INTRODUCTION

“Earthquakes don’t kills the peoples,

buildings do”
It can perhaps be said that earthquake are as
old as the earth itself. Among the many powerful
forces of nature, earthquake holds a predominant
position. Each year, earthquake occur by the
thousands but only a very small % of them are
felt by us at the earths surface & an even smaller
number are large enough to cause much loss.
 Until the early nineteenth century,
earthquakes did not cause much loss of life due
to very sparse population which lived in single
story houses with light weight superstructures.

Predictions suggest that by 2025, more than

5.5 billion people worldwide will live in cities, and
a large population of them to close to region with
high seismic zones.
CAUSES OF
EARTHQUAKES:
 Plate Tectonics.
 Faults.
The earth’s crust consists of hard plates of
rock. These plates sometimes develop stresses
over a long period of time. When these stresses
exceed the bearing capacity of the rocks they
break suddenly releasing the accumulated stress.
The plane along which the rock breaks is called
the fault plane. A fault line is basically a crack
along which blocks of rocks move due to the
sudden release of stresses.
RICHTER SCALE.
The magnitude of the earthquake is the
logarithm to the base 10 of the maximum trace
amplitude. There is no direct relationship
between the energy released and the Richter
number. The Richter scale of magnitude is
logarithmic hence increase of unity on the scale
represents ten folds increase of magnitude. A
reading of 5.0 is ten times greater in magnitude
than 4.0 quakes. Similarly, a reading of 7 will be
1000 times the magnitude of a 4.0 quake.
GLOBAL OCCURRENCE OF
EARTHQUAKES
EARTHQUAKE
PREDICTION
In case of earthquake, precise prediction is
not possible as prediction has no meaning unless
the combined prediction "where", "when", "what
size" of earthquake is precisely made. Further,
even if is able to predict earthquake and
consequently all the population is evacuated
safely, the poor/ faulty and weak construction is
bound to fail and therefore there is no substitute
for earthquake resistant construction.
SEISMIC ZONES OF INDIA

Indian Seismic Zone Map

(IS: 1893-1984)
Revised Indian Seismic Zone Map
Over 60% of India’s land
under seismic zones III, IV and V
INERTIA FORCES IN
STRUCTURES

Effect of Inertia in a building when

Shaken at its base
SIZE OF BUILDINGS

Buildings with one of their overall sizes

much larger or much smaller than the other
two, do not perform well during earthquakes
HORIZONTAL & VERTICAL
LAYOUT OF BUILDINGS
EARTHQUAKE-RESISTANT
BUILDINGS
The engineers do attempt to make
earthquake proof buildings that will not get
damaged even during the rare but strong
earthquake. Instead, the engineering intention

is to make buildings earthquake resistant; such

buildings resist the effects of ground shaking,
although they may get damaged severely but
would not collapse during the strong earthquake.
EARTHQUAKE DESIGN
PHILOSOPHY
 The earthquake design philosophy may be
summarized as follows:
 Under minor but frequent shaking, the main
members of the building that carry vertical and
horizontal forces should not be damaged;
however building parts that do not carry load
may sustain repairable damage.
 Under moderate but occasional shaking, the main
members may sustain repairable damage, while
the other parts of the building may be damaged
such that they may even have to be replaced
after the earthquake; and
 Under strong but rare shaking, the main
members may sustain severe (even irreparable)
damage, but the building should not collapse.
STRONG COLUMN WEAK
BEAM
INDIAN SEISMIC CODES
 IS 1893 (Part I), 2002.

 IS 4326, 1993,

 IS 13827, 1993,

 IS 13828, 1993,

 IS 13920, 1993,

 IS 13935, 1993,
RCC STRUCTURES
REQUIREMENTS FOR RCC STRUCTURE
 Codal provision gives reasonable minimum
protection against earthquake disaster.
 The different elements of the whole structure and
super structure system should be tied together so
that they can work as a single unit.
 The super structure and the non-structural
components should be light and should not have
unnecessary masses.
 The structure should preferably not have large
height/width ratio.
 The super structure of a structure should
preferably have uniform and continuous
distribution of the mass
 Two different grades of steel should not be used
in the same columns as longitudinal
reinforcement to resist axial and bending forces.
 Bent bars are not of much use in resisting shears
produced due to earthquake forces.
 DUCTILITY IN THE
STRUCTURES CAN BE
IMPROVED BY

 Having a regular structural configuration.

