NEWSLETTER Seismic Design of New Low- Cost Housing for El
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ISSN 0967-859X THE SOCIETY FOR EARTHQUAKE AND S CIVIL ENGINEERING DYNAMICS E SECED E NEWSLETTER Volume 26 No 1 D February 2015 In this issue Seismic Design of New Low- Seismic Design Cost Housing for El Salvador 1 Notable Earthquakes July 2013 – February 2014 9 of New Low- Forthcoming Events 12 Cost Housing for El Salvador Sebastian Kaminski Katherine Coates Arup, London Arup, London Andrew Lawrence Arup, London l Salvador has one of the largest divides between Natural hazards including earthquakes, volcanoes, the rich and the poor in the world with hundreds of flooding and hurricanes, contribute significantly towards thousands living in poverty on only a few dollars per this housing deficit. As the worst effects of hurricanes tend Eday. This poverty, coupled with the frequent earthquakes to be confined to the Caribbean and the Eastern seaboard and other natural disasters, has left many living in sub- of North and Central America, one of Central America’s standard unhygienic and unsafe housing. This problem is greatest natural hazard is arguably earthquakes, as the not isolated to El Salvador, and indeed recent estimates of Pacific Ring of Fire runs down the west coast. Many areas the housing deficit in Latin America as a whole are between are considered to have high seismic hazard (with a Peak 42–51 million dwellings (this is the number of new houses Ground Acceleration greater than 0.4g for a 10% probabil- required to house all those in sub-standard, precariously ity of exceedance in 50 years). In the last 500 years, Central located or overcrowded housing) (UN-Habitat, 2011). America has experienced many earthquakes that caused SECED Newsletter Vol. 26 No. 1 February 2015 | For updates on forthcoming events go to www.seced.org.uk 1 significant damage and loss of life, both in the subduction a copy of a more modern design, often masonry. The de- zone which forms part of the Pacific Ring of Fire and in the sign of engineered houses is normally determined by the local faults along the volcanic chain. government, donors or Non-Governmental Organisations New permanent low-cost housing in Latin America (NGOs). The most common permanent housing options consists of a mixture of engineered and non-engineered currently being constructed in Central America are ado- housing. The design of non-engineered houses often rests be, bahareque (a derivative of wattle-and-daub), confined entirely with the beneficiaries or local skilled workers, and masonry and reinforced hollow blockwork. Unfortunately, will often consist of a vernacular design, or alternatively each of these has a number of drawbacks: adobe has very Table 1: Selection of advantages, disadvantages and relative costs of the main permanent housing options constructed in El Salvador Housing Relative Type Advantages Disadvantages cost Adobe • Very cheap when the correct soil • Typically performs very poorly in an earth- Low type is available locally. quake. • Widely-known construction system. • Requires considerable maintenance. • Good thermal mass hence very cool • Harbours disease-carrying insects. inside. • Very unpopular with locals. • Negligible environmental impact. • Traditionally combined with a heavy tiled roof, increasing the seismic loads and the risk of injury if it falls. Bahareque • Relatively low-cost. • Harbours disease-carrying insects. Medium • Can have good seismic resistance • Susceptible to insect attack and water when in good condition. ingress. • Good thermal mass hence very cool • Requires considerable maintenance. inside. • Relatively unpopular with locals. • Low environmental impact. • Traditionally combined with a heavy tiled roof, increasing the seismic loads and the risk of injury if it falls. Confined • Good seismic resistance when well- • Commonly constructed poorly – detailing Medium- masonry constructed. more complex than reinforced blockwork. high • Challenging to construct (difficult • Higher cost. to place rebar and concrete in small • High environmental impact (fired clay confining elements). bricks and concrete). • Good thermal mass hence very cool • Seismic design rules generally mean inside. houses often have smaller and/or fewer • Popular with locals. windows. • Typically combined with a heavy tiled roof, increasing the seismic loads and the risk of injury if it falls. Reinforced • Very good seismic resistance when • Higher cost. Medium- blockwork well-constructed. • High environmental impact (concrete). high • Very durable. • Good thermal mass hence very cool inside. • Very popular with locals. • Relatively simple to construct. • Normally combined with lightweight zinc-aluminium roof sheeting, reduc- ing the seismic loads and risk of injury if it falls. 