The Seismic Evaluation and Retrofit program in Haiti is gaining momentum. Build Change has over 60 Haitian engineers who have been trained by Degenkolb over the last year. These engineers are working in multiple neighborhoods. One goal of their goals is to perform over 1400 evaluations and retrofits in a single neighborhood by June.

Build Change has partnered with CARE to train CARE’s engineers on the same process that Build Change has been implementing since last spring. CARE is a worldwide humanitarian organization with the mission of fighting poverty and helping people to rebuild their lives following natural disasters. Their mission in Haiti has lead them to retrofits of existing buildings, but they needed additional technical knowledge in order to diagnose a building’s ailment and prescribe the right medication. (The medical metaphor seems like be well received in the Haitian seismic evaluation and retrofit environment.) As we’ve done for Build Change, Degenkolb was asked to train the CARE engineers in the process that we developed.

CARE Training

CARE Engineers

Degenkolb agreed to provide six weeks of training to ten engineers from CARE. The first two weeks are now complete, which resulted in ten retrofit design packages that will be delivered to the homeowner and the contractor. Each package includes a scope of work, retrofit plans, relevant details, and a bill of quantities. Completed checklists and calculations are kept for the record of decisions. The houses are all Haitian Masonry construction. They have some Confined Masonry details (such as concrete columns that were poured after the construction of the walls), but are missing key elements that would provide the relevant ductility of confined masonry construction. Some houses have sheet metal roofs, some have concrete slabs. Most were one story, but a couple were two story.

The engineers must complete the Deficiency Identification Checklist as their roadmap to retrofit. The checklist resembles an ASCE-31 Tier 1 Evaluation, with potential deficiencies such as damage, deterioration, torsion, vertical discontinuities, and a shear check which requires the engineer to calculate the actual and required ratio of wall area to building area. The checklist is generally completed in the field and the calculations are done in the classroom.

A one-story URM House

Often the masonry is covered with a smooth layer of plaster, which provides a nice finished surface and hides potential poor quality blocks and bad construction details. The engineers are encouraged to be building detectives, looking for clues that provide information on what lies beneath the plaster. For example, this picture shows a house where the interior wall was removed. The underside of the slab shows the lack of positive connection when the wall was in place, which is likely indicative of the other walls in the building. Engineers are trained in the importance of good connections which engage the new walls into the existing slab.

Evidence left behind from an interior wall that was previously removed.

After addressing all Non-Compliant checklist items, the engineers arrive at a retrofit plan. As part of the training, the engineers present their designs to the rest of the class. I was impressed to see how these presentations evolved into lively debate about the relative merits of a retrofit option. Is a new column necessary? What function would it actually serve? What is the benefit to the required percentage of wall area? Is it worth the cost? These types of questions were raised in the small groups as well as the full class discussion to help maximize value of the retrofit.

CARE Engineers presenting their design

I was impressed with the quality of the engineers, their enthusiasm to learn, and their desire to master the material. I gathered that they had exposure in school to statics, dynamics, mechanics, wood design, concrete design, steel design, and geotechnical engineering. Their seismic design experience is just beginning. Degenkolb will be following up with two additional training sessions to observe the construction of the ten houses, reinforce concepts, and coach them through unique conditions that are difficult to capture in the classroom. CARE intends to scale up their program to over 300 houses in the Carrefour neighborhood upon successful completion of this initial phase. I think they are off to a strong start.

The CARE Group

The first example building is a one-story building with a light roof (See Photo 1). It has many cross-walls that divide the building into six different apartments. The evaluation of this building indicated that it needed minimal retrofit – only adding a continuous ring beam at the top of the wall and securing the roof to the beam. The second building that was evaluated by my class was for the most part completely destroyed by the earthquake (See Photo 2). The roof and two walls are entirely gone. This building will need to be reconstructed from the ground up, including new foundations, walls and roof. The third building is a two-story home (See Photo 3). It is complicated in many ways – the walls above do not line up with the walls below, an adjacent building is connected to the back and shares a wall with this building, some walls and columns have been damaged by the earthquake and there is a “public” corridor running through the ground floor between the rooms and the toilets (See Photo 4). This building requires the most work and the engineers have found ways to add walls and improve the performance while working around the existing challenges.

It was interesting to spend time in Villa Rosa and also see some of the retrofits in construction and others that had been completed by Build Change. Photos 5-8 show a completed retrofit.

Please join me in congratulating Cale on this achievement.

Build Change – One Country at a Time, Creating Worldwide Disaster Resilience

A year and a half ago, the earthquake in Haiti crippled the already troubled nation’s infrastructure. The 7.2 magnitude earthquake displaced over 3 million residents and damaged or destroyed hundreds of thousands of buildings – both commercial and residential – in the main capital of Port-Au-Prince, as well as its surrounding towns. Hundreds of thousands were left homeless as a result, with many more residents finding refuge in unaffected surrounding areas. Conflicting estimates have put the death toll anywhere between 46,000 and 300,000; the wide range is emblematic of the challenges facing Haiti in the recovery process.

