A photograph looking south down Colombo Street towards The Crossing. USAR codes have been spray painted on the glass doors of buildings to the left and bricks along the footpath have been upturned.
A photograph of an earthquake damaged house in Christchurch. USAR codes have been spray painted on the front wall. A red sticker in the window indicates that the building is unsafe to enter.
A photograph of the front door of the O-Cha Thai Cuisine restaurant in the former Canterbury Times Building on Gloucester Street. USAR codes have been spray-painted on one of the windows.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to St Elmo Courts on the corner of Hereford and Montreal Streets. There are large cracks in the building's façade. USAR codes have been spray-painted on one of the windows. Police tape has been draped around the building as a cordon.
A photograph of bricks and other rubble on the footpath outside a building on Lichfield Street. USAR codes have been spray-painted on one of the windows and the front door. A red sticker has been stuck to a column on the right, indicating that the building is unsafe to enter.
A view over the Avon river, looking at the Boulevard Restaurant and Bar. The canopy over the outside seating area has been distorted, and on the doors are spray painted codes left by USAR after the building had been cleared.
A photograph of USAR codes spray-painted on the front door of the Art Gallery Apartments on Gloucester Street. A red sticker has been taped to the door, indicating that the building is unsafe to enter.
The badly-damaged Knox Presbyterian Church on the corner of Bealey Avenue and Victoria Street. The brickwork in the gables has crumbled, exposing the wooden structure underneath. Spray-painted USAR codes can be seen on the brick wall.
A photograph of a Wellington Emergency Management Office Emergency Response Team member talking to a member of the Professional Building Services on Gloucester Street. In the background is the Press House building with many cracks in the façade. Bits of bricks and other debris are scattered across the footpath. Some of the windows above the facade have broken. USAR codes have been spray-painted on one of the bottom-storey windows.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to the Art Gallery Apartments on Gloucester Street. Both windows on the second floor of the building are broken. USAR codes have been spray painted on one of the bottom-storey windows.
A photograph of the Little India building on the corner of Gloucester Street and New Regent Street. One of the doors has been boarded up with plywood. USAR codes and a red sticker can be seen on the other.
A damaged house in the Christchurch central city. Codes have been spray painted on the driveway as well as "No go" on the front window and door. A red sticker in the front window indicates that the building is unsafe to enter.
A photograph of street art on the side of an electricity substation on St Asaph Street. The artwork includes a Maori heimatau (fish hook) motif. Search and rescue codes have been spray-painted on the door of the building.
A photograph of the earthquake-damage to St Paul's-Trinity-Pacific Church on Cashel Street. A large section of the left side of the building has collapsed and the rubble has scattered onto the footpath and street below. Scaffolding constructed up the left side has also collapsed. USAR codes have been spray-painted on the wall in front of the building.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to a building on Gloucester Street. Many of the windows have broken, and the glass litters the footpath in front. USAR codes have been spray-painted on the door of the Kosco Asian Supermarket.
A photograph of the rubble from a demolished building on Bealey Avenue. Tape has been slung over the entrance to the property and a portaloo can be seen to the left of the photograph. USAR codes have been spray-painted on the brick fence.
A photograph of the Canterbury Times and Star building on Gloucester Street. USAR codes have been spray-painted on the door of Le Pot Au Feu and a window of O-Cha Thai. Broken glass and fallen masonry litters the footpath in front.
A photograph of members of the Wellington Emergency Management Office Emergency Response Team standing in front of an earthquake-damaged building on Lichfield Street. A section of the roof and the façade on the top storey of the building have collapsed and the bricks and other rubble have spilled onto the footpath and street below. USAR codes have been spray-painted on one of the bottom-storey windows and the front door.
A photograph of a piece of plywood sitting on top of a pile of bricks from the Carlton Hotel. USAR codes have been spray-painted on the wood. In the foreground, metal fencing, cordon tape and a road cone have been used to cordon off the building.
A photograph of an earthquake-damaged house on Gloucester Street. The bottom storey of the house has shifted and is now on a noticeable lean. USAR codes have been spray-painted on the front of the building and a red sticker has been placed on one of the windows.
