Earthquake

Resisting systems
Chapter 12
Plate Tectonics
From the perspective of geological time, the earth’s crust is in a
state of dynamic flux. The scientific understanding of this dynamic
process known as continental drift or tectonic plate movement –
the basic cause of most earthquakes – dates back only 100 years.
Plate Tectonics
 Plates move relative to each other continuously, creating three
basic types of boundaries: Transform, Divergent, or Convergent.
 The surface along which the crust of the earth fractures is an
earthquake fault. Earthquakes almost always occur on faults.
The most common mechanisms of earthquake sources.
Why Earthquakes Occur
Why Earthquakes Occur
Due to the roughness of the surfaces and edges of tectonic plates,
combined with the massive pressures involved, potential sliding
and slipping movements generate friction forces large enough to
lock up the contact surfaces. Rather than sliding past each other,
rock in a plate boundary area (say, along a fault line) absorbs more
and more compression and shear strains until it suddenly ruptures.
During rupture, all of the accumulated energy within the strained
rock mass is released in a sudden violent movement.
Seismic hazard in Palestine
 The seismic risk in Palestine is
attributed to the Dead Sea
Transform (DST) system, the most
seismically active region in the
Middle East, with a history of four
thousand years of documented
destructive earthquakes.
 Currently, it is generally accepted that the region is vulnerable to
moderate/ strong earthquakes where one event with a
magnitude of 6.0 or more is expected to occur every 80 years.
Accordingly, a strong damaging earthquake is a real threat to the
safety, social integrity, and economic well-being of the people in
the region, especially as Palestine's heavily populated urban
centers are within 50 Km of the DST.
 The Earthquake Problem
 Structure location  The weight of
 Site characteristics the building.
 Natural
period.
 Damping
ratio.
 Ductility.

Design Decisions
The
Earthquake
Problem
Nature of seismic forces
 Seismic forces are inertia forces. When any object, such as a
building, experiences acceleration, inertia force is generated due
to the mass resistance to acceleration.

 The primary equation

for seismic design is the
Newton’s Second Law
of Motion, = × ,
which enables the
inertia force F to be
quantified.
Nature of seismic forces
 Inertia forces can develop on every item and every component of
the structure. Just as gravity force is distributed over elements
like floor slabs, so is seismic inertia force, except that it acts
horizontally.

COM: Center of mass

Building Weight
 The most critical factor determining the inertia force in a
building is its weight. Newton’s Law states that inertia force is
proportional to mass or weight. The heavier an object, the more
significant the inertia force for a certain level of acceleration.
 In earthquake-prone regions, every possible action should be
made to reduce the mass of the building as much as practicable
to reduce seismic vulnerability.

 Most buildings in
Palestine are
constructed using
heavy materials
such as concrete
and stone.
Natural period of vibration (T)
 The natural period of vibration is the time
taken for one full cycle of free vibration as
shown below, measured in seconds.
 The natural period of vibration of a building
depends upon a number of factors:
1. Building height has the greatest influence.
The higher a building, the longer its natural
period of vibration. Roughly T can be
calculated as 0.1X the number of stories.
2. The weight of the building. The heavier a
building, the longer the natural period.
3. The type of structural system provided to
resist seismic forces. The more flexible or
less stiff a structure, the longer its natural
period.
Damping
 Damping is the suppression or prevention of building vibrations,
mainly caused by internal friction within building elements,
causing the amplitude of vibrations to decay.
 The degree of damping in a building depends upon the material
of its seismic resisting structure as well as its other construction
materials and details.
Ductility
 Ductility is the ability of structural
members to undergo considerable
deformations prior to failure. This very
desirable property of structures
enables the chosen level of resistance
for earthquake-induced force to be
maintained even after the ground
shaking of high intensity.
 Ductility requires an understanding of
and feeling for structural behavior and
imagination in the detailing of
construction to allow the optimum
exploitation of the plasticity of the
structural material.
Characteristics of good design
 Sound building
Configuration Relates to
 Clear Load Path Architectural
 Providing a high design
level of redundancy
 Creating a desirable
sequence of
yielding in
structural elements Performance Criteria
 Good detailing  Strength
 Stiffness
 Ductility
Lateral Load-Resisting Systems (LLRS)
 The three basic Lateral Load-Resisting
Systems (LLRS) are Shear walls; Braced
frames; and Moment resisting frames.
 Each system can resist gravity forces and
provide lateral load resistance. (a) Shear walls
 shear-wall systems are much stiffer than
moment-resisting frame systems, and
braced systems fall in between.

