Behaviour of structures in the Koyna earthquake of December 11, 1967: 1 ‘A. R. Chandrasckaran, L. S. Srivastava, and A. S. Arya ‘An earthquake causing strong intensity of ground motion occurred in the Koynanagar area, hitherto considered comparatively inactive seismically, and caused considerable loss of life and different degrees of damage to various types of structures. Traditional construction in the area ‘was non-seismic and had little resistance against lateral forces. In the villages the basic framework was of timber which could afford lateral resistance, and so failure was mostly confined to the cladding walls. In recent constructions in the area the walls were of random rubble masonry which had very little or poor lateral resistance, and such structures suffered extensive damage. A study of the effects of the earthquake on the buildings suggests that itis indeed possible to build earthquake resistant structures with locally available materials. The maximum observed intensity in the region was VIII on the M-M scale. Severe damage was scen limited to a small area of nearly clliptical shape, about 7 miles wide and 13 miles long as enclosed by the isoscismal VILI. The size of the epicentral tract shows that the intensity drops within short distances indicating the local character of the earthquake. In the early hours of the morning on 11th December 1067, a strong earthquake, with its epicentre close to the Koyna hydro-electric project, shook the western coat of India and the whole of the Maharashtra state. ‘Tt was reportedly one ofthe severest earthquakes in the region, On learning of the severity of the earthquake, the authors inspected the affected area from 17th to 26th December, 1967, with the object of ascertaining the extent of the damage to various buildings and the ground, and to study the behaviour of the dam and its appurtenant structures. This paper deals with the be- haviour of the various types of structures and the ‘ground, The behaviour of the dam has been dealt with separately elsewhere. Due to the earthquake, Koynanagar sufered the maximum damage, and the township has been well- nigh razed to the ground. The earthquake was felt with severe intensity in Ratnagiri, Poona, Mahableshwar and ‘Bombay, and the shock was felt at places as far off as Surat, Nagpur, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Karwar, and Panaji, and many other towns up to about 450 miles, away from Koynanagar. Considerable loss of life and property was reported to have occurred in this earth- (quake, About one hundred and eighty people lost their lives, and more than two thousand were injured. More than two hundred cattle were killed, or received serious injuries. Thousands of houses were damaged and ant Trmog i betbeie Engineering, Unvray fRoores, Roorkee rendered dangerous for living in, making thousands of families homeless and destitute. ‘Since 1963 minor earthquakes were being felt in the area around Koynanagar causing great concern to the inhabitants, Most of these earthquakes were of low ‘magnitude and did not cause any damage in the region. Local enquiries revealed that these tremors appeared ‘to come from various directions and were accompanied by loud rambling sounds similar to those caused by blasts, or movement of heavy vehicles. On 19th Sep~ tember 1967, there occurred in the region a large earth ‘quake of magnitude 5-7" which did damage to several buildings in Koynanagar and other places. The earth- {quake of 11th December 1967 is the biggest earthquake, ‘that has occurred in this region up to the present time. AAs the earthuake occurred in the early hours of the ‘morning when people were fast asleep in their beds, ‘many persons got buried under the falling debris. ‘The seismological data of this earthquake as evaluated bby the India Meteorological Department, Government of India, ar as fllows*: origin time 22 51 19-0 GMT ‘epicentre latitude 17° 22-4" N, longitude 73° 44-8" depth of focus 8 kam ‘The estimates of the magnitude of this earthquake as ‘observed at various seismological observatories vary from 6-25 in Upsala, Sweden, to 7-6 in Delhi. ‘There are two accelerographs® located in the body of ‘the dam, one in the foundation gallery in monolith 13, and the other in the gallery in the right abutment ineo ES “TABLE 1 Peak values of accelerations recorded by the acclerograph In monolith 1A Vert Longitudinal Transverse A ey edt Peak values of ‘eeation ‘uci timafom_—«settes«—=«=«Simnfrom aan from sion oie, vation em, ‘ation rein 1A on one ide ofthe baseline omg 00 oss 26 ois 388 1B onthe other side of tho tase line 0-315 238 oe 18 0488 sat [SGT Tae ven Tsien wre Aetna re wt vnpect te Gon sk Tho tne was mara by coe Titang « parccularloeaton ax origin fr all the components ‘monolith 1A at about one third the height of the mono- {ith from the base. The accelerograph situated in the right abutment was functioning at the time of the shock, ‘and the salient features of the accelerogram recordt are given in Table 1, Spectral analysis of this accelero- igram has been carried out, and published* ‘Types of construction ‘The area around Koynanagar is a hilly terrain with steep valleys and