TIP-TOP INFOLINE

Earthquake engineering is the study of the behavior of buildings and structures subject to seismic loading. It is a subset of both structural and civil engineering. Eminent authority on seismic risk mitigation, Caltech professor George W. Housner is widely considered as the 'father' of the modern field of earthquake engineering. Stanford University professor John Blume’s contributions to the dynamics of structures have earned him the title of the 'father' of earthquake engineering too.The main objectives of earthquake engineering are:Understand the interaction between buildings or civil infrastructure and the ground. Foresee the potential consequences of strong earthquakes on urban areas and civil infrastructure. Design, construct and maintain structures to perform at earthquake exposure up to the expectations and in compliance with building codes. A properly engineered structure does not necessarily have to be extremely strong or expensive.Shake-tabl crash testing of a regular building model (left) and a base-isolated building model (right) at UCSDTaipei 101, equipped with tuned mass damper, is the world's second tallest skyscraper, after the Burj Dubai.The most powerful and budgetary tools of earthquake engineering arvibration control technologies and, in particular, base isolation.Earthquake or seismic performance is an execution of a building's or structure's ability to sustain their due functions, such as its safety and serviceability, at and after a particular earthquake exposure. A structure is, normally, considered safe if it does not endanger the lives and wellbeing of those in or around it by partially or completely collapsing. A structure may be considered serviceable if it is able to fulfill its operational functions for which it was designed.Basic concepts of the earthquake engineering, implemented in the major building codes, assume that a building should survive The Big One (the most powerful anticipated earthquake) though with partial destruction