Introduction

Earthquakes are a major geological phenomena. Man has been terrified of

this phenomena for ages, as little has been known about the causes of
earthquakes, but it leaves behind a trail of destruction. There are
hundreds of small earthquakes around the world everyday. Some of them
are so minor that humans cannot feel them, but seismographs and other
sensitive machines can record them. Earthquakes occur when tectonic
plates move and rub against each other. Sometimes, due to this
movement, they snap and rebound to their original position. This might
cause a large earthquakes as the tectonic plates try to settle down. This is
known as the Elastic Rebound Theory.

Every year, earthquakes take the lives of thousands of people , and

destroy property worth billions. The 2010 Haiti Earthquake killed over
1,50,000 people and destroyed entire cities and villages. Designing
Earthquake Resistant Structures is indispensable. It is imperative that
structures are designed to resist earthquake forces, in order to reduce the
loss of life. The science of Earthquake Engineering and Structural Design
has improved tremendously, and thus, today, we can design safe
structures which can safely withstand earthquakes of reasonable
magnitude.

The most destructive of all earthquake hazards is caused by seismic

waves reaching the ground surface at places where human-built
structures, such as buildings and bridges, are located. When seismic
waves reach the surface of the earth at such places, they give rise to
what is known as strong ground motion. Strong ground motions cause’s
buildings and other structures to move and shake in a variety of complex
ways.
Many buildings cannot withstand this movement and suffer damages of
various kinds and degrees. Most deaths, injuries, damages and economic
losses caused by earthquake result from ground motion acting on
buildings and other manmade structures not capable of withstanding such
movement.

Experience in past earthquakes has demonstrated that many common

buildings and typical methods of construction lack basic resistance to
earthquake forces. In most cases this resistance can be achieved by
following simple, inexpensive principles of good building construction
practice. Adherence to these simple rules will not prevent all damage in
moderate or large earthquakes, but life threatening collapses should be
prevented, and damage limited to repairable proportions. These principles
fall into several broad categories:

(i) Planning and layout of the building involving consideration of

the location of rooms and walls, openings such as doors and
windows, the number of storeys, etc. At this stage, site and
foundation aspects should also be considered.
(ii) Lay out and general design of the structural framing system
with special attention to furnishing lateral resistance, and
(iii) Consideration of highly loaded and critical sections with
provision of reinforcement as required.
Earthquakes cause massive vibrations in the Earth’s crust. This can cause
a number of problems in the ground, which in turn becomes a hazard to
all life and property. The effect depends on the geology of soil and
topography of the land.

For categorising the buildings with the purpose of achieving seismic

resistance at economical cost, three parameters turn out to be significant:

(i) Seismic intensity zone where the building is located,

(ii)How important the building is,
(iii)How stiff is the foundation soil.

A combination of these parameters will determine the extent of

appropriate seismic strengthening of the building.

The importance of the building should be a factor in grading it for

strengthening purposes,and the following buildings are suggested as
specially important:

IMPORTANT . Hospitals, clinics, communication buildings, fire and police

stations, water supply facilities, meeting halls, schools, dormitories,
cultural treasures such as museums, monuments and temples, etc.

ORDINARY . Housings, hostels, offices, warehouses, factories, etc.

Severity of ground shaking at a given location during an earthquake can
be minor, moderate and strong. Thus relatively speaking, minor shaking
occurs frequently; moderate shaking occasionally and strong shaking
rarely. For instance, on average annually about 800 earthquakes of
magnitude 5.0-5.9 occur in the world while about 18 for magnitude range
7.0-7.9. So we should design and construct a building to resist that rare
earthquake shaking that may come only once in 500 years or even once
in 2000 years, even though the life of the building may be 50 or 100
years

Design Philosophy of Earthquake Resistant Structures

Engineers do not attempt to make earthquake proof buildings that will not
get damaged even during the rare but strong earthquake; such buildings
will be too robust and also too expensive. Instead the engineering
intention is to make buildings earthquake-resistant; such buildings resist
the effects of ground shaking, although they may get damaged severely
but would not collapse during the strong earthquake. Thus, safety of
people and contents is assured in earthquake-resistant buildings, and
thereby a disaster is avoided. This is a major objective of seismic design
codes throughout the world.
Design Philosophy

1. Under minor but frequent shaking, the main members of the

buildings that carry vertical and horizontal forces should not be
damaged; however buildings parts that do not carry load may sustain
repairable damage.
2. Under moderate but occasional shaking, the main members may
sustain repairable damage, while the other parts that do not carry
load may sustain repairable damage.
3. Under strong but rare shaking, the main members  may sustain
severe damage, but the building should not collapse.

