Seismic Risk Assessment of Peruvian Public School

Buildings Using FEMA P-154 Rapid Visual Screening

Omar Cardenas, B.Sc. Aaron Farfan, B.Sc. Guillermo Huaco, Ph.D., P.E.
Faculty of Civil Engineering Faculty of Civil Engineering Faculty of Civil Engineering
Peruvian University of Applied Peruvian University of Applied Peruvian University of Applied
Sciences, UPC Sciences, UPC Sciences, UPC
Lima, Peru Lima, Peru Lima, Peru
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Abstract—Peru is located in a high seismicity region, since

is on the subduction zone between the tectonic plates of Nazca II. STATE OF THE ART
and South American, both belonging to the Pacific’s Ring of Various scientific articles where the procedure for
Fire. Peru is a developing country, so it is of the utmost carrying out a qualitative analysis of different structures were
importance that the Peruvian Government is prepared to assist consulted. The methods proposed by Brando, De Matteis &
the thousands of casualties that may be in the face of an
Spacone [3] in “Predictive model for the seismic
important seismic event. Hence seismic risk assessment of
vulnerability assessment of small historic centres:
essential buildings such as schools and hospitals is necessary
for structural reinforcement projects in this type of Application to the inner Abruzzi Region in Italy”;
infrastructure. In this scientific article, it is shown how Kheradmand, Jahangiri, Sohrabizadeh, Safarpour & Khani
vulnerable the public schools of the district of San Juan de Jazani [4] in “Physical seismic vulnerability assessment of
Miraflores in the city of Lima are to a seismic event. Hence neighborhood emphasizing on critical land uses”; Marques,
FEMA P-154 Rapid Visual Screening methodology was used to Monteiro & Delgado [5] in “An improved model for seismic
assess actual condition of school infrastructure which can be risk assessment in Portugal”, Tibon & Suiza [6] in
used as refuge for casualties or local headquarters to “Quantification of seismic exposure and vulnerability of
emergency response. The results of the research conclude that historic buildings in Metro Manila”; and Boutaraa,
most educational buildings present a high seismic risk and do Negulesco, Arab & Sedan [7] in “Buildings Vulnerability
not meet the requirements of post-earthquake use as required Assessment and Damage Seismic Scenarios at Urban Scale:
by the Peruvian Seismic Design Building Code. Application to Chlef City” were analyzed.
Keywords—Rapid Visual Screening, Seismic Risk The articles mentioned above state that the first phase for
Assessment, School Buildings, Structural Damage performing a seismic risk analysis should define the study
area and the type of Structures to be analyzed. The vast
majority of studies analyze the buildings that are of great
I. INTRODUCTION importance to the city, either for its history or its contribution
Peru is a high seismic zone due to its location along the to the population. It is essential to categorize the buildings
Pacific’s Ring of Fire and the interaction of two tectonic studied by antiquity, material, function, among others. This
plates along its coast: the Nazca and South American allows for more accurate qualitative analysis and study
tectonic plates. It is estimated that more than 500 seismic trends that may arise in some analyzed category.
events with a magnitude higher that 3.0 occurred in 2019 [1] Kheradmand et al. [4] applies the methodology of the Rapid
and that more than 3694 classrooms suffered structural Visual Screening of FEMA P-154 for the analysis of certain
damage in Peru’s last high-intensity earthquake [2]. This is buildings. They were able to define the number of structures
an important problem, given that educational infrastructure is that are most vulnerable to an earthquake and provided
considered as essential buildings by the Peruvian Seismic suggestions for the strengthening of these buildings.
Design Building Code, as they are supposed to be used as
post-seismic refuge points for affected citizens around these III. METHODOLOGY
schools. It is therefore essential to analyze the seismic risk of
For this qualitative analysis, the place where the study is
educational buildings with the aim of determining the
carried out is delimited. The district of San Juan de
institutions that require structural reinforcement or, if
Miraflores was selected due to the precariousness of its
necessary, the demolition of these and the construction of a
buildings, since this district was built by the invasion of
new building.
lands [8]. Due to this event, the construction of buildings
In this scientific article, the seismic risk assessment of the without any competent professional supervision was the
public school buildings of San Juan de Miraflores is carried most common. This is due to the economic situation of
out, because it is one of the districts with the largest people who started living in that district and who needed to
population of Metropolitan Lima and presents a high level of immediately meet their basic needs such as education,
seismic hazard, with the aim of determining the current state housing, basic services, among others.
of the buildings and which require urgent intervention. In
Having delimited the district to study, the type of
addition, the district has a high poverty rate, which shows the
buildings to be studied was chosen. These were public
high probability of the lack of professional supervision
educational institutions, as they are spaces that house
during the design and construction phases of many schools
children and adolescents for long hours. In addition, since
built by the locals.
they were not private schools, the permission of the Local

