Abstract

Earthquakes do not kill people but buildings do. Earthquakes are natural hazards
under which disasters are mainly caused by damage or to collapse of buildings
and other man-made structures. Earthquake damage depends on many parameters such
as, intensity, vibration period and frequency of ground motion, geologic and soil
condition, quality of construction etc. An earthquake is the most deadly catastrophe,
which strikes within seconds without any warning. Most of the loss of life in past
earthquakes has occurred due to the collapse of buildings, constructed in traditional
materials like stone, brick, adobe and timber which were not particularly engineered to be
earthquake resistant. Though some of them resisted the earthquakes, it is essential to
introduce earthquake resistance features in their construction continued due to use of such
buildings in most countries of the world. The fact is that the earthquake has become a
common word now a days and researches are going on for a long time to reduce the
social and the economical risk of the earthquakes. Earthquake risk reduction involves
many issues in planning, design, regulation and risk assessment. As more and more
people inhabit this planet, the inhabitants are forced to live in more dense cities, in tall
buildings that must be able to offer them safety from the dangers that plague certain areas
of the globe. Earthquakes are not only limited to the area around fault lines, but unknown
fault lines, sleeping for hundreds of years pose a real danger to densely populated areas.
Earthquakes can happen virtually anywhere on the globe, though not in the same kind of
degree that the areas near famous faults experience them. Unfortunately some of these
biggest cities in the world reside along some of the most dangerous fault lines. But due to
this, lots of research about the effects of earthquakes on buildings has been done, which
has made the modern high-rise buildings some of the safest places to be during an
earthquake. This report focuses on the basics terminologies to be understood to
understand earthquake effects & impacts that earthquakes have on buildings, building
design codes types of construction prevailed unaffected after earthquake and how
existing buildings can be retrofitted to mitigate the effects of earthquakes.

Indian earthquake problem needs no introduction. Some of the largest earthquakes of

the world have occurred in the Indian subcontinent. However, the M7.7 Bhuj (Gujarat)
earthquake of January 26, 2001 was the largest earthquake to have hit India in 50 years
causing a death toll of 13,805 persons. For the first time, Bhuj earthquake showed in
graphic details the vulnerability of typical Indian urban constructions. As a result, impact
of this earthquake on the mindset of public as well as policy makers has been
enormous. It created a considerable interest amongst the professionals associated with
construction activities in any form, as well as the non-professionals regarding the
earthquake safety issues. While the subject of earthquake engineering has its own
sophistication and a lot of new research is being conducted in this very important subject,
it is also important to widely disseminate the basic concepts of earthquake resistant
constructions through simple language. Scenario in India with regard to seismic safety
programs is considerably different today than was the case prior to the Bhuj. The field of
Earthquake Engineering has existed in our country for over 35 years. Indian earthquake
engineers have made significant contributions to the seismic safety of several important
structures in the country. However, as the recent earthquakes have shown, the
performance of normal structures during past Indian earthquakes has been less
satisfactory. India has about 55% of its land area susceptible to strong ground motion and
75% of the population in seismic zone of India lives in houses, which have not been
designed to resist earthquake. This is mainly due to the lack of awareness amongst most
practising engineers of the special provisions that need to be followed in earthquake
resistant design and thereafter in construction

In this dissertation I have divide the book into 6 chapters where the first two explains
about the basic features of earthquake and the general concepts of earthquake design, the
3rd chapter deals with that of the construction typology of structures and the last three
chapters deal with the retrofitting of buildings. Though India was not in the seismic zone
in the past, it is prone to earthquakes now a days frequently hence this book provides
information in special regards to Indian seismic codes.

Construction of new, retrofitting of old and restoration of damage building require

consideration of all aspects needed for adequate safety and economy.

Schools play a vital role in every community. They are not only the places where
students learn and teachers teach; they are also used for social gatherings, theatre and
sports. In addition, school buildings play an important role in responding to and
recovering from natural disasters. In the event of an earthquake, hurricane or flood,

schools can serve as emergency shelters and, as such, can be used to house, feed and care
for the local population.
Earthquake-threatened communities need earthquake-resistant schools. When schools are
closed because of earthquake damage, education is hampered, community life disrupted,
and emergency shelters unavailable. Where school attendance is compulsory,
communities have a moral obligation to provide a safe study and work environment. But
the most important reason earthquake-threatened communities need earthquake-resistant
schools is to protect their children and teachers.
Unless something changes, this situation will worsen. Many countries experiencing the
greatest increase in population and, hence, having the greatest need for additional
schools are also the poorest. Under these circumstances, there is the temptation to build
new schools and enlarge existing ones using inferior designs, materials and construction
techniques. All countries rich and poor face the problem of how to make the large
number of their existing schools earthquake-resistant. The infrequency of great
earthquakes in any one location makes it easy for the public and for public officials to
forget about the important need to design, construct and maintain earthquake-resistant
schools until it is too late.
Buildings should have long lifetime to reduce CO2 emission and to save energy for the
environmental
conservation. If the life length of a building is aimed to be longer, the impact of medium
to large
earthquake is higher, in particular in high seismic zones. Thus the evaluation of life cycle
economic loss
considering accumulation of repair cost in life length is important to facilitate decision
making for the
choice of seismic performance target in performance-based seismic design.
loss.

