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INSTRUCTOR: 
Praveen K. Malhotra, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE

Purpose and Background

This seminar presents a step-by-step evaluation of seismic ground motions for design and assessment of geotechnical and structural systems. The evaluation of site-specific ground motions requires an interaction between geology, seismology, geotechnical engineering and structural engineering. Professionals in any of these fields possess some knowledge of the related fields, but, invariably gaps are left in their knowledge. This seminar is aimed at closing those gaps through an intuitive approach.

The seminar is divided into 5 parts - each aimed at answering a few key questions:

• Basic geology and seismology: Why earthquakes happen. When and where future earthquakes are likely to happen. How big future earthquakes are likely to be.
• Ground motions from past earthquakes: How ground motions are measured. Which characteristics of ground motions are most significant for engineering analyses? What are the key parameters of ground motion? Where are the sources of ground motion data?
• Ground motions for future earthquakes: How ground motion prediction equations are derived from pre-recorded seismic data. How these relations are used to estimate ground motions for future earthquakes. How ground motion maps in NEHRP, IBC and ASCE 7 are generated.
• Effect of local soils on ground motions: How local soils affect the ground motions. How these effects are considered.
• Soil-structure interaction: How the presence of a structure affects the ground motions at a site.

Benefits and Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Identify the key characteristics of ground motions
• Recognize the importance of response spectrum
• Define the uncertainties in time, location and size of future earthquakes
• Define the uncertainties in ground motions produced by specific earthquakes
• Describe how deterministic and probabilistic seismic hazard analyses are performed
• Explain how design ground motions are derived from deterministic and probabilistic seismic hazard analyses
• Recognize why design ground motions do not have the same probability of exceedance throughout the country
• Explain how 3-dimensional site-specific ground motion histories are generated
• Recognize how local soils affect the ground motions
• Explain how to perform a practical soil-structure interaction analysis

Assessment of Learning Outcomes

Students' achievement of the learning outcomes will be assessed via a short post-assessment (true-false, multiple choice and fill in the blank questions).

Who Should Attend?

Structural engineers, geotechnical engineers, geologists, seismologists, architects, risk managers, building officials and professionals in related fields who are interested in consolidating and widening their knowledge of earthquake ground motions and their effects on structural and geotechnical systems.

PART 1

Basic geology of earthquakes

• Plate tectonics
• Seismic sources: faults and area source
• Earthquake magnitude
• Earthquake potential of a source
• Occurrence rate of earthquakes on a source

Ground motion histories

• Seismic waves
• Amplitude, frequency and cyclic-demand parameters of ground motion
• Rotated-median and maximum-direction ground motions
• Sources of strong-motion data

Seismic response spectrum

• Dynamic response characteristics of a structure
• Calculation of response spectrum from ground motion histories
• Deformation, pseudo-acceleration and pseudo-velocity response spectra
• Calculation of smooth response spectrum from ground motion parameters
• Tripartite response spectrum
• Acceleration-deformation spectrum for pushover analysis

Ground motion prediction equations

• Prediction equations for ground motion parameters
• Effects of geology on ground motion attenuation
• Aleatory and epistemic uncertainties in ground motion predictions

PART 2

Site-specific response spectrum

• Deterministic seismic hazard analysis
• Probabilistic seismic hazard analysis
• Seismic hazard curves
• Uniform hazard response spectrum
• Deaggregation of seismic hazard
• Seismic hazard maps in building codes
• Risk-targeted ground motions

Site-specific ground motion histories

• Amplitude, frequency and duration requirements for ground motion histories
• Selection and modification of recorded ground motions

Effects of local soil conditions on ground motions

• Dynamic characteristics of soil deposits
• SHAKE analysis
• Effects of: (1) soil stiffness and damping, (2) bedrock stiffness, and (3) intensity of shaking, on free-surface ground motions
• General code-type procedure for considering soil effects

Soil-structure interaction

• Effect of foundation flexibility on period and damping of soil-structure system

How to Earn your CEUs/PDHs

This course is worth 1.6 CEUs /16 PDHs. To receive your certificate of completion, you will need to complete a short on-line post-test and receive a passing score of 70% or higher within 365 days of the course purchase.

How do I convert CEUs to PDHs?

1.0 CEU = 10 PDHs [Example: 0.1 CEU = 1 PDH]