Building damage associated with geotechnical

problems in the 2011 Tohoku Pacific Earthquake

Kohji Tokimatsu, Shuji Tamura, Hiroko Suzuki, Kota Katsumata

Joel Galupo OPON (D1 26165115) - Presenter

Division of Field Engineering for Environment
Analytical Geomechanics Laboratory
Introduction

A massive earthquake (magnitude 9.0, The Tohoku Pacific

Earthquake) shook northeastern Japan at 2:46pm on March
11, 2011 the strongest motion ever recorded in Japan.

It triggered a giant tsunami, nuclear crisis at the

Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant of Tokyo Electric Power
Co., soil liquefaction and other ground failures that
caused extensive damage to infrastructures, lifelines,
houses and other structures.

This papers focus was placed on geotechnical problems,

the damage to structure foundations and the ground
behavior near the K-NET (Kyoshin string motion network)
strong motion stations.
Introduction (contd)

Sanriku Coast
(from Onagawa to Rikuzentakata)

Tohoku Region, Sendai City

Tone River Basin and Hitachinaka City

(Abiko, Katori, Itako and Kamisu Cities)

Kanto Region, along the coast of Tokyo Bay

(Yokohama City and Shinkiba, and Urayasu and Makuhari)

Google Earth
Tokyo Bay (soil liquefaction damage - overview)

Shinkiba Makuhari

Urayasu

Yokohama

Tokimatsu et al, 2012

*Liquefaction occurred only in the reclaimed area.

GIS rendered
Tokyo Bay (soil liquefaction damage - overview)

Tokimatsu et al, 2012

*Most extensively liquefied sites are

GIS rendered
located in areas where the basement
depth is 35-40m or more.
Tokyo Bay (soil liquefaction damage - overview)
Acceleration time histories Normalized running spectra

Tatsumi Inage
Urayasu

Tokimatsu et al, 2012 Tokimatsu et al, 2012

*liquefied site

Tokimatsu et al, 2012 Tokimatsu et al, 2012

*non-liquefied site
GIS rendered

*At Inage, the peak acceleration was 2.34m/s2 (NS) and 2.03m/s2 (EW). Spiky
waves, occurring for around 120s, suggest the possibility of the cyclic
mobility of sand in the liquefaction process.

* At Inage, the periods become elongated from 0.7s to about 4s between 110s
and 140s, suggesting that the ground liquefied gradually with cyclic loading
during 30s.
Tokyo Bay (soil liquefaction damage in Urayasu City)
Findings

*In many areas where no liquefaction occurred,

including Tokyo Disneyland; ground
improvement work of some kind had been
carried out.

*In liquefied areas, many sand boils, ground

settlements as well as the settlement and
tilting of buildings and houses on spread
foundations were observed, and gaps were
World Mapper created between pile-supported structures and
the surrounding ground.

*Underground facilities, such as manholes,

emergency water tanks and parking lots were
uplifted.

*When two buildings stood closely together,

they often tilted towards each other.

*Several pile foundations including some

under construction during the main shock,
reportedly suffered severe damage.
Tokimatsu et al, 2012
 Tokyo Bay (soil liquefaction damage in Urayasu City)
Tokimatsu et al, 2012 Tokimatsu et al, 2012 Tokimatsu et al, 2012

Boiled sand Large settlement Large tilted building

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Ground settlement around pile-

pile-supported building supported building

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Uplifted manhole Uplift of underground parking lot

Tokyo Bay (soil liquefaction damage in Urayasu City)

Tokimatsu et al, 2012

*Liquefaction-induced damage was not

Tokimatsu et al, 2012 seen on the north side of the old
coastline as of 1964.

*The degree of damage varied from

place to place within the reclaimed
areas.

*Houses located on the non-liquefied

north side of the old coastline had
no damage, while those located in the
reclaimed area suffered extensive
Tokimatsu et al, 2012 damage.
Tokyo Bay (soil liquefaction damage in Urayasu City)

*Surficial deposits downs to 10m are

mostly sand with earth fill in some
areas.

Tokimatsu et al, 2012

*The N-value is very small at 10 or
lower in most places.

* Underlying layers are deep silt and

cohesive soil, with N-values of
mostly 0-3,

Tokimatsu et al, 2012

Tokyo Bay (soil liquefaction damage in Urayasu City)

Tokimatsu et al, 2012 DEM difference Before & After main shock

DEM Before main shock Tokimatsu et al, 2012

Tokimatsu et al, 2012

*The ground in the liquefied area
after the earthquake has settled 0.2-
0.4m on average with smaller
settlement on the roads.

*The value of the subsidence reached

0.6-0.8m in some areas.

DEM After main shock

Tokyo Bay (soil liquefaction damage in Urayasu City)

Tokimatsu et al, 2012

*Buried valleys, about 60m deep, causing
complicated changes in the thickness of
soft ground.

