Abstract

UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction held in 2015 at Sendai, Japan, reiterated the need for substantial reduction in loss of life and property. Thus, assessing disaster risk and identifying key items for risk mitigation are in focus. Assessment of disaster risk is a multidisciplinary effort, which includes expected tangible physical loss, such as collapse and damage to built environment. In countries with limited resources, prioritizing risk reduction effort across the different parts of the country needs a quantitative (yet simple) approach to bring objectivity into the decision-making process. This paper presents a simple method, called Earthquake Disaster Risk Index (EDRI), for estimating relative earthquake risk across the different regions in a country; it uses three major constituents of risk, namely Hazard, Exposure and Vulnerability. Hazard is taken as the acceleration hazard specified in the national earthquake design standard, Exposure as per the permitted occupancy in the Local Municipal Byelaws, and Vulnerability through a Level 2 Detailed Qualitative Assessment of buildings built in the Town or City (with penalty points for missing features of earthquake resistance compared to an Ideal Building). First, the EDRI of a Town or City is estimated for each typology of building in the Town or City, and then the net EDRI of the Town or City is obtained as a weighted average of the EDRI of each typology of buildings using the number of buildings of each typology present in the city.

Abstract

Structural engineering involves clear understanding of characteristics of ground motion used in the design of structures to identify the critical aspects of their behavior. Peak amplitude of response (a, v, or d), predominant frequency and duration of strong ground motion are the most important parameters of ground motion that are required for this purpose. These parameters are influenced by the source, path and site conditions. However, it is also found that for the same distance these characteristics are highly sensitive to the fault direction and the side on which the site lies ie, hanging wall or foot wall. In this paper, a case study is performed to understand the influence of fault direction and location of site on the characteristics of the ground motion. For this purpose, 371 ground motions recorded during 1999 Chi-Chi, Taiwan earthquake are selected. Initially, these ground motions were arranged in terms of fault parallel and fault normal direction and also according to distance from the fault. Later, ground motion characteristics were obtained using standard procedures. From the above, it was found that, in the near-fault region, PGA and PGV on the hanging wall are higher by at-least 20% than that on the footwall. From this observation, the near-fault region can be defined not by using the distance from the fault, but by observing the ratio of PGA values in fault normal and parallel directions. This method of estimating the near-fault region is reliable because the hanging wall effect is caused only due to the inclined dip-angle of the fault which is inevitable in most of the thrust and normal faults.

Abstract

Development of Force-based seismic design is historical, and every earthquake has thrown new challenges for already existing assumptions and principles, which helped in the evolution of force-based design. Although many of the assumptions were answered but some remained unaltered and unanswered. Hence, this paved way for developing new theories and philosophies and one such theory is Direct Displacement-Based seismic Design (DDBD). Indian Standard codes, IS 1893 and IS 13920, underwent a major revision in the year 2016, considering the latest developments in Force based design principles. Current work is an attempt to understand the performance comparison between latest IS 1893 & IS 13920 with DDBD method. Initially, three buildings ie, 3, 6 and 9 storey buildings were designed using DDBD at inter-storey drift of 4% with a performance objective to achieve “No collapse”. The spectrum developed using IS code equations does not represent ideal displacement spectrum shape and hence PGA, T and CA dependent equations are used for DDBD methodology of design. PGA of 0.36 g is used in the current study which represents the highest seismic zone in India. Later these buildings were subjected to lateral displacement using displacement-based pushover analysis method. The inelastic strength along with drifts achieved by DDBD are compared with the IS code compliant buildings. From the comparison, it was observed that inelastic strength achieved by 6, 9 storey buildings designed according to FBD are greater than the buildings designed according to DDBD at “No Collapse”. For 3 storey structure, the strength …

Abstract

A ground-structure vibration response study was carried out at the Ramappa Temple near Warangal, Telangana, India, shaken by underground blasting undertaken at the neighbouring Devadula Lift Irrigation Project to build water tunnels. The intensities of vibrations were examined–subsurface and ground vibrations were measured using velocity meters, and shaking at the temple using accelerometers. The study concluded that high-frequency vibrations of the ground were filtered by the soft natural clay bed underneath, and vibrations at the temple structure were small and well below the levels that can cause damage to it. Here we present the scientific findings of the vibrations recorded during the blasts and their implications.

Abstract

In building construction, reinforced concrete (RC) Frame structures are frequently used due to ease of construction and rapid progress of work. In this study, two types of infill’s are used ie, unreinforced masonry infill and semi-interlocked masonry infill. For the analysis purpose of infill, a double strut nonlinear cyclic model is used. The main objective of the study is to investigate the importance of interlocked brick infill in the RC frame structure. For understanding the same, nonlinear static pushover analysis is carried out on analytical models using finite element based software, SeismoStruct. The response reduction factor components such as ductility reduction factor and overstrength factors were computed from nonlinear static pushover analysis and finally, the response reduction factor is calculated for all models. The primary focus is given to numerical modeling, nonlinear behavior of brick masonry RC buildings subjected to lateral loads and calculation of the response reduction factor of'RC'infilled frames with different aspect ratios.

