Earthquake engineering

Earthquake engineering is the scientific field concerned with protecting society, the natural and the manmade environment from earthquakes by limiting the seismic risk to socio-economically acceptable levels.
[1]

raditionally, it has been narrowly defined as the study of the behavior of structures and geo-structures

sub!ect to seismic loading, thus considered as a subset of both structural and geotechnical engineering. "owever, the tremendous costs e#perienced in recent earthquakes have led to an e#pansion of its scope to encompass disciplines from the wider field of civil engineering and from the social sciences, especially sociology, political science, economics and finance. he main ob!ectives of earthquake engineering are$

%oresee the potential consequences of strong earthquakes on urban areas and civil infrastructure. &esign, construct and maintain structures to perform at earthquake e#posure up to the e#pectations and in compliance with building codes.[']

( properly engineered structure does not necessarily have to be e#tremely strong or e#pensive. )t has to be properly designed to withstand the seismic effects while sustaining an acceptable level of damage.

*hake-table crash testing of a regular building model +left, and a base-isolatedbuilding model +right,[-] at ./*&

Contents
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1 *eismic loading ' *eismic performance '.1 *eismic performance assessment

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'.1.1 E#perimental assessment '.1.' (nalytical01umerical (ssessment - 2esearch for earthquake engineering -.1 3a!or ..*. research programs -.' Earthquake simulation -.- *tructure simulation 4 *eismic vibration control 4.1 &ry-stone walls control 4.' 5ead rubber bearing 4.- uned mass damper 4.4 %riction pendulum bearing 4.6 7uilding elevation control 4.8 *imple roller bearing 4.9 *prings-with-damper base isolator 4.: "ysteretic damper 6 *eismic design 6.1 *eismic design requirements 6.' %ailure modes 8 Earthquake-resistant construction 8.1 (dobe structures 8.' 5imestone and sandstone structures 8.- imber frame structures 8.4 5ight-frame structures 8.6 2einforced masonry structures 8.8 2einforced concrete structures

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8.9 ;restressed structures 8.: *teel structures 9 ;rediction of earthquake losses : *ee also < 2eferences 1= E#ternal links

*eismic loading[edit]

aipei 1=1, equipped with a tuned mass damper, is the world>s third tallest skyscraper.

Main article: Seismic loading Seismic loading means application of an earthquake-generated e#citation on a structure +or geo-structure,. )t happens at contact surfaces of a structure either with the ground [6], with ad!acent structures,[4] or with gravity waves from tsunami.

*eismic performance[edit]
Main article: Seismic analysis Earthquake or seismic performance defines a structure>s ability to sustain its main functions, such as its safety and serviceability, at and after a particular earthquake e#posure. ( structure is normally considered safe if it does not endanger the lives and well-being of those in or around it by partially or completely collapsing. ( structure may be considered serviceable if it is able to fulfill its operational functions for which it was designed. 7asic concepts of the earthquake engineering, implemented in the ma!or building codes, assume that a building should survive a rare, very severe earthquake by sustaining significant damage but without globally collapsing.[6] ?n the other hand, it should remain operational for more frequent, but less severe seismic events.

Seismic performance assessment[edit]

Engineers need to know the quantified level of the actual or anticipated seismic performance associated with the direct damage to an individual building sub!ect to a specified ground shaking. *uch an assessment may be performed either e#perimentally or analytically.

Experimental assessment[edit]
E#perimental evaluations are e#pensive tests that are typically done by placing a +scaled, model of the structure on a shake-table that simulates the earth shaking and observing its behavior. [8] *uch kinds of e#periments were first performed more than a century ago. [9]?nly recently has it become possible to perform 1$1 scale testing on full structures. &ue to the costly nature of such tests, they tend to be used mainly for understanding the seismic behavior of structures, validating models and verifying analysis methods. hus, once properly validated, computational models and numerical procedures tend to carry the ma!or burden for the seismic performance assessment of structures.

Analytical/Numerical Assessment[edit]

*napshot from shake-table video of a 8-story non-ductile concrete buildingdestructive testing

Seismic performance assessment or seismic structural analysis is a powerful tool of earthquake engineering which utili@es detailed modelling of the structure together with methods of structural analysis to gain a better understanding of seismic performance of building and non-building structures. he technique as a formal concept is a relatively recent development. )n general, seismic structural analysis is based on the methods of structural dynamics.[:] %or decades, the most prominent instrument of seismic analysis has been the earthquake response spectrum method which also contributed to the proposed building code>s concept of today. [<] "owever, such methods are good only for linear elastic systems, being largely unable to model the structural behavior when damage +i.e., non-linearity, appears. 1umerical step-by-step integration proved to be a more effective method of analysis for multi-degree-of-freedom structural systems with significant non-linearity under a transient process of ground motion e#citation.[1=] 7asically, numerical analysis is conducted in order to evaluate the seismic performance of buildings. ;erformance evaluations are generally carried out by using nonlinear static pushover analysis or nonlinear time-history analysis. )n such analyses, it is essential to achieve accurate non-linear modeling of structural components such as beams, columns, beam-column !oints, shear walls etc. hus, e#perimental results play an important role in determining the modeling parameters of individual components, especially those that are sub!ect to significant non-linear deformations. he individual components are then assembled to create a full non-linear model of the structure. hus created models are analy@ed to evaluate the performance of buildings. he capabilities of the structural analysis software are a ma!or consideration in the above process as they restrict the possible component models, the analysis methods available and, most importantly, the numerical robustness. he latter becomes a ma!or consideration for structures that venture into the non-linear range and approach global or local collapse as the numerical solution becomes increasingly unstable and thus difficult to reach. here are several commercially available %inite Element (nalysis software>s such as /*)-*(;'=== and /*)-;E2%?23--& which can be used for the seismic performance evaluation of buildings. 3oreover, there is research-based finite element analysis platforms such as ?pen*ees, 2.(.3?A? and the older &2()1'&0-&, several of which are now open source.

