Nepal Earthquake 2015

Devvrat Chowdhary – 894243

POLITECNICO DI MILANO
M.Sc. Architecture – Building Architecture

Risk based Design

Prof. CHIARA SMERZINI
 SEISMIC HAZARD MAP
Source: T. D. Ram and W. Guoxin (2013)
PGA distribution for 63% probability of
exceedance in 50 years. The values of PGA
range from 0.07 g to 0.16 g. The highest ground
motions are observed in the far-western and
eastern parts of Nepal, where the value of PGA
exceeds 0.15 g.
The PGA distribution maps indicate that the highest hazard is in the far-western and eastern parts of Nepal. Southern Nepal has the lowest hazard compared
to other parts of the country.
PGA distribution for 10% probability of
exceedance in 50 years. The PGA values range
between 0.21 g and 0.62 g. The PGA value is as
high as 0.62 g in the far-western and eastern
regions of Nepal, which represent the highest
hazard areas in the country.
PGA distribution for 2% probability of
exceedance in 50 years. The PGA values are on
the order of 0.38 g to 1.1 g. The highest hazard
is concentrated in the far-western and eastern
regions of the country, where the PGA value
exceeds 1.0 g. The PGA value is less than 0.4 g
in southern Nepal, which is the lowest hazard
region in the country.
INTRODUCTION
63% probability of exceedance in 50 years

Source: T. D. Ram and W. Guoxin (2013)

Nepal lies at the junction of the Indo-Australian

plate and Eurasian tectonic plate, as shown,
which are converging at a relative rate of 40-
50mm/year (USGS 2015).
On midday Saturday, the 25th of April 2015, a
M7.8 earthquake struck Nepal with the
epicenter in the Gorkha District, about 80km
northwest of Kathmandu. The rupture spread
eastward (towards Kathmandu) over a length of
about 120km
Source : https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/world/nepal-earthquake/
Location of stations w.r.t. Fault line during the 2015 earthquake

The location of stations are parallel

to the tectonic plates. High density
of stations present in the capital
city of Katmandu.
Source : https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us20002926/map
AFTERSHOCK

Most of the aftershocks were at the

relatively shallow depth of about six
miles below the Earth's surface.
Shallow quakes cause more damage
than deeper ones that have miles of
earth to absorb the shaking. Here
are all the earthquakes greater than
5-magnitude measured in the
country since the 7.8-magnitude
quake on Saturday.
Source : https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/world/nepal-earthquake/
AFTERSHOCK

Source : https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/guides/zgkksrd/revision/5 Source : https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/guides/zgkksrd/revision/5

Almost every day for the three weeks that followed, aftershocks were
reported across the region. Almost one in three were a magnitude of
five or higher.
TECTONIC SLIP

Source : USGS 2015 Source : USGS 2015

Approximate locations of slip during the 25 April and 12 May ruptures. (MFT: Mainshock slip directed east from hypocenter. The peak slip
Main Frontal Thrust, MBT: Main Boundary Thrust, MCT: Main Central Thrust) was about 4m and the dimensions were 120x80km (USGS
(USGS 2015) 2015).
NATIONAL LEVEL DAMAGE

Source : CBS (2012) National Population and Housing Census. Kathmandu: Center Bureau of Statistics.

The damage caused by the earthquake exposed the weakness of the structures that were not properly designed or
constructed in accordance with the building code. The towns and cities were less affected than poorer and rural areas
because of the inferior quality of construction in the poorer areas.
ACCELLEARATION GROUND MOTION (SOFT SOIL)

There is very limited information about the ground

motion for this earthquake. The figure shows the
ground acceleration of the M7.8 earthquake on April
25 recorded by USGS at Kathmandu on a soft soil site.
The maximum acceleration recorded was less than 0.2g
in each direction.

