Basic Earthquake Engineering

Earthquake engineering or seismic engineering is the scientific field concerned with protecting society, the natural environment, and the man-made environment from earthquakes by limiting the seismic risk to socio-economically acceptable levels. Earthquake Engineering can be defined as the branch of engineering devoted to mitigating earthquake hazards. In this broad sense, earthquake engineering covers the investigation and solution of the problems created by damaging earthquakes, and consequently the work involved in the practical application of these solutions, i.e. in planning, designing, constructing and managing earthquake-resistant structures and facilities. The main objectives of earthquake engineering are to predict the potential consequences of strong earthquakes on urban areas and civil infrastructure. A properly engineered structure does not necessarily have to be extremely strong or expensive. It has to be properly designed to withstand the seismic effects while sustaining an acceptable level of damage. This book emphasizes to students of structural and architectural engineering the problems and solutions in attaining efficient earthquake-resistant structures and facilities. To achieve this objective, after a brief discussion of the general goals in seismic-resistant design and construction of structures and facilities, the diverse sources of damage that can be triggered by an earthquake are discussed.