A matlab‐based educational tool for the seismic design of flexibly supported RC buildings

Abstract

This article presents a Matlab-based educational software developed at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece, in order to familiarize students and young engineers with fundamental concepts of structural dynamics and, in particular, soil-structure interaction problems. This user-friendly educational tool aims to assist the students in comprehending the nature of this complex phenomenon and the role played by the physical parameters involved, while increasing their awareness of the potential impact of neglecting soil flexibility during seismic design of reinforced concrete (RC) buildings. This software is also used as a case study for teaching the development of civil engineering-oriented applications in Matlab within a course where all the relevant material is provided online. Two demonstration examples are comparatively assessed to illustrate the applicability of the software and justify the necessity of its implementation in class, while the integration of the software in the curriculum as well as students' feedback is also discussed. ß

A paperless course on structural engineering programming: investing in educational technology in the times of the Greek financial recession

“…(3) Additional educational materials (handbooks, notes, source code, solved examples, tutorials and presentations) are also made available in an electronic form, through the e-class platform. (4) A Virtual Laboratory (www.edusoft.civil.auth.gr) has been developed to provide fully functioning educational software (Katsanos, Taskari, and Sextos 2011) that has been ad hoc developed and demonstrated in class. This Virtual Environment not only permits execution and visualisation of the in-house engineering software, but also grants access to the Downloaded by [Monash University Library] at 00:04 04 December 2014 source code, thus inspiring and motivating the students to prepare their own fully functional structural engineering tools.…”

“…This transition from traditional educational means and processes to the use of modern ICTs has not only reformed the educational experience but also drastically changed the educational objectives themselves: the students are now required to study both the physical problems and the tools currently available for the study of the physical world. During the last few years, ICTs have been widely used in the field of structural engineering education (English et al 2010), primarily for: (a) improving the visualisation and demonstration equipment in class, (b) developing interactive educational tools and software for distant and life-long learning related to structural and earthquake engineering applications (Harada 2004;Elgamal, Fraser, and Zonta 2005;Huerta and Jiménez 2010;Clarke 2011;Katsanos, Taskari, and Sextos 2011;Mosqueda et al 2011), (c) utilising 'hands-on' experiments for demonstrating basic concepts in structural dynamics and earthquake engineering, (d) setting up and executing bench-scale shaking tables at a lower scale and (e) training students through 'virtual' experiments in a self-learning environment (Lam, Kitipornchai, and Reichl 2010).…”

An educational tool to improve understanding of structural dynamics through idealization of physical structure to analytical model

“…The computer simulation and animation (CSA) suite was designed to supplement the teaching of Engineering Dynamics course [9,13]. The mathematical software MATLAB has been used to develop an educational tool to demonstrate the linear structural dynamics and the seismic design of flexibly supported reinforced concrete buildings . The open source software such as SCILAB has been used for developing the courseware to introduce the nonlinear frame analysis .…”

Implementation of comparative visualization pedagogy for structural dynamics

“…The MATLAB is used to develop a teaching aid to demonstrate the linear structural dynamics to undergraduate and postgraduate students . It is also used to develop an educational tool for the seismic design of flexibly supported reinforced concrete buildings . The free scientific software SCILAB is also used to develop the courseware to introduce the nonlinear frame analysis .…”