Seismic Engineering

Jacques Betbeder-Matibet was formerly a research engineer at EDF. His research interests are mainly the prevention of earthquakes risks.

This title offers a comprehensive coverage of the many facets of seismic engineering. The first half of the book is devoted to seismic phenomena and hazards, detailing the causes of earthquakes, the parameters used to characterize earthquakes, strong ground motions, seismic hazards and their evaluation, and seismic action. The second half discusses the effects of earthquakes and tools used to assess and reduce risk, including the effects of vibratory motions and induced phenomena, seismic calculations and technical aspects of prevention. The importance of keeping orders of magnitude in mind (i.e. through reasoning or very simple equations) when discussing seismic phenomena and their effects is emphasized, a task which most people overlook because of their rarity and the brevity of their manifestations.

Part 1: Earthquakes and induced phenomena. Chapter 1. Causes of earthquakes. Chapter 2. Parameters used to define earthquakes. Chapter 3. Manifestations of surface seismic phenomena. Part 2: Strong ground motions. Chapter 4. Strong ground motions. Chapter 5. Calculation models for strong ground motions. Part 3: Seismic hazards. Chapter 6. The spatial and temporal distributions of seismicity. Chapter 7. Assessment of seismic hazard. Part 4: Seismic action. Chapter 8. The seismic coefficient. Chapter 9. The response spectrum. Chapter 10. Other representations of seismic action. Part 5: The effects of earthquakes on buildings. Chapter 11. Deformation effects sustained by surface layers. Chapter 12. Effects of vibratory motions. Chapter 13. Effects of induced phenomena. Chapter 14. Macroseismic intensity scales. Part 6. Seismic calculations/ Chapter 15. Linear seismic calculation. Chapter 16. Notions on ground/structure interactions. Chapter 17. Overview of non-linear calculations. Part 7. Seismic prevention tools. Chapter 18. Technical aspects of prevention.