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Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of St John's Anglican Church in Hororata. The spire of the church, which partially collapsed in the 4 September earthquake, has been boarded up in order to protect the building from rain. This photograph was modelled off an image taken by BeckerFraserPhotos in October 2010.

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

Glazing systems are non-structural elements in a building that, more often than not, appear to be given little consideration in seismic design. Recent experimental work into glazing systems at the University of Canterbury, however, has shown that glazing systems can be very susceptible to serviceability damage, defined as loss of water-tightness. The focus of this paper is to highlight the difference in vulnerability of standard and seismic glazing systems and consider the implications of this for future repair costs and losses. The paper first describes the damage states chosen for glazing units according to the repair strategies required and expected repair costs. This includes three damage states: DS1: Water Leakage, DS2: Gasket Failure and DS3: Frame/Glass Failure. Implementing modern performance-based earthquake engineering, the paper proceeds to highlight a case study comparing costs and expected losses of a standard glazing unit and a seismic glazing unit installed on a case study building. It is shown that the use of seismic glazing units is generally beneficial over time, due to the early onset of serviceability damage in standard glazing units. Finally, the paper provides suggestions for designers aimed at reducing costs related to earthquake induced repairs of glazing.

Images, eqnz.chch.2010

The earthquake re-pair work has started on the Knox Church on Bealey Avenue, August 14, 2013 Christchurch New Zealand. While building after building is torn down in Christchurch, plans are in place to ensure as much of a 131-year-old church is retained as possible. Knox Church on Bealey Avenue suffered major damage in the February 22 earthquak...

Videos, UC QuakeStudies

A video of excavators demolishing the former railway station on Moorhouse Avenue. The building was only moderately damaged during the 22 February 2011 earthquake, but repair work was deemed too costly for the co-owner, Science Alive!.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of a sign in the window of the Diabetes Centre on Hagley Avenue. The sign reads, "The Diabetes Centre is open. There are currently some earthquake repairs going on inside the building; however the building is safe to enter. Unfortunately the lift is out of action. Here are some pictures of what the building looks like inside: the lift is out of action until further notice; the gib board in the stairwell is being replaced; some ceiling panels are being replaced; our friendly administration staff are happy to assist where possible".

Images, Alexander Turnbull Library

A woman says to a builder 'Christchurch people will really appreciate your help to rebuild - What you construct looks like it's already been hit by an earthquake'. They are standing in front of a very shoddily-built cottage and the garden is festooned with litter. Context - After the Christchurch earthquakes there is a huge emphasis on fast rebuilding with the potential for below standard results.. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).

Images, Alexander Turnbull Library

The cartoon shows a monstrous machine with an enormous crushing ball attached to a giant crane. It moves past a signpost that points towards Christchurch. A man watches and tells his friend 'Gerry Brownlee borrowed it from Auckland! Context - Brownlee has caused a stir by suggesting that if he had his way some of Christchurch's older buildings would be "down tomorrow". He also said the price of saving some historic buildings badly damaged in the February 22 earthquake was too high. People had died in the quake because of attempts to save historic buildings badly damaged in the September 4 quake. Brownlee said he had no regrets despite the stir his comments caused - but he was annoyed by suggestions the Cathedral and Riccarton House were among buildings he thought should be bowled. He believed those buildings should be saved, and they would be. "I'm not a philistine; I was chairman of the trust that actually saved Riccarton House from the bulldozers in 1990. "I understand conservation architecture very well and I do have an appreciation of heritage buildings." Colour and black and white versions available Quantity: 2 digital cartoon(s).

Images, UC QuakeStudies

The damaged Cranmer Centre on the corner of Montreal and Armagh Streets shortly after the 22 February 2011 earthquake. The east wall of the building has crumbled onto the street and a man in a hard hat and high-visibility vest is directing people around it. There is scaffolding on the south side of the building from repair works after the 4 September 2010 earthquake. The gable in the background has also collapsed.

