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, industrial facilities and so on.  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, the edition of Seismic Design Guideline and so on.  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.