Gems of Structural Engineering

Prof. C. V. R. Murty
General:When we say Earthquake Tips naturally we recollect the name of one of Gems of Structural Engineering i.e. Dr. C.V.R. Murthy. These tips became so much popular that every new website on earthquake engineering has made a note of them. Here in a small attempt is made to present an overview of the Profile of creator of these tips Prof. C.V.R. Murty. I am sure all the readers will find this very informative and inspiring. Primary and higher education:Professor C V R Murty was born at Shahdol in Madhya Pradesh in the year 1963 on 5th September, the Teachers Day. It is most befitting that he chose a career in the noble profession of teaching. His early days in school were spent at Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh where his father was posted as part of the Indian Railway Engineering Service. Later he spent his high school days at Kolkata. Professor Murty completed his Bachelor of Technology degree in Civil Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Madras in 1984. He was a brilliant student with excellent academic performance. He further continued in the same institute for his Master of Technology degree in Structural Engineering in 1986. His Master of Technology thesis was on behaviour of large panel precast wall. Fascinated by the challenging railway projects his father used to carry out, Professor Murty was extremely keen to follow in his fathers footsteps. But, academics beckoned him and he moved to the prestigious California Institute of Technology (Caltech), USA, to complete his Doctor of Philosophy in Civil Engineering in 1992. His PhD thesis titled Nonlinear Seismic Behaviour of Steel Planar Moment Resisting Frames was an important contribution in the area of seismic behaviour of steel buildings. Working with pioneers of earthquake engineering provided enough inspiration for him to return back to his motherland and work hard for improvement of earthquake-resistant design in India. Experience:After his PhD from Caltech, Professor Murty joined the Department of Civil Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Delhi as a faculty member in 1992. He stayed there for a year and then moved to the Department of Civil Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in 1993. During January 2007 June 2008, Professor Murty served as the Head of the Department of Civil Engineering at IIT

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Kanpur. In June 2008, he was deputed to IIT Hyderabad for bringing up the campus. Along with Professor R.D. Koilpillai of IIT Madras, he was involved in the development of Master Plan of the institute, starting of undergraduate program in three disciplines namely Computer Science and Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering in the first year, and initiation of quality academic research in the institute. Keeping the thrust on research, Professor Murty ensured the starting of Ph.D. program as early as January 2009 and the Master of Technology program in August 2009. He was instrumental in starting the first two sponsored research projects at IIT Hyderabad, namely (a) Development of High Energy Density Li-on Batteries for Mobile Applications" jointly with International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), and (b) "Information Network for Natural Disaster Mitigation and Recovery", jointly with Kieo University and University of Tokyo. He was also appointed as Visiting Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at IIT Hyderabad in 2009. With his visionary ideas and unwavering efforts, Professor Murty laid the path for the institute to become a benchmark for excellent teaching and research standards. In July 2010, he joined Department of Civil Engineering at IIT Madras as Professor and has been continuing there since then. Contribution to Field:Professor Murtys primary research interests have been (a) seismic behaviour of steel and reinforced concrete (RC) structures, (b) modelling of nonlinear behaviour of structures and (c) development of seismic design codes. His work mostly related to the practical aspects of earthquake engineering research and implementation of the same in the design guidelines and building codes. He has endlessly strived to improve the interface between academic research and structural engineering practice with a view to improve the earthquake-resistant building construction practice. Among reinforced concrete structures, his focus has been seismic design of RC frame multistoreyed buildings including behaviour of infilled RC frames, confinement provisions and structural walls. He has supervised six PhD and 28 masters theses. Together with Professor Sudhir K. Jain (refer the profile of Dr Jain in Gems of Structural , Professor Murty had taken the leading initiative of developing experimental facilities in earthquake engineering at the Structural Engineering laboratory of IIT Kanpur. The pseudo-dynamic testing facility, which is currently being developed at IIT Kanpur, had started on their initiative and visionary plans. Professor Murty has been an outstanding teacher with a rare quality of motivating and inspiring students while making the learning most enjoyable experience. His courses have been extremely popular among students for his innovative and novel methods of instruction. He is a gifted teacher, who can convey even the most complex ideas by breaking it in easy to comprehend small pieces in a very novel way. His special flair for artwork is especially obvious in his all writing expressions. Deservingly, he was conferred the Distinguished Teacher Award for the year 2008 by IIT Kanpur. For Professor Murty, interaction with students has been always on top priority. He used to work in his Departmental office till late in the night, and will be back to office

