The objective of this course is to assist a licensed design professional, forensic structural engineers, consulting engineers and/or a licensed general contractor to deeply know, and understand the earthquake characteristics and reasons of damages that arose from earthquakes to reinforced concrete and masonry structures. In addition,  appropriate solutions are suggested. Earthquakes are the most destructive natural hazards throughout human history. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives and the loss of billions of dollars in properties occurred in these disasters. Occurred medium or high-intensity magnitude earthquakes in the last twenty years showed that these losses continue. For reinforced concrete (R/C) buildings, inappropriate design such as soft and weak stories, strong beam and weak column, short column, hammering, unconfined gable wall, and in-plane or out-of-plane movement of the walls causes damage. These are the main reasons. In addition to this, low quality of structural materials, poor workmanship, lack of engineering services, and construction with insufficient detailing of the structural elements are the other reasons of damages. The main reasons of masonry building damages in terms of design faults can be shown as heavy earthen roofs, inappropriate detailing of wall-to-wall connection and wall-to-roof connection, absence of bond beams, and large openings. However, the construction of buildings by using local materials with poor workmanship on the base of traditional rules is the other reason of the failures for these buildings.

Learning Objectives

• The last destructive earthquakes that happened worldwide.
• The structure of the earth, plate tectonics, seismic waves, faults, and effects of earthquakes.
• Reasons for failure of reinforced concrete (RC) buildings due to earthquake.
• Reasons for failure of masonry building due to earthquake.
• Lessons learned from earthquake damages and failure experienced from this type of natural hazard.
• Many suggestions to prevent earthquake damage.