NTRODUCTION

Earthquake-resistant structures
are designed andconstructed to withstand various types of
hazardousearthquake exposures at the sites of their particular
location. According to building codes, earthquake-resistant
structuresare meant to withstand the largest earthquake of a
certainprobability that is likely to occur at their location.
Thismeans the loss of life should be minimized by
preventingcollapse of the buildings for rare earthquakes while the
lossof functionality should be limited for more frequent
ones.Building designed to prevent total collapse, preserve life,and
minimize damage in case of an earthquake or
tremor.Earthquakes exert lateral as well as vertical forces, and
astructure's response to their random, often sudden motionsis a
complex task that is just beginning to be understood.Earthquake-
resistant structures absorb and dissipateseismically induced
motion through a combination of means:damping decreases the
amplitude of oscillations of avibrating structure, while ductile
materials (e.g., steel) canwithstand considerable inelastic
deformation. If a skyscraperhas too flexible a structure, then
tremendous swaying in itsupper floors can develop during
an earthquake. Care must betaken to provide built-in tolerance
for some structuraldamage, resist lateral loading through
stiffeners (diagonalsway bracing), and allow areas of the building
to movesomewhat independently.

General principles for seismic resistant buildings

(i)Structures should not be brittle or collapse suddenly.Rather,

they should be tough, able to deflect or deform aconsiderable
amount.(ii) Resisting elements, such as bracing or shear walls,
must be provided evenly throughout the building, in both
directions side-to-side, as well as top to bottom.(iii) All elements,
such as walls and the roof, should be tied together so as to act as
an integrated unit during earthquake shaking, transferring forces
across connections and preventing separationiv) The building
must be well connected to a good foundationand the earth. Wet,
soft soils should be avoided, and the foundation must be well tied
together, as well as tied to thewall.(v) Care must be taken
that all materials used are of good quality, and are protected
from rain, sun, insects and other weakening actions, so that their
strength lasts.(vi) Unreinforced earth and masonry have
no reliable strength in tension, and are brittle in compression.
Generally,they must be suitably reinforced by steel or wood.

Seismic performance
Earthquake or seismic performance defines a structure'sability to
sustain its due functions, such as its safety and serviceability, at
and after a particular earthquake exposure.

A structure is, normally, considered safe if it does not endanger

the lives and well-being of those in or around it by partially or
completely collapsing

A structure may be considered serviceable if it is able to fulfil its

operational functions for which it was designed.

Building should survive a rare, very severe earthquakeby

sustaining significant damage but without globally collapsing.

Building should remain operational for more frequent,but less

severe seismic events.

GENERAL PLANNING AND DESIGN ASPECTS

The behaviour of building during earthquakes dependscritically on
its overall shape, size and geometry. Hence, at planning stage
itself, architects and structural engineersmust work together to
ensure that the unfavourable featuresare avoided and a good
building configuration is chosen. If both shape and structural
system work together to make thestructure a marvel.
“If we have a poor configuration to start with, all the engineer
can do is to provide a band-aid
–
improve a basically poorsolution as best as he can. Conversely, if
we start-off with agood configuration and reasonable framing
system, even apoor engineer cannot harm its ultimate
performance too
much”.

Size of Buildings
In tall buildings with large weight-to-base size ratio thehorizontal
movement of the floors during ground shaking islarge. In short
but very long buildings, the damaging effectsduring earthquake
shaking are many. And, in buildings withlarge plan area, the
horizontal seismic forces can beexcessive to be carried by
columns and walls.

Horizontal Layout of Buildings

Buildings with simple geometry in plan perform well duringstrong
earthquakes. Buildings with re-entrant corners, likeU, V, H and +
shaped in plan sustain significant damage. Thebad effects of
these interior corners in the plan of buildingsare avoided by
making the buildings in two parts by using aseparation joint at
the junction.

