Different types of buildings suffer different degrees of damage during earthquakes and the same has been studied here. 1. MUD AND ADOBE HOUSES: Unburnt sun dried bricks laid in mud mortar are called adobe construction. Mud houses are the traditional construction, for poor and most suitable in view of their initial cost, easy availability, low(…)
Earthquake Resistant Design
PERFORMANCE BASED EARTHQUAKE RESISTANT DESIGN
The performance-based seismic engineering (PBSE) produces structures with predictable seismic performance. This approach is not new. Using this approach / model Turbine, Airplanes & Automobiles are made. In these applications one or more prototype are built and subjected to extensive testing. To incorporate the lessons learned from the experimental evaluations the design and manufacturing process(…)
EARTHQUAKES EFFECTS ON REINFORCED CONCRETE BUILDINGS
Reinforced Concrete Buildings In recent times, reinforced concrete buildings have become common in India, particularly in towns and cities. Reinforced concrete (or simply RC) consists of two primary materials, namely concrete with reinforcing steel bars. Concrete is made of sand, crushed stone (called aggregates) and cement, all mixed with pre-determined amount of water. Concrete can(…)
SEISMIC DESIGN PHILOSOPHY FOR BUILDINGS
The Earthquake Problem Severity of ground shaking at a given location during an earthquake can be minor, moderate and strong. Relatively speaking, minor shaking occurs frequently, moderate shaking occasionally and strong shaking rarely. For instance, on average annually about 800 earthquakes of magnitude 5.0-5.9 occur in the world while the number is only about 18(…)
ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES & EARTHQUAKE
Importance of Architectural Features The behaviour of a building during earthquakes depends critically on its overall shape, size and geometry, in addition to how the earthquake forces are carried to the ground. Hence, at the planning stage itself, architects and structural engineers must work together to ensure that the unfavourable features are avoided and a(…)
EARTHQUAKE & RELATED TERMS
Magnitude: Measure of the amount of energy released during an earthquake. It is usually expressed using Richter scale. Professor Charles Richter noticed that at a constant distance, seismograms records of earthquake ground vibration of larger earthquake have bigger wave amplitude than those of smaller earthquakes, and for given earthquake, seismograms at farther distances have smaller(…)
BASIC ELEMENTS OF EARTHQUAKE RESISTANT DESIGN
Structures on the earth are generally subjected to load of two types static and dynamic. Static loads are constant with time while dynamic loads are time varying. The majority of civil engineering structures are designed with assumptions that all applied loads are static. The effect of dynamic loads is not considered because the structure is(…)
GUIDELINES FOR EARTHQUAKE RESISTANT DESIGN
An earthquake is vibration of earth surface by waves emerging from the source of disturbance in the earth by virtue of release of energy in the earth’s crust. It is essentially a sudden and transient motion or series of motions of the earth surface originating in a limited under ground motion due to disturbance of(…)