Read entire newsletter here.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Degenkolb Engineers Principal Kent Yu starts his two-year term as Chair of the Oregon Seismic Safety Policy Advisory Committee (OSSPAC) this month. In this role, Dr. Yu leads disaster recovery and preparedness planning in the state of Oregon for OSSPAC.

OSSPAC promotes earthquake awareness and preparedness through education, research and legislation at the federal, state and local levels. The organization consists of an 18-member commission, representing the fields of engineering, transportation, education, housing and emergency response among other professions. Dr. Yu’s focus on resiliency, the ability of an earthquake-struck region to bounce back quickly, is especially timely given this week’s 5.6 earthquake in Oklahoma, the devastating Tsunami in Japan this March and the October earthquake in Van, Turkey.

Read full article here.

A team of U.S. and Japanese researchers conducted a five-day field inspection of the of tsunami borne debris and its effects on structures following March’s magnitude 9 earthquake and ensuing tsunami off the northeast coast of Honshu, Japan.

Field inspections of Sendai, Natori, Ishinomaki, Onagawa, Minamisanriku, Kesennuma, and Rikuzentakata were conducted. The research effort was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Read full article here.

On our last day, we decided to head toward the City of Ercis since the first day was raining it was very difficult to take photos and notes. With rescue operations transitioning to clean-up, the residents of the city were trying to access their apartments and businesses. We observed at least 20 collapsed buildings during our walk through the city. Collapsed buildings ranged from those more than 15 years old (noted by the use of smooth reinforcement) and those more recent (noted by the use of deformed reinforcement). Ties were 8mm (approx. 0.31 inch) diameter and typically spaced at 20cm (8 inches) to 25cm (10 inches) on-center. The common theme amongst all of the collapsed buildings, regardless of reinforcement type, was the use of large (sometimes up to 2″ diameter) smooth aggregate. We ended our day at the only retrofitted school in the region and then headed off to the airport to return to Istanbul.

Photo #1: We stayed at the University hotel in Van. The first night of my stay, we slept on the floor in the one-story portion on the left. We were a little uneasy, so we arranged our sleeping bags/blankets around one of the interior columns. The subsequent nights, we gained a little more courage and slept in beds on the second floor. During our stay, we felt about 6 aftershocks at least. We used our water bottles as a “motion sensor”. It was a little uneasy staying in the building, but the building had minor damage only and we felt that there was a lot of “reserve” strength…occupiable as Chris likes to say…

Photo #2: The House of the University President on the University campus in Van. Each floor is approximately 5000 square feet. The former president was arrested for misusing University funds…the structure was constructed using the misappropriated funds…now it houses the new President. One of the two chimneys collapsed….no other damage was observed.

Photo #3: The University library in Van. The only damaged observed was the out-of-plane infill wall collapse and a gable wall collapse. Note that although the structure performed well, the exit stairs were blocked due to the infill wall collapse.

Photo #4: A school very close to the city center of Ercis. The school suffered little to no damage.

Photo #5: A hospital in the city center of Ercis, very close to the collapsed building where television reporters were monitoring the progress of the rescue operations. This building was evacuated after the earthquake despite little to no visible damage. We spoke to a guard at the entrance and he indicated that the building had been green tagged and would be reoccupied within a week.

Photo #6: A mosque in the city center of Ercis. The collapsed minarets were constructed in 2003. The minaret on the right collapsed toward the street, while the minaret on the left collapsed toward the back of the site onto an elevated structural slab. The remainder of the mosque had very little damage.

Photo #7: A collapsed minaret (the one on the left of Photo #6). The minaret was constructed of block with very light reinforcement. The bottom portion of the collapsed minaret actually punched through the elevated structural slab.

Photo #8: The wash room, where one goes to cleanse prior to entering the mosque. Note the opening in elevated slab on the left of the picture.

Photo #9: Rubble from 5 collapsed buildings. An additional two buildings across the street from this site, also collapsed. See photo #10.

Photo #10: Typical aggregate of the observed collapsed buildings. The aggregate was smooth and sometimes as large as 2″ diameter. The deformed bars in this picture indicates that this building was constructed sometime after the late 1990′s.

Photo #11: A seismically retrofitted school outside of the city center of Ercis. The building performed very well. It had a total of 3 new shears walls with new foundations placed in the longitudinal direction. We were unable to confirm the location of the new shear walls in the transverse direction. The building was strengthened by constructing new concrete shear walls within the plane of the existing concrete frame.

Photo #12: The existing concrete in the retrofitted school in Ercis is very poor. Large smooth aggregate was visible.

Photo #13: The corridor of the retrofitted school in Ercis. Note the light damage at the infill walls on each side of the corridor. Only slight separation of the interface between and infill/frame was visible.

Photo #14: The interior of a classroom at the retrofitted school in Ercis. The small window on the right is located in the new shear wall. No diagonal cracks or separation between the new concrete wall and the frame was visible.