*Each sample has fine grain content of

15-70 percent, believed to be non-
plastic fine sand or silty sand,
suggesting that the reclaimed sand layer
might have liquefied at the time of the
Thickness of alluvial soil earthquake.

Tokimatsu et al, 2012

Boiled sand grain size distribution. Tokimatsu et al, 2012
 Tokyo Bay (soil liquefaction damage in Urayasu City)
Tokimatsu et al, 2012 *N-value in the sand layer was extremely
small in Tomioka, Imagawa and Akemi-
Hinode (northwest).

*N-value is large in the neighborhood of

Urayasu Station, which is not reclaimed
land, and in Akemi-Hinode (southeast),
which is a reclaimed land, but which is
highest in elevation.
Thickness of alluvial soil
*The thickness of the earth filling and
sand layers was different from place to
place, with the largest values in
Maihama, Mihama-Irifune, Takasu and
Akemi-Hinode.

Tokimatsu et al, 2012

Tokyo Bay (soil liquefaction damage in Urayasu City)
Remarks

*On the land side of the old coastline of 1964 or before, no

liquefaction was observed. The N-value is higher in this area than in
recently reclaimed land where liquefaction occurred.

*In the Akemi-Hinode area (southeast), the N-value is relatively high

and the liquefaction damage was minor.

*Liquefaction damage tended to occur just above or near buried valleys,

which is likely because of the differences in the thickness of the
alluvial deposits.
Tokyo Bay (soil liquefaction damage in Urayasu City)
Tokimatsu et al, 2012

Tokimatsu et al, 2012

Tokimatsu et al, 2012

Tone River Region (soil liquefaction damage)

Itako City

Kamisu City

Katori City

Tokimatsu et al, 2012

GIS rendered
Tone River Region (soil liquefaction damage in Katori City)

*Much of the area and its waterways used to be marshes and river
channels, and liquefaction damage was particularly conspicuous in the
reclaimed land, including land along the waterways.

*Due to liquefaction-induced lateral spreading, the stream became

narrow and the riverbed lifted.

*A gap up to 50cm emerged between the pile-supported buildings and the

ground surrounding them.

Lateral ground spreading House damaged by lateral spreading

Tone River Region (soil liquefaction damage in Itako City)

*Extensive soil liquefaction occurred along with numerous sand boils,

having caused the settlement and the tilting of buildings on spread
foundations as well as utility poles, ground settlement around
buildings supported by pile foundations.

*Uplift of buried structures and the dents and bumps of roads and
sidewalks.

*The degree of ground settlement was accordingly larger in the south,

40-50cm near the Itako Sewage Treatment Plant, than in the north at
10cm or less.

Tokimatsu et al, 2012 Tokimatsu et al, 2012

Ground settlement around building Damage to sidewalk

Tone River Region (soil liquefaction damage in Kamisu City)
Tokimatsu et al, 2012
Uplift of buried conduit
Tokimatsu et al, 2012
Tilted building on edge of fill
Tokimatsu et al, 2012
Settlement occurring in middle
*At the Wanigawa Purification Plant,
liquefaction-induced ground settlement
of up to about 50cm and the uplift of a
public utility duct by up to 50cm
occurred.
*In the Fukashiba and Horiwari areas,
liquefaction also caused the settlement
and the tilting of buildings on spread
foundations, the settlement of the
ground adjacent to buildings supported
by pile foundations, the uplift of
buried structures and bumps and dents in
roads and sidewalks.
* When several structures stood closely
together, they tended to tilt toward
each other
Tohoku Region (Sendai City)

Lowland of Sendai City

K-NET Sendai in Nigatake

Hilly land of Sendai City

Oritate 5-chome in Aoba Ward

Aoyama 2-chome in Taihaku Ward

Google Earth
 Tohoku Region (Sendai City) K-NET Sendai in Nigatake

Lowland of Sendai City

Tokimatsu et al, 2012 *The peak ground accelerations in the NS
and EW directions during the main shock
were 15.15m/s2 and 9.77m/s2, respectively.

*Spiky waves around 90s, indicating the

possibility of the cyclic mobility of sand
due to liquefaction.

*Period was elongated from 0.6s to about 1s

at around 90s, which means that pore water
pressure at some depth in the ground may
have reached the peak around this time or
may have become equal to the initial
Tokimatsu et al, 2012
effective stress, triggering liquefaction.
 Tohoku Region (Sendai City) Oroshimachi-Higashi area

Tokimatsu et al, 2012 *In the western part of the Oroshimachi-

Higashi area, soil liquefaction induced
sand boiling, the settlement of the ground
adjacent to structures supported by a pile
foundation, the uplift of buried structure,
and bumps and dents in roads and sidewalks.

*The settlement of the ground surrounding

the pile-supported buildings measured about
Tilted building
10-20cm.
Tokimatsu et al, 2012
*A 14-storey, steel reinforced condominium
complex with a pile foundation, where the
southern building tilted southward by about
1 degree as its foundation on the south
side settled.

