1 Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, India, dcrai@iitk.ac.in
2 Doctoral Student, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, India, singhal@iitk.ac.in
3 Fmr. Research Associate, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, India, ptripti.19@gmail.com
3 Fmr. Graduate Student, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, India, neha.parool89@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Buddhist monasteries share a rich history in the culture and tradition of the Sikkimese Himalayan region. These monasteries, some dating back to 300 years, have played a significant role in portraying and conserving the architectural style of the Tibetan and Chinese construction. A typical monastery consists of a spacious courtyard, a main temple and living quarters for the monks. The temples are simple one to three-tiered structure on rectangular plan with reduced floor area for upper stories. The exterior walls are in stone masonry, mostly random rubble (R/R), enclosing an inner multi-level timber frame structure of column and beam system supporting the wooden floors. The double pitched pagoda-style timber roofs are usually covered with corrugated metal sheets.
The extensive damages caused to some of these monasteries in earlier earthquakes reveal their seismic vulnerability. A large number of these old monasteries also suffered varying degree of damages in the recent M6.9 Sikkim earthquake of September 18, 2011. Post-earthquake ambient vibration measurements of main temple were made at three monasteries, which establish them as short period structures with the fundamental period ranging from 0.23 to 0.37 s. A finite element analysis of one of the temples was carried out to study its dynamic behaviour and predict its seismic vulnerability. Response spectrum analysis and static lateral load analysis were performed which identified the wall openings as critical areas with tensile stresses exceeding the permissible value, which was supported by the observed damage.
KEYWORDS: monastery, seismic vulnerability, stone masonry, ambient vibration
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