Dr. Mikayel Melkumyan
Armenian Association for Earthquake Engineering
Armenia
Abstract Title:
Biography:
Doctor of Sciences (Engineering), Professor, Academician Mikayel G. Melkumyan (born on June 10, 1951) started his scientific and practical activity in 1973, immediately after graduation from the Civil Engineering Department of Yerevan Polytechnic Institute, carrying out both design and experimental-theoretical research works to study the behavior of various reinforced concrete structures under seismic actions. In 1983 he defended his thesis for the degree of Candidate of Engineering Sciences and began to lead the Department of Earthquake Resistant Construction at the Armenian Scientific-Research Institute of Construction and Architecture. After the Spitak earthquake of December 7, 1988 in Armenia, M.G. Melkumyan dedicated himself to the deep analysis of consequences of this and other earthquakes and reasons for extensive destructions of various buildings and structures and, particularly, of frame-panel buildings. From April 1990 through March 1991, he conducted research at the Institute of Industrial Science (IIS), University of Tokyo, where he was invited by Prof. Tsuneo Okada, Director of the Institute. Based on his experimental research works he created a new hysteresis model (Melkumyan Hysteresis Model) to describe the shear behavior of rigid reinforced concrete structures (walls, diaphragms, shear walls, etc.). As it is indicated in the Certificate granted to him by the IIS, this model and the formula proposed by Mikayel G. Melkumyan for calculation of horizontal stiffness of diaphragms were accepted at Okada and Nakano Laboratory, and the model was incorporated in the computational software for earthquake response analysis of multistory frame buildings with predominance of shear deformation. The Certificate also acknowledges that this research work will significantly contribute to the development of seismic engineering and earthquake damage mitigation in the world. After his return from Japan, from 1992 through 1996 he was a teaching Professor at the College of Engineering of the American University of Armenia (AUA), giving lectures on non-linear behavior of reinforced concrete structures and design principles in earthquake resistant construction. At the same time, he led the Earthquake Engineering Center of the National Survey for Seismic Protection (NSSP) under the Government of Armenia. In 1993 M.G. Melkumyan started his theoretical and experimental works on development and application of seismic isolation systems for buildings and structures in Armenia. Together with that, by the approval of the Government of Armenia for the position of Director, he managed from 1993 through 1997 the Spitak Earthquake Zone Reconstruction Project, financed by the World Bank. During a short period of time in 1995-1996, devoting himself to the challenge of increasing the earthquake resistance of existing buildings, he developed two unique methods of protecting existing buildings from earthquakes through base isolation, as well as by isolated upper floor and upper slab (roof isolation) without interruption of the use of the buildings. His innovative technologies were successfully implemented in Armenia, in the city of Vanadzor, where for the first time in the world a 5-story stone apartment building and over 60 years old 3-story stone school building, of historical and architectural value, were retrofitted by base isolation without evacuation of inhabitants and interruption of school functioning. Also, again for the first time in the world seismic resistance of two existing 9- story apartment buildings of standard frame-panel design was enhanced by the application of isolated upper floor. These works are unprecedented in the world practice of earthquake resistant construction of the time.
Research Interest:
Earthquake Resistance Engineering