13th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering

Vancouver, B.C., Canada

August 1-6, 2004
Paper No. 2563

IMPLICATIONS OF DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION DECISIONS ON

EARTHQUAKE DAMAGE OF MASONRY BUILDINGS
Pratima R. BOSE1, Amita SINVHAL2, Amit BOSE3, A. VERMA4, Amir A. KHAN5
SUMMARY
The Kutch earthquake striking at 8:46 AM. on January 26th, 2001 proved disastrous for the Indian state of
Gujarat. Building structures rolled on the ground killing thousands of people and the earthquake poured a
calamity of intense misery down the spine of the Indian nation. This unfortunate event provided a sad
opportunity to civil engineers and architects to introspect into what went wrong from the point of view of
the performance of the civil engineering structures even after standard guidelines for design, construction
and strengthening of structures exist in the country. Indeed, there are many diverse factors whose
combined effect determines the degree of damage in a structure. In last fifteen years India faced six
damaging earthquake which revealed the implications of design and construction decisions on damage of
buildings. Present paper is based on the damage survey conducted by the authors after these earthquakes
and brings out some special observations on factors affecting the damage. Some of these are not even
attended by the codal provisions. This information gives additional in-depth information about increased
vulnerability to buildings. The study will be useful for disaster mitigation in future and for further research
needed.
EARTHQUAKE EFFECTS
An earthquake is a natural phenomenon, it causes a complex ground motion that for computational ease
can be resolved into, two horizontal and one vertical component of ground vibration. The main effects of
the earthquake are ground shaking, ground failure, tsunamis and fire. The ground motion causes the
vibration in any structural system standing on ground. This shaking generates horizontal and vertical
inertia forces in the structural system and in its contents because of the mass they have. This is called
dynamic loading that involves several reversals of loads. This means earthquake force continuously
changes its magnitude and direction till the structure vibrates. Most buildings are able to resist vertical
loads, but are unable to resist lateral loads, because it tries to over turn the buildings. As a result the
buildings are subjected to tensile and shear stresses in addition to compressive stresses. This leads to
destruction of these man made masonry structures, as these materials are weak in tension.

1- Professor, Department of Civil engineering, Delhi College of Engineering, Delhi 110042, INDIA
2- Associate Professor, Department of Earthquake engineering, I.I.T Roorkee, Roorkee-247667, INDIA
3- Director, Designers & Planners Combine, 501,B-9, ITL Tower, Pitampura, Delhi-110054--, INDIA
4-Lecturer, Department of Civil engineering, Delhi College of Engineering, Delhi 110042, INDIA
5-Senior Research Officer, National Institute of Disaster, IP State, Ring Road, Delhi-110001, INDIA

BEHAVIOR OF BUILDINGS DURING PAST EARTHQUAKES

The type and extent of damage to the structure during an earthquake depends on the strength of the
materials, used for construction, the structural system, joint details, quality of construction, the foundation
stability and strength, maintenance, besides the intensity of earthquake shock. In past all over the world
about 75% of fatalities attributed to earthquake are caused by collapse of buildings Coburn A. [1]. Out of
these about 70-80% of victims died due the collapse of masonry buildings. These masonry building
include adobe, mud, stone and brick building. Worldwide fatality data shows a slight reduction with time,
because total number of fatalities in the year 1900-1949 had average fatalities of 16,000 per year, which
reduced to 14,000 per year in next 50 years. The trend is good, as in nineties the fatalities were 11,600 per
year. However this reeducation is insufficient, if it is compared with increase in world population that is
doubled in every fifty years. As the population is more in developing countries they are becoming more
vulnerable to earthquake risk as compared to developed / industrial countries. Moreover industrial
countries are putting enough efforts for disaster mitigation by adopting earthquake resistant technologies
for their structures Coburn [1], Nigam [2].
BUILDING PRACTICES
In any region building construction is controlled by four major factors, economic conditions, social and
cultural aspects, climatic requirements and availability of material. In India building construction practice
has wide varieties ranging from Ekra to Reinforced Concrete. However most common types are earthen,
stone and brick buildings. In any developing country, most of the population lives in these buildings. The
masonry is used with reinforced concrete framed structure also as non-structural material. However, the
objective here is to discuss the masonry buildings that are load bearing structures. These buildings are
having box like system of walls. These walls support all load coming on the building. Material wise
buildings can be classified as follows.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.

