72781 - Earthquake Engineering

Learning outcomes

In the course,  students will learn the main concepts in earthquake engineering. In particular: seismology and seismic hazard, dynamic behaviour of elastic and inelastic structures under earthquake actions, definition of the seismic action, design methods according to the most important Codes and regulations, detailing. The methods will be described with reference to reinforced concrete, steel and masonry structures.

Course contents

1. SEISMOLOGY FUNDAMENTALS

a. Earth structure, tectonics, faults, faulting mechanisms, earthquake recurrence, elastic rebound theory, magnitude measures, earthquake energy.

b. Accelerograms: recording, properties, basic intensity measures. Soil and topographic effects.

2. STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS OF SDOF SYSTEMS

a. Un-damped free vibrations;

b. Damped free vibrations;

c. Forced vibrations;

d. Response to a base acceleration: Duhamel integral and time-stepping procedures (Newmark method etc.).

e. Elastoplastic SDOF systems.

3. RESPONSE SPECTRA

a. Acceleration, displacement, velocity, pseudo-acceleration and pseudo-velocity response spectra;

b. Soil effects, magnitude effects.

c. Non-linear response spectra: constant strength-reduction-factor spectra, and constant ductility spectra.

d. Ductility- and strength-based design.

4. SEISMIC HAZARD

a. Source models;

b. Recurrence relationships;

c. Attenuation relationships;

d. Deterministic seismic hazard analysis;

e. Probabilistic seismic hazard analysis;

f. Uniform hazard spectra.

5. STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS OF MDOF STRUCTURES

a. Mass, stiffness and damping matrixes;

b. Modal analysis of plane structures;

c. Static condensation;

d. Free vibration;

e. Response to ground acceleration;

f. Maximum response analysis (response spectra analysis).

g. Damping models;

h. Modal combination rules: SRSS, CQC;

i. Analysis of 3D structures. Effects of regularity.

6. SEISMIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS

a. Performance based design: Definition of limit states and performance levels.

b. Design response spectra: behaviour factor;

c. Linear analysis methods;

d. Definition of masses and combination of seismic effects with the effects of other loads;

e. Capacity design fundamentals.

7. SEISMIC DESIGN OF CONCRETE STRUCTURES

a. Ductility classes;

b. Capacity design of frame structures;

c. Interaction between walls and frames;

d. Design of ductile walls.

8. SEISMIC DESIGN OF STEEL STRUCTURES

a. Capacity design;

b. Moment resisting frames;

c. Concentrically Braced Frames;

d. Eccentrically Braced Frames;

e. Buckling Restrained Braced Frames;

f. Other systems

9. NONLINEAR ANALYSIS

a. Nonlinear beam-column models;

b. Nonlinear static analysis;

c. Nonlinear dynamic analysis;

10. ADVANCED SEISMIC PROTECTION TECHNIQUES

a. Base isolation;

b. Dampers.

11. SEMINARS ON VARIOUS ADVANCED TOPICS (e.g. displacement based design, rocking structures, etc.)

Readings/Bibliography

Teaching material after each class. Some textbooks partially covering the course are also suggested.

Steven L. Kramer, Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering

C.A. Chopra, Dynamics of Structures: Theory and Applications to Earthquake Engineering

Penelis, G.G. and Kappos, A.J., Earthquake-resistant Concrete Structures

Thomas Paulay and M. J. N. Priestley, Seismic Design of Reinforced Concrete and Masonry Buildings

Teaching methods

Blackboard and powerpoint presentations.

Assessment methods

Students must prepare two homeworks during the course. then, the final test is an oral exam after the end of the course. The final grade depends 25% on the homeworks and 75% on the oral exam. Oral exams take place about every 30-40 days during the year. For students following the Ingegneria Civile LM course (in italian), the Laboratorio di Internazionalizzazione (3 cfu) is recognized if the exam is given in English.

Teaching tools

Blackboard and powerpoint presentations. For the homeworks, educational versions of softwares for structural analysis are used.

Office hours

See the website of Nicola Buratti

See the website of Marco Savoia