Assessment of Ground Motion and Correlation With Damage in Buildings, 2010 Chile Earthquake

Abstract eng:
Several strong motion records have been obtained during the 2010 Maule Earthquake in Central Chile. Medium rise RC buildings were badly damaged in Concepcion and Viña del Mar cities. New high-rise buildings located on soft soils suffered damage in the lower levels of walls during the 2010 Chile Earthquake, while similar buildings behaved quite well when they were located on firm soils. Buildings with natural periods shorter but close to the soil site predominant period suffered damage in their walls, particularly where the bedrock depth was deeper than 70 meters. Assessments of some damaged buildings have concluded that the observed type of damage would have occurred at approximately one per cent drift, with a very brittle behavior. The only record obtained in Concepcion city soft soil has been useful to understand the damage in many medium rise R/C buildings constructed in that area. This paper describes recorded surface ground motion in Concepcion city obtained in the 2010 Chile Earthquake. Assessments of soil amplification and frequency content evolution during the earthquake and its correlations with damage in buildings are presented. Apparently building damage in Concepcion city would have occurred after the time of arrival of the seismic pulse from the asperity. Buildings with damage in walls showed to be very brittle and they failed before 20 seconds of initiated the earthquake. San Pedro record represents areas where the rock under the surface of soft soil is around 25 to 40 meters. When buildings are constructed on this relatively firm soils, lateral drifts would be in order of 0.6 to 0.8 percent of height, a response with low incursions into the nonlinear range with visible cracks, and then it can be classified as immediately occupancy. However, in areas similar to Concepcion Center, where rock depth is greater than 120 meters, large lateral drifts are expected, between 1 to 1.4 percent of height. For well detailed structural walls, one percent drift can be related to moderate damage, but 1.4 % drift could be excessive. Lateral drifts do not depend significantly on yield forces. Precautions must be adopted to limit drifts and supply ductility in these soil conditions.

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