Institute: University of Novi Sad
Title: Assistant Professor
Country/Region: Serbia
Period: 2019/12/01-2020/03/31
Theme: Estimation of Floor Acceleration Demands in Reinforced Concrete Buildings
Host: Koichi KUSUNOKI
Introduction: Vladimir Vukobratovic is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Serbia. He is employed at the Department of Civil Engineering and Geodesy and is engaged on several courses related to concrete and masonry structures. In 2015 he obtained his PhD title at the Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, with the thesis “The influence of nonlinear seismic response of structures on the floor acceleration spectra”. Structural and earthquake engineering are his general areas of interest, and seismic analysis, design and assessment of structures and non-structural components fall into his area of expertise. Over the past decade, he has been involved in numerous commercial and industrial projects and has notable hands-on experience. During his visit to ERI, Vladimir will work with Professor Koichi Kusunoki and his research team on the topic of floor acceleration demands in reinforced concrete (RC) buildings. Experience shows that during earthquakes large floor accelerations can occur in reinforced concrete (RC) buildings. Inadequately designed non-structural components (NSCs) which are sensitive to such demands can end up severely damaged or even totally collapsed. This fact implies that an appropriate calculation and detailing are necessary in the design of new structures in order to improve the capacity and response of architectural acceleration-sensitive NSCs during earthquakes. Proper measures should also be taken in the case of existing structures, so that their performance is improved as well. An accurate estimation of peak floor accelerations (PFAs) in RC buildings represents the first and perhaps the most important step in the improvement of the performance based design of acceleration-sensitive NSCs, and it is the main objective of the research. When he is out of the office, Vladimir likes spending time outdoors with his family and friends, and he is a big fan of running, snowboarding and travelling.