Earthquake resistant design is therefore concerned about ensuring that

the damages in buildings during earthquakes are of acceptable variety,
and also that they occur at the right places and in right amounts. This
approach of earthquake resistant design is much like the use of electrical
fuses in houses: to protect the entire electrical wiring and appliances in
the house, you sacrifice some small parts of electrical circuit, called fuses;
these fuses are easily replaced after the electrical over-current. Likewise
to save the building from collapsing you need to allow some pre-
determined parts to undergo the acceptable type and level of damage.

Earthquake resistant buildings, particularly their main elements, need to

be built with ductility in them. Such buildings have the ability to sway
back-and-forth during an earthquake, and to withstand the earthquake
effects with some damage, but without collapse.
Impact of Earthquakes
Earthquakes do not kill people, but buildings do. We are heavily
dependent upon the civic amenities or life-lines like water supply, electric
power supply, drainage. Earthquake can disturb civic amenities in a major
way. Lifeline like hospitals, health care centers have major role in natural
catastrophe like earthquake. Hence additional care while designing these
structures is needed. A severe earthquake can have very damaging
consequences upon a region’s development and economy.

Its has its impacts on

(a) Lifeline and society

(b) Affects a Large number of People.
(c)Losses to Lives, Livelihoods, Property.
(d) Civic amenities
(e) Heritage
(f) Loss of housing.
(g) Damage to infrastructure
(h) Disruption of transport and communication.
(i) Disruption of marketing systems.
(j) Breakdown of social order.
(k) Loss of business.
(l) Loss of industrial output.

Among all disasters that can take place, earthquake has the maximum
loss of life and limbs. Tremendous loss of property, especially buildings
is caused, leaving a large mass of population shelter less. Buildings as
badly damaged as this require demolition.

Our heritage connects us with our ancestors and give a sense of pride
and belongings. The new structures can be often rebuilt but the loss of
heritage is a huge loss. Since the reconstruction is difficult as well as
the very sense of it being built historically is lost forever.

The healthcare center where everyone looks for healing, itself looking
for health touch is the sad scene during earthquakes. These type of
facility needs to be given extra level of earthquake protection. Since
healthcare buildings have to play a major role in case of catastrophe,
additional care is needed in their design. Seismic code provisions
require these buildings to be designed for higher levels of earthquake
loads.
Effects of Earthquakes
In a comprehensive design approach, it should be recognized that
damage to structures and facilities may result from different seismic
effects.  These effects can be classified as ‘Direct’ and ‘Indirect’ (or
Consequential) as follows:

Direct Effects:

1. Ground failures (or instabilities due to ground failures)

             Surface faulting surface or fault rupture)
             Vibration of soil (or effects of seismic waves)
                   Ground cracking
                   Liquefaction
                   Ground lurching
                   Differential settlement
                   Lateral spreading
                   Landslides
2. Vibrations transmitted from the ground to the structure.

Indirect Effects (or Consequential Phenomena):

      (3)  Tsunamis

      (4)  Seiches
      (5)  Landslides
      (6)  Floods
      (7)  Fires

The seismic effect or damage that usually concerns the structural

engineer, and which is taken into account by code seismic-resistant
design provisions, is the vibration of the structure in response to ground
shaking at its foundation.  Although damage due to other effects may
exceed that due to vibration, procedures for gauging the probability of
these effects and for coping with them are outside the scope of the
structural engineering discipline and so are usually not included in
seismic-resistant codes.  Nonetheless, the structural engineer should be
aware of the different seismic hazards and should advise the client of
potential damage involved in locating structures at certain sites.  Thus the
first step in the design procedure of a future structure should be the
analysis of the suitability of the site selected with proper consideration for
the potential of any one of the above types of damage.

