International Seminar of the Integrated Arts and Sciences for Disaster
Reduction Research Group will be held as shown below.
Lecturer:
Dr. Osteraas, Ph.D., PE.
Group Vice President & Principal Engineer, Civil Engineering, Buildings
and Structures Section, Exponent Failure Analysis Associates
(http://www.exponent.com/), Menlo Park, California, USA.
(Please see the attached files for the details.)
Date: 8 November 2016 from 16:00 to 17:00 hours
Venue: Room S-207D
Abstract:
Failures of infrastructure during “natural” disasters reveal weakness in the physical structure as well weakness in the processes of design and construction of the built environment. While modern infrastructure is intended to be designed to resist foreseeable extreme environmental events (wind, earthquake, flood, snow, etc.), the as-built works are rarely tested, either in the laboratory or in the field ? until an extreme natural event. Such full-scale, real-world testing provides a fantastic opportunity to study not just the behavior of specific structure but the entire process by which we conceive, develop, approve, design, construct, operate, and maintain our infrastructure. Occasionally we are motivated to study and learn from the damage patterns. All too often however, the failures are simply dismissed as the inevitable consequence of a natural disaster and the opportunity to learn the lessons that the natural world is trying to teach is squandered. This presentation will be illustrated with numerous case studies of failures in North America over the past forty years. The presentation will address the processes and behaviors of those involved, and not only the details of civil or structural engineering.
