The updated version for the Manual of Civil Structures (MOC), a model seismic code in Mexico, was published in 2008. MOC also is incorporating guidelines for the seismic design of base-isolated structures this year 2012, being the first Mexican code to include such recommendations. This paper summarizes the most relevant aspects of these guidelines, their relations to other guidelines worldwide...

Seismic hazard analysis of vulnerable countries on the Alpine-Himalayan belt has great importance to be considered. Recently, Iran as one of the countries located on the stated belt has experienced a few number of severe earthquakes. A wellestablished index of how earthquakes affect buildings is by assessing probable Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) which can be estimated by past events. For this...

The influence of soil-structure interaction in the analysis and design of a 6-storey and basement reinforced concrete frame building is investigated. Models simulating two different conditions: namely soil-structure interaction, and fixed-base behavior are considered. The influence of the soil structure interaction in the dynamic behavior of the structure is reflected in an increase in the vibr...

Unreinforced Masonry infill walls (URM) are commonly used in the Reinforced Concrete (RC) framed structures as interiors and exteriors partition walls. Although they usually are not considered in the structural analysis and design, their influence on the seismic performance of the framed structures is significant. A common practice in the modern and old RC buildings is to remove the URM walls i...

Abstract: The design of retaining walls requires the complete knowledge of the earth pressure distribution behind the wall. Due to the complex soil-structure effect, the estimation of earth pressure is not an easy task; even in the static case. The problem becomes even more complex for the dynamic (i.e., seismic) analysis and design of retaining walls. Several earth pressure models have been de...

Seismic risk scenarios are obtained for an informal settlement in Mérida (Venezuela), which is representative of an important number of urban areas in earthquake-prone regions of the developing world. The vulnerability indices of the buildings range between 0.64 and 0.80 on a scale of 0 to 1. In an intensity IX earthquake scenario, more than 32% of the buildings would suffer damage of grade 4 (...

Impetus for Hybrid Simulation The desire of stakeholders to consider potential consequences as well as safety when judging alternative seismic design or retrofit plans for their structures has driven the development of performance-based earthquake engineering (PBEE). Use of PBEE, in turn, depends upon the ability to accurately assess the seismic performance of alternative designs. Physically te...

This study is devoted to seismic collapse safety analysis of performance based optimally seismic designed steel chevron braced frame structures. An efficient meta-heuristic algorithm namely, center of mass optimization is utilized to achieve the seismic optimization process. The seismic collapse performance of the optimally designed steel chevron braced frames is assessed by performing incremen...

many old damaged and undamaged building structures do not meet the criteria of modern seismic design codes. such structures need to be seismically enhanced. the main objective of this paper is to propose and validate the effectiveness of an upgrade scheme for non-seismic buildings using steel plate shear walls (spsw). the upgrade is carried out considering a probability-based drift-based criter...

The goals of seismic impact assessment can be achieved by seismic monitoring systems and seismic impact simulator. Seismic monitoring system, for the purpose of hazard analysis, local site effects analysis, vulnerability analysis, and estimation of loss, is one application of SHM in earthquake engineering. A prototype, conceptual seismic impact simulator integrating SHM, FEM, GIS, and Virtual R...