Seismic Design: Past, Present and Future (Ohio Timed & Monitored)

In Seismic Design: Past, Present and Future, you'll learn ...

• The background and progression of structural seismic concepts
• The relative merits of the eight basic steel-frame designs that have been used in multi-story buildings
• The evolution of concrete building frameworks
• The use of building configurations and contemporary high-performance seismic mechanisms for energy dissipation

Overview

To meet the Ohio Board's intent that online courses be "paced" by the provider, a timer will be used to record your study time. You will be unable to access the quiz until the required study time of 100 minutes has been met.

Credit: 2 PDH

Length: 49 pages

Design of any building is a challenge for architects and engineers, and the challenge is made more complex when there is a need to provide for earthquake resistance.

During the past 100 years, seismic design philosophy and details have progressed from simply considering earthquakes to be the same as wind loads, to a sophisticated understanding of the phenomenon of the earthshaking that induces a building response.

This course covers the 100-year history of seismic structural systems, ranging from simple to sophisticated solutions. Basic structural behavior is outlined; guidance for selecting a good structural system is suggested, and relevant seismic issues are explored.

Learning Objectives

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

• Summarize 100 years of structural seismic design.
• Compare historical and current structural seismic systems, from those used before the 1906 San Francisco earthquake to present-day systems.
• Identify the three main factors that have influenced the progression of seismic systems selected by structural engineers.
• Explain the variables that make selecting an appropriate seismic system difficult.
• Describe why a simple building-code approach to seismic design is often inadequate.
• Explain why excessive or insufficient lateral drift can result in seismic performance issues.
• Compare “pushover” performance results for six different structural systems in a four-story building.
• Explain why energy dissipation is an important factor in a building’s overall seismic performance.
• Describe energy-dissipating concepts developed in 1976 at the New Zealand National Laboratory.
• Analyze seismic performance characteristics, including nonlinear drift, energy dissipation, and cyclic behavior, for twenty different structural systems.
• Explain why building configuration frequently governs the ultimate seismic behavior of a structure.

Certificate of Completion

You will be able to immediately print a certificate of completion after passing a multiple-choice quiz consisting of 10 questions. PDH credits are not awarded until the course is completed and quiz is passed.