Effectiveness of Techniques for Seismic Strengthening of RC Frame Buildings

摘要

The techniques for seismic strengthening of reinforced concrete buildings, namely steel braces,rnmasonry infills and shear walls, are reviewed with the aim of assessing their effectiveness for thernincrease of global strength and stiffness and energy-dissipation capacity, and for providingrnguidance to designers regarding the most appropriate solution for practical applications. Althoughrnthe results obtained by extensive experimental testing and numerical analyses of elements andrnstructures present large scatter, they show that the highest performance improvement is providedrnby shear walls, followed by braces and infills. The review also highlights the issues that remainrnopen in view of the development of design guidelines; the most important are the development ofrndesign tools and detailing rules for the connection between new and existing elements.