The course provides participants with a basic knowledge and understanding of the fundamental concepts in geotechnical earthquake engineering, including the key issues related to dynamic soil properties, local site effects and seismic site response analysis, soil liquefaction during earthquakes and the related assessments, seismic slope stability, basics of seismic soil-structure interaction, and seismic design of retaining structures.
The background information needed to understand the fundamentals and relevant concepts will be introduced. Supplementary resources, including reports and papers, will also be provided in various parts of the course. Relevant practical exercises will be given at the end of selected modules. Consequently, the course is relevant to all geotechnical, structural, geological, and mining engineers and consultants interested in geotechnical earthquake engineering.
Course Outline
Day 1
Day 2
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Liquefaction
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Review of field observations
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Fundamentals of liquefaction behavior
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Triggering of liquefaction
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Consequences of liquefaction: lateral spreading and settlement
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Case history practical exercise
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Seismic Slope Stability
Day 3
Instructor
Dr. Mahdi Taibat, P.Eng., M.EERI, M.GEER, MASCE
Professor of Civil Engineering, University of British Columbia
Dr. Mahdi Taiebat is a Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He received his Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering from the University of California at Davis in 2008, and his M.Sc. and B.Sc. degrees in Civil Engineering from Iran's Sharif University in 2003 and 2001, respectively. At UBC, he serves as the Associate Head of the Civil Engineering Department, leads the Theoretical and Applied Geomechanics Research Group, and teaches courses in soil mechanics, advanced soil mechanics, constitutive models for soils, and geotechnical earthquake engineering.
Dr. Taiebat's contributions to geotechnical research, professional practice, and education are primarily in the areas of theoretical and computational geomechanics, , with a focus on constitutive modeling and applications in geotechnical and earthquake engineering. He has (co-)supervised over 30 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, has published over 150 scientific papers, serves on the ISSMGE Earthquake Committees on Numerical Methods TC103 and Earthquake TC203, the ASCE Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering committee, and the Editorial Boards of the Soils and Foundations Journal, Geotechnique Letters, and Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering Journal. He spent a postdoctoral year at the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) in 2008-2009, and a sabbatical year at MIT in 2015-2016. He 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..