Earthquake Notes

1. What is the lowest acknowledged numerical Richter magnitude that would identify a major earthquake?
Ans.
This is an ambiguous question since different people would interpret the word major differently. In general, a moderate
earthquake would have Richter magnitude of 5, a strong earthquake would have a magnitude of 7, and a great earthquake
would have a magnitude of 8 or higher.

2. What is the theoretical upper numerical limit on the Richter magnitude scale?
Ans.
There is no theoretical upper limit on the Richter magnitude scale.

3. What does Richter magnitude scale measure?
Ans.
The Richter apparatus detects earth movement. The numerical magnitude describes earthquake strength. The numerical
value represents a measure of energy release on a logarithmic scale.
4. What is the difference between stiffness and rigidity as used in seismic consideration?
Ans.
Stiffness is the force that is applied to deflect a structure a unit amount in a given direction. Rigidity strictly relative
rigidity is a normalize stiffness. Whereas the stiffness of a single member can be used in numerical calculations, rigidities can
only be used when forces are being distributed among several members.
5. What is the difference between ductility and flexibility as used in seismic consideration?
Ans.
Flexibility is the reciprocal of stiffness. It is the elastic deflection obtained when a unit force is applied. Ductility is the ability
of a material to distort and yield without fracture or collapse. Since flexibility deals with elastic deformation, there in little
connection between the two concepts.
6. What is the relationship between rigidity and the variables of pier height, depth, and thickness?
Ans.
Roughly, rigidity is proportional to the first power of thickness and to the cube of pier depth and is inversely proportional to
the cube of pier height.
7. Ductility is the ability of a material to disturb and yield without fracture or collapse.
8. The ductility factor of a material is the ratio of its strain energy at fracture to its strain energy at yield. There are other
similar and related definitions.
9. What factor influence the ductility?
Ans.
From a metallurgical perspective, temperature and previous stress-strain history influence the ductility of a ductile material
such as steel. The higher the temperature, the greater the ductility. The more the materials had been worked or stressed in
previous cycles or events, the more brittle(the opposite of ductile) it becomes. From structure perspective, ductility depends on
the type of construction (i.e., steel or concrete), the structural system, the quality of construction, the detailing, and the
redundancy.
10. What is the minimum recommended ductility factor?
Ans.
It is both possible to specify a minimum recommended ductility factor exactly because it depends on the type of structure,
construction material used, intended use of the structure, and many other factors. However, the ductility factor should be well
in excess of 1.0 and seems to be no less than 2.5 for modern structures.
11. What is ductile framing?
Ans.
In its simplest interpretation, a structure with ductile framing will not collapse even though its structural frame has
sustained significant distortion, misalignment, and other yielding damage.

12. What is the principal reason for specifying a minimum ductility factor?
Ans.
The principal reason for specifying a minimum ductility factor is to obtain a ductility margin (i.e., the ductility between yield
and collapse) sufficient to ensure survivability in a design earthquake.




13. Why will a theoretical analysis of elastic response of a structure usually overestimate the stresses resulting from an
earthquake?
Ans.
A structure will not behave totally elastically during an earthquake. Local yielding at high stress locations reduces the
seismic energy, i.e., the energy of oscillation, initially present in the structure.
14. Describe the two components of drift.
Ans.
Shear drift is the sideways deflection of a building due to lateral (sideways) loads. Chord drift is the sideway deflection due
to axial (vertical) loads.
15. What is the natural period of a building?
Ans.
The natural period of a building is the time it takes the building to complete on full swing in its primary mode of oscillation.
16. What causes torsional shear stress?
Ans.
Torsional shear stress occurs when an earthquake acts on a structure whose centers of mass and rigidity do not coincide.
17. Which has the smaller Rw value, a steel or concrete special moment-resisting frame?
Ans.
Steel and concrete structures with special moment-resisting frames have the same Rw value.
18. What possible values can Rw take on a moment-resisting frame?
Ans.
Refer to NSCP
19. What percentage of the seismic load should be carried by a special moment-resisting frame in a building taller than
160ft?
Ans.
All of the seismic load is carried by a special moment-resisting frame.
20. What is the function of the spiral and individual ties used in a concrete column?
Ans.
Ties confine the concrete and keep it from crushing.
21. What is negative torsional shear stress?
Ans.
Negative torsional shear stress is the torsional shear stress on one side of a structure that is opposite in sign to the shear
stress induced by the base shear.
22. Critical dumping is the amount of structural damping that causes oscillation to die out and return to the equilibrium
position faster than any other amount of damping.
23. Damping ratio is the ratio of the actual damping coefficient to the critical damping coefficient.
24. What is the pratical range of damping ratios?
Ans.
Damping ratios of typical buildings range from approximately 0.02 for steel-frame construction to around 0.15 for wood-
frame construction.
25. Response spectrum is a graph of the effective peak acceleration that a building experiences plotted as a function of the
buildings natural period.
26. Box system is another name for bearing wall system. A bearing wall system relies on shear and load-bearing walls to carry
dead, live, and seismic loads.
27. How does the portal method deal with the effects of column lengthening or shortening?
Ans.
The portal method disregards changes in column length.
28. To what extent does damping affect the natural period of vibration of a structural frame?
Ans.
Damping increases the actual period of vibration slightly, compared to the natural period of vibration. However, even with
highly-damped structures, the increase is usually 1% or less. Therefore, the natural period is used in the UBC calculations and
the effect of damping is disregarded.
29. What is the structural system called that does not have a complete vertical load-carrying the vertical loads?
Ans.
Bearing wall system or box system, use walls, not frame members, to carry the vertical loads.
30. Which is more likely to have a larger damping ratio, a steel or concrete moment-resisting frame?
Ans.
Concrete construction generally has a greater damping ratio.