Toward a simplified seismic risk assessment for precast industrial buildings

Precast industrial buildings built in Italy until 2003 have a high potential for economic loss due to various risks, including seismic risk. Researchers have made considerable efforts to develop models to assess the seismic risk of existing and newly constructed prefabricated industrial buildings. However, many published and ongoing studies focus on the structural elements without considering the contents and equipment within the building, which are critical to an accurate assessment of the potential economic losses associated with a seismic event. This study considers an existing precast industrial building built in the 1980s in L’Aquila (Italy) and compares its performance with that of an equivalent retrofitted structure. A simplified modelling approach and non-linear multi-stripe analyses are applied to derive demand curves for different structural and non-structural components. A damage assessment of these elements, as well as of some components commonly found in the industry, was carried out. Seismic demand curves are combined with specific fragility curves, which for the contained components were obtained from FEMA-P-58.