Earthquake Resistance System for Low-rise Residential Buildings (AIER)

Earthquake is one of the most destructive natural disasters. Recently, Sabah suffers earthquakes-hazard with the magnitude of 5.9 scalars Richter. Its epicentre is located 19 km from the town of Ranau and 54 km from Kota Kinabalu. Failure of engineered structures due to earthquake nowadays has become the main concern to the engineers and this reveals that some of the existing structures were not adequately designed to meet the seismic action. This study aims to develop an AIER System for low rise residential buildings. In order to achieve this, five research areas are urgently needed to be carried out; structural performance, natural fibre reinforced concrete (NFRC) material, rubber tyre isolator (RTI) system, retrofitting and strengthening method and project viability to be one of solution provider to the community. The NFRC material is developed using coir and sugarcane fibre as reinforcement for concrete. The dynamic properties will be determined using Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB). Whilst for the RTI system, a recycle tire is proposed and used in the foundation to decouple the structure from the horizontal ground motion, providing flexibility and simultaneously acts as an energy dissipator. The RTI performance will be assessed using shaking table. The five types of AIER systems are proposed by utilising the NFRC and RTI as innovative strengthening and retrofitting method or as a new low rise building complete with NRFC and RTI. Numerical analysis on structural performance and soil-structure interaction will be carried out on the proposed system using ABAQUS. The established systems are evaluated on the viability of project using Cost Benefit Analysis through five parameters i.e. cost, social, technical, funding and logistic. Hence, an AIER system will give engineers as well as contractors an alternative to enhance the safety of a structural building and reduce casualties especially for low rise building types.

Researcher

• Assoc. Prof. Dr Siti Aminah Osman (Project Leader)
• Assoc. Prof. Dr Roszilah Hamid – Subproject Leader
• Dr Shahrizan Baharom – Subproject Leader
• Dr Azrul Abd Mutalib – Subproject Leader
• Dr Noraini Hamzah – Subproject Leader
• Prof. Ir. Dato Dr Wan Hamidon Wan Badaruzzaman
• Dr. Muhamad Azry Khoiry
• Dr Mohd Yazmil Mohd Yatim
• Dr Anuar Kasa
• Kamaruddin Taib