A COLLABORATIVE FRAMEWORK TO MODEL THE SEISMIC VULNERABILITY OF RC BUILDINGS USING SIMULATED DESIGN

The seismic vulnerability assessment of the diverse categories of buildings found across building stocks requires specific methodologies that can capture the wide range of standards, regulations, construction practices, architectural layouts, earthquake design scenarios, and available knowledge. Previous vulnerability models have employed varying assessment approaches, building taxonomies, representations of seismic loading, and, in some instances, relied on a limited number of representative structures to represent an entire building class. Consequently, these models often fail to fully capture building-to-building variability and inadequately address multiple sources of uncertainty, particularly in models intended for large regional applications. Addressing these issues requires a probabilistic approach where seismic vulnerability is assessed using models of building portfolios that are able to reflect, in a unified manner, features related to engineering design practice, as well as construction variability and quality. In this context, this paper introduces a collaborative framework that performs the simulated design of European reinforced concrete buildings, and presents its integration into the Built Environment Data platform via developed open-source software tools. In particular, it describes how the simulated design approach considers past and current seismic design procedures and how it reflects building-to-building variability. Through the use of open-source software and open data, the structural engineering community in Europe can contribute to the database of design codes covered by the framework. Following the design process, the referred tools generate the OpenSees computational models that can then be used to perform nonlinear analyses of the designed buildings and obtain probabilistic seismic demand models. These will ultimately support the development of fragility functions and vulnerability models. The framework's simulated design capabilities are demonstrated through a series of examples that highlight notable distinctions among the building classes under consideration and emphasize the importance of the attributes involved in the analysis