Bhuj earthquake : Preliminary field report C.V.R. Murty*, Ui ‘The powerful earthquake that struck the Kutch area in Gujarat at 8:46 am on 26 January, 2001, has been the most damaging, ‘earthquake in the last five decades in India, The M79 quake ‘caused a huge loss of life and property. Over 18,600 persons. are reported tobe dead and over 167,000 injured; the number of deaths is expected to rise with more information coming in, The estimated economic loss due to this quake is currently placed at around Rs 22,000 crore (~US§ 5 billions). ‘The earthquake was felt in most parts of the country and a large area sustained damages. About 20 districts in the state of Gujarat sustained damage. The entire Kutch region of Gujarat, enclosed on three sides by the Great Runn of Kutch, the Little Runn of Kutch and the Arabian Sea, sustained the greatest damage with maximum intensity of shaking as high as X on the MSK intensity scale. Several towns and large villages, like Bhuj, Anjaar, Vondh and Bhachau sustained widespread destruction. The other prominent failures in the Kutch region include extensive liquefaction, failure of several ‘arth dams of upto about 20 m height, damage to masonry arch and reinforced concrete (RC) bridges, and failure of railroad and highway embankments. Numerous RC frame buildings collapsed in Gandhidham and Bhuj in Kutch region, and in the more distant towns in Morbi (~125 km east of Bhui), Rajkot (~150 km southeast of Bhuj), Ahmedabad (~00 km east of Bhuj) and Surat(-~375 km southeast of Bhuj). The strong motion records obtained by the University of Roorkee at the Passport Office Building under construction in ‘Ahmedabad city indicate a peak ground acceleration of about The state of Gujarat is the heartland of Indian industries like petroleum, power and steel Indeed, this M79 earthquake is the first to hit metropolitan cities of the country in recent times affecting modern industrial constructions. Therefore, “Dipetner Cg inning Kang Kage mesh Dayal*, Jaswant Arlekar*, Shailendra K. Chaubey* and Sudhir K. Jain* the performance of structures inthis area will offer important lessons particularly from the points of view of efficacy of Indian codes and construction practices. The damages now ‘seen and documented in the Kutch area would serve as ‘excellent evidence for the Indian civil engineering community. fon the performance of its own traditional and modern, constructions. ‘The following is a report™* of the salient structural and geotechnical damages recorded during a reconnaissance survey to capture important lessons from the aftermath of the quake conducted during 2-14 February, 2001. The team of investigators, jointly headed by Professor Sudhir K. Jain of the Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of ‘Technology Kanpur, and Dr. William Letts of William Lettis and Associates Inc, USA, included geologists, seismologists, geotechnical engineers, structural engineers, and emergency managers. The investigation was supported by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, New Delhi, and Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. Building systems Buildings in the affected area can be classified into two broad categories: + The older non-engincered dwellings made with load bearing masonry walls supporting led roof or KC slab roof. The different types of masonry consisted of randomrubble stone with mud cement mortar, small/ largeblockeut stone in mud /eement mortar, an brick ‘masonry in mid/cement mortar; and +The newer reinforced concrete frame buildings with uineinforced masonry infil. The infills were of varied type, namely clay brick masonry in cement mortar led information is avilable from the National Information Centre for Earthquake Engineering (NICEE west at ww cee org FARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING 1sEEE large /small block cut stone masonry in cement mortar ‘and hollow /solid cement blocks in cement mortar In the former type, the damages are owing to ills of random rubble masonry that were extensively experienced in the aftermath of some of the recent Indian earthquakes. ‘The Kutch area has additional characteristic constructional issues associated with the non-engineered constructions. For instance, the use of very large block (25 em x40 em x 60 cm) masonry with mud mortar or low strength cement mortar is very common. The problems of walls not being adequately ‘connected to each other and to the roof, separation ofthe 40- 60 cm thick masonry walls into two distinct wythes, and failure of the rather heavy mass "Mangalore" clay tile roofing system with thick wooden logs as purlins and rafters, are among, the notable deficiencies of such dwellings, In Ahmedabad and Gandhidham, two densely populated cities, and other towns many modern RC multi-storeyed ‘buildings have collapsed. Amongst the multi-storey buildings that collapsed, most had the ground storey left open for parking convenience with few or no filler walls between the ‘Columns. This created a top stiff inverted pendulum structure ‘A typical sand boll (6-8 