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Buildings
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Assessment and Retrofitting of Existing Infrastructure
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Assessment and Retrofitting of Existing Infrastructure

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 July 2023) | Viewed by 12881

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Hany El Naggar

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil and Resource Engineering, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Canada
Interests: soil–structure interaction (SSI); buried structures; tunneling; bridges; seismic analysis and design; green construction materials; ground improvement techniques
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The advancement of modern economies is directly linked to the state of the supporting infrastructure. Generally, the more developed and efficient the existing infrastructure, the higher the national gross domestic product (GDP) and the better the living standards and prosperity of the nation. On the contrary, the more insufficient the existing infrastructure, the lower the national GDP and the worse the living standards of its population. This is extremely important as economies worldwide are recovering after the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, when natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes strike, reliable infrastructure is necessary for the prompt delivery of emergency supplies and medical care.

Unfortunately, several countries worldwide face an unprecedented and challenging deficiency when it comes to their infrastructure inventory. For instance, many tunnels, bridges, and roads have reached the end of their life cycle and are in desperate need of repair. In addition, the performance of various structures under different recent natural loads has emphasized the necessity for focusing attention on the upgrade and retrofit of existing infrastructure to enhance their resilience. Therefore, retrofitting and rehabilitation of the existing infrastructure is currently considered one of the most important topics in civil engineering. Hence, this Special Issue aims to present a collection of timely and high-quality papers on the assessment and retrofitting of existing infrastructure to gain further insights into the crucial issue of infrastructure resilience and the use of novel methods and techniques in the rehabilitation of civil infrastructure.

Specific topics include, but are not limited to the following:

  • Assessment of existing infrastructure, including their mechanical behaviour and physical properties
  • Novel retrofitting methods and techniques
  • Seismic performance of retrofitted infrastructure
  • Laboratory-scale tests involving retrofitted structures
  • Full-scale tests involving retrofitted structures
  • Analysis and design of retrofitted structures
  • Soil–structure interaction of retrofitted structures

Prof. Dr. Hany El Naggar
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

  • infrastructure
  • structural assessment
  • retrofitting
  • seismic performance
  • soil–structure interaction

