ
RCJ 37750 .40
RCSW 38880 .43
SB 44680 .50
SB-EDD 10750 .12

from the efficiency of the SB solution. In fact, the SB strengthening solution presents
itself globally as the most efficient solution in the reduction of the deformation
demands, but is the most costly and intrusive (about .4% of the aggregate value).
Therefore, considering all the proposed strengthening solutions and after analysed
the relationship between cost of the strengthening solution and the patrimonial value of
the aggregate studied and the first-storey maximum drift reduction by each one, it can
be concluded that the costs associated by each ones are low compared with the patrimo-
nial value and respective efficiency.
 16 A. Furtado et al.

4
RCJ
3
SB
RCSW

1st storey maximum drift (%)

2 SB-EDD

-1

-2
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-3

-4
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Cost of the strengthening solution/ patrimonial value (%)

Figure 15. Cost–efficiency relationship of each strengthening solutions.

3. Summary and conclusions

The global safety of an existent building with a potential soft storey mechanism was
investigated as well as the influence of the presence of IM walls on the structural beha-
viour. It was observed that a correct assessment of the building safety can only be
achieved by considering the presence of these non-structural elements. The absence of
the infills on the ground floor has introduced the soft storey mechanism in both the
building’s directions.
Results show that, for the first storey, the maximum inter-storey drift demand for the
LD is larger than for the transversal, being the first one the most vulnerable direction of
the building. Comparing the results of the maximum first-storey drift it can be
concluded that the building safety isn’t guaranteed for both directions.
Four different strengthening solutions were tested and it was verified that the most
effective technique for reducing the maximum first-storey drift was the addition of SB.
This solution was the only technique that was succeeded in the elimination of the soft
storey mechanism. All the strengthening solutions introduced a large increase of the
base shear values, being the k-bracing solution that had the lowest increase. Addition-
ally, it was evaluated the damage that the introduction of the strengthening solution
caused in the IM walls on the upper storeys. It was verified that only slight damage was
provided by the addition of the SB solution.
Finally, the cost–efficiency relationship was evaluated and it can be concluded that
the costs associated by each ones are low compared with the patrimonial value and
respective efficiency. The solution composed by the addition of the SB with energy
dissipation device was the most efficient solution.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
 European Journal of Environmental and Civil Engineering 17

ORCID
André Furtado http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1215-8051
Hugo Rodrigues http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1373-4540
Humberto Varum http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0215-8701
Aníbal Costa http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8950-4843

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