COST ACTION C26

URBAN HABITAT CONSTRUCTIONS UNDER CATASTROPHIC EVENTS

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FINAL CONFERENCE

© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FINAL COST ACTION C26 CONFERENCE, NAPLES, ITALY, 16–18
SEPTEMBER 2010

COST ACTION C26

Urban Habitat Constructions
under Catastrophic Events
Proceedings of the Final Conference
(Naples, 16, 17, 18 September 2010)

Chair
Federico M. Mazzolani
Department of Structural Engineering, University of Naples “Federico II”,
Naples, Italy

© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

 Chairman Federico M. Mazzolani

Editorial Board
Mike Byfield
Gianfranco De Matteis
Dan Dubina
Beatrice Faggiano
Maurizio Indirli
Alberto Mandara
Federico M. Mazzolani
Frantisek Wald

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Table of Contents

Foreword XV

Keynotes
Multilevel seismic performance based design of structures considering the concepts of
sustainability and robustness 3
A.G. Ayala & S. López
To challenging problems in fire protection of steel structures 9
Guo-Qiang Li
Volcanic hazards and risk in cities, with emphasis on lahars: A review 17
J.C. Thouret & K.M. Martelli
The development of protective structures for northern Ireland 29
F.G. Hulton
Performance based methodology for tracing the response of restrained steel beams exposed to fire 39
V. Kodur & M. Dwaikat
Modelling climate change impact on cultural heritage the European project climate for culture 45
J. Leissner, R. Kilian, F. Antretter & A. Holm
The development of analysis of glazed facades to resist blast effects 51
C.M. Morison
Lessons of the Mw = 8.8 Chile 2010 earthquake 61
G.R. Saragoni

Sessions
Characterization of catastrophic actions on construction
Characterization and modelling of seismic action
Development of design response spectra for Baghdad area 71
I.S. AbdulMutalib
Stresses characterization and quantification in masonry structures with bent axle:
Methodological approach and first experiences 77
M. Candela
Selecting the appropriate probabilistic demand models using Bayesian statistics 81
A. Deylami & M. Mahdavi Adeli
Problems of seismic behaviour of buildings situated in urban habitats 87
V. Gioncu & F.M. Mazzolani
Analysis of different numerical procedures for determining the random and chaotic
earthquake properties 93
R. Magaña, A. Hermosillo & M. Pérez
The Mw 6.3, 2009 L’Aquila earthquake: Linear and nonlinear site effects 99
C. Nunziata, F. Vaccari & G.F. Panza
Scenarios based earthquake hazard assessment 105
F. Romanelli, A. Peresan, F. Vaccari & G.F. Panza
Microzonation of landslide hazard triggered by earthquakes – Application of GIS methodology 111
V. Sesov & J. Cvetanovska

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 Modelling of explosion
Determination of design loads from explosion and impact scenarios 119
N. Gebbeken & T. Döge
A feasibility study on modeling blast loading using ALE formulation 127
L. Kwasniewski, M. Balcerzak & J. Wojciechowski
Windows and glazing systems exposed to explosion loads: Part 1 – Lethality and hazard assessment 133
A. Lööf, A. van Doormaal & M. Teich
Windows and glazing systems exposed to explosion loads: Part 2 – Safety
improvement strategies 139
M. Teich, N. Gebbeken, A. Lööf & A. van Doormaal
Dynamic testing of semi-rigid steel beam-column connections 145
A. Tyas, J.A. Warren, J.B. Davison, E.P. Stoddart & A. Hindle

Actions due to other natural catastrophes

Landslides as a secondary event of earthquakes and eruptions 153
E. Nigro & C. Faella
Measurements of shear wave velocities for seismic and volcanic hazard assessment in urban areas 163
C. Nunziata, G. De Nisco, M.R. Costanzo, F. Vaccari & G.F. Panza
Tsunami impact evaluation for coastal areas 169
T. Rossetto, T.O. Lloyd, C. Coelho, J.P. Carlier & W. Allsop
Avalanche actions on constructions 175
A. Talon, J.P. Muzeau & J.P. Carlier

Analysis of behaviour of constructions under catastrophic events

Analyses of structures under fire
Partial interaction behaviour of composite steel-concrete members at elevated
temperatures accounting for geometric nonlinearities 183
P. Ansourian, G. Ranzi & A. Zona
Thermal and thermo-mechanical behaviour of timber connections in fire 189
M. Audebert, A. Bouchaïr, M. Taazount & D. Dhima
Numerical assessment of structural assembly between steel beam and CFT columns under fire 195
F.R. Carvalho Lopes, A. Santiago, L. Simões da Silva & J.G. Santos da Silva
Numerical simulations of full-scale enclosure fires in a multilevel library 201
P. Ciambelli, M.G. Meo, P. Russo & S. Vaccaro
Assessment of the robustness of structures subjected to fire following
earthquake through a performance-based approach 207
B. Faggiano, D. De Gregorio & F.M. Mazzolani
Fire resistance of self-compacting concrete beam-column sub-assemblage 213
I.K. Fang, C.C. Lee, L.W. Chou, P.S. Chiu, T.W. Liu & J.M. Yeh
The effect of different plaster types on critical limit for fire resistance used by horizontal
load-bearing structures 219
M. Hajpál & A. Somorjai
The combined effect of high temperature and high loading rate on the fracture
resistance of a grade S355J0 steel section 225
A.J. Horn
A study on the full scale fire test of medical modular block for the fire resistance
performance evaluation 231
K. Heung Youl, K. Hyung Jun, L. Jae Sung, K. Ki Hyuk & C. Bong Ho
Numerical modeling of steel columns in fire 237
L. Kwaśniewski, P.A. Król & K. Ła˛cki

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An experimental study on the thermal property of concrete under the load ratio
condition in tunnel fire 243
Kyung suk Cho, K. Heung Youl, K. Hyung Jun, L. Jae Sung & Younghan Jung
Finite element modelling of lap shear riveted connections in fire 249
R. Marmo, M. D’Aniello, F. Portioli & R. Landolfo
Application of FSE approach to the structural fire safety assessment of steel-concrete
composite structures 255
E. Nigro, A. Ferraro & G. Cefarelli
Member, substructure and global structural fire analyses of steel-concrete composite frames 261
E. Nigro, A. Ferraro & G. Cefarelli
Thermo-mechanical analysis of composite slabs under fire conditions 271
D. Pantousa & E. Mistakidis
A comparative numerical simulation study on blast response of reinforced
concrete slabs subjected to fire 277
F. Pascualena, J. Vantomme, J.M. Ndambi & U. Nyström
Evaluation of the residual strength of square CFT columns after a fire through
structural performance evaluation test 283
J. Sang-Keun, K. Sun-Hee, C. Sung-Mo, W. Yong-Ahn & K. Heung Youl
Evaluation of the steel structure fire resistance of a shopping centre using structural fire engineering 289
P. Vila Real & N. Lopes
To the composite slab on beams with corrugated web exposed to fire 295
F. Wald, T. Jána, P. Kyzlík & M. Strejček
Fire after earthquake 301
R. Zaharia, D. Pintea & D. Dubina
Analysis of steel-framed open car parks under localized fire 307
R. Zanon, M. Sommavilla, O. Vassart, L.-G. Cajot, R. Zandonini & F. Gadotti

Evaluation of structural response under exceptional seismic actions

Micro and macro-finite element modeling of brick masonry panels subject to lateral loadings 315
M. Annecchiarico, F. Portioli & R. Landolfo
Seismic performance of RC frame buildings with masonry infill 321
R. Apostolska, G. Necevska-Cvetanovska & J. Cvetanovska
Modelling influence of paraseismic tremors on precast apartment buildings 325
J. Barański, P. Berkowski & G. Dmochowski
The solid springer rule – behavior under dynamic stress 331
M. Candela & R. Fonti
Modelling issues of steel braces under extreme cyclic actions 335
M. D’Aniello, F. Portioli & R. Landolfo
Response of BRBs to catastrophic seismic actions: Experimental results 343
G. Della Corte & F.M. Mazzolani
Direct design approach for seismic resistant steel frame buildings under extreme loading 349
F. Dinu, D. Dubina & G. De Matteis
Application of high strength steel to seismic resistant multi-storey buildings 355
D. Dubina, A. Stratan, F. Dinu, D. Grecea, N. Muntean & C. Vulcu
Inelastic torsional response of an asymmetric-plan hospital building in Italy 365
M. Ferraioli
L’Aquila earthquake: A survey in the historical centre of Castelvecchio Subequo 371
A. Formisano, P. Di Feo, M.R. Grippa & G. Florio
Seismic response of sheathed cold-formed steel structures under catastrophic events 377
L. Fiorino, O. Iuorio, V. Macillo & R. Landolfo
First considerations on the February 27, 2010 Chilean earthquake 383
M. Indirli, F.M. Mazzolani & A. Tralli

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Seismic responses of continuous twin I-girder bridge using three-dimensional modal
pushover analysis procedure 391
A.H. Nguyen, T. Hayashikawa & C. Chintanapakdee
The influence of piers on the dynamic behavior of bridges subjected to earthquake acting
in parallel to the deck 399
I.G. Raftoyiannis, T.G. Konstantakopoulos & G.T. Michaltsos
A model for limit state analysis of wooden structures 405
F. Ramundo & M.R. Migliore
Lateral capacity of steel structures designed according to EC8 under catastrophic seismic events 409
S. Tortorelli, M. D’Aniello & R. Landolfo
Seismic assessment of historical mosques under exceptional earthquakes: A case study in Skopje 415
F. Portioli, O. Mammana, R. Landolfo & F.M. Mazzolani
Experimental methodology for verification of effectiveness of innovative seismic
strengthening techniques of historical monuments 421
L. Krstevska, L. Tashkov, K. Gramatikov, F.M. Mazzolani & G. De Matteis
In-situ experimental testing of four historical buildings damaged during the
2009 L’Aquila earthquake 427
L. Krstevska, L. Tashkov, N. Naumovski, G. Florio, A. Formisano, A. Fornaro & R. Landolfo
Ambient vibration tests on three religious buildings in Goriano Sicoli damaged during the
2009 L’Aquila earthquake 433
L. Tashkov, L. Krstevska, N. Naumovski, G. De Matteis & G. Brando
Seismic response analysis of multiple supported piping systems with friction characteristics 439
T. Yamauchi, K. Tsuchikawa, A. Masuda & A. Sone

Analysis of structures under impact and explosion

Compressive behaviour of concrete at high strain rates 447
M. Belaoura
Numerical investigation of internal explosions in steel pipe 453
P. Bonalumi, M. Colombo & M. di Prisco
Experimental study of composite column and wall systems for impact resistance 459
A. Britner, M. Gündel & R. Obiala
Insulated concrete thin-shells under exceptional loads 465
R.B. Esplin, J.P. South, G. Whipple & B. Davis
Detailed micro-modelling of masonry under blast and earthquake loads 471
T. Linse & N. Gebbeken
Behaviour of deformable blast walls for protective structural design 477
S.A. Kilic & P.D. Smith
Simulation of pressures behind rigid blast walls 481
S.A. Kilic & P.D. Smith
Robust design – Alternate load path method as design strategy 487
L. Roelle & U. Kuhlmann
Tests and simplified numerical simulation of vehicle impact on guardrails with respect
to normative regulations 493
C. Seiler
Behaviour and structural evaluation procedure of a precast R.C. multi-storey building subjected
to blast loading 499
D.V. Stoian, I.S. Pescari, S.C. Florut & V.A. Stoian

Consequence of natural disasters on constructions

Air fall deposits due to explosive eruptions: Action model and robustness
assessment of the Vesuvian roofs 507
D. De Gregorio, B. Faggiano, A. Formisano & F.M. Mazzolani

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Review of the impacts of volcanic ash fall on urban environments 513
V. Sword-Daniels, T. Rossetto, J. Twigg, D. Johnston, T. Wilson, J. Cole, S. Loughlin & S. Sargeant
Structural design of urban habitat construction against catastrophic wind actions 519
T. Stathopoulos, I. Zisis & C.C. Baniotopoulos
Minimizing the risks associated with fire and floods in illegal and unplanned settlements
in a developing country 525
B.W.J. van Rensburg

Evaluation of vulnerability of constructions

Vulnerability of existing buildings under fire
Computational Fluid Dynamic analysis of water mist system performance for fire safety of
a nineteenth century cast-iron structured building 531
J. De la Quintana, J. Aurtenetxe, F. Morente & R. Ugartetxe
Reflectometric interrogation technique for structural damage assessment
using FBG-based fiber optic strain sensors 535
Yu.N. Kulchin, O.B. Vitrik, A.V. Dyshlyuk, A.M. Shalagin, S.A. Babin & A.A. Vlasov

Performance based evaluation and seismic risk analysis

Development and validation of a procedure of seismic performance evaluation of structures 541
A.G. Ayala, M. Mendoza & R. Apostolska
A method for the evaluation of the seismic vulnerability of fortified structures 547
A. Baratta, I. Corbi & S. Coppari
Seismic vulnerability by extrinsic kinematics: The St. Mary’s Church, Naples, Italy 553
A. Bianco & L. Picardi
L’Aquila earthquake April 6th, 2009: The damage assessment methodologies 557
R.P. Borg, M. Indirli, T. Rossetto & L.A. Kouris
Seismic vulnerability of the “Quinto Orazio Flacco” school 565
A. Fiore & P. Monaco
Seismic vulnerability analysis of a masonry school in the Vesuvius area 571
A. Formisano, F.M. Mazzolani & M. Indirli
A quick methodology for seismic vulnerability assessment of historical masonry aggregates 577
A. Formisano, F.M. Mazzolani, G. Florio & R. Landolfo
Seismic vulnerability analysis of historical centres: A GIS application in Torre del Greco 583
A. Formisano, F.M. Mazzolani, G. Florio, R. Landolfo, G. De Masi, G. Delli Priscoli & M. Indirli
Evaluation of RVS method for pre-seismic assessment of structures utilizing
post-earthquake damage investigations 589
A.I. Karabinis & T.C. Rousakis
Robust design of seismic up-grading of R.C. structures with innovative bracing systems 595
J.-U. Sickert, M. Kaliske, W. Graf & A. Mandara

Vulnerability and damageability of structures under impact and explosion

Robustness analysis of bridge when exposed to train collision due to derailment 603
I. Björnsson & S. Thelandersson
Limitations of the tying force method for providing robustness in steel framed buildings 609
M.P. Byfield & S. Paramasivam
Effect of column loss on the robustness of a high rise steel building 613
F. Dinu & D. Dubina
On the catenary effect of steel buildings 619
A. Formisano & F.M. Mazzolani
Damage and blast response of a steel frame building 625
J. Mediavilla, F. Soetens & J.W.P.M. Brekelmans

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Assesment of explosion effect in railway stations 629
G. Solomos, F. Casadei, G. Giannopoulos & M. Larcher
On modeling and progressive collapse of the building subjected to shock impact load 635
J. Vaiciunas & V. Dorosevas

Performance assessment under multiple hazards

Extreme flood effects as a combination of river and sea action 641
C. Coelho & J.P. Carlier
Survey activity for the seismic and volcanic vulnerability assessment in the Vesuvian area:
The golden mile villas 647
L. Alterio, D. De Gregorio, B. Faggiano, P. Di Feo, G. Florio, A. Formisano, F.M. Mazzolani,
F. Cacace, G. Zuccaro, R.P. Borg, C. Coelho, M. Indirli, L.A. Kouris & V. Sword-Daniels
Survey activity for the seismic and volcanic vulnerability assessment in the Vesuvian
area: The historical centre and the residential area in Torre del Greco 653
D. De Gregorio, B. Faggiano, G. Florio, A. Formisano, T. De Lucia, G. Terracciano,
F.M. Mazzolani, F. Cacace, G. Conti, G. De Luca, G. Fiorentino, C. Pennone,
G. Zuccaro, R.P. Borg, C. Coelho, S. Gerasimidis & M. Indirli
Volcanic actions and their consequences on structures 659
B. Faggiano, E. Nigro, D. De Gregorio, G. Zuccaro & F. Cacace
Survey activity for the seismic and volcanic vulnerability assessment in the Vesuvian
area: Relevant masonry and reinforced concrete school buildings in Torre del Greco 667
G. Florio, D. De Gregorio, A. Formisano, B. Faggiano, T. De Lucia, G. Terracciano,
F.M. Mazzolani, F. Cacace, G. Conti, G. De Luca, G. Fiorentino, C. Pennone,
G. Zuccaro, R.P. Borg, C. Coelho, S. Gerasimidis & M. Indirli
The L’Aquila Earthquake, April 6th, 2009: A review of seismic damage mechanisms 673
L.A. Kouris, R.P. Borg & M. Indirli
The Vesuvius case study in the framework of the EU COST Action C26 activity 683
F.M. Mazzolani & M. Indirli
Survey activity for the volcanic vulnerability in the Vesuvian area: The ‘quick’
methodology and the survey form 693
F.M. Mazzolani, B. Faggiano, A. Formisano, D. De Gregorio, G. Zuccaro, M. Indirli & R.P. Borg
A framework and guidelines for volcanic risk assessment 699
H. Narasimhan, R.P. Borg, F. Cacace, G. Zuccaro, M.H. Faber, D. De Gregorio,
B. Faggiano, A. Formisano, F.M. Mazzolani & M. Indirli
Structural vulnerability assessment under natural hazards: A review 711
D. Vamvatsikos, L.A. Kouris, G. Panagopoulos, A.J. Kappos, E. Nigro, T. Rossetto,
T.O. Lloyd & T. Stathopoulos
Seismic impact scenarios in the volcanic areas in Campania 725
G. Zuccaro & F. Cacace
Structural damage and vulnerability assessment for service life estimation through MEDEA tool 731
G. Zuccaro & M.F. Leone
Human and structural damage consequent to a Sub-Plinian like eruption at mount Vesuvius 741
G. Zuccaro, F. Cacace & S. Nardone
MEDEA: A multimedia and didactic handbook for structural damage and vulnerability
assessment – L’Aquila Case Study 747
G. Zuccaro, F. Cacace & M. Rauci

Protecting, strengthening and repairing

Fire damaged structures
Examination, assessment and repair of RC structure damaged by fire 757
M. Cvetkovska & Lj. Lazarov

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Concrete members reinforced with FRP bars in fire situation 763
E. Nigro, G. Cefarelli, A. Bilotta, G. Manfredi & E. Cosenza
Quick impact of protecting, strengthening and repairing and consequences of fire
damaged structure – Hotel Union, Kosovo 769
V. Nushi, Sh. Nixha & N. Kabashi
Analytical evaluation of fire resistance of FRP and hybrid RC beams – Part II 775
M.M. Rafi & A. Nadjai
Experimental evaluation of fire resistance of FRP and hybrid RC beams – Part I 783
M.M. Rafi & A. Nadjai

Innovative seismic protection technologies and study cases

A school building construction in steel under seismic events 791
H.A. Arda Buyuktaskin
Seismic protection of high-rise buildings by aluminum shear panels: A design application 795
A. Basile, G. Brando, G. De Matteis & F.M. Mazzolani
Numerical and experimental evaluation of q factors for RC MRF strengthened of steel BRB 801
S. Bordea & D. Dubina
Seismic isolation of buildings in Italy with double concave curved surface sliders 809
M.G. Castellano & S. Infanti
Mechanical behavior evaluation of pure aluminum by static and dynamic tests 815
G. De Matteis, G. Brando & F.M. Mazzolani
Evaluation of re-centring capability of dual frames with removable dissipative members:
Case study for eccentrically braced frames with bolted links 821
F. Dinu, D. Dubina & A. Stratan
Behaviour model for post-tensioned bolted RC frame – steel brace connection 829
A. Dogariu, S. Bordea & D. Dubina
Base isolation seismic retrofit of a hospital building in Italy: Design and construction 835
M. Ferraioli, A.M. Avossa & F. Formato
Base isolation seismic retrofit of a hospital building in Italy: Performance under
earthquake strong ground motions 841
M. Ferraioli, R. Costanzo & A. Lavino
Numerical investigation of old RC frames strengthened against earthquakes by
high dissipation steel link elements 847
K.A. Georgiadi-Stefanidi & E. Mistakidis
Seismic vulnerability reduction of existing masonry buildings. Modelling of retrofitting techniques 853
A. Gesualdo & M. Monaco
Seismic retrofitting techniques for masonry arch bridges 859
A. Gesualdo, M. Monaco & M.T. Savino
Experimental investigations on steel shear walls as seismic retrofit measure for existing rc-buildings 865
M. Gündel, D. Schmitt & B. Hoffmeister
Optimizing the organization of infill walls in order to improve the earthquake response 871
D. Güney, A.O. Kuruşcu & M. Vatan
Experimental investigation of old R/C frames strengthened against earthquakes
by high dissipation steel link elements 877
A.A. Karalis, K.C. Stylianidis & T.N. Salonikios
Application of base isolation techniques for seismic protection of structures-study cases 883
L. Krstevska, L. Tashkov, M. Garevski & V. Shendova
Using newly developed visco-elastic damper for building seismic design 891
B. Lim & H. Shen
Application of smart strategies against severe dynamic actions 901
A. Mandara, F. Ramundo & G. Spina

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 Strength of solid and hollow-core FRP-confined concrete members: A novel model 907
R. Modarelli
Conservation and emergency: The façade of Saint Eusanio Martyr church collapsed after the
Abruzzo earthquake 913
M. Praticò, E. Di Fede, G. Mascarella
An indigenous model of seismic retrofit of stone masonry structures 919
M.M. Rafi, S.H. Lodi & S.F.A. Rafeeqi
INERD software: A new design tool to improve the robustness of RCMRF under earthquake loading 925
R. Zanon, M. Sommavilla, F. Labory, L.-G. Cajot, A. Plumier, H. Degée, K. Weynand & R. Oerder

Protection of structures against impact and explosion

Behaviour of high performance fibre reinforced cementitious composites under high
dynamic loading and fire for safe tunnels 933
E. Cadoni, A. Caverzan & M. di Prisco
Elastic Systems for Dynamic Retrofitting (ESDR) of structures 939
P. Casadei & E. Agneloni
Numerical study of functionally-graded cementitious panels subjected to small projectile impact 949
S.T. Quek, V.W.J. Lin, S.C. Lee & M. Maalej
Identification of geometrical design criteria for reducing the vulnerability of
urban area configurations to blast effects 955
C. Pérez Jiménez, M. Minguez Fica & J. De la Quintana
Effectiveness of seismic strengthening of monuments for their blast resistance 961
V. Sendova, G. Jekic & L. Tashkov

Strategy and guidelines for damage prevention

Toward definition of the art’s rules for the recovering of historical centre after a seismic event 969
V. Ceradini, M. Praticò & P. Terenzi
Experimental evaluation of q factor for dual steel frames with dissipative shear walls 975
F. Dinu, D. Dubina & C. Neagu
Structural identification from environmental vibration testing of an
asymmetric-plan hospital building in Italy 981
M. Ferraioli, D. Abruzzese, L. Miccoli, A. Vari & G. Di Lauro
Urban earthquake loss assessment by ELER 987
U. Hancilar, C. Tuzun, C. Yenidogan & M. Erdik
Tall buildings under long predominant period ground motions: Analysis vs. Romanian
code provisions 993
M. Iancovici & B. Ştefãnescu
Multi-hazard maps for the Valparaiso area (Chile) 999
M. Indirli, C. Puglisi, A. Screpanti & F. Romanelli
Consequences on the urban environment in Greece related to the resent intense earthquake
activity 1005
G.C. Manos & M. Demosthenous
Earthquake disaster mitigation through experimental and analytical studies on
southern Mexican adobe houses located in urban areas 1011
R.A. Matus, E.R. Guinto, S.S. Tizapa & J.L. Corona
A comparative structural, architectural and cost-based analysis of seismic design principles
applied in reinforced concrete residential buildings in Turkey 1017
C. Ozmen
Comparison of damage assessment methodologies for different natural hazards 1023
T. Rossetto, A.J. Kappos, L.A. Kouris, M. Indirli, R.P. Borg, T.O. Lloyd & V. Sword-Daniels

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Impact of the L’Aquila 2009 earthquake on the small village of Poggio Picenze:
Damage assessment and reconstruction planning 1031
V. Sepe, E. Spacone & C. Verazzo
Regional earthquake shaking and loss assessment 1037
K. Sesetyan, M.B. Demircioglu, C. Zulfikar, Y. Kamer & M. Erdik
Avalanche risk assessment in populated areas 1043
A. Talon, J.P. Muzeau & J.P. Carlier

Author index 1049

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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Foreword

The COST Action C26 started in June 2006 and developed its activity for four years. The Final Conference, held
in Naples on 16 to 18 September 2010, represents the last step of this project, where the main results are presented
by the experts of the 23 Countries, which participated to the research activity (Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech
Republic, Finland, Fy Republic of Macedonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Malta,
Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, U.K.). In addition, the
Final Conference was also open to the external participation of all over the world with the contribution of
additional 23 extra COST Countries.
The main scope of the Final Conference is the dissemination of the results achieved during the activity period
(2006–2010) at the World scale.
The dissemination activity started in 2007 with the first Workshop of the COST Action C26, which was
held in Prague (30–31 March 2007), just after nine months since the starting of the Action. The Proceeding
Volume of the Prague Workshop contains 49 papers, which synthesize the activity of the four Working Groups,
dealing with Fire Resistance, Earthquake Resistance, Impact and Explosion Resistance, Risk Assessment for
Catastrophic Scenarios in Urban Habitats). This event represented the first positive out-put of COST C26 and
it can be considered as a consistent milestone for building the future developments of Fire Engineering. On this
base, a new Cost project (TU 904, chair F. Wald) has been approved and started in April 2010.
A further important activity of the Action has been represented by the Symposium, held in Malta on 23–25
October 2008, where a new Proceeding volume collecting a consistent number of technical “data sheets” (77),
covering the main items developed in the Action, has been distributed to the participants and disseminated
around. The output of this Symposium can be considered very satisfactory, taking into account the huge and
numerous fields of investigation and also the scientific level of the presented contributions. The cooperation
among the members was very large since the beginning and it increased more and more until the end.
A big challenge of the Action was the selection of the complex scenario of risk in the Vesuvius area, as a
common case study, where many types of catastrophic actions can contemporary affect the urban habitat. It gave
the possibility to the experts of the 4 WGs to cooperate together, having also the opportunity to interact with public
authorities. In addition, an enlarged forum of specialist in different fields (geologists, geophysicians, volcano-
logists, seismologists, architects and structural engineers) has been created. Many short term scientific missions
(STSMs) have been finalized to develop this activity, giving the possibility to young early stage researchers
to live unrepeatable experiences. Interco-operation among academic, governmental and public institutions has
been developed and important tangible social impact was created.
The results of the Vesuvius activity, as well as the results of scientific missions in the earthquake damaged
zones of Abruzzo and Chile, are reported in many papers, which are presented in the Final Conference of Naples.
This Volume contains 151 Papers coming from 46 Countries, 82 from COST experts and 69 from external
authors. They are subdivided according to five main Topics, which exactly correspond to the five Chapters of
the Final Report of activity of the COST Action C26. The five Topics are the following.
Topic 1: Characterization of catastrophic actions on constructions
Topic 2: Analysis of behaviour of constructions under catastrophic events
Topic 3: Evaluation of vulnerability of constructions
Topic 4: Protecting, strengthening and repairing
Topic 5: Strategy and guidelines for damage prevention
Internationally recognized outstanding experts in the main field of catastrophic events have been invited for a
keynote lecture at the Final Conference. The eight keynote papers are published in this Volume.
It is worth noticing that there is a strict relation between the contents of the Final Report Volume and the
papers of the Final Conference. The Chapters of the Final Report represent the clear answer to the basic objectives
of the COST Action C26, which is the witness of the activity developed within the Action. At the same time,
this activity is framed in the more wide scenario of the out of COST contributions, which have been collected
at the Final Conference around the World, giving rise the a consistent state of the art in the wide range of the
structural aspects, which characterise the effects of catastrophic events in urban habitats.
Federico M. Mazzolani
Chair COST C26
Naples, June 2010

XV
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Keynotes

© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Multilevel seismic performance based design of structures considering

the concepts of sustainability and robustness

A.G. Ayala & S. López

Instituto de Ingeniería, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico, D.F., Mexico

ABSTRACT: This paper investigates how to incorporate in the sustainable development of the built infrastruc-
ture the multilevel performance based design of structures considering new concepts of structural sustainability
and robustness. Considering that sustainable and robust concepts have become a trend amongst structural engi-
neers around the world, it is shown that, in many instances, these engineers do not fully understand the implications
that a sustainable and robust performance based seismic design will have on the cost and safety of their struc-
tures. Here, through the understanding of the concepts of sustainability, robustness and progressive collapse and
their relation to the multilevel performance based design approach; it is shown that the structural engineer can
incorporate, without a substantial effort, these concepts into their designs.

1 INTRODUCTION concepts of sustainability and robustness, regardless

Current seismic design regulations as those in the
Mexico City construction code (GDF, 2004) stip-
ulate that the seismic performance of a structure
must not exceed the accepted limit states associ-
ated with serviceability and ultimate conditions, when
subjected to seismic demands of frequent and rare
occurrence, respectively, without explicitly mention-
ing other aspects related to its social impact, safety
and cost, nowadays accepted to be related to the
sustainability and robustness of the structures.
The damage statistics of recent seismic events
throughout the world has brought to light the defi-
ciencies of this current seismic design approach as the
target performances assumed in their application have
not been always been shown by the structures when
they have been subjected to earthquakes as those con-
sidered in their design demands. As for some of these
events the social impact, lost lives and destroyed infras-
tructure has been beyond expectations, seismic codes
must be improved to protect life and reduce damage
to acceptable levels.
To control structural damage and guarantee the
objectives of seismic design by reducing the limita-
tions of current methods, the performance based seis-
mic design philosophy of structures has been revisited
with the purpose of developing new design method-
ologies. Together with this trend there has been a
growing interest among structural engineers to design
sustainable and robust constructions even though the
questions of what should be done to produce these
designs are still not fully answered.
Up to recently, it used to be rare to see design
documents, issued by a structural design office, of a
structural project which used true performance based
seismic design procedures and even less that involved
the fact, that it is up to the structural engineers to
quantify the impact of these concepts in the cost and
safety of their designs. To undertake this responsibil-
ity, structural engineers need a clear understanding of
what performance based seismic design means and
how this design approach is related to the sustainabil-
ity and robustness required by the building’s owners
and in general by society.
To clarify this topic, this paper investigates the inter-
relations between performance based seismic design,
structural robustness and sustainability, addressing the
key points which need to be further investigated. Ques-
tions as what is sustainability, performance based
seismic design and robustness are answered. It is
shown that by using a correct performance based
design approach together with the consideration of
structural robustness; the issue of sustainability of a
structure can be dealt with.
2 SUSTAINABILITY
The most accepted definition of sustainability is:
development that meets the needs of the present with-
out compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs, Frey, 2007. The philosophy of
sustainable structural design is to produce structures
with a minimal environmental impact while provid-
ing for a continued serviceability when subjected to
the design demands. Most discussions about sustain-
ability of a building structure include environmental,
economic, and social aspects without mentioning how
these aspects are related to the technical part of
structural design. Many structural engineers view the
movement for sustainable buildings as affording them
little opportunity to contribute and be part of it, i.e.,

3
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 structural engineers cannot do much for sustainabil-
ity if they are not told what their work can contribute
to a sustainable structure. In the generality of cases
when this situation is discussed, it is concluded that it
is not feasible for a structural design professional to
adhere to the true meaning of sustainable structural
designs without understanding the impact that per-
formance based engineering may have on the safety,
social, environmental and economic characteristics of
a structure. Sustainability in structural engineering is
part of a design philosophy, it is not something spe-
cific to a particular building, it is something that needs
to be embraced within the culture in which struc-
tural engineers live and work. It is not about being
in line with current social trends it is about achieving
a balance between the needs of a sustainable structure
and the structural performance society expects for its
buildings.
3 PERFORMANCE BASED SEISMIC DESIGN
The main goal of performance based seismic design is
to guarantee adequate and predefined performance of
a building when subjected to various seismic design
levels associated to the probable ground motions that
may occur during its entire lifetime, through the
accomplishment of prescribed limit states, also known
as performance levels. These performance levels are
defined by structural response parameters related to
the structural and non structural damage in a building,
i.e., displacements, drifts, ductilities, damage indices,
dissipated energy, among others. The parameters used
to measure performance in a building are known as
performance indices. Different values of performance
indices are defined for each performance level.
Most currently used codes stipulate two perfor-
mance levels for the design of a building, e.g., the
Mexican code prescribes that the building is to be
undamaged and retain its functionality when subjected
to frequent events of moderate intensity, and that it
is to remain stable and avoid total collapse during
rare events of high ground intensity. Proposals of new
seismic design provisions introduce additional per-
formance levels consistent with a performance based
design philosophy, giving to the engineers more ele-
ments to guarantee the safety and cost effectiveness of
their designs. As an example the Vision 2000 com-
mittee, SEAOC, 1995, defined the following four
performance levels:
Operational. – Level where minimum or no dam-
age at all is expected in structural and non structural
components. Buildings designed for this performance
level can be immediately reoccupied with minimal
reparation and in some cases with electrical power
and water supply being provided by supplementary
sources. Buildings satisfying this performance level
provide a large margin of life safety.
Immediate occupancy. – Level in which buildings
are expected to present minimal or even null damage
in structural components and minimal damage in non
4
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 1. Performance levels in a capacity curve of a
structure.
structural components. Buildings satisfying this per-
formance level are safe for reoccupation after a seismic
event, although some non structural systems may not
be functioning properly due to damage in equipment
and/or other installations. For this reason, even though
the building can be reoccupied immediately, it may be
necessary reparation and/or cleaning processes before
the building functionality can be properly restored.
Risk of human casualties is low.
Life safety. – Level in which structural and non
structural components of a building experience sig-
nificant damage. Reparations, when deemed econom-
ically practical, will be necessary before reoccupation.
The risk for life or threatening injury is low due to
the restrictions to the damage of structural and non
structural components. Many building owners find this
performance level acceptable for severe earthquakes.
Collapse prevention. – Level in which buildings
are expected to present substantial structural dam-
age allowing large losses of stiffness and strength to
lateral loads but with the significant vertical load car-
rying members still being able to resist the gravity load
demands. Due to the fact that for the amount of damage
expected in this performance level, the functionality of
a building will be totally lost, no considerations for the
performance of non structural components are given.
For this reason, risk for life-threatening injury is higher
than for the life safety performance level. The build-
ing is not safe for reoccupation because any activity
inside it, following the seismic event can produce total
collapse of the structure. In many cases economic loss
will be total.
The graphical representation of these performance
levels in the capacity curve of a structure representing
its global seismic behaviour, given by the base shear
induced by seismic demands of increasing intensity
and the corresponding maximum displacement of a
control node, which for building structures is assigned
to the centre of mass of their last storey, is illustrated
in Figure 1.
The definition of which performance levels are to
be satisfied for the different seismic design levels is
done in accordance to the function and importance

Figure 2. Recommended performance objectives (SEAOC
1995).
of the building. The set of desired performance levels
to be satisfied and the corresponding seismic design
levels for a building type is denominated performance
objective, Figure 2.
4 MULTILEVEL SEISMIC DESIGN
METHODOLOGIES
In recent years there have been frequent cases where
moderate earthquakes have caused economic losses
considerably higher than expected, showing that seis-
mic design approaches focussing on a single per-
formance level for ultimate conditions, somehow
ignoring a direct enforcement of the performance level
serviceability, an old approach still used in current
seismic designs, do not fully satisfy the performance
objective.
The situation described in the paragraph above
shows the importance of a multilevel performance
based approach. As stressed in the performance based
seismic design fundamentals, to guarantee adequate
building performance under seismic demands of dif-
ferent intensities, a multilevel performance approach
should be considered amongst other seismic design
approaches. If the design of a building, according to
a given performance objective, does not satisfy all
the performance levels for the corresponding seismic
demands, the functionality and/or safety of a structure
during its entire lifetime cannot be guaranteed.
Currently, most performance based seismic design
proposals contemplate a multilevel approach in their
argumentation of a seismic design method that fully
satisfies the performance objectives, Reyes 1999.
However, to the authors’ knowledge there are only two
proved multilevel performance based design methods,
i.e., Bertero 2001 and Barradas et al., 2010.
5 DESIGN FOR COLLAPSE PREVENTION
Design for structural collapse prevention is an impor-
tant issue in seismic design. The approach of the
current performance based seismic design philoso-
phy is that buildings falling into the category of basic
5
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
objectives are expected to undergo severe structural
damage, maybe even collapse, under very rare seis-
mic events, this damage may lead to human casualties
and total economic loss. The design of such build-
ings to satisfy an uncertain performance level for a
seismic demand with low probability of occurrence
is economically unfeasible and somehow unrealistic.
Nevertheless, to assure that a structure is protected
against total collapse and/or gross loss of life, its
design must focus on guaranteeing a desirable progres-
sion to collapse under demands of intensities beyond
those considered as design demands.
Generally speaking, structural collapse of buildings
can be divided in two types:
– Local collapse: Loss of one or more vertical load
carrying elements which results in partial collapse
of a part of a story not exceeding one or few bays.
– System collapse: Simultaneous loss of multiple
vertical load carrying components or progressive
collapse emanating from one or few failures that
lead to the collapse of all or a significant part of
the building structure. In building structures two
failure modes involved in system collapse are iden-
tified: single weak story collapse or total building
collapse.
Even though progressive collapse is the most com-
mon mode of system collapse of a building; it is rarely
considered in seismic design. Currently, there is not a
consensus among structural engineers on the concept
of progressive collapse; however, this concept can be
synthesized by the following definition: initial local
failure due to an abnormal event triggering a series of
subsequent failures in other components not directly
affected by the initial event (Haberland & Starosek,
2009).
Progressive collapse within the context of seismic
design can be defined as the progressive loss of ver-
tical load carrying capacity of a structure that can
result in its total collapse, due to an initial local failure
caused by a seismic event that leads to an uncontrolled
propagation of damage to other structural components.
According to the concepts exposed in the preceding
paragraph, the probability of progressive collapse P(C)
due to seismic action may be represented as a chain of
partial probabilities, NIST, 2007:
where: P(E) denotes the probability of occurrence of
an earthquake of intensity E which threatens the struc-
ture; P(D/E) is the conditional probability of initial
local damage D as a result of damage due to earthquake
intensity E; and P(C/D) is the conditional probabil-
ity of the collapse C of the structure as a result of
damage D.
Two appropriate strategies to limit the probability
of progressive collapse for use in seismic design can
be extracted from Equation 1: the prevention of ini-
tial local damage and the prevention of uncontrolled
damage propagation.
 The actual trend in seismic design is to conceive a
structure with procedures able to minimize their sus-
ceptibility to progressive collapse through the design
of a robust structure using the second strategy.
6 ROBUSTNESS IN PERFORMANCE BASED
SEISMIC DESIGN
Robustness, in terms of seismic design, is defined as:
the capacity of a structure to develop an uncontrolled
propagation of damage through its components origi-
nating from an initial local failure caused by a seismic
action, i.e., the resistance to collapse progression
during a seismic event.
A deterministic robustness based design method
using displacements, inspired in the concepts dis-
cussed in the previous paragraph, is being developed
by the authors. Its main objective is to provide struc-
tural robustness though effective control of spread
of structural failure of elements, i.e., minimizing the
probability of structural collapse by reducing the term
P(C/D) of Equation 1.
The proposed multilevel design method, based on
the work of Barradas et al. (2010), consists in the def-
inition of a trilinear modal behaviour curve (spectral
pseudo acceleration, Sa , vs. displacement, Sd ) charac-
terizing the elastic, inelastic and collapse progression
stages of a simplified reference system, generally asso-
ciated to the fundamental mode, Ayala 2001 . The
collapse progression stage is defined according to a
predefined damage distribution which involves sig-
nificant strength-stiffness degradation of the structure
leading to a negative slope in the behaviour curve.
The ultimate displacement is defined according to the
limits prescribed for the performance level considered.
Structural robustness, in terms of displacement, is
defined through the following equation:
where, Sdpc is the spectral displacement corresponding
to collapse prevention according to the performance
level considered and Sddr , is the spectral displacement
associated with the beginning of severe strength-
stiffness degradation, i.e., the beginning of a negative
slope in the modal behaviour curve.
According to the definition in Equation 2, a struc-
tural robustness value near 0 indicates sudden collapse
of the structure without a smooth transition from the
beginning of the negative slope to total collapse, which
is a condition that should be avoided. It can be seen
that the definition of robustness employed in this
approach follows the definition of ductility, and in the
same fashion, design should focus on guaranteeing the
largest possible value of ρ, to assure an appropriate
progression of collapse for a given target displacement.
The design method considering three performance
levels can be synthesized in the following steps:
1. Preliminary design of the structure using a method
based on forces or a performance based design
method for a target maximum displacement under
6
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 3. Examples of damage distributions a) for life safety
and b) for collapse prevention.
design demands, from which the required charac-
teristics of the structure are obtained.
2. Modal spectral analysis of the structural model
with the design spectrum for serviceability obtain-
ing the maximum interstorey drift and adjusting
the preliminary design in such a way that, the
resulting drift coincides with the allowed. This
analysis also provides the fundamental period of
the structure, T1 , and the corresponding spec-
tral pseudo acceleration Saserv and displace-
ment Sdserv of the simplified reference system,
Ayala 2001.
3. Definition of an acceptable distribution of damage
for the life safety performance level, congruent
with the principle of strong column–weak beam.
The proposed damaged distribution is based on the
geometric characteristics and the strength of the
structural elements obtained from the preliminary
design (see Figure 3a).
4. Modal analysis of the structural model corre-
sponding to the life safety performance level,
representing the structural damage by hinges at
the ends of the structural elements. In a similar
way to step 2, the fundamental period T2 and the
spectral pseudo acceleration and displacement of
the simplified reference system are obtained.
5. The maximum spectral displacement is calculated
for the life safety performance level, Sdsv ,. This
displacement should be such that the interstorey
drifts of the structure do not exceed the maximum
prescribed for this performance level.
6. Once the target modal displacements for the ser-
viceability and life protection performance levels
are defined; the global modal ductility, µ, of the
simplified reference system is calculated.
7. From the strength per unit mass spectrum for
the modal ductility and the required ratio of post
yielding to initial stiffness, α, the yield strength
per unit mass, Ry , associated to the initial period
and to the spectral displacement corresponding
to the life safety performance level is obtained.
This strength is compared with the required Saserv ;
if they are approximately equal, the properties
of the structure are maintained. On the contrary,
the distribution of damage and/or the ductility
are modified until an acceptable matching is
reached or, if matching is not possible, the stiff-
ness of the structure is changed checking on the

Figure 4. Trilinear behaviour curve.
minimum required to comply with the allowable
displacements for serviceability.
8. Proposal of an acceptable damage distribution for
the collapse prevention performance level con-
gruent with the damage distribution used for
the life safety performance level, function of the
structural characteristics (see Figure 3b).
9. Using an analogous procedure to that followed in
step 5, the target displacement for the collapse
prevention level is calculated.
10. From the damage distribution corresponding to
collapse prevention, the pseudo acceleration asso-
ciated to the target displacement performance
level of collapse prevention is calculated consid-
ering the progressive damage of the elements with
inelastic behaviour and the P- effects.
11. Once the characteristic points of the behaviour
curve of the simplified system are defined a plot
of it is produced (see Figure 4).
12. With the demand intensity obtained from the
behaviour curve, the design forces of the structural
elements are calculated.
The goal of this methodology is to guarantee ade-
quate performance of a building for all the perfor-
mance levels considered through the application of
a single stage design that assures that they are not
exceeded more than it is prescribed. For performances
associated to high seismic intensities a desirable pro-
gression to the target displacement associated to col-
lapse is induced through the definition of a damage dis-
tribution considering the complete loss of stiffness and
strength of the most demanded elements, i.e., struc-
tural robustness is assured through control of the prop-
agation of structural damage during a seismic event.
The assurance of performance levels and structural
robustness through design leads to safe and functional
buildings, which comply with the main issue in per-
formance based design: safety and cost effectiveness
of structures during their lifespan.
7 MULTI LEVEL SEISMIC DESIGN
CONSIDERING CONCEPTS OF
ROBUSTNESS AND SUSTAINABILITY
The previously discussed concept of sustainability in
design refers to the achievement of a balance between
7
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 5. Total expected life cycle cost as a function of yield
force coefficient (Sezer & Bosdaq, 2008).
ecological, social and economic aspects through the
integration of objectives of various professional fields
which are necessary to consider. Among these fields,
earthquake engineering design plays an important role.
The purpose of earthquake engineering is to con-
ceive structures able to provide safety for their occu-
pants and assure their serviceability under the seismic
demands to which they may be subjected during their
lifespan, together with the simultaneous consideration
of economic benefit. Therefore, earthquake engineer-
ing plays an essential role in sustainable development.
The importance of multilevel based seismic design
in cost efficient-safe-functional construction can be
easily noticed through the understanding that, a desired
building performance involves all of the conditions
or scenarios implicated during its lifespan. The prob-
lem of minimizing life cycle cost can serve as a good
example to comprehend this point.
It is common among building owners and even
structural engineers to define a cost effective design
by means of minimum initial cost. However, econom-
ical costs due to reparations and maintenance, closely
related to performance levels, may drastically increase
the cost of a building during its entire life cycle. This
can be exemplified in Figure 5 which shows the results
of a life cycle cost analysis done on a four storey steel
building for different values of yield force coefficient
(Sezer & Bosdaq, 2008).
An important component of life cycle cost is the per-
formance level cost, defined as the potential damage
cost from earthquakes that may occur during the lifes-
pan of a building, which includes the costs of damage,
loss of contents, relocation, rental and income loss,
injury, human fatalities and other direct and indirect
economic losses due to earthquake hazard.
The damage cost curve in Figure 5 was calculated
considering earthquake induced damage cost only.
Here, it may be observed that reducing the initial cost
of a structure, e.g., minimizing its self weight, will
increase significantly the damage cost, thus leading to
a higher life cycle cost of the building. Furthermore,
even more important than the economical aspect, is
the fact that a design considering a minimal initial
cost approach will not necessarily guarantee the safety
of occupants during the lifespan of the building. For
this reason, the importance of multilevel performance
 based seismic design arises, as its main objective is
to minimize both direct and indirect costs due to
earthquake while simultaneously assuring building
functionality and life-injury safety. Under this context,
the consideration of structural robustness in perfor-
mance based seismic design is essential, due to the fact
that robustness based design reduces the risk of human
casualty and injury due to severe ground motion, a fun-
damental issue in assuring safety, a key aspect in the
performance based design philosophy.
8 CONCLUSIONS
Sustainability is a concept that refers to equilibrium of
economical, social and ecological aspects in the envi-
ronment through the integration of several fields of
expertise. Therefore, it is essential that the earthquake
engineering profession be aware of their particular role
in sustainable development. Structural engineers must
adhere to practical and proven methods of design that
assure that the balance between the three aspects that
define sustainable development is achieved through
structural design. Multilevel performance-robustness
based seismic design methods seek life safety and
economy during the lifespan of the building, thus
playing a fundamental role in achieving sustainable
development of the constructed environment.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The project “Development of the Conceptual Frame-
work, Theoretical Models and Simplified Methods
for the Seismic Evaluation and Performance Based
Design of Structures” and the grant of the second
author were sponsored by the National Council for
Science and Technology of Mexico. The assistance
8
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
of Mabel Mendoza in the preparation of this paper
is acknowledged.
REFERENCES
Ayala, A.G. 2001. Evaluation of seismic performance of
structures, a new approach. Revista Internacional de
Métodos Numéricos para Cálculo y Diseño en Ingeniería.
17(1): 3, 285–303 (in Spanish).
Bertero, R. 2001. Earthquake Resistant Performance based
Design. PhD thesis, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
(in Spanish).
GDF 2004. Construction code for the Federal District, com-
plementary technical standards on criteria and actions
for the structural design of buildings and complementary
technical standards for seismic design, Official gazzette,
Mexico.
Reyes, J.C. 1999. The service limit state seismic design of
buildings. PhD thesis, Graduate Studies Division, Faculty
of Engineering, UNAM-México (in Spanish).
Barradas, J.E., Ayala, G. & Castellanos, H. 2010. A mul-
tilevel performance based seismic design method for
reinforced concrete structures. 14th European Confer-
ence on Earthquake Engineering. Ohrid, Republic of
Macedonia.
Frey, P. 2007. Making the case: Historic preservation
as sustainable development. (www.preservationnation.
org/issues-/sustainability/additionalresources/Discussion-
Draft_10_15-.pdf, accessed 1/06/10).
Haberland, M. & Starossek, U. 2009. Progressive Collapse
Nomenclature, Proceedings ASCE SEI 2009 Structures
Congress: 1886–1895.
NIST 2007. Best practices for reducing the potential for pro-
gressive collapse in buildings, NISTIR 7396, National
Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD.
SEAOC 1995. Vision 2000, Performance Based Seismic
Engineering of Buildings, Structural Engineers Associ-
ation of California, Sacramento, CA.
Starossek, U. 2009. Progressive Collapse of Structures:
Nomenclature and Procedures, Structural Engineering
International. 16(2): 113–117.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

To challenging problems in fire protection of steel structures

Guo-Qiang Li
State Key Laboratory for Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

ABSTRACT: Some recent studies on the properties and behaviors of fire protection materials are presented.
Particularly, the concept and measurement of equivalent thermal conductivity or resistance of fire insulation
coatings is given; experimental study about the aging effects on thermal resistance of intumescent coating
is presented; and experimental and theoretical studies on the damage of spray-on coatings on steel members
are introduced. In this paper, the spray-on coatings refer in particular to the traditional, inactive spray-applied
fire resistive materials, not include intumescent coating. Some recommendations for further research on the
objectives investigated are given.

1 INTRODUCTION through the insulation can be expressed as (Li &

Zhang, 2010)
The fire-resistance of steel structures is much less than
that of concrete structures. The main reason is that the
thermal conductivity of steel is much larger than that
of concrete, which leads to the temperature of struc-
tures made in steel subjected to fire elevating much where, Ts , Tg are steel and fire temperatures respec-
faster than that of structures made in concrete (British tively; ρs cs is the heat capacity of steel; Ai /V is the
Standard, 2005). For securing enough fire-resistance section factor, where Ai is the surface area of the mem-
of steel structures, fire protection is usually employed ber per unit length and V is volume of the member
and thermal insulation coating is normally used. per unit length; and R is the thermal resistance of
The thermal conductivity property of insulation insulation.
coating is the key parameter to affect the tempera- The solution to Eq.1 can be expressed as
ture elevation of steel structures with insulation in fire.
The precise prediction of temperature elevation of steel
structures with insulation in fire is the base for predict-
ing the fire-resistance of structures. However, it is hard
to determine the thermal conductivity property of fire where, Tg (0) is the ambient temperature at the begin-
insulation coating. The reasons are ning of the fire; and B is a factor given by
1) the conductivity property of insulation is usually
varied with temperature elevation, which is espe-
cially true for intumescent coating due to its swell
up in fire (Anderson et al., 1988);
2) the intumescent coating is sensitive to weathering If thermal resistance is a constant and the ISO834
and conductivity property will be changed with standard fire is considered, a very simple formula
aging (Wang et al., 2006; Wang et al., 2010); and can be obtained through curve fitting results of Eq. 2
3) the spray-on coating is usually fragile, which is eas- as (China Association for Engineering Construction
ily damaged or even peeled off from steel members Standardization, 2006)
protected (Li et al., 2009).
The above problems are quite challenging in deter-
mining proper fire protection of steel structures.

Unfortunately, the thermal resistance of the coat-

2 EQUIVALENT CONDUCTIVITY PROPERTY
OF INSULATION COATING
2.1 Background
In fire condition, the equilibrium between the heat
absorbed by the steel member and the heat transmitted
ing used for fire protection of steel structures is not
a constant. Although the thickness of spray-on coat-
ing consisting of vermiculite particles, mineral or slag
fibers etc. may keep constant in fire, the thermal
conductivity of the coating changes with elevated tem-
peratures, as shown in Fig. 1. The situation is even

9
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 1. Thermal conductivity of insulation as a function
of temperatures (Kodur & Harmathy, 2002).

worse if intumescent coating is used. The thickness

of the coating will increase when it is heated. So, the
thermal resistance of intumescent is various during
exposure to fire.
A challenging problem is put forward that how to
precisely and simply predict the temperature of pro-
tected steel structures exposed to fire if the thermal
resistance of fire protection coating is not a constant.

2.2 Solution
The equivalent thermal resistance parameter is defined Figure 2. The furnace and specimens in it.
for fire insulation coating as a constant index to resist
heat transfer to steel elements. The idea is to measure where, Rei is the equivalent thermal resistance param-
the temperature elevation of a sample of steel elements eter obtained with the temperature of the steel element
with insulation and to assume the thermal resistance of at Tsi .
the insulation to be a constant. The equivalent thermal Since the thickness of spray-on coating is stable in
resistance parameter is then the value of the constant fire, the equivalent thermal conductivity parameter of
that maybe adopted to predict the temperature of the the coating can be defined as
steel element with insulation exposed to fire.
With Eq. 4, the equivalent thermal resistance param-
eter can be expressed as

2.3 Experimental investigation

Obviously, the equivalent thermal resistance param-
eter, Re , is related to the temperature of the steel
element measured, Ts . For the purpose of calculating
fire resistance of steel structures, the structural critical
temperature is proposed to be selected for determining
the equivalent thermal resistance parameter. However,
if the critical temperature of steel structures is unable
to be estimated beforehand, the average value of Re
relevant to a range of temperatures covering the pos-
sible critical temperatures may be employed for the
equivalent thermal resistance parameter as
Fig. 2a shows the furnace with net sizes 1.0 m ×
1.0 m × 1.2 m for experiment. The furnace tempera-
ture can be controlled to follow the time-temperature
curves of the ISO834 standard fire, the hydrocarbon
fire and self-designed fire. The pressure and the tem-
perature of the furnace, loading and unloading, the data
acquisition, the secure alarm are all integrally con-
trolled with a computer, so as to reach the convenient
operation.
As shown in Fig. 2b, 4 steel plate specimens in size
200 mm × 270 mm × 16 mm with insulation coating
may be installed in the furnace at the same time. In
the experiment the temperatures of furnace and steel
specimens are measured with thermal couples.
Two types of coatings, spray-on and intumescent,
are used for experiments. The equivalent thermal

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 1. Equivalent thermal conductivity of the spray-on Table 2. Equivalent thermal resistance of the intumescent
coating (W/m K). coating (m2 K/W).

Steel temperatures Steel temperatures Steel temperatures Steel temperatures

◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦
No. 400∼600 C 540 C No. 400∼600 C 540 C No. 400∼600 C No. 400∼600◦ C

1–1 0.198 0.199 3-3 0.201 0.203 1–1 0.0268 3–1 0.0577
1–2 0.200 0.200 4-1 0.199 0.206 1–2 0.0287 3–3 0.0434
1–3 0.198 0.197 4-3 0.198 0.203 2–1 0.0318 3–4 0.0630
2–1 0.198 0.199 5-1 0.198 0.205 2–2 0.0379 3–6 0.0795
2–3 0.196 0.197 5-3 0.196 0.200 2–3 0.0368
3–1 0.200 0.204

the range of the most possible critical temperature at

400 ∼ 700◦ C, as shown in Fig. 3a.
Fig. 3b shows that the equivalent thermal resistance
parameter of intumescent coating changes with the
temperature of specimens. The average value of the
equivalent thermal resistance parameter of the intu-
mescent coating at the range of temperatures of steel
specimens at 400–600◦ C, listed in Table 2, is adopted
as the assumed constant to predict the temperatures of
the specimens exposed to fire. As shown in Fig. 2b,
the prediction of the temperatures of the specimens
with intumescent coating matches the results measured
very well at range of temperatures at 400–700◦ C.

2.4 Further research needs

The current investigation on the equivalent thermal
resistance parameter of insulation coating is based on
the steel plate specimens with sizes 200 mm × 270 mm
× 16 mm. The effect of the size and shape of speci-
mens on the value of the equivalent thermal resistance
parameter needs further research.

3 AGING EFFECTS ON THERMAL

RESISTANCE OF INTUMESCENT
COATING

Figure 3. Comparison between predicted and measured
temperatures of specimens.
conductivity parameters of the spray-on coating are
obtained through using a range of measured tempera-
tures of steel specimens at 400∼600◦ C and a definite
measured temperature of steel specimens at 540◦ C
respectively, and listed in Table 1. It can be seen that
the equivalent conductivity parameter of the spray-on
coating is quite stable whether the value is obtained
with a definite temperature or a range of temperatures.
It is also found that the temperatures of the specimens
with spray-on coating can be precisely predicted with
using the equivalent thermal conductivity parameter at
3.1 Background
Light-weight thin filmed intumescent coating is
becoming more widely used as the fire protection
material for steel structures because it has many advan-
tages such as convenient construction, lightweight, and
attractive architectural appearance. When specifying
intumescent coating fire protection for steel struc-
ture, the following assumptions are made: the type
and thickness of fire protection are correctly specified;
the intumescent coating is correctly applied and its
performance meets the fire protection needs without
degradation in time. However, since most of the chemi-
cal components of intumescent coating are organic, it
should be expected that the fire protection function of
intumescent coating over time would not be as reli-
able as when freshly applied. Clearly, there is a need
to understand the durability of intumescent coating.
Research studies (Sakumoto et al., 2001; Wang et al.,
2007; Wang et al. 2006) on durability of intumescent

11
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
coating have been carried out in the last few years.
Two deficiencies still exist: firstly, the results of these
research studies can only offer a criterion based on
which one intumescent coating may be different from
the other; and secondly, the performance criterion
based on which the effect of aging is assessed is not
quantitative.

