Seismic analysis of a retrofitted reinforced concrete building in Mexico City

This thesis presents a study on the dynamic characteristics and seismic performance of a retrofitted concrete building located in the soft soil area of Mexico City. The original structure consisted of reinforced concrete frames in two orthogonal directions. Damaged during an earthquake in 1979, the building was retrofitted by installing external steel braces in its transverse direction and reinforced concrete infill walls in its longitudinal direction. The retrofitted structure presented minor damage after the 1985 and 2017 earthquakes. The structural response of the building and the effectiveness of the retrofit has been assessed using an analytical model of the structure, in combination with data from post-earthquake damage inspections and ambient vibration tests. A three-dimensional linear elastic model of the building has been developed to study the modal characteristics of the building and its seismic response during the 1985 and 2017 events. The results of the analyses have been used to discuss the effects of the retrofit intervention, as well as the influence of the soil-structure interaction and other modeling assumptions in the response of the building.Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineerin

Seismic response analysis of a retrofitted concrete building in Mexico City

This paper presents results of an ongoing study on the seismic performance of a retrofitted concrete building located in the soft soil area of Mexico City. The original structure consisted of reinforced concrete frames in two directions. The building was repaired and retrofitted after having been damaged during a moderate earthquake in 1979. The retrofit strategy consisted mainly of installing external steel braces in one direction of the building, and reinforced concrete infill walls in the other direction. The retrofitted structure showed minor damage after the 1985 and 2017 earthquakes. The goal of this investigation is to assess the structural response of the building and the effectiveness of the retrofit strategy by combining post-earthquake damage inspections, analytical modeling and ambient vibration testing. This paper focuses on the development and calibration of a three-dimensional analytical model of the building, and on the analysis of the vibration properties of the retrofitted structure. The analytical model has been calibrated using data from ambient vibration tests conducted after the 2017 event. The study of the vibration properties of the building has shown the strong influence of soil-structure interaction in the response of this building.Postprint (published version

Geotecnia aplicada a la mitigación de riesgos urbanos: propiedades del suelo de la Zona Metropolitana de Guadalajara

Proyecto de investigación que tuvo como objetivo obtener las propiedades mecánicas de los tipo de suelo predominantes en la zona metropolitana de Guadalajara. Se utilizó “jal” y “tepetate”, con sus correspondientes combinaciones en porcentajes 66-33%, para obtener el coeficiente de cohesión “c”, el ángulo de fricción “ϕ” y su respectivo factor de permeabilidad “K”. Se realizaron las siguientes pruebas: 28 cortes directos, seis triaxiales, tres sondeos de penetración estándar complementados con densidades naturales y tres pruebas de cono dinámico. Con un análisis de regresión, se pudo encontrar que las correlaciones entre la compacidad relativa, contenido de humedad y granulometrías determinan un comportamiento predecible en el suelo