ASSESSMENT OF SEISMIC FRAGILITY CURVES FOR EXISTING RC SCHOOL BUILDINGS IN AFGHANISTAN

Abstract

Ensuring earthquake resistance in school buildings is critical for safeguarding students and teachers. Inadequately designed school buildings are at significant risk of collapse or severe damage during a destructive earthquake. This study evaluates the seismic reliability of reinforced concrete (RC) school buildings designed as moment-resisting frame systems and constructed across various regions of Afghanistan. To assess the damage probability of RC buildings under different earthquake ground motions, seismic fragility curves were generated using incremental dynamic analysis (IDA). The nonlinear frame software analysis program has been used as a research methodology to perform IDA. Six RC school buildings from the database were selected and categorized into newly designed and old-designed groups based on specific criteria, such as design details and year of construction. The results demonstrate that newly designed and constructed school buildings exhibit significantly greater resilience and are less prone to damage compared to older counterparts. The findings underscore the necessity of updating design codes and construction standards to enhance the earthquake resistance of RC school buildings. Consequently, this study proposes implementing more stringent building codes and retrofitting existing structures to mitigate earthquake risks.