A Review of Socio-Economic Consequences, Losses and Human Casualties of the 1977 Vrancea, Romania Earthquake

Although its socio-economic disaster pattern was obvious, the March 4, 1977 Vrancea, Romania earthquake was studied mainly in seismological and earthquake engineering terms. In 1977, the loss data released in Romania, referred to 32,900 collapsed or heavily damaged dwellings, 35,000 homeless families, thousands of damaged buildings, many other damages and destructions in industry and economy, 1,578 people killed, 11,321 people injured (with 90% of the killed and 67% of the injured being in the city of Bucharest). The Romanian government reported the economic losses from this event in December 1977, as being US$ 2 billion. For a long time, the evaluation of human casualties vs. collapse pattern of buildings in 1977 was not addressed and we still miss integral data. The recovery and reevaluation of economic and social impacts of the 1977 disaster was a concern of the authors, with the intent to better understand its consequences and prepare a new strategy of seismic risk reduction in view of future earthquakes in Romania, and in order to fill that gap the authors recovered many unpublished and obscure data

Enhancement of seismic resistance of buildings

The objectives of the paper are both seismic instrumentation for damage assessment and enhancing of seismic resistance of buildings. In according with seismic design codes in force the buildings are designed to resist at seismic actions. Due to the time evolution of these design provisions, there are buildings that were designed decades ago, under the less stringent provisions. The conceptual conformation is nowadays provided in all Codes of seismic design. According to the Code of seismic design P100-1:2006 the asymmetric structures do not have an appropriate seismic configuration; they have disadvantageous distribution of volumes, mass and stiffness. Using results of temporary seismic instrumentation the safety condition of the building may be assessed in different phases of work. Based on this method, the strengthening solutions may be identified and the need of seismic joints may be emphasised. All the aforementioned ideas are illustrated through a case study. Therefore it will be analysed the dynamic parameter evolution of an educational building obtained in different periods. Also, structural intervention scenarios to enhance seismic resistance will be presented

Seismic response of Tropaeum Traiani monument, Romania, between history and earthquake engineering assessments

The paper presents the content, rationale and preliminary results of a study of the seismic response of Tropaeum Traiani monument, at Adamclisi, in Southern Dobrudja. It is a unique structure of its kind in Romania and the only Roman Empire trophy having kept the original core and a large number of stone parts. There is neither a professional assessment of the seismic source and motion size that caused the upper part overturning, nor an analysis of the monument’s dynamic response, based on the remnant pieces. The research aims at deriving the earthquake resisting capacity of specific sections based on dimensions and detailing of stone components. In order to obtain some input accelerations likely to initiate oscillation, shearing or sliding and overturning of the monument specific parts, a reverse technique is considered. The preliminary study allowed the assessment of oscillation amplification patterns at different heights, indicating the direction of collapse of upper pieces. The data are in a good correlation with some previous INCERC data about the particular directivity of some Vrancea motions in Dobrudja in 1990 and with places of stone parts unearthing. The estimation of a range of historical time for the destructive earthquake is also a goal

Urbanism, arhitectură şi construcţii în zonele seismice din România - de la blocul Carlton la faţadele cortină

The previous Vrancea earthquakes (particularly those in 1940 and 1977) can provide convincing examples as concerns the seismic strength of the buildings and settlements. The planspace design solutions do influence the structural solutions, but only properly designed buildings behave well in case of seismic events. Since 1940 the blame for the collapse of the Carlton Building in Bucharest has been put on the improper architectural design, which negatively influenced the structural design. After the 1977 Vrancea earthquake it was noticed that many buildings, raised between 1950 and 1976, where low seismic forces and no advanced ductility requirements were taken into account, behaved properly, but in certain cases (for instance, buildings with flexible ground floor meant for commercial purposes) buildings suffered severe damages, later amplified by the 1986 and 1990 earthquakes. The history of the architecture-urban planning and civil engineering relationship indicates that tall buildings made of reinforced concrete before 1940 introduced characteristics of seismic vulnerability and risk at urban level, as in those days professionals worked individually and seismic design requirements were not mandatory. After 1990 a different urban planning conception developed, as new architectural design solutions were adopted and even new structure types, with a greater architectural design freedom, most of them “copied” from low seismic areas. But without proper tests tall curtain-walled building are highly vulnerable to both Vrancea earthquakes and hurricanes or terrorism attacks and the restoration costs of the non-structural elements can be huge. Separating the requirements of the object architecture design from those of urban planning and seismic engineering is a critical and unwanted situation for the urban seismic protection. The article pleads for a close collaboration between civil engineers, architects and urban planners, for a SAFETY ARCHITECTURE and a MULTI-CRITERION URBAN PLANNING, correlated with a MULTI-HAZARD STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING, with a particular stress on SEISMIC ENGINEERING, and in this respect INCD URBAN-INCERC can ensure a proper technical, scientific and institutional framework

Seismic and Energy Renovation: A Review of the Code Requirements and Solutions in Italy and Romania