3.2 Experimental investigation

In order to investigate the aging mechanism of intu-
mescent coating and provides some quantitative data
on how the effective thermal conductivity of one type
of intumescent coating changes with time, accelerated
aging and fire tests were conducted on 36 specimens,
18 of which were applied with 1 mm coating and the
other 18 with 2 mm coating. For each coating thick-
ness, three replicate tests were performed for each
of the following cycles of accelerated aging: 0 (no
aging), 2 (simulating 1 year in service), 4 (2 years),
11 (5 years), 21 (10 years) and 42 (20 years). Intu-
mescent coating was applied to six sides of the steel
plate in sizes 200 mm × 270 mm × 16 mm. A primer
was applied to the steel surface first to act as an aid
to the adhesion to the reactive coating; this was then
followed by different layers of intumescent coating Figure 4. Effect of aging on equivalent conductivity param-
(product type: unitherm interior 38091). eter of intumescent coating in thickness of 1 mm.
The accelerated aging tests reported in this paper
adopted exposure condition type Z2 (ETAG018 PART
2, 2006) because it simulates the exposure condition
in most areas in China, each cycle of exposure is as
follows:
– 4 h at (23 ± 3) ◦ C and (80 ± 5) %RH
– 16 h at (40 ± 3) ◦ C and (50 ± 5) %RH
– 4 h at (5 ± 3) ◦ C and (50 ± 5) %RH
After the specimens were subjected to accelerated
aging as described in the previous section, they were
placed in the furnace as shown in Fig. 1, and exposed
to fire. The furnace temperature was measured by four
thermocouples and the average furnace temperature
followed the ISO834 standard fire curve. The steel
temperature was measured by two or three thermo-
couples embedded in the steel plate and recording
was made every minute continuously. The test was
continued until the steel temperature reached 700◦ C.
The equivalent thermal conductivity parameter
which is associated with the original rather than the
expanded thickness of the coating is calculated by Eqs.
5, 6 and 7.
Figs. 4 and 5 present the results of equivalent
thermal conductivity parameter for the two different
Figure 5. Effect of aging on equivalent conductivity param-
coating thickness involving effects of aging. eter of intumescent coating in thickness of 2 mm.
It can be seen from Figs. 3 and 4 that compared
to specimens without aging, the equivalent thermal
condition Z2 in Eurocode ETAG 018 Part 2, the num-
conductivities of specimens with 2 or 4 cycles of
bers of cycles of accelerated aging, 0, 2, 4, 11, 21, and
accelerated aging change very little. Specimens with
42, correspond to 0, 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20 years of nom-
11 cycles of accelerated aging have noticeably higher
inal service respectively. The following conclusions
effective thermal conductivity. Specimens with 21 and
may be drawn from experimental investigation:
42 cycles of accelerated aging show a step increase
in their effective thermal conductivity compared to 1) the values of effective thermal conductivity of
the specimens without aging. According to exposure the tested intumescent coating, which reflect the

12
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 6. Effect of environmental conditions on effective
thermal conductivity of intumescent coating.
fire protection effectiveness of the coating, would
change only slightly in the early years (2 years
corresponding to 4 cycles) of service;
2) the gradual loss of hydrophilic components with
increasing exposure time causes the intumescent
coating to lose some effectiveness, as evidenced
by reduced final expansion thickness and inferior
inner texture of the intumescent char, resulting in
increased coating effective thermal conductivity
and steel substrate temperature. After ten years of
service (corresponding to 21 cycles of exposure),
the expansion thickness reduces significantly and
the intumescent coating may not be able to form
a fine and closed honeycomb-like structure tex-
ture, with the result being significant increase in
the effective thermal conductivity of the coating;
3) the intumescent coating system would reach phys-
ical and chemical equilibrium with the adopted
exposure condition after ten years of service (>21
cycles); and
4) the increase in steel substrate temperature after 21
(10 years) and 42 (20 years) cycles of accelerated
aging ranged around 50–100◦ C.
3.3 Further research needs
Experimental research is the only way that gets some
quantitative data on how the effective thermal con-
ductivities of one type of intumescent coating changes
with time. The effective thermal conductivities of coat-
ing change after aging because of differentiation in
char structure between aged coating and freshly used
coating. Change of components in coating caused by
environmental conditions result in differentiation in
char structure. Theory relationship between thermal
conductivity and environmental conditions relies on
relationship between environmental conditions and
change of components which is currently unknown,
relationship between components and char structure
which is currently unknown and relationship between
char structure and thermal conductivities which is
already known (Russell, 1935), as shown in Fig. 6.
Therefore, theory relationship between environmental
13
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 7. Experimental setups in specimen tests.
conditions and thermal conductivities is a problem that
needs furthermore research.
4 DAMAGE OF SPRAY-ON COATING
4.1 Background
Spray-on coatings are often fragile that they might
be damaged by mechanical actions, such as impacts,
earthquakes and explosions, resulting in a possible fire
resistance reduction for the steel components origi-
nally protected. It is essential to understand the effect
of partial protection damage caused by mechanical
action on the fire resistance of steel components. Till
now, the thermal or structural behaviors of protected
steel members with partial fire protection loss have
been studied by some researchers (Tomecek & Milke,
1993; Ryder et al., 2002; Wang & Li, 2005; Li et al.,
2009). Those studies are focused on the thermal or
structural behaviors of protected steel members with
assumed arbitrary partial fire protection loss. How-
ever, little work has been reported in the literature on
the damage mechanism of spray-on coatings for pro-
tection of steel members under mechanical actions.
Here, a few recent studies conducted on the damage
mechanism of spray-on coatings are introduced.
4.2 Experimental study
Chen et al. (2010) experimentally studied the damage
mechanism of spray-on coatings on simple specimens
subjected to monotonic loadings. Fig. 7 shows the
experimental setups in the tests. Loading conditions
include tension, compression and bending. For each
condition, totally 8 specimens, 4 with 20 mm spray-
on coatings and 4 with 40 mm spray-on coatings, are
tested. According to Chinese Code, steel wire meshes
are placed in the 40 mm spray-on coatings.
In 20 mm tension tests, transversal cracks formed
near the coating ends when steel reached its yield
stress, as shown in Fig. 8a. With loading increase, joint
cracks formed. Detachment of coatings didn’t happen
in the tests.
In 40 mm tension tests, interfacial cracks formed at
the coating ends when steel reached about half of its
 Figure 8. Damage of spray-on coatings in tension tests.
Figure 9. Damage of spray-on coatings in compression
tests.
yield stress. With loading increase, cracks spread until
run through cracks formed where the coating detached
from the steel. The coating maintained their integrity
in the tests, as shown in Fig. 8b.
In 20 mm and 40 mm compression tests, interfacial
cracks formed at the coating ends when steel reached
its yield stress. With loading increase, cracks spread
rapidly until run through cracks formed. The coat-
ing maintained their integrity in the tests, as shown
in Fig. 9.
In 20 mm bending tests, transversal cracks formed
near the ends of the coating on the downward surface of
the specimen (in tension) and interfacial cracks formed
on the ends of the coating on the upward surface of the
specimen (in compression), as shown in Figs. 10a–b.
With loading increase, the coating on upward sur-
face broke at the ends and several transversal joint
cracks formed within the coating on downward sur-
face. Detachment of the coating on downward surface
didn’t happen in the tests.
In 40 mm bending tests, for the coating on upward
surface of the specimen, interfacial cracks first formed
at the mid span, then the cracks spread rapidly until
the coating totally detached from the steel surface; for
the coating on downward surface, interfacial cracks
first formed at the ends, then the cracks spread until
14
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 10. Damage of spray-on coatings in bending tests.
the coating totally detached from the steel surface, as
shown in Fig. 10c.
From the experimental study, two types of damage
were found to the spray-on coatings for protection of
steel elements. They are transversal cracks due to ten-
sion in the coating and interfacial cracks due to laminar
stress between the coating and steel elements.
4.3 Theoretical study
To study the damage mechanism of spray-on coatings
on steel members, interlaminar stress, including nor-
mal and shear stress, between the coating and steel is
investigated. The principle of the interlaminar stress
theory is briefly explained as follows.
Basic assumptions are adopted herein£º1) Both
steel and fireproof coating material are assumed
isotropic. 2) The stress is in elastic range. 3) Plane
cross-section assumption.
The shear and normal interlaminar stresses are
expressed as following:

Figure 11. Illustration of the distribution of interlaminar
stresses between spray-on coatings and steel plate.
Figure 12. Distribution of shear interlaminar stresses
between spray-on coatings and steel plate.
Figure 13. Distribution of normal interlaminar stresses
between spray-on coatings and steel plate.
where, an and bn are coefficients to be determined.
Fig. 11 shows illustration of the distribution of inter-
laminar stresses between spray-on coatings and steel
plate. Figs. 12 and 13 show the distribution of shear
and normal interlaminar stresses respectively.
In simple loading conditions, analytical resolutions
of interlaminar stresses can be obtained consider-
ing the equilibrium condition and Minimum Energy
Principle.
15
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
The S.E. Yamada criterion (Yamada & Sun, 1978)
can be adopted to analyze the interface damage of
spray-on coatings on steel members under simple
loading conditions, thus,
When tension stress within spray-on coating on
steel member exceeds the tension strength of the coat-
ing, transversal crack will form in the coating. The
following criterion can be used to analyze the damage
within spray-on coatings under tension (Wang, 2008),
4.4 Further research needs
The damage mechanism of spray-on coatings on actual
steel members under complex loading conditions, such
as cyclic loading or combined axial and flexural load-
ing, is different to that under simple monotonic loading
on simple steel specimens (Wang, 2008). Further
experimental and theoretical studies need be con-
ducted to find the damage mechanism of spray-on
coatings on actual steel members exposed to complex
loading conditions.
5 SUMMARIES
The thermal conductivity of insulation coating is the
key factor for fire resistance of steel structures with
insulation. For reasonable determination of insulation
coating for protection of steel structures against fire,
the following problems have been considered:
1) the conductivity property of insulation varies with
temperature elevation;
2) the intumescent coating degrades with time; and
3) the spray-on coating may be damaged under load-
ing to steel elements.
The results of preliminary investigation on above
problems are presented in this paper. The equivalent
thermal resistance parameter is proposed as a con-
stant index of the thermal conductivity property for the
insulation coating of steel structures. The quantitative
effects of aging on the thermal conductivity property
of insulation coating have been experimentally investi-
gated. The damage mechanism of spray-on coating had
also been preliminarily studied through experimental
and theoretical approach.
However, there is still a long way to the complete
solution to the above problems. Much more research is
further needed, which require continuous contribution
of researchers all over the world.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The studies reported in this paper involve contribution
of Prof.Y. C. Wang from the ,
Dr. S. W. Chen, and Dr. G.B. Lou from Tongji Univer-
sity, and Master and PHD students, Mr. C. Jin, Ms.
L.L. Wang, Mr. C. Zhang and Ms. J Han, of Tongji
University. Their generous contribution is gratefully
acknowledged.
The studies presented are financially supported by
the Ministry of Science and Technology of China
through the special grant to the State Key Labora-
tory of Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering, and
by the National Nature Science Foundation of China
with Grants No. 50738005 and No. 50728805, which
are also gratefully acknowledged.
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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Volcanic hazards and risk in cities, with emphasis on lahars: A review

Jean-Claude Thouret & Kim M. Martelli

PRES Clermont, Blaise Pascal University, Magmas and Volcans Laboratory, Clermont-Ferrand Cedex, France

ABSTRACT: Due to the continuing rise of global urbanisation, the management of volcanic hazards in cities
will pose major challenges to scientists and disaster prevention experts during this Century. We describe volcanic
hazard characteristics pertinent to elements at risk in cities, with emphasis on tephra fall, pyroclastic flows and
lahars. Cities are less resilient to the indirect hazardous consequences of large eruptions and more so to long-
term unexpected geomorphic hazards induced by the remobilisation of debris from dormant or extinct volcanoes.
We emphasise the complexity of the mechanisms, processes of lahar impacts and their effects on housing and
infrastructure. Finally, we focus on methods of hazard assessment (eruption scenarios), and on quantitative
probabilistic methods of risk assessment used in large cities. The probabilistic analysis of risk and loss due to
phreatomagmatic eruptions in Auckland, New Zealand, and the holistic approach of mass-flow hazard and risk
assessment conducted in Arequipa, Peru, are highlighted.

1 INTRODUCTION impacts of volcanic processes, such as pyroclastic

The burial of Pompei and Herculanum by the AD 79
eruption of Vesuvius, and the city of Saint-Pierre laid
to waste by Mt. Pelée’s “nuées ardentes”, are but a few
awesome examples of disasters caused by powerful
volcanic eruptions. Over the past fifty years, the risk to
society from volcanic eruptions has increased sharply
due to population growth, more developed and diver-
sified economies, and more technologically advanced
infrastructure. Correct land-use planning is fundamen-
tal in reducing both loss of life and damage to property.
Remote sensing technology, warning systems and GIS
have emerged as the most promising tools to support
the decision-making process. However, with the con-
tinuing rise of global urbanisation, the management of
volcanic hazards in cities and densely populated conur-
bations will present major challenges for scientists and
disaster relief experts in the 21st Century. An increas-
ing number of people and decision-makers are facing
problems in mitigating volcanic hazards especially in
large cities located near potentially destructive volca-
noes, such as Naples and Mt. Vesuvius, Arequipa and
El Misti, Tacoma-Seattle and Mt Rainier, and Mt. Fuji
and Tokyo-Yokohama (Chester et al., 2001).
Elements at risk in cities include: population in
habitat and in sites of periodic concentration, infras-
tructure, lifelines and networks, strategic buildings
for crisis management and available resources, main
centres of economic and financial interest, natural
environment and urban agriculture. Two methodolo-
gies have been used in recent years to define and
assess elements at risk in cities: 1) A geo-engineering
approach (e.g. Baxter et al., 2005) to investigate the
flows, on housing and infrastructure, and focus on
specific parameters (e.g. dynamic pressure) of flow
mechanisms to infer damage scale or index. 2). A
volcanological and probabilistic approach (e.g. Thiery
et al., 2008, Lirer et al., 2010) to identify and map vol-
canic hazards and vulnerable elements, define vulner-
ability matrices and functions for different phenomena
and distinct types of assets, and analyse their respec-
tive values in economic, functional and strategic terms.
The resulting risk maps are the graphic result of the
product of volcanic hazard, vulnerability, exposure and
potential loss models.
Both methodologies must be carried out in unison.
New approaches not only assess damage and loss but
explore the roots of the vulnerability system and all
values at stake, including institutional and political
factors. Considerable progress has been achieved in
detecting eruptive phenomena based on observations
and monitoring at active volcanoes near cities (e.g.
Vesuvius, Galeras, Popocateptl), and on experimental
modelling in the laboratory. However, policy decisions
will require improvements in the awareness of poten-
tial threats as well as a timely and appropriate response
to future volcanic crises occurring within or close to
large cities. In addition to forecasting and monitoring
during a volcanic crisis, a coherent set of actions seek-
ing a timely and appropriate response should: (i) use
methods aiming at enhancing risk perception amongst
the threatened population, (ii) reach a common evalu-
ation of what is acceptable risk for city dwellers, and
(iii) help to select strategies aiming to protect and pre-
pare people, and to protect and/or rebuild housing and
infrastructure.

17
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 1. A selection of the world’s most highly exposed
conurbations, plotted according to relative distance and
direction from the nearest volcano (Chester et al., 2001).
2 CITIES AT RISK
It is estimated that almost 10% (500 million people)
of the world’s population live in urban areas in 2000,
within 100 km of a historically active volcano. In addi-
tion, at least 12% of the population lives within 100 km
of a volcano that is believed to have been active during
the last 10,000 years. In tropical areas, the elevation
and supposedly fertile soils associated with volcanic
regions can provide incentives for agricultural-based
populations to settle close to potentially active volca-
noes. In Southeast Asia and Central America higher
population densities are in closer proximity to vol-
canoes than in other volcanic regions. In Japan and
Chile, urban population density tends to increase with
distance from volcanoes.
Chester et al. (2001) drew our attention to large
cities at risk in the vicinity of active volcanoes
(Fig. 1). The two largest cities in the world, Mex-
ico and Tokyo, are exposed to tephra fallout from
Popocateptl and Fuji, respectively. Heavy tephra fall
can mantle Naples to the W and NW of Vesuvius,
and Kagoshima is in the shadow of the persistently
active Sakurajima; both cities are also exposed to more
destructive effects from pyroclastic flows and surges.
However, the largest number of conurbations exposed
to volcanic risk is located in the developing world:Are-
quipa (Peru), Quito (Ecuador), Managua (Nicaragua),
Salvador (San Salvador), Bandung (Indonesia),
Mexico City (Mexico), San José (Costa Rica) and
Guatemala City (Guatemala), to name a few: each of
these cities has at least 1 million people living within
50 km of a historically active volcano (Fig. 1).
2.1 What makes cities vulnerable to volcanic
hazards?
The volcanic hazards characteristics pertinent to risk
in cities (considering housing, infrastructure, and
18
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
lifelines and networks) are as follows (Blong, 2000;
Chester et al., 2001):
– Lava flows: slowly bury or crush houses and infras-
tructure, and can set material on fire. Sustained
flow-forming eruptions can deliver a noxious haze,
while widespread and rugged lava flows prevent
land being available for construction, sometimes
centuries after an event.
– Ballistic ejecta and tephra fall: high impact energy,
and temperature, can damage roofs and lifelines,
and ignite materials. Tephra fallout up to 25 cm
thick can induce roof collapse (depending on roof
type and framework robustness), destroy crops,
block roads, and clog drains. Ashfall will suspend
air traffic in airports linked to cities, as demon-
strated by closed airspaces and grounded planes
this year throughout Europe due to fine ash from
the Eyjafjallajökull (Iceland) eruptions. Sustained,
fine-grained tephra fall can produce impenetrable
darkness, and can cause respiratory problems for
city dwellers even hundreds of kilometres away
from the crater. Tephra is abrasive, conductive
and magnetic on all materials. Surface crusting on
indurated tephra will increase runoff in tilled land,
feeding sediment-laden floods in drainage channels
across cities. Aerosols injectd by high columns into
the stratosphere can impact the climate at regional
or global scales.
– Pyroclastic Density Currents (twofold): Pyroclastic
flows are fast (tens of m/s) and hot (up to 800◦ C),
tend to travel in topographic lows but can also climb
topographic obstacles. Pyroclastic surges and lat-
eral blasts have a lower particle concentration but a
higher kinetic energy. These are faster, more dilute
and turbulent flows that can overrun topographic
obstructions, engulf edifices, and lay structures
down almost everywhere within a 10–15 km radius
from the vent, because they are not governed by
topography. Surges, even small in volume, kill by
heat, burial and overpressure, as shown by the 1902
“nuée ardente” that destroyed the town of Saint-
Pierre in Martinique (29,000 victims). Over-bank
flows and surges that escape from valley-confined
flows are particularly hazardous for urban areas that
have grown in apparently safe locations outside
volcanically active valleys.
– Debris avalanches: produced by sector or flank col-
lapse of high, steep and/or hydrothermally altered
volcanoes. Although they can occur on large,
gentle sloping oceanic volcanoes, and exception-
ally on monogenetic cones. These voluminous dry
flows are rare but very mobile, covering hundreds
of km2 and burying all structures. They can create
new topography (noticeably hummocks) and pond
lakes. Despite being rare, debris avalanches are
potentially the most destructive volcanic process
if urban areas are located in their path, as wit-
nessed by a few historical examples. Volcanogenic
tsunamis, with high waves and great inundation
velocities on flat coasts, may be initiated if volcano
 sector collapses take place near the shore. At least
14,500 people were killed in the city of Shimabara,
Kyushu island (Japan) in 1792 as the result of a
tsunami induced by a lava dome collapse from Mt.
Unzen.
– Lahars: a mixture of sediment and water flowing
from a volcano at velocities of a few m/s and up
to 15–20 m/s. They occur during and after erup-
tions, or even without a volcanic event as they can
be triggered by heavy rainfall or a lake breakout.
Hyperconcentrated flows and flash floods often
bury and devastate cities, such as Plymouth on
Montserrat Island. Flash floods due to rainstorms
can occur in cities on high, composite volcanoes
located in semi-arid climate, such as Arequipa in
Peru.
– Ground deformation and earthquakes: deform and
cause destruction to infrastructure and edifices,
such as the effects of the 2000 eruption of Usu in
the spa town of Toya in Hokkaido (Japan). Magma
intrusion near the soil surface disrupts city net-
works and edifices, but the area of deformation is
usually restricted.
– Volcanic gases: affect health, are corrosive or reac-
tive and can be lethal in proximal low topographies,
as shown by the catastrophic CO2 eruption near
Lake Nyos, Cameroon, in 1986. In large eruptions
aerosols and gas can be transported towards far-
flung communities and may have an impact on
global climate (e.g. the protracted aftermath of the
large 1991 Pinatubo eruption in the 1990’s).
– Other hazards that convey risk to cities and city
dwellers: overpressure on windows from air shocks,
lightning on wood materials, contamination of
water and land, and transportation accidents. Star-
vation and epidemic diseases, once historically
severe, can now be avoided if civil protection is
timely organised and if international rescue is made
available.
The direct hazards that most affect cities are tephra
fallout and PDCs. The case study of the city of Rabaul
(Papua New Guinea) provides information on the
mass, hence the load, of tephra combined with the edi-
fice type and the roof resistance (Blong et al., 2003).
The eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, Iceland, in April 2010
has highlighted the reality of the global threat to inter-
national traffic and cities, as vulnerable airports were
shut off for almost a week. As a result, aviation com-
panies alone are suffering a loss of more than US$ 250
million
An indirect but significant hazard is demonstrated
by towns that suffer unexpected damage although
they are located outside volcanically active valleys
on erupting volcanoes. In 2006, several block-and-ash
flows triggered by collapses of the growing Merapi
dome were channelled in the Gendol valley on the
south flank of the volcano in central Java. Flows and
surges escaped the valley channel and destroyed the
town of Kaliadem, more than 500 m from the Gendol
valley. Over-bank flows and avulsion in small valleys,
unlinked to the main Gendol valley, were attributed to
19
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
the decrease in channel containment, changes in gra-
dient and increase in sinuosity of the channel, and to
the runup effect of natural (valley bank) or man-made
(sabo dams) obstacles (Thouret et al., 2010).
2.2 Long-term hazardous responses to eruptions
and geomorphic hazards in cities on extinct
volcanoes
We distinguish (1) the geomorphic hazardous
responses to the consequences of large eruptions, and
(2) the long-term geomorphic hazards induced by the
remobilisation of debris from volcanoes which are no
longer active.
The geomorphic response to large eruptions
(>10 km3 of tephra) had not been documented prior
to the study of the Mt Pinatubo lahars. Lahars have
been flowing into densely populated areas of cen-
tral Luzon for at least thirteen years, causing deaths,
leaving more than 50,000 people homeless, affecting
more than 1,350,000 people, and causing enormous
property losses and social disruption (Newhall and
Punonbayan, 1997). Several towns of the province of
Pampanga, SE of Mt. Pinatubo, have been constantly
affected by lahar burial and inundation from 1991 to
2000 despite huge dam and dyke investments in the
ring plain of Pinatubo. The resulting havoc is one
order of magnitude greater than damage inflicted by an
increase in runoff and lahars to the city of Cartago over
two years after the Irazu eruption in 1963 (Waldron,
1967).
The explosive eruption of Mt Pinatubo on 15 June
1991 released a total bulk volume of 8.4 to 10.4 km3 ,
and deposited 5 to 6 km3 of loose pyroclastic-flow
deposits in the heads of valleys draining the volcano.
Approximately 0.2 km3 of tephra on the volcano’s
flanks would later be the primary source of sediment
for lahars. Numerous debris flows and hyperconcen-
trated flows were triggered during and following 1991
and affected eight major drainages of Mt Pinatubo.
The prodigious sediment yield from Pinatubo has
geomorphic after-effects such as watershed disrup-
tion, channel piracy and avulsion, and blockage of
tributaries. Blockage of tributaries at their conflu-
ence with the main channel formed temporary lakes
and impoundments. Floods triggered by breaching of
these lakes provided an additional hazard. Unlike rain-
induced lahars these floods can occur in the absence
of rainfall, and limit the capability to warn threat-
ened areas. Although the areas affected by lahars have
expanded, the frequency of events has decreased and
the number of impacted river systems had dwindled to
four in 1995, as source materials were depleted.
The Pinatubo case study raises at least three impor-
tant points (Major et al., 1997): (1) heavy rainfall alone
was not responsible for generating the lahars in 1991;
(2) geomorphic impacts affecting watershed and chan-
nels play a significant role in erosion and redistribution
of sediments. These have fostered more lahars for the
ensuing years and more flooding beyond the alluvial
fans onto the densely populated plains; (3) after the
 geomorphic impact of the devastating 1991 lahars,
subsequent lahars triggered by the seasonal monsoon
rains and other geomorphic impacts had far greater
social and economic impacts.
The largest sediments yields worldwide (commonly
from 103 to 106 t.km−2 .yr−1 ) are delivered in moun-
tainous catchments affected by debris flows in the
aftermath of explosive eruptions of large magnitude.
Post-eruption sediment yields can exceed pre-eruption
yields by several orders of magnitude. The long-term
instability of eruption-generated debris means that
effective mitigation measures must remain functional
for decades. Prolonged excessive sediment transport
after an eruption can cause environmental and socio-
economic harm exceeding that caused directly by the
eruption, as shown by the protracted lahars around Mt.
Pinatubo.
Geomorphic processes acting on dormant (i.e.
could become active again) and extinct (i.e. not
expected to erupt again) volcanoes are related to debris
flows and mass movements, common on all steep
mountains but exacerbated by unconsolidated mate-
rial. These hazards are unrelated to eruptions and
stem from the remobilisation of old tephra. On dor-
mant volcanoes, catastrophic erosion processes are
uncommon but can reach extraordinary proportions.
Examples of landslide disasters on dissected volcanoes
are Mt Ontake (Japan), triggered by an earthquake in
1984 (Voight and Sousa, 1994), and at Casita volcano
(Nicaragua), induced by the heavy rains of Hurricane
Mitch in 1998 (Scott et al., 2005).
The 1998 Casita disaster emphasises the hazards
of highly mobile debris flows beginning as landslides,
their potential to transform, and their ability to amplify
during flow. A single wave of debris flow, triggered by
hurricane precipitation, killed more than 2000 resi-
dents of two towns near Casita volcano on the 30
October 1998 (Scott et al., 2005). The flow wave began
as a small flank failure near the summit of the inac-
tive edifice. Peak precipitation from Hurricane Mitch
was the flow trigger: almost a metre of rain had fallen
between 26 and 30 of October. Downstream, the flow
volume enlarged by a factor of at least nine, and trans-
formed to a catastrophic debris flow over 1 km wide
and 3–6 m deep. Only land-use planning based on
debris-flow hazard assessment could have prevented
the Casita disaster. Afterwards the towns – established
in the 1980’s on apparently safe terrain 4 km from the
volcano – were found to have been located in a pathway
of prehistoric debris flows.
3 EMPHASIS ON LAHAR THREAT IN CITIES
3.1 The 1985 catastrophe of Armero in Colombia
The risk to human life from such events was tragically
demonstrated on the 13 November 1985, at Nevado del
Ruiz in Colombia. Snowmelt-triggered lahars rushed
down adjoining canyons to nearby villages and inun-
dated the town of Armero and 23,000 of its inhabitants.
This was the second worst volcanic disaster in the 20th
20
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Century and the fourth most disastrous eruption in
recorded history. The key findings from this disaster
are as follows (Thouret et al., 1997):
A small eruption (less than 5 × 106 m3 of magma
ejected) was able to generate a 9 × 107 m3 of lahar
from about 2 × 107 m3 of melt water. Pyroclastic flows
were mainly responsible for interacting vigorously
with the snow and ice. The hot eruptive products
scoured about 10 km2 of snow and ice. About 16%
of the surface ice and snow area were lost, amounting
to 9% of the total volume. A volume of melt water
up to 38.5–44 × 106 m3 released in 20–90 minutes
and implies a vigorous heat transfer from hot eruptive
products to snow and ice. Mixed avalanches of varying
proportions of snow, ice, liquid water, rock and collu-
vium were also initiated contributing slush, melt water
and rocky debris into the headwaters of lahar channels.
The lahars were initiated within minutes of the onset
of the eruptions. The lahars incorporate unconsoli-
dated materials, increasing the total flow and peak flow
rate, a process termed bulking. Over the 104 km dis-
tance travelled by lahars, net flow-volume increased
by factors of 2 to 4. This finding has a major social
implication because lahars may far exceed their initial
volume during their passage and thus inundate inhab-
ited regions over 100 km from the mountain. The Ruiz
lahars moved slowly close to the volcano, but travelled
relatively rapidly in distal channels, with peak-flow
mean velocities ranging from 5 to 15 m.s−1 . Maxi-
mum computed peak discharges for all lahars occurred
at locations within 10–20 km of the crater. The max-
imum discharge was estimated at 48,000 m3 .s−1 , at a
point 9.6 km from source (Pierson et al., 1990).
The total financial loss was US$ 7.7 billion, which
amounted up to 20% of the 1985 Colombian GDP
(Voight, 1990).
3.2 Lahar impacts on housing and infrastructure
Table 1 shows seven principal mechanisms, related
parameters and processes, and the effects of lahar
impacts on construction. This Table is based on two
studies conducted in Arequipa (Peru: Martelli, et al.,
2010) and in Basse Terre (Guadeloupe, French West
Indies). The distinct mechanism parameters of lahars
in action are dynamic hydraulic pressure, with hori-
zontal and vertical components, hydrostatic pressure,
accumulation of material, undercutting, block impacts,
soil deformation, and temperature in the case of hot
lahars.
4 ASSESSING RISK IN CITIES ON
VOLCANOES
Conventional and more quantitative methods of hazard
assessment (eruption scenarios), and on quantitative
(probabilistic) methods of risk assessment are being
used in large cities on volcanoes in Italy, Japan, the
USA, and New Zealand, as well as in some threatened
cities of the developing world. The case studies of two
Table 1. Mechanisms, processes and effects of lahar impact on constructions.
Mechanism Mechanism parameters
Dynamic Lahar parameters =
hydraulic P = [(ρ × V) × (dv/dx)]/S
Pressure – Pressure P, force , lahar mass,
horizontal volume, acceleration (kinetic
component energy), flow depth, velocity,
density, duration.
Structural parameters =
Edifice shape, size and
surface, orthogonal or
tangential position of the
edifice to impact direction,
edifice heterogeneity, storey
number, wall and columns,
roof angle.
Dynamic P = [(ρ × V) × (dv/dx)]/S
hydraulic Pressure P, Force F, lahar mass,
Pressure – acceleration, S edifice surface,
vertical time, roof angle, edifice
component heterogeneity, storey number
Hydrostatic F =ρ × g × h
Pressure lahar density, flow height,
gravitational constant; water
content, pore pressure
Accumulation –Case of deposits on roof:
of lahar Pressure P = F/S depends on
material force and surface on which it is
exerted
F = m × g m mass of elements
deposited on roof
–Case of deposits on edges of
edifices: these exert an oblique
force (due to wall-buttressing)
dependent on lahar deposit
thickness.
Undercutting Lahar flow can undercut
edifice or soil under it.
Lahar density, velocity, solid
concentration, channel
constriction and terrace
material type.
Block impacts E = f ( m , v, t)
Energy liberated upon impact
depends on kinetic energy of
the projected element,
therefore velocity, mass and
size.
Impact may be discrete or
continuous (time is therefore
a critical parameter).
Inclined roofs provide more
surface area likely to be
hit by blocks.
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Direct Processes Indirect Processes Effects
Ductile deformation Fragile deformation: Wall deformation.
– rupture Fragile deformation and breaking
– fissuration if ductile threshold exceeded.
Fragile deformation Disaggregation, Following building deformation,
(cracks) Transport of material. material is removed, and transported
Lateral displacement, by lahar. Wall and roof frame
collapse displacement via crack formation.
Infiltration Deformation of material resulting
from water infiltration.
Steel corrosion
Ductile deformation Fragile deformation Roofs subside absorbing deformation
Disaggregation up to a ‘plastic’ threshold. Blocking
of doors and windows – hindering
evacuation.
Fragile deformation Vertical displacement Cracks in roofs leading to disaggregation.
Crack formation Collapse Downward displacement of roof and floor.
Displacement and cracks leading to roof
collapse.
Ductile deformation Fragile deformation Deformations of load bearing walls and
deformation propagation to other edifice
elements.
Fragile deformation Disaggregation Crack propagation through load bearing
walls may lead to collapse. Material water
content may exceed plasticity threshold.
Burial Flat roofs are more Burial blocking doors preventing-
likely to be affected evacuation.
Infilling, corrosion Infiltration of material makes structure
more resistant but may corrode metal
making it less stable.
Change in topography May avulse stream and rainfall
water towards edifice; can remove
deposits surrounding edifice.
Water soaking. Slow protracted supply of water to edifice,
leading to rot.
Lateral erosion and Deformation, cracks, Removal of soil under edifice, leading to
undercutting of vertical displacement, deformation induced by edifice load
substrate under collapse
building
Removal Destabilisation of the Removal of elements protruding from
structure structure.
Ductile deformation Fragile deformation Roof and wall deformation
especially if due to continuous block impacts.
continuous impact. Wall displacement and/or
collapse due to numerous
or continuous impacts
Crack propagation Rupture Block impacts creating cavities
due to discrete or in edifice may lead to collapse.
continuous impacts Collapse Fallen elements from edifice can
with high energy. become blocks in lahar.
Breaching.
(Continued)
21
Table 1. (Continued)

Mechanism Mechanism parameters Direct Processes Indirect Processes Effects

Soil deformation Soil deformation, induced by Ductile deformation Fragile deformation Deformation due to changes
retreat or swelling soil in soil or substrate.
mechanism. Pore pressure, Cracks may lead to collapse.
soil porosity, soil
permeability.
Temperature Heat transfer from lahar flow Melting Weaken materials Burning of flammable material. Increase
of hot lahars to housing elements and in temperature affecting material
furniture: T < 100◦ C, strength.
heat loss from lahar, area of Slow burning Slow burning of materials by hot
contact on housing, at ground material infiltration
level, and exposed to air.
Thermal conductivity and heat
capacity of material hit
by lahar.

large cities, Auckland in New Zealand and Arequipa

in Peru, will be highlighted.

4.1 The case study of Auckland

Auckland, New Zealand’s most populous region is
home to over 1.2 million people and a high proportion
of the nation’s commerce and industry (Fig. 2). Centred
within the region is the young, basaltic monogenetic
Auckland Volcanic Field (AVF), which currently con-
tains 49 small-volume basaltic volcanoes that were
formed over the past 250,000 years. The last eruption
occurred only 600 years ago at Rangitoto island North
of the principal harbour.
Risk assessments (Magill et al., 2006) identified
tephra fall as one of the most significant volcanic
hazards facing the Auckland region. Magill et al.
used a probabilistic volcanic loss model termed Vol-
caNZ to provide loss calculations for structural and
non-structural damage to residential building (and
associated cleanup costs) resulting from air-fall tephra
within Auckland. VolcaNZ assigns a Minimum and
Maximum Damage Value to groups of buildings for
every Monte Carlo simulation, dependent on tephra
accumulation. A Central Damage Value, representing
loss as a percentage of total replacement cost, is then
randomly selected between these limits. Losses from
all simulations are plotted against calculated Average
Recurrence Intervals (ARIs) to produce loss curves
(Magill et al., 2006).
Probabilistic assessment of risk in the AVF has
been recently based on the BET_EF and VH model
(Bayesian Event Tree for Eruption Forecasting and
Volcanic Hazard), as demonstrated by Sandri et al.
(2010). The authors focused their research on the Figure 2. City of Auckland and Auckland Volcanic Field
effects of base surges, phreatomagmatic expression of (Smith and Allen, 1993).
maar explosive activity, and the most expected vol-
canic phenomenon in Auckland’s area (Table 2). The phreatomagmatic phase characterised by base surges
city has expanded in a coastal environment where and ash fall.
aquifer and wet sediments are significant. Future The authors apply the statistical code BET_EF and
activity will therefore most probably begin with a VH, for forecasting phreatomagmatic eruptions in the

22
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Table 2. Risk classification of the hazards in Auckland. Area affected is taken as the average area covered (Smith
and Allen, 1993).

Area Loss Possibility

affected expected of Immediate Prolonged
Hazard (km2 ) (%) control risk risk

Maar 0.35 100 no extreme low

Base surge 3 50–100 no high low
Fire 0.013 80–100 no high low
fountaining
Lava flow 2.97 20–100 yes high low
Tephra >2.15 1–10 no low medium

reference framework of the so-called Ruaumoko sce-

nario (Lindsay et al., 2009). In recognition of the
high risk associated with a possible future eruption
in Auckland, the New Zealand government ran Exer-
cise Ruaumoko in March 2008. Exercise Ruaumoko
is a test of New Zealand’s nation-wide preparedness
for responding to a major disaster resulting from a
volcanic eruption in Auckland City. The exercise sce-
nario was developed in secret, and covered the period
of precursory activity up until the eruption. During
Exercise Ruaumoko the authors adapted the statistical
code BET_EF for eruption forecasting, to indepen-
dently track the unrest evolution, to forecast the most
likely onset time, and the location and style of the
initial phase of the simulated eruption. Subsequently,
Sandri et al. explored a new method for cost-benefit
analysis in case of a human and economic catastrophe
in the economic capital of New Zealand.
Firstly, Sandri et al. (2010) account for the whole
natural variability of the probable base surge eruption,
and on purpose combine all possible eruptive scenarios
in the BET_VH procedure by defining six successive
nodes (location, size, type, phenomenon, reached area,
impact threshold). The 30 × 60 km area of the City Figure 3. Absolute probability (BET_VH) that an area of
(Fig. 3) is divided in a 1 × 1 km grid with 900 pixels Auckland City is reached on the last day of the Ruaumoko
or boxes. They distinguish at the scale of each pixel two scenario: BET_VH for a base surge with all possible vents
types of surges (wet and dry), as well as three types and and all possible sizes (Sandri et al., 2010).
two sizes of eruptions (large and typical phreatomag-
matic eruptions, and effusive eruptions), based upon if a mitigation action is not taken and the hazardous
49 recorded events and on a power law distribution. phenomenon occurs. Their goal is to minimise the loss,
Secondly, the exceedance probability for base surge hence to evaluate what is the critical area to evacu-
run-out (probability of base surge extent versus dis- ate. This is a difficult task because the boundary must
tance from point of opening vent) is computed based be outlined between areas where the C/L probability
on past eruptions in AVF and other topographically value can be exceeded or cannot be reached. This task
analogue monogenetic fields with phreatomagmatic includes two sets of calculation based on the following
events or edifices. Highest probabilities (≥0.5) of formulae:
runout up to 1–2 km and 2–4 km are shown at the scale
of each pixel for typical and large phreatomagmatic
activity, respectively. As a result, a map depicts the
extent of the area affected by base surges the last day of where N is the number of evacuated people and R is
exercise Ruaumoko with the highest 0.31 probability, the average socio-economic loss per person, due to the
considering all possible vents and all possible sizes. disruption caused by the evacuation. R can be set to 0.5
Thirdly, the authors turn their attention to the cost- (6 months evacuation period) times the average annual
benefit analysis in the case of an evacuation across GDP/capita (0.5 × 42,000 = NZ$ 21,000).
Auckland City. They compare the cost C if a mitigation
action (evacuation) is taken with the cost L (for loss)

23
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
where E is the proportion of the evacuees who would
owe their lives to the evacuation, and V is the will-
ingness to pay for human life saved. V in New
Zealand is very high: about 3.35 NZ$ million (about
80 times the GDP/capita) according to the Minister of
Transportation.
E can be set to 0.5 if early self evacuation (about
50%) is considered with the 1 km × 1 km gridding of
the affected area (all the remaining would be killed if
not displaced). In the case of Auckland City, Sandri
et al. estimated probability = C/L to be 0.012.
Further research indicates that C and L must be
refined to take into account the spatial variability of
assets, if significant and more costly assets and popu-
lated sites like the airport, the harbour, hospitals or
communication centres were to be considered.
In summary, the Pprobabilistic Volcanic Hazard
Assessment coupled with cost/benefit analysis pro-
vides a set of quantitative and transparent rules that
can be established well in advance of a crisis, and
help translate probabilities into practical actions. This
may clarify decision-making procedures by creating
a bridge between science and decision making, help- Figure 4. The results of aTitan2D simulation in the Rio Chili
ing to achieve a general agreement among the parties River using the new enhanced DEM. Volumes ranging from
involved, and provide response in almost real-time. 0.5–11.0 × 106 m3 were used with an internal friction angle
of 25◦ , a basal friction angle of 14◦ and a solid ratio of 0.60.
The map illustrates that the largest volume flow reaches the
city and the smaller flow volumes are between 4 and 15 km
4.2 The case study of Arequipa from the city centre (Martelli et al., 2010).
Studies of the type, extent, and volume of Holocene
season or in case of extensive snowfield covering
pyroclastic and lahar deposits have concluded that
the 5822-m-high mountain during June andAugust.
future eruptions of El Misti volcano, even if mod-
2) The deterministic hazard analysis has been com-
erate in magnitude, will pose a serious threat to the
pleted by probabilistic analysis of magnitude/fre-
city of Arequipa in southern Peru (Thouret et al.,
quency relationships and by the construction of
2001, Delaite et al., 2005). Volcanic mass flows (debris
an Event Tree. This Tree has been constructed
flows, hyperconcentrated flows), and flash floods
using the result of the hazard assessment, the deter-
represent destructive phenomena for the city of Are-
mination of activity sites and eruption sizes, the
quipa in which a population exceeding 860,000 lives
occurrence of distinct phenomena related to each
9–17 km SW of the active volcano. This case study
eruption style, the inundation area, and the impact
focuses on the physical vulnerability of buildings and
threshold for each process (in this case mass flows
infrastructure in Arequipa from potential impacts of
were retained).
volcanic mass flows, and the quantitative risk assess-
3) Inundation zones were defined using geological
ment of their effects on assets and essential elements.
mapping with statistical analysis of the magni-
The methodology used involves six research stages as
tude/frequency relationships of lahar and flood
follows:
events. Urban areas most likely to be struck by pyro-
1) Three reference scenarios based on geological stud- clastic flows and lahars are located along the Río
ies (eruption deposits, behaviour and styles) have Chili Valley, as well as two drainage systems that
guided the hazard assessment: (i) a vulcanian originate on the upper slopes of the volcano and that
eruption scenario (VEI 2, recurrence interval of cross the centre and the NE area of the city: Que-
400–1000 years), (ii) a subplinian eruption (VEI brada (Qda. = ravine) San Lazaro and Quebrada
3–4, recurrence interval of 2000–4,000 years) sce- Huarangal (Fig. 4).
nario, and (iii) a low frequency/large magnitude, Two simulation codes (LAHARZ andTITAN2D)
non-volcanic scenario in the case of an earthquake- have been used for numerical flow modelling to
triggered flank collapse or a lake breakout flood in reproduce mass flows, determine their parameters
the Rio Chili valley, the permanent artery which and their reach in the city area. LAHARZ is a
crosses the city centre. In the first two scenarios, semi-empirical code, which is a statistically-based
pyroclastic flows and lahars seem to pose the largest method for delineating lahar-prone zones running
threat to the city, in addition to tephra-fall deposits. as interface in ArcInfo (Schilling, 1998). TITAN2D
It should be noted that lahars could also be trig- is a depth-averaged, thin layer computational fluid
gered without a direct relation to volcanic activity dynamics program suitable for simulating a vari-
by rainstorms during the December-March rainy ety of geophysical mass flows (Sheridan and Patra,

24
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 2005). Fig. 4 shows the lahar hazard scenarios Table 3. Principal land-use in the pilot areas of Quebrada
for selected lahar volumes (<1.5 × 106 m3 , 1.5– Huarangal potentially affected by lahar volumes of 1.5 and 4
4 × 106 m3 , 4–9 × 106 m3 , and 9–11 × 106 m3 ) as million m3 (Vargas et al., 2010).
obtained by using the simulation codes LAHARZ
Risk scenario for the Quebrada Huarangal valley
and TITAN2D, respectively.
Lahar volume 1.5 × 106 m3 4 × 106 m3
4) Mechanical effects of lahars on buildings and Land use LAHARZ
infrastructure (see Table 1) were investigated to
derive damage index, and elaborate vulnerability Area affected (km2 )
Residential 0.382 1.093
matrices and functions when the effects have been Educational 0.009 0.069
compared to the housing and infrastructure survey. Industrial 0.007 0.016
5) Field and aerial photograph surveys of buildings Institutional 0.002 0.013
and infrastructure were conducted, and geotechni- Public services 0 0.013
cal characteristics of building materials (such as Commercial 0 0.007
uniaxial compressive and tensile strength, point Health services 0 0.004
load, elasticity modulus, poisson ratio, apparent and
specific density, void ratio and water absorption)
have been acquired through laboratory tests. A mul-
tivariate analysis has helped to rank and prioritise Table 4. Principal land-use in the pilot areas of Río Chili
the classification of building survey. potentially affected by lahar volumes of 1.5 and 4 million m3
6) Finally a GIS database was developed using an (Vargas et al., 2010).
enhanced 10-m-DEM, constructed from DGPS
surveys and ASTER data. The ArcGIS database Risk scenario for the Rio Chili valley
encompasses all conventional and computer- Lahar volume 1.5 × 106 m3 4 × 106 m3
Land use LAHARZ
assisted maps, and all attribute tables and data sets
involved in hazard and risk assessment. Area affected (km2 )
Agricultural 3.139 3.579
Risk scenarios were defined by overlapping the Residential 0.271 0.616
land-use and the lahar hazard maps embedded in Commercial 0.032 0.165
ArcGIS. For the purpose of the analysis, it was Public services 0.021 0.022
assumed that all city buildings located in the chan- Industrial 0.020 0.063
nels would be wiped out except for minor lahars or Institutional 0.010 0.022
Educational 0 0.033
flash floods. On the low terraces (1–3 m high), destruc-
tion and burial would be less significant: structures of
the houses would be affected but buildings would sur-
vive. Burial would be partial. On the higher terraces
(3 to 10 m), there would be some damage inflicted to food industry, and national and international tourism
open areas (windows, doors) but the bulk of the build- linked to the UNESCO World Heritage).
ings would survive. The risk scenario, expressed as The risk analysis has led to Tables 3 & 4, which
expected economic loss, was calculated using avail- show the primary land-use in area of the affected pilot
able data on the average number of houses per city areas located in the Rio Chili Valley and Huarangal.
block and their price per square metre. The risk sce- Table 5 shows the difference in risk, expressed in
nario is complemented by indicating the number and economic terms, for the 1.5 and 4 million m3 lahars,
type of essential facilities and relevant infrastructure respectively, according to the LAHARZ simulation.
elements within the affected area. The expected loss (risk scenario considering only
Tables 3 & 4 show the differences in the type direct effects) would include: (1) damages to the
and number of urban elements (at city block level) urban infrastructure along the Rio Chili and Quebrada
that would be affected by each of the selected lahar Huarangal roughly estimated at US$ 40–100 million,
volumes (1.5 and 4 million m3) and according to and (2) disruption of the water and electricity supplies
the results of two different simulation codes in the (power stations and reservoirs are located along the
pilot areas of Río Chili and Qda. Huarangal. In the Rio Chili) with serious sanitary, economic and social
case of LAHARZ, mainly residential areas would be consequences. Indirect effects such as business and
affected along the fan and terraces of Qda. Huaran- tourism interruption and job losses should be added
gal. The situation along the Río Chili is more critical for computing a complete risk scenario.
even in the case of small lahars (<1.5 million m3 ): In the case of El Misti volcano, results obtained by
excluding residential areas, the drinking water and the LAHARZ and TITAN2D simulations differ sub-
electricity supplies would be severely disrupted for stantially. A comparison of the LAHARZ simulations
several weeks to months. This would create serious with the deposits of past lahars shows a fair corre-
sanitary problems, and the agricultural and commer- lation, while TITAN2D simulates the behaviour of
cial sector would also be affected. There would be debris-flow features more realistically than LAHARZ
serious implications for the regional society and econ- (Delaite et al., 2005, Vargas et al., 2010). However,
omy as there are >850,000 dwellers, tilled land and LAHARZ and TITAN2D represent completely differ-
irrigated crops in the oasis, a successful agriculture and ent approaches to modelling lahar inundation zones:

