Biography

Dr. Carlos Ventura is currently the Director of the Earthquake Engineering Research Facility (EERF) at UBC and has more than 30 years of experience as a structural engineer. Dr. Ventura’s areas of research are in Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering. He has been conducting research on the dynamic behavior and analysis of structural systems subjected to extreme dynamic loads, including severe ground shaking for more than twenty years. His research work includes experimental studies in the field and in the laboratory of structural systems and components. Research developments have included development and implementation of performance-based design methods for seismic retrofit of low rise school buildings, novel techniques for regional estimation of damage to structures during earthquakes, detailed studies on nonlinear dynamic analysis of structures and methods to evaluate the dynamic characteristics of large Civil Engineering structures. His current research is focused on the development of performance-based guidelines for seismic retrofit of schools, on methods to evaluate the interaction between critical infrastructure vulnerable to natural and man-made hazards, and on structural health monitoring of building, bridges and dams. Dr. Ventura has written over 400 technical papers and reports related to the seismic behaviour of structures, and has received numerous awards for his research accomplishments, including the Lieutenant Governor’s Award of Excellence (2013), the Innovation Award of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineering (2010) and the APEGBC Meritorious Achievement Award (2006). He is a member of several national and international professional societies and advisory committees. He is a member of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and Fellow of Engineers Canada. He is also a member of several building and bridge code committees. In addition to his academic activities, Dr. Ventura is a recognized international consultant on structural vibrations and safety of large Civil Engineering structures.

Research Interests

Earthquake engineering, structural dynamics, full scale vibration testing, shake table testing. Seismic risk evaluation and hazard management studies. Investigation of earthquake effects on man-made structures.

Courses

CIVL 436 Matrix Structural Analysis and Dynamics

CIVL 504 Seismicity and Seismic Design Parameters

CIVL 507 Dynamics of Structures I

CIVL 508 Dynamics of Structures II

Awards & Recognitions

• 2017-2023, Guest Professor of Structural Engineering, Tongji University
• 2021, Elected Fellow, Canadian Society for Civil Engineering
• 2019, Outstanding Civil Engineer of the Year, Civil Engineering Association of Quetzaltenango
• 2018, Outstanding Journal Paper, Los Angeles Tall Buildings Structural Design Council
• 2018, Fellow of the Society for Experimental Mechanics
• 2016, Best Paper Award, The Structural Design of Tall and Special Buildings
• 2016, H.A. Krentz Research Award, Canadian Institute of Steel Construction
• 2016, Honorary Professor, Lanzhou University of Technology
• 2015, Champions of Earthquake Resilience Award, Development of Performance-Based Seismic Retrofit
• Guidelines of Schools in BC
• 2015, NRCan Recognition Award Earth Science Sector, District of North Vancouver Earthquake Risk Assessment
• 2015-Present, ILEE Professor of the International Joint Research Laboratory of Earthquake Engineering (ILEE), Tongji University, China
• 2015, Outstanding Journal Paper, Los Angeles Tall Buildings Structural Design Council
• 2015, Elected Fellow, Engineering Institute of Canada
• 2013, Soft Engineering Award of Excellence, Association of Consulting Engineering Companies of British Columbia
• 2013, Past President Award, Society for Experimental Mechanics
• 2013, Lieutenant Governor’s Award of Excellence, Association of Consulting Engineering Companies of British Columbia
• 2013, Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards, Association of Consulting Engineering Companies
• 2013, Seismic Retrofit Guidelines for BC School Buildings Award
• 2011, H. A. Krentz Research Award, Steel Structures Education Foundation
• 2010, Elected Fellow, Canadian Academy of Engineering
• 2010, Innovation Award for Schools Retrofit Program, Canadian Society for Civil Engineering
• 2009, Engineers Canada Fellowship
• 2007, Adjunct Professor of Structural Engineering, Tongji University
• 2007, APEGBC President’s Special Award
• 2007, Honorary Member of Association of Retired Civil Engineers of Guatemala
• 2006, APEGBC Meritorious Achievement Award
• 2005, H.W.H. West Award at the 10thCanadian Masonry Symposium
• 2005, Award of Recognition of Distinguished Professional Career, Universidad de San Carlos de Occidente
• 2003, Jai Krishna Gold Medal and Award, ISET Journal of India
• 2003, D.J. De Michele Award, Society for Experimental Mechanics
• 2003, Honorary Member of Sociedad Ecuatoriana de Ingenieria Sismica (SEIS), Ecuadorian Association of Seismic Engineering
• 2002, Honorary Member of Asociación Guatemal tecade Ingenieros Estructurales Sísmicos (AGIES), Guatemalan Association of Seismic Structural Engineers
• 1998, Japanese Government Research Award for Foreign Specialists, Science and Technology Agency

