A photograph of the Cranmer Centre. Below a collection of masonry has been removed from the building and placed on the ground.
A photograph of the Cranmer Centre. Below a collection of masonry has been removed from the building and placed on the ground.
A photograph of a window of the Cranmer Centre. The masonry around the windows has been removed and placed on pallets below.
A bent drain pipe supporting a section of collapsed masonry on the A and T Burt building on Ferry Road in Woolston.
A photograph of the Durham Street Methodist Church on Durham Street. The church has almost completely collapsed and only a small section of the structure is still standing. Masonry and other rubble has spilled onto the footpath and street in front. To the right a plywood sign has been propped against the front fence. USAR codes have been spray-painted on the sign.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to the Canterbury Provincial Chambers Buildings on Durham Street. Large sections of the masonry have collapsed, spilling onto the road. Wire fencing has been placed around the building as a cordon. Scaffolding erected up the side of the building after the 4 September 2010 earthquake has collapsed. In the distance, a crane is parked on the street.
A photograph of the Cranmer Centre. Below a collection of masonry has been removed from the Cranmer Centre and placed on the ground.
A photograph of the eastern corner of the Cranmer Centre. The masonry around the windows has been removed and placed on pallets below.
A corner of the Cranmer Courts on Montreal Street. The masonry has collapsed onto the footpath, bringing steel and wooden bracing with it.
Scattered masonry that has fallen from St John the Baptist Church in Latimer Square. Some of the stones have been stacked on pallets.
Masonry gable of the Christchurch School of Music broke off during the magnitude 7.1 earthquake in Christchurch on Saturday 4-9-2010.
Damage to the Community of the Sacred Name building on Barbadoes Street. Masonry from one of the building's gables has collapsed onto the footpath.
A vehicle that was smashed by fallen masonry from the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. In the background, the broken building can be seen.
The huge tremor shook the masonry gable off this apartment block in the magnitude 7.1 earthquake in Christchurch on Saturday 4-9-2010.
The huge tremor shook the masonry gable off this apartment block in the magnitude 7.1 earthquake in Christchurch on Saturday 4-9-2010.
As part of a seismic retrofit scheme, surface bonded glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) fabric was applied to two unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings located in Christchurch, New Zealand. The unreinforced stone masonry of Christchurch Girls’ High School (GHS) and the unreinforced clay brick masonry Shirley Community Centre were retrofitted using surface bonded GFRP in 2007 and 2009, respectively. Much of the knowledge on the seismic performance of GFRP retrofitted URM was previously assimilated from laboratory-based experimental studies with controlled environments and loading schemes. The 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquake sequence provided a rare opportunity to evaluate the GFRP retrofit applied to two vintage URM buildings and to document its performance when subjected to actual design-level earthquake-induced shaking. Both GFRP retrofits were found to be successful in preserving architectural features within the buildings as well as maintaining the structural integrity of the URM walls. Successful seismic performance was based on comparisons made between the GFRP retrofitted GHS building and the adjacent nonretrofitted Boys’ High School building, as well as on a comparison between the GFRP retrofitted and nonretrofitted walls of the Shirley Community Centre building. Based on detailed postearthquake observations and investigations, the GFRP retrofitted URM walls in the subject buildings exhibited negligible to minor levels of damage without delamination, whereas significant damage was observed in comparable nonretrofitted URM walls AM - Accepted Manuscript
The connections between walls of unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings and flexible timber diaphragms are critical building components that must perform adequately before desirable earthquake response of URM buildings may be achieved. Field observations made during the initial reconnaissance and the subsequent damage surveys of clay brick URM buildings following the 2010/2011 Canterbury, New Zealand, earthquakes revealed numerous cases where anchor connections joining masonry walls or parapets with roof or floor diaphragms appeared to have failed prematurely. These observations were more frequent for adhesive anchor connections than for through-bolt connections (i.e., anchorages having plates on the exterior facade of the masonry walls). Subsequently, an in-field test program was undertaken in an attempt to evaluate the performance of adhesive anchor connections between