Seismic Retrofitting Makes Your Home Seismic Resistant

Seismic retrofitting is the modification of existing structures to make them more resistant to seismic activity, ground motion, or soil failure due to earthquakes. With better understanding of seismic demand on structures and with the recent experiences with large earthquakes near urban centers, the need of seismic retrofitting is well acknowledged. Earthquake engineering is applied for the seismic retrofit of structures that involves alteration of existing structures to obtain resistance to seismic activity or soil failure due to earthquakes. Retrofit is now widely performed, especially in the active seismic zones.

Seismic retrofitting is a field of construction engineering that focuses on the modification of existing structures to enhance their capability to resist earthquakes. It is achieved by the inclusion of structural improvements that may prevent the building, people, and the equipment from damage by seismic waves. In seismic zones, retrofitting may be essential for bridges, overpasses, tunnels, and buildings. While new construction would require compliance to seismic standards.

Seismic retrofitting may be executed on concrete masonry, unreinforced masonry, soft story and concrete tilt-up construction. Soft story building is a multi-story building with abundant open space and in concrete tilt-up construction. Concrete is filled in the panels that form the walls of the structure. Since the concrete tilt-up walls are normally heavy, seismic retrofitting may be necessary. The motive for the concrete tilt-up retrofit is to prevent the separation of the roof from the building walls.

There are several categories of seismic retrofitting and their nature depends upon the purpose for which the retrofit is executed. The main form is the public safety retrofit involving structural reinforcement to save human life though some degree of injury is acceptable. Such retrofit is performed on structures that are not extremely expensive and for which a complete rebuild is not desired. A lower level retrofit may be selected to ensure earthquake endurance of the structure with some repairs needed after the earthquake. Extensive retrofit may be essential for buildings that are important due to cultural, historical or other reasons. Mostly, retrofit is performed on buildings that are extensively high, with an unsafe earthquake vibration frequency. Roads also have a priority in retrofit because their service is essential during an earthquake to ensure the function of emergency services.

There are numerous techniques that are used for the seismic retrofitting of structures. Their selection is based on the objective of retrofit, type of structure, soil conditions and the expenditures involved. Seismic retrofitting of buildings may reduce the earthquake damage by suitable structural modifications, but no technique will completely eliminate the risk of seismic waves. Reinforcement of the buildings by the use of girders and trusses are normally implemented to make the buildings safe. Base isolators are utilized to decouple the structure from the shaking ground, thus achieving seismic vibration control. Supplementary dampers minimize the structure resonant effects, increase the energy dissipation and reduce the displacement of structures. Other retrofit techniques include the use of absorbers and baffles to make the building safe from an earthquake.

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