Bidirectional analysis of a real RC building according to the Italian code provisions

The seismic assessment of existing buildings is an essential issue of seismic engi-neering. This work is focused on the effects of a bi-directional analysis on the evaluation of the seismic response of existing RC buildings according to the current Italian Technical Code. A nonlinear dynamic (time-history) analysis has been performed with reference to a case-study, that is a real RC hospital building. An accurate knowledge of the building has been achieved, as a result of a collaboration between the University of Florence and the Regional Government. Two different limit states, i.e. a serviceability (Damage Limitation) and a ulti-mate (Severe Damage) one, have been considered. Two ensemble of ground motions have been selected to represent the seismic action for the two limit states. Each set is made of 14 records, i.e. 7 ground motions with their two (N/S, E/W) components. The seismic response of the case-study has been studied in terms of displacements and interstorey drifts. The drift pro-file at each column-line of the case-study has been checked in order to evaluate the torsional effects arising by the eccentricities in the two directions.