Damage Assessment on Buildings Following the 19th September 2017 Puebla, Mexico Earthquake

Abstract

Understanding seismic risk enables efficient resource allocation in the effort to increase the resilience of our cities and communities. Field reconnaissance and data collection following disasters document the damaging effects of earthquakes to enable lessons and wisdom to accumulate from past events. An important aim of such field data analysis is establishing a better understanding of building performance such as causes of building failures. These lessons provide essential basis to improve our design codes, develop regulations and policies, to increase building resilience by addressing the infrastructure vulnerability. Currently, to make use of the datasets from around the world, significant effort is required to decode the data which often have unique local and regional context and bias. The struggle begins at data collection where there is a lack of consistent methodology and definitions that can adequately cover the regional nuance. This manuscript proposes a new paper-based tool which addresses the need for a global yet detailed universal methodology for building damage assessment post-earthquakes. The new form is based on the GEM taxonomy v2.0 and the European Macroseismic Scale EMS-98. The recent Mexican earthquake from the 19 September 2017 led to significant building damage in the capital Mexico City and the state of Morelos. A team from New Zealand assessed damage throughout the capital and tested the new paper form in Calle La Morena. The street case study presents a novel visualization of the damage data and buildings characteristics which highlights the correlation between the damage and the building features. It is hoped that this kind of illustration will lead to better comprehension of the damage drivers.

A machine learning damage prediction model for the 2017 Puebla-Morelos, Mexico, earthquake

“…Following the earthquake, local and international teams assessed buildings damage across Mexico City (Colegio de Ingenieros Civiles de México (CICM), 2017; Díaz et al, 2017; Galvis et al, 2017; Roeslin et al, 2018a, 2018b; Weiser et al, 2017).…”

A simplified approach for including the incidence angle effect in seismic risk assessment

“…For instance, reconnaissance reports from past events have highlighted situations in which nearby structures shared similar typological characteristics, yet very different damage levels. 2,3 Amongst many others, such variations may be explained by the randomness associated to the mechanical properties of the materials, structural interventions, variability in the soil conditions, or the different orientation of similar buildings vis-à-vis incoming seismic waves. The latter aspect is commonly known as the directionality effect, and there is evidence that it is a fairly strong aspect of ground motions recorded in short to moderate distances from the rupture (e.g., see 4 on the 2010-2011 Canterbury events).…”

“…They lead to a high variability on the estimated structural damage due to an earthquake. For instance, reconnaissance reports from past events have highlighted situations in which nearby structures shared similar typological characteristics, yet very different damage levels 2,3 . Amongst many others, such variations may be explained by the randomness associated to the mechanical properties of the materials, structural interventions, variability in the soil conditions, or the different orientation of similar buildings vis‐à‐vis incoming seismic waves.…”

Seismic Behaviour of Point Fixed Glass Façade Systems: State of the Art Review

“…From the 1985 Mexico City strong earthquake some lessons were learned on glass damage, window glass falling was the second most serious non-structural damage well documented [8]. On the latest strong earthquake on 19th September 2017 Puebla, Mexico, damage was reported on medium high buildings (8-12 stories) and mostly due to structural irregularities, important nonstructural damage was observed on in-fill walls (masonry facades of buildings were severely damaged) and glass window falling according [9]. An important correlation between the inter-storey drift and the glass damage was reported on several post-earthquake damage assessments [10].…”

“…European Journal of Engineering Science and Technology, 2 (2):[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] 2019 …”