Earthquake Engineering

Table of contents
Objective of the book
The main scientific and engineering goal of this book is to deal simultaneously with soil dynamics/vibrations and wave propagation in soils (including seismic waves). These various fields are generally considered separately and the important links between them, both from scientific and practical points of view, are unfortunately not investigated. They are usually considered in separate disciplines such as earthquake geotechnical engineering, civil engineering, mechanics, geophysics, seismology, numerical modelling, etc. The objective of the book is to offer in a single publication an overview of soil dynamics and wave propagation in soils with emphasis on engineering applications. It starts from a wide variety of practical problems (e.g. traffic induced vibrations, dynamic compaction, vibration isolation), then deals with 1D and 2D/3D wave propagation in heterogeneous and attenuating media (with application to laboratory and in situ dynamic characterization of soils), gives an overview of various numerical methods (e.g. FEM, BEM) to simulate wave propagation (including numerical errors, radiation/absorbing conditions, etc) and finally investigates seismic wave propagation and amplification in complex geological structures (e.g. irregular topographies, alluvial deposits).

In the broad area of structural engineering design for earthquake resistance is the sector where recourse to reliability concepts represents not just a refinement but a necessity.

This book targets practicing structural engineers, graduate students, and graduate university educators with an interest in the seismic response of structures equipped with supplemental damping and seismic isolation systems. The main objective of the book is to familiarize structural engineers with the various innovative systems that have demonstrated considerable potential through analytical studies, experimental testing and actual structural implementation. The discussion focuses on passive energy dissipation systems and seismic isolation systems. Readers of this book should have a strong background on linear and nonlinear dynamic analyses and conventional seismic design to fully appreciate its content. This book can be used as the textbook for the last of a series of graduate courses on the general topic of structural dynamics and earthquake engineering.

Un trattato mai pubblicato e conservato manoscritto presso la Biblioteca Ambrosiana di Milano, che viene qui proposto in una edizione critica curata da Paola Albini. In realtà, il vero trattato è contenuto integralmente nel primo del sette libri che compongono il manoscritto e per quanto assai pochi dei concetti ivi espressi possano essere oggi condivisi, colpisce la razionalità della sequenza degli argomenti trattati, che potrebbero costituire l'indice dei contenuti di un manuale di sismologia applicata di oggi.