A Manual of Earthquake Resistant Non-Engineered Construction

摘要

The non-engineered constructions in stone, brick, adobe, and composite systems with wood, concrete or steel pose a serious damage-risk problem in seismic belts of the earth. Most losses of life during earthquakes have occurred due to the collapse of this type of buildings. It is unfortunate that this risk is increasing, rather than decreasing, in most countries on account of rising population, poverty of the people, scarcity of wood, cement and steel, lack of understanding of earthquake resistance features, etc. The increasing magnitude of seismic risk to life could be imagined by the fact that number of dwelling units and other related small scale constructions may double itself in the next 25-30 years due to the explosion of population in India and other developing countries. There is thus a great urgency that the know-how of inexpensive earthquake resistance measures in such constructions should be propagated very quickly and by simple illustrations, so that these techniques could find application at least in the new constructions. This publication is aimed at fulfilling this urgent need of providing the relevant information for ready use to not only the architects and engineers but also the public and private builders who may not have the necessary technical background.