Repair and Strengthening of Existing Reinforced Concrete Structures

Dear Colleagues,

Strengthening of existing structures is an urgent need worldwide and especially in earthquake prone areas. Recent earthquakes have highlighted the deficiency of existing structures, which may be either damaged from previous strong earthquakes or have been designed without code provisions or designed to old obsolete code provisions. In addition, the majority of the existing buildings in low- and middle-income countries have been constructed using substandard materials and without application of code provisions and, therefore, the structural vulnerability in these areas is of high concern.

In the last few years, there has been an enormous development of novel high performance materials and innovative devices which could be effectively utilised for the protection of the existing structures and for the enhancement of structural resilience. This Special Issue aims to provide an overview of the latest scientific advancements on the development of novel methods towards durable and earthquake resistant Reinforced Concrete (RC) structures.

Authors are welcome to submit original contributions in the following two areas:

• Repair and Strengthening of RC Elements using Novel Materials: Topics of special interest include the development of innovative repair and strengthening techniques using novel composite and high-performance materials for the improvement of the structural performance and the durability of existing RC structural elements.
• Retrofitting of Structures using Innovative Devices: Primary topical areas include the   evaluation of effectiveness and proposal of new retrofit solutions to mitigate damage and collapse of existing deficient RC structures using additional structural elements, dampers, and/or seismic isolation devices.

Dr. Andreas Lampropoulos
Guest Editor

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