An interesting two part series of articles authored by Prof. Dr. Graham Powell. Prof. Powell is Professor Emeritus of Structural Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley. Over his career, Professor Powell has developed, or supervised the development of, several computer programs that have been used widely in research and industry. He currently works as a consultant to Computers and Structures Inc., developing and supporting the CSI PERFORM computer program. Professor Powell may be reached at graham.powell@sbcglobal.net.

In current design office practice, a commonly used modelling assumption is that the base of a building structure can be idealised with fixed support conditions, thereby neglecting any effects from soil-structure interaction (SSI). Various recent studies, however, have shown that the explicit consideration of SSI effects in seismic analysis of buildings structures may significantly affect the predicted seismic demands and resulting structural performance. This study addresses some key issues and practices in the area of SSI and its effects on the dynamic response and seismic performance of buildings. It is also intended to demonstrate the significance of considering SSI effects [...]

Once my PhD advisor told me a story. He asked, “You might have seen simply supported beams hundreds of times in textbook illustrations, papers and presentations; Have you ever saw an actual simply supported beam as part of a real structure, with a pin support at one end and roller on the other?” I replied, “No, these support conditions are mere structural idealizations which—in almost all practical situations—are different from what we observe in everyday life”. He said, I have seen many real simply supported beams, with a real pin connection and a real roller support. I have met [...]

Can we build Jacob's Ladder???

Basics of making professional looking graphs in MS Excel   Graphical data visualization is the key element of almost every research publication. An impressive data reporting can not only helps in clear deductions and convenient result interpretation but also attracts readers’ attention by conveying message in easy-to-understand way. Recently I came across a document comparing the fundamental periods of 5 buildings (denoted as B1 through B5) computed from actual Eigen-value analysis with the values predicted by an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model trained on a database of already designed buildings. Here is what the comparison was looking like, when presented [...]

Going beyond the Code!!! An account of Performance-based Design and Seismic Evaluation of Buildings   Introduction Once upon a time, there was a poor middle-aged farmer who had two wives (For a moment, please neglect the reason why he went for such an adventure). The first one was of same age as him but the second was relatively younger. When he used to go to the younger one, she start plucking white hair from his beard, trying to make him look younger as her. When he used to go to first one, she start plucking black hair from his beard, [...]

In the aftermath of Nepal Earthquake – The Dilemma of a Structural Engineer Look at this picture! Courtesy: Noelle Soren and David Soren, 2008 While browsing through internet pages and social media, I came across this picture and it somehow got stuck in my mind. These skeletons were found by two archeologists, David Soren and Noelle Soren in the mid-1980s in a Roman house in Kourion, Cyprus. They are believed to be killed during an earthquake that struck Kourion in 365 AD. The picture includes a family of three, showing a mother cradling an infant in her arms as the [...]