THEORY OF

STRUCTURES
ASSIGNMENT 1
SAKSHI SHARMA
B.ARCH 3RD YEAR B SECTION
Q1. What is an earthquake?
Earthquakes are caused due to movements of ‘plates’ under ground. In an
earthquake, the ground shakes and suddenly starts to move backward and
forward. This movement may be in any direction. Near the epicenter of the
earthquake, there is also an upward and downward movement; because of
which the foundation of the buildings move with the ground, but the interia of
the rest of the building relays movement of upper part of the building. It is this
delay which comes stresses in the buildings and cracking which is a typical of
earthquake damage.

Q2. How does earthquake affect buildings?

● The shaking from an earthquake can turn loose soil into a liquid during an
earthquake. Liquefaction can undermine the foundations and supports of
buildings, bridges, pipelines, and roads, causing them to sink into the ground,
collapse or dissolve.
● The other primary cause is related to ground movements. The different
subcategories of ground movement which most typically result in building
damage include: soil settlement, soil/rock heave, land sliding, land subsidence,
and earthquake shaking and associated ground failure.
● Ground shaking is the primary cause of earthquake damage to man-made
structures. Many factors influence the strength of earthquake shaking at a site
including the earthquake's magnitude, the site's proximity to the fault, the
local geology, and the soil type
Q3. Is it possible to build earthquake proof houses?
● The answer is yes and no. There are of course, engineering techniques that can be used to create a very sound structure
that will endure a modest or even strong quake. However, during a very strong earthquake, even the best engineered
building may suffer severe damage.
● It is a misconception commonly shared that, houses could be made earthquake proof. The reality however is that by
taking precautions, the earthquake resistance of the house can be increased finitely, making them capable to resist quakes
of specific magnitudes. These houses, too, may fail once they face quakes of higher intensity than they are designed for.
Q4. What are the important considerations in making a house more earthquake
resistant?
● Reduce its mass and make it as light as possible.
● The structures should be rigid enough, making sure that whole structure vibrates
together as one unit. Schematically, in such units, the top portions are so joined to the
bottom that all movements are transferred immediately from lower levels to the entire
building and entire unit vibrates as one rigid body. Consequently, no disharmonious
stresses are set up and structure remains safe. One way of doing so is by "tying" the
structure using horizontal bands at plinth, cill, Lintel and roof level. Vertical
reinforcement also makes structure more resistant.
Q5. What makes a building or structure fail during an earthquake?
● An Earthquake moves the ground. It can be one sudden movement, but more often
it is a series of shock waves at short intervals, like our ripples from the pebble in the
pond analogy above. It can move the land up and down, and it can move it from side
to side.
● All buildings can carry their own weight (or they would fall down anyway by
themselves). They can usually carry a bit of snow and a few other floor loads and
suspended loads as well, vertically; so even badly built buildings and structures can
resist some up-and-down loads.
● But buildings and structures are not necessarily resistant to side-to-side loads,
unless this has been taken into account during the structural engineering design and
construction phase with some earthquake proof measures taken into consideration.
This weakness would only be found out when the Earthquake strikes, and this is a bad
time to find out. It is this side-to-side load which causes the worst damage, often
collapsing poor buildings on the first shake.

Q6. What kind of structures suffer the most damage from an earthquake?
The high rise steel frame building would receive the most damage because
earthquake waves don't go through more solid things as easy. That is why earthquakes
don't pass through the Earth's core. So the steel hotel would probably take the most
damage because it is tall, heavy, AND on lighter sediments. It would probably just fall
over while the wooden one would just shake around a bit.
MCQ

1. Earthquakes are produced during: brittle failure during faulting

2. Seismic waves are waves of energy that: elastically distort the material that they pass through

3. The region of initiation of seismic energy within the Earth is called the: hypocenter

4. As rupture along a fault initiates, waves of energy travel outward from the hypocenter in a: spherical fashion

5. The position on the land surface immediately above the hypocenter is the : epicenter

6. Body waves emanate spherically from the focus traveling: entirely within the interior of the Earth

7. P-waves produce a series of: contractions and expansions that are in the direction of wave propagation

8. S-waves produce a series of: shearing motions that are at right angles to the direction of wave propagation

9. A seismograph is a device used to: record the vibrations produced during an earthquake