25
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 5. Value of residential buildings within the simulated areas inundated by the 1.5 and 4 million m3 lahars (using
LAHARZ) (Vargas et al., 2010).
Estimated number of houses and corresponding value excluding content
Class 1
Class
No. stories 1 2 1
Inundated area/lahar volume Approximate number of houses
Rio Chili 1.5 × 106 m3 1000 50
Rio Chili 4 × 106 m3 2200 110
Quebrada Huarangal 1.5 × 106 m3 1400 56
Quebrada Huarangal 4 × 106 m3 4000 160
these programs represent different types of codes, dis-
tinct parameters are used as inputs, and the goals of
the codes are distinct. LAHARZ is intended to delin-
eate lahar-prone areas in first approximation, whereas
TITAN2D is intended to understand the relationship
between the modelled topography (as a DEM) and the
physics of flows being simulated. As a real application,
the graphic result of LAHARZ runs has been included
in the hazard map of El Misti published in 2007
(INGEMMET et al., 2007).The outlined areas prone to
lahars and floods provide a first order approximation.
More recent results acquired by Martelli et al. (2010)
using TITAN2D runs carried out on an enhanced DEM
of the Arequipa area show that some discrepancies
between LAHARZ and TITAN2D simulations can be
overcome. These results will improve our understand-
ing of mass flows and may help decision makers to
take action during a future volcanic crisis.
Future research will focus on three aspects, namely
1) the evaluation of the lahar initiation mechanisms,
which bear significance on the input parameters used
in simulations, 2) the assessment of geotechnical char-
acteristics of structures and materials used in the city,
and 3) new simulations on a high-spatial resolution
DEM to improve the quality of the hazard and risk
maps.
Recommendations for contingency and mitigation
planning can be proposed to the Civil Protection and
City Hall authorities at two different scales: (1) At a
local scale, the suburbs like to be most directly affected
are located along Río Chili, Qda. Huarangal and Qda.
San Lazaro. The option of creating a buffer zone free
of buildings or infrastructure utilities on both sides
of the river bed should be considered. In addition, the
erection of sabo dams at the apex of two volcaniclastic
fans in order to break the kinetic energy of the expected
mass flows, could be explored. (2) At a regional scale,
shelters should be constructed in the SE area of the
oasis, in the towns ofYarabamba and Quequeña. These
towns are sheltered from the path of the pyroclastic
flows and surges and from the prevailing winds carry-
ing tephra fallout. In addition, roads should be enlarged
(such as the Panamericana Road, the main and only SW
exit of the city) or newly constructed (towards the SE
and the valley of Río Tambo) to allow mass evacuation
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Class 2 Class 3
2 1 2 Value
US$ × 103 People
500 50 50 300 50 24,320 4000
1100 110 110 660 110 53,460 9200
462 560 280 42 0 16,627 4500
1320 1600 800 120 0 47,860 13,100
in case of a large eruption such as the 400 BC-AD 340
subplinian event (VEI 3-4).
5 CONCLUSIONS
Current trends of rapid world-wide urbanisation and
sustained population growth in tropical developing
countries, combined with agricultural intensification
of arable volcanic terrains will increase both local and
global consequences of volcanic eruptions in the near
future. Twice during the 20th Century, large towns
were destroyed by eruptions (Saint-Pierre in Mar-
tinique, in 1902 and Armero in Colombia, in 1985).
Major population centres spread out just tens of kilo-
meters from several large active composite volcanoes
with a likelihood of eruption during this century, e.g.
Naples near Mt. Vesuvius (Chester et al., 2001; Fig. 1).
Vulnerability varies significantly according to vol-
canic hazard types. People can be evacuated from the
path of an advancing lava flow but may not escape
a rapidly flowing lahar, even in an apparently safe
location several tens of kilometres from the sum-
mit. Nearly everything is vulnerable to pyroclastic
flows and surges. Factors contributing to vulnera-
bility include locations in marginal and potentially
hazardous areas. These include valleys where lahars,
pyroclastic flows, lava flows, and CO2 inundation may
occur, and densely populated areas where old buildings
are poorly maintained, illegally altered or extended,
and built to standards now considered inadequate.
Blong (2000) points out three ways of adjustment
which can reduce the risk associated with the occur-
rence of hazards: 1) Modify the hazard itself, though
this is rarely possible with volcanic hazards. The most
publicised diversion of a lava flow occurred at Etna
in May 1992 and in the city of Heimaey, Iceland, in
1973. 2) Modify vulnerability to the impact of the haz-
ard. Examples include building roofs that withstand
ash loads, protecting crops under plastic sheeting,
diverting lahars, land-use planning, and broadcast-
ing volcano forecasts, which allow inhabitants to plan
daily activities. 3) ’Distribute’ the loss associated
with eruption damage to a wider community through
disaster relief and insurance.
26
 By combining the two aforementioned methodolo-
gies (geo-engineering, volcanology, and probabilistic
analysis), we can contribute to reducing the cost of
future volcanic crises in cities and saving more lives
in the case of disasters.
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J.-C., Salas, G., Siebe, C., Tilling, R.I., Sheridazn, M.F.,
Chavez, A., Zuniga, S., 2007. Mapa de peligros del volcán
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tions and lahars of Mt Pinatubo, Philippines. Seattle: U.
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Strauch, W., Devoli, G., 2005. Catastrophic precipitation-
triggered lahar at Casita volcano, Nicaragua: occurrence,
bulking and transformation. Earth Surface Processes and
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Sheridan, M.F., Patra, A.K., 2005. Modeling and simulation
of geophysical mass flows. J.Volcanology and Geothermal
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land Volcanic Field. Report to Ministry of Civil Defense,
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P.M., 2008. Multi-hazard risk mapping and assessment on
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A., Frechen, M., 2001. Geology of El Misti volcano near
the city of Arequipa, Peru. Geological Society of America
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B., Vandemeulebrouck, J., Funk, M., Valla, F., 2007.
The Nevado del Ruiz ice cap, Colombia, 21 years after:
volcano-glacier interactions, meltwater generation, and
lahar hazards. Annals of Glaciology, 45, 115–127.
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Sheridan M.F., Siebe C., Marino J., Souriot T., Stinton A.,
2010. Mapping and Assessing Volcanic Hazards and Risks
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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1
The development of protective structures for northern Ireland
F.G. Hulton
MFD International, Romsey, UK
ABSTRACT: In late 1992 Irish Republican terrorists introduced a new and powerful mortar. The paper
describes the development, through full scale explosive trials, of structures to defeat this new threat. Trials
methodology, the loading produced by close-in non-ideal explosions, and the role of effective mass in efficient
design are discussed.
1 INTRODUCTION
Between 1992 and 2000 a range of new protective
structures was developed to meet the challenge of ter-
rorist attack in Northern Ireland. The development of
these structures was carried out in order to defeat an
immediate threat.
The research and development were driven by the
need to provide protection as quickly as possible and
was given all the support necessary. The author was
responsible for the supporting scientific research, and
for the conduct of the necessary full scale explosive
trials.
The objectives of this paper are to describe how
protective structures were developed to meet this new
threat, to describe the characteristics of the new range
of structures, and to discuss those matters scientific
and engineering interest that are illustrated but this
development programme.
2 BACKGROUND
For many years Irish Republicans, with substantial
funding and political support from within the United
States of America, have conducted a terrorist cam-
paign against the United Kingdom and against anyone
in Northern Ireland who does not share their aims.
Today the main republican groups have declared a
cease fire and are taking part in the democratic political
process, nonetheless some republican groups continue
their terrorist campaign.
In 1992 circumstances were very different. The
main Irish Republican groups were conducting an
active campaign of murder and terrorist bombings.
When this campaign started, in the 1960s, the response
of the British authorities was based on the assumption
that the terrorist campaign would not last for many
years: this assumption was wrong. By 1992 there was
a policy that new protective structures, and protective
measures for existing buildings, should be designed
to be permanent. There were two reasons for this, the
29
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
first was that the terrorist campaign had continued for
more than thirty years, the second was that it had been
decided that, by making it obvious that the protective
measures were designed for permanence, the resolve
of the government would be demonstrated.
At the end of 1992, the IRA introduced a new
weapon. This was a mortar, known to the security
forces as the Mark 15 Mortar, which fired bombs
weighing over 100 kg. This new weapon overmatched
almost all existing fortifications.
3 PROTECTIVE STRUCTURES BEFORE 1992
Before 1992 most protective structures had been
designed to resist near miss explosions of 20 kg TNT
or less. Protection against vehicle bombs relied on
imposed standoffs, buildings designed to resist mor-
tar attack were generally built of reinforced concrete,
sometimes with an interior steel lining in the form of
spall plates. Strong roofs were designed to resist the
impact of the mortar bomb, which would then roll off
the roof to explode on the ground. The lower parts of
the building walls were reinforced with thick concrete
berms. At the time that these buildings were designed,
most terrorist bombs were fitted with time fuses rather
than impact fuses, so the assumption that bombs would
roll off the roofs was reasonable. However by 1989
the IRA had started to use reliable impact fuses, so
the latest designs were based on the assumption of an
in-contact explosion.
The design code used for many of these structures
was TM 5-1300. Although effective protective struc-
tures can be designed using this code, the resulting
designs are often inefficient. This is because TM5-
1300 was developed with accidental explosions in
mind, rather than terrorist attack. Some structures had
been developed through trials. Overall most protective
structures in use were of robust and simple design. The
concept of tensile membrane action was not used in
design.
 It must have occurred to designers that a steel spall
plate had the potential of acting compositely with a
reinforced concrete panel. But there is no evidence
that, before 1989, any designer of protective structures
in Northern Ireland made any deliberate and conscious
use of this potential. Some experiments were made
using double skin composite panels, made from steel
plates fitted with shear studs which overlapped within
a concrete core: but these were not easy to make, and
the performance was disappointing. So although, as
these experiments showed, the potential of composite
action was appreciated, it was not then thought that
this was a worthwhile development.
By 1989 the terrorists had improved their fusing
systems to the extent that the in-contact detonation of
a mortar bomb became a realistic threat. A series of
trials was carried out to develop structures to resist
this threat. Through the trials a number of designs
were developed and brought into use. These designs
were based on codes, but included much that had been
developed through practical explosive trials rather
than code-based calculations. Designers started to take
account of composite action between spall plates and
concrete, but generally as a safety margin rather than
a key part of the design. The basis of design remained
a reinforced concrete structure with spall plates incor-
porated. The trials work provided much that was to be
of value in later developments.
4 THE NEW THREAT
The Mark 15 Mortar could carry a charge of over
100 kg – more than five times the charge of any ear-
lier effective weapon (although the IRA had attempted,
unsuccessfully, to launch bombs containing over
200 kg of explosive). Unlike most earlier weapons it
was expected that the Mark 15 Mortar bombs would
be fitted with effective impact fuses. This made the
Mark 15 Mortar a considerable challenge.
The charge favoured by the IRA was a home made
ammonium nitrate based explosive, but in developing
protective structures the possibility that a charge of
semtex or another military explosive could be used
had to be considered.
5 THE RESPONSE
In response to the new threat the authorities at once
started a programme of research and development.
The initial objective of the programme was to develop
buildings for use by the security forces that were capa-
ble of protecting the occupants against Mark 15 attack,
in particular of protecting them against the impact and
detonation on impact anywhere on the building of a
Mark 15 Mortar bomb, with the building continuing
in use after an attack. In essence this required that
the new buildings should protect the occupants against
the in-contact explosion bombs containing a charge of
more that 100 kg. The requirement was that the first
30
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
buildings should be in service and occupied before the
end of 1993.
Three construction companies, all experienced in
the field of protective structures, were invited to build
[with financial support from the government] full scale
to prototype structures to their own designs to meet the
requirement. These buildings would then be tested, as
part of the development programme, by the Defence
Research Agency (DRA). Government engineers and
scientists, including military engineers, civil engineers
with expertise in protective structure design, and sci-
entists from the DRA were tasked with supporting the
companies with expert advice, to ensure that in pro-
ducing their designs they had access to the most up to
date and expert advice.
It was not intended that the trials of the various
structures should be competitive, although inevitably
there was a competitive element, but rather that by
simultaneously developing three independent designs
the outcome of programme would not be dependent
on the success or failure of a single design. As it
turned out all three companies eventually produced
viable designs, and all three initial designs were sig-
nificantly modified as the trials programme produced
more information.
6 TRIALS
The main programme included trials of five full-
scale structures, as well as a number of separate trials
of components, walls, roofs etc. Besides the main
programme there were simultaneous and continuing
programmes to develop protective walls and other
structures, which are outside the scope of this paper.
The main trials were:
• Building Trials 1. Full scale two storey building
based on a steel frame and steel-backed reinforced
concrete panels. Individual panels in a wall.
• Building Trials 2. Full scale two storey build-
ing formed from precast modules incorporating
steel-backed reinforced concrete panels. Individual
panels.
• Building Trials 3. Full scale two storey building
based on a shell formed of joined steel-backed
precast panel L-units. Component tests.
• Building Trials 4. Tests of two full scale structures,
one of a steel frame with detachable steel-backed
reinforced concrete panels, the other on rectangular
tube modules.
In each case it was necessary to test all relevant
responses, at a minimum this required that each panel
or equivalent was tested in three ways, against the
maximum bending effect, through an explosion oppo-
site the centre of the panel, against maximum shear
effect, through an explosion close to the joint of
the panel with a stiff support, and against tension
between panels, through an explosion opposite each
type of joint.
All the designs included a sacrificial stand-off
screen. The purpose of the screen was firstly to
separate the explosion from the main structure by a
distance sufficient to reduce brisance and spread the
loading so that they were within the capacity of the
main structure. A separate series of trials was under-
taken to ensure that any stand-off screen that was used
could resist the dynamic effects of the impact of a mor-
tar bomb, thus ensuring that the stand-off screen would
enforce a predetermined stand-off, with the bomb
exploding in contact with the stand-off screen. Part
of the design process was then to balance the stand-off
distance with the resistance of the main structure.
At the start of the trials neither the loading that
would be imposed on the structures, nor the dynamic
force-deflection characteristics of the structures were
known. It was therefore a matter requiring some judge-
ment to decide at what stand-off distance the first tests
should be carried out. If the distance were too great,
then a test would have been wasted, but if it were too
close, then an expensive test structure might be pre-
maturely destroyed. As may be imagined this problem
kept those planning the trials to work late.
As far as possible tests of individual components
were carried out before tests on the same compo-
nents incorporated into structures. This allowed better
estimates to be made of structural response and so
allowed better planning of the tests on the main struc-
tures. However it would have been unwise to rely on
tests of individual components alone. The character-
istics of an assembly of components sometimes turn
out to differ in unexpected ways from what could
be predicted from the characteristics of individual
components.
Each trial required a staff of between 25 and 50 peo-
ple, including tradesmen to modify and repair targets
between shots and overnight, a team to manufacture
the explosive and make the bombs, photographers,
instrumentation specialists, junior engineers and sci-
entists to measure and record, and senior engineers and
scientists to interpret the results and to replan the sub-
sequent trials programme accordingly. This required
examining the slow motion films and other data at the
end of each day in order to decide the next days pro-
gramme, and the work that must therefore be carried
out during the night.
7 LOADING
In order to design efficient protective structures, it is
desirable to know the loads that they must resist. Con-
ventionally the interaction between an explosion and
a separated structure in air is treated as four distinct
phenomena, with no feed-back between them:
• The explosion
• The blast-wave
• The loading
• The structural response
For most cases where the explosion is approxi-
mately ideal and well separated from the structure, the
implicit assumptions cause no difficulties.
31
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
But when the explosion is close to the structure,
so that the structure is within the fireball, and when
the explosive is non-ideal, the assumptions may not
be valid. Within the fireball there may be a mixture
of reacted material (gaseous and other products of
the explosion), reacting material (including intermedi-
ate products of the explosion), and unreacted material
(including unreacted explosive and inert matter from
within the explosive charge). The medium of transmis-
sion of energy and momentum from the explosion to
structure is no longer air, but a fireball containing a
variety of gases, some of which are reacting or reac-
tive as the transmission occurs. The agent of loading is
no longer air, but a combination of fireball gases and
condensed matter.
The ammonium nitrate fertiliser available in North-
ern Ireland was significantly adulterated with dolomite
dust. This was added to the ammonium nitrate to
reduce its explosive potential and thus its usefulness
to terrorists. Nonetheless the IRA were able to use
it to make an effective explosive. At an early stage
in the trials it became apparent that the power of the
explosive was greater than had been previously esti-
mated. One reason for this is that ammonium nitrate
based explosives are non-ideal, so that small charges
are less efficient that large charges. It was conjec-
tured that another reason might be that the inert matter
originating within the charge contributed to close-in
loading.
In order to investigate the influence of inert mat-
ter on close-in loading a number of experiments were
carried out in which explosive charges containing inert
matter in various proportions were exploded close to a
pendulum constructed for the experiments. The result-
ing swing of the pendulum gives a reliable quantitive
measure of the energy transferred from the explosion
into the pendulum. In a series of experiments it was
shown that the addition or inclusion of inert matter in
an explosive charge can produce a significant increase
in the close-in loading, as measured by energy trans-
fer, compared to that produced by a charge of similar
explosive mass with added inert matter or even, for
both were tested, a charge of the same mass in which
a proportion of the explosive had been replaced with
an equal quantity (by mass) of inert matter.
These experiments conclusively demonstrated that
the inclusion of inert mass in a charge can signifi-
cantly increase the close-in loading produced by that
charge. What they did not demonstrate was that the
loading produced in the trials was increased by the
inert matter in the ammonium nitrate based explo-
sive used in the trials. Unfortunately (from a scientific
viewpoint) the success of the development programme
removed the incentive to fund further research in this
very interesting area.
8 STRUCTURAL RESPONSE
The first structure to be tested consisted of panels slot-
ted and bolted into a steel frame. It very soon became
 clear that the energy absorption capacity and the per-
formance of the structure as whole could be enhanced
by welding the panels into the frame in such a way that
the steel backing plate could act as a tensile membrane
even after the bending resistance of the panel had been
greatly reduced by the effects of an explosion. This
welding of panels to the frame also changed a framed
structure into a shell structure, and removed the needs
for bolts. Experience has shown that it is difficult to
use bolts in a structure that must resist close in explo-
sions without the risk of fragments of bolts forming
dangerous missiles within the structure, therefore it is
generally better to avoid the use of bolts.
With the exception of one very inefficient structure
tested in Building Trials 4, all subsequent test struc-
tures, and all the resulting buildings constructed in
Northern Ireland, were welded together to allow the
development of tensile membrane forces in the steel
linings.
During testing of individual panels some counter-
intuitive responses were observed. Some long span
panels tested against close-in explosions appeared to
suffer less deflection than similar short span panels
against the same loading. At first it was assumed
that this was the result of some error in experi-
mental technique, or the result of inconsistencies
in panel manufacture, but as the trials progressed
it became apparent that indeed long span panels
sometimes respond with less deflection than short
span panels under similar close-in loading. This was
clearly a matter of some theoretical interest and of
some practical value. [Later it was found that similar
results had been observed by Christopherson in the
1940s.]
The practical value was that the mere intercon-
nection of smaller panels, so that they responded
as a single larger panel, could improve performance
by reducing deformation under close in explosive
loading.
The theoretical explanation is given most simply
in terms of effective mass. The kinetic energy trans-
ferred into a panel under impulsive explosive loading
is proportional to the square of the imposed impulse
and inversely proportional to the effective mass of the
panel. The effective mass of the panel is dependent on
the nature of the panel and the form of deformation:
for panels of similar form, that is for panels of the same
shape and cross section but of different areas, and for
deformations of similar form, the effective mass of the
panel is directly proportional to the actual mass of the
panel and thus to the area of the panel. For a distant
explosion the impulsive loading varies with the area
of the panel, thus the energy transfer into the panel
varies with the area of the panel. The energy trans-
ferred per unit area is thus unaffected by the area of
the panel. However in the case of a close-in explo-
sion the increase in impulsive loading with increase in
area is generally less than proportional to the increase
in area of the panel. Thus as the panel area increases
the energy transferred per unit area decreases, and to
the extent that is possible, in some cases, for the total
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
energy transfer to lower for a large span panel than for a
small span panel. This possibility is certainly achieved
in some cases, but the requirement that the deforma-
tions should be of similar form means that it does not
occur in many cases. However in many cases the use of
larger span panels leads to a real reduction in average
energy transfer per unit area of panel.
A consequence of this is that it is sometimes possi-
ble to increase effective mass, and thus decrease energy
transfer into the structure, with no increase in actual
mass
9 THE USE OF ORDINAL DATA
Most scientific measurements in the fields of physics
and engineering are cardinal, the measurements are
expressed in terms of numbers, and these numbers bear
a determinate relationship to each other. Thus if two
masses are measured separately as 2 kg and 7 kg, then
it can be predicted that their combined mass will be
measured as 2 + 7 = 9 kg. But many measures encoun-
tered outside the fields of physics and engineering are
not cardinal but ordinal. The only valid logical rela-
tionships between such measures are <, =, and >.
Examples are the order of ranking of the contestants
in a beauty contest, or, from science, the relative ages
of successive undated rock strata.
It is sometimes assumed that ordinal measures
are unscientific. This is mistaken. For example in
1805 Commander (later Admiral) Beaufort published
a method for measuring the wind at sea, based on what
sails a frigate could safely hoist. By the end of 1838
this ordinal scale, with minor adjustment, was in use
throughout the Royal Navy. But it was not until the
Tay Bridge disaster of 28 December 1979 that serious
work to establish quantitive (cardinal) relationships
between wind speed and wind load began. The Beau-
fort Scale provided cardinal numerical data for neither
wind speed, nor wind load, all that could deduced with
certainty was that a higher wind speed (on the Beaufort
Scale) represented a faster and more powerful wind
than was represented by a lower wind speed (on the
Beaufort Scale). The lack of a cardinal relationship
had not prevented the Royal Navy from developing
very detailed quantitive rigging tables, more advanced
than any used by any rival Navy, on the basis of the
Beaufort Scale.
As mentioned earlier, at the start of the trials pro-
gramme details of neither the explosive loading on
the structures, nor the resistance of the structures
were available. By the end of the trials programme
the most that could be said with certainty was that
larger charges would produce larger effects, and that
if different sized charges at different ranges produced
different effects, then the loadings imposed could be
ordered as the effects. Therefore, in order to achieve
any useful progress, it was necessary to work with
ordinal rankings. Although this is unfamiliar to many
engineers and scientists, in practice it is not difficult.
 The use of ordinal data is treated theoretically
section in 3.6 of “Theory of Games and Economic
Behaviour” by Von Neumann and Morgenstern
10 DEVELOPMENT THROUGH TRIALS
A pre-requisite of efficient trials planning is a clear
understanding of the purpose of the trials. The purpose
of development trials is to gain information and
understanding, not for general interest and scientific
curiosity, but with some specific objective in mind.
A very common error is to assume that the most
important data is that which can most accurately or
easily measured. This can lead to the collection of sec-
ondary data at the expense of primary data and in the
worst case to profitless diversion from the aim. Direct
observation and direct measurement is almost always
preferable to indirect. If we want to discover A, and can
do so directly, then we should not, without very good
reasons, measure something different (B) in order to
calculate A from B.
As an example of this, in Buildings Trial 4 a poten-
tial user of the building wished to determine whether
or not office computers in the building would work
after an attack on the building. This is what they
wanted to know, but it was not the question they
asked, rather, because the specifications for their com-
puters included a figure maximum g-force that the
computers would tolerate, they asked that accelerom-
eters should be set up at selected points within the
building. With great difficulty they were persuaded to
explain why they required these measurements, and
were dismayed by the suggestion that the information
that they required might be more reliably and more
cheaply obtained by the simple expedient of putting
computers inside the test building. In the event they
were persuaded that this should be done, but they
could not be persuaded that the accelerometers, how-
ever accurate the information they provided might be,
would not give them any information that could help
them.
That is an extreme example. Less extreme, but still
dangerous, is the tendency to place more importance
on the measurements of blast resultants than upon
direct study of the test structure. The only benefit of
blast measurements in this context is that they can alert
the experimenter to anomalous explosive effects. But
the idea that one should use blast measurements to cal-
culate structural response when it is possible to observe
the structural response directly is absurd. That is not to
say that attempts to correlate blast measurements with
structural response are absurd, for this process aids
understanding and increases scientific knowledge and
the ability to predict structural response in other situa-
tions: but the value of this work should not be allowed
to divert the experimenter from the primary evidence
in the structure itself.
Except in those cases in which a trial will contain
only one or two tests, or where the tests have very
few common features, it is a mistake to set a rigid
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
trials plan. The trials objectives may be rigid, though
this is not always so, but the method of achieving the
objectives should not be rigid.
The initial trials plan should include all those tests
that are then deemed necessary to meet the objectives
of the trials (which in this case are the tests needed to
make an effective protective structure design), but this
plan should be reviewed daily. In the building trials at
the end of each day the programme was reviewed and
revised, this included not just the testing programme –
where charges should be detonated, what instrumenta-
tion was needed, and the like – but also the state of the
building and the state of the design. It was common
to have repairs made to the test buildings overnight,
but sometimes radical design changes were required.
The most extreme example occurred during Buildings
Trial 3, in which it was necessary to replace all the
internal panel joints in the building over a weekend.
This required ventilation equipment to be installed to
remove the fumes from welding, and teams of welders
to be brought in by helicopter from Northern Ireland.
Work continued day and night from Friday evening
until the first test on Monday morning. Minor changes,
such as variation in the distance at which stand-off
screens were set, changes to stand-off screen design,
and changes to individual panel joints, were made fre-
quently, always with the objective of completing the
trial with a design that was both thoroughly tested, and
as effective and efficient as the data available allowed.
Development trials are not designed merely to test
a structure to determine whether or not the structure
meets certain criteria, but as an integral part of the
design process. Therefore they need to involve all
those organisations and experts who can contribute
to this objective. In the case of the building trials
these include military engineers experienced in the
design and construction of protective structures in
Northern Ireland, civil engineers from the Ministry of
Defence and Northern Ireland with wider experience
in protective structure design, contractors familiar
with building protective structures, explosives experts
able to replicate terrorists weapons, and to direct the
trials a scientist with knowledge of the interaction of
weapons with structures and familiarity with civil and
military engineering. All these had supporting staff
to make measurements, keep records and prepare the
experiments.
11 TRIPARTITE PROTECTION
The designs developed through the programme all used
a Tripartite Protection System. This system now forms
the basis of all modern protective structure designs in
Northern Ireland. The various parts of the system have
all been used in earlier structures. The value of the Tri-
partite Protection System is not that it introduces any
new technology, but that it provides a rational basis
for the design of structures to resist large close-in
explosions.
 The Tripartite Protection System is formed of
three elements which enclose the protected space.
These are:
• Internal Stand-off
• Deformable Energy Absorbing Shell (Deformable
Structure)
• External Stand-off
11.1 Protected space
The purpose of a protective structure is to protect some
defined space that may be occupied by people or equip-
ment. Against a severe explosive attack it is sometimes
impossible and often impractical to devise a structure
that will completely resist the effects of the explosion.
To a greater or lesser degree the structure will deform
under the effects of the explosion. But if the attention
is turned from the structure to the required protective
space, then it becomes possible to design rationally
and efficiently. The requirement is no longer to pro-
duce a structure of a particular strength, but to produce
a structure that will not allow the dangerous effects
of an explosion into a defined space, the protected
space.
In traditional protective design some maximum
deformation or support rotation is usually designated
as a design criterion, not because the deformation in
itself is of any great importance, but because expe-
rience or calculation has shown that the designated
level of deformation will limit structural damage
to some acceptable level. The limiting of deforma-
tion is the method used to limit structural damage:
thus deformation beyond this limit is defined as
failure.
But if design is based on the concept of a pro-
tected space, rather than on any particular structural
requirements, then a more rational definition of fail-
ure is possible. Failure may be defined as the intrusion
of dangerous effects into the protected space. This
intrusion can occur in three ways:
• Internal Debris Throw. Although the shell of the
building is not breached, parts of the building or its
contents are thrown into the protected space. This
may include scabbing debris.
• Breaching. The shell of the building is breached,
allowing explosive effects to pass through the
breach and into the protected space.
• Excessive Deformation. The shell of the building
deforms into the protected space.
11.2 Internal stand-off
The internal stand-off serves to define the limits of the
protective space. The protective space is the internal
space that is outside the range of deformation of the
energy absorbing deformable structure and other dan-
gers. The designer may first specify a protected space
and then bound the protective space with the internal
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
stand-off, and then design the remaining structure so
that no deformation into the protected space can occur,
or he may design the rest of the structure first and then
calculate the extent of the internal protective space
which is then bounded by an internal stand-off. Either
approach can be used, though the first would seem
more logical.
11.3 Deformable structure
The purpose of the deformable structure is to absorb
safely the explosive energy that is transferred from the
explosion into the building. This is best achieved by
the use of a structure that is designed for plastic defor-
mation, both through bending and through stretching.
A structure formed of interconnected steel-backed
reinforced concrete panels is well suited to this.
11.4 External stand-off
The most cost-effective method of reducing the sever-
ity of the effects of an explosion is by stand-off,
that is by increasing the distance between the explo-
sion and its target, in this case between the explo-
sion and the energy absorbing structure. A sacrificial
stand-off screen can be used for this purpose. The
essential requirements are: firstly that the screen
be capable of physically stopping the weapon, sec-
ondly that is not the source of more danger than
the weapon itself (e.g. as a source of shrapnel) and
thirdly that it be compatible with the structure that it
protects.
The majority of screens undergo significant defor-
mation as they bring the weapon to a stop. It is
essential that the designer takes this into account, so
that he bases the design of the deformable structure
on the closest distance at which a weapon may deto-
nate, rather than the distance between the undeformed
screen and the structure.
It is sometimes incorrectly assumed that a cubic
scaling law will give an indication of the benefits
of stand-off. In general the response of panels is
dominated by the impulsive loading, and for close-
in charges the total impulse on the panel is not very
sensitive to changes in stand-off. The main benefits
of increasing stand-off are not so much the reduc-
tion in total impulse (although this does occur), as the
reduction in brisance and the more even distribution
of loading over the structure. A more even distribu-
tion of loading reduces those internal stresses that are
generated when very different forces are applied to
neighbouring parts of the structure.
At the start of the trials programme it was assumed
that any stand-off screen that would ensure the required
stand-off distance would be similarly effective. For-
tunately one of the principles adopted in the trials
was that any combination of components that might
be used together in a real structure must, even if
they had been successfully tested separately, be tested
together. Through combined tests it very quickly
became apparent, as should have been deduced at the
start, that interactions between different components
can have considerable effects on the overall response.
Coupling of effects can and does occur. When a stand-
off screen is destroyed by an explosion, part of the
explosive energy is transferred into the kinetic energy
of the screen fragments. Depending on the relative
mass of the screen fragments and structure that they
strike, as well as their material properties, the transfer
of energy from fragments to structure may be more or
less efficient. In some cases energy transfer may be
increased to a level higher that it would have been had
there been no stand-off screen.
A series of experiments were undertaken to inves-
tigate the effects of various stand-off screen designs
on loading, and some theoretical analyses were car-
ried out.Although these increased understanding of the
problem, they did not provide enough data to enable
designers to predict the effects on loading produced
by various screen designs. It is therefore necessary to
carry out tests to confirm that proposed combinations
of stand-off screen and structure perform satisfactorily
together.
12 FAILURE
In designing a structure, whether the structure is
designed through calculation or through experiment,
it is common practice to assume a number of failure
modes and then to design the structure so that these
failure modes do not occur. A prerequisite for this is
that the designer has a firm conception of what con-
stitutes failure. The failure modes are then modes of
response such that if they reach a certain limit, then
the structure is deemed to have failed. There are thus
two stages, first the designer must establish what con-
stitutes failure of the structure, then he must decide
which modes of structural response could lead to this
failure. When he has done this he may design the struc-
ture so that the identified modes of response do not
lead to failure. This procedure is seldom carried out
explicitly, for the vast majority of structures an intel-
ligent use of well established design codes will lead
to a safe structure. However when a structure is to be
designed to protect the occupants against an extreme
threat, such as a terrorist explosion, then the normally
accepted failure criteria may be inappropriate. In par-
ticular a degree of damage and deformation that might
be quite unacceptable if it occurred in response to nor-
mal everyday loadings might be acceptable in the case
of an explosive attack.
The key design requirement set by the authorities
in this case was that the buildings should protect their
occupants from the effects of the specified terrorist
attack, namely the effects of a Mark 15 mortar bomb
striking the building or landing next to the building
and exploding in contact with the building. Unstated
objectives, which were desirable rather than essential,
were that the buildings could continue to be occupied
without loss of function during and following an
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
attack, and that any damage to the building could
be simply and effectively repaired, without significant
disruption to the occupancy or use of the building.
These requirements could be condensed into two
very simple criteria:
• An attack should not breach the structural shell of
the building.
• An attack should not lead to any intrusion, by
deforming structure or flying objects, into the
defined protected space within the building.
From these simple criteria the modes of failure
modes which must be designed against could be
deduced. For example panels needed to be tested
against bending failure (excessive deformation or
breach), shear failure (breach), and tensile failure at
supports (breach).
A key part of the testing programme followed from
this: each structure had to be tested against each failure
mode, this to include the appropriate tests against each
different part of the structure. However the procedure
in a development trial is not to start by trying to destroy
the structure, but to investigate, by testing, the various
response modes. The data so obtained is then used
to predict the failure limits of the structure, and the
design set to ensure that the structure remains within
these limits with a due allowance for uncertainty (a
safety factor).
This appears to be a straightforward and logical pro-
cedure, but there are two potential dangers which are
easily overlooked and which must not be overlooked.
The first danger is that the designer may have failed
to identify all the possible failure modes, so that the
building might fail in an entirely unforeseen manner.
This is by no means unusual in the development of
protective structures, because as one vulnerable part
of the structure is strengthened, another part of the
structure may become relatively weaker, so that fail-
ure may occur in a part of the structure that had not
previously been liable to fail.
An example of this occurred during Building
Trials 1. Having proved the structure against the
Mark 15 threat, it was decided that it should be tested
against more severe threats. A charge, representing a
vehicle bomb, was set a short distance from a side wall:
the expectation, based on calculation and extrapola-
tion from earlier tests, was that the wall would deform
significantly, but not to the extent of failure. In the
event the wall performed even better than predicted,
but failure occurred in a quite unexpected way. The
force of the explosion pushed down the surrounding
ground to the extent that the floor inside the building
was blown upwards by the ground shock. This was
outside the experience of any of those involved in the
trials, including individuals with long experience in the
investigation of the effects of bombings. With hind-
sight it was obvious that this mode of failure would
not have occurred with earlier less advanced building
designs, because, before it could have occurred, the
forces causing the damage would have been relieved
by the destruction of the building wall. The stronger
wall had forced the explosive effects to take another
and unexpected route.
It is not possible to eliminate entirely the possibil-
ity that a failure mode has not been identified, but
the possibility can be greatly reduced by ensuring that
the explosive trials are carried out by an experienced
person who is entirely independent. Before the trials
start the designer of the structure sets out those tests
which, in his estimation, must be performed. Entirely
independently the trials director decides which tests
he considers are necessary. The full trials are then
planned to include all these tests. As the trials progress
the trials director may add further tests, or otherwise
adjust the programme in the light of results obtained.
In practice the tests required by the designer and
the tests required by the trials director usually have
considerable commonality.
The second danger concerns the consequences of
failure. However well the structure may have been
designed to resist the design threat, there must be a
possibility that the terrorist will use a more power-
ful weapon. Authorities often have a somewhat naïve
confidence in their assessment of terrorist capabili-
ties, but terrorists are not bound by their assessments.
The prudent designer should therefore consider two
questions, the first is what level of attack might his
building survive, the second is what will happen if a
larger attack occurs.
Undoubtedly if a sufficiently large attack occurs,
then the building will fail. But failure may occur in a
variety of ways which can usefully be categorized as
fail-dangerous, fail-neutral, and fail-safe.
Fail-dangerous occurs if consequences of failure of
the protective measures are more dangerous than they
would have been had no protective measures been in
place. For example if a sufficiently strong protective
wall spans between key supporting columns, then fail-
ure of the wall may cause failure of the columns and
thus the collapse of the building. Had the wall not
existed the collapse would not occur and casualties
would be lower. Similarly a simple masonry wall may
provide good protection against a hand grenade, but be
transformed into dangerous secondary fragments by a
much larger bomb.
Fail-neutral occurs when the failure exposes occu-
pants to the same level of danger as if there had been
no protective measures in place.
Fail-safe occurs when, notwithstanding the failure
of the protective measure, the occupants are safer
than they would have been had no protective mea-
sure been in place. Steel backed reinforced concrete
panels of composite construction normally fail safely,
in that, when breached, they tend to remain attached
to the structure, thus rather than the full effects of
the explosion, occupants are only exposed to the sec-
ondary fragments from the breach [which are very
dangerous, but less so than the direct effects of the
explosion].
The careful designer aims to produce a fail-safe
design.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
13 TESTS TO DESTRUCTION
To conclude any series of tests of explosions against a
structure it is instructive and useful to carry out tests to
destruction. Not only do these help establish the limits
of the structure, but they also reveal the mode and type
of failure.
13.1 Buildings Trial 1
At the conclusion of Building Trials 1 the walls of
the structure were attacked with charges of more than
twice the mass of the design threat. This did not cause
the walls to fail but instead caused a quite different
mode of failure (through the ground). This led to a
redesign of the foundations and building surround.
The next test to destruction was to place a simulated
Mark 15 Mortar bomb in contact with a wall panel,
without the designed stand-off. The objectives were
to demonstrate the need for the stand-off screen, to
establish the mode of failure, and to measure the conse-
quences within the building of a wall breach. The event
was filmed with two high-speed cameras inside the
building, which cameras astonishingly survived with-
out damage. It was gratifying to find that the mode of
failure was as had been assumed in design, with the
steel plate backing the attacked panel stretching until
it burst.
The final test to destruction was to place the bomb
against the junction between two panels. This caused
the anticipated level of destruction, but was otherwise
uninstructive.
13.2 Buildings Trial 2
The structure in Buildings Trial 2 was particularly
strong, having benefitted from the experience gained
in Building s Trial 1. It was therefore decided that the
final tests should be of charges exceeding twice the
design threat placed in contact with the building [that
is against the stand-off screen], the first charge against
the wall of the building, the second upon the roof.
Neither of these explosions caused any failure. That
on the roof produced some very useful visual informa-
tion from the internal cine-cameras. Unfortunately the
explosions had been larger than normally acceptable
on the range used, and, having demonstrated the per-
formance of the building in this way, the use of even
larger charges could not be justified.
13.3 Buildings Trial 3
In buildings Trial 3 no deliberate tests to destruction
were carried out. This was not because no such tests
were planned at the start of the trials, but because very
early in the trials the building failed in the course of
routine testing, so the mode of failure was discovered
by chance rather than by intention.
Following the failure all joints in the structure were
redesigned and replaced, as mentioned earlier. There-
after the building performed satisfactorily including
easily resisting charges against the wall at the range
limits.
14 CONCLUSIONS
Key results from the programme included:
1. The development of a range of structures based on
a tripartite protection system comprising:
• External sacrificial stand-off screen
• Energy absorbing deformable structure
• Internal stand-off bounding the protective space
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
2. A better understanding of the concept of effective
mass, leading to more efficient panel design.
3. A better understanding of the loading produced by
close in charges of non-ideal explosive containing
inert matter, and of the experimental techniques for
investigating such loading.
The IRA introduced the Mark 15 Mortar at the end
of 1992. Before Christmas 1993 the first Mark 15
proof building, based on a fully tested design had been
completed and occupied. Others followed. The infor-
mation gained through the development programme
was used, over the following years, to support the
development of a range of other protective structures.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Performance based methodology for tracing the response of restrained steel

beams exposed to fire

Venkatesh Kodur & Mahmud Dwaikat

Civil & Environmental Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, US

ABSTRACT: In this paper, a performance based approach is proposed for tracing fire response of simply
supported or restrained steel beams. The approach is based on equilibrium and compatibility principles and
evaluates fire resistance by applying strength and deflection limiting criteria. The proposed approach takes
into consideration various factors governing fire response, including fire scenario, end restraints, connection
configuration (location of axial restraint force), thermal gradient, load level, beam geometry, and failure criteria.
The validity of the proposed approach is established by comparing predictions from the proposed approach with
results obtained through rigorous finite element analysis. The applicability of the proposed approach to practical
design situations is illustrated through a numerical example.
Keywords: Fire resistance, axial restraint; rotational restraint; catenary action; elasto-plastic response; fire
response.

1 INTRODUCTION fire design through finite element analysis. In their

When exposed to fire, a restrained steel beam develops
significant restraint force that transforms its response
from a beam to that of a beam-column. The capac-
ity of such beam-column depends on the interaction
between axial force (P) and bending moment (M ) as
described by the P-M interaction equation (EC3 2005,
AISC 2005):
where P and M are the applied axial force and bending
moment, Pcr and Mcr are the critical axial force and
bending moment capacities. In AISC 2005 specifica-
tions manual (AISC 2005) the coefficients are given
as c1 = 1 and c2 = 8/9 when P/Pcr ≥ 0.2, and c1 = 0.5
and c2 = 1 when P/Pcr < 0.2. According to Eurocode
3 (EC3 2005), c1 = c2 = 1.
The current approaches of computing P-M inter-
action equations under fire conditions are based on
the assumption that a uniform temperature prevails
across the depth of the section (EC3 2005,AISC 2005).
However, in practice, a steel beam or column might
be exposed to fire from 1, 2, or 3 sides, such as in
beams supporting slabs or columns in the perimeter
of a framed building. In such scenarios, the beams
and columns are likely to develop non-uniform ther-
mal gradients across the depth of the section and this
will significantly alter the shape of the P-M capacity
curves.
Takagi and Deierlein (Takagi and Deierlein 2007)
assessed the feasibility of extending the room tem-
perature Eurocode 3 and AISC design equations to
study, they found that the AISC design equations are
unconservative when applied under fire conditions.
Takagi and Deierlein proposed adjustments to room-
temperature moment (Mcr ) and axial (Pcr ) capacities of
steel members for use at elevated temperature. Further,
they recommended the use of the modified capacities
(Mcr and Pcr ) into the AISC P-M interaction equations
at elevated temperature, and these modified equations
are being implemented in the upcoming edition of the
2010 AISC specifications manual. However, the pro-
posed adjustments do not take into consideration the
influence of thermal gradients on Mcr , Pcr , or the P-M
interaction equation.
The underlying mechanics of the distortion of
P-M diagrams that is induced by thermal gradients
was studied by Garlock and Quiel (Garlock and Quiel
2007 and 2008). These studies showed that a thermal
gradient in a steel section causes the center of stiffness
(CS) of the cross section to migrate towards the cooler
(stiffer) regions and away from the heated (softer)
regions. This migration of the center of stiffness gen-
erates an eccentricity (e) between the geometric center
(CG) and the center of stiffness of the cross section.
As a result of this eccentricity, bending moment is gen-
erated since the axial force will now act eccentrically
with respect to the new center of stiffness of the sec-
tion. This generated bending moment may counteract
the bending moment that results due to thermal bow-
ing. Therefore, this migration of center of stiffness
causes a distortion in the plastic P-M interactive dia-
gram (Garlock and Quiel 2007 and 2008). Based on
these studies, Garlock and Quiel proposed a numeri-
cal procedure to compute the resulting distorted P-M
diagrams for a wide flanged (WF) section subjected

39
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 1. Typical fire response of a restrained steel beam that fails by yielding (Dwaikat 2010).
to any thermal gradient of any shape (Garlock and
Quiel 2008). The proposed method requires inten-
sive use of numerical programs, such as MATLAB
or Spreadsheets.
In the current study, an improved and simplified
approach is presented for estimating the distorted
plastic P-M diagrams induced by thermal gradients.
Further, since the behavior of restrained steel beams is
also affected by the interaction between P and M , the
modified P-M equations are used to trace the response
of restrained beams subjected to fire induced restraint
and thermal gradients. The proposed methodology uti-
lizes basic equilibrium and compatibility principles
and computes the failure of restrained steel beams
using either strength or deflection limit states. Com-
parison with current approaches in codes and standard
highlight the applicability of the proposed approach
in capturing the response under various critical fac-
tors include fire scenario, end restraints, loading and
geometry.
2 RESPONSE OF RESTRAINED BEAMS
Consider a restrained steel beam, as shown in
Fig. 1a(i), with idealized axial and rotational restraint
boundary conditions. When this restrained beam is
exposed to fire, it develops significant internal forces
(axial force and bending moment) and large deflec-
tions due to the effect of restraint and deterioration
in properties of steel with increasing temperatures
(Kodur and Dwaikat 2009). These internal forces
transform the behavior of this beam into that of
40
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
beam-column. Also, if the beam is exposed to fire from
three sides, significant thermal gradients will develop
across the depth of the beam cross section, and this
thermal gradient causes a severe distortion in the P-M
diagrams due to the fire-induced inhomogeneity in the
steel cross section. The effect of thermal gradient on
the P-M diagrams is characterized in Fig. 1b.
If the beam (shown in Fig. 1(a)) is laterally braced
and is made of a compact section (i.e. no local buck-
ling), as it is generally the case in steel framed build-
ings, then the beam undergoes three distinct stages of
response, as shown in Fig. 1a (ii and iii) during expo-
sure to fire. In Stage I, elastic response dominates
the behavior wherein the beam expands as a result
of continuous heating, and compressive axial force
and hogging bending moment develop in the beam
due to the effect of end-restraints. Fire-induced inter-
nal forces and deflections continue to increase until
yielding occurs in the beam. Elasto-plastic response
dominates the behavior in Stage II, as shown in Fig.
1a(ii). As steel temperature continues to increase with
fire exposure time, softening of steel causes larger
deflections and rotations until the formation of the first
plastic hinge in the beam.
The plastic hinge, which forms at the location of
maximum bending moment in the beam, causes sud-
den increase in deflection (see Fig. 1a (iii)), which
leads to reduction and then reversal of the axial
force in the beam from compressive to tensile force.
The beam enters a catenary phase in Stage III when
the fire-induced compressive axial force vanishes
(shown in Fig. 1a (ii)). In the catenary phase, ten-
sile force develops in the beam and the load bearing
mechanism gradually shifts form flexural to cable (ten-
sile) until failure occurs by rupture of the beam (or in
the connections) (Dwaikat 2010).
It is worth mentioning that the response described
above is influenced, at each stage, by the interaction
between P and M induced forces in the restrained
beam. This is in contrast to the response of a simply
supported beam where the response is influenced by
the applied bending moment (M ) on the beam and
failure occurs by developing a single plastic hinge
under fire. This is shown in Fig. 1a (iii), where a run
away failure occurs in the simply supported beam upon
developing a plastic hinge at the midspan of the beam
(where moment in maximum). However, the failure of
restrained beam requires the development of a plas-
tic mechanism and the formation of 3 distinct plastic
hinges (two at supports and one at midspan). Further,
the formation of these three plastic hinges is governed
by the interaction between P and M .
3 CURRENT PROVISIONS IN CODES AND
STANDARDS
Most of the fire provisions in codes and standards
treat beams as simply supported beams and adopt a
failure criterion based on critical temperature concept
for evaluating fire resistance. The critical temperature
(Tcr ) is defined as the temperature at which steel loses
50% of its room-temperature yield strength. The con-
cept of critical temperature continues to be used in
codes adopting performance-based approach, such as
the Eurocode 3 (EC3 2005), New Zealand Standards
(SNZ 1997), and Japanese Building Code (Harada
et al. 2004), but with slight modification to the def-
inition of Tcr in which steel member (rather than steel
material) loses 50% of its room-temperature capacity.
Empirical or semi-empirical formulas are provided in
these codes to evaluate the critical temperature. For
instance, Eurocode 3, New Zealand and Japanese steel
design codes provide the following relations for com-
puting the critical temperature (Tcr ) of steel beams
(EC3 2005, SNZ 1997, Harads et al. 2004):
where the load ratio (r) is defined as the ratio
between the bending moment (Mo ) resulting from
reduced load during fire to the room-temperature plas-
tic moment capacity of the steel beam (Mp ). Obviously,
in these equations (and the like) the influence of fire
induced restraint forces and thermal gradients is not
accounted for.
41
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
4 FIRE RESISTANCE STUDIES
To overcome some of the current drawbacks, both
experimental and numerical studies were carried out
on beam-columns with the aim of developing ratio-
nal fire design guidelines (Dwaikat 2010, Kodur et al.
2009). The experimental studies comprised of fire
resistance tests on four beam-columns. The critical
parameters that were varied in these tests included
load level, fire scenario, insulation thickness, thermal
gradients, and axis orientation of the beam-columns.
The results of the tests indicated that axis orienta-
tion, fire induced thermal gradients, and load ratio
have major effect on the capacity of beam-columns
(Dwaikat 2010, Kodur et al. 2009).
The test results were used to validate numerical
models which in turn were used to conduct a series
of parametric studies. The numerical analysis carried
out using ANSYS program (ANSYS 2007) included
two steps, namely thermal and structural analyses.
In the thermal analysis, solid plane elements were
used to discretize the cross section and the bound-
ary conditions simulated both radiation and convection
that would result in a fire exposure. In the structural
analysis, 8-noded shell elements were used and the
boundary conditions were simulated based on the test
setup (Dwaikat 2010, Kodur et al. 2009). Steel temper-
atures recorded in the fire tests were used for validating
thermal analysis results. Load-displacement and time-
moment histories obtained from the fire tests through
LVDT’s and high quality strain gauges were used for
validating structural analysis results. Once validated,
the finite element models were used to conduct a series
of parametric studies to further identify the critical fac-
tors governing fire response. Results from parametric
studies indicated that load level, end restrained, ori-
entation and magnitude of thermal gradients, and fire
scenarios, have significant influence on fire response
of steel beam-columns (Dwaikat 2010, Dwaikat and
Kodur 2009). The results from the parametric studies
were used to develop rational design methodologies
and are presented below.
5 PERFORMANCE-BASED DESIGN
APPROACH
The influence of end restraints on the fire response of a
steel beam can be accounted for through a performance
based design approach. The detailed derivation of the
necessary equations has been presented by the authors
elsewhere (Dwaikat 2010, Dwaikat and Kodur 2009).
In this approach, the fire response of the restrained
beam is traced and the failure of the beam is assessed
based on realistic fire, loading, thermal gradients,
restrained conditions and failure criteria.
5.1 Modification of P-M interaction equations
The basic features of the distorted plastic P-M diagram
for a WF section, with thermal gradient in the strong
direction, is compared to the case of a uniform tem-
perature in Fig. 1b. The figure shows that the value of
moment capacity under peak axial capacity (point A
in Fig. 1b) moves back and forth (to point A’ in Fig.
1b) depending on the eccentricity (e) between center
of stiffness “CS” and center of geometry “GC” that
is caused by the thermal gradient in a WF section.
The magnitude of the shift (MTG ) in the P-M capacity
envelope (Fig. 1b) is assumed to be numerically equal
to the ultimate axial capacity (Pu,Tave ) of the section
multiplied by the eccentricity (e) between the center
of geometry (YGC ) and of the center of stiffness (YCS )
of the section as shown in Fig. 1b (Dwaikat and Kodur
2009). The ultimate capacity is computed based on the
average temperature of the section, i.e:
where the eccentricity (e) between YGC and YCS can
be calculated as follows:
In Eq. [6] d, BF , tF , and tw are beam depth, flange
width, thickness of flange and web of the cross
section, respectively. kE andky are the reduction fac-
tors for elastic modulus and yield strength at steel
temperature T .
By referring to Fig. 1b, the transition in the
fire response of a restrained beam between elastic
and elastoplastic response is marked by the occur-
rence of yielding (if the beam section is designed
to be a compact section and local buckling effect is
neglected). Since the restrained beam will experience
non-uniform thermal expansion, the temperature (Ty )
at which yielding occurs can be computed using the
following yield P-M interaction equation:
where P(T ) and MG (T ) are the fire induced axial force
and bending moment due to restraint, respectively.
Py and My are the room-temperature yield axial and
moment capacity of the steel section, respectively.
5.2 Response of restrained steel beam under fire
Using Eq. (7) at each of the critical stages described
earlier (see Fig. 1a), a simplified methodology for trac-
ing the response of restrained steel beams under fire
is derived. The details of the derivation of the method-
ology are presented elsewhere (Dwaikat 2010) Based
on the proposed methodology, the limiting tempera-
ture at failure (TDLS or Tf ) can be computed using the
following two design equations:
Deflection limit state:
42
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Strength limit state:
where LF is the designed deflection limit state and is
usually taken as (1/30 − 1/20)L (BS 1987). The other
factors in Eq. 8 are defined as follows:
•
•
•
• Ka and Kr are the axial and rotational restraints
stiffnesses on the beam boundary conditions.
• Mo is the maximum bending moment in the beam
at ambient temperature.
• The material coefficients are given as:
– For Eurocode 3 (EC3 2005) steel properties:
a1 = 0.6; a2 = 0.0013; a3 = 1.139; and a4 =
0.0013
– For ASCE manual (ASCE 1992) steel properties:
a1 = 0.6829; a2 = 0.0008; a3 = 1.329; and a4 =
0.0014.
It can be shown through direct substitution that for
the case of simply supported beams (Ka = Kr = 0),
and using elastic-perfectly plastic stress strain curves
for steel (i.e. Fy = Fu ), Eq. 8 reduces to TDLS = Ty ,
which is the yielding temperature, and this conforms
very well with the current provisions of design of
simply supported beams which assumes the failure to
occurs once the plastic bending capacity of the beam
(Mp (T ) = Fy Zx ) is exceeded under fire (Mo > Mp (T )).
Thus, Eq. 8 provides a general design methodology
not only for beams under axial and rotational restraint
conditions, but also for simply supported steel beams.
Eq. 8 accounts for various factors influencing
response of a restrained beam and provides an attrac-
tive alternative to detailed nonlinear fire resistance
analysis.
6 VERIFICATION OF THE PROPOSED
APPROACH
6.1 Comparison to finite element analysis
The proposed approach has been verified by compar-
ing its predictions against results from rigorous finite
element analysis carried out using ANSYS (ANSYS
2007). The details of the finite element modeling and
validation can be found elsewhere (Dwaikat 2010,
Figure 2. Comparing temperatures at deflection limit state as predicted by finite element analysis and from Eq. 10 for
LF = L/20 and L/30 (Dwaikat 2010).
Figure 3. Comparing the limiting temperature from proposed approach and from codes and standards (AR: Axial restraint
ratio).
Dwaikat and Kodur 2009) The validation covered a
wide range of beams with varying factors, such as
end restraint, connection configuration, load level,
slenderness, and thermal gradient. Figure 2 com-
pares the results from the proposed approach (Eq.
(8.1)) to results from finite element analysis on beams
with different load, restraint and fire exposure condi-
tions. Two deflection criteria were used, LF = L/20 and
LF = L/30. These deflection criteria are commonly
used in fire tests (BS 1987) and are chosen for com-
parison. As shown in Fig. 2, the approach predicts the
temperature at deflection limit state (TDLS ) within 10%
margin of error.
6.2 Comparison to current approaches
Predictions from the proposed approach are also com-
pared in Fig. 3 against current code provisions for
evaluating critical temperature. Both deflection and
strength limit states were applied to evaluate fire resis-
tance. The enhanced fire resistance due to effect of
restraint is captured by the proposed approach and is
evident in Fig. 3(b), however, restraint effect is not
captured by the code provisions.
6.3 Numerical example
To demonstrate the applicability of the simplified
approach in design situations, a numerical example is
43
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
presented for a beam-column exposed to ASTM E119
standard fire (ASTM 2008)
Problem: Compute the maximum compressive force
(P) attained in the beam-column with the following
characteristics
Given: Beam-column section W14x176 (Fy =
345 MPa.)
– Effective and unbraced length of the beam-column
is KL = Lb = 4.5 m
– Average section temperature Tave = 500◦ C, thermal
gradient T = 200◦ C
– Initial bending moment Mo = 320 kN.m
Bending and axial capacities:The Mcr and Pcr for the
beam-column described above are computed using the
three approaches discussed in this paper. The compu-
tations are carried out with strength reduction factors
 of unity. The results are tabulated in Table 1.
The results in Table 1 show that the P-M interaction
equations specified in codes and standards overesti-
mate the maximum axial force that can be sustained
by the prescribed beam-column.The most unconserva-
tive predictions are using the current AISC 2005 P-M
equations, where the maximum compressive force
was overestimate by more than 123% compared to
finite element result obtained via ANSYS. The adjust-
ments made by Takagi and Deirelin on AISC design
Table 1. Axial and moment critical capacities according to
AISC, Eurocode, andTakagi and Deierlen (T&D) approaches.
AISC EC 3 T&D
Critical capacities 2005 2005 2007
Mcr kN.m 1329 985 1131.5
Pcr kN 7150 5690 4812
Max. P kN (Eq. 1) 3707 1530.4 2090
using current provisions
Max. P kN (Eq. 7) 1935.5 1273 1783
using proposed approach
Max. P kN (ANSYS) 1660
Finite element solution
equation resulted in an improved prediction, however,
the maximum axial force that can be carried by the pre-
scribed beam-column is still overestimated by more
than 26%. The reason for these unconservative pre-
dictions using P-M equations specified in codes and
standards is that these equations do not account for
the influence of thermal gradient on both stiffness and
second order effect which greatly affect the capacity
of beam-columns.
The Eurocode P-M interaction equation provided
a reasonable conservative prediction of the maximum
compressive force which was 8% less than the actual
compressive force predicted by nonlinear finite ele-
ment analysis (ANSYS). The reason for improved
predictions using the Eurocode uses numerical inte-
gration for computing the plastic axial and bending
capacities at the sectional level. The numerical sec-
tional integration captures the variation of strength in
the cross section arising from non-uniform thermal
gradient.
Table 1 also shows that the predictions of the axial
capacity of the beam-column are greatly improved by
adopting the proposed modifications for AISC and
T&D design equations. This is because the proposed
modifications account for fire induced thermal gradi-
ents by introducing bending moments that arise due
to the migration of center of stiffness in the beam-
column. Applying these modifications to the current
Eurocode P-M diagrams resulted in a double con-
servative estimation of the axial capacity (P) of the
beam-column.
7 CONCLUSIONS
Current approaches for fire design of steel struc-
tures do not account for the influence of fire induced
restraint on the response steel beams. The proposed
performance-based design procedure, which is based
on equilibrium and compatibility principles, is capa-
ble of evaluating fire resistance of restrained steel
beams, and the performance of the restrained beam
can be checked under strength or deflection failure
criteria. The proposed approach yielded better fire
resistance predictions than those predicted by current
codes of practice. Thus the proposed approach can be
44
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
effectively applied for undertaking performance-based
fire design of restrained steel beams.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to acknowledge the support of
National Institute of Standards and Technology
(through Building and Fire Research Laboratory Fire
Grant # 60NANB7D6120) and National Science
Foundation (through Award# CMMI 0652292). Any
opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations
expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do
not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsors.
REFERENCES
AISC. 2005. Steel Construction Manual 3rd Edition, Ameri-
can Institute of Steel Construction, Chicago, Illinois. US.
ANSYS. 2007. ANSYS Multiphysics, Version 11.0 SP1
ANSYS Inc., Canonsburg, PA. USA.
ASCE, 1992. “Structural Fire Protection”, manual No.78„
ASCE committee on fire protection, structural division,
American Society of Civil Engineers, New York.
ASTM E119a. 2008. Standard Methods of Fire Test of Build-
ing Construction and Materials, American Society for
Testing and Materials, West Conshohocken, PA.
BS 476-3:1987. Fire Tests on Building Materials and
Structures – Part 20: Method for Determination of the
Fire Resistance of Elements of Construction (General
Principles), BSi, UK.
Dwaikat, M.M.S and Kodur, V.K.R. 2009. A Sim-
plified Approach for Evaluating Plastic Axial and
Moment Capacity Curves for Beam-Columns with Non-
uniform Thermal Gradients, Engineering Structures, 32,
pp. 1423–1436.
Dwaikat, M.M.S., 2010. Response of restrained steel beam
subjected to fire induced thermal gradients, PhD Thesis,
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, US.
Eurocode 3. 2005. EN1993-1-2: The European Standard;
Part 1-2: General rules – Structural fire design, European
Committee for Standardization, Brussels, Belgium.
Garlock, M. E. M., and Quiel, S. E. 2008. Plastic Axial
load and moment interaction curves for fire-exposed steel
sections with thermal gradients. Journal of Structural
Engineering, 134(6): 874–880.
Garlock, M. E. M., and Quiel, S. E. 2007. The behavior of
steel perimeter columns in a high-rise building under fire.
Eng. J., 44(4): 59–372.
Harada, K., Ohmiya, Y, Natori, A. and Nakamichi, A. 2004.
Technical basis on structural fire resistance design in
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beam–columns exposed to fire, Engineering Structures,
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Kodur, V.R, Garlock, M.E, Dwaikat, M.S, Quiel, S. 2009.
Collaborative Research: Fire Engineering Guidelines for
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Standards New Zealand. 1997. Steel Structures Standard.
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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Modelling climate change impact on cultural heritage the European project

climate for culture

J. Leissner, R. Kilian, F. Antretter & A. Holm

Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Germany

ABSTRACT: The CLIMATE FOR CULTURE project, funded by the European Commission since 2009, will
assess the damage potential of climate change on European cultural heritage, its socio-economic impact and
possible mitigation strategies. Collections in historic buildings in different parts of Europe will be included for in
situ investigation of contemporary problems and for the projection of future demanding issues. For this purpose,
high resolution climate evolution scenarios will be coupled with whole building simulation models to identify the
most urgent risks for specific regions with the aim of developing mitigation strategies. The identified economic
and substantial risks for the European cultural heritage will be communicated to policy makers together with
possible mitigation strategies to be included in the future IPCC Reports.

1 INTRODUCTION – CLIMATE CHANGE

AND CULTURAL HERITAGE

Climate change is one of the most critical global

challenges of our time. This factor, coupled with
the increasing demand our society has on energy
and resources, has forced sustainable development to
the top of the European political agenda. Scientific
research shows that the preservation of the cultural
heritage is particularly vulnerable in this regard. As
a non-renewable resource of intrinsic importance to
our identity, there is a need to develop more effec-
tive and efficient sustainable adaptation and mitigation
strategies in order to preserve these invaluable cultural
assets for the long-term future. More reliable assess-
ments will lead to better prediction models, which in
turn will enable preventive measures to be taken, thus
reducing energy and the use of resources.
For this purpose the CLIMATE FOR CULTURE
project will connect new high resolution climate
change evolution scenarios with whole building sim-
ulation models to identify the most urgent risks for
specific regions. The innovation lies in the elabora-
tion of a more systematically and reliable damage/risk
assessment which will be deduced by correlating the
projected future climate data (with the spatial res-
olution of up to 10 × 10 km grid size) with whole
building simulation models and new damage assess-
ment functions. Thus not only the impact on historic
buildings can be evaluated but also the possible effects
on the indoor environment which surrounds the works
of art we are keeping inside them. In situ measure-
ments and investigations at cultural heritage sites
throughout Europe (Fig. 1) and the Mediterranean
Figure 1. Linderhof Castle, Bavaria, is one of the buildings
to be examined using hygrothermal building simulation.
will allow a much more precise and integrated assess-
ment of the real damage impact of climate change
on cultural heritage at regional scale. Sustainable
(energy and resource efficient) and appropriate mit-
igation/adaptation strategies, also from previous EU
projects, are further developed and applied on the basis
of these findings simultaneously.
The CLIMATE FOR CULTURE project will esti-
mate more systematically the damage potential of
climate change on European cultural heritage under
different climate change scenarios at regional scale.
The team consists of 27 multidisciplinary partners
from 16 countries all over Europe and Egypt including
leading institutes and experts in conservation, climate
modeling and whole building simulation. One team
partner is a member of the International Panel on Cli-
mate Change (IPCC) and four partners are members of

45
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 the standardization body CEN TC 346 (Conservation
of Cultural Property).
To raise the awareness of the decision makers about
the costs to take actions and what it costs, if we do
not take actions to protect cultural heritage the eco-
nomic impacts and physical risks to European cultural
heritage will be identified.
2 THE CLIMATE FOR CULTURE PROJECT
2.1 Main objectives and scientific methods
To assess the effects of climate change high resolution
climate evolution scenarios (based on regional climate
model simulations) are connected with whole building
simulation models to identify the most urgent risks for
the whole of Europe and the Mediterranean. The cor-
relation of the climate data and the whole building
simulation models with close up surface monitoring
will build the basis for setting up new damage func-
tions. Collections in historic buildings from various
European regions as well as UNESCO World Heritage
Sites are included as case studies for in situ assessment
of existing problems, retrospective investigations on
the state of preservation and for the projection of future
challenging issues.All results will be incorporated into
the report on the assessment of the economic costs and
impacts on cultural heritage under two different IPCC
climate scenarios on regional scale.
Almost the entire research in the field of micro-
climate related preventive conservation so far has
focused on the climate responses of singular artistic,
historic materials which generally has led to a defi-
nition of very strict and rather limited climate ranges.
However, historic buildings are living places which are
frequently inhabited, visited or used for a wide variety
of activities. The change in their use and function is
often the condition of their survival as a monument.
Maintaining these strict microclimate ranges for most
historic buildings is not feasible, in particular with
regard to the global warming trend and often unneces-
sary because many of the movable cultural assets can
withstand a wider range of climatic conditions.
The project aims at assessing the influence of cli-
mate change and microclimatic functioning of historic
buildings with regard to the dangers for the interior
equipment or works of art, as well as at new strategies
for the improvement of the microclimatic control and
the optimization of the buildings. The project will also
contribute directly to the standardization process of
the CEN TC 346 “Conservation of cultural property”.
2.2 Climate change modelling
A comprehensive description of the climate system
components as well as their interaction under differ-
ent climate change conditions can be achieved by using
physically-based climate models (IPCC, 2007). An
entirely new high resolution simulation (10 × 10 km)
will be performed over entire Europe for time slices
1960–2000, 2020–2050 and 2070–2100. Two IPCC
46
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
scenarios will be considered (B1 and A1B). While
A1B is the manifestation of “business as usual” with
high economic growth the B1 scenario gives a more
optimistic vision of a world with lower emissions
where resource efficient and sustainable technologies
are fast developed and introduced. This allows cov-
ering a range of possible climate changes over the
selected regions.These two different climate scenar-
ios will deliver climate indicators for assessment of
future changes, including estimation and evaluation
of uncertainties in the models.
To assess and simulate the local climate changes
according to the different emission scenarios in a high
resolution of 10 × 10 km the regional climate model
REMO has been developed at the Max-Planck Insti-
tute for Meteorology (MPG/MPI-MET) in Hamburg
(Jacob D., 2001; Jacob D. et al., 2007) and has already
been applied for several different areas (e.g. within the
European CLAVIER, ENSEMBLES and the German
KLIWAS, GLOWA-DANUBE projects). The global
fields from the coupled general circulation model
ECHAM5-MPIOM will be used as driving forces. In
addition, the regional coupled model REMO/MPIOM
with 25 km resolution in the atmosphere and 11 km
in the ocean will be used to estimate both changes in
mean sea level as well as changes in positive sea level
extremes. The results from the this model will also be
used to assess the uncertainty in the high resolution
atmosphere-only simulations arising from the use of
the coarse resolution sea surface temperature as lower
boundary condition.
2.3 Hygrothermal building simulation
Historic buildings usually show elevated indoor
humidity levels and a high variation of the climatic
conditions, which can be dangerous to cultural heritage
materials. This requires the detailed consideration of
all hygrothermal interactions between the indoor air,
the usage, the furnishing and the building envelope.
The hygrothermal behaviour of a building component
exposed to weather is an important aspect of the over-
all performance of a building. The calculation of the
hygrothermal performance of a part of the envelope is
state-of-the-art and a realistic assessment of all rel-
evant effects can be carried out, but until now the
total behaviour of the actual whole building is not
accounted for.
How much ventilation and additional heat energy
is required to ensure safe indoor conditions for cul-
tural heritage when a historic building is exposed to
extreme climate conditions or up to 4000 visitor per
day? What will happen to the hygrothermal behaviour
of walls and ceiling when a historic cellar is changed
in its use and is turned for example into a restaurant?
How do the indoor air conditions and the envelope of
buildings with temporary use react to different heating
and ventilation strategies? Can sorptive finish materi-
als improve and stabilise the microclimate in historic
buildings?
 For risk assessment in cultural heritage buildings
the exact indoor humidity fluctuations and the mois-
ture profiles in the building envelope are extremely
relevant. Therefore models that combine thermal
building simulation with the hygrothermal component
simulation have to be applied.
Different thermal and hygrothermal building sim-
ulation tools will be evaluated for their applicability
to simulate the indoor environment and hygrothermal
transport mechanisms in historic building materials.
These computational models are usually used for sim-
ulating water and temperature distributions in modern
building components like insulated walls or roofs.
Whole building simulations will also take into account
the type of use (e.g. visitors, events) and HVAC clima-
tisation components to assess the indoor environment.
Their applicability to existent historic buildings with
often unknown constructions and material properties
is still limited.
The whole building model WUFI® PLUS (Holm
A. et al., 2003) is a combination of thermal building
simulation with the hygrothermal envelope calculation
model WUFI® . This holistic model takes into account
the main hygrothermal effects, like moisture sources
and sinks inside a room and the moisture input from the
envelope due to capillary action and diffusion as well
as vapour ad- and desorption as a response to the exte-
rior and interior climate conditions. Also different heat
sources and sinks inside the room, heat input from the
envelope, the solar energy input through walls and win-
dows as well as hygrothermal sources and sinks due
to natural or mechanical ventilation are considered.
Also other simulation software like Hambase
(STS.BWK.TUE), ESP-r (ESRU.STRATH), Energy
Plus (APPS1-EERE) or IDA-ICE (EQUA.SE) will be
compared in a Common Exercise between the several
research institutes with the aim of testing their appli-
cability for historic buildings. The different tools are
expected to have strength and weaknesses for differ-
ent topics of the assessment, e.g. some simulate the
combined heat and moisture transport through porous
materials, whereas others only use simplified models
for these processes or just simulate the heat transport
but have higher possibilities in accurately modelling
different HVAC systems.
The most suitable models will then be used to model
the predicted impact of the climate change. As prob-
ably some features for the appropriate climate change
impact modelling on complex historic buildings are
missing, missing modules will be assessed, developed
and implemented into the software tools. This allows
us to use the high resolution climate data to predict the
future indoor environment of the case study buildings.
This indoor climate data will then be assessed with the
new damage functions.
In a final step, the effects of active and passive
mitigation measures will be evaluated with the build-
ing simulation models. The most promising mitigation
measures will be implemented in the simulation mod-
els. This allows the assessment of the effect of different
measures suggested.
47
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 2. Interior of the Turkish Hall on a watercolour paint-
ing from 1879 by Peter Herwegen. The decoration looks the
same today as on the picture, so later changes to the decorative
program can be excluded.
3 CASE EXAMPLE – THE KING’S HOUSE
ON THE SCHACHEN
The CLIMATE FOR CULTURE project aims at pro-
viding a general overview on the difference of the
indoor environment in historic buildings all over
Europe. Selected and representative buildings will be
used as Case Studies for simulation. The best docu-
mented and thoroughly known of these buildings will
be used for the simulation common exercise. These
cases must allow a validation of the software tools on
the basis of measured interior climate conditions from
the past connected with the documented boundary
conditions.
3.1 Building and works of art
The King’s house on the Schachen is one of five his-
toric buildings in Bavaria (besides Linderhof Palace
and St. Renatus Chapel, Lustheim, and two further
churches), which are examined in the Climate for Cul-
ture project.The King’s house on the Schachen, located
in the Wetterstein Mountains in the Alps was built by
King Ludwig II of Bavaria from 1869 to 1872 in a
wooden post-and-infill construction. On the first floor
there is the richly decorated Turkish hall furnished
with different materials such as wall paper, textiles,
polychromed and gilded wood surfaces, and coloured
windows. Due to the exposed location, the building is
set out rough atmospheric conditions all year with fast
weather changes and long periods of frost during the
whole winter. Nevertheless the condition of the house,
the interior and especially the Turkish hall is very good
(Fig. 2). To find out more about the circumstances for
this state of preservation, the Fraunhofer-Institute for
Building Physics has started climate measurements in
2006. The first step of examination was the simula-
tion of the indoor climate of the king’s house with the
whole building simulation software WUFI® + and the
thorough analysis of the condition of the decoration of
the Turkish hall by a trained conservator.

