Training to test seismic vulnerability of buildings

CHENNAI: Engineers from state government are likely to be trained by the National Institute of Disaster Management to assess the seismic vulnerability of buildings in the urban areas, according to official sources.

Sources told Express that the state government is planning to enhance the skill of building engineers in the Chennai Corporation and other departments in assessing the seismic vulnerability of buildings in urban areas as part of earthquake disaster risk management policy.

It is learnt that Revenue Administration and Disaster Management and Mitigation department has urged the Chennai Corporation and other state departments to send in their executive engineers to a training programme organised by the National Institute of Disaster Management to be held from September 24 to 28.

The training programme ‘Rapid Visual Screening of Existing Urban Establishments in Earthquake Prone Areas’ will sensitise, promote and institutionalise issues concerning performance of buildings for earthquake risk mitigation.

This could help the engineers prepare building profile for different construction types on the basis of application of rapid visual screening using simplified vulnerability assessment procedures. It will provide more reliable assessment of the seismic vulnerability of the building, and will form the basis for determining need for more complex vulnerability assessment. The rapid visual screening will be useful for all buildings except critical structures where detailed vulnerability assessment is always required.

Sources said that a wide variety of construction types and building materials are used in urban and rural areas of the country.  These include local materials such as mud, straw and wood, semi-engineered materials such as burnt brick and stone masonry and engineered materials such as concrete and steel. The seismic vulnerability of the different building types depends on the choice of building materials and construction technology adopted.

The building vulnerability is generally highest with the use of local materials without engineering inputs and lowest with the use of engineered materials and skills.