WHILE THE public is scared, the government remains wary when it comes to disaster mitigation following earthquake/tsunami, opined Civil Engineering Professor at Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur (IIT-K) CVR Murty.
He was the chief guest and theme speaker on ‘Role of engineers in natural disaster mitigation and management’ at a programme held on Engineers Day at Sri Govindram Sakseria Institute of Technology and Science (SGSITS) today.
Murty, who is also member of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and head of Building Materials and Technology Promotion Council (BMTPC), said that knowledge on construction of houses resistant to earthquakes up to a certain intensity existed from a long time as in Japan and other parts of the world and modern technology has added innovations to the same. Removing a common misconception, he said that not only concrete and steel can be used in constructing such structures, they can also be taken to great heights, the highest of which is being built in Taipei.
Certain precautions taken while constructing in seismically disturbed zones like ensuring very light mass, integral unity of structure, sheer walls, improved flexible beam column joints in reinforced concrete buildings and other simple structural masonry configurations help make a building resistant to most earthquakes.
The internal wobbling of the surface core occurring from movement of tectonic plates does the maximum damage and the above said precautions can make the building withstand a seismic intensity of up to nine on the Medvedev-Sponheuer-Karnik scale, also known as the MSK-64, which is a macro-seismic intensity scale used to evaluate the severity of ground shaking.
Engineer’s role is vital as far as applied research, technology transfer and its application is concerned and in disaster
mitigation programmes.
The internal wobbling of the surface core occurring from movement of tectonic plates does the maximum damage and the above said precautions can make the building withstand a seismic intensity of up to nine on the Medvedev-Sponheuer-Karnik scale, also known as the MSK-64, which is a macro-seismic intensity scale used to evaluate the severity of ground shaking.
Engineer’s role is vital as far as applied research, technology transfer and its application is concerned and in disaster
mitigation programmes.
The use of appropriate design standards that can encapsulate risk of extreme events, infrastructure management, risk assessment and vulnerability analysis using space technologies such as remote sensing, satellite communication and Global Positioning System (GPS) is as necessary as vigilant enactment of and scrupulous following of rules such as National Building Code 2005.
He touched upon the 24 tips that have been released by National Programme on Earthquake Engineering Education (NPEE) of which he was the catalyst. The tips cover beam, column joints, vertical and horizontal bands, ductile seismic designs and basic explanations on earthquakes.
Later in the day he delivered two lectures to students on career opportunities and challenges in civil engineering and held a special meeting with members of Association of Structural Engineers (ASE).
Institute of Engineers (IE), Indore, chairman Professor M D Agrawal welcomed and introduced the chief guest. Professor D K Majwadia presented a life sketch of Sir M Visvesvaraya. SGSITS director Dr R C Saraswat delivered the presidential address, Dr Abhay Gupta convened the programme and (IE-I) secretary V S Charhate proposed the vote of thanks.
Earlier in the morning Dr Saraswat, Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) Chairman Shankar Lalwani, IMC Commissioner Vinod Sharma and engineers paid homage to Sir M Visvesvaraya by garlanding his bust at Lantern Square.