KUALA LUMPUR: Most of the brand new authorities buildings designed after 2017 are ready to withstand earthquakes, says Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) Engineering Seismology and Earthquake Engineering Research group chief Prof Dr Azlan Adnan.
Azlan, who can be a lecturer within the Structure and Materials Department in UTM’s School of Civil Engineering, stated, nevertheless, that older buildings constructed earlier than that will face the danger of struggling extreme harm from earthquakes.
“When the six-magnitude earthquake occurred in Ranau, Sabah (in 2015), many of the buildings have been badly cracked, there have been additionally buildings that weren’t designed correctly, there have been damaged beams and buildings that would now not be used.
“The authorities wished to produce a constructing design normal for withstanding earthquakes and the analysis group that I’m main succeeded in producing the design,” he stated when contacted by Bernama just lately.
Azlan stated among the many issues that wanted to be seen in constructing design requirements embrace constructing beams that ought to give you the chance to bear the load horizontally due to earthquake tremors; having beam foundations which are stiff and inflexible and having joints between columns and beams which are extra versatile.
According to Azlan, the peak of the constructing will even have an effect on the pure frequency of the constructing and the “resonance impact” when an earthquake happens.
Azlan stated his group anticipated a five-magnitude earthquake to happen in Peninsular Malaysia and due to that, they wanted to produce normal working procedures for constructing designs that would withstand the results of the pure catastrophe.
“Areas close to the Klang Valley, Bukit Tinggi (Pahang), Kuala Pilah (Negri Sembilan) and Manjung (Perak) have lively faults the place we nonetheless haven’t been in a position to see the precise motion. We predict {that a} magnitude 5 (earthquake) may happen within the Peninsula,” he stated.
Apart from that, he stated his group was additionally within the course of of manufacturing a design normal for bridges to withstand earthquake tremors, with the analysis funded by the Malaysian Standards Department.
“In Malaysia, nobody has produced a normal for bridges, if there’s a design, they might have used the requirements of different international locations, we have now not enforced (a normal),” he stated.
On Feb 25, when tremors from an earthquake in Bukit Tinggi, Sumatra, Indonesia, have been felt within the nation, a complete of 34 constructing emergency calls have been acquired by the Fire and Rescue Department from across the Klang Valley.
The UTM Seismological and Earthquake Engineering Research Group research the opportunity of earthquakes within the nation in addition to the extent of tremors that would happen, as well as to fault motion and tremors from underground to the earth’s floor.
The group additionally research the results of earthquakes on the earth’s floor on buildings inbuilt Malaysia. – Bernama
