Welcome to the NPTEL course on Seismic Design of Building Structures.
Earthquakes in past have caused severe losses of lives and property, especially in densely
populated urban centres with poorly engineered buildings. Have you ever wondered why
some moderate earthquakes lead to disproportionately high loss of lives or why some
buildings perform poorly during earthquakes?
As we are aware that India is seismically very active and has been witnessing rapid
infrastructure growth. Therefore, seismic safety of building structures gains paramount
importance in our national development. In this course, we will develop an understanding of
seismic response of buildings based on past earthquake observations and prior knowledge of
structural behaviour. The understanding of seismic response of buildings will equip us with
scientific rationale behind their seismic design.
Upon developing scientific rationale behind seismic design of buildings, we will learn to
determine design seismic load using equivalent static and dynamic methods based on Indian
Standards, IS 1893 Part 1 and Part 5, 2025. We will discuss how to distribute the design
seismic load across floors and further into various lateral load resisting members. The
estimation and distribution of design seismic load will be illustrated using solved examples in
the course. We will learn how to analyze torsionally irregular buildings, using concepts of
centre of mass, centre of resistance, torsional flexibility factor, and design eccentricity.
The course will then get into seismic design philosophies, where we will emphasize on
capacity-based design. We will devise desired hierarchy of failure among structural members,
and learn about ductile detailing based on Indian Standard provisions from IS 13920, IS
18168, among many others.
In case of reinforced concrete buildings, we will look into ductile detailing of moment
resisting frames and shear wall systems. Seismic design and ductile detailing of various
components such as beams, columns, beam-column joints, and shear walls, will be elaborated
using worked out examples.
Further, we will move to seismic design and ductile detailing of steel buildings, where we
will look into moment resisting frames, concentrically braced frames and eccentrically braced
frames in particular. We will look into various components such as beams, columns, beam-
column joints, structural braces, and shear links, using worked out examples.
In case of masonry buildings, we will look into confined and reinforced masonry systems. We
will look into ductile detailing of various components such as walls, confining elements, and
seismic bands, using solved examples.
Modern buildings have abundance of non-structural components, such as critical pipelines,
equipment, and architectural elements, which need to be safeguarded in interest of their
capital. Therefore, upon skilling ourselves into seismic design of reinforced concrete, steel
and masonry buildings, we will learn about seismic protection of non-structural components
in a building.
Towards the end, we will also look into seismic evaluation of existing buildings, and seismic
protection of buildings. We will get insights about seismic protection technologies such as
base isolation, tuned mass dampers, and seismic metamaterials.
In a nutshell, this course develops a holistic understanding of seismic design, ductile detailing
and seismic protection of reinforced concrete, steel and masonry buildings particularly from
Indian context, and thereby sets a stage for seismic resilient construction in the country.
Welcome to the NPTEL course on Seismic Design of Building Structures.
In this course, we will develop an understanding of earthquake response of buildings, and
thereby equip ourselves with scientific rationale behind their seismic design. The course will
emphasize on estimation and distribution of design seismic loads, as well as ductile detailing
of various building structures for seismic resistance. Through a holistic approach covering
reinforced concrete, steel and masonry buildings particularly from Indian context, this course
sets a stage for seismic resilient construction in the country.
My name is Vishwajit Anand, and I am an Assistant Professor in Civil Engineering at Indian
Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi.
As we know that India is seismically very active and earthquakes inflict disproportionate
losses among all disasters. Data from United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction
(UNDRR) shows that while earthquakes comprise just 8% of all disasters in 21 st century, they
account for 58% of disaster fatalities. The situation becomes more serious in densely
populated regions in India and around, which is evident from list of deadliest earthquakes of
21st century.
Truly speaking, earthquakes do not kill people but structures do. Most of the earthquake
fatalities occur due to collapse of structures.
It is very difficult to save people by post-event countermeasures, such as search and rescue
operations. Today’s poor-quality structures will be negative inheritance in next generations
and attack their society.
Earthquakes systematically bring out the mistakes made in design and construction- even the
most minute mistakes; it is this aspect of earthquake engineering that makes it challenging
and fascinating, and gives it an educational value far beyond its immediate objectives.
With this understanding of the need to undergo training on seismic design of buildings, let us
look into various objectives of the course. The course sets five major objectives, which will
be covered in five respective modules.