The analysis of the structural seismic response has gained a special importance both for the seismic design of buildings as for predicting the damage caused by earthquakes. In this thesis a complete study about the seismic risk assessment of the two main structural
typologies of residential buildings of Barcelona, Spain, is presented. These correspond to reinforced concrete buildings with waffle slabs and unreinforced masonry buildings. The main goal of this research is to apply a systematic methodology for the seismic risk
assessment, by means of fragility curves, in buildings located in urban zones with moderate seismic hazard.

After revising the conceptual aspects involved in the seismic risk assessment and describing the current state of the art, the adopted methodology to evaluate the structural
capacity, fragility and expected damage analyses is described. To assess the capacity a structural modelling of the buildings and a non-linear static analysis is required. The fragility or vulnerability is evaluated through the capacity spectrum, by means of a simplified procedure. The damage probability matrixes for a given seismic scenario require knowledge of the maximum structural response, which is obtained by using the capacity spectrum method.

The methodology has been applied to three reinforced concrete models representative of
low, mid and high rise buildings of the city; this has allowed developing seismic risk scenarios for two earthquakes, which occurrence in Barcelona is reasonably possible. These scenarios take into account the Barcelona seismic zoning.
The method has been also applied to characterize the expected seismic behaviour of masonry buildings, modelling three typical buildings of the Eixample District. Two of them present different plane configuration, one more regular than the other. The third is
representative of corner buildings, typical of the city's blocks. The better behaviour of the regular buildings compared to corner buildings is confirmed. An aggregate set of buildings, corresponding to a typical line of the district's blocks has been studied. It has been observed that the aggregate behaviour does not improve; instead it inherits the vulnerability of the constituting buildings.

A sensitivity analysis of the slight and extensive threshold damage states is carried out; it is observed that little variations in these thresholds significantly influence the expected damage. Consequently, new thresholds for these damage states are proposed based on certain structural characteristics obtained from the non-linear static analysis. The proposed slight damage threshold takes into account the elastic stiffness degradation, while hardening is considered for the extensive damage state. To validate the results obtained with of the employed methodology, a series of non linear dynamic analysis were carried out in two reinforced concrete buildings.
The global results were compatible with the ones of the methodology. In general, the results show a good confidence level.
Finally, the conclusions drawn the current thesis are summarized and some recommendations for future works are given.