Seismic performance and damage level of RC buildings in urban area close to epicenter

In Kure City, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan, seismic evaluations for all RC buildings of preliminary schools and junior high schools, more than 100, had been completed before the 2001 Geiyo Earthquake (Mw 6.8) hit at the western part of Japan in 2001.3.24. Although most of those buildings had very poor seismic performance from the results of seismic evaluations and considerably low concrete strengths, extensive structural damages did not occur by the earthquake except only slight shear or flexural cracks on columns in several buildings. In this paper, nonlinear dynamic analyses for 18 RC buildings selected from those buildings were performed using simulated ground motions, in order to investigate the correlation among results of seismic evaluations, analytical dynamic response and earthquake damage levels of the inspected buildings.