 Avoiding failures of columns and foundations

 Avoiding all possible brittle modes of failures.

 By improving the ductility of individual members.

BEAMS IN RC BUILDINGS
 The Indian Ductile Detailing Code IS13920-
1993 prescribes that:

(a) At least two bars go through the full length of

the beam at the top as well as the bottom of the
beam.

(b) At the ends of beams, the amount of steel

provided at the bottom is at least half that at top.
 Stirrups in the RC beams help in three
ways,
 (i) They carry the vertical shear force and
thereby resist diagonal shear crack
 (ii) They protect the concrete from bulging
outwards due to flexure, and
 (iii) They prevent the buckling of the compressed
longitudinal bars due to flexure.
COLUMNS IN RC
BUILDINGS
The Indian Standard IS13920-1993
prescribes following details for earthquake-
resistant columns:
 (a) Closely spaced ties must be provided at the
two ends of the column over a length not less
than larger dimension of the column, one-sixth
the column height or 450mm.
 (b) The length of tie beyond the 135° bends must
be at least 10 times diameter of steel bar used to
make the closed tie; this extension beyond the
bend should not be less than 75mm.
 Following clauses has to be satisfied
to incorporate provision of is 13920.
 Minimum grade of concrete shall preferably be
m20 (clause 5.2).
 Steel reinforcement of grade Fe 415 or less only
shall be used (clause 5.3)
 The minimum dimension of column member
shall not be less than 200mm .for columns
whose unsupported length exceeds 4m, the
shortest dimension of column shall not be less
than 300mm.(clause 7.1.2).
 The ratio of the shortest cross-sectional
dimension to the perpendicular dimension shall
preferably be not less than 0.4. (Clause 7.1.3).
OPEN-GROUND STOREY
PROBLEM

Ground storeys of reinforced concrete

buildings are left open to facilitate parking –
This is common in urban areas in India.
COLUMN-BEAM JOINTS IN
RC BUILDINGS
MASONARY STRUCTURES

Basic components of a masonry

building – walls are sensitive to direction of
Earthquake forces.
 BOX ACTION IN
MASONRY BUILDINGS

ROLE OF HORIZONTAL BANDS

 ROLE OF HORIZONTAL
BANDS
Horizontal bands are the most important
earthquake-resistant feature in masonry
buildings. The bands are provided to hold a
masonry building as a single unit by tying all the
walls together.
There are four types of bands in a typical
masonry building, namely gable band, roof band,
lintel band and plinth band, named after their
location in the building. The lintel band is the
most important of all, and needs to be provided
in almost all buildings.
ROLE OF HORIZONTAL
BANDS
DESIGN OF LINTEL
BANDS
During earthquake shaking, the lintel band
undergoes bending and pulling actions . To
resist these actions, the construction of lintel
band requires special attention. Bands made up
of reinforced concrete (RC); the RC bands are the
best. The straight lengths of the band must be
properly connected at the wall corners. This will
allow the band to support walls loaded in their
weak direction by walls loaded in their strong
direction.
DESIGN OF LINTEL
BANDS
WITH AND WITHOUT
LINTEL BANDS
NEED OF VERTICAL
REINFORCEMENT