2 For updates on forthcoming events go to www.seced.org uk | SECED Newsletter Vol. 26 No. 1 February 2015 low seismic resistance, can harbour disease-carrying in- The design that is being developed is a single-storey sects and is poorly regarded by local communities; baha- four roomed building, approximately 6 m × 6 m, with two reque often deteriorates after approximately a decade due bedrooms, one lounge and one kitchen. The foundations to insect attack and water ingress (López et al., 2004); of the house are a thin reinforced concrete slab sitting on confined masonry is very workmanship dependent and reinforced concrete ground beams under the walls. The relatively expensive (see Table 1). The existing best option walls sit on two courses of hollow reinforced blockwork, for permanent low-cost housing in El Salvador is widely protecting the frame above from water and insect attack. considered to be reinforced hollow blockwork, which is The wall and roof structural frame sits on the blockwork very durable and has good seismic resistance when well- and consists of a simple 2” × 4” structurally graded and constructed; however it is moderately expensive and not pressure-treated pine frame, nailed together with steel very sustainable. straps at key locations to resist wind and seismic loads. The Arup (a UK-based design consultancy), Engage for walls are wrapped in a thin galvanised chicken mesh on Development (a UK-based charity) and the Imperial both sides, and vara de castilla (also known as caña brava – College El Salvador Project (a UK-based charitable or- a local type of cane approximately 25 mm in diameter and ganisation) have been working with REDES (a small El up to 6 m long (Chan, 2014)) is nailed to the frame. The Salvadorean NGO) for the past four years, with the aim of vara de castilla is sourced from local farmers and is treated developing an alternative, low-cost, sustainable, seismical- on site against insects with boron. Cement mortar is then ly-resistant and appropriate low-cost house design suitable plastered on both sides of the walls to form the 60 mm for El Salvador. The design should also be easy to construct thick shear walls. The bases of the walls are painted with and maintain by the local communities themselves, and waterproof paint to protect against driving rain. The roof ideally use local materials such that more money goes back consists of lightweight cement fibreboard sheeting screwed into the local economy. down onto the timber purlins and rafters. The design life of the house is 30 years with minimal maintenance. Overview of Design After conducting research into existing low-cost housing Prototype houses in the Latin American region, in particular using bamboo Two prototype houses were successfully built in El Salvador structurally (Kaminski, 2013), the team developed a solu- in 2012, and have allowed the house design and construc- tion which takes the vernacular bahareque design and “en- tion method to be optimised (El Salvador Project 2012, gineers” it by essentially: treating the timber and wall ma- 2012). They were evaluated again in 2013 and the benefici- trix against insect attack, replacing the mud render with a aries were very happy with them, with no reported struc- more durable and stronger cement mortar and engineering tural problems (see Figures 1 and 2). the connection details. Figure 1: Prototype cane and mortar house under construction (El Salvador Project, 2012). © Sebastian Kaminski SECED Newsletter Vol. 26 No. 1 February 2015 | For updates on forthcoming events go to www.seced.org.uk 3 Figure 2: Prototype cane and mortar house, completed in 2012 (El Salvador Project, 2012). © Sebastian Kaminski Seismic Design Approach of the materials available in El Salvador are imported from The lateral stability system of the structure relies upon per- the US. pendicular shear walls in both directions, roughly evenly A comparative study of different seismic hazard assess- spaced. With a light roof, most of the seismic load is gener- ments for El Salvador was conducted in order to determine ated by the self-weight of the walls themselves. the most appropriate design parameters. Table 2 presents As El Salvador is in a region of high seismic hazard, the the maximum seismic hazard determined for any area seismic demands govern the design of the lateral system; within El Salvador from a number of different published hurricane winds do not tend to affect El Salvador as it is on sources. the West coast of Central America. The El Salvadorean seis- A design PGA of 0.5g (10% probability of exceedance in mic code (MOP, 1994) is based on the Mexico City code and 50 years) has been selected for the design because Benito loosely in turn on an old version of the Uniform Building et al. (2012) was considered to best reflect the most up-to- Code (UBC). In addition, the other El Salvadorean materi- date understanding of seismic hazard in the region, and al design codes are also limited in their scope or refer back one which involved a collaborative effort between different to US or Mexican codes (López et al., 2004). Therefore, in specialists in the region. It also reflects the design criteria order to be able to use an up-to-date, comprehensive and according to which the house may be built anywhere with- consistent set of design codes, the most recent US design in the country.