WACHEMO UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

MSC IN STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING
ASSIGNMENT ON EARTH QUAKE ENGINEERING

Name: Abnet Begashaw

 Introduction
Throughout the centuries earthquakes have taken a high toll of human lives and caused great
property losses throughout the world and unfortunately mostly in developing countries. All
the catastrophes are due to the collapse of manmade buildings/structures. An earthquake is
remarkably effective in pin pointing out structural weaknesses. In general, buildings can be
divided into two main categories, namely engineered buildings and non-engineered buildings,
their percentages being quite different in developed, developing, and underdeveloped
countries. Past destructive earthquakes showed that most of the disasters occurred to non-
engineered buildings.
One way to resist ground forces is to “lift” the building’s foundation above the
earth through a method called base isolation. Base isolation involves
constructing a building on top of flexible pads made of steel, rubber and lead.
When the base moves during an earthquake, the isolators vibrate while the
structure itself remains steady. This effectively helps to absorb seismic waves
and prevent them from traveling through the building.
or a material to resist stress and vibration, it must have high ductility, which is
the ability to undergo large deformations and tension. Modern buildings are
often constructed with structural steel, a component that comes in a variety of
shapes and allows buildings to bend without breaking. Wood is also a surprising
ductile material due to its high strength relative to its lightweight structure.
1. Generally An Appropriate Foundation. Creating a flexible foundation for a
building could help it stay standing during an earthquake. ...
2. Seismic Dampers. Earthquake-resistant buildings also need features to help
absorb shocks. ...
3. A Drainage Mechanism. ...
4. Structural Reinforcement. ...
5. Material With Adequate Ductility.
6. When an earthquake strikes, the intensity of earthquake shaking determines
the severity of damage. In turn, the main factors affecting earthquake shaking
intensity are earthquake depth, proximity to the fault, the underlying soil, and
building characteristics—particularly height.

resulting in the collapse of first stories, sometimes leading to total building collapse.
How and why the design and construction processes fail to protect Indonesia's buildings,
infrastructure and people. Petak (2002) suggested that the principal problem with
implementing seismic-related codes did not directly relate to the codes themselves but to an
absence of awareness of their availability and the inadequate understanding of their
application. Wenzel(2006) suggested that the slow evolution of risk reduction measures
following each earthquake disaster is due to five predominant failings: (i) poor structures of
national and, specifically, local governance; (ii) absence of an inter-disciplinary work culture;
(iii) inefficient and ineffective use of resources; (iv) lack of awareness and low knowledge of
risk and its management; and (v) poor professional standards and ethics.
Conclusions
The application of earthquake-resistant, or seismic, building codes to non engineered
construction is a positive step to improving the safety of property and people in earthquake
regions. Generally the risk reduction through the implementation of appropriate seismic-
related building codes involves not only the technical interventions surrounding building
specifications and practices but a plethora of non-technical, predominantly societal,
responses. Moreover, it requires the input of a great many stakeholders each with their own
levels of awareness, understanding, capabilities and commitment. It was said,“Earthquakes
don’t kill people, buildings do.” Let us say “We will save buildings, earthquake will kill no
more.”

.0 Problem and its setting:

Damage caused by earthquake activities which harm regular
functioning of building is the key problem which happens because
of conventional non-engineered structures. They were constructed
with traditional methods of construction and particularly use of
engineered items like stone, abode, bricks and wood. Experiences
in past earthquakes have shown that many buildings lack basic
resistance to earthquake forces.

1.1 Statement of problem and sub-problems

Traditional buildings lack the safety measures, therefore in the
present scenario we need to build earthquake resistant buildings
according to level of earthquake .One of the major problems is
differential settlement, i.e.; tilting of super building due to
upward …show