The
common man who is not expected to have a background in the design of buildings
thinks that is my building safe against earthquakes? This is a question that
everybody should be concerned about. Many earthquakes have taken place
recently in India and its neighborhood [eg., Uttarkashi (1991), Latur (1993),
Jabalpur (1997), Bhuj (2001), Sumatra and Andaman Islands (2004), Kashmir
(2005)] and these have proved to be disastrous. A large number of buildings
have collapsed and countless lives have been lost. There is usually a huge
public outcry after every disaster. But public memory is shortlived, and people
tend to forget, until another major tremor occurs to wake them up. When and
where will that quake happen? Nobody can predict this. But when it comes one
day, unexpectedly, it destroys our buildings and takes our lives. Can we do
something to save our lives and protect our buildings?
While
building our house, make sure it is designed for your safety. See that your
building is designed and built as per the norms laid by the BIS codes.
Earthquake causes most of loss of life that occurs due to the collapse of
buildings, constructed with traditional and conventional materials, which were
not engineered with respect to earthquake resistant houses. The term
non-engineered buildings may only be vaguely defined as buildings that are of
spontaneously and informally constructed in traditional manner without
intervention by qualified civil engineers. It may follow a set of
recommendations of trained engineering judgment that are derived from observed
behavior of such buildings during past earthquakes. Observations of structural
performance of buildings during an earthquake can clearly identify the strong
and weak aspects of the design as well as the desirable quantities of materials
and techniques of construction. The study of damage therefore provides an
important step in the evolution of strengthening measures for different types
of buildings.
In
the present time, people want to make buildings interesting rather than
monotonous. However, this need not be done at the cost of poor behavior and
earthquake safety of buildings. Architectural features that are detrimental to
earthquake response of buildings should be avoided. If not, they must be
minimized. When irregular features are included in buildings, a considerably
higher level of engineering effort is required in the structural design and yet
the building may not be as good as one with simple architectural features.
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