Videos, UC QuakeStudies

A video about field trials conducted by the Department of Building and Housing at Queen Elizabeth II Park in Christchurch. Fifty kilograms of explosives are being used to simulate a magnitude-4 earthquake at a distance of 10 kilometres. The aim of the trials is to test soil-strengthening techniques that could be used to repair damaged land in Christchurch.

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

This paper presents preliminary results of an experimental campaign on three beam-column joint subassemblies extracted from a 22-storey reinforced concrete frame building constructed in late 1980s at the Christchurch’s Central Business District (CBD) area, damaged and demolished after the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquakes sequence (CES). The building was designed following capacity design principles. Column sway (i.e., soft storey) mechanisms were avoided, and the beams were provided with plastic hinge relocation details at both beam-ends, aiming at developing plastic hinges away from the column faces. The specimens were tested under quasi-static cyclic displacement controlled lateral loading. One of the specimens, showing no visible residual cracks was cyclically tested in its as-is condition. The other two specimens which showed residual cracks varying between hairline and 1.0mm in width, were subjected to cyclic loading to simulate cracking patterns consistent with what can be considered moderate damage. The cracked specimens were then repaired with an epoxy injection technique and subsequently retested until reaching failure. The epoxy injection techniques demonstrated to be quite efficient in partly, although not fully, restoring the energy dissipation capacities of the damaged specimens at all beam rotation levels. The stiffness was partly restored within the elastic range and almost fully restored after the onset of nonlinear behaviour.

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

Designing a structure for higher- than-code seismic performance can result in significant economic and environmental benefits. This higher performance can be achieved using the principles of Performance-Based Design, in which engineers design structures to minimize the probabilistic lifecycle seismic impacts on a building. Although the concept of Performance-Based Design is not particularly new, the initial capital costs associated with designing structures for higher performance have historically hindered the widespread adoption of performance-based design practices. To overcome this roadblock, this research is focused on providing policy makers and stakeholders with evidence-based environmental incentives for designing structures in New Zealand for higher seismic performance. In the first phase of the research, the environmental impacts of demolitions in Christchurch following the Canterbury Earthquakes were quantified to demonstrate the environmental consequences of demolitions following seismic events. That is the focus here. A building data set consisting of 142 concrete buildings that were demolished following the earthquake was used to quantify the environmental impacts of the demolitions in terms of the embodied carbon and energy in the building materials. A reduced set of buildings was used to develop a material takeoff model to estimate material quantities in the entire building set, and a lifecycle assessment tool was used to calculate the embodied carbon and energy in the materials. The results revealed staggering impacts in terms of the embodied carbon and energy in the materials in the demolished buildings. Ongoing work is focused developing an environmental impact framework that incorporates all the complex factors (e.g. construction methodologies, repair methodologies (if applicable), demolition methodologies (if applicable), and waste management) that contribute to the environmental impacts of building repair and demolition following earthquakes.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A crane beside the boiler chimney in the University of Canterbury's Facilities Management yard. The photographer comments, "The University restarts its teaching, and the techies in e-learning move out of NZi3. Inspection and repairs to the University's boiler system. It's getting cooler, we'll need heat soon - but we need accessible buildings first".

Research papers, Victoria University of Wellington

Heritage buildings are an important element of our urban environments, representing the hope and aspirations of a generation gone, reminding us of our achievements and our identity.  When heritage buildings suffer damage, or fall into disrepair they are either met by one of two extremes; a bulldozer or painstaking repair. If the decision to conserve defeats the bulldozer, current heritage practice favours restoration into a mausoleum-type monument to yesteryear. But what if, rather than becoming a museum, these heritage buildings could live on and become a palimpsest of history? What if the damage was embraced and embodied in the repair?  The Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament on Barbadoes Street, Christchurch is the case study building for this thesis. Suffering damage in the Canterbury earthquakes of 2010 and 2011, the Cathedral sits in ruin waiting for decisions to be made around how it can be retained for future generations.  This thesis will propose a reconstruction for the Cathedral through the analysis of precedent examples of reconstructing damaged heritage buildings and guided by a heritage framework proposed in this thesis. The employed process will be documented as an alternative method for reconstructing other damaged heritage buildings.

