Liu, Deng and Chu (eds) 2008 Science Press Beijing and Springer-Verlag GmbH Berlin Heidelberg Geotechnical

l Engineering for Disaster Mitigation and Rehabilitation

ANALYSIS OF SEISMIC DISASTER OF MASONRY PAGODAS

Junlong Lu, Yin Zhang and Qianfeng Yao College ofCivil Engineering, University ofArchitecture And Technology Xi 'an, China Many strong earthquakes happened in the past in China and numerous houses were destructed heavily by earthquakes. As ancient high-rise buildings, the existent masonry pagodas suffered from earthquakes seriously too. They can provide a lot of information to study the historical earthquakes and seismic mechanics of masonry high-rise buildings. In light of seismic calculation by model analysis method, the capacity of Xingjiao Pagoda which is a national cultural relic in Chang'an, Shaanxi Province was discussed. Associated with the results of calculation, seismic disasters of masonry pagodas were analyzed. It can be conclude that the seismic disasters of masonry pagodas can be impacted by the followings: the soil conditions of subsoil, the characters of structures and responses to earthquakes. At the same time, some seismic disasters such as tops oftowers falling or flection, tops oftowers collapsed by shake and split along middle axis can be explained according to seismic response of masonry pagodas. Therefore, to protect the existent masonry pagodas from earthquakes, seismic check calculations must be involved. Based on results of seismic calculation, some suggesting seismic reinforcement for masonry pagodas are put forward viewed from culture relic protection and seismic engineering.
INTRODUCTION

Many strong earthquakes happened in the past in China and most ofthem brought remarkable disasters to people and made a large amount ofbuildings collapsed. However, many masonry pagodas preserved until today were suffered from earthquakes as production of national and international civilization and crystal of wisdom ofthe laboring people. To protect them from collapse, one of the key points is to analyze the seismic capacity of the structure to probe the seismic safety. The seismic protective methods have not been mature yet and it is difficult to bring forward some reasonably safeguards to masonry pagodas. The facts lie in the follows (Chen P., et a!., 1999): On the one hand, scarce necessary theories of destroy mechanism, it is difficult to bring forward actually computing models and analysis methods. On the other hand, some traditional safeguards need rebuilding or changing the structure. They are difficult to carry out for colliding with the principle of culture relic maintenance of "revamps the old as the ancient". In this paper, some matters involved those are discussed. ANALYSIS OF SEISMIC DAMAGE OF PAGODAS By investigations to historic earthquake disaster, the characters and laws are analyzed as follows (Chen P., Zhao D., Yao Q.F., 1999).