Vulnerability curves for precast RC industrial buildings stricken by the 2012 Emilia (Italy) earthquakes

The 2012 Emilia (Italy) earthquakes struck a highly industrialized area including several thousands of industrial prefabricated buildings. Due to the lack of specific design and detailing for earthquake resistance, precast reinforced concrete buildings suffered from severe damages and even partial or total collapses in many cases. The present study reports a preliminary data inventory of damages from field survey on prefabricated buildings. The damage database, even though still incomplete, concerns more than 1100 buildings. Making use of available shakemaps of the mainshocks, the damages were related with the epicentral distance, and empirical vulnerability curves were developed. It was found that about 90% of severely damaged to collapsed buildings stay within 14 km from the epicentre and experienced a Pseudo-Spectral Acceleration for a period of 1 second (PSA at 1 s) larger than 0.13g. Moreover, 90% of slightly to moderately damaged buildings are located at less than 23 km from the epicentre and were affected by a PSA at 1 s larger than 0.07g. Finally, 10% of the undamaged buildings stay within 9 km from the epicentre and suffered from a PSA at 1 s not lower than 0.21g.