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

One of the most controversial issues highlighted by the 2010-2011 Christchurch earthquake series and more recently the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake, has been the evident difficulty and lack of knowledge and guidelines for: a) evaluation of the residual capacity damaged buildings to sustain future aftershocks; b) selection and implementation of a series of reliable repairing techniques to bring back the structure to a condition substantially the same as prior to the earthquake; and c) predicting the cost (or cost-effectiveness) of such repair intervention, when compared to fully replacement costs while accounting for potential aftershocks in the near future. As a result of such complexity and uncertainty (i.e., risk), in combination with the possibility (unique in New Zealand when compared to most of the seismic-prone countries) to rely on financial support from the insurance companies, many modern buildings, in a number exceeding typical expectations from past experiences at an international level, have ended up being demolished. This has resulted in additional time and indirect losses prior to the full reconstruction, as well as in an increase in uncertainty on the actual relocation of the investment. This research project provides the main end-users and stakeholders (practitioner engineers, owners, local and government authorities, insurers, and regulatory agencies) with comprehensive evidence-based information to assess the residual capacity of damage reinforced concrete buildings, and to evaluate the feasibility of repairing techniques, in order to support their delicate decision-making process of repair vs. demolition or replacement. Literature review on effectiveness of epoxy injection repairs, as well as experimental tests on full-scale beam-column joints shows that repaired specimens have a reduced initial stiffness compared with the undamaged specimen, with no apparent strength reduction, sometimes exhibiting higher displacement ductility capacities. Although the bond between the steel and concrete is only partially restored, it still allows the repaired specimen to dissipate at least the same amount of hysteretic energy. Experimental tests on buildings subjected to earthquake loading demonstrate that even for severe damage levels, the ability of the epoxy injection to restore the initial stiffness of the structure is significant. Literature review on damage assessment and repair guidelines suggests that there is consensus within the international community that concrete elements with cracks less than 0.2 mm wide only require cosmetic repairs; epoxy injection repairs of cracks less and 2.0 mm wide and concrete patching of spalled cover concrete (i.e., minor to moderate damage) is an appropiate repair strategy; and for severe damaged components (e.g., cracks greater than 2.0 mm wide, crushing of the concrete core, buckling of the longitudinal reinforcement) local replacement of steel and/or concrete in addition to epoxy crack injection is more appropriate. In terms of expected cracking patterns, non-linear finite element investigations on well-designed reinforced concrete beam-to-column joints, have shown that lower number of cracks but with wider openings are expected to occur for larger compressive concrete strength, f’c, and lower reinforcement content, ρs. It was also observed that the tensile concrete strength, ft, strongly affects the expected cracking pattern in the beam-column joints, the latter being more uniformly distributed for lower ft values. Strain rate effects do not seem to play an important role on the cracking pattern. However, small variations in the cracking pattern were observed for low reinforcement content as it approaches to the minimum required as per NZS 3101:2006. Simple equations are proposed in this research project to relate the maximum and residual crack widths with the steel strain at peak displacement, with or without axial load. A literature review on fracture of reinforcing steel due to low-cycle fatigue, including recent research using steel manufactured per New Zealand standards is also presented. Experimental results describing the influence of the cyclic effect on the ultimate strain capacity of the steel are also discussed, and preliminary equations to account for that effect are proposed. A literature review on the current practice to assess the seismic residual capacity of structures is also presented. The various factors affecting the residual fatigue life at a component level (i.e., plastic hinge) of well-designed reinforced concrete frames are discussed, and equations to quantify each of them are proposed, as well as a methodology to incorporate them into a full displacement-based procedure for pre-earthquake and post-earthquake seismic assessment.

