Journal of Natural Disaster Science

SEISMIC INTENSITY DISTRIBUTION IN HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS SUBJECTED TO LARGE EARTHQUAKE MOTIONS AS DETERMINED FROM RESPONSES TO QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEYS

Syun'itiro OMOTE
Hidemori NARAHASHI
Faculty of Engineering, Kyushu Sangyo University
Ai SEKIZAWA
Earthquake Disaster Prevention Section, Fire Research Institute, Fire Defense Agency
and
Shinsaku ZAMA
Third Division, Fire Research Institute, Fire Defense Agency

(Received 4 April, 1990 and in revised form 14 January, 1991)

Abstract

We investigated the intensity distribution with floor level in very tall high-rise buildings in Tokyo by means of questionnaire surveys made at the times of three earthquakes. The observed intensity value by floor tended to increase slightly with height. The plot of the intensity values with height showed a somewhat larger scatter than a plot for 14-story apartment buildings [l]. We concluded that the reason for this difference in scatter is that during floor vibration in high-rise buildings the long-period wave component predominates.

We also investigated people's sense of vibration at the time of these earthquakes. Our survey clearly indicated that many people in high-rise buildings at the time of an earthquake can distinguish the existing longer period wave component in the building vibration.

We also investigated the psychological state and behavior of persons in high-rise buildings subjected to earthquake motion. Results showed that people in these buildings were somewhat sensitive to building vibration.

Key words

high-rise building, intensity distribution, questionnaire survey, human psychology, earthquake motion