Random rubble field stone in mud mortar

Sun dried bricks in mud mortar or earthen buildings
Dressed stone in weak mortar including mud mortar
Burnt bricks or prescast cement concrete blocks in weak mortar including mud mortar
Burnt bricks or cement concrete blocks in rich mortar
All above types in combination timber frame

The above six classes can further be classified in number of types of buildings depending upon the roof
/floor system like having inclined roof of heavy stone tiles or tin sheet or asbestos sheet, flexible
floor/roof, rigid brick masonry floor/ roof, prefabricated floor/roof, concrete foor/roof.
However, on the basis of behaviour shown by various types of buildings during past earthquakes they
could be classified in three categories Bose P.R. [3].
Engineered Buildings
These buildings are designed and constructed to resist seismic forces in addition to gravity loads as per
existing knowledge of earthquake resistant technology. Some of the traditional buildings in earthquake
prone areas will also be classified as engineered building.
Semi Engineered Buildings
These buildings are mostly designed and constructed to resist gravity loads only, as per codal provisions
of the country, may be because of lack of knowledge of earthquake resistant technology. Beside this it

includes the well-constructed building using strong materials by qualified builders on the basis of
experience and not having any earthquake resistant measures.
Non Engineered Buildings
These are poorly built buildings using local weak materials like mud, stone, unburnt or burnt bricks and
timber etc. Most of these buildings are private dwellings built by local artisans or contractors or by the
owner himself, without any technical knowledge of building design and construction. These buildings are
not engineered to resist the lateral forces generated by earthquakes.
TYPES OF DAMAGES
Earthquakes are intelligent faultfinders. They always look for any mistake committed by designer or
builder. Even well designed building may not behave well if it is not well constructed and maintained.
However as the type indicates engineered buildings will withstand a shock well may be with economically
justified repairable damage without any collapse. Semi engineered buildings may show large amount of
damage and even partial collapse to complete collapse may be there. Non-engineered building is the
easiest target for earthquake that will be destroyed by it. It is natural that the extent of damage will also
depend on the intensity of shock and location of building. It is essential to look into the type of damages
that have occurred in such low cost buildings during past earthquakes. Different types of damages in such
types of buildings are briefly presented herewith [4].
Nonstructural damages
The non-structural damages do not impair the strength or stability of a structure but may sometimes be the
sources of falling hazards.
Cracking and overturning of parapets
Falling of plaster
Cracking and overturning of partition walls
Cracking and falling of ceilings
Falling of loosely placed objects
Damages in Roofs and Floors
Dislodging of roofing material
Separation and fall of roof truss from supports
Complete roof collapse due to the collapse of supporting structure
Failure of the joints connecting columns and girders in wooden trusses
Failure of wooden gable frames due to the rupture of bottom chords
Damages in Bearing Walls
Failure due to longitudinal shear
Failure due to bending in the transverse plane
Failure of gable end masonry walls
Failure of spandrel beams
Failure due to torsion
Failure of masonry arches
Separation of walls at corners and T-junctions
Delamination and bulging of walls leading to their collapse in stone walls
Outward overturning of walls

