S101013 Seismic damage examples of industrial facilities in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake : Part 1: Outline of the earthquake and damage

Abstract

In 11th March 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake that has Mw 9.0 attacked to East Japan, and it caused serious damage not only to human but also to industrial facilities and so on. In addition, lifelines, such as water, electric power and so on were broken and the quake-hit area was wide. Therefore the disaster had a harmful influence on the Japanese industry. In order to investigate factors of the seismic damage of mechanical structure and improve preparedness for the future earthquakes,. The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME) has set up an investigation committee. This paper describes the seismic damages of industrial facilities by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. The features of the disaster were wide quake-hit area and after quake. The quake-hit area was so wide, thus supply chains damaged as well Large damage was caused by after quakes from small failure that was suffered by the main quake.