Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
4.4
3.1
Journals
Buildings
Special Issues
Reliability and Risk Assessment of Building Structures
share announcement

Reliability and Risk Assessment of Building Structures

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2026 | Viewed by 3321

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Bowei Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
Interests: performance-based wind engineering; machine learning-based metamodeling; multi-hazard risk assessment, early warning, and mitigation; AI-powered automated design, maintenance, and decision-making
Dr. Zhicheng Ouyang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
Interests: structural engineering; wind engineering; envelope systems; nonlinear dynamic analysis; building structures
Dr. Min Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA
Interests: risk assessment; risk mitigation; resilience-based decision-making; surrogate-based uncertainty quantification; machine learning
Prof. Dr. Gao Ma

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
Interests: seismic resilient structure; AI in structural engineering; structural strengthening/retrofitting; nondestructive testing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to present state-of-the-art research, methodologies, and applications of the evaluation of the performance and safety of building structures under natural and man-made hazards. Topics include uncertainty modeling and quantification; structural reliability, risk, and probabilistic performance analysis; sensitivity analysis; and risk-informed decision support systems. Contributions emphasizing novel dynamic analysis algorithms, surrogate modeling, dimensionality reduction, Bayesian schemes, and machine learning applications in the aforementioned topics are particularly encouraged. The Special Issue also welcomes studies on the impact of hazards such as earthquakes, windstorms, fires, and floods, as well as approaches to health monitoring and fault detection in the built environment. This platform will serve as a valuable resource for researchers, engineers, and policymakers dedicated to a deeper understanding of structural safety, probabilistic structural performance, and risks to building structures, and who seek to enhance advanced structural analysis, design innovation, and support safer and more sustainable infrastructure.

Dr. Bowei Li
Dr. Zhicheng Ouyang
Dr. Min Li
Prof. Dr. Gao Ma
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. Buildings 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 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

  • structural reliability
  • risk assessment
  • uncertainty quantification
  • performance-based design
  • probabilistic methods
  • machine learning
  • surrogate modeling
  • risk-informed decision-making

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 (5 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

22 pages, 7969 KB  
Article
Quantifying Shear Wall Quantity for Seismic Design Practice of Reinforced Concrete Buildings with One-Way Joist Slabs
by Umut Hasgul and Mehmet Seref Kurt
Buildings 2026, 16(9), 1684; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings16091684 (registering DOI) - 25 Apr 2026
Viewed by 51
Abstract
One-way joist slab floor systems are commonly favored in modern residential building applications due to their efficiency in architectural and structural design processes. However, a significant number of such buildings experienced heavy damage or collapse mechanisms during the catastrophic earthquakes in Türkiye since [...] Read more.
One-way joist slab floor systems are commonly favored in modern residential building applications due to their efficiency in architectural and structural design processes. However, a significant number of such buildings experienced heavy damage or collapse mechanisms during the catastrophic earthquakes in Türkiye since they are more vulnerable due to some uncertainties in the design and construction stages. In this regard, although well-known seismic codes such as Eurocode, IBC, and ASCE do not impose additional requirements for the design of structural systems with joist slabs, the seismic codes of some Mediterranean basin countries regulate the ductility levels, use of shear walls, and member/system-based specific requirements. In the present study, the impact of shear wall quantity on the seismic behavior of reinforced concrete buildings with one-way joist slabs was investigated in five-story structural systems, which were basically similar in terms of the slab properties and layout but have different overturning moment ratios (αM = 0.75, 0.60, 0.45, 0). In this context, a total of 88 bi-directional nonlinear time history analyses were conducted on four structural systems, which were highly representative of buildings in the earthquake zones of Türkiye, under real earthquake ground motions. Hence, the seismic behavior demands—including story displacement, inter-story drift and plastic deformations, distributions of plastic hinges, and member-based performance levels—were discussed by the overturning moment ratio that is directly associated with the shear wall quantity in the system. It can be concluded that when these buildings are jointly designed with the shear walls and frames of a high ductility level—through the capacity design principles—the stipulated performance objective can be successfully achieved. While the shear wall quantities ranging from 0.45 to 0.75 did not have a significant impact on the member-based damage across all floors, the frame-only system was found to be inadequate for controlling the lateral deformations due to insufficient stiffness under design-based seismic events. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Reliability and Risk Assessment of Building Structures)
22 pages, 6206 KB  
Article
Parameter Estimation and Interval Assessment of the Collapse Capacity of Viscous-Damped Structures Under Degradation and Partial Failure Scenarios
by Xi Zhao and Wen Pan
Buildings 2026, 16(6), 1271; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings16061271 - 23 Mar 2026
Viewed by 312
Abstract
In-service deviations of viscous dampers can reduce the collapse safety margin of viscous-damped structures under strong earthquakes. This study examines two representative mechanisms: global degradation of the damper group and local failure of a subset of dampers. Incremental dynamic analyses are conducted for [...] Read more.
In-service deviations of viscous dampers can reduce the collapse safety margin of viscous-damped structures under strong earthquakes. This study examines two representative mechanisms: global degradation of the damper group and local failure of a subset of dampers. Incremental dynamic analyses are conducted for five damper-state scenarios using the 22 far-field ground-motion records recommended by ATC-63. To support reliability-oriented, uncertainty-aware collapse-capacity comparison with limited records, three complementary probabilistic inference frameworks are developed: an event-based fragility model using binary collapse indicators, a drift-margin model leveraging continuous deformation information from non-collapse responses, and a fusion model that combines both sources via a weighted composite likelihood with fusion strength governed by the weight w. For each scenario, the capacity scale parameter μm is reported as IM50,m, and record-level bootstrap resampling is used to construct interval estimates. Multi-scenario effects are further summarized by the ensemble mean reduction b and inter-path dispersion σdamper, offering compact measures of systematic shift and pathway-to-pathway variability. Results indicate a dominant systematic downward shift in median collapse capacity, with IM50,m reduced by approximately 2.4–2.9% overall, whereas differences among degradation pathways are secondary and bounded by the intervals. Scenario rankings remain consistent across the three frameworks; fusion outputs show weak sensitivity to w and yield tighter interval constraints on σdamper than the event-only baseline. The resulting interval-based parameters enable risk- and reliability-informed interpretation of degradation effects and provide a consistent basis for uncertainty quantification in probabilistic performance comparisons across scenarios. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Reliability and Risk Assessment of Building Structures)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