Vertical Layout of Buildings

Earthquake forces developed at different floor levels in abuilding
need to be brought down along the height to theground by the
shortest path, any deviation or discontinuity inthis load transfer
path results in poor performance of building. Buildings with
vertical setbacks cause a suddenjump in earthquake forces at the
level of discontinuity.Buildings that have fewer columns or walls
in a particularstorey or with unusually tall storey tend to damage
orcollapse which is initiated in that storey. Buildings on sloppy
ground have unequal height columns along the slope,
whichcauses twisting and damage in shorter columns that hang
orfloat on beams have discontinuity in load transfer. Buildingsin
which RC walls do not go all the way to the ground but stopat
upper levels get severely damaged
Adjacency of Buildings
When two buildings are close to each other, they may poundon
each other during strong shaking. When building heightsdo not
match the roof of the shorter building may pound at the mid-
height of the column of the taller one; this can bevery dangerous.
Plan of building
(i) Symmetry
:
The building as a whole or its variousblocks should be kept
symmetrical about both the
axes. Asymmetry leads to torsion during earthquakes and isdang
erous; Symmetry is also desirable in the placing andsizing of door
and window openings, as far as possible.
(ii) Regularity
:

Simple rectangular shapes, behave better inan earthquake than

shapes with many projections . Torsionaleffects of ground motion
are pronounced in long narrowrectangular blocks. Therefore, it is
desirable to restrict thelength of a block to three times its width.
If longer lengths arerequired two separate blocks with sufficient
separation inbetween should be provided.
(iii) Separation of Blocks:
Separation of a largebuilding into several blocks may be required
so as to obtainsymmetry and regularity of each block. For
preventinghammering or pounding damage between blocks a
physicalseparation of 3 to 4 cm throughout the height above
theplinth level will be adequate as well as practical for upto
3storeyed buildings.The separation section can be treated just
likeexpansion joint or it may be filled or covered with a
weak material which would easily crush and crumble
duringearthquake shaking. Such separation may be considered
inlarger buildings since it may not be convenient in small
buildings.
(iv) Simplicity
:
Ornamentation invo1ving large cornices,vertical or horizontal
cantilever projections, facia stones andthe like are dangerous and
undesirable from a seismicviewpoint. Simplicity is the best
approach. Whereornamentation is insistedupon, it must be
reinforced with steel, which should beproperly em-bedded or tied
into the main structure of thebuilding.

(v) Enclosed Area

: A small building enclosure withproperly interconnected walls
acts like a rigid box since theearthquake strength which long
walls derive from transversewalls increases as their length
decreases. Thereforestructurally it will be advisable to have
separately enclosedrooms rather than one long room. For
unframed walls of thickness t and wall spacing of a, a ratio of a/t
= 40 should bethe upper limit between the cross walls for
mortars of cement sand 1:6 or richer, and less for poor mortars
(vi) Separate Buildings for DifferentFunctions:

In view of the difference in importance of hospitals, schools,

assembly halls, residences,communication and security buildings,
etc., it may beeconomical to plan separate blocks for different
functions soas to affect economy in strengthening costs.
REQUIREMENTS OF STRUCTURALSAFETY
As a result of the discussion of structural action and mechanism
of the following main requirements of structural safety of
buildingscan be arrived at.(i) A free standing wall must be designed
to be safe as a verticalcantilever. This requirement will be difficult
to achieve in un-reinforced masonry in Zone A. Therefore all
partitions inside thebuildings must be held on the sides as well as
top. Parapets of category I and II buildings must be reinforced
and held to the mainstructural slabs or frames(ii) Horizontal
reinforcement in walls is required for transferringtheir own out-of-
plane inertia load horizontally to the shear walls.(iii) The walls must
be effectively tied together to avoid separationat vertical joints
due to ground shaking.(iv) Shear walls must be present along both
axes of the building.(v) A shear wall must be capable of resisting
all horizontal forcesdue to its own mass and those transmitted to
it.(vi) Roof or floor elements must be tied together and be capable
of exhibiting diaphragm action.(vii) Trusses must be anchored to
the supporting walls and have anarrangement for transferring their
inertia force to the end walls.
(vii) Masonary stone walls should be properly interconnected
by through stones.

(viii) Heavy masses at top should be avoided.

Earthquake Resistant Structures by Planning andDesign

Approach

Earthquakes have plagued man for millennia. It is adestructive

force, which was once upon a time declared to bewrath of God for
infidelity of human beings. But today, weunderstand what causes
earthquakes, and can designeffective mechanisms to mitigate the
effects of earthquakes.Basically, there is the Conventional
approach to achievingearthquake resistance, then there is the
basic approach, andnowadays, there are active control Devices
which cancounteract the effects of earthquakes on buildings
.
Conventional Approach
Design depends upon providing the building with
strength,stiffness and inelastic deformation capacity which are
great enough to withstand a given level of earthquake-
generatedforce. This can be accomplished by selection
of anappropriate structural configuration and careful detailing
of structural members, such as beams and columns, and
theconnections between them.
Basic Approach
Design depends upon underlying more advanced techniques for
earthquake resistance is not to strengthen the building, but to
reduce the earthquake generated forces acting upon it. Thiscan
be accomplished by de-coupling the structure from
seismic ground motion it is possible to reduce the earthquake
induced forces in it by three ways.

