Structural engineering companies (SECs) currently have a series of deficiencies that hinder their processes and interactions, decreasing their productivity, lacking collaborative and interconnected processes, not including current work methodologies such as building information modeling (BIM). The BIM methodology seeks to integrate processes and professionals involved in engineering tasks by working on platforms with coordinated and intelligent 3D virtual models. BIM has great potential for structural engineering companies (SEC) and solves their most salient problems. This paper defines a methodology to implement BIM in the SEC, focused on solving the complexities of the design phase, those that make the implementation of BIM in these offices a nontrivial task. Characterized by the optimization of resources, flexibility, and adaptability, the methodology proposed for BIM implementation within SEC clearly and objectively identifies the resources and expectations of the organizations, sets out the requirements necessary to develop the BIM methodology, and provides practical and technical recommendations for planning and monitoring the implementation.

The codes used in seismic design of waffled-slab floors buildings (WSFB), such as the Spanish NCSE-02 earthquake-resistant design code, assign them restricted ductility, utilise linear structural analysis based on modal analysis, but also consider the structural ductility concept. Uncertainties arise whenever these codes are applied to the special case of buildings with waffled-slab floors, the ductility of which is doubtful. In many cases, during earthquakes, buildings with restricted ductility are unable to reach the ductility values assumed in the design process, although they may exhibit adequate values of overstrength. This paper therefore studies typical WSFB by applying static incremental non-linear analysis procedures (pushover analysis) in order to calculate their actual structural ductility and overstrength values. Fragility curves corresponding to different damage states and damage probability matrices are also calculated and compared with those of moment-resisting frame buildings (MRFB) in order to obtain useful conclusions for earthquake resistant design. One of the most relevant conclusions of this article is that the use of a better confinement and of ductile steel can only improve the seismic behaviour of MRFB but not that of WSFB.

On 16 April 2016, an earthquake of Mw 7.8 shook the coast of Ecuador, causing the destruction of buildings and a significant number of casualties. Following a visit by the authors to the city of Portoviejo during the debris removal and recovery stage, it was noted that several reinforced concrete buildings located on corners had collapsed in the central part of the city. These buildings were characterized by the presence of masonry at the edges of the buildings but not between the two mostly open-plan facades on the corner for practical reasons. This article reviews the effect of masonry infill panels on the seismic response of reinforced concrete structures. For this, a model that contains the geometric and mechanical characteristics typical of collapsed buildings was generated and subjected to nonlinear analysis, with both static and dynamic increments. The results show the clear influence of the masonry infill panels on the structural response through the torsional behavior that is reflected in the evolution of the floor rotations. Finally, dynamic incremental analysis is used to obtain the collapse fragility curve of the building, and a new damage measure based on floor rotations is proposed.

Current seismic analysis contemplates the simultaneous use of the orthogonal components of an earthquake in order to determine the structural stresses closer to reality. This has led to these components being combined considering a fraction of them, as applying them completely would lead to excessively conservative results. However, their application is carried out considering that the direction of the components coincides with the orientation of the orthogonal axes that define the resistant structure. The assumption takes on special importance when it comes to establishing performance demands on a structure based on nonlinear time-history analysis. To establish the proportional relationship between the seismic components, the angle of incidence is used, which is one of the imponderable variables of an earthquake. In this investigation, a group of reinforced concrete structural archetypes with various typologies and regularity in plan is presented, which allow the effect of the angle of incidence in determining the maximum displacement demands to be studied. To study the response, a set of strong earthquakes recorded in Chile is used, obtaining the angle of incidence that produces the maximum displacement demands through interstory drift and roof displacement. A statistical analysis is also carried out in which the influence of the angle of incidence that produces the maximum response is studied.