Damages in Foundations
Failure of foundation due to inadequate depth
Differential settlement
Sliding of foundation at slopes
The irregularity of building increases the above listed damages in all buildings
IMPLICATIONS OF DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION DECISIONS
Location Landscape and Soil Type
Location plays a very important role is earthquake damage. It involves associated seismic risk and site soil
condition. Any type of soil failure may lead to building damage. If the building is located next to a
depression or open drain damage will be more to the building. In Kutch earthquake such behaviour was
noticed in one building complex of Samkhyali Bose P.R. [5], where twelve similar housing units of two
storeys were located on a site in the outskirts of the Samakhyali town in the Rapar taluka of Gujarat state.
This triangular site is located roughly along a drain. A level difference of around three metre existed
between the drain, which was running parallel to one side of the site, and the ground level at the site of
construction. Seeing to the area it could be appreciated that the ground before the construction of the
buildings would have been undulating. For providing a flat surface to the construction site these
undulating tracts of land were filled up with soil. Along the side adjoining the drain a random rubble stone
masonry retaining wall of nearly one and a half m. height was constructed. The visual examination of the
site showed that the filled up soil at the site was not adequately compacted. Even the original soil up to a
particular depth below this filled up soil may not have been in an adequately pre-consolidated state as the
site was used for agricultural purposes before the construction of these structures. It was noticed that
damage was more in the buildings located along the drain as compared to other buildings. One building
was totally destroyed where even the retaining wall along it failed and suffered damage Figure 1.Similarly
in Haritpawan Gurukul of Swaminarayan a residential high school having reinforced concrete framed
structure, at Ganga Rampar near Bhuj having three wings showed more damage to its west wing along a
deep drain Figure 2. Similarly if the building is located on hillock the damage will be more. This was
noticed in Latur Osmanabad earthquake Sinvhal A., Bose P. R.et al [6] and in Kutch earthquake Figure 3.
It seems the energy of waves which are coming to the side of depression or at the top of hillock and the
energy of the waves reflecting back from there is getting cocentrated. Further it is well known that damage
will be more on loose filled ground. However other reasons can further intensify the damage at such
locations Bose P.R. [5].
Building Material, Quality of Construction and Maintenance
Heavy material contributes to high seismic forces. Low strength material which has no or very less tensile
and shear strength is more prone to damage. Weak Binding material like mud mortar will cause more
damage as compared to cement sand mortar. Weaknesses of construction include improper bonding
between walls, unfilled joints between bricks, out of plumb walls, lack of curing etc. Well-maintained
building shows a better behavior. Even reinforced concrete building may show more damage due to lack
of maintenances.
Architectural Design Decisions
It includes building configuration i.e., its form and shape in plan and elevation; location -and size of major
structural elements; number location and size of openings; and connection details of non-structural
elements with main structural system. Complex, asymmetrical, irregular shape, less number of walls or
columns, long walls without any cross walls, large or many openings in masonry walls cause more damage
because of tensional effects and less shear resisting capacity. It is said that building is destroyed on paper
by the designer before it is built, because of its size and shape in plan and elevation.

Shape of building units

The building units having asymmetrical irregular complex shapes are more prone to damage. Such
buildings will suffer from damage due to torsion also. In Bhuj L- Shaped GK general hospital building
collapsed in earthquake. Torsion was visible in a shop building having three-closed side and one open
side with masonry columns in Killari Sinvhal A., Bose P.R. et al. [6].
Openings and Linear Planning
Too many openings may reduce the wall strength and masonry between openings may collapse during
earthquake. In school and colleges a linear architectural plan is followed. At Bhuj in Lallan College in
most of the building blocks having such linear plan front portion had too many windows and doors. This
resulted in very long continuous beams supported on thick masonry piers at lintel level in both the storeys.
Then again the masonry wall was raised on the top of this beam to support the transverse beams of Tbeam floor and roof. This is a usual construction practice in schools and colleges to make the row of
rooms in different phases. This sometimes causes discontinuity in the longitudinal beams also. This
construction practice is adopted at most of the places due to lack of funds, whenever some money is
received from some source few rooms are added to the existing building by college authorities. In these
blocks the masonry pier collapsed which caused the collapse of longitudinal beams and then the entire
floor and roof Figure 4. All structural elements built separately behaved separately without any monolithic
connection. A small amount of vertical steel in the masonry piers and anchoring it to roof slab could have
saved these buildings.

Fig. 1: Collapsed building built on drain side. Fig. 2: Maximum damage was found in the west
wing located along drain
Retaining wall at back also failed

Fig. 3: Temple collapsed at the top of hillock Fig. 4: Collapsed two story college building had
while other masonry structures located on its linear plan with too many openings in front.
foot remained standing near Bachau in Kutch.

Hybrid Structural System of Masonry and RC Columns

In developing countries it is a common practice to provide reinforced concrete columns in combination
with masonry. It is provided as independent member just to replace masonry to get open spaces. Such
columns are not designed to resist earthquake force and nominal steel is provided without ductile detailing
Bureau of Indian Standards [7]. When earthquake occurs they attract lateral force beyond their capacity.
This leads to catastrophic collapse or partial collapse Figure5.At present no special guidelines are
available for such buildings, Bureau of Indian Standards [7-11].
Mixing of Materials
It is common practice that when family size is increased additional rooms are added in existing building
and in traditional stone houses new material is used generally brick or concrete. Mostly such extension has
no connection with old existing structural system.This new structural system simply slips from its place at
the time of earthquake Figure 6-8 .

