Adhikari, Rohit Kumar; (2021) A Methodological Framework for Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of Masonry School Buildings: Application to Nepal. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Due to the high seismic risk posed by the school infrastructure in developing countries and the lack of technical quantitative tools for risk assessment and strengthening prioritization, this study aims to develop a seismic vulnerability assessment methodology recognizing the high variability in the seismic performance of different masonry typologies. The expectation is that such framework should be applicable to countries in the Himalayan belt and possibly further afield. To this end, the Nepalese school portfolio is used to develop as well as validate the framework. A first step in this study is to classify a number of masonry typologies of school buildings, differentiated by construction materials, building height and seismic design level. Although these parameters are sufficient to qualitatively rank the vulnerability of a typology, other construction features such as diaphragm type or wall panel length are critical to quantitatively determine its expected seismic response and fragility, as proven by the vulnerability results in this study. The identification of these relevant parameters underpins a globally applicable taxonomy. The applied element method is employed for the analysis so as to accurately represent the seismic capacity and failure mechanism of different masonry typologies. For the typologies lacking box-like behaviour, a tailored pushover analysis approach is developed, allowing computation of in-plane and out-of-plane capacity and fragility separately, then combined to derive a mean global vulnerability function. The vulnerability results for distinct typologies better inform effective risk reduction policies, by allowing prioritised and incremental strengthening strategies. In the Nepalese context, the results show that most of the masonry school typologies are in need of immediate strengthening while traditional seismic safety measures such as horizontal bands prove to be effective in order to comply with the life safety performance level under seismic hazard and also to ensure adequate functionality requirements.

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