Performance of Structures During the 2004

Indian Ocean Tsunami and Tsunami

Induced Forces for Structural Design

Murat Saatçioğlu

Abstract Observations from a reconnaissance visit to the 2004 Indian Ocean

Tsunami disaster area are presented from structural performance perspective. Beha-
viour of engineered and non-engineered buildings under tsunami-induced hydrody-
namic and debris impact forces is discussed. It is shown that engineered reinforced
concrete buildings generally survived the tsunami without much damage. Non-
engineered concrete frame and confined masonry buildings suffered different degrees
of structural and non-structural damage, depending on the topography and their
proximity to the shoreline. Low-rise timber construction exhibited little resistance
to tsunami loads, resulting in massive destruction of large residential areas. Rec-
ommendations made by existing building codes for tsunami force computations are
reviewed. A case study is presented for a 10-storey reinforced concrete building
located along the Pacific coast of Canada in terms of tsunami and seismic design
force levels. It is demonstrated that local structural damage can be induced by
tsunami forces on vertical elements designed to perform within the inelastic range
of deformations under earthquake-induced forces.

1 Introduction

Tsunami-induced forces are often neglected in structural design practice. This may
be attributed to long return periods of large magnitude tsunamis in populated and
built environments. Indeed, the return period of major tsunamis may be in excess
of 500 years. However, the structural design profession does consider earthquake
induced forces regularly in the design practice with a return period of 2,500 years
(NBCC-2005, IBC-2000). The devastation that may be caused by a tsunami of a
large magnitude can be catastrophic as demonstrated by the 2004 Indian Ocean
event which induced significant structural damage on infrastructure, killing over
300,000 people and leaving an estimated 1.5 million homeless (Ghobarah et al.,
2006).

M. Saatçioğlu (B)
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
e-mail: murat.saatcioglu@uottawa.ca

A.T. Tankut (ed.), Earthquakes and Tsunamis, Geotechnical, Geological, 153

and Earthquake Engineering 11, DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-2399-5 10,

C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
154 M. Saatçioğlu

The design of structures in flood-prone areas has previously been investigated.

Design guidelines have been developed and codified, containing prescriptive
provisions for flood induced loads (UBC 1997, ASCE 7-05 2005, IBC 2006).
These codes may be used for the design of structures subjected to coastal flood-
ing due to storm surges and flooding of river banks above bank-full conditions.
In contrast, the design of structures against tsunami forces has received limited
coverage in codes and standards. Recent research indicates that these forces can
be significantly higher than those caused by wind storms, and can be comparable
or in excess of those caused by earthquakes (Saatcioglu et al. 2006a, Nouri et al.
2007). At present, four design codes and guidelines specifically address tsunami-
induced loads. These include; (i) The US Federal Emergency Management Agency
recommendations (FEMA 55 2003) for tsunami-induced flood and wave loads, (ii)
The City and County of Honolulu Building Code (2000) developed by the Depart-
ment of Planning and Permitting of Honolulu, Hawaii, US, for districts located
in flood and tsunami-risk areas, (iii) Structural Design Method of Buildings for
Tsunami Resistance (SMBTR) proposed by the Building Center of Japan (Okada
et al. 2005) outlining structural design for tsunami refuge buildings, and (iv) Guide-
lines for Structures that Serve as Tsunami Vertical Evacuation Sites, prepared by
Yeh et al. (2005) for the US State Department of Natural Resources to estimate
tsunami-induced forces on structures.
This paper demonstrates structural and non-structural damage observed during
a reconnaissance visit to the tsunami stricken regions of Thailand and Indonesia
after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and presents existing approaches for the
computation of structural design loads generated by tsunamis.

2 Performance of Structures During the 2004

Indian Ocean Tsunami

The reconnaissance visit to Thailand covered; (i) the island of Phuket, (ii) Phi-Phi
island about 48 km south east of Phuket, and (iii) the coastal town of Khao Lak
about 100 km north of Phuket. The visit to Indonesia focused on the coastal city of
Banda Aceh on the island of Sumatra.
The impact of tsunami was a function of the topography of coastal areas. In
flat areas of coastal Sumatra, including the city of Banda Aceh, the tsunami waves
reached 4–5 km inland, affecting a large population. In these areas the maximum
wave height was about 4 to 6 m. The water mark on buildings along the southern
coast of Phuket was measured to vary between 4 and 6 m from the sea level. Further
north on Phuket Island and on Khao Lak Beach the water height was in excess of
10 m, causing significant structural and non-structural damage. The water run-up
in hilly terrains resulted in significantly higher water levels. A coastal engineering
team from Japan measured the maximum tsunami run-up height in Rhiting, south
west of Banda Aceh, to be 49 m (Shibayama 2005).
The filed investigation focused on urban areas that had engineered and non-
engineered structures. Engineered structures were mostly in the form of reinforced
concrete frame buildings with masonry infill walls. A large number of them in