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Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

The 2010-2011 Christchurch earthquakes generated damage in several Reinforced Concrete (RC) buildings, which had RC walls as the principal resistant element against earthquake demand. Despite the agreement between structural engineers and researchers in an overall successfully performance there was a lack of knowledge about the behaviour of the damaged structures, and even deeper about a repaired structure, which triggers arguments between different parties that remains up to these days. Then, it is necessary to understand the capacity of the buildings after the earthquake and see how simple repairs techniques improve the building performance. This study will assess the residual capacity of ductile slender RC walls according to current standards in New Zealand, NZS 3101.1 2006 A3. First, a Repaired RC walls Database is created trying to gather previous studies and to evaluate them with existing international guidelines. Then, an archetype building is designed, and the wall is extracted and scaled. Four half-scale walls were designed and will be constructed and tested at the Structures Testing Laboratory at The University of Auckland. The overall dimensions are 3 [m] height, 2 [m] length and 0.175 [m] thick. All four walls will be identical, with differences in the loading protocol and the presence or absence of a repair technique. Results are going to be useful to assess the residual capacity of a damaged wall compare to the original behaviour and also the repaired capacity of walls with simpler repair techniques. The expected behaviour is focussed on big changes in stiffness, more evident than in previously tested RC beams found in the literature.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of earthquake-damaged buildings down Manchester Street. Crowds have gathered at the intersection with High Street in the distance, after evacuating their buildings during the 22 February 2011 earthquake. Rubble from the building to the left covers the road.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of building rubble on a demolition site between St Asaph Street and Tuam Street. The old Post Office building can be seen in the distance to the left and on the right are badly-damaged High Street buildings.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of a cleared building site on High Street. Three shipping containers are stacked against the remaining facade of the Excelsior Hotel building on the left. The badly-damaged McKenzie & Lewis building on Tuam Street can be seen in the distance.