Performance of steel buildings and nonstructural elements during the 27 February 2010 Maule (Chile) Earthquake

2013 ◽  
Vol 40 (8) ◽  
pp. 722-734 ◽  
Author(s):  
Murat Saatcioglu ◽  
Robert Tremblay ◽  
Denis Mitchell ◽  
Ahmed Ghobarah ◽  
Dan Palermo ◽  
...  

This paper presents performance of steel buildings and nonstructural elements during the 27 February 2010 Maule Earthquake in Chile. Structural steel buildings are not common in Chile, due to the relatively high cost of material. The majority of damage to steel structures was observed in industrial facilities. In general, the structural steel buildings performed well. Limited damage was observed in some of the older buildings. Extensive damage was sustained by nonstructural elements, including masonry infill walls, suspended ceilings, partition walls, and architectural features. Brick masonry partition walls, commonly used in Chilean buildings, suffered damage when used in frame buildings with little drift control. The paper presents a summary of observed damage and a comparison of Chilean and Canadian design practices for steel buildings, with lessons drawn from observed structural performance.

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (31) ◽  
pp. 4149-4153
Author(s):  
W. G. Fergusona ◽  
C. K. Seal ◽  
M. A. Hodgson ◽  
G. C. Clifton

The second Christchurch earthquake on February 22, 2011, Magnitude 6.35, generated more intense shaking in the Central Business District than the September 4, 2010 Darfield earthquake, Magnitude 7.1. The second earthquake was closer to the CBD and at shallow depth, resulting in peak ground accelerations 3 times higher. There was significant failure of unreinforced masonry buildings and collapse of a few reinforced concrete buildings, leading to loss of life. Steel structures on the whole performed well during the earthquake and the plastic, inelastic deformation was less than expected given the strength of the recorded ground accelerations. For steel buildings designed to withstand earthquake loading, a design philosophy is to have some structural elements deform plastically, absorbing energy in the process. Typically elements of beams are designed to plastically deform while the columns remain elastic. In the earthquake some of these elements deformed plastically and the buildings were structurally undamaged. The question which then arises is; the building may be safe, but will it withstand a further severe earthquake? In other words how much further plastic work damage can be absorbed without failure of the structural element? Previous research at Auckland on modern structural steel, where the steel was prestrained various levels, to represent earthquake loading, the toughness was determined, as a function of prestrain for the naturally strain-aged steel. Further research, on the same steel, investigated life to failure for cyclic plastic straining in tension and compression loading at various plastic strain amplitudes. This work has shown that provided the plastic strain in the structural element is in the range 2 – 5% the steel will still meet the relevant NZ Standards. To determine the remaining life the plastic strain must be determ ined then the decision made; to use the building as is, replace the structural element or demolish.


2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (1_suppl1) ◽  
pp. 553-579 ◽  
Author(s):  
Santiago Brunet ◽  
Juan Carlos de la Llera ◽  
Andrés Jacobsen ◽  
Eduardo Miranda ◽  
Cristián Meza

This article describes the seismic performance of a group of ports in southern Chile during the 27 February 2010 Maule, Chile, earthquake. Direct costs in damage for these ports have been estimated in slightly less than US$300 million. Similarly to the performance of other ports in previous earthquakes, the most common failures observed were soil related, and include soil liquefaction, lateral spreading, and pile failures. Structural failures were mostly due to short pile effects and natural torsion. This situation is contrasted herein with the performance of the South Coronel Pier, which was seismically isolated in 2007. The isolated portion of this port remained operational after the earthquake, which was the main design goal. Post-earthquake preliminary analyses indicate that the structure was subjected to deformations and forces of approximately 60% to 70% of their design values, respectively. Piles and superstructure remained within elastic range, while the isolators experienced important nonlinear deformations.


