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Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of a member of the Wellington Emergency Management Office Emergency Response Team walking across Manchester Street. In the background is a block of earthquake-damaged buildings. Large sections of the buildings have collapsed and the rubble has spilled onto the street below.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of the earthquake damage to St Paul's School in Dallington. Large cracks can be seen in the surface of the asphalt. Silt from liquefaction is visible in front of the school buildings. Tape has been placed on the building to keep people away.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph looking north-west down High Street towards the intersection with Manchester Street. Rubble from several earthquake-damaged buildings lines both sides of the street. In the distance members of the Wellington Emergency Management Office Emergency Response Team and several excavators are working.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of the earthquake damage to the Knox Church on the corner of Bealey Avenue and Victoria Street. The gable walls have crumbled, exposing the wooden structure inside. Wire fencing, road cones and cordon tape have been placed around the building as a cordon.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph looking west down Lichfield Street towards the intersection of Manchester Street. Bricks and other rubble from the earthquake-damaged buildings on either side of the road have scattered on the footpath and street. Road cones and plastic fencing has been used as cordons.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of the earthquake damage to a block of buildings on Hereford Street. Large sections of the buildings have collapsed and the rubble has spilled onto the footpath and street in front. USAR codes have been spray-painted on the front of Calendar Girls.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of the Wellington Emergency Management Office Emergency Response Team standing in a car park on Lichfield Street. The team are wearing face and gas masks, hard hats, safety glasses, knee pads, and rubber gloves. In the background are several earthquake-damaged buildings.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of members of the Wellington Emergency Management Office Emergency Response Team standing on the intersection of Manchester and Lichfield Streets. In the background is the Majestic Theatre. Piles of rubble from earthquake-damaged buildings has been piled on the road below the building.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of the earthquake damage to the Canterbury Provincial Chambers Building on Durham Street. Large sections of the masonry have collapsed, spilling onto the road. Wire fencing has been placed around the building as a cordon. Scaffolding erected up the side has collapsed.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of the earthquake damage to the Canterbury Provincial Chambers Building on Durham Street. Large sections of the masonry have collapsed, spilling onto the road. Wire fencing has been placed around the building as a cordon. Scaffolding erected up the side has collapsed.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of the earthquake-damaged Oxford Terrace Baptist Church. Steels bracing has been used to stabilise the front of the building. Crumbled masonry and other rubble is still lying in front. Wire fences have been placed around the building site as a cordon.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of the earthquake damage to South of the Border and Denis Moore the Auto Electrician on Colombo Street. The top storey of South of the Border has crumbled. Fencing, road cones and tape have been placed around the buildings as a cordon.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of the earthquake-damaged Oxford Terrace Baptist Church. Steels bracing has been used to stabilise the front of the building. Crumbled masonry and other rubble is still lying in front. Wire fences have been placed around the building site as a cordon.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph looking west down Dundas Street. Rubble has been stacked on both sides of the street. Several earthquake-damaged cars, recovered from the Smiths City car park, have also been stacked on the left. In the background two excavators are sorting through the rubble.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of a member of an emergency management team walking down Cashel Street. In the background is a crushed van, piles of rubble from earthquake-damaged buildings, and partially-collapsed scaffolding. Wire fences have been placed in front of the buildings as cordons.

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

Observations made in past earthquakes, in New Zealand and around the world, have highlighted the vulnerability of non-structural elements such as facades, ceilings, partitions and services. Damage to these elements can be life-threatening or jeopardise egress routes but typically, the main concern is the cost and time associated with repair works. The Insurance Council of New Zealand highlighted the substantial economic losses in recent earthquakes due to poor performance of non-structural elements. Previous inspections and research have attributed the damage to non-structural elements principally to poor coordination, inadequate or lack of seismic restraints and insufficient clearances to cater for seismic actions. Secondary issues of design responsibility, procurement and the need for better alignment of the various Standards have been identified. In addition to the compliance issues, researchers have also demonstrated that current code provisions for non-structural elements, both in New Zealand and abroad, may be inadequate. This paper first reviews the damage observed against the requirements of relevant Standards and the New Zealand Building Code, and it appears that, had the installations been compliant, the cost of repair and business interruption would have been substantially less. The second part of the paper highlights some of the apparent shortcomings with the current design process for non-structural elements, points towards possible alternative strategies and identifies areas where more research is deemed necessary. The challenge of improving the seismic performance of non-structural elements is a complex one across a diverse construction industry. Indications are that the New Zealand construction industry needs to completely rethink the delivery approach to ensure an integrated design, construction and certification process. The industry, QuakeCentre, QuakeCoRE and the University of Canterbury are presently working together to progress solutions. Indications are that if new processes can be initiated, better performance during earthquakes will be achieved while delivering enhanced building and business resilience.

