Most reinforced concrete (RC) school buildings constructed in the 1980s have seismic vulnerabilities due to low transverse reinforcement ratios in columns and beam-column joints. In addition, the building structures designed for only gravity loads have the weak-columnstrong- beam (WCSB) system, resulting in low lateral resistance capacity. This study aims to investigate the lateral resistance capacities of a two-story, full-scale school building specimen through cyclic loading tests. Based on the experimental responses, load-displacement hysteresis behavior and story drift-strain relationship were mainly investigated by comparing the responses to code-defined story drift limits. The test specimen experienced stress concentration at the bottom of the first story columns and shear failure at the beam-column joints with strength degradation and bond failure observed at the life safety level specified in the code-defined drift limits for RC moment frames with seismic details. This indicates that the seismically vulnerable school building test specimen does not meet the minimum performance requirements under a 1,400-year return period earthquake, suggesting that seismic retrofitting is necessary.

Existing reinforced concrete building structures have seismic vulnerabilities due to their seismically-deficient details resulting in non-ductile behavior. The seismic vulnerabilities can be mitigated by retrofitting the buildings using a fiber-reinforced polymer column jacketing system, which can provide additional confining pressures to existing columns to improve their lateral resisting capacities. This study presents dynamic responses of a full-scale non-ductile reinforced concrete frame retrofitted using a fiber-reinforced polymer column jacketing system. A series of forced-vibration testing was performed to measure the dynamic responses (e.g. natural frequencies, story drifts and column/beam rotations). Additionally, the dynamic responses of the retrofitted frame were compared to those of the non-retrofitted frame to investigate effectiveness of the retrofit system. The experimental results demonstrate that the retrofit system installed on the first story columns contributed to reducing story drifts and column rotations. Additionally, the retrofit scheme helped mitigate damage concentration on the first story columns as compared to the non-retrofitted frame.