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Over 2000 buildings were surveyed by members of the Colegio de Ingenieros (CICM) and Sociedad Mexicana de Ingenieria Estructural (SMIE) in Mexico City following the Puebla-Morelos Earthquake of 2017. This inventory of surveyed buildings included nearly 40 collapses and over 600 buildings deemed to have structural damage. Correlation of damage with peak ground acceleration (PGA), peak ground velocity (PGV), predominant spectral period, building location, and building properties including height, estimated stiffness, and presence of walls or retrofits was investigated for the surveyed buildings. The evidence available suggests that (1) ground motion intensity (PGV) drove the occurrence of damage and (2) buildings with more infill and stiff retrofit systems did better than other buildings.

Tornadoes are one of the most frequently occurring natural hazards in the United States, yet historically they have been understudied in the engineering and social science literature. This ...

The seismic behavior of coupling beams and walls constructed with tensile strain-hardening, high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete (HPFRC) was studied through tests of large-scale precast coupling beams and coupled walls. A precast coupling beam design was developed to speed up construction and minimize interference with wall reinforcement. Three isolated precast coupling beam specimens with a span/depth of 1.75 were tested under large displacement reversals. Test results indicate the use of HPFRC allows a reduction of the reinforcement required to achieve a stable coupling beam response by providing confinement and contributing to beam shear strength. A concrete design shear stress capacity of 0.41√fc′ MPa (5√fc′ psi), where fc′ is the compressive strength of the concrete, was found to be appropriate. In addition to the coupling beam tests, two 4-story coupled wall specimens with precast HPFRC and regular concrete coupling beams were tested under lateral displacement reversals. Besides allowi...

to high shear and deformation reversals. These effects are attributed to the post-cracking toughness of HPFRC in tension and its response in compression, which resembles that of well-confined concrete. However, there have been no tests of coupled HPFRC structural walls, for which the distribution of base shear stresses and wall deformations differ significantly from those in isolated slender walls. This paper presents a detailed comparison of the behavior of four-story RC and HPFRC coupled wall specimens, with an emphasis on deformations in the first story of the walls and in the coupling beams. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE Data from large-scale tests of coupled walls linked by RC and HPFRC coupling beams are presented. The testing program included the first HPFRC coupled wall test and one of few tests of large-scale T-shaped RC coupled walls. The results presented should be useful to researchers, designers, and code officials interested in the seismic performance and modeling of RC structures constructed with HPFRC. EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM