18th European Regional Earthquake Engineering Seminar

The seminar will be held from 4th to 8th September 1995, in the Ecole Centrale de Lyon. The general theme of the Seminar has been chosen as "Special Structures and Industrial Facilities" in relation with the high industrial activity of the Lyon Region.

The Organising Committee was formed a year ago. The chairman is P.Labbe, the President of AFPS Technical and Scientific Committee, who is Professor at the ECL.

It was proposed by AFPS Council that the Seminar be "regional" in European sense, without consideration of borders. The choice of personalities in the Scientific Committee has been done accordingly, and a special effort has been made to invite numerous attendees from Italy, Switzerland and south-east of France.

Lyon is very easy to reach from any place in Europe. There is an International Airport linked to many European cities and Lyon is also connected by TGV with Paris CDG International Airport.

The cost of the seminar is covered partly by sponsors (local authorities, organisations interested in the program, no commercial sponsor) and partly by AFPS.

A large effort has been made so that young scientists and engineers can attend the Seminar and benefit from the scientific program. It is intended that the Seminar would be a place for useful exchanges between them.

Lecturers have been proposed and invited in connection with their expertise in the theme chosen. It was necessary to limit the number of lecturers, to keep the maximum budget for young participants.

The participation in the Seminar, the seminar booklet containing all lectures and accommodation will be free of charge. Lecturers will be accommodated in a hotel in the vicinity of the School, and attendees in the School itself.

As was discussed with the Secretary General during the Vienna Conference, the selection of the participants was left to the national organisations and delegates. Almost all delegates have nominated participants from their countries. The anticipated total number of attendees is over 80, including approximately 70 invited scientists.

Sufficient time has been allowed for the contributions of young scientists. These presentations will be done in alternation with lectures. The principle followed is to have one or two lectures per session, including a present state of the art and recent developments, for one hour or 1.5 hours (each session is about 3 hours), and shorter presentations by young scientists for the rest of each session.

The envisaged scientific program is composed of eight sessions namely, Seismic Risk and Seismicity of the Alps, Strong Motions and Site Effects, Constitutive Laws under Seismic Loads, Modelling of Structures and Interactions, Special Civil Engineering Structures, Industrial Facilities and Equipments, Experimental Methods - Instrumentation - Qualification, Seismic Isolation - Active Control.

(Summarised from the report submitted to Ex. Com.)