Advances in Seismic Design and Construction in Indonesia

Author: Davy Sukamta

Affiliation: Davy Sukamta & Partners, Structural Engineers Indonesia.

Street Address: Pondok Pinang Center Blok A No. 18 – Jl Ciputat Raya

City: Jakarta

State/County: Indonesia

Zip/Postal Code: 12310

Country: Indonesia

Email Address: [email protected]

Fax:+6221 7511525

Telephone:+6221 7511523

Website: www.davysukamta.com

Author Bios

作者简介：
Davy Sukamta is the principal of Davy Sukamta & Partners – Structural Engineers. He is the immediate past

president of Indonesian Society of Civil and Structural Engineers, where he served the association for four

consecutive terms during 1999-2011. His field of specialism is in seismic design of buildings including the use of

base isolation system and the design of deep basements. He has designed many tall buildings in Jakarta including the

Pakubuwono Signature, a 250 Meter-high residential tower which is currently the tallest completed building in

Jakarta.
ABSTRACT

Since the Great Aceh Earthquake of 2004, much progress has been achieved in Indonesia with the aim of building

better earthquake resistant structures. The seismic map has been revised which has taken the recent events into

account, the seismic code has been renewed, and interest in the society to provide better-performing structures

during seismic event has been awakened. These result in more rigorous analysis procedures being adopted and the

use of base isolation system for high-rise buildings.

This paper highlights the advances in seismic resistant design and construction practice in Indonesia, from the

development of the new code to the state of practice in design office and the application of new technology in the

construction industry.

Keywords

Earthquake Resistant Design, Performance-Based Seismic Design, Response Spectrum Analysis, Nonlinear

Response History Analysis, Base Isolation System.

INTRODUCTION

Indonesia is located in a highly active seismic region, at the point of convergence of three major tectonic plates and

nine smaller plates. After the Northen Sumatra - Andaman (Great Aceh) Earthquake of December 2004 and then

followed by a series of several major earthquakes in the Sumatra and Java which brought serious damages to the

major city of Yogyakarta and Padang, the community started to consider the earthquake risk more seriously. The

engineering practice in designing seismic resistant structures in Indonesia has evolved from the equivalent lateral

static procedures to nonlinear response history analysis in the span of forty years. These advances are the result of

the availability of PCs and computer programs as design aids and the dissemination of latest knowledge and research

in seismic resistant design by international and national institutions. Although the everyday office practices still use

Linear Response Spectrum Analysis for seismic design, the Performance-Based Seismic Design (PBSD) following

the guidelines from the PEER Tall Buildings Initiative has been applied in the design of special tall buildings

recently. With the growth of tall buildings in Indonesia coupled with the high seismicity risk, it is believed that this

practice will gain popularity in the near future.

engineering, among others the use of New Generation Attenuation and 3-D seismic source to develop the seismic

map of Indonesia. Recent major events and findings on new earthquake faults have been considered, resulting in

map with higher spectral acceleration in many areas of Indonesia. The provisions of this code refer closely to ASCE

7-10 and IBC 2009.

On the construction aspect, other than innovative structural system like core wall with outriggers, the use of base

isolation system has gained momentum in Indonesia. To mitigate the risk of seismic effects on building, its contents

and occupants, the response of the structure is modified using this system. Three prominent high-rise office

buildings in Jakarta, one of which has been completed in 2012, have been designed as seismically isolated structure

using high damping rubber bearings. Several other low-rise buildings have also been built or under construction as

seismically isolated structures in Jakarta and Padang.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEW INDONESIAN SEISMIC CODE

Indonesia has a very high seismic activity due to its location with several major active tectonic plates colliding in the

region. Several major earthquakes stroke Indonesia in the past decades, most notably are the Sumatra-Andaman

M9.1 earthquake in December 2004 with 227,898 fatalities, the Java M6.3 earthquake in May 2006 with 5,749

fatalities and the Southern Sumatra M7.5 earthquake in September 2009 with 1,117 fatalities. The latest two hit big

cities of Yogyakarta and Padang and have caused damages to both engineered and non-engineered structures. The

damage of engineered structures opened the eyes of the government on the need of a better practice in seismic

resistant design in the country, from code updating and seismic map revision to design procedures and construction

practice for buildings. Several earthquakes shaking in Jakarta in past decade have also awakened the community to

the need of seismic resistant building and have eventually led to the use of base isolation structures.

