A photograph of a damaged support beam in the basement of the Copthorne Hotel. A section of the concrete has crumbled, exposing the steel reinforcement underneath.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to the Canterbury Television Building on Gloucester Street. Some of the concrete on the columns has crumbled, revealing the steel reinforcement underneath.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to the Canterbury Television Building on Gloucester Street. Some of the concrete on the columns has crumbled, revealing the steel reinforcement underneath.
During the 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes, several reinforced concrete (RC) walls in multi-storey buildings formed a single crack in the plastic hinge region as opposed to distributed cracking. In several cases the crack width that was required to accommodate the inelastic displacement of the building resulted in fracture of the vertical reinforcing steel. This type of failure is characteristic of RC members with low reinforcement contents, where the area of reinforcing steel is insufficient to develop the tension force required to form secondary cracks in the surrounding concrete. The minimum vertical reinforcement in RC walls was increased in NZS 3101:2006 with the equation for the minimum vertical reinforcement in beams also adopted for walls, despite differences in reinforcement arrangement and loading. A series of moment-curvature analyses were conducted for an example RC wall based on the Gallery Apartments building in Christchurch. The analysis results indicated that even when the NZS 3101:2006 minimum vertical reinforcement limit was satisfied for a known concrete strength, the wall was still susceptible to sudden failure unless a significant axial load was applied. Additionally, current equations for minimum reinforcement based on a sectional analysis approach do not adequately address the issues related to crack control and distribution of inelastic deformations in ductile walls.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to the Canterbury Television Building on Gloucester Street. Some of the concrete on the columns has crumbled, revealing the steel reinforcement underneath.
A photograph of emergency management personnel inspecting the earthquake damage to a concrete beam inside a building. The concrete near the bottom of the beam has crumbled and the steel reinforcement inside is now exposed.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to a beam inside the basement of the Copthorne Hotel. A section of the concrete beam has crumbled to reveal the steel reinforcement underneath.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to a concrete beam inside a building. The wall around the beam has been removed to access the beam. Concrete near the bottom of the beam has crumbled and the steel reinforcement inside is now exposed.
A photograph of a concrete wall with steel reinforcement visible inside
A photograph of a concrete wall with steel reinforcement visible inside
The old Railway Station clock tower on Moorhouse Avenue with plywood and steel reinforcement covering two sides, a crane hanging over top. The brickwork suffered extensive cracking during the earthquake making it in need for reinforcement. The clock has stopped at around 16:35, the time of the earthquake.
The old Railway Station clock tower on Moorhouse Avenue with plywood and steel reinforcement covering two sides, and a crane hanging over top. The brickwork suffered extensive cracking during the earthquake making it in need of reinforcement. The clock has stopped at around 16:35, the time of the earthquake.
The old Railway Station clock tower on Moorhouse Avenue with plywood and steel reinforcement covering two sides, and a crane hanging over top. The brickwork suffered extensive cracking during the earthquake making it in need of reinforcement. The clock has stopped at around 16:35, the time of the earthquake.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to a stairwell in the Crowne Plaza Hotel on the corner of Kilmore and Durham Streets. Large sections of the concrete wall behind the stair rail have broken away to reveal the steel reinforcement underneath.
A photograph of a broken concrete pile with steel reinforcement sticking out of it.
A photograph of a pile of twisted steel reinforcement and other rubble at the entrance to the Smiths City car park on Dundas Street. In the background a section of the collapsed car park has not been demolished yet. Many cars are still parked on the top floor.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to the concrete beams in a room in the PricewaterhouseCoopers Building. Sections of the concrete have crumbled to reveal the steel reinforcement underneath. A number of the ceiling panels are missing and another is hanging loose. Some of the bars that hold the ceiling panels are also hanging loose.
A photograph of the partially-demolished Smiths City car park, taken from Dundas Street. The front section of the car park has mostly been cleared, though there is still a scattering of rubble and steel reinforcement. The back section has collapsed, but the floors are largely intact, with many cars still parked on the top floor.
A photograph looking east down Dundas Street. Piles of twisted steel reinforcement have been placed on both sides of the street. Several earthquake-damaged cars, recovered from the Smiths City car park, have been stacked on the left. On the other side of the street is an excavator grapple and bucket. In the distance two excavators are sorting through the rubble.
Cracks in the parapet of a building on Tuam Street. Steel reinforcement can be seen sticking out of the front wall.
Diagonal cracking between the windows of the Harbour Light Theatre in Lyttelton. This indicates that there was no vertical reinforcement provided in the walls.
A pile of rubble and steel reinforcement from the Chubb Lock & Safe building on the corner of Kilmore and Manchester Streets.
A photograph of a mural on a wall in the former site of a building on Norwich Quay in Lyttelton. Sections of reinforcing steel and other construction material have been laid up against the mural.
A photograph of a mural on a wall in the former site of a building on Norwich Quay in Lyttelton. Sections of reinforcing steel have been laid up against the mural.
A photograph of the badly-damaged Press building, viewed from Worcester Street. Windows have been boarded up with plywood and straps are being used for reinforcement.
Reinforcement steel protrudes from a bank which is supporting a walkway on Sumner Road. The area has been cordoned off with road cones and security fencing.
The Para Rubber Building on Manchester Street, its demolition nearly complete. A concrete post can be seen in this picture, the steel reinforcement visible out the sides.
Cross cracking on the Manchester Courts Building between the windows. This means that there was no vertical reinforcement in the building and it will have to come down.
A photograph of a flight of concrete stairs salvaged from a building and placed in a car park in the Christchurch central city. Steel reinforcement can be seen sticking out of the concrete.
The demolition site of the Holiday Inn City Centre on Cashel Street. Reinforcement cabling protrudes from the top of the concrete posts. Rubble from the demolition surrounds the site.