New Challenges in Seismic Design - Earthquake Engineering for Structural Design - page 11

important aspect for the mitigation of seismic risk is the improvement of the
seismic resistance of both existing and new buildings , in order to reduce the human
losses. The urgent need for earthquake strengthening of the existing buildings
designed and erected before the existence of codified rules, as well as the need to
increase the site control of application of the code provisions for new buildings, is
very important issues for the next period.

1.3TOPICS INVOLVED IN SEISMIC DESIGN

In view of the mitigation of seismic risk some distinct topics have been developed
(Fig. 1.4) (Gioncu and Mazzolani, 2003):
Engineering Seismology , developed to solve the problems of the Earthquake
hazard, is a branch of Seismology , having the purpose to use the seismological
knowledge for the seismic design of buildings, by proposing the seismic actions
function of the source and site characteristics.
Earthquake Engineering, with the task to solve the problems of construction
vulnerability, is a branch of more general field, the Structural Engineering Science,
having the purpose to develop specific methodologies for analyzing the effects of
seismic actions on constructions, very different from that used in case of other
actions like dead, live, wind, snow, etc., loads.
Seismic Design collects the data given by Engineering Seismology referring to
seismic loads and using the methodologies proposed by the Earthquake
Engineering and performs a complex examination of structures, including
numerical analysis, structural conformation, solutions for details, and eventually an
engineering overview on the designed structure. The main scope of Seismic Design
is to obtain the economical victory over a strong earthquake by reducing structural
damage controlled by the designer.

Seismic Risk

Earthquake
Hazard

Constuction
Vulnerability

Structural
Engineering

Engineering
Seismology

Earthquake
Engineering

Seismology

Seismic
Design

Figure 1.4 Topics involved in seismic design