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Civil Engineering & Construction vocabulary · Structures and Loads

Seismic

Meaning in civil engineering & construction, with examples

/ˈsaɪzmɪk/adjectiveCommon term

In civil engineering & construction, seismic means: Relating to earthquakes and the ground shaking they cause. In engineering it describes the loads, design rules and details that help structures resist earthquakes.

In Turkish: sismik, deprem, depreme ilişkin

How it is used

Common in design and reports: seismic load, seismic zone, seismic design, seismic retrofit. In Turkey buildings are designed to the Turkish Building Earthquake Code (TBDY 2018), and in Europe to Eurocode 8.

Example sentences

  1. Seismic loads govern the design of the shear walls in this building.

  2. The school was strengthened as part of a seismic retrofit programme.

Common collocations

  • seismic load
  • seismic design
  • seismic retrofit
  • seismic zone
  • seismic joint
  • loadA force that a structure has to carry, such as its own weight, people and furniture, wind, snow or an earthquake. Engineers usually express it in kilonewtons (kN).
  • shearA force that acts across a member and tries to make one part slide past the next. In beams it is highest near the supports and can cause diagonal cracking.
  • reinforced concreteConcrete with steel bars or mesh cast inside it. The concrete resists compression and the steel resists tension, so together they make strong beams, slabs and columns.
  • expansion jointA planned gap between two parts of a structure or road that lets them expand and contract with temperature and other movements without cracking.

More terms: Structures and Loads

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