Images, Alexander Turnbull Library

Text reads 'City's old chimneys are considered the no. 1 earthquake danger'. Below are several angry-looking chimneys which sing 'Chim chim-in-ey. Chim chim-in-ey, chim chim cher-oo! When the big shake's on - we're coming to get you!' Context - Invercargill City council building services manager Simon Tonkin has seen first-hand the massive damage falling chimneys inflicted on homes and nearby vehicles following the massive Christchurch quake, and says that Invercargill's old brick chimneys are the No1 danger to the city's residents and homes if a major earthquake strikes and should be removed if they are not being used. (Southland Times 6 April 2011) Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A digitally manipulated image of the damaged statue of Scott which was removed from its original site beside Worcester Boulevard for safekeeping. The photographer comments, "During the February 2011 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand the statue of Robert Falcon Scott broke across the ankles and most of the statue came crashing to the ground. To commemorate a 100 years of association with Antarctica Christchurch council has laid out for viewing the statue in a prostrate position. I was lucky to encounter the statue before it was put into its glass display enclosure".

Images, UC QuakeStudies

An earthquake-damaged bridge, the approach to which has slumped. The photographer comments, "Due to lateral spread and the land slumping the road leading to this bridge has moved down greatly. Just imagine making the street lamps upright and how much that section of road would rise up at the end. When you go over bridges in the east side of Christchurch it is quite a climb up and a big drop down on the other side. The bridges in most cases coped very well, but not so the land leading to them".

Audio, Radio New Zealand

The Prime Minister Chris Hipkins today announced an additional three hundred and one million dollar boost for the rebuild of earthquake damaged Christchurch schools, and said the programme in Christchurch may be a template for repairing flood damaged schools in the North Island. Some schools are still waiting to be repaired more than a decade after the devastating quakes. On his first visit to Christchurch since becoming Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins visited one of the schools still in the midst of its rebuild process, and to celebrate the progress being made. Our reporter Rachel Graham and videographer Nate McKinnon went along. 

Images, Canterbury Museum

One beige Campmaster portable chemical toilet made from a matte finished high-density polythene and comprising a 20 litre holding tank for waste product and a 10 litre water tank for flushing. Chemical toilets were distributed by the Christchurch City Council as one solution to the badly damaged sewerage system following the 22 February 2011 ea...

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

To this extent, modern buildings generally demonstrated good resistance to collapse during the recent earthquakes in New Zealand. However, damage to non-structural elements (NSE) has been persistent during these events. NSEs include secondary systems or components attached to the floors, roofs, and walls of a building or industrial facility that are not explicitly designed to participate in the main vertical or lateral load-bearing mechanism of the structure. They play a major role in the operational and functional aspects of buildings and contribute a major portion of the building’s overall cost. Therefore, they are expected to accommodate the effects of seismic actions such as drifts and accelerations. Typical examples of NSEs include internal non-loadbearing partitions, suspended ceilings, sprinkler piping systems, architectural claddings, building contents, mechanical/electrical equipment, and furnishings. The main focus of this thesis is the drift sensitive NSEs: precast concrete cladding panels and internal partition walls. Even though most precast concrete cladding panels performed well from a life-safety point of view during recent earthquakes in NZ, some collapsed panels posed a significant threat to life safety. It is, therefore, important that the design and detailing of the panel-to-structure connections ensure that their strength and displacement capacity are adequate to meet the corresponding seismic demands, at least during design level earthquakes. In contrast, the partition wall is likely to get damaged and lose serviceability at a low inter-story drift unless designed to accommodate the relative deformations between them and the structure. Partition walls suffered wide-ranging damage such as screw failures, diagonal cracking, detachments to the gypsum linings, and anchorage failures during the 2011 Canterbury Earthquake Sequence in NZ. Therefore, the thesis is divided into two parts. Part I of the thesis focuses on developing novel low-damage precast concrete cladding panel connections, i.e. “rocking” connection details comprising vertically slotted steel embeds and weld plates. The low-damage seismic performance of novel “rocking” connection details is verified through experimental tests comprising uni-directional, bi-directional, and multi-storey scaled quasi-static cyclic tests. Comparison with the seismic performance of traditional panel connections reported in the literature demonstrated the system’s significantly improved seismic resilience. Furthermore, the finite element models of panel connections and sealants are developed in ABAQUS. The force-drift responses of the “rocking” panel system modelled in SAP2000 is compared with the experimental results to evaluate their accuracy and validity. Part II of the thesis focuses on a) understanding the seismic performance of traditional rigid timber-framed partition wall, b) development and verification of low-damage connections (i.e. “rocking” connection details comprising of dual-slot tracks), and c) seismic evaluation of partition walls with a novel “bracketed and slotted” connections (comprising of innovative fastener and plastic bracket named Flexibracket) under uni-directional and bidirectional quasi-static cyclic loadings. Moreover, parametric investigation of the partition walls was conducted through several experimental tests to understand better the pros and cons of the rocking connection details. The experimental results have confirmed that the implementation of the proposed low damage solutions of precast cladding panels and internal partition walls can significantly reduce their damage in a building.

