Zealand Code Research Articles

The seismic restraint of building services

Serviced buildings subjected to earthquakes have suffered widespread and costly damage often to similar systems and equipment. Building codes are now incorporating provisions to reduce such damage and make buildings safe. Some aspects of a proposed New Zealand Code, now under preparation, are reviewed.

Dams and earthquakes in New Zealand

Recently there has been increased interest in small hydro-electric schemes, many of which will include dams. Although there is no official New Zealand code for the design of dams the practice of the Ministry of Works and Development, for reasons which are explained, influences the design of most dams in this country. The paper describes the guide-lines currently used by the Ministry of Works and Development for the design of dams against earthquakes. Some background information is given on seismicity, history of design approaches, and experience of dams in earthquakes, all as they relate to New Zealand. Reference is made to some general aspects of dam design which help to set the anti-seismic guide- lines in perspective.

The centre of earthquake loading on tall buildings

A response spectrum technique is applied to two well known linear elastic continuous models of slender high rise buildings in order to obtain likely positions for the centres of earthquake loading. The models chosen are the uniform cantilever shear beam and the uniform cantilever shear wall, which represent the two extremes of pure shear deformation and pure flexural deformation, respectively. The results obtained are at variance with the static provisions of the current New Zealand code; this is especially so in the case of the shear wall. On the basis of these findings a tentative suggestion is made for a change to the familiar equivalent static lateral load distribution at present specified by the code.