The President of the American Concrete Institute, Mr. Luis Enrique Garcia Reyes, visited the Department of Civil Engineering, Middle East Technical University, and delivered a two-day lecture on “Seismic Resistant Design of Reinforced Concrete Structures” in February 19-20, 2009. The seminar presentations mainly focused on “ACI 318-08 Seismic Design Requirements.” Mr. Garcia said that in moderate and high seismic zones the use of structural walls is a very feasible tool of controlling the story drift at the expense of a marginal increase in the total construction cost. In his lectures, Mr. Garcia also focused on the importance of the analysis as a tool to describe the actual behavior of R/C structures. He mentioned that the engineers are obliged to understand the methodologies employed both in analysis and design. Mr. Garcia said that the engineers must be aware of the background and especially the limitations of the analysis tools. Mr. Luis E. Garcia Reyes advised the students and the practicing engineers to filter the analysis results by using their “engineering judgment.” The lecture by Luis E. Garcia Reyes was enriched by the contributions of our faculty. Prof. Dr. Polat Gülkan made a presentation on the “performance based seismic design” and emphasized the importance of this design methodology from the point of view of seismic resistant design. Assistant Prof. Dr. Ozgur Kurc elaborated on the structural wall design according to Turkish Seismic Code and pin pointed several controversial issues in the Turkish Seismic Code that deserve immediate modifications. More than 200 practicing engineers, undergraduate and graduate students participated in this 2-day lecture series.
This lecture series is sponsored by the Turkish Chamber of Civil Engineers. The TCCE has also acknowledged this lecture series under the continuing education seminars and all TCCE members attending these lectures have won “Continuing Education Credits.”
During his visit to Middle East Technical University, Mr. Luis Enrique Garcia Reyes also made laboratory tours and met with the faculty and the members of the ACI METU Student Chapter.