This paper examines the possible causes of collapse of a primary school in San Giuliano, Italy, in the 2002 Molise earthquake, which killed 27 students and one teacher. It also considers the general sources of seismic vulnerability of school buildings in Italy prior to the introduction of new seismic zonation and new seismic codes in 2003. In addition to incomplete seismic zonation and inadequa...

In earthquake-resistant design it is usually assumed that the structure is linearly elastic and remains linearly elastic throughout the duration of the seismic activity. This is not always a realistic assumption. Indeed, even well designed structures will yield during very strong shaking and endure stresses well beyond the elastic limit of the design material. It is neither necessary nor econom...

Seismic codes were developed to reduce the structural vulnerability and risk associated with earthquakes in earthquake-prone regions of world. The effectiveness code preventing damage is dependent on performance level defined construction technology employed. seismic fragility curves for two recent versions Iran are determined by using hybrid method. probability levels visualized these curves. ...

In the present paper, the focus is on the evaluation of steel dual-system frame buildings using four main types of structural analysis (Linear Static, Linear Dynamic, Nonlinear Static and Nonlinear Dynamic Analyses) with regard to "Seismic Rehabilitation Code for Existing Buildings in Iran" (based on FEMA 273 and 356) where the first two authors of the article tend to follow the previous work (...

Nowadays, the most common approach to seismic risk mitigation is characterized only by strategies reducing building vulnerability, through structural interventions, and it does not consider the possibility to intervene at urban scale, reducing urban seismic vulnerability. This paper deals with the concept of urban seismic vulnerability, and introduces resilience, as the capacity of a system to ...

Interaction between a structure under base excitation and heavy non-structural elements that it supports is significant in the seismic analysis and design of the structure. Heavy non-structural elements may slide/rock under base excitation, and this dynamic action affects the seismic behavior of the supporting structure. Hence, in this study, a numerical model was presented to describe the seis...

Throughout the history of El Salvador, construction practices have been influenced by earthquakes happening in that region. One of the most successful attempts, developed by the Salvadorian indigenous population, was bahareque. In fact, a primitive type of bahareque was already used in El Salvador before the Spanish invasion. This first bahareque consisted of small tree branches bonded with cla...

Wireless sensors have been proposed for use in structural health monitoring systems because they offer low-installation costs and automated data processing functionality. A wireless sensor prototype is described for use in large-scale civil structures situated in zones of high seismic activity. When networked together, the distributed computational resources of the wireless sensor network can b...

The effect of cumulative damage on the strength requirements of degrading structures is assessed through the evaluation of the target ductility and corresponding strength reduction factors of simple degrading structures. While the reduction on ductility is established through the use of Park and Ang index, the suggestions given by Bojórquez and Rivera are used to model the degradation of the st...

We study the interaction of a seismic wave-field with a spherical acoustic gas-or fluid-filled cavity. The intention of this study is to identify characteristic features in the interaction that may help detecting cavities in the subsurface. This is important for many applications, as in particular the detection of underground nuclear explosions which are to be prohibited by the Comprehensive-Te...