Seismic

Past earthquakes in California have shown that some concrete buildings, with certain design and detailing characteristics, perform poorly in large earthquakes and have long been known to present threats to life-safety.

Developing code provisions for a class of buildings that are relatively similar is difficult. A better approach is to define the problem, present information on past building performance during earthquakes, and then let the structural engineer decide on the appropriate design.

Besides the structural aspects of a building, geologic effects as well as non-structural hazards need to be addressed in any retrofit.

Combining viscous dampers with advanced structural design technologies can be effective in identifying optimized retrofit solutions.

An innovative seismic design approach provided an optimal solution for Samuel Merritt University's new steel 10-story, 259,000-square foot research, and academic building.

Two summers ago, I had the opportunity and pleasure to present on “Post-Elastic Design” at the 12th Annual Structural Engineers Association of Alabama (SEAoAL) Code Conference & XPO in Homewood, Alabama.