Publications

• M. Saatcioglu, Tremblay, R., Mitchell, D., Ghobarah, A., Palermo, D., Simpson, R., Adebar, P., Ventura, C. E., and Hong, H., “Performance of steel buildings and non-structural elements during the February 27, 2010 Maule (Chile) Earthquake”, Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, In Press.
• C. Centeno, Ventura, C. E., and Ingham, J., “Seismic Performance of a Six Storey Reinforced Concrete Masonry Building during the Canterbury Earthquakes”, EERI Spectra, In Press.
• Y. Pan, Ventura, C. E., and Tannert, T., “Damage index fragility assessment of low-rise light-frame wood buildings under long duration subduction earthquakes”, Structural Safety, vol. 84, p. 101940, 2020.
• Y. Wu, Song, X., Ventura, C. E., and Lam, F., “Modeling Hysteretic Behavior of Lateral Load-Resisting Elements in Traditional Chinese Timber Structures”, Journal of Structural Engineering, vol. 146, no. 5, p. 04020062, 2020.
• G. Bernagozzi, Ventura, C. E., Allahdadian, S., Kaya, Y., Landi, L., and Diotallevi, P. Paolo, “Output-only damage diagnosis for plan-symmetric buildings with asymmetric damage using modal flexibility-based deflections”, Engineering Structures, vol. 207, p. 110015, 2020.
• J. – C. Carvajal, Finn, W. D. Liam, and Ventura, C. E., “Response spectrum-based seismic response of bridge embankments”, Canadian Geotechnical Journal, vol. 5095, no. 11, pp. 1 – 13, 2020.
• Y. Wu, Song, X., Ventura, C. E., and Lam, F., “Rocking effect on seismic response of a multi-story traditional timber pagoda model”, Engineering Structures, vol. 209, p. 110009, 2020.
• M. Fairhurst, Bebamzadeh, A., and Ventura, C. E., “Effect of Ground Motion Duration on Reinforced Concrete Shear Wall Buildings”, Earthquake Spectra, vol. 359711098, no. 1, pp. 311 – 331, 2019.
• Y. Pan, Ventura, C. E., Finn, W. D. Liam, and Xiong, H., “Effects of ground motion duration on the seismic damage to and collapse capacity of a mid-rise woodframe building”, Engineering Structures, vol. 197, p. 109451, 2019.
• S. Allahdadian, öhler, M., Ventura, C. E., and Mevel, L., “Towards robust statistical damage localization via model-based sensitivity clustering”, Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, vol. 134, p. 106341, 2019.
• A. Rahmani, Taiebat, M., Finn, W. D. L., and Ventura, C. E., “Evaluation of p-y springs for nonlinear static and seismic soil-pile interaction analysis under lateral loading”, Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, vol. 115, pp. 438-447, 2018.
• S. Soleimani-Dashtaki, Ventura, C. E., and Banthia, N., “Seismic Strengthening of Unreinforced Masonry Walls using Sprayable Eco-Friendly Ductile Cementitious Composite (EDCC)”, Procedia Engineering, vol. 210, pp. 154 – 164, 2017.
• A. Rahmani, Taiebat, M., Finn, W. D. L., and Ventura, C. E., “Evaluation of substructuring method for seismic soil-structure interaction analysis of bridges”, Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, vol. 90, pp. 112-127, 2016.
• M. Motamedi and Ventura, C. E., “Inelastic Response of Steel Roof Deck Diaphragms with Nailed and Welded Connections”, Journal of Engineering Structures, vol. 117, 2016.
• J. Dowling, Finn, W. D. L., Ventura, C. E., and Taiebat, M., “Load distribution in large pile groups under static and dynamic loading”, Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering, vol. 14, pp. 1461-1474, 2016.
• A. Rahmani, Taiebat, M., Finn, W. D. L., and Ventura, C. E., “Nonlinear seismic soil-foundation-structure interaction for analysis of bridge systems”, Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering. Christchurch, New Zealand, p. Paper ID: 466, 9 pages, 2015.
• S. Molnar, Ventura, C. E., Finn, W. D. L., and Taiebat, M., “Development of an efficient procedure for probabilistic earthquake site class determination”, in Tenth U.S. National Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Anchorage, Alaska, US, 2014.
• M. Fraino, Ventura, C. E., Finn, W. D. L., and Taiebat, M., “Evaluation of soil-structure interaction effects on seismic response using recorded motions from instrumented bridges”, in Sixth World Conference on Structural Control and Monitoring, Barcelona, Spain, 2014.
• S. Catacoli, Ventura, C. E., Finn, W. D. L., and Taiebat, M., “In-plane rotational demands of skewed bridges due to earthquake induced pounding”, in Tenth U.S. National Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Anchorage, Alaska, US, 2014.