Figure 3. Scatter plots showing the comparison between
measurement and simulation for 1 year of data (from Octo-
ber, 1st 2006 to September, 31st 2007). Risk assessment of
the measured indoor climate (left) shows that most of the data
is in a safe region for the one year monitoring period. The gap
in the measured temperature at 0◦ C is due to a malfunction of
the data logger. The simulation provides to high temperature
and in turn lower RH for the summer months.
As first conclusions it has to be stated that many
factors contribute to the good state of preservation:
the house is open only in the summer months and
due to the location the only access is by a three hour
march. For this reason, compared to other Bavarian
palaces for example Linderhof Palace, less visitors –
who are one cause for indoor climate fluctuations –
come to see the king’s house on the Schachen. The
indoor environment of the Turkish hall is buffered by
a house-in-house-construction and stable without any
heating or climatisation system. Also the indoor sur-
face materials buffer moisture fluctuations. This helps
to preserve the furnishing and works of art inside the
building.
3.2 Simulation
The hygrothermal building simulation of the Kings
House on the Schachen has been published earlier
(Kilian R. et al., 2008). Here just exemplary results
are shown (Fig. 3 and Fig. 4).
The comparison of the simulations results with the
measured data shows quite good fitting for the winter
48
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 4. Histograms showing the comparison between
measurement and simulation for 1 year of data (2006–2007).
The gap in the measured temperature at 0◦ C is due to a
malfunction of the data logger.
months. During summer in the simulation the tem-
perature is too high in comparison with the measured
data due to necessary simplifications in regard to the
building construction and uncertainties in regard to
the available weather data in the approximation of the
model, especially solar radiation and shading from the
mountains during winter months.
This will also pose difficulties for modelling local
climate change, as also climate change modelling has
limitations, e.g. when it comes to simulating moun-
tain regions with very special local microclimates that
cannot be modelled in sufficient high resolution up to
now.
3.3 Summary
In general it is difficult to simulate historic build-
ings, due to multiple materials often unknown or with
changed properties from aging and often unknown
building constructions. Nevertheless it is possible to
obtain approximations that are sufficiently close to
reality.
With a good knowledge of the hygrothermal behav-
ior of a historic building today coupled with high
resolution climate change simulations it will be possi-
ble to assess future impacts of climate change on these
buildings and on the works of art that are kept inside
them, by looking at a large number of case studies all
over Europe. Of course for this task all uncertainties of
the climate change prediction models as well of build-
ing simulation will have to be taken into account. This
will be our project for the next years to come.
REFERENCES
IPCC, 2007. IPCC Fourth Assessment Report. The Physi-
cal Science Basis. Chapter 8 Climate Models and their
evaluation, Climate Change, (2007).
Jacob D., 2001. A note to the simulation of the annual
and inter-annual variability of the water budget over the
Baltic Sea drainage basin. Meteorology and Atmospheric
Physics, Vol.77, Issue 1–4, (2001), pp. 61–73.
Jacob D., Bärring, L., Christensen, O.B., Christensen, J.H.,
de Castro, M., Déque, M., Giorgi, F., Hagemann, S.,
Hirschi, M., Jones, R., Kjellström, E., Lenderink, G.,
Rockel, B., Sánchez, E., Schär, C., Seneviratne, S.I.,
Somot, S., van Ulden A. and van den Hurk, B., 2007. An
inter-comparison of regional climate models for Europe:
Design of the experiments and model performance. Cli-
matic Change, Vol. 81, (2007).
Holm A., Künzel H., Sedlbauer K., 2003. The hygrother-
mal behaviour of rooms: combining thermal build-
ing simulation and hygrothermal envelope calculation.
Eighth International IBPSA Conference, Eindhoven,
The Netherlands, August 11–14, (2003), pp. 499–505. See
also http://www.wufi.com.
49
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
STS.BWK.TUE. http://sts.bwk.tue.nl/hamlab/.
ESRU.STRATH. http://www.esru.strath.ac.uk/Programs/
ESP-r.htm.
APPS1.EERE. http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/energy
plus/.
EQUA.SE.http://www.equa.se/ice/.
Kilian R., HolmA., Radon J., Künzel H.M., 2008.Assessment
of the climatic stability of a royal mountain chalet – The
King’s House on the Schachen. In: WTA-Almanach, WTA-
Publications, München, (2008).
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

The development of analysis of glazed facades to resist

blast effects

C.M. Morison
TPS Consult, Croydon, UK

ABSTRACT: Modern analysis of glazed facades has grown from a combination of blast loading assessment by
theoretical, experimental and numerical methods, from the development of dynamic structural analysis methods
to embrace the non-linear nature of glazing and from the experimental evaluation of glazing systems, models
and materials. This paper reviews this growth, discusses some of the factors in modern glazing analysis tools
that affect the suitability of tools for research and design, and looks at areas of current development that may
extend the capability of blast resistant glazing systems.

1 INTRODUCTION 2 THE HISTORY OF BLAST LOADING

In the built environment, one of the greatest hazards to
people in the event of an explosion comes from frag-
ments of glass. Glass is ubiquitous in modern built-up
areas, is more brittle than most other cladding material
and is normally close to most of the building occu-
pants, so failure of glazing under blast can result in
hazardous fragments in buildings at a substantial range
from the explosion, as well as fragments falling in the
streets outside.
To discuss the development of glazed facades to
resist blast effects, it is necessary to explore several
historical trails:
• The development of wave and blast theory to iden-
tify the nature of blast loading, and the practical
means to calculate the loading acting on the facades
• The development of analytical means to assess the
response to blast of structures in general and glazing
in particular
• The practical development of testing of glass and
glazing systems to meet specific levels of blast
threat.
These trails lead to the current state of practice
in the design and assessment of facades to resist the
effects of blast, whether from accidental explosions or
from deliberate explosion of military or improvised
explosive devices.
From current practice, which is far from being cod-
ified or practiced uniformly, and which is in a constant
state of flux, some of the developments being explored
to increase the ability of glazing to resist blast effects
in the future will be discussed.
2.1 Theory of sound and blast waves
Poisson (1808) presented a theory of sound in which
he found an exact solution for a traveling wave:
where f is an arbitrary function and a is the sound
speed, assumed to be constant.
Poisson (1823) also derived the gas law for sound
waves with infinitesimal amplitudes, called the Pois-
son Isentrope, but more familiar now as the adiabatic
gas equation:
where γ is the adiabatic constant, p the pressure, V the
volume and k a constant. This is a special case of the
ideal gas equation for a closed system with constant
energy. From this, a pressure wave speed is derived:
where Vp is the wave speed and ρ is the density.
However, these equations gave problems with waves
of finite amplitude. The peaks had higher sound speeds
than the troughs. Stokes (1848) demonstrated that a
sine wave of finite amplitude initially satisfying Equa-
tion 1 in an inviscid ideal gas would change with time,
the leading edge becoming steeper and the trailing
edge becoming shallower. Eventually the leading edge

51
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 1. Properties at a shock transition.
of each wave becomes a vertical jump in pressure – a
shock front.
Stokes defined the jump condition for conservation
of mass and momentum. However, he was not con-
vinced that the condition described would ever occur
in nature, concluding that it appeared “almost certain
that internal friction would effectively prevent the for-
mation of a surface of discontinuity.” Following from
Stokes work on viscosity, the Navier-Stokes equation
of fluid flow, a momentum equation with viscosity
terms, is the basis of computational fluid dynamics
(CFD).
Lord Kelvin and later Lord Rayleigh separately
pointed out that Stokes’ mass and momentum equa-
tions were incompatible with conservation of energy.
It took a Civil Engineer, Rankine (1870) to apply
thermodynamics to the problem and to identify that the
shock transition is neither adiabatic nor isothermal, but
involves an irreversible transfer from kinetic energy
to internal (thermal) energy, and to provide consistent
laws of conservation of mass, momentum and energy:
This was developed independently in Hugoniot
(1889). Hugoniot was an artilleryman as well as an
academic, who submitted two memoirs for publication
in 1885, the second of which, published posthumously
contained his equation relating the internal energy to
the kinetic energy where discontinuities are introduced
into the motion.
Little attention was paid at the time, to a dis-
counted side-branch of the theory of sound, and only
in Rayleigh (1910) was it concluded that the two solu-
tions were the same. Although Stokes was correct that
a continuous sound wave would not develop into a
series of shocks, the Rankine-Hugoniot equations do
describe a real discontinuous state when initial con-
ditions are discontinuous, such as the bursting of a
pressurized container, a supersonic detonation front
in combustible material or supersonic motion through
air.
The Rankin-Hugoniot equations can calculate the
peak pressure when a shock wave reflects from a
52
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 2. Early pressure history for 500 lb bomb by Fox &
Harris.
perpendicular surface, and hence the loading. The sub-
sequent pressure/loading history can be calculated for
an adiabatic ideal gas with close accuracy in air.
2.2 Measurement of blast
The equations provide the theoretical basis for mod-
ern analysis of blast. However, there was a separate
strand of pragmatic investigation of explosives. In the
nineteenth century this was aimed at developing bet-
ter artillery shells and assessing their effects. During
World War I some of this attention switched to aerial
bombs. From this work, some pragmatic rules were
developed.
Hopkinson (1915) is first recorded as observing the
cube root scaling law, in a funding application to the
British Ordnance Board for a scaled study of the effect
of aerial bombs on buildings. The scaling law was
also observed independently by Cranz (1917), who
included it in his text book on ballistics.
This scaling law relates the properties of a blast
wave to the “scaled range” – the range divided by the
cube root of the weight of explosives. This is a power-
ful tool, allowing trials with any size of charge to be
related together, and applied to any explosives threat.
This has been taken further by relating different
types of explosives to a standard explosive mate-
rial, normally TNT. There are various calculations for
“TNT equivalence” factors of different high explo-
sives, giving different results. One of the simplest is
to scale the charge in proportion to the detonation
energy, and this is suitable for an external detonation
over scaled ranges that include those most relevant
to glazing. Because condensed chemical explosives
also produce gaseous detonation products and not all
explosives are “ideal” explosives, other formulae or
measured equivalences also have a place.
For trials to give useful information on blast load-
ing, it is necessary to measure the pressure history of
the blast wave. This requires appropriate instruments.
With the development of foil gauges, one of the ear-
liest measurements of blast was undertaken by Fox &
Harris (1939) at the British Building Research Station.
However, during World War II the focus was on mea-
suring the blast parameters from aerial bombs. Some
of the positive impulse is used to propel the casing
fragments, so most measurements of that time showed
the positive impulse less than the negative.
 Various curves and formulae for blast wave param-
eters have been developed from high explosives trials
since then. The data that is now most widely used
is Kingery & Bulmash (1984), based on an analy-
sis of many trials by US military researchers. This
gives formulae for curves that define a number of blast
parameters for the incident positive phase blast wave
and for reflection off a perpendicular face for two ini-
tial conditions: a spherical charge in free air and a
hemispherical charge in contact with the ground. By
applying TNT equivalence and cube root scaling, these
can be applied to any bare explosive charge in a similar
setting.
Experimental measurements have been used to
derive pragmatic data for simple geometries such
as airburst at height, oblique reflection and clearing
around a finite reflective surface.
2.3 Numerical analysis of blast pressure histories
The formulae or curves from measured data can
be used to calculate loading for simple geometries,
but cannot cater for the complicated geometry of a
streetscape with multiple reflections and interaction
of blast waves.
An alternative is to calculate the behavior of
the blast wave from first principles in a numeri-
cal grid, using the Rankine-Hugoniot equations and
the adiabatic gas equations in section 2.1. Calcu-
lations that use only hydrodynamics equations are
known as “Hydrocode”. Large advances in hydrocode
were made in the Manhattan Project to analyze the
early stages of a nuclear explosion, but using hand
calculations.
The large number of successive calculations neces-
sary to track a blast wave through air required greater
calculating power, which was obtained with digital
computers. Brode (1955) published formulae that gave
varying properties with range, produced by a 1 dimen-
sional hydrocode computer calculation representing
spherical expansion of a blast wave. His starting points
were spheres of air with the added energy of 1 kilo-
ton of TNT, to represent nuclear explosions. Although
his original scaling factor was different, his equations
have been recast in terms of scaled range for TNT, giv-
ing an equation for the peak incident overpressure in
the medium and far field of:
for Ps between 0.1 and 10 bar and Z the scale range
in m.kg−1/3 .
One dimensional hydrocode gave formulae compa-
rable to the results of a large quantity of experimental
work.
Increasing computer power and refinement of the
algorithms used to apply the basic equations has
resulted in 2D and 3D hydrocodes suitable for calcu-
lating pressure histories for complex geometries. By
the late 1980s, commercially available 2D codes such
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
as Autodyn2D could produce realistic pressure histo-
ries on simplified building frontages using affordable
hardware, and 3D analysis was available, although
practical resolutions and run times could not yet
produce reliable pressure histories.
With optimized 3D software (e.g. Air3D), realistic
solutions can now be calculated on standard desktop
PCs in a practical timescale to produce pressure his-
tories of blast wave loading for analysis and design of
real buildings in complex streetscapes.
Combining the Rankine-Hugoniot equations with
the full non-linear Navier-Stokes equations for air
has allowed advanced CFD programs to model blast
and other shocks together with flow effects such as
drag. Currently these require more computing power
than available in a standard PC to model realistic
streetscapes, in a practical timescale for design.
With increasing computer power, CFD may become
the all-purpose blast loading tool for the future. How-
ever, there is still a place for simpler methods to
produce loading information that is adequate for many
circumstances, whether based on measured data or
simpler first principal analysis.
3 DYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF FACADES
AND STRUCTURES
3.1 World War II research on glass
Fox & Harris (1939) used a single degree of free-
dom (SDOF) model to assess structural response. This
approach was used to analyze glass trials and assess
the damage produced by aerial bombs in urban areas,
as summarized by Phillip (1945).
The SDOF approach used is based on the linear
equation of motion for a lumped spring-mass system:
where x is the deflection, F(t) is the load history,
m is the mass and k is the spring stiffness. How-
ever, the equation

was solved in terms of the natural
period ω = k/m. The correspondence between the
actual pane and the lumped system was based on equal
natural periods, and the natural period of the glass
panes was calculated analytically or measured exper-
imentally, eliminating the mass and stiffness from the
equation.
This research tried to establish the criteria for
breakage of glass panes under blast, and investigated
modified and alternative glazing materials. With hind-
sight it was handicapped by the assumption of linearity
in the SDOF method and an ignorance of the sensitiv-
ity of glass cracking strengths to loading rate and other
factors.
One factor that was demonstrated in analysis and in
the field was the sensitivity of glazing to the negative
loading phase of short duration blast load, resulting in
outwards breaking of glass on rebound.

Figure 3. Newmark’s chart for elastic-plastic SDOF
response.
3.2 Cold war research
In the 1950s the major concern was the analysis of
reinforced concrete structures under blast loading from
atomic weapons. Two major developments of SDOF
methods occurred.
Newmark (1953) developed solutions for SDOF
models with elastic-pure plastic resistance and a trian-
gular positive phase loading, using the ENIAC com-
puter to produce large numbers of numerical results. In
the context of long duration atomic blast loading and
plastic response he stated that “For most structures it
is convenient and not inaccurate to neglect the neg-
ative phase of the blast.” The simplified loading and
resistance functions allowed plotting of the results on
a single graph.
His initial chart started from a ductility of 1.0,
and so excluded elastic only response, where the
simplification may not be justified, but later charts
included elastic results, ignoring the possibility of
greater rebound.
Two volumes of a US military manual, USACE
(1957) described the Equivalent SDOF method, based
on work by Amman & Whitney and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. This provided the theoreti-
cal basis for a general SDOF approach that does not
require linear resistance or simplified loading func-
tions, and included data to apply it to elastic-plastic
beams and slabs.
The reduction of a given distributed structure to an
equivalent dynamic system (like a lumped mass-spring
system) requires that the work done, strain energy and
kinetic energy of the equivalent system to be identi-
cal with the respective property of the given structure.
For a particular incremental deflected shape of the
structure, equivalence factors for the load, KL , the
resistance, KR , and the mass, KM , can be calculated
from the energy equivalence, and these can be substi-
tuted into Equation 6 to give the equation of motion of
the centre point of the span. The factor for resistance
54
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
KR has been found always to equal that of loading,
KL , and so need not be calculated separately. Where
points or lines of zero shear can be established, the rota-
tional equilibrium of a partial span about the centre of
momentum allows reaction histories to be calculated
in terms of a combination of loading and resistance.
If the incremental deflected shape were accurately
known throughout, this would give a complete solu-
tion. However, if the full deflected shape were known
over time the solution would be redundant. Instead, an
approximate deflected shape is assumed to allow an
approximate deflection history and reaction history to
be calculated.
For application to blast loading, the incremen-
tal deflected shapes under uniformly distributed load
were used for the approximate solutions for elas-
tic, elastic-plastic and plastic stages. Other deflected
shapes can also be considered. The first mode shape is
most accurate for free vibration and for that case would
match the SDOF method based on natural frequency.
The application of the method to simply supported
and fixed end beams was straightforward, but there
were flaws in the application for propped cantilevers,
and over-simplification in calculating deflected shapes
for two-way spans resulted in results of limited accu-
racy.
The Equivalent SDOF method could use New-
mark’s chart to calculate a simplified peak response
for beams and slabs. Alternatively, numerical analy-
sis could be used to produce a response history The
numerical approach was popularized by Biggs (1964)
who also improved some of the weaknesses in USACE
(1957). This gradually replaced other SDOF methods.
An alternative analysis in USACE (1969) was more
accurate for square two-way panels, but flawed inter-
polation resulted in inaccurate coefficients for other
rectangular panels.
Some alternative coefficients for walls were given
by Mayor & Flanders (1990), and the coefficients for
linear beams and two-way panels were reviewed and
recalculated in Morison (2006), but the inaccurate val-
ues from the 1950s and 1960s are still most commonly
used.
3.3 Non-linear analysis of glass
Some attempts to account for the large deflection non-
linear stiffness of glass was made in the 1960s based on
experimental data, but it was first considered system-
atically by Moore (1980) with the advent of non-linear
finite element (FE) analysis.
Moore’s non-dimensional curves for deflection and
stress against loading for simply supported rectangular
panels were adopted by Meyers (1986) to give non-
linear resistance functions for SDOF analysis of glass
under blast loading, and promulgated in the revised
TM5-1300 USACE (1990). However, the SDOF coef-
ficients for these non-linear, large deflection elastic
analyses are still taken from linear elastic models
based on deflected shapes that are only accurate for
deflections up to half the pane thickness.
Figure 4. Moore’s curve for deflection against load.
Morison (2003) re-assessed Moore’s curves with
modern FE software using geometric non-linearity
with refined shell meshes and graphical post-
processors. The changing deflected shape as the large
deflection amplitude increased was used to calculate
curves for the SDOF equivalence factors and reaction
coefficients for panels of different aspect ratios, and
to assess the non-uniform reaction distribution on the
supports.
4 ASSESSMENT OF GLAZING
4.1 Government testing
There was relatively little blast testing of glass in the
UK between 1945 and 1978, during which the nature
of window glass changed with the introduction of
float glass. From Barnard (1978), the UK government
started to test glazing to reduce the harm from fly-
ing glass due to vehicle born improvised explosive
devices (VBIED), as a result of bombing campaigns
in Northern Ireland and the UK mainland.
The UK testers in the 1980s developed a method of
assessing glass fragment hazard based on the location
of fragments in a 3 m deep test cell. With minor varia-
tions, this was adopted in US national and government
standards and eventually in an international standard
on blast testing of glass, ISO 16933 (2007).
The results of many hundreds of blast trials by sev-
eral UK government bodies over twenty years were
used to assess the resistance of a variety of glazing
types and double glazing combinations, in the form of
fragility curves for two different sizes of panes, and
were eventually released in a Glazing Hazard Guide,
SSG (1997). These results have been combined with
US and Israeli government blast trials results to form
a database of over 1000 tests, USACE (2001), against
which methods of analysis can be baselined.
This testing has shown the benefits of a ductile com-
ponent in the glazing system to provide continuing
resistance after the glass breaks. Adhesive anti-shatter
55
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 5. SSG Fragility curve for “large” pane 7.5 mm lam-
inated glass, correlated with charge size and range for a large
facade.
film can provide some enhancement to existing glaz-
ing, but the greatest benefits were found by using lam-
inated glass with a polyvinyl butyral (PVB) interlayer
of 1.52 mm or greater thickness, securely anchored in
enhanced frames.
Low loading-rate transverse testing by Ellis (1991)
and Ellis & Beak (1992) gave post cracking resistance
curves for laminated glass, with failure deflections for
1.52 mm thick PVB interlayers between 25% and 50%
of span.
4.2 Commercial testing
Government blast testing concentrated on systematic
testing of a range of single glazing units in rigidly sup-
ported frames against a range of threats to establish
the limits of glazing performance. Commercial test-
ing by glazing manufacturers has instead concentrated
on testing glazing systems against selected threats
to demonstrate the satisfactory performance of the
systems.
Some of the testing has been developmental, to
establish proven blast resisting glazing for which test
reports assist in marketing to building designers and
developers. The UK SSG and its successor, the Home
Office Scientific Development Branch (HOSDB) ini-
tially facilitated shared testing opportunities as CON-
BLAST, and these have continued under commercial
management to offer cost-effective testing opportuni-
ties at the Spadeadam range, in addition to individual
manufacturers testing independently at a number of
sites.
The other major reason for testing is the valida-
tion of glazing designs for specific projects. Where
a blast resistant design has been specified for a large
 Figure 6. Low loading-rate resistance of 11.5mm thick
laminated glass by Ellis.
project, particularly when bespoke window or curtain
walling is specified, validation testing of samples may
be required, particularly when new concepts of support
or increased panel sizes are involved. For these tests the
objective is to demonstrate satisfactory performance
of the system for the specified blast loading.
In recent tests of both types, the specified or cho-
sen test loadings have tended to correspond to one of
the test levels in ISO 16933 (2007) and its national
offshoots. Some tests correspond to US GSA test
levels, and some validation tests are based on site-
specific blast loadings based on threat assessment of
the building.
4.3 Modeling of glazing resistance
Resistance curves for glass to cracking are now univer-
sally based on large deflection analyses, but there are
substantial differences in the treatment of laminated
glass.
Mayor & Flanders (1990) and Meyers (1994) con-
sidered laminated glass as equivalent to monolithic
glass of the same thickness, ignoring the post-cracking
resistance. This reflected a general approach until very
recently in USA that first crack constituted failure.
SSG (1997) provided pragmatic estimated linear
resistance functions based on the glazing capacity,
but assuming a lower dynamic failure deflection than
found by Ellis (1991) of about 15% of span. These are
not material based and are not readily used to find the
resistance of different sized panels.
Morison (1999) used a simplified elastic-pure plas-
tic model for PVB, inspired by some low strain rate
tests of cracked laminated glass. This produced a con-
cave cubic resistance for elastic membranes, based on
membrane theory, and then a convex plastic resistance
stage based on a soap-film membrane. The combined
resistance curve resembles those obtained by Ellis
(1991) and Ellis & Beak (1992), as shown in Figure 6.
Staged cracking of laminated glass as shown in Fig-
ure 6 was also modeled, and an unloading curve was
based on a relationship between non-linear plates and
initially curved shells.
The design failure deflection of 27.8% was based
on a statistical analysis of the failure deflections for
1.52 mm thick PVB membranes in Ellis (1991) and
56
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 7. Typical loading & unloading resistance curve for
laminated glass pane by Morison.
Ellis & Beak (1992). The rationale was that membrane
failure was due to cutting by glass fragments at strains
well below tensile failure, and that this would not be
strain-rate sensitive. Combined with a yield stress of
8 MPa, this gave good correlation with fragilities in
SSG (1997), and was consistent with the slow strain
rate tests with some enhancement for strain rate.
In WINGARD software for US government appli-
cations, ARA (2005) assumed PVB was a linear elastic
membrane with a cubic resistance function to fail-
ure in accordance with membrane theory. They used
a closed-form solution for the cubic parameter that
resulted in much higher PVB stress at failure and reac-
tions than SSG (1997) at similar deflections when
calibrated conservatively against the same tests in
USACE (2001). Although there was some considera-
tion of ductility of PVB for release 5.5 of WINGARD,
this appears to have been discounted on the basis of
local runaway ductility at supports in FE analyses of
elastic-pure plastic membranes.
The WINGARD resistance functions and mate-
rial properties tend to give very conservative results.
USACE (2004) uses both SSG and WINGARD resis-
tance functions, the former to correlate with exper-
imental results and the latter to comply with design
requirements for US Government buildings.
Morison et al. (2007) presented high strain rate mea-
surements of PVB. PVB is a non-linear visco-elastic
polymer which at room temperature is intermediate
between glassy and hyperelastic states. At high strain
rates its tensile resistance can be modeled as bi-linear,
similar to an elastic-plastic resistance, although the
mechanism is different from plasticity in metals and
all of the strains are eventually recoverable. In its tran-
sitional state the initial elastic modulus, “yield stress”
and hardening modulus all vary with strain rate and
temperature. The PVB properties derived from test-
ing and analysis of the tests are given in Table 1 for a
temperature of 20◦ C.
FE analysis of the test samples showed that an
elastic-pure plastic material model would give con-
centrated plastic strain in a uniform gauge length, but
that even a hardening modulus as low as 1% of the
Table 1. Morison et al. PVB properties at 20◦ C.

Hardening
Strain rate Elastic modulus Yield stress modulus
Strain/s MPa MPa MPa

10 169.9 6.342 8.072

20 190.7 7.884 8.134
30 222.1 9.205 8.041
40 264.0 10.306 7.792
60 379.4 11.847 6.832
80 537.1 12.507 5.251

Figure 9. SDOF factor KLM for PVB membranes.

laminated glass failures used by Morison (1997), based

on Ellis (1992) and Ellis & Beak (1993).

5 ASPECTS OF CURRENT PRACTICE

There are a range of models and tools used for blast

Figure 8. PVB membrane resistance by Morison et al.
elastic modulus would give uniform plastic strain in
the gauge length.
FE analysis of membranes with typical PVB prop-
erties showed only limited strain concentration at
the supports while the whole membrane eventu-
ally yielded. Non-dimensional resistance-deflection
curves for a SSG (1997) “large” pane aspect ratio
of 1.24 are shown in Figure 8. The non-dimensional
curves are broadly the same for strain-rates from
10/s to 40/s, varying with the elastic modulus. After
the approximately cubic elastic membrane stage the
plastic membrane stage is approximately linear, but
substantially less stiff than the SSG model.
SDOF coefficients for the panel have been cal-
culated from the deflected shapes. The plastic mem-
branes tend to show less variation with amplitude than
an elastic membrane, except for some abrupt variations
in the partially plastic stage, as shown in Figure 9.
Morison et al. (2007) compared response histories
with two 7.5 mm laminated glass tests by HOSDB
(previously SSG) where the deflection history was
measured. The maximum inwards deflections mea-
sured were 32.8% and 32.2% without PVB failure,
although the PVB is reported to have failed on
rebound. The best fit calculation suggested a rebound
deflection of 35% of span. This is consistent with the
analysis of glazed facades, with a range of capabilities.
These can have:
• Loading input as a simple positive phase, charge
size and range, a single pressure history or multiple
pressure histories, with or without accounting for
damping
• FE solutions, SDOF and few DOF solutions, which
can be based on analytical formulae or on FE data,
and fragility curves or lookup tables
• Single pane response, double glazing response
or response of double glazing and supporting
members & brackets
• Assessment of reaction histories to assess strengths
of fasteners & supports, pragmatic guidance on
reactions or no reaction data
• Analysis of monolithic glass only, with or with-
out tempering, laminated glass up to cracking or
beyond, and PVB interlayers only in laminated
glass, or other interlayer materials
• Deterministic or probabilistic glass strengths under
blast, and phenomenological, simple or complex
models of interlayer behavior, with realistic, con-
servative or erroneous material values
• Fast and adaptable analysis to allow optimization
of design, or high time, resource and information
requirements that may be suitable only for research.
As the analysis requirements may vary from project
to project, there is no one tool that will meet all needs,
and there are national, security and commercial lim-
its on general access to most of the effective tools.
Many of the tools that are publicly available, e.g. on
the internet, are of limited utility.
Rather than a discussion of the individual tools, a
number of considerations will be reviewed that can

57
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 influence the reliability and accuracy of the various
tools and the range of applicability.
5.1 Negative phase loading and structure-medium
interaction
The sensitivity of glass breakage and rebound to the
negative phase of loading was highlighted in 3.1, but
the simplification of SDOF methods to use only the
positive phase for RC structures was described in
3.2. Many general SDOF programs are unsuitable for
analysis of glass because they limit the loading to pos-
itive phase only, or calculate only until the maximum
inwards deflection is reached.
Kingery & Bulmash (1984) only contains positive
phase data. Comparable negative phase data is also
available, but is not as accessible. Hydrocode and
CFD programs can calculate negative phase loading,
but require larger models with more remote borders
to minimize approximations due to the limitations of
boundary modeling.
The negative phase is of particular significance for
dynamic systems with long response times where the
negative phase starts before the peak inwards deflec-
tion and reduces the net impulse. In extreme cases of
flexible “cathedral walls” the pressure can cause a near
constant maximum deflection almost independent of
the resistance.
Also of great significance in flexible facades such
as cathedral walls and cracked laminated glass is
structure-medium interaction, in the form of aeroelas-
tic damping. This has traditionally been neglected in
SDOF analysis of concrete, but can dominate rebound
response of laminated glass, which can become super-
critically damped on rebound.
5.2 Cavity modeling of double glazing
Three different approaches are used to model the cavity
in double glazing. In SDOF models the resistance of
the two leaves is summed and the deflection of the two
leaves is taken to be the same. In effect, the cavity is
taken as a rigid link between the two leaves.
In 2DOF and similar models, the response of each
leaf is modeled separately, with the sealed cavity used
as an air spring to distribute some of the loading to the
inner leaf. Under blast loading the air spring should
be adiabatic, using Equation 2 to calculate the pres-
sure in the cavity from the volume change. Aeroelastic
damping can also be applied to the cavity vibration.
The two leaves can be modeled separately in FE
analysis, but a special subroutine will need to be used
to model the air spring. However, at least one program
written primarily for static design of glazing uses an
isothermal equation for the cavity, suitable only for
slow changes. Implicit FE analysis is likely to have
problems modeling the continuing response after one
monolithic leaf cracks.
The most complete analysis can be undertaken with
an explicit FE/hydrocode combination that models the
cavity as an Eularian ideal gas volume interacting with
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Lagrangian glass panes. This is excellent for research,
and will model both gas spring and damping from the
properties of the ideal gas, but the few programs capa-
ble of this analysis require too much time and computer
resource to try many design options in 3D analyses.
5.3 Material modeling of glass
The cracking mechanism of glass is a combination of
fracture mechanics and stress corrosion of soda-lime
silica glass in the tips of the Griffith flaws by the water
vapour in air.
Fracture mechanics result in a Weibull distribution
of cracking strength that combined with the different
stress distributions for different slenderness and aspect
ratio gives cracking probability distributions depen-
dent on many factors. A statistical cracking approach
in research can be beneficial primarily to identify
characteristic design strengths to use in bounding
deterministic analyses for design.
Stress corrosion reduces the strength of flaws that
are loaded more slowly. The strengths at blast load-
ing rates are substantially higher than in tests that last
3–5 seconds, as undertaken in most national standards.
SSG (1997) recommends a design strength of 80 MPa
for annealed float glass from back analysis of many
blast trials, increased where appropriate by the surface
prestress due to tempering. US practice has been to
take the 75% cracking strength from standard tests as
a 5% characteristic strength for blast. However, this
can greatly underestimate the blast strength of materi-
als with a lower standard deviation than new annealed
glass, such as weathered annealed glass and tempered
glass.
Even with a fixed value for the design cracking
strength, there can be difficulties modeling glass fail-
ure in FE analysis, where a progressive development of
cracking occurs. Using the design strength as a tensile
strength in a solid model can result in false shear or
through-thickness tensile failures. Shell models avoid
these problems, but even these cannot model the craz-
ing that occurs in toughened glass due to the explosive
release of the pre-stress. There are many advantages
with phenomenological models in SDOF and 2DOF
models, where cracking can be taken as occurring
when the design stress is reached on the surface and
the effect of cracking can be built into a resistance
function.
5.4 Material modeling of PVB
PVB is a non-linear viscoelastic polymer, but the most
advanced non-linear viscoelastic models for FEA can-
not reproduce the abrupt change in stiffness found
in high speed testing. Simpler bilinear models have
been identified by Morison et al. (2007), Benneson
et al. (2005) and Iwasaki et al. (2007) and applied by
the European Laboratory for Structural Assessment,
as described by Larcher (2009). Although Iwasaki
identified this behaviour as elastic-plastic, Morison
observed that the test samples recovered to their
original length after large “plastic” strains.
 Currently, the best available models for initial blast
response of PVB membranes use a bilinear material
resistance either in an FE model or to create resis-
tance functions, as Figure 8. However, these models
do not take account of the strain rate sensitivity, which
would increase the strength and stiffness of the parts
of the membrane with the highest strain and strain
rate, and reduce the peak-to-mean strain ratio in the
membrane. Laminated glass experiences membrane
failure at substantially smaller strains than tensile tests
of PVB, and not always at the locations where analysis
indicates maximum strain, suggesting that the failure
mechanism is other than pure tensile failure.
In SDOF and 2DOF models, a design capacity of
PVB can be set at a maximum span deflection. The
test results in Morison et al. (2007) suggest that the
27.8% of span in Morison (1999) may be conserva-
tive for room temperature laminated glass. However,
this allows a margin for reduced PVB stiffness at
higher temperatures. Similarly, a margin of safety on
glass anchorage in the frame is desirable to allow for
increased stiffness and strength at lower temperatures.
Viscoelastic polymers often have lower elastic
unloading stiffness than loading stiffness and recover
more slowly than they will rebound under blast. There
is little hard evidence, but two practical models are to
unload to a slack membrane, as Morison (1999) and
Figure 7, or to unload as an elastic membrane through
the origin with a reduced elastic modulus. In either
case, aeroelastic damping will be supercritical for part
of the rebound.
5.5 Alternative blast resisting glazing materials in
current use
One alternative glazing material is polycarbonate, a
hard polymer with some elastic bending capacity. It is
lighter than glass and more effective for ballistic pro-
tection, and so is often used in thick glazing that may
have ballistic and blast requirements, e.g. for guard-
houses. Deeper supports are required to cater for the
lower stiffness compared to glass. Glass-poly-glass
laminates with polythene interlayers provide a more
durable protection than monolithic polycarbonate.
An alternative to light laminated glass is the appli-
cation of acrylic bonded polyester anti-shatter film.
Unanchored films provide some protection from fly-
ing fragments, but various forms of anchorage can
provide protection comparable to thinner PVB inter-
layers. Filming is labour intensive, has a 10–15 year
design life and is vulnerable to damage, so it is nor-
mally used for retrofits on existing windows rather
than new glazing.
6 CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS
A few areas of active development are:
6.1 Yielding supports
For punched windows the frame normally transfers
the reactions directly to the supporting wall through
59
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
fixings, which can often be the weak point of the whole
system. A number of patented elastic-plastic connect-
ing plates exist, designed to distort under loading to
reduce the peak reaction forces on the fixings and wall.
The plates can be used in parallel or in series to tune the
support stiffness. The design of the supports is often
pragmatic, based on trials.
Curtain walling at present allows plastic yielding
of transoms and mullions to reduce the reaction on the
floor brackets. Bracket designs have been developed
with different inwards and rebound plastic resistance
to reduce the forces on the floor fixings.
6.2 Alternative interlayers and anchorage
Ionoplast interlayers have been used for some time that
can resist penetration by a timber section and still resist
hurricane force winds. They are stiffer and stronger
than PVB, but have not generally been used for blast
resistant glazing because most trials fail by blowing
the glazing out of the frame because the reactions
from the stiff membrane overwhelm current means of
anchorage.
One interesting development being tried is to lam-
inate aluminium onto the perimeter of the ionoplast
interlayer in the same process as laminating glass onto
the centre. The aluminium can be drilled and bolted or
otherwise clamped to the frame to give a fully bonded
anchorage to the interlayer. This may be particularly
attractive when combined with yielding supports to
reduce the high reactions onto the supporting structure.
6.3 Poured resin materials
Historically, thin poured resin interfaces in fire resis-
tant and other specialist laminated glazing have not
been effective in resisting blast, as they lack ductil-
ity. New resin materials are strong enough to replace
polycarbonate as the main blast and ballistic resist-
ing material, bond directly to glass to give robust and
versatile glazing systems and are much clearer than
thick glass and polycarbonate. These too can extend
the capability of blast resistant glazing systems.
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loading. International Organization for Standardization,
Geneva, Switzerland.
Iwasaki R, Sato C, Lataillade J L & Viot P (2007) Experimen-
tal study on the interface fracture toughness of PVB/glass
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Morison C M (2006) Dynamic response of walls and slabs
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Lessons of the Mw = 8.8 Chile 2010 earthquake

G.R. Saragoni
University of Chile, Chile

ABSTRACT: The major lesson of this earthquake was the possibility to have seismic codes for earthquakes
Mw = 8.8 without structural collapse. The Maule, Chile 2010 earthquake is the first Mw = 8.8 earthquake
recorded with accelerograms in the world. Chilean code Nch 433 of 96 was successful for the design of buildings
with safety of life criteria since only three reinforced concrete buildings collapsed. However many high rise
concrete shear wall buildings shown unwanted brittle failure due to the lack of confinement of the wall boundary.
Earthquake damage is controlled by two dominant asperities, one located near Concepción and the other near
Pichilemu. Characteristic of the earthquake mainly effected high rise buildings, bridges and adobe houses.
Important soil amplification and liquefaction was observed, in the affected area of 450 Km of length. Precast
buildings with dry connection had bad performance including collapse. Confined masonry building had an
excellent behavior.

1 INTRODUCTION

The offshore Maule, Chile earthquake occurred at

3:34:15 local time with a moment magnitude of 8.8
as determined by the United States Geological Survey
(USGS 2010).
The location of the epicenter was at latitude of
35.909◦ S and longitude 72,733◦W, which is 95 Km
northwest of Chillan, 105 Km north-northeast of Con-
cepción and 335 Km Southwest of the capital of
Santiago. This subduction interplate thrust earthquake
occurred at the convergence of the Nazca (oceanic)
plate with the South American continental plate. The
focal depth was 35 Km.
This is the fifth largest magnitude earthquake
recorded in the world and therefore considered to be a
mega earthquake.
This mega earthquake is characterized to have a rup-
ture length of 500 Km (see Fig. 1) with the release of
the seismic energy from two main dominant asperi-
ties, one located near Concepción and the other near
Pichilemu as it is shown in Figure 2.
The Chilean Deputy Interior Secretary confirmed
the fatalities in 521 from the earthquake, among them Figure 1. Aftershocks of the Maule 2010 earthquake show-
124 due to the subsequent tsunami; the number of ing the 500 Km of rupture length (USGS 2010).
people classified as missing is 56.
The earthquake and tsunami left some 800.000 peo-
ple injured or displaced. The government estimated
– Nch 2745 of 2003 “Earthquake-Resistant design of
that the damage was U$ 30.000.000.000. Private esti-
base isolated buildings”.
mation reduces this value to only U$ 10.000.000.000.
Chile has the three following seismic codes In addition Chile has also a guide for the seis-
enforced by law: mic design of bridges of the Public Works Secretary
(M.O.P):
– Nch 433 of 96 “Seismic Design of Buildings”
– Nch 2369 of 2003 “Earthquake-resistant design of – Handbook of Highways of MOP. Tome IV. Volume
industrial structures and facilities” N◦ 3. “Introductions and Design Criteria, Chapter

61
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 2. Epicenter and the two asperities of Concepción
and Pichilemu of the Maule 2010 earthquake (USGS 2010).
3.1000 Bridges and related structures. Section 3.
1004 Seismic Design”.
There is an established system of peer review of
structural design for building projects in Chile. How-
ever practice of independent construction inspection
and testing does no exist in Chile; instead observa-
tion and testing are performed as part of the building
contractor’s services.
The earthquake was characterized by the collapse
of one tall concrete building in Concepción and two
five stories concrete buildings in Santiago, the col-
lapse of highway concrete bridges, the heavy damage
of schools and hospitals.
The earthquake also struck an area of historical
towns of adobe buildings and church in the Colchagua
valley.
The earthquake damaged area was visited for more
than 300 specialists all over the world in order to learn
how those Chilean seismic codes performed during the
mega earthquake. Thus the offshore Maule earthquake
presents an unprecedented opportunity in earthquake
engineering and seismology to study the effects of a
great earthquake on engineering structures.
This paper summarizes the major lessons learned
from this mega subduction earthquake.
2 PRESEISMIC STUDIES
After the 1985 offshore Valparaíso, Chile subduction
earthquake (moment magnitude 7.8), it was identified
the existence of a seismic gap located contiguous to
the south of the rupture of the 1985 earthquake.
The forecast earthquake was characterized to have a
rupture between 150 to 200 Km, a moment magnitude
Mw = 8.0 and a moderate tsunami.
The rupture towards south will produce a Doppler
effect with long period waves which will seriously
affect high rise concrete buildings in Santiago.
The real result was an earthquake of moment mag-
nitude 8.8 with a rupture length of 500 Km., bilateral
rupture mainly to the north, two major dominant asper-
ities and a huge tsunami and that affected seriously
62
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
high rise buildings in Santiago, Concepción and Viña
del Mar.
The earthquake was more similar to 1835 Concep-
ción earthquake rather than 1928 Talca earthquake
considered in the forecast.
Maximum Mercalli intensity was IX reported at
low Constitución. During the earthquake many super-
ficial faults were activated, which is a new feature for
Chilean subduction earthquake, and the major after-
shock of March 11, 2010 was also due to a surface
crustal fault.
The knowledge of the seismic gap allowed to install
an important array of accelerographs, however most
of them of analogical type, since most of the digital
accelerographs were installed in the seismic gap of
south Peru-north of Chile (Arica 2000 Km away from
Santiago) since seismologist believed to rupture first.
3 ACCELEROGRAPHIC DATA
The earthquake was recorded by 35 accelerographs,
obtained for the first time in the world accelerograms
for Mw = 8.8 earthquake. The characteristic of these
accelerograms is the long duration around 2.5 minutes
in agreement with the rupture length of the source of
the earthquake.
Accelerograms were obtained at ground level in
most of the important damaged cities, in instrumented
buildings, isolated buildings, isolated bridges and
elevated metro.
This unvalued instrumental data will allow under-
stand better in the future the source mechanism of the
earthquake, the soil response, as well as the seismic
performance of different type of structures, specially
the instrumented ones.
In Table 1 are indicated some of the PGA recorded
at different stations of the University of Chile.
In addition to the reported PGA values of Table 1,
a record obtained in Angol was close to 1g, which was
confirmed by USGS as well recorded.
However the most important accelerogram was
obtained in downtown Concepción, close to the site
where the high rise building collapsed.
4 DOMINANT ASPERITY EFFECTS
Subduction interplate thrust earthquakes are charac-
terized by the presence of two or more dominant
asperities at the contact plates (Ruiz et al. 2010). The
2010 earthquake exhibited the same pattern with the
two dominant asperities shown in Figure 2. The release
of the energy is clearly controlled by these two asperi-
ties and it can be appreciated in the Figure 3 where the
accelerogram recorded at Maipu station in Santiago
show two important separated release of energy.
The analysis of the earthquake clearly shown that
the damage is controlled by these two asperities, the
most heavy damaged cities are close to these asperities,
also major accelerogram were in general obtained at
Table 1. Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) (RENADIC
(2010), DGF (2010)).

Horizontal Vertical
Station PGA [g] PGA [g]

U. de Chile Dpto. Ing Civil 0.17 0.14

(Interior Building)
Santiago
Metro Station Mirador 0.24 0.13
Santiago
CRS MAIPU, RM 0.56 0.24
Hosp. Tisne, RM 0.30 0.28
Hosp. Sotero del Río, RM 0.27 0.13
Hosp. Curicó 0.47 0.20
Hosp. Valdivia 0.14 0.05
Downtown Viña del Mar 0.35 0.26
Marga Marga bridge 0.33 0.19
Viña del Mar
Colegio San Pedro 0.65 0.60 Figure 4. Acceleration response spectra for the Concepcion
Concepción downtown station showing an important second peak at the
Cerro Calan, Santiago 0.23 0.11 period of 2.0 sec due to soil amplification.
Campus Antumapu 0.27 0.17
Santiago
Downtown Concepción 0.42 –
5 SOIL RESPONSE

The earthquake produced important soil amplifica-

Figure 3. Accelerograms at Maipu Station (Santiago) show-
ing two important separated released of energy due to the two
asperities (Renadic 2010).
stations closest to these asperities. Therefore the most
important for seismic hazard or seismic risk studies
is to consider the closest distance to dominant asperi-
ties, rather than the closest distance to the fault or the
epicenter.
These asperities has a length estimated in no more
than 30 Km, which compared with the 500 Km rupture
length of the earthquake make the damaging capacity
of the earthquake more close to a moment magni-
tude 8.0 than the mega earthquake 8.8, which partially
explains the reduced observed damage for an earth-
quake of this size, which is in agreement with the also
reduced damage observed for the mega earthquake of
Valdivia Chile 1960, the largest earthquake recorded
by mankind (Saragoni 2010).
tion effects which were detected in the acceleration
response spectra.
One of the most important accelerogram was
obtained in downtown Concepción, close to the site
where the only high rise building collapsed. In Figure 4
is shown the acceleration response spectra for the three
components showing an important soil amplification
effect at the period of 2.0 sec due to the vibration of
100 m of sand soil. The other observed peaks at shorter
periods are due to the soil higher modes and the source
mechanism of the dominant asperity. This effect was
also observed in the 1985 Valparaíso, Chile earthquake
(Ruiz & Saragoni 2010). The peak of the response
spectra at 2.0 sec will have an important influence in
the future design of high rise building in Chile.
This earthquake was also characterized by wide
areas of soil liquefaction in the rupture zone between
Viña del Mar (at the north) and Coronel (at the south).
The most important levels of liquefaction were
observed at Concepción, Talcahuano and Coronel.
Observation of liquefaction effect in Chile, for pre-
vious large magnitude earthquake was rather scarce,
therefore this is an important geotechnical character-
istic of this earthquake.
Slope performed well during the earthquake, mainly
due to the dry summer season.
One important effect of soil response was the dis-
agreement between the peaks of the design response
spectra of the Chilean Code Nch 433.of 96 according
to its soil classification. The peak is supposed to be
located at the natural period of the soil, however most
of the time the peak of response spectra of recorded
accelerograms exhibits the peaks at higher periods.
This is one of the reasons of the failure observed in
many high rise buildings which is covered in the next
section.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 2. Performance of residential buildings permitted
from 1985 to 2009.

Building that collapsed : 4 (approximate)

Building to be demolished : 50 (estimate)
No of building 3 + stories : 9,974
No of building 9 + stories : 1,939
Failures in 3 + story buildings 0.5%
Failures in 9 + story buildings 2.8%

6 PERFORMANCE OF TALL BUILDINGS

There are many tall building in Santiago, Concepción

and Viña del Mar that there are for office and resi-
dential, most of them are of reinforced concrete. The
55 story Titanium was just completed this year and a Figure 5. Horizontal failure strip in basement shear walls.
height of 191.7 m is currently the tallest building in
South America; the building has seven subterranean
levels. The nearby Gran Torre Costanera is currently
under construction and will be 300m in height at its
spire.
Despite the few catastrophic, it appears that tall
buildings in Chile performed quite well and the vast
majority of those buildings that did incur damage pro-
vided at least life safety as it is recommended by the
Chilean code Nch 433 of 96.
Table 2 summarizes the performance of the build-
ings with construction permits granted for 9,974 res-
idential buildings with three stories or greater from
1985 to 2009 in Chile (Lew et al. 2010). Figure 6. Head of the shear wall in the zone of the horizontal
The Nch 433 of 96 building code of Chile is very strip failure.
similar to the codes used in the United States, so the
seemly good performance of tall building is a very
pleasant outcome, especially since the tall buildings
in Chile were subjected to strong ground shaking and
long shaking duration that have not been experienced
before.
Since 1985, buildings in Chile, like buildings all
over the world, have increased in height. In the mean-
time, the walls in these buildings have decreases in
thickness due to various reasons such as architectural
and parking needs. Walls in basements get reduced in
length from walls above in the structure and vertical
loads can be very high in these walls. Shear failures
were not the dominant failure mode as compression
failures of these walls were observed in most of the
damaged tall buildings visited in Santiago, Viña del
Mar and Concepción.
Examples of this type of failure are illustrated in
Figures 5 and 6.
The failure was characterized by a horizontal nar-
row strip on the vertical concrete shear walls under Figure 7. Negative vertical pulse.
the slabs of the first basement (see Fig. 5). The verti-
cal reinforcement steel was cut without extrusion (see Other reason of the observed damage in tall build-
Fig. 6). ings was due to the soil classification of the Chilean
This generalized failure can be due to the pres- Code Nch 433 of 96 which leads to important differ-
ence of vertical pulses in the accelerograms, as it is ence in the demand of design response spectra between
explained in Figures 7 and 8. The vertical reinforce- soils II and III in the range of periods of tall buildings,
ment steel at the horizontal strip of failure was always T > 1.0 sec (see Fig. 4).
elongated more than 10%. Vertical accelerograms Most of these failures were due to the lack of con-
were in general very strong for this earthquake. finement of the boundary of shear walls required by

64
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 9. Collapse of one bridge of Vespucio Norte highway
Figure 8. Upward vertical pulse. in Santiago.

ACI code but eliminated by the Chilean code Nch

433 of 96. This allowance of the Chilean code was
deleted in the 2009 version of the code, and in 2008
Reinforcement concrete Chilean code.

7 PERFORMANCE OF BRIDGES

The earthquake was characterized by the collapse of

few highway concrete bridges. The seismic design of
the bridges is done in Chile according to the mentioned
Handbook of Highways of MOP.
Most of the highways bridges in Chile are simple
supported due to characteristic of the Chilean rivers.
Therefore the collapsed bridges are of this type. The
main reason of the collapse of these bridges is due
to the lack of transversal beams between the longitu-
dinal precast concrete beams at both extremes of the
simple span. The Handbook allows to eliminate this
transversal beams in seismic zones 1 and 2, which was
not the Chilean practice up to 2005. These transversal
beams were always included before independent of the
seismic zone.
Other reason of the seismic failure was the use of
weak seismic stoppers which do not follow the seis-
mic energy absorption capacity recommended by the
Handbook.
Figure 9 shows one of the failures corresponding to
Vespucio Norte highway in Santiago, the weak steel
stoppers is also shown.
Figure 10 shows the Chilean practice for seis-
mic design of bridges with the transversal beam and
the seismic anchoring steel bars (Vespucio Norte
highway).
During the earthquake many highway footbridges
also collapsed due to weak seismic design.
Despite the few bridge failures, the impact of these
failures in the connectivity was very serious and must
be corrected for future earthquakes. Concepción, the
second city of Chile, is still unconnected due to the
failure of bridges on Bio-Bio River.
Isolated bridges performed in general well.
Figure 10. Bridge of Vespucio Norte highway in Santiago
with transversal beams and seismic anchoring vertical steel
bars.
8 PERFORMANCE OF DWELLING HOUSES
The performance of confined masonry of one to 4
stories dwelling building was excellent even at the epi-
central zone as well as the towns closest to the two
dominant asperities.
At many towns confined masonry preformed
uncracked confirming that is an excellent solution for
developing countries due to their economic cost and
intense use of handwork.
9 PERFORMANCE OF INDUSTRIAL STEEL
BUILDING AND FACILITIES
Seismic design of industrial buildings and facilities
are done in Chile according to the mentioned Chilean
Code Nch 2369 of 2003 “Earthquake-Resistant design
of industrial structures and facilities”. This code is
different than NCh 433 of 96 “Seismic Design of
Buildings” in the sense that design of industrial struc-
tures is done with economic scope and continuity of
operation after earthquake is a requirement. Instead

65
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
the seismic building code Nch 433 of 96 is less strict
since its scope is only life protection criteria avoiding
building collapse.
This earthquake struck the important industrial pole
of Talcahuano and Concepción given the opportu-
nity to verify the performance of the Nch 2369 of
2003. In general the industrial buildings are built steel
structures seismic designed according to the code.
Their performance was acceptable despite some fail-
ures of non structural elements especially in control
rooms which must be corrected in the future. Fail-
ure of these control rooms had an important impact
in the discontinuation of operation of some industries.
The earthquake also struck an important area of paper
industries and thermoelectric power plants.
As a consequence of the earthquake many indus-
tries were halt longer time that considered by the code
Nch 2369 of 2003. This halt was detected by analyzing
the electrical demand in the area after the earthquake
which does not coincide with the seismic report of the
industries.
Good performance of Chilean Code Nch 2369 of.
2003 is mainly due that this code was calibrated
with the performance of industrial facilities during
the May 21, 1960 Chile earthquake that struck the
industrial pole of Talcahuano – Concepción. However
the observed performance requires some improvement
to the code. All Industrial facilities without seismic
design according to code Nch 2369 of.2003 had in
general bad performance.
Many industrial facilities were affected by soil
liquefaction problem.
10 PERFORMANCE OF PRECAST CONCRETE
STRUCTURES
Seismic design provisions for precast concrete struc-
tures are included in the Chilean Code Nch 2369
of 2003. Chilean precast industry has a growing
development in the last two decades.
The performance of precast structures that consid-
ers wet joints (concrete pouring at site) was in general
excellent, however the performance of precast struc-
tures with dry joints (without concrete pouring at site)
was really poor, including many unacceptable building
collapses.
Some of these failures were due to weak connec-
tions and miss classification of soil type.
This is an area of the seismic design that will require
strong improvements in the future due to its weak
performance, affecting even the safe of life criteria.
11 PERFORMANCE OF ADOBE HOUSE AND
HISTORICAL BUILDINGS
The earthquake struck one of the last existing stocks
of adobe houses in Chile. This stock was located at
many towns of the Colchagua Valley closest to the
Pichilemu asperity which was the main reason of the
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 11. Collapse of adobe houses.
heavy damage and collapse of adobe houses and histor-
ical adobe churches (see Fig. 11). The lost of historical
buildings is a challenge how to rebuilt them avoiding
the adobe vulnerability.
Adobe houses away of the asperities survived in
some cases without damage given the misleading mes-
sage that adobe houses can survive large magnitude
earthquake Mw = 8.8 despite their high vulnerability.
In general reported Modified Mercalli intensities
are in general low for the magnitude of the earthquake.
However the higher death toll in the earthquake, with-
out tsunami effect, is around 400 mainly due to the
adobe collapse.
The historical buildings in Santiago survived the
earthquake practically without damage. The stone
arches of the San Francisco Church in Santiago
resisted the earthquake uncracked, this church has sur-
vived all the earthquakes since 1575. During the 1730
earthquake this church suffered more damage than
2010, therefore this earthquake maybe not the worst
that affects Santiago, and this effect must be study in
the future.
12 ISOLATED BUILDING AND FULLY
OPERATIONAL AFTER EARTHQUKE
DESIGN CRITERIA
In general isolated buildings and hospitals performed
well during the Mw = 8.8 earthquake. Most of these
buildings were located at Santiago and Viña del Mar,
away of the location of the two dominant asperities.
The design of the isolated buildings was done
according to Chilean Code Nch 2745 of 2003. The
record obtained at downtown Concepción near the
dominant fault produced peak ground displacement of
the order of 1 m, value which exceeds the maximum
recommendation of Nch 2745 of 2003 code. This code
requires a correction in this sense.
Seismic isolated elevated structures of the Santiago
Metro performed uncracked verifying that the fully
operational after earthquake criteria worked allowing
the population to use the Metro one day after the earth-
quake (see Fig. 12). This is one of the most important
lessons of this mega earthquake.

Figure 12. Fully continuation of operation after earthquake
of the Metro of Santiago.
13 CONCLUSIONS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
The mega earthquake Mw = 8.8 demonstrated that
Chilean Code Nch 433. of 96 “Seismic Design of
Buildings” based on safety of life criteria, performed
well despite the collapse of three buildings, which is
the most important lesson of this earthquake for the
international community of earthquake engineers.
The importance to have seismic codes enforced by
law was again demonstrated by the low death toll in
the earthquake. It has seismic codes only without a
strict control of their application does not produce the
expected safety of life results.
The mega earthquake Mw = 8.8 was well recorded
by accelerograms obtained at the most important dam-
aged cities some of them closest to the two dominant
asperities. Most of the accelerograms were obtained at
ground level, however important accelerograms were
recorded in buildings, bridges, isolated buildings and
elevated structure of the Santiago Metro.
These accelerograms are the first ones obtained in
the world for an earthquake Mw = 8.8, closest to the
codes demand levels.
The dominant effect of the two asperities in the
observed damage and the recorded accelerograms was
clearly demonstrated. Since these dominant asperities
67
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
have a length of only 30 Km approximately, the dam-
age of this earthquake is very concentrated despite its
length of rupture of 500 Km.
As every large earthquake in the past this Maule
2010 earthquake have lead many important lessons,
however the most important of all it was that it is possi-
ble to produce seismic codes without structure collapse
for earthquake magnitude 8.8 characterized by a long
duration.
Many of the presented results are still preliminary
and they require more development and research in the
future.
REFERENCES
DGF. 2010. Department of Geophysics. Facultad de Cien-
cias Físicas y Matemáticas. Universidad de Chile.
(www.sismologia.cl).
Lew, M., Naeim, F., Carpentier, L., Youssef, N., Rojas, F.,
Saragoni, G.R. & Schachter, M. 2010. “The Significance
of the 27 February 2010 Offshore Maule, Chile Earth-
quake”, Proc. 2010 Los Angeles Tall Building Structural
Design Council Annual Meeting, 2010.
Renadic. 2010. Preliminary report (In Spanish) Boroscheck,
R., P. Soto, R. León & D. Comte “Terremoto Centro
Sur Chile. 27 Febrero de 2010. Informe Preliminar N◦ 4.
Universidad de Chile. Facultad de Ciencias Físicas y
Matemáticas. Departamento de Ingeniería Civil. April
2010. www.renadic.cl
Ruiz, S., Kausel, E., Campos, J., Saragoni, G.R. & Madariaga,
R. 2010 “Identification of High Frequency Pulses from
Earthquake Asperities Along Chilean Subduction Zone
Using Strong Motion”, Pure and Applied Geophysics.
Topical Volume. Advanced Seismic Hazard Assessment.
Edited by G.F. Panza, K. Irikura, H. Koutera, A. Peresan,
Z. Wang and G.R. Saragoni (2010).
Ruiz, S. & Saragoni, G.R. 2008 “Two Peaks Response Spectra
(2PRS) for Subduction Earthquakes Considering Soil and
Source Effects”, 14th World Conference on Earthquake
Enginnering. Beijing, China, October, 2008.
Saragoni, G.R. 2010. “The Giant 1960 Chile Earthquake, A
Paradox of Earthquake Engineering: A Large Magnitude-
Moderate Earthquake”, AGU Chapman Conference on
Giant Earthquakes and their Tsunamis. Valparaíso, Chile,
May, 2010.
U.S. Geological Survey. 2010. Earthquake Hazard Program-
Magnitude 8.8-offshore Maule, Chile. http://earthquake.
usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2010/us2010tfan/
 Sessions
Characterization of catastrophic actions on construction
Characterization and modelling of seismic action

© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Development of design response spectra for Baghdad area

AbdulMutalib I. Said
College of Engineering/Baghdad University, Baghdad, IRAQ

ABSTRACT: The territory of Iraq, although not directly located on a dense cluster of recent earthquake
epicenters; but the geodynamic configurations show a medium to high seismic risk. This will be coupled with
the increasing vulnerability of the major highly populated cities. In this paper an investigation for seismological
of Iraq with attention to Baghdad area is presented. The conservative value for Peak ground acceleration PGA
is selected based on comparison concept. The El Centro strong-motions is selected in establishing response
spectra acceleration (RSA), in which they are scaled to fit with Baghdad area characteristics based on PGA.
Elastic analysis is used for performing RSA which carried out by developed a computer program by FORTRAN77
language. The equation of motion for singly-degree-of-freedom is solved by Duhamel integral. A design response
spectrum is established based on UBC 97 code soil data, soil type classifications for Baghdad area is collected
and studied. The result of this study is the development of design response spectra for Baghdad area for 5%
damping ratio which can be used as an useful tool in the seismic analysis and design of structures and equipment.

