Nonmodel-based framework for rapid seismic risk and loss assessment of instrumented steel buildings

This paper proposes a nonmodel-based framework for estimating story-based engineering demand parameters (EDPs) in instrumented steel frame buildings with steel moment-resisting frames (MRFs). The proposed framework utilizes a wavelet-based damage-sensitive feature and basic building geometric information to infer the building damage state at a given seismic intensity. The story-based EDPs are predicted with a reasonable accuracy compared to those predicted from rigorous nonlinear response history analyses that typically require the explicit use of a nonlinear building model. The efficiency of the proposed framework is demonstrated through a number of illustrative examples including actual instrumented steel frame buildings that experienced the 1994 Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles. It is shown that if the building content is known the proposed framework can facilitate building-specific seismic risk and loss assessment within minutes after an earthquake provided that the recorded floor absolute acceleration histories at discrete locations along the height of the building are accessible. The nonmodel-based framework is also extended at the city-scale through the development of generalized earthquake-induced damage and loss maps for the same earthquake event. The same framework can facilitate the decision-making for effective pre-disaster measures for earthquake disaster risk management of building assets.