Learning from the Wenchuan Earthquake: Key Problems in Collapse Analysis of Structures

Abstract eng:
Up to now the Wenchuan Earthquake has caused nearly 70,000 casualties. It is widely believed that over 95% of the casualties and injuries were due to collapses of millions of buildings. Then one question is why there are still so many collapses after many years aiming to ensure “no collapse under big earthquake” which was first brought forward in 1989 Code for Seismic Design of Buildings (GBJ11-89, China). In fact how to resist collapse have received increasing attention in structural engineering communities for several decades, especially after the 9.11 terrorist attack on the twin towers in New York city. After the 5.12 Wenchuan Earthquake, the authors joined a damage investigation organized by the National Key Basic Research and Development Program of China (973 Program) in the disaster area, especially at Dujiangyan, Hongbaizhen, Beichuan and Yingxiu. Based on the survey around the heavily damaged area, three key problems in collapse analysis of structures were identified as description of discontinuous displacements, collision/impact between structural elements and adjacent buildings, and geometric nonlinearity of structures. Some of the typical collapses in the Wenchuan Earthquake are provided. Solution of the key problems in framed structures and thus numerical simulation of collapses were given in brief. Some research work trying to solve the solutions is also introduced.

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