Structural Analysis of Selected Failures Caused by the 27 February 2010 Chile Tsunami

Following the 2010 Chile earthquake and tsunami, the authors participated in the EERI reconnaissance team that traveled to Chile to document damage and structural performance. The authors focused on tsunami damage following the earthquake. A summary of tsunami damage to structures is given. Based on a series of well-defined structural element failures at sites where inundation depth was measured, the team was able to evaluate the hydrodynamic loading required to cause these failures and derive estimated lower bound flow velocity overland during the event. It was estimated that the velocity exceeded 3.2 m/s in Talcahuano harbor and 4.3 m/s in the coastal town of Dichato. When found in proximity to damaged buildings and other larger structures of interest, these simple structures can serve as “flow surrogate instruments” to estimate the local flow velocity. Failure analysis of these simple structures indicated that the hydrodynamic loading estimates provided by FEMA P646 may be unconservative.