SYNOPSYS

Malaysia has adopted Eurocode 8 (EC8) for the seismic design of building structures. The research on seismic actions and analysis methods suitable for low-to-moderate seismicity region were carried out for around a decade by a study group which was established under WG1 for the Malaysia National Annex of EC8.

The short course is hosted by members of the study group who have been in collaboration with international experts in this field to continue giving assistance to practising engineers in Malaysia over the structural design of buildings to comply with regulatory requirements on their earthquake resistance. This expert group has been hosting annual workshops in KL, Kuching and KK on a regular basis for more than ten years. Thus, many of the speakers in the short course should be well known to Malaysian engineers who have attended their workshops. This year, there are new speakers contributing to the workshop.

This short course on a webinar is aimed to introduce a few design tools that the speakers have created and were tailored to the needs of Malaysian engineers. All the tools introduced are for free access online in a webpage titled: www.quakeadvice.org.

The short course this year, which is given on webinar comprises the following components:

1)    Determining the seismic design requirements of a site (expressed in terms of a design response spectrum) based on its location and site conditions
        as reflected in the borelog records;

2)    Independent seismic response analysis of a building as obtained from dynamic analyses for checking against output from a commercial software;
        and

3)    Ductility design of reinforced concrete in compliance with DCL and DCM requirements as prescribed by Eurocode 8.

The online tools are to give assistances over different aspects of the seismic design process covering each of the three topics that are outlined in the above.

SPEAKER BIODATA

Nelson Lam is Professor and leader of the Structures and Buildings Discipline in Department of Infrastructure Engineering at The University of Melbourne. He has 36 years of experience in structural engineering, and has been working in the specialized field of earthquake engineering, impact dynamics and structural dynamics in the past 29 years. He is member of the Seismic and Dynamic Events Panel commissioned by the London Headquarter of The Institution of Structural Engineers and also member of the standing committee for future revisions to the Australian standard for seismic actions. His achievement in research in this field was recognized by the award of the Chapman Medal (1999) and Warren Medal (2006) by Engineers Australia; and Chapman Medal for the second time in 2010, and for the third time in 2020. He is also recipient of Award for Teaching Excellence given out by Engineers Australia in 2012 and Academic Staff Teaching Award by Melbourne School of Engineering in 2013. He is lead author of the professional guidebook titled Design of Buildings and Structures in Low to Moderate Seismicity Regions which was launched in June this year. The book can be accessed free online using this link: https://www.polyu.edu.hk/cnerc-steel/publications.html. Nelson’s early career as a structural engineer was with Scott Wilson International throughout the 1980’s and attained British chartered engineer status during that period. He was awarded the degree of BSc in civil engineering with first class honours at the University of Leeds, England in 1981, MSc degree in concrete structures at Imperial College of Science & Technology, London in 1982 and PhD in earthquake engineering at The University of Melbourne in 1993.

Dr. Hing-Ho Tsang is Associate Professor at Swinburne University of Technology, Australia. He lectured at The University of Hong Kong from 2007 to 2012, and was a Visiting Professor at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, in 2013 and 2016. He has published over 200 research articles and his scholarly achievements have been recognised by a dozen of international research awards and university prizes or fellowships. He has recently been listed amongst World’s Top 1% Scientists in 2019 in Civil Engineering in the Science-wide Author Databases of Standardized Citation Indicators. He is a Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng) and has been a specialist consultant for major infrastructure projects nationally and internationally. He serves in advisory roles to governments, industry and professional bodies, leading to the development of design standards and guidelines globally.

Ir. EP. Lim is a practising Professional Civil & Structural Engineer with Perunding Hashim & NEH Sdn. Bhd. He has over 35 years of experience in civil & structural engineering design and construction. He was a member of technical committees of (IEM-SWO) for standards in Design of Concrete Structures for MS EN 1990, 1991, 1992 & was a member of IEM C&S WG1 for drafting of Malaysia National Annex of EC8.

Dr. Daniel Looi is Senior Lecturer and Course Coordinator at Swinburne University of Technology (Sarawak campus), Malaysia. He is a Chartered Professional Engineer (Structural) of Engineers Australia and a frequent speaker for IEM seminars. He specialises in the field of structural and earthquake engineering. He is a key contributor to the development of the National Annex to Eurocode 8 on the seismic design of building structures for Malaysia. His research in concrete structures was recognised by the HKIE Outstanding Paper Award for Young Researcher/Engineer (2015). Daniel has published research work in seismic engineering, concrete mechanics, modular building and fastening technology. Daniel worked as a structural application engineer in a multi-national company, specialised in structural analysis and design computation for buildings and plant. He was trained by the late Ir. MC Hee in his early career as a structural engineer. He is an alumnus of the Civil Engineering Department, University of Hong Kong and University of Malaya.

Mr. Prashidha Khatiwada is a structural engineer working in the field of earthquake engineering, and dynamic analysis. He is a programmer and developer of the online program at Quake Advice. He was awarded the MEng degree in Structural Engineering with distinction at The University of Melbourne in 2019. He has over two years of experience in Structural Design, Earthquake Damage Assessment and Structural Health Monitoring, and Earthquake Resisting Design.

Mr. Chan Rong Xiang is a structural engineer who graduated from The University of Melbourne in 2020, with an MEng degree. His final year project is to analyse multi-storey buildings when subjected to earthquake ground shaking. He is now working at G&P Bridges & Buildings Sdn. Bhd.