Seismic damage to schools subjected to Nepal earthquakes, 2015

Abstract

Schools are the gathering place of the young generation. They are expected to act as a refuge after an earthquake. Even though Nepal has no building supervision system, the quality of school buildings receives necessary attention. During a field study conducted in mid-June, we summarised the seismic damage to 12 schools with various types of structures, including local characteristic reinforced concrete frames, cement-bonded or mud-bonded masonry and timber frames. The pros and cons of local construction technologies are discussed. Some interesting earthquake phenomena, such as the effects of forward directivity, site configuration, earthquake sequence and safe distance from a slope, are discussed. The geo-security evaluation of a proposed school site in mountainous Baramchi is also conducted.

Nonlinear Seismic Analysis of Existing RC School Buildings: The “P3” School Typology

“…In this context, the NC limit state associated to the shear resistance can be even more limitative than the DL limit state, because no flexure cracks were formed before the seismic shear resistance was overpassed. This problem might be aggravated due to the existence of openings in the masonry infill walls, creating what it is usually called as short columns, which probably will increase the risk of occurring brittle failures due to shear, as it was possible to observe in school buildings placed in several countries that were affected by the occurrence of earthquakes [5,7,9]. Moreover, rupture modes that are usually presented in infill masonry walls, namely when subjected to high acceleration levels, might also influence the overall nonlinear structural response.…”

“…An increase of the importance factor causes an increase of the return period (T R ) of the seismic action, and, consequently, an increase of the vibration level that the buildings should be able to resist. Unfortunately, many school buildings are still collapsing or being severely damaged after the occurrence of worldwide destructive earthquakes [5][6][7][8][9], including reinforced concrete (RC) constructions; such was the case of the School "Enrique Rebsamen" in Mexico [10].…”

Improving the Earthquake Resilience of Primary Schools in the Border Regions of Neighbouring Countries

“…Therefore, it is crucial to improve the earthquake resilience of this type of construction to reduce the impact of catastrophic situations in the education system. In fact, school buildings have presented important seismic damage all over the world [5][6][7][8][9]. This can also be related to the relative position of school buildings to the earthquake rupture [10].…”

A simplified component-based methodology for the seismic vulnerability assessment of school buildings using nonlinear static procedures: application to RC school buildings

“…As reported by Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), earthquakes have also caused vast damage in other regions of the world, such as India, Indonesia, Peru, and Turkey (EERI 2019). In particular, in Nepal, the 2015 Gorkha earthquake showed the high vulnerability of school building with different structural systems, such as reinforced concrete frames, cement-bonded and mud-bonded masonry, and timber frames among others (Chen et al 2017). However, it is essential to note that earthquakes themselves have not caused the disaster, but this occurred primarily due to the lack of adequate construction practices through regulations and infrastructure of appropriate quality (IADB 2014;UNDRR 2017;Nassirpour et al 2018;The World Bank 2019).…”