Fig. 5: Bachau Station Building showing the Fig. 6: In Chamoli Earthquake, column
condition of a reinforced concrete column raised on the top of the stone wall slipped
provided in masonry building.
from its place due to lack of connection.

Fig. 7: In Killari earthquake a brick wall raised

to construct first floor on the top of stone wall
without connecting it to old stone wall, simply
slipped from first floor to ground.

Fig. 8: In Anjar, RCC framed building was

under construction on the top of old stone
masonry building when authors visited this
highly damaged area.

Deterioration in Traditional Construction

With passage of time in rural areas pepole start making the buildings without following the norms of the
reigional old construction practice which has inbuilt resistance against earthquake resistance.Sometimes
this happens because of economic constrins.In killari old houses having timber frame inside stone walls
were not collapsed even in the presence of heavy roof, and people were not killed while new houses built
using only stone walls were razed to ground Figure 9 .
In Kutch area near Anjar the traditional village house consisted of random rubble stone masonry laid in
mud mortar having central wall five metre high and sidewalls three metre high. At this level, transverse
wooden beams are provided to create a storage attic. This is achieved with the help of wooden members
split bamboo pieces, jute, bushes etc. to create storage floor figure 10. These houses suffered extensive
damage due to high walls without earthquake bands and because of lack of integral action between
various wooden members. In the walled city of Bhuj walls are made either of random rubble or of dressed
stone and are laid in lime or mud mortar. The traditional timber roof is made almost in similar manner
with attic. In Bhuj, being an urban area, this storage attic was converted into a living space like dinning
space. Laying a layer of lime surkhi or cement mortar or plain makes this floor concrete above the old attic
floor Figure11. These buildings were also collapsed or heavily damaged in old Bhuj.It seems that in some
buildings the traditional roof was removed and replaced by reinforced concrete slab keeping the attic slab
as it is. These buildings tumbled down due to heavy roof and flexible floor [12].
Renovation of Buildings
Renovation of building is very common especially in urban areas. At the time of renovation the structural
system is disturbed and only vertical load is considered and earthquake is forgotten and most of the times
walls are removed and vertical load is transferred to other walls. In Kutch at Gandhidham in Sindhi colony
two story buildings built by Sindhi Resettlement Corporation in 1956, using hollow blocks of size
6"x8"x16", with reinforcement, looked intact, with some cracks only in the renovated building Figure 12.
Earthquake Resistant Masonry Buildings
The technology is available for making the earthquake resistant buildings, Manual ISET [13]. The
buildings can be made earthquake resistant by introducing integral action, ductile behaviour and
redundancy. For this earthquake resistant measures are needed like horizontal bands and vertical steel at
corners and junctions of the wall and at jambs of the openings. Whenever these measures are used
knowingly or unknowingly building survives without killing the people residing inside Figure
13,14.However sometimes these measures are used indiscriminately without care. Such buildings will not
be able to resist the earthquake even with these measures due to mistake committed at the time of
construction Figure 15,16.
CONCLUSION
There are many unattended factors and features which may intensify the damage at the time of the
earthquake.Special care is needed at the time of analysis, design and construction of building to
incorporate these at the time of execution of project.Gaps are thre in theretical knowledge and practical
implementation.Agencies involved in disaster mitigation should try to identify the weaknesses introduced
in the buildings by the people themselves and they are to be made aware of the implications involved with
the decisions they are taking at the time of planning, designing or at the time of construction.

Fig. 9: In Killari in 1993 many traditional Fig. 10: Traditional house in Kutch area showing
buildings with vertical timber frame inside high central wall and attic for storage.
survived the earthquake even with heavy roofs.
Newly built houses without timber frame but
with similar heavy roof of timber and earth
were razed to ground.

Fig. 11: In urban area attic of traditional house

shown in Fig. 10 was converted into living
space. Later traditional roof must have been
replaced by concrete slabs. Such buildings
killed many persons in Bhuj.

Fig. 12: At Gandhidham in this complex of well

built row houses made of reinforced hollow block
masonry, minor damage occurred only in the
renovated house.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Authors are thankful to Principal Delhi College of Engineering, Delhi, Prof. & Head, and Earthquake
Engg. Deptt.Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee and National Institute of Disaster Management Delhi,
for their support and encouragement. Authors are also thankful to all the officials and common public in
the earthquake affected areas visited by them for their help, support and for the information provided by
them.

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