The Mexico Earthquake of September 19, 1985—Analysis of the Seismic Performance of a Medium Rise, Waffle Flat Plate Building

This paper analyzes the seismic performance of a 15-story waffle-flat plate building affected by the September 19 Mexico earthquake. It also evaluates the adequacy of present analytical methods for predicting observed damage and response. In addition, it proposes a model to define the supplied slab seismic strength for nonlinear analysis. Results from this analysis correlate reasonably well with the observed seismic behavior of the building. Particularly, distribution of computed maximum rotational ductility demands on slabs agree well with observed maximum slab damage in the building.