Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of Single-Story Masonry Buildings in Kurdistan Region - Iraq

Abstract

Although the Kurdistan Region (KR) of Iraq lies in a relatively active seismic zone, most of its buildings have not been designed to resist seismic loads. So, the need to assess the vulnerability of the building stock to damage due to seismic loads will always be a demand. The building environment in the KR had extensively utilized low-rise unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings having one- to two-stories. The single-story buildings constitute about 67% of the total buildings in the region. The study aims to assess these types of buildings (single-story URM buildings) using the analytical fragility analysis approach. For that purpose, buildings in the region were classified and a typical single-story URM building was analytically modelled in TREMURI software. Seismic characteristics of KR were reviewed and based on it, 59 un-scaled ground motion time histories were selected from all parts of the world. Using incremental dynamic analysis, time histories applied to the analytical model and fragility curves were then developed for the different states of damage. The results show that the single-story buildings in the region are highly susceptible to slight and moderate damages under seismic loads; extensive as well as the very heavy damage states are likewise expected to happen in these types of buildings especially in the eastern part of the KR.