Collapsed Debris Distribution of RC Frame Structures Under Earthquake Excitation and Secondary Effects

The debris of earthquake-induced structure collapse can block roads and hinder rescue. Besides, the surge of casualties due to structure collapse is a challenge for hospitals to operate efficiently after the earthquake. Therefore, it is significant to investigate the distribution of structure collapse debris and the secondary disasters for post-earthquake rescue. In this paper, a collapse simulation method combined with finite element software LS-DYNA and animation software Houdini was proposed. The characteristics of debris distribution of RC frame structures with different heights were quantitatively analysed. Then a block in Shanghai was taken as an example to quantitatively evaluate the impact of collapsed debris on the traffic system and the surge of casualties on the medical system after the earthquake. The results indicate that the collapse simulation method proposed in this paper can obtain the complete distribution of collapsed debris. Evaluation indexes introduced in this paper can be employed to assess urban seismic resilience. Moreover, increasing road redundancy and reserving medical resources can inhibit the spread of earthquake damage and improve urban seismic resilience.