escarpments, and rock (basalt) and faterite can be readily quarried for use in the constrac~ tion of houses. With its heavy rainfall, the area is very {hickly forested, and s0 timber too is available exten- sively in the rogion. As this area was thought to be non- Seismic, the houses were constructed conventionally ‘sing available stone, laterite blocks and timber with fo particular safeguards against earthquake forees. Fig | shows a fourstoreyed building made of well- ‘dressed stone masonry, and Fig 2 of a building with random rubble masonry under construction. Both these Suffered no damage, as they were situated nearly 45 niles away from the epicentral tract. Most of the houses in Koynanagar were of undressed uncoursed random rubbie construction without using through stones. Such ‘houses experienced the maximum damage. "The treditional houses in the villages had a basic framework of timber. Figs 8 and 4 show details of the timber framework. Fig 6 shows a close-up of jointing at eaves level. The vertical timber posts have an unusual onstructional feature. The posts are pinned at the top {fo timber runners. Each post rests on a stone pedestal At the base, and a tenon at the end of the post goes into ‘2 mortice cut in the stone (Fig 6). This type of con- Struction provided relatively unconstrained lateral ‘motion, and it suffered less damage than random rubble construction Description of damage Building damage at Koynanagar Buildings at Koyna- Fie | A fourstorsyed balding in woldreed tone masoory teiSeara (0 miles from Koynanapr), which did ot ser any ‘dame ig 2. Random rubble masonry walt with freestanding jamb kee contruction safered no. damage, (industria) erate at ‘chipn) Det ete Rar he Had pee ca COMPILATIONFig 3A vilge house having tn timer poste with masonry file wal se Ghatnate fuagar suffered the maxlinum damage, and many of them collapsed completely. Fig 7 shows a general plan of Koynanayar. Local enquiries revealed that during the earthquake of 13th September 1967, the damage was localised in a small area between the power howse nalla and the dam, and several houses constructed with random rubble masonry showed damage mostly at the top of the gable-ends. The ends were being repaired by inserting corrugated galvanized iron sheets, the repairs Jhad not been completed when the earthquake took place fon December 11, 1967, and the free-standing gable-ends below the sheeting were damaged, and fell down partly A typical residence, which had repairs carried out to the ‘top of the gable-end, and which was again damaged by this earthquake, is shown in Fig 8, In both these earth. quakes, brick masonry walls appeared to have suffered Jess damage. However, since random rubble construc tion was preferred for practically all the residential and ofice buildings, tho entire township was affected by the failure, or collapse of random rubble masonry walls. There were a number of cates of complete collapse of buildings (Fig 9). Bulk of the damage was due to the failure in the gable-ends (Fig 10). Typical diagonal cracks (Fig 11) developed where the walls were well Fig 5 Det fs timber jine 2 ener evel in Ghats wigs Fig 4A house In tier frame esntvetion with Iaterite and ste masonry filer wale, Nayar lage; damage was reste. ‘sto cracks Inthe masonry wale and cele ef ome flor was lw random reble masonry In med eowean bonded on all sides. Whete the Walle were long without crossovals at right angles, tke the longitinal walls of # schoo! building as shown in Fig 12, hey behaved as cantilevers and fell down bringing dowe the window frmtels too with them. ‘Most of the owes hat sloping roots of comugatedt galvanised iron or asbestos cement sheets resting. 00 timber trees (Fig 13) which wese not adequate for holding the heavy masonry walls together. The main reatons for the unsuisfactory performance of random rubble mssonry are the large inertia effects dav to Beary weight and short periods, lack of tensile strength an the absence of through stones whic would have bonded the angular stone pieces atleast intermittent. There fore, extensive damage occurred to such walls. Brick walls fared much better in this respect. Many of the Fig 6 End connection of tinber post, whichis paned at both ‘ns, ons stone sa ae Bottom and te timber beam 3 “the fop na houe village Kamargeoe [EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERINGig 7 Layout plan of Koy projectFig 8 ype residence noreh of power houte nll with damage in gable wale the brickwall near bs didnot al, but radon ‘able matonry eolped Fig 10. Fare of gable-ené in B-type residences in Koyraragar Fig 11 An interior bonded wall with diagonal cracks in school Salling In Koymanagae Fig 12 Damage to longitudinal wall of school bling: concrete Fig 13. Typlal timber rool trues In the region; the random Slab in fre verandah leaning rubble and brick masonry walle fale bringing down pare of the Serucare lathe foreground EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING ma Fig 14. Front view ofthe mln all ef chummery 2 Koyranagae “homing the cle of the font porion trusses and roof sheeting did not collapse and could be salvaged ‘The chummery building or guest house