ARCHITECTURE BUILDING CONSTRUCTION

Assignment 1: Earthquake Resistant Structures

Question 1: Define (a) Earthquake (b) Magnitude (c) Intensity

• Earthquake is the shaking of the surface of thew earth resulting from a

sudden release of energy in the earth’s lithosphere that creates seismic
waves.
• Earthquakes can range in size from those that are so weak that they cannot
be felt to those violent enough to propel objects and people into the air and
wreak destruction across entire cities.
• The seismic activity, of an area is the frequency, type, and size of
earthquakes experienced over a period.
• Earthquakes occur most often along geologic faults, narrow zones where rock
masses move in relation to one another.
• The major fault lines of the world are located at the fringes of the huge
tectonic plates that make up earth’s crust.

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 • The magnitude is a number that characterizes the relative size of an
earthquake.
• Magnitude is based on measurement of the maximum motion recorded by a
seismograph.
• Several scales have been defined, but the most commonly used are
scales 1-3 have limited range and applicability and do not satisfactorily
measure the size of the largest earthquakes.
• The moment magnitude (Mw) scale, based on the concept of seismic
moment, is uniformly applicable to all sizes of earthquakes but is more difficult
to compute than the other types.
• All magnitude scales should yield approximately the same value for any given
earthquake.
1.Local magnitude (ML)
2.Surface-wave magnitude (Ms),
3. Body-wave magnitude (Mb),
4. Moment magnitude (Mw).

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 • The intensity is a number (written as a Roman numeral) describing the
severity of an earthquake in terms of its effects on the earth's surface and on
humans and their structures.
• There are many intensities for an earthquake, depending on where you are,
unlike the magnitude, which is one number for each earthquake.
• Intensity is the measure of shaking at each location, and this varies from
place to place, depending mostly on the distance from the fault rupture area.

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Question 2: Explain the behaviour of masonry Structures during earthquake.
Also, state what are the importance of horizontal bands.

• Masonry structures are most vulnerable during earthquake. Performance and

behavior of masonry structures during earthquakes is discussed in this article.
Many human fatalities have depended on masonry constructions from the
past.
• The types of materials used for construction of masonry buildings are:
o Brick: It is a clay that is fired to a hard consistency.
o Hollow concrete block: Known as “cinder block.”
o Hollow clay tile: Concrete block shaped with hollow cells, but brick-
color.
o Stone: Used in its natural shape, “dressed” or cut into rectangular
blocks
o Adobe: Formed by pouring mud into the form of walls or made of sun-
dried bricks.
• The ground motion or ground vibrations due to earthquakes results in higher
amount of inertia forces at the floor or at the location of the mass of the whole
building.
• A building will remain safe, if the forces emerged finds a path to transfer into
the ground, without any obstruction which in turn minimizes the damage or
collapse.
• Among the elements that involve in transferring these forces i.e. roof, wall and
foundation, it is seen that walls are the one found most vulnerable to the
damage

Importance of Horizontal Bands

• RCC Bands in load bearing structure (Masonry Building) are reinforced
concrete runner provided in the walls to tie them together and to impart
horizontal bending strength in them.
• RCC bands or reinforced concrete runner are the important horizontal
member of load bearing structure which resists forces and ties wall together.
They integrate masonry wall into the stronger unit. RCC bands in load bearing
structure are also known as horizontal seismic bands. The dimension of the
band and the inside reinforcement bars depends upon the length of the wall
between the perpendicular cross walls.
• There are five types of band namely gable band, roof band, lintel band, sill
band, and plinth band, named after their location in the building.
• Gable band is a horizontal member which is placed at the top of the ridge of
the sloping slab to support the ends of the rafters and transferring loads to
posts or gable end walls.

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 • Roof band is a load bearing member of a roof at roof level. Sometimes roof
band is not required because the roof slab of loadbearing wall masonry also
plays the role of a band. Roof beams are generally provided in the building
with flat timber or CGI sheet roof.
• Lintel band is a horizontal member which is placed at the top of the opening
like door and window to support the portion of the unsupported wall above it
continuously throughout the length of wall. It is the most important band.
• Sill band is a horizontal member which is place at the bottom of the opening
to support the load of the window frame. It is discontinued at the door
opening.
• Plinth band is a horizontal member which is positioned at the plinth level to
tie the wall at plinth level.

Question 3: Explain the behaviour of R.C.C Structures during Earthquake.

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 • The RC frame participates in resisting the earthquake forces. Earthquake
shaking generates inertia forces in the building which are proportional to the
building mass.
• Since most of the building mass is present at floor levels.
• These forces travel downwards through slab and beams to columns and walls
and then to the foundations from where they are dispersed to the ground.
• As inertia forces accumulates downwards from the top of the building, the
columns and walls at lower stories experience higher earthquake induced
forces and are therefore designed to be stringer than those in stories above.
• In most of the buildings the geometric distortion of the slab is negligible in the
horizontal plane this behavior is known as the rigid diaphragm action.
• Gravity loading on building causes RC frames to bend resulting in stretching
and shortening at various location.
• Tension is generated at surfaces that stretch and compression at those that
shorten. •Under gravity loads tension in the beams is at the bottom surface of
the ends.
• On the other hand, earthquake loading causes tension on beam and column
faces at locations different from those gravity loading the relative levels of this
bending moment generated in members.
• The levels of bending moment due to earthquake loading depending on the
severity of the shaking and can exceed that due to gravity loading.
• Thus, under strong earthquake shaking the beams ends can develop tension
on either of the top and bottom faces.
• Since concrete cannot carry this tension steel bars are required on both faces
of beams to resist reversals of bending moments.

Question 4: State various techniques used to reduce the effect of earthquake on the
building. (Explain any one of the techniques)
▪ Box Action in masonry buildings
▪ Horizontal Bands in masonry buildings
▪ Vertical reinforcement in masonry buildings
▪ Steel reinforcement in beams
▪ Steel reinforcement in seismic beams
▪ Base Isolation in Real Buildings
▪ Seismic Dampers

Seismic Dampers

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 • An approach for controlling seismic damage in buildings and improving their
seismic performance is by installing seismic dampers in place of structural
elements, such as diagonal braces.
• These dampers act like the hydraulic shock absorbers in cars – much of the
sudden jerks are absorbed in the hydraulic fluids and only little is transmitted
above to the chassis of the car.
• When seismic energy is transmitted through them, dampers absorb part of it,
and thus damp the motion of the building.
• Seismic Dampers
• Dampers were used since 1960s to protect tall buildings against wind effects.
• However, it was only since 1990s, that they were used to protect buildings
against earthquake effects.
• Commonly used types of seismic dampers include viscous dampers (energy
is absorbed by silicone-based fluid passing between piston cylinder
arrangement), friction dampers (energy is absorbed by surfaces with friction
between them rubbing against each other), and yielding dampers (energy is
absorbed by metallic components that yield)
• In India, friction dampers have been provided in a 18-storey RCC frame
structure

Siddharth Sidhu AR-18-067