Project News

Held a technical seminar at the Department of Culture, Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs

A technical seminar was held at the Department of Culture (DOC) of the Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs on 7th May 2021. The title was "Seismic Vulnerability Assessment and Possible Strengthening Strategies for Traditional Bhutanese Rammed Earth Residential Houses" and the presenter was Dr. Phuntsho. She received her PhD degree from the Graduate School of Design, Nagoya City University in March of this year and has just returned to her department (DOC). It was an opportunity to present her research results in Japan to colleagues at the Department of Culture and share their findings.

In the presentation, Dr. Phuntsho said: In this study, the basic mechanical properties of rammed earth construction are investigated, and appropriate seismic resistance methods are proposed based on experiments and analysis. In the experiments, the elements tests, the tests of the effect of reinforcing members, the tests of real scale buildings, sequentially carried out, has demonstrated the seismic method. The experimental results were compared with the finite element method^[1] analysis to verify the effectiveness of this analysis method. Effectiveness has been confirmed for both earthquake-resistant for existing buildings and earthquake-resistant for new buildings. The fragility curves derived in this study can also be used to predict potential damage to rammed earth buildings.

Participants asked her about the strengthening effect (strength improvement amount), and there was a lively exchange of opinions with Dr. Phuntsho.

Dr. Phuntsho presenting at the seminar;
Photo courtesy of Department of Culture (DOC)

Dr. Phuntsho presenting at the seminar;
Photo courtesy of Department of Culture (DOC)

Site survey of candidate rammed earth building for hands-on training by the Department of Culture

The Department of Culture (DOC) of the Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs conducted a survey of candidate rammed earth building on May 27 for hands-on training for seismic retrofitting. The location is in Dangchu gewog under Wangduephodrang Dzongkhag, a two-story rammed earth building that is no longer in use. It is a building with characteristics similar to the full-scale test specimens we have experimented withso far. The DOC research team conducted an external and an internal survey, and also collected 3D data. They will make a drawing of this building from the surveyed data, and then consider introducing detailed seismic retrofitting methods. The project is planning hands-on training using this building, and will apply the seismic retrofitting methods developed so far while managing the construction of local contractors, and plan to use the process as an opportunity for training for public and private engineers. It will be the first case of the implementation of the construction work, and after the retrofitting, it will be the object for monitoring the durability of the retrofitting method adopted. Through this hands-on training, the project is considering the content of the training so that public and private engineers can learn and further convey the project retrofitting method to others.

Exterior of the candidate building;
Photo courtesy of Department of Culture (DOC)

External survey;
Photo courtesy of Department of Culture (DOC)

Internal survey;
Photo courtesy of Department of Culture (DOC)

3D survey;
Photo courtesy of Department of Culture (DOC)