Earthquake and Geotechnical Engineering Earthquake Engineering is a branch of Civil Engineering that is in charge of protecting the society from natural disasters like Earthquakes. This branch of Civil Engineering mainly studies how structures behave when they are hit by a seismic wave. Earthquake engineers main responsibilities are to design structures that can stand an earthquake and to make sure that all structures have the required building codes. In addition, they need to estimate the probable
Earthquake Engineering Earthquakes are vibrations felt at the surface of the earth which are caused by disturbances of the energy in the earth's interior. These vibrations are known as seismic waves. (Skinner Robinson McVerry 1) There are different type sof seisimc waves such as Primary (P) waves, whcih travel the fastest, Secondary (S) waves which cause the earth to vibrate vertically, Surface (L) waves. P and S waves are "affected by changes in the density and the rigidity of the materials
Introduction Many existing bridges structure has been designed without seismic provisions are vulnerable which has demonstrated by recent earthquake. The consequent of the extensive damage to bridge structure include potential loss of life and property, and interruption of transportation system that can contribute to major economic and impact to the society. Concern about the vulnerability of bridges being damage, there are significant need to perform adequate seismic retrofit technique prior to
A simplified and efficient soil structure interaction (SSI) method has been proposed for structures supported by pile foundation system using recently proposed lumped parameter model with gyro-element (GLMP) which shows efficient and accurate representation of frequency dependent impedance function (IFs) of the soil-foundation systems. The original GLPM has been transformed to make the gyro-element compatible with the conventional software framework. The transformed GLPM has been verified with the
Construction Of A House Foundation A typical foundation is constructed out of concrete in the New England Area. Foundations in the New england area have Continuous footings. Continuous footings have what is called a Keyway in the center of the footing. Keyways are Longitudinal grooves in the concrete. These grooves allow longitudinal support to the foundation walls. Foundation walls are the vertical walls that extend from the footings to the first floor. Foundation walls in the New England area
Skyscrapers are amazing! Architectural defeats. Wonders of the world. How are they able to withstand even the strongest of winds and earthquakes? Today, engineers rely on damping systems to counteract nature's forces. There are many types of damping systems that engineers can now use for structures, automobiles, and even tennis rackets! This site focuses on damping systems in structures, mainly architectural variations of the tuned mass damper. How Tuned Mass Dampers Work A tuned
As an aspiring structural engineer, I need to obtain a Master of Science in Civil or Structural Engineering before I can begin my job search. As a senior in the University of Washington’s (UW) Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) department, I came to understand why UW’s CEE program is one of the most rigorous in the nation with a faculty well-known for their seismic engineering research. With UW as a potential graduate program in mind, I interviewed the aged Dr. Charles Roeder, my current
Olympic stadium and an 8.0 earthquake happens but nothing is breaking or exploding. It sounds impossible but it is absolutely possible. In the future, we may never have to worry about earthquakes at all due to new tech, AI, and ingenuity. As listed, it will save more lives or at least negate most of the damage done. We can earthquake proof a city or cause less damage because of better building planning, better materials ,and how bad our plan is to protect ourselves from earthquakes. If we make buildings
Geoffrey Yang Physics Per. 1 Bennett w/ Paul Eremenco How Are Buildings made to be Earthquake-Proof/Resistant? “Earthquakes alone don't kill people; collapsed buildings do” (Sutter). In addition to possibly causing tsunamis, earthquakes are responsible for releasing enormous amounts of energy that spread through the crust as seismic waves. These seismic waves include P-waves and S-waves. While P-waves do not cause as much destruction due to their vertical movement, S-waves can cause buildings to
What would you do if you lost everything because of an earthquake? How would you get help? On October 16, 2013 a 7.2 magnitude quake struck the central Philippines. People lost lives, homes, family, and friends. Unfortunately, there were many aftershocks and tons of people were injured. People reacted by getting help from the Red Cross, providing evacuation centers, and gathering resources. The Red Cross has done many things to help the people that are hurt, injured, or lost lives of people that