1 INTRODUCTION To achieve the objectives of the study the following

Earthquakes are considered the most powerful natu-
ral disaster. Seismic hazards include ground shaking,
structural failures, liquefaction, land slides, and life-
lines damages. Most earthquakes can be explained by
the two theories of plate tectonics and elastic rebound.
Response spectra are very useful tools for analyz-
ing the performance of structures and equipment in
earthquakes, since many behave principally as simple
oscillators (also known as single degree of freedom
systems. Thus, by finding out the natural frequency
of the structure, then the peak response of the build-
ing can be estimated by reading the value from the
ground response spectrum for the appropriate fre-
quency. In most building codes in seismic regions,
this value forms the basis for calculating the forces
that a structure must be design to resist (seismic
analysis).
There are computational advantages in using the
response spectrum method of seismic analysis for
prediction of displacements and member forces in
structural systems. The method involves the calcula-
tion of only the maximum values of the displacements
and member forces in each mode using smooth design
spectra that are the average of several earthquake
motions. The main objectives of this study are as
follows:
• To predict the Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) for
Baghdad area.
• To develop the design response spectrum based on
UBC 1997 code of practice.
steps are needed
• Earthquake catalogue study area from years
1900–2008.
• Due to availability of soil data of Baghdad area, a
soil type classification is studied.
• El Centro strong-motion data is used in establishing
RSA.
The geologic and tectonic setting of Iraq is given by
a number of investigators amongst which the works
of Dunnington (1958), Al Naqib (1967), Al Sayyab &
Valik (1968), Ditmar (1971) and Buday & Jasim (1987)
are noted.
Iraq has a well-documented history of seismic activ-
ity .The historical seismicity follows a well-defined
pattern and fits the boundary of the major tectonic
elements of the country. The close parallelism between
past and recent seismicity, i.e. the historical seismicity
provides a relevance to the recent seismicity. Earth-
quake catalogues are based on Alsinawi and Al Qasrani
for the period 1900–1988. The Catalogue contains
1031 events ranging in magnitudes between 3.0–7.4,
and was based on a number of sources available at that
time Al Qasrani (1990).
2 GENERAL APPROACHES TO DEVELOP
DESIGN RESPONSE SPECTRA, DRS
In a linear-elastic response spectrum analysis, response
spectra define the free field ground motion for the
design earthquake. A response spectrum gives the

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
maximum damped response (expressed as displace- Table 1. Comparison between the Richter magnitude scale
ment, velocity, or acceleration) of all possible linear and the Modified Mercalli intensity scale.
single degree-of-freedom systems using the natural
frequency (or period) to describe the system. Viscous Richter Scale
Magnitude M 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
damping expressed as a percentage of critical damping
is used to develop a response spectra. A design earth-
Maximum Intensity, – I II III IV–V VII–VIII IX–X XI
quake is often defined by a set of response spectra for Modified Mercalli
various damping ratios. Scale
There are two approaches to develop the DRS
“deterministic approach” and “probabilistic approach.”
The probabilistic approach is based on probabilistic Table 2. Line and area seismic sources in Iraq.
seismic hazard analysis methodology which in essence
uses the same elements as the deterministic approach, No. of Length/ Av. Focal
but adds an assessment of the likelihood that ground Source Type Event Radius Depth Highest
motion will occur during a specified time period.
Line Source#1 72 640 km 36 km 6.7
In the deterministic approach, termed determinis- Line Source#2 66 367 km 32 km 7.2
tic seismic hazard analysis, or DSHA, typically one Line Source#3 16 220 km 59 km 5.2
or more earthquakes are specified by magnitude and Line Source#4 16 210 km 42 km 5.3
location with respect to a site. Usually, the earthquake Line Source#5 8 188 km 35 km 6.1
is taken as the peak ground acceleration PGA and Area Source #1 129 80 km 44 km 5.6
assumed to occur on the portion of the source closest Area Source #2 31 70 km 33 km 5.6
to the site. The site ground motions are then estimated Area Source #3 31 60 km 32 km 6.0
deterministically, given the magnitude and source-to- Area Source #4 28 75 km 38 km 5.5
site distance. In the probabilistic approach, termed
probabilistic seismic hazard analysis, or PSHA, site
specify the Baghdad area PGA and finally matching
ground motions are estimated for selected values of
the acceleration time histories and done the analysis.
the probability of ground motion exceeding in a design
time-period or for selected values of return period of
ground motion exceeding. A PSHA incorporates the
4 SEISMICITY OF IRAQ
frequency of occurrence of earthquakes of different
magnitudes on the various seismic sources, the uncer-
Tectonically Iraq is located in a relatively active seis-
tainty of the earthquake locations on the sources, and
mic zone at the northeastern boundaries of the Arabian
the ground motion attenuation including its uncer-
Plate. The seismic history reveals annual seismic activ-
tainty. In this study the DRS are developed based on
ity of different strength. The north and northeastern
deterministic approach.
zones depicts the highest seismic activity with strong
diminution in the south and southwestern parts of the
country. The seismicity and seismotectonics of Iraq is
3 EARTHQUAKE CHARACTERISTICS AND documented by Alsinawi & Issa (1986).
DETERMINISTIC APPROACH The statistical analysis of the event distribution
shows that events with magnitudes range of 5.4–4.0
In the deterministic approach, site ground motions constituted 90.95%, while events with magnitudes of
are deterministically estimated for a specific, selected 5.5–7.4 constitute 6.03% of the total events.
earthquake, that is, an earthquake of a certain size As for the focal depth, events with focal depths
on a specific seismic source occurring at a certain below 50 kms constitute 75.75%, while events with
distance from the site. The earthquake size may be focal depth of 90 kms constitute 2.61% of the total
characterized by magnitude or by epicentral intensity. events. As for actual events with magnitudes over 6
The practice has been to use magnitude, whereas in five events are documented, only one vent of 6.0 is
other both magnitude and Modified Mercalli Intensity located within the Iraqi territory on Long.42.5 E and
(MMI) have been used. Lat. 35.9 N. Table 2 outlines the details of the various
The comparison between the Richter magnitude seismic sources.
scale and the Modified Mercalli intensity scale is Baghdad area is near the line source number 3,
approximately summarized in Table 1. namely the highest magnitude is 6.
Earthquake magnitude is typically selected to be This result is agreed with modern classifications
the magnitude of the largest earthquake judged to of Iraq zones with respect to magnitude like map of
be capable of occurring on the seismic source, i.e., Figure 1 which represent the updated Iraqi seismic
PGA. After the earthquake magnitude and distance map from 1960 to 2006. Baghdad area is near the
are selected, the site ground motions are then estimated range of magnitude greater that 5 (according to map
using ground motion attenuation relationships or other legend). Thus from this map and according historical
techniques. background (that indicated that Iraq and its surround
Thus from above, the magnitudes or intensities of have a magnitude between 2–6) an average value of
earthquakes for Iraq should be investigated firstly, then 5.5 magnitude will be considered for Baghdad area

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 2. Seismic Isointensity map of Iraq 1900–1988.

Figure 1. Updated up to 2006 iraq seismic sources map.

for the sake of design and analysis of structures due to

earthquakes in this area.

5 SEISMIC ZONING MAP OF IRAQ

The main concepts of seismic hazard considerations

are given by various investigators amongst which Figure 3. Seismic Isointensity map of Iraq.
Lomintz (1974), Alsinawi & Ghalib (1975), Adeli &
It is clear from Figure 2 that Baghdad area is within
Nasser (1977), Ambraseys (1978), Alsinawi & Al
region of intensity of III in which classify as ‘no dam-
Moosawi (1982), and Alsinawi & Issa (1986).
age zone’. But according to Figure 4 its with region
Prior to this invesigation Alsinawi & Ghalib (1975)
of VIII–XI which is reflect big jump between the two
presented the first seismic zoning map for Iraq where
classification and as mentioned above this reflect the
Iraq was divided into five intensity regions ranging
increasing seismic risks on Iraq which increased in
between V–IX on the MM scale. Other zoning maps
last years such as Kut, Mosul, Rafaee and Amarah
were presented by Alsinawi & Al Moosawi (1980),
Earthquakes.
Alsinawi & Al Moosawi (1982), Alsinawi & Issa
Thus an intensity of VIII will be considered for
(1986), Alsinawi & Al Dilaimi (1993), and Alsinawi
Baghdad area for the sake of design and analysis of
(2001). Figure 3, represent a seismic zoning map of
structures due to earthquakes in this area. In addition
Iraq (1900-1988), in which it is divided into four zones
to maps results , the VIII intensity for Baghdad is also
where the areas of no damage zone of MM = III and
agree with Table (1) limits of comparison between
less covering mainly the stable shelf region.
the Richter magnitude scale and the Modified Mer-
Then the minor damage zone follows which cov-
calli intensity scale in which for magnitude 5.5–6 the
ers the intensities IV–V covering the Zagros Foothills
corresponding intensity is VIII.
and The Mesopotamian Geosyncline. Then the mod-
erate damage zone follows with intensity range of
VI–VII, which actually covers the Zagros Tauros thrust 6 PEAK GROUND ACCELERATION, PGA
zones. The major damage zone with intensity of VIII
is located on the Zagros thrust outside the Iraqi bor- Earthquake ground motions, EGM for analysis of
ders. While in recent zoning maps the intensity regions structures are usually characterized by PGA, response
ranging is changed to reflect the increasing of earth- spectra, and acceleration time-histories. The EGM for
quakes risks in Iraq which increased in last years as dynamic analysis, as a minimum, should be spec-
shown in Figure 3. ified in terms of response spectra. A time-history

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 4. Seismic Isoacceleration map with design period
of 100 years.
Figure 5. Updated seismic Isoacceleration of Iraq.
earthquake response analysis, if required, should be
performed using the acceleration time-histories.
The PGA is defined as the greatest earthquake
that can reasonably be expected to be generated by
a specific source on the basis of seismological and
geological evidence.
With respect to Iraq Peak Ground Acceleration
PGA, Alsinawi & Al Moosawi (1980), presented the
first design regionalization map for Iraq. Figure 4 rep-
resents the peak ground acceleration for 100 years
return period.
While in recent seismic maps that related to peak
ground acceleration in Iraq zoning are increased the
estimated values of PGA which also related to the
increasing of earthquakes risks in Iraq as in Figure 5.
From Figure 4, Baghdad area within contour of
PGA is 0.03 g, while according to Figure 5 Baghdad
area with PGA equal to 2 m/sec2 namely 0.082 g.
During relatively short interval the earthquakes
activity is much increased, which increased the esti-
mated PGA by about 2.7 times from 0.03 g to 0.082 g.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
For safe design, the value of PGA for Baghdad should
be more conservative to satisfy safe structures dur-
ing whole life period taken into consideration more
seismic activity in near or far future.
Thus to specify PGA there are number of empiri-
cal relations available in literature to correlate shaking
intensity with PGA some of such values are summa-
rized in Table 3, which gives Average values of PGA;
real values may be higher or lower.
There is considerable variation even in the average
values in Table 3 by different empirical relations. Thus
for VIII intensity the PGA ranged from 0.14 g to 0.3 g,
namely with variation about 50%. To select the opti-
mum value for Baghdad PGA between 0.14 g to 0.3 g, a
comparative study is accomplished based on El Centro
earthquake characteristics as follow:
According to UBC 1997, section 1653, Baghdad
area is considered as Seismic Zone 3 (i.e., Z = 0.3),
while California is considered as Seismic Zone 4 (i.e.,
Z = 0.4). Thus by comparison the relation between
Baghdad and California is
However, El-Centro earthquake have the maximum
acceleration of 0.32 g. Thus Baghdad PGA is 0.75 *
0.32 g = 0.24 g.
This approximately agrees with data shown in
Table 3. Thus PGA for Baghdad area is 0.24 g.
7 SELECTING OF ACCELERATION TIME
HISTORIES
Time histories usually express the ground motion as a
record of acceleration with respect to time.
The acceleration time-histories should be selected
to be similar to the design earthquake in the following
aspects: tectonic environment, earthquake magnitude,
fault rupture mechanism (fault type), site conditions,
design response spectra, and duration of strong shak-
ing. Since it is not always possible to find records that
satisfy all of these criteria, it is often necessary to mod-
ify existing records or develop synthetic records that
meet most of these requirements.
In this approach of selecting recorded motions, sim-
ple scaling of individual accelerograms by a constant
factor is done to improve the spectral fit, but the wave
form and the relative spectral content of the accelero-
grams are not modified. The advantage of selecting
recorded motions is that each accelerogram is an actual
recording, and thus the structure is analyzed for nat-
ural motions that are presumably most representative
of what the structure could experience.
El Centro strong-motions is selected in establishing
response spectra acceleration (RSA), in which it scaled
to fit with Baghdad area characteristics. The scaling of
acceleration time histories is based on PGA = 0.24 g
which essential derived on the basis of magnitude and
zoning. This gives the scale factor is equal to 0.75.
The scaled acceleration time histories are shown in
Figure 6.
Table 3. Average horizontal peak ground acceleration as function of earthquake intensity.

Acceleration (as a fraction of g) Empirical Relations

Gutenberg and Newmann, Trifunac and Trifunac and Newmann Murphy and
Intensity (MMI Scale) Richter, 1956 1954 Brady, 1975 Brady, 1977 1977 O’Brien, 1977

V 0.015 0.032 0.031 0.021 0.022 0.032

VI 0.032 0.064 0.061 0.046 0.053 0.056
VII 0.068 0.130 0.120 0.100 0.130 0.100
VIII 0.146 0.260 0.240 0.230 0.300 0.180
IX 0.314 0.540 0.480 0.520 0.720 0.320

Figure 6. EI Centro earthquake time history scaled for

baghdad area.

Figure 7. Baghdad Response Spectra compared with

8 CONSTRUCTION BAGHDAD RESPONSE
SPECTRUM
In general, response spectra are prepared by calculat-
ing the response to a specified excitation of single-
of-freedom systems with various amounts of damping
degree.
From sections 6 and 7, the PGA and scaled acceler-
ation time histories are determined for Baghdad area.
Now the linear response analysis is accomplished for
SDOF system.
Numerical integration with short time intervals is
applied to calculate the response of the system. The
step-by-step process is continued until the total earth-
quake record has been completed. The largest value
of the function of interest maximum absolute accel-
eration is recorded and becomes the response of the
system to that excitation. Changing the parameters of
the system to change the natural frequency, then, the
procedures is repeated and records a new maximum
response. This process is repeated until all frequencies
of interest have been covered and the results plotted.
This process must be repeated for all earthquakes of
interest.
A computer program in FOTRAN 90 language
is developed to construct the response spectrum
for single-degree-of-freedom damped (or un-damped)
system subjected to ground motion acceleration
time history. The differential equation is solved by
Duhamel’s integral.
UBC97 Spectrum.
9 REAL RESPONSE SPECTRUM
Real spectrum with damping ratio of 5% is shown
in Figure 7 have somewhat irregular shape with local
peaks and valleys For design purpose, local peaks and
valleys should be ignored, since natural period cannot
be calculated with that much accuracy.
Thus, design specification should not very sensi-
tive to a small change in natural period. Hence, design
spectrum is a smooth or average shape without local
peaks and valleys namely smooth response spectrum
used for design purposes.
10 BAGHDAD RESPONSE SPECTRUM
ACCORDING TO UBC1997
10.1 Soil profile type for Baghdad area
According to UBC 1997 Table (16-J), the soil profile is
defined by one or more form the following soil proper-
ties for top 100 ft (or 30.48 m) of soil profile which are:
• Shear Wave Velocity
• Standard Penetration Test
• Un-drained Shear Strength
In present study the standard penetration test is used
to define Baghdad soil profile type due to availability
of accurate results that cover most Baghdad sub-areas.

75
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 According to study of National Centre for Con-
struction Laboratories that focused on the engineering
characteristics of Baghdad area, The standard penetra-
tion test results (SPT) for the top 100 ft (30.48 m) of
soil profile in range of 15–50 so it is classified as type
SD, namely stiff soil profile.
10.2 Baghdad response spectrum according to
UBC1997
According to UBC 1997 section 1653, Baghdad area
is considered as Seismic Zone 3. The design response
spectrum is constructed based on UBC1997 graph
shown in Figure 7.
11 SUGGESTED DESIGN RESPONSE
SPECTRUM
The curve of design response spectrum developed as
follows:
1. For periods less than T1 , the design response
acceleration, Sa , shall be taken as given in Eq. 1
2. For periods greater than or equal to T1 and less
than or equal to T2 , the design spectral response
acceleration, Sa , shall be taken equal to 3.0ag .
3. For periods greater than T2 , and less than or equal
to T3 , the design spectral response acceleration, Sa ,
shall be taken as given in Eq. 2
4. For periods greater than T3 , and less than or equal
to 5 sec, Sa shall be taken as given by Eq. 3
Where, ag = 0.24 the Peak ground acceleration,
T = the fundamental period of the structure in
seconds, T1 = 0.2 sec, T2 = 0.6 sec, and T3 = 2.0
seconds.
12 CONCLUSIONS
From the present study the following conclusions can
be drawing:
1. The peak ground acceleration PGA equal to (0.24 g)
for Baghdad area is conservative but it the best
estimated quantity up to this time for structural
design and analysis.
2. For low importance structures or for temporary
structures, less values than presented can be used.
3. Real response spectra have irregular shape with
local peaks and valleys and due to the natural period
of a civil engineering structure cannot be calcu-
lated precisely, thus, design spectrum is a smooth
or average shape without local peaks and valleys.
76
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
4. UBC 1997 response spectrum is more conservative
and more safe, in comparison with real spectrum.
5. The suggested design response spectrum has a good
estimation for the behavior of real spectrum.
REFERENCES
Adeli, & Nemat-Nasser. 1977. A probabilistic seismic
investigation of Iran data, analysis and preliminary results.
Earthquake Research and Engineering Laboratory, Tech.
report No. 77-8-21 dept. of civil eng. Northwestern Univ.
Al Naqib, K.M. 1967. Geology of the Arabian Peninsula
Southeastern Iraq. US Geological Survey, Professional
Paper 569 G, 1-47.
Al Sayyab A. & Valek, R. 1968. Patterns and general prop-
erties of gravity field of Iraq. The 23rd International
Geological Congress, Prague, Czechoslovakia, Sec. 5,
pp 129–142.
Alsinawi, S.A & Ghalib, H.A. 1975. Seismic zoning of Iraq.
Proceedings of the 2nd Conference of Foundation for
Scientific Research, Baghdad, Iraq.
Alsinawi, S.A & Al Moosawi, H.I. 1980. Seismic zoning
and other seismic parameters considerations for Iraq. Pro-
ceedings of the 7th World Conference on Earthquake
Engineering, Istanbul, Turkey, Vol 1, pp 185–192.
Alsinawi, S.A. & Al-Moosawi, H.I. 1982. Microseismicity
environment for Iraq. Proceedings of the 7th Symposium
on Earthquake Engineering, pp 13–18, Roorkee, India.
Alsinawi, S.A. & Issa, A.A. 1986. Seismicity and seismo-
tectonics of Iraq. Jour. Geol. Soc. Of Iraq, Vol 19, No.2,
pp 39–59. Seismological Seminar, King Saud University,
Saudi Arabia, pp 11–33.
Alsinawi, S.A. & Al Dilaimi, J.M.H 1993. Seismic zon-
ing, seismic sources and seismotectonics of the Arabian
Peninsula. Proc. 5th Inter. Conf. on Natural and Man Made
Hazards, Qingado, China.
Alsinawi, S.A. 2001. Seismological considerations of
the Eastern Arab region. Proceedings of the Euro-
Mediterranean Seminar on Natural, Environmental and
Technological Disasters, Algers, Algeria.
Ambraseys, N.N. 1978. Middle East. Appraisal of Seismicity.
Quart. Jour, Eng. Geol. Vol.11, pp 19–32.
Al Qasrani, Z. 1990. Seismological engineering consider-
ations for Iraq. Unpublished MSc. Thesis, Faculty of
Science, Department of Geology, University of Baghdad,
pp 139.
Buday, T. & Jasim S.Z. 1987. The regional geology of
Iraq, tectonism, magmatism and metamorphism. Vol.2.
Iraqi Geological Survey and Mineral Investigation Press,
Baghdad, 352p.
Ditmar, V. et.al. 1971. Geological conditions and hydro-
carbon prospects of the republic of Iraq-northern and
central Parts. Vol.1, Iraq Nat, Oil Co. Library, Baghdad
(unpublished).
Dunnington, H.V. 1958. Generation, migration, accumu-
lation and dissipation of oil in northern Iraq. Habitat
of Oil, Weeks, L.G. (Editor) Amer. Assoc. Petr. Geol.
pp 1194–1251.
Lomintz, C. 1974. Global tectonics and earthquake risk.
Elsevier Publ. New York, 320pp.
Paz M 1979. Structural Dynamics: Theory and Computation.
Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York.
Sahil A. Alsinawi & Zia O. Al-Qasrani 2003. Earthquake haz-
ards considerations for Iraq. Fourth International Confer-
ence of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology, 12–14
May 2003 Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Stresses characterization and quantification in masonry structures with

bent axle: Methodological approach and first experiences

M. Candela
Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria, P.A.U. Department, Reggio Calabria, Italy

ABSTRACT: Up to the present, many structural restoration experts thought hard about the necessity and
the real possibility of checking repairs effectiveness on masonry structures; so at the end of the nineties, an
Italian research group started working on it. In 2006, we tried to check a particular vault repair planned and
made on the barrel vaulted of Maria Assunta’s church in Gragnano, Naples. In 1980, it was damaged by Irpinia
earthquake; the central vault collapsed and then it was built up again in three-fold bricks. During the central
vault restoration some bricks employed were set up with inner mechanical instrumentation; so became really
possible to check the true stresses distribution on a two dimensional structure. After, technical knowledge and
high tech progress developed for residual stresses produced hole drilling “strain gauge method”. This method
gave us the opportunity of obtaining, with the necessary sensibility, the stresses intervals expected.

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Problem
During catastrophic events, cultural heritage is mostly
exposed to several damages. This trouble is due to
its oldness. In particular, old masonry often lacks
appropriate maintenance and elementary aseismic pro-
visions. Therefore, historical constructions are vulner-
able from different points of view, particularly from
seismic one.
In the recent past, the fear pressed to obtain
safer buildings; especially by means of 3-3-75 instru-
ment building rules. Consequently, after 1980 Irpinia’s
Earthquake, according to the rules in force, the whole
area affected by this seismic event was built up again.
During reconstruction, the main masonry buildings
were lost. In fact, comparing historical and environ-
mental losing notes from 1982 to 1997, it is possible
to notice that the image of the typical rural house in
irpinian landscape was destroyed.
It originated the necessity to find out a different
approach in historical building interventions. The first
attempt was carried out by prof.eng. Antonino Giuf-
frè, during Sant’Angelo dei Lombardi’s restoration.
This project was planned by following traditional tech-
niques of repairs. Then, many similar projects were Figure 1. Comparing historical and environmental losing
put into practice. Nowadays, these intervention’s tech- notes from 1982 to 1997.
niques are well-known, such as: soft one in opposition
to hard one.
Then, we started to think about their check. 1.2 Idea
Although traditional techniques of repair were exper- We proposed a test carried out through the setting of
imented along the century, we wanted to check the some particular bricks with mechanical instrumenta-
repairs’ effectiveness. tion inside.

77
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 2. San Nicola dei Miri’s church in Gragnano(Na),
localization.
Figure 3. Nave damage.
Figure 4. Double wedge technique.
2 FIRST ATTEMPT: CASE STUDY – MARIA
DELL’ASSUNTA’S CHURCH IN GRAGNANO,
NAPLES
2.1 Localization and features
San Nicola dei Miri’s church is a historical good situ-
ated in Gragnano, near Naples, inside Miros’ land. It
was erected by Miro’s patrician family and it is now
an out-bulging of Gragnano’s Franciscan convent. The
church is composed by a nave and two lateral chapels.
The large nave is covered by a barrel vault built up with
bricks laid in multiple-wythe and positioned with the
frontal part of the united parallel to the wall.
2.2 The damage: the nave
San Nicola dei Miri’s church was strongly damaged by
Irpinia’s earthquake. These seismic events triggered
a cinematic movement of the nave’s masonry to the
outside.
78
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 5. Bricks with inner mechanical instrumentation –
unidirectional sensors.
Consequently, the nave turned over in the opposite
side and the whole barrel vault was cracked along the
keystone and the springer line. Locally, at the level of
springers’ maximum deformation, collapse happened.
Firstly, disarrangement concerned only one lunette,
then it involved a second lunette too.
The damage was improved by full-size span and
small vault’s thickness. In fact, the latter was just 6 cm
thick and composed by three layers of bricks without
any connections.
2.3 Repairs: the double wedge technique
The intervention proposed was a restoration with
soft interventions that mostly suggested the original
brickwork setting. Therefore, the restoration work
proposed the early vault’s configuration with similar
materials and setting.
The trouble was represented by the vault real possi-
bility to be loaded after repair. So, it was introduced a
particular plan proposal: the double wedge technique.
This is a well-known technique that allows connection
between the old part and the new one. The change was
represented by the inner mechanical instrumentation
placed in order to obtain effective stresses distribution.
2.4 Bricks with inner mechanical instrumentation
This was the first attempt of checking vault stresses.
These bricks were instrumented by loaded cells; the
loading variations could be read in function of their
calibration.
However, the most important thing was not the
extent of the compressive stresses but their existence.
The connection between these unidirectional sensors
and the instrumentation was assured by two metal
boards fixed with proper resins on the brick surfaces.
2.5 Test and results: repair check
Therefore, the global strategy of intervention and its
criteria were outlined. Then, the difficulty was the
research of an optimal dislocation for these sensors.
The eight sensors were respectively settled in the fol-
lowing way: three in the first layer, three in the second
layer and two in the third layer. The experimental
plan was articulated in four steps: 1) bricks’ setting;
2) bricks had to be loaded; 3) wooden framework had to

Figure 6. Rione Terra’s localization.
Figure 7. Partial demolition and rebuilding, old part detail.
be removed and 4) load test. The latter was successful
and prefixed marks were reached.
3 SECOND EXPERIMENT: CASE STUDY –
SAIL VAULT IN RIONE TERRA, POZZUOLI,
NAPLES
3.1 Localization: the archeological building of
Rione Terra
The second experiment was carried out in an eigh-
teenth century building, located in Pozzuoli’s historical
centre (Na), exactly in Rione Terra. This part of the
city is the heart of the historical area and the object
of an excavation campaign. It has been made with the
final aim of carrying out an underground archeological
park, situated under Rione Terra’s constructions.
From Roman settlement in 194 B.C. to modern age,
constructions in Rione Terra were built up with a verti-
cal trend. All remains of the past were overlapped and
preserved.
This is the background of the experience we want
to explain.
3.2 The experimental vault: partial demolition and
rebuilding
The experiment concerns the reconstruction of a sail
vault built with a marked lower outline. It was totally
rebuilt, except for the corbel elements placed in the
springer in connection with the pier and the arc struc-
ture. According to this idea it was rebuilt only in the
absent part; so, a repair checking was necessary. The
mark is always the same: verify if stresses can be cor-
rectly transfer between the new and the old part but
with a new aim.
79
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 8. Stone with inner mechanical instrumentation –
strain gauge system.
Figure 9. Stone realized with inner mechanical instrumen-
tation – strain gauge system.
Figure 10. Tests scheme.
3.3 Stone blocks with inner mechanical
instrumentation: the strain gauge method
The employ of some instrumented stones was planned
in order to tweak a monitoring methodology. This last
must be able to verify strains in masonry structures
and the pressures curve in arched one. So, according
to this idea the selected stones were provided with a
strain gauge system inside. This system was set before
in a restrictedly range, from 0,01 dN/cm2 to 5 dN/cm2
with a pace of 0,5 dN/cm2 and connected to a junc-
tion box for data reading and elaboration. The stresses
obtained were read in two different phases: during
vault construction and loading phases.
3.4 Test and results: repair check
The experimental experience was realized in collab-
oration with prof. Alessandro Baratta, Federico II
University, scientific guidance; Dr. Geol. Roberto
Del gado Estrada, stone block with inner mechan-
ical instrumentation realizing and GeoconsulLab in
Manocalzati (Av), tests.
The static and dynamic testes were carried out by the
following scheme, in order to avoid different loading
condition.
The following image show the stresses values read
through strain gauge method. This demonstrates its
effectiveness.

Figure 11. Test 5. Loading condition configuration and
results.
4 CONCLUSIONS
All that was elaborate in theoretical field and experi-
mental one leaving us free to think positive about this
research. In fact, this interesting path to the knowledge
80
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
in instrumented voussoirs method gives the oppor-
tunity to contribute in various questions ‘resolution.
In this case, the contribution was given in masonry
structures in order to obtain stresses direction and
quantification.
REFERENCES
Candela, M. & Ceradini, V. 2004. La Normativa sismica nel
restauro: Le esperienze del passato, le proposte per il
futuro. In Arco (ed.), Manutenzione e recupero nella città
storica, Conservazione e Normativa: esperienze recenti;
Proc. intern. symp., Baia, 4–5 June 2004. Roma: Gangemi
editore.
Guglielmo, E. Procaccino, C. Candela, M. Dolcetti, E. & Ger-
manò, G. 2004. Verifica sperimentale del restauro e messa
a norma di una volta in foglio della chiesa di San Nicola
dei Miri a Gragnano (Na). In Arco (ed.), Manutenzione e
recupero nella città storica, Conservazione e Normativa:
esperienze recenti; Proc. intern. symp., Baia, 4–5 June
2004. Roma: Gangemi editore.
Paternoster, G. Proietti, L.M. & Vitale, A. 2007. Malte e tec-
niche edilizie del Rione Terra di Pozzuoli. L’età romana.
Napoli: Giannini editore
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Selecting the appropriate probabilistic demand models using Bayesian

statistics

A. Deylami & M. Mahdavi Adeli

Department of Civil Engineering, Amir Kabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

ABSTRACT: Probabilistic Demand Model (PDM) is a tool to predict the response of structures, defined as
their seismic demand, in the performance bases earthquake engineering frameworks. Selecting an appropriate
PDM to determine the probability of demand exceeding over a certain level provided that a certain level of
ground motion Intensity Measure (IM) is unavoidable to evaluate the structural response under the expected
seismic actions. In this article, by investigating different models with different type and number of IMs, the best
PDM for steel moment-resisting frames are selected. The results show that the widely used PDM, which predicts
the demand based on first mode spectral acceleration, cannot be recommended to apply of all structural height.
Also it is shown that using model with multiple IMs is appropriate i.e. the best model to cover all structural
height is the one with linear combination of spectral acceleration of first and second period.

1 INTRODUCTION Generally, the following mathematical form is

In recently developed performance based design engi-
neering frameworks, estimation of seismic demand
is an essential part to describe the performance of
structures. The most challenging in this estimation
is the large uncertainty associated with the seismic
events and structural response demands. Because of
this uncertainty can be described in term of those orig-
inating from randomness and modeling errors, using a
probabilistic method to treatment of both randomness
and uncertainty is required in estimation of seis-
mic demand. This method is known as Probabilistic
Seismic Demand Analysis (PSDA).
PSDA is an approach for calculating the mean
annual frequency of exceeding a specified seismic
demand for given structure at a designated site (Cor-
nell 1996). PSDA combines a ground motion Intensity
Measure (IM) hazard curves for designated site with
the demand results from Nonlinear Dynamic Anal-
ysis (NDA) of the given structure under a suite of
earthquake ground motion records (Luco 2002).
In this approach, In order to determine the probabil-
ity of seismic demand exceeding over a certain level
of IM parameter, a model of conditional probability
prediction of seismic demand is required. This model,
namely Probabilistic Demand Model (PDM), calcu-
lates the average of seismic demand for a certain level
of IM. A PDM is a mathematical expression relating
the structural demand at the component level to the
demand at system level.
adopted for a demand model:
In the above expression, D is the demand parameter,
d is the selected deterministic model and ε is a stan-
dard normal random variable. Also IM is the ground
motion intensity measure parameter (may be one or
more parameters), θ is the vector of model parameters
and σ is the standard deviation of model error. The
vector of θ and amount of σ must be calculated based
on the results of NDA.
Selecting an appropriate PDM, based on several
inherent properties such as practicality, sufficiency,
effectiveness and efficiency, for target structure is
an important part of PSDA (Mackie & Stojadinovic
2002). The main idea of this article is the selec-
tion of the best probabilistic model to estimate the
Drift Ratio (DR) demand of Steel Moment-Resisting
Frames (SMRFs). For this purpose and in the follow-
ing parts, first the structural model of SMRFs, which
are generic frames, has been presented, then selected
ground motion records for NDA are introduced. In
the next step, Bayesian statistical approach which is a
strong tool to simultaneous modeling of randomness
and uncertainty, and its application as well as its advan-
tages are discussed. In this article, in order to select
the appropriate models, 16 different demand models
with different type and number of IMs are defined.

81
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
The required data to evaluate these models are pro-
duced by using Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA)
method. Resulted drift ratios in IDA, is gathered to cre-
ate a widespread database, which is used to statistical
analyzing of defined PDMs. At the end of this process,
the best probabilistic demand models for SMRFs are
introduced.
2 GENERIC ARCHETYPE STEEL
MOMENT-RESISTING FRAME
It is important that the obtained results in this arti-
cle can be extended for a wide range of all type of
SMRFs with different characteristic such as the num-
ber of stories. In order to cast a reliable archetype of
SMRFs, the concept of generic frames is adopted in
this paper. NDA is carried out using a family of two-
dimensional single-bay generic SMRFs for 3, 6, 9, 12
and 15-storey structures, and the first mode period
equals to 0.3, 0.6, 0.9, 1.2 and 1.5 second and the sec-
ond mode period equals to 0.1, 0.23, 0.35, 0.48 and 0.6
respectively. The results of different studies show that
using a single-bay generic frame can properly demon-
strate the behavior of multi-bay frames (Medina &
Krawinkler 2005). Nonlinear beam-column elements
with concentrated plastic hinges in two ends, con-
nected by an elastic element, are adopted for modeling
the frames. The nonlinear behavior in plastic hinges is
modeled implementing rotational springs (with stiff-
ness and strength deterioration). The peak-oriented
model is applied to specify the hysteretic behavior.
Also, in order to consider the cyclic deterioration, the
modified model suggested by Ibarra and co-workers
have been used (Ibarra & Krawinkler 2005). In this
model, cyclic deterioration parameter is accounted for
deterioration criterion by using energy dissipation. The
following four modes of deterioration are included:
basic strength, post-capping strength, unloading stiff-
ness, and accelerated reloading stiffness deterioration.
Also the open source for simulation in earthquake
engineering established by PEER, known as Opensees,
is selected to perform the NDA. Some main char-
acteristics of this family of frames are as follows,
more details can be found in (Medina & Krawinkler
2005):
• Relative stiffness are turned so that the first mode
is straight line
• Plasticization just occurs at the end of the beams
and the bottom of the first storey columns
• Frames are designed so that simultaneous yield-
ing at all plastic hinge locations is attained under
a parabolic (NEHRP, k = 2) load pattern.
• Moment-rotation hysteretic behavior is modeled by
using rotational springs with peak-oriented hys-
teretic rules and cyclic deterioration parameter
equal to 30 and 3% strain hardening.
• For the NDA, 5% Rayleigh damping is assigned to
the first mode and the mode at which the cumulative
mass participation exceeds 95%.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
3 SELECTION OF GROUND MOTION
RECORDS
An appropriate estimation of seismic demand through
NDA requires a suitable selection of ground motion
records which must represent the seismic hazard
condition of target territory at different return peri-
ods. In this article, using a bin strategy, 80 records
are selected from the PEER Center Ground Motion
Database (http://peer.berkeley.edu/smcat/) and classi-
fied into four magnitude-distance bins for the purpose
of NDA of SMRFs (Medina & Krawinkler 2003). The
record bins are designated as follows:
• Large Magnitude-Short Distance Bin, LMSR,
(6.5 < Mw < 7.0, 13 km < R < 30 km),
• Large Magnitude-Long Distance Bin, LMLR,
(6.5 < Mw < 7.0, 30 km < R < 60 km),
• Small Magnitude-Short Distance Bin, SMSR,
(5.8 < Mw < 6.5, 13 km < R < 30 km), and
• Small Magnitude-Long Distance Bin, SMLR,
(5.8 < Mw < 6.5, 30 km < R < 60 km).
4 BAYESIAN STATISTICAL APPROACH
In this article, the Bayesian statistical approach is used
to estimate all unknown parameters. Here only a brief
description of this method is presented. Details can be
found in (Der Kiureghian, 1999). Let
be a mathematical model for predicting variable y in
terms of a set of observable variables x, in which d(x,θ)
is the deterministic model, θ is the vector of unknown
model parameters, ε is a random variable, representing
the uncertainty in the model and σ is the unknown stan-
dard deviation. So the set of unknown parameters must
be estimated by using Bayesian statistics and available
information is ψ(θ,σ). In the Bayesian approach, this
is done by using the well-known updating rule:
Where p(ψ) can be viewed as the prior distribu-
tion reflecting the state of knowledge about ψ prior to
obtained the information, L(ψ) is the likelihood func-
tion, which is a function proportional to the conditional
probability of making the observation on x and y for a
given value of the parameters and reflect the objective
information, f(ψ) is posterior distribution reflecting
the updated information about ψ and c is a normalizing
factor necessary to ensure that the posterior distribu-
tion integrates to one. In this article, the regression
tool relies on Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation
techniques and yields fully Bayesian posterior mean
or posterior mode estimation (Brezger & Lang, 2006
and 2008).
Table 1. 16 defined PDMs.

5 DEFINITION OF 16 SELLECTED
PROBABILSTIC DEMAND MODELS

In this article, 16 different demand models, with vari-

ous type and number of IM parameters are defined
and evaluated to select the best PDM. In these model,
listed follows, first (Sa1 ), second (Sa2 ) and third (Sa3 )
mode spectral acceleration, Peak Ground Acceleration
(PGA), moment magnitude (M ), site to fault distance
(R) and strong ground motion time duration (T ) of
casual earthquake are used as IM parameter.

6 USING IDA TO GENERATE THE DATABASE

In order to generate the required database, an IDA, is

used in this research and applied to the each selected
ground motion record. Given a structure and a ground
motion, IDA is done by conducting a series of NDA. In
this process the IM of ground motion is incrementally
increase and the selected seismic demand parameter
is monitored during each analysis (Vamvatsikos &
Cornell, 2002). The extreme values of demand param-
eter are plotted against the corresponding value of the
IM for each level to produce a database which is used
to estimate the unknown parameters. Each record is
scaled from a lower limit equal to Sa1 = 0.05 g to an
upper limit, defined as the value of first mode spectral
acceleration that leads to collapse of structure, with
0.05 g steps. Overall collapse case is considered here
as the ultimate limit state in which dynamic sideway
instability in one or several stories of structural system
Figure 1. Created databases by IDA for 3 and 15-storey
frames, two different IMs, Sa1 (No02) and Sa2 (No03).
is attained or a maximum inter-storey drift which is
defined as collapse by codes (here 10%). At each step,
a NDA is carried out and the resulted maximum drift,
along with the amount of corresponding IM parame-
ters are sent to the defined database. For instance, in
Figure 1, the databases which resulted from IDA in 3
and 15-storey frames, where the IM parameters are the
first and second mode spectral acceleration are shown.

83
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 2. Estimated standard deviations of Model No01 to
No04 in different frames using Bayesian statistics.
7 STATISTICAL EVAUATION OF DEFINED
DEMAND MODELS
In this section, in order to select the appropriate
demand models for SMRFs, 16 defined PDMs are
statistically evaluated using Bayesian approach. Effi-
ciency of models can be defined as minimal standard
deviation of model and their sufficiency can be defined
as constant standard deviation of model over a range
of structural heights are the best rules to select the best
model. Also their applicable in PSDA is another cri-
terion to final selection of appropriate models. Here,
based on the used IM parameter, the 16 defined PDMs
are classified into four groups.
7.1 Group 1, models with one single IM
In Figure 2, the evaluated standard deviations of
demand models No01 to No04, which are the mod-
els include single IM parameter that consists of single
parameter, are shown. The most notable concern in
these results is the high dependency of the standard
deviation of these models on the number of stories, i.e.
although model No02 which is commonly used in per-
formance based design engineering frameworks and
estimate the demand based on the first mode spectral
acceleration (Cornell et al. 2002), has small standard
deviation and good accuracy to estimate the demand
in the case of 3-storey frame, it is not suitable in
15-storey frame because of its considerable standard
deviation. Besides, model No3 is the weakest estimator
in 3-storey and the best estimator in 15-storey frame.
Furthermore model No01 is a sufficient model because
of its constant standard deviation, but it is not an effi-
cient model because of its large standard deviation and
also Model No04 is neither sufficient nor efficient. As
a general rule, results show that there is no efficient and
sufficient one-parameter model to cover all structural
height.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 3. Estimated standard deviations of Model No05 to
No08 in different frames using Bayesian statistics.
7.2 Group 2, models with one combined IM
Evaluated standard deviation of models No05 to No08,
using Bayesian statistics, are shown in Figure 3. It is
clear from this picture, because of their nearly constant
standard deviation, all of these models are sufficient.
In the other words the standard deviation of these
models is not a function of number of stories and is
an independent parameter. In spite of this valuable
property, using these models in performance based
design engineering frameworks are not recommended
because of extreme difficulty of producing a multiple
parameters seismic hazard curve. In the other words, if
such a parameter is selected as IM parameter, there is
no usual method to calculate its corresponding seismic
hazard function, so using such a model in estimation of
seismic demand of SMRFs is almost non-applicable.
Also in these models, the brilliant ability of first mode
spectral acceleration to estimate the seismic demand
of low-rise frames is wasted.
7.3 Group 3, models with two single IMs
Considering the standard deviation of models No09 to
No12, which are shown in Figure 4, it seems that pro-
vided selecting the appropriate parameters, it is best to
construct a model by using two spectral parameters as
IM. When two IM parameters are applied to estimate
the demand, the model can benefit from each IM in
different cases. For instance in model No10, a linear
combination of first and second mode spectral acceler-
ation, when the target frame is the 3-storey frame, first
mode spectral acceleration has the most participation
in estimating the demand (so the standard deviation
is similar to model No02) and when the target frame
is the 15-storey frame, second mode spectral accel-
eration is the dominant parameter in this estimation
(so the standard deviation is similar to model No03).
Considering the efficiency, sufficiency and applicable
of these models, it seems that using model with two
single IM parameters is the most appropriate model
to estimate the seismic demand of SMRFs. In spite
of all their benefits, it must be noted that using such

Figure 4. Estimated standard deviations of Model No09 to
No12 in different frames using Bayesian statistics.
Figure 5. Estimated standard deviations of Model No13 to
No16 in different frames using Bayesian statistics.
models to estimate the seismic demand, requires much
more calculation and information in comparison with
one-parameter models.
7.4 Group 4, models with earthquake occurrence
parameters as IM
In order to investigate the ability of earthquake occur-
rence parameters, such as magnitude, distance and
time duration to predict the seismic demand, models
No13 to No16 are defined and their evaluated standard
deviations are shown in Figure 5.
It is interesting that there is no difference between
the estimated standard deviations of the models No13,
No15 and N 01 and the models No14, No16 and
No02. In the other words in these models the spectral
parameters are always dominant and the earthquake
occurrence parameters have no effects on estimated
seismic demand, so the using of these parameters
to estimate the seismic demand of SMRFs are not
recommended.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
8 CONCLUSION
In this article a comparative study of spatial distri-
bution of probabilistic demand estimation models,
for steel moment-resisting frames using 16 different
demand models is carried out. Using generic frames
in modeling the steel moment-resisting frames and
also applying a considerable number of ground motion
record, selected based on Bin Strategy, for nonlin-
ear dynamic analysis of structures together with a
Bayesian statistical approach, which is a powerful
tool to simultaneous modeling of randomness and
uncertainty, made the selected demand model appli-
cable in designing steel moment-resisting frames in
the framework of performance based designing.
In order to select the appropriate demand mod-
els for steel moment-resisting frames in this research,
16 different probabilistic demand models which were
divided into 4 groups have been studied. The results
show that the accuracy of first group models, which
in their definition a single parameter was used as IM,
is a function of the number of stories. As an example
a model in which the first mode spectral acceleration
was used as IM and it is the best model in estima-
tion of seismic demand of stiff and low-rise structures
such as 3 and 6-storey frames, however this model is
not suitable for deformable structures such as 12 and
15-storey frames. Generally because of their variable
accuracy, a certain model from this group is not recom-
mended to estimate the drift demand for all structures
which different number of stories. However the mod-
els of second group in which IM is a combination of
two parameters can overcome this problem because
of having standard deviation and accuracy indepen-
dent of the number of stories. But it should be noted
that there is no common method for seismic hazard
analysis of such IM parameter and it needs a new atten-
uation relation which makes using of these models
in performance based design engineering frameworks
problematic. Third group model in which two inde-
pendent IM have been used might be the solution
for this problem. The results show that in the case of
selecting two proper parameters, the accuracy of these
models is better than others, e.g. a model in which a
linear combination of first and second mode spectral
acceleration is used as IM has acceptable accuracy in
estimation of seismic demand analysis for all frames
defined in this study. But using these modes required
more data and calculations. Finally the fourth group of
models indicates that using the earthquake parameters
in estimation of seismic demand is not beneficial.
REFERENCES
Brezger, A. & Lang, S. 2006. Generalized structured additive
regression based on Bayesian P-Splines. Computational
Statistics and Data Analysis 50: 967–991.
Brezger, A. & Lang, S. 2008. Simultaneous Probability state-
ments for Bayesian P-Splines. Statistical Modeling 8:
141–168.
 Cornell, C.A. 1996. Calculating building seismic perfor-
mance reliability: a basis for multi-level design norms,
Proceedings of the 11th World Conference on Earthquake
Engineering, Paper No. 2122, Acapulco, Mexico.
Cornell, C. A., Jalayer, F., Hamburger, R. O. & Foutch, D. A.
2002. Probabilistic basis for the 2000 SAC Federal Emer-
gency Management Agency steel moment frame. Journal
of Structural Engineering 128(4): 526–533.
Der Kiureghian, A. 1999. A Bayesian framework for fragility
assessment, Proceedings of the 8th International Confer-
ence on Application of Statistics and Probability (ICASP),
In Civil Engineering.
Ibarra, L. F. & Krawinkler, H. 2005. Global Collapse of
Frame Structures under Seismic Excitations, Report No.
2005-05, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley,
California.
Luco, N. 2002. Probabilistic seismic demand analysis, SMRF
connection fractures, and near source effects, Ph.D. The-
sis, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Stanford University, Stanford.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Mackie, K. & Stojadinovic, B. 2001. Probabilistic seismic
demand model for California highway bridges. Journal of
Bridge Engineering 6(6): 468–481.
Medina, R. A. and Krawinkler, H. 2003. Seismic demands for
non-deteriorating frame structures and their dependence
on ground motions, Report No. 144, Stanford University,
Stanford.
Medina, R. A. & Krawinkler, H. 2005. Evaluation of
drift demands for the seismic performance assessment
of frames. Journal of Structural Engineering 131 (7):
1003–1013.
Vamvatsikos, D. & Cornell C. A. 2002. Incremental dynamic
analysis, Earthquake Engineering & Structural Dynamics
31(3): 491–514.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Problems of seismic behaviour of buildings situated in urban habitats

V. Gioncu
“Politehnica” University Timisoara, Romania

F.M. Mazzolani
University of Naples “Federico II”, Italy

ABSTRACT: The paper presents the main design problems when the building is situated in a seismic-prone
urban habitat. There are three mainly factors influencing the building behaviour: (i) City-site factor. The presence
of densely constructed area changes the parameters of ground motions in comparison with the free areas, due to
the weight of buildings and the vibrations introduced in site by the buildings themselves; (ii) Near-source factor.
The earthquakes situated near cities produce a great amount of damage, even for buildings designed according
to the modern codes, due to very special characteristics of ground motions in epicentral areas; (iii) Complex
built configuration factor. It is a very important factor for historical buildings erected in the last Centuries, when
the building individual behaviour is strongly influenced by the presence of adjacent buildings.

1 INTRODUCTION 2 CITY-SITE INTERACTION EFFECTS

In recent years, damage caused in some important This factor refers to the influence on the ground
towns by large earthquakes has raised new issues motions of densely urbanized cities (Fig. 1). The
in earthquake engineering research for identifying free-field motions, measured at a convenient distance
the main factors which are responsible of these away from the buildings, are usually considered as
disasters. The impact of last strong events refers to: the source of the structure motions. However, there is a
(i) Modern cities where the current codes for seis- clear evidence that the actual ground motions depend
mic design were used (Mexico City, Northridge, Kobe, on the buildings presence and on the nearby construc-
Izmit, Taiwan, Sishuan); (ii) Historical cities with old tions. So, the design of a building situated in urban
buildings erected in the past periods when code provi- habitats must consider these effects.
sions did not exist (Assisi, Bam, L’Aquila); (iii) Cities Due to the actual building weight, the soil is over-
where the seismic provisions are ignored (Haiti). In all loaded, becoming stiffer and producing a change in the
these cases, some special factors, generally ignored ground motions, mainly by modifying the acceleration
in current design, had an important contribution in peaks and soil frequencies.
amplification of earthquake effects. In addition, due to the vibration introduced in soil,
The free-field motions are usually considered as each building produces a perturbation of the ground
the source of structure motions. An open question is motion, being a secondary seismic source (Fig. 2).This
whether or not a dense building concentration is able to perturbation depends on the correspondence between
modify the seismic actions. The last earthquakes have the natural periods of the soil layer and of the structure.
shown that the sources near the cities produced a great
amount of damage, even for the buildings designed
according to the modern codes. So, the second ques-
tion is why this effect is not considered in seismic
design codes for buildings situated in urban habitats.
A very important aspect refers to the old buildings
belonging to a complex configuration developed dur-
ing the historical evolution of the constructed area.
In these cases, it does not have meaning to analyse
the individual building behaviour, but the interaction
among all buildings, forming a complex urban texture,
must be considered.
This paper presents a state-of-the-art of the main
problems related to the seismic behaviour of buildings
in urban areas. Figure 1. Dense urbanized city (Bard et al., 2007).

87
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 2. Wave radiation from a vibrating building, as a
secondary seismic source (Semblat et al., 2002).
Figure 3. City-site interaction (Bard et al., 2007).
Several experimental evidences have shown that the
vibrations transmitted from a building to the ground
may propagate over large distances (up to 10 km away)
(Kham et al., 2006).
The main effects of this secondary seismic source
are produced in the case of a dense constructed area
situated in a soft soil (Fig. 3), where the presence
of buildings radically changes the characteristics of
ground motions. The superposition of the vibrations
produced by buildings over the soil vibrations com-
ing from the source gives rise to a modification of
the actual ground motions, which differ from the free-
site ones. In addition, each point on the surface can
have different movements, explaining the strange and
highly variable damage within identical building sets
(see the damage in urbanized areas during the very
destructive Kocaeli and Taiwan earthquakes).
Since the city-building response is very different
from the one of a single building and since multiple
interactions are involved, the city-site situation pro-
duces a global effect, which can really be very impor-
tant but almost unpredictable with usual methods. In
addition, it is very difficult to imagine experimental
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 4. Amplification factor due to city-site effect
(Semblat et al., 2002, Gioncu and Mazzolani, 2010).
studies for evaluating these effects. So, only the numer-
ical results can provide some information about these
effects (Semlat et al., 2002, Kham et al., 2006, Bard
et al., 207).
The case of the Nice centre (France) situated on an
alluvial deposit (Fig. 4) is analyzed for various build-
ing densities, using Boundary Element Model (BEM).
Five different building densities are considered, with
1, 3, 7, 15 and 30 identical buildings along the 2 km
width of the basin. The influence of building density
on the amplification of ground motions for buildings
with 2 seconds natural vibration period is presented in
Figure 4. One can see that the amplification level of
free-field ground motions is significantly modified by
the presence of buildings on site, especially in an area
from 500 m to 1500 m. For low densities (1 and 3 build-
ings) the influence is rather small with no significant
increase of amplification. For larger densities (15 and
30 buildings), the modification of site effects is very
important with a large amplification level (three times)
when compared to the free-field case. For intermedi-
ate density values (7 buildings), the modifications are
significant but much lower than for larger density.
Due to the limited number of investigated cases and
the differences between regular and irregular cities,
it is difficult to derive general rules to characterize
these effects, but the increase of seismic design loads
is expected in case of densely constructed areas. In
these conditions, in order to protect the structures,
it is required to increase the measure to improve the
structural ductility and robustness.

Figure 5. Area affected by near-source effects.
Figure 6. P and S waves actions on the structure.
3 NEAR-SOURCE EFFECTS
During the last 30 years, the increasing database of
recorded earthquakes has indicated that the character-
istics of ground motions can vary significantly in the
areas near the source (Fig. 5) in comparison with the
ones recorded at some distance from the source.
Due to the intense World urbanization in the last
decades, the number of cities where the epicenter
was situated under the very densely constructed area
increases (see Northridge, Kobe, Izmit, Taiwan, Port
au Prince). In all these situations the damage exceeded
the accepted one, showing the need that special rules
for the cases of near-source structures should be intro-
duced in code provisions. The main differences from
the current design conception is the fact that the seis-
mic actions are mainly governed by body P and S
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 7. Effect of last ball.
Figure 8. Propagation in structure with high velocity of
waves (Kohler et al., 2007, Gioncu and Mazzolani, 2010).
waves (Fig. 6), while in the other cases by the surface
R and L waves.
It is very well known that the velocity of P waves is
very high, having also high frequencies. So, the effect
of last ball is very important (Fig. 7), the ball being the
structure (Gioncu, 2010).
Therefore, the near-source effects are characterized
by pulse with very high velocity, important vertical
components, short duration, reduced number of pulses.
Figure 8 shows the propagation in structure with high
velocity of waves (over 1300 cm/sec). Due to this very
high velocity of pulse seismic actions, the effects of
strain-rate increase, the brittle fracture being the real
danger for structure collapse (see Northridge and Kobe
earthquakes).Therefore, the design approach for struc-
tures in near-source areas must mainly consider the
strength problems (Fig. 9). Due to the reduced number
of pulses and short duration, the amount of dissi-
pated seismic energy is reduced and the reduction of
design seismic loads due to ductility, as it is consid-
ered in code provisions, must be revaluated (Gioncu
and Mazzolani, 2010).
In addition, during Kobe earthquake, many build-
ings collapsed at the superior levels. The numerical
studies (Alavi and Krawinkler, 2001, Goel and Chopra,
2005, Gioncu and Mazzolani, 2010) have shown that
the superior vibration modes play a leading role in
 Figure 9. Modified conception for near-source seismic
design: high strength and reduced ductility (Gioncu and
Mazzolani, 2010).
Figure 10. Effects of superior vibration modes which move
the damaged levels from the bottom to the top.
structural behaviour, moving the location of damage
from the first levels the superior ones (Fig. 10).
4 COMPLEX BUILT CONFIGURATION
EFFECTS
Investigations on seismic behaviour of buildings sit-
uated in urban habitats are particularly focused on
old buildings located in historic centres, which are
characterized by complex built configurations. Each
configuration is formed by a group of buildings
erected in different periods, using different materials
and techniques and having different structural typol-
ogy. A possible evolution of such urban texture is
illustrated in Figure 11. Since the time it was built until
90
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 11. Evolution of a building group in historical
centres (Carocci, 2008).
now, the group underwent many small additions or
removals. So, now the group is characterized by a con-
tinuous row of buildings, which influence its seismic
behaviour.
In these situations, the reconstruction of the devel-
opment phases is not very ease and represents a crucial
step of the structural analysis, also because in many
cases the additions were built with very primitive tech-
niques, representing the weakest parts of the whole
group. The critical interpretation of the configura-
tion assumed by the building in each of the identified
stages supplies information that may be fundamental
to explain any anomalies it may posses. This analysis is
essential for the evaluation of the seismic vulnerability
of a complex built configuration.
In Figure 12 some damage configurations of a
building group are presented, including simple and
complex collapse modes. One can see that there are
mainly three damage types, characterized by differ-
ent collapse mechanisms, which are due to different
interactions between the individual buildings during
the earthquake actions:
– out-of-plane mechanisms of free walls of individual
buildings, without any interaction;
– out-of-plane mechanisms of free walls exceeding
the inferior walls of adjacent buildings;
– in plane mechanisms, when the interaction between
different building is very active.
In the last case, when the buildings are in contact
each other (without separations), an arch behaviour
can be considered (Figure 13). Only for the end build-
ings the out-of-plane collapse mechanism occurs due
to the end building pounding.
In case of row buildings, the end building pounding
is a phenomenon where end building is damaged more

Figure 12. Collapse of some parts of a complex built group
(Binda et al., 2004, 2006).
Figure 13. A complex collapse in-plane mechanism (Binda
et al., 2004).
than the interior buildings by pounding (Ohta et al.,
2006). This happens due to last ball effect (Fig. 7),
because the end building collides on one side only
and is free to move in the opposite site. The interior
buildings are pounded on both sides and not free to
move in either direction. This is a general behaviour
observed during many earthquakes (Fig. 15), where
91
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 14. End pounding of row buildings (Ohta et al.,
2006).
Figure 15. Seismic damage scenario on a buildings row
(Carocci, 2001).
the end buildings present very important damage. This
aspect can be also observed in case of new buildings.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The present seismic design philosophy was developed
fifty years ago, based on insufficient knowledge and
database, and practically remained unchanged until
now. It was mainly based on the ground motions
recorded far from the source and on free field. At the
same time the progress was notable for the seismic
structural analysis, due to the development of com-
puter science. Contrary, in the field of seismic actions,
in spite huge information, the progress is not very sig-
nificant, making ineffective the progress in structural
design. Buildings in urban habitats represent a spe-
cific case where the new knowledge is not introduced
 in the seismic provisions. Now, due to intense urban-
ization (since 2003 the population living in urban areas
exceeds the one living in rural areas), the number of
earthquakes shaking the important cities increases and
the lack of seismic code provisions begins to be more
evident.
The paper examined tree aspects of the seismic
behaviour of buildings situated in urbanized areas.
The city-site phenomenon is the result of interac-
tion between the buildings of a city with soil, the
vibration of buildings being a secondary source for res-
onance. This phenomenon can explain the disastrous
earthquakes of San Francisco, Mexico City and Kobe.
Because the effects of this phenomenon are until now
far to be quantified, it is wise to recommend design-
ing structures in such a way to provide them with large
ductility and robustness.
The near-source effects are the result of intense
process of urbanization of seismic areas and the
danger that an earthquake can occur underneath
a city increased dramatically in the last decades
(see Northridge, Kobe, Kocaeli, Taiwan, L’Aquila,
Haiti earthquakes). The characteristics of the ground
motions in epicentral areas differ from the ones con-
sidered in the design codes: high pulse velocities,
important vertical components, short duration with
reduced number of cycles, reduced capacity of seis-
mic energy dissipation. In this condition, the structural
design must be mainly concentrated on the prevention
of brittle fracture due high strain-rate effects.
The complex built configuration, refers especially
to the historical centers, where the shape of actual
building groups was developed without any rule during
the last Centuries. For these situations, the interaction
between the buildings erected in different stages plays
a leading role. The effect of end building pounding is
very important for the traditional row configuration.
The presented situations, specific for the special
cases of urban habitats, show the necessity to improve
the seismic design codes with special provisions
considering these aspects.
REFERENCES
Alavi, B., Krawinkler, H., 2001. Effects of near-fault ground
motions on frame structures.
92
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Bard, P.Y., Gueguen, P., Chazelas, J.L., Khan, M., Semblat,
J.F., 2007. Modifications to seismic hazard due to
urban environment: increase or decrease? NATO ARW,
Dubrovnik, 19–21 September.
Binda, L., Anzani, A., Baila, A., Penazzi, D., 2004. Indagine
conoscitiva, per l’analisi di vulnerabilita, di due cen-
tri storici liguri. XI Congresso Nazionale L’Ingegneria
Sismica in Italia, Genova, 25-29 gennaio, 2004.
Binda, L., Cardani, G., Saisi, A., Valluzzi, M.R., 2006.
Vulnerability analysis of the historical buildings in seis-
mic area by multilevel approach. Asian Journal of Civil
Engineering, 7(4), 343–357.
Carocci, C.F., 2001. Guillines for the safety and preservation
of historical centers in seismic areas. Historical Construc-
tions 2001, Posssibilities of Numerical and Experimental
Techniques 3rd International Seminar (eds. F.B. Lourenco
and P.Roca), Guimaraes , 7–9 November 2001, 145–165.
Carocci, C.F., 2008. Analysis methodologies for consistent
antiseismic intervention on historical masonry architec-
ture. Seismic Risk. Earthquakes in North-Western Europe.
Liege, 11–12 September 2008, 151–166.
Gioncu, V., 2010. Seismic risk and urban planning. Risk
Management, Assessment and Mitigation (RIMA’10),
Bucharest, 20–22 April 2010.
Gioncu, V., Mazzolani, F.M., 2010, Earthquake Engineering
for Structural Design, Spon Press, London.
Goel, R.K., Chopra, A.K., 2005. Role of higher mode
pushover analysis of buildings. Earthquake Spectra, 2(4),
1027–1041.
Kham, M., Semblat, J.F., Bard, P.Y., Dangla, P. (2006).
Seismic site-city interaction: Main governing phenom-
ena through simplified numerical models. Bulletin of the
Seismological Society of America, 96, (5):1934–1951.
Kohler, M., Heaton, T.H., Bradford, S.C., Propagation waves
in the steel moment-frame building recorded during earth-
quakes. Bulletin of Seismological Society of America, 97
(4), 1334–1345.
Ohta, R., Wijeyewickrema, A.C., Farahani, A., 2006. End
building pounding during earthquakes. Infrastructure
Development and the Environement. Philippines, 7–8
December 2006.
Semblat, J.F., Kham, M., Gueguen, P., Bard, P.Y., Duval,A.M.,
2002. Site-city interaction through modification of site
effects. Urban Earthquake Risk, 7th National Conference
on Earthquake Engineering, Boston, 21–25 July.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Analysis of different numerical procedures for determining

the random and chaotic earthquake properties

R. Magaña
Investigador del Instituto de Ingeniería, UNAM

A. Hermosillo
Estudiante de Doctorado del Posgrado de Ingeniería, UNAM

M. Pérez
Profesor del Centro Tecnológico de Aragón, FES Aragón

ABSTRACT: In the last years, since 1980 the appearance of fractal geometry, chaos theory and fractional
calculus (the three closely related), have come to generate an increase in the mathematical tools to analyze
natural phenomena, for which the Euclidean geometry and classical differential and integral calculus are not
sufficient. Among these phenomena are: earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, and the study of material
cracking, among many real phenomena, from the fields of physics, chemistry, biology and social sciences. All
these phenomena can lead to catastrophic situations in civil engineering. The present article aim is to analyze
different numerical tools to determine the chaoticity level contained in earthquakes. For this reason, some
registered earthquakes in different cities of the seismic zone of the country are taken as examples.

