Earthquake engineering

Summary

Earthquake engineering is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering that designs and analyzes structures, such as buildings and bridges, with earthquakes in mind. Its overall goal is to make such structures more resistant to earthquakes. An earthquake (or seismic) engineer aims to construct structures that will not be damaged in minor shaking and will avoid serious damage or collapse in a major earthquake. A properly engineered structure does not necessarily have to be extremely strong or expensive. It has to be properly designed to withstand the seismic effects while sustaining an acceptable level of damage. Definition Earthquake engineering is a scientific field concerned with protecting society, the natural environment, and the man-made environment from earthquakes by limiting the seismic risk to socio-economically acceptable levels. Traditionally, it has been narrowly defined as the study of the behavior of structures and geo-structures subject to seismic loading; it is

Official source

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake_engineering

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Existing school buildings in Switzerland that have been designed from the early 1970s typically utilized a modular architectural layout and structural system commonly known as CROCS (Centre de rationalization de d’organisation des constructions scolaires). Such buildings were designed without any seismic design requirements. However, Switzerland is a moderate seismic zone and the seismic safety and lateral stability of such buildings should be carefully examined. There is also a similar concern because of hazards due to induced seismicity. In particular, such buildings could develop a soft story collapse mechanism because capacity design principles were not employed. The aim of this Master thesis is to investigate the non-linear static and dynamic behaviour of a CROCS school located in Switzerland in a moderate seismic zone. Its performance is examined based on nonlinear response-history analysis in the context of Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering. A numerical model is developed using the concentrated plasticity modelling approach to identify its most critical seismic deﬁciencies. Based on the ﬁndings, an optimal seismic retroﬁt strategy is proposed and evaluated.

2017

Uplift mechanics of unanchored liquid storage tanks subjected to lateral earthquake loading

Konstantinos Bakalis

Motivated by the seismic response of unanchored liquid storage tanks, their uplift mechanism under strong lateral loading is examined. Using three-dimensional finite element models, nonlinear static analysis is conducted to define the moment-rotation relationship of uplifting tanks resting on rigid foundation and describe the evolution of critical response parameters with increasing level of lateral loading. Meridional and hoop stress, as well as their distribution and evolution with increased uplift are computed. Comparing the numerical results with the corresponding results from anchored tanks, striking differences are observed on the values of compressive meridional stresses and their distribution around the tank circumference. Cyclic analysis, associated with repeated uplift at both sides of the tank, is also performed, to obtain the corresponding hysteretic response and verify the assumption of nonlinear-elastic tank behaviour, used in several previous works. Finally, an analytical solution is developed, capable of describing tank uplift in an efficient manner. The analytical solution accounts for the special features of uplift, obtained from the finite element solution, and can be used for simple and reliable assessment of seismic performance in unanchored liquid storage tanks.

ELSEVIER SCI LTD2021

Vulnérabilité sismique à grande échelle. Typologie typique de bâtiments lausannois

Hajand Zainal

Seismic assessment of existing buildings is a very important area of research to predict the impact of an earthquake on an area. Over the years, unreinforced masonry buildings have shown to be highly vulnerable to seismic risk. Although Switzerland is considered a low to moderate seismic zone, studies have shown that seismic risk is the country's most significant natural risk. This is mainly due to the fact that the majority of the Swiss real estate stock was built with little or no seismic consideration. This thesis focuses mainly on a typical typology of Lausanne buildings. First, an inventory was taken of buildings with characteristics common to this typology. Five prototypes of buildings most representative of this type of construction were then created. In a second step, a detailed seismic analysis was carried out, in particular using the Extreme Loading for Structures (ELS) software, which uses the applied element method. Finally, fragility curves for each of the prototypes were derived, linking the structure's capacity according to spectral acceleration.

2020