The 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku earthquake and response of high-rise buildings under long-period ground motions

Abstract In the afternoon of March 11, 2011, the eastern Japan was severely attacked by the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku earthquake (the Great East Japan earthquake). Nearly 30,000 people were killed or are still missing by that earthquake and the ensuing monster tsunami as of April 11, 2011. This paper reports some aspects of this devastating earthquake which hit an advanced country in seismic resistant design. It has been reported that long-period ground motions were induced in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. The properties of these long-period ground motions are discussed from the viewpoint of critical excitation and the seismic behavior of two steel buildings of 40 and 60 stories subjected to the long-period ground motion recorded at Shinjuku, Tokyo is determined and discussed. This paper also reports the effectiveness of visco-elastic dampers like high-hardness rubber dampers in the reduction of responses of super high-rise buildings subjected to such long-period ground motions. The response reduction rate is investigated in detail in addition to the maximum response reduction. In December 2010 before this earthquake, simulated long-period ground motions for earthquake resistant design of high-rise buildings were provided in three large cities in Japan (Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka) and nine areas were classified. Two 40-story steel buildings (slightly flexible and stiff) are subjected to these long-period ground motions in those nine areas for the detailed investigation of response characteristics of super high-rise buildings in various areas.

[1]  Izuru Takewaki,et al.  High-performance control of wind-induced vibration of high-rise building via innovative high-hardness rubber damper , 2009 .

[2]  Izuru Takewaki,et al.  Preliminary report of the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake , 2011 .

[3]  D. Wald,et al.  Response of High-Rise and Base-Isolated Buildings to a Hypothetical Mw 7.0 Blind Thrust Earthquake , 1995, Science.

[4]  Izuru Takewaki,et al.  Critical excitation methods in earthquake engineering , 2006 .

[5]  Izuru Takewaki,et al.  CRITICAL EXCITATION METHODS FOR IMPORTANT STRUCTURES , 2008 .

[6]  Yukio Tamura,et al.  Damping Evaluation Using Full-Scale Data of Buildings in Japan , 2003 .

[7]  Katsuhiro KAMAE,et al.  STRONG GROUND MOTION PREDICTION FOR HUGE SUBDUCTION EARTHQUAKES USING A CHARACTERIZED SOURCE MODEL AND SEVERAL SIMULATION TECHNIQUES , 2002 .

[8]  George D. Hatzigeorgiou,et al.  Inelastic displacement ratios for SDOF structures subjected to repeated earthquakes , 2009 .

[9]  S. Zama,et al.  Damage of Oil Storage Tanks Caused by Liquid Sloshing in the 2003 Tokachi Oki Earthquake and Revision of Design Spectra in the Long-Period Range , 2008 .

[10]  W. J. Hall,et al.  Structural and Geotechnical Mechanics , 1978 .

[11]  Rudolf F. Drenick,et al.  Model-Free Design of Aseismic Structures , 1970 .

[12]  Y. Kagan,et al.  Earthquakes Cannot Be Predicted , 1997, Science.

[13]  Izuru Takewaki,et al.  BOUND OF EARTHQUAKE INPUT ENERGY , 2004 .

[14]  Izuru Takewaki,et al.  Resonant behaviour of base‐isolated high‐rise buildings under long‐period ground motions , 2006 .

[15]  Izuru Takewaki,et al.  Response of nonlinear single-degree-of-freedom structures to random acceleration sequences , 2011 .