Evening Meetings

The seminar discusses the engineering and societal challenges in the conservation of heritage structures in Historic Cairo. Focus is given to the assessment and rehabilitation of old structural masonry elements.

Soil liquefaction induced by strong earthquakes can cause serious damage to buildings and other structures. The risk of liquefaction in the UK is very low, but it is considered in the design and assessment of nuclear safety-related facilities. This presentation describes a recent liquefaction study undertaken for the Sellafield site in Cumbria.

Expansion of the offshore wind industry in seismically active areas has raised concerns regarding the structural integrity of offshore wind turbines under earthquake loading. This talk will report the recently published results of a 3D finite element study to investigate the behaviour of the structure, and in particular the transition piece, under seismic loads.

The event will cover the latest advances in the development of quick-running models for predicting blast loads, introduce EMBlast, a software for predicting the loading caused by energetic materials and cover the regulatory framework for licensing explosives facilities.

For a full synopsis, see the main page for the 18th Mallet-Milne Lecture.

For further information see the conference's home page.

In 2016, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia was violently disrupted by a powerful earthquake that caused localised losses of the main arterial canal. This presentation will summarise the engineering assessment, repair and rehabilitation of the Gumbasa canal, and our consequent adopted approach for a sustainable outcome. 

Structural Eurocodes two decades later. The talk will focus on seismic design and assessment, a tentative step towards displacement-based methods, nonlinear models and analysis, and the approach to safety. Critical insights on the code-making process guaranteed.

In this SECED Evening Meeting, Holly William from SRK Consulting, Canada, will be presenting her paper “Incorporating inherent uncertainties in seismic liquefaction assessments”, winner of the 2023 TK Shieh Award.

In this lecture we will be presenting the most recent ground-motion model for the United Kingdom developed as part of a project funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering and in collaboration with Jacobs. This model will contribute towards a better characterisation (prediction) of earthquake induced ground shakings, which are a key input for the development of seismic hazard maps and for the seismic safety evaluation of critical infrastructure as nuclear power plants.

This presentation aims to provide evidence on the potential of implementing an integrated, low-damage, resilient and sustainable structural and non-structural system. The talk will initially give an overview of damage-control technologies for both structural and non-structural components, 
including results from recent experimental and numerical simulations. The overarching goal is to underscore the imperative of enhancing safety levels for buildings through the development of integrated, multi-functional solution.

This evening lecture presents some of the latest findings from ongoing research in blast phenomena at the University of Sheffield. In the lecture, the speakers discuss how small-scale explosive events can be used to predict much larger, and much more damaging, events.

This presentation will provide an overview of multi-decade efforts by many researchers to achieve safer and stronger wooden buildings, culminating in the tallest building ever tested in an earthquake simulator.

This evening lecture presents an overview of research commissioned by the Office for Nuclear Regulation and undertaken over a number of years by Mott MacDonald. The purpose of this research has been to investigate and more fully characterize the uncertainties associated with defining aircraft impact hazards informed by the use of aviation statistical analyses. 

This presentation will introduce new advancements and solutions to overcome challenges of Nonlinear Finite Element Analyses (NLFEA) for assessing the behaviour of complex structural details and systems.

The presentation examines the complex factors driving the progressive collapse of buildings and bridges, using diverse case studies and presenting insights from recent large-scale experimental campaigns.

This talk will cover the topic of Nonlinear Response History Analysis as a powerful tool for
advancing seismic design.

In this presentation, Professor Alex Pavic will present an idea for a new framework for dealing with floor vibration serviceability that does not use mass and stiffness to control floor vibrations. 

Seismic assessment and retrofit of existing buildings plays an important role in improving resilience of the built environment in earthquake-prone areas. This event will comprise two talks from speakers based in Ottawa, Canada, and Christchurch, New Zealand. The first talk will discuss the seismic retrofit of Ottawa’s federal parliament building, Centre Block, which is unusual in that it incorporates seismic base isolation in an area of moderate seismic hazard. The second talk will focus on the approaches and experiences from the seismic retrofit of existing buildings in New Zealand. This talk will focus on how the industry has handed the changes in the National Hazard Model and the adaption of a new scoring system in retrofit methodology.

The presentation will discuss the results of the EEFIT mission carried out after the Mw 6.8 Morocco Earthquake of the 8th of September 2023. The talk will provide an overview of the mission’s findings, including considerations on the distribution and activation mechanism of coseismic landslides and the extent of earthquake damage on building structures, considering different typologies and distribution.