The severe socio-economic impact of recent earthquakes has represented a tough reality check, further confirming the mismatch between society expectations and reality of seismic performance of modern buildings. Life-safety code-compliant design criteria are not enough when dealing with new structures. To raise the bar in terms of structural safety and overall performance objectives, the renewed challenge is defining high-performance buildings able to sustain a design-level earthquake with minimum disruption of business and limited economic losses. To achieve this goal, alternative strategies might be adopted: (a) implementing more advanced design methodologies, (b) increasing the seismic design level, (c) adopting low-damage earthquake-resistant technologies. However, the common perception is that these strategies would lead to unaffordable costs. To support decision-makers, the paper develops a comprehensive parametric study to compare the cost–benefit of reinforced concrete multi-storey buildings designed for increasing levels of seismic intensities (representing a higher seismicity zone or Importance Class) and according to alternative design approaches (Force-based vs. Displacement-based) and technologies (traditional vs. low-damage). Analytical/numerical investigations are carried out to determine the building performance, and loss assessment analyses are performed to compute the Expected Annual Losses of all the parametric configurations. Results, further elaborated through a machine-learning technique, highlight the convenience of implementing more advanced design methodologies, such as a displacement-based approach allowing for a better control of the building response, and the remarkable benefits of applying low-damage technologies, leading to a very high performance and significantly reduced economic losses (> 50%) for a small increase (< 5–10%) of the initial investment cost.

This article presents a numerical study on the influence of the anchorage shear hysteresis on the seismic response of nonstructural components (NSC) connected to multi-storey reinforced concrete (RC) buildings, and of the anchorage itself. To cover a variety of different types of shear hysteresis shapes, this contribution considered the experimental results obtained for five types of post-installed anchors. The results were used for calibrating the hysteresis model of the anchorage connecting an ideal NSC with rigid fixture and a 12-storey RC building host-structure. Using a suit of 40 earthquake records and assuming a single NSC at each storey level anchored by a single fastener, a series of non-linear dynamic analyses of the structure-fastener-nonstructural system was carried out. The results showed significant differences in terms of maximum acceleration and force of the NSC and anchorage, respectively, depending on the type of anchor. These seismic demands were sometimes larger than those required by the reviewed code provisions for rigid NSC, but also for the most restrictive code-case for flexible NSC. The results presented different amounts of scatter, mostly related to the size of the annular gap and of the loading stiffness of the anchorage. It is shown that the maximum force achieved by the anchorage is directly related to the peak relative velocity of the NSC within the gap region. It was concluded that the shape of the shear hysteresis of the anchorage highly influences the response of the NSC and the anchor itself and should not be neglected in practice.

High-rise buildings have large impact on the community and a significant economic value, considering the resources involved from the design through construction and use. Due to the increasing demand for renewable construction materials, the use of mixed timber-concrete solutions for high-rise structures is attracting more interest: concrete provides adequate stiffness, while timber reduces the embodied carbon of the building, including reductions in construction and demolition waste and improved recyclability. Nevertheless, in earthquake-prone countries, advanced technologies should be used to mitigate the seismic risk of high-rise buildings, considering that slight-to-moderate level of damage can produce substantial economic losses and significant environmental impact. This paper investigates the application of timber-concrete post-tensioned dissipative connections for high-rise buildings in seismic zones. These low-damage connections are able to reduce the post-earthquake residual drift and minimize the damage, thereby reducing direct and indirect losses. Furthermore, dry jointed connections allows for a flexible design approach and advantages in the construction phases. This approach is investigated through two designed case studies: a traditional concrete monolithic (cast-in-situ) building vs. a low-damage timber-concrete solution. Nonlinear dynamic analyses are performed to compare the structural/seismic responses of the case studies. A life-cycle analysis of the two buildings is developed to assess the environmental footprint, also accounting for the probable maximum losses associated with seismic damage. Results demonstrate the great efficacy of the low-damage technology for high-rise buildings: both the post-earthquake economic losses and the environmental impact are reduced by more than 40% when compared to the traditional building system.

Structural safety and environmental sustainability are major factors in investment decisions for building systems, but are rarely considered simultaneously. Recent research efforts have redressed this by developing assessment methodologies and technical solutions for integrated energy efficiency and seismic performance. These studies are typically limited to existing buildings and retrofit interventions at global building scale, whereas an effective framework could and should be part of the design process of either new or existing buildings at both building and component scales. This paper proposes a probabilistic-based assessment framework to assess the building performance in terms of integrated economic losses and support the selection of resilience-enhanced solutions. The proposed methodology is validated through its application to reinforced concrete case-study buildings consisting of traditional vs low-damage earthquake-resistant technologies coupled with energy efficiency strategies. Seismic and energy risk assessment analyses are performed accounting for both modelling uncertainties and earthquake/weather variability. Probabilistic distributions of the integrated economic losses are finally derived to compare the design solutions in terms of risk and reliability. The research outcomes demonstrate the effectiveness of the probabilistic approach for decision-making in building projects. Specifically, it is found that the economic losses can be highly underestimated (greater than40 %) in the single domains (energy or seismic); greater savings and return on investment can be achieved when the seismic safety is involved in the design process; probabilistic distributions and reliability/risk values can represent an effective tool to assess and compare design solutions.