There were many cases of collapse of engineered structures in Yogyakarta and Padang during the 2006 and 2009

earthquakes, which should not be expected from a seismic resistant building. In Padang, one academy building has a

total collapse causing many fatalities (see Figure 1). In most cases the detailing of reinforced concrete components
do not comply with code requirements. Many basic mistakes were found in the observed structures, most notably the

lack of stirrups in beams, no stirrups in beam column joint (see Figure 2) and lack of confining steel in columns.

Advances in seismic design and construction in Indonesia are progressing in three different aspects: the issuance of

revised seismic map and 2012 code, the use of more rigorous analysis in the design of special structures and the

application of base isolation system for low-rise and high-rise buildings. Indonesian seismic code has been revised a

few times and each time corresponding with revised seismic maps. The first modern code was issued in 1983, and

then revised in 2002 and recently in 2012. The 1983 code adopts many of the New Zealand standards of practice,

and introducing the use of capacity design principles for seismic resistant design of buildings. Strong column - weak

beam concept was applied. Brittle failure must be avoided. The 2002 code refers to US standards of practice with

adoption of many of the UBC 1997 provisions, while the 2012 code adopts many of the ASCE7-10.

While the 2002 code divides the region of Indonesia into several seismic zones and assigned each for a given peak

ground acceleration at bedrock for 10% probability of exceedance in 50 years, the new 2012 uses spectral response

acceleration contour maps for target risk of structural collapse equal to 1% in 50 years. The maps were developed

using the latest technique available including use of 3-D earthquake sources, use of New Generation Attenuation and

inclusion of fragility factor, with 5% damping. It takes the effect of local soil condition into considerations. Newly

found seismic sources have been included and estimated maximum magnitude of seismic sources has been revisited

based on recent events. While the 2002 seismic map indicates Jakarta has 0.15g PGA for 475-year earthquake, the

2012 map shows a higher value of 0.25-0.30g for 2475-year earthquake (see Figure 3). Following US practice, map

for short period is also developed (see Figure 4) as well as for 1 second period (see Figure 5).

The 2012 code contains many provisions not stipulated in earlier code; among others are the redundancy factor and

the need to check for irregularities of the structure, seismic design category and related height limitation for a given

structural system. For Jakarta, the mapped acceleration parameters are such that most if not all buildings will fall

into seismic design category D. Consequently the type of structural system is restricted if the building is higher than

75 meter. If the engineer wants to use novel structural system, he must resort to other more rigorous method such as
PBSD. Although still in its beginning, structural engineers in Indonesia have started to use performance-based

seismic design in limited cases, especially for taller buildings with non-descriptive structural system.

STATE-OF-PRACTICE IN DESIGN OFFICE IN INDONESIA

Indonesia is currently experiencing construction boom. Many high-rise buildings are being designed and built

especially in the municipality of Jakarta. Currently it is common to have 40 to 50-story building with subterranean

structures between 3 to 6 stories deep. Some buildings taller than 50-story are being designed as well, among others

the Signature Tower, the Pertamina Tower and the China Sonangol Tower. Modern lateral-force resisting system

such as core wall and outrigger has been used in several buildings in the past, with the 52-story Amartapura

residential tower being the first applying it in 1995. Current design practice uses core wall and outrigger with belt

truss and mega frames for super tall or mega tall building. To reduce the weight of the building, composite structure

or mix steel concrete is used as well.