1.

Increase natural period of structures byBase Isolation. 2.

Increase damping of system byEnergy DissipationDevices.

3.

Mitigate earthquake effects completely by using ActiveControl

Devices
Design Philosophy of Earthquake ResistantDesigns
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 alsotoo
expensive. Instead the engineering intention is to makebuildings
earthquake-resistant; such buildings resist theeffects of ground
shaking, although they may get damagedseverely but would not
collapse during the strongearthquake. Thus, safety of people and
contents is assured inearthquake-resistant buildings, and thereby
a disaster isavoided. This is a major objective of seismic design
codesthroughout the world.
Design Philosophy
1.

Under minor but frequent shaking, the main membersof the

buildings that carry vertical and horizontal forcesshould not be
damaged; however buildings parts that donot carry load may
sustain repairable damage.2.

Under moderate but occasional shaking, the mainmembers may

sustain repairable damage, while theother parts that do not carry
load may sustainrepairable damage.3.

Under strong but rare shaking, the main members maysustain

severe damage, but the building should not collapse.Earthquake
resistant design is therefore concerned about ensuring that the
damages in buildings during earthquakesare 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 inhouses:

to protect the entire electrical wiring and appliancesin the house,
you sacrifice some small parts of electricalcircuit, called fuses;
these fuses are easily replaced after theelectrical over-current.
Likewise to save the building fromcollapsing you need to allow
some pre-determined parts toundergo the acceptable type and
level of damage.Earthquake resistant buildings, particularly their
mainelements, need to be built with ductility in them.
Suchbuildings have the ability to sway back-and-forth during
anearthquake, and to withstand the earthquake effects withsome
damage, but without collapse.
EARTHQUAKE RESISTANT TECHNIQUES
Conventional seismic design attempts to make buildings that do
not collapse under strong earthquake shaking, but maysustain
damage to non-structural elements and to somestructural
members in the buildings. This may render thebuildings non-
functional after the earthquake, which may beproblematic in
some structures, like hospitals, which need toremain operational
in aftermath of earthquake. Specialtechniques are required to
design buildings such that theyremain practically undamaged
even in a severe earthquake.Buildings with such improved
seismic performance usuallycost more than the normal buildings
do.Two basic techniques are used to protect buildings
fromdamaging earthquake effects. These are base
isolationdevices and seismic dampers.

Seismic Base Isolation Technique

It is easiest to see the principle at work by referring directlyto the
most widely used of these advanced techniques, knownasbase
isolation.A base isolated structure is supported by aseries of
bearing pads, which are placed between thebuildings and building
foundation.

The concept of base isolation is explained through anexample

building resting on frictionless rollers. When theground shakes,
the rollers freely roll, but the building abovedoes not move. Thus,
no force is transferred to the buildingdue to the shaking of the
ground; simply, the building doesnot 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
buildingabove. If the flexible pads are properly chosen, the
forcesinduced by ground shaking can be a few times smaller
thanthat experienced by the building built directly on
ground,namely a fixed base building .The flexible pads are
calledbase-isolators, whereas the structures protected by means
of these devices are called base-isolated buildings. The
mainfeature of the base isolation technology is that it
introducesflexibility in the
structure. As a result, a robust medium-
rise masonry or reinforcedconcrete building becomes extremely
flexible. The isolatorsare often designed, to absorb energy and
thus add dampingto the system. This helps in further reducing
the seismicresponse of the building. Many of the base isolators
look likelarge rubber pads, although there are other types that
arebased on sliding of one part of the building relative to
other. Also, base isolation is not suitable for all buildings. Mostlylo
w to medium rise buildings rested on hard soil underneath;

