Is there a competent body to certify and judge whether a new anti-seismic technology makes a positive contribution or whether it is dangerous?
Dear Doctor
Go To
Booth, E. Dealing with earthquakes: the practice of seismic engineering ‘as if people mattered’. Bull Earthquake Eng 16, 1661–1724 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10518-017-0302-8
[Abstract
This paper sets out to explore the different ways in which communities deal with earthquakes. As is well known, the ability to recover from a damaging earthquake varies greatly across the world. The events of 2010 were of course a striking reminder of this, when the death toll from the Haïti earthquake was at least 100,000; in the very different conditions of Chile, a much larger event the same year killed just 525 people. In a narrow sense, much of the difference can be explained in terms of the engineering properties of the physical infrastructure affected; the better it has been designed and constructed to withstand strong ground shaking, the greater the chance that the community affected has of recovering quickly. However, the central thesis of this paper is that the ability of a community to deal with earthquakes involves much more than just technical factors. Seismically resilient buildings and other infrastructure will only be in place when an earthquake strikes if there has been a willingness and ability to devote the necessary resources to building them. Moreover, taking prior steps to limit physical damage is only one part of the process for dealing with earthquakes; providing for immediate post-earthquake needs and for the longer term rebuilding of communities is also important. To pursue these issues further, and how they might affect engineers, I visited four widely differing regions of high seismicity. During this study tour, I examined the societal context in which seismic engineers operate and talked to many people involved in earthquake protection and response. The intention was to identify the ways in which the ability of communities to deal with earthquakes depend on societal factors such as economics, politics and more general cultural dimensions. Based on these investigations, I believe that seismic engineers can contribute more effectively to ensuring successful outcomes after an earthquake strikes if fully aware of these societal factors. We need to look beyond our narrow technical field of providing earthquake resistant facilities and widen our vision to consider the complex systems, both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’, in which those facilities will operate. E. F. Schumacher’s famous book (Schumacher 1973) ‘Small is beautiful’ has the subtitle ‘the study of economics as if people mattered’. I believe that seismic engineering should be practised ‘as if people mattered’.]
Dear @Sundus F Hantoosh
The truth is one... that seismic engineering should be practiced as if people matter.
The large economic factor in the construction of a house contributes to discounts in seismic design and as a result, both the structures and the people pay for it with their lives. The complexity of asymmetric accidental factors of building collapse should be studied very seriously and reconsidered whether to design plasmatic or rigid and dynamic.
Restoring the lives of citizens after a major earthquake is easier if structures are properly designed.
Proper seismic design means that we must have control of inelastic displacements at any seismic acceleration and duration, and at any resonance. This can only be achieved if we achieve control of inelastic deformations. The seismic codes currently cannot control inelastic deformations at large seismic accelerations with duration resulting in structural collapse. What they miss and design wrong is that they need a massless external force ( which incidentally increases seismic loads and costs ) coming from the ground, to enhance the response of structures to seismic inelastic displacements, which will take control of the deformations by deflecting and dissipating the inertial forces into the ground. Of course to do this you need materials that are strong, lightweight and cheap, and a very strong soil packing mechanism.
This is what I am investigating and any research collaboration would be welcome. More at the link.
Article The Ultimate Anti-Seismic Design Method
Dear Samy Elhadi Oussadou
Thank you very much for the valuable information !
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