Permit submission in Jakarta must be performed by a licensed professional engineer, reporting all the design

assumption, modeling and analysis, and design of structural components. The report is subject to review by expert

panel team. Modal response spectrum analysis is often used for design of common buildings. For structures outside

the considered normal category, the team often asks the designer to perform more rigorous analysis. In many cases a

push-over analysis must be conducted. For super or mega tall buildings performance-based seismic design is

required. The procedure for PBSD follows the PEER TBI and SNI 1726:2012 / ASCE 7-10 documents. The latter is

used for selection and modification of ground motions to develop the time series and the number of pair of ground

motions to be used in the analysis. The first building in Indonesia designed following PBSD procedure is the 250

Meter-high Pakubuwono Signature, a 50-story residential apartment with single system RC core wall and outriggers

for lateral-force resisting system, completed in 2014. The structure is modeled with fiber elements for the core wall

and columns where yielding is expected (see Figure 6). The building is designed by Davy Sukamta & Partners

structural engineering firm in Jakarta in 2011.

ADVANCES IN THE USE OF SEISMIC PROTECTION SYSTEM IN INDONESIA

the importance of having better earthquake resistant structures. Some big private sectors have demanded to have a

higher level of seismic performance objective for their corporate building. This gave birth to the use of seismic

isolation system for high-rise buildings in Indonesia. The first seismically isolated high-rise building in Indonesia

was completed in 2012 for a cigarette company who had specifically included in their design brief the use of base

isolation system for their new corporate head-office in Jakarta. The use of base isolation system has been well

proven in Japan and USA in many earthquake events, most notably in the case of USC hospital in Los Angeles and

in the performance of base isolated buildings in Sendai area during the 2011 M9.0 Tohoku earthquake.

The Gudang Garam Head Office building is a 26-story, 116.2-meter high seismically isolated structure in Jakarta,

consisting of 3-level subterranean structure plus two levels of podium and 21-story office tower on top of it. The

isolation interface is at Basement-3 floor (see Figure 7). The building is designed by Davy Sukamta & Partners

structural engineering firm in Jakarta. High damping rubber bearings produced by Bridgestone Japan are used to

separate the foundation from the super-structure. Forty of these were installed, ranging from 1.3-meter to 1.5-meter

in diameter using off-the-shelf isolator designs (see Figure 8). The isolators were manufactured and tested in Japan

and shipped to Jakarta. Mix steel concrete construction has been used in this building to reduce the weight, seismic

mass and corresponding overturning moment. Lateral force-resisting system is RC core wall and outrigger, which

has a natural period of 4.23 second as seismically isolated structure and 1.66 second as fixed-based. The gravity

resisting system consists of composite RC slab on metal deck and steel trusses supported by perimeter steel columns

and RC core wall.

The 2.5 seconds shift in the period between fixed base and isolated structure reduces the seismic-force and story

drift responses of the building, enabling a much higher seismic performance level compared to a conventional

system. The outrigger reduces the overturning moment in core wall and stiffens the structure to obtain the desired

behavior. Table-1 shows the dynamic characteristics of the seismically isolated structure, where the first modes have

almost 100% of modal participating mass (see Table-1). Site specific response spectrum analysis has been

conducted and the building is designed for 0.28g PGA. Design procedure for the building follows ASCE 7-05 since

it was designed when the revised Indonesian seismic code has not been issued. RSA is used for preliminary design
and NLRHA for final design, using a suite of three pairs of appropriate ground motions. A total of 18 runs were

performed to take variation of stiffness of isolator into account and the maximum value of the response parameter of

interest is used for design.

The structure is modeled using linear elastic representations for all structural frame elements. The isolation system is

modeled using non-linear characteristics for the elastomeric isolators used, i.e. a bilinear biaxial (shear) hysteretic

element with linear axial stiffness. The properties of the isolator elements used in the analysis of the structure has

considered maximum allowable variations of system stiffness and damping properties, by using a variation of 15%

in the stiffness value. For force response calculations, an upper bound stiffness value is used; for displacement

response calculations, a lower bound of specified range values is used. The performance of base isolated structure

compared to the fixed one is demonstrated in the story drifts of the two systems (see Figure 9). The increased

performance is clearly demonstrated here. Under MCE condition the seismically isolated structure remains in fully

operational condition.

