Class Structure Dynamics and Seismic Engineering

The Structure Dynamic and Seismic Engineering course intends to teach how current structures of Civil Engineering (buildings, bridges, footbridges, towers, amongst others) respond to dynamic excitations, such as earthquakes or cyclic loads.

Firstly, the fundamental concepts and apects of the dynamic response of structures, such as natural frequencies, normal modes and damping, together with the classical methods used to solve dynamic structural problems.

Lastly, the definition of the seismic action according to the Eurocodes and the design of structures for this type of events are presented.

• Introduction to Dynamics of Structures
• Dynamic response of one degree-of-freedom systems
  • Free vibrations
  • Harmonic excitation
  • Earthquake
• Structural design for seimic resistance (Eurocode 8)
• Dynamic response of multi degrees-of-freedom systems
  • Stiffness, mass and damping matrices
  • Rayleigh's method
  • Response to earthquakes
    • Multi-modal response spectrum analysis
    • Equivalent static analysis

The syllabus contents will be discussed in the theoretical-practical classes. Firstly, the concepts, principles and methods are introduced and explained, being complemented with the resolution of illustrative problems. Next, the students are stimulated to solve the aditional problems.

Distributed assessment:

The final grade (CF) is given by:

CF = 0,35xT1 + 0,35xT2 + 0,15xTP1 + 0,15xTP2

T1 - Distributed assessment test 1

T2 - Distributed assessment test 2

TP1 - Practical assignment 1

TP2 - Practical assignment 2

Students who obtain a classification equal to or higher than 10 values will be approved.

Final assessment

The students may take a final exam with a weight for the final grade of 100%. Students who obtain a classification equal to or higher than 10 values will be approved.

• Anil K. Chopra. Dynamics of Structures: Theory and Applications to Earthquake Engineering. Prentice-Hall, 2006.
• Ray W. Clough and Joseph Penzien. Dynamics of structures. McGraw-Hill, 1993.
• NP EN 1998-1 2010.
• Documentos de apoio disponibilizados ao longo do semestre.