The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

The 1985 Chile earthquake: an evaluation of structural requirements for bearing wall buildings

Wallace, John W.; Moehle, Jack P.

UCB/EERC-89/05, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 1989-07, 286 pages (620.2/W23/1989)

Detailing requirements for bearing wall buildings were evaluated based on data obtained from the Mar. 3, 1985, Chile earthquake. The epicenter of the surface magnitude 7.8 earthquake was located approximately 80 km from the city of Vina del Mar, with more than 400 modern reinforced concrete buildings. A strong-motion instrument recorded the ground motion in Vina del Mar. Four buildings in Vina del Mar were selected to study building performance during the earthquake. The buildings were analyzed to compare Chilean and U.S. code requirements and to estimate deformation demands. Response spectrum and response history analyses were conducted to investigate building performance for the recorded earthquake ground motions. The effects of soil-structure interaction were addressed using detailed and simplified procedures. Performance of bearing wall buildings subjected to a spectrum of recorded U.S. ground motions is evaluated. This report documents the study and makes recommendations for the design of bearing wall buildings.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/EERC/EERC-89-05.pdf (50 MB)