RETROFITTING OF EXISTING REINFORCED CONCRETE BUILDINGS. AGAINST SEVERE EARTHQUAKE FORCES

Abstract

Life safety in the event of a severe earthquake is the paramount consideration in the design of the buildings. Some reinforced concrete buildings designed and constructed to be earthquake resistant collapsed during recent strong earthquakes. There are many buildings in which the seismic force resistance level of the primary structural system is low. Such buildings might suffer extensive damage or even. collapse_if shaken by a severe ground motion. The need exists to evaluate and retrofit such buildings to mitigate unaccep-table hazards which they pose from future severe earthquakes. Retrofittingof existing buildings become a necessity when certain seismic zones are upgraded or there are some modifi-cations/ alterations in existing buildings in seismic prone regions. The basic purpose of this Thesis report is to present a comprehensive document on the current state of knowledge in the field of Retrofitting of Existing Reinforced Concrete Buildings Against Severe Earthquake Forces with the help of a case-study. The case-study concerns with an existing building Oberoi Towers, located in Bombay. The building was constructed in the year 1969. In 1970 the seismic zone of Bombay was up-graded from zone I to zone III. The building is an important structure as it is a five star hotel and is 36.storey rein-forced concrete building.