CHAPTER-3

Earthquake Loading and

Earthquake Resistant
Structures
 What is an Earthquake?
• Movements within the Earth’s crust cause stress to
build up at points of weakness, and rocks to deform.
• Stored energy builds up in the same way as energy
builds up in the spring of a watch when it is wound.
• When the stress finally exceeds the strength of the
rock, the rock fractures along a fault, often at a zone
of existing weakness within the rock. The stored
energy is suddenly released as an earthquake.
• Earthquakes are essentially vibrations of the earth’s crust
Two distinct mechanisms cause earthquakes:
– Volcanic eruption
– Tectonic movements of the earth’s crust.
• Tectonic movements are the major causes of observed
earthquakes. They are disturbances resulting from a rupture
or a sudden movement along an existing fault in the earth’s
crust.
• Major earthquakes occur most frequently in particular areas
of the earth’s surface that are called zones of high
probability. However, it is theoretically possible to have a
major earthquake anywhere on the earth at some time.
• During an earthquake the ground surface moves in all
directions.
• The most damaging effects on structures are generally the
movements in a direction parallel to the ground surface (that
is, horizontally) because of the fact that structures are
routinely designed for vertical gravity loads.
• There is a great uncertainty in the amplitude, duration, and
frequency content of the motions that may be expected at a
particular site.
• Major earthquakes are usually rather short in duration, often
lasting only a few seconds
 Movement of body waves away from the focus of the earthquake. The
epicenter is the location on the surface directly above the earthquake's focus.
Body waves
Behavior of a building during an earthquake
Earthquake of June 16, 1964 in Niigata, Japan had a magnitude
of 7.4. Liquefaction of some soils in the area caused large
apartment buildings to tip over on their sides.
 A view of a parking lot on the campus of California State
University. Columns of reinforced concrete failed after the 1994
Northridge earthquake and its aftershocks.
 The earthquake of March 27, 1964, in the Gulf of Alaska
generated a tsunami. This photo shows a beached fishing boat
that was carried landward by the tsunami wave.
2011 Japan Earthquake
 2011 Japan Earthquake
• Date 14:46:23, 11 March 2011
• Duration 6 minutes
• Magnitude 9.0
• Depth 32 km
• Type Megathrust earthquake
• Countries or regions affected Japan (primary); Pacific Rim (tsunami,
secondary)
• Total damage Tsunami wave, flooding, landslides, fires, building and
infrastructure damage, nuclear incidents including radiation releases
• Peak ground acceleration 2.99 g
• Tsunami: 37.9 meters
• Casualties 12,787 deaths; 4,661 injured; 14,991 people missing
• over 125,000 buildings damaged or destroyed. The earthquake and
tsunami caused extensive and severe structural damage in Japan,
including heavy damage to roads and railways as well as fires in many
areas, Landslides and a dam collapse.
 MEASUREMENT OF EARTHQUAKES
• Modern recording equipment and practices provide
us with representations of the ground movements at
various locations
• There are two terms used to define the
measurement of earthquakes:
Magnitude: refers to a measure of its size in terms of
energy released and radiated in the form of seismic
waves.
Intensity: is the term intended to denote the potential
destruction of an earthquake at a particular location.
It depends on focal depth, epicenter distance, local
geology and structural characteristics in addition to
the magnitude of earthquake.
• The strength of an earthquake can be measured by a
device called a seismograph.
• When an earthquake occurs this device converts the
wave energy into a standard unit of measurement
like the Richter scale.
• In the Richter scale, units of measurement are
referred to as magnitudes.
• The Richter scale is logarithmic.
• Thus, each unit increase in magnitude represents 10
times more energy released.
• The following equation can be used to
approximate the amount of energy released
from an earthquake in joules when Richter
magnitude (M) is known:
Energy in joules = 1.74 x 10(5 + 1.44*M)
 DESIGN OF EARTHQUAKE RESISTANT STRUCTURES

A structure should be able to:

– Resist earthquakes of minor intensity with out
damage
– Resist moderate earthquakes with minor
structural and some non-structural damages
– Resist major catastrophic earthquakes with out
collapse
 Seismic Load Resistive Structural Systems
The various elements of structural systems of buildings, which serve as
seismic, load resistive system consists of:
Horizontal diaphragms: consist of elements such as roofs, floor framing
and/or the deck system having sufficient strength and stiffness with rigid
and useful planes.
Open rigid frames: consist of beams and columns framed together to
produce moment resisting system and are the most flexible of the basic
type of lateral resistive system.
Braced frames: refers to the use of trussing or triangulation of the frame to
achieve its lateral stability. The trussing causes the lateral loads to induce
only axial forces in the members of the frame as compared to the behavior
of rigid frame.
Vertical diaphragms: shear walls are walls of buildings and essentially
function as lateral load resistive system, Most common type includes:
concrete masonry, wood shear walls, RC shear walls.
 Lateral-force-resisting systems:
(a) steel moment-resisting frame; (b) reinforced concrete moment-resisting
frame; (c) braced steel frame; (d) reinforced concrete shear walls; (e)
steel frame building with cast-in-place concrete shear walls; (f) steel frame
building with in-filled walls of nonreinforced masonry.
RESPONSE OF STRUCTURES TO
EARTHQUAKE MOTIONS
 Earthquake Design Provisions
There are two accepted methods of estimating
magnitude and distribution of earthquake induced
lateral forces.
– Equivalent static (building code) method
– Dynamic methods:
• The Equivalent static method of analysis is applied to
buildings whose response is not significantly affected
by contributions from higher modes of vibration.
These are buildings, which are regular in plan and
elevation and have fundamental periods of vibration
less than 2sec. However, the dynamic analysis is
applicable to all types of buildings.
The complete analysis and design process may be divided into
the following principal steps:

a) Determination of design earthquake forces:

1. Calculation of base shear corresponding to the computed or
estimated fundamental period of vibration of the structure
2. Distribution of the base shear over the height of the building
3. Distribution of story shear into the lateral force resisting
systems of the building (shear walls, frame, dual system…)
b) Analysis of the structure under the lateral forces in
combination with gravity loadings or any other loads to
obtain the member design forces.
c) Designing members and joints for the most unfavorable
condition of gravity and lateral loads, with emphasis
placed on the design and detailing of members and their
connections to ensure their ductile behavior.
 a) Determination of Design Earthquake
Forces
1. Determination of base shear
2. Distribution of base shear over height of a
building
Determination of base shear
The seismic base shear force, Fb, for each
main direction is determined from:
Fb = Sd(T1)W
Where Sd(T1) = ordinate of the design spectrum at
period T1 and is given by Sd(T1) = α β γ
1-Determination of base shear
Subsoil class A – includes rock, stiff deposits of sand, gravel or over consolidated clay
Subsoil class B – deep deposit of medium dense sand, gravel or medium, stiff clay
Subsoil class C – includes loose cohesion less soil deposits, deposits of soft to medium
stiff cohesive soils.
NB. See EBCS-8, 95 for more.
2-Distribution of base shear over height of a building
(story shear determination)
 3- Distribution of story shear (seismic or wind) into
the lateral force resisting systems of the building
• Center of mass (Xm, Ym): it is a point on a floor level where the
whole floor mass and its inertial effects can be replaced using
a lumped equivalent mass.

• Center of seismic force: it is a point on a floor level where a

horizontal seismic force Fi passes through. This point is same
as the center of mass.
• Center of stiffness (Xs, Ys): a point where the stiffness or
strength of the floor is concentrated.
• Shear center (Xi, Yi): a point where the center of stiffness
(shear center) of the ith shear wall or column is located.
• Lever arm ( ): the distance between the center of
stiffness of the floor and the shear center of the ith shear wall
or column.

• Eccentricities (ex, ey): the difference between the center of

mass and center of stiffness of the floor.
• Minimum horizontal torsion, eli: In addition to the actual
eccentricity, for various sources of uncertainties in locating
the masses and spatial variation of the seismic motion, an
additional accidental eccentricity eli is considered. It is given
by:

Where Li is the floor dimension perpendicular to the direction

of seismic action.
b) Analysis of the structure under the lateral forces in
combination with gravity loadings or any other loads to obtain
the member design forces.
c) Designing members and joints for the most unfavorable
condition of gravity and lateral loads, with emphasis placed on
the design and detailing of members and their connections to
ensure their ductile behavior.