high-rise buildings or buildings rested on soft soil are not suitable

for base isolation.
Concept of Base Isolation

Lead-rubber bearings are the frequently-used types of

baseisolation bearings. A lead rubber bearing is made from
layersof 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
thebearing to the building and foundation. The bearing is verystiff
and strong in the vertical direction, but flexible in thehorizontal
direction
.
How it Works
To get a basic idea of how base isolation works, first examinethe
above diagram. This shows an earthquake acting on baseisolated
building and a conventional, fixed-base, building. Asa result of an
earthquake, the ground beneath each buildingbegins to move. .
Each building responds with movement which tends towards the
right. The buildings displacement inthe direction opposite the
ground motion is actually due toinertia. The inertia forces acting
on a building are the most important of all those generated
during an earthquake.In addition to displacing towards right, the
un-isolatedbuilding is also shown to be changing its shape from
arectangle to a parallelogram. We say that the building
isdeforming. The primary cause of earthquake damage
tobuildings is the deformation which the building undergoes asa
result of the inertial forces upon it.
Response of Base Isolated Buildings
The base-isolated building retains its original, rectangularshape.
The base isolated building itself escapes thedeformation and
damage-which implies that the inertialforces acting on the base
isolated building have beenreduced. Experiments and
observations of base-isolated

buildings in earthquakes to as little as ¼ of the accelerationof

comparable fixed-base
buildings. Acceleration is decreased because the base isolation sy
stemlengthens a buildings period of vibration, the time it takes
fora building to rock back and forth and then back again. And
ingeneral, structures with longer periods of vibration tend
toreduce acceleration, while those with shorter periods tend
toincrease or amplify acceleration.
Spherical Sliding Base Isolation
Spherical Sliding Base Isolation
Spherical sliding isolation systems are another type of
baseisolation. The building is supported by bearing pads
that have a curved surface and low friction. During
an earthquakethe building is free to slide on the bearings. Since
thebearings have a curved surface, the building slides
bothhorizontally and vertically. The forces needed to move
thebuilding upwards limits the horizontal or lateral forceswhich
would otherwise cause building deformations. Also byadjusting
the radius of the bearings curved surface, thisproperty can be
used to design bearings that also lengthenthe buildings period of
vibration

Energy Dissipation Devices for EarthquakeResistant

Building Design
Another approach for controlling seismic damage inbuildings and
improving their seismic performance is byinstalling Seismic
Dampers in place of structural elements,such as diagonal braces.
These dampers act like the hydraulicshock absorbers in cars
–
much of the sudden jerks areabsorbed in the hydraulic fluids and
only little is transmittedabove to the chassis of the car. When
seismic energy istransmitted through them, dampers absorb part
of it, andthus damp the motion of the building.

Commonly used Seismic Dampers

1.

Viscous Dampers
(energy is absorbed by silicone-based fluid passing between
piston cylinderarrangement),2.

Friction Dampers

(energy is absorbed by surfaceswith friction between them

rubbing against each other),
3.

Yielding Dampers

(energy is absorbed by metalliccomponents that yield

).
4.

Viscoelastic Dampers

(energy is absorbed byutilizing the controlled shearing of

solids).Thus by equipping a building with additional devices
whichhave high damping capacity, we can greatly decrease
theseismic energy entering the building
How Dampers Work
The construction of a fluid damper is shown in (fig). It consists of
a stainless steel piston with bronze orifice head. It is filled with
silicone oil. The piston head utilizes speciallyshaped passages
which alter the flow of the damper fluid andthus alter the
resistance characteristics of the damper. Fluid
dampers may be designed to behave as a pure energydissipater
or a spring or as a combination of the two. A fluid viscous damper
resembles the common shock absorber such as those found in
automobiles. The pistontransmits energy entering the system to
the fluid in thedamper, causing it to move within the damper.
Themovement of the fluid within the damper fluid absorbs
thiskinetic energy by converting it into heat. In automobiles,
thismeans that a shock received at the wheel is damped before
it reaches the passengers compartment. In buildings this
canmean that the building columns protected by dampers
willundergo considerably less horizontal movement and
damageduring an earthquake
New Breed of Energy Dissipation Devices

