Blog 16: Advisory Meeting #2

EQ: How can a structural engineer best design a building for earthquake resistance?

Answer #2 (Write in a complete sentence like a thesis statement)*

Through using different types of seismic analyses on buildings can contribute in designing a building for earthquake resistance.

3 details to support the answer (a detail is a fact and an example)

Equivalent Static Analysis: An analysis that estimates base shear loads for each story of a low to medium rise building. Ex: Earthquakes put extra force into the building and buildings already have their own forces/ loads. Equivalent Static Analysis helps reduce some of the buildings own loads.

Time History Analysis: Visualizes or predicts performance level of a building under a given earthquake by measuring the history of specific areas that are more prone to earthquakes. Ex: Japan has a long history of earthquakes from low to high magnitudes. In engineering software, engineers can simulate the same magnitude of a Japanese earthquake in the 20th century and test their buildings.

Ground Motion Maps: Under building code ASCE7, these maps are used to measure seismic ground motion values. These values represent the spectral response accelerations in different periods of earthquakes. Ex: These maps are color coded and have a legend showing the distance between buildings and the color coded areas show the impact of the earthquakes.

The research source (s) to support your details and answer

 Source ID #: 11, Bagheri, Bahador "Comparatice damage assessment of Irregular Building Based on Static and Dynamic Analysis." International Journal of Civil and Structural Engineering. 3.3 (2013): 505-511. Print. (for Equivalent Static Analysis)
Source ID #: 33, Jumaat, Zamin. "Earthquake time history for Dhaka, Bangladesh as competent seismic record." International Journal of the Physical Sciences, 2011. Web. 26 Feb. 2014. (for Equivalent Static Analysis and Time History Analysis)
Source ID #: 30, Dowty, Susan. "Seismic Design Provisions of ASCE 7-10: Changes from ASCE 7-05." Structural Engineer, July 2011. Web. 20 Feb. 2014. (for Ground Motion Maps).

Concluding Sentence

Seismic analyses are important in designing buildings for earthquake resistance because they can measure the area and performance levels of buildings.