Earthquake Engineering Report: Seismic Design and Structural Integrity

This report delves into the field of earthquake engineering, emphasizing the importance of designing structures to withstand seismic forces. It highlights the role of civil and structural engineers in creating buildings and infrastructure capable of withstanding earthquakes. The report discusses the significance of building codes, the design of structural elements, and the use of dynamic response control devices. It also examines the evolution of seismic design technologies and the need for structures to have ductile characteristics to prevent failure. The report references key literature on earthquake engineering, providing insights into the design of earthquake-resistant structures and the mitigation of seismic risks. The report also explains the effects of earthquake loads that can cause flexural cracks on beams. The report stresses on the need to consider the impact of earthquakes on the structural integrity of buildings and other infrastructure. It also references the work of Jiro Takagi & Akira Wada (2019) on recent earthquakes and the need to have new earthquake-resistant designs.

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.

EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING 2
In order to prevent structural failure, dynamic response control devices should be used so as to
reduce the response of structures to seismic vibrations (Matsagar, 2016).
Figure 1. Earthquake loads causes Flexural Cracks on beams

EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING 3
References
Jiro Takagi & Akira Wada. (2019). Recent earthquakes and the need for a new philosophy for
earthquake-resistant desig. Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, 119, 499-507.
Retrieved January 31, 2018, from
https://www.elsevier.com/locate/soildyn/doi.org/10.1016/j.soildyn.2017.11.024
Matsagar, V. (2016, December 16). Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics. Article Of
Professional Interest. doi:DOI: 10.1007/s40030-016-0186-7
Pawirodikromo, W. (2014). Engineering characteristics of the 2006 Yogyakarta earthquake
ground motions and its implication on the inelastic response of RC structure. Peer-review
under responsibility of organizing committee of the 2nd International Conference on
Sustainable Civil Engineering Structures and Construction Materials 2014, 95, 54 – 64.
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2014.12.165
Radu, A. (2017). A Framework for Earthquake Risk Engineering. International Conference on
Structural Dynamics, EURODYN 2017, 199, 3576–3581.
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2017.09.523
Reitherman, R. (2012). Earthquakes and Engineers: An International History (1 ed.). ASCE.