Engineering Structures 31 (2009) 1707–1723 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Engineering Structures journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/engstruct Field investigation on the performance of building structures during the 12 May 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in China Bin Zhao a,* , Fabio Taucer a , Tiziana Rossetto b a ELSA Unit, Joint Research Centre, European Commission, 21027 Ispra (VA), Italy b Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University College London, WC1E6BT London, UK article info Article history: Received 6 November 2008 Received in revised form 29 January 2009 Accepted 11 February 2009 Available online 27 March 2009 Keywords: Wenchuan earthquake Field investigation Seismic performance Building structure abstract A devastating earthquake struck the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan on 12 May 2008, leaving 69,227 dead and 374,643 injured, with 17,923 people still missing five months after the main event. The epicentre of the earthquake was located in Wenchuan County, which triggered a fault rupture length of about 300 km, stretching northeast through Beichuan County and reaching Qingchuan County; many towns on both sides of the fault were severely damaged/destroyed, reaching an earthquake damage intensity of XI. This paper presents the findings of a post-earthquake reconnaissance field mission carried out by the Earthquake Engineering Field Investigation Team (The Institution of Structural Engineers, UK) and by the European Laboratory for Structural Assessment of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, through the description of the damage sustained by three of the towns that suffered the largest levels of devastation: Yingxiu Town of Wenchuan County, Beichuan Town of Beichuan County, and Hanwang Town of Shifang City. The work focuses on the description of building performance during and after the disaster, in particular of reinforced concrete frame, reinforced concrete confined masonry, unreinforced and unconfined masonry, industrial, local vernacular and historical buildings. The information and recommendations provided in this paper will be useful for future engineering applications in similar earthquake risk regions. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction On 12 May 2008, a devastating earthquake struck at 02:28 pm local time (06:28 UTC) the Sichuan Province of the People’s Republic of China. The China Earthquake Administration [1] estimated the magnitude of the event as Ms 8.0, with a focal depth of 14 km; USGS [2] estimations gave a magnitude of Mw 7.9 and a focal depth of 19 km. The earthquake occurred in the north–south seismic belt of mainland China, along the Longmen Mountain fault zone which marks the boundary between the Longmen Mountains east of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and the Sichuan Basin. The epicentre was located at 31.0 N and 103.4 E, approximately 3 km southwest of Yingxiu Town in Wenchuan County. The earthquake fault rupture started from the epicentre, stretching northeast for about 300 km [3], passing through Beichuan County and reaching Qingchuan County; most of the buildings and infrastructures located on both sides of the fault rupture line were seriously damaged/destroyed. Fig. 1 shows the earthquake intensity distribution, based on the intensity map officially released by the China Earthquake * Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 0332789247; fax: +39 0332789049. E-mail address: dr.bin.zhao@gmail.com (B. Zhao). Administration on 28 August 2008, following a long and detailed field survey [4]. The damage intensity reported in many of the most severely affected towns reached levels of X and XI, including Wenchuan County, Beichuan County, Mianzhu City, Shifang City, Qingchuan County, Mao County, An County, Dujiangyan City, Pingwu County and Pengzhou City, for a total area of approximately 26,000 km 2 . The main event and its aftershocks resulted in 69,227 deaths and 374,643 injured, with 17,923 people still missing five months after the main event. At least 15 million people were evacuated from their homes, more than 5 million were reported to be homeless and the direct economic loss is estimated at RMB 845.1 billion (US$125.6 billion) [2,5]. China is a country that has been historically exposed to de- structive earthquakes, with the last event of comparable disastrous proportions being the magnitude 7.9 Tangshan earthquake of 28 July 1976, where 255,000 people lost their lives [6]. According to historical records, the area affected by the Wenchuan earthquake had previously experienced a total of eight destructive earth- quakes, all with magnitudes larger than seven, with the largest event being the magnitude 7.5 Diexi earthquake of 25 August 1933 in Mao County, killing more than 9300 people. The scientific work on seismic design of structures started in China in the 1950s, which led in 1974 to the introduction by the Chinese Construction Committee of the first seismic design code 0141-0296/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.engstruct.2009.02.039