Pierristral, Gaspard

Recommendations for Improving the Seismic Code of Haiti

Abstract eng:
Haiti is a country with high seismic risk -due to the combination of high hazard and structural vulnerability- located on the Hispaniola Island, on the northern margin of the Caribbean plate. Its seismicity is mainly associated with two major faults that cross the island, with high slip rates located north and south respectively: Septentrional fault (12 mm/y) and Enriquillo fault (7 mm/y). Before the devastating earthquake on January 12, 2010, there was no building code in the country; neither seismic hazard studies had been developed. Some months after the earthquake, a first preliminary map of PGA was proposed by [1] and two years later new maps were presented as a result of developed detailed studies within the project SISMO-HAITI, funded by the UPM [2, 3]. These new maps were developed in terms of PGA and various spectral accelerations, SA (T), in order to make easier the direct construction of the uniform hazard spectra UHS for different return periods. In addition, some recommendations were also submitted to the governmental institutions aimed at proposing a specific building code for the country, after the analysis of other building codes of the region, as well as the Eurocode 8. At present, the country has implemented a recommended building code [4] based on the map of [1] combined with the criteria of the International Building Code, IBC [5] This paper makes a comparative analysis of: 1) the quoted maps with the hazard map of Dominican Republic and 2) the response spectra obtained by applying the current Dominican code, with the UHS derived in the frame of the SISMOHAITI project. As a result, a number of recommendations are proposed to improve the seismic code of Haiti, if the responsible institutions consider it appropriate. The ultimate goal of this work is to help decrease the physical and social impact that future earthquakes may have in the country.

Contributors:

Pierristral, Gaspard

Conference Title:

Proceedings of the 16th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering

Conference Title:

16th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering

Conference Venue:

Santiago (CL)

Conference Dates:

2017-01-09 / 2017-01-13

Rights:

Text je chráněný podle autorského zákona č. 121/2000 Sb.