Strengthening of Two Storeys Concrete Building on piles

Many buildings have been repaired and/or strengthened following the May 21rst 2003 Boumerdes earthquake (50 Kms East of Algiers) of Magnitude 6.8. These repairing and strengthening operations are based on visual expertise, engineering experience design, engineering common practice, as well as on some recommendations from technical control offices. However, up to date, there is no technical feedback, as the repaired and/or strengthened buildings did not experience new earthquakes yet so as to conclude on the effectiveness of the techniques used since El Asnam Earthquake of October 1980. This study deals with an example of a two soft stories RC strengthened building, for which, ambient vibrations measurements were conducted before and after strengthening. The recording were then analyzed to assess the rigidity in the two states, and to conclude on the efficiency of the adopted retrofitting techniques.

Keywords:

Boumerdes earthquake , repairing , strengthening , rigidity assessment