A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON CHARACTERISTICS OF EARTHQUAKES IN 2011 TOHOKU-PACIFIC OCEAN EARTHQUAKE AND 2003 SANRIKU MINAMI EARTHQUAKE

Abstract

 In the 2001 Tohoku-Pacific Ocean Earthquake (TPO-EQ), damage of railway structures were limited although the scale of earthquake was too large as compared with past large earthquakes. In this paper, relationships between properties of seismic waves and damage of viaducts were investigated. As a comparative example, 2003 Sanriku minami Earthquake(SM-EQ) was chosen, in which damage of viaducts was almost the same with that in TPO-EQ.
 Analytical results showed that difference of structural response were not significant although scale of earthquake were very different. In addition, it was found that structures located at damaged area observed in TPO-EQ showed 1.1 ~ 1.5 times larger response as compared in SM-EQ at the area, where severe damage was observed in TPO-EQ.