Direct displacement loss assessment of existing RC buildings pre- and post-seismic retrofitting: A case study

•Direct displacement loss assessment of an RC building is performed.•Performances before and after seismic retrofit with seismic isolation are compared.•Expected annual losses reduce by approximately 70%.•The break-even time is of the order of 13 years.•Costs are affordable and disturbances for occupants are minimal.

The seismic retrofitting of a high-rise RC building, recently realized in Italy using the seismic isolation technique, is examined in terms of cost of the intervention (compared to the replacement cost of the building), seismic performances and expected benefits (compared to the building in the as-built configuration), expressed in terms of reduction of direct and indirect seismic losses in case of attainment of different limit states.In the paper, the comparison of the building performance before and after seismic retrofitting is performed in terms of Expected Annual Loss (EAL), applying a direct displacement-based loss assessment approach. The results show a considerable reduction of the EAL (approximately of 70%), passing from the as-built to the retrofitted configuration. The time needed to get the balance between costs of the intervention and benefits due to EAL reduction turns out to be of the order of 13 years.