No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (M. Env. Sc.)--University of Adelaide, Mawson Graduate Centre for Environmental Studies, 1999? / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-99).

Recent geologic research has shown that earthquakes more destructive than formerly expected are likely to occur in the Pacific Northwest. To mitigate catastrophic loss, planners are gathering information to make decision on implementing regional seismic retrofit programs. This research develops a model to estimate regional earthquake losses for existing buildings, and determine optimal retrofit priorities and budgets. Fragility curves are developed to provide earthquake damage estimates for a range of seismic intensities. The published earthquake damage estimates of a large group of prominent earthquake engineering experts are extended to include the combined effect of structure type, earthquake-sensitive variations in building design, site-specific soil conditions, and local seismic design practice. Building inventory data from a rapid visual screening survey of individual buildings form the basis for modeling structural variations. Earthquake Hazard Maps are the basis of modeling the effect on building damage of ground motion amplification, soil liquefaction, and slope instability. Published retrofit effectiveness estimates and retrofit cost data are used to estimate post-retrofit damage avoided, lives saved, and retrofit cost. A Building Classification System is formulated to aggregate buildings with similar retrofit benefit magnitudes. A cost-benefit analysis is used as the basis for a retrofit prioritization and efficiency analysis, to establish the cut-off point for an optimal retrofit program. Results from an Expected Value and a Scenario Earthquake Event are compared. Regional Earthquake Loss and Retrofit Analysis Program (REAL-RAP) software was developed, and used to make a loss estimate for more than 7,500 buildings inventoried in the 1993 Portland Seismic Hazards Survey. One hundred percent of the loss of life is attributed to only 10-percent of the buildings. A retrofit analysis is made for a Design Basis Earthquake. Twelve-percent of the building inventory was identified for the optimal retrofit program, wherein 98-percent of the loss of life is avoided at less than one-quarter the cost of retrofitting all the buildings. An alternate optimal retrofit program was determined using an Expected Value Analysis. Most of the buildings in the Design Basis Earthquake optimal retrofit program are also contained in the alternate program.

Though the idea of pre-impact recovery preparedness planning has recently been promoted by federal and state governments, very little research has been done to evaluate how it affects the process of disaster recovery. This research attempts to understand how pre-impact recovery planning affects housing reconstruction by examining the relationship of pre-impact recovery planning with housing reconstruction speed and the use of mitigation techniques during housing reconstruction. This study was conducted by comparing two cases, the City of Los Angeles, California and Taichung County in Taiwan. This study finds that having a pre-impact preparedness recovery plan increases the speed of housing reconstruction. The relationship between having a pre-impact recovery preparedness plan and the extent to which hazard mitigation is integrated into the recovery process is not very clear, but the experience of the City of Los Angeles suggests that having a pre-impact recovery plan allows local officials to make more effective use of the “window of opportunity” after disaster.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Carleton University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (pt. 8, p. 1-7). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D)--Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010. / Committee Co-Chair: DesRoches, Reginald; Committee Co-Chair: Leon, Roberto T.; Committee Member: Craig, James I.; Committee Member: Goodno, Barry; Committee Member: White, Donald W. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

Base isolation is an alternative seismic design strategy in which the primary structures and their internal components are uncoupled from the potentially damaging horizontal components of an earthquake by base isolators which attenuate the transmission of horizontal acceleration into the system. Rotating machines are among the key internal components of many modern structures. In this study, flexible rotating machines protected against seismic excitations by two particular types of base isolation systems, Resilient-Friction Base Isolation (R-FBI) and Laminated Rubber Bearing (LRB), are investigated. A comparative study is carried out to compare aseismic responses of base isolation systems and their corresponding fixed-base ones in protecting a rotating machine rigidly attached to a floor level or independently isolated. Finite-element analysis techniques based on energy methods are proposed to investigate a general complex model of the rotating system which incorporates nonuniform properties as well as one or more rigid disks along the length of the flexible shaft and complicated bearing support systems. The equations of motion for the rotating machines using these methods are developed. An approximate linear analysis to gain insight into the behavior of a simple linear two-degree-of-freedom isolated structure is presented. This elementary analysis allows us to develop an analytical expression for the fundamental frequencies, and their corresponding mode shapes, amplification factors and design response spectra of base shear. It also demonstrates that the transmission of ground motion to the systems is effectively controlled through the isolation of the system at its base. The combined rotating machine-isolator; rotating machine-structure-isolator; and structure-isolator systems, and their corresponding fixed-base ones are investigated and compared. The governing equations of motion and the criteria of phase transition (R-FBI only) are presented. Parametric studies to examine the sample response and response spectra, as well as effects of variations in some system properties including friction coefficient, damping ratio, mass ratio, ground motion excitation intensity, shaft flexibility, bearing rigidity and rotating speed, on the response of these systems are performed. The peak accelerations and relative displacements of the base isolated systems and corresponding fix-base ones are analyzed and compared. Other response quantities of special interest such as sliding displacement, residual displacement, cumulative displacement and relative-to-ground displacement of the structure are also evaluated. Based on the numerical results, conclusions of the effectiveness of the R-FBI and LRB systems in protecting the rotating machines and the structures are made. / Graduation date: 1998

Thesis (M.S.C.E.)--University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2009. / Open access. Includes bibliographical references (p. 87-89).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2007. / "May, 2007." Includes bibliographical references. Online version available on the World Wide Web.