m in diameter and 20 cm in height) ‘rom the liquefied area in the Great Runn of Kutch with insufficient strength and stiffness in the open ground storey, thereby rendering the same vulnerable. Most buildings with complete infills in the ground storey have withstood the earthquake without collapse. This feature of inflled frames is very important for India and many other ‘developing countries wherein seismic design is not conducted for most buildings and wherein unreinforced masonry infills are extensively used as “non-structural” components. The design of new buildings and seismic retrofit of existing ‘constructions should account for the beneficial effects of the ‘masonry filler walls considering their strength and stiffness. Geotechnical damages ‘The earthquake caused excellent examples of large-scale liquefaction and embankment failures. The Great Runn of Kutch, the Arabian Sea and the Little Runn of Kutch lock the affected area on its three sides. This enclosed area at near sea level sustained extensive liquefaction (a phenomenon of ‘quicksand condition by virtue of which the soil loses the capacity to hold structures in place). Atleast five earth dams failed during the earthquake. The earthen embankments of the railroad and highways also suffered widespread damage. of the ground due to iquetaction at Amarsar near the Great Runn of Kutch < Extensive liquefaction at 3-storey RC trame office building at Kandla port; bullding sustained only ‘minor cracks in the walls, but the gravel settled ‘down by about 7 cm cs COMPILATIONcracks near the toe of 1@ upstream embankment. the Fatehgadh dam EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING roMasonry Constructions A number of rlay stations 8, no one was kel fad gutnered clecthore for the Pepi ‘Typleal collapse of the corner of two storey large block stone masonry hhouses without lintel bands in BhujBridges The longitudinal pounding of the now bridge at Surajbadi movement of the deck at fone of the piers. (Inset) Close-up view of the damage sustained at the bearings on most piers of the old Surajpadi bridge The movement of the girders In the new Surajbacl Bridge along the tongiudinal and taneverse directions Imposed severe strains on the neoprene eerie and ing of cover conerate ‘atthe bottom of the gidere, Peg ; This plor atthe RC bridge neat Vondh was found to have @ Ut Considerable iquetacton was obsorved atthe site EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING 1%wed oe Lateral movement of the wing wall at the abutment of Re slab bridge ‘number of RE ‘slab culverts on a Sone inavorey ing Ia Thou ar hai nflorad ertoncve ot vals, and damage to prestressed damage. The rails were hanging By sleepers and panvoll clips bout 1.0 to 1.5 m afer the ee neuer ee earthquake. Ground liquefaction was 1c3 COMPILATIONReinforced Concrete Buildings atase of open goune A RC frame residential Most RC bulidings with open ground storeys that collapsed showed tanks wore observed 8 from atop unfinished and fink ARTHQUAKE ENGINEERINGIn a 6-storey Col village ‘Te practice of tloating columns in the upper storeys is common in india. Close-up view shows sheer crac 1 cntlever stub beam supporting 2 ti ‘storey RC frame resi wm scx compu.aTIoNClo ing between the tie and the truss Monumental Structures walls of the historic fort at Bhu} Clock tower at lock stone masonry at Halvad near Ahmedabad EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING 3Good Performances Conclusion ‘The M79 Bhuj Earthquake is the first large earthquake in recent times to hit urban constructions of India. The large loss of life and property was sustained owing to the serious structural damages sustained by the structural and ‘geotechnical engineering facilities. A quick review of the Tessons learnt from this earthquake indicates that there is an ‘urgent need to assess the design andl construction practices in India, Also the earthquake has brought under doubt the seismic adequacy of the entire stock of buildings and structures in other seismic regions of the country with similar < ‘The sarthquake did not cause significant damage to elevated framed staging, towers, steel oll storage tanks, RC stacks and RC RC chimney stacks, RC cooling towers ‘and steel frame ‘structures at the ‘thermal powor plant In Ahmedabad performed well during the varthquake 150 m high TV transmission tower in ‘Ahmedabad did not sustain any damage ‘uring the earthquake, even though the adjoining studio facility sustained significant ‘damage in infill walls design and construction practices. With over 60 percent of its, land area under moderate to severe seismic threat, the nation has to put in force a long-term plan for developing and. institutionalising the engineering aspect of the earthquake preparedness, Acknowledgements ‘The authors are grateful to the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, USA and the Department of Science and ‘Technology, Government of India, New Delhi, for supporting the above investigation. a (Source: ICF March 2001, Vo 75, No.3, pp 181-190) ——— 1 icy comuLaTION