The effects of earthquakes include, but are not limited to, the following:

Shaking and ground rupture

 Shaking and ground rupture are the main effects created by
earthquakes, principally resulting in more or less severe damage to
buildings and other rigid structures. The severity of the local effects
depends on the complex combination of the earthquake magnitude,
the distance from the epicenter, and the local geological and
geomorphologic conditions, which may amplify or reduce wave
propagation. The ground-shaking is measured by ground acceleration.

Specific local geological, geomorphologic, and geostructural features

can induce high levels of shaking on the ground surface even from low-
intensity earthquakes. This effect is called site or local amplification. It
is principally due to the transfer of the seismic motion from hard deep
soils to soft superficial soils and to effects of seismic energy
focalization owing to typical geometrical setting of the deposits.

Ground rupture is a visible breaking and displacement of the Earth's

surface along the trace of the fault, which may be of the order of
several metres in the case of major earthquakes. Ground rupture is a
major risk for large engineering structures such as dams, bridges and
nuclear power stations and requires careful mapping of existing faults
to identify any likely to break the ground surface within the life of the
structure.

Landslides and avalanches

Earthquakes, along with severe storms, volcanic activity, coastal wave

attack, and wildfires, can produce slope instability leading to
landslides, a major geological hazard. Landslide danger may persist
while emergency personnel are attempting rescue.

Fires

Earthquakes can cause fires by damaging electrical power or gas lines.

In the event of water mains rupturing and a loss of pressure, it may
also become difficult to stop the spread of a fire once it has started.

Soil liquefaction

Soil liquefaction occurs when, because of the shaking, water-saturated

granular material (such as sand) temporarily loses its strength and
transforms from a solid to a liquid. Soil liquefaction may cause rigid
structures, like buildings and bridges, to tilt or sink into the liquefied
deposits. This can be a devastating effect of earthquakes.
Tsunami

Tsunamis are long-wavelength, long-period sea waves produced by the

sudden or abrupt movement of large volumes of water. In the open
ocean the distance between wave crests can surpass 100 kilometers
(62 miles), and the wave periods can vary from five minutes to one
hour. Such tsunamis travel 600-800 kilometers per hour (373–497
miles per hour), depending on water depth. Large waves produced by
an earthquake or a submarine landslide can overrun nearby coastal
areas in a matter of minutes. Tsunamis can also travel thousands of
kilometers across open ocean and wreak destruction on far shores
hours after the earthquake that generated them.

Ordinarily, subduction earthquakes under magnitude 7.5 on the Richter

scale do not cause tsunamis, although some instances of this have
been recorded. Most destructive tsunamis are caused by earthquakes
of magnitude 7.5 or more.

Floods

A flood is an overflow of any amount of water that reaches land. [34]

Floods occur usually when the volume of water within a body of water,
such as a river or lake, exceeds the total capacity of the formation, and
as a result some of the water flows or sits outside of the normal
perimeter of the body. However, floods may be secondary effects of
earthquakes, if dams are damaged. Earthquakes may cause landslips
to dam rivers, which then collapse and cause floods.

Human impacts

Earthquakes may lead to disease, lack of basic necessities, loss of life,

higher insurance premiums, general property damage, road and bridge
damage, and collapse or destabilization (potentially leading to future
collapse) of buildings. Earthquakes can also precede volcanic
eruptions, which cause further problems.
Construction Materials
In India, most non-urban buildings are made in masonry. In the plains,
masonry is generally made of burnt clay bricks and cement mortar.
However in hilly areas, stone masonry with mud mortar is more
prevalent. But now a day we are very familiar with R.C.C. buildings, and a
variety of new composite constructions materials.

Brittle and Ductile Building Materials

I. Masonry

Masonry is made up of burnt clay bricks and cement or mud mortar.