Accelerogram for main event on soft soil (Source: USGS)

SPECTRAL ACCELERACTION AND DISPLACEMENT (SOFT SOIL)

Source: T. Pokharel (2015) Source: T. Pokharel (2015)

The dominant period of the ground motion was observed at The peak spectral displacement was found to be
4.52 seconds in the E-W direction, 0.52 sec and 4.80 sec in nearly 300cm and 280 cm in the E-W and N-S
the N-S direction. The spike in the spectral acceleration in directions respectively at 5% damping.
the N-S direction at a period of 0.52 sec is not in the E-W
direction, suggesting that there were some directivity effects
in Kathmandu due to the nature and location of the rupture.
 COMPARISION BETWEEN SOIL AND ROCK SITE
Spectral acceleration between soil and
rock site of 12 May aftershock
There is a huge difference in spectral
ACCELERATION

acceleration profiles. There is a second peak

around 3 sec on soft soil which is because of the
amplification effect of the underlying soft layer.
As expected, the second peak is missing in the
spectral acceleration profile on the rock site.

Spectral displacement between soil and

rock site of 12 May aftershock
DISPLACEMENT

the spectral displacement on the soft soil is very

large compared to that on the rock site.

Source: T. Pokharel (2015)

BUILDING TYPES

The total number of houses in Nepal is more than 5,400,000. The

majority of them (about 44%) are made of brick and stone masonry
with mud mortar (BM/SM) as shown. Cement mortar bonded brick and
stone masonry (BC/SC) are common in urban areas and constitute
about 18% of the total buildings in Nepal. In some part of the Terai
region, wooden buildings are quite popular and they comprise about
25% of the total houses in Nepal.

Reinforced cement concrete with masonry infill (RCC) buildings have

become popular in urban areas in recent times. The data obtained from
the National Population and Housing Census (CBS 2012) shows that
there are currently about 540,000 RCC buildings in Nepal and most of
them are non-engineered buildings. In total, only about 2.4% of the
buildings in Nepal are well designed according to the building code
(Chaulagain et al. 2013). In recent years, retrofitting of schools and
hospitals has been done to some extent but at the same time the rapid
urbanization has led to the construction of non-engineered buildings.

Building types in Nepal. (BM/SM: Mud bonded Brick/Stone Masonry, BC/SC:

Cement bonded Brick/Stone Masonry, W: Wooden, RCC: Reinforced Cement
Concrete with masonry infill, A: Others/Adobe) (Chaulagain et al. 2015)
DAMAGE TO RCC STRUCTURES – SOFT STOREY EFFECT

Formation of plastic hinges at

the end of the RCC column due
to the soft storey effect in
Kathmandu.

Soft storey effect where bottom

storey of the building has
Source: T. Pokharel (2015)
suffered damage while the
upper story is intact in
Soft storey effect where the stiffness of some stories are significantly less
Sindhupal chowk.
than the others. The displacement concentrates at the soft storey
imposing large ductility requirements on elements at that storey. Source: T. Pokharel (2015)
DAMAGE TO RCC STRUCTURES – SOFT STOREY EFFECT

Third storey of the building has

collapsed due to the weak
storey effect in Kathmandu.
The building had RCC moment
resisting frames except at the
third storey where there was
load bearing brick masonry

Source: T. Pokharel (2015)

In some cases, some of the load bearing elements of the building failed
while other members survived in the soft storey effect, resulting in the Soft storey failure causing tilting
tilting of the building. of building
Source: T. Pokharel (2015)
DAMAGE TO RCC STRUCTURES – SHORT COLUMN EFFECT

Source: T. Pokharel (2015)

The effect of short columns is often overlooked in the design and

construction of the buildings. The short column effect can either
result from partial height infill walls, the addition of an extra
connection beam to support a staircase, or from sloping ground.
When there is a short column in a structure it attracts more
lateral shear forces and needs to be designed accordingly.

