BdalTice WIC Beebuebeaeauiliait wf eclane ASore a fe eee ee ee ee Dena ecu S f ae BS COUSFFLS} 3 European School for Advanced Studies: In Reduction of Seismic Risk Myths and Fallacies in Earthquake Engineering, Revisited The Ninth Mallet Milne Lecture, 2003 MJ.N.Priestley Co-Director Rose School, Collegio Alessandro Volta, Via Ferrata, 27100, Pavia Ttaly May 2003 Departamento de Ingenieria Civil wetSnive RSIDAD DE CHILE: ‘Avda. Blanco Encaiade 2002, 240, Piso. ‘Chalgo Postal a5; 1228 Casilla 228-3 a 22 bb TS Fone: (562): e7e368 oe (ez) o71-8768 i‘THE NINTH MALLET - MILNE LEC Peter Merriman Chairman of SECED, The Institution of Civil Engineers One Great George Street, Westminster, London, SWIP 3AA, UK ‘The biennial Mallet ~ Milne Lectures were begun by the Society for Earthguake and Civil Engineering Dynamics (SECED) in 1987 in honour of Robert Mallet (1810-1881) and John Milne (1850-1913), the nineteenth century pioneers of seismology in Britain who made fundamental contributions to the observation and understanding of earthquakes. ‘The prestige lectuses are given by internationally recognised experts in the field of earthquake engineering on topics close to thei own professional interests but also of relevance to the broader earthquake engineering community. The MalletMilne Lectures have covered many different aspects of earthquake engineering primarily from a technical perspective including the broader issues of policy for disaster prevention. “Three of the Lectures in the series have been dedicated to issues relating to engineering seismology and seismic hazard assessment. In the First Mallet Milne Lecture “Engineering Seismology,” Professor Nicholas Ambraseys described a new approach to the assessment of liquefaction potential and a re-evaluation of twentieth century seismicity in Turkey. ‘The Fifth Mallet Milne Lecture “From Earthquake Acceleration to Seismic Displacement” by Professor Bruce Bolt of the University of California at Berkeley focussed on the destructive nature of near field ground motions containing high energy pulses that are usually referred to as “fling” ~ a term that the lecturer himself was responsible for coining, In the Eighth Mallet Milne Lecture “Living with Earthquakes: Know your Faults” Dr James Jackson of Cambridge University addressed the identification and characterisation of active geological faults, Dr Jackson illustrated the major advances made in the ability of seismologists to determine source parameters for earthquakes, in the understanding of the relationship between crustal deformations and geomorphology and in the developments of remote technology that allow rapid and accurate measurements of deformation of the Earth’s surface. ‘The other five Mallet Milne Lectures have considered how the scismic community may use technical knowledge with pragmatism to ensure effective design. In the Second Mallet Milne Lecture 1989 “Coping with Natural Disasters”, Professor George Housner of the California Institute of Technology addressed the challenges and perspectives of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction on the eve of which the lecture was presented. For The Third Mallet Milne Lecture “Reduction of Vibrations” Professor Geoflrey Warburton of Nottingham University illustrated the application of isolation and active control to limit the forces on structures subjected to earthquake loading. "The Fourth Mallet Milne Lecture entitled “Simplicity and Confidence in Seismic Design” was delivered by Professor Tom Paulay of the University of Canterbury. He used his extensive design experience to address the concepts that can be employed to ensure that reinforced concrete buildings can be expected to perform, in Professor Paulay’s words,sis they were told 10”. The issue of expected and actual behaviour of buildings and botidges was revisited in the Sixth Mallet Milne Lecture in 1997. Professor Roy Severn of the University of Bristol presented “Structural Response Prediction Using Experimental Data’ drawing on his life-time experience in the dynamic testing of large structures tround the world and the application of the results to earthquake engineering. In the Seventh Mallet Milne Lecture “The Road to Total Earthquake Safety” Professor Cinna Eomnitz of the National Autonomous University of Mexico addressed the dynamics of Seismic wave propagation, the response of soft soil and the coupling of ground response with structural response. In an eclectic presentation Professor Lomnity stressed the need to understand the interfices between the many technical disciplines to determine what Kind of structure would survive the nest earthquake regardless of the precise location of the fault break. In the Ninth Mallet Milne Lecture Nigel Priestley of the Rose School, Ttaly, presents “Revisiting Myths and Fallacies in Earthquake Engineering”. Nigel has been a leading ctic of current seismic design methods. Over ten yents ago he thoroughly examined » ‘number of the fundamental principles for the seismic design of structures and concluded that in many cases current practices, patticulaely as entrenched in design codes, are based on unrealistic concepts and approximations. A number of these concepts are revisited and te examined in the light of ten years’ research aad development. ‘The practice of allocating strength of reinforced concrete elements in proportion to stfliness is shown to be inappropriate. Use of 3D multi-modal elastic analyses is shown to be inadequate to cescribe higher mode or torsional effects of inelastic systems, despite these being the rationale for the use of this design approach, The superiority of performance of inelastic Stmctural systems with high inherent damping is shown to be a fallacy. Finally, Nigel Cutlines the progress to develop a simple and rational seismic design procedure based on displacement rather than strength considerations. Overall the paper i a challenge to the many fesearchers and engineers working on structural analysis and design ~ a timely reminder that there is still room for a considerable improvement in our understanding of the seismic performance of structures. Nigel Priestley is well known throughout the seismic community ~ having worked in New Zealand, the USA and lately in Italy. Nigel Priestley is Emetitus Professor of Structural Engineering of the University of California at San Diego, and is co-disector of the Rose School, and is a practicing structural consultant. His research is focused on the eismic design of concrete and masonry structures, and on seismic design philosophy. He has published more than 650 books, technical papers and reports, mainly related to seismic design, and has received more than 30 international awards for his research, He is a fellow of the ACI, the IPENZ, NZ, Society for Rarthquake Engineeting, NZ Concrete Society, and is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. SECED ate delighted that the USS Press have agreed to publish the Ninth Mallet Lecture in its entisety in this special issue. This will ensure that the many interested individuals who could not attend the formal presentation will also be able to benefit, Together with the previous Mallet Milne Lectures we ate confident that this will be valuable resource to earthquake engineers for yeuss to come. Hos