Impact Assessment of Structural and Non-Structural Components on the Vulnerability Level of Reinforced Concrete Buildings

Over the past four decades, Algeria has suffered considerable losses, due to several large earthquakes that hit its various northern parts. These destructive effects are amplified by the large volume of buildings constructed using imprecise and unfinished codes (before the appearance of the Algerian paraseismic code RPA99/03). Indeed, the majority of cities have developed in total ignorance of seismic risks. Also, these heavy losses recorded are the consequence of the use of poor materials as well as poor control of implementation. Furthermore, reducing human and economic losses during a disaster requires raising awareness among the population at risk. In this context, a study on the seismic vulnerability of constructions built before 2003 is carried out in our laboratory. Knowing that the “IV” vulnerability index level to be considered for a structure threatened by an earthquake is a combination of several parameters. This document proposes an approach to quantify the “IV” index level of column-beam buildings, based on the design of experiments method (DEM). The DEM is a correlation established between this “IV” index level and certain parameters considered sources of danger by several researchers. Two types of factors are distinguished: those designated as internal to the construction, such as: the age “Ag”, the symmetry in plane “Sy”, the regularity in elevation “Re”, the quality of the bracing “Qc”, the quality of the resistant system “Qr”, the state of conservation “Ec”, the secondary elements “Es”, the infrastructure “If” and the redundancy of the rows “Rf” and those designated as external, such as: collision “And” and the ground condition “So”. The resulting formula from this correlation allows managers to classify vulnerable buildings with a better approximation.