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Procédure multi-niveaux pour l'évaluation de la vulnérabilité sismique des écoles dans l'est canadien

Translated title of the thesis: A three-tier procedure for the seismic evaluation of school buildings in Eastern Canada
  • Mohammed Mestar

Student thesis: Master's thesisMaster in Engineering: Construction Engineering

Abstract

In Eastern Canada the seismic hazard is generally moderate and large urban centres are faced with similar earthquake hazard levels. To date, earthquake mitigation of public buildings has remained scarce and no systematic vulnerability assessment program has been implemented on a large scale. The seismic vulnerability assessment of buildings is based on collecting information by inspection and studying plans. This approach is however not practical for the evaluation of a large sample, such as the 2714 Quebec building schools. This thesis présents a three-tier screening procedure for the seismic vulnerability assessment of Québec school buildings. Tier-1 screening aims to classify school buildings within four priority groups, with a view to identify facilities that are not at risk and discard them from the pool to be screened at the next level. At this level, three parameters are used: the seismic hazard, the year of construction and the number of students. At Tier-2, the sample of schools is considered at the level of school boards (minimum of 30 school buildings). Seismic microzonation mapping information is used with general data on structural configuration to prioritize buildings, with a moderate or high risk, that need to be inspected. At the Third level, the inspection of the buildings identified at Tier-2 is used to prioritize which facilities will require a detailed seismic evaluation and eventual mitigation. This assessment is realized by applying a score procedure. The proposed 3-Tier procedure is applied to a sample of school buildings in Montreal, on the basis of visual inspection data. The evaluation with score procedures and ambient vibrations measurements (AVM) has validated the ability of the proposed methodology to identify buildings requiring inspection. A modal model was constructed based on the results of the AVM, using the natural frequencies of vibration, damping and mode shapes. The procedure is designed as a tool for school boards professionals and other technical personnel.
Date7 Jan 2014
Original languageFrench
Awarding Institution
  • École de technologie supérieure
SupervisorMarie-José Nollet (Supervisor) & Jean Proulx (Co-supervisor)

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