The Earthquake Engineering Research Center (EERC) was established in 1976 as a multidisciplinary institution to conduct scientific and professional research on the diverse topics of earthquake engineering, engineering seismology and socio-economic aspects of earthquakes. Since then, the Center has become one of the most active research centers in the Middle East Technical University (METU). Many technical journal papers as well as international conference proceedings are published by the members of the Center that are based on the scientific and professional research conducted within the framework of the Center. EERC-METU also aims to organize national and international workshops and conferences to disseminate the recent developments in the earthquake-engineering related studies to the public. Recently, the Center hosted the “5th National Conference on Earthquake Engineering” and “Earthquake Engineering: Essentials and Applications International Seminar” that can be considered among specific efforts to fulfill this objective.
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Being one of the oldest research centers in its field, EERC-METU has established very close relationships with governmental agencies to shed light on earthquake related problems of Turkey. One of the most remarkable products of this collaborative work is the seismic zoning map of Turkey that is still in force as per seismic regulations of the country. Similarly, the Center is currently leading the National Strong Ground Motion project funded by the Turkish Scientific Research and Technology Council (TUBITAK) that aims to re-compile the Turkish strong ground-motion databank including the site characterization of Turkish strong-motion sites. The Center also played a major role in the professional structural rehabilitation projects after the devastating earthquakes in Turkey. The Center has also collaborated with many international research projects that are funded by the NATO (Science for Peace projects) and the 6th FP. |
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Pseudo-dynamic testing setup at the Structural Mechanics Laboratory
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Areas of expertise
- Seismic rehabilitation of structures
- Simplified nonlinear static procedures
- Seismic risk and hazard assessment methods
- Earthquake insurance
- Stochastic models for seismic damage estimation
- Building instrumentation and monitoring
- Pseudo-dynamic testing
- Geotechnical earthquake engineering
- Signal processing
- Stochastic dynamic analysis
- Strong ground-motion seismology
- Source kinematics and simulation
- Earthquake resistant construction materials
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Facilities
Being part of the Civil Engineering Department, the Center has the direct access to the testing facilities of the structural mechanics, geotechnical and construction material laboratories. The pseudo-dynamic, tri-axial cyclic loading and destructive testing setups are among the testing facilities used by the faculty members to determine the seismic behavior of structural members and soil.
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