Earthquake Engineering - Article

Running head: EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING 1
Earthquake Engineering
Abstract
Earthquake engineering is a fundamental element of structural engineering that deals with the
mitigation of activities resulting from seismic waves, by coming up with procedures for
planning, analyzing and designing structures that are capable to resist the effects of earthquakes
(Reitherman, 2012).
Civil and structural engineering deals with the design and construction of buildings and other
facilities to form a built-up environment. These structures must be designed by engineers to
withstand and absorb the energy waves of external forces without compromising on their
structural integrity to ensure safety of the users. Earthquakes is one such external force, hence
there is need to provide sound designs for all structural elements to transfer the energy into the
ground, or through redistribution of the forces by use of shear walls, braces and diaphragms. For
instance, floor slabs, wall panels, columns and beams in a building structure should be designed
with appropriate codes to resist failure by earthquakes. Similarly, dynamic structures like
suspended bridges should have appropriate designs to allow for flexibility when earthquakes
occur since the resonance of rigid structures may contribute to their structural failure.
The work of Jiro Takagi & Akira Wada (2019) on recent earthquakes and need to have new
earthquake-resistant designs explains that the current technologies used in the seismic design
have undergone improvements overtime, enabling the designed structures permit ductile plastic
deformations. This prevents building collapse when exposed to enormous instant earthquake
loads, while at the same time consumes lesser budgets in the construction costs.