The course consists of the following seven modules:
- Introduction to Earthquakes – Day 1
- Plate tectonics and faults,
- Types of earthquakes,
- Size of earthquakes,
- Tectonics of North-East Pacific, and
- Damaging effects of earthquakes.
- Dynamic Soil Properties – Day 1
- Stress-strain behavior of soil under cyclic loading,
- Modulus reduction and damping in cyclic loading,
- Soil characterization with laboratory and field experiments, and
- Centrifuge modeling.
- Local Site Effects and Seismic Site Response Analysis – Days 1 and 2
- Review of field observations,
- Basics of wave propagation,
- Ground response analysis methods, and
- Case history examples.
- Liquefaction – Day 2
- Review of field observations,
- Fundamentals of liquefaction behavior,
- Triggering of liquefaction,
- Consequences of liquefaction including lateral spreading and post—liquefaction settlement, and
- Case history examples.
- Seismic Slope Stability – Day 2 and 3
- Review of field observations,
- Pseudo–static analysis,
- Sliding block methods,
- Regressions models, and
- Practical example.
- Seismic Soil: Structure Interaction – Day 3
- Review of field observations,
- Kinematic and inertial interactions,
- Soil-structure interaction analysis,
- Equivalent system for a SDOF structure on a footing,
- Group effects in pile groups, and
- Soil-pile interaction in bridge foundations.
- Seismic Design of Retaining Structures – Day 3
- Review of field observations,
- Types of retaining walls,
- Static and seismic pressures on retaining walls,
- Seismic displacement of gravity walls, and
- Seismic response of basement walls.
The three-day course consists of a series of lectures on various aspects of geotechnical earthquake engineering. Selected worked examples in classroom will be used to reinforce the lecture content. Extension of examples and/or case studies will be introduced for outside classroom exercise to illustrate the full range of problems.
Geotechnical, structural, geological, and mining engineers and consultants who wish to have a better understanding of the issues in the field of geotechnical earthquake engineering.
Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, UBC
Dr. Mahdi Taiebat is an Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in civil engineering from Sharif University of Technology and his PhD in civil engineering from the University of California, Davis. After spending a year with the Computational Geomechanics Division of the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, he joined the Department of Civil Engineering at UBC in 2009. Dr. Taiebat’s research interests include theoretical and computational geomechanics, constitutive modeling of engineering materials, geotechnical earthquake engineering, and static and dynamic soil-structure interaction.
At UBC he leads the Theoretical and Applied Geomechanics Research Group, and teaches courses in soil mechanics, advanced soil mechanics, and geotechnical earthquake engineering. He has (co-)supervised 17 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, and has published over 70 technical journal and conference papers. He has received the UC Davis excellence in geotechnical engineering award in 2007; the Professor Appreciation Award from the UBC Civil Engineering Undergraduate Club in 2011; the ASCE Norman Medal in 2012; and the NSERC DAS award in 2015. He spent a sabbatical year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2015–2016.