FAILURE DUE TO EARTHQUAKE :

Example of a nonductile concrete column failure on a freeway bridge during the 1994 Northridge
earthquake. The column was fractured by horizontal shear, the concrete fell away, and then the
weight of the bridge deck caused the rebar to buckle.
This failure could have been avoided by adding more spiral reinforcing loops radially around the
column to make it more ductile.
Example of ductile deformation of concrete columns from the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
Adequate spiral reinforcing resulted in more ductile behavior than was shown in Figure above.
Unfortunately the structure had other inadequacies that led to collapse as is shown in Figure
below.
Despite the ductile behavior of the concrete columns, this parking structure collapsed because the
floor slabs were not adequately connected to the rest of the structure. That is, the beams and
columns were ductile, but the connections between these elements were not.

Compiled by T.RangaRajan.