From the Scientific Sessions on the second day of the conference of the Faculty of Civil Engineering

The activities of the second day of the engineering scientific conference launched by the Faculty of Civil Engineering at Damascus University began today with the participation of local and international Arab and Foreign attendees.

The agenda included eight Scientific Sessions distributed on the AL-basil auditorium, the fifth auditorium, the seminar hall and the Tempus Laboratory at the Faculty. During the scientific sessions of the conference, 150 research papers on sustainability in civil engineering facilities were discussed.

Damascus University website met with a number of researchers participating in the Scientific Sessions. They talked about their research contributions, where Professor Engineer Mohammed Samara explained that he gave a lecture entitled Raising the Efficiency of Existing Buildings Seismically, explaining that in order to begin investigations about the construction, the characteristics of the existing building must be determined, because most of the existing facilities were built a long time ago, and each has a special status. He added that the case study was carried out on a sixty-year-old building, a new structural structure was added so that the existing structure remains resistant to vertical loads.

The Dean of the Higher Institute for Seismic Studies and Research, professor Hala Hassan, noted that she participates in the Scientific Sessions by supervising a master's thesis by graduate student Eng. Hossam Mohammed from the scientific research center about part of his master's thesis entitled “The use of numerical modeling in assessing structural safety and rehabilitation of reinforced concrete buildings damaged by explosions”.  The aim of his research is to use numerical modeling in assessing the structural safety of a realistic building damaged by explosions, and propose an appropriate solution for rehabilitating construction by choosing effective reinforcement methods that achieve efficiency and sustainability through moderation in consumption.

Dr. Nidal shuqair from the Department of Geology, Faculty of Science at Damascus University spoke briefly about the lecture he gave on geo-engineering seismic methods, entitled "The Importance and role of geo-engineering seismic methods in determining the geotechnical properties of soils", which aims to solve geo-engineering issues through studying the soil and knowing its geotechnical properties in addition to obtaining the geological section of the soil and changes in shear speed with depth, including soil classification up to a depth of 30 meters(Vs30) as approved in the Syrian Arab code and in the international codes. These studies contribute to the seismic stability of facilities and buildings, noting the importance of the results of this method in supporting the decision of the engineer. Dr.  shuqair added that the information they receive is highly accurate and detailed, through the spacing between the pickups of 1-2 meters, i.e. obtaining information every 1-2 meters, thus achieving the goal of sustainable development with seismic stability of facilities and buildings, sustainability and safety for citizens.