Role of Seismic Testing Facilities in Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering


Book Description

Nowadays research in earthquake engineering is mainly experimental and in large-scale; advanced computations are integrated with large-scale experiments, to complement them and extend their scope, even by coupling two different but simultaneous tests. Earthquake engineering cannot give answers by testing and qualifying few, small typical components or single large prototypes. Besides, the large diversity of Civil Engineering structures does not allow drawing conclusions from only a few tests; structures are large and their seismic response and performance cannot be meaningfully tested in an ordinary lab or in the field. So, seismic testing facilities should be much larger than in other scientific fields; their staff has to be resourceful, devising intelligent ways to carry out simultaneously different tests and advanced computations. To better serve such a mission European testing facilities and researchers in earthquake engineering have shared their resources and activities in the framework of the European project SERIES, combining their research and jointly developing advanced testing and instrumentation techniques that maximize testing capabilities and increase the value of the tests. This volume presents the first outcomes of the SERIES and its contribution towards Performance-based Earthquake Engineering, i.e., to the most important development in Earthquake Engineering of the past three decades. The concept and the methodologies for performance-based earthquake engineering have now matured. However, they are based mainly on analytical/numerical research; large-scale seismic testing has entered the stage recently. The SERIES Workshop in Ohrid (MK) in Sept. 2010 pooled together the largest European seismic testing facilities, Europe’s best experts in experimental earthquake engineering and select experts from the USA, to present recent research achievements and to address future developments. Audience: This volume will be of interest to researchers and advanced practitioners in structural earthquake engineering, geotechnical earthquake engineering, engineering seismology, and experimental dynamics, including seismic qualification.




Improved Seismic Monitoring - Improved Decision-Making


Book Description

Improved Seismic Monitoringâ€"Improved Decision-Making, describes and assesses the varied economic benefits potentially derived from modernizing and expanding seismic monitoring activities in the United States. These benefits include more effective loss avoidance regulations and strategies, improved understanding of earthquake processes, better engineering design, more effective hazard mitigation strategies, and improved emergency response and recovery. The economic principles that must be applied to determine potential benefits are reviewed and the report concludes that although there is insufficient information available at present to fully quantify all the potential benefits, the annual dollar costs for improved seismic monitoring are in the tens of millions and the potential annual dollar benefits are in the hundreds of millions.




Role of Seismic Testing Facilities in Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering


Book Description

Nowadays research in earthquake engineering is mainly experimental and in large-scale; advanced computations are integrated with large-scale experiments, to complement them and extend their scope, even by coupling two different but simultaneous tests. Earthquake engineering cannot give answers by testing and qualifying few, small typical components or single large prototypes. Besides, the large diversity of Civil Engineering structures does not allow drawing conclusions from only a few tests; structures are large and their seismic response and performance cannot be meaningfully tested in an ordinary lab or in the field. So, seismic testing facilities should be much larger than in other scientific fields; their staff has to be resourceful, devising intelligent ways to carry out simultaneously different tests and advanced computations. To better serve such a mission European testing facilities and researchers in earthquake engineering have shared their resources and activities in the framework of the European project SERIES, combining their research and jointly developing advanced testing and instrumentation techniques that maximize testing capabilities and increase the value of the tests. This volume presents the first outcomes of the SERIES and its contribution towards Performance-based Earthquake Engineering, i.e., to the most important development in Earthquake Engineering of the past three decades. The concept and the methodologies for performance-based earthquake engineering have now matured. However, they are based mainly on analytical/numerical research; large-scale seismic testing has entered the stage recently. The SERIES Workshop in Ohrid (MK) in Sept. 2010 pooled together the largest European seismic testing facilities, Europe’s best experts in experimental earthquake engineering and select experts from the USA, to present recent research achievements and to address future developments. Audience: This volume will be of interest to researchers and advanced practitioners in structural earthquake engineering, geotechnical earthquake engineering, engineering seismology, and experimental dynamics, including seismic qualification.




Performance Based Seismic Design for Tall Buildings


Book Description

Performance-Based Seismic Design (PBSD) is a structural design methodology that has become more common in urban centers around the world, particularly for the design of high-rise buildings. The primary benefit of PBSD is that it substantiates exceptions to prescribed code requirements, such as height limits applied to specific structural systems, and allows project teams to demonstrate higher performance levels for structures during a seismic event.However, the methodology also involves significantly more effort in the analysis and design stages, with verification of building performance required at multiple seismic demand levels using Nonlinear Response History Analysis (NRHA). The design process also requires substantial knowledge of overall building performance and analytical modeling, in order to proportion and detail structural systems to meet specific performance objectives.This CTBUH Technical Guide provides structural engineers, developers, and contractors with a general understanding of the PBSD process by presenting case studies that demonstrate the issues commonly encountered when using the methodology, along with their corresponding solutions. The guide also provides references to the latest industry guidelines, as applied in the western United States, with the goal of disseminating these methods to an international audience for the advancement and expansion of PBSD principles worldwide.




