FACULTY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING AND BUILDING SERVICES Vizitiu Roxana- Andreea Group: 3410

EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING
Definition
Earthquake Engineering can be defined as the branch of engineering devoted to mitigating earthquake hazards [1]. In this broad sense, earthquake engineering covers the investigation and solution of the problems created by damaging earthquakes, and consequently the work involved in the practical application of these solutions, i.e. in planning, designing, constructing and managing earthquake-resistant structures and facilities.

General Goals in Seismic-Resistant Design and Construction

The philosophy of earthquake design for structures other than essential facilities has been well established and proposed as follows:
a. To prevent non-structural damage in frequent minor ground shaking b. To prevent structural damage and minimize non-structural damage in occasional

moderate ground shaking c. To avoid collapse or serious damage in rare major ground shaking Damage to structures and facilities may result from different seismic effects. These effects can be classified as Direct and Indirect as follows:

Direct Effects:
1. Ground failures (or instabilities due to ground failures) Surface faulting surface or fault rupture) Vibration of soil (or effects of seismic waves) Ground cracking Liquefaction Ground lurching Differential settlement Lateral spreading Landslides

2. Vibrations transmitted from the ground to the structure.

FACULTY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING AND BUILDING SERVICES Vizitiu Roxana- Andreea Group: 3410

Indirect Effects (or Consequential Phenomena):

Tsunamis Seiches Landslides Floods Fires

The seismic effect or damage that usually concerns the structural engineer, and which is taken into account by code seismic-resistant design provisions, is the vibration of the structure in response to ground shaking at its foundation. Although damage due to other effects may exceed that due to vibration, procedures for gauging the probability of these effects and for coping with them are outside the scope of the structural engineering discipline and so are usually not included in seismic-resistant codes. Nonetheless, the structural engineer should be aware of the different seismic hazards and should advise the client of potential damage involved in locating structures at certain sites. Thus the first step in the design procedure of a future structure should be the analysis of the suitability of the site selected with proper consideration for the potential of any one of the above types of damage. During an earthquake, significant damage can result due to instability of the soil in the area affected by internal seismic waves. The soil response depends on the mechanical characteristics of the soil layers, the depth of the water table and the intensities and duration of the ground shaking. If the soil consists of deposits of loose granular materials it may be compacted by the ground vibrations induced by the earthquake, resulting in large settlement and differential settlements of the ground surface. This compaction of the soil may result in the development of excess hydrostatic pore water pressures of sufficient magnitude to cause liquefaction of the soil, resulting in settlement, tilting and rupture of structures.

THE M = 8.6 ALASKA EARTHQUAKE (March 27, 1964)

This earthquake occurred in the Aleutian Alaska arc which is an important segment of the circum-Pacific belt of earthquakes where the Pacific Plate plunges downward and northward. About 6 percent of the large shallow earthquakes of the world occur in this region. During the 1964 Alaskan earthquake, the first slip occurred at a depth of approximately 30 kilometers under northern Prince William Sound, and the rupture of the rocks extended horizontally for 800 kilometers roughly parallel to the Aleutian trench. It has been estimated that about 200,000 square kilometers of the crust were deformed in this earthquake. It was the greatest area of vertical displacement ever measured in earthquake history. The vertical fault displacement in place on Montague Island amounted to 6 meters. This earthquake which was recorded to have an intensity of M = 8.6 resulted in
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approximately 130 deaths and property damage estimated in 300 million dollars (1967

dollars). Of the 130 deaths, only 9 persons died from the effects of ground shaking: approximately 120 persons were drowned by very large tidal waves (tsunami) produced by the sudden upward movement of the Alaskan sea floor along the rupturing fault. The greatest damage caused by the earthquake resulted from soil slides and from waves generated by those slides that occurred under water. The most spectacular landslide involving about 9.6 million cubic meters of soil took place at the Turnagain Height area of Anchorage, Alaska. The slide extended approximately 1600 meters and extended inland an average of 280 meters. The Turnagain Height slide was a laterally spreading landslide caused by the combination of dynamic stresses and induced high pore water pressure in layers of soft clay and sands underlying the sliding mass. Within the slide area the original ground surface was completely devastated by displacements that broke up the ground into a complex system of ridges and depressions. In the depressed areas, the ground dropped an average of 11 meters during the sliding. Houses in the area, some of which moved laterally as much as 150 or 180 meters, were completely destroyed.