Images, eqnz.chch.2010

Steel frames are being used to shore the unstable facade of the St John the Baptist Church at Latimer Square while the building is being repaired and strengthened following the magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck Christchurch on Saturday 4 September 2010.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

The ruins of the historic Durham Street Methodist Church in the aftermath of the 22 February 2011 earthquake. The only parts of the building still upright are those supported by steel braces placed there after the 4 September 2010 earthquake to strengthen the building as it awaited repairs. Rubble has spilled out onto the street, knocking over the safety fences that were also erected after September. Silt from liquefaction has covered the road around the church.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

The ruins of the historic Durham Street Methodist Church in the aftermath of the 22 February 2011 earthquake. The only parts of the building still upright are those supported by steel braces placed there after the 4 September 2010 earthquake to strengthen the building as it awaited repairs. Rubble has spilled out onto the street, knocking over the safety fences that were also erected after September. Silt from liquefaction has covered the road around the church.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

The ruins of the historic Durham Street Methodist Church in the aftermath of the 22 February 2011 earthquake. The only parts of the building still upright are those supported by steel braces placed there after the 4 September 2010 earthquake to strengthen the building as it awaited repairs. Rubble has spilled out onto the street, knocking over the safety fences that were also erected after September. Silt from liquefaction has covered the road around the church.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

The University of Canterbury's E-Learning team's temporary office in the James Hight building. The photographer comments, "First looks at our new temporary (maybe) office space. Our group will stay here until April or May 2011, then will move to another floor in the Central Library. Foyer lifts etc. Female toilets are off the foyer to the left. These lifts start at Level 2 of the Library, and are heavily used by students. (Once the building is repaired after the earthquake; several floors are still in a mess)".

Images, Alexander Turnbull Library

A newspaper lying on the boardroom table has a headline reading 'Top NZ companies planning contributions to earthquake relief'. A group of CEOs at a high level meeting almost have cardiac arrests when the chair reports that 'Some comedian suggested we CEOs donate our salary increases and bonuses... But now, moving on to serious matters... Context - Some big companies like Fletcher Building, General Motors and others have pledged substantial money to the Christchurch earthquake relief funds. The Christchurch earthquake happened 22 February 2011. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).

Images, UC QuakeStudies

Steel bracing on the front of the Worcester Street face of the Octagon Live Restaurant (formerly Trinity Church), which is being repaired. The scaffolding has been decorated with sculptures of people kayaking, cycling, climbing and bungee jumping. Some of the figures are wearing santa hats. A fence has been constructed at the base of the building.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

Steel bracing on the front of the Worcester Street face of the Octagon Live Restaurant (formerly Trinity Church), which is being repaired. The scaffolding has been decorated with sculptures of people kayaking, cycling, climbing and bungee jumping. Some of the figures are wearing santa hats. A fence has been constructed at the base of the building.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

Steel bracing on the front of the Worcester Street face of the Octagon Live Restaurant (formerly Trinity Church), which is being repaired. The scaffolding has been decorated with sculptures of people kayaking, cycling, climbing and bungee jumping. Some of the figures are wearing santa hats. A fence has been constructed at the base of the building.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

Steel bracing on the front of the Worcester Street face of the Octagon Live Restaurant (formerly Trinity Church), which is being repaired. The scaffolding has been decorated with sculptures of people kayaking, cycling, climbing and bungee jumping. Some of the figures are wearing santa hats. A fence has been constructed at the base of the building.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

Steel bracing on the front of the Worcester Street face of the Octagon Live Restaurant (formerly Trinity Church), which is being repaired. The scaffolding has been decorated with sculptures of people kayaking, cycling, climbing and bungee jumping. Some of the figures are wearing santa hats. A fence has been constructed at the base of the building.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

Steel bracing on the front of the Worcester Street face of the Octagon Live Restaurant (formerly Trinity Church), which is being repaired. The scaffolding has been decorated with sculptures of people kayaking, cycling, climbing and bungee jumping. Some of the figures are wearing santa hats. A fence has been constructed at the base of the building.