1st Croatian Conference on Earthquake Engineering 1CroCEE 2021

After the damage of a building due to an earthquake, several steps must be followed to decide in what way to proceed. Technical evaluation of the building needs to be carried out to assess the scale of damage. Technical assessment includes considerations related to structural stability and load-carrying capacity, as well as any damage that might have occurred in non-load bearing elements (e.g. plaster layer). The evaluation is facilitated by using European standards – Eurocodes, but there are some other standards that can provide useful guidance (ACI, SIA). Financial evaluation follows, and finally a decision on how to proceed with the repair of the building is made.
Treatment of the building differs depending on the scale of the damage: reparation, rehabilitation and strengthening.
Reparation is implemented on buildings with low damage rating. Generally, this refers to reparation of damage that occurred in the façade or wall plaster using state-of-the-art materials available now. There are materials that enable restoring building to its function, but also contribute to an increase of load-carrying capacity and stability of repaired elements.
When structural and non-structural elements are of a higher damage rating, rehabilitation is used. Generally, this refers to using cement-based materials with addition of FRP or steel providing higher load-carrying capacity.
Finally, for buildings that are heavily damaged, even nearing collapse, strengthening is required to restore the structure and its load-carrying capacity. Generally, this will include addition of new structural elements made of high strength materials to restore the stability and load-carrying capacity, at least to the level before the damage occurred.
Final decision on repair method depends on technical, financial, social, and environmental factors, and is made by the investor.
The paper will discuss several examples when different measures are implemented to restore earthquake damaged buildings to function and required safety level.