The simulation of structural and geotechnical systems is a critical step in their design and assessment. The purpose of an earthquake simulation is to estimate the performance of the system under seismic excitation or loads that represent the effects of an earthquake. Structural and geotechnical simulation has a long history of development in earthquake engineering. The computation required to ...

Background: The 2008 Wenchuan earthquake triggered many rapid and long runout landslides, which directly caused great loss of property and human lives and were responsible for a large percentage of total damages caused by the earthquake. It is very important for the purposes of landslide disaster prevention and mitigation to understand the earthquake triggered mechanism of initiation and motion...

We study dynamic rupture propagation on flat faults using 2D plane strain models featuring strongly rate-weakening fault friction (in a rate-and-state framework) and off-fault Drucker–Prager viscoplasticity. Plastic deformation bounds stresses near the rupture front and limits slip velocities to ∼10 m=s, a bound expected to be independent of earthquake magnitude. As originally shown for rupture...

The 2015 Gorkha Nepal earthquake caused tremendous damage and loss. To gain valuable lessons from this tragic event, an earthquake damage investigation team was dispatched to Nepal from 1 May 2015 to 7 May 2015. A unique aspect of the earthquake damage investigation is that first-hand earthquake damage data were obtained 6–11 days after the mainshock. To gain deeper understanding of the observe...

As part of research collaboration between MCEER and the National Center for Research in Earthquake Engineering (NCREE) in Taiwan, a team of MCEER/NCREE researchers undertook a reconnaissance mission shortly after the 921 Chi-Chi earthquake occurred in Taiwan at 1:47 a.m. on September 21, 1999. A major objective of this mission was to assess earthquake-induced damage, to document lessons learned...

During the last two decades, active and semi-active control of civil engineering structures has made rapid progress in Japan. This technology has become widely used in earthquake engineering design, and more than 50 control systems have already been applied to buildings in Japan. The 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu Earthquake opened a door to positive development of semi-actively-controlled buildings agai...

This paper presents some recent developments in computer simulations and visualization for geotechnical earthquake engineering. In particular, presented are developments centered on soil–foundation–structure (SFS) interactions modeling using the finite element method. The soil–foundation–structure interaction is one of the most challenging problems in earthquake engineering. The computability o...

Human response to any adverse situation can be greatly enhanced through training and mind-body experience. Earthquake is one such phenomenon where human response to minimise injuries/deaths is constrained due to disorientation of the victims. People in regions with frequent earthquakes often exhibit better response due to past experience. Training of the mind and body can also be achieved in a ...