Applied Sciences

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser

Seismic Design and Fatigue Analysis in Structural Engineering

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Lianxu Zhou

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Civil and environmental engineering, University of California, Davis, CA, USA
Interests: earthquake engineering; risk and resilience; postearthquake assessment; bridge scour; multihazard

Prof. Dr. Aijun Ye

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Bridge Engineering, College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
Interests: bridge vibration and seismic resistance

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Earthquake is a highly destructive hazard that poses serious threats to the safety of structures and infrastructures. Structural failure may occur due to a transient peak response that exceeds the structural capacity, cumulative damage, or low-cycle fatigue under the excitation of earthquake sequences or long-duration ground motions. In this context, accurate seismic performance assessment and reasonable seismic design are critical to ensuring the safety and performance of structures. In recent years, seismic design methodologies for structures and infrastructures have evolved from various perspectives, with increasing emphasis on performance-based, life-cycle-based, sustainability-based, and resilience-based approaches. This Special Issue aims to provide a platform for state-of-the-art research, innovative methodologies, and practical case studies in seismic design and fatigue analysis within the field of structural engineering. Contributions may include, but are not limited to:

Experimental and numerical investigations of nonlinear structural dynamic behavior
Experimental and numerical investigations of cyclic loading effects, low-cycle fatigue, and cumulative damage
Seismic performance assessment of structures and infrastructures with uncertainty
Innovative seismic design methods, particularly performance-based, life-cycle-based, sustainability-based, and resilience-based methods
Fatigue failure analyses of bridges, buildings, offshore platforms, and other critical infrastructure
Case studies from recent earthquakes highlighting fatigue-related damage mechanisms

Dr. Lianxu Zhou
Prof. Dr. Aijun Ye
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2400 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.

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.

Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.

Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.

External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.

Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results

Result details

Show export options Show export options

Select all

Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

22 pages, 2016 KB

Open AccessArticle

Annual Acceptable Collapse Probability and CMR of Viscous-Damped Structures Considering Seismic Hazard and Total Uncertainty

by Xi Zhao and Wen Pan

Appl. Sci. 2026, 16(7), 3299; https://doi.org/10.3390/app16073299 - 29 Mar 2026

Viewed by 372

Abstract

Seismic collapse can cause catastrophic losses, and acceptable annual collapse probability with its CMR target is a core metric in performance-based design. Existing ATC-63-based CMR research mainly addresses non-damped systems and often uses a single lumped dispersion, obscuring damper-reliability contributions and hindering alignment with CECS 392 limits. This study proposes a unified, code-consistent decision framework for acceptable annual collapse probability and CMR that jointly accounts for seismic hazard and damper-related uncertainty. The total collapse dispersion is decomposed as

σ_{total, damp}^{2} = σ_{base}^{2} + σ_{damper}^{2}

, where

σ_{b a s e}

represents background dispersion independent of dampers and

σ_{d a m p e r}

captures incremental uncertainty induced by degradation and partial failure. A code-designed viscous-damped RC frame is evaluated under three scenarios (nominal damping, 20% damping-coefficient reduction, and 7% random damper failures). Using the same 14 records and

S a (T_{1}, 5 %)

as the intensity measure, multi-stripe IDA and Probit-based lognormal fragility fitting yield median collapse intensities

S c \approx 2.18 - 2.24 g

, with only ~2–3% reduction under mild degradation/failure. A random-effects variance decomposition identifies σ_damper ≈ 0, indicating a limited marginal contribution of damper-related uncertainty within the degradation range considered in this study. Closed-form relationships between annual collapse rate,

S c

, and

σ_{t o t a l, d a m p}

are then derived under a power-law hazard model and inverted to generate acceptable-risk intervals and CMR target curves/matrices. Results show that higher design intensity and larger

σ_{t o t a l, d a m p}

demand substantially higher CMR, highlighting potential risk underestimation when relying solely on nominal CMR. The framework enables explicit identification of damper-related uncertainty from limited collapse data and provides a practical workflow for collapse-prevention design and post-assessment under explicitly defined scenario conditions, with a clear pathway for extension to broader scenario spaces. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Seismic Design and Fatigue Analysis in Structural Engineering)

► Show Figures

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

Seismic Design and Fatigue Analysis in Structural Engineering

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Special Issue Information

Keywords

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

Published Papers (1 paper)

Research

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI