Article
Article
- Engineering & Materials
- Civil engineering and architecture
- Designing for and mitigating earthquakes
DISCLAIMER: This article is being kept online for historical purposes. Though accurate at last review, it is no longer being updated. The page may contain broken links or outdated information.
Designing for and mitigating earthquakes
Article By:
Scawthorn, Charles SPA Risk LLC, Oakland, California.
Last reviewed:2007
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.YB070130
Earthquakes cause loss and suffering every year in large parts of the world. Most of this loss and suffering is due to lack of, or inadequate, structural design for the forces that earthquakes impose on buildings and other structures. Earthquakes impose vertical and lateral forces on structures, due to the inertia of the structure. While vertical forces are significant, most structures have substantial capacity to resist vertical forces, since their primary structural design is for the force of gravity. Therefore, the primary problem for most structures is force in the horizontal, or lateral, direction, which tends to subject buildings to large horizontal distortion (Fig. 1). When these distortions get large, the damage can be catastrophic. Therefore, most buildings are designed with lateral-force-resisting systems (or seismic systems) to resist the effects of earthquake forces. In many cases, seismic systems make a building stiffer against horizontal forces and thus reduce the amount of relative lateral movement and consequently the damage. Seismic systems are usually designed to resist forces that result from horizontal ground motion, as well as from vertical ground motion.
The content above is only an excerpt.
for your institution. Subscribe
To learn more about subscribing to AccessScience, or to request a no-risk trial of this award-winning scientific reference for your institution, fill in your information and a member of our Sales Team will contact you as soon as possible.
to your librarian. Recommend
Let your librarian know about the award-winning gateway to the most trustworthy and accurate scientific information.
About AccessScience
AccessScience provides the most accurate and trustworthy scientific information available.
Recognized as an award-winning gateway to scientific knowledge, AccessScience is an amazing online resource that contains high-quality reference material written specifically for students. Contributors include more than 10,000 highly qualified scientists and 46 Nobel Prize winners.
MORE THAN 8700 articles covering all major scientific disciplines and encompassing the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology and McGraw-Hill Yearbook of Science & Technology
115,000-PLUS definitions from the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms
3000 biographies of notable scientific figures
MORE THAN 19,000 downloadable images and animations illustrating key topics
ENGAGING VIDEOS highlighting the life and work of award-winning scientists
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY and additional readings to guide students to deeper understanding and research
LINKS TO CITABLE LITERATURE help students expand their knowledge using primary sources of information