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Education Management Unit was sufficient to be able to
easily access these schools. The sample studied was
composed of public schools exceeding 300 students, as its
facilities allow to house more affected citizens after a strong
earthquake. Then Rapid Visual Screening (RVS) method
found in FEMA P-154 was selected. That RVS methodology
considers the vertical and plan structural irregularities that
can present the building, soil type, geological hazards, other
parameters that allow us to know the level of vulnerability of
the building.
The level of seismicity of the RVS forms was then
defined for this qualitative analysis. To do this, the seismic
microzoning studies of San Juan de Miraflores carried out by
CISMID-UNI [9] allowed knowing the accelerations and soil
types in different zones of the district. With this information,
it was determined to use Moderate Seismicity form for the
schools “Julio Cesar Escobar” and “6041”, while for the rest
of the schools the form to use is Highly Moderate Seismicity.
Finally, the mapping of educational institutions was
carried out in order to know the type of soil on which the
buildings have been built. After that, it was found that the
educational institutions studied were built upon a C-type
(rock formations and gravel) or D-type (sand) soil.

IV. RESULTS
The Rapid Visual Screening was performed on a total of
205 educational buildings. The RVS forms of two different
buildings in different schools are shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2.
Fig. 2. RVS form of building N° 2 of “6037 Inca Pachacútec” school.

The main difference between these two buildings is in

their final score (SL1), being 3.6 of the first building shown
in Fig. 1 and 0.3 of the one shown in Fig. 2. This means that
the first building expects a negligible damage level whereas
the second one expects its collapse, both accounting for
severe earthquakes. This procedure was made for all 205
buildings and its final scores are plotted in a chart in Fig. 3,
along with the score that —according to FEMA P-154— is
the minimum accepted for not being necessary a more
exhaustive structural assessment (SL1=2.0).
In order to set the final score per school, a weighted
average calculation was performed. The values per school
are each building’s RVS final score and its weight is the
number of students each building is capable to house. The
205 school buildings belong to a total of 30 public schools,
which are sorted in a chart in Fig. 4, also with the minimum
acceptable value as stated in the previous paragraph.

Fig. 1. RVS form of building N° 1 of “6041” school.

Fig. 3. School buildings distributed according to their RVS final score

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 Fig. 5. Expected damage classification of school buildings

School buildings were grouped according to their

Fig. 4. Public schools distributed according to their RVS final score
construction type, as shown in Fig. 6. The buildings built by
the Peruvian Government are: 780-Pre, 780-Strengthened,
It was also fundamental to link the final score of each Apenkai, prefabricated, and new model. Each of these
building to a certain damage level so a broad understanding groups has a standardized structural configuration and
of the scores is achieved. Five ranges were used in this study: architecture. The first three types were built in the 90’s,
(1) negligible damage, for 3.0 < SL1; (2) significant damage, while the prefabricated ones had been used for almost 15
for 2.0 < SL1 ≤ 3.0; (3) moderate damage, for 0.7 < SL1 ≤ years now. The new model was found in one school only,
2.0; (4) severe damage, for 0.3 < SL1 ≤ 0.7; and (5) collapse, whose construction was in 2017.
for SL1 ≤ 0.3. The 205 school buildings are grouped in Fig. 5 On the other hand, the buildings built by the same local
according to its expected damage level and, after the population, students’ parents or those whose origin is
weighted average calculation explained in the previous unknown, are classified as: self-construction, 780-Resembled
paragraph, the 30 public schools are shown in Table I. and wooden prefabricated. Of these types of constructions,
the structure they possess and the way they were built is
TABLE I. EXPECTED DAMAGE OF INSPECTED PUBLIC SCHOOLS unknown or had the lack of professional supervision during
its construction.
Expected Damage Public Schools
Negligible damage 6041
Finally, the buildings built by an NGO or a third party are
grouped into the construction type "Various”, where all the
046 - Mi Jardín de Amor
buildings are different between them and might or might
7069 - Cesar Vallejo have not had professional supervision.
629/6034 - Cesar Carbonell Rodriguez
7221
7082 Juan de Espinosa Medrano
7101
Significant damage 6089 Jorge Basadre Grohmann
6045 Dolores Cavero de Grau
514 El Carmen
6037 Inca Pachacutec
7067 Toribio Seminario
530 Virgen de Fátima
7100 República Alemana
7087 El Nazareno
7081 José María Arguedas
6151 San Luis Gonzaga
652 12 Virgen del Buen Paso
7060 Andres Avelino Cáceres Fig. 6. School buildings classified according to its construction type
Margarita Gonzales De Dankers
Severe damage The school buildings were also classified according to
Julio Cesar Escobar
FEMA P-154’s structural classification, that was previously
66 Niño Jesús de Praga used when filling the RVS forms. These structural
7212 classification determined the initial score of the SL1, which
7041 Virgen de la Merced was then subtracted because of different factors. Four
7209
structural types were found in this study, those are: (1)
unreinforced masonry, URM; (2) manufactured housing,
6096 Antonio Raimondi
MH; (3) concrete moment-resisting frame, C1; and (4)
Yachayhuasi concrete frame with unreinforced masonry infill, C3. The
Collapse Pedro Paulet structural classification of the school buildings is shown in
Virgen del Rosario Fig. 7.

