Applied Technology Council A Nonprofit Corporation Advancing Engineering Applications for Hazard Mitigation California - Washington, DC Area

ATC-38 Postearthquake Building Assessment Forms

Following the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the Applied Technology Council developed a series of building assessment forms to be used by trained civil and structural engineers to document the earthquake performance of buildings in the vicinity (within 1000 feet) of strong-motion recording sites. The forms were developed as the initial stage of the ATC-38 project, the objective of which was to develop and implement a standardized procedure for systematically documenting both the performance of buildings (both damaged and non-damaged) and the ground motions affecting them. The long-term goal of the project is to develop a statistically rigorous database for use in correlating the relationship between recorded ground shaking, the observed performance of buildings, and key structural characteristics such as design date, structural framing type, and number of stories.

The original (1994) ATC-38 assessment forms were used to document the performance of 530 buildings located in the vicinity of 31 accelerograph stations where 1994 Northridge earthquake ground motion was recorded. The 1994 survey and the results therefrom are described in the recently released ATC-38 report, Database on the Performance of Structures Near Strong-Motion Recording Sites: 1994 Northridge, California, Earthquake, which includes (1) the original assessment forms, (2) a set of revised forms re-formatted to improve data collection, and (3) a companion CD containing the complete ATC-38 1994 Northridge data set.

The revised ATC-38 Postearthquake Building Assessment Forms have been made available at this web site to facilitate the collection of standardized information about the performance of buildings during future earthquakes. The Applied Technology Council hereby provides permission for the use of these forms for their intended purpose with the proviso that ATC be acknowledged as the original source for these forms.

The ATC-38 Postearthquake Building Performance Assessment Form package consists of:

1. Surveyer Instructions
2. Form Sections 1 through 11, plus comments box
3. Form Section entitled "Detailed Damage Description," for use on buildings with General Damage Classification of "M" (moderate), or "H" (heavy)
4. Glossary of Terms and Codes

For further information, contact the Applied Technology Council, 201 Redwood Shores Parkway, Suite 240, Redwood City, California 94065 (Telephone: 650/595-1542; Fax: 650/593-2320; e-mail: atc@atcouncil.org).

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