at Koynanagar Guffered considerable damage. The main reception hall jn the building had a flat roof of reinforced concrete (Fig 14) It was trapezoidal in plan, and the frontage had windows in two adjacent comers with a long window jn between, The lintel in front collapsed because of the failure of the rubble masonry pillars between the windows, and also because the reinforcement bars in the intel were not continuous at the comers (Figs 19, and 16). Undamaged structures at Koynanagar : Some of the structures in Koynanagar suflered only minor damage or totally escaped damage. The porch of the field ‘hostel (Fig 17) consisting of a timber truss and sheeting supported on six well-dressed stone masonry pillars, Showed no signs of damage except some minor horizontal tracks along the mortar joint in two of the pillars (Fig 18). An approximate estimation of peak accelera tion to which this structure was subjected is given in appendix A. Fig 16 Reinforcing bar hooks of cllaped baum of chummery Fig 1. Buldng in Fig 4 showing deal ax corner: {ore no comtiniy of alotorcamene in olpeed “Tove beam andthe face exposed |A reinforced concrete portal fame assembly hall whieh formed a part of the Maruti Temple (Fig 19) did hot exhibit any damage, This structure is located close to the stone masonry porch (Fig 17). An estimation of the peak ground acceleration based on the behaviour of this structure is given in appendix A. ‘There were many temporary buildings whose roots ‘as well as walls were made of corrugated galvanised jon sheets (Figs 20 and 26). All such structures, being of light weight and strong, were not damaged. ‘A circular pump house, built of random rubble ‘masonry and located immediately downstream of the am, behaved like a shell and was unharmed (Fig 21). ‘Appendix A gives an approximate estimation of the Spectral acceleration acting on this structure. Behaviour of water lanks: No damage was done to water tanks, which were constructed mostly of pressed Fig 17 Porch of fel stl, Keyrangar, having lgheweght root Fang on weltdresned sone matonryplars shows minor damage cs COMPILATIONFig 18. Horizontal ere a 6 height inthe ple ofthe porch ofthe field hers of Fig IZ; sich Gamage ccurred in two of the si piles due £0 ‘weak iting steel, The tanks are located on sloping ground, and rest ‘on timber sleepers over masonry pillars. Masonry pillars supporting the tanks. showed cracks (Fig 92), A water tank, which was not constrained laterally, moved with respect to the base (Figs 23 and 24), resulting in the bbending of the inlet and outlet pipes (Fig 25). A small tank supported on random rubble walls toppled down due to collapse of the walls (Fig 26) Appurtenant siruclures of the Koyna dam: The Koyna dam, which is a 3384t high rubble concrete gravity structure, was severely shaken, and the parapet walls on both sides of the road on the top of the dam suffered damage at the junction of monoliths, Fig 27 shows the damage to the parapet as well as to the tiles of the sidewalk. The damage was more on monoliths Fig 20. corrugated gavanied sheet tructure located near the dam whieh did nt sufer any damage al ich srvture eeaped ‘damage in Koynanagae sted Se Fig 19. A reisforced concrete portal frame asvembly hall of he aac Cemple in Koynanagar, which sufered no damage rear the centre than on those at the ends (Fig 28) indicating the relative shaking of the monoliths and the behaviour of the dam in plan. In one case, the support of 1 conerete bench on the sidewalk gave way exposing reinforcement (Fig 29) ‘The control room on the left end of the spillway developed a horizontal crack at mid-height (Fig 30), Normally a horizontal crack is developed at the top or bottom, and a diagonal crack at mid-height. This crack appears to have formod along the pour joint which acts asa plane of weakness. Fig 31 shows the failure of a reinforced concrete window mullion. A diagonal crack in the interior reinforced concrete wall is shown in Fig 32. The hoist tower at the right end of the spillway is a reinforeed concrete framed structure with ring beams at floor levels. It projects about 40 ft beyond the dam Fig 21. A random rubble masonry circular pump howe located downstream of the Keyna dam which sufered no damage [EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERINGFig 2 Damage to ler support of awatertankin Koymamanr gig 25 pressed steel water tank which underwent raaatory Fig HA coteupof the corner of the water tank in Fig 23 Showing evidence of ramlatory movements Fig 25 A clotesp of he Fie 2, which got bene lng pipe of the water tak In movement of the water tank Fig 26 Topping of ull ove-head water tank resting on rule Intsonry wale of comimuniy water dort in Keymangar note {hae no damage secured to [peed iron teste, wheres ground calpeed Fig 27 Durage to the parapet wall and tes ofthe ldewak on Topef te Keyes um a 16 cx COMPILATIONFg 28 Koynn dam plin nd elevation showing the potion of various appurtenant structures and lection of azclerographe ‘on the downstream side in its upper storeys. The filler walls in between the ring beams were made of precast concrete blocks, which were thrown out of the frame at the fourth floor