earthquake
A disaster and its effect on buildings
• An earthquake is the vibration of the earth’s surface that follows a sudden
release of
energy in the crust..
• During an earthquake, the ground surface moves in all directions. The most
damaging effects on buildings are caused by lateral movements which
disturb the stability of the structure, causing it to topple or to collapse
sideways. Since buildings are normally constructed to resist gravity, many
traditional systems of construction are not inherently resistant to horizontal
forces. Thus design for earthquakes consists largely of solving the problem
of bracing a building against sideways movement.
• The actions illustrated in Figue 1 demonstrate combinations of the vertical
gravity effects with the lateral effects of earthquakes.
• In most buildings this system consists in some combination of horizontal
distribution elements, such as roof and floor diaphragms and vertical
bracing elements such as shear walls and rigid frames.
• An earthquake shakes the whole building. A major design consideration
must therefore be that of tying the building together to prevent it from
being shaken apart. This means that the various separate elements must be
positively secured to one another. The detailing of construction
connections is a major part of the structural design for earthquake
resistance.
Separation Joints
• When the building form is complex,
various parts of the building may move
differently, which can produce critical
stresses at the points of connection
between parts. Often the best solution is
to provide seismic separation joints to
ensure independent movements of the
parts, as shown in Figure 2. The width of
the joints should not be less than 30 mm.
When the building height exceeds 9 m
the width of the joints is to be increased
by 10 mm for each additional height of 3
m.
Common Modes of Structural Failure
• Earthquakes subject the
structure to a series of
vibrations which cause
additional bending and shear
stresses in structural walls.
Four modes of failure which
must be guarded against are
illustrated in Figure 3.
• Figure 3-a, sliding shear, reults in a building sliding off its foundation or on
one of the horizontal mortar joints. It is caused by low vertical load and
poor mortar. If the building is adequately anchored to the foundation, the
next concern is for adequate resistance of the foundation itself, in the form
of some combination of horizontal sliding friction and lateral earth
pressure as shown in Figure 3-b. Sliding shear failure can also occur within
the building structure, a classic case being the dislocation of a lightly
attached roof shown in Figure 3-c. Figure 3-d illustrates another mode of
failure, namely diagonal cracks in masonry walls when the tensile stresses,
developed in the wall under a combination of vertical and horizontal loads,
exceed the tensile strength of the masonry material. Figure 3-e illustrates
the effect of overturning moments. This may result in the building tipping
over. The critical nature of the overturning effect has much to do with the
form of the building’s vertical profile.
• Buildings that are relatively squat in form are unlikely to fail in this
manner, while those with tall, slender forms are vulnerable as shown in
Figure 4.
Nonstructural failure
• While sructural elements of a building should be the prime concern for
earthquake resistance, everything in the building construction should resist
forces generated by earthquakes. Nonstructural walls, suspended ceilings,
window frames and fixtures should be secure against movement during the
shaking actions. Failure here may not lead to building collapse, but it still
constitutes danger for occupants and requires costly replacements or repair.
• Interior partitions, curtain walls, wall finishes, windows and similar
building elements are often subjected during earthquakes to shear stresses,
for which they do not have sufficient resestive strength. The most common
damage resulting from this is breakage of window panes and cracks in
internal plaster and external rendering. A possible remedy for the former is
to isolate the window frames from the surrounding walls by the
introduction of flexible joints; the latter can be avoided by reinforcing the
plaster or to precrack it by introducing control joints (groves).
Site Failures
• Figure 5 shows five common site failures that may occur during an
eathquake. If significant in dimension site failures can cause damage to
fences, retaining walls, pavements, drains and other buried piped services.
Foundation Failures
• Site failures described above can cause damage to the building
foundations. If the supporting ground moves, the foundations will
move.
• It is essential that the foundation system move in unison during an
earthquake. When supports consist largely of isolated column
footings, it is advisable to add ties of the type illustrated in Figure 6
in order to achieve this and to enable the lateral loads to be shared
among all the independent footings.
Lateral Force-Resisting Systems
• Most of our techniques of building construction focus on direct resistance
of gravity forces. This is a natural result of our own experience with
gravity acting on our bodies and of our handling the elements with which
we build. We thus tend to produce constructions that are vulnerable to the
effects of horizontal forces. Figure 7-a illustrates such a structure, a fence
post, designed to resist gravity loads but is vulnerable to the horizontal
load conditions shown in Figure 7-b.
• Figure 7-c shows the simple solution of burying the post a sufficient
distance into the ground to protect it from overturning. A solution for
structures more complicated than simple posts is shown in Figure 7-d
where the base is spread in order to increase the moment arm for the
gravity-developed stabilizing moment illustrated in Figure 1-b. External
bracing may be applied to individual structures as shown in Figure 7-e.
• When they consist of separate elements, as shown in Figure 8-a, building
frames of the traditional post and beam system lack lateral force resistance.
• For a single bay of such a system, stability may be achieved by:
• Strengthening the connections between the elements of the frame to make
them moment resistant (Figure 8-b).
• Providing bracing in the shape of the letter (X) as shown in Figure 8-c.
• Building rigid infill walls between the columns (Figure 8-d).
• The solutions illustrated above are modifications applied to existing
gravity-resisting supports in order to develop external stability.