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 9614 KiB  
Article
Level 3 Assessment of Highway Girder Deck Bridges according to the Italian Guidelines: Influence of Transverse Load Distribution
by Giuseppe Santarsiero, Pierpaolo Albanese, Valentina Picciano, Giuseppe Ventura and Angelo Masi
Buildings 2023, 13(7), 1836; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13071836 - 20 Jul 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1348
Abstract
The Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transportation adopted the guidelines on risk classification and management, safety assessment and monitoring of existing bridges through the Decree No. 578 dated 17 December 2020. This document must be used by all managing entities to prevent damage [...] Read more.
The Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transportation adopted the guidelines on risk classification and management, safety assessment and monitoring of existing bridges through the Decree No. 578 dated 17 December 2020. This document must be used by all managing entities to prevent damage due to a lack of maintenance to these crucial components of the infrastructure system. The approach of the guidelines for existing bridges is developed across six levels, ranging from Level 0 to Level 5. The research work presented in this article is focused on Level 3, which pertains to preliminary assessments conducted on existing bridges. Through an automated procedure, the preliminary verification is performed by comparing bending and shear stress generated by traffic load schemes extracted from previous standards with the ones based on the current code. These loads are applied to a series of girder deck models, selected through a statistical study conducted on a database of bridges. Performance indices are derived from the comparison to evaluate the adequacy of previously designed and constructed structures by applying the load models specified in the current regulations for designing new bridges. The analysis results highlight a performance gap, which varies depending on the standard code at hand. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assessment and Retrofitting of Existing Infrastructure)
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16 pages, 3985 KiB  
Article
Bearing Capacity of Transmission Poles under Combined Wind and Rain Excitations Based on the Deep Learning Method
by Xing Fu, Xu Xu, Huijuan Liu, Wenming Wang and Dengjie Zhu
Buildings 2023, 13(7), 1717; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13071717 - 05 Jul 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 947
Abstract
Generally, only wind effect is considered in the collapse evaluation of transmission poles (TPs). However, during a typhoon landing, the rainfall is usually very heavy and the influence of the wind and rainfall should be considered simultaneously. To estimate the bearing capacity of [...] Read more.
Generally, only wind effect is considered in the collapse evaluation of transmission poles (TPs). However, during a typhoon landing, the rainfall is usually very heavy and the influence of the wind and rainfall should be considered simultaneously. To estimate the bearing capacity of TPs accurately during a typhoon, this paper proposes a method for predicting the water content distribution of soil based on the deep learning method. Then, the earth pressure distribution related to the rainfall is obtained. Furthermore, according to the static balance principle, the ultimate overturning moment of the TPs is obtained, and the corresponding critical wind speed is determined via a numerical simulation. Finally, a case study is tested and the collapse evaluation of TPs under the combined effects of wind and rainfall is obtained. The results show that the critical wind speed when considering rainfall is less than the value when ignoring the rainfall effect. The traditional method overestimates the structural safety of the TPs because the rainfall has a significant reduction on the bearing capacity of TPs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assessment and Retrofitting of Existing Infrastructure)
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16 pages, 4059 KiB  
Article
Restoration of Tilted Buildings via Micropile Underpinning: A Case Study of a Multistory Building Supported by a Raft Foundation
by Ahmed Elsawwaf, Mostafa El Sawwaf, Ahmed Farouk, Farag Aamer and Hany El Naggar
Buildings 2023, 13(2), 422; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13020422 - 03 Feb 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3566
Abstract
This paper presents a real case study of a micropiling process that was developed to stop the continuous tilting of a 9-story residential building in Dakahlia, Egypt. Shortly after the construction of the building, the surface raft foundation exhibited severe settlement problems. In [...] Read more.
This paper presents a real case study of a micropiling process that was developed to stop the continuous tilting of a 9-story residential building in Dakahlia, Egypt. Shortly after the construction of the building, the surface raft foundation exhibited severe settlement problems. In order to carry out a geotechnical investigation, boreholes were drilled around the constructed building. It was discovered that in addition to a thick, soft clay layer in the soil profile, there was also a crucial eccentricity between the centroid of the total building loads and the centroid of the raft. The issue needed to be addressed immediately, and a micropiling system was proposed to satisfy the geotechnical and structural conditions associated with the case history. In addition to describing the field measurements, detailed methodology, and micropile installation process, this paper also presents three different design approaches for determining the number and location of the micropiles. Although the underpinning process itself initially induced some settlement, micropiling the raft proved to be an efficient solution to stop the continuous tilting of the building. A micropile load test confirmed the advantageous effect of the grouting technique used for Type B micropiles, where the grout is injected under high pressure. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assessment and Retrofitting of Existing Infrastructure)
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26 pages, 12231 KiB  
Article
Seismic Fragility Assessment of an Existing Multi-Span RC Bridge Equipped with Risk Mitigation Systems
by Homam Ghazal and Aman Mwafy
Buildings 2022, 12(7), 982; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12070982 - 10 Jul 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1699
Abstract
The vulnerability of bridges and the effectiveness of suitable mitigation techniques in regions exposed to different seismic scenarios, while lacking reliable fragility assessment studies for existing bridge inventory, need focused attention. Further, while several retrofit techniques were proposed for improving the seismic performance [...] Read more.
The vulnerability of bridges and the effectiveness of suitable mitigation techniques in regions exposed to different seismic scenarios, while lacking reliable fragility assessment studies for existing bridge inventory, need focused attention. Further, while several retrofit techniques were proposed for improving the seismic performance of existing bridges, the limitations of such approaches need further investigation. Thus, this study assesses the seismic vulnerability of a benchmark structure representing pre-seismic code multi-span bridges in an earthquake-prone region before and after the retrofit to mitigate earthquake-related losses. The numerical modeling approaches of the selected bridge and retrofit systems were verified using the results of previous experimental studies. Detailed three-dimensional fiber-based (3DFB) simulation models were then developed to assess the seismic response of the benchmark bridge under the effects of diverse earthquake records representing far-field and near-source seismic scenarios in both longitudinal and transverse directions. The obtained results from several inelastic pushover analyses (IPAs) and incremental dynamic analyses (IDAs) confirmed the vulnerability of the benchmark bridge and the pressing need for mitigation actions to reduce the expected seismic losses under different seismic scenarios. Higher damage probabilities were observed under the effects of far-source events and at lower intensities than their near-field counterparts. Based on the probabilistic assessment study, it is concluded that retrofitting the bridge with buckling restrained braces (BRBs) is an effective mitigation measure to increase the lateral strength and overcome the high curvature ductility (CD) demands observed in bents, particularly under the most critical seismic scenario. The study provides insight into the impacts of contemporary retrofit techniques on improving the seismic performance of substandard bridges and presents a range of fragility functions for the assessment and mitigation of earthquake risks. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assessment and Retrofitting of Existing Infrastructure)
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25 pages, 33664 KiB  
Article
Modeling the Impact of Building-Level Flood Mitigation Measures Made Possible by Early Flood Warnings on Community-Level Flood Loss Reduction
by Omar M. Nofal, John W. van de Lindt, Harvey Cutler, Martin Shields and Kevin Crofton
Buildings 2021, 11(10), 475; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11100475 - 14 Oct 2021
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3900
Abstract
The growing number of flood disasters worldwide and the subsequent catastrophic consequences of these events have revealed the flood vulnerability of communities. Flood impact predictions are essential for better flood risk management which can result in an improvement of flood preparedness for vulnerable [...] Read more.
The growing number of flood disasters worldwide and the subsequent catastrophic consequences of these events have revealed the flood vulnerability of communities. Flood impact predictions are essential for better flood risk management which can result in an improvement of flood preparedness for vulnerable communities. Early flood warnings can provide households and business owners additional time to save certain possessions or products in their buildings. This can be accomplished by elevating some of the water-sensitive components (e.g., appliances, furniture, electronics, etc.) or installing a temporary flood barrier. Although many qualitative and quantitative flood risk models have been developed and highlighted in the literature, the resolution used in these models does not allow a detailed analysis of flood mitigation at the building- and community level. Therefore, in this article, a high-fidelity flood risk model was used to provide a linkage between the outputs from a high-resolution flood hazard model integrated with a component-based probabilistic flood vulnerability model to account for the damage for each building within the community. The developed model allowed to investigate the benefits of using a precipitation forecast system that allows a lead time for the community to protect its assets and thereby decreasing the amount of flood-induced losses. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assessment and Retrofitting of Existing Infrastructure)
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