Seismic Isolation, Structural Health Monitoring, and Performance Based Seismic Design in Earthquake Engineering


Book Description

This book features chapters based on selected presentations from the International Congress on Advanced Earthquake Resistance of Structures, AERS2016, held in Samsun, Turkey, from 24 to 28 October 2016. It covers the latest advances in three widely popular research areas in Earthquake Engineering: Performance-Based Seismic Design, Seismic Isolation Systems, and Structural Health Monitoring. The book shows the vulnerability of high-rise and seismically isolated buildings to long periods of strong ground motions, and proposes new passive and semi-active structural seismic isolation systems to protect against such effects. These systems are validated through real-time hybrid tests on shaking tables. Structural health monitoring systems provide rapid assessment of structural safety after an earthquake and allow preventive measures to be taken, such as shutting down the elevators and gas lines, before damage occurs. Using the vibration data from instrumented tall buildings, the book demonstrates that large, distant earthquakes and surface waves, which are not accounted for in most attenuation equations, can cause long-duration shaking and damage in tall buildings. The overview of the current performance-based design methodologies includes discussions on the design of tall buildings and the reasons common prescriptive code provisions are not sufficient to address the requirements of tall-building design. In addition, the book explains the modelling and acceptance criteria associated with various performance-based design guidelines, and discusses issues such as selection and scaling of ground motion records, soil-foundation-structure interaction, and seismic instrumentation and peer review needs. The book is of interest to a wide range of professionals in earthquake engineering, including designers, researchers, and graduate students.




Preventing Earthquake Disasters: The Grand Challenge in Earthquake Engineering


Book Description

The Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES), administered by the National Science Foundation (NSF), is scheduled to become operational in 2004. These network sites will perform a range of experiments to test and validate complex computer models being developed to simulate the behavior of structures subjected to earthquakes. To assist in this effort, the NSF requested the National Research Council(NRC) to frame the major questions to be addressed by and to develop a long-term research agenda for NEES. Preventing Earthquake Disasters presents an overview of the grand challenge including six critical research problems making up that challenge. The report also provides an assessment of earthquake engineering research issues and the role of information technology in that research effort, and a research plan for NEES.







Protection of Historical Constructions


Book Description

This book gathers the peer-reviewed papers presented at the 4th International Conference on Protection of Historical Constructions (PROHITECH), held in Athens, Greece, on October 25-27, 2021. The conference topics encompass structural and earthquake engineering, intervention strategies, materials and technologies, digital documentation, architecture and urban planning, cultural heritage, all of which represented by a showcase of case studies covering different construction materials, as well as sustainability, energy efficiency, and adaptation to climate changes. As such the book represents an invaluable, up-to-the-minute tool, providing an essential overview of protection of historical constructions, and offers an important platform to researchers, engineers and architects.




Proceedings of 17th Symposium on Earthquake Engineering (Vol. 3)


Book Description

This book presents select proceedings of the 17th Symposium on Earthquake Engineering organized by the Department of Earthquake Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. The topics covered in the proceedings include engineering seismology and seismotectonics, earthquake hazard assessment, seismic microzonation and urban planning, dynamic properties of soils and ground response, ground improvement techniques for seismic hazards, computational soil dynamics, dynamic soil–structure interaction, codal provisions on earthquake-resistant design, seismic evaluation and retrofitting of structures, earthquake disaster mitigation and management, and many more. This book also discusses relevant issues related to earthquakes, such as human response and socioeconomic matters, post-earthquake rehabilitation, earthquake engineering education, public awareness, participation and enforcement of building safety laws, and earthquake prediction and early warning system. This book is a valuable reference for researchers and professionals working in the area of earthquake engineering.




Physical Models


Book Description

Physical models have been, and continue to be used by engineers when faced with unprecedented challenges, when engineering science has been inadequate or even non-existent, and in any other situation when engineers have needed to raise their confidence in a design proposal to a sufficient level in order to begin construction. For this reason, models have mostly been used by designers and constructors of highly innovative projects, when previous experience has not been available. The book covers the history of using physical models in the design and development of civil and building engineering projects including Robert Stephenson?s Britannia Bridge in the 1840s, the masonry Aswan Dam in the 1890s and the Boulder Dam in the 1930s; tidal flow in estuaries and wind and seismic loads on structures from the 1890s, the acoustics of concert halls and the design of thin concrete shell roofs from the 1920s, and the dynamic behaviour of tall buildings from the 1930s, as well as and cable-net and membrane structures in the 1960s. Individual designers featured include Eduardo Torroja, Pier Luigi Nervi, Heinz Hossdorf, Heinz Isler, Frei Otto, Sergio Musmeci and Mamoru Kawaguchi. The book concludes with overviews of the current use of physical models alongside computer models, for example in boundary layer wind tunnels, seismic engineering, hydrology, soil mechanics, and air flow in buildings. Traditionally, progress in engineering has been attributed to the creation and use of engineering science, the understanding of materials properties and the development of new construction methods. The book argues that the use of reduced-scale models has played an equally important part in the development of civil and building engineering. However, like the history of engineering design itself, this crucial contribution has not been widely reported or celebrated. The book includes 39 chapters written by 29 authors from ten different countries.