Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The west wall of the Christ Church Cathedral".
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The west wall of the Christ Church Cathedral where the rose window fell during the 23 December 2011 earthquake. Steel bracing has been used to hold up the front of the church".
The old Civic Council Chamber's west wall reinforced with heavy steel bracing.
A photograph of the ChristChurch Cathedral showing the damage to the west wall and steel bracing.
A photograph of the ChristChurch Cathedral showing the damage to the west wall and steel bracing.
Damaged wall panels on the west side of a building in Cathedral Square have been boarded up from the inside.
A photograph of the Excelsior Hotel as the north wall is rebuilt and the west-facing Manchester Street facade is restored.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Cathedral Square - front of the Christchurch Cathedral".
A photograph showing parts of the interior ChristChurch Cathedral, including the top of a stained glass window, visible through the damaged west wall.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "River Avon looking west from the Manchester Street bridge. The damaged wall by the Edmonds band rotunda can be seen".
A photograph of the earthquake damage to Cartridge World on Linwood Avenue. The bricks on the west side of the building have crumbled onto the pavement below, exposing the inner wall.
A photograph of bricks and building rubble stacked in front of the west-facing wall of the badly-damaged McKenzie & Willis building on the corner of High Street and Tuam Street.
A photograph of the damaged Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. The tower on the south-west corner of the building has collapsed. Shipping containers support the far wall of the building.
Damage to the south-west corner of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. A section of wall has collapsed, exposing the rooms within. The photographer comments, "A bike ride around the CBD. Catholic Cathedral, Barbadoes St".
A photograph of the ChristChurch Cathedral showing the damage to the west wall and steel bracing. In the foreground is the plinth where a statue of John Robert Godley stood prior to the February 2011 earthquake.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The west wall of the Christ Church Cathedral where the rose window fell during the 23 December 2011 earthquake. Steel bracing has been used to hold up the front of the church".
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The west wall of the Christ Church Cathedral where the rose window fell during the 23 December 2011 earthquake. Steel bracing has been used to hold up the front of the church".
A photograph of detail of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. The tower on the south-west corner has partly crumbled, leaving the inside space exposed. A door can be seen propped up against the interior wall.
A photograph of the north-west corner of the ChristChurch Cathedral in Cathedral Square. The tower to the right has been partially demolished with only the lower section remaining. The door to the tower can be seen through the broken walls.
A photograph of an excavator sitting outside the damaged Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. The tower on the south-west corner of the building has collapsed and the dome has been removed. Shipping containers support the far wall of the building.
Damage to the south-west corner of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. A section of wall has collapsed, exposing the rooms within. Some of the stones have fallen onto a vehicle parked nearby. The photographer comments, "A bike ride around the CBD. Catholic Cathedral, Barbadoes St".
St Johns Church on Hereford Street with damage to the tip of the archway and a red sticker on the door indicating that the building is unsafe to enter. The side of the church has been braced to stabilise the west wall and limit further damage from aftershocks.
The west side of the British Hotel on Oxford Street. The brick wall at the top of the building has crumbled onto the street below, bringing part of the roof down with it. Wire fencing has been used to create a cordon around the building.
During the Christchurch earthquake of February 2011, several midrise reinforced concrete masonry (RCM) buildings showed performance levels that fall in the range of life safety to near collapse. A case study of one of these buildings, a six-story RCM building deemed to have reached the near collapse performance level, is presented in this paper. The RCM walls on the second floor failed due to toe crushing, reducing the building's lateral resistance in the east–west direction. A three-dimensional (3-D) nonlinear dynamic analysis was conducted to simulate the development of the governing failure mechanism. Analysis results showed that the walls that were damaged were subjected to large compression loads during the earthquake, which caused an increase in their in-plane lateral strength but reduced their ductility capacity. After toe crushing failure, axial instability of the model was prevented by a redistribution of gravity loads. VoR - Version of Record
During the Christchurch earthquake of February 2011, several midrise buildings of Reinforced Concrete Masonry (RCM) construction achieved performance levels in the range of life safety to near collapse levels. These buildings were subjected to seismic demands higher than the building code requirements of the time and higher than the current New Zealand Loadings Standard (NZS-1170.5:2004). Structural damage to these buildings has been documented and is currently being studied to establish lessons to be learned from their performance and how to incorporate these lessons into future RCM design and construction practices. This paper presents a case study of a six story RCM building deemed to have reached the near collapse performance level. The RCM walls on the 2nd floor failed due to toe crushing reducing the building’s lateral resistance in the east-west direction. A nonlinear dynamic analysis on a 3D model was conducted to simulate the development of the governing failure mechanism. Preliminary analysis results show that the damaged walls were initially under large compression forces from gravity loads which caused increase in their lateral strength and reduced their ductility. After toe crushing failure developed, axial instability of the model was prevented by a redistribution of gravity loads.