Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of Reinforced Concrete Buildings Using Hierarchical Fuzzy Rule Base Modeling

A reliable building vulnerability assessment is required for developing a risk‐based assessment and retrofit prioritization. Tesfamariam and Saatcioglu (2008) proposed a simple building vulnerability module where the building performance modifiers are in congruence with FEMA 154 . This paper is an extension of the building vulnerability assessment that include detailed performance modifier in congruence with FEMA 310 that is represented in a heuristic based hierarchical structure. Some of the input parameters are obtained through a walk down survey and are subject to vagueness uncertainty that is modelled through fuzzy set theory. A knowledge base fuzzy rule base modeling is developed and illustrated for reinforced concrete buildings damaged in the 1 May 2003 Bingöl, Turkey earthquake.