Masonry can carry loads that cause compression (i.e. pressing together)
but can hardly take load that causes tension (i.e. pulling apart). Masonry
is a brittle material, these walls develop cracks once their ability to carry
horizontal load is exceeded. Thus infill walls act like sacrificial fuses in
buildings: they develop cracks under severe ground shaking but they
share the load of the beams and columns until cracking.
II. Concrete

Concrete is another material that has been popularly used in building

construction particularly over the last four decades. Cement concrete is
made of crushed stone pieces (called aggregate), sand, cement and water
mixed in appropriate proportions. Concrete is much stronger than
masonry under compressive loads, but again its behavior in tension is
poor. The properties of concrete critically depend on the amount of water
used in making concrete, too much and too little water both can cause
havoc.

III. Steel

Steel is used in masonry and concrete buildings as reinforcement bars of

diameter ranging from 6mm to 40mm. reinforcing steel can carry both
tensile and compressive loads. Moreover steel is a ductile material. This
important property of ductility enables steel bars to undergo large
elongation before breaking. Concrete is used with steel reinforcement
bars. This composite material is called as reinforced cement concrete. The
amount and location of steel in a member should be such that the failure
of the member is by steel reaching its strength in tension before concrete
reaches its strength in compression. This type of failure is ductile failure,
and is preferred over a failure where concrete fails first in compression.
Therefore, providing more steel in R.C. buildings can be harmful even

Earthquake Construction Typologies

Earthquake construction means implementation of seismic design to
enable building and non-building structures to live through the anticipated
earthquake exposure up to the expectations and in compliance with the
applicable building codes.

Design and construction are intimately related. To achieve a good

workmanship, detailing of the members and their connections should be,
possibly, simple. As any construction in general, earthquake construction
is a process that consists of the building, retrofitting or assembling of
infrastructure given the construction materials available. The destabilizing
action of an earthquake on constructions may be direct (seismic motion of
the ground) or indirect (earthquake-induced landslides, soil liquefaction
and waves of tsunami).

A structure might have all the appearances of stability, yet offer nothing
but danger when an earthquake occurs. The crucial fact is that, for safety,
earthquake-resistant construction techniques are as important as quality
control and using correct materials.
To minimize possible losses, construction process should be organized
with keeping in mind that earthquake may strike any time prior to the
end of construction. Each construction project requires a qualified team of
professionals who understand the basic features of seismic performance
of different structures as well as construction management.

Adobe structures

One half of the world's population lives or works in the buildings made of
earth. Adobe type of mud bricks is one of the oldest and most widely used
building materials. The use of adobe is very common in some of the
world's most hazard-prone regions, traditionally across Latin America,
Africa, Indian subcontinent and other parts of Asia, Middle East and
Southern Europe.

Adobe buildings are considered very vulnerable at strong quakes.

However, multiple ways of seismic strengthening of new and existing
adobe buildings are available.

Key factors for the improved seismic performance of adobe construction

are:

 Quality of construction.
 Compact, box-type layout.
 Seismic reinforcement.

Limestone and sandstone structures

Limestone is very common in architecture. Many landmarks across the

world, including the pyramids in Egypt, are made of limestone. Many
medieval churches and castles in Europe are made of limestone and
sandstone masonry. They are the long-lasting materials but their rather
heavy weight is not beneficial for adequate seismic performance.

Application of modern technology to seismic retrofitting can enhance the

survivability of unreinforced masonry structures.

Timber frame structures

Timber framing dates back thousands of years, and has been used in
many parts of the world during various periods such as ancient Japan,
Europe and medieval England in localities where timber was in good
supply and building stone and the skills to work it were not.

The use of timber framing in buildings provides their complete skeletal

framing which offers some structural benefits as the timber frame, if
properly engineered, lends it to better seismic survivability.

Light-frame structures

Light-frame structures usually gain seismic resistance from rigid plywood

shear walls and wood structural panel diaphragms. Special provisions for
seismic load-resisting systems for all engineered wood structures requires
consideration of diaphragm ratios, horizontal and vertical diaphragm
shears, and connector/fastener values. In addition, collectors, or drag
struts, to distribute shear along a diaphragm length are required.

Reinforced masonry structures

A construction system is used where steel reinforcement is embedded in

the mortar joints of masonry or placed in holes and after filled with
concrete or grout is called reinforced masonry.

