Special Issue "Earthquake Resistant Buildings"

Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Ali M. Memari
Department of Architectural Engineering, Penn State University, 104 Engineering Unit A, University Park, PA 16802-1416, USA
Website: http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/a/m/amm7/
E-Mail: memari@engr.psu.edu
Phone: +1 814 865 3367
Fax: +1 814 863 4879
Interests: structural analysis; reinforced concrete design; masonry design; earthquake resistant design of buildings

Dear Colleagues,

Comparison of the number of casualties caused by failure of building parts or entire building collapse in earthquakes that have occurred in many developing countries with that in industrial countries, in particular the ones that seriously practice seismic design provisions and codes, shows the results of proper earthquake resistant design and retrofit of buildings. The significantly lower number in the latter indicates that it is not the earthquake that kills people, it is how we design and construct buildings. The development and advancement of earthquake design provisions in modern building codes is therefore a success story. Today, it is established that if buildings are designed according to the modern seismic codes incorporating sound structural lateral force resisting systems and constructed using good quality materials, workmanship, and inspection, the chance of building collapse is minimized, although damage to structural systems and nonstructural (e.g., architectural) components cannot be entirely prevented.

Many types of nonstructural components are actually manufactured products that are mainly specified by architects and that are not necessarily recognized by building codes. Acceptable seismic performance of such components is generally established through component mockup testing. Past damaging earthquakes have in particular revealed the vulnerability of architectural components (e.g., building envelope) to significant damage with potential life-safety hazard. This emphasizes the need for appropriate testing (e.g., racking) of such products/systems to ensure satisfactory performance under building design acceleration or drift.

For this special issue of the Buildings Journal, authors are invited to submit papers related to the general theme of the Special Issue for all types of buildings. Among relevant topics, submission of papers discussing earthquake analysis and design methods and guidelines, experimental testing of structural and nonstructural building components, and retrofit techniques is highly encouraged. In addition, it is of interest to invite contributions that address innovative structural and nonstructural systems with minimal seismic damage potential, as well as earthquake resistant structural systems appropriate for residential construction.

Prof. Dr. Ali M. Memari
Guest Editor

Submission

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. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as 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 refereed through a 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 quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. For the first couple of issues the Article Processing Charge (APC) will be waived for well-prepared manuscripts. English correction and/or formatting fees of 250 CHF (Swiss Francs) will be charged in certain cases for those articles accepted for publication that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections.

• seismic code
• earthquake resistant design
• racking test
• seismic retrofit
• nonstructural components
• building envelope
• glazing system
• masonry walls
• cladding panels
• curtain walls
• pushover analysis
• collapse prevention

Manuscript ID: buildings-15851
Type of Paper: Article
Title: Seismic Analysis of Historic Masonry Buildings: The Case of the Vicarious Palace in Pescia (Italy)
Authors: Michele Betti and Luciano Galano
Affiliation: University of Florence, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (DICeA), Via di Santa Marta, 3, 50139 Florence, Italy
Abstract: The recent earthquakes in Italy, have underlined the need of a wide monitoring and safety assessment of the Italian architectonical heritage. This emerged also by the requirements of the new Italian Technical Recommendations for buildings. Inside this subject the paper investigate the seismic vulnerability of a specific monumental Italian masonry building: the Vicarious Palace (Palazzo del Vicario) in Pescia (a small town near Florence, Italy). The structural behavior and the dynamic properties of the Palace have been evaluated by using a finite element model. In the model the non linear behavior of the masonry has been taken into account by proper constitutive assumptions. Seismic vulnerability has been evaluated by using a pushover method (according to the new Italian Technical Recommendations). The results have been compared with the ones obtained by a simplified approach based on the cinematic theorem of the limit analysis. The comparison of the expected seismic demand vs the Palace seismic capacity confirms the weakness of this type of buildings to suffer extensive damage and collapse under earthquakes, as frequently observed in similar construction typologies. Additionally, the comprehension of the structural behaviour under seismic loading allows to identify a proper retrofitting strategy.
Keywords: Masonry historic buildings; seismic vulnerability; finite element modelling; non linear analysis; pushover analysis