Settlement of pile-supported building

 Tohoku Region (Sendai City) Oritate 5-chome in Aoba Ward

Hilly land of Sendai City

P1
P4
P2
P3

P5

Tokimatsu et al, 2012 Google Earth

Google Earth
 Tohoku Region (Sendai City) Oritate 5-chome in Aoba Ward

*(P1) Retaining walls collapsed as if they has

been pushed out by backfill soil.

*(P2) The ground under a retaining wall was raised.

*(P3) Major cracks in a residential plot.

*(P4) The march earthquake led the entire earth

and sand used to fill up the valley, to shift. A
road that ran straight before, was curved where
the landslide occurred.

Google Earth *(P5) A house that straddles the landslide area

and a cut slope were broken around the boundary.

Tokimatsu et al, 2012 Tokimatsu et al, 2012 Tokimatsu et al, 2012

P1 P2 P5
Tohoku Region (Sendai City) Oritate 5-chome in Aoba Ward

Tokimatsu et al, 2012

P1
P2

P3
P4

P3
Google Earth

P1 P4
P2

Google Earth
 Tohoku Region (Sendai City) Oritate 5-chome in Aoba Ward

*(P1) Major crack of about 70cm deep

formed in a housing lot.
P1
*(P2) The retaining wall shifted
P2 about 1m to the valley side, causing
the ground to sink and leaving void
below the foundation.
P3
*(P3) Residential land plot was
P4 destroyed as if pushed out.

*(P4) Some buildings at the lower

Google Earth part of the landslide block suffered
severe damage.

Tokimatsu et al, 2012 Tokimatsu et al, 2012 Tokimatsu et al, 2012

P2 P3 P4
 Sanriku Coast (Tsunami induced damage Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture)
Tokimatsu et al, 2012

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Marine Pal Onagawa

Tokimatsu et al, 2012

 Sanriku Coast (Tsunami induced damage Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture)

Tokimatsu et al, 2012 *The inundation height in Onagawa was about

17m.

*Some building apparently floated by the

tsunamis force, was carried away and
toppled.

Failed piles by bending & Pull-out *The pile head joints were possibly damaged
by the earthquake and then fractured by the
ensuing tsunami.
Tokimatsu et al, 2012
*Some surrounding ground settled,
indicating the occurrence of soil
liquefaction.

*When soil liquefaction had lowered the

shear strength of the ground, the
horizontal and buoyant forces acting on the
Ground settlement around building building by the tsunami might have pulled
the piles out of the ground or caused
complete failure at the pile heads.
Sanriku Coast (Tsunami induced damage Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture)
Tokimatsu et al, 2012

Tokimatsu et al, 2012

Tokimatsu et al, 2012 Iwate Prefectural Takata Hospital

*The inundation height at Iwate Prefectural Takata Hospital (Pt. A)

was 14-15m.

*(Pt. B) 2-storey reinforced concrete building lay, upside down, and

was supported by piles with fragile connections to the pile caps.
Conclusions
1. Liquefaction generally occurred around Tokyo Bay and in the
basin of the Tone River in land areas reclaimed in relatively
recent years.

2. The degree of liquefaction differed from place to place, even

within the same city, and may have depended on such factors as
the thickness of the reclaimed fill or the alluvial deposit, the
elevation of the groundwater table, and the presence of ground
improvements, as well as the reclamation year, and the method and
the material used for reclamation.

3. Some of the collected sand boil samples had high fine contents,
indicating that the finely grained sands had liquefied.

4. The currently available liquefaction evaluation procedure

appeared to have performed well in predicting the occurrence of
soil liquefaction as well as the degree of resulting ground
settlements.

5. In Sendai City and the Tokyo Bay area, several pile supported
buildings suffered tilt and settlement, indicating damage to
their pile foundations, mostly accompanied by sand boils and
nearby liquefaction induced ground settlements.
Conclusions
6. Damage to houses in the Oritate and Aoyama areas of Sendai
City was not caused simply by the collapse of retaining walls,
but involved earth fill slides that destroyed their plots of land.

7. In Onagawa and Rikuzentakata, where the tsunami was extremely

high, many two- to three-storey, reinforced concrete buildings
toppled sideways or overturned, even though they were considered
to have been rather stable against horizontal forces, due to
their relatively small aspect ratio.

8. In Onagawa and Rikuzentakata, pile foundations were destroyed,

leading steel buildings and reinforced concrete buildings to be
swept away and toppled.

9. In Onagawa, some of pre-stressed concrete piles of two toppled

buildings were pulled away from the ground despite damage to
their head joints.

10. Large scale, newly built structures, such as Marine Pal

Onagawa, did not tilt or shift despite being directly hit by the
tsunami, probably because it has large aspect ratio.
Thanks