When a specific building is examined and analysed for its architectural merits, it is the visible, superficial aspects, which are considered, for example: aesthetics, function, spatial relationships, and landscape. One of the most important invisible factors that should be considered in the design process is the safety of buildings against natural hazards, particularly against earthquakes. Whil...

When a specific building is examined and analysed for its architectural merits, it is the visible, superficial aspects, which are considered, for example: aesthetics, function, spatial relationships, and landscape. One of the most important invisible factors that should be considered in the design process is the safety of buildings against natural hazards, particularly against earthquakes. Whil...

In response to an estimation of the likelihood of occurrence of the Tonankai and Nankai earthquakes, it is predicted that tsunami damage will occur in the JR Osaka Station area, the third biggest business center in Japan. The purpose of this study is to propose a system that evaluates the effectiveness of tsunami evacuation guidance and tsunami countermeasures, based on computer simulation of b...

A powerful earthquake occurred in Nepal on 25th April 2015 where the highest measure of the tremor was 7.9 on the Richter scale with a minimum of 6.6. The death toll was around 3000 and thousands were injured in the devastation of the disaster. The earthquake and subsequent earth tremors were also felt in other South East Asian countries including Bangladesh, India and China. Bangladesh was jol...

Building materials have played a more and more important role in saving building energy since the central government of China set higher standards and requirements for new-constructed and retrofit buildings after 2005. Glazing units, especially energy-saving units including LOW-E coated glazing units and PVB laminated glass, are utilized nation-wide. This paper employs energy simulation to anal...

One of the most important natural hazards that threatens Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela, is the seismic hazard, due to its location in the plate boundary zone between the South America and the Caribbean plates. There is historic evidence for several destructive earthquakes in Caracas since 1641, being the most recent one the 1967 Caracas earthquake. This magnitude 6.5 earthquake which o...

During the last two decades, active and semi-active control of civil engineering structures has made rapid progress in Japan. This technology has become widely used in earthquake engineering design, and more than 50 control systems have already been applied to buildings in Japan. The 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu Earthquake opened a door to positive development of semi-actively-controlled buildings agai...

Near field earthquakes have imposed major damage to buildings in the past years. In some cases, the intensity of such damage is too considerable to be disregarded. The most effective way to improve seismic performance of buildings is applying a seismic control technique. The cylindrical friction damper is one of these methods, which has become popular for its desirable performance in the energy...