Building typologies and code compliance issues of reconstructed houses after 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha, Nepal earthquake: Experience from Dhading District earthquake

Abstract

After the 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha, Nepal earthquake, the Government of Nepal founded the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) which is dedicated to the reconstruction of buildings and infrastructures in the earthquake. The NRA developed a policy to provide three-stage grants to the house owners to reconstruct their damaged house in owner-driven principle. To receive the grant, a building should be seismic resistant complying with building code NBC 105. Based on NBC 105, various prototype model buildings, minimum requirements and guidelines were formed. However, due to the lack of availability of expert engineers for designing the buildings, the owner built the houses according to their style and requirement. From the investigation of houses built in Dhading district, out of a total of 53109 houses reconstructed, 4.01% of buildings were constructed without following the minimum requirements and mandatory rule of thumb. Those buildings were required to check against NBC 105 with structural analysis. Structural engineers were deployed to assist the house owners to check the seismic capacity of buildings. The research presents the existing scenario of reconstructed building typology and discusses the major non-compliance issues prevalent in load-bearing and frame structures. A comparison of pre-and post-Gorkha earthquake housing typology is made by qualitative analysis of field data and an evaluation of the inspection level at which noncompliance mostly occurs is also illustrated in this research. The research shows out of the total buildings about 15.2 % of buildings are non-compliant according to the building code and could not be recommended for tranches.

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