Abstract

The study of earthquake losses in structures has been traditionally addressed for a single seismic intensity, but this could be unrealistic since throughout the life of a building it can be subjected to several earthquakes with different intensities. This paper analyzes the relations between the seismic intensities with the corresponding damage costs. Three nonlinear analytical models of reinforced concrete were analyzed. Each model differs in dynamic characteristics and was designed by scaling the design spectrum for three amplification factors. A firm soil earthquake was analyzed, which was scaled to 22 intensities and with this results, dynamic capacity curves of the studied models were constructed. From the analyses it was obtained interstory drift and maximum accelerations, with which the following seismic damage costs were estimated: structural and non-structural damage, contents replacement, income and profits, injuries and deaths. The results show different types of relations between intensity and each type of loss. They also justify the importance of introducing amplification factors at the design stage to minimize the cost of a particular type of damage.