Ενημερώση κάθε 15 δευτερόλεπτα
Την Πέμπτη 26.9 στις 16:00 στο Αμφιθέατρο του Κτηρίου Μεταλλικών κατασκευών θα δοθεί ομιλία από τον Καθηγητή Marcial Blondet με θέμα "Seismic Protection of Earthen Constructions".
Abstract
Millions of people in developing countries located in seismic regions are at risk because they live in unreinforced earthen dwellings, which have consistently shown extremely poor structural behavior during earthquakes. Every earthquake occurring in these areas has caused unacceptable loss of life, injuries, and property damage. Earthquakes are recurrent and structural damage is cumulative. It is urgent, therefore, to devise low-cost, easy-to-implement seismic reinforcement systems and to make them available to the actual dwellers. A group of researchers at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP) has been working towards improving the seismic capacity of adobe dwellings. They have proposed construction methodologies for a seismic reinforcement system consisting of a mesh of nylon ropes that confines all earthen walls. This reinforcement system would control the wall displacements and prevent the overturning of wall portions that may occur due to seismic shaking. To validate the effectiveness of the nylon rope mesh reinforcement on two-story adobe dwellings, shaking table tests were conducted on unreinforced and half-scale reinforced adobe models, simulating the actions of slight, moderate, and strong seismic ground shaking. These models were designed to include the main construction features of typical adobe dwellings in the Peruvian Andes. The results of the experimental tests showed that the rope mesh reinforcement system was able to preserve the structural stability of the tested reduced-scale adobe models under strong motions, thus preventing collapse. It is expected that the proposed reinforced system would also improve the seismic performance of one and two-story adobe dwellings, reducing their inherent high seismic risk.
Short Bio
Professor Blondet is a specialist in the experimental study of the seismic behavior of structures. He obtained his professional title at the Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) and his PhD at the University of California at Berkeley. His main research interests are the development of low-cost solutions to mitigate the seismic risk of informal earthen and masonry dwellings, the conservation of earthen historical monuments in seismic areas, and the use of energy dissipation and base isolation systems for the seismic protection of buildings. Marcial belongs to the research group GERDIS (Disaster Risk Management Group in Social Infrastructure and Low-cost Housing) and the Latin-America Institute for Human Development (IDHAL-PUCP) and has advised the thesis work of numerous undergraduate and graduate students.
Σε πιο προσωπικό τόνο, ο Καθ. Blondet έλαβε το διδακτορικό του από το UC Berkeley με επιβλέποντα ένα από τα μεγαλύτερα ονόματα της Σεισμικής Μηχανικής, τον Ray Clough. Έπειτα διεύθυνε το εργαστήριο Δομικής Μηχανικής του Berkeley για πάνω από δέκα χρόνια, πριν επιστρέψει στο Περού, μια χώρα με πολύ λιγότερες οικονομικές δυνατότητες από τις ΗΠΑ, για να συνεισφέρει τα μέγιστα στην δημιουργία σχετικού εργαστηρίου στο Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, όπου διετέλεσε Dean of the Graduate School. Έχει αφιερώσει πολύ μεγάλο μέρος της έρευνάς του στην ανάπτυξη οικονομικών μεθόδων σεισμικής προστασίας, με στόχο την χρήση τους στα πιο φτωχά μέρη του πλανήτη μας.
Η παρουσίαση θα μεταδοθεί και στο webex, αλλά νομίζω είναι πάντα πιο καλά από κοντά. https://centralntua.webex.com/centralnt ... e8d709c6b7
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