Manuscript ID: buildings-14970
Type of Paper: Article
Title: Assessment of Seismic Vulnerability of an Historical Masonry Building
Authors: F. Ceroni; M. Pecce; S. Sica; A. Garofano
Affiliation: Department of Engineering, University of Sannio, Piazza Roma, 21, 82100 Benevento, Italy; E-Mails: ceroni@unisannio.it (F.C.); pecce@unisannio.it (M.P.); stefsica@unisannio.it (S.S.); a.garofano@unisannio.it (A.G.)
Abstract: A multidisciplinary approach for the assessment of a reliable numerical model for assess the seismic vulnerability of monumental masonry buildings is described throughout the paper, with reference to a specific case study representing an ancient masonry building which is quite common in Italy. The main steps of the procedure consist in detailed historical investigation of the building, innovative in-situ tests on the construction materials, foundation soil characterization, dynamic identification of the structure, development of a non linear FE model for safety verifications under seismic actions. These steps have been followed for the case study examined in the present paper in order to assess the safety level of the building according to the provisions of Eurocode 2 and estimate the q-factor too. Moreover, in order to investigate the sensitivity of the 3D non linear FE model of the building, the effect of several parameters on the global behaviour has been studied too.

Manuscript ID: buildings-13767
Type of Paper: Article
Title: An Introduction to the Theory of Earthquake Resistant Structures of Uniform Response
Authors: Mark Grigorian¹ and Carl E. Grigorian²
Affiliation: ¹ MGA Structural Engineering Inc., 111, N. Jackson Street Glendale, CA, USA; E-Mail: markarjan@aol.com
² URS Corporation, 915, Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, USA; E-Mail:mgacg@packbell.net
Abstract: Structures of Uniform Response are special earthquake resistant frames in which members of similar groups such as beams, columns and braces of similar nature share the same demand-capacity ratios regardless of their location within the group. The fundamental idea behind this presentation is that seismic structural response is largely a function of design and construction, rather than analysis. Both strength and stiffness are induced rather than investigated. Failure mechanisms and stability conditions are enforced rather than tested. Structures of Uniform Response are expected to sustain relatively large inelastic displacements during major earthquakes. A simple technique has been proposed to control and address the gradual softening of such structures due to local/partial instabilities and formation of plastic hinges. In structures of uniform response the magnitude and shape of distribution of lateral forces affects the distribution of story stiffness in proportion with story moments, therefore affecting the dynamic behavior of the system as a whole. Simple closed form formulae describing the nonlinear behavior of moment frames of uniform response have been proposed. While the scope of this contribution is limited to moment frames, the proposed method can successfully be extended to all types of recognized earthquake resisting systems.

Manuscript ID: buildings-17623
Type of Paper: Article
Title: Uncertainty in Seismic Capacity of Masonry Buildings
Authors: Fulvio Parisi * and Nicola Augenti
Affiliation: Department of Structure Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, via Claudio 21, 80125 Naples, Italy; E-Mails: fulvio.parisi@unina.it (F.P.); augenti@unina.it (N.A.)
Abstract: Seismic assessment of masonry structures is plagued by both inherent randomness and model uncertainty. The former is referred to as aleatory uncertainty, the latter as epistemic uncertainty because it depends on the knowledge level. Pioneering studies on reinforced concrete buildings have revealed a significant influence of some parameters on seismic vulnerability. But confidence in mechanical properties of existing masonry buildings is much more lower than in the case of reinforcing steel and concrete. This paper is aimed at assessing whether and how uncertainty propagates from material properties to seismic capacity of an entire masonry structure. A two-story unreinforced masonry building is analyzed as case study. Based on previous statistical characterization of mechanical properties of existing masonry types, the following random variables have been considered in this study: unit weight, uniaxial compressive strength, pure shear strength, Young’s modulus, shear modulus, and allowable displacement ductility associated with shear mechanisms. Probability density functions were implemented to generate a large number of realizations and static pushover analysis of the case study building was performed for each vector of realizations. Some key seismic capacity indicators, such as overstrength ratio, force reduction factor and allowable peak ground acceleration, were estimated along with their statistics. Analysis results were affected by a large dispersion highlighting that engineering judgment should always be used when assessing structural safety of existing masonry constructions against design earthquakes.