There are various practices and techniques to achieve reinforced

masonry. The most common type is the reinforced hollow unit masonry.
The effectiveness of both vertical and horizontal reinforcement strongly
depends on the type and quality of the masonry, i.e. masonry units and
mortar.

To achieve a ductile behavior of masonry, it is necessary that the shear

strength of the wall is greater than the tensile strength of reinforcement
to ensure a kind of bending failure.

Reinforced concrete structures

Reinforced concrete is concrete in which steel reinforcement bars (rebars)

or fibres have been incorporated to strengthen a material that would
otherwise be brittle. It can be used to produce beams, columns, floors or
bridges.
Prestressed concrete is a kind of reinforced concrete used for overcoming
concrete's natural weakness in tension. It can be applied to beams, floors
or bridges with a longer span than is practical with ordinary reinforced
concrete. Prestressing tendons (generally of high tensile steel cable or
rods) are used to provide a clamping load which produces a compressive
stress that offsets the tensile stress that the concrete compression
member would, otherwise, experience due to a bending load.

To prevent catastrophic collapse in response earth shaking (in the interest

of life safety), a traditional reinforced concrete frame should have ductile
joints. Depending upon the methods used and the imposed seismic
forces, such buildings may be immediately usable, require extensive
repair, or may have to be demolished.

Prestressed structures

Prestressed structure is the one whose overall integrity, stability and

security depend, primarily, on a prestressing. Prestressing means the
intentional creation of permanent stresses in a structure for the purpose
of improving its performance under various service conditions. Naturally
pre-compression is used in the exterior wall of Colosseum, Rome.

There are the following basic types of prestressing:

 Pre-compression (mostly, with the own weight of a structure)

 Pretensioning with high-strength embedded tendons
 Post-tensioning with high-strength bonded or unbonded tendons

Today, the concept of prestressed structure is widely engaged in design of

buildings, underground structures, TV towers, power stations, floating
storage and offshore facilities, nuclear reactor vessels, and numerous
kinds of bridge system.A beneficial idea of prestressing was, apparently,
familiar to the ancient Rome architects; look, e.g., at the tall attic wall of
Colosseum working as a press for the wall piers beneath.

Steel structures

Steel structures are considered mostly earthquake resistant but their

resistance should never be taken for granted. A great number of welded
steel moment frame buildings, which looked earthquake-proof,
surprisingly experienced brittle behavior and were hazardously damaged
in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. After that, the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) initiated development of repair techniques
and new design approaches to minimize damage to steel moment frame
buildings in future earthquakes.

For structural steel seismic design based on Load and Resistance Factor
Design (LRFD) approach, it is very important to assess ability of a
structure to develop and maintain its bearing resistance in the inelastic
range. A measure of this ability is ductility, which may be observed in a
material itself, in a structural element, or to a whole structure.

All pre-qualified connection details and design methods contained in the

building codes of that time have been rescinded. The new provisions
stipulated that new designs be substantiated by testing or by use of test-
verified calculations.

Base Isolation
It is easiest to see the principle at work by referring directly to the most
widely used of these advanced techniques, known as base isolation. A
base isolated structure is supported by a series of bearing pads, which are
placed between the buildings and building foundation.

Base Isolation Technique

The concept of base isolation is explained through an example building

resting on frictionless rollers. When the ground shakes, the rollers freely
roll, but the building above does not move. Thus, no force is transferred
to the building due to the shaking of the ground; simply, the building
does not experience the earthquake.

Now, if the same building is rested on the flexible pads that offer
resistance against lateral movements, then some effect of the ground
shaking will be transferred to the building above. If the flexible pads are
properly chosen, the forces induced by ground shaking can be a few times
smaller than that experienced by the building built directly on ground,
namely a fixed base building. The flexible pads are called base-isolators,
whereas the structures protected by means of these devices are called
base-isolated buildings. The main feature of the base isolation technology
is that it introduces flexibility in the structure.

