DATE:

Friday, April 22, 2022

TIME:

3:30 PM

LOCATION:

GMCS 314

SPEAKER:

Dr. Lucia Praticò, Civil, Chemical, Environmental, and Material Engineering, University of Bologna

ABSTRACT:

The topic of seismic loss assessment of existing buildings not only incorporates many aspects of the earthquake engineering, but also entails social factors, public policies and business interests.

Concerning the subject of the structural engineering, the evaluation of the seismic losses requires the integration of different broad fields including the characterization of the seismic hazard, the risk assessment, the seismic performance assessment of structures and of non-structural systems. Because of its multidisciplinary character, the seismic loss assessment process may be complex to challenge, and sound discouraging to neophytes.

In this context, with the pace of progress in the field of loss assessment, there is an increasing need of deriving simplified methodologies to streamline the process and provide tools for decision-makers, but also practitioners. The dissertation investigates different possible applications both in the area of the modelling and prediction of seismic losses, both in the analysis of observational seismic data.

Regarding the first topic, the PRESSAFE-disp method is proposed for the fast evaluation of the fragility curves of precast RC structures. The method allows a comprehensive explanation of the seismic in-plane behaviour of existing precast RC buildings and could be effectively adopted, for example, in earthquake loss estimations and seismic risk assessments of large Italian industrial areas, as well as of seismic-prone territories of the Mediterranean area. Hence, a direct application of the method to the productive area of San Felice sul Panaro is studied to assess the seismic losses in terms of number of collapsed buildings under a specific seismic scenario. In particular, with reference to the buildings subjected to the 2012 Emilia Romagna seismic ground-motion, two large-scale stochastic models are outlined to predict the number of buildings collapsed in the area. The outcomes of this simplified framework applied at the large scale are promising, in good agreement with the observed damage scenario.

Furthermore, at the scale of a single RC building, a simplified displacement-based loss assessment methodology is outlined for the definition of quantitative performance metrics to be used in the decision-making. The method is suitable for evaluating the relative seismic performance for a comparative analysis of the effectiveness of different feasible seismic retrofit options.

Finally, a contribution to the analysis of the observational seismic losses of damaged buildings is presented in the last part of the dissertation. A specific database of loss data of precast RC buildings damaged by the 2012 Earthquake is created and investigated. The outcomes presented may be implemented in probabilistic seismic loss assessment methodologies to predict the consequences of possible seismic events on precast buildings at a large scale. Furthermore, they may be adopted to guide the decision-making in establishing priorities and retrofit policies to prevent and reduce the consequences of future earthquakes in industrial areas.

HOST:

Gloria Faraone

VIDEO: