About CE & AM
The Civil Engineering program at Caltech has been an active one since the founding of the Institute. Currently, the department is concentrated primarily on earthquake engineering, a field in which Caltech researchers have been important contributors since the 1920's. Research is currently being conducted in areas such as seismic early warning, characterization of near-source motion in earthquakes, soil-structure interaction, nonlinear finite element analysis of civil structures, structural health monitoring and earthquake loss-estimation.
The Applied Mechanics department was founded nearly five decades ago to focus on research and education in the areas of solid mechanics and dynamics. Current research is mainly in the area of dynamics, dealing with topics such as vibrations of structures and machinery, structural response to earthquakes, including system identification and control of structural response, and fundamental studies of the behavior of nonlinear dynamical systems.
Upcoming Events
A Review of The Seismic Performance of The Ceiling-Piping-Partition Nonstructural Systems
Manos Maragakis, Dean College of Engineering University of Nevada, Reno
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Nonstructural systems represent 75% of the loss exposure of US buildings to earthquakes, and account for over 78% of the total estimated national annualized earthquake loss. A very widely used nonstructural system, which always represents a significant investment in a structure, is the ceiling-piping-partition system. Past earthquakes and numerical modeling considering potential earthquake scenarios show that the damage to this system causes the preponderance of US earthquake losses. more
Spatially Distributed Sensor Technologies for Performance Assessment and Health Monitoring of Civil Structures
Jerome Peter Lynch, University of Michigan
Thursday, May 21, 2009
The past thirty years has been characterized by a revolution in the field of smart structures with sensors and actuators both reducing in size, power demand and unit cost. A current push in the smart structure community is the development of sensors that can provide insight to structural behavior with fine spatial resolutions that are consistent with structural damage. This presentation focuses on the development of two sensor technologies ideally suited for distributed health monitoring of civil structures. more
A memorial service forGeorge W. Housner (1910 - 2008), who was the Braun Professor of Engineering and considered the father of earthquake engineering, will be held on Saturday, April 18, 2009 at 1:30 p.m. at the Athenaeum. Please contactCarolina Osequera for details.
Earthquake-Induced Brace Fracture in Concentrically Braced Frames
Amit Kanvinde , University of California, Davis
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Concentrically Braced Steel Frames (CBF's) are attractive lateral load resisting steel-framed systems due to their economy, structural efficiency and high stiffness. The vulnerability of these systems to premature fracture has been a subject of recent interest within the research and practicing communities. more
Research Groups
Recent Spotlights
Professor Thomas Heaton has been elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union. The Fellowship is awarded to scientists who have attained acknowledged eminence in one or more branches of geophysics. Heaton's continuing contributions are in the study of strong ground motions, the physics of earthquake rupture, earthquake warning systems, and building vibration.