Design of Earthquake

Resistant Structures
Luna Hasani
Lecture 1

 What is an earthquake?
A sudden violent shaking of the
ground, typically causing great
destruction.
What is earthquake engineering?
The science that studies the behavior
of structures under earthquake
excitations.

Earthquakes are:
Violent
Random
Oscillatory

- This calls for the use of probability approach

in analysis and design of structures.

Worlds Deadliest Earthquakes

China - 1976

Date

Location

Death
Toll

Magnitu
de

Jan. 23,
1556

China

830,000

8.0

July 28,
1976

China

650,000
779,000

7.8

Dec. 26,
2004

Indonesia

283,106

9.1 9.3

Dec. 16,
1920

China

273,400

7.8

Dec. 13,
115

Now
Turkey

260,000

7.5

May, 526

Now
Turkey

250,000
300,000

7.0

Oct. 11,
1138

Now Syria

230,000

Jan. 8,
1780

Iran

200,000

7.7

Sept. 17,
1303

Now China

200,000

8.0

Casualties in the Past Century

Date

Location

Death
Toll

Magnitud
e

Jan. 12,
2010

Haiti

160,000

7.0

May 12,
2008

China

87,652

7.9

Oct. 8,
2005

Pakistan

> 86,000

7.6

Dec. 26,
2004

Indonesia

283,106

9.1-9.3

June 21,
1990

Iran

50,000

7.4

July 28,
1976

China

650,000779,000

7.8

May 31,
1970

Peru

100,000

7.9

Oct. 55,
1948

Turkmenist
an

110,000

7.3

May 31,
1935

Pakistan

60,000

7.7

Aceh in Indonesia - 2004

How Do We Get an
Earthquake?
Elastic Rebound Theory
A mechanism causes large amounts of
energy to be stored in brittle rocks.
Rocks are stressed.
When strength of rock is exceeded, the
rock suddenly breaks.
Vibrations occur
Earthquakes.

Major Causes of
Earthquakes

Plate Tectonics
Pangaea and
Modern World.
Tectonic plates
are large thin
plates that move
relative to each
other on the
surface of the
earth.

Plate Tectonics
Structure of the Earth

Convection: The movement caused within a fluid by the

tendency of hotter and therefore less dense material to rise,
and colder, denser material to sink under the influence of
gravity, which consequently results in transfer of heat.

Plate Tectonics
Earths crust (lithosphere) consists of plates
that move because of convection currents.
Large convection currents in the aesthenosphere
transfer heat to the surface.
Less dense magma breaks apart the plates at the
spreading centers.
Plates move away from the spreading centers,
magma cools forming new rocks.
Subduction occurs when a denser oceanic plate
slides beneath a continental plate or another
oceanic plate.

Plate Boundaries
Three types of plate boundaries:
1. Divergent plate boundary: Characterized by
shallow earthquakes.
2. Convergent plate boundary: Characterized by
shallow to deep earthquakes.
3. Transform plate boundary: Characterized by
shallow earthquakes.
The plate boundaries are made up of many
faults, and most of the earthquakes around the
world occur on these faults.

Plate Boundaries

Plate Boundaries

Types of Faults

Types of Faults
Normal fault: The hanging wall slides down the
fault.
Reverse fault: The hanging wall is pushed up the
fault.
Strike-slip fault: The hanging wall and footwall
slide past each other horizontally.
Oblique fault: Afaultwhich has a component of
dip-slip and a component of strike-slip.
- Hanging wallis the block positioned over the
fault, theFootwallis the block positioned under it.

Types of Faults

Epicenter and Hypocenter

The hypocenter
(focus) is the point
within the earth
where an earthquake
rupture starts.
The epicenter is the
point that is located
vertically above the
hypocenter, on the
surface of the earth.

Ring of Fire
Ring of fire is an area
where a large number
of earthquakes and
volcanoes occur. It is
located in the basin of
the Pacific Ocean.
The area includes
countries like
Indonesia, Japan, New
Zealand, Chile, Canada
and The United States.

Chile - 2008

Ring of Fire

About 90% of the worlds earthquakes and 80% of the

worlds major earthquakes occur along the ring of fire.

Measuring Earthquakes
Seismic waves are
vibrations resulting
from earthquakes
and move either
through the body
or the surface of
the earth.
Earthquake waves
are recorded using
a device called a
seismograph.

Measuring Earthquakes
Time, location, depth
and magnitude of
earthquakes can be
determined from the
data recorded by
seismographs.

Earthquake Magnitude
The Richter Scale was
developed in 1935 as a
measuring method that
compares the size of
earthquakes. It also
measures the amount of
energy released by
earthquakes.
Data is measured using
seismographs and compared
using Richter Scale.
The scale is logarithmic.

Earthquake Intensity MMI

Modified Mercalli Intensity scale
(MMI) measures the intensity of the
earthquake based on observations.
It shows the effects caused by
earthquakes.
Scale is linear.
It does not require a measuring tool
like a seismograph.

Magnitude and Intensity

Intensit
y
(Mercalli
)
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII

Observations
No effect.
Noticed only by sensitive people.
Resembles vibrations caused by heavy traffic.
Felt by people walking; rocking of free standing objects.
Sleepers awakened; bells ring.
Trees sway, some damage from falling objects.
General alarm, cracking of walls.
Chimneys fall and some damage to building.
Ground crack, houses begin to collapse, pipes break.
Ground badly cracked, many buildings destroyed. Some
landslides.
Few buildings remain standing, bridges destroyed.
Total destruction; objects thrown in air, shaking and distortion
of ground.

Magnitud
e
(Richter)
1 to 2
2 to 3
3 to 4
4
4 to 5
5 to 6
6
6 to 7
7
7 to 8
8
8 or
greater

Magnitude and Intensity

At a given point:
MMI = 8.16 + 1.45 M 2.46 ln(R)
Where M is the magnitude, and R is the distance from the
epicenter.