b) Braced frames

c) Moment frames
Mixed Systems
 Mix systems mean using one type in one
direction and a different kind in the
other or combining them in a given
direction. Mixing also includes using
different systems in the vertical
direction.
 Mixing must be done with care, mainly
because the different systems are of
varying stiffness (shear-wall systems are
much stiffer than moment-resisting
frame systems, and braced systems fall
in between).
 However, for high-performance structures, dual systems are now
increasingly used. Examples of effective mixed systems are the
use of a shear-wall core together with a perimeter moment-
resistant frame.
Building
configuration and
Irregularities
Building configuration/ Layout
 ‘Configuration' describes the structure’s layout in plan and
elevation. The term encompasses a global 3D appreciation of
how structure and building massing integrate to achieve seismic
resistance.
 All buildings are exposed to devastating earthquake loads during
earthquakes. However, while some buildings suffer damage or
complete collapse under these loads, others can remain standing
with slight deterioration.
 The architectural design and the layout of the structural
elements in the plan and elevation have a crucial impact on the
building’s seismic performance. According to specialists ‘While
configuration alone is not likely to be the sole cause of building
failure, it may be a primary contributor”. To a considerable
extent, the quality of a building’s configuration determines, more
than many other factors, how well it survives strong shaking.
Building configuration/ Layout
 Architects are primarily responsible for building configuration.
They determine the overall form or massing of a building and,
with or without input from structural engineers, determine the
structural layout to suit building function and space planning
requirements and to express their architectural concepts.
 The earthquake-resistant principles are not provisions the
structural engineer could insert after completing the
architectural design. Failures in the architectural design phase to
incorporate a sound structural layout cannot be regulated by
calculations or a detailed structural design done later by the
structural engineer.
 Accordingly, the seismic design concept should be integrated
into the architectural design as the architectural design outputs
significantly impact the seismic behavior and performance of the
structures.
Configuration Challenges
 Motivated by many factors, architects tend to move away from
regular configurations. They tend to disregard rectilinear
geometry in favor of more stimulating plan forms such as L, C, or
other complex shapes, which can also include large floor
penetrations.
 On the other hand, structural
engineers take a different
approach to plan regularity.
They adopt the KISS Principle
– Keep It Simple and
Symmetrical – preferring floor
plans and structural layouts to
be as regular and symmetrical
as possible.
Horizontal and Vertical Configuration
Horizontal and Vertical Configuration
Horizontal and Vertical Configuration
Horizontal and Vertical Configuration

From: Seismic Performance and Building Configuration, Urban Planning and Disaster Risk Reduction Center, An Najah University.
Structural Irregularities
 In general, irregularity can be defined as the
irregular distribution of mass, stiffness, and
strength along the plan and height of a
building that may impact the seismic
performance of the building and concentrate
loads to elements of limited capacity.
 Irregularities have crucial consequences such
Trained engineers
as:
can detect some of
• Buildings having irregularities suffer the irregularities of
greater damage during earthquakes. the building through
visual inspection,
• Increase design forces. while others may
require substantial
• Complicate required modeling and computational
analysis techniques. effort to be
identified.
Structural Irregularities
IRREGULARITIES

Horizontal Others Vertical

1 1
1a, 1b Torsional Short Column 1a, 1b Soft story
2 Re-entrant corner 2
Pounding effects Mass Irregularity

