TheStructuralEngineerJanuary 2017Volume 95 | Issue 1

The fl agship publication of The Institution of Structural Engineers

THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE

How can we drive innovation in a risk-averse industry?

BUSINESS PRACTICE NOTES

BACKPROPPING:DESIGN ISSUES

SHOULD WE TEACH SEISMIC DESIGN IN THE UK?

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Seismic design education

And now for some generalisationsSeismic design is generally not taught in our universities and, typically, UK engineers don’t have seismic design knowledge. The UK construction industry generally considers it to be a specialist subject.

UK engineering is well respected around the world. Once qualifi ed, we tend to consider ourselves ready to tackle whatever comes our way. Indeed, when the Institution bestows the MIStructE title upon us, it asserts that we have an ‘international passport to practice’. However, a ‘passport’ that excludes access to areas subject to earthquakes is not really living up to that promise.

A fundamental specialismMany of you reading this might say no engineer can be trained in everything, but that a UK engineering degree gives us the fundamentals to continue to learn whatever specialist subject matter our careers throw at us – or perhaps to recognise when we should engage a suitable specialist.

My problem with that viewpoint is that we consider seismic design to be a specialism, when it is likely the governing environmental load for structures housing 70% of the world’s population. For most of the world,

seismic design is a fundamental of structural engineering.

Our corner of the worldIf you only wish to

practice in the UK, perhaps the passage above is irrelevant. But in my experience, that attitude is becoming outdated. Many

of our engineers venture to foreign

shores during their careers, and even more

Globetrotting engineer, Joe White, draws on his personal experience to make a case for seismic

design education to be given a place in the UK structural engineering undergraduate curriculum.

Viewpoint Is seismic design knowledge relevant to UK engineers?

It is fair to say that earthquakes worth worrying about do not occur in the UK – at least not within the context of the design life we assume for nearly all structures. So, why do I believe UK engineers need seismic design knowledge?

It’s a big world out thereTake a look at a global seismic hazard map and you’ll see that earthquakes are a very real prospect for a large proportion of the world (Figures 1 and 2)1,2. The picture only looks worse when you consider how the world’s population is distributed. In 2014, an EU study3 attempted to quantify how many of us are exposed to seismic hazards. It found that approx. 70% of the world’s population is located in areas expected to experience at least a M5.0 earthquake in the next 250 years. To put that another way, those areas have approximately a 20% chance of experiencing such an earthquake in the next 50 years. I believe it is reasonable to say that seismic design is necessary for structures in areas with such potential.

Beyond that, it is also important to note that not all earthquakes happen where they are expected. In fact, many damaging earthquakes occur in regions where seismic activity has been previously unknown. In addition, in a world that is increasingly exploiting its natural resources, activities such as shale gas extraction and the construction of large dams can lead to localised seismic eff ects. This is far more problematic in areas that are otherwise unprepared than it is for areas that have already introduced seismic design principles into local codes.

Opinion

SEISMIC DESIGN EDUCATION IN THE UK

A handful of UK universities off er Masters programmes in seismic/earthquake engineering:

E Imperial College LondonMSc Advanced Structural Engineering – Earthquake Engineering

E University of London (UCL)MSc Earthquake Engineering with Disaster Management

E University of Sheffi eldMSc Earthquake and Civil Engineering Dynamics

E University of DundeeMSc Earthquake and Off shore Engineering

E University of London (UCL)MSc Civil Engineering with Seismic Design

The Institution has also recently introduced a new Specialist Diploma in Seismic Engineering: www.istructe.org/Seismic-Exam

S Figure 1 GSHAP Global Seismic Hazard Map1

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Seismic design education

As the depth and complexity of the subject matter has gradually been revealed to me, I can’t help but feel UK engineers miss out on such a large and fundamental part of what it means to be a structural engineer in much of the world. I certainly wish I had been trained in the subject at university.

Recently, my journey through all things seismic has brought me surprisingly close to home. I have opened a Netherlands offi ce for Holmes Consulting, the engineering consultancy I worked for in New Zealand and California. We are working on a wide-scale seismic assessment and strengthening programme in the northern Netherlands, where gas extraction has given rise to moderate seismic activity. We hope to build on this opportunity over the coming years, providing seismic advice across the continent, as well as our other services such as fi re engineering and product development.

A fi nal word – we’ve got nothing to loseWhy don’t we teach seismic design in the UK? Many will say there isn’t time. How then, do most other countries manage? What have we got to lose? My view is that it will

undertake design work on projects overseas from the UK. In either case, it is likely that they will encounter the need for seismic design. When one considers the countries expected to drive global fi nancial growth in the coming decades, it is not hard to see these scenarios occurring more often.

My own storyI was trained in the UK and barely heard the word ‘seismic’ during my fi ve years of study. Upon graduation, I emigrated and haven’t been back since (at least not in a professional sense). Over the last 12 years, I have gradually learned more and more about seismic design. This has been a necessity in order to ply my trade in various adopted homelands. It has been a hugely rewarding experience so far, and I am pleased to say it is far from over.

"FOR MOST OF THE WORLD, SEISMIC DESIGNIS A FUNDAMENTAL OF STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING"

Opinion

REFERENCES

E1) Giardini D., Grünthal G., Shedlock K.M. and Zhang P. (2003) ‘The GSHAP Global Seismic Hazard Map’, In: Lee W., Kanamori H., Jennings P. and Kisslinger C. (eds.) International Handbook of Earthquake & Engineering Seismology, International Geophysics Series 81 B, Amsterdam: Academic Press, pp. 1233–1239

E2) Seismic Hazard Harmonization in Europe (SHARE) (2013) European Seismic Hazard Map 2013 [Online] Available at: www.share-eu.org/node/90 (Accessed: December 2016)

E3) Freire S., Ehrlich D. and Ferri S. (2014) ‘Assessing temporal changes in global population exposure and impacts from earthquakes’, Proc. 11th International ISCRAM Conference, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA, May, pp. 324–328

Joe WhiteMEng (Hons), CEng, MIStructE, PE, CPEng, MIPENZ

Joe is a Project Director with Holmes Consulting in its Netherlands offi ce. Joe is an expert in seismic analysis and design. He has delivered projects throughout New Zealand, the USA, South America, Europe and the Middle East.

E Figure 2 SHARE European Seismic Hazard Map2

better prepare us for our increasingly international careers. I also strongly believe seismic design

education leads to a better understanding of structural

engineering in general – learning how buildings behave under a range

of diff erent dynamic loadings situations, and how to design and detail structures to survive extreme events without total failure.

That has certainly been the case for me.

HAVE YOUR SAY

To comment on this article:Eemail Verulam at tse@istructe.orgEtweet @IStructE #TheStructuralEngineer

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