New Building Code Provisions for Tsunami Loads and Effects

Synopsis

The 2016 version of ASCE 7, Minimum Design Loads and Associated Criteria for Buildings and other Structures, includes a new chapter for tsunami actions and effects. The ASCE 7-16 standard has now been published and has been adopted by the International Code Council for inclusion in the 2018 version of the International Building Code, IBC-2018, used throughout the United States. It is also being considered by various countries for adoption into their local codes. Concurrently, significant advances are being made in fundamental tsunami engineering which will shape forthcoming design codes. This one-day course will provide a training seminar in the current state of the art and an update of the scientific advances being made by UK researchers in this field.

Programme

Morning Session: ASCE 7-16 New Building Code Provisions for Tsunami Loads and Effects – Training Seminar

Prof. Ian Robertson will provide an overview of the new ASCE 7-16 tsunami design provisions, along with examples on how to use these provisions in the design of coastal buildings.

Afternoon Session: New Research Developments in Tsunami Engineering

Prof. W. Allsop and Dr Ian Chandler (HR Wallingford): Advances in tsunami generation in the laboratory.

Dr David McGovern (London South Bank University): Insights into the dynamics of local flow and turbulence fields due to tsunami inundation.

Dr Christian Klettner (UCL EPICentre): Developments in numerical modelling of tsunami flows onshore.

Prof. Tiziana Rossetto (UCL EPICentre): New knowledge on structure response to tsunami inundation.

About the main speaker

Ian Robertson is a Professor of Structural Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He received his BSc degree in Civil Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. He worked for Over Arup, Inc. in Johannesburg for two years before attending Rice University in Houston, Texas, where he received his MS and PhD degrees. After receiving his doctorate, he spent three years working for Walter P. Moore and Associates, a structural engineering consulting company in Houston, Texas, before being licensed as a professional engineer in the State of Texas. In 1992 he accepted a faculty position at the University of Hawaii where he teaches structural engineering courses in reinforced and prestressed concrete and steel design. He is a registered structural engineer in the State of Hawaii and served as president of the Structural Engineers Association of Hawaii in 2008.

His research interests include the performance of steel and concrete structures during seismic, hurricane, tsunami and other extreme loading events, the long-term behaviour of reinforced and prestressed concrete structures, and corrosion of reinforcing steel and galvanized light gage steel.  Robertson worked with the Applied Technology Council to develop both first and second editions of FEMA P-646, Guidelines for Design of Structures for Vertical Evacuation from Tsunamis, and is currently editing the third edition. He has also led or participated in post-tsunami reconnaissance surveys after the 2009 Samoa, 2010 Chile and 2011 Japan Tohoku tsunamis. From 2005 to 2010 he directed a major NSF-funded research project to develop Performance Based Tsunami Engineering, PBTE. This project led to creation of a new sub-committee of ASCE 7 that has developed the first tsunami design provisions for coastal buildings and other structures in the US.

Further information

Cost

Group	Cost
Students / researchers	£250
SECED members	£325
Early bird, non-SECED members (until 20th Nov)	£375
Standard rate, non-SECED members	£450

 Other information

This course is co-badged by UCL, SECED & University of Hawaii. For further information, see the course webspage.