Photo #15: The office building in Ercis that was under construction when the earthquake hit. Photos of this building were included in Day 1, but we returned to take some better pictures. This photo is the base of a square column. The vertical column bars have buckled due to the lack of intermediate transverse ties.

Photo #16: Similar to Photo #15, this is the base of a circular column that due to the lack of confinement has undergone vertical column bar buckling.

Photo #17: The office building in Ercis that was under construction. The concrete stairs have acted like a strut and were damaged while trying to maintain deformation compatibility with the moment frame system.

Rafael and I wanted to observe the performance of the industrial facilities and ports. With the exception of the sugar plant near Ercis, all of the industrial facilities, including the port, were near the city of Van. We were pleasantly surprised to see very little damage, if any, at these facilities despite the purported ground shaking.

Photo #1: Ferry Pier at the City of Van. Damage at the concpier, founded on piles, included a transverse about 1/3 from the free end (far left) of the pier and a transverse crack at the beginning of the pier (far right).

Photo #2: Lateral spreading near the City of Van pier (background) ranging from 2.5cm to 5 cm (1″ to 2″). Sand boils were also observed near the site.

Photo 3: Flour plant in the City of Van. Damage appeared to be isolated to the low metal deck roof pulling away from the structure resulting in local collapse.

Photo 4: Two grain bins in the City of Van that collapsed and were moved to this location. After speaking to the owner of the bins, we understood that these were the only two full bins while the other bins were only partially full. We noted that the cross bracing of the legs did not continue down to the base. The cause of the collapse appears to be the buckling of the legs.

Photo 5: A ready mix plant near the city of Van with a collapsed tank (laying flat in the foreground).

Photo 6: The legs of the collapsed bin lay detached from the fallen tank. It appears that the legs have buckled.

Photo 7: The concrete base that supported the collapsed tank. Works were repairing the damaged base when we arrived.

Photo 8: Van Cimento (Van Cement) plant. The plant was currently under expansion. The plant suffered no visible damage.

Photo 9: A connecting walkway bridge at a sugar plant near the city of Ercis. The plant suffered little damage and was being used for emergency operations and food distribution. The building on the left has some visible slight pounding damage from the walkway bridge.

Photo #1: Degenkolb Alumni, Rafael Alaluf, eating rice soup/bread for breakfast courtesy of the University cafeteria.

Photo #2: Courthouse/District Governor’s building in Van. It performed very well with no visible damage at the perimeter.

Photo #3: Damage at the seismic separation of a 50-year state children’s hospital. There was mostly frame/infill interface cracking with little to no visible structural damage. The children’s hospital had been evacuated.

Photo #4: Turkije Bankasi (Bank of Turkey). The building had recently completed a seismic retrofit within the last year and performed very well. The ATM machines were operable.

Photo #5: A 1m (3 foot) thick mat foundation with nicely spaced top/bottom reinforcing mat. The mat was founded approximately 3 stories below grade. The excavation was supported by shoring piles and tiebacks. No appreciable movement of the shoring system was visible.

Photo #6: Nonstructural damage at the bottom of a concrete beam in a 50-year old school. The plaster was approximately 6cm (2.4 inches) thick.

Photo #7: End gable out-of-plane collapse in an 10-year old school. Note the extent of debris from the face of the building.

Photo #8: A Social Security owned-building that was under retrofit construction while the earthquake struck. The forms and epoxy dowels were placed, but no concrete had been poured. There were some retrofit walls that had been completed, but no structure damage was visible.

Photo #9: A Social Security Administration building that did not appear to have significant damage. However , we observed two columns that had underwent possible shear failure.

Photo #10: An interior column at the Social Security Administration building. Note the use of smooth bars. The ties are approximately at 20cm (8 inches).

Photo #11: Out-of-plane failure of a infill wall along the corridor of the Social Security Administration building.

Photo #12: A short column at a local mosque. We could not identify if the crack continued through the column.

Photo #13: The first story of a residential complex. Not the tie beam along at the first story that are not tied to the diaphragm. The columns appear to be creating a soft-story condition.

Photo #14: A canopy at a local mosque. See Photo 15 for a close-up of the connection.

Photo #15: Close-up of the canopy connection to the existing wall. It appears to a dowel, not necessarily epoxied, that is hammed into the infill and then welded to the steel. We observed this condition another time at the fire escape of the government building.

Photo #16: Van’s newest state hospital. The building performed exceptionally well with only minor infill wall cracking scattered throughout the building and minor façade damage in one location.

Photo #17: Van Kalesi is a castle ruin dating back to the 9th century BC.

Photo #18: The only major damage at the minaret of a mosque at the City of Van that we observed.

At the conference, Degenkolb Chairman and Senior Principal, Chris Poland was inducted as a Fellow, along with 13 other engineers from around the country.

ACEC’s College of Fellows is an elite group of engineers who have made significant contributions to the engineering profession.

Congratulations to Chris for this honor!