unreinforced clay brick URM walls and roof or floor diaphragm. The study consisted of a total of almost 400 anchor tests conducted in eleven existing URM buildings located in Christchurch, Whanganui and Auckland. Specific objectives of the study included the identification of failure modes of adhesive anchors in existing URM walls and the influence of the following variables on anchor load-displacement response: adhesive type, strength of the masonry materials (brick and mortar), anchor embedment depth, anchor rod diameter, overburden level, anchor rod type, quality of installation, and the use of metal mesh sleeves. In addition, the comparative performance of bent anchors (installed at an angle of minimum 22.5° to the perpendicular projection from the wall surface) and anchors positioned horizontally was investigated. Observations on the performance of wall-to-diaphragm connections in the 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes, a summary of the performed experimental program and test results, and a proposed pull-out capacity relationship for adhesive anchors installed into multi-leaf clay brick masonry are presented herein AM - Accepted Manuscript
A photograph of the earthquake damage to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament on Barbadoes Street. The tower on the right has crumbled and the masonry has fallen to the pavement below. A car has been crushed by the fallen rubble. The dome of the left tower has collapsed and the cross at the top of the building is on a lean.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to the Iconic bar on the corner of Manchester and Gloucester Streets. Large sections of the outer walls have collapsed, the bricks and masonry spilling onto the footpath below, crushing several cars. USAR codes have been spray-painted near the door and a red sticker has been taped above. The red sticker indicates that the building is unsafe to enter.
A section of masonry from the apex of the gable of St Luke the Evangelist Church on Manchester Street resting at the base of the church.
The Cranmer Centre on Armagh Street with scaffolding up the side. Large sections of masonry from the building's gables have collapsed onto the lawn in front.
Bricks littering the street below the former Sumner Borough Council building. The building is cordoned off, and shipping containers protect the street from further falling masonry.
Bricks littering the street below the former Sumner Borough Council building. The building is cordoned off, and shipping containers protect the street from further falling masonry.
A photograph of a peice of masonry which has been removed from the roof of St John the Baptist Church and placed on the ground outside.
A photograph of a peice of masonry which has been removed from the roof of St John the Baptist Church and placed on the ground outside.
A photograph of USAR codes spray painted in a window of the former Sydenham Post Office. Cracks can be seen in the masonry around the window.
The Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission will hear this week that the cost of upgrading the city's unreinforced masonry buildings is more than the buildings are worth.
Seismic behaviour of typical unreinforced masonry (URM) brick houses, that were common in early last century in New Zealand and still common in many developing countries, is experimentally investigated at University of Canterbury, New Zealand in this research. A one halfscale model URM house is constructed and tested under earthquake ground motions on a shaking table. The model structure with aspect ratio of 1.5:1 in plan was initially tested in the longitudinal direction for several earthquakes with peak ground acceleration (PGA) up to 0.5g. Toppling of end gables (above the eaves line) and minor to moderate cracking around window and door piers was observed in this phase. The structure was then rotated 90º and tested in the transverse (short) direction for ground motions with PGA up to 0.8g. Partial out-of-plane failure of the face loaded walls in the second storey and global rocking of the model was observed in this phase. A finite element analysis and a mechanism analysis are conducted to assess the dynamic properties and lateral strength of the model house. Seismic fragility function of URM houses is developed based on the experimental results. Damping at different phases of the response is estimated using an amplitude dependent equivalent viscous damping model. Financial risk of similar URM houses is then estimated in term of expected annual loss (EAL) following a probabilistic financial risk assessment framework. Risks posed by different levels of damage and by earthquakes of different frequencies are then examined.
A wooden brace holding up a window of the Cramner Centre, formerly Christchurch Girls' High School. The masonry above the window has fallen away during the earthquake.
Damage to the A and T Burt building on Ferry Road in Woolston. Masonry has collapsed from the top section of the building's front wall, exposing its ceiling.