Abstract

Construction of buildings without keeping enough setback from plot boundary is very common practise in India. This lead to very closely spaced buildings with practically zero or few mm gap between them. The intension behind this is to utilize the maximum plot area, without knowing the consequences of damage due to pounding during moderateto-severe earthquake shaking. In this study, an attempt is made to check the adequacy of separation distance clause of IS 1893:2016 and also a comparison is made with similar clauses in international codes of practise. For this purpose, four low to mid-rise RC buildings located in seismic zone IV were designed as per IS 456:2000 and IS 1893:2016. These buildings are assumed to be closely spaced with each other, in pair of two, for four different cases. Further, the linear and non-linear time history analysis (NLTHA) were carried out by considering ground motion time histories of three moderate earthquakes recorded in India. From the study, it was found that the separation distance clauses prescribed in IS 1893-2016 are on conservative side

Abstract

In this study, a three-dimensional, four-storied, reinforced concrete (RC) building is designed for seismic zone-IV and seismically evaluated for different infill configurations along with consideration of openings in infills to develop a realistic model. Four models are considered, i.e. model I (full RC-infilled frame without lintel beam), model II (bare frame without lintel beam), model III (full RC-infilled frame with lintel beam) and model IV (bare frame with lintel beam). In this study, we have evaluated the effect of lintel beams on response reduction factor of the frame structure. The nonlinear static adaptive pushover analysis has been done using Seismostruct program. In seismic design, the response reduction factor (R-factor) reduces from the elastic to inelastic strength. The R-factor is one of the design tools to show the level of inelasticity in a structure and so it has significant importance in the earthquake engineering field. The response reduction factor mainly consists of ‘ductility reduction factor’ and ‘over strength factor’, which are evaluated from static adaptive pushover analysis. Ultimately the response reduction factor is obtained for the building and compared with the value recommended by IS 1893 Part-1 (2016). The results depict that the R-factor values of full RC-infilled frames and bare frames with incorporation of lintel beams are higher than other frames without lintel beam. However, R-factor values of bare frames are lower than the corresponding values recommended in the BIS code.

Abstract

Recent revision of Indian standard code on earthquake resistant design suggested certain recommendations for inclusion of effects of vertical ground acceleration for design of buildings. Clause 6.3.2.1 of IS 1893 (Part 1) suggests that for non-orthogonal frames, load combinations should include 30% of earthquake load in other directions along with the direction considered and Clause 6.3.2.1.1 suggests that for orthogonal frames, full load has to be applied. Besides, clause 6.3.3 mentions that all the buildings present in seismic zone IV and V have to consider vertical ground motion effects. This results in 73 load combinations for calculating the design forces in structural members. However, the necessity to consider the effects of vertical ground motions for regular buildings, although present in seismic zones IV and V, is not verified. To verify the above clauses for regular buildings, a case study is performed on a 5 storied regular framed RC building. Using, linear static analysis, design forces in structural members for the contradicting clauses on load combinations are compared. From the study, it is concluded that 3-dimensional ground motion effects are not necessary for every building even if the building is located in seismic zone IV or V.

Abstract

Modelling the Sommerfeld radiating boundary is a major challenge appearing in the study of many engineering problems involving elastic wave propagation [1]. Particularly, in the finite element analysis of Structure-Soil-Structure-Interaction (SSSI) problems, where the soil modelling has to be truncated at a finite distance. This truncation of the model at finite boundary leads to reflection of radiating elastic waves. The reflected waves from the boundary will affect the solution and may lead to instabilities in the numerical analysis. Therefore, it is necessary to provide an artificial boundary condition that will transmit the outward propagating waves with minimum or negligible reflections. To address the radiating boundary condition problem, researchers have developed various kinds of formulations over few decades, such as: a). Local Absorbing Boundary Conditions (ABC) [2], b). Absorbing Layers techniques which includes Perfectly Matched Layers [3-4], Caughey Absorbing Layer Method (CALM) [5], Absorbing Layers by Increasing Damping (ALID) [6] c). Boundary element method [7], and d). Infinite elements [8-10]. ABC corresponds to the situation where the boundary is supported on infinitesimal dash-pots oriented normal and tangential to the boundary. Though these boundary conditions are very simple, the major drawback is they are inefficient when the wave impinges the boundary in inclined direction. The key property of a PML that distinguishes it from an ordinary absorbing material is that it is designed such that the propagating waves incident upon the PML from a bulk medium do not reflect on the interface. The CALM consists of defining the absorbing layers at the boundaries of the elastic medium under consideration but requires many absorbing layers which requires much computational time. The objective of this study is to present a method for radiating boundary conditions by using modified ABC to take the effect of viscous damping combining with ALID

Abstract

In building construction, RC frame structure are frequently used due to ease of construction and rapid progress of work. Generally these frames are filled by masonry in fill panel. However, during past earthquakes it was found that the performance of of such type of structures significantly depends on out-of-plane behavior of infill panel wall. In this study two type of infills are used i.e, unreinforced masonry infill and semi-interlocked masonry infill. For analysis purpose of infill, double strut nonlinear cyclic model is used. The main objective of the study is to investigate the importance interlocked brick infill in RC frame structure. For R factor components such as ductility reduction factor and over strength factors were computed from nonlinear static pushover analysis and finally response reduction factor is calculated for all models. In this work, primary focus is given to numerical modeling and nonlinear behavior of brick masonry building subjected to lateral loads and calculation of response reduction factor of RC infilled frame