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 V. DISCUSSION
From 205 public school buildings analyzed, the majority
of them were expected to have a severe damage level. Also,
there are 42 buildings that expect a negligible damage level,
being this an adequate result due to the importance of this
type of infrastructure, which needs to serve as a refuge for
the affected neighbors after an earthquake; however, it was
identified that most of the buildings presenting this damage
level are prefabricated modules that have temporary use. The
second largest group of school buildings classified according
to their expected damage level is of collapse, given that the
27% of the sample studied might collapse after a severe
earthquake occurs in San Juan de Miraflores.
Fig. 7. School buildings sorted according to its structural classification It was observed that one third of the buildings had been
built by the local population or students’ parents. The
While in some cases the school buildings seemed to have construction of these buildings did not have the presence of
their infrastructure in good conditions, other cases —as professional supervision and its design seems not to meet the
shown in Fig. 8, Fig. 9 and Fig. 10— revealed structural minimum criteria of the actual building codes. Moreover, if
deterioration, low-quality building evidence, hazard the 780-Resembled buildings are added to the previous
unawareness, etc. selection, the percentage of buildings in which there was no
professional supervision reaches up to 48%.
On the other hand, buildings built by the Peruvian
Government are mostly 780-Pre and have that name because
they have been designed and built before 1997, the year in
which substantial modifications were made to the Peruvian
Seismic Design Building Code. The problem with these
structures is the presence of the short column effect in the
longitudinal direction, which consists in restraining the
column’s lateral displacement of a certain height due to the
presence of an infill masonry wall with no gap in between.
This effect causes a considerable concentration of shear
forces in the unconfined column’s height, which is the reason
Fig. 8. Clay brick inside a reinforced concrete beam why a shear-controlled failure has been seen in this buildings
in previous earthquakes [2]. The 780-Strengthened building
is a newer version of the 780-Pre building, with stronger and
stiffened structural elements; and the Apenkai building is a
three-story building consisting in two buildings joined
together by the stairs and hallways. These two buildings
mentioned above result in a smaller number compared to the
780-Pre building, given that added together these buildings
barely reach the half of the number of 780-Pre buildings
found in the sample studied.
Structural damage seen in these school buildings are of
utmost importance. It is expected to have an adequate
infrastructure that is capable of providing shelter before,
during and after an earthquake, but the poor conditions found
Fig. 9. Concrete honeycomb and damage in beam-column joint in some of the structures constitute and imminent hazard. For
example, Fig. 8 shows the presence of a clay brick inside a
reinforced concrete beam belonging to the second story’s
hallway structural system. This is an imminent danger, given
that —if this beam fails— the students might fall and
seriously hurt themselves or anyone walking under that
hallway; also, it wouldn’t allow the students in the second
story to descend if an earthquake occurs, as it is the only
connection between the second story classrooms and the
stairs.
Finally, a total of 30 public schools were studied and
their expected damage level was found. In Fig. 4, there is
only one school that is above the minimum final score
needed to not consider necessary a further structural
assessment. There is a similar number of public schools that
Fig. 10. Poor shear reinforcement and corrosion in longitudinal steel bars expect either significant or severe damage, having no schools

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