Earthquake Engineering

Seismic performance is an important design issue in many portions of the world and S&ME has skilled geotechnical earthquake engineers that can meet the demands of projects in seismic areas.

What’s included:

• Seismic site classification (per building codes)
• Seismic site response analysis (linear and nonlinear)
• Liquefaction triggering and consequences evaluation
• Seismic stability assessment

When it’s needed:

• Projects in seismic regions
• Sites with liquefaction risk or complex soil conditions
• Infrastructure requiring code-compliant seismic design

We routinely provide seismic site classification services in accordance with building codes and frequently use geophysical shear wave velocity test methods for more reliable site classification.  When needed, we can perform equivalent linear and nonlinear seismic site response analyses to develop ground surface motions.

In many places, liquefaction is a critical consideration. Our engineers not only implement the most current analyses with respect to liquefaction triggering and consequences evaluations, we are involved with research that continues to develop these methods.