The seismic engineering unit of the urban planning and disaster risk reduction center at An-Najah University and the engineering association organized atraining course on fundamentals of seismic analysis and seismic design in Hebron

Introduction

The Support Action for Strengthening Palestinian-administrated Areas capabilities for Seismic Risk Mitigation SASPARM includes conducting several training courses. One of the major parts of the project was dedicated for that. (Refer to Work Package WP3, training and knowledge exchange). Among the activities within the project is conducting training courses to build the capacities of the engineers working with the engineering firms and with the municipalities (practitioner engineers) on seismic design of buildings. As such, and in coordination with the Engineers Association, a plan was developed to have three training courses in North, Center and South West Bank. The Engineers Association started gradually coordinating with the municipalities to adopt the mechanisms required to make sure the engineers started using and integrating the seismic design requirements in the buildings.

Seismic Design and Good Governance

The project activities include conducting meetings and workshops with governmental and non-governmental institutions aiming to put the rules and legislations required for the seismic disaster design of buildings. In this respect, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between Ministry of Public Works and Housing, Ministry of Local Government, Engineers Association and the Center for Urban Planning and Disaster Risk Reduction- Earth Sciences and Seismic Engineering unit at Najah National University.

During the previous months, and in coordination with all parties who signed the MoU and during the preparations for the training on the seismic design, the items within the MoU were followed and they included the following:
Adopting the Jordanian code of practice for seismic design. (Note: The Jordanian code of practice for seismic design is almost a copy of the Uniform Building Code – UBC 97). All parties who signed the MoU adopted the Center for Urban Planning and Disaster Risk Reduction as a scientific reference to code application and will submit the required technical and scientific support.

The Ministry of Local Government and the Ministry of Public Works and Housing will take care of all legal issues pertaining the certification of the code being the national one for seismic design used by all concerned. They will also work on applying requirements of the code in coordination with all concerned.
The Engineers Association take care of training and qualifying the chief structural engineers work at the engineers offices classified as consultants. This is through organizing series of training programs on seismic design of buildings. The Engineers Association will after that revisit the classification these offices. And then oblige the engineering firms to follow the requirements of the seismic design for buildings

The training course included the following topics:

Annex: Training course contents:

Module 1

Fundamentals of seismic analysis and seismic design

• Fundamentals of seismology Seismic hazard in Palestine
• Single Degree of Freedom System (SDOF)
• Elastic response spectrum – Site effects EC8
• Fundamentals of ductility and inelastic response spectra
• Conceptual seismic design
• Seismic analysis
• Capacity design of buildings
• Assignment 1
• Assignment 2

Module 2

Seismic design according to codes used in Palestine (UBC 97, Jordanian Seismic Building Code)

• Seismic hazard according to code regulations
• Seismic site effect according to code regulations
• Seismic forces and building codes. Equivalent lateral force method according to code regulations
• General note about geotechnical and foundation, seismic design considerations
• The influence of architectural and structural configuration on seismic performance of buildings
• Application on the seismic vulnerability of Palestinian common buildings
• Assignment 1
• Assignment 2
• Assignment 3
• Assignment 4
• Structural details
• Special topics on earthquake engineering (seismic retrofit and upgrading fundamentals, etc)

Lecturer:

• Urban Planning and Disaster Risk Reduction Staff
• Earth Sciences and Seismic Engineering Unit

Certificates:

All participants will be given certificates issued and certified by the Engineers Association and all main parties working on SASPARM including Center for Urban Planning and Disaster Risk Reduction in coordination with the European Center for earthquake engineering, EUCENTRE, and Pavia University in Italy, knowing that, this is within SASPARM project FP7 funded by the European Commission.