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Buildings
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Seismic Resistance of Buildings and Urban Systems
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Seismic Resistance of Buildings and Urban Systems

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Building Structures".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 January 2024) | Viewed by 8058

Special Issue Editor

Dr. David Koren

E-Mail Website1 Website2 Website3
Guest Editor
Faculty of Architecture, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Interests: structures in architecture; earthquake engineering; dynamic analysis; seismic isolation; asymmetric structures; seismic resistance of energy-efficient buildings; urban resilience; urban systems; risk assessment

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Earthquakes are one of the most unpredictable natural hazards that the built environment faces today. Despite its rareness and low probability, the consequences of a severe earthquake on a local, regional and global scale could be fatal in terms of casualties, economic loss, and downtime. In order to avoid worst-case scenarios, more attention must be paid towards prevention (designing and building structures with adequate seismic resistance and placing them in proper areas), mitigation (through the implementation of seismic retrofitting measures on existing structures), and societal preparation (developing an adequate perception of seismic risk through communication in society) with regard to earthquakes.

In recent decades, extensive research and great advances have been made in the fields of the modelling, analysis, design and behaviour assessment of the built environment at the micro level (i.e., considering a single building structure). However, a consensus on a holistic approach to the seismic resistance assessment of the built environment at the macro level (e.g., urban scale) has not yet been reached. A comprehensive assessment of a city’s seismic performance should encompass the complexity of an urban system, including its main physical and social components and the dynamic interactions between them.

This Special Issue aims to gather the contributions dealing with studies on the seismic resistance of physical urban components (buildings and infrastructure) and their interactions (e.g., earthquake debris volume, road network interruptions, accessibility of critical facilities, disruption of lifelines and supply systems, existence of evacuation and rescue paths, etc.). It attempts to provide an overview of the existing knowledge and current research trends in the field of earthquake engineering.

Original research, i.e., theoretical and experimental papers, case studies, and comprehensive review papers are welcome for this Special Issue. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • The performance of structures;
  • The seismic-resilient built environment;
  • Mathematical and simulation modelling;
  • New approaches to designing structures and their influence on increasing the seismic resistance of the built environment;
  • The seismic vulnerability of existing building stock;
  • Innovative seismic technology;
  • The quantitative assessment of the performance of urban systems after an earthquake;
  • Post-disaster recovery and reconstruction;
  • Experiences from recent earthquakes.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. David Koren
Guest Editor

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.

Keywords

  • earthquake engineering
  • seismic resistance of built environment
  • seismic resilient cities
  • earthquake risk mitigation
  • fragility analysis
  • seismic loss estimation
  • innovative seismic technology
  • urban systems
  • performance assessment

