Assessment of seismic damage on frame structures across the earth fissure under earthquake

An accurate evaluation of structural damage is essential to performance-based seismic design for the structure across the earth fissure. By comparing the calculation results from three commonly used damage models and the experimental results, a weighted combination method using Chen model was selected in this paper as the seismic damage evaluation. A numerical model considering the soil-structure interaction (SSI) was proposed using ABAQUS software. The model was calibrated by comparing with the experimental results. The results from the analysis indicated that, for the structure across the earth fissure, the existence of earth fissure changed the damage distribution of the structural members. The damage of structural members in the hanging wall was greater than that in the foot wall. Besides, the earth fissure enlarged the damage degree of the structural members at the same location and changed the position of the weak story. Moreover, the damage degree of the structure across the earth fissure was greater than that of the structure without the earth fissure under the same excitation. It is expected that the results from this research would enhance the understanding of the performance-based seismic design for the structure across the earth fissure.