Comparative Assessment of Performance of School Buildings in the 2015 Gorkha (Nepal) Earthquakes


Abstract eng:
The 2015 Gorkha Earthquakes (M7.8 with M7.3 aftershock) destroyed more than 27,000 classrooms and damaged more than 26,000 classrooms in Western and Central Nepal. Several studies in the past had shown the vulnerability of the education infrastructure, resulting from insufficient earthquake resistant elements in school construction. Most of these schools were unreinforced masonry or non-ductile reinforced concrete frame buildings. Since early 2000, several schools have been seismically upgraded and other schools were reconstructed to meet the minimum building standards for seismic loading. The Gorkha earthquakes provided a rare opportunity to study whether those seismic upgrades or rehabilitations had, in fact, improved earthquake resistance as intended. A study was carried out in the aftermath of the earthquakes to comparatively assess school buildings in four different areas characterised by low, moderate and high shaking intensities. A total of 25 school buildings were assessed in 12 school sites. Field surveys were carried out on school buildings, both those with conventional construction and those with seismic resistant features. Assessed school buildings included stone masonry with flexible and rigid diaphragms, brick masonry, steel truss buildings with brick and stone infill, and reinforced concrete construction. A transect survey of residential housing damage was also carried out around each school site. This paper describes the results of the assessment and presents the key elements (or lack thereof) that govern the seismic performance of school buildings in Nepal. While most of schools buildings with seismic upgrading – including simple interventions like selective reinforcement, micro-concrete wall jacketing – performed well in the earthquakes, some other buildings retrofitted or considered to be earthquakes-resistant construction were damaged severely. In addition to structural factors in design and construction, the study also looks the aspects of construction standards and norms, technical oversight, quality of material and resource constraints that played role in earthquake-resistance of school buildings. The paper presents a review of those design and construction considerations and establishes key considerations for construction of earthquake-resistant schools in regions with high seismicity and significant resource constraints.

Contributors:
Conference Title:
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.



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 Record created 2017-01-18, last modified 2017-01-18


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