Dynamic behaviour of a concrete building under a mainshock–aftershock seismic sequence with a concrete damage plasticity material model

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to investigate the dynamic response of a concrete structure subjected to a mainshock–aftershock seismic sequence. In the dynamic analysis, three components of the registered mainshock and aftershock were taken into account. The peak ground accelerations of about 0.5 g were assumed for both shocks. A one-storey shed was modelled with the ABAQUS software to represent a large concrete structure under the repeated earthquakes. For proper characterization of concrete structure behaviour under the sequence of shocks, a concrete damage plasticity model was assumed as a constitutive model of concrete. The obtained results indicate that aftershocks can have considerable effect on dynamic behaviour of concrete structures in terms of enlarging zones affected by irreversible strains or additional damage evolution. The analysis revealed that aftershocks, which are usually not as strong as mainshocks, may result even in total loss of concrete material strength while performing in mainshock–aftershock seismic sequences.