WACHEMO UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

MSC IN STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING
ASSIGNMENT ON EARTH QUAKE
ENGINEERING
SEMINAR ON EARTH QUAKE OCCURRED
ON DECEMBER 26, 2004, INDONESIAN
ISLAND OF SUMATRA

NAME ID.NO.
1,ABNET BEGASHAW 1401108
2,DENEKE KIFLE 1401113
3,GEZAHAGN G/MEDHIN 1401114
4,DEGEFE SHUKURATO 1401115
5,DEMBELE GURBE 1401116

SUMITTED TO:- HABTAMU MELESSE (Ass.

Prof)
SUBMISSION DATE 17/05/22G.C

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Contents
Introduction.........................................................................................................................................1
Seismological Background..................................................................................................................1
The Effect of the earthquake on engineered structures....................................................................1
The Effect of the earthquake on non-engineered structures............................................................1
The Effect of the earthquake on industrial plant..............................................................................1
A case study of engineered structure that performed well...............................................................2
A case study of engineered structure that performed badly.............................................................2
Conclusions..........................................................................................................................................2

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Introduction
A subduction earthquake, with a Richter magnitude of 9.3, occurred on December 26, 2004, off the coast
of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, at 7:59 a.m. local time. Our seminar focuses on the earth quake
effect of Banda Aceh, the capital of Indonesia. Banda Aceh, Indonesia is a city with a population of about
300,000 inhabitants before the tsunami. It was subjected to damaging forces of the tsunami’ as well as the
earthquake. The majority of casualties were in this city. Coastal areas were entirely swept away by
tsunami waves, leaving piles of timber as the remains of building infrastructure.

Seismological Background
The earthquake of December 26, 2004 occurred due to the rupturing of the subduction zone between the
Indian plate and the Burma microplate. The Indian plate has been moving north-east at a rate of
approximately 60 mm per year, subducting under the overriding Burma microplate. The epicenter of the
quake was about 155 km west of Sumatra and about 255 km south-east of Banda Aceh, Indonesia. The
focal point was at a depth of 30 km. The ruptured fault length was estimated to be 1300 km. The
rupturing initiated near the south end and progressed towards north gradually, taking approximately 500
to 600 seconds. Vertical uplift reportedly ranged between 7 to 10 m at the ocean floor, displacing a huge
amount of water that led to tsunami.

The Effect of the earthquake on engineered structures

Most of the RC-framed buildings, which appeared to have been engineered, had strong and relatively
deep beams supported by smaller columns. Therefore, hinging of the columns was widespread throughout
the buildings in the area, whereas the majority of the beams remained elastic until the structures
collapsed. Hinging of columns that are weak in relation to beams resulted in the pan-caking of slabs in a
nearby multistory RC-framed structure

The Effect of the earthquake on non-engineered structures

The majority of the buildings that collapsed in Banda Aceh city, and villages in Lhok Nga, Krueng Raya,
and Meulaboh city, are non engineered buildings consisting of two types. The first type is a one or two
stories’ buildings made of burnt brick confined masonry using sand and Portland cement mortar. The roof
mostly consists of galvanized iron sheets. All those buildings used RC “practical” columns and beams as
confinement. The second type is timber construction consisting of a timber frame and also timber planks
walls and usually use galvanized iron sheets as roof. Almost none of the people’s housing, one to two
story masonry buildings collapsed by the shaking, even though some had cracks in the walls. The
destruction was caused by the tsunami forces. In Indonesia, the damage and collapse of the new culture
“non-engineered” masonry buildings are mostly caused by the poor quality of materials and poor
workmanship, resulting in, among others poor detailing, poor concrete quality, and poor brick lying.

The Effect of the earthquake on industrial plant

A cement factory located at beach side in Lhok Nga district was severely damaged. Oil depot in Kreung
Raya (East of Banda Aceh) was damaged and several storage tanks were dragged up to 1 km. The tanks
were submerged by about one-third of its height. Water Treatment plant in Banda Aceh was not affected
by neither the shaking nor the tsunami, however, the piping systems were destroyed by scouring of the

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tsunami. Main Power generating plant in Banda Aceh was not affected by the shaking or tsunami.
However, many distribution poles and wires in devastated areas collapsed.

A case study of engineered structure that performed well

There were many low to mid-rise reinforced concrete frame buildings which appeared to have been
engineered in the visited areas of Thailand and Indonesia. These frame buildings survived the tsunami
pressure without structural damage, though they suffered damage to non-structural elements, especially
the first story masonry walls. Hotel in phi island and hotel in Nai thon reinforced concrete hotel buildings
in Thailand that survived the tsunami without any sign of structural damage, although nearby non-
engineered buildings were either partially or fully collapsed. There was only one steel frame building that
was investigated during the visit. The structure was located in Phi Phi Island in an area that was totally
devastated by tsunami pressures. The frame consisted of steel “I’ sections. The building was not affected
by tsunami forces and survived the disaster without any sign of structural damage.

A case study of engineered structure that performed badly.

The causes of typical damage of reinforced concrete engineered buildings during the Sumatra earthquake
in Banda Aceh were mostly due to vertical irregularities in certain RC buildings creating abrupt changes
in stiffness and strength that may concentrate forces in an undesirable way. Also, poor quality of concrete
and detailing contributed to the collapse of those engineered buildings. The most obvious damage
occurred to Kuala Tripa hotel, a 5 story RC building. It suffered a “first soft story” collapse. The second
and third floor was severely damaged because of the impact but the building as a whole did not collapse.
The collapse was caused by poor detailing and most probably it was analyzed as 2-D structures, therefore
overlooking the first soft story effect. Another visible collapse was a three-story supermarket, the Pante
Pirak. The collapse was due to poor quality of construction. Another building that partially collapsed was
the office of the department of finance. One of the wings suffered a pancake type of collapse. From the
damaged columns it can be seen that the detailing was poor. This building suffered partial damage when
shaken by a moderate earthquake in 1983. There were few other buildings such as two stories shop house
buildings that were damaged by the earthquake shaking, however, most of those buildings were poorly
designed as well as poorly constructed.

Conclusions
Earthquakes are a feared yet accepted phenomenon, posing a real threat for almost all Indonesian
communities. This threat is related intrinsically to the susceptible geology of the region and therefore the
inevitability of earthquake risk is ever present. When earthquakes do occur their effects are catastrophic,
bringing destruction and loss of life. Although earthquakes cannot be prevented, modern science and
engineering provides building techniques which can be used on a wide range of construction types to
reduce their effects A new masonry building culture has emerged in Indonesia, unfortunately most of
them are of poor quality and inappropriately built. Reducing negative effects of this new culture should be
anticipated not only by technical approach but also cultural-social approach continuously and
simultaneously. It is recommended to encourage the practice of the good earthquake resistant feature in
rural areas, the use of RC framing for masonry buildings, the so called (“practical columns and beams”)
in urban shanty towns areas. The preliminary results of the analysis showed a good correlation with the
actual damages observed during past earthquakes. It can be observed that most of the damaged buildings
are caused by poor quality and if appropriately built, can meet the expectations: that in a major
earthquake, the buildings may suffer heavy damage but do not collapse.

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