WOOD- FRAME HOUSES

The seismic forces that develop during the vibratory response of a structure to earthquake ground shaking at its foundation are inertia forces whose intensity depends on the product of the mass and acceleration. Hence it is of the utmost importance to reduce the mass of the structure to a minimum. Thus when the designer is confronted with the problem of selecting the structural material, it is necessary to analyze the mechanical characteristics of available materials, normalized to their unit weight. In doing so, it becomes evident that among the traditional structural materials - timber, masonry, concrete and metals (steel and aluminum) - the most efficient earthquake-resistant material for low-rise buildings is timber. However, these buildings should be carefully designed and constructed, provided with proper lateral bracing and all of their components tied together from the roof down to the foundation.

MASONRY STRUCTURES
Unreinforced masonry is very susceptible to damage during earthquake ground shaking. Solid brick masonry is very heavy and its tensile strength, and therefore its flexural strength per unit weight for in-plane and out-of-place seismic forces, is very small. Catastrophic failures of unreinforced masonry have occurred in many earthquakes. Old unreinforced masonry buildings, whose walls are not properly connected to the floors, roof, and transverse walls (interior and exterior), constitute a threat to the occupants as well as to people that may be walking in the neighborhood because the walls start to fall as soon as the building vibrates when subjected to even moderate ground shaking.
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When large panels of unreinforced masonry are used as veneer or infilling in wood, reinforced concrete or steel framed buildings, they also constitute a severe hazard because large portions of these panels can easily be dislodged from the frame of the building.

CONCRETE STRUCTURES
Concrete is a relatively heavy material which, like masonry, has a very small (practically negligible) tensile, and thus flexural, strength. Therefore, it is usually reinforced with steel when used in structures. When the concrete is properly reinforced with steel it can be used effectively in seismic-resistant construction, but it still has relatively low strength per unit weight when normal weight aggregates are used. The use of lightweight aggregate concrete offers a significant advantage in seismic regions. For regions of moderate to high seismic risk it is necessary to reinforce the concrete structural members carefully: the proper amount and correct detailing of the reinforcing steel plays an important role in the seismic response of a reinforced concrete structure.

STEEL STRUCTURES
Steel is a manufactured material, with usually excellent quality control, that is fabricated in structural shapes. While its stiffness per unit weight is practically the same as any other traditional constructional material, its strength and particularly its ductility and toughness per unit weight are significantly higher than concrete and masonry materials. Because of its high strength per unit weight, the slenderness of steel structural members usually exceeds significantly the slenderness of similar structural members made of other traditional materials. Thus buckling becomes a serious problem, and the higher the yielding strength of the steel the greater the danger of buckling. Most structural shapes are formed by plate elements which can undergo local buckling, particularly when strained in the inelastic range. Therefore, in earthquake-resistant design, the compactness requirements for the cross section of the critical regions of structural members are more stringent than for design against normal (standard) loading condition. Another problem in attaining efficient seismic-resistant construction of steel structures is in the field-connection of the structural members.

IMPORTANCE OF CONSTRUCTION & MAINTENANCE

Design and construction of a structure are intimately related and the achievement of good workmanship depends, to a large degree, on the simplicity of detailing of the members and of their connections and supports. For example, in the case of a reinforced concrete structure, although it is possible to detail complex reinforcement on paper and even to realize it in laboratory specimens so that seismic behavior is improved, in the field such design details
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may not be economically feasible. A design is only effective if it can be constructed and maintained.