According to the writers of Encyclopedia Britannica, the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and fire caused 28,000 buildings to be destroyed, causing $350,000,000 in damage. This earthquake was one of the most devastating earthquakes ever. There are many views on this earthquake, and even some footage of it. The earthquake caused the fire, which was even more devastating than the earthquake itself, but they both still did a substantial amount of damage. Over 3000 people were killed, 250,000 left homeless
effect to happen. Earthquake waves are mechanical waves and the energy transferred is through compression and rarefaction. Earth has few layers and one of them is the lithosphere. It is broken down to tectonic plates and sometimes these plates slide inside the earth. This activity causes the earthquakes.Earthquake waves are also known as Seismic waves and they can be measured using a seismometer. The measurement gives an earthquake a number on the Richter scale. The largest earthquake ever recorded
Guatemala Guatemala is a small country located in the Americans it's barely the size of Tennessee. Guatemala is bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, Honduras to the east and El Salvador to the southeast .(Guatemala by Kari Schuetz ) Guatemala has comfortable weather neither too hot nor cold. Its seasons tend to be divided into 2 parts the wet season and the dry season. From mid-May to October
Fault was first recognized as a significant seismic hazard in 1992 when a set of reports showed that about 1,100 years ago it was the scene of a major earthquake of about magnitude 7, an event that entered Indian oral legend. Extensive research has since shown the Seattle Fault to be part of a regional system of faults. Since Seattle is prone to earthquakes, it is important for the city to prepare for the disasters in order to reduce the damages. Below I have listed
on the Hot Site organization is an earthquake, which will result from the movements of seismic waves below the region’s surface leading to surface faulting and tremors among other related cases of landslides. I selected the risk because the region, Sunnyvale, California, where Hot Site is located is prone to earthquake due to its subduction around the ocean, and having a complex belt that has stretched miles away to the American belt. Hot Site risks an earthquake, a phenomenon that may result from
evacuate the citizens who live inside, as well as gather emergency funds and basic provisions (In the Path of a Killer Volcano). They can also build dams to prevent mudflows, as has been the case at Mount Sakurajima (McDowell 650). In contrast, earthquakes are too short-noticed and brief to necessitate evacuation. Instead, national and local governments should collaborate to ensure that buildings, roads, and bridges susceptible to quakes are fortified, and that citizens are instructed what to do in
On the Friday, 11 march of 2011, Japan was struck by a massive Tsunami and a 9.0 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Tōhoku. The destruction caused by this mammoth natural disaster was indescribable, the cost of the damage done was estimated to about tens of billions of US dollars, coastal settlements were wrecked inhabitable and businesses as well as infrastructures are also put out of business. It was one of the largest crisis japan has seen on its own land in the century. Moments after the great
Designing an Earthquake-Proof Home Approximately 8,000 people each year are killed by earthquakes. Around 1, 300,000 earthquakes occur per year (two per day) with magnitudes of 2.9 or lower. Eighty percent of the earth’s largest earthquakes occur near the “Ring of Fire” which is a region in the Pacific Ocean where many tectonic plates meet. The average earthquake lasts around 60 seconds. Landslides, tsunamis, avalanches, and volcanoes can all result from an earthquake. As part of my Earth and
Earthquake is a frequent phenomenon in areas called ‘earthquake zones.’ Earthquake creates numerous kinds of effects such as loss life and damage of property depending upon its magnitude. Earthquake can make damage from small to large impact on communities. As some consequences of the earthquake, there is secondary effects like fire, water supply problem, electricity, transportation, and communication disruption (Gaurav Kaushik, 2013). Manmade infrastructures are playing an important consideration
The Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 devastated the Portuguese city, decimating it to ruins with a total death toll rumored to be around 30,000-60,000. Following the quake, tsunami waves crashed over the city. Fires broke out and spread throughout the city as well. The mass destruction disrupted common Enlightenment ideologies of the time. Popular philosophers of pre earthquake Europe such as Isaac Newton, Leibniz, and Alexander Pope, argued that we live in the best of possible worlds. Their “whatever is