Influence of ductility on the seismic fragility of reinforced concrete buildings on soft soil in Mexico City
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37636/recit.v9n2e489Keywords:
Mid-rise buildings, Reinforced concrete, Current seismic codes, Behavior factor Q, IDA, Seismic fragility curves, Seismic intensityAbstract
In the presented article, it must be noted that ductility is a fundamental parameter in seismic and structural engineering, since, as is well known among various researchers in the seismological field, ductility itself is related to the ability of a building to dissipate energy through a phenomenon known as nonlinear behavior. From what we have just described arises the importance of estimating, herein, the influence of ductility on the seismic performance of buildings. Under this approach, the present investigation evaluates the seismic fragility of mid-rise buildings that the authors assume to be located in Mexico City, designed in accordance with the current seismic regulations of the jurisdiction. To this end, three eight story reinforced concrete buildings situated in the Lake Zone were analyzed. It should also be noted that all three structures described in this investigation were designed with seismic behavior factor levels ranging from low and medium to high. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the subject addressed herein, the authors proposed that the methodological strategy must be grounded in the execution of Incremental Dynamic Analyses (IDA) based on a set of 30 accelerographic records from narrow-band interplate earthquakes, obtained from national databases and representative of the Valley of Mexico, scaled by the authors to 20 seismic intensity levels also expressed in terms of the spectral acceleration of the fundamental vibration mode Sa(T1) of the building. From the structural responses obtained, seismic fragility curves were constructed under the assumption of a lognormal distribution. It is likewise important for the authors to convey that this investigation constitutes one of the first contributions to simultaneously contrast three normative ductility levels Q = 2, Q = 3, and Q = 4, within the framework of the NTC-2023 of Mexico City, and by applying a direct probabilistic approach. It is confirmed that the quantitative results obtained clearly demonstrate that the seismic intensity corresponding to a 50% probability of exceedance for the collapse state under analysis increases from 266 cm/s² in the structure with low ductility or Q = 2, to a value of 396 cm/s² for Q = 3 or medium ductility, and reaches 730 cm/s² in the design employing high ductility with Q = 4. From these findings, it is concluded that the high-ductility designs studied exhibited a structural capacity approximately three times greater when subjected to extreme seismic events, with notably higher overall safety levels under the soft soil conditions evaluated.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Seiko Christian Suzuki Espino, Juan Bojórquez Mora, Edén Bojórquez Mora, Rody Abraham Soto Rojo
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