1 INTRODUCTION for identifying the chaotic time series content

The advent of new analytical tools such as: the fractal
geometry, fractional calculus and the theory of chaos,
would allow that dynamic studies are more consis-
tent with reality. Therefore, the developments that have
been occurring in these three fields of knowledge are
very important in engineering. It should be noted that
these mathematical concepts will enable us to make
studies on dynamic granular media, for example, in
the case of earthquakes occurred in sandy sites, which
cause problems in construction on beaches, so they can
cause disasters (economic and human lives losses).
The purpose of this paper is to consider nonlinear
dynamical aspects (and therefore chaotic), in the crite-
ria for structural and geotechnical design and demon-
strate that some earthquakes have chaotic content in
addition to the random one. Taking into account that
are non-stationary processes, so they must use appro-
priate mathematical tools (not limited to criteria used
in stationary linear dynamic). Like examples of appli-
cation of these concepts, the chaotic content analysis
was realized for three earthquakes in Mexico, occurred
in: Aguamilpa dam in Nayarit, Acapulco and Mexico
City. The procedure followed is based on concepts of
chaotic Hamiltonian mechanics, which is a generaliza-
tion of the classic mechanics, and it relies on numerical
algorithms developed within this field of knowledge,
based on iterative equation systems, called maps.
This article briefly discusses some of the mathema-
tical models of nonlinear dynamic systems, and criteria
(Lyapunov exponent, correlation dimension, etc.) as
well as the application of these criteria to the earth-
quakes mentioned. Finally, we present conclusions.
2 THEORETICAL FUNDAMENTS
A characteristic of systems with a periodic time evolu-
tions is feedback, which can be understood as a process
in which the action of the some system components (or
variables) over other ones (Pitta et al., 2001). Another
way of understanding the feedback is regarded as one
output which is used as input in the same process.
There is positive feedback in which the action of
one variable on another is amplified and the negative
feedback in which such action is regulated.
In the linear analysis don’t exist the feedback, a
system can be decomposed into its basic constituent
parts and then be armed again.
Feedback leads to nonlinear behaviour. A system
modelled by nonlinear equations cannot be subject
to the principle of superposition. The realization
that feedback mechanisms exist between the system
variables is the starting point for understanding the
‘chaoticity’ and complexity of many natural and social
phenomena.
2.1 Solutions of differential equations
in phase space
In order to show that a formal system of differential
equations have solutions that can be drawn on a phase

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 space and then the curves look like random, in what
follows we present some cases of this type.
Hamiltonian dynamics. A wide class of physical
phenomena can be described by Hamiltonian equa-
tions (Zaslavsky, 2005). This class includes particles,
fields, classical and quantum objects, and it makes
up a significant part of our knowledge of the basics
of dynamics in nature. Hamiltonian dynamics is very
different from, for example, dissipative dynamics, and
its analysis uses specific tools that cannot be applied
in other cases. Discovery of chaotic dynamics is a
result of discovering new features in Hamiltonian Figure 1. Solution of pendulum equation in phase space.
dynamics and new types of solutions of the dynamical
equations. function, which includes shocks (given as a series of
Hamiltonian equation. A Hamiltonian system pulses).
with N degrees of freedom is characterized by a gener- Consider a Hamiltonian:
alized coordinate vector q ∈ N generalized momen-
tum vector p ∈ N and a Hamiltonian H = H (p, q)
such that the equations of motion are:

in which perturbation is a periodic sequence of δ

The space (p, q) is 2N-dimensional phase space and a
pair (pi , qi ).
The Hamiltonian can depend explicitly on time, i.e.
H = H (p, q, t). Then the system can be considered in
an extended space of 2(N + 1) variables.
The main trouble with the definition of chaotic
dynamics for realistic physical situations, i.e. the
description of trajectories as solutions of physically
reasonable dynamical equations appears due to the
imperfectness of the statistical analysis with the pres-
ence of strong ‘dynamical elements’ and due to insuf-
ficiency of the dynamical analysis with the presence
of strong ‘statistical elements’.
2.2 Modeling chaotic systems
In what follows some mathematical models of chaotic
physical systems are presented, which can also be
modeled by iterative equations systems.
Physical models of chaos. A discrete form of the
time evolution equations will be called maps; generally
speaking, they can be written in a form of iterations:
where the time-shift operator T̂n is (2N × 2N) matrix
that depends on n.
There are many typical physical models. The
Poincare map is most often used in physical applica-
tions. Other examples are the Sinai Billiard model, etc
2.3 Universal and standard map
The following is an example of a chaotic system
which is a particular case of Hamiltonian potential
function type pulses (kicks) following with period
T = 2π/v, K is an amplitude of the pulses, ν is a fre-
quency and (|f (x)| ≤ 1 is some function. The equations
of motion, corresponding to (2), are
Take into account the before we can derive the iteration
equation:
There is a special case for f (x) = −cos (x) and
w(p) = p.
For small K << 1 we can replace the difference
equations with the differential ones: This is the pen-
dulum equation, and its solutions are presented in
figure 1.
Other examples are the Web Map, the Kepler
Map, etc.
2.4 Fractals and chaos
The structures generated by chaotic dynamics in the
phase space are so complex that they cannot be
described in a conventional way (Zaslavsky, 2005).
One is therefore reduced to dealing with objects that
are unusual, ‘wild’, and ‘strange’. There is a possi-
bility to use the notion of fractal objects in chaotic
dynamics. The main feature of a fractal object is its
self-similarity. A brief discussion of the definition of
fractal properties of dynamical systems starts from a
set of elements distributed in the phase space.
Dynamical chaos gives rise to a new vision of the
basic principles of kinetics. The main feature of a new
wave in kinetic theories is that the random element of
the dynamics can be found directly from the Hamil-
tonian equation of motion, in contrast introducing
randomness as an assumption.

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2.5 Fractional kinetic equation (fke)
Any kind of equation is an approximate way to describe
an ensemble of trajectories or particles, while neglect-
ing some details of dynamics (Zaslavsky, 2005). All
this means that, depending upon the information about
the system we would like to preserve, the type and spe-
cific structure of the kinetic equation depends on our
choice of the reduced space of variables and on the
level of coarse-graining of trajectories. These proper-
ties of dynamics require a new approach to kinetics
(based on fractional differential equations) when the
scaling features of the dynamics dominate others and,
moreover, do not have a universal pattern as in the
case of Gaussian processes, but instead, are specified
by the phase space topology and the corresponding
characteristics of singular zones.
Structuring in the phase space. As has been noted,
the solutions in the phase space for chaotic systems
give rise to specific structures, which are induced by
attractors, and are classified to classical and chaotic
dynamics as follows.
Stable attractors (or classic dynamic). In the
phase diagrams, these converge on stable points,
whereas in periodic signals, the trajectories have
well-defined paths (Pitta et al., 2001).
Strange attractors (chaotic dynamics). These
movements correspond to unpredictable, irregular and
seemingly random curves in the phase diagram, but
are located according to some probabilistic distribu-
tion within a certain structure. A dynamical systems
that converge in the long run to a strange attractor is
called chaotic.
Dynamical systems can be classified according to
the behaviour of their orbits (Espinosa, 2005). These
orbits correspond to the movement in which the system
evolves over time. Thus, if the system moves in a N
set such that the set of orbits A is a subset of N , then
the orbits will have the following behavior:
– Dissipative system: If A shrinks over time.
– System expansion: If A expands over time.
– System conservative: If A is maintained over time.
Typical chaotic oscillators. There are well-known
chaotic oscillators, which are characterized by itera-
tive systems of equations, due to space limitations in
this study, only one is discussed in what follows.
The changes over time of four well-known low-
dimensional chaotic systems are studied: Lorenz,
Rössler, Verhulst, and Duffing (Laurent et al., 2010).
Only the first is presented below. The Lorenz sys-
tem was designed for convection analysis and is not
generally used to study population data.
Lorenz attractor standard values for the constants
were set as follows (through an iterative equation
system):
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
3 DETECTION ALGORITHMS
General comments. The possibility of reaching
chaotic trajectories in nonlinear dynamical systems
leads naturally to the empirical question of how to
distinguish such trajectories of other really random
time series (Gimeno et al., 2004). The topic about the
chaotic detection has attracted the attention of scien-
tists from different disciplines that have used different
statistical procedures to measure chaos.
In common usage, “chaos” means “a state of dis-
order”, but the adjective “chaotic” is defined more
precisely in chaos theory (Wikipedia, 2010). Although
there is no universally accepted mathematical defini-
tion of chaos, a commonly-used definition says that,
for a dynamical system to be classified as chaotic, it
must have the following properties:
• it must be sensitive to initial conditions,
• it must be topologically mixing, and
• its periodic orbits must be dense.
Sensitivity to initial conditions means that each point
in such a system is arbitrarily closely approximated by
other points with significantly different future trajec-
tories. Thus, an arbitrarily small perturbation of the
current trajectory may lead to significantly different
future behaviour.
Topological mixing (or topological transitivity)
means that the system will evolve over time so that
any given region or open set of its phase space will
eventually overlap with any other given region. This
mathematical concept of “mixing” corresponds to the
standard intuition, and the mixing of colored dyes or
fluids is an example of a chaotic system.
Density of periodic orbits means that every point
in the space is approached arbitrarily closely by
periodic orbits. Topologically mixing systems failing
this condition may not display sensitivity to initial
conditions, and hence may not be chaotic.
It can be difficult to tell from data whether a phy-
sical or other observed process is random or chaotic,
because in practice no time series consists of pure ‘sig-
nal.’ There will always be some form of corrupting
noise, even if it is present as round-off or trunca-
tion error. Thus any real time series, even if mostly
deterministic, will contain some randomness.
There are different procedures to detect chaos, in
what follows some of them are commented.
Peters (Peters, 1994) tries to find evidence of a
series with chaotic behaviour by graphic analysis and
notes that the series of financial asset prices have
graphically the same structure, whatever the timescale
studied (Espinosa, 2005). The fact that these series
have the same appearance on different time scales is
an indication that this is a fractal.
For the reconstruction of the recurrence maps
is necessary to find hidden patterns and structural
changes in the data or similarities in patterns across
the time series under study. Thus, a signal off deter-
minism will be when more structured is the recurrence
map. A random signal is when the recurrence map is
more uniform distributed on the phase space and does
not have an identifiable pattern.
Traditional methods of time series analysis come
from the well-established field of digital signal pro-
cessing (Reiss, 2001). Most traditional methods are
well-researched and their proper application is under-
stood. One of the most familiar and widely used tools
is the Fourier transform. However, these methods are
designed to deal with a restricted subclass of possible
data. The data is often assumed to be stationary, that
is, the dynamics generating the data are independent
of time. With experimental nonlinear data, traditional
signal processing methods may fail because the sys-
tem dynamics are, at best, complicated, and at worst,
extremely noisy. In general, more advanced and varied
methods are often required.
Another tool for analyzing time series is the wavelet
transform (WT) (Murguia, 2006). The WT has been
introduced and developed to study a large class of
phenomena such as image processing, data compres-
sion, chaos, fractals, etc. The basic functions of the
WT have the key property of localization in time (or
space) and in frequency, contrary to what happens with
trigonometric functions. In fact, the WT works as a
mathematical microscope on a specific part of a sig-
nal to extract local structures and singularities. This
makes the wavelets ideal for handling non-stationary
and transient signals, as well as fractal-type structures
Chaos indicators. Among these are: correla-
tion dimension, Lyapunov exponents, Kolmogorov
entropy, etc. (Pitta et al., 2001)
Correlation Dimension. A clear indicator that a sys-
tem is chaotic is to have a small correlation dimension.
Liapunov exponents. The most important indicator
of chaos in a nonlinear system is the Liapunov expo-
nents. They measured the speed at which a system
converges or diverges. They are calculated, observa-
tion under observation, so a sample of size n will have
(n − 1) exponents. The most important is the greatest
of them. If the greatest of all is negative, the system will
converge over time. However, if it is positive, the error
will grow exponentially over time, and the system will
exhibit the sensitive dependence on initial conditions
that are indicative of chaos.
The Lyapunov exponent characterises the extent of
the sensitivity to initial conditions (Wikipedia, 2010).
Quantitatively, two trajectories in phase space with ini-
tial separation δZ0 diverge |δZ(t)| ≈ eλt |δZ0 |. where
λ is the Lyapunov exponent. The rate of separation
can be different for different orientations of the initial
separation vector. Thus, there is a whole spectrum of
Lyapunov exponents; the number of them is equal to
the number of dimensions of the phase space. It is com-
mon to just refer to the largest one, i.e. to the Maximal
Lyapunov exponent (MLE), because it determines the
overall predictability of the system. A positive MLE
is usually taken as an indication that the system is
chaotic.
Kolmogorov entropy. The entropy of a dynamical
system can be thought of as the “disorder” to which
the system tends with time. In this case the attractors,
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
if any, does not tend to disappear but to perpetuate
itself, so the system is chaotic. In terms of a decision
rule can be concluded that a system is: periodic if its
entropy is close to 0%; Chaotic if it is between 0 and
100% and Random if it is near of 100%.
The Hurst coefficient indicates the persistence or
non-persistence in a time series (Espinosa, 2005). Of
being persistent, this would be a sign that this series
is not white noise and, therefore, there would be some
kind of dependency between the data.
The calculation of Hurst coefficient reveals that
is given in the following power law shown in equa-
tion (6):
where a is a constant; N is the number of observa-
tions; H is the Hurst exponent, R/S(N ) is the statistic
depends on the size series and is defined as the coeffi-
cient of variation of the series divided by its standard
deviation. The Hurst coefficient is used to detect
long-term memory in time series.
To calculate the correlation dimension Grassberger
and Procaccia (Grassberger et al, 1983) developed an
efficient algorithm that suggest that Dc ≤ D, where
D is the capacity dimension. The idea is to replace
the algorithm to calculate M (ε), called box-counting,
by the estimation of distances between points (which
representing positions of the system along an orbit) in
the attractor set.
3.1 Developed software examples
Between that is an algorithm developed by Wolf
(Wolf et al., 1985), which implements the theory in
a very simple and direct fashion (Kodba et al., 2004).
The whole program package that can be downloaded
from our Web page (User) consists of five programs
(embedd.exe, mutual.exe, fnn.exe, determinism.exe
and lyapmax.exe) and an input file ini.dat, which con-
tains the studied time series. All programs have a
graphical interface and display results in the forms
of graphs and drawings.
For these reasons the Nonlinear Dynamics Toolbox
was created (Reiss, 2001). The Nonlinear Dynamics
Toolbox (NDT) is a set of routines for the creation,
manipulation, analysis, and display of large multi-
dimensional time series data sets, using both estab-
lished and original techniques derived primarily from
the field of nonlinear dynamics. In addition, some
traditional signal processing methods are also avail-
able in NDT.
4 CHAOTIC ANALYSIS OF EARTHQUAKES
A common methodology used to determinate if a sys-
tem have chaotic behavior is the next: firstly, it is
used the embedding delay of coordinates in order
to reconstruct the attractor system of the time series
analyzed (phase space); for this purpose, both, the
Figure 2. Signal Acapulco.
Figure 6. FNN m = 4.

Figure 3. Signal Aguamilpa.

Figure 7. Phase space.

Figure 4. Signal CDA.

Figure 8. Determ = 0.638.

Figure 5. Mutual inf. τ = 6.

embedding delay (τ) and embedding dimension (m)

have to be calculated. Two methods are used: the
mutual information method to estimate the appropri-
ate embedding delay and the false nearest neighbor
method (FNN) to estimate the embedding dimension.
Next, a determinism test is performed to determine if
the series were obtained of chaotic or random systems.
Finally, the computation of the maximal Lyapunov
exponent is performed to determinate if chaos in the
phenomenon is present.
Chaotic analysis in three accelerograms signals cor-
responding to three sites in Mexico: a) Acapulco,
Aguamilpa and Central de Abastos (CDA) (in Mexico
City) were performed (see figures 2–4). In what fol-
lows, a chaotic analysis of the Acapulco signal is
presented.
4.1 Chaotic analysis software
The software used to calculate the parameters m and
τ, the phase space reconstruction, the determinism test
and the estimation of the maximal Lyapunov exponent
Figure 9. Maximal Lyapunov exponent = 0.9.
can be consult and download from the site on the web
(user).
4.2 Phase space reconstruction
Below, the estimation of the parameters m and τ
which are necessary for the phase space reconstruction
using the mutual information and the FNN methods is
presented (see figures 5 and 6).
In the figure 7 a projection in a plane of the attractor
system is presented. Figure 8 shows the graph corre-
sponding to the determinism (determ) test and finally,
in figure 9, the estimation of the maximal Lyapunov
exponent is presented.
In table 1 a resume of the analysis made to the three
signals is presented.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 1. Resume of results.
Max Exp
Signal τ m Determ Lyap
Acapulco 6 4 0.638 0.90
Aguamilpa 1 5 0.397 0.68
CDA 10 10 0.723 0.60
From the analysis presented it can be concluded that
the three signals have a chaotic behavior.
5 CONCLUSIONS
1. There are different classes of systems: mechanical,
electronic, biological, economic, etc., represented
by systems of differential equations of integer
and fractional order, which can be replaced by
iterative equations systems, and have movement
histories which when are to be represented in a
phase diagram have complex topological structures
(including fractal type).
2. There are several algorithmic procedures by which
they can analyze time series and deduce whether
these come from deterministic chaotic systems or
are either purely random kind.
3. To consider the cases of nonlinear dynamics is
important because usually the design procedures
are based on linear dynamic mathematical models
or purely random, but this strategy is not entirely
appropriate because most natural processes are
not stationary, like earthquakes, and therefore it
is necessary to develop a more consistent design
methodology.
4. From the analysis presented, it can be concluded
that the analyzed signals were generated from a
deterministic chaotic phenomenon because the vec-
tor field turned out to be deterministic and the
maximal Lyapunov exponent was positive, suggest-
ing that the reconstructed system have an important
deterministic chaotic component.
The fact that the earthquakes have chaotic con-
tent, reveals clearly that the signals detected in each
place, have effects of the geologic system where were
registered.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
REFERENCES
Chaparro Guevara, Graciela (2008). Linealidad, compleji-
dad y sistemas sociales. Antropol.Sociol. No. 10, Enero –
Diciembre 2008, págs. 197–219.
Espinosa Mendez, Cristian (2005). Evidence Of Chaotic
Behavior In American Stock MPRA Paper No. 2794,
posted 07, November 2007.
Gil Doménech, Ma Dolores. “Análisis caótico-estocástico:
una aplicación al estudio de los fenómenos financieros”
Universidad de Barcelona. www.ub.es/iafi/Recerca/
Seminaris/caos.pdf
Gimeno, R., Mateos, R., Escot, L., Olmedo, E. and Grau, P.
(2004). Detección de comportamientos caóticos en mod-
elos TAR aplicados a series temporales de coyuntura
económica española. Revista Venezolana de Análisis de
Coyuntura, enero-junio, 123–142.
Grassberger, P. and Procaccia, I. (1983) . Characterization of
Strange Attractors. Physical Review Letters. Vol. 50, No3.
Kodba, Stane; Perc, Matjaž and Marhl, Marko (2004). Detect-
ing chaos from a time series. Eur. J. Phys. 26 (2005)
205–215.
Laurent M, Deschatrette J, Wolfrom CM (2010) Unmasking
Chaotic Attributes in Time Series of Living Cell Popula-
tions. PLoS ONE 5(2): e9346. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.
0009346.
Murguia, J. S. and Campos, E. (2006). Wavelet Analysis of
Chaotic Time Series. Investigación Revista Mexicana de
Física. Abril 2006.
Peters, E. (1994). Fractal Market Analysis: Applying Chaos
Theory to investment and economics. John Wiley & Sons
Inc.
Pitta Arcos, Carlos Raúl (2001). Rendimientos de la Bolsa
Mexicana de Valores: ¿Mercados eficientes o caóticos?.
Universidad Católica, Working Paper Series # 2001-017.
Santiago de Chile.
Reiss, Joshua (2001). The Analysis of Chaotic Time Series.
PHD Thesis. Georgia Institute of Technology.
User friendly programs for nonlinear time series analysis.
http://matjazperc.com/ejp/time.html#gen
Wikipedia (2010). Chaos theory. http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Chaos_ theory.
Wolf A, Swift J B, Swinney H L and Vastano J A (1985) Deter-
mining Lyapunov exponents from a time series. Physica
D 16 285–317.
Zaslavsky, G. (2005). Hamiltonian Chaos and Fractional
Dynamics. Department of Physics and Courant Institute
of Mathematical Science. New York University, Oxford.
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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

The Mw 6.3, 2009 L’Aquila earthquake: Linear and nonlinear site effects

C. Nunziata
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Univ. Napoli Federico II, Italy

F. Vaccari
Dipartimento di Geoscienze, Univ. Trieste, Italy

G.F. Panza
The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, ESP-SAND Group, Trieste, Italy

ABSTRACT: Ground motion has been computed for the 6 April 2009 earthquake (Mw = 6.3) by using a hybrid
method (modal summation and finite difference techniques) along a geological section crossing L’Aquila. Sources
have been simulated both as point and extended, with unilateral and bilateral ruptures.
Spectral amplifications of about 10 have been found in correspondence of the cover of the Aterno river alluvial
deposits and span a wide range of frequencies, that is various typologies of structures. In addition, the modeling
has evidenced that whereas strong heterogeneities are present, for the same set of synthetic seismograms, the
H/V spectral ratios are not able to evidence the spectral amplifications obtained with the 2D/1D response spectra
ratios. Possible nonlinear soil effects have been evaluated for PGA values higher than 0.1–0.2 g, depending on
the strain-dependent soil properties, with the linear equivalent approach, by using literature variations of shear
moduli and damping with strain.

1 INTRODUCTION geological structures, the most interesting from the

An effective strategy for the seismic risk mitigation
needs the use of advanced seismological methodolo-
gies for a realistic estimate of the seismic hazard and,
consequently, to reduce earthquake damage through a
preventive evaluation of vulnerability and actions for
structure safety. Prediction of earthquakes and their
related effects (expressed in terms of ground shaking)
can be performed either by a probabilistic approach
or by using modeling tools based, on one hand, on the
theoretical knowledge of the physics of the seismic
source and of wave propagation and, on the other hand,
on the rich database of geological, tectonic, historical
information already available. Strong earthquakes are
very rare phenomena and it is therefore statistically
very difficult to prepare a representative database of
recorded strong motion signals that could be analyzed
to define valid ground parameters for seismic haz-
ard estimations. That is, the probabilistic estimation
of the seismic hazard is a very gross approximation of
reality.
A realistic estimate of the expected ground motion
can be performed by using the Neo-Deterministic
Seismic Hazard Analysis (NDSHA), an innovative
modeling technique that takes into account source,
propagation and local site effects. This is done using
principles of physics about wave generation and propa-
gation in complex media, and does not require to resort
to convolutive approaches, that have been proven to be
quite unreliable, mainly when dealing with complex
practical point of view.
The NDSHA approach has been used, among oth-
ers, in the framework of the UNESCO-IUGS-IGCP
project 414 “Seismic Ground Motion in Large Urban
Areas”, to evaluate ground motion of a group of Large
Urban Areas and Megacities in the world representa-
tive of a broad spectrum of seismic hazard severity
(Pageoph, 2004).
Aim of this paper is to compute the seismic ground
motion at L’Aquila for the 6 April 2009 earthquake by
the NDSHA approach and evaluate nonlinear effects
with equivalent-linear approach, by assuming litera-
ture variations of shear modulus and damping with
strain.
2 GROUND MOTION MODELING
A MW 6.3 earthquake struck on 6 April 2009, at
01.32 GMT, the Abruzzi region (central Italy). The
L’Aquila town, located at about 6 km northeast to the
main shock epicentre, and several villages located
nearby, suffered heavy damages and the casualties
were about 300. The damage level generally corre-
sponded to intensity ≤ 8 MCS, with few maximum
values ≥ 9 MCS generally associated to construction
vulnerability and, in some cases, to site amplification
effects (Fig. 1).
The analysis of main shock and aftershocks defines
a complex, 40 km long, NW trending extensional
structure.The main shock fault segment, the projection

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 1. Map of the effects of the 6 April 2009 earth-
quake and relative seismogenic box (from http://www.mi.
ingv.it/eq/090406/quest.html).
Figure 2. Geological map of L’Aquila (SGI, 1955) with
location (white circle) of RAN stations.
of which to the surface coincides with the Paganica
fault, extends for ∼18 km and dips at ∼50◦ to the SW,
between 10 and 2 km depth (Emergeo Working Group,
2010 and references therein). The epicentral area of
the main shock corresponds to the upper and mid-
dle Aterno river valley which is characterised by the
high variability of the geologic and geomorphologic
patterns.
The valley is superimposed on a Quaternary lacus-
trine basin of tectonic origin (Fig. 2). The depth of
the Quaternary deposits is variable, from about 60 m
in the upper Aterno river valley to more than 200 m
in the middle Aterno river valley. The 6 April 2009
earthquake was recorded by accelerometers of Rete
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 3. SW-NE cross section of the L’Aquila basin (from
De Luca et al., 2005). Legend: 1. Air; 2. Aterno river recent
deposits; 3. Megabreccias; 4. Upper lacustrine clays; 5.
lower lacustrine clays; 6. Limestone. Receivers R19 and R38
are 6.75 km and 7.5 km far from the MW 6.3 earthquake
epicentre, respectively.
Accelerometrica Nazionale (RAN) network, some of
which located at L’Aquila (AQK station) or in the NW
of it (Fig. 2).
Simulations of the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake have
been performed with the NDSHA approach, that is
a hybrid method consisting of modal summation and
finite difference methods (Panza et al., 2001 and refer-
ences therein). Modal summation is applied along the
bedrock (1D) model that represents the average path
between the assumed source and the local, laterally
heterogeneous (2D) structure beneath the area of inter-
est. These signals are numerically propagated through
the laterally varying local structure by the finite differ-
ence method. Synthetic seismograms of the vertical,
transverse and radial components of ground motion
are computed at a predefined set of points at the sur-
face. Spectral amplifications are computed as response
spectra ratios, RSR, i.e. the response spectra computed
from the signals synthesized along the laterally varying
section (2D) normalized by the response spectra com-
puted from the corresponding signals, synthesized for
the bedrock (1D). Two approximations have been con-
sidered to scale the seismogram to the desired scalar
seismic moment: a scaled point-source approxima-
tion (Gusev, 1983 as reported in Aki, 1987), and an
extended source approximation as proposed by Gusev
and Pavlov (2006), where the rupturing process can be
taken into account.
First, modeling of the 6 April 2009 has been done
along a SW-NE geological cross section close to
the AQV station which recorded the maximum PGA
(0.6 g), by assuming available physical parameters of
lithotypes (De Luca et al., 2005).
In the light of the good agreement between synthetic
and recorded accelerograms nearby AQV station, a
parametric study of the expected ground motion has
been done along a geological cross section through
the town of L’Aquila by assuming extended and point
sources.
The 2D model was derived from De Luca et al.
(2005) and represents a geological section transverse
to the Aterno river valley (Fig. 3, Tab. 1). The outcrop-
ping units are represented by megabreccias except in
the Aterno river, where recent fluvial sediments are
present. Megabreccias are on the top of lacustrine
clays. Spectral amplifications of about 10 are com-
puted in correspondence of the Aterno river alluvial
Table 1. Physical parameters of lithotypes.

Density Vp Vs
Name (g/cm3 ) (km/s) (km/s) Qp Qs

Aterno Deposits 1.40 0.43 0.25 110 50

Megabreccias 2.00 1.56 0.90 220 100
Upper Lacustrine 1.80 0.86 0.50 220 100
Lower Lacustrine 1.8 1.12 0.65 220 100
Limestone 2.45 4.30 2.50 220 100

Figure 5. Spectral amplifications along the cross section

obtained from H/V spectral ratios computed on the same
seismograms used for the 2D/1D amplifications shown in
Fig. 4.

3 NONLINEAR EFFECTS

Nonlinear site effects, such as increase in damping

Figure 4. Spectral amplifications (RSR 2D/1D) along the
cross section of the L’Aquila basin. Response spectra are
computed for 5% damping. From the top vertical, radial and
transverse components of the computed ground motion.
sediments (Fig. 4) and for a wide frequency range
(0.5–5 Hz), corresponding to resonance frequencies of
several structure typologies. This result is very differ-
ent from the maximum peaks of H/V spectral ratios at
0.6 Hz computed from strong and weak earthquakes
and noise along the same cross section (De Luca et al.,
2005). The inadequacy of H/V spectral ratios is clearly
seen even when they are computed from the same sig-
nals (synthetic) (Fig. 5). They do not show the strong
amplifications where strong lateral heterogeneities are
present. This result suggests to be very cautious in the
use of H/V ratios for seismic microzoning.
and reduction in shear wave velocity as input strength
increases, are commonly observed in the dynamic
loading of soils using geotechnical models, especially
at shear strains larger than 10−5 to 10−4 . Typical test
data were published by Idriss and Seed (1968) and have
been extensively used in soil engineering since that
time. The amplification function at a site is controlled
by the wave velocity and damping in the soil layer
hence nonlinear site effects can be expected in strong-
motion seismology. Amplification function becoming
amplitude dependent (difference between weak and
strong motions) is an indication of nonlinearity (e.g.
Beresnev and Wen, 1996).
Evidence of nonlinear behaviour has been reported
beyond a threshold acceleration from 0.1 to 0.2 g. Non-
linearity is considerable in cohesionless soil but may
be negligible in stiff soils.
Explicit evidence of strong-motion deamplifica-
tion, accompanied by shifts of resonant frequencies
towards lower frequencies, is found in a number of
events throughout the world; e.g. Field et al. (1997)
reported that ground-motion amplification due to sed-
iments for the main shock of the 1994 Northridge
earthquake was up to a factor of two less than the
amplification observed for its aftershocks.
Direct seismological evidence of nonlinear site
effects was reported using spectral ratio techniques for
two-station pairs, including soil-to-rock and surface-
to-borehole station pairs. An intriguing result was
published by Archuleta et al. (1992). At the Garner
Valley downhole array, one of the accelerometers was
installed at the surface and one was located at a depth
of 220 m in granite. Two earthquakes with nearly coin-
cident hypocenters but different local magnitudes were
recorded, and amplifications were computed from
spectral ratios at 0 to 220 m. It resulted that weak-
motion amplification was significantly larger than
strong-motion amplification in a wide frequency band,

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 Figure 6. Variation of shear modulus and damping with
strain: pozzolana (Guadagno et al., 1992); clay (CNR-GNDT,
2000); peat (Vinale, 1988).

from 3 Hz to 40 Hz and that the most pronounced

resonance was slightly shifted to the left.
Nonlinear soil responses have been also identified
by the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio applied to
weak and strong motion records (Wen et al., 2006).
An estimate of possible nonlinear site effects, when
experimental data are not available, can be obtained
through a parametric study of response spectra depen-
dence on shear moduli variations with increasing shear
strain. Strain-dependent soil properties can be incor-
porated in dynamic response analysis by using an
equivalent-linear approach as proposed by Idriss and
Seed (1968, 1970). The approach is based on the
assumption that the nonlinear soil response can be
simulated by a linear elastic model with damping,
provided that its constants are assigned according to
the average strain level achieved, and which is typi-
cally taken to be 0.65 times the maximum strain.
The equivalent-linear method was implemented in the
program SHAKE (Schnabel et al., 1972), which has
become a common tool of estimating dynamic ground
response in geotechnical applications.

3.1 Nonlinear effects at L’Aquila

Nonlinear site effects are estimated at two receivers
(R19 and R38 in Fig. 3) representative of the L’Aquila
basin, with and without Aterno river deposits. SHAKE
program is used to compute seismograms on the top
of the soil columns (limestone is assumed as bedrock),
using as seismic input the 1D seismogram computed,
at the specific receiver, with the modal summation
technique, by assuming different sources, that is an
Figure 7. Acceleration response spectra computed at R19
and R38 receivers with SHAKE program by using as input
the seismograms computed, with mode summation technique,
considering, from the left top: extended source with unilat-
eral rupture; extended source with-bilateral rupture; point
source. The fourth plot refers to the case in which the PGA of
the point-source signal has been conventionally taken equal
to 0.1 g.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 7. Continued.
extended source with unilateral rupture, an extended
source with bilateral rupture, and a point source. In
a further test the PGA of the point-source signal has
been conventionally taken equal to 0.1 g.
Strain dependent shear modulus (G/Gmax) and
damping (D/Dmin) of sand (pozzolana) (Guadagno
et al., 1992), clay (CNR- GNDT, 2000) and peat
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 8. Acceleration response spectra computed at R19
receiver with SHAKE program by using as input the seismo-
grams computed with modal summation technique for the
two point sources considered, by assigning to Aterno river
deposits the strain-dependent dynamic parameters of clay
and peat.
(Vinale, 1988) are assigned, as plausible, to the Aterno
river recent deposits, and of sand (pozzolana) to
megabreccias and the lacustrine deposits (Fig. 6).
Pozzolana sample is a cemented sand (hydrothermal
 hardening process) and can be considered as a stiff
soil.
First of all, a remarkable difference between
SHAKE (1D) and 2D (NDSHA) spectra exists, as
expected, because of the lateral variations in the sub-
soil (Fig. 7). Response spectra computed with SHAKE
by using the sand (pozzolana) soil nonlinear proper-
ties show nonlinear site effects (amplitude reduction
and frequency shift to lower frequencies) more evi-
dent at receiver R19 and mostly for a point source
(PGA = 0.2 g). Taking PGA equal to 0.1 g, for point
source seismograms, strongly reduces such nonlinear
effects (Fig. 7a–d).
A parametric study is performed at receiver R19
by assuming the seismic input corresponding to the
point source and by attributing to the recent deposits
of Aterno river the nonlinear soil properties of clay
and peat (Fig. 6). A noticeable nonlinear effect appears
even in the point-source signal with PGA convention-
ally taken equal to 0.1 g (Fig. 8). These results, though
preliminary as the real soil properties of L’Aquila basin
are not known with sufficient detail, indicate that non-
linear effects may have affected the ground motion
caused by the 6 April 2009 earthquake.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The simple parametric study of the variation of
response spectra with the strain-dependent dynamic
properties of soils, made using SHAKE, evidences
that nonlinear effects may have affected the ground
motion caused by the MW 6.3 L’Aquila earthquake.
Reduced spectral accelerations are due to (1) the
amplitude dependent damping and (2) the shift of res-
onance frequencies towards lower frequencies due to
the reduction of shear velocity. Nonlinearity under
strong ground shaking depends on the physical proper-
ties of soils. Nonlinearity may be considerable for soft
clay and peat soils (PGA ≥ 0.1 g) and negligible for
stiffer materials for PGA ≥ 0.2 g. Moreover, it cannot
be rightly simulated by the use of higher damping.
REFERENCES
Aki, K. 1987. Strong motion seismology: Strong Ground
Motion Seismology, NATO ASI Series C., D. Reidel Pub-
lishing Company, M.O. Erdik and M.N. Toksoz (eds.),
Dordrecht, 204, pp. 3–39.
Archuleta, R. J., Scale, S. H., Sangas, P. V., Baker, L. M.,
Swain, S. T. 1992. Garner Valley downhole array of
accelerometers: instrumentation and preliminary data
analysis, Bull. Seism. Soc. Am. 82, 1592–1621.
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Beresnev, I. A. & Wen, K. L. 1996. Nonlinear ground
response – a reality?. Bull. Seism. Soc. Am., 86,
1964–1978.
CNR-GNDT, 2000. Cattaneo, M., Marcellini A. (eds.),
Terremoto dell’Umbria-Marche: Analisi della sismicità
recente dell’Appennino umbro-marchigiano. Microzon-
azione sismica di Nocera Umbra e Sellano, 228 pp. + CD-
ROM.
De Luca, G., Marcucci, S., Milana, G., Sanò, T. 2005.
Evidence of Low-Frequency Amplification in the City
of L’Aquila, Central Italy, through a Multidisciplinary
Approach Including Strong- and Weak-Motion Data,
Ambient Noise, and Numerical Modeling. Bull. Seism.
Soc. Am. 95, 1469–1481.
EMERGEO Working Group 2010. Surface rupture of the
2009 L’Aquila earthquake (Italy). Terra Nova, 22, No. 1,
43–51.
Field, E.H., Johnson, P.A., Beresnev, I.A., Zengk, Y. 1997.
Nonlinear ground-motion amplification by sediments
during the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Nature, 390,
599–602.
Guadagno, F. M., Nunziata, C., Rapolla, A. 1992. Dynamic
parameters of volcaniclastic soils and rocks of Campi
Flegrei (Naples, Italy), Volcanic seismology, IAVCEI
Proceedings in volcanology, Springer-Verlag, 533–546.
Gusev, A.A. 1983. Descriptive statistical model of earthquake
source radiation and its application to an estimation of
short period strong motion. Geophysical Journal of the
Royal Astronomical Society 74, 787–800.
Gusev, A. A., Pavlov, V. 2006. Wideband simulation of
earthquake ground motion by a spectrum-matching,
multiple-pulse technique. First European Conf. on Earth-
quake Engineering and Seismology, Geneva, Switzerland,
Paper 408.
Idriss, I. M. & Seed, H. B. 1968. Seismic response of hori-
zontal soil layers, J. Soil Mech. Found. Div. ASCE 94,
1003–1031.
Panza, G.F., Romanelli, F., Vaccari, F. 2001. Seismic wave
propagation in laterally heterogeneus anelastic media:
theory and applications to seismic zonation. Advances in
Geophysics, vol. 43. Academic Press, 1–95.
Pure and Applied Geophysics, 2004. Topical Volume “Seis-
mic ground motion in large urban areas”, 161, n◦ 5/6,
Panza G. F., Paskaleva I., Nunziata C. (eds.), ISSN
0033-4553, Birkhauser.
Schnabel, P. B., Lysmer, J., Seed, H. B. 1972. SHAKE: a
computer program for earthquake response analysis of
horizontally layered sites. Report No. UCB/EERC 72/12,
Earthquake Engineering Res. Center, Univ. California,
Berkeley.
SGI 1955. Carta Geologica d’Italia in scala :100.000 – Foglio
n. 139 L’Aquila. Servizio Geologico d’Italia.
Vinale, F. 1988. Caratterizzazione del sottosuolo di un’area
campione di Napoli ai fini di una microzonazione sismica,
Rivista Italiana di Geotecnica, 22, 77–100.
Wen, K. L., Chang, T. M., Lin, C. M., Chiang, H. J.
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H/V spectral ratio method. Terr. Atmos. Ocean. Sci., 17,
533–546.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Scenarios based earthquake hazard assessment

F. Romanelli, A. Peresan, F. Vaccari & G.F. Panza

Department of Geosciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, ESP-SAND Group, Trieste, Italy

ABSTRACT: For historical and strategic buildings the applicability of standard probabilistic estimates of
seismic hazard (PSHA) is really questionable: when considering time intervals of about a million year (we
do not want to lose cultural heritage), PSHA results by far not applicable. A viable alternative capable of
minimizing the drawbacks of PSHA is represented by the use of the scenario earthquakes, also named neo-
deterministic approach (NDSHA), characterized at least in terms of magnitude, distance and faulting style,
and by the treatment of complex source processes. The NDSHA naturally supplies realistic time series of
ground motion, which represent also reliable estimates of ground displacement readily applicable to seismic
isolation techniques, useful to preserve historical monuments and relevant man made structures. An integrated
neo-deterministic approach to seismic hazard assessment has been developed that combines different pattern
recognition techniques, designed for the space-time identification of strong earthquakes, with the procedure
for the NDSHA. The integrated approach allows for a time dependent definition of the seismic input (realistic
synthetic seismograms), through the routine updating of earthquake predictions. The time information given
by the intermediate-term medium-range earthquake prediction is very useful to plan preparedness and rescue
actions and to define priority criteria for the investigations required by the seismic microzonation. Even if strong
motion records in near-fault, soft soil, or basin conditions have been recently obtained, their number is still
very limited to be statistically significant for seismic engineering applications: the realistic computation of the
seismic input, taking in account the source and site effects, combined with the evaluation of the seismic response
of buildings provides an effective approach to the assessment of seismic risk.

1 INTRODUCTION A proper evaluation of the seismic hazard, and

The need for developing time-dependent neo-
deterministic seismic hazard maps, from a mid-term
anticipatory perspective, is evident in view of the
very unsatisfactory performances of most of the tradi-
tional probabilistic approaches, as proved by the recent
destructive earthquakes like Kobe (Japan, 17.1.1995),
Gujarat (India, 26.1.2001), Boumerdes (Algeria,
21.5.2003), Bam (Iran, 26.12.2003), Eastern Sichuan
(China, 12.5.2008) and Haiti (Haiti, 12.01.2010). The
seismic zonation adopted by the current regulations,
either on a national or a regional scale, has been
defined according to a well-established but obsolete,
conventional probabilistic approach and hence it is
basically affected by the limitations of such methodo-
logy. Specifically, probabilistic seismic hazard maps
are: a) strongly dependent on the available observa-
tions, unavoidably incomplete due to the long time
scales involved; b) not considering adequately the
source and site effects, since they resort to convolu-
tive techniques (e.g. attenuation relationship), which
cannot be applied when dealing with complex geologi-
cal structures; c) time-independent, being based on
the assumption of random occurrence of earthquakes
(Bilham, 2009).
of the seismic ground motion due to an earthquake,
can be accomplished by following NDSHA coupled
with engineering judgment. This approach allows us
to incorporate all available information collected in a
geological, seismotectonic and geotechnical database
for the site of interest as well as advanced physical
modelling techniques to provide a reliable and robust
basis for the development of a deterministic design
basis for cultural heritage and civil infrastructures in
general (Field et al. 2000, Panza et al. 2001a,b). Sce-
nario based methods permit seismic hazard and risk
analysis where attenuation relations and other simi-
larly questionable assumptions about source and local
site responses are not allowed in, but realistic syn-
thetic time series are used to construct earthquake
scenarios that are reliable for earthquake engineer-
ing purposes. like non-linear structural testing. The
most recent developments of NDSHA are dealt with
in Panza et al. (2010).
2 THE NEODETERMINISTIC APPROACH
By NDSHA we mean an innovative procedure that sup-
plies realistic time histories from which it is possible to

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retrieve peak values for ground displacement, velocity definition of seismic hazard, through the routine updat-
and design acceleration in correspondence of earth- ing of earthquake predictions and of the related ground
quake scenarios. The procedure is particularly suitable motion scenarios.
for the optimum definition of the characteristics of the The integrated neo-deterministic procedure permits
modern anti-seismic devices, when the acceleromet- to compute different kind of scenarios at different
ric data available are not representative of the possible space level:
scenario earthquakes and when non-linear dynamic
– level 1: scenarios at bedrock associated with the
analysis is necessary. By sensitivity analysis, knowl-
alerted regions;
edge gaps related to lack of data can be dealt with
– level 2: scenarios at bedrock associated with each
easily due to the limited amount of scenarios to be
single seismogenic node within the alerted region;
investigated.
– level 3: detailed scenarios, that take into account
Where the numerical modelling is successfully
local soil conditions, associated with each single
compared with records, the synthetic seismograms
seismogenic node within the alerted region.
permit the microzoning, based upon a set of possible
scenario earthquakes. Where no recordings are avail-
able the synthetic signals can be used to estimate the
3 SEISMIC HAZARD AT A REGIONAL SCALE
ground motion without having to wait for a strong
earthquake to occur (pre-disaster microzonation). In
The NDSHA (e.g. Panza et al. 2001a,b) represents one
both cases the use of modelling is necessary since
of the new and most advanced approaches and it has
the so-called local site effects can be strongly depen-
been applied successfully to many areas spread world-
dent upon the properties of the seismic source and
wide (e.g. Parvez et al. 2003). It can be used also as
can be properly defined only by means of envelopes.
a starting point for the development of an integrated
In fact, several techniques that have been proposed
approach that combines the advantages of the prob-
to empirically estimate the site effects using observa-
abilistic and deterministic methods, thus minimizing
tions convolved with theoretically computed signals
their respective drawbacks. This approach addresses
corresponding to simplified models, supply reliable
some issues largely neglected in traditional hazard
information about the site response to non-interfering
analysis, namely how crustal properties affect attenu-
seismic phases, but they are not adequate in most of
ation: ground motion parameters are not derived from
the real cases, when the seismic sequel is formed by
overly simplified attenuation functions, but rather
several interfering waves.
from synthetic time histories. Starting from the avail-
One of the most difficult tasks in earthquake sce-
able information on the Earth’s structure, seismic
nario modelling is the treatment of uncertainties since
sources, and the level of seismicity of the investigated
each of the key parameters has an uncertainty and natu-
area, it is possible to estimate peak ground accel-
ral variability, which often are not quantified explicitly.
eration, velocity, and displacement (PGA, PGV, and
A possible way to handle this problem is to vary
PGD) or any other parameter relevant to seismic engi-
the modelling parameters systematically. Actually, a
neering, which can be extracted from the computed
severe underestimation of the hazard could come by
theoretical signals. NDSHA allows us to obtain a reali-
fixing a priori some source characteristics and thus the
stic estimate of the seismic hazard where scarce (or
parametric study should take into account the effects
no) historical or instrumental information is available.
of the various focal mechanism parameters (i.e. strike,
Synthetic seismograms can be constructed to model
dip, rake, depth etc.). The analysis of the parametric
ground motion at sites of interest, using knowledge
studies will allow us to generate advanced ground-
of the physical process of earthquake generation and
shaking scenarios for the proper evaluation of the
wave propagation in realistic media. The signals are
site-specific seismic hazard, with a complementary
efficiently generated by the modal summation tech-
check based on both probabilistic and empirical pro-
nique (e.g. Panza et al., 2001b), so it becomes possible
cedures. Once the gross features of the seismic hazard
to perform detailed parametric analyses at reasonable
are defined, and the parametric analyses have been
costs and quite rapidly.
performed, a more detailed modelling of the ground
motion can be carried out for sites of specific interest.
Such a detailed analysis should take into account the 3.1 Scenarios at bedrock associated with the
source characteristics, the path and the local geological alerted regions
and geotechnical conditions.
The intermediate-term medium-range earthquake pre-
dictions are performed by means of the algorithms
CN and M8S (Keilis-Borok and Rotwain, 1990 and
2.1 Integrated approach
Kossobokov et al., 2002). These algorithms belong
The integrated NDSHA combines the following proce- to a family of formally defined and globally tested
dures: a) the intermediate-term medium-range earth- procedures for intermediate-term middle-range earth-
quake predictions, b) the recognition of areas prone quake prediction, based on the observed variations
to strong earthquakes and c) the procedure for the in the background seismicity preceding large earth-
neo-deterministic assessment of seismic hazard. The quakes (Keilis-Borok and Soloviev, 2003). They allow
integrated approach allows for a time dependent for a diagnosis of the periods of time (TIP: Time of

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Increased Probability for the occurrence of a strong
earthquake), when a strong event is likely to occur
inside a given region. The results of the global real-
time experimental testing of M8 and CN algorithms
(Kossobokov et al., 1999; Rotwain and Novikova,
1999) indicate the possibility of practical earthquake
forecasting, although with limited accuracy (i.e. with a
characteristic alarm-time ranging from a few months
to a few years and a linear uncertainty in space of
hundreds of kilometers).
The application of CN and M8S algorithms to the
Italian territory is described in detail in Peresan et al.
(2005). In this paper we consider the practical case
of an alarm declared by CN algorithm for the Adria
region (Peresan et al., 2006), which turns out to be
especially relevant for seismic hazard assessment in
North-Eastern Italy and in the city of Trieste. TheAdria
region (Figure 1), along with Italy, is the only area of
moderate seismic activity where the two different pre-
diction algorithms CN and M8S are simultaneously
applied and a real-time test of predictions, for earth-
quakes with magnitude larger than 5.4, is ongoing
since 2003. So far, 7 out of the 9 strong earthquakes, Figure 1. Map of DGA (Design Ground Acceleration) asso-
occurred within the Adria region since 1963, have been ciated to an alarm in the Adria region. The minimum value
correctly preceded by a TIP declared by CN algorithm, reported in the map is 0.01 g. The alarmed region is illustrated
with an overall alarm’s duration of about 36% of the in the inner frame.
total time.
According to the neo-deterministic procedure, the (Alekseevskaya et al., 1977), that, independently from
expected ground motion is modeled at the nodes of any information about seismicity, delineates a hier-
a regular grid with step 0.2◦ × 0.2◦ , starting from archical block structure of the studied region, using
the available information about seismic sources and tectonic and geological data, with special care to
regional structural models. Ground shaking scenarios topography. The boundary zones between blocks are
associated with the alerted area are defined consider- called lineaments and the nodes are formed at the
ing altogether the set of possible sources included in intersections or junctions of two or more lineaments.
the region, following the procedure described in Pere- Among the defined nodes, those prone to strong earth-
san et al. (2009). In such a way an alarm (which con- quakes are then identified by pattern recognition on
sists of space, time and magnitude information about the basis of the parameters characterising indirectly
the impending earthquake) can be associated with the intensity of neo-tectonic movements and fragmen-
maps describing the seismic ground motion caused tation of the crust at the nodes (e.g. elevation and its
by the potential sources in the alerted region. Figure 1 variations in mountain belts and watershed areas; ori-
illustrates the scenario of DGA (Design GroundAccel- entation and density of linear topographic features;
eration) associated with an alarm in the Adria region); type and density of drainage pattern). For this pur-
the corresponding peak values of displacement, velo- pose, the nodes have been defined as circles of radius
city and acceleration, or any other parameter of interest R = 25 km surrounding each point of intersection of
for seismic engineering can be mapped as well. lineaments. In Italy, the identification of the sites
where strong events can nucleate has been performed
3.2 Scenarios at bedrock associated with by Gorshkov et al. (2002, 2004) for two magnitude
earthquake prone areas thresholds, MN ≥ 6.0 and MN ≥ 6.5.
The space uncertainty typical of the intermediate-term In order to have a picture of what should be expected
middle-range predictions is quite large. An attempt if a strong earthquake occurs during a TIP, the scenario
to constrain the location of the impending events is associated with a single node prone to a strong earth-
possible through the combined use of seismological, quake can be calculated. In Figure 2 we supply an
geological and morphostructural information. In fact, example of scenario corresponding to the node closest
pattern-recognition can be used to identify the sites to the city of Trieste (D15, Gorshkov et al., 2004).
capable to generate the strongest events inside the
alerted areas, independently from any transient seismic
information. The areas prone to strong earthquakes 4 SEISMIC INPUT AT AN URBAN SCALE
are identified based on the morphostructural nodes, AND MICROZONATION
which represent specific structures formed around the
intersections of lineaments. Lineaments are identified While waiting for the accumulation of new strong
by the Morphostructural Zonation (MZS) Method motion data, a very useful approach to perform

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 2. Map of DGA generated for the node D15
(Gorshkov et al., 2004). The large full circle represents the
node, while the star indicates the location of Trieste.

immediate microzonation is the development and use

of modelling tools. These tools are based, on one hand,
on the theoretical knowledge of the physics of the seis- Figure 3a. Sources (yellow dots) used by Vaccari et al.
mic source and of wave propagation and, on the other (2005) for the computation of the seismic ground motion
hand, exploit the rich database, already available, that scenarios in Trieste (red dot). Active faults mapped according
can be used for the definition of the source and struc- to Aoudia (1998).
tural properties. Actually, the realistic modelling of
ground motion requires the simultaneous knowledge
of the geotechnical, lithological, geophysical para-
meters and topography of the medium, on one side,
and tectonic, historical, palaeoseismological, seismo-
tectonic models, on the other, for the best possible
definition of the probable seismic source. The ini-
tial stage for the realistic ground motion modelling is
thus devoted to the collection of all available data con-
cerning the shallow geology, and the construction of
a three-dimensional structural model to be used in the
numerical simulation of ground motion. To deal both
with realistic source and structural models, includ-
ing topographical features, a hybrid method has been
developed that combines modal summation and the Figure 3b. Cross-section used for the detailed modelling of
finite difference technique (e.g. Fäh and Panza 1994), ground motion in Trieste shown in Fig. 4.
and optimizes the use of the advantages of both meth-
ods. Wave propagation is treated by means of the modal and Risk Assessment in North Africa” and “Seismic
summation technique from the source to the vicinity microzoning of Latin America cities”.
of the local, heterogeneous structure that we may want
to model in detail. A laterally homogeneous anelastic
structural model is adopted, that represents the aver-
4.1 Seismic input associated with earthquake prone
age crustal properties of the region. The generated
areas: The case of Trieste
wavefield is then introduced in the grid that defines
the heterogeneous area and it is propagated according In the ancient part of Trieste soft superficial sediments
with the finite differences scheme; source, path and with poor geothecnical properties are present, there-
site effects are all taken into account, and it is there- fore the site response is expected to play a relevant
fore possible a detailed study of the wavefield that role in the ground shaking of the two test areas. We
propagates even at large distances from the epicentre. choose a source inside the considered node to make a
This methodology has been successfully applied detailed ground motion modelling for Trieste. To bet-
to many areas worldwide (e.g. Panza et al. 2001a,b; ter constrain the location of the source and to select a
Zuccolo et al. 2008), to strategic buildings, life- source definitely corresponding to an active fault we
lines and cultural heritage sites (e.g. Romanelli et al. use the active fault map of Aoudia (1998), shown in
2004) and for the purpose of seismic microzon- Fig. 3a, choosing, for the modelling, sources close to
ing, to several urban areas in the framework of the S2. The aim of this analysis is to compute realistic syn-
UNESCO/IUGS/IGCP projects “Realistic Modelling thetic signals to be used as seismic input in subsequent
of Seismic Input for Megacities and Large Urban engineering analysis for the definition of the seismic
Areas” (e.g. Panza et al. 2001b) “Seismic Hazard response of Palazzo Carciotti, an historical building

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 4a. Modeled acceleration along the profile. From
top to bottom: vertical, radial and transverse component
of motion. All the synthetic seismograms are normalized
to the maximum peak acceleration (223 cm/s2 ), obtained for
the radial component about 3 km far from the beginning of
the profile.
completed in 1805, located in the centre of the city of
Trieste.
This analysis, fully described in detail by Vaccari
et al. (2005), is performed using a detailed defini-
tion of the mechanical properties of the site (Fig. 3b),
and of the seismic source (Fig. 3a), modelled as an
extended source. The rupture process at the source
and the consequent directivity effect (i.e. radiation at
a site depends on its azimuth with respect to the rup-
ture propagation direction) is modelled by means of
the algorithm, developed by Gusev and Pavlov (2006),
that simulates the radiation from a fault of finite
dimensions. Along the profile the ground motion is
modelled with broadband synthetic accelegrams with
a maximum frequency equal to 5 Hz.
From the computed signals (Fig. 4a) we obtain at
Palazzo Carciotti a peak ground acceleration of about
0.2 g (200 cm/s2 ), that may correspond to a macroseis-
mic intensity as large as X (MCS) (Panza et al., 1997).
The value is greater than the corresponding value
obtained at the bedrock and using the point source
approximation. Therefore the effects due to local soil
conditions cannot be captured by the average values
typical of bedrock modelling, but they must be the
object of further detailed analysis, at least for those
sites of interest where intensity values greater than VI
(MCS) are expected. For the considered earthquake
scenario, from the synthetic accelerograms, response
spectra and response spectra ratios (2D/1D bedrock)
can be readily computed and used to determine the
amplification pattern along the profile (Fig. 4b).
109
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 4b. Modeled spectral amplification along the pro-
file. From top to bottom: vertical, radial and transverse
component of motion.
The computed seismic input, used to perform some
finite element calculations, highlighted the perfor-
mance of an historical building located in the center of
Trieste (Palazzo Carciotti). For more details about the
realistic modelling of seismic ground motion in Trieste
see Peresan et al. (2009) and Vaccari et al. (2005).
5 CONCLUSIONS
A viable alternative capable of minimizing the draw-
backs of traditional SHA is represented by the use of
the scenario earthquakes, also named NDSHA, char-
acterized at least in terms of magnitude, distance and
faulting style, and by the treatment of complex source
processes. NDSHA naturally supplies realistic time
series of ground motion, which represent also reliable
estimates of ground displacement readily applicable
to seismic isolation techniques, useful to preserve his-
torical monuments and relevant man made structures.
This paper provides a practical example and shows
how the capability to produce realistic scenarios of
hazard, where ground motion is described in terms
of realistic time series, rather than a simple probabil-
ity of exceedance for a specific parameter, supplies a
practical tool for engineering analysis. The adequate
characterization of the response of different structural
typologies to the expected seismic input, along with
the time information associated to the scenarios of
ground motion, will then enable public authorities to
plan and carry on the necessary retrofitting of the
relevant historical buildings.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Part of this research has been developed in the frame-
work of the ASI – Pilot Project SISMA. The study
has been partly supported by the Regione Autonoma
Friuli Venezia Giulia (Civil Defence – ICTP Agree-
ment DGR 2226 dd. 14.9.2005 and DGR 1459 dd.
24.6.2009) and by the Italian Presidenza del Consiglio
dei Ministri – Dipartimento della Protezione Civile
(DPC).
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Gelfand I.M. & Ranzman E.Ya., 1977. Formal mor-
phostructural zoning of mountain territories. J. Geophys
43: 227–233.
Aoudia A., 1998.Active faulting and seismological studies for
Earthquake Hazard Assessment. PhD thesis, University of
Trieste, 1998.
Bilham, R., 2009. The seismic future of cities. Bull Earth-
quake Eng., DOI 10.1007/s10518-009-9147-0.
Fäh, D. & Panza, G.F. 1994. Realistic modelling of observed
seismic motion in complex sedimentary basins. Annali di
Geofisica 3: 1771–1797.
Field, E. H. & the SCEC Phase III Working Group 2000.
Accounting for site effects in probabilistic seismic hazard
analyses of Southern California: overview of the SCEC
Phase III Report. Bull. Seism. Soc. Am. 90: S1–S31.
Gorshkov A., Panza G.F., Soloviev A.A. & Aoudia A., 2002.
Morphostructural zonation and preliminary recognition
of seismogenic nodes around the Adria margin in penin-
sular Italy and Sicily. J. of Seismology and Earthquake
Engeneering. Spring 2002, 4 (1): 1–24.
Gorshkov A.I., Panza G.F., Soloviev A.A. & Aoudia A.,
2004. Identification of seismogenic nodes in the Alps and
Dinarides. Boll. Soc. Geol. It., 123: 3–18.
Gusev, A. A. & Pavlov. V., 2006. Wideband simulation
of earthquake ground motion by a spectrum-matching,
multiple-pulse technique. First European Conference
on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology, Geneva,
Switzerland, 3–8 September 2006. Abstract Book, Paper
Number: 408.
Keilis-Borok V.I. & Rotwain I.M., 1990. Diagnosis of time
of increased probability of strong earthquakes in different
regions of the world: algorithm CN. Phys. Earth Planet.
Inter., 61: 57–72.
Keilis-Borok V.I. & Soloviev, A., 2003. Nonlinear Dynamics
of the Lithosphere and Earthquake Prediction, Springer-
Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg, Eds.
Kossobokov V.G., Romashkova L.L., Keilis-Borok V.I. &
Healy J.H., 1999. Testing earthquake prediction algo-
rithms: statistically significant advance prediction of the
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Phys. Earth Planet. Inter. 111: 187–196.
Kossobokov V.G., Romashkova L.L., Panza G.F. & Peresan A,
2002. Stabilizing intermediate-term medium-range earth-
quake predictions, J. of Seismology and Earthquake Enge-
neering. J. of Seismology and Earthquake Engeneering, 8:
11–19.
Panza G.F, Cazzaro R, Vaccari F., 1997. Correlation between
macroseismic intensities and seismic ground motion
parameters. Annali di Geofisica, vol. 40; p. 1371–1382,
ISSN: 1590-1815.
Panza, G.F. Romanelli, F. & Vaccari, F. 2001a. Seismic wave
propagation in laterally heterogeneous anelastic media:
theory and applications to the seismic zonation. Advances
in Geophysics, Academic press 43: 1–95.
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UNESCO-IUGS-IGCP project. Pure and Applied Geo-
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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Microzonation of landslide hazard triggered by earthquakes – Application

of GIS methodology

V. Sesov & J. Cvetanovska

Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology – IZIIS, University Ss. Cyril and Methodius,
Skopje, Macedonia

ABSTRACT: The numerous historic data and results from investigations on the earthquake effects during
the last decades show that site conditions play the major role in establishing the earthquake damage potential.
Landslides and liquefaction, as direct seismic effects, are causing some pattern of soil failure, often found as the
most destructive one. In fact, damage from triggered landslides has sometimes exceeded damage directly related
to strong shaking and fault rupture [Jibson et al., 2000]. The subject of this research study is analysis and zoning
of the geographical distribution of landslide hazards, as one of the most characteristic forms of geotechnical
instabilities occurring during earthquakes, by application of the GIS methodology. For this purpose, a detailed
GIS procedure for analysis and zoning of the landslide potential in earthquake conditions has been carried
out, for the selected area. The analyzed area is a selected urban part of Skopje, capital city of Macedonia.
All the documentation on the selected area necessary for analysis of the landslide hazard have been digitized,
georeferenced and analyzed by Arcview 9.3, GIS software. The final product is represented by digital maps of
expected permanent displacements for a defined earthquake scenario, in different water-saturation conditions
of the instable soil layer. Results from this study, such as the potentially affected population and infrastructure,
can be used as a data base for preventive mitigation activities for reducing the seismic risk in urban areas.

