DAMAGE INVESTIGATION OF STEEL BUILDINGS IN SPECIFIC AREAS DUE TO THE 1995 HYOGOKEN-NANBU EARTHQUAKE

A field survey team investigated the damage to steel building structures that suffered from the 1995 Hyogoken-nanbu earthquake. The team investigated the damage to a total number of 628 steel buildings, located in the three specific areas of the city of Kobe, where many structures suffered significant damage, in order to find out the ratio of each damage level for all steel buildings in these areas. Among the investigated buildings, 109 were rated as Severe/Collapse, 90 as Moderate, 210 as Minor, and 208 as No damages. The results show that the ratio of the number of the buildings of Severe/Collapse damage, which were designed and constructed according to the current seismic provisions of the Building Standard Law of Japan, reduces to about one third of that according to the former ones.