Preface
This book aims to serve as an essential reference to facilitate civil engineers involved in the design of new conventional (ordinary) reinforced concrete (r/c) buildings regulated by the current European Eurocode 8 or EC8 (EN 1998-1:2004) and EC2 (EN 1992-1-1:2004) codes of practice. It is addressed to practitioners working in consulting and designing engineering companies and to advanced undergraduate and postgraduate level civil engineering students attending modules and curricula in the earthquake resistant design of structures and/or undertaking pertinent design projects. The book constitutes an updated and significantly extended version of a textbook co-authored by the first four authors published in 2011 in Greek language. The changes and amendments incorporated in the current book discuss the recent trends on performance-based seismic design of structures and provide additional practical guidance on finite element modelling of r/c building structures for code-compliant seismic analysis methods.
It is emphasized that this book is neither a comprehensive text on the design of earthquake resistant structures, nor does it offer a complete commentary to the EC8 provisions. To this end, it presumes that the “user”
As a final note, we are thankful to Thanasis Spiliopoulos (School Buildings Organization SA, Athens, Greece) and to Prof. Ploutarchos Giannopoulos (National Technical University of Athens, Greece) who provided us with various photos from their personal archive and allowed us to include in the book. We further acknowledge all colleagues of the academic community and practising engineers who contributed to the enhancement of the original manuscript and helped with maturing through discussions, reviewing, and independent numerical verification checks.
Thessaloniki and London
January 2015
This book aims to serve as an essential reference to facilitate civil engineers involved in the design of new conventional (ordinary) reinforced concrete (r/c) buildings regulated by the current European Eurocode 8 or EC8 (EN 1998-1:2004) and EC2 (EN 1992-1-1:2004) codes of practice. It is addressed to practitioners working in consulting and designing engineering companies and to advanced undergraduate and postgraduate level civil engineering students attending modules and curricula in the earthquake resistant design of structures and/or undertaking pertinent design projects. The book constitutes an updated and significantly extended version of a textbook co-authored by the first four authors published in 2011 in Greek language. The changes and amendments incorporated in the current book discuss the recent trends on performance-based seismic design of structures and provide additional practical guidance on finite element modelling of r/c building structures for code-compliant seismic analysis methods.
It is emphasized that this book is neither a comprehensive text on the design of earthquake resistant structures, nor does it offer a complete commentary to the EC8 provisions. To this end, it presumes that the “user”
- has sufficient knowledge of the fundamental concepts, principles, and methods of structural analysis for both static and dynamic loads pertinent to the earthquake resistant design of structures and of r/c design,
- has access to and appreciation of the EC8 (EN 1998-1:2004) and EC2 (EN 1992-1-1:2004) codes of practice.
- the fundamental principles for earthquake resistant design are introduced and discussion and comments are included on how these principles reflect on the current EC8 (EN 1998-1:2004) code and on several international guidelines for performance-based seismic design of structures (chapter 1);
- important practical aspects on the conceptual design, finite element modelling, analysis, and detailing of code-compliant earthquake resistant r/c buildings are discussed and the relevant requirements prescribed by the EC8 (EN 1998-1:2004) provisions are critically commented (chapter 2);
- all the required logic steps, computations, and verification checks for the design (seismic analysis and structural member detailing) of ordinary r/c buildings according to EC8 (EN 1998-1:2004) and EC2 (EN 1992-1-1:2004) are presented in a sequential and methodological manner by means of self-contained flowcharts and additional explanatory comments (chapter 3).
- a comprehensive illustration of complete and detailed numerical applications to gain a better appreciation of the flow and the sequence of the required logic and computational steps involved in the earthquake resistant design of structures regulated by EC8; and for
- verification tutorials to check the reliability of custom-made computer programs and of commercial finite element software developed/used for the design of earthquake resistant r/c buildings complying with the EC8.
As a final note, we are thankful to Thanasis Spiliopoulos (School Buildings Organization SA, Athens, Greece) and to Prof. Ploutarchos Giannopoulos (National Technical University of Athens, Greece) who provided us with various photos from their personal archive and allowed us to include in the book. We further acknowledge all colleagues of the academic community and practising engineers who contributed to the enhancement of the original manuscript and helped with maturing through discussions, reviewing, and independent numerical verification checks.
Thessaloniki and London
January 2015