• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.117-140
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• 2012

The proposed research includes a comprehensive study on the seismic vulnerability assessment of typical building types, representative of the structural materials, the seismic codes and the construction techniques of Southern Europe. A damage database is created after the elaboration of the results of the observational data obtained from post-earthquake surveys carried out in the area struck by the September 7, 1999 Athens earthquake, a near field seismic event in an extended urban region. The observational database comprises 180.945 buildings which developed damage of varying degree, type and extent. The dataset is elaborated in order to gather useful information about the structural parameters influence on the seismic vulnerability and their correlation to the type and degree of building damages in near field earthquakes. The damage calibration of the observational data was based on label - damage provided by Earthquake Planning and Protection Organization (EPPO) in Greece and referred to the qualitative characterization for the recording of damage in post-earthquake surveys. Important conclusions are drawn on the parameters that influence the seismic response based on the wide homogeneous database which adds to the reliability of the collected information and reduces the scatter on the produced results.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.299-324
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• 2013

The current research focuses on the seismic vulnerability assessment of typical Southern Europe buildings, based on processing of a large set of observational damage data. The presented study constitutes a sequel of a previous research. The damage statistics have been enriched and a wider damage database (178578 buildings) is created compared to the one of the first presented paper (73468 buildings) with Damage Probability Matrices (DPMs) after the elaboration of the results from post-earthquake surveys carried out in the area struck by the 7-9-1999 near field Athens earthquake. The dataset comprises buildings which developed damage in several degree, type and extent. Two different parameters are estimated for the description of the seismic demand. After the classification of damaged buildings into structural types they are further categorized according to the level of damage and macroseismic intensity. The relative and the cumulative frequencies of the different damage states, for each structural type and each intensity level, are computed and presented, in terms of damage ratio. Damage Probability Matrices (DPMs) are obtained for typical structural types and they are compared to existing matrices derived from regions with similar building stock and soil conditions. A procedure is presented for the classification of those buildings which initially could not be discriminated into structural types due to restricted information and hence they had been disregarded. New proportional DPMs are developed and a correlation analysis is fulfilled with the existing vulnerability relations.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.365-372
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• 2019

Post-earthquake crisis management is a key capability for a country to be able to recover after a major seismic event. Instrumental seismic data transmitted and processed in a very short time can contribute to better management of the emergency and can give insights on the earthquake's impact on a specific area. Romania is a country with a high seismic hazard, mostly due to the Vrancea intermediate-depth earthquakes. The elastic acceleration response spectrum of a seismic motion provides important information on the level of maximum acceleration the buildings were subjected to. Based on new data analysis and knowledge advancements, the acceleration elastic response spectrum for horizontal ground components recommended by the Romanian seismic codes has been evolving over the last six decades. This study aims to propose a framework for post-earthquake warning based on code spectrum exceedances. A comprehensive background analysis was undertaken using strong motion data from previous earthquakes corroborated with observational damage, to prove the method's applicability. Moreover, a case-study for two densely populated Romanian cities (Focsani and Bucharest) is presented, using data from a $5.5M_W$ earthquake (October 28, 2018) and considering the evolution of the three generations of code-based spectral levels for the two cities. Data recorded in free-field and in buildings were analyzed and has confirmed that no structural damage occurred within the two cities. For future strong seismic events, this tool can provide useful information on the effect of the earthquake on structures in the most exposed areas.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.215-244
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• 2004

There is an ever-increasing demand for assessment of earthquake effects on transportation structures, emphasised by the crippling consequences of recent earthquakes hitting developed countries reliant on road transportation. In this work, vulnerability functions for RC bridges are derived analytically using advanced material characterisation, high quality earthquake records and adaptive inelastic dynamic analysis techniques. Four limit states are employed, all based on deformational quantities, in line with recent development of deformation-based seismic assessment. The analytically-derived vulnerability functions are then compared to a data set comprising observational damage data from the Northridge (California 1994) and Hyogo-ken Nanbu (Kobe 1995) earthquakes. The good agreement gives some confidence in the derived formulation that is recommended for use in seismic risk assessment. Furthermore, by varying the dimensions of the prototype bridge used in the study, and the span lengths supported by piers, three more bridges are obtained with different overstrength ratios (ratio of design-to-available base shear). The process of derivation of vulnerability functions is repeated and the ensuing relationships compared. The results point towards the feasibility of deriving scaling factors that may be used to obtain the set of vulnerability functions for a bridge with the knowledge of a 'generic' function and the overstrength ratio. It is demonstrated that this simple procedure gives satisfactory results for the case considered and may be used in the future to facilitate the process of deriving analytical vulnerability functions for classes of bridges once a generic relationship is established.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.327-346
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• 2016

The 2012 Emilia (Italy) earthquakes struck a highly industrialized area including several thousands of industrial prefabricated buildings. Due to the lack of specific design and detailing for earthquake resistance, precast reinforced concrete (RC) buildings suffered from severe damages and even partial or total collapses in many cases. The present study reports a data inventory of damages from field survey on prefabricated buildings. The damage database concerns more than 1400 buildings (about 30% of the total precast building stock in the struck region). Making use of the available shakemaps of the two mainshocks, damage distributions were related with distance from the nearest epicentre and corresponding Pseudo-Spectral Acceleration for a period of 1 second (PSA at 1 s) or Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA). It was found that about 90% of the severely damaged to collapsed buildings included into the database stay within 16 km from the epicentre and experienced a PSA larger than 0.12 g. Moreover, 90% of slightly to moderately damaged buildings are located at less than 25 km from the epicentre and were affected by a PSA larger than 0.06 g. Nevertheless, the undamaged buildings examined are almost uniformly distributed over the struck region and 10% of them suffered a PSA not lower than 0.19g. The damage distributions in terms of the maximum experienced PGA show a sudden increase for $PGA{\geq}0.28g$. In this PGA interval, 442 buildings were collected in the database; 55% of them suffered severe damages up to collapse, 32% reported slight to moderate damages, whereas the remaining 13% resulted undamaged.