• A. Bebamzadeh, Rahmani, A., Taiebat, M., Ventura, C. E., and Finn, W. D. L., “Performance-based seismic design of bridges using high performance computing tools”, in Tenth U.S. National Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Anchorage, Alaska, US, 2014.
• M. Taiebat, Finn, W. D. L., Ahmadnia, A., Amirzehni, E., and Ventura, C. E., “Seismic evaluation of existing basement walls”, in Computational Methods in Earthquake Engineering, vol. 30 of Computational Methods in Applied Sciences, M. Papadrakakis, Fragiadakis, M., and Plevris, V. Netherlands: Springer, 2013, pp. 177-196.
• J. Prieto, Foschi, R. O., Ventura, C. E., Finn, W. D. L., Ramos, C. A., and Prada, F., “Atenuación y Distribución De Probabilidad De Intensidades Para Colombia Y El Occidente De Venezuela”, Revista Internacional De Desastres Naturales, Accidentes e Infraestructura, vol. 11, pp. 183-196, 2012.
• J. Prieto, Ventura, C. E., Finn, W. D. L., Ramos, C. A., and Prada, F., “Base de Datos de Intensidad para Colombia y el Occidente de Venezuela”, Revista Internacional De Desastres Naturales, Accidentes e Infraestructura Civil, vol. 11, pp. 163-182, 2012.
• A. Rahmani, Taiebat, M., Finn, W. D. L., and Ventura, C. E., “Determination of dynamic p-y curves for pile foundations under seismic loading”, Proceedings of the Fifteenth World Conference on Earthquake Engineering. Lisbon, Portugal, p. 8 pages, 2012.
• M. S. Fayyazi, Taiebat, M., Finn, W. D. L., and Ventura, C. E., “Evaluation of group reduction factors for dynamic analysis of pile groups”, Proceedings of the Fifteenth World Conference on Earthquake Engineering. Lisbon, Portugal, p. 9 pages, 2012.
• M. S. Fayyazi, Taiebat, M., Finn, W. D. L., and Ventura, C. E., “Evaluation of p-multiplier method for performance-based design of pile groups”, Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Performance-Based Design in Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering. Taormina, Italy, p. 11 pages, 2012.
• A. Rahmani, Taiebat, M., Finn, W. D. L., and Ventura, C. E., “Evaluation of p-y curves used in practice for seismic analysis of soil-pile interaction”, Proceedings of GeoCongress 2012, vol. State of the Art and Practice in Geotechnical Engineering (GSP 225). American Society of Civil Engineers, Oakland, CA, USA, pp. 1780-1788, 2012.
• S. Molnar, Ventura, C. E., Finn, W. D. L., Taiebat, M., Dosso, S. E., and Cassidy, J. F., “Evaluation of shear-wave velocity profiles from ambient vibration array recordings in SW British Columbia, Canada”, Proceedings of the Fifteenth World Conference on Earthquake Engineering. Lisbon, Portugal, p. 10 pages, 2012.
• S. Molnar, Ventura, C. E., Finn, W. D. L., Taiebat, M., Dosso, S. E., and Cassidy, J. F., “Probabilistic site characterization based on Bayesian inversion of ambient vibration array recordings in SW British Columbia, Canada”, Proceedings of the Fifteenth World Conference on Earthquake Engineering. Lisbon, Portugal, p. 10 pages, 2012.
• M. Fraino, Ventura, C. E., Finn, W. D. L., and Taiebat, M., “Seismic soil-structure interaction effects in instrumented bridges”, Proceedings of the Fifteenth World Conference on Earthquake Engineering. Lisbon, Portugal, p. 10 pages, 2012.
• M. H. K. Kharrazi, Ventura, C. E., and Prion, H. G. L., “Analysis and design of steel plate walls: Analytical Model”, Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, vol. 38, 2011.
• M. H. K. Kharrazi, Ventura, C. E., and Prion, H. G. L., “Analysis and design of steel plate walls: Experimental Evaluation”, Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering , vol. 38, pp. 60-70, 2011.
• C. E. Ventura, Archila, M., Bebamzadeh, A., and Finn, W. D. L., “Large Coseismic Displacements and Tall Buildings”, The Structural Design of Tall and Special Buildings Journal, vol. 20, pp. 85-99, 2011.
• W. D. L. Finn, Pandey, B., and Ventura, C. E., “Modeling Soil-Foundation-Structure Interaction”, The Structural Design of Tall and Special Buildings Journal, vol. 20, pp. 47-62, 2011.
• M. Taiebat, Ahmadnia, A., Finn, W. D. L., Ventura, C. E., Naesgaard, E., and DeVall, R. H., “Seismic assessment of basement walls for different design criteria.”, Proceedings of the Fourteenth Pan-American Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering & Sixty Fourth Canadian Geotechnical Conference. Toronto, Ontario, Canada, p. 7 pages, 2011.
• A. Ahmadnia, Taiebat, M., Finn, W. D. L., and Ventura, C. E., “Seismic evaluation of existing basement walls.”, Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Computational Methods in Structural Dynamics & Earthquake Engineering (COMPDYN 2011). Corfu, Greece, p. 12 pages, 2011.