[.ca] Earthquake-Resistant Design of Masonry Buildings (ISBN 1860940668)

engrqaisarali:
An excellent book on seismic design of brick masonry structures: I am doing my PhD in the Department of Civil engineering NWFP University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar, Pakistan. My PhD title is "Study on improving the seismic performance of brick masonry structures in Peshawar and adjoining areas. I found this book extremely valuable towards my research goals. I want to pay tributes to the author on writing such a first class book.

Worth Every Penny!:
I'm an American, living overseas in Morocco. I'm preparing to build a house in an earthquake zone where they use masonry, and am in the process of educating myself before hiring an architect and contractor. The style of construction here has greatly concerned me for many years. I am a lay person with a non-mathematical and non-engineering background. While this book is written primarily for engineers, it is also well-written in CLEAR ENGLISH that the layperson such as myself can understand. It has a lot of precise and clear photographs and drawings to illustrate the author's points. All of the mathematical formulas are included for engineers, and all sources are well-documented at the end of each chapter. I skip over the formulas, as they are far above my understanding. While there are some specific terms I don't understand, Miha has made every effort to explain most of the language, giving examples and photos of the terms he is talking about. With the information I have gleaned from this most excellent book, I now feel prepared in terms of what questions I wish to dicusss with my future architect and builder. I ordered this book purely by its title, since there were no previous reviews, and was a bit hesitant with the price. But the minute I received the book, and glanced through it, seeing the clear, well-written English, and the wonderful diagrams and illustrations, I felt the book was WELL-WORTH the price. Now that I have actually read the book, my initial judgement has been more than confirmed. I feel this book would be extremely useful for engineers, and for all laypersons who are considering masonry construction in earthquake zones--particularly in areas such as the hillsides of California which can be ravaged by forest fires and mudslides, in addition to earthquakes. Lastly, this book is extremely useful to people by myself, living in third-world countries, who wish to contruct a home of a better quality than is normally constructed. He discusses precise standards which are in place in various countries (not by name, but by typical standard), and compares them with modern Eurozone standards. Lastly, I would REALLY LIKE TO THANK THIS AUTHOR for writing this book!