Evening Meetings

In this presentation, Dr. Prodromos Psarropoulos will explore various topics concerning the geotechnical and structural design of onshore or offshore energy facilities with the help of case studies. The first part of the presentation focuses on the impact of local site conditions on the ground surface motion. In the second part emphasis is given on the quantitative assessment of the earthquake-related geohazards and the realistic estimation of the peak ground displacements that will actually determine the soil-structure interaction and the structural demand. Finally, the third part of the presentation is devoted to remote sensing and early-warning systems that are required for the safe operation of the energy projects.

Non-linear seismic analysis is often avoided within the nuclear industry due to the difficulties associated with validation. However, in some circumstances it can be appropriate. In this evening meeting, Paul Doyle and Steve Horrocks will present a case study involving non-linear analysis of a glovebox tunnel system. The former will explain from the Client’s viewpoint why the testing was undertaken, and the latter will present further details of the computational model, the analysis techniques and the post-processing of output data.

At the 2020 National Earthquake Conference in San Diego, USA, David Bonowitz delivered this year's EERI Distinguished Lecture. The Lecture was entitled Functional Recovery: What It Means to Design for Community Resilience. David has kindly agreed to repeat the Lecture at an online evening meeting.

This online webinar will focus on how we obtain earthquake data in the UK. This presentation outlines the types of seismic stations operated in the UK, how data is handled and some of the pitfalls and problems of running a network that has been operational since 1969. The design and use of various site specific monitoring stations will be discussed in detail, including how the data from such stations is combined with data from the wider BGS network to enhance the functionality.

The 2015 Gorkha Earthquake destroyed many historic monuments in Kathmandu's unique UNESCO World Heritage site. Unfortunately, the subsequent rehabilitation of the monuments was done in a manner that caused irreversible damage to Kathmandu’s medieval archaeology. This talk outlines the impact of the earthquake before drawing attention to the series of damaging interventions by first responders, architects and engineers. It also describes the process by which a team mobilized by UNESCO and the Government of Nepal explored the potential of post-disaster archaeological interventions. The talk will conclude by reviewing the lessons learned from the cultural impacts of the Gorkha Earthquake and the remaining challenges facing heritage managers.

The magnitude 5.3 Zagreb earthquake occurred at 06:24 local time on Sunday 22 March 2020. Even though the event was minor in terms of its reported casualties and damage, its timing makes it noteworthy. At the time of the earthquake, Croatia – like most of Europe – was in partial lockdown in response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. As part of the Learning from Earthquakes (LfE) project funded by the EPSRC, this presentation summarises the findings and challenges of performing a remote earthquake reconnaissance mission using information gathered primarily from the internet and social media. We will also present how the newly developed LfE data collection app and spatial tools have been used in this mission.

This evening meeting will address the earthquake response of offshore wind structures with focus on response of monopile-supported wind turbines in liquefiable soil. The speaker will discuss how a numerical model can be used to perform a series of dynamic analyses to highlight the main characteristics of the response. Different combinations of environmental and seismic loads are considered.

The 30 October 2020 M7.0 Samos (Aegean Sea) earthquake caused multiple fatalities and injuries and widespread structural damage. This webinar will give an overview of this notable event based on recent analysis of seismological data, as well as field reconnaissance observations.

The importance of liquefaction in earthquake disasters has had to be re-considered following two recent earthquakes, leading to a fuller appreciation of liquefaction as separate damage mechanism to earthquake vibration. The experience opens up a series of research questions, which will be discussed in this online seminar.

The British Geological Survey published the 2020 national seismic hazard maps for the UK in November 2020 to update the previous maps published in 2007.  This talk presents the individual components of the 2020 national seismic hazard model, including the seismic hazard maps, how they compare with previous studies, and seismic hazard results for UK.

The chapter on design of timber structures in Eurocode 8 has been extensively revised. In this talk, three researchers who all contributed to the new chapter will share some of the major developments in seismic design of timber buildings, and how they are reflected in the new code. The speakers will also share results from their research on seismic performance of cross-laminated timber buildings, including capacity design principles and analytical modelling approaches.

VSimulators was created to support a major overhaul of design guidance for vibration serviceability. Existing guidance was usually developed based on limited experimental observations. The chain of evidence is often tenuous, with highly subjective observations and acceptance criteria that are demonstrably inappropriate. In this talk, the presenters will describe the VSimulators facility, show the research in action and present early results. 

The regulatory requirements of the UK nuclear sector are driving ever-increasing demand for complex soil-structure interaction modelling. The speakers in this evening meeting will present recent project examples which illustrate the rapid development in modelling seen in this field.

The continued safe operation of the current fleet of Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors (AGRs) in the UK relies on a robust understanding of core behaviour, accounting for both actual and anticipated future states, and this has been achieved partly through shaking table testing. The first part of this talk will outline how shaking table tests were used to develop and validate numerical models for predicting the seismic behaviour of degraded AGR cores. The second part of the talk will focus on the use of shaking tables as a means to seismic qualify equipment to be installed in nuclear facilities from a client perspective.

This presentation will discuss the challenges associated with delivering the Dhaka Environmentally Sustainable Water Supply Project in a moderately seismic environment. The presentation will also highlight the sustainable outcomes and the benefits of using a multidisciplinary approach to deliver major infrastructure projects.

Please note that this is an in-person event held at the ICE Headquarters in London.

Following a disaster, it is necessary to quickly understand the damage that has occurred to infrastructure to enable decision-making for emergency response, life safety, and recovery. This talk will present how a damage assessment process has been developed over a number of disasters, and how SARAID helped establish and implement this process following the 2021 earthquake in Haiti.

Throughout the world, millions of people are at risk because they live in unreinforced earthen dwellings, which have shown extremely poor structural behaviour during earthquakes. It is urgent, therefore, to devise low-cost, easy-to-implement seismic reinforcement systems and to make them available to the actual dwellers. A group of researchers at the Pontifcia Universidad Católica del Perú has been working towards that goal. In this evening meeting, the speaker will present details of a seismic reinforcement system for earthen walls. It is expected that the proposed system will improve the seismic performance of dwellings, reducing in this way their inherent high seismic risk.

This evening seminar is organised by EEFIT and SECED. The talk will explore housing safety challenges in earthquake and multi-hazard environments, using probabilistic performance assessments to characterize safety.

This lecture provides an overview of post-processing in the field of seismic analysis. Current methods outlined in Eurocode 8 and ASCE 4 will be discussed, as well as more sophisticated methods, which have been deployed recently in the UK nuclear new build sector.

This lecture will present the proposal of a recently-founded Royal Academy of Engineering Industrial Fellowship project aiming at developing a UK ground-motion model using a state-of-the-art approach. The main objective of this lecture is to receive feedback on the proposed approach and to understand the needs of academics and practitioners of a UK ground-motion model.