Two-Story Residential Structure Damages after the 2020 Puerto Rico Earthquake
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 36, Issue 2
Abstract
This paper reports an assessment of structure damages after the Richter magnitude 6.4 Puerto Rico earthquake that occurred on January 7, 2020. A review of the seismicity of the region and the postdisaster investigation of structural damages is first presented. The paper then focuses on explaining the failure modes of 2-story residential structures with open first story, which demonstrated the classical soft story behavior. The typological characterization of the failure modes is investigated using a nonlinear elastic dynamic analysis with a single degree of freedom model, which illustrates the contributions from partial to full construction of infill walls to the stiffness of the 2-story structures. The results indicate that the completion of the infill walls can significantly improve the stiffness of these structures and reduce damages to the structures.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the funding received under NSF Grant CMMI-1807813 (NSF Program Director Dr. Anthony Kuh). The authors would also like to acknowledge contributions from Mr. Orlando Baez. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.
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Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 36 • Issue 2 • April 2022
Copyright
© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 21, 2020
Accepted: Nov 30, 2021
Published online: Jan 25, 2022
Published in print: Apr 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Jun 25, 2022
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