25 pages, 1819 KB  
Article
Structural Response and Analysis of Tooth-Plate Connections in Lightweight Wood Trusses
by Qianqian Liang, Runpu Li, Guijuan Lu and Jun Hu
Buildings 2026, 16(6), 1149; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings16061149 - 14 Mar 2026
Viewed by 298
Abstract
This study establishes a mechanical model of wood trusses incorporating the slip characteristics of tooth-plate connections, based on their unique load–slip constitutive relationship. By coupling the slip effect into the constitutive equations of dimensional lumber, the model effectively captures the interaction between connection [...] Read more.
This study establishes a mechanical model of wood trusses incorporating the slip characteristics of tooth-plate connections, based on their unique load–slip constitutive relationship. By coupling the slip effect into the constitutive equations of dimensional lumber, the model effectively captures the interaction between connection behavior and the overall structural response. A dedicated computational program was developed on the Fortran platform, employing the matrix displacement method as the finite element solution strategy. Numerical simulations were conducted to systematically analyze the internal force distribution of truss members, global deformation patterns, and tooth-plate slip behavior under various loading conditions. Through parametric evaluations, the study elucidates the mechanism by which tooth-plate slip influences structural mechanical performance, providing theoretical support for the design of lightweight wood trusses. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Reliability and Risk Assessment of Building Structures)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

21 pages, 9518 KB  
Article
An Optimization Procedure for Improving the Prediction Performance of Failure Assessment Model
by Yan He, Lingyun Guo and Zhenzhong Shen
Buildings 2025, 15(24), 4488; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15244488 - 11 Dec 2025
Viewed by 398
Abstract
Improving the Prediction Performance (PP) of crack pipeline Failure Assessment Model (FAM) is of great significance for the safety of pipeline structure and engineering. However, conventional optimizations for PP always focus on either safety or accuracy, failing to balance the overall requirements of [...] Read more.
Improving the Prediction Performance (PP) of crack pipeline Failure Assessment Model (FAM) is of great significance for the safety of pipeline structure and engineering. However, conventional optimizations for PP always focus on either safety or accuracy, failing to balance the overall requirements of structural applications. Therefore, this paper proposes an optimization procedure for comprehensively improving FAM’s PP. The establishment of the procedure can be divided into three parts: 1. setting a rational and robust optimization target, where the Improved Guo-Ni Model (IGNM) is raised to provide an absolute score s for fully quantifying FAM’s PP in terms of the multi-dimensional performances, including stability and Distributional Location Characterizations (DLCs) of FAM’s prediction results; 2. determining the candidate solutions which are selected as the Critical Safety Factor (CSF) values related to FAM’s prediction confidence level (R1) in this paper; 3. constructing the optimization framework based on the Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm to search for the optimal CSF (OCSF) that can maximize s. Finally, empirical verification results show that the procedure enhances the overall s values of BS 7910:2019 and CorLAS models by 3.32% and 6.09%, respectively, through balancing DLCs, which increases the applicability of FAM across different projects and provides a new approach for the optimization control of FAM’s overall performance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Reliability and Risk Assessment of Building Structures)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

44 pages, 16688 KB  
Article
Comprehensive Design Process of CEB-Reinforced Masonry Panels for Earthquake and Hurricane-Resilient Houses
by Leandro Di Gregorio, Aníbal Costa, Alice Tavares, Hugo Rodrigues, Jorge Fonseca, Gustavo Guimarães, Assed Haddad, Fernando Danziger and Graziella Jannuzzi
Buildings 2025, 15(17), 3242; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15173242 - 8 Sep 2025
Viewed by 1724
Abstract
Among the threats capable of causing disasters, earthquakes and hurricanes are those that most significantly impact the structures of buildings. This collaboration between UFRJ (Brazil) and UA (Portugal) aims to develop a house model that is both earthquake- and hurricane-resistant, within a specific [...] Read more.
Among the threats capable of causing disasters, earthquakes and hurricanes are those that most significantly impact the structures of buildings. This collaboration between UFRJ (Brazil) and UA (Portugal) aims to develop a house model that is both earthquake- and hurricane-resistant, within a specific range of magnitude to be determined, utilizing straightforward, affordable, and eco-friendly construction methods. SHS-Multirisk was developed under two phases. The first one carried out the design of the SHS-Multirisk 1.0 house model and the second phase comprised the preliminary conception of the SHS-Multirisk 2.0 architecture integrated with structural panels. This paper focuses on presenting the comprehensive research, development, and innovation (R&D&I) process of compressed earth block-reinforced masonry panels and the preliminary evaluation of their technical feasibility to be applied in SHS-Multirisk 2.0 house models. The steps of the process were explored in detail throughout process implementation, which revealed successive multi- and interdisciplinary challenges. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Reliability and Risk Assessment of Building Structures)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-5
Back to TopTop