Buildings constructed of reinforced concrete panels are very common in the Czech Republic. Approximately one third of the Czech population lives in such buildings. Most of these buildings were built between the 1960s and the late 1980s. Many of these buildings have recently been reconstructed or are currently under a complete overhaul. Unfortunately, these reconstructions are limited with respect to the improvement of their thermal properties, and there is little motivation to revise their static and dynamic properties. In many cases this approach is acceptable but it is necessary to study the effects of technical (or natural) seismicity on these buildings and to accomplish improvements or carry out reconstruction.

The paper deals with an ongoing research project focused on the research of the behaviour of buildings under technical seismic effects. This project includes both the experimental and numerical parts. The experimental part includes in situ measurements and laboratory tests.

This paper discusses one of the topics of this project, the numerical modelling of the behaviour of large panel buildings under seismic loads. There is a short description of the ongoing in situ measurements and a description of the current state of the remodelling of one particular panel building. There are several challenges in the modelling of these buildings such as the behaviour of joints between panels and their influence on the behaviour of the whole building, the real stiffness of certain parts of structures etc. Many of the above challenges can only be resolved using inverse numerical modelling.

The presented finite element model has been developed using the ANSYS finite element software. The following two main finite element types have been used: SHELL63 and COMBIN14.

The static analysis has been conducted to verify the model behaviour and completeness. The modal analysis of the model has been carried out. Some of the results obtained are presented.

The transient domain analysis has been done using data provided by the Institute of Geonics. This data was obtained from continuous measurements of velocities in the area of Karviná. The velocities were measured and the accelerations were obtained by means of numerical derivations using the original data.

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