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NZSEE Webinar – Connections for Low-damage Seismic Design and Retrofit of Precast Floors
August 10 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
NZSEE invites you to a webinar on Connections for Low-damage Seismic Design and Retrofit of Precast Floors presented by Rajesh Dhakal.
When: Monday, 10 August
Time: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Where: Online
Precast concrete floors with cast-in-place toppings have exhibited significant vulnerabilities in past earthquakes, with floor damage often contributing to costly repairs and, in some cases, building demolition. This seminar presents the development and experimental validation of novel low-damage floor connections designed to mitigate slab damage by accommodating relative displacements between floors and frames during seismic loading through slotted holes. The connections have two main applications: the retrofit of existing buildings with vulnerable precast floor systems and the development of new demountable precast buildings with enhanced post-earthquake repairability. Results from full-scale tests conducted at Tongji University, Shanghai, will be presented. The tests demonstrated that the proposed connections effectively protected the floor system while allowing ductile structural behaviour and rapid post-earthquake recovery through the replacement of damaged structural components, offering a promising pathway towards more resilient and sustainable buildings in seismic regions.
Presenter: Rajesh Dhakal
Rajesh Dhakal is a Professor of Structural/Earthquake Engineering and Head of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Canterbury. He completed his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in Nepal, a Master’s in structural engineering in Thailand, and a PhD from the University of Tokyo (2000). He is internationally recognised for his pioneering research on reinforced concrete buildings and seismic performance of non-structural elements (SPONSE).
Rajesh has supervised about 50 postgraduate students and published over 500 peer-reviewed papers (10,000+ citations; h-index 53). He was elected President of the International SPONSE Association (2021–2025) and has delivered dozens of keynotes internationally, including the ISET Annual Lecture (2022). He has received the 2007 Ivan Skinner Award and the NZSEE Otto Glogau Award (five times). A Fellow of NZSEE and Engineering New Zealand, Rajesh has been Editor-in-Chief of the NZSEE Bulletin since 2014.
