Seismic damage indices for the San Miguel Charo Ex-Convent in Michoacán, México

Abstract

This study is the first phase of a research that includes the development of capacity-demand analysis and the estimation of the seismic fragility, for the different two-dimensional Macroelements of the sixteenth century Augustinian building located in Charo, downtown at the northeast of the State of Michoacán, México. The analyses assess expected damage indices from a set of accelerograms recorded during the September 19th 2017 earthquake with epicenter between the states of Puebla and Morelos, México. The event caused damages and collapses in 2340 buildings, including several Augustinian convent complexes with similar characteristics to the one studied in the present work. Two-dimensional models of Rigid Elements for the Macroelements that conform the façade of the church, the nave, the Cloister Arcades and the Pilgrims Portal were built. Incremental nonlinear static analyses were used to define the capacity curves and the capacity spectrum. Considering the average values of the spectral displacements and the standard deviation of the natural logarithm of the spectral displacements for unreinforced masonry structures, fragility curves for each Macroelement were computed. Damage indices were estimated for each Macroelement based on the maximum displacement and hysteretic energy demands. Results showed that most of the damage was concentrated in the cloister, the pilgrim portal and the nave, which highlights the need to carry out more detailed studies, to propose a reliable intervention that would produce an appropriate behavior in future earthquakes with similar characteristics of the 2017’s earthquake. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.