Back Issues 11-20

CAUSES AND TYPES OF BUILDING FAILURE DUE TO TECTONIC EARTHQUAKES

Tse-Shan Hsu

President, Institute of Mitigation for Earthquake Shear Banding Disasters

Professor, Feng-Chia University, Taiwan, R.O.C., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Hsin-Mao Wang

Ph.D. Student, Ph.D. Program for Infrastructure Planning and Engineering

Feng-Chia University, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Ching-Chang Lin, Da-Jie Lin

Associate Professors, Feng-Chia University, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Abstract

The revisions of the seismic design codes for buildings often overlook the actual causes and types of building failure during tectonic earthquakes, leading to the recurrence of similar damage in subsequent seismic events. For this reason, the actual causes and types of building failure due to tectonic earthquakes were investigated in this study, with the following main findings: (1) shear banding, but not ground vibration, due to tectonic earthquakes changes the seismic conditions of buildings from seismic to non-seismic, making shear banding the cause of building failure during tectonic earthquakes rather than ground vibration; (2) shear banding induces plastic strain softening and tilting-uplift effects, resulting in collapse-type failure of buildings; (3) the seismic reinforcement of school buildings is based on the results of pushover tests and analyses, the cause of their failure is attributed to ground vibration, and failure is of the weak column-strong girder type, which is distinct from collapse-type failure; (4) vibration isolation, shock absorption, and vibration resistance technologies enhance the vibration resistance of buildings under seismic conditions, but they cannot improve design performance when shear banding due to tectonic earthquakes is involved. Based on these findings, we suggest that revisions to the seismic design codes should incorporate the actual causes and types of building failure due to tectonic earthquakes to ensure that buildings have enhanced seismic performance.

Keywords: tectonic earthquake, ground vibration, shear banding, seismic condition, performance design, pushover.