NEHRP Clearinghouse
- Title
- Optimum Seismic Protection for New Building Construction in Eastern Metropolitan Areas. 1965 Puget Sound, Washington, Earthquake Tall Building Damage Review.
- File
- PB293027.pdf
- Author(s)
- Hong, S. T.; Reed, J. W.
- Source
- National Science Foundation, Washington, DC. Applied Science and Research Applications., December 1972, 18 p.
- Identifying Number(s)
- INTERNAL STUDY-23
- Abstract
- This study describes the damage behavior of buildings in the Puget Sound, Washington region resulting from an earthquake of Richter Magnitude 6.5 which occurred on April 29, 1965. The affected area includes the State of Washington and part of Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia, Canada. Major cities sustaining building damages from the earthquake are Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia. Since this study concerns buildings that are five stories and higher, only the damage data from Seattle buildings are used. The report contains an intensity map of the Puget Sound Earthquake, a comparison of earthquake codes, damage data and building information covering about 1400 buildings, and a discussion and charts of the damage matrices based on information obtained from both the Puget Sound and San Fernando earthquakes. Some findings of the study indicate that building store-height seems not to affect damage behavior. Pre-1942 steel buildings suffered more damage than pre-1942 concrete buildings. Post 1943 buildings, built according to earthquake provision codes, suffered no damage, whereas most of the buildings in the San Fernando area suffered light damage. Damage behavior of high-rise buildings in Tacoma and Olympia are discussed.
- Keywords
- Seismic design; Earthquake resistant structures; Tall buildings; Damage assessment; Takoma (Washington); Earthquake engineering; Seattle (Washington); Buildings; Olympia (Washington); Washington (State); Building codes; Dynamic structural analysis