Earthquake Resistant Building Design/Construction in Remote Affected Areas of the Globe by Alina Silvia Nica

DISSERTATION PROPOSAL

Under the Supervision of Senior Lecturer John N Karadelis Department of Engineering and Computing Coventry University

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INTRODUCTION Historic Review

Over the years, earthquakes have been the cause of great disasters in the form of destruction of property and of injury and loss of life to the population. Earthquakes can pose one of the great challenges to the designers of buildings and other civil engineering structures and they can strike any location at any time. But history shows they occur in the same general patterns year after year, principally in the three large zones of the earth: circum-Pacific seismic belt, the Alpide belt and the mid-Atlantic Ridge. Earthquakes necessarily accompany elevation changes in mountains, the higher part of the earths layer and changes in the ocean channels, the lower part. Those usually most affected by natural and other disasters are the poor and socially disadvantaged groups in remote areas as they are least equipped to cope with them. On January 10, 2010, an earthquake of 7.0 M magnitude hit Haiti, which resulted in a death of more than 230,000 people. At least 300,000 Haitians were injured and around 1.5 million people became homeless (BBC News: One Minute World News, Americas, 2010). On October of 1989, an earthquake with the same magnitude in San Francisco killed only 62 people and injured 3757 people (San Francisco Earthquake History 1915-1989). Why did Haiti suffer so much devastation and lost so many citizens? An answer to this question would be the poor quality of the buildings which were not built to engineering standards. High-tech methods have been developed to help buildings withstand earthquake forces, such as ground isolation, damping of the seismic loads and active vibration controls for seismic resistant construction used in developed cities. Constructing earthquake-proof building by these techniques is a challenging task for remote and maybe poor areas (Haiti; Bhutan, Nepal, Himalayas (India); Kashmir mountains (Pakistan); Turkey, etc.) because they require highly technical resources, which are expensive as well. Table 1 below summarises a number of destructive earthquakes with estimated death toll.

Table 1. Numbers of deaths caused by a selection of larger twentieth-century earthquakes in various countries (from Steinbrugge, 1982, and NEIC web page)

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Rationale

Many proposed building plans require materials and methods that may be expensive and impractical, particularly in remote mountain locations far from any roads. Are current efforts to reduce urban global earthquake risk enough? New techniques need to be developed to enable people in rural communities to build their own earthquake resistant, low-cost housing. There are standard, economical and basic construction practices that can be integrated in constructing quality earthquake resistant buildings, which can minimise cost and make it safer to live. Usually, the materials used for buildings are field stone, fired brick, concrete blocks, adobe or rammed earth, bamboo, or a combination of these traditional locally available materials in the wall construction. The earthquake resistance quality of these buildings are very weak, but some modification on the material will make them strong enough to resist significant amount of forces. Most important are schools and hospitals, and they can be used as an example of quality construction design in order to stimulate local population in these affected areas to adopt more efficient methods. Buildings should be symmetrical in plan along the both axes also large openings and too many openings in a wall should be avoided. Walls should be plumb in vertical plane as accurate as possible. Lightweight, but strong and ductile materials are recommended using a minimal amount of heavy stone or reinforced concrete construction with sill and lintel tie beams. Stone and brick are most commonly used materials for making bearing members (walls and footings) which can be reinforced with good quality wood or bamboo bands at three different heights of a building (at plinth, at lintel and at roof level). Ferro concrete is commonly used in India which can be an option for roofing and walls because of its properties. Another useful method of construction using local materials is dhajji diwari houses which involves timber and masonry infill, being improved with strategic use of nails at connections. (See Figure 1 below)

Figure 1.

Choosing low cost construction materials does not mean that poor quality and performance will be provided during earthquakes. Instead it will help local population to build affordable houses just by applying earthquake resistant components.

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Perspective a) Properly reinforced concrete and masonry structures can dissipate seismic energy or provide ductility under earthquake loads. This important property of ductility
enables steel bars to undergo large elongation before breaking.

b) Due to the lightweight and good elastic properties of bamboo, buildings made from it are very good at resisting earthquakes and it also has excellent strength properties, especially tensile strength which makes it as strong as wood. c) Long stones with flat surfaces are distributed in the walls to make the loads vertical in the wall units and minimize the tendency of the wall stones to push or run outward. d) Use of wet bricks, soaked in water, before laying, and with proper continuity at corners and wall junctions will produce strong masonry. The rediscovery and active promotion of traditional earthquake engineering knowhow today is an unexpected consequence of the current identity crisis of an economic system which has not been able to keep its promises of increased wellbeing (including protection from natural disasters) for all. Many earthquakes that have occurred since after 1980 in Mexico, Armenia, Iran, India, Philippines, and Japan have shown the weakness of the NonEngineered buildings under earthquake shaking. 1.4 Aim and objectives

Aim The aim of the project is to show people how they can build earthquake resistant buildings more robustly while still using traditional materials in a sustainable and low cost way, even in remote areas of the globe. Objectives: a) To research and collect information about earthquake resistant designs techniques used in developed countries. b) To modify and adapt the engineering techniques to local resources available to affected population in remote areas. c) To advise, recommend and implement measures to reduce earthquake risk/death toll by training the local population and by using health and safety measures during disasters.

In order to help minimise the risks after natural disasters, new techniques using local materials are needed. This project is aiming to develop a better understanding of how to use low-cost materials in remote affected areas by providing design options which can withstand major earthquakes.

References:
Mohiuddin Ali Khan (2013). Earthquake-Resistant Structures: Design, Build, and Retrofit. Oxford: Elsevier Inc . 183. 2. Opinion . (2004). Trends in Global Urban Earthquake Risk: A Call to the International Earth Science and Earthquake Engineering Communities. Available: http://www.preventionweb.net/english/professional/publications/v.php?id=2340. Last accessed 28.10.2013. 3. Anand S ARYA. (2000). NON-ENGINEERED CONSTRUCTION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES AN APPROACH TOWARD EARTHQUAKE RISK PREDUCTION. Available: http://www.iitk.ac.in/nicee/wcee/article/2824.pdf. Last accessed 28.10.2013. 4. Sjoerd Nienhuys. (August 2000 (Updated 2008)). Design of Primary School Buildings for Remote Mountain Areas. Available: http://www.nienhuys.info/mediapool/49/493498/data/Mountain_School_Design_2008.p df. Last accessed 28.10.2013. 5. Dawang Sherpa. (February 24, 2010). Affordable Solution for Earthquake Resistant Building Construction in Haiti. Available: http://www.mtnforum.org/content/affordable-solution-earthquake-resistant-buildingconstruction-haiti. Last accessed 28.10.2013. 6. Tom Schacher,Swiss University for Applied Sciences of Southern . (2009).Dhajji, a traditional earthquake resistant building technique: Scientific verification through lab testing and development of training material.Available: http://www.kfh.ch/uploads/dcdo/doku/0804_01_Pakistan_Schacher_DFT.pdf. Last accessed 28.10.2013. 7. Colin Smith. (15 March 2013). Scientists develop low-cost techniques for 'earthquake-proofing' homes. Available: http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_1 5-3-2013-13-36-35. Last accessed 28.10.2013. 8. Edmund Booth (1994). Concrete Structures in Earthquake Regions Design and Analysis. Essex: Longman Scientific & Technical. 9. 9. Hemant Kumar Sharma, Girdhari Lal Agrawal (2001). Earthquake Resistant Building Construction . Jaipur: ABD . 1.

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