2026 (Current Year) Faculty Courses School of Environment and Society Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Graduate major in Civil Engineering
Practical Seismic Design I
- Academic unit or major
- Graduate major in Civil Engineering
- Instructor(s)
- Tomohiro Sasaki / Ikki Kato / Takahiro Tsutsumiuchi
- Class Format
- Lecture (Face-to-face)
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - 7-8 Thu (W5-107)
- Class
- -
- Course Code
- CVE.A432
- Number of credits
- 100
- Course offered
- 2026
- Offered quarter
- 2Q
- Syllabus updated
- Mar 9, 2026
- Language
- Japanese
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
In this course, students learn the seismic design of soil and underground structures based on previously learned structural mechanics and geotechnical engineering. First, the students study the damage of soil and underground structures during extreme earthquake disaster and understand its mechanism. The students also learn the mechanism of earthquake and characteristic of ground motions as well as design ground motions which is important for the seismic design.
Next, the students learn the basic dynamics of soil (stress-dependent nonlinear and shear strain dependent nonlinear of soil, and their modeling), dynamics of the ground and characteristics of ground response at soft soil. In addition, the students also understand about the mechanism of liquefaction and its damage, and study numerical simulations of liquefaction.
Finally, exercises based on the contents of the above learning are performed. Through this exercise, students deepen their understanding and acquire the knowledge necessary for seismic design of ground and underground structures.
Course description and aims
By the end of this course, each student will be able to:
1. Describe the mechanism of earthquake and its characteristics.
2. Understand dynamics of ground and characteristics of soft soil and evaluate seismic performance of soil and underground structures.
3. Describe the mechanism of liquefaction and its damage and design countermeasures for liquefaction.
Student learning outcomes
実務経験と講義内容との関連 (又は実践的教育内容)
The lecturer in charge of this course has plenty of experiences on design, construction and research in the construction company, so the students can learn the seismic engineering from the practical point of view.
Keywords
earthquake disaster, design ground motion, seismic design of soil and underground structure, dynamics of ground, liquefaction
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
The lecture will explain the technical background of design standards, focusing primarily on aspects not explicitly stated in the standards, while incorporating actual damage cases and experimental examples.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Brief introduction of the contents in the course and seismic damage of soil and underground structures and past experimental studies |
Through case studies of large-scale experiments, understand damage cases and mechanisms affecting above-ground and underground structures. |
| Class 2 | Mechanism of earthquake and its characteristics, design ground motions |
Understand the mechanism and characteristics of earthquakes, and the design ground motions. |
| Class 3 | Seismic design of soil and underground structures |
Understand the seismic design of ground and underground structures. |
| Class 4 | Mechanism of liquefaction and its experimental and numerical studies |
Understand the mechanism of liquefaction phenomena through experimental and numerical case studies. |
| Class 5 | Effective stress analysis for liquefaction |
Understand the numerical simulation methods for liquefaction. |
| Class 6 | Practical example |
Understand practical design examples. |
| Class 7 | Exercise |
Presentation about seismic related phenomenon described in the lecture and its countermeasures. |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.
Textbook(s)
Lecture notes will be handed out in each lecture.
Reference books, course materials, etc.
Japan Society of Civil Engineers: Seismic design introduction to help you practice (in Japanese), ISBN978-4-8106-0731-4
Kazuhiko KAWASHIMA: Battle against earthquake – Why were the bridges vulnerable to earthquake? (in Japanese), ISBN978-4-306-02464-9
Kazuhiko KAWASHIMA: Earthquake Engineering (in Japanese), ISBN978-4-306-02497-7
Evaluation methods and criteria
Exercise (60%), Report (40%).
Related courses
- CVE.A433 ： Practical Seismic Design II
Prerequisites
None
Other
The site visit will be held. The details will be announced.