A photograph of Riverview Lodge on Cambridge Terrace. Some of the roof tiles have lifted and cordon tape has been draped across the entrance. USAR codes have been spray-painted in one window and a red sticker taped in another. The red sticker indicates that the building is unsafe to enter.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to the Avonmore House on the corner of Hereford Street and Latimer Square. Large cracks have formed in the building, causing sections of the masonry to crumble. The windows on the Hereford Street side of the building have bent out of shape and many of the glass panes have shattered. USAR codes have been spray painted on the column next to the door. In the distance wire fencing has been placed across the street as a cordon.
A photograph of a residential property in the Christchurch central city with USAR codes spray-painted on the driveway and "No go" spray-painted on the front window and door. A red sticker in the window indicates that the building is unsafe to enter. Cordon tape has been draped around the side, cordoning off a pile of bricks.
A photograph of a car on Gloucester Street which has been crushed by falling bricks from the Canterbury Times and Star building. There is a pile of bricks on the front of the car. A USAR team have spray-painted codes on a plywood board and wedged it into the back of the car.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to The Burrito Company on Armagh Street. The front window has smashed, the glass spilling onto the floor and footpath outside. USAR codes have been spray-painted on the door and window to the side. A red sticker on the door indicates that the building is unsafe to enter.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to The Burrito Company on Armagh Street. The front window has smashed, the glass spilling onto the floor and footpath outside. USAR codes have been spray-painted on the door and window to the side. A red sticker on the door indicates that the building is unsafe to enter.
Currently there is a worldwide renaissance in timber building design. At the University of Canterbury, new structural systems for commercial multistorey timber buildings have been under development since 2005. These systems incorporate large timber sections connected by high strength post-tensioning tendons, and timber-concrete composite floor systems, and aim to compete with existing structural systems in terms of cost, constructability, operational and seismic performance. The development of post-tensioned timber systems has created a need for improved lateral force design approaches for timber buildings. Current code provisions for seismic design are based on the strength of the structure, and do not adequately account for its deformation. Because timber buildings are often governed by deflection, rather than strength, this can lead to the exceedence of design displacement limitations imposed by New Zealand codes. Therefore, accurate modeling approaches which define both the strength and deformation of post-tensioned timber buildings are required. Furthermore, experimental testing is required to verify the accuracy of these models. This thesis focuses on the development and experimental verification of modeling approaches for the lateral force design of post-tensioned timber frame and wall buildings. The experimentation consisted of uni-direcitonal and bi-directional quasi-static earthquake simulation on a two-thirds scale, two-storey post-tensioned timber frame and wall building with timber-concrete composite floors. The building was subjected to lateral drifts of up to 3% and demonstrated excellent seismic performance, exhibiting little damage. The building was instrumented and analyzed, providing data for the calibration of analytical and numerical models. Analytical and numerical models were developed for frame, wall and floor systems that account for significant deformation components. The models predicted the strength of the structural systems for a given design performance level. The static responses predicted by the models were compared with both experimental data and finite element models to evaluate their accuracy. The frame, wall and floor models were then incorporated into an existing lateral force design procedure known as displacement-based design and used to design several frame and wall structural systems. Predictions of key engineering demand parameters, such as displacement, drift, interstorey shear, interstorey moment and floor accelerations, were compared with the results of dynamic time-history analysis. It was concluded that the numerical and analytical models, presented in this thesis, are a sound basis for determining the lateral response of post-tensioned timber buildings. However, future research is required to further verify and improve these prediction models.
A photograph of emergency management personnel examining the earthquake damage to the Flight Centre's Link Centre on High Street. A brick wall on the neighbouring building has collapsed, falling through the roof of the store, and spilling out into the street. To the left, USAR codes have been spray-painted on the windows of the Coffee Culture.
A photograph of mannequins lying on the footpath outside the R.N.A clothing store on Colombo Street. The mannequins are dressed in adventure gear. USAR codes have been spray-painted on the glass door and window of the store. A yellow sticker has also been stuck to the door, indicating that access to the building is restricted.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to a group of shops on Colombo Street near the intersection of Kilmore Street. Large sections of the top storeys of the buildings have collapsed. Most of the bricks and other rubble have been cleared from the footpath. USAR codes have been spray-painted on many of the shops' windows. The closest store has been demolished and the rubble has been cleared away.