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Site response handbook

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Mccoy

Mccoy

Geotechnical
Nov 9, 2000
907
Guys, I'm just over with writing a practical handbook on seismic site response. That's currently in the Italian Language only, for now, I wonder if I should insist and have the publisher translate it. As far as I know, that's the only practical handbook in the world, dealing with 1D, linear equivalent - total stress method.

BTk8JK.jpg


I have no excerpts on the content but i'll post a couple of weird pictures:

This is a probabilistic acceleration transfer function

12o4.jpg


This other is a probabilistic acceleration transfer function with LE and EQL conditions compared to a Nakamura microtremors ouptut measured in the same site, sorry for the mambo-jumbo

WWy2yD.png


 
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If only I could read Italian...

Best regards,
DRG
 
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Hi dgillette, very strange there are no hands-on books like that in English, indeed.

I don't know what happened to the last image posted I'm going to try that again. In the picture there are the results of an analysis of a real project, a multistorey residential condo.
At the bottom there is the site transfer function as measured by the Nakamura method (natural microtremors), in the middle the calculated transfer function in the linear elastic condition, top the the calculated transfer function in the equivalent linear condition (with the effects of degradation of shear modulus and increase of damping ratio). This shows that a simple geophysical site test may be used to validate the results of the numerical methods.

82Zzeo.png


 
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McCoy - I believe that translation to English is an excellent idea for the following reasons quoted from the link below:

"English is the lingua franca of the international technical professions."

"European universities, technical universities and colleges often require their students to
study at least one course in a foreign language. Most students choose English."

"Business people working in the technical sectors are increasingly required to have a working
knowledge of Technical English."

"There is a considerable increase in the number of courses in Technical English offered by private
language schools, individual trainers and institutions of higher and further education."


There is version of English initiated by the aerospace industry called "Simplified Technical English" (STE) See this link:

For a high-level, specialized technical book like yours following the general guidelines of STE seem like would be very helpful to the English speaking reader.

I don't know if a book published in Italian can be copyrighted in the USA or other countries but your publisher may want to investigate... if they have not done so already.

Finally, I looked at the posting on your website for your book. Perhaps you can add links to bookstores, websites, etc. where it can be purchased now.

Your book's subject is far beyond my understanding, but I send Best Wishes for success!


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SlideRule, I very much appreciate your suggestions about the English Language, I'll forward them to the publisher. Also, I definitely have to improve my website, I've started redesigning it and am no expert webmaster but links and even a translated summary of the book sure is in order.

The main purpose of that website is to have a reference point when I'll start looking for jobs overseas, in the Emirates and other countries. I'm curious as to the outcome but I have yet to add material and to refine it in a more professional way.

So many things to do, so little time at disposal, I wish I possessed an alien technology to contract time, lol

 
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McCoy - Your website looks really good to me - a lot better than mine... I need to do something about that, too. Ten year ago, a distant relative gave me one hour of instruction on the basics of website construction. During the ten years since then I have been constantly surprised by (pleasant) unintended consequences of having a website; some may be helpful in your upcoming job search. I'll be happy to post some examples here, IF you are interested in hearing them. Don't want to be "pushy" - after all it is YOUR website. [smile]

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Sliderule, tips and examples are MOST welcome, you can put aside the pushy feelings, as a matter of fact I was thinking about opening a thread eliciting suggestions from you guys on how to organize a decent professional website.

 
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There are many aspects to such a site, for example, the personal picture, should it be in a suit in the office or in the field by a drilling rig or a rock outcrop? Or Something in the middle like my pic? or something eccentric?

 
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McCoy - Well, lets see. For your line of work I consider Dr. B. H. Fellenius' website to be a good model:

You might consider using your name as your website's domain name, this will help others "find" you. For example Google on "Fellenius" or even "SlideRuleEra" and see the results. However, if you Google on my name "Robert Higgins" you get nothing of consequence (at least not about me).

Of course my website's purpose is very different from yours. From the start I decided that it would be for useful information only, NOT about me. Things have not always worked out that way:

One of the first things that happened was contact, using the email address used only on my website, from Professional Publications, Inc. (PPI). These are the folks who publish the respected series of PE exam manuals, etc. in the USA. They wanted me to be sort of a technical review editor for some of their civil / structural books. They hired me (and paid) for this kind of work on 3 or 4 of their books, including the recently published Second Edition of Dr. Alan Williams' "Structural Engineering Reference Manual". By the time I finished "raking it over the coals" the Second Edition was quickly superseded by the Third Edition. My point is you never know who (Book Publisher, project Owner, Contractor, etc.), may be quietly looking for someone with your qualifications. Not always a traditional "Engineering Employer".

I get emails (maybe 1 a month, or so, on average) from various engineers all over the world. The most recent was 2 weeks ago. Many of these folks are looking for help on various projects (in my case, they usually need assistance on some outdated steel, concrete, etc. material or construction detail). I always try to help (free), but a few of these contacts may (or may not) have resulted in job prospects, if pursued. Over time, you may experience the same thing and be able to use it a stepping stone to new employment.

That's a start, I'll be back with more later. Got some things to do now.



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Now, comments about your website:

Consider moving your email address to the home page, right next to your photo. You want visitors to find the email address easily. It took me some time to find it on your site the way it is now. Also, I have always liked the idea of having an email address dedicated ONLY to the website. That way you know with fair certainty how someone found you. Also reduces the chance of your website mail getting mixed in or "lost" with email to your normal email address.

