This is one of the three projects supported to study the state-of-the-art methods for earthquake-resistant, reinforced concrete buildings in design, safety, and evaluation on the basis of the March l985 Chilean earthquake. Three damaged and three selected buildings with light damage will be used to calibrate methods for analysis (at various levels of sophistication) and for structural-detail requirements. The methods are evaluated in terms of the vulnerability of the damaged buildings, as well as the safety of the buildings that were not damaged. Hardware and software to store, retrieve, and disseminate large amounts of text, numerical data, and drawings are designed. The studies are conducted in cooperation with the Chilean investigators to produce methods of analysis and detail requirements for construction in zones of moderate, as well as high seismicity.
