Seismic resistant design of buildings-How to reduce casualties
Herman Parung

Hasanuddin University

Abstract

Earthquakes have caused many casualties due to collapse of buildings which have been designed and constructed improperly, although the seismic design codes have been introduced and implemented worldwide. Recent earthquake in Indonesia and other countries have witnessed that even after the introduction of so-called seismic design, many buildings have partially or totally collapsed due to seismic excitation. The buildings were made of steel and concrete, ranging from low rise to high-rise buildings. Findings from several major earthquakes will be presented. This article will focus on studying the possible causes of the buildings failures, ranging from design phase until the construction phase. The study will also try to analyze the responsibility of design consultant, contractor/builder, and also the building authority in effort to minimize the buildings failures leading to casualties. Action plan, including the implementation of newly-developed building code such as SNI will be highlighted. In addition, latest research results in the field of Seismic Design carried out at the Department of Civil Engineering Hasanudddin University Indonesia will be presented

Keywords: seismic, failures, casualties

Topic: Infrastructure and Environment