1 INTRODUCTION earthquakes, floods, forest fires, tropical storms, land-

The consequences of increased urbanization of inha-
bited places are quite evident worldwide. With their
expansive development, mega cities, although being
a central point of national and regional economic
development, are becoming increasingly susceptible
to risks pertaining to natural catastrophes. This is due
to the spatial expansion of the populated places in
hazardous areas, Figure 1.
In the course of the 1990-ties, almost two bil-
lion people were struck by natural catastrophes as are
Figure 1. Increasing trend of occurrence of natural hazards
(Munich Re Group-Geo Risk Research, 2007).
slides and volcanic eruptions, UNCHR, 2001. A major
part of loss of human lives and material loss was due
to landslides. For example, in the last century in Italy,
180000 landslides were recorded. Out of these, sev-
eral hundreds are potentially active and around 5000
urban regions are struck by local instabilities of slopes,
CNR – National Group for Geo-hydrological Disaster
Prevention. The most frequent causes of slope dis-
turbance are other initial factors: climatic changes,
earthquakes, volcanic eruptions as well as the human
factor. Given the above, it is not surprising that land-
slides as geo-hazards are becoming the main focus of
investigation of a number of investigators, engineers
and urban planners worldwide.
Thanks to the recently developed technology, first
of all, the “remote sensing” techniques (fast acqusition
of data on given areas via satellite) and geographic-
information systems (efficient collection, systemati-
zation, elaboration and analysis of georeferenced
data), high quality management of geo-hazards and
risks pertaining to landslides becomes feasible. Geo-
graphic Information Systems are becoming a standard
tool in management and dealing with risk related
to natural phenomena. Burrough (1986) and Aronoff
(1989) give introduction to the principals of GIS and its
opportunities. With the development of several power-
ful set of tools such as Arc/Info-Enviormental Systems
Research Institute, 1992, Integraph Corporation’s
MGE-Integraph Corporation, 1993, IDRISI, Eastman

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 1992a, 1992b, ILWIS-ITC-Netherlands, application
of GIS into management of natural and techno-
logical risks, significantly has increased. When it
comes to geotechnical instabilitites, particulary land-
slides, Carrara, 1978, C.J. Van Westen, 1993, Brass,
1989, Murphy and Vita-Finzi, 1991 applied different
approaches and criteria for analysis and zonation of
landlslide hazard and risk using GIS methodology.
The occurrence of slope instability generally
depends on the complex interactions among a num-
ber of interrelated factors. Therefore, an interactive
and integrated procedure – methodology for assess-
ment of potential terrain instabilities is necessary. The
practical and fast updating of different parameters of
a given model, the combination of functions of data
from a number of maps among which there is also a
Figure 2. Damage to the Skopje – Sopishte local road due
digital model of the terrain, the possibilities for visuali- to landslide.
zation of data by means of graphic characteristics are
only part of the possibilities offered by the geographic- base and documentation in GIS, there have been col-
information systems in managing the risks pertaining lected data from a number of reports, geotechnical
to natural phenomena. reports, main and working designs on repair of already
occurred instabilities in this area elaborated by IZIIS
and other companies dealing with geotechnical field
2 OBJECTIVES OF STUDY
investigations and measurements. The documentation
on the selected area necessary for analysis of the land-
This study focus on advantages of geographic-
slide hazard have been digitized, georeferenced and
informational systems in the process of definition of
analyzed by use of the GIS software Arcview 9.3.
the potential geotechnical instabilities, more precisely
Skopje, as the capital of the Republic of Macedo-
landslides as secondary seismic hazard in earthquake
nia covering 1,854 km2 , with a population of 700 000
prone regions. In literature, as well in practice, exist
citizens (density of population of 273 citizens/km2 ),
and are applied methodologies and approaches for zon-
represents a central point of concentration of the most
ing of potential landslides. Some of these have already
important material and human resources.
been incorporated in the national regulations, positive
The intensive development of the city of Skopje,
example is Switzerland, (Olivier Lateltin et al. 2005).
especially after the 1963 earthquake, as the main cen-
The main objective of the investigations performed
tre of human and material resources in R. Macedonia
within this research is analysis, distribution and zoning
is one of the key prerequisites for the increase of
of potential landslides and instable slopes in earth-
the risk related to natural disasters. Namely, the built
quake conditions in order to define the risk related
structures on steep terrains and the concentration of
to occurrence of this type of hazards for the popula-
population and material property on potentially insta-
tion and the infrastructure. According to the general
ble locations considerably increases the risk pertaining
GIS-based procedure for zoning of landslide potential
to geotechnical hazards. In addition to the seismic
in earthquake conditions after Jibson, 1998, a mod-
activity of the territory of Macedonia which can be
ulus for computation of the safety factor based on
one of the main triggering factors of loss of stabi-
pixels, critical acceleration and permanent displace-
lity of slopes are: uncontrolled creation of landfills
ments according to Newmark has been incorporated
(that have lately created steep slopes), construction
in GIS. The final product is presented by digital maps
activities that don’t follow technical regulations and
of expected permanent displacements for a defined
standards (cuttings, vertical excavation, etc.), intensive
earthquake scenario combined with different water-
cutting and destruction of the forests and the vegetation
saturation conditions of the instable soil layer. Detailed
on the terrain (contributing to occurrence of erosion
deterministic zoning of expected permanent displace-
and instability of the surface soil layers), improper
ments in earthquake conditions has been performed.
management of outflows, channels (increase of the
Keefer, 1985 has applied this methodology for the city
underground water table that causes reduction of the
of Berkeley, California.
effective strength of soil materials), etc.
The GIS methodology approach introduced by Jib-
The geological structures have changed through the
son, elaborated and explained in further text, has
years due to the seismic tectonic activity, particularly
been applied on a selected region on the south-east
after the catastrophic Skopje earthquake of 1963. Gen-
sub-urban parts of Skopje, where local soil instabil-
erally, the city of Skopje is suceptible to processes of
ities have been registered lately. The working area
dessertification.The climatic changes contribute to the
is square proportioned 5 km × 5 km within the coor-
aggravation of the situation, ie.,:
dinates 7533000 to 7538000 metres, from west to
east. In order to make a deterministic zoning of the – Prolongation of draught periods;
landslide hazard, i.e., to create the necessary data – Decrease of the vegetation cover;

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Figure 3. Occurrence of large deformations in the lower part
of the landslide in municipality of Rakotintsi.
– Increase of torrential rains;
– Increase of the risk of occurrence of wild fires;
– Increase of soil erosion;
– Increase of occurrence of floods.
Presented below are some of recent registered instabil-
ities caused by the above stated factors, which were the
main reason for this research, Fig. 2. Among the recent
recorded landslides is the landslide in the municipal-
ity of Rakotinci village that took place in 2005 causing
serious damage to 45 family houses, Figure 3.
3 METHODOLOGY
The sequential steps of seismic landslides hazard zona-
tion, involved in the GIS based procedure introduced
by Jibson et al. 1998, applied on a study area of sub-
urban parts of Skopje, is presented on figure 4. To
develop the model for deterministic zoning of land-
slides triggered by earthquakes, Jibson used the large
set of available data on the Northridge 1994 earth-
quake. By combining this data based on analysis of
permanent displacement according to the Newmark
model, 1965, the potential landslide was modeled as
a block placed on an inclined plane under an angle
α. Wilson and Keefer, 1983 showed that using New-
mark’s method to model the dynamic behavior of
landslides on natural slopes yields reasonable and
useful results. Wieczorek et al.1985, subsequently pro-
duced an experimental map showing seismic landslide
susceptibility in San Mateo County, California, using
classification criteria based on Newmark’s method.
Wilson & Keefer, 1985 also used Newmark’s method
as a basis for a broad regional assessment of seismic
slope stability in the Los Angeles, California, area.
The block has its own critical acceleration, which
needs to exceed the sliding resistance of the material
in order to cause motion of the soil mass – the block.
The result is displacement of the terrain at each pixel
caused by the Northridge earthquake. Being already
calibrated with the Northridge earthquake, this model
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
can be used in any other earthquake scenario. Dig-
ital maps can be easily upgraded, revised, amended
by newly acquired data and used for analysis of other
scenarios of concern.
Following this procedure, deterministic zoning has
been applied for part of the study area of Skopje,
on the southeast side of Vodno, with a focus on the
region along the road from Kisela Voda municipality
to Rakotintsi village and the surrounding populated
areas. The steps introduced in the zoning model are
presented, as follows:
3.1 Computation of the static safety factor
From the digital terrain model, Figure 5a, the slope
map of the terrain, was created at first, Figure 5b. Next,
using data from geotechnical in-situ and laboratory
investigations, from the geology map, Figure 6a, the
raster maps of effective cohesion c , material unit
weight γ and effective internal friction angle ϕ are
created, Figure 6b. ‘Raster calculator’ is one of the
crucial tools for spatial analysis in Arcview 9.3. It pro-
vides pixel based calculation, and creation of digital
maps which contain information in raster format, a
value of parameter in every single pixel.
– Pixel based computation of the safety factor,
Figure 8, for 3 different scenarios of ground water
saturation, with incorporation of the already defined
raster maps in the module – formula in GIS is done,
equation 1.
where c = effective cohesion; γ = material unit
weight; m = proportion of the slab thickness that is
saturate; zw = height of ground water above the fail-
ure slab; z = slope-normal thickness of the failure slab;
β = slope of terrain and ϕ = effective internal friction
angle.
The following scenarios have been defined:
– Period with relatively low intensity of rains, i.e.,
natural dry conditions (m = 0);
– Period of moderate intensity of rains or snow melt-
ing i.e., conditions of relatively intensive precipita-
tion (m = 0.5);
– Period of complete water saturation (m = 1) of
the instable soil layer, scenario with the greatest
potential for occurrence of instabilities.
3.2 Computation of the critical acceleration
Critical acceleration in fact, represents susceptibility
of the geological formations to landslides triggered by
earthquakes, Figure 9. With incorporating the mod-
ule for computation of critical acceleration, maps
have been created with the value of critical acceler-
ation necessary for motion of the potentially instable
soil mass for the three scenarios of water saturation.
 Figure 9 describes, in fact, the level of susceptibility representing the spatial Arias Intensity of possible
of the terrain to landslides in earthquake conditions earthquake scenario with source in the Vodnjaski fault
for 50% water ground saturation. To obtain results, is created in GIS, Figure 10.
for activation of the potential landslides under a given The main limitations of the model are found in the
earthquake scenario, it is needed to compare these aspect of quantity of data on earthquakes, geology,
maps with the expected accelerations for the particular and geotechnical parameters and alike. It can be freely
study area, equation 2. concluded that the applied method represents a useful
tool for simple, systematic and extremely useful zon-
ing of the hazard related to landslides in earthquake
conditions. The possibility for computation of failure
where FS = safety factor; g = ground acceleration; probability in predicting models for given locations
β = slope of terrain (◦ ) opens many possibilities for research in the direction
of establishment of new improved methodologies that
can easily be incorporated in the GIS platform.
3.3 Computation of permanent displacements –
Newmark method
Using the Jibson’s regression formula calibrated from 4 OUTPUTS – MAPS IN GIS PLATFORM
twice integrated time histories of accelerations from
California and amended with 555 records of 13 earth-
quakes, there have been created maps of permanent
displacements, equation 3, of the study area under
the three scenarios of water saturation, Figure 11.
Although the Newmark displacement represents an
empirical criterion for the behavior of the slopes, still
is considered as appropriate relative index of slope-
performance for regional analysis, Jibson et al., 1998.
It should be noted that this final map should not be
used as a basis to determine the absolute risk from
seismically triggered landslides at any locality, as the
sole justification for zoning or rezoning any parcel,
for detailed design of any lifeline, for site-specific
hazard-reduction planning, or for setting or modifying
insurance rates, Keefer, 1985.

where Ia = Aries intensity; ac = critical acceleration.

Arias Intensity is selected as parameter for defining
the critical values that causes landslides in earth- Figure 5a. Digital terrain model.
quake conditions. Jibson and Keefer, 1992 used the
Arias Intensity as a parameter representing the seismic
potential in order to define the Newmark permanent
displacement caused during the New Madrid earth-
quakes 1811 and 1812. For the research purposes of
this study, to define the spatial distribution of Arias
Intensity, the attenuation law based on historical earth-
quake data from California, Wilson & Keefer, 1985, is
used in equation 4:

where Ia = Arias Intensity; Mw = Moment magni-

tude; d = shortest distance to hypocenter or fault
source; h = focal depth of earthquake source and
P = probability of exceedence.
Figure 7 represents map with registered faults so far,
located near the study area, while table 1 presents the
characteristics of the seismic potential of this faults.
The “Vodnjanski” fault is crossing directly below the
study area so it is chosen as source of seismic poten-
tial in the further analysis. For that purpose, a map Figure 5b. Slope map.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 8. Computation of the safety factor – for 50% ground
Figure 6a. Geological attributea – soil parameters. water saturation.

Figure 6b. Raster maps of soil parameters.

Figure 9. Critical acceleration of geologicall formations,

susceptibility to landslides in earthquake contidions.

Table 1. Faults near study area, Arsovski & Petkovski,

1975.

Faults near study area Magnitude M Depth [km]

Vodnjanski 2 6.4
Breznicki 2 5
Katalnovski 10 6.5
Fuski 5 5.2
Skopski 10 6.4
Figure 7. Fault near study area.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 10. Seismic Arias Intensity for an earthquake sce-
nario with source of event at Vodnjanski fault.
Figure 11. Permanent Newmark displacements of terrain
in case of 50% water saturation of instable soil layer and
earthquake with source at Vodnjanski fault.
5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The elaborated approach in GIS environment was
applied on a selected region for the purpose of
microzoning of potential hazards related to landslides
triggered by earthquakes. The selected region encom-
passes the southeast part of the city of Skopje including
part of the slopes and the foothill of Vodno mountain.
For the selected target area, analysis and zoning of
landslide potential in earthquake conditions was per-
formed. The zoning of the landslide hazard was done
according the detailed deterministic zoning, Jibson.
Based on the results from the investigations realized
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
within this master thesis, the following conclusions are
drawn:
– With its universal application in analysis of spatially
distributed phenomena, GIS represents an excellent
tool for multidisciplinary cooperation of researchers
in different fields. By possessing as many as possi-
ble data from different fields and consideration of
possible scenarios for given situations, a realistic
insight in the situation on the stability of the terrain
is obtained.
– The GIS analyses have resulted with geo-referenced
digital maps of the selected area showing the spatial
distribution of landslide phenomena in earthquake
conditions Two criteria and pre-defined scenarios of
water saturation and ground acceleration – seismic
effect have been analyzed.
– For the target area, it can be concluded that it has the
potential for instability that, in certain scenarios, can
possibly result in occurrence of economic and social
losses: the individual houses located in potentially
instable zones are directly exposed to increased risk
related to the destructive effects of landslides caused
by earthquakes. There is one road connecting the
inhabited places with the main resources in the cen-
ter of the Skopje city whose burial in the case of
crisis can prevent access or providing of any help to
the cut area, since it is the only road connection.
– It is particularly important to note that the created
database for the analysis of potential instabilities
of the selected target area represents an “open
source” database that can be upgraded, developed
and amended permanently with new additional data
on: geological, geophysical field and laboratory
investigations, data on intensity of precipitation
(mm water column, mm snow cover), number of
inhabitants, traffic load on roads, drainage channels,
etc. in a fast and simple way that will enable better
quality of passed decisions. Implemented metho-
dology is very easy applicable for any other spatial
analysis of hazard and risk and gives satisfactory
results with relatively low cost of financial and in
short time period.
REFERENCES
Jibson, Randall W, Harp E.L. & Michael J.A.. 1998. A
Method for Producing Digital Probabilistic Seismic Land-
slide Hazard Maps: An Example from the Los Angeles,
California, Area, Open-File Report 98–113, USGS
C.L. van Westen. 1993. Application of Geographic Informa-
tion systems to landslide hazard zonation
Transportation Research Board. 1998. Landslides Investiga-
tion and Mitigation” – special report 247
Olivier Lateltin, Christoph Haemmig, Hugo Raetzo &
Christophe Bonnard. 2005. Landslide risk management
in Switzerland – Landslides 2: 313–320, Springer-Verlag,
2005
Arsovski M. & Petkovski R. 1975. Neotectonics of republic
of Macedonia ”,., IZIIS report 75–49
Scott B. Miles & David K. Keefer. 1985. Seismic landslide
hazard for the city of Berkeley, California, USGS
 Modelling of explosion

© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Determination of design loads from explosion and impact scenarios

N. Gebbeken & T. Döge

Institute of Engineering Mechanics and Structural Mechanics/Laboratory of Engineering Informatics
University of the German Armed Forces Munich, Neubiberg, Germany

ABSTRACT: This work deals with the question of how a structural designer can determine the decisive design
load for the structure on the basis of an explosion scenario. In this context, some basic phenomena concerning
the propagation of blast waves, the essential parameters like (over)pressure, pulse and reflection as well as
different methods for the determination of these parameters are introduced. The reflected pressure for normal
and non-normal reflections of the blast wave from surfaces and for multiple reflections is explained. The paper
describes the influence of material parameters on the peak reflected overpressure.

1 INTRODUCTION with a velocity of up to approximately 10 km/s. The

Accidents leading to an explosion in technical instal-
lations, the transportation of explosive cargo, or gas
explosions in inhabited buildings: These are incidents
which present a hazard to people, facilities, techni-
cal installations and even to a complete infrastructure.
For certain scenarios like dust explosions or power
plant accidents, there are guidelines and regulations
on incidents (Gebbeken & Ruppert 1999). Depending
on the counting method, approximately 70% to 90%
of the terrorist attacks against facilities in the year
2002 involved explosives (FEMA 2003). Therefore,
the “load case” of an explosion is of special impor-
tance, for different reasons. For windows and doors
there are standards for explosion scenarios which
were developed to enable comparison on the market.
This includes, for example: 20 kg TNT at a distance
of 4 m (EN 13123-2:2004-05, EN 13124-2:2004-05).
This provides certain protection levels for a specific
scenario. However, explosion accidents and terrorist
attacks will not take place in a “standardized” man-
ner. Each possible incident has to be discussed and
taken into consideration. Taking account of the risk
and the probability of occurrence, the building owner,
the insurer and the security officials determine individ-
ual hazard scenarios. The engineer is not involved in
this process. Only when the action scenarios have been
determined it becomes the task of specialists to deter-
mine the design loads on the basis of these scenarios.
2 PRESSURE, OVERPRESSURE AND
REFLECTED OVERPRESSURE –
EASY-TO-UNDERSTAND ILLUSTRATION
When an explosion takes place, a large amount of
energy is released within microseconds. The deto-
nation process within a solid explosive takes place
expanding detonation products hit the undisturbed air
particles and compress them suddenly within fractions
of microseconds. Similar to the air inside a bicycle
pump, the air heats up, up to 5000◦ C. Due to the
heating process up to this temperature, the chemical
composition of the air changes and the compressed
air emits light. This increase in temperature is because
of the compression of the blast wave and is a sepa-
rate phenomenon from increase in temperature by the
chemical process of burning products of detonation.
In the case of a spherical-symmetrical detonation
process, a blast wave propagates spherically through
open air. The peak overpressure decreases with the dis-
tance. In the case of the explosion of 100 kg TNT, for
example, a blast overpressure in the order of magnitude
of a design wind overpressure (DIN 1055-4:2005-03)
will remain at a distance of 500 m. When the overpres-
sure of a blast wave is to be determined by experiment,
the pressure gauges are installed at specified distances
to the explosion source. The measuring signal (black)
shown in Figure 1 stands for a measured pressure-time
history typical of 100 kg TNT at a distance of 15 m.
For comparison, the blue curve shows the result of a
numerical simulation. The typical pressure-time his-
tory is characterized by the pressure rise time, which
only takes nanoseconds, by the peak overpressure, by
the overpressure phase which is in the millisecond
range, and by the negative pressure phase. The peak
overpressure is the difference between the peak pres-
sure p1 and the ambient air pressure p0 . The terms
overpressure and pressure must not be confused. For
the theoretical and practical analysis, the rise time and
thus the “thickness” of the shock front can be neglected
and is idealized here to be “zero”. The shock front is
nothing else than the boundary area between the air in
the initial state and the state in the blast wave.
If the blast wave hits a solid obstacle at the same
distance from the measuring point as in the free

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 1. Explosion, overpressure-time histories, measured
and calculated.
propagation scenario, a pressure transducer measures
the overpressure-time history shown in red in Figure
1. The peak overpressure is approximately 2.8 times
that in the free propagation scenario.
What is the reason for such a pressure rise? One
might first think that the incident and the reflected
waves overlap, thus doubling the overpressure during
the reflection. However, unlike in the case of an elastic
individual impact, the blast wave forces many parti-
cles to hit the obstacle. They cannot be reflected freely
because more air particles follow. For this reason, a
further factor has to be taken into consideration, i.e.
the dynamic pressure (Equ. 8). A so-called reflected
overpressure develops and acts on the structure. The
reflected overpressure is the design load.
3 BLAST WAVES AND REFLECTIONS
3.1 Equation of state
The state of ideal gases is unambiguously described
by two state variables. Such state variables are e.g. the
temperature T , the pressure p, the density ρ and the
specific inner energy e.
An equation of state describes the relationship
between the state variables. Frequently,
is used as the equation of state for ideal gas, where γ
is the isentropic exponent.
Here, air is assumed to be an ideal gas. For air in
the standard state (DIN 1343:1990-01, T = 273.15 K,
p = 101325 Pa), γ is approximately 1.4. For explosion
conditions, 1.17 <≈ γ <≈ 1.4 applies.
3.2 Determination of the overpressure-time history
Formulas describing the most important characteristic
parameters of the overpressure-time history of the free
blast wave have been developed using semi-empirical
methods. These parameters are the peak side-on over-
pressure pso , the duration of the overpressure phase td ,
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
and the maximum pulse Imax . Formulas for the calcula-
tion of pso and td are given by e.g. Kinney & Graham
1985.
The overpressure-time history can be idealized
using the exponential function
Here, α ≥ 0 is a form factor of the function. It
is stated by Kinney & Graham 1985 in Table XI.
An important variable for the design is the maximum
impulse
as an integral of the overpressure over the time.
A linear overpressure-time history with α = 0 can
be used for the design by neglecting the suction phase.
Then, the maximum pulse
is at its highest. Sometimes, the suction phase can be
decisive for the design. Then, the suction phase must
not be neglected.
The calculation of the overpressure-time history
on the basis of the formulas given can only be used
for simple examples with relatively rigid structural
members such as reinforced concrete columns. To
determine the effects under complex ambient con-
ditions with multiple reflections or on light elastic
structures such as light membranes, numerical sim-
ulations with CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics)
programs are required, if necessary, with fluid struc-
ture interaction. However, the formulas stated here can
be used even for complex problems to make a quick
estimation and checks. It is important to note that when
the explosion takes place on or near a surface, say, the
ground, the formulas have to be applied with twice the
explosive mass because the surface acts like a plane
of symmetry. But these formulas were developed for
a free, spherical propagation of the blast wave.
For the design, an increase from the peak side-on
overpressure to the peak reflected overpressure has
to be considered. This increase is described in the
following section. The duration time td of the over-
pressure phase of the reflected blast wave only changes
marginally in comparison with the incident blast wave.
This change of td can therefore be neglected for the
design.
3.3 Normal reflections at rigid surfaces
As it is already described in section 2, the pressure of
a blast wave increases when the blast wave is reflected
at obstacles. The reflected pressure can be determined
using the equation of state (1) and the conservation
Figure 2. Reflection coefficient in relation to the side-on
overpressure pso and with p0 = 101.325 kPa.
equations for mass, momentum and energy (Kinney &
Graham 1985, Gebbeken & Döge 2006a, b). Then
the reflected pressure p2 is
for normal reflections.
When air is assumed to be an ideal gas and the
reflection is normal, then the reflected pressure p2 only
depends on the ambient air pressure p0 , the isentropic
exponent γ and the incident pressure p1 , and not on
the density ρ or the specific inner energy e or the
temperature T .
The reflection coefficient cr is defined as the ratio
between the peak reflected overpressure pro and the
peak side-on overpressure pso of the incident blast
wave:
The insertion of (8) and γ = 1.4 into (9) yields the
equation
In Figure 2, the reflection coefficient is shown
in relation to the side-on overpressure pso = p1 − p0
with p0 = 101.325 kPa. limp1 →p0 cr = 2 applies for
very low overpressures, while the reflection coeffi-
cient approximates the asymptote limp1 →∞ = 8 for
very high overpressures. This is only valid when air is
assumed to be an ideal gas with a constant isentropic
exponent of γ = 1.4.
However, air is only approximately an ideal gas.
When the pressures and temperatures are high,
the isentropic exponent decreases to γ ≈ 1.17 (TM
5-855-1 1997). This affects the reflection coefficient,
which increases to cr ≈ 12.5 for the side-on overpres-
sure pso ≈ 34.5 MPa (Figure 2) and potentially even to
20 when pressures are even higher (Mays & Smith
1995).
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 3. Reflection coefficient in relation to the angle of
incidence and the peak overpressure of the incident blast wave
(based on UFC 3-340-02 2008).
According to Mayrhofer 2004, explosions with
a scaled distance of z > 0.5 (z according to (3)) can
be regarded as far-field blasts. This corresponds to
side-on overpressures of up to approximately 4 MPa.
When a variable isentropic exponent is compared to
a constant one, the deviation of the reflection coeffi-
cient is approximately 6%. Using a constant isentropic
exponent for far-field blasts thus ensures sufficient
accuracy. For near-field detonations, it has to be deter-
mined whether an increased reflection coefficient has
to be taken into consideration.
The transformation of equation (5) and considera-
tion of the equations for the density ρ1 and the gas
velocity up1 of the incident blast wave produce the
interesting formula
for the peak reflected overpressure. Equation (8)
clearly shows that the peak reflected overpressure
pro is composed of twice the peak side-on overpres-
2
sure pso and the dynamic pressure (ρ1 up1 )/2 which
is multiplied by the factor (γ + 1). This confirms
the idea graphically portrayed in section 2, accord-
ing to which the overpressures of the incident and the
reflected waves and additionally a pressure caused by
the stopping of the air overlap.
3.4 Oblique reflections at rigid surfaces
If the blast wave does not hit a surface normally,
the reflected pressure also depends on the angle of
incidence (Fig. 3).
Figure 3 shows that the reflection coefficient
depends on three important parameters: the peak
overpressure, the angle of incidence, and the isen-
tropic exponent. The right part of Figure 3 illustrates
that, at an angle of incidence of approximately 40◦
to 80◦ , maxima of approximately 3 occur for the
reflection coefficient, especially at overpressures of
pso ≤ 0.1 MPa (≈3 kg TNT in a = 4 m). The influence Table 1. Reflection coefficients for different materials and
of the angle of incidence on the reflection coefficient an incident peak side-on overpressure pso = 20 bar.
can effectively be used in blast resistant shaping to
reduce the blast loads (Gebbeken & Döge 2010). ρm0 cB S cr (pso = 20 bar)
The overpressure of the incident blast wave is mul- Material [kg/m3 ] [m/s] [–] [–]
tiplied by the reflection coefficient. For the design,
Rigid – – – 6.429
however, the entire pressure-time history is important. Steel 7850 4502 1.367 6.426
This means that the duration of the positive pressure Concrete 2350 * * 6.421
phase is also needed. With it, the impulse is also Glass 2230 3879 1.86 6.417
known. In the case of brittle materials (e.g. glass) or Material 1 1000 500 1.05 6.234
structures with low mass (Teich & Gebbeken 2009), Material 2 10 2000 1.05 3.995
it may be necessary to also take account of the negative Material 3 10 500 1.05 2.893
overpressure phase.
For the design of structures, the structural designer * A pressure-density EoS was used for concrete, so no values
is frequently given information on pressures and are stated for cB and S.
impulses as results of tests. It is necessary to state
exactly which pressure is meant. The design pressure is are arbitrary but sensible with respect to the reflection
the reflected overpressure. The duration of the positive behavior. These materials have the following proper-
pressure phase is required for the dynamic calculation; ties: Material no. 1 has a relatively high density ρm0
it is calculated from (7) to but a low compression wave velocity cB or stiffness,
respectively (e.g. polyethylene, low density (PE-LD)).
Material no. 2 has a low density but a high stiffness
(e.g. aluminum foam). Material no. 3 has a low density
and a low stiffness (e.g. soft polyurethane foam). S is
a parameter of the equation of state.
The input variables for the dynamic calculation are The results in Table 1 show that the reflection coef-
thus determined. ficient for construction materials like steel, concrete or
glass virtually does not change at all when compared
to an ideal rigid material. This result can be extended
4 INFLUENCE OF THE MATERIAL AND THE to most of the load-bearing construction materials,
THICKNESS OF STRUCTURAL MEMBERS including brickwork and even wood.
ON THE REFLECTED OVERPRESSURE Possible materials that reduce the reflection coef-
ficient are light, soft foams. Most aluminum foams
The question is whether the material involved has any are light but very stiff, and so are not ideal. Another
influence on the reflection coefficient. Just looking necessary characteristic of such foams is their capac-
at it, the material must have some influence because ity to absorb energy. It will therefore be the job of
the transition from non-porous solids to porous solids material scientists to develop materials which can
and to air can be gradual; steel – aluminum foam – significantly reduce the reflected overpressure and
sponge – air. These thoughts prompted us to prepare a additionally absorb energy.
study (Gebbeken & Döge 2006a). This section pro-
vides an answer to the question of the extent to which 4.2 Thickness and support of structural members
the reflection coefficient can be influenced by differ-
ent materials and different thicknesses of structural This section deals with the question of the extent to
members. which the reflection coefficient is influenced by the
thickness and the support of structural members. In
this paper, it has been assumed that the thickness of
4.1 Material the shock front is zero. In reality, viscosity and the
The theory and the calculations related to this sec- thermal conduction of the air smooth the shock front
tion are published by Gebbeken & Döge 2006a. The out. According to Taylor 1963, the shock front has a
results are briefly presented here. A constant isentropic thickness of
exponent of γ = 1.4 is used for the air. The equations of
state and the conservation equations for air and solids
were used to determine the pressure p2 and the reflec-
tion coefficient cr for different materials and different
side-on overpressures pso . For this purpose, the stan- With this, the rise time is
dard state of air (section 3.1) was assumed to be the
initial state. The results for the reflection coefficients
are shown in Table 1. In addition to the rigid reflection
(line 2), the classical construction materials steel, glass
and concrete were first examined. Following this, we
“invented” the materials 1, 2 and 3. These are at first At overpressures of the incident blast wave
“theoretical” materials with material parameters that of 0.1 MPa ≤ pso ≤ 4 MPa, the rise time is in the

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
range of 3·10−11 s ≤ ta ≤ 1.3·10−9 s. When shock
wave velocities in solids are in the range of
500 m/s ≤ usm ≤ 10,000 m/s, the shock wave propa-
gates up to a distance of 0.013 mm inside the structural
member until the maximum reflected overpressure
is reached. Because the structural members are nor-
mally thicker than 0.013 mm in practice, the maximum
reflected overpressure and thus also the reflection
coefficient are influenced neither by the thickness of
the member, its bending stiffness nor the supports.

5 BLAST WAVES AND MULTIPLE

REFLECTIONS
Figure 4. Ground-building reflection.
Up to now, we have only dealt with the free propaga-
tion of blast waves and single reflection from solids.
In reality, however, reflections are nearly always mul-
tiple. In buildings, the blast waves are reflected several
times by the floor, the ceiling and the walls; they can
branch out into corridors, staircases and shafts; and
they are accompanied not only by overpressure states
but also by negative pressure states. The propagation of
blast waves is no less complicated in towns and cities.
The propagation of blast waves can be influenced by
shape and town and countryside planning. Multiple
reflections and their load states can virtually only be Figure 5. Internal explosion in underground car park, left:
determined by numerical simulation. For this, we use pressure plot, right: pressure-time history measured at top of
wave propagation programs, so-called hydrocodes. one column (white cross).

5.1 Ground-building reflections
When an explosive detonates at a height HB above
the ground (Figure 4), the following has to be taken
into consideration: Up to a horizontal distance d0 , a
so-called regular reflection takes place on the ground.
This means that the point of the intersection between
the incident wave and the wave reflected by the ground
is on the ground. When the distance reaches d0 , the
point of intersection moves up away from the ground
and an almost vertical Mach stem develops. The
resulting shock front no longer propagates spherically
but cylindrically. The cylinder area is the so-called
Mach stem. Up to a height of
the overpressure of the Mach stem hits the building
and is reflected. Above it, the incident wave and the
blast wave reflected by the ground hit the building
consecutively or overlap. For practical cases, the angle
β is in the range of 39.2◦ < β < 60◦ . In theory, β can
reach 90◦ for very small overpressures pso .
The pressure of the Mach stem reflection is most
usefully determined by numerical calculations.
5.2 Internal explosions
An internal explosion involves multiple reflections.
The left of Figure 5 shows an underground car park.
For the sake of clarity, the ceiling and the walls are
not shown. The pressure-time history in the right of
this figure shows that the first wave is followed by a
second one originating from the reflection. Although
the second pressure peak is smaller than the first one,
the second wave can cause destruction if damage was
caused by the first wave.
Such complex conditions can only be analyzed
numerically.
5.3 External explosions
The propagation of the blast wave in urban areas is just
as complex as it is in the case of an internal explosion.
Envelopment and tunnel effects cause negative pres-
sure effects as well as pressure increases which can
only be reconstructed numerically.
The market offers simplified engineering codes for
the propagation of blast waves. The engineering codes
known to the authors do not take account of the actual
structural conditions but only serve to approximate
distances.
6 BLAST WAVE STRUCTURE INTERACTION
We have already mentioned in section 4.2 that very
thin, virtually massless structural members behave dif-
ferently to usual constructions. Although the stiffness
of structural members does not influence the reflec-
tion coefficient or the peak reflected overpressure, it

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 6. Explosion in a built-up area.
Figure 7. Cable net glass façade (top). pressure-time histo-
ries, numerical calculation of blast wave/membrane interac-
tion (bottom).
does influence the overall overpressure-time history.
This influence is negligible for relatively stiff struc-
tural members. However, light and virtually massless
flexible constructions such as certain membranes offer
the possibility to influence the overpressure-time his-
tory positively. Even more important is the interaction
between the blast wave and façade parts and the load-
bearing structure. By applying intelligent solutions, it
is possible to exert a major influence on the forces
which actually act on the load-bearing structure.
The left of Figure 7 shows a cable net glass façade
globally bearing like a membrane. The right part of this
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
figure shows the result of a numerical simulation of
blast wave/membrane interaction. It can be recognized
that the peak reflected overpressure of the membrane
is no different to what it is in the case of a rigid reflec-
tion, but that the behavior after the impact of the blast
wave is.
7 CONCLUSION
This paper presents the procedure of the calculation of
the blast design loads out from an explosion scenario.
A major task is thereby the determination of the peak
reflected overpressure or the reflection coefficient
respectively. It can be summarized:
• The reflection coefficient is not limited to a maxi-
mum of 2. 2(3) < cr ≤ 20 applies.
• Assuming the constant isentropic exponent is
γ = 1.4, then 2 < cr < 8.
• The assumption of an isentropic exponent of γ = 1.4
is sufficient for far-field blast.
• The reflection coefficient can reach values up to 20
at near-field blasts.
• The influence of most of the load-bearing construc-
tion materials on the reflection coefficient is so
low that it can be neglected. The assumption that
the material is a rigid obstacle (rigid reflection) is
justified.
• Materials with a low density and a low rigidity can
reduce the reflection coefficient significantly.
• The usual thicknesses (>0.013 mm) und the sup-
ports of structural members have no influence on
the reflection coefficient.
• Light and flexible constructions, e.g. membranes,
can be used to positively influence the reflected
overpressure-time history.
REFERENCES
Defense Special Weapons Agency and the Joint Depart-
ments of the Army, Air Force, and Navy, TM 5-855-1
1997, Design and Analysis of Hardened Structures to
Conventional Weapons Effects.
UFC 3-340-02 2008. Structures to Resist the Effects of
Accidental Explosions. Department of Defense.
DIN 1055-4:2005-03, Einwirkungen auf Tragwerke – Teil 4:
Windlasten.
DIN 1343:1990-01, Referenzzustand, Normzustand, Normvo-
lumen – Begriffe und Werte.
EN 13123-2:2004-05, Windows, doors, and shutters – Explo-
sion resistance – Requirements and classification – Part
2: Range test.
EN 13124-2:2004-05, Windows, doors and shutters – Explo-
sion resistance – Test method – Part 2: Range test.
FEMA 2003. Reference Manual to Mitigate Potential Ter-
rorist Attacks Against Buildings. FEMA No. 426, Federal
Emergency Management Agency, Washington, D.C.
Gebbeken, N. & Döge, T. 2006a. Der Reflexionsfaktor bei
der senkrechten Reflexion von Luftstoßwellen an starren
und an nachgiebigen Materialien. Bauingenieur 81(11):
496–503.
Gebbeken, N. & Döge, T. 2006b. Vom Explosionsszenario
zur Bemessungslast. Der Prüfingenieur.
Gebbeken, N. & Döge, T. 2010. Explosion Protection–
Architectural Design, Urban Planning and Landscape
Plan-ning. International Journal of Protective Structures
Bd. 1(1): S. 1–22.
Gebbeken, N., Linse, T., Hartmann, T., Teich, M. &
Pietzsch, A. 2009. Dimensioning of concrete walls against
small calibre impact including models for deformable
penetrators and the scattering of experimental results.
In S. Hiermaier (ed.) Predictive Modeling of Dynamic
Processes – A Tribute to Professor Klaus Thoma, Springer.
Gebbeken, N. & Ruppert, M. 1999. Ein Beitrag zur Simula-
tion von Baustrukturen unter hochdynamischen Kurzzeit-
beanspruchungen. Bauingenieur 74(11): 461–470.
Kinney, G.F. & Graham, K.J. 1985. Explosive Shocks in Air.
Berlin Heidelberg New York Tokyo: Springer.
Mayrhofer, C. 2004. Methoden der dynamischen Grenz-
tragfähigkeitsberechnung. In K. Thoma, N. Gebbeken &
H. Thünemann (eds) Workshop ”Bau-Protect” Bauliche
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Strukturen unter Belastung durch Impakt und Spreng-
wirkung: 169–184, EMI, Freiburg.
Mays, G.C. & Smith, P.D. 1995. Blast effects on buildings:
Design of buildings to optimize resistance to blast loading.
Thomas Telford.
Rinehart, J.S. 1975. Stress Transients in Solids. Santa Fe, NM:
HyperDynamicS.
Taylor, G.I. 1963. The Propagation and Decay of Blast Waves.
In G.K. Batchelor (ed.), The Scientific Papers of Sir
Geoffrey Ingram Taylor, Vol III: 221–235, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Teich, M. & Gebbeken, N. 2009. Infrastructure Protection
with Flexible and Soft Structures. In 13th International
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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

A feasibility study on modeling blast loading using ALE formulation

L. Kwasniewski, M. Balcerzak & J. Wojciechowski

Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland

ABSTRACT: The paper presents a comparison of numerical data for computer simulations of blast loading.
Based on the published experimental data, a benchmark problem was selected, where the pressure loading
subjected to a rigid steel plate and produced by near field hemispherical charges, is considered. The comparison
is done in terms of peaks of reflected pressure (overpressure), reflected specific impulses, and time histories of
reflected pressure. The numerical study was conducted using mainly three dimensional Arbitrary Lagrangian
Eulerian (ALE) formulation implemented in the commercial code LS-DYNA® . Several other modeling options
and strategies were also considered and validated through comparison with the available experimental data. The
sensitivity study on mesh resolution for ALE meshes was also considered. Although several discrepancies were
indicated, the premature validation study shows big potential for this type of numerical modeling.

1 INTRODUCTION direct empirical load with fluid-structure interaction

The experimental and numerical studies on struc-
tures subjected to blast loads show complexity of the
problem and many challenges facing this research
area, Bulson (1997). Among the most fundamental
objectives, there can be mentioned three: a reliable
prediction of loads imposed on structures by explo-
sives, correct representation of material behavior, and
global analysis of large scale structures.
This paper reports a preliminary feasibility study
on approaches for numerical modeling of blast loads,
implemented in the commercial program LS-DYNA®
(Hallquist 2009). Four approaches have been con-
sidered including: explicit blast wave representation
using fluid-structure interaction with 3D and 2D multi-
material arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) formu-
lations, direct application of empirical explosive blast
loads on structures, and the most recent, combined
method, in which direct empirical loading is subjected
to the ALE domain. Each of these approaches has its
own advantages and limitations, although the last one
seems to be the most universal. Numerical models of
fluid-structure interaction with 3D ALE formulation
are able to capture complex interaction of reflected
and dispersed blast waves but are computationally
very demanding and require very dense meshes. The
ALE elements must be small enough to capture the
nearly discontinuous shock front of the blast wave.
The 2D approach is computationally much more effi-
cient but is only applicable to simple axisymmetric
problems. The application of direct empirical blast
loads is the most effective method but it is limited to
free-air cases where there are no interferencing objects
which can cause reflecting or focusing of blast waves.
To overcome this limitations a new method has been
developed recently in LS-DYNA® which combines
using ALE 3D domain (Slavik 2009).
2 SELECTED BENCHMARK PROBLEM
At this stage of the reported feasibility study the
numerical results are compared with published exper-
imental data for a selected problem investigated by
Pope & Tyas (2002). In a series of experiments, 78 g
PE4 hemispherical explosive charges were used to
load a target plate at short stand-offs, varying from
400 to 1000 mm. With special care taken to produce
repeatable testing conditions, Pope & Tyas obtained
highly reliable pressure time histories recorded by
pressure transducers placed in the target semi-rigid
plate. A typical test setup is presented schematically in
Figure 1. Comparison is done in terms of arrival time,
peaks of reflected pressure (overpressure), reflected
specific impulses for the time histories of reflected
pressure at the central point of the target plate.
Obtained experimental results are in good cor-
relation with approximations given by well-known
Friedlander function (Slavik 2009), with the maximum
reflected pressure decreasing and arrival times increas-
ing for increased stand-offs. It was also confirmed
that at the near field stand-offs the charge shape is
an important factor and can result in different loading
magnitudes for the same charge masses.
3 FLUID-STRUCTURE INTERACTION
USING ALE FORMULATION
3.1 Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian formulation
The ALE methods enable to conduct calculations for
coexisting Lagrangian and Eulerian meshes and in
this way to reproduce interaction between fluid and a

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 1. Test setup for a series of experiments used by
Pope & Tyas (2002) to produce time histories of reflected
overpressure.
deformable structure.The pure Lagrangian description
makes it easy to track interfaces and to apply bound-
ary conditions. The ALE mesh, created to represent
the fluid domain, is usually undistorted (can be auto-
matically expanded) and might be fixed (as in typical
Eulerian formulation) or can move according to the
prescribed, arbitrary conditions, Hallquist (2009). An
ALE mesh can be built of multimaterial elements or
elements filled with a fluid and void. Interfaces and
boundary conditions are difficult to track using this
approach; however, mesh distortion is not a problem
because the mesh is smoothed to its original shape
and dimensions after each calculation cycle. In the
model, fluid flows through the undistorted mesh and,
due to coupling algorithms, interacts with a structure
represented by a Lagrangian mesh or rigid boundary
conditions. The Lagrangian mesh is independent and
usually is immersed in the ALE regular mesh which
defines the space where the fluid motion is traced.
The ALE and Eulerian methods implemented in
explicit FE codes such as LS-DYNA® are based
on the classical Lagrangian formulation (Hallquist
2009). The solution algorithm is incremental con-
sisting of finite element explicit (Lagrangian) time
steps followed by so called advection steps. For pure
Lagrangian approach, where a mesh moves with the
fluid, extensive element distortions are likely to occur
with the mesh degeneration leading to small or neg-
ative volumes. To avoid numerical problems due to
large distortions, the finite element mesh is smoothed
when deformations become too large during the com-
putation. The ALE formulation enables cyclic and
automatic rezoning, based on the deformed boundaries
between Lagrangian cycles. The advection step carries
out an incremental remapping followed by the trans-
portation (advection) of nodal and element variables,
from the distorted to the new mesh. The computational
cost of an advection step is typically two to five times
the cost of the Lagrangian time step (Hallquist 2009).
For blast analysis the ALE domain is filled with
air modeled as ideal gas with the linear polynomial
equation of state (EOS). The charge is modeled using
special purpose material model named High Explosive
Burn characterized by the Jones-Wilkins-Lee EOS
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 2. Definition of hemispherical charge using
option “initial volume fraction geometry” for 2D mesh
2.5 × 2.5 mm.
(Hallquist 2009). In this way the explosive as well as
the air are explicitly modeled allowing for tracing the
blast wave propagation through the ALE air domain
and interaction with the Lagrangian structure through
fluid-structure interaction.
More detailed description of this novel formulation
can be found in Donea (1980) and Hallquist (2009).
3.2 Axisymmetric 2D models
An axisymmetric model is built of regular square
elements with the symmetry axis set default along
the y-axis of the model. The shape of the explo-
sive material is cut out from the domain defined by
multi-material ALE elements using “initial volume
fraction geometry” option, as shown in Figure 2. The
target plate is represented by boundary conditions con-
straining y-translation of the ALE nodes at the spec-
ified distance from the explosive material. All other
boundaries have default, nonreflecting conditions. The
calculations were carried out for meshes with dif-
ferent element sizes: 5 × 5 mm, 2.5 × 2.5 mm, and
1.25 × 1.25 mm to verify the effect of mesh density
on the results.
Figure 3 shows contours of pressure showing prop-
agation of blast wave for 500 m stand-off. Figure 4
presents time histories of reflected overpressure for
all considered stand-offs. It can be noticed that the
arrival time of the blast waves is the same as for the
experiments but the shape of the function differs from
the typical Friedlander description. The peak reflected
overpressures, calculated and from the experiments
are compared in Figure 5. As expected the values are
higher for smaller element size, but for the small-
est considered element size of 1.25 mm the solver
overestimates the results. Additionally, for the finer
meshes some disturbances in reflected overpressure
histories appear. Figure 6 presents comparison of cal-
culated specific impulses with the experiment. The
same as in the case of reflected overpressure, results
are overestimated for the finest mesh in comparison
to the experiment and other mesh densities indicating
computational problems of the solver.
3.3 ALE 3D model
Several modeling issues have to be considered for
direct simulation of fluid-structure interaction with 3D
ALE formulation. First, to reproduce properly the blast
wave propagation, the air domain must be represented
Figure 3. Contours of pressure showing propagation of blast
wave for 500 m stand-off and element size 2.5 mm.
Figure 4. Time histories of reflected overpressure for dif-
ferent stand-offs and element size 2.5 mm.
Figure 5. Comparison of peak reflected overpressure for
experiment and 2D ALE with element sizes 1.25, 2.5, and
5 mm.
Figure 6. Comparison of specific impulses for experiment
and 3D ALE models with element sizes 1.25, 2.5, and 5 mm.
by a regular ALE mesh built of hexahedral elements
preferably with the aspect ratio of unity. To include
charges, two options can be applied.
The material model for explosive charge can be
associated with selected finite elements of the ALE
mesh but with a rectilinear mesh this option is appli-
cable only to cubical charges. For charges with com-
plex shapes, an option called “initial volume fraction
geometry” (Hallquist 2009) can be applied. This is a
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 7. Views of a quarter of the hemispherical charge
defined using volume-filling command “initial volume frac-
tion geometry”.
Figure 8. Snapshots of iso-surfaces of pressure for 400 mm
stand-off modeled with 3D ALE mesh of 5 mm.
Figure 9. Time histories of reflected overpressure for ele-
ment size 5 mm and different stand-offs.
volume-filling command used for defining the volume
fractions of the multi-material ALE elements which
can be occupied by a selected material. Figure 7 shows
application of this option for generation of one quarter
of the hemispherical charge cut out with the symmetry
planes (compare Fig. 2).
To reduce number of finite elements, only one quar-
ter of the volume is represented for the cubical space
where the blast wave is traced. The modeled space
is bounded by two symmetry planes with boundary
conditions constraining displacements in the perpen-
dicular direction. The target plate is also represented
by constrained perpendicular displacements of the
selected nodes. On the other external surfaces the
default nonreflecting boundary conditions are set.
The 3D ALE model calculations were carried out for
the finite element sizes 5 and 10 mm.
Figure 8 shows snapshots of iso-surfaces of pres-
sure for 400 mm stand-off modeled with 3D ALE mesh
 Table 1. Comparison of peak reflected pressure and arrival
time for experiment and empirical blast loads.

Stand-off 400 mm 1000 mm

Peak pressure [MPa]

experiment 12.4 0.7
calculation 78 g spherical charge:
elem. size 25 × 25 mm 5.953 0.132
elem. size 10 × 10 mm 5.597 0.408
elem. size 5 × 5 mm 1.073 0.413
calculation 78 g hemi-spherical charge:
elem. size 10 × 10 mm 9.684 0.648
Figure 10. Comparison of peak reflected overpressure for calculation 1.37∗ 78 g spherical charge:
experiment and 3D ALE models with element sizes 5 and elem. size 5 × 5 mm 7.804 0.552
10 mm. calculation 1.37∗ 78 g hemi-spherical charge:
elem. size 5 × 5 mm 12.512 0.900
Arrival times of shock wave [ms]
experiment 1.52 8.58
calculation 78 g spherical charge:
elem. size 25 × 25 mm 1.88 10.03
elem. size 10 × 10 mm 1.99 10.03
elem. size 5 × 5 mm 1.99 10.03
calculation 78 g hemi-spherical charge:
elem. size 10 × 10 mm 1.72 9.66
calculation 1.37∗ 78 g spherical charge:
elem. size 5 × 5 mm 1.83 10.14
calculation 1.37∗ 78 g hemi-spherical charge:
Figure 11. Comparison of specific impulses for experiment elem. size 5 × 5 mm 1.61 8.85
and 3D ALE models with element sizes 5 and 10 mm.

of 5 mm. Figure 9 presents example time histories of

the reflected overpressure for element size 5 mm. The
same as in the case of the ALE 2D model arrival time
of blast wave is practically the same as for the experi-
ment. Figures 10 & 11 present comparisons of the peak
reflected overpressures and of the specific impulses,
respectively. Although the results are underestimated
in the reference to the experimental data, it can be
predicted that further refinement of the mesh would
improve the results, because in contradiction to the 2D
ALE model (section 3.2) the refinement itself does not
cause disturbances of the time histories for reflected
overpressure.
4 EMPIRICAL BLAST LOADS
In this approach, air blast pressure is computed
with empirical blast equations and directly applied
to Lagrangian elements of the structure. The method
takes an advantage of well calibrated empirical equa-
tions derived using a compilation of results from large
number of explosive air blast experiments (Slavik
2009). Without modeling explicitly the air between
the explosive and the structure this approach is com-
putationally very effective, especially for global anal-
yses when large stand-off distances and large scale
structures are considered. The disadvantage of this
approach is that it cannot capture interaction of the
blast wave with any objects in front of the analyzed
structure.
To determine the blast loading a user needs to
select among several cases and define the charge
weight and its position relative to the structure. Two
different stand-offs were considered – 400 mm and
1000 mm. For both cases the target square steel plate
shown in Figure 1, was modeled with the fully inte-
grated shell elements with two different mesh densities
corresponding to element sizes of 25 × 25 mm and
5 × 5 mm. All nodes were fully constrained to imi-
tate the rigidity of the plate. The loading was applied
using “load blast enhanced” option defining the charge
mass of equivalent to TNT, its distance from the target
and conversion factors (in this study millimeters, tons
and seconds were used). This option allows model-
ing the action of shock wave for different charge
shapes. Unfortunately, the considered benchmark con-
figuration, with the hemispherical charge (shock wave
without reflection and reinforcement from ground), is
currently not available in the program LS-DYNA® . For
the “load blast enhanced” option one can choose either
spherical charge without reflection of shock wave,
or hemispherical charge situated near to the ground.
Shape of the charge in both cases has some impact on
the results, as it is shown further. Comparison of the
experimental (Pope & Tyas 2002) and the calculated
results for different cases considered is presented in
Table 1.
Example time histories of the reflected pressure
calculated for the spherical charge, 400 mm stand-off
and three mesh densities are presented in Figure 12.
Figure 12 shows that for the shell element sizes 5 mm

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 12. Time histories of reflected pressure for spheri-
cal charge, 400 mm stand-off, and for three different mesh
densities.
Figure 13. Time histories of pressure for spherical and
hemispherical charges and 400 mm stand-off.
Figure 14. Contours of pressure applied to the target palate
and generated by option “load blast enhanced”.
and 10 mm the estimated blast loading applied to the
target plate in terms of the overpressure is almost iden-
tical. The differences between the results calculated for
the same shell element sizes 10 × 10 mm and for the
hemispherical and the spherical charges and 400 mm
stand-off, are presented in Figure 13. The distribution
of the blast loading generated by the option “load blast
enhanced” and applied to the target palate is shown in
Figure 14 as contours of pressure.
The peak reflected overpressure generated in the
middle point of the target plate for the stand-off
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
400 mm was calculated as equal to 5.95 MPa in the
case of hemispherical charge and 9.68 MPa for the
spherical charge. For the stand-off 1000 mm the val-
ues are accordingly 0.41 MPa and 0.65 MPa. The
corresponding experimental data gives 12.4 MPa and
0.7 MPa for 400 mm and 1000 mm stand-offs, respec-
tively. The numerical results are affected by the fact
that the empirical formula “Load blast enhanced” is
set for TNT, and in the experiment the PE4 charge
was used. These materials are quite similar, however
detonation velocity of PE4 is higher than for TNT
(Bulson 1997). Therefore the time, when the shock
wave reaches the plate, may be slightly different –
in the experiment for the 400 mm stand-off the time
equals to about 1,54 ms, whereas in the calculations
it is 2 ms (for 1000 mm stand-off it is accordingly
8,56 ms and 10,03 ms). Also the pressure on the plate
for the same mass ofTNT and PE4 is smaller in the case
of TNT, however it is also predictable and according
to Weckert & Anderson (2006) for the peak pressure
the equivalence ratio between TNT and PE4 is 1.37.
If the mass of the charge is multiplied by 1.37 the
peak pressure reaches 12.51 MPa for 400 mm stand-
off and 0.90 MPa (0.55 MPa for the spherical charge)
for 1000 mm stand-off (see Table 1). The effective
impulses obtained for the mass of charge multiplied
by 1.37 are also presented in Table 1. For 400 mm
stand-off the effective impulse is equal to 0.54 kPa·ms
for the hemispherical charge and 0.33 kPa·ms for
the spherical charge, while the experimental value
equals to 0.38 kPa·ms. For the 1000 mm stand-off there
are accordingly 0.16 kPa·ms and 0.10 kPa·ms, with
the experimental value equal to 0.13 kPa·ms. These
results seem to be quite reasonable comparing to the
experiment.
5 COMBINED METHOD
In the new, combined method, only the air immedi-
ately surrounding the Lagrangian structure needs to
be explicitly modeled with the ALE mesh. The blast
pressure calculated using empirical blast equations
(section 4) is directly applied to the most outer face
of the ALE air domain. In this way effects such as
focusing and shadowing, caused by interfering objects
immersed in the ALE mesh, can be captured. The new
method is supposed to accommodate a good balance
between accuracy and computational efficiency.
In the case described below the same test setup
as presented in Figure 1 was applied with a 78 g
spherical TNT charge at stand-off of 400 mm. The
calculations were conducted for different ALE mesh
densities: 20 × 20 × 20 mm, 10 × 10 × 10 mm and
5 × 5 × 5 mm. Figure 15 shows the FE model with the
ambient layer positioned 200 mm from explosive and
the ALE mesh for air. The rest of the air between the
charge and the ALE mesh and the charge itself are not
explicitly modeled. In this way the model has substan-
tially reduced number of elements. The empirical blast
load is applied directly to the outer face of the ALE
mesh through the ambient layer.
 Figure 17. Time histories of reflected pressure for spheri-
cal charge, 400 mm stand-off, and for three different mesh
Figure 15. FE model for combined method.
densities.