Source: T. Pokharel (2015)

DAMAGE TO RCC STRUCTURES – Construction and Material Quality

Source: T. Pokharel (2015) Source: T. Pokharel (2015)

brick in beam column connection cavity in beam column connection

Problems with construction quality were observed at several places. This included mixing of concrete,
compaction and placement of concrete, inappropriate use of formwork, and use of recycled reinforcement.
The pictures above show some of the problems with placing and compaction of concrete in a beam column
connection region. It is not common for the material and construction quality to be inspected by an
independent inspector at site though there is a provision for this in the code.
DAMAGE TO RCC STRUCTURES – Seismic Pounding

Seismic pounding was also observed at some places. If two

buildings do not have seismic joints or a sufficient gap between
them and their natural period is different, they collide with each
other during the earthquake which causes damage in the weaker
structure. If the floor levels of the two colliding buildings are
different, the damage will be more severe as the stiff floor hits the
other building at the middle of the column.
Source: T. Pokharel (2015) Source: T. Pokharel (2015)
DAMAGE TO MASONRY STRUCTURES
More than 60% of the buildings in Nepal are
of unreinforced stone/brick masonry. Most
URM buildings use mud as the binding
material rather than cement mortar; the mud
mortar is very poor in binding stones/bricks
together. Most of the casualties in the 2015
Nepal earthquake were from the collapse of
URM structures. These buildings were not
designed to resist large earthquake forces and
became death traps for the occupants. There
are several causes of insufficient earthquake
resistance including improper choice of
construction material, insufficient
diaphragm/connection, and lack of
maintenance for old structures.

Source: T. Pokharel (2015) Source: T. Pokharel (2015) Source: T. Pokharel (2015)

lack of proper binding between small stones lack of proper lack of anchorage of
confinement of wall and masonry infill walls.
use of heavy concrete
floor on weak brick
masonry
ASSESSMENT OF SPECIFIC STRUCTURE : KATMANDU UNIVERSITY
MASTER PLAN
ADMINISTRATIVE
BLOCK LIBRARY

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR_QqbpgLSM&feature=youtu.be

Source: http://www.ku.edu.np/
BUILDING LIST
S.NO BUILDING DESCRIPTION BUILDING TYPE
1 Main Administrative Block (Block No. 2) RCC

2 Library Building (Block No. 3) RCC

3 Dept. of Civil and Geomatics Engineering (Block No. 11) Combination of RCC and Load
bearing
4 Staff Quarter, Building A RCC

5 Staff Quarter, Building B RCC

6 Staff Quarter, Building D RCC

7 Girls’ Hostel RCC

8 New Girls’ Hostel RCC

9 Technical Training Centre (TTC) RCC

10 Pharmacy Building (Block No. 12) Combination of RCC and Load

bearing
11 Staff Quarter (Block No. 32) RCC

12 Turbine Testing Lab (TTL) RCC

POST EARTHQUAKE OBSERVATION
S.NO BUILDING DESCRIPTION OBSERVATION
1 Main Administrative Block (Block No. 2) • Cracks in inclined beams.
• Lot of diagonal cracks in brick
walls.
2 Library Building (Block No. 3) • Lot of column cracks was
observed in the ground floor.
• Lot of short column effect
were observed
• In and Out of plane failure of
walls were also observed.
3 Dept. of Civil and Geomatics Engineering (Block No. 11) • Horizontal cracks in the walls
was observed in various parts
of the block
4 Staff Quarter, Building A • Column cracks seen at the
beam column joint and at the
bottom of the column
• Short column effect observed
5 Staff Quarter, Building B • 6 cases of beam column joint
cracks and short column effect
observed in columns
POST EARTHQUAKE OBSERVATION
S.NO BUILDING DESCRIPTION BUILDING TYPE
6 Staff Quarter, Building D • Short column effect was
observed
• Minor beam cracks were
observed
7 Girls’ Hostel • Heavy Crack at beam column
joint
8 New Girls’ Hostel • First floor columns observed
with cracks
9 Technical Training Centre (TTC) • Diagonal cracks observed in
various parts of the wall
10 Pharmacy Building (Block No. 12) • Minor cracks in roof slab and
cracks observed in walls
11 Staff Quarter (Block No. 32) • Short column effect observed
• Beam cracks observed
12 Turbine Testing Lab (TTL) • No sign of distress
ADMINISTRATIVE BLOCK