2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (1_suppl1) ◽  
pp. 301-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng Song ◽  
Santiago Pujol ◽  
Andrés Lepage

The Alto Río Building, a 15-story building located in Concepción, Chile, collapsed during the 2010 Maule earthquake. Construction of the building was completed in 2009 following the Chilean building code of 1996. The building was provided with reinforced concrete structural walls (occupying nearly 7% of the floor area) to resist lateral and vertical loads. The walls failed in the first story, causing the overturning of the entire building. This paper provides detailed field observations and discusses plausible causes of the collapse.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-177
Author(s):  
Işıl Sanrı Karapınar ◽  
◽  
Fuat Aras ◽  

Operational modal analysis (OMA), assessing the effect of environmental conditions on the structures has been attracting widespread interest and its results have been used for the validation of numerical models. This paper aims to validate the application of OMA on steel buildings to investigate their dynamic behavior during and after their construction. In this context, the construction stages of a steel building were monitored. With the completion of the construction, the dynamic tests were applied at different times to identify the changes in the modal characteristics of the building with respect to the temperature and service loads. Finally, the analytical model of the building was performed and the building’s dynamic properties were determined numerically. As a result, the experimentally obtained dynamic properties for the completed building were compared to those derived from numerical analysis. The results underlined the importance of slab construction for the formation of building behavior in the construction stages. Besides the effects of ambient temperature and service load on the dynamic properties of steel buildings were revealed. Finally, the lack of partition walls in the numerical model has been grasped as the main reason behind the differences between the experimentally and numerically obtained dynamic properties.


2021 ◽  
pp. 875529302098801
Author(s):  
José Wilches ◽  
Hernán Santa Maria ◽  
Roberto Leon ◽  
Rafael Riddell ◽  
Matías Hube ◽  
...  

Chile, as a country with a long history of strong seismicity, has a record of both a constant upgrading of its seismic design codes and structural systems, particularly for bridges, as a result of major earthquakes. Recent earthquakes in Chile have produced extensive damage to highway bridges, such as deck collapses, large transverse residual displacements, yielding and failure of shear keys, and unseating of the main girders, demonstrating that bridges are highly vulnerable structures. Much of this damage can be attributed to construction problems and poor detailing guidelines in design codes. After the 2010 Maule earthquake, new structural design criteria were incorporated for the seismic design of bridges in Chile. The most significant change was that a site coefficient was included for the estimation of the seismic design forces in the shear keys, seismic bars, and diaphragms. This article first traces the historical development of earthquakes and construction systems in Chile to provide a context for the evolution of Chilean seismic codes. It then describes the seismic performance of highway bridges during the 2010 Maule earthquake, including the description of the main failure modes observed in bridges. Finally, this article provides a comparison of the Chilean bridge seismic code against the Japanese and United States codes, considering that these codes have a great influence on the seismic codes for Chilean bridges. The article demonstrates that bridge design and construction practices in Chile have evolved substantially in their requirements for the analysis and design of structural elements, such as in the definition of the seismic hazard to be considered, tending toward more conservative approaches in an effort to improve structural performance and reliability for Chilean bridges.


2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 488-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Barraza ◽  
Edén Bojórquez ◽  
Eduardo Fernández-González ◽  
Alfredo Reyes-Salazar

2018 ◽  
Vol 763 ◽  
pp. 1067-1076 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luigi di Sarno ◽  
Fabrizio Paolacci ◽  
Anastasios G. Sextos

Numerous existing steel framed buildings located in earthquake prone regions world-wide were designed without seismic provisions. Slender beam-columns, as well as non-ductile beam-to-column connections have been employed for multi-storey moment-resisting frames (MRFs) built before the 80’s. Thus, widespread damage due to brittle failure has been commonly observed in the past earthquakes for steel MRFs. A recent post-earthquake survey carried out in the aftermath of the 2016-2017 Central Italy seismic swarm has pointed out that steel structures may survive the shaking caused by several main-shocks and strong aftershocks without collapsing. Inevitably, significant lateral deformations are experienced, and, in turn, non-structural components are severely damaged thus inhibiting the use of the steel building structures. The present papers illustrates the outcomes of a recent preliminary numerical study carried out for the case of a steel MRF building located in Amatrice, Central Italy, which experienced a series of ground motion excitations suffering significant damage to the masonry infills without collapsing. A refined numerical model of the sample structure has been developed on the basis of the data collected on site. Given the lack of design drawings, the structure has been re-designed in compliance with the Italian regulations imposed at the time of construction employing the allowable stress method. The earthquake performance of the case study MRF has been then investigated through advanced nonlinear dynamic analyses and its structural performance has been evaluated according to Eurocode 8-Part 3 for existing buildings. The reliability of the codified approaches has been evaluated and possible improvements emphasized.


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