Indore: Earthquakes are simply a series of vibrations due to movement below the Earth that have the potential to cause immense damage and destruction but these damages and destruction can be minimized by better engineered structures. This was explained by Dr Rajesh Kumar Dhakal, who is a professor of Structural and Earthquake Engineering at University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zeland and Dr Vaisel Golubev, a senior researcher of Applied Mathematics at Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Russia in their maiden interaction in Indore during a conference.
They talked about quakes in Bihar of 1988, Killari 1993, Chamoli 1999, Bhuj 2001, Andaman 2002, Sumatra 2004, Jammu and Kashmir 2005, Sikkim 2006, Nepal 2015, Imphal 2016 and others. “Maximum loss of life is occurred due to failure of Civil Engineering Structures,” Dhakal said. One of his research on Damage to Non-Structural Components and Contents in 2010 Darfield Earthquake, showed that many structures were vulnerable to falling during earthquakes and should be avoided.
Delegates in the city
Delegates are from 8 countries— Mexico, Singapore, Slovakia, New Zealand, France, Russia, Portugal and India are participating in the 3-day conference. Members of European scientific community and professor of Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Slovakia will be talking about usage of carboxylic acids in the manufacturing of anti-cancer drugs and their extraction using ionic liquids.
Keynote lectures will be delivered by distinguished scientists around the world (10 are from renowned foreign universities and 5 are from IITs in India). Some renowned international researchers and professors that will further share their work are: Prof Antonio (Portugal) Dr Valerie Taly (France) Dr. Oscar Castilio Professor of Computer Science in the Graduate Division, Tijuana Institute of Technology, Tijuana, Mexico Prof Meng Joo Dr Maode Ma
The lessons learnt from the study had shown
Brick chimneys are very vulnerable and should not be used in new constructions. A viable option may be to remove the chimneys down to the roof line, provide a concrete confining cap at the roof line, anchor to the roof at that point and replace with a properly engineered light chimney above the roof line.
Unsecured parapets are highly susceptible to severe damage, potentially leading to collapse in earthquakes. They should be braced to the buildings to prevent collapse. Windows with tight frames and without any deformable sealing (as in old windows) are very vulnerable to glass breaking in earthquakes.
The modern windows with aluminium frames and rubber sealing performed very well. The members used in truss/grids/frames to support and/or brace non-structural components such as canopies, ceilings, racks, shelves should be properly designed to resist the effect of seismic actions.
Racks and shelves should be properly anchored to walls wherever possible. Wherever feasible, wider racks should be used instead of thin/slender racks. Angles, lips or rods at the edges of racks are very effective in preventing the contents from falling.
Golubev further shared the following loss caused by earthquakes:
As it is evident from previous earthquakes the 1994 Northridge (California US) earthquake produced the highest ever insured earthquake loss of approximately US$14 billion, and the US$150 billion cost of the 1995 Kobe (Japan) earthquake was the highest ever absolute earthquake loss. Thereby, affecting national economy of the effected countries.
Coburn and Spence (2002) reported the economic losses due to earthquake from 1972 to 1990: the three largest losses as the properties of the GNP (Gross National Product) were in the central American Countries of Nicaragua (1972, 40% GNP) Guatemala (1976,18% GNP) and El Salvador (1986, 31% GNP). In India 2001 Bhuj earthquake made a total loss of US$ 7Billion and because of which US$ 16Billion have been invested in Bhuj area which caused a GDP loss of US$ 23Billion.