As a result, a robust medium-rise masonry or reinforced concrete building

becomes extremely flexible. The isolators are often designed, to absorb
energy and thus add damping to the system. This helps in further
reducing the seismic response of the building. Many of the base isolators
look like large rubber pads, although there are other types that are based
on sliding of one part of the building relative to other. Also, base isolation
is not suitable for all buildings. Mostly low to medium rise buildings rested
on hard soil underneath; high-rise buildings or buildings rested on soft
soil are not suitable for base isolation.

oncept of Base Isolation

Lead-rubber bearings are the frequently-used types of base isolation

bearings. A lead rubber bearing is made from layers of rubber sandwiched
together with layers of steel. In the middle of the solid lead “plug”. On top
and bottom, the bearing is fitted with steel plates which are used to
attach the bearing to the building and foundation. The bearing is very stiff
and strong in the vertical direction, but flexible in the horizontal direction.

Response of Base Isolated Buildings

The base-isolated building retains its original, rectangular shape. The

base isolated building itself escapes the deformation and damage-which
implies that the inertial forces acting on the base isolated building have
been reduced. Experiments and observations of base-isolated buildings in
earthquakes to as little as ¼ of the acceleration of comparable fixed-base
buildings.

Acceleration is decreased because the base isolation system lengthens a

buildings period of vibration, the time it takes for a building to rock back
and forth and then back again. And in general, structures with longer
periods of vibration tend to reduce acceleration, while those with shorter
periods tend to increase or amplify acceleration.

Spherical Sliding Base Isolation

Spherical sliding isolation systems are another type of base isolation. The
building is supported by bearing pads that have a curved surface and low
friction. During an earthquake the building is free to slide on the bearings.
Since the bearings have a curved surface, the building slides both
horizontally and vertically. The forces needed to move the building
upwards limits the horizontal or lateral forces which would otherwise
cause building deformations. Also by adjusting the radius of the bearings
curved surface, this property can be used to design bearings that also
lengthen the buildings period of vibration
Guidelines
  One of the most critical decisions influencing the ability of a
superstructure to withstand earthquake ground shaking is the choice of its
basic plan shape and configuration.  The importance of a proper selection
of the superstructure configuration will be discussed and illustrated for the
case of building structures.

      Building structures may be of many types and configurations and

there is, of course, no universal ideal configuration for any particular type
of building.  However, there are certain basic or guiding principles of 
seismic-resistant design that can be used as guidelines in selecting an
adequate building configuration structural layout, structural system,
structural material and the non-structural components.  These basic
guidelines are as follows:

1. Building (superstructure and non-

structural components) should be
light and avoid unnecessary
masses.
2. Building and its superstructure
should be simple, symmetric, and
regular in plan and elevation to
prevent significant torsional
forces, avoiding large height-
width ratio and large plan area.
3. Building and its superstructure
should have a uniform and
continuous distribution of mass,
stiffness, strength and ductility,
avoiding formation of soft stories.
4. Superstructure should have
relatively shorter spans than non-
seismic-resistant structure and
avoid use of long cantilevers.
5. The non-structural components
should either be well separated so
that they will not interact with the
rest of the structure, or they should
be integrated with the structure.  On
the latter case, it is desirable that
the structure should have sufficient
lateral stiffness to avoid significant
damage under minor and moderate
earthquake shaking, and toughness
with stable hysteric behavior (that
 is, stability of strength, stiffness and
deformability) under the repeated
reversal of deformations which could
be induced by severe earthquake
ground motion.  The stiffer the
structure, the less sensitive it will be
to the effects of the interacting non-
structural components, and the
tougher it is, the less sensitive it will
be to effect of sudden failure of the
interacting non-structural elements.
6. Superstructure should be detailed so
that the inelastic deformations can
be constrained (controlled) to
develop in desired regions and
according to a desirable hierarchy.
7. Superstructure should have the
largest possible number of defense
lines, that is, it should be composed
of different tough structural
subsystems which interact or are
interconnected by very tough
structural elements (structural
fuses) whose inelastic behavior
would permit the whole structure to
find its way out from a critical stage
of dynamic response.
8. Superstructure should be provided
with balanced stiffness and strength
between its members, connections
and supports.
9. The stiffness and strength of the
entire building should be compatible
with the stiffness and strength of
the soil
Research alone is not enough; analytical and
experimental studies must be augmented by
development work [27].  Specific educational and
integrated analytical and experimental research and
development needs have been discussed in detail in
several publications [12, 13, 28, 29].

