Earthquake Engineering

Earthquakes have been in the news recently, especially because of the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, though there have been others; the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) 
“Significant Earthquake and News Headlines” list has recently included also earthquakes in Japan, Turkey, Indonesia, the China-Russia-North Korea border region, and offshore USA.  The Dewey blog has previously discussed the most important Dewey numbers for earthquakes, in “Rockin’ San Francisco” and “Java Earthquake” (with an update to the latter in “Provinsi Indonesia”). 

The previous blog entries, however, have not covered all topics related to earthquakes.  A BBC story asks a common question, “Why Did Fewer Die in Chile’s Earthquake than in Haiti’s?”  The answer includes the location of the epicenter with respect to areas of dense population, the greater prosperity of Chile, the Chilean people’s experience with and training for earthquakes—and Chile’s earthquake-resistant buildings.  A CNN story, “In Search of an Earthquake-Proof Building,” begins:

It’s a sobering fact: Earthquakes alone don’t kill people; collapsed buildings do.

But can people engineer buildings that wouldn’t crumble when subjected to the rumblings of the Earth?

. . . . .

In a handful of interviews, engineers who work on earthquake-resistant buildings said current technologies prevent well-designed buildings from cracking when the ground shakes beneath them.

 

The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) has sent teams to Haiti and Chile to learn from the experiences of both countries.  EERI has photographs, reports, and links on its Haiti Earthquake Clearing House and Chile Earthquake Clearing House web sites. The reports cover bridges and port facilities as well as buildings, e.g., The MW 7.0 Haiti Earthquake of January 12, 2010: USGS/EERI Advance Reconnaissance Team: Team Report.

The interdisciplinary and comprehensive number for earthquake engineering is 624.1762 Earthquake engineering.  Here is some of the upward hierarchy:

624     Civil engineering
624.1        Structural engineering and underground construction
624.17            Structural analysis and design 
624.176             Stresses and strains (Deformation)

Works classed in 624.1762 focus on general principles applicable to multiple kinds of structures, and may discuss application to several specific kinds of structures, e.g., buildings, bridges, wharves and piers, dams, buried pipelines, water and wastewater systems, and electrical power systems.  Examples are Earthquake Engineering Handbook, Displacement-Based Seismic Design of Structures, and Dynamic Analysis and Earthquake Resistant Design.

At 624 Civil engineering is the scatter note (a see reference): “For a specific branch of civil engineering not provided for here, see the branch, e.g., construction of buildings 690.”  At 624.1 Structural engineering and underground construction is another scatter note (a class-elsewhere note): “Class a specific application of structural engineering with the application, e.g., structural engineering of dams 627.8.”  Because these notes have hierarchical force and apply to 624.1762, works that focus on applying earthquake engineering principles to a specific kind of structure are classed with the kind of structure.  For example, works on earthquake-resistant buildings are classed in 693.852 Earthquake-resistant construction. Here is some of the upward hierarchy:

690     Buildings
693         Construction in specific types of materials and for specific purposes
693.8             Construction for specific purposes
693.85             Shock-resistant construction 

Examples are Earthquake Design Practice for Buildings and Seismic Design of Reinforced and Precast Concrete Buildings (at 693.1-693.7 Construction in specific materials is the class-elsewhere note “Class construction in specific materials for specific purposes in 693.8”).

Comments

[public works environment]

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[Ashaq hussain]

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