Research papers, The University of Auckland Library

Between September 4, 2010 and December 23, 2011, a series of earthquakes struck the South Island of New Zealand including the city of Christchurch producing heavy damage. During the strongest shaking, the unreinforced masonry (URM) building stock in Christchurch was subjected to seismic loading equal to approximately 150-200% of code values. Post-earthquake reconnaissance suggested numerous failures of adhesive anchors used for retrofit connection of roof and floor diaphragms to masonry walls. A team of researchers from the Universities of Auckland (NZ) and Minnesota (USA) conducted a field investigation on the performance of new adhesive anchors installed in existing masonry walls. Variables included adhesive type, anchor diameter, embedment length, anchor inclination, and masonry quality. Buildings were selected that had been slated for demolition but which featured exterior walls that had not been damaged. A summary of the deformation response measured during the field tests are presented. AM - Accepted Manuscript

Research papers, The University of Auckland Library

The city of Christchurch has experienced over 10,000 aftershocks since the 4th of September 2010 earthquake of which approximately 50 have been greater than magnitude 5. The damage caused to URM buildings in Christchurch over this sequence of earthquakes has been well documented. Due to the similarity in age and construction of URM buildings in Adelaide, South Australia and Christchurch (they are sister cities, of similar age and heritage), an investigation was conducted to learn lessons for Adelaide based on the Christchurch experience. To this end, the number of URM buildings in the central business districts of both cities, the extent of seismic strengthening that exists in both cities, and the relative earthquake hazards for both cities were considered. This paper will report on these findings and recommend strategies that the city of Adelaide could consider to significantly reduce the seismic risk posed by URM buildings in future earthquake.

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

The Christchurch earthquake sequence has been on-going since September 4th 2010. The largest two earthquakes, magnitude (M) 7.1 on September 4th and the M 6.3 on February 22nd 2011 caused immediate and significant damage to the city of Christchurch. As a consequence of the earthquakes, the tourism sector in the Canterbury region has been heavily impacted, with broader impacts being felt throughout the South Island. Resilient Organisations and the University of Canterbury began a series of quantitative investigations into the recovery and response of key business sectors to the earthquakes. The purpose of this study was to build on this work by exploring the outcomes of the earthquakes on the tourism sector, a critical economic driver in the region. Two postal surveys were sent to 719 tourism business managers; the first to businesses in the ‘Impact Zone’ defined as areas that experienced Modified Mercalli intensities greater than 6. The second survey was sent to the remaining businesses throughout the Canterbury region (‘Rest of Canterbury’). Response rates were 46% response for the Impact Zone, and 29% for the Rest of Canterbury. Key findings:

Research papers, The University of Auckland Library

Seismic retrofitting of unreinforced masonry buildings using posttensioning has been the topic of many recent experimental research projects. However, the performance of such retrofit designs in actual design level earthquakes has previously been poorly documented. In 1984 two stone masonry buildings within The Arts Centre of Christchurch received posttensioned seismic retrofits, which were subsequently subjected to design level seismic loads during the 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquake sequence. These 26 year old retrofits were part of a global scheme to strengthen and secure the historic building complex and were subject to considerable budgetary constraints. Given the limited resources available at the time of construction and the current degraded state of the steel posttension tendons, the posttensioned retrofits performed well in preventing major damage to the overall structure of the two buildings in the Canterbury earthquakes. When compared to other similar unretrofitted structures within The Arts Centre, it is demonstrated that the posttensioning significantly improved the in-plane and out-of-plane wall strength and the ability to limit residual wall displacements. The history of The Arts Centre buildings and the details of the Canterbury earthquakes is discussed, followed by examination of the performance of the posttension retrofits and the suitability of this technique for future retrofitting of other historic unreinforced masonry buildings. http://www.aees.org.au/downloads/conference-papers/

Research Papers, Lincoln University

Indigenous Peoples retain traditional coping strategies for disasters despite the marginalisation of many Indigenous communities. This article describes the response of Māori to the Christchurch earthquakes of 2010 and 2012 through analyses of available statistical data and reports, and interviews done three months and one year after the most damaging event. A significant difference between Māori and ‘mainstream’ New Zealand was the greater mobility enacted by Māori throughout this period, with organisations having roles beyond their traditional catchments throughout the disaster, including important support for non-Māori. Informed engagement with Indigenous communities, acknowledging their internal diversity and culturally nuanced support networks, would enable more efficient disaster responses in many countries.