Most European cities are characterized by very large areas, often formed by buildings of low quality, from a series of perspectives (architectural, technological, materials, technical systems, etc.). The possibility of renovating them is strategic to improve both the quality of life and to the possibility of economic recovery for building companies. In the last decades, the attention of the scientific community has been addressed to the energy renovation, thanks to the strong activities of the European Community in this field. However, since a relevant part of the EC territory is at risk of earthquake, the possibility to combine both energy and seismic renovation actions may be strategic for many countries. In particular, Italy and Romania are linked by a common social tradition that springs from the Roman Empire. Nowadays, this link is stronger, thanks to common interests in social, cultural and business fields. Therefore, the investigation of possible synergies for seismic and energy renovation strategies may be really interesting for both countries. In this paper, after an overview of regulations and common practices for buildings with reinforced concrete structures, in both states, some key combined renovation interventions will be described and discussed, as well as advantages and perspectives of integrated renovation approaches. The outcomes of this work are to show the way to transform existing energy-consuming and seismic-prone buildings into energy-efficient and seismic-resistant ones

TROPAEUM TRAIANI: REVISITING THE FIELD FINDINGS OF CARL WILHELM WUTZER (1856) VS. EXCAVATION DATA OF GRIGORE TOCILESCU (1885) ON THE TRIUMPHAL MONUMENT

AbstractThe Triumphal Monument Tropaeum Traiani of Adamclisi, Romania is analyzed with reference to the survey published by the German Professor Carl Wilhelm Wutzer after his trip of 1856 in Dobrudja. Since 1882, Tocilescu excavated the ruin and appreciated past data, although there was enough criticism about the idea of considering the monument as built by Persians and geometrical figures of parapets as Persian letters. Most intriguing was, anyway, the information about the previous existence of a “fountain“, as well as of a “coffin-shaped marble vessel“ on the upper part of ruin, as well as of some stone plates, according to the stories of an elder Bulgarian. Since the data of that epoch are scarce, they are worth to be re-evaluated. In this respect, a careful translation was done, with due attention to debatable findings. The pieces, images and symbols associated to the ruin and with stone parts were correlated with the stages of dismantling and decay, in the historical and religious context of the Ottoman period. The author¢s correlations and interpretations are based on factual arguments, bridging the gap between the archaeologist¢s concepts and local population perceptions and public memory in Dobrudja. Thus, a valuable historical information is recovered, and it was established that the three items of Wutzer report existed and were excavated by Tocilescu. Although they had other initial functions, they correspond to specific components of the hexagonal tower, some of them exposed in museum, other lost in time.    </p

Planning, architecture, seismic, construction and energy-related criteria for sustainable spatial development in the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve area

The Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve represents a complex of ecosystems embedding a biome that had been included on UNESCO World Heritage list due to its global environmental importance. The outstanding natural diversity, including ecosystems, habitats and species situated at the top of European and International conservation lists, is mixed with an equally rich and important cultural (ethnic and religious) diversity of the human communities inhabiting the area. According to the guidelines of the Man and the Biosphere Programme of UNESCO, the biosphere reserves including human settlements should be managed such that they could constitute an example for what sustainable development means. Starting from the spatial dimension added to the traditional socioeconomic, ecological and cultural pillars of sustainable development, the paper examines planning, architecture, seismic, construction and energy-related criteria that could substantiate a sustainable development model applicable to the Danube Delta, and counter the effects of clime change in the area. The results suggest that the traditional practices of the inhabitants could offer sustainable solutions and help preserving the natural and cultural diversity of the region

Pounding effects during an earthquake, with and without consideration of soil‑structure interaction

The pounding between adjacent buildings can cause both architectural and structural damages. The paper presents some aspects related to the Vrancea seismic motions pattern, a review of observed damages after a strong earthquake due to pounding of buildings in Romania, a few causes of pounding, an analytical and numerical modeling study. For the behavior of buildings under structural pounding, an analysis with and without consideration of soil-structure interaction is done

Clearinghouse-type system and database for post‑seismic buildings assessment

The paper presents the outline and function of a system for field assessment and the structure of a database for post-earthquake inspections, to be used with the Romanian Methodology for rapid buildings assessment, indicative ME003/2007, and for other research purposes. Functioning mode of the system for assessment in emergencies caused by earthquakes and the structure of the data collected by the field teams that participated in post-earthquake inspection are presented in this paper. A system for interdisciplinary assessment was taken into account for strong Vrancea intermediate earthquakes, but it will be useful also for crustal earthquakes of local or regional extent. The proposed system envisages a coordination centre and a clearinghouse at Bucharest, in NIRD “URBAN-INCERC” that coordinates branches of the territory (Iaşi, Timişoara and Cluj Napoca). Given the large area affected by Vrancea earthquakes, the system will pursue the establishment of regional centers also in the cities of Braşov and Constanţa, where there are universities in the field. To demonstrate the relevance of the system, the paper presents a case study of two buildings located in Bucharest downtown. By exploiting a software application created at INCERC Bucharest Branch, numerical values and charts can be obtained for all buildings investigated by the INCERC inspectors