New Three-Dimensional Damage Index for RC Buildings with Planar Irregularities

Motivated by the observation that existing damage indices do not take into account the bidirectional and torsional response effects, a new three dimensional damage index is proposed in this paper. The derivation is based on decomposing the 3D structure into planar frames. A local damage index that is sensitive to out-of-plane responses is described and a method to combine local damage indices is presented. The proposed index is verified by comparison with conventional damage indices.