I see that you have a couple of downloads. You give a title, date and file size (kilobytes). Suggest adding that they are in "Excel .xlsx" format. I suppose most computers have Excel or other software that can open those files, but it is good to let the visitors know exactly what they can expect when they click (blindly) on that link.

I think that your photo is important. Suggest that it be taken in a setting most like the type of work you would prefer.
One advantage of an office photo would be that you could have your book "casually", but clearly, displayed in the background.
Having two or even three photos of you, each in a different setting appropriate for the type work you would enjoy would be even better, IMHO.

On the website present a clearly separated mix of "free" useful technical information concerning your profession AND other info promoting yourself (resume, etc.). The "free" info will give interested visitors a real reason to contact you, without obligation, to discuss the details of the "free" items. Who knows where a conversation like that may lead... perhaps the a suitable job.

Be sure to quietly promote your website, yourself. I put (without comment) on the back of my business cards.

One thing that I really like about your current website... no third party advertisements. I have never had them on my website and don't plan any in the future. Yes, you can make some extra money from the ads, but I believe you will make a better impression without the ads. Also, the webpages will load in the browser much quicker without ads. For the same reason (quick loading webpages) keep the "fancy" graphics, not relevant to your subject, to a minimum.

That's enough, perhaps more than your bargained for, to chew on. I'm sure other things will come to mind, will post them if they seem worthwhile.

SlideRuleEra

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Just a funny thing that happened. About four year ago at lunch, I ran into a casual professional acquaintance who had heard of "SlideRuleEra" and had actually been to the website. When I mentioned that I was "SlideRuleEra", he was REALLY reluctant to believe me. Told him to go to the website and send "SlideRuleEra" an email and wait to see what happened. That afternoon, received his email. I promptly responded that I had enjoyed having lunch with him that day at the (named) restaurant. That convinced him.
In ten years, that is the only time that has happened.

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I'm going to give you a big congratulations! Well done - even I can't read it! The "Real" McCoy would be proud I am sure!
 
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If you do get it translated into English, make sure that YOU approve the final. I have a book on dam engineering from Spain, with a few glitches in the translation, fortunately minor ones that just sound silly.
 
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I've already changed some things as per Sliderulera's suggestions. I'm maybe going to have a personal pic taken by a professional photographer when I go change my ID pic, then add another one in a field context, that sounds pretty sensible. Then set up various pages, each one with a different topic, a few with a more scientific angle like the areas I've been studying most, a few with pics and explanations of jobs done, maybe one blog. I'm having some respite from field job now. Also, BigH's words raised some concern, if I construe them well, I've written the comments on the handbook page in too much of a specialistic lingo. I might want to add some simpler and interesting explanations, to widen the target.

Dgillette, you are darn right, the translation should be done by an English mother tongue competent in the specific field, then reviewed by the author, I came across some ludicrous translations from English to Italian in tech books. One I remember was the translation for 'anchor', in Italian we have two different words, the nautical anchor used by vessels and another competeley different for the anchors used in geotechnical engineering. We call the latter 'tirante', something which pulls. The translator used the nautical word, which sounded totally ridiculous to those who knew the English term, and probably altogether misleading to those who didn't know English.

 
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McCoy - Glad that I have been able to help. Hope my posts weren't too wordy or off subject. This thread is the first time I had an opportunity to share website experiences with anyone, except my wife (she has heard it all). On your home page, take a look at your email address, you probably need to remove the " in front of the address.

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SlideRuleEra said:
you probably need to remove the " in front of the address
Click to expand...

lol, you should have written 'you sure need to remove...' ,it's good that someone is viewing my efforts with a critical eye, and pls don't worry about expressing your ideas, keep'em rolling, even the wildest ones, I might particularly like those ones.

It is a known fact that website design is now a full fledged business but there are some other interesting parts to it as well, like the SEO strategies, that is the art or science of moving your site on the top of search engines. That's a vital factor for visibility. I believe my site is easier to mantain than yours, since I'm working on the former nuke Platform, allowing for fast design and editing of content. Also, I can use lots of images and pics since I'm linking to imageshack so that I don't spend too much money on what they call SSLQ database, a sort of memory needed to support thsi kind of Platform.
In the next days I'm probably going to build up lots of materials and we'll see how it comes out. Again, my main goal is to impress favourably the say, British or Egiptian engineering firms in the Emirates (or elsewhere) which may want to hire guys as free lance consultants for some projects. Right now in the Emirates earthquake geotechnical engineers might be in demand, due to the new seismic code, which is based mainly on IBC and ASCE-SEI, and the Eurocodes as well.

 
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Another couple of important web designing issues I'm dealing with:

-I realized my PC screen is very large and the page is not always optimized for smaller screens
-I chose an horizontal menu, whereas I wonder if a vertical menu woul look better, I would loose horizontal space but I would gain in the vertical direction, I'm going to try this out


 
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McCoy - I agree, vertical layout works much better. A lot easier to scroll down than sideways.

I have found that my website looks very different when viewed in various browsers. The rule-of-thumb that I learned a few years ago was to make a website look "right" when viewed using Internet Explorer with screen resolution at 600 x 800. I'm sure that advice is out of date now that larger monitors are common. I'll see if there are updated recommendations these days.

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That's a good suggestion, to check other browsers, I'm also checking other workstations with different screens, since I work with a large one, 23", and they are usually smaller. My main reference is my other workstation at home and the ones at the office. Even though screen resolution is the one you cite, different screen widths apparently may yield different results, even within the same browser.


 
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