Report on Seismic Damage of Lifts and Escalators by Large Earthquakes in Japan

Abstract

The devastating earthquake of Mw9.0, so-called the Great East Japan Earthquake, hit the Tohoku district, north east part of Japan on March 11, 2011. About 16,000 people died and 2,500 people were missing by the strong motion and tsunami, and the economic damage was estimated about 16.9 trillion yen in addition to the influence by the nuclear accident of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. In addition to the main shock, many strong aftershocks occurred in the long term. After that, strong near-field earthquakes called the Kumamoto Earthquake and the North Osaka Earthquake occurred in 2016 and 2018. Many lifts and escalators were damaged in these earthquakes as well as building structures and industrial facilities. Therefore, this paper reports seismic damage of lifts and escalators by large earthquakes in Japan. At first, changes of the Seismic Design Guideline in Japan are introduced. Then a summary of the damage regarding the lifts and escalators was provided in order to confirm effectiveness of Seismic Design Guideline and to contribute improvement of the seismic design for forthcoming destructive earthquakes. The damage is analysed from the viewpoint of causes and the edition of Seismic Design Guidelines. Although the many of the buildings were hit by massive earthquakes, the damage of the lifts and escalators to be designed according to the Seismic Design Guideline was suppressed to certain level, and the effectiveness of the Seismic Design Guideline was confirmed.

Urban risk assessment model to quantify earthquake‐induced elevator passenger entrapment with population heatmap

“…Reducing human life safety risks under earthquakes is the most important aspect of enhancing seismic resilience. Elevators, as non‐structural components, are particularly susceptible to damage during seismic activities as evidenced by field investigations of previous earthquakes (Hirata & Kimura, 2018; Minagawa, 2021; Yao, 2001). Such damage often leads to the entrapment of passengers.…”

Vibration response analysis technique for elevator wire rope

“…can shake buildings and cause elevator ropes to vibrate. In fact, the Great East Japan Earthquake and other earthquakes in Japan caused rope resonance in many elevators [1]. If an elevator is stopped in an emergency due to rope resonance caused by an earthquake, people will be trapped in the elevator, or it will take a long time to restore the elevator, preventing residents from returning to their normal lives.…”

Probability-Based City-Scale Risk Assessment of Passengers Trapped in Elevators under Earthquakes

“…Earthquakes are among the most devastating natural disasters. The field investigation data of multiple earthquakes show that the elevator is one of the nonstructural components with high damage risk [2][3][4][5][6][7]. For example, the 1994 Northridge earthquake in California, USA caused damage to 968 traction elevators [3], and the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan, China caused damage to 1008 elevator systems [5].…”