2esearch for earthquake engineering[edit]

*hake-table testing of %riction ;endulum 7earings at EE2/

2esearch for earthquake engineering means both field and analytical investigation or e#perimentation intended for discovery and scientific e#planation of earthquake engineering related facts, revision of conventional concepts in the light of new findings, and practical application of the developed theories. he 1ational *cience %oundation +1*%, is the main .nited *tates government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all fields of earthquake engineering. )n particular, it focuses on e#perimental, analytical and computational research on design and performance enhancement of structural systems.

E-&efense *hake able[11]

he Earthquake Engineering 2esearch )nstitute +EE2), is a leader in dissemination of earthquake engineering research related information both in the ..*. and globally.

( definitive list of earthquake engineering research related shaking tables around the world may be found in E#perimental %acilities for Earthquake Engineering *imulation Borldwide. [1'] he most prominent of them is now E-&efense *hake able[1-] in Capan.
Major earthquake engineering research centers in the United States and orld ide [show]

Major U!S! research programs[edit]

5arge "igh ;erformance ?utdoor *hake able, ./*&, 1EE* network

1*% also supports the Deorge E. 7rown, Cr. 1etwork for Earthquake Engineering *imulation he 1*% "a@ard 3itigation and *tructural Engineering program +"3*E, supports research on new technologies for improving the behavior and response of structural systems sub!ect to earthquake ha@ardsE fundamental research on safety and reliability of constructed systemsE innovative developments inanalysis and model based simulation of structural behavior and response including soil-structure interactionE design concepts that improve structure performance and fle#ibilityE and application of new control techniques for structural systems.[14] +1EE*, that advances knowledge discovery and innovation for earthquakes and tsunami loss reduction of the nation>s civil infrastructure and new e#perimental simulation techniques and instrumentation. [16] he 1EE* network features 14 geographically-distributed, shared-use laboratories that support several types of e#perimental work$[16] geotechnical centrifuge research, shake-table tests, large-scale structural testing, tsunami wave basin e#periments, and field site research.[18] ;articipating universities include$ /ornell .niversityE 5ehigh .niversityE ?regon *tate .niversityE 2ensselaer ;olytechnic )nstituteE .niversity at 7uffalo, *tate .niversity of 1ew ForkE .niversity of /alifornia, 7erkeleyE .niversity of /alifornia, &avisE .niversity of /alifornia, 5os (ngelesE .niversity of /alifornia, *an &iegoE .niversity of /alifornia, *anta 7arbaraE .niversity of )llinois, .rbana-/hampaignE .niversity of 3innesotaE .niversity of 1evada, 2enoE and the .niversity of e#as, (ustin.[16]

1EE* at 7uffalo testing facility

he equipment sites +labs, and a central data repository are connected to the global earthquake engineering community via the 1EE*hub website. he 1EE* website is powered by ".7@ero software developed at ;urdue .niversity for nano".7 specifically to help the scientific community share resources and collaborate. he cyberinfrastructure, connected via )nternet', provides interactive simulation tools, a simulation tool development area, a curated central data repository, animated presentations, user support, telepresence, mechanism for uploading and sharing resources, and statistics about users and usage patterns. his cyberinfrastructure allows researchers to$ securely store, organi@e and share data within a standardi@ed framework in a central locationE remotely observe and participate in e#periments through the use of synchroni@ed real-time data and videoE collaborate with colleagues to facilitate the planning, performance, analysis, and publication of research e#perimentsE and conduct computational and hybrid simulations that may combine the results of multiple distributed e#periments and link physical e#periments with computer simulations to enable the investigation of overall system performance. hese resources !ointly provide the means for collaboration and discovery to improve the seismic design and performance of civil and mechanical infrastructure systems.

Earthquake simulation[edit]
he very first earthquake simulations were performed by statically applying some horizontal inertia forces based on scaled peak ground accelerations to a mathematical model of a building.[19]Bith the further development of computational technologies, static approaches began to give way to dynamic ones. &ynamic e#periments on building and non-building structures may be physical, like shake-table testing, or virtual ones. )n both cases, to verify a structure>s e#pected seismic performance, some researchers prefer to deal with so called Greal time-historiesG though the last cannot be GrealG for a hypothetical earthquake specified by either a building code or by some particular research requirements. herefore, there is a strong incentive to engage an earthquake simulation which is the seismic input that possesses only essential features of a real event. *ometimes earthquake simulation is understood as a re-creation of local effects of a strong earth shaking.