The progressive damage and subsequent demolition of unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings arising from the Canterbury earthquake sequence is reported. A dataset was compiled of all URM buildings located within the Christchurch CBD, including information on location, building characteristics, and damage levels after each major earthquake in this sequence. A general description of the overall damage and the hazard to both building occupants and to nearby pedestrians due to debris falling from URM buildings is presented with several case study buildings used to describe the accumulation of damage over the earthquake sequence. The benefit of seismic improvement techniques that had been installed to URM buildings is shown by the reduced damage ratios reported for increased levels of retrofit. Demolition statistics for URM buildings in the Christchurch CBD are also reported and discussed. VoR - Version of Record
A photograph of the Domo furniture store, Whites Building and the Edison Building on Tuam Street shortly after the 22 February 2011 earthquake. Members of the public can be seen walking down the road as they attempt to leave the central city.
Emergency personnel searching for people trapped in the collapsed Canterbury Television Building on Madras Street. On the right, a sheet of corrugated plastic is being used to slide pieces of debris off the building. Smoke is billowing from the ruins, which are still partly on fire.
Emergency personnel searching for people trapped in the collapsed Canterbury Television Building on Madras Street. On the right, a sheet of corrugated plastic is being used to slide pieces of debris off the building. Smoke is billowing from the ruins, which are still partly on fire.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "View centered on the Millennium Hotel in Cathedral Square".
A photograph of the earthquake damage to The Press building in Cathedral Square. The top storey of the building has collapsed into the storey below, some of the masonry falling onto the pavement below. Wire fencing has been placed around the building as a cordon.
A building on the corner of Madras Street and Hereford Street, with the Canterbury Television Building visible in the background. Masonry from this building has crumbled onto the footpath below. Fire engines can be seen along Madras Street, combating the fire.
An aerial photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "CBD, New Regent Street (lower left), Cathedral Square (left centre) and Provincial Council Chambers (right centre)".
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The BNZ building on Armagh Street with the PWC building under construction and Copthorne Hotel being demolished behind. The Forsyth Barr building can also be seen".
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The ground floor of the IRD building on the corner of Cashel and Madras Streets, taken through the Madras Street window. The book market inside the building is almost undisturbed while next door, the CTV building collapsed.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Forsyth Barr Building on the corner of Colombo and Armagh Streets with PricewaterhouseCoopers Building to the left and Marque Hotel in the distance".
An aerial photograph of the Forsyth Bar building near Victoria Square. The photograph is captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The Forsyth Barr building at 764 Colombo Street, with Victoria Square behind. This building is staying".
A photograph of the southern end of the Provincial Chambers Building taken through a car window. The roof and the wall of the building have collapsed on the right.
Page 3 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Friday 7 September 2012.
Page 3 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Wednesday 14 December 2011.
Seismic isolation is an effective technology for significantly reducing damage to buildings and building contents. However, its application to light-frame wood buildings has so far been unable to overcome cost and technical barriers such as susceptibility to movement during high-wind loading. The precursor to research in the field of isolation of residential buildings was the 1994 Northridge Earthquake (6.7 MW) in the United States and the 1995 Kobe Earthquake (6.9 MW) in Japan. While only a small number of lives were lost in residential buildings in these events, the economic impact was significant with over half of earthquake recovery costs given to repair and reconstruction of residential building damage. A value case has been explored to highlight the benefits of seismically isolated residential buildings compared to a standard fixed-base dwellings for the Wellington region. Loss data generated by insurance claim information from the 2011 Christchurch Earthquake has been used by researchers to determine vulnerability functions for the current light-frame wood building stock. By further considering the loss attributed to drift and acceleration sensitive components, and a simplified single degree of freedom (SDOF) building model, a method for determining vulnerability functions for seismic isolated buildings was developed. Vulnerability functions were then applied directly in a loss assessment using the GNS developed software, RiskScape. Vulnerability was shown to dramatically reduce for isolated buildings compared to an equivalent fixed-base building and as a result, the monetary savings in a given earthquake scenario were significant. This work is expected to drive further interest for development of solutions for the seismic isolation of residential dwellings, of which one option is further considered and presented herein.
Seismic isolation is an effective technology for significantly reducing damage to buildings and building contents. However, its application to light-frame wood buildings has so far been unable to overcome cost and technical barriers such as susceptibility of light-weight buildings to movement under high-wind loading. The 1994 Northridge Earthquake (6.7 MW) in the United States, 1995 Kobe Earthquake (6.9 MW) in Japan and 2011 Christchurch Earthquake (6.7 Mw) all highlighted significant loss to light-frame wood buildings with over half of earthquake recovery costs allocated to their repair and reconstruction. This poster presents a value case to highlight the benefits of seismically isolated residential buildings compared to the standard fixed-base dwellings for the Wellington region. Loss data generated by insurance claim information from the 2011 Christchurch Earthquake has been used to determine vulnerability functions for the current light-frame wood building stock. By using a simplified single degree of freedom (SDOF) building model, methods for determining vulnerability functions for seismic isolated buildings are developed. Vulnerability functions are then applied directly in a loss assessment to determine the Expected Annual Loss. Vulnerability was shown to dramatically reduce for isolated buildings compared to an equivalent fixed-base building resulting in significant monetary savings, justifying the value case. A state-of-the-art timber modelling software, Timber3D, is then used to model a typical residential building with and without seismic isolation to assess the performance of a proposed seismic isolation system which addresses the technical and cost issues.
St John Ambulance personnel preparing an oxygen mask while standing over a stretcher loaded with medical supplies. Behind them, emergency personnel can be seen searching the ruins of the collapsed Canterbury Television Building on Madras Street for trapped people. Over their heads, a member of the Fire Service in a cherry picker is spraying water on the fire burning in the building. Smoke is billowing from the building.
A St John Ambulance personnel preparing an oxygen mask while standing over a stretcher loaded with medical supplies. Behind him, emergency personnel can be seen searching the ruins of the collapsed Canterbury Television Building for on Madras Street for trapped people. Fire Service personnel have sprayed a jet of water onto the fire burning in the intact section of the building. Smoke is billowing from the building.
An aerial photograph of Cathedral Square. Captions added by BeckerFraserPhotos identify the demolition sites of key buildings.
Page 4 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Tuesday 11 December 2012.
A photograph of the site of a demolished building on Tuam Street. The NewstalkZB building on Worcester Street can be seen in the distance.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Manchester Street car park building, which is a listed heritage site. Viewed from Manchester Street".
An aerial photograph of the historic BNZ building on Williams Street in Kaiapoi.
A photograph of a red sticker taped to the Government Life building in Cathedral Square, indicating that the building is unsafe to enter.
A photograph of an earthquake-damaged building. The brick wall on the right hand side of the building has come away from the building, bricks falling into the street.
A photograph of earthquake-damaged buildings on Worcester Street. Rubble and scaffolding cover the road. The NewstalkZB building stands in the background.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Looking across the demolition site of Brannigans towards Cathedral Square".
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "IRD building, viewed across the empty site where the CTV building was".
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The rear of the old Telecom building at 95 Hereford Street".