Seismic Rehabilitation
BACKGROUND TO REHABILITATION PROJECT
The USC Century Apartments (CAP) is one of three apartment buildings that form the University Village / Cardinal Century Area of the University of Southern California campus in south Los Angeles. Constructed in 1978, the postmodernism architecture of this building makes it stand out.
The building stands at four stories and has an underground parking garage. It houses more than 1,000 graduate students.
As part of USC’s 2030 University Park Campus Master Plan, the USC Century Apartments went through a structural renovation which included a seismic retrofit of concrete columns in the parking garage.
SOLUTION
The concrete columns required additional strengthening for seismic upgrades which was provided by installing FyfeFRP’s composite systems. All relevant and proper steps were taken to prepare the columns for FRP installation.
FyfeFRP’s Tyfo SCH-41 unidirectional carbon FRP was used to fully wrap the columns. This provides an increase in shear capacity confines the concrete. This was applied to the columns cross section with the primary fibers oriented transverse to the column axis, with full coverage of the columns and full height. The columns then received a key-coat (sanded broadcast), and then a final paint finish in yellow.
SUMMARY
- Application: Parking Structure under residential building
- Location: Los Angeles, California
