Investigation of Seismic Damage to Constructions in Baoji Affected by the 5-12 China's Wenchuan Earthquake

Abstract

Because of the Ms 8.0 earthquake that struck Wenchuan, the northwest of Sichuan Basin, on May 12th, 2008 caused extensive damage, and the regions that abut on Sichuan could not escape from this earthquake. After the strong shock just disappeared on May 15th, our team arrived at Baoji city and made a investigation in spite of aftershocks. Based on the first-hand investigation of quake-hit regions, this paper summarizes the seismic damage of several buildings with different structures in Baoji City, Shaanxi Province, such as school buildings, industrial workshops, water towers etc and gives some reasons of seismic damage to the buildings. At last, we can find a easily perceived distinction between Baoji City and Fengxian in seismic damage intensity from the results of appraiser of seismic damage to buildings, which made by the Baoji City Civil Buildings Survey and Design Institute. The difference captured our attention that Fengxian is closer to epicenter than Baoji, but has less damage than Baoji's.