Damage of Multistory Buildings During the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake

Based on the field surveys in seismic regions after the Wenchuan Earthquake, damage features of multistory buildings of different kinds of the most commonly used were summarized and analyzed in this paper. For masonry buildings, the walls were damaged because of shear. The buildings were damaged on different positions because of the different stiffness ratios of masonry buildings with frame at lower stories. The roofing of masonry-timber roof buildings was heavily damaged. For RC framed buildings, the damages were fastened on filler walls, column heads and column heels. It is obvious that the seismic casualty of the aseismic designed buildings was slighter than that of the undersigned buildings. Besides, in order to improve the seismic performance buildings under strong earthquakes, suggestions on future research were proposed.