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Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of the stairwell of the Diabetes Centre on Hagley Avenue. There is a workbench in the foreground and a plank of wood on the right side of the stairs. On the landing the wall has been repaired and is unpainted.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A digitally manipulated photograph of a letterbox lying on the ground in front of a red-stickered house. The photographer comments, "An abandoned red stickered house just outside the four avenues that surround Christchurch CBD. The letterbox came down when the wall it was attached to collapsed. The occupants would have had strict instructions to stay out as the property is too dangerous to enter in case there is another earthquake or big aftershock".

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A digitally manipulated image of a broken window on Spicer House. The photographer comments, "One of the office blocks in Christchurch City, New Zealand. As the window has not been fixed I am presuming that this building will be slowly demolished at a later date".

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

Following the recent earthquakes in Chile (2010) and New Zealand (2010/2011), peculiar failure modes were observed in Reinforced Concrete (RC) walls. These observations have raised a global concern on the contribution of bi-directional loading to these failure mechanisms. One of the failure modes that could potentially result from bidirectional excitations is out-of-plane shear failure. In this paper an overview of the recent experimental and numerical findings regarding out-of-plane shear failure in RC walls are presented. The numerical study presents the Finite Element (FE) simulation of wall D5-6 from the Grand Chancellor Hotel that failed in shear in the out-of-plane direction in the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake. The main objective of the numerical study was to investigate the reasons for this failure mode. The experimental campaign includes the recent experiments conducted in the Structural Engineering Laboratory of the University of Canterbury. The experimental study included three rectangular slender RC walls designed based on NZS3101: 2006-A3 (2017) for three different ductility levels, namely: nominally ductile, limited ductile and ductile. The numerical results showed that high axial load combined with bi-directional loading caused the out-of-plane shear failure in wall D5-6 from the Grand Chancellor Hotel. This was also confirmed and further investigated in the experimental phase of the study.

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

During the past two decades, the focus has been on the need to provide communities with structures that undergo minimal damage after an earthquake event while still being cost competitive. This has led to the development of high performance seismic resisting systems, and advances in design methodologies, in order respect this demand efficiently. This paper presents the experimental response of four pre-cast, post-tensioned rocking wall systems tested on the shake-table at the University of Canterbury. The wall systems were designed as a retrofit solution for an existing frame building, but are equally applicable for use in new design. Design of the wall followed a performance-based retrofit strategy in which structural limit states appropriate to both the post-tensioned wall and the existing building were considered. Dissipation for each of the four post-tensioned walls was provided via externally mounted devices, located in parallel to post-tensioned tendons for re-centring. This allowed the dissipation devices to be easily replaced or inspected following a major earthquake. Each wall was installed with viscous fluid dampers, tension-compression yielding steel dampers, a combination of both or no devices at all – thus relying on contact damping alone. The effectiveness of both velocity and displacement dependant dissipation are investigated for protection against far-field and velocity-pulse ground motion characteristics. The experimental results validate the behaviour of ‘Advanced Flag-Shape’ rocking, dissipating solutions which have been recently proposed and numerically tested. Maximum displacements and material strains were well controlled and within acceptable bounds, and residual deformations were minimal due to the re-centring contribution from the post-tensioned tendons. Damage was confined to inelastic yielding (or fluid damping) of the external dampers.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

Members of the public take photographs of the damaged Christ Church Cathedral. A walkway from Gloucester Street to the Square was opened up for a few days to allow the public a closer look at the cathedral. The tower and the front wall of the building have partially collapsed. Steel bracing has been added to the front wall for support.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

Members of the public take photographs of the damaged Christ Church Cathedral. A walkway from Gloucester Street to the Square was opened up for a few days to allow the public a closer look at the cathedral. The tower and the front wall of the building have partially collapsed. Steel bracing has been added to the front wall for support.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

Members of the public take photographs of the damaged Christ Church Cathedral. A walkway from Gloucester Street to the Square was opened up for a few days to allow the public a closer look at the cathedral. The tower and the front wall of the building have partially collapsed. Steel bracing has been added to the front wall for support.

Videos, UC QuakeStudies

A video about the Student Volunteer Army delivering chemical toilets and building sandbag walls in Avondale after the 22 February 2011 earthquake. The sandbag walls are being built along the banks of the Avon River to prevent flooding caused by land subsidence.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of a member of the Diabetes Centre team in one of the rooms in the Diabetes Centre. The panelling has been removed from the wall behind, exposing the wooden frame underneath. In the foreground, a tarpaulin has been used to wall off the furniture from the rest of the room. The tarpaulin has partly fallen.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

An elaborate graffiti tag sprayed on a wall beside a demolition site on Tuam Street. A collection of abandoned objects lie on the site. The photographer comments, "Graffiti spotted in the Christchurch earthquake red zone. What I liked was the odd mixture of bits and bobs around it".

Images, UC QuakeStudies

Members of the public take photographs of the damaged Christ Church Cathedral. A walkway from Gloucester Street to the Square was opened up for a few days to allow the public a closer look at the cathedral. The tower and the front wall of the building have partially collapsed. Steel bracing has been added to the front wall for support.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

Broken panelling on a building on Colombo Street has exposed the interior of the walls. The photographer comments, "Seen in the Christchurch Earthquake Red Zone. If you saw this anywhere else in the world you would have thought that it was a piece of modern art".