Boumerdes Algeria Earthquake of May 21,2003: Damage Analysis and Behavior of Beam-Column Reinforced Concrete Structures

Abstract eng:
The important earthquake of May 21, 2003, with 6.8 Magnitude that struck mainly the province of Boumerdes and the eastern part of Algiers province has resulted in very high toll of human losses (more than 2300 dead and 10000 injured people) and in very important damage to built environment (more than 100.000 dwellings or constructions collapsed or more or less seriously damaged). The great majority of the built environment of the region is constituted by reinforced concrete beam-column structures which are the most widely used building system in Algeria. In this paper, the main features of this major seismic event triggered by a previously unknown off shore fault will be briefly presented. Then, the building damage will be analyzed in terms of nature and degrees of damage to different categories of beam-column structures and the main weaknesses and insufficiencies of such structures and the main causes of damage will be underlined. Finally the main lessons learned from this very important event, in terms of beam-column building system behavior, will be presented and some recommendations will be given in order to improve Algerian building practice and Algerian seismic code requirements related to such a system.

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