Special Issue "Sustainable Civil Engineering: Seismic Performance Analysis of Structures"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Engineering and Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 December 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Mahmoud Bayat
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA
Interests: structural engineering; earthquake engineering; data-driven modeling and artificial intelligence; structural health monitoring
Dr. Hamid Reza Ahmadi
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Maragheh, Maragheh 55136-553, Iran
Interests: structural health monitoring and damage detection; bridge engineering; seismic analysis
Dr. Saman Soleimani Kutanaei
E-Mail
Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Ayatollah Amoli Branch, Amol, Iran
Interests: building materials; geotechnics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Earthquake is a phenomenon that can cause unprecedented social and economic disruption in any given community. It may not always be possible to completely recover from these impacts. Recent earthquakes display a trend of rapidly increasing damage and casualties, primarily attributable to two major factors: (1) urban development in seismic zones; and (2) the vulnerability of older and built structures, including poorly constructed non-ductile concrete structures. Estimating and evaluating the seismic vulnerability of structures is critical for informed decision-making on mitigation policies, priorities, strategies, and funding levels in the public and private sectors.

This Special Issue focuses primarily on the development of seismic performance and loss estimation of civil structures. We hope this Special Issue will contribute to the sustainability in civil engineering.

We welcome theoretical, numerical, and experimental developments as well as case studies on (but not limited to):

  • Probabilistic seismic demand analysis of structures (bridges, buildings, dams, soil nailed walls, etc.);
  • Performance-based design using seismic protection devices;
  • Comprehensive and unified approaches for the PBSD of structures;
  • Post-earthquake (after-shock) performance of structures;
  • Risk-targeted and resilience-based seismic design of structures;
  • Multi-hazard performance-based design of structures ;
  • Seismic performance of isolated structures, bridges, etc.;
  • Near-fault and far-fault ground motions;
  • Nonlinear vibration and numerical simulation of structures (bridges, buildings, dams, soil nailed walls, railway track systems, etc.).

Dr. Mahmoud Bayat
Dr. Hamid Reza Ahmadi
Dr. Saman Soleimani Kutanaei
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 papers will be 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. Sustainability 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 1900 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 engineering
  • structural health monitoring
  • reliability/risk analysis of built structures

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

Article
Probabilistic Seismic Demand Analysis of Soil Nail Wall Structures Using Bayesian Linear Regression Approach
Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 5782; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13115782 - 21 May 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 394
Abstract
This paper presents the seismic analytic fragility curve of soil nail wall structures. The numerical modeling procedure of the soil nail wall is presented and discussed in detail. Nonlinear elements have been used to provide an accurate finite element modeling of the soil [...] Read more.
This paper presents the seismic analytic fragility curve of soil nail wall structures. The numerical modeling procedure of the soil nail wall is presented and discussed in detail. Nonlinear elements have been used to provide an accurate finite element modeling of the soil nail wall. The effect of different soil modeling approaches is studied. Detailed procedures to select an efficient intensity measure are presented. Analytical fragility curves for the different performance levels of the soil nail wall are developed. Detailed techniques have been used to generate accurate soil modeling, such as the Mohr-Coulomb model (MC), Hardening Soil model (HS), and Hardening Soil model with Stiffness effect from small strains (HSS), and these are studied. Incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) is implemented to capture the response of the wall from linear to nonlinear levels. The efficiency of the two common intensity measures is studied (PGA and Sa(T1,5%)). It has been demonstrated that HSS and HS models are more reliable techniques for soil modeling. Two common intensity measures are studied, and the efficiency and the sufficiency of them are compared. It has been suggested that Sa(T1,5%) is a more efficient intensity measure than PGA for soil nail structures due to less depression in the IDA results. Different performance levels were defined to develop analytical fragility curves for different damage states. Full article
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Article
Damage Assessment of Historical Masonry Churches Subjected to Moderate Intensity Seismic Shaking
Sustainability 2021, 13(9), 4710; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13094710 - 22 Apr 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 393
Abstract
An earthquake of magnitude 4.3 MW struck Cosenza (Calabria region, South Italy) and its immediate area on 24 February 2020. Although no damage was reported to ordinary masonry buildings, the ancient masonry churches suffered widespread damage. The herein article presents an analysis of [...] Read more.
An earthquake of magnitude 4.3 MW struck Cosenza (Calabria region, South Italy) and its immediate area on 24 February 2020. Although no damage was reported to ordinary masonry buildings, the ancient masonry churches suffered widespread damage. The herein article presents an analysis of the failures suffered by monumental buildings (e.g., churches) following a moderate seismic action. The contribution is based on the in situ damage observation of 14 churches, with a dating ranging from the 12th to 20th century. The study consists of a first phase, in which the different damage modes are identified, describing their causes and effects, and a second phase that correlates the damage detected to the main parameters that influence the seismic response of the churches (geometric characteristics, boundary condition, masonry and floor organization, past interventions, etc.), regardless of the state of conservation that was discrete for all buildings before the telluric event. From the rapid visual survey, the “weight” of each seismic parameter on the type of damage detected was then established. The past “retrofitting” interventions were decisive in the response of the ancient structure, with particular regard to those that made an aggravation of seismic mass and an increase in stiffness. Full article
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Article
Gaussian Kernel Methods for Seismic Fragility and Risk Assessment of Mid-Rise Buildings
Sustainability 2021, 13(5), 2973; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052973 - 09 Mar 2021
Viewed by 695
Abstract
Seismic fragility functions can be evaluated using the cloud analysis method with linear regression which makes three fundamental assumptions about the relation between structural response and seismic intensity: log-linear median relationship, constant standard deviation, and Gaussian distributed errors. While cloud analysis with linear [...] Read more.
Seismic fragility functions can be evaluated using the cloud analysis method with linear regression which makes three fundamental assumptions about the relation between structural response and seismic intensity: log-linear median relationship, constant standard deviation, and Gaussian distributed errors. While cloud analysis with linear regression is a popular method, the degree to which these individual and compounded assumptions affect the fragility and the risk of mid-rise buildings needs to be systematically studied. This paper conducts such a study considering three building archetypes that make up a bulk of the building stock: RC moment frame, steel moment frame, and wood shear wall. Gaussian kernel methods are employed to capture the data-driven variations in the median structural response and standard deviation and the distributions of residuals with the intensity level. With reference to the Gaussian kernels approach, it is found that while the linear regression assumptions may not affect the fragility functions of lower damage states, this conclusion does not hold for the higher damage states (such as the Complete state). In addition, the effects of linear regression assumptions on the seismic risk are evaluated. For predicting the demand hazard, it is found that the linear regression assumptions can impact the computed risk for larger structural response values. However, for predicting the loss hazard with downtime as the decision variable, linear regression can be considered adequate for all practical purposes. Full article
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