what should i know about earthquake design

huangyhg

what should i know about earthquake design?
hi again,
i'm a young engineer, with a couple of years in design experience. i live in a zone 0 seismic area. i want to relocate to a zone 3 or 4 area. what do you guys think it is important to know about seismic design?
in a single word: everything.
i strongly feel that a practicing structural engineer involved in earthquake engineering must have a strong background in geotechnical earthquake engineering preferably supplemented with a course in seismology (you must be have a good understanding of hazard vs. risk and be able to communicate this to your client); coursework in applied or advanced structural dynamics; and coursework specifically dealing with earthquake resistant design of structures.  the latter should encompass all structure types, not just concrete and steel.  
you're job is not to just design resistant elements but to understand how a structure will respond.  you must know intuitvely what the load path is and if it is redundant or not.  how will the addition of earthquake resistant measure change the behavior of the structure?  the response of utiltites in the structure etc.
the engineer should practice in the field on a regular basis and should keep up with current research.  this is imperative as the state of the practice and codes are evolving.
it's not a simple task by any means.  good luck.
thank you very much qshake.
by the way, do you know of any simple to understand books that you think might help me?
thanks again
ngedm
some books that will be helpful are:
seismic design handbook by farzad naiem
dynamics of structures by anil chopra
soil dynamics by shamshar prakash
there are several monographs from eeri that will be of interest and i highly recommend each one.  check them out at the website
what you need to know about seismic design really depends on the type of work that you will be doing.  i'm in the midwest and we do a lot of seismic design in the av 0.12 to 0.3 range (2a to 3).  one of the best books that i have found for the rudements of earthquake engineering is by james ambrose "simplified building design for wind and earthquake forces (parker/ambrose series of simplified design guides)"
if the type of work you are going to do requires substantial dynamic analysis, then qshake has got it right, learn everything you can.  for a majority of buildings, dynamic analysis is not necessary.  
in my opinion, the more difficult aspect of working in a seismic zone is the detailing.  there are some unique details associated with working in masonry, concrete and steel that can be very tricky.  these will be necessary even on smaller jobs.
one thing that i would also get is a good set of fema documents (free in the us).  fema 350-357 are very good, and thick, but they explain some of the most advanced ideas in structural engineering and detailing for seismic performance.
hope this is helpful, good luck.