Seismic retrofit of a RC building using metallic yielding dampers: a case study

Many seismic dissipation devices have been proposed in the literature. However, their application in current practice is rather limited even for the general lack of simple and effective design procedures in the standard building codes. This paper presents an interesting application of metallic yielding dampers to a reinforced concrete school building in Italy. At first, the detailed investigations performed are described in detail, including geometrical, material, and soil surveys. Then, the results of the seismic performance assessment are discussed, and the structural deficiencies are highlighted. Finally, a design procedure is applied that allows an efficient design and dimensioning of dampers, and its effectiveness is demonstrated using the nonlinear response history analysis. The general design approach applied in the seismic retrofit project is illustrated. The construction phases, costs, and execution timing are described and discussed.