STATISTICAL EVALUATION OF EMBEDMENT EFFECT ON DAMAGE TO BUILDING STRUCTURES BASED ON DATA FROM THE 1995 HYOGOKEN-NANBU EARTHQUAKE

Abstract

In the 1995 Hyogoken-Nanbu Earthquake, a lot of building structures were severely damaged,
and valuable data was compiled after the investigation by the Architectural Institute of Japan (AIJ). This
study statistically evaluates effect of embedment due to presence of basements on damage mitigation of
reinforced concrete (RC) building structures based on building damage data from the 1995 Hyogoken-Nanbu
Earthquake. A multivariate analysis (Hayashi’s Quantification II) is used to investigate factors (items) that
have a strong effect on the degree of damage to RC buildings. The results indicate that embedment has a
remarkable effect on reducing damage; the degree of which is similar to the construction year effect (due to
major revision of Japanese building standard law that became effective in 1981). This finding may support
further positive adoption of embedment effect in seismic design practice.