Comparing the Observed and Numerically Simulated Seismic Damage: A Unified Procedure for Unreinforced Masonry and Reinforced Concrete Buildings

A unified procedure for assessing the effectiveness of modelling strategies for existing buildings is proposed. The procedure is applied to unreinforced masonry and cast-in-place and precast reinforced concrete real buildings struck by earthquakes. A cross-structural-typology Matching Index (MI) is proposed. It aims to synthetically compare numerical outcomes with the evidence of the damage experienced by the case-study buildings. Results confirmed a good reliability and effectiveness of the developed numerical models (mean MI value higher than 0.70 for all the investigated cases) and the capability of the models in reproducing the performance states occurred in the real cases.