No vertical reinforcement is provided in walls

NEED OF VERTICAL
REINFORCEMENT
 HOW VERTICAL
REINFORCEMENT HELPS

Vertical reinforcement in masonry walls

–Wall behaviour is modified.
 PROTECTION OF
OPENINGS IN WALLS

Cracks at corners of openings in a

masonry building – reinforcement around them helps
 SHEAR WALLS
WHAT IS A SHEAR WALL BUILDING?
Reinforced concrete (RC) buildings often
have vertical plate-like RC walls called Shear
Walls. These walls generally start at foundation
level and are continuous throughout the building
height. Their thickness can be as low as 150mm,
or as high as 400mm in high rise buildings. Shear
walls are usually provided along both length and
width of buildings Shear walls are like vertically-
oriented wide beams that carry earthquake loads
downwards to the foundation.
ADVANTAGES OF SHEAR
WALLS IN RC BUILDINGS
Properly designed and detailed buildings
with shear walls have shown very good
performance in past earthquakes. Shear wall
buildings are a popular choice in many
earthquake prone countries, like Chile, New
Zealand and USA. Shear walls are easy to
construct, because reinforcement detailing of
walls is relatively straight-forward and therefore
easily implemented at site.
ARCHITECTURAL ASPECTS
OF SHEAR WALLS
 CASE STUDY:
GUJARAT EARTHQUAKE
(BHUJ)
In the history of the earthquakes disasters

in the Indian subcontinent, the Gujarat

earthquakes of January 26, 2001 has not only

devastated the major towns and rural areas in

the state of Gujarat but also stricken the

metropolitan city Ahmedabad causing major

damages and collapse of engineered

multistoreyed buildings.
 This tragedy has given an opportunity to

analyze the technical managerial and legal aspects

of construction practices and learn certain lessons

for the building professionals. Hopefully a greater

awareness has been created for earthquake

resistant safer buildings

THE PICTURES SPEAK
SPECIAL FEATURES
 OPEN GROUND STORY

 IRREGULAR STRUCTURAL

CONFIGURATION AND SHORT COLUMNS

 WATER TANKS ON ROOFS

WATER TANKS ON
ROOFS
Water required in buildings is usually stored
at the roof level in tanks made of RC or high
density plastic. Occasionally, a large number of
small capacity tanks are used. Often, however,
only a single large tank made of RC is provided,
and either rested on the roof slab or only

nominally connected to it.

CONSTRUCTION
PRACTICES
Nominal mixes (with pre specified
proportions of cement, fine aggregates, and
coarse aggregates) are used to make concrete
without a formal mix design. Volume batching is
primarily employed instead weight batching. The
ductile detailing code IS: 13920 require column
bars to be spliced in the middle-half of the story.
However, in general, the practice is to splice all
column bars just above the floor slab.
 ADVANCED EARTHQUAKE
RESISTANT TECHNIQUES

Among the most important advanced

techniques of earthquake resistant design and

construction are:

 Base Isolation

 Energy Dissipation Devices

BASE ISOLATION
A base isolated structure is supported by a
series of bearing pads which are placed between
the building and the building's foundation. (See
Figure) A variety of different types of base
isolation bearing pads have now been developed.
LEAD-RUBBER BEARINGS
A lead-rubber bearing is made from layers
of rubber sandwiched together with layers of
steel. In the middle of the bearing is a solid lead
"plug." On top and bottom, the bearing is fitted
with steel plates which are used to attach the
bearing to the building and foundation. The
bearing is very stiff and strong in the vertical
direction, but flexible in the horizontal direction.
 ENERGY DISSIPATION
DEVICES
A wide range of energy dissipation
devices have been developed and are now being
installed in real buildings. Energy dissipation
devices are also often called damping devices.
The large number of damping devices that have
been developed can be grouped into three broad
categories:
 Friction Dampers: these utilize frictional forces
to dissipate energy
 Metallic Dampers : utilize the deformation of
metal elements within the damper
 Viscoelastic Dampers : utilize the controlled
shearing of solids
 Viscous Dampers: utilized the forced movement
of fluids within the damper
 DAMPING DEVICES AND
BRACING SYSTEMS
Damping devices are usually installed as
part of bracing systems. Figure shows one type
of damper-brace arrangement, with one end
attached to a column and one end attached to a
floor beam. Primarily, this arrangement provides
the column with additional support.

Damping Device Installed with Brace