Source: P. Pradhan, R. Adhikari, D. R. Bhat. (2015)

Source: http://www.ku.edu.np/ The Main administrative block (block 2) and the

library block of different heights were connected
by a passageway which was attached rigidly with
the column on both the blocks. This resulted in
hammering/pounding of the columns by the
passageway beams, causing severe column cracks

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR_QqbpgLSM&feature=youtu.be
LIBRARY

Source: P. Pradhan, R. Adhikari, D. R. Bhat. (2015)

Columns in Library block showed the captive

column effect due to the presence of partial
height masonry walls.

Source: http://www.ku.edu.np/
TECHNICAL TRAINING CENTRE (TTC)

Source: P. Pradhan, R. Adhikari, D. R. Bhat. (2015)

The Technical Training Centre block (TTC) suffered

numerous in plane wall cracks . Central columns,
despite having long spacing without masonry
infill wall between the columns, there was no
Source: http://www.ku.edu.np/
major structural failure observed. The exterior
infill walls cracked heavily. It was observed that
the wall heights being too tall, the failure of infills
occurred heavily.
FAILURE PATTERN

Source: P. Pradhan, R. Adhikari, D. R. Bhat. (2015)

RETROFIT RECCOMMENDATIONS
Most of the buildings within the Kathmandu University premises suffered partition wall
cracks. Cement plaster spall off was another main consequences of the earthquakes.
However neither of these failures is considered major structural failures. These failures can
be treated either by completely dismantling the walls or by using the wire mesh along with
the cement grouting, depending upon the extent of the cracks .

Source: P. Pradhan, R. Adhikari, D. R. Bhat. (2015)

Column and Beam cracks however requires special treatment. In the block number 3, also
referred to as the Library block had several column cracks. The initial design
underestimated the seismic load acting on the building which eventually caused the
columns to crack. The sizes of column were not found to be sufficient, and hence required
the increase of the column size, by the method of jacketing.

Beam and slab cracks were recommended for epoxy grouting or cement grouting,
depending upon the extent of the cracks. The beams which had more than 0.5 mm cracks
were recommended for Fiber Reinforced Polymer wrapping.

Source: P. Pradhan, R. Adhikari, D. R. Bhat. (2015)

CONCLUSIONS
• A magnitude 7.8 earthquake occurred in Nepal on midday of a public holiday on the 25th
of April 2015 which caused severe damage in the area. If the earthquake had occurred on a
working day or at night time, the casualties would have been a lot higher.

• Major damage and fatalities occurred due to collapse of unreinforced masonry buildings

• The migration of people from rural areas to urban areas has resulted in rapid construction
of housing in urban areas. Many of these houses were built by individuals based on their
needs and capital without following the codes or consulting qualified engineers.

• To reduce damage due to future earthquakes, buildings should be engineered and should
comply with the earthquake resistant design code. Quality control should be taken
seriously to meet the requirements.
Source : https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/world/nepal-earthquake/
• The geological factors like the soft soil type areas in the highly populated area of Katmandu
caused amplification of shaking leading to extreme damage as compared to epicenter.

• Many schools and hospitals had been retrofitted before the earthquake hit and most of
them performed well during the earthquake.

Retrofitted school at the middle with the green safe tag on it. . Source: T. Pokharel (2015)
REFERENCES
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/world/nepal-earthquake/
• https://earthquake.usgs.gov/
• https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/guides/zgkksrd/revision/5
• T. Pokharel (2015). Lessons Learned from the Nepal Earthquake 2015
• P. Pradhan, R. Adhikari, D. R. Bhat. (2015) Assessment Of Buildings After Gorkha-Earthquake-2015: A Case Study Of
Central Buildings Of Kathmandu University, Nepal
• T. D. Ram and W. Guoxin (2013) Probabilistic seismic hazard analysis in Nepal