The innovative methods for control of seismic vibrationssuch as

frictional and other types of damping devices areimportant
integral part of seismic isolation systems as theysevere as a
barrier against the penetration of seismic energyinto the
structure. In this concept, the dampers suppress theresponse of
the isolated building relative to its base.The novel friction damper
device consists of three steelplates rotating against each other in
opposite directions. The
steel plates are separated by two shims of friction padmaterial
producing friction with steel plates.When an external force excites
a frame structure the girderstarts to displace horizontally due to
this force. The damperwill follow the motion and the central plate
because of thetensile forces in the bracing elements. When the
appliedforces are reversed, the plates will rotate in opposite
way.The damper dissipates energy by means of friction
betweenthe sliding surfaces.The latest Friction-ViscoElastic
Damper Device (F-VEDD)combines the advantages of pure
frictional and viscoelasticmechanisms of energy dissipation.This
new product consists of friction pads and viscoelastic polymer
padsseparated by steel plates. A prestressed bolt in
combinationwith disk springs and hardened washers is used
formaintaining the required clamping force on the interfaces asin
original FDD
concept. After development of passive devices such asbase
isolationand TMD. The next logical steps is to control the action
of these devices in an optimal manner by an external
energysource the resulting system is known asactive
controldevicesystem. Active control has been very widely used
inaerospace structures. In recent years significant progress
hasbeen made on the analytical side of active control for
civilengineering structures. Also a few models explains as
shownthat there is great promise in the technology and that
onemay expect to see in the foreseeable future several dynamic
“Dynamic Intelligent Buildings”
the term itself seems to havebeen joined by the Kajima
Corporation in Japan. In one of their pamphlet the concept of
Active control had beenexplained in every simple manner and it is
worth quotinghere.People standing in swaying train or bus try to
maintainbalance by unintentionally bracing their legs or by
relaying

on the mussels of their spine and stomach. By providing asimilar

function to a building it can dampen immensely thevibrations
when confronted with an earthquake. This is theconcept of
Dynamic Intelligent Building (DIBThe philosophy of the past
conventional a seismic structureis to respond passively to an
earthquake. In contrast in theDIB which we propose the building
itself functions activelyagainst earthquakes and attempts to
control the vibrations.The sensor distributed inside and outside
of the buildingtransmits information to the computer installed in
thebuilding which can make analyses and judgment, and as if
thebuildings possess intelligence pertaining to the
earthquakeamends its own structural characteristics minutes by
minute.
Active Control System
The basic configuration of an active control system
isschematically shown in figure. The system consists of threebasic
elements:1.

Sensors to measure external excitation and/orstructural

response.2.

Computer hardware and software to compute controlforces on the

basis of observed excitation and/orstructural response.3.

Actuators to provide the necessary control forces.Thus in active

system has to necessarily have an externalenergy input to drive
the actuators. On the other handpassive systems do not required
external energy and theirefficiency depends on tunings of system
to expectedexcitation and structural behavior. As a result, the
passivesystems are effective only for the modes of the vibrations
forwhich these are tuned. Thus the advantage of an activesystem
lies in its much wider range of applicability since the

control forces are worked out on the basis of actualexcitation and

structural behavior. In the active system whenonly external
excitation is measured system is said to be inopen-looped.
However when the structural response is usedas input, the
system is in closed loop control. In certaininstances the excitation
and response both are used and it istermed as open-closed loop
control.
Control Force Devices
Many ways have been proposed to apply control forces to
astructure. Some of these have been tested in laboratory
onscaled down models. Some of the ideas have been put forward
for applications of active forces are briefly describedin the
following:
Active-tuned Mass Dampers (TMD)
these are in passive mode have been used in a number
of structures as mentioned earlier. Hence active TMD is anatural
extension. In this system 1% of the total buildingmass is directly
excited by an actuator with no spring anddash pot. The system
has been termed as Active Mass Driver(AMD). The experiments
indicated that the buildingvibrations are reduced about 25% by
the use of AMD.
Tendon Control
Various analytical studies have been done using tendons foractive
control. At low excitations, even with the active controlsystem off,
the tendon will act in passive modes by resistingdeformations in
the structures though resulting tension inthe tendon. At higher
excitations one may switch over
to Active mode where an actuator applies the required tensionin
tendons.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
.
Construct Earthquake-Resistant Structures

It is possible to evaluate the earthquake forces acting onthe structure.

Design the structure to resist the above loads for safetyagainst

Earthquakes.

Proper care should be taken durind construction.

Base isolation can also be used for retrofitting ofstructure

.

Construct symmetrical structure to avoid torsion

.

Adopt proper workmanship during construction.

n