Maximum displacement response obtained from the DBE time history runs is used to establish the Design

Displacement and Total Design Displacement values for the isolation system. The displacement values mentioned

are the vectored sum of orthogonal displacements, taken at every time step during the time history. Maximum

displacement response obtained from the MCE time history runs is used to establish the design values for Maximum

Displacement and Total Maximum Displacement values for the isolation system. Separation of the isolated structure

from the basement structure is 600mm, slightly greater than 530mm calculated for maximum displacement. The use

of core wall and outrigger system is very effective in reducing the overturning moment in the core wall, and stiffens

the structure. Reduced overturning moment helps in limiting the tensile force in the isolators under the core wall.

Some tensile force still occurs but the values are below the allowable ones.

Bored pile diameter 1.2 meter is used for the foundation system. Effective length of the pile is 32 meter and it has

allowable vertical load of 415 metric tons. For gravity resisting system, steel frames with composite metal deck –

RC slab is used. Composite steel truss spans 11.2-meter from the RC core wall to the perimeter column. For steel
moment frame, prequalified moment connections are used. The simple form of the building can be clearly seen

while under construction and after completion (see Figure 10).

Currently several other high-rise buildings in Jakarta are being designed and constructed as seismically isolated

system: the Puri Matahari tower and the head-office building of a big Indonesian company. All of them are for

office use. The Puri Matahari tower is a 27-story seismically isolated building under construction equipped with 38

numbers of high damping rubber bearings, consisting of 7 nos.HT90, 9 nos.HT120, 10nos.HT130 and 12nos.HT160.

The building is expected to be completed in 2015. Another big office tower is under design, a 28-story seismically

isolated system with 58 nos. of HDRB, 1.0M to 1.4M in diameter and large floor plate of 3,000sq.m per floor.

Besides the three high-rise buildings illustrated above, some low-rise buildings in Padang and one embassy building

in Jakarta have also been constructed with this system.

Although the adoption of base isolation system looks promising for the start, in the author’s opinion it will take

some time for this system to gain popularity. If the superior performance of the system has been demonstrated by

real earthquake shaking, a new era in the use of base isolation system can then emerge in Indonesia.

References

Procedures for Seismic Resistant Design of Buildings and Non-Building Structures, Badan Standarisasi Nasional,

SNI 1726:2012.

PEER Tall Building Initiatives “Guidelines for Performance-Based Seismic Design of Tall Buildings”, PEER

Report 2010/05, November 2010

ASCE 7 (2010). Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures (ASCE/SEI 7-10), American Society of

Civil Engineers, Reston, VA.

ASCE 7 (2005). Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures (ASCE/SEI 7-05), American Society of

Civil Engineers, Reston, VA.

Image Captions
Figure 1: Total collapse of building in Padang during the S.Sumatra M7.5 EQ in 2009 (Source: Davy Sukamta)

Figure 2: Beam-column joint failure in RC Beam in Padang during the S.Sumatra M7.5 EQ in 2009 (Source: Davy

Sukamta)

Figure 3: PGA, Risk-Adjusted Maximum Considered Earthquake (MCEr) Ground Motion Parameter, Site Class SB

(Source : SNI 1726:2012)

Figure 4: Ss, Risk-Adjusted Maximum Considered Earthquake (MCEr) Ground Motion Parameter, Site Class SB

(Source : SNI 1726:2012)

Figure 5 S1, Risk-Adjusted Maximum Considered Earthquake (MCEr) Ground Motion Parameter, Site Class SB

(Source : SNI 1726:2012)

Figure 6: The 250-meter high 50-story Pakubuwono Signature residential tower, the first one designed with

performance-based seismic design procedure in Indonesia (Source: Davy Sukamta)

Figure 7: Cross section and plan of isolators of the Gudang Garam Office Tower (Source: Davy Sukamta)

Figure 8: High damping rubber bearings in Gudang garam Office Tower (Source: Davy Sukamta)

Figure 9: Comparison of story drift of seismically isolated vs. fixed base structure for MCE condition in Gudang

Garam Office Tower (Source: Davy Sukamta)

Figure 10: Gudang Garam Office Tower during construction and after completion (Source: Davy Sukamta)

Table-1: Dynamic characteristic of Gudang Garam Tower as seismically isolated system (Source: Davy Sukamta)