3 Diaphragm Weak column- Vertical

discontinuity strong beam Geometric 3
Irregularity
Out-of-plane Slenderness ratio
4
offsets In-Plane 4
Discontinuity
5 Nonparallel
systems 5a, 5b Weak Story 5
Horizontal
irregularities
Torsion
 If the Centre of Mass (CoM) of a building is not coincident with
the Centre of Rigidity (CoR), a torsional moment acts in the
horizontal plane, causing floor diaphragms to twist about the
CoR. However every building can be subjected to torsion due to
the random earthquake excitation.
 Based upon post-earthquake observations of building failures,
torsion is recognized as one of the most common and severe
horizontal configuration problems.
Torsion
 Architects and engineers prevent building
damage arising from torsion by using several
approaches.
1. Minimizing the distance in the plan between
the CoM and CoR. This requires careful
distribution of the stiff vertical elements
relative to each other.
2. Providing a minimum of two lines of vertical
structure parallel to each of the main
orthogonal axes of a building yet horizontally
offset from each other.
Torsion
 In the local context, approximately 90% of the buildings have
torsional irregularity or low torsional resistance, as reinforced
concrete walls are only considered around staircases and
elevator shafts.
 Additionally, urban planning practices, especially the size and
shape of the parcels, enforce architects to design irregular forms
to increase the footprint of the buildings.
 Re-entrant Corners
 Occurs when the length of a projecting area of a
building exceeds approximately 15 percent of the
building plan dimension.
 Re-entrant geometries can take many shapes as
shown below.
 Buildings that have suffered seismic damage due
to re-entrant corners occasionally feature in
earthquake reconnaissance reports.

Typical re-entrant
corner forms
 Re-entrant Corners
 From a seismic design perspective, re-
entrant corner buildings have the
potential for damage resulting from the
different dynamic properties of each
wing, which can lead to building
torsion.
 Separation by seismic joints is a typical
solution for re-entrant corner buildings.
Diaphragm Discontinuity
 In general, penetrations are acceptable
structurally, provided they respect a
diaphragm's shear force and bending
moment diagrams. Recall that the web
of a diaphragm resists shear forces,
while perimeter diaphragm chords
acting in tension or compression, resist
bending moments.
Diaphragm Discontinuity
 The irregularity exists if
• open area > 0.5 times floor area
• The effective diaphragm stiffness varies by more than 50% from
one story to the next.
 In the ideal world of the structural engineer, diaphragms in
buildings are not penetrated by anything larger than say a 300
mm diameter pipe. Diaphragms are also planar and level over
the whole floor plan.
Out-of-Plane Offsets
 The placement of the structural elements on the axes and the
continuation of these axes along the height of the building is an
essential criterion for sound structure behavior.
 Out-of-plane-offsets irregularity refers to the fact that the
vertical members are located on another axis rather than their
own axis continuing along the structure's height.
Nonparallel Systems
 Occurs when the directions of the strength
of the vertical elements are angled with
respect to any sets of orthogonal axes.

When these systems resist

horizontal force their skewed
orientation leads to
unexpected secondary forces
that are required to maintain
equilibrium.
Vertical
Irregularities
Introduction
 The vertical configuration of a building encompasses two aspects
of architectural form:
• the building envelop profiles in elevation and
• the elevation of the vertical structural systems in both
orthogonal directions.
 The best possible seismic performance is achieved where both
the 3–D massing and vertical structure of a building are regular.
 As repeatedly observed after earthquakes, vertical irregularities
initiated severe damage.
Soft/ Weak Storey
 Soft-storey configuration describes a structure where one storey
of a building is more flexible and/ or weaker than the adjacent
stories from the perspective of seismic forces.
 In a soft-storey configuration, the earthquake energy
concentrates on the soft-storey columns causing severe damage
and possibly complete failure.
 Of all vertical configuration problems, a soft-storey irregularity is
the most serious and is, by far, the most prevalent reason for
multi-story buildings' collapse.
Soft/ Weak storey
 The soft-storey irregularity is widely spread in the local buildings
stock. In a case study of one of the Ramallah neighborhoods, the
case was found in about 67% of the screened buildings in
different forms and severity (see the figure below).
 In all occurrences, the soft-story irregularities were directly
related to the mandatory municipal requirement for the
provision of on-site parking and the regulations of the
residential-commercial zones.

Total # of
Buildings 129
Vertical Irregularities
Mass irregularity: The effective mass of any story is
more than 150% of the effective mass of an adjacent
story.

Vertical Geometric Irregularity: The dimension of the

lateral force resisting system at any story is more than
130% of that for any adjacent story.

In-Plane Discontinuity Irregularity

The offset of the lateral loads

resisting element is greater than
the width (d), or there is a
reduction in the story below
stiffness.