Table 2. Comparison of peak reflected pressure and arrival Although the increased mesh density improves qualita-
time for experiment and combined method. tively the results the peak values are still substantially
underestimated. The early stage results suggest that
Stand-off 400 mm
the finer ALE meshes are required to get compa-
Peak pressure [MPa]
rable peak pressures for short stand-offs (compare
experiment 12.4 sections 3.2 & 3.3).
elem. size 20 mm 1.58
elem. size 10 mm 2.59
elem. size 5 mm 3.52 6 CONCLUSIONS
Arrival time of shock wave [ms]
experiment 1.52
For all computational approaches with the ALE for-
elem. size 20 mm 1.55 mulation the results appeared to be highly sensitive
elem. size 10 mm 1.68 to mesh density especially for the peak values of the
elem. size 5 mm 1.80 reflected overpressure. The numerical estimation is
better for longer stand-offs and is more precise for
the effective impulses than for the peak values of pres-
sures. The effective impulse is considered as the most
important damage causing factor of the blast.Although
several discrepancies were indicated, the premature
validation study shows big potential for this type of
numerical modeling.

REFERENCES
Bulson, P.S. (1997) Explosive Loading of Engineering Struc-
tures, E & FN SPON.
Donea, J. 1980. Advanced Structural Dynamics, Applied
Science Publishers LTD, London UK.
Hallquist, J.O. 2009. LS-DYNA Keyword Manual,Version 971.
Livermore: Livermore Software Technology Corporation.
Pope, D.J. & Tyas, A. 2002. Use of hydrocode modelling
techniques to predict loading parameters from free air
hemispherical explosive charges. In 1st Asia-Pacific Con-
ference on Protection of Structures Against Hazards,
Singapore, November 2002.
Slavik, T.P. 2009. A Coupling of Empirical Explosive Blast
Figure 16. Iso-surfaces of pressure for the stand-off of
Loads to ALE Air Domains in LS-DYNA® , 7th European
400 mm modeled with combined method.
LS-DYNA Conference 2009.
Wecker, S. & Anderson, Ch. 2006. A Preliminary Com-
The comparison of peak reflected pressure and parison Between TNT and PE4 Landmines , Weapons
arrival time for experiment and combined method is System Divisoin, DSTO Defence Science and Technology
presented in Table 2. Figure 16 presents snapshots Organisation
of pressure iso-surfaces showing propagation of the
shock wave through air modeled as the ALE domain.
The time histories of reflected pressure calculated
for different mesh sizes are compared in Figure 17.

132
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Windows and glazing systems exposed to explosion loads:

Part 1 – Lethality and hazard assessment

Annika Lööf
Swedish Defence Research Agency, Tumba, Sweden

Ans van Doormaal

TNO Defence Security and Safety, Rijswijk, The Netherlands

Martien Teich
University of German Armed Forces, Munich, Germany

ABSTRACT: Research into window behaviour under explosion loads and the possibilities to protect against
the hazards of window failure has been carried out at the University of the German Armed Forces, Munich,
FOI the Swedish Defence Research Agency and TNO Defence, Security and Safety. In this joint paper, the work
of the three institutes is presented and combined.
The authors present extended calculation methods for all kinds of glazing materials taking account of different
failure modes. The hazard quantification in terms of fragment mass and velocity is also included in the method,
which is based on and validated with blast simulator tests. Quantification of lethality due to glass breakage is
attempted with the aid of BEC and Glastop, in combination with theories and standards from Kummer and ESTC
(Ministry of Defence Explosives Storage and Transport Committee, UK) and tests done in the Swedish blast
tunnel for verification.

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Glass
Glass is a key building element. Windows, doors, hand
rails, walls and mirrors are just a few examples. The
main function is to let in light which has proved impor-
tant for our well-being. It has also become a favoured
material for designing new fashionable facades. Large,
transparent and open building facades are used more
and more in modern design (e.g. the new World
Trade Center Tower in New York or the new Euro-
pean Central Bank in Frankfurt) since they reflect our
self-conception of an open and transparent society. At
the same time significant key infrastructure should
offer a specific degree of safety against severe loading
conditions.
1.2 Blast loading Figure 1. Pressure-time curves for two different types of
In this paper, the authors concentrate on blast effects explosions (Ritzenthaler). Top: detonation of high explosives
on windows and glazing systems. Explosion loads can like TNT, bottom: deflagration (subsonic combustion).
originate from industrial and transport accidents, ter-
rorist bombings, such as improvised explosive devices different as illustrated in Figure 1. The main concern
(IED), or weapons effects. Windows are often the most in the context of this paper is pressure waves due to
vulnerable part of a facade. If the load and/or impulse detonations.
is high enough, the resulting damage on buildings and
windows will cause extended injuries on humans and
1.3 Glazing: Properties and hazards
stationeries, both inside and outside of the affected
buildings. Depending on the source of the detonation, The properties of glass and the practical strength of
the pressure-time variation acting on the system can be glass is only about 1% of the theoretical due to micro

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 Table 1. A short overview of different types of glass, its strength and failure pattern (Pilkington,
2004) (Meyer, 1987).

Type of glass Strength Fraction patterns

Regular float glass Sharp shards

Thick regular float glass Proportional to the thickness Sharp shards
Tempered glass 3–5 times stronger than regular glass Granulates
Laminated glass Somewhat weaker than regular glass Shards held together
Tempered laminated glass Like tempered glass Granulates held together
Wire glass Somewhat weaker than regular glass Shards held together

cracks in the bulk material and indications of fracture

in the cut edges. The aim of a blast resistant window
construction ought to be to minimize the amount of
injuries due to flying shards and other pressure related
injuries such as broken ear drums and collapsed lungs
(Norville, 2001). Table 1 gives a short overview of
different types of glass, compares the strength and
describes the failure pattern.
History shows that injuries due to flying glass
shards play a major part in an explosive event. As much
as 85% of the injuries can be accounted to glass shards
(Army, 2001). The Abbreviated Injury Scale (O’Keefe,
2001, Baker et al., 1974, and Brismar et al., 1982) is
a 6-grade injury scale, where AIS 1 is a minor injury
and AIS 6 is a very severe or fatal injury (see Brismar
et al., 1982, Meyer et al., 2004, or O’Keefe et al., 2001
for more details). The lethality of injuries due to glass
shards is not large, but the large number of affected
humans even at large distances from the detonation
demand consideration (Kummer, 2004). Injuries due
to flying shards are not only important to consider if
Figure 2. UK room model for the zones and injury hazards
located inside a building. It has been shown that as due to flying glass shards (ESTC, 2002).
much as 40% of the glass shards actually end up on
the outside of the buildings (BCS, 2001 and Fletcher • B/S = “breaks safely”, the glass starts to break, the
et al., 1980). velocity of the fragments is 0 m/s,
The probability, that a person in the hazard area • L = “low hazard”, shards are thrown at least 1 m into
inside a room is injured, can be calculated in such a way the room, the fragment velocity is 2 m/s,
that the result gives three levels of injury (O’Keefe, • H = “high hazard”, shards are thrown at least 0.5 m
2001, Baker et al., 1974, and Brismar et al., 1982): up on a wall situated 3 m into the room, the fragment
• Minor injury: Does not demand more than three velocity is 9 m/s or higher.
days in hospital and no invalidity; level 2–3 on the
Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS).
• Severe injury: AIS level 4–5. 3 DEVELOPMENT OF GLASS CHARTS
• Fatal injury (fatality): Includes short and long time AT FOI
invalidity (AIS level 6).
3.1 Approach
In order to validate different methods of analysing
2 HAZARD ZONES AND RATINGS probability of breakage, work has been done to
compare some common simulation programs and
Damage to a glass construction depends on several reports on the subject (ESTC, 2002, Meyer, 1987, and
factors such as glass area, glass thickness, glass con- Swisdak, 2006). The probability of breakage is then
figuration (e.g. different layers), material, insertion in formulated as hazards towards humans and resulting
frame-work and wall, and orientation relative to the lethality. Work has also been done, at FOI, in a blast
pressure wave. With these in mind, three hazard zones tunnel to validate the postulations made and to give
with corresponding minimum fragment velocities are a solid background for the given safety distances in
usually applied to a room model, based on how the the glass chart presented at the end of this paper. The
glass is affected (ESTC, 2002). The hazard zones are main purpose of this work is to give a relatively accu-
illustrated in Figure 2. rate description of acceptable distances in a possibly

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Table 2. Overview of evaluated glass pane areas and glazing Table 3. Comparison between probability of glass breakage
configuration. and following injury levels (Kummer, 2004).

Theory/ Glazing Probability

program Dimension [m × m × mm] configuration of breakage Minor injury Severe injury Lethality

BEC 1.626 × 1.067 × 5.59 Single glass 100% 100% 10% 1%

Glastop 1.55 × 1.25 × 6 Single glass 50% 10% 1% 0.1%
ESTC 1.55 × 1.25 × 6 Single glass 1% 0.1% 0.01% 0.001%
Kummer 1 < area < 3, thickness = 4 − 6 Double glass

dangerous situation. Table 2 summarizes the evaluated

glass pane areas and glass configurations (single or
double glazing).

3.2 Evaluated programs and theories

The following programs and theories have been eval-
uated.
• BEC. Blast Effects Computer (BEC) is developed
by the Department of Defence Explosives Safety
Board, in the format of an Excel-sheet with macros
to calculate the failure probability of different explo-
sive loads on six different types of glass mate-
rials with different predetermined areas. There is
only single glass in this version (Swisdak, 2006)
(Överbefälhavaren, 1991).
• Glastop. Glastop is an MS-DOS-program written
by G. E. Meyer, U.S. Department of Energy. This
program gives the opportunity to choose between
six different qualities of glass, and to insert your
own explosion load and glass area and also gives
failure probability as output. There is only single
glass in this version (Meyer, 1987).
• ESTC. ESTC stands for the Ministry of Defence Figure 3. Probability of breakage as a function of distance
Explosives Storage and Transport Committee. They for an explosive load of 100 kg TNT (top) and 1000 kg TNT
have conducted studies on several combinations of (bottom).
loads and window constructions. The results are
listed in a table sheet according to the hazard zones presented. Since the ESTC does not provide any con-
presented in Figure 2. Results for both single glass tinuous values, the discussed ESTC thresholds B/S,
and double glass are given (ESTC, 2002). L and H for low, medium and high hazard have been
• Kummer. Kummer (2004 and 2005) presents results added in the diagrams.
as amount of broken windows and how many are
injured or dead behind the windows. These data
are presented as a function of the explosion load 3.3 Conclusions
as maximum pressure and impulse of a range of
Comparison of the different programs and their results,
glazing configurations.
and also comparison with the FOI test results, con-
The developed FOI-model assumes that appropriate cludes designated Kummer’s theories as the most
care is given within 30 minutes (Kummer, O’Keefe, reliable for the situations examined by FOI. Further-
2001, Baker et al., 1974, and Brismar et al., 1982). more the three hazard zones of ESTC are also of
The model gives the probability of how many persons interest since it is such an extensive work behind
that will be affected with at least the given injury level. the sheet with several combinations of window types,
So if 100% of the windows are broken, the probability qualities and loads. The diagrams presented above
of people in the hazard area to be affected according to before show that Glastop seems to have a few weak-
“minor injury” is also 100%, and the expected fatality nesses at lower loads but tends to give more accurate
is 1%, see Table 3. results at higher loads. BEC tends to give conserva-
In Figure 3, similar windows have been compared, tive values when validating the resulting damage by
and in Table 2 assumed dimensions and qualities are experimental testing conducted by FOI. With this in

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 4. Glass chart developed by FOI.
Acceptable Small windows, 1.25 × 0.55 m2
distance [m]
IED-blast 4 mm
load 4 mm 4 + 4 mm 4 mm ASF* ASF + BBNC*
Bag 36 24 18 16
Bike 74 45 37 33
Car 180 111 93 88
Truck 300 200 160 150
* ASF, anti shatter film, BBNC, bomb blast net curtain
mind, three postulations are made for resulting threat,
type of window and distances:
• Postulation according to ESTC: Relevant distances
are taken from the diagram and table values for H,
high hazard.
• Postulation according to Kummer: These relevant
distances give 100% broken windows resulting in
1% lethality.
• Postulation according to NATO standard: The rele-
vant IED-loads (e.g. “bag”, “car”, etc.) are chosen
according to the NATO standard.
The postulations of FOI are based on the following
assumptions:
• Kummer’s theories give a good direction and esti-
mate.
• ESTC did a thorough research and presented rele-
vant data in the table sheet.
The final glass chart is presented in Table 4 (Lööf,
2006, and Forsen et al., 1991). This glass chart is
currently in use. This glass chart presents accept-
able safety distances for different load scenarios and
for different glazing configurations with or without
add-ons.
4 DESCRIPTION OF THE TNO MODEL
4.1 Introduction
In the period of 2006 to 2008, TNO has done a research
study on the response of glazing under blast loading
with the objective of extending the existing TNO-
model with a hazard module. There was a need for
a hazard module, in order to be able to predict the con-
sequences for people behind the failing windows, in
terms of injuries and lethalities. The hazard should be
leading in protection issues, not the breakage.
As a result, the current TNO glazing model (van
Doormaal, 2006 and van Doormaal, 2008) consists
of two parts: (1) a dynamic strength calculation with
a failure probability option, and (2) a hazard quan-
tification module. The model is a semi-empirical tool.
The strength calculation module is based on non-linear
plate theory and a single-degree-of-freedom approach.
The dynamic strength characteristics used in the cal-
culations are based on test results. The hazard module
is based on empirical results.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 4. Dimensionless pressure-impulse diagram (peak
pressure divided by the pane resistance reff , and impulse
divided by pane resistance reff and natural period TN ) with
5%, 50% and 95% failure probability for annealed glazing.
Comparison of the model with test data.
4.2 Strength calculation module
The strength calculation module has the following
features:
• A module for calculating the average blast resistance
of the following types of glazing: regular (annealed
or floating) glass, tempered glass, laminated glass,
double glass and wire glass. This can be done for
any arbitrary glazing dimension.
• A module for calculation of the failure probabi-
lity of the window pane given a specific blast load
characterized by peak overpressure and impulse.
• A module for calculation of the pressure-impulse
diagrams with failure probability curves. Any value
for the failure probability can be chosen.
The strength calculation module has been verified
with test data (i.e. data from TNO and data in litera-
ture, e.g. (Stevens et al., 2002a)). Figure 4 shows, as
an example, the comparison between model and test
data of failure loads for single annealed glazing. The
pressure-impulse diagram has been made dimension-
less, in order to be able to print the results for different
window sizes in one diagram. A good agreement was
found. The model appeared to be slightly conservative.
For the other types of glazing a similar correspondence
has been found.
A small test series on laminated glazing (carried
out in 2006 with the blast simulator at TNO (van der
Steen et al., 2007)) also supports the TNO-model. In
this test series, two laminated panes were tested under
blast loads below the failure limit. By increasing the
load in small steps, the failure load could be found.
As shown by Figure 5, this failure load corresponds
well with the theoretical model. The loads shown in
this diagram correspond to cracked panes. The picture
in Figure 5 shows the final state of the pane in test 11.
It just did not fail completely. One corner was pulled
out of the frame. The panes in test 9 and 10 did not
have a permanent deflection.
With full instrumentation, displacement transduc-
ers and accelerometers, the test did not only give the
failure load but also quantitative information about
the resistance-deflection curve of the window pane, as
 Figure 7. Side view of failing panes. Left: laminated glass,
middle: regular glass, right: regular glass with safety film
(daylight application).

Figure 5. Failure of the tested laminated glazing.

Figure 6. Resistance-deflection curves.

can be applied in an SDOF-model. This can be com-

pared with the TNO model as illustrated in Figure 6.
When considering that the experimental resistance-
deflection curves are disturbed by higher order eigen
modes, it can be concluded that there is a good agree-
ment. The major discrepancy of the model is that it
neglects the pull-out phase of laminated glass. This
phase happens at relatively low resistance forces and
is bite dependent.
4.3 Hazard module
The hazard module of the TNO model consists of the
following two parts:
1. Predictions of the fragment or pane velocities are
done with an empirical relation which is fitted to
a large number of test results. Different fits are
available for different glazing materials.
2. Predictions of the number and size of fragments are
done based on the work of (Stevens et al., 2002b).
The TNO test results were in line with this work.
Together, the velocity and the number and sizes of
fragments provide the information for consequence
estimation for people present behind the glazing. As an
example of the hazardous effects, some pictures of the
test results are shown in Figure 7. Different phenomena
can be observed at failure of these glazing types. Lam-
inated glass can give rise to one big pane accelerated.
So, blunt force trauma is the hazard for people. Regular
glass will give rise to many sharp fragments, and reg-
ular glass with safety film, daylight application, can
Figure 8. Comparison of the probability of breakage and
high hazard regime predicted by the different models.
give rise to both types of projectiles. By the way, fail-
ure of these three glazing types will occur at similar
shock levels if other aspects like size, thickness and
mounting conditions are exactly the same. With the
knowledge that blunt force trauma happens at lower
velocities, it is then obvious that laminated glass and
glazing with safety film is not necessarily more safe,
as the general feeling is.
5 COMPARISON OF TNO- AND
FOI-APPROACH
In Figure 8, the TNO-model is compared with the
programs used by FOI in Section 3.2. With the TNO-
model the window dimensions given in Table 2 were
evaluated, but as the results were very similar only one
has been plotted.
With regard to the failure probability it can be
observed that the results of the TNO-model fit within
the range of the other programs. The most remark-
able observation is the change in order of the different
models (particularly Kummer and Glastop).

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 With regard to the hazard, the three methods (TNO,
Kummer and ESTC) show a similar high hazard range
for the 100 kg charge, but a very different hazard range
for the 1000 kg charge. Based on a criterion of 9 m/s,
the TNO-model seems the most conservative here. But
it needs to be mentioned that in the TNO-model the
velocity is only one part of the hazard. The velocity
needs to be complemented with the shard sizes and
number in order to find a realistic hazard level. This
will lead to a shift in hazard range towards those of the
others.
It is not possible here to subscribe one of the pro-
grams as being the best. It is more likely that each has
its own regime of applicability. An obvious advantage
of the TNO-model however is its opportunity to predict
the failure probability and the hazard of any window
size and different glazing types, thus giving the user
more options to play around with the window design
specifics.
6 CONCLUSIONS AND SUMMARY
Both, FOI’s glass charts and TNO’s model have the
same goal, to evaluate the hazard of window break-
age and save lifes by protective measures. By taking
the hazard along, a proper criterion has been defined
and therefore an economical approach has been found.
The main difference between the two approaches is in
the detail of the tools and therefore in the application.
FOI’s glass charts are easy to use for everyone. The
applicability is limited to predefined window sizes
and bomb charges. The TNO model is much more
flexible with regard to these aspects, but can only be
used by experts, as one also needs to predict the blast
characteristics.
Since windows and other glass facades are so
sensitive to IED-threats or other explosive loads, and
the resulting injuries can be so numerous, it is
recommended to use these tools to evaluate the
urgency for protectective measures, and put some
effort into designing perimeter protections. Some
safety improvement strategies are discussed in part 2
of this paper (Teich et al., 2010).
REFERENCES
Baker, S.P. et al. The Injury Severity Score: A method for
describing patients with muliple injuries and evaluating
emergency care. Journal of Trauma, 14, p. 187–196, 1974.
Best of Counterterrorism & Security: Are there other Okla-
homa Bombings Ahead? Counterterrorism & Security
International. 2001.
Brismar, B. and Bergenwald L. The Terrorist Bomb Explo-
sion in Bologna, Italy, 1980 – an Analysis of the Effects
and Injuries Sustained. The Journal of Trauma: American
Association for the Surgery of Trauma, 22(3): p. 216–220,
1982.
138
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Departement of the Army, Headquarters. Physical Security.
Washington DC. 2001.
ESTC, Ministry of Defence. Explosives Storage and Trans-
port Committee. Buildings and Traverses for Mili-
tary Explosives. Part 4. Predicted Damage Levels to
Structures – Glazing Hazards for Explosive Facilities.
2002.
Fletcher, R.E., Richmond, D.R. and Yelverton, J.T. Glass
Fragment Hazard from Windows Broken by Airblast.
Lovelace Biomedical and Environmental Research Insti-
tute, Inc: Albuquerque. p. 39, 1980.
Forsén, R. and Selin, B. Skador på Glasrutor vid sprängäm-
nesdetonationer. FOA, Stockholm, 1991.
Kummer, P.O. Glass-Breakage and Injury – Yet another New
Model? Thirty-first DoD Explosives Safety Seminar. San
Antonio, Departement of Defense, 2004.
Kummer, P., Lethality/Injury Rate due to Glass Breakage. The
Armed forces – Switzerland: Zollikerberg, p. 16, 2005.
Lööf, A., Skadeverkan av glassplitter fas 3. Bekämpning och
skydd: Grindsjön. 2006.
Meyer, G.E. Blast-Resistant Glazing. ACS Symposium Series,
Design Conciderations for Toxic Chemical and Explosives
Facilities. American Chemical Society, New Orleans.
1987.
Meyer, S., Little, L. and Conrath, E. Injury Based Glass
Hazard Assessment. Thirty-first DoD Explosives Safety
Seminar. San Antonio, Departement of Defense, 2004.
Meyer, G.E. Blastop. U.S. Department of Energy. 1987.
Norville, S.H., et al. Glass-Related Injuries in Oklahoma
City Bombing. Journal of Performance of Constructed
Facilities, 13, p. 50–56, 1999.
Norville, S.H. and Conrath, E.J. Considerations for Blast-
Resistant Glazing Design. Journal of Architectural Engi-
neering, 7(3), p. 80–86, 2001.
O’Keefe, G. and Jurkovich, G.J. Measurement of Injury
Severity and Co-Morbidity. Cambridge University Press,
2001.
Pilkington. Val av funktionsglas. www.pilkington.se, 2004.
Ritzenthaler. Explosion-Proofing & Guide For Doors, Win-
dows & Frames. Swedish Standard.
Stevens, D., Marchand, K., Lowak, M. and Kersul, A. Glass
Debris From Shock-Loaded Windows, 17th International
Symposium on Military Aspects of Blast and Shock, June
2002.
Stevens, D., Meyer, S., Marchand, K. and Kersul,A. Modeling
of Glass Debris From Shock-Loaded Windows, 30th DoD
Explosive Safety Seminar, August 2002.
Swisdak, J.M.M. BLAST EFFECTS COMPUTER. 2006.
Teich, M. Lööf A, and van Doormaal, A, 2010, Windows
and glazing systems exposed to explosion loads: Part 2 –
Safety Improvement Strategies, International conference
Cost C26 – Urban habitat construction under catastrophic
events, Napels 16–18 september 2010.
van der Steen, A., van Doormaal, J.C.A.M. and Verolme, E.K.
V402 Safety of Personnel – Blast tests on windows for
hazard quantification, TNO-DV 2007 A096, June 2007.
van Doormaal, J.C.A.M. V402 Safety of Personnel, Resis-
tance and failure probability of different types of glazing
material, TNO-DV2 2006 A090, May 2006.
van Doormaal, J.C.A.M. V402 Safety of Personnel, Hazard
from glazing under blast loading, TNO-DV2 2008 A109,
May 2008.
Överbefälhavaren. Fortifikationshandbok del 2, Fortfifika-
tionshandbok, Försvarsmedia, Editor. MSB Tryckeri,
Stockholm, p. 95, 1991.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Windows and glazing systems exposed to explosion loads:

Part 2 – Safety improvement strategies

Martien Teich & Norbert Gebbeken

University of German Armed Forces, Munich, Germany

Annika Lööf
Swedish Defence Research Agency, Tumba, Sweden

Ans van Doormaal

TNO Defence Security and Safety, Rijswijk, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT: International terrorism has increased the interest in the dynamic behavior of windows under
explosion loads. Windows are usually the first elements exposed to blast loading causing serious secondary
threats as they can break up in sharp shards which are accelerated inwards. The University of the German
Armed Forces, Munich, FOI the Swedish Defence Research Agency, and TNO Defence, Security and Safety
conducted studies to assess the lethality of these shards. These results are presented in Part 1 of this paper
in two parts. In Part 2, the authors discuss safety improvement and hazard mitigation strategies for window
systems. First, general safety strategies to counter blast threats are discussed. Then, balanced design prin-
ciples are presented leading to a significant reduction of stresses in the window panels by allowing larger
elastic-plastic deformation of the total window frame system. By using elastic-plastic, i.e., dissipative, sup-
port elements blast energy is dissipated and the load transferred to the main structure is controlled and
reduced.

1 INTRODUCTION 2 GENERAL SAFETY IMPROVEMENT

In the first part of this paper (Lööf et al., 2010)
the authors present calculation methods for glazing
materials taking into account different failure modes.
The hazard quantification in terms of fragment mass
and velocity is also included in the method which is
based on and validated by blast simulator tests. Mod-
els for lethality due to window failure are presented
and compared. In this follow-up paper, the authors
discuss several hazard mitigation strategies. The over-
all goal is to minimize the lethal hazard due to glass
fragments and to limit the support forces which are
transferred into the main structural system. First, a
short overview of general safety improvement strate-
gies is given. Then, the authors discuss measures how
to reduce glass failure by taking into consideration
the influence of varying support systems. Capacity-
based design principles lead to a significant reduction
of stresses in the window panels by allowing larger
elastic-plastic deformation of the framing system. Fur-
thermore, the load transferred to the main structure
can be reduced and controlled. A specific window
frame system is used to illustrate the application of
these ideas.
STRATEGIES
Once a building has been identified as protection
worthy, steps can be applied to minimize the risk of
damage to buildings and humans as shown by several
authors (Consulting 2003, Gebbeken & Döge 2008,
Gebbeken & Döge 2010):
• Disperse through terrain and site layout.
• Disguise; do not make the target too obvious.
• Spread; do not cluster in one area.
• Divert by perimeter protection.
• Blunt the effect, e.g. by architectural design con-
cepts.
Once all the steps above have been addressed,
specific glass issues should be analysed. The fail-
ure pattern of windows can be changed by varying
support and bite conditions. Solid fastening of the
frame system in the surrounding wall is also impor-
tant. The reflected blast pressures can be reduced by
changing the glazing orientation which influences the
reflection coefficient. Laminated glass fails and breaks
differently than float or tempered glass.

139
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 In most cases, it is impossible or not economically
sane to design glass constructions to withstand a the
worst case scenario, and also a building might have
to be upgraded. To solve this, add-on protection is a
viable solution. Add-on possibilities for existing win-
dows are curtains, mullions, anti-shatter films (ASF)
with silicon adhesion to the frame, bomb-blast net cur-
tains (BBNC), catch bars, blinds and outside shutters
(i.e., to be closed at night).
3 BALANCED DESIGN PRINCIPLES
The idea of balanced design is based on the capacity-
based approach (Pauley et al., 1990, Pauley & Priestly
1992). The main idea is to construct a structure with a
controlled plastic failure sequence. The formation of
plastic zones is only possible in predefined areas while
the other structural parts have an increased strength
and stay in the elastic regime. Thus, unknown weak
structural elements are prevented and an increased
safety against collapse is achieved.The following illus-
trative examples highlight the advantages of balanced
design and show the limitations of classical design for
extreme loading conditions.
3.1 Example 1: Tensile rod
The first example illustrates the behavior of a tensile
rod consisting of a brittle element and a ductile ele-
ment. The tensile rod is shown in Figure 1 (a), and the
force-deformation-relations of the brittle and ductile
elements are illustrated in Figure 1 (b) and (c), respec-
tively. The brittle elements show an elastic behaviour
up to the maximum capacity of Fb,max with the corre-
sponding displacement ub,max . The ductile element is
characterized by an elastic-plastic behavior as shown
in Figure 1 (c). The total bearing force of the tensile
rod is lower than the maximum capacity of the brittle
elements, and the force acting on the brittle elements
is always smaller than Fpl < Fb,max for any rod dis-
placement. Thus, by implementing ductile elements
in the tensile rod, the total force-deformation-relation
is substantially altered as shown in Figure 1 (d). The
tensile rod behaves perfectly elastically up the force
Fel . The corresponding total displacement is the sum
of the element displacements:
The maximum force of the tensile rod is limited to
the maximum force of the ductile element Fpl with the
maximum displacement
Thus, by using ductile elements the overall struc-
tural behavior is changed, and well-known and prede-
fined areas of plasticity and failure are defined. The
forces and stresses in the brittle elements are limited.
They are always smaller than the load bearing capacity
Fb,max . However, the total displacement of the system
increases.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 1. Ultimate load design of a tensile rod consisting of
brittle and ductile elements.
A further advantage is that the failure mechanism is
known a priori because the ductile element fails earlier
than the brittle element. The failure is announced by
large plastic deformation of the ductile element. To
guarantee the intended failure mode, it is essential that
the brittle part is stronger than the ductile element.
This is the main difference between balanced and
conventional design. Using conventional design meth-
ods, the engineer would have constructed the tensile
rod using only brittle or ductile elements, respectively.
The load-bearing capacity would be known but not the
mode and location of failure.
3.2 Example 2: Limitation of support force
The first example clearly shows the advantages of a
capacity-based design approach. This knowledge can
be transferred to further examples. Often, blast resis-
tant windows with strong supporting frames are used
in blast resistant designs. In this case, it is essential
that the ultimate capacity of the supporting wall is
larger than the ultimate capacity of the window and
its supporting framing system. If the capacity of the
wall is smaller than the capacity of the blast resistant
window system, the entire wall including the window
system might fail. Obviously, this is much worse than
a failure of the laminated glass. So, the support forces
of the window frame system, which are transferred
to the wall, must be limited. This can be achieved by
using elastic-plastic elements in the support structure.
The implementation of this idea is illustrated in the
following section.
4 APPLICATION TO GLAZING SYSTEMS
The balanced design principles discussed in the previ-
ous section can be adapted to blast resistant glazing
systems. The first ideas were presented by one of
the authors (Gebbeken 2006). To illustrate the bal-
anced design approach, the authors chose a simplified
double glazing system as illustrated in Figures 2
and 3. The double glazing system has dimensions of
50 cm × 80 cm and consists of an aluminium frame
system, two laminated glass panels, each with a thick-
ness of 6.76 mm, and two surrounding soft EPDM
Figure 2. Configuration and dimensions of double glazing system (glass dimensions 500 mm × 800 mm).

Figure 3. One quarter of the computational 3D model due to symmetry conditions.

Table 1. Material models: Parameters and properties.

Young’s Poisson’s
Density modulus ratio
Mat. [kg/m3 ] [MPa] [−] Failure model/hardening model

Glass ply 2548 70000 0.23 Failure: principal tensile stress 70 MPa
PVB layer 1500 957 0.45 Failure: principal strain εprin = 3
Rubber 1300 7.5 0.45 Failure: principal strain εprin = 2
Aluminum 2770 71000 0.33 Bilinear hardening: yield strength = 280 MPa,
Tangent modulus = 500 MPa

(ethylene propylene diene Monomer (M-class)) rubber
layers between the frame and the inner glazing panel
and between the two glazing panels, respectively.
The glazing system is, during 10 milliseconds, sub-
jected to an idealized triangular blast load according
to ISO EXV 33 (ISO/DIS 16933:2007) with a peak
reflected overpressure of 50 kPa, a reflected impulse
of 250 Pa s. This corresponds to a hemispherical sur-
face burst of approximately 100 kg TNT equivalent at
a stand-off distance of 33 m.
The glazing system is modeled using Ansys Work-
bench 12.1, and the computations are conducted
with Ansys Autodyn 12.1. Autodyn is a well-known
Hydrocode suited for highly nonlinear analysis of
systems subjected to short term loading (Ansys 2003).
The material data is summarized in Table 1. The
laminated glazing panels are modeled with a com-
posite shell model consisting of three sublayers of
different properties. The configuration of the glazing
panels is shown in Figure 2: The 6.76 mm thick glaz-
ing panel consists of two glass plies separated by a
0.76 mm thick PVB (polyvinyl butyral) layer, modeled
as perfect bond.
In all subsequent discussions the material models,
the geometric dimensions and the blast load remain
unchanged. However, the support boundary conditions
are varied to study the influence of the support type
on glass failure, deformations and load transfer to the
supporting structure.
4.1 Support conditions
The frame supports illustrated in Figure 3 are modeled
with beam elements having a linear or nonlinear force
deformation behavior, respectively. Line-supported
frame systems would also be possible (Wagner 2009).

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 4. System 1 – failure development of outer and inner glazing panel with still (rigid) linear-elastic supports
(green = elastic regime, pink = failed).

Figure 5. System 2 – failure development of outer and inner glazing panel with very soft linear-elastic supports.

Figure 6. System 3 – failure development of outer and inner glazing panel with very soft supports and elastic plastic resistance
with a yield force of 220 N (green = elastic regime, pink = failed).

The following three point supports are studied in this
paper:
1. system with stiff linear-elastic supports (Young’s
modulus E = 70 GPa, i.e., almost rigid supports),
2. system with very soft linear-elastic supports
(E = 7 MPa), and
3. system with very soft elastic-plastic supports
(E = 7 MPa) with a yield force of 220 N modeled
with a von Mises material model.
4.2 Failure development
First of all, the failure developments of the outer and
inner glazing panels are analysed. Figure 4 shows the
failure of the two glazing panels for stiff (almost rigid)
support conditions (system 1).
One clearly recognizes the rapid and complete fail-
ure of both glazing panels for the specified blast load
after 15 ms. Variations of support conditions lead to
differences in failures as illustrated in Figure 5 and in
Figure 6 for system 2 and system 3, respectively. While
the outer glazing panel fails completely, the inner glaz-
ing panel does not fail. There might be cracks and
broken glass fragments but the risik of shards flying
away have been reduced.
Figures 4–6 highlight the strong influence of the
support conditions on the failure development. The
strongest solution (stiff supports, system 1) is not
always the best solution. Systems 2 and 3 exhibit a
much more flexible structural behaviour leading to a
different sequence of failure with much larger defor-
mations of the complete framing system (see also
section 4.3). The complete window system must be
adequately designed to sustain these deformations.
The difference in failure between system 2 (figure 5)
and system 3 (figure 6) is small. However, by using

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 7. Displacements of window frame, outer and inner
glass ply for three different systems with varying support
conditions.
elastic-plastic elements (system 3), the support forces
can be limited to the yield force of the boundary sup-
port. Thus, the forces acting on the main structural
system are also limited. The load transfer is discussed
in section 4.4.
4.3 Deflection of frame and glazing panels
The deflection of the aluminium frame and the outer
and inner glazing panels of all three systems are shown
in Figure 7. One recognizes the zero-deflection of the
frame of system 1 (stiff/rigid supports). This is in con-
trast to system 2 and system 3 with very soft supports
in which case the deflections of the frames are much
larger (up to 240 mm and 290 mm, respectively).
Thus, when using very soft supports, the window
system moves almost rigidly, and the supports are
strain loaded.As a consequence, a large part of the blast
load energy is stored in the supports. In case of plas-
tic supports (system 3) a part of the blast load energy
is even dissipated through plastic deformation of the
support system. This leads to reduced loads for the
actual glazing panels and explains the different failure
behaviour discussed in the previous section.
For systems 2 and 3, the deflections of the two
glazing panels are in the same range. The relative
deflections of the glazing panels are about 30 mm.
With stiff supports, the glazing deflections are in the
range of 70 mm.
4.4 Support forces – load transfer
The support forces are time-dependent as shown in
Figure 8, for the three systems. These support forces
are transmitted to the main structure, and are thus sig-
nificant for the design of the supporting structure. If
the latter (e.g. a reinforced concrete wall) would not be
able to transmit these support forces, the whole win-
dow frame support would fail, thus posing a significant
hazard.
This is an important and practical aspect of
the presented balanced design strategy (see sec-
tion 3). External loads are transferred through sev-
eral structural elements (glazing panel → window
frame → supports → main structure) and often the
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 8. Support forces for three different systems with
varying support conditions.
weakest link is not known. By using elastic-plastic
supports with a well-defined failure mode, the forces
acting on the main structure are known and can be
controlled. Of course, the load bearing capacity of the
main structure has to be larger than the yield force of
the supports.
The more flexible/soft the supports are, the lower
the support forces become, leading to increased deflec-
tions as shown in section 4.3. Elastic-plastic behaviour
(yielding) limits the support forces transferred to the
main structure. This applies to system 3 and is also
shown in Figure 8 in which the support force for
system 3 is lower or equal to the yielding force of
220 N.
System 2 has the same stiffness but a purely elastic
behavior. Thus, the support force is not limited but still
much smaller than the support force of system 1, hav-
ing rigid supports. For system 1, the maximum support
force is about 4 kN and thus about 18 times as large as
for system 3.
Additionally, plastic deformation dissipates a sig-
nificant portion of the blast wave energy. However,
the mechanism of energy dissipation is not presented
in this paper and will be analyzed in more detail in
subsequent studies.
4.5 Discussion
Finally, the authors would like to address some practi-
cal aspects of designing a proper support system.
As shown, low stiffness and high ductility are
particularly useful for energy-absorbing and force-
limiting support systems.
However, using elastic-plastic supports, the defor-
mations become much larger, and the system must be
designed in an adequate way to sustain these deforma-
tions. Elastic-plastic systems are “single-use systems”
and must be replaced after an explosive load event.
Furthermore, the stiffness and yielding limit have
to be large enough in order to prevent damaging
deformations or even yielding under normal loading
conditions, e.g. wind loads.
Simplified simulation methods like single degree
of freedom approaches are not adequate for the design
of complex protection systems, most often advanced
numerical simulations in combination with small- or
full-scale validation experiments are necessary.
 It is also important to note that all-round-protection
against any possible explosive threat is impossible
since the required support parameters, such as stiffness
and ductility, mainly depend on a specific blast load
threat. Theoretically, different threats require differ-
ent solutions. Nonetheless, balanced design principles
contribute to a better and well designed protective sys-
tem since the overall structural behavior under extreme
loading conditions is known.
Possible materials for blast protection with elastic-
plastic supports are aluminuim foams or spe-
cial friction-based systems able to absorb energy
through predefined deformation conditions. Teich and
Gebekken are conducting studies to identify potential
materials and systems.
5 SUMMARY
This paper discusses some general improvement and
hazard mitigation strategies for windows and glaz-
ing systems. The common strategy “disperse, disguise,
spread, divert, blunt” can substantially alter the blast
load scenario. Add-on protection for existing win-
dows like curtains, mullions, anti-shatter films (ASF),
bomb-blast net curtains (BBNC), catch bars, blinds
and outside shutters decrease the hazard consequences
of windows exposed to blast loads.
Using balanced design principles, the engineer can
design structural systems with a controlled plastic
failure sequence. The blast energy is absorbed by dis-
sipative elements and the stresses in the windows are
reduced. Furthermore, the load transferred to the sup-
porting main structure can be controlled and reduced.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Balanced design principles contribute to a better and
well, i.e., “balanced”, designed protective system.
REFERENCES
Ansys. Autodyn theory manual, 2003.
Consulting, A.S., Overview of Blast Mitigation Design Mea-
sures. 2003.
Gebbeken, N. Grundsätzliche Ideen und Konzepte zur Blast-
Sicherheit von Glas-Membran-Fassaden, Vitrum Protect,
Workshop, Fraunhofer Ernst-Mach-Institut, 2006.
Gebbeken, N. and Döge, T. Architectural Concepts to reduce
the Effects of Explosions. Computational Structures Tech-
nology, Athens, 2008.
Gebbeken, N. and Döge, T. Explosion Protection –
Architectural Design, Urban Planning and Landscape
Planning. International Journal of Protective Structures,
1:1–22, 2010.
ISO/DIS 16933:2007 Glass in Building – Explosion Resistant
Security Glazing, Test and Classification for Arena Air
Blast Loading, June 2007.
Lööf, A, van Doormaal, A. and Teich, M. Windows and glaz-
ing systems exposed to explosion loads: Part 1 – Lethality
and Hazard Assessment, COST Action C26 “Urban Habi-
tat Constructions under Catastrophic Events”, Interna-
tional Conference, Naples, 2010.
Paulay, T., Bachmann, H., and Moser, K. Erdbebensicherung
von Stahlbetonhochbauten. Birkhäuser-Verlag, Basel,
1990.
Paulay, T. and Priestley, M. J. N. Seismic Design of Reinforced
Concrete and Masonry Buildings, John Wiley & Sons,
New York, 1992.
Wagner, M. Soft Structures for High Performance Blast
Protection, Fraunhofer Symposium Future Security, 4rd
Security Research Conference, Karlsruhe, 2009.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Dynamic testing of semi-rigid steel beam-column connections

A. Tyas, J.A. Warren, J.B. Davison & E.P. Stoddart

Department of Civil & Structural Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

A. Hindle
Blastech Ltd., Sheffield, UK

ABSTRACT: Despite great interest in recent years on the subject of progressive collapse, there is still little
information in published literature on the differences in connection behavior when deformations are applied
slowly or very rapidly. This lack of knowledge raises questions over the accuracy with which we can model
dynamic redistribution of forces in structural response to localised damage. This paper presents work in progress
at University of Sheffield, UK intended to determine the response of typical semi-rigid steel beam-column
connections when loaded rapidly to failure.

1 INTRODUCTION steel connections. Clearly, for a dynamic redistribution

The topic of progressive collapse of framed struc-
tures has received considerable attention since the
collapses following terrorist attacks of the Alfred P.
Murrah building, Oklahoma City, USA in 1995, and
the World Trade Centre towers in 2001. Much effort
has subsequently been directed towards the study of
how structures respond when one or more vertical
load carrying elements is removed. Whilst numerous
articles have reported finite element studies of frame
response to column loss, theme of connection response
in steel framed buildings has received relatively little
attention.
Owens & Moore (1992) carried out the first
reported detailed study of the ultimate tensile capacity
of steel beam-column connections. This work, involv-
ing static experimental tests, was conducted in order to
check the “tying capacity” of typical connections, in
the light of UK building regulation requirements that
structural elements should be adequately connected
together to prevent a repeat of the Ronan Point collapse
(Griffiths et al. 1968, Pearson & Delatte 2005).
More recent experimental work has included studies
of the response of connections in fire (e.g. Yu et al.
2009) and of the ultimate response of statically loaded
steel-concrete composite connections (Demonceau &
Jaspart 2009).
Since Ronan Point and subsequent failures, many
building codes have introduced the requirement that a
framed building be able to withstand the loss of one or
more columns through accidental or malicious effects,
by re-distributing loads to (nominally) undamaged
parts of the adjacent structure. Since such redistribu-
tion would inevitably involve some degree of dynamic
loading, it is perhaps surprising that no previous exper-
imental study has addressed the dynamic behavior of
of load to be properly captured in a numerical frame
analysis model, it is essential that the current lack of
understanding of the response of connections as they
are rapidly loaded to extreme deformations, and pos-
sibly failure be addressed. As Hamburger (2006) has
noted,
“…demands applied on members and connec-
tions when resisting the initiation of a collapse
may produce somewhat higher strain rates, may
be of larger magnitude and will occur simulta-
neously with large axial tension demands.”
Whilst steel does exhibit higher yield strength at
high strain rates, this is not necessarily beneficial
if it also produces stiffer in the connection compo-
nents. The problem may be still more acute if the
enhanced yield strength is also accompanied by a
reduction in plastic ductility before failure occurs. It
is not difficult to envisage a scenario where enhanced
dynamic stiffness results in the forces in a connection
being localized rather than redistributed through plas-
tic deformation, perhaps leading to local failure and
progressive unzipping of the connection.
There is the additional problem that, currently, there
is little knowledge of the strain rates experienced by
connections in progressive collapse events. Dynamic
modeling of frame collapse is of little use here; the con-
nection behavior will significantly influence the rate
of global deformation of the frame, yet, since we cur-
rently have little understanding of dynamic connection
behavior, the problem circle is completed.
This lack of knowledge has been the spur for a pro-
gram of experimental tests conducted at the Buxton
Blast & Impact research laboratory in the Department
of Civil & Structural Engineering at the University
of Sheffield, UK. The aim is to determine whether

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 1. Schematic layout of test rig.
significant variations in connection behavior are man-
ifest at different loading rates. This program is still
ongoing and the purpose of this paper is to describe
the test methodology and present some initial results.
2 TEST METHODOLOGY
A bespoke pneumatic testing rig has been designed
and constructed at the University of Sheffield to allow
loads of up to ∼750 kN to be applied with rise times
from zero to peak ranging from quasi-static to ∼5 ms.
A schematic diagram of the test equipment is shown
in Figure 1.
The test specimen comprises a steel beam section,
fixed at one end to a nominally rigid reaction frame
(left end in Figure 1), and at the other end, through the
connection under investigation, to a length of column
section. Loading is provided by release of compressed
air to drive two solid steel cylinder loading rams, each
of which is 110 mm diameter and 500 mm long, with
350 mm effective stroke length.The loading rams drive
the column away from the rigidly fixed beam, hence
deforming the connection.
The pneumatic system is designed to work to 400
atmosphere (40 MPa) pressure, and each ram is thus
capable of applying 380 kN load, giving the ability to
apply loads of up to 760 kN to the test connections in
direct tension. Either loading ram may be removed to
allow combined moment-tension loading of the con-
nections. The lever arm between the remaining loading
ram and the centre-line of the connection can be varied
from 400–600 mm, and a pivot may be placed on the
opposite side of the column from the loading ram to
vary the relative magnitudes of the tensile and moment
loads. The load is applied to the load cell via a bearing,
as shown in Figure 2.
For dynamic tests, the compressed gas reservoir is
pre-charged using a compressor and retained by a brass
diaphragm, designed to burst at the desired pressure.
The rise time of the loading on the ram can be varied
by choking down the bore of the pipework between
the reservoir and rear of loading ram. For quasi-static
loading, the diaphragm is absent and the compressor
charges both the reservoir and the pipework to the rear
of the loading rams.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 2. Loading ram bearing detail.
Instrumentation includes:
• custom-built load cells between the loading ram and
column,
• laser displacement gauges at either end of the
column,
• accelerometers on the column in order to determine
the component of load cell reading due to iner-
tia, and hence derive the actual load applied to the
connection.
3 EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAMME
Simple and semi-rigid steel connections are used
extensively in non-seismic regions, for their simplicity
of fabrication and ease of erection. This type of con-
nection is of particular interest in progressive collapse
scenarios. It is widely accepted that a key mechanism
by which progressive collapse can be avoided in cases
where columns are damaged or destroyed is provi-
sion of alternative load paths allowing the building
frame to span over the damaged region. If sufficient
rotational strength and stiffness is present in the beam-
column connections, it is often possible (using static
data for the connection behavior) to show that a frame
can withstand the loss of one or more columns with-
out undergoing excessive vertical deflection; in this
case, in the absence of other load paths, the predomi-
nant load carrying mechanism is likely to be Virendeel
frame action.
If highly flexible semi-rigid connections are used
however, it is likely that large rotations will be
developed in the connections as Virendeel resistance
develops. As Byfield & Paramasivam (2007) have
noted, these large rotations are likely to lead to prying
action in the connections, which would significantly
reduce the tensile capacity.
Consequently, the initial test program has focussed
on combined tension-rotation tests of semi-rigid con-
nections, using a single loading ram in the test rig
described above. Test connections have included par-
tial depth endplates, angle web cleats and fin-plates.
Figure 3 shows a photograph of a typical test
arrangement for a web-cleat test. The active loading
ram is at the far-end of the rig in this photograph, with

Figure 3. Photograph of set-up for a web-cleat moment-
tension test.
the bore of the nearer ram capped off. The moving col-
umn is at the left of the image and end-stops are present
to limit the post-failure movement of the column. In
this photograph, the test allows for free rotation of the
column about the test connection.
The ratio of tensile force to rotation developed in
a beam-column connection as a frame deformed fol-
lowing column loss would in practice depend on the
stiffness of the adjacent structure. If the structure was
relatively flexible, allowing some significant degree
of inward horizontal sway, it is possible that relatively
large rotations (implying large vertical deflection of
the frame above the lost column) could occur at the
connections without the development of high tensile
forces. If, on the other hand, the adjacent frame was
very stiff, a small vertical displacement of the frame
above the lost column might lead to very high ten-
sile forces in the beam-column connections without
commensurately large rotations.
In the arrangement shown in Figure 3 (with the end
of the column furthest from the loading ram unre-
strained) mimics the low stiffness scenario. As load
is applied, the column initially rotates about the centre
of the connection, with the pivot point rapidly moving
to the beam flange furthest from the loading ram as the
connection deforms and the beam flange and column
come into contact. In other tests, a load cell and bear-
ing were placed on the end stop on the opposite side
of the connection from the loading ram, forcing the
rotation pivot to be much further from the connection,
and hence producing stiffer connection behavior.
4 TEST RESULTS
A series of results from tests conducted on partial
depth end-plates is presented in this section. Three test
arrangements were used:
1. Pivot placed on end-stop – static loading
2. Pivot placed on end-stop – dynamic loading
3. No pivot – dynamic loading
In the “dynamic” tests, the loading was taken from
zero to peak in 50–60 ms.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 4. Detail of the partial-depth endplate connection.
Table 1. Dimensions of test arrangement shown in Figure 3.
Beam UB356 × 45 (S275 steel)
Column UC254 × 139 (S275 steel)
Bolts M20 gr8.8 fully threaded (3 rows)
End-plate 220 mm × 150 mm × 8 mm (S275
steel)
Weld 6 mm fillet weld
Distance from loading 654 mm
ram to centre-line of
connection
Distance from pivot to 436 mm
centre-line of
connection
Total length of 2m
column
Details of the connections are shown in Figure 4,
and details of the test arrangement are given in Table 1.
Figure 5 shows examples of connection tension load
vs rotation for these three scenarios. It should be noted
that in the two tests with a pivot in place, the connec-
tions were not taken to failure, and indeed, were not
highly deformed (Figure 6). This was due to limita-
tions on the pressure system which have since been
addressed. In the dynamic test without a pivot, the col-
umn struck the back-stop before the connection had
fully failed, but a crack had developed along approx-
imately 70% of the length of the fillet weld between
the end plate and beam web, and it is considered that
the connection was very close to total failure.
The results shown in Figure 5, demonstrate clearly
that the connections, either loaded statically or
dynamically can withstand very high tension forces
if rotation is limited. (The design capacity of this
connection in direct tension according to UK design
codes is 171 kN (BCSA/SCI 2002)). It is equally strik-
ing that, when the pivot is removed and the connection
is allowed to rotate significantly, the tensile capacity
is greatly reduced; to around 100 kN in this test.
The relative behavior of the dynamically and stati-
cally loaded connections with a pivot is also of interest.
The tension load vs rotation curves are similar for
the first 100 kN of load/0.3–0.4◦ rotation. Thereafter,
whilst the statically loaded connection appears to show
a reduction in stiffness, perhaps causes by yielding,
the dynamically loaded connection retains a much
higher stiffness. The two connections experience simi-
lar peak loads of 350–400 kN, but at this load, the

Figure 5. Load vs. Rotation for partial-depth endplate tests.
Figure 6. Final deformed connections.
dynamically loaded connection has experienced only
about 40% of the rotation experienced by the stati-
cally loaded connection (1.2◦ and 3.1◦ respectively).
As shown in Figure 8, this interval of rotation between
0.3–1.2◦ rotation corresponds approximately to the
highest rotational velocity, and therefore, presumably,
to the highest rates of strain in the connection. As the
resistance of the connection increases and matches the
applied dynamic load and the connection decelerates,
the load/rotation curve trends back towards the static
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 7. “No pivot dynamic” test – weld failure.
Figure 8. Dynamic test with pivot – rotational velocity vs.
rotation.
curve. At the end of the dynamic test, the retained pres-
sure behind the loading ram means that a quasi-static
load continues to be applied, hence, there is no overall
unloading.
These results suggest a possible strain-rate depen-
dent stiffness. Whilst the connection is deforming
most rapidly, more of the components are experienc-
ing high strain rates and exhibit higher yield strength.
As the deformation rate slows towards zero the mate-
rial strained beyond its (static) elastic limit yields, and
the deformation increases. It must be stressed that this
is still a hypothesis, and work is ongoing to test the
accuracy of this supposition.
Of equal interest is the behaviour at failure of the
connections when loaded statically and dynamically.
High speed video footage is obtained in these tests,
using a Phantom V4.2 monochrome video camera,
running at 500–1000 frames per second. The crack
at the toe of the weld visible in Figure 7 can be seen to
develop between 30–60 ms after initiation of loading
in the video still images shown in Figure 9. Further
testing is ongoing to check whether this crack deve-
lops at similar rotations in static and dynamic tests,
or whether it is driven more rapidly (with respect to
rotation) in the dynamic tests.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Bespoke apparatus to test steel connections at
high loading rates has been developed at Univer-
sity of Sheffield, UK. Initial test results appear to
show marked differences between dynamically and

Figure 9. High-speed video images from “no pivot
dynamic” test (Arrow indicates the extent of the crack at the
toe of the weld).
statically loaded connections. A comprehensive test
program is ongoing.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work is funded by the UK Engineering and
Physical Sciences Research Council, under Grant No.
EP/F004338/1. Gratitude is also expressed to Blastech
Ltd. for technical support and the loan of experimental
equipment.
149
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
REFERENCES
BCSA/SCI 2002. “Joints in steel construction: Simple
Connections”. SCI Publication P212, The British Con-
structional Steelwork Association/The Steel Construction
Institute.
Byfield, M.P. and Paramasivam, S. 2007. “Catenary Action
in Steel Framed Buildings” Proc. ICE, Structures &
Buildings 160 Issue SB5 247–257.
Demonceau, J-F. and Jaspart, J-P. 2009. “Experimental and
Analytical Investigations on the Response of Structural
Building Frames Further to a Column Loss”. In Proceed-
ings of the 2009 Structures Congress – Don’t Mess with
Structural Engineers: Expanding Our Role. 1801–1810.
Griffiths, H., Pugsley, A. G., and Saunders, O. 1968. “Report
of the inquiry into the collapse of flats at Ronan Point,
CanningTown.” Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, London.
Hamburger, R. “Alternative methods of evaluating and
achieving progressive collapse resistance”. Proc., North
American Structural Steel Conf., AISC, San Antonio.
Owens, G.W. and Moore, D. B. 1992. “The robustness
of simple connections”. The Structural Engineer, 70(3).
37–46.
Pearson, C. and Delatte, N. 2005. “Ronan Point Apartment
Tower Collapse and its Effect on Building Codes”, J. Perf.
Constr. Fac. 19(2) 172–177.
Yu, H., Burgess, I.W., Davison, J.B. and Plank, R.J. 2009.
“Tying capacity of web cleat connections in fire, Part
1: Test and finite element simulation” Eng. Struct. 31.
651–663.
 Actions due to other natural catastrophes

© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Landslides as a secondary event of earthquakes and eruptions

E. Nigro
D.I.ST., Department of Structural Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Napoli, Italy

C. Faella
D.I.CIV., Department of Civil Engineering , University of Salerno, Salerno, Italy

ABSTRACT: Landslides, lethal mixtures of water, rocks, and mud, generally are triggered by weather events,
but may be also secondary events of earthquakes or volcano eruptions, as several historic data show. So the main
topic of the paper is to investigate the possible effects of landslides on constructions. With this aim mechanical
models deduced utilising also hydrodynamic concepts are introduced; the models are capable to interpret the
effects of the landslide impact on the constructions and the collapse mechanisms of various types of structures.
The application of these models to building types representative of the urban areas around the Vesuvius will
allow to estimate their vulnerability against the expected landslide events, providing some useful informations
concerning the risk mitigation.

1 INTRODUCTION roughly 1.7 cubic miles of rocks and mud to break

Landslides and flowslides can be surely considered
as one of the most dangerous slope movements, for
their capability to produce casualties and remarkable
economic damage. Such phenomena are widespread
in many countries and they involve different kind of
soils, generally in a loose state, which in the post failure
stage collapse and rapidly reach the toe of the slope; the
initial mobilised mass often increases during its path
downslope either by inducing additional slope failure
and/or by eroding the stable in place soils.
However, landslides may be also secondary events
of earthquakes or eruptions, as several historic data
show. For example, one of the most significant effects
of the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake and of
the 2001 El Salvador earthquakes was the triggering
of thousands of landslides over a broad area. Some of
these landslides damaged and destroyed homes and
other structures, blocked roads, disrupted pipelines
and caused other serious damages. A further type of
landslides may be produced by “rapid avalanches” of
intimately mixed snow and hot pyroclastic debris dur-
ing a volcano eruptions, as for the eruptions at Mount
St. Helens, Nevado del Ruiz and Redoubt Volcano
between 1982 and 1989.
2 HISTORICAL DATA
Based on data provided by U.S. Geological Survey
(1999), the two largest landslides in the world during
XX century occurred at Mount St. Helens, Wash-
ington, in 1980 and at Usoy, Tajikistan, in 1911.
At Mount St. Helens, a moderate earthquake caused
free and slide down the side of the volcano, releas-
ing pent-up pressure to produce the major eruption
of May 18. Although this was the largest landslide
recorded in historic time, fewer than 60 people were
killed because most residents and visitors had been
evacuated. The Usoy landslide, also triggered by an
earthquake, moved 1.5 cubic miles of material and
built a dam 1880 feet high (half again as high as the
Empire State Building) on the Murgob River; the dam
still impounds a lake nearly 40 miles long. This land-
slide took place in a sparsely populated area and thus
caused few deaths.
An earthquake was responsible for the deadliest
landslide this century, which caused 40,000–50,000
deaths in western Iran on June 20, 1990. A magnitude
7.8 earthquake at Mount Huascaran, Peru, on May 21,
1970, triggered a rock and snow avalanche that buried
the towns of Yungay and Ranrahirca, killing perhaps
as many as 20,000 people.
Weather-related landslides also proved deadly in
recent years. The death toll is still unclear from
the rain-caused landslides that hit Venezuela in mid-
December of this year; official estimates are as high
as 30,000 deaths. On October 30, 1998, the day of
peak rainfall as Hurricane Mitch moved across Central
America, the side of Casita Volcano collapsed, creat-
ing a landslide/mudflow that wiped out two towns in
Nicaragua and killed more than 2,000 people.
The most costly landslide in U.S. history was a rela-
tively slow-moving event in Thistle, Utah, in the spring
of 1983. The landslide, caused by the wet El Nino win-
ter of 1982–83, dammed the Spanish Fork River and
buried U.S. Highway 6 and the main line of the Denver
and Rio Grande Western Railroad. The town of Thistle

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 1. Classification and description of the secondary
effects accompanying earthquakes with different
magnitudes.

Earthquake
magnitude/
Secondary
effects Aftershocks Landslides Rockfalls Avalanches

M = 3.0–4.0 always very rare very rare very rare

M = 4.0–5.0 always sometimes sometimes sometimes
M = 5.0–6.0 always frequently rare frequently
M = 6.0–7.0 always very always always
frequently
M = 7.0–8.0 always always always always

Scale:
Never – means 0%
Very rare – means up to 5%
Sometimes – means – 5–10%
Rare – means – 10–20%
Frequently – means – 20–50%
Very frequently – 50–90%
Always – means 100%

was inundated under the floodwaters rising behind the

landslide dam.Total losses were estimated at more than
$400 million in 1983 dollars.
Ranguelov (2003) provided a classification and
description of the secondary effects accompanying
earthquakes with different magnitudes (see Table 1).
This table represents the average statistics and the esti-
mations may vary in dependence of the conditions
(winter, mountain or flat areas, soil conditions, epicen-
tral location (sea or land) etc.). The estimated values
are representative for the epicentral areas and valid for Figure 