Engineering Series on www.sefindi.org)

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next day early morning. Even at the time of his leaving office at 2 oclock in the night, if a student needs some help, he would be staying the whole night discussing with his and try to resolve the issue. Not only technical issues, he would be always there for any counselling requirement for the student. He would go to any extent to inspire the students towards creativity, importance of hard work and sincerity and learning the basics of civil engineering in order to help them build the nation for future. To inspire the undergraduate students, he was one of the co-ordinators of the inaugural Summer Camp at IIT Kanpur in 2001. The synergy of Professors Sudhir K. Jain and C. V. R. Murty at IIT Kanpur had been one of the most important periods of earthquake engineering research and education in India. Since 1993, they have worked together for improving the Indian earthquake engineering education in the technical institutions like engineering colleges, polytechnics and architecture colleges. They have conducted very successful continuing education programs on seismic design of buildings and bridges for practicing professionals and academicians not only in India but also in neighbouring countries. They have worked together in numerous research and consultancy projects on seismic design of special structures. Professor Murty actively partnered with Professor Jain in the development of the National Information Centre of Earthquake Engineering (NICEE) at IIT Kanpur with the objective of dissemination of information and literature and capacity building against earthquake disasters. They implemented the programs under National Program for Earthquake Engineering Education (NPEEE) successfully. As part of NPEEE program, Professor Murty developed teaching resource material for teachers of architecture colleges, titled Earthquake Design Concepts along with Professor Andrew W. Charleson of Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Professor Murty was also actively involved in the development of seismic design guidelines or various structures in the Indian context. The joint project of IIT Kanpur and Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority (GSDMA) brought out the draft guidelines on seismic design and detailing of buildings, wind and blast-resistant designs of buildings. Professor Murty is the author of the very popular IITKBMTPC Earthquake Tips, a public education series on learning earthquake resistant design and construction, published regularly in leading national newspaper and journals. The Tips are testimony of Professor Murtys exceptional talent of illustrating complex concepts in words and figures. The book has received the best construction technique award from the Indian Concrete Institute in 2005.

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Like Professor Jain, generous dissemination of technical knowledge on any topic in earthquake engineering has been one of the distinguishing features of Professor Murty. His personal office at IIT Kanpur was always accessible to whoever is willing to learn anything on earthquake engineering. Together with Professor Jain, Professor Murty actively participated in the post-earthquake reconnaissance studies carried out after (a) 1988 Bihar, (b) 1991 Garhwal, (c) 1993 Killari, (d) 1997 Jabalpur, (e) 1999 Chamoli and (f) 2001 Bhuj earthquakes. Along with Professor Durgesh C. Rai of IIT Kanpur, he visited Kashmir after the devastating 2005 Kashmir earthquake for reconnaissance studies. The benefits of the indigenous building construction, Dhajji-Dwari system, were also highlighted after that visit. He had been the leader of the Earthquake Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) Recovery Reconnaissance survey team after 2001 Bhuj earthquake, and had jointly authored an EERI document titled Earthquake Rebuilding in Gujarat, India. Professor Murty has served as an Editor-in-Chief of the World Housing Encyclopedia (WHE) which is an interactive web-based encyclopedia of housing construction types in seismically active areas of the world. WHE is a project of the organisation Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) and International Association for Earthquake Engineering (IAEE). He is currently continuing as a member of the WHE board. He has been one of the authors of the very popular WHE tutorial document titled AT RISK: The Seismic Performance of Reinforced Concrete Frame Buildings with Masonry Infill Walls. He is also associated with Bureau of Indian Standards in a few committees on structural design codes and National Disaster Management Agency, Government of India, in the capacity of advisor on policy documents identifying comprehensive action plan items for seismic safety in India. Professor Murty has immensely contributed to the earthquake engineering education and research in India. Focussed on educating both academicians and practising engineers, his relentless efforts continue in making earthquake-resistant structures a reality in Indian scenario. References:a) Years spent with Professor C.V.R. Murty at IIT Kanpur b) Citation for Distinguished Teacher Award at IIT Kanpur in 2008 c) Earthquake Tips (www.nicee.org) Authors:1) Dr. Kaustubh Dasgupta (@ IIT-Guwahati) ****

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