Observations on the Performance of Structures in the Kobe Earthquake of January 17, 1995
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SPECIAL REPORT Observations on the Performance of Structures in the Kobe Earthquake of January 17, 1995 From February 14 to 20, Dr. S. K. Ghosh, along with a select group of investigators, inspected the site of the Kobe earthquake in Japan. This article presents an overview of the author's assessment of the damage to various types of structures caused by the earthquake. Although there was a relatively small number of precast, prestressed concrete buildings in the Kobe area, the structures withstood the earthquake remarkably well. S. K. Ghosh, Ph.D. Director Engineering Services, Codes t the break of dawn on January fires, thus adding more devastation and and Standards Portland Cement Association 17, 1995, a devastating earth casualties to an already tragic scene. Skokie, Illinois A quake hit the Japanese port of Property damage has been esti Kobe, wreaking havoc along a narrow mated at over $100 billion. To put corridor extending as far east as the this figure in perspective, the January city of Osaka. The initial shock wave 17 , 1994, Northridge earthquake in had a duration of 20 seconds and reg California is estimated to have caused istered a 7.2 JMA (Japan Meteorologi $20 billion in damage. Therefore, in cal Agency) magnitude (a moment economic terms, the Kobe earthquake magnitude of 6.9). The earthquake, caused about five times as much dam called the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake age as the Northridge earthquake. and the Hyogo-Ken Nanbu earth This article is a sequel to the brief, quake, will be referred to as the Kobe but excellent report on the Kobe earth earthquake in this article for brevity. quake that appeared in the January With a population of 11h million, February 1995 PCI JOURNAL. ' It Kobe is Japan's second largest port. As presents an overview of the geotechni of February 15, an estimated 5373 peo cal aspects of the location, Japanese ple had died, 34,568 had suffered seri building code issues, soil characteris ous injuries, and 320,298 were left tics, and the performance of structures homeless as a result of the earthquake. during the earthquake. In particular, To aggravate matters, leaking gas and the behavior of precast, prestressed broken powerlines caused hundreds of concrete structures is reported. 14 PCI JOURNAL Fig. 1. Epicenter of foreshocks and aftershocks of the Great Hanshin (Kobe) Earthquake, January 16-23, 1995 (Ref. 3). onal to the fault rupture (buildings J.OMON COAST LINE ( 8000 YEARS AGO) failing approximately in the north SEA SHORE south direction) predominated. LOWLAND AREA ~CLAY Japanese Code e:~3 SILT The document loosely referred to as 1;_;.~ . '·\ J SAND the Japanese Code is the Building Standard Law, including the Enforce ~HARD SOIL ~(GRAVEL) ment Order of the Building Standard Law. The Enforcement Order contains Fig. 2. Soil profile from the mountains north of Kobe to Osaka Bay on the south. requirements enabling implementation of the Building Standard Law, which is brief and contains very few details. Near-Fault Effects before and after the January 17 quake. While the Building Standard Law This plot also represents an approxi (including its Enforcement Order) The epicenter of the earthquake was mate trace of fault rupture in the Jan specifies only loads and allowable located at a depth of 6 miles (1 0 km) uary 17 event. stresses, and certain minimal require and at a distance of about 12 miles (20 Significantly, a vast majority of the ments for detailing of members, de km) southwest of downtown Kobe be damage was concentrated within a rel tails of structural design (such as tween the northeast tip of Awaji Island atively narrow band centered on the methods of structural analysis and the and the main island of Honshu. 2 Fig. 1 trace of fault rupture, indicating that proportioning of members) are speci from Ref. 3 is a plot of epicenters of the so-called near-fault effects were fied in the Structural Standards issued foreshocks and aftershocks recorded extremely important. Damage orthog- by the Architectural Institute of Japan March-April 1995 15 times during the life of a building. Such earthquake motions may be considered as having an intensity of 5 or 6 on the Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) scale, with expected peak ground accel erations of 0.08g to 0.10g. This design objective is assumed to be achieved by adoption of the traditional level of seis mic force and the traditional method of allowable stress design. The newly added second phase de sign is intended to ensure safety against an earthquake that could occur once in the lifetime of a building. Such an earthquake motion may be as strong as the 1923 Kanto earthquake was in Tokyo, with an MM intensity of 7 to 10, and peak ground accelera Fig. 3. Collapse of timber houses with heavy roofs and inadequate walls. tions of 0.3g to 