Seismic Performance Assessment of a Typical Peruvian Public-School Building

Abstract

Several Peruvian public school buildings have not performed well during earthquakes, with the level of damage varying from cracks in structural elements to the complete collapse of the building. The reasons for the unsatisfactory seismic performance of the buildings include the design codes followed at the time these schools were built, and the lack of professional engineering supervision during the design and construction phases of these schools. This study focuses on a typical school building, selected after performing a survey to public schools in the district of San Juan de Miraflores in the city of Lima, in Peru. The seismic response of the selected building to various ground motions is analysed with nonlinear static and time history analyses. The results indicate that the building does not meet the minimum seismic performance level required by the current Peruvian seismic design provisions.