Towards the Assessment of Earthquake-Induced Damage for Buildings at Single and Regional Scale

Dear Colleagues,

We are very pleased to invite you to contribute to the Special Issue “Towards the assessment of earthquake-induced damage for buildings at single and regional scale”.

The endeavours of the scientific community to develop more and increasingly accurate methodologies to assess earthquake-induced damage to building structures, as well as industrial and logistic facilities, have led to non-negligible impacts and results in recent decades. However, there is an ever-increasing demand for research investigating new aspects or revisiting issues still pending or open. The entity or extent of damage that a system experiences, or is expected to experience, is a fundamental metric adopted both in experimental studies concerned with seismic performance assessment-related issues, and in analytical investigations involving, for instance, seismic risk analysis frameworks.

In the seismic risk context, entities of damage are indexed, parametrised, simulated and predicted with sophisticated methodologies for computing seismic hazards, and structural responses are adopted and integrated accordingly. Furthermore, while these risk assessments can be focused on a local scale, involving a single critical or iconic structure, they can also be expanded on a regional scale level, thus identifying the seismic vulnerability of one or more portfolios of buildings and/or facilities in a selected area. In the latter case, simplified approaches are generally envisaged for structural response or damage analysis, seeking balance between accuracy and computational burden depending on the case. On the other hand, if the focus is on a single building or facility, accurate techniques for damage estimation may include advanced numerical modelling with finite-element or discrete-element methods, or even experimental campaigns meant for assessment or to feed models with test-validated data. Moreover, in the aftermath of an event, or for routine monitoring purposes, damage assessment approaches can involve expeditious methods, as well as rapid visual screening procedures and/or the use of drones, which provide high-quality visualisations and permit access to zones previously deemed inaccessible or critical for inspection.

In light of these considerations, this Special Issue seeks submissions regarding recent advances in earthquake engineering research and applications for damage estimation on building structures. These might involve novelties concerning either single or regional scale analysis problems. Original findings including fundamental and applied research, case studies, or state-of-the-art works are encouraged to be submitted to the Special Issue.

Dr. Giammaria Gabbianelli
Dr. Emanuele Brunesi
Dr. Marco Simoncelli
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• damage estimation
• structural analysis
• seismic assessment
• seismic risk
• advanced numerical modelling
• experimental tests
• single and regional scale analysis