Haiti Earthquake 2010

Every year, earthquakes take the lives of thousands of people , and destroy property worth billions. The 2010 Haiti Earthquake killed over 1,50,000 people and destroyed entire cities and villages. Designing Earthquake Resistant Structures is indispensable. It is imperative that structures are designed to resist earthquake forces, in order to reduce the loss of life. The science of Earthquake Engineering and Structural Design has improved tremendously, and thus, today, we can design safe structures which can safely withstand earthquakes of reasonable magnitude.

Index of all posts on Earthquake Resistant Structures

1. Design Earthquake Resistant Buildings | Engineering Tips
2. Earthquakes and Natural Calamities
3. Types of Seismic Waves
4. Hazardous Effects of Earthquakes
5. Effect of Earthquakes on Structures
6. Building Stiffness and Flexibility | Earthquake Engineering
7. Inertial Forces in a Structure
8. Effects of Deformations in Structures
9. Horizontal and Vertical Shaking of a Structure
10. Flow of Inertia Forces to Foundations
11. How Earthquakes affect Reinforced Concrete Buildings
12. Building Planning | Earthquake Resistant Buildings
13. Earthquake Resistant Structures by Planning and Design Approach
14. Design Philosophy of Earthquake Resistant Designs
15. Building Construction Materials for Earthquake Resistance
16. Concept of Earthquake Resistant Engineering
17. Seismic Base Isolation Technique for Building Earthquake Resistance
18. Energy Dissipation Devices for Earthquake Resistant Building Design
19. Active Control Devices for Earthquake Resistance

“If we have a poor configuration to start with, all the engineer can do is to provide a band-aid – improve a basically poor solution as best as he can. Conversely, if we start-off with a good configuration and reasonable framing system, even a poor engineer cannot harm its ultimate performance too much”.

Size of Buildings

Size of Buildings

In tall buildings with large weight-to-base size ratio the horizontal movement of the floors during ground shaking is large. In short but very long buildings, the damaging effects during earthquake shaking are many. And, in buildings with large plan area, the horizontal seismic forces can be excessive to be carried by columns and walls.

Horizontal Layout of Buildings

Buildings with simple geometry in plan perform well during strong earthquakes. Buildings with re-entrant corners, like U, V, H and + shaped in plan sustain significant damage. The bad effects of these interior corners in the plan of buildings are avoided by making the buildings in two parts by using a separation joint at the junction.

Vertical Layout of Buildings

Vertical Layout of Buildings

Earthquake forces developed at different floor levels in a building need to be brought down along the height to the ground by the shortest path, any deviation or discontinuity in this load transfer path results in poor performance of building. Buildings with vertical setbacks cause a sudden jump in earthquake forces at the level of discontinuity. Buildings that have fewer columns or walls in a particular storey or with unusually tall storey tend to damage or collapse which is initiated in that storey. Buildings on sloppy ground have unequal height columns along the slope, which causes twisting and damage in shorter columns that hang or float on beams have discontinuity in load transfer. Buildings in which RC walls do not go all the way to the ground but stop at upper levels get severely damaged

Adjacency of Buildings

Adjacency of Buildings

When two buildings are close to each other, they may pound on each other during strong shaking. When building heights do not match the roof of the shorter building may pound at the mid- height of the column of the taller one; this can be very dangerous.

Design Philosophy of Earthquake Resistant Structures

Engineers do not attempt to make earthquake proof buildings that will not get damaged even during the rare but strong earthquake; such buildings will be too robust and also too expensive. Instead the engineering intention is to make buildings earthquake-resistant; such buildings resist the effects of ground shaking, although they may get damaged severely but would not collapse during the strong earthquake. Thus, safety of people and contents is assured in earthquake-resistant buildings, and thereby a disaster is avoided. This is a major objective of seismic design codes throughout the world.

Design Philosophy

1. Under minor but frequent shaking, the main members of the buildings that carry vertical and horizontal forces should not be damaged; however buildings parts that do not carry load may sustain repairable damage.
2. Under moderate but occasional shaking, the main members may sustain repairable damage, while the other parts that do not carry load may sustain repairable damage.
3. Under strong but rare shaking, the main members  may sustain severe damage, but the building should not collapse.

Earthquake resistant design is therefore concerned about ensuring that the damages in buildings during earthquakes are of acceptable variety, and also that they occur at the right places and in right amounts. This approach of earthquake resistant design is much like the use of electrical fuses in houses: to protect the entire electrical wiring and appliances in the house, you sacrifice some small parts of electrical circuit, called fuses; these fuses are easily replaced after the electrical over-current. Likewise to save the building from collapsing you need to allow some pre-determined parts to undergo the acceptable type and level of damage.

Earthquake resistant buildings, particularly their main elements, need to be built with ductility in them. Such buildings have the ability to sway back-and-forth during an earthquake, and to withstand the earthquake effects with some damage, but without collapse.