SEISMIC EVALUATION OF EXISTING MULTI-STOREY REINFORCED CONCRETE AND MASONRY BUILDINGS
The post-World War II reconstruction of Europe includes the extensive construction of large number of multi-story residential buildings. At the beginning, mostly masonry buildings were built, typically with semi-prefabricated floor structures. However, since 1960s, reinforced concrete (RC) structural systems became predominant. The Balkan Peninsula and the former Yugoslavia lie within a seismically active zone of Southeastern Europe, where seismic analysis is a part of everyday structural engineering design. Buildings erected 50 to 70 years ago generally do not comply with contemporary design codes, particularly seismic ones. Their analysis presents a particular challenge for structural engineers due to many unknowns, starting with material properties, construction methods, and often some geometric data. his issue has been discussed using examples of typical multi-story buildings constructed in the city of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, from the mid-1950s to the early 1980s. These include masonry buildings with walls made of solid brick and high-rise buildings with R.C: walls and slabs. Analyses showed that a regular structural system plays a key role in order to achieve good seismic performance.