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 14241 KiB  
Article
Fragility Analysis of the Main Building–Coal Conveyor Trestle Interaction System of a Thermal Power Plant
by Yang Hu, Wen Bai, Junwu Dai and Qingwen Li
Buildings 2023, 13(11), 2864; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13112864 - 16 Nov 2023
Viewed by 702
Abstract
Thermal power plants play a crucial role in the power system as critical lifeline infrastructure. In order to meet the production process requirements, the main building of a thermal power plant is often connected to a coal conveyor trestle. This study focuses on [...] Read more.
Thermal power plants play a crucial role in the power system as critical lifeline infrastructure. In order to meet the production process requirements, the main building of a thermal power plant is often connected to a coal conveyor trestle. This study focuses on investigating the seismic interaction between the common three-row reinforced concrete frame-bent main building and the steel trestle in a circulating fluidized bed (CFB) unit. The objective is to assess the influence of the trestle on the main building and understand the failure mode of the trestle structure. The seismic interaction is analyzed through fragility analysis based on Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA). The results indicate that the trestle has minimal influence on the main building, except during the large deformation stage. The study identifies the failure mode of the coal conveyor trestle as excessive relative displacement along the longitudinal direction at the connection points, leading to collisions or falls. A seismic demand model based on longitudinal relative displacement is developed to obtain the fragility curve for the trestle structure. These findings offer valuable insights for assessing the seismic performance of thermal power plants. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Seismic Resistance of Buildings and Urban Systems)
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21 pages, 4333 KiB  
Article
Bias in the Estimation of Seismic Risk for Municipal Building Stocks Due to Limited Data
by Anže Babič, Jure Žižmond and Matjaž Dolšek
Buildings 2023, 13(9), 2245; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13092245 - 04 Sep 2023
Viewed by 555
Abstract
This study investigated the effect of the building data knowledge level on seismic risk estimation for municipal building stocks, focusing on identifying the characteristics that influence loss estimation bias. Fifteen municipalities in two Slovenian regions were analysed using twelve building data knowledge levels, [...] Read more.
This study investigated the effect of the building data knowledge level on seismic risk estimation for municipal building stocks, focusing on identifying the characteristics that influence loss estimation bias. Fifteen municipalities in two Slovenian regions were analysed using twelve building data knowledge levels, defined by combining different knowledge levels about building location and floor area. The knowledge levels ranged from those using data aggregated at the municipality level to those using building-specific data. The bias was quantified as the log residual between the expected annual losses estimated for the given knowledge level and the base-case level, characterised by building-specific data. The results indicate that loss estimation bias is affected by both the building location and floor-area knowledge levels. The data on building density distribution across the municipality and building-class-specific floor areas are sufficient for estimating loss with low bias with respect to the base-case level. The effect of potential data improvement on bias reduction can be assessed using building stock homogeneity and hazard variation indexes determined from readily available data. Further research is needed to explore loss estimation bias for building data knowledge levels not considered in this study and generalise the concepts to other regions and building classifications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Seismic Resistance of Buildings and Urban Systems)
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21 pages, 4610 KiB  
Article
Framework for a City’s Performance Assessment in the Case of an Earthquake
by David Koren and Katarina Rus
Buildings 2023, 13(7), 1795; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13071795 - 14 Jul 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1242
Abstract
A comprehensive assessment of a city’s vulnerability and resilience is a prerequisite for an effective response to a natural disaster, such as an earthquake. However, an appropriate method for assessing the seismic performance of a complex urban system is still being researched. To [...] Read more.
A comprehensive assessment of a city’s vulnerability and resilience is a prerequisite for an effective response to a natural disaster, such as an earthquake. However, an appropriate method for assessing the seismic performance of a complex urban system is still being researched. To address this gap, the purpose of this paper is to introduce a method for seismic performance assessment of a city as a socio-physical system. Therefore, various studies of individual urban components and their interactions were combined into a holistic framework and presented in a case study of a small mid-European town. The seismic vulnerability of the building inventory was assumed or assessed based on the fragility curves adopted from the literature on similar European building stock. Seismic scenarios of different earthquake intensity (PGA of 0.15 g and 0.30 g) combined with conservative and risky approaches were applied. Considering the human perspective, urban performance was evaluated on the basis of accessibility to urban services that satisfy basic human needs (for survival and protection) via graph theory measures of global efficiency and the shortest path. The temporal aspect (before the earthquake, immediately after it, after evacuation, and after recovery) was also included to obtain a comprehensive resilience assessment. It turned out that a stronger earthquake (PGA of 0.30 g) would have far-reaching consequences for the urban performance of the investigated town, and the old city center would be particularly affected. Following the event, the system’s performance is less than half as effective compared to the initial level, indicating a sharp deterioration in the quality of life as reflected in the possibility of meeting basic human needs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Seismic Resistance of Buildings and Urban Systems)
