Seismic resonance vulnerability assessment on shear walls and framed structures with different typologies: The case of Guadalajara, Mexico

Structural collapses can occur as a result of a dynamic amplification of either, the building's seismic response or the ground shaking by local site effects; one of the reasons is a resonance effect due to the proximity of the structural elastic fundamental period TE and the soil fundamental period TS. We evaluate the vulnerability to resonance effects in Guadalajara, México, in a three-step schema: 1) we define structural systems in the building environment of western Guadalajara, in terms of their construction materials and structural components; 2) we estimate TE with different equations, to obtain a representative value in elastic conditions for each structural system; and, 3) we evaluate the resonance vulnerability by the analysis of the ratio between TE and TS. We observe that the larger the soil fundamental period, the higher the resonance vulnerability for buildings with height between 17 and 39 m. For the sites with a low TS, the most vulnerable buildings will be those with a height between 2 and 9 m. These results can be a helpful tool for disaster prevention, by avoiding the construction of buildings with certain heights and structural characteristics that would result in a dangerous proximity between TE and TS.