Economic loss is defined as the repair cost necessary for maintenance of the functionality
of a building. The repair cost stems from repair cost of structural members as well as
nonstructural components. If nonstructural elements were not adequately designed,
sometimes the repair cost for nonstructural components may exceed the repair cost for
structural members. However, the impact of repair cost of the nonstructural components
on the total life cycle cost is not well recognized.
Many unreinforced adobe or mud-brick structures have in the past suffered severe
damage from seismic forces and have caused a vast number of deaths. However, some
adobe buildings located in seismic regions have performed well under several seismic
events. Most of these traditional buildings are symmetrical in shape which has
significant bearing on the performance of the buildings during strong earthquakes.
Most existing and typical circular adobe houses have performed well in withstanding
earthquakes even though some did not have any additional ductile reinforcement

Most commonly damaged non-structural components were brick chimneys, parapets,

ceilings, facades, internal walls and windows. The nature and extent of damages in each
of these components are discussed in this paper with the help of typical damage photos
taken after the earthquake.
A great many school and hospital buildings across the State of Gujarat were affected
in this earthquake. The school and hospital buildings themselves were responsible for
many deaths and injuries, and seriously affected emergency medical response and
disrupted the routine health care programs and educational processes. The majority of the
affected population is covered by the government-sponsored health care and education
system, which is often stretched just to meet its normal workflow.
The existing health care system in most of the affected Kachchh region failed when it
was needed most. About 167,000 persons were injured across the state and needed
immediate medical attention. Hospital facilities were housed in seismically vulnerable
structures and were badly damaged or destroyed in the earthquake. This chapter offers a

brief overview of the damage caused to physical assets and disruption to health care and
education services, and the efforts made to restore these essential services.
Even under
smaller intensity earthquakes in which the buildings will not be affected, the nonstructural
building components and particularly the furnishings and equipments in the
hospital can be badly shaken as a result of which they can overturn or slide crashing
down on the floor and hitting people to cause injuries. The hospital can thus become
nonfunctional. Seismic Retrofitting for reduction of vulnerability of a structure is a relatively
new concept in
India. The code was revised and a full survey was done to include most of the regions in
earthquake activity in 2002 with introduction of IS 1893-2002. With the new codes the need
for seismic retrofitting for the existing and the new buildings has arisen
presents an overview of the present state of base isolation techniques with special emphasis and a brief on other
techniques developed world over for mitigating earthquake forces on the structures review of current technology

mainly focused on facades, including

design guidelines for seismic-resistant non-structural components and the steps made
towards a performance-based design framework. Alternative conceptual strategies and
technical solutions to reduce the damage to non-structural elements will also be
presented. The local retrofit strategies of column, beam, beam-to-column joint, wall and foundation
strengthening
are reviewed. Under global retrofit strategies, the addition of infill walls, shear walls and steel braces,
and the reduction of the building irregularities are mentioned. A detailed case study is reported. In the
conclusion, issues pertinent to retrofit are discussed. Taipei 101 (formerly known as the Taipei

Financial Center) currently under construction in the capital city Taipei,

Taiwan will be the next worlds tallest building. It will rise to the unprecedented height of 508m
- a significant
achievement even if one disregards its geography where typhoons and earthquakes are common
occurrences. The
660 tonne Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) for the building and two TMDs for the pinnacle involve
the implementation
of passive technology. Although the primary function of the TMDs in this project is to reduce the
effects of
wind-induced vibration, they have been designed to withstand the forces generated in up to a
2,500-year (mean
recurrence interval) seismic event. For events less than a 100-year earthquake, the building TMD
will behave
relatively calmly, as does the building in which it has been installed. Approaching events with
mean recurrence
intervals of 1000 to 2500 years, the design challenge was to keep the TMDs from damaging the
structure, and to
remain in place and intact after severe event had passed and the vibration of the structure ended.
The design approach for these two extreme loading cases, typhoon and seismic, are described
and examples of the
outcome of the extensive analyses are presented herein

Methodology
Due to fact that my topic is based on existing facts and history of the earthquakes I
have done my dissertation according to the information gained through books, articles,
periodicals and information available on the internet. Though the study goes deep into the
structures and calculations I have carried out in the design and planning aspects only. The
earthquake design concepts are in two ways. First to know the basic concepts of the
seismic structures and second to know the aspects of design, which can be broadly
classified as the effects and the impacts on the built environment, consequences of the
earthquakes, seismic zoning, philosophy of the earthquake resistant design of the
buildings, design of the structural and non-structural elements to resist earthquakes and
retrofitting and strengthening of the existing structures and also repairs on the affected
structures.
Objectives:
The main objectives of this book are as follows
To understand the fundamentals of Earthquake and the basic terminology
To know the performance of ground and buildings.
To familiarize with design codes and building configuration
To understand the various types of construction details to be adopted in a seismic prone
area
Discuss the chief aspects of earthquake risk and their evaluation
Present methods of reducing or managing a range of earthquake risks
Scope
To provide basic knowledge of earthquake resistant design concepts, as it has become
evident in recent years that some of the seismically active areas of the world are located

within Indian and live lost during past earthquakes due to damage of homes and other
buildings are enormous.