0.4g. Traditional seis mic design assumed that buildings would survive severe earthquakes as a had a profound impact on seismic de result of built-in overstrength and duc sign practice in Japan. The Building tility. Whether the structure possessed Standard Law underwent a partial re adequate levels of overstrength and vision. More importantly, a large sufficient ductility did not expressly scale revision of AIJ Standards en require confirmation. sued, incorporating ultimate shear Post-1981 structures designed by strength design of reinforced concrete the two-phase procedure described beams and columns, including much above performed much better in the more stringent shear reinforcement re Kobe earthquake than pre-1981 struc quirements. These changes were com tures. Severe damage in such modern parable in many ways to important structures was relatively rare. changes made to the Uniform Build ing Code in 1973, following the San Soil Characteristics Fernando earthquake of 1971. Post- 1971 concrete structures performed Fig. 2 shows a soil profile of the significantly better in the Kobe earth quake-affected area from the moun quake than their pre-1971 counter tains to the north to the sea on the parts, primarily because of the im south. Higher ground accelerations proved shear design of columns. were generally recorded on softer The Miyagiken-oki earthquake of soils. However, as far as structural Fig. 4. Failure of a nonductile concrete 1978 was another milestone in the damage was concerned, near-fault ef column. evolution of Japanese seismic codes. fects appear to have been more impor Damage was as severe as in the 1968 tant than soil characteristics. Also im Tokachi-oki earthquake, largely cen portant were the age of the structure (AIJ). These Standards, prepared sepa tered in the city of Sendai. The earth and its foundation type. rately for each structural material, quake led directly to a revision of the Newer structures supported by deep serve as supplements to the Law. The Enforcement Order of the Building foundations performed quite well, AIJ Standard for reinforced concrete Standard Law that began to be en even when soil conditions were very bears roughly the same relationship to forced, together with supplementary poor. The man-made Port Island just the Building Standard Law as the ACI documents, from June 1981. The revi off Kobe, which is entirely made of 318 Building Code Requirements for sion introduced a requirement of two fill, has a large number of modern Reinforced Concrete does to the Uni phase design for most buildings.• multistory residential, commercial and form Building Code requirements and The purpose of the first phase design, other buildings, mostly built of rein the other two U.S. model codes. which is essentially the same as seismic forced concrete and predominantly The 1968 Tokachi-oki earthquake design prescribed by the previous supported by deep pile foundations. caused significant damage to modern Building Standard Law, is to protect All these structures performed satis buildings designed in accordance with buildings against loss of function in factorily in spite of ground displace building regulations then in force and earthquakes that can occur several ments of several feet in some places. 16 PCI JOURNAL Fig. 5. Failure of a segment of the elevated Hanshin Expressway system. Damage to Dwellings parts of wood, without the use of nails provides shear strength and confines or other positive (non-wood) connec the concrete in compression. Failures Most deaths and injuries occurred in tors. "Thus, during severe shaking, of these columns (see Fig. 4) were re one- or two-story houses accommo beams frequently pulled out of their sponsible for the total or partial col dating one or a small number of fami socketed supports in columns or other lapse of buildings (discussed in the lies. Such houses in Japan are almost beams, leading to the immediate cav next section) and railway and highway invariably built of timber post-and ing-in of the supported story."5 Tradi bridges. beam construction (see Fig. 3). The tional houses built in recent years have The Hanshin expressway system roofing consists of ceramic tiles that, had to comply with specifications re consists of elevated roadways, sup in older houses, are set in an insulating quiring extensive nailing, the use of ported mostly on single column bents, layer of clay or mud. Walls between steel connectors, and provision of that convey traffic above surface the posts consist of either bamboo walls as a percentage of the total floor streets throughout the Osaka-Kobe thatch (traditional Shinkabe construc area. These and other newer houses, area. "The superstructure constantly tion) or a lattice-work of thin wood some of "2 by 4" or stud wall con changes from simple span steel strips (more modern Okabe construc struction (imported from the United stringers to continuous steel box gird tion), with a thin layer of plaster on States) performed well.