level and considerably disturbed in other locations (Fig 83). The staircase inside the tower Fig 29 Failure of the support of an In high bench on the Sidewalk the top ofthe Koyra dam: note the complete cl- Tape of he concrete exposing the relnoreenent acted as an inclined strut in the frame, and as a result fof shaking, the junctions of the landings and the fights were subjected to inelastic strains resulting in cracking and spalling of concrete, (Figs #4 and 6). In some places, the massive concrete beams of the main frame Fig 30. Singlostorayed reinforced conerete control room on the Tale end of the splay showing horizontal erck through post Join a abou midelghe exposing the reloforcernents atthe cormer PARTHQUAKE ENGINEERINGFig 31 Fallre of reinforced concrete muon in the oneal room developed cracks (Fig 36). Even though the structure ‘id not have aseismic provisions in its design, it with- stood the violent shaking well because of its inherent ‘strength derived from monolithic action coupled with ductility. “There is an emergency gate for the river sluice, whose hhoist machines are located on a cantilever from one cf the monoliths of the spillway. This structure was violently shaken and it developed a horizontal crack umning almost along its full width (Fig 1). It was noticed that there was a lateral shift of the hoist-motor at its base, and a small rigid rotation of the gate. The pipe railing was also found to be displaced. "The spillway bridge suffered damage at its support, ‘and a longitudinal crack developed in the top slab. This Fig 23. Calapae of filer wall made of concrete ‘ltcks inthe bos twer onthe righ end of the foreground note the reveling of "hela over the ran Fig 32. A diagonal crackin the rinfored concrete interior wall in the contr! room is a reinforced concrete beam and slab bridge with six spans of 50 ft each. There are two longitudinal beams with no cross beams or stiffeners, The beams rest on portals supported on piers housing the spillway gates. ‘The abutments have fixed plate bearings, and alternate portals have either both fixed plate or both sliding plate bearings. Since the lateral forces due to the movements of the piers and the portals are mainly transmitted to ‘the fixed bearings, the portals with fixed bearings suffered ‘extensive damage (Fig 38). Fig 39 shows a general view of the spillway portals, in which the damage to the fltemate pier with fixed bearings can be noted. There ‘was no damage to the portals with sliding bearings However, significant movement was noted along the sliding bearing, and the movements were predominantly in the direction transverse to the dam axis, where there Fig 4 Crack the reinforced concrete staircate inside the hot eaver; note so the erack at the junction of the stare counn cs COMPILATIONig 35. Spang of concrete, exporing relorement, near the ring ofthe reinforced concrete sete In the hi tower roe the tranntrseernck Inthe tars ilar at In P34 Fig 36. agonal erck In the beam connecting ‘the man frame with the horontl ring Beam of he hose tower x eS Fig 36 Clotoup of the damage of portale on the pers with fined bearing platss showing apaling ofthe concrete exporing rbnforcerent the upstream ade ofthe pili Fg 39 Damage a the top ofthe portale supporting the splay ‘movement tranevree to the danse ‘rige having rocker bearings; note that there Ie ne damage a ‘the per having sliding bearings, Seen Inthe background EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING 1Fig AI Cloweup of the sling bearing showing relative more- ‘hon in lngiedinal direction ofthe dm ‘yas. little restraint (Fig 40). There was evidence of Tongitudinal movements also (Fig 41). Spalling of the concrete of the beam duc to longitudinal impact and collision was noted (Fig 42). As far as the longitudinal movement of sliding plates was concerned, it could not be definitely established whether it “was due to the earthquake motion, or due to temperature ‘movements which might have occurred before the earthquake. References Tr Note on the simelogicl aspects of the carthuates of Septmber 8, 100%, und Deemer 1, 981, nee the Kee ‘Eom Tada Motoring Department, Government cf Toda, * New Dali, (ompebished report, 2. Honrma, J, Cuanoeasexanan, ALR and Shim, 8. 8. [Atwiyss of Koyna acolrogram of Dosember 1, 1967 ‘ain he Seomolgieat Seca of Amerce,Bugust 1060. Vol 66 on 1710-1731, Fig 2 Spal of concrete in ‘beams due to longedial impact and clon, tote the squeeing and warping of the flnng material a the ome Guna, &K., Gosavt, PD, PuaDALE, J.G: and Maxwant, SC Grestaldvtrbunces in the Shivajinge lake area c! the oyna hydroeceke project, Maharashtra, Proceadings of Ie int types. om curiae engineering, Noverbee 105, Univeraty of Roorkee, Roorkee, ‘anv, A. Construction of small buildings in simi zones Dulin of the Tndon Secey of Farbguake Technolgy, Septemer-December 1968 Va 5, pp. 89-108, Wooo, HO. and Neva, F. Modied Mercal atenity elf tal; Zula of the Semele Sot of Amen. You 31, po: 278-28 Knvonna, J. Barthquaks engincering males progress, Bult Oy te Taian Sosa of Earhouahe Tockolgy, Jly 1864 Yolo. wa (Souree1C3 December 1969, Vol. 43, No.2, pp. 482-462,491) a Ica COMPILATION