Seismic Design Method To Consider "Anti-Catastrophe" Concept - a Study for the Draft of Design Codes

Abstract eng:
In Japan, after the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami, importance for the preparation for the situation beyond what was assumed in the design process is widely recognized. In the field of seismic design, the concept of “anti-catastrophe” property was presented. Its implementation is requested, but it is not easy because “anti-catastrophe” concept has various significant differences from the existing design codes. This paper explains the concept of “anti-catastrophe”-oriented seismic design, and proposes a framework of such seismic design code. In order to define the “anti-catastrophe” concept, its relationship to the concept of conventional seismic design is discussed. It is shown that the domain to be considered in the design should be extended in terms of three dimensions: (i) Phase: behavior or performance of a structure in a situation that is not explicitly assumed in the conventional design, must be considered; (ii) Time: performance in the time of recovery process after the earthquake event must be considered; (iii) Space: performance of a infrastructure system must be considered, in stead of that of a single unit of structure. Then, as essential elements of “anti-catastrophe” property, Reliability, Systematic Performance, and Resilience are introduced. Conditions required to implement the “Anti-catastrophe” concept in the design codes in Japan are also discussed. Based on the discussion above, we propose a framework of the seismic design method to implement “anticatastrophe” property. Since its core concept is different from a conventional design scheme, a class called “Category of Design” is introduced as a part of the framework. In the proposed framework, the design process consists from several stages and each of the stages is described, paying attention to practical application of the codes. On each of the stages, requirements are defined for both Categories of Design I and II. We also discuss conditions required for the society and government to make such new design codes effective and sustainable. Since the presented design method requires qualitative approach and the design level will not be rigorously determined, it is necessary to have a social environment to support and assure the quality of the design. We utilize the theoretical foundation of risk governance, and present several practical policies, including avoidance of abuse of excessively conservative “anti-catastrophe” approach, and investigation by the third party.

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