RESEARCH CONDUCTED IN THE LAST TWO

DECADES

      Despite many unresolved problems in predicting

the behavior of buildings and civil engineering
structures in general, under the combined effects of
normal environments and extreme earthquake ground
motions, our understanding has advanced significantly
in the last two decades.  There is a significant body of
knowledge regarding the problems caused by extreme
earthquake shaking that has been gained through
integrated experimental and analytical research
conducted in different research institutions in the
world.  A few example of the experimental research
conducted in the Structural Laboratories of the
University of California at Berkeley are illustrated in
Slides J109-J113.

   
 J109.  Test set-up for studying the seismic
behavior of short column-spandrel deep
girder subassemblages. 

      A series of integrated analytical and experimental

studies has been conducted to investigate the behavior
of this type of main assemblage that has been used
frequently in buildings located in regions of high
seismic risk.  Methods to improve the hysteretic
behavior of the short columns have been developed. 
By using the correct amount and detailing of
longitudinal and particularly lateral reinforcement it has
been possible to attain tough short columns capable of
dissipating a significant amount of energy before
resistance is lost [30].

J110.  Two-story column-deep girder assemblage after

being subjected to severe hysteretic behavior,
simulating the expected behavior of this assemblage in
tall buildings subjected to severe ground shaking.  Note
the excellent behavior of the properly confined concrete
[30].  The need for improving the behavior of short
columns has been emphasized by the numerous failures
of this type of column in recent earthquakes.

J111.  Strong column-weak girder assemblage of a

ductile moment-resistant reinforced concrete frame.  In
the experiments conducted on subassemblages of ductile
reinforced concrete moment-resistant frames it has been
observed that there was significant degradation in
stiffness and strength of frames with repeated cycles of
deformation reversal.  The main sources of this problem
have been identified as high shear and/or high bond
stress through the joint.
      The design can avoid or minimize this problem by
avoiding the formation of the critical regions (plastic
hinges) at the faces of the columns.  Experiments
conducted at Berkeley on subassemblages in which the
plastic hinges have been moved away from the
columns as illustrated in this slide, and therefore
keeping the joint elastic, have shown that it is possible
to achieve good stable hysteretic behavior [31, 32]. 
Note in this slide that all the inelastic deformations
occurred in the beams in regions away from the face of
the column.

J112.  Weak column-strong girder assemblage of a

steel moment-resistant frame.  Slide showing the local
buckling of a column of the subassemblage that has
been subjected to high axial forces and shear reversals
simulating the effect of seismic excitations.  From this
study and similar integrated experimental and
analytical research, a series of recommendations has
been made regarding the compactness of steel
structural shapes as well as the design of beam-column
joints in steel moment-resistant frames subject to
severe seismic shaking and requiring significant
dissipation of energy through inelastic behavior
(ductility).

J113.  A 1/5 scale model of the US-Japan 2-story

reinforced concrete test structure on the shaking table of
the earthquake simulator facility at the University of
California, Berkeley.  This is the 1/5 scale model of the
prototype studied experimentally using a pseudo-
dynamic technique at the large testing facility of the BRI
at Tsukuka, the Science City of Japan.  These studies
have been conducted as part of a comprehensive US-
Japan Cooperative Research Program, planned to
improve the seismic-resistant design and construction of
buildings [34].
       The results of the tests conducted have indicated
the importance of the three-dimensional interacting
behavior of walls and surrounding frames and of the
significance of rocking and growth of the wall at the
base, and the consequential outriggering action that
the surrounding frames will exert on the walls.  The
results obtained have also indicated the need for
considering the contribution of slab reinforcement to
the negative moment capacity of the girders cast
monolithically with the floor slabs.  Important
recommendations for improving the states of the
practice and of the art in seismic-resistant design and
construction of reinforced concrete frame-wall systems
have been made, based on the results offered in this
cooperative research program.

References

http://articles.architectjaved.com/earthquake_resistant_structures/tag/ea
rthquakes/

http://nisee.berkeley.edu/bertero/html/earthquake-
resistant_construction.html