INTEGRAL ACTION OF THE SOIL-FOUNDATION-SUPERSTRUCTURE SYSTEM In order to obtain good performance of structures during severe seismic ground shaking it is necessary to analyze thoroughly the dynamic characteristics of the real threedimensional soil-foundation (substructure)-superstructure system. Except for the cases where base isolation techniques and/or energy dissipation devices are used, the basic rule for earthquake-resistant design is to achieve integral action of each of the main parts of the system and between these main parts, that is, the whole substructure and superstructure should be tied together so that they can work as a unit.

Substructure
In earthquake-resistant foundation design, the following two main (basic) guidelines should be borne in mind: first, select a foundation layout and substructure system as simple as possible; and second, tie together the different elements of the substructure.

Pile Foundations
When the surface soils are very soft and/or can liquefy, piles can be used to advantage. However, they should be properly designed, keeping in mind the following considerations: first, as discussed above, the pile caps should be tied together with tie beams or a reinforced concrete slab that can work in tension and compression so that the foundation can act as a unit (assuring the integrity of the foundation); second, bearing, rather than friction piles, should be used if the foundation materials might liquefy; third, the piles should be able to carry not only axial but also shear and bending forces (which can be developed due to relative horizontal displacements between different layers in the soil deposit). Therefore, in the case of concrete piles, these should not only be longitudinally reinforced but also confined by suitable lateral reinforcement, particularly immediately below the pile cap.

Bridge Foundations & Supports

Dramatic collapse of bridges has been induced by failure of their foundations and/or supports and by the lack of integral action between the substructure and the superstructure. SELECTION OF PROPER SUPERSTRUCTURE SYSTEM AND CONFIGURATION FOR THE

One of the most critical decisions influencing the ability of a superstructure to withstand earthquake ground shaking is the choice of its basic plan shape and configuration.
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The importance of a proper selection of the superstructure configuration will be discussed and illustrated for the case of building structures.

Building structures may be of many types and configurations and there is, of course, no universal ideal configuration for any particular type of building. However, there are certain basic or guiding principles of seismic-resistant design that can be used as guidelines in selecting an adequate building configuration structural layout, structural system, structural material and the non-structural components. These basic guidelines are as follows: 1. 2. Building (superstructure and non-structural components) should be light and avoid unnecessary masses. Building and its superstructure should be simple, symmetric, and regular in plan and elevation to prevent significant torsional forces, avoiding large height-width ratio and large plan area. Building and its superstructure should have a uniform and continuous distribution of mass, stiffness, strength and ductility, avoiding formation of soft stories. Superstructure should have relatively shorter spans than non-seismic-resistant structure and avoid use of long cantilevers. The non-structural components should either be well separated so that they will not interact with the rest of the structure, or they should be integrated with the structure. On the latter case, it is desirable that the structure should have sufficient lateral stiffness to avoid significant damage under minor and moderate earthquake shaking, and toughness with stable hysteric behavior (that is, stability of strength, stiffness and deformability) under the repeated reversal of deformations which could be induced by severe earthquake ground motion. The stiffer the structure, the less sensitive it will be to the effects of the interacting non-structural components, and the tougher it is, the less sensitive it will be to effect of sudden failure of the interacting non-structural elements.

3. 4. 5.

6. 7.

Superstructure should be detailed so that the inelastic deformations can be constrained (controlled) to develop in desired regions and according to a desirable hierarchy. Superstructure should have the largest possible number of defense lines, that is, it should be composed of different tough structural subsystems which interact or are interconnected by very tough structural elements (structural fuses) whose inelastic behavior would permit the whole structure to find its way out from a critical stage of dynamic response. Superstructure should be provided with balanced stiffness and strength between its members, connections and supports.

8.

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9.

The stiffness and strength of the entire building should be compatible with the stiffness and strength of the soil foundation. References: http://nisee.berkeley.edu