An earthquake may be defined as a wave-like motion
generated by forces in constant turmoil under the surface layer of the earth (the lithosphere), travelling through the earth’s crust. It may also be defined as the vibration, sometimes violent, of the earth’s crust. This release of energy can be caused by sudden dislocations of segments of the crust, volcanic eruptions, or even explosions created by humans. Dislocations of crust segments, however, lead to the most destructive earthquakes. In the process of dislocations, vibrations called seismic waves are generated. These waves travel outwards from the source of earthquake at varying speeds, causing the earth to quiver or ring like a bell or tuning fork. During an earthquake, enormous amounts of energy are released. The size and severity of an earthquake is estimated by two important parameters - intensity and magnitude. The magnitude is a measure of the amount of energy released, while the intensity is the apparent effect experienced at a specific location. Causes Of An Earthquake
Earthquakes are vibrations or oscillations of the ground
surface caused by a transient disturbance of the elastic or gravitational equilibrium of the rocks at or beneath the surface of the earth. The disturbance and the consequent movements give rise to elastic impulses or waves. When rocks (formations) are suddenly disturbed, a large amount of energy is released and the resulting vibrations spread out in all directions from the source of disturbance. An earthquake is the passage of vibrations spread out in all directions from the source of disturbance. This energy would have built up over long periods of time as a result of tectonic forces within the earth. Most moderate to large shallow earthquakes are followed, in the ensuing hours and even in the next few days, by numerous, usually smaller earthquakes in the same vicinity. Such smaller shaking of the earth is called aftershock. The place of origin of the earthquake in the earth is called the focus (hypocentre) and the point vertically above the focus on the surface of the earth is called the epicentre .During an earthquake, the seismic waves radiate from the earthquake source somewhere below the ground surface as the opposite sides of a slipping fault rebound in opposite directions when the strain energy exceeds the strength of the rock. Even though this source is spread out through a volume of rocks, it is often convenient to imagine an implied earthquake source as a point from which the first emanate. The distance from the epicentre and the hypocentre (focus) to any given point on the surface of the earth are called epicentre and hypocentral distance, respectively. The imaginary line joining he points of equal seismic intensity is isoseismal. Natural earthquakes are classified as tectonic (relative movement of plates), plutonic (deep-seated changes), or volcanic, on the basis of the source of the stresses that cause the movement. The theories of origin of earthquakes are:
Reid’s Elastic Rebound Theory:
Reid explained that the crustal rocks in the vicinity of the vault was being strained gradually with time until finally the stress overtook the strength of the rock at the fault. The rock fractured and slipped back towards a stress free state. The tremendous amount of energy that had accumulated in the rock during distortion thus suddenly released and propagated in all directions from the fault breaks as shock waves , with accompanying reflections from the earth’s surface as well as the reflections and refractions as they traverse the earth’s interior. The crustal deformations leading to earthquakes can be conceived in stages. In the pre- seismic stage, the fault, even though locked on the uppermost segment deforms gradually over a long time at a greater depth. The rate of deformations varies with depth. The strain accumulation increases with time while the medium behaves elastically. In the seismic phase, the deformations increase rapidly and in elastically leading to the conversion of accumulated strain energy into enormous kinetic energy and hence the sudden seismic movement. Afterwards, in the post-seismic phase, the stress relaxation takes place viscoelstically.
Theory Of Plate Tectonics ( Continental Drift)
Oceanographic and geological studies indicate that the
earth’s crust comprises several stable rock slabs known as crustal plates, bordered by rifts mainly in the oceans, along which the plates are the continuous slow motion relative to one another. The convection currents in the magma are responsible for the plate movements .It is along the boundaries that most of the earthquakes occur. There are around 20 crustal plates on the surface of the earth. Fig: Tectonic plates of the world
Response Of Structure To Earthquake Motion
The loads or forces which a structure subjected to
earthquake motions is called upon to resist, results directly from the distortions induced by the motion of the ground on which it rests. The response ( i.e. the magnitude and distribution of the resulting forces and displacements ) of a structure to such a base motion is influenced by the properties of the foundations of the structure and surrounding structures, as well as the character of the existing motion. As the ground on which the building rests is displaced, the base of the building moves with it .However, the inertia of the building mass resists this motion and causes the building to suffer a distortion. This distortion wave travels along the height of the structure in much the same manner as a stress in a bar with the free end. The continued shaking of the base causes the building to undergo a complex series of oscillations. When the ground shaking is at a much slower rate than the structure’s natural oscillations, the behaviour will be quasi – static, the structure simply moves with the ground with its absolute displacement amplitude, approximately the same as that of the ground. In case the ground motion period and natural period of structure are similar, resonance occurs and there is larger dynamic amplification of the motion. The stiffness and inertia forces at any time in such case are approximately equal and opposite, most resistance to the motion is provided by damping of the system. If the ground motion is much faster than the natural oscillations of the structure , then the mass undergoes less motion than the ground .Further , it may be noted that under real earthquake loading, the dynamic amplification are rather smaller because earthquake time –history is not a simple sinusoid (does not have constant amplitude and has a finite duration. The earthquake motion for the calculation pf design seismic actions, at a given point on the surface of the earth is generally represented by the interaction between the elastic ground acceleration and a structural response called elastic response spectrum response system. At any particular point, the ground acceleration may be described by horizontal components along two perpendicular directions and a vertical component. In most instances only the structural response to the horizontal components of the ground motion is considered since buildings are not sensitive to lateral or horizontal distortions. These horizontal forces , equal to the mass times acceleration , represent the inertia forces that occur at the critical instant during the largest cycle of vibration , of maximum deflection and zero velocity ,as the structure responds to earthquake motion .The effect of the vertical component of the ground motion is generally considered to not to be significant and is except in cantilevers .For most structures , experience seems to have justified the viewpoint .In most instances ,further simplification of the actual three dimensional response of a structure is achieved by assuming that the design horizontal acceleration components will act non-concurrently in the direction of each principal plan-axis of a building. It is tacitly assumed that a building designed using this approach will have adequate resistant acceleration acting in any direction. In addition to ground acceleration, rocking and twisting (rotational) components may be involved .Rocking and torsional effects, due to the horizontal components of ground motion, occur as a result of ground compliance and the non-coincidence of the centres of mass and rigidity .However, the rotational components of earthquake ground motion are usually negligible. The principal properties that affect the dynamic response of the acceleration are the mass of the structure, its stiffness and its damping characteristics. Under certain conditions, the effect of a foundation or a supporting medium may have to be considered .In virtually all earthquake design practice, the structure is analysed as an elastic system; it is acknowledged that the structural response to strong earthquakes involves yielding of the structure, so that the response is inelastic . The effect of yielding ins a structure is two fold .On one hand, hysteretic yielding absorbs energy from the structure , increasing damping and reducing displacements .The two effects are roughly equal ,so yielding does not have a large effect on displacement. Most of the dynamic analyses of multi-storey structures assume the free-field ground motion to be applied, unaltered, to the building foundation, which is assumed to be rigid .While this approximation may be valid for most structures founded on soil, which is relatively stiff with respect to the structure, cases arise where soil-structure interaction effects produce significantly different results from those based on a rigid foundation assumption. The effect of the soil –structure interaction on earthquake response needs to be considered, as it can vary depending upon the properties of the soil and the structure, as well as the character of the input motion.