Seismic Design - Evaluation and Retrofit of Existing Buildings

In Seismic Design - Evaluation and Retrofit of Existing Buildings, you'll learn ...

• Seismic triggers that require building owners to retrofit their buildings
• How extremely vulnerable building types can be identified by observation - without the need for statistical analysis
• The three levels of evaluation in ASCE 31-03, Seismic Evaluation of Existing Buildings
• The reliability of seismic evaluations

Overview

Credit: 3 PDH

Length: 65 pages

Preview a portion of the interactive version of the course, designed to provide a multi-media learning experience that you complete at your computer.

You may view either or both versions when you purchase this course

Prior to the introduction of modern seismic codes in the U.S. in the late 1960s, many structures were designed without adequate detailing and reinforcement for seismic protection. Furthermore, many of those U.S. seismic codes enforced in the 1960s and even into the 1970s are now considered suspect.

It is widely recognized that the most significant seismic risk in the U.S. resides in our existing older building stock. Seismic retrofitting is the modification of an existing building to make it more resistant to seismic activity, ground motion, or soil failure due to earthquakes. With better understanding of seismic demand on structures and with our recent experiences with large earthquakes near urban centers, the need for seismic retrofitting is well acknowledged.

This course describes the many issues associated with the risk from existing buildings, including common building code provisions covering older buildings, evaluation of the risks from any one given building and what levels of risk are deemed acceptable, as well as methods of mitigation of these risks through retrofit.