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41 pages, 13621 KiB  
Article
Energy-Based Prediction of the Peak and Cumulative Response of a Reinforced Concrete Building with Steel Damper Columns
by Kenji Fujii and Momoka Shioda
Buildings 2023, 13(2), 401; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13020401 - 01 Feb 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1365
Abstract
A steel damper column is an energy-dissipating member that is suitable for reinforced concrete (RC) buildings and multistory housing. To assess the seismic performance of buildings with steel damper columns, the peak displacement of the whole building and the energy dissipation demand of [...] Read more.
A steel damper column is an energy-dissipating member that is suitable for reinforced concrete (RC) buildings and multistory housing. To assess the seismic performance of buildings with steel damper columns, the peak displacement of the whole building and the energy dissipation demand of the dampers must be evaluated. This article proposes an energy-based prediction procedure for the peak and cumulative response of an RC frame building with steel damper columns. The proposed procedure considers two energy-related seismic intensity parameters, namely the maximum momentary input energy and the total input energy. The peak displacement is predicted considering the energy balance during a half cycle of the structural response, using the maximum momentary input energy. The energy dissipation demand of the dampers is then predicted considering the energy balance during a whole response cycle using the total input energy. The local responses (e.g., peak drift, maximum plastic rotation of beams, maximum shear strain, and energy dissipation demand of dampers) are predicted using pushover analysis. Numerical analysis results for 8- and 16-story RC buildings show that the proposed prediction method achieves satisfactory accuracy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Seismic Resistance of Buildings and Urban Systems)
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24 pages, 42015 KiB  
Article
A Simplified Framework for Historic Cities to Define Strategies Aimed at Implementing Resilience Skills: The Case of Lisbon Downtown
by Lucia Barchetta, Enrica Petrucci, Válter Xavier and Rita Bento
Buildings 2023, 13(1), 130; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13010130 - 04 Jan 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1480
Abstract
The concepts of resistance to unforeseen disasters and rapid post-disaster recovery of historic cities are necessary due to the earthquakes that have profoundly influenced their evolution. The improvement of this property strongly depends on the effectiveness of the preventive tools. In this work, [...] Read more.
The concepts of resistance to unforeseen disasters and rapid post-disaster recovery of historic cities are necessary due to the earthquakes that have profoundly influenced their evolution. The improvement of this property strongly depends on the effectiveness of the preventive tools. In this work, an operational framework for the resilience assessment of a historical city characterized by high cultural and historical elements is developed, which corresponds to the main contribution of this research. The research includes multicriteria analysis based on the in-depth knowledge of the city’s historical development, the study of the effects of past earthquakes, structural vulnerability analysis of pombalino buildings, architectural types and socio-economic aspects. The aim is to obtain the necessary elements to guide an aware plan for improving resilience and the reduction of vulnerability through a GIS tool aimed at preventing and defining urban intervention priorities. The framework proposed is applied to Lisbon downtown. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Seismic Resistance of Buildings and Urban Systems)
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26 pages, 6032 KiB  
Article
Nonlinear Static Seismic Analysis and Its Application to Shallow Founded Buildings with Soil-Structure Interaction
by Adriana Brandis, Ivan Kraus and Simon Petrovčič
Buildings 2022, 12(11), 2014; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12112014 - 18 Nov 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1535
Abstract
This paper presents new research in the field of nonlinear static seismic analysis and the N2 method for soil-structure systems. The rationale for this study stems from the inclusion of soil-structure systems in simplified displacement-based design methods. The conducted research comprises three parts, [...] Read more.
This paper presents new research in the field of nonlinear static seismic analysis and the N2 method for soil-structure systems. The rationale for this study stems from the inclusion of soil-structure systems in simplified displacement-based design methods. The conducted research comprises three parts, including original experimental investigations, the development of numerical models and the validation of results. A new methodology is presented that provides a step-by-step procedure for the implementation of the N2 method on soil-structure systems. Results of a dynamic shake-table test on a simplified scaled structural model founded on compacted dry sand are presented, and a numerical model of the experiment is developed and calibrated with the inclusion of soil-structure interaction effects. This indicates one main significance of this paper, which is the variation between the experimental and the analytical model and how they can be compared. Lastly, a case study was conducted on a numerical model of a 3D steel building. The building was analysed using pushover analysis for a fixed base-case and by considering soil-structure interaction effects. The results of both observed cases were mutually compared and further examined by validating them with nonlinear dynamic analyses. A comparison was conducted considering the inter-story drifts, calculated according to the N2 method and time-history analyses. The results show good agreement when the N2 method is used for buildings on compliant soils. Overall, it was observed that a decrease in the inter-story drifts appears at ground level of the building. This research also provides a framework for future research in the examined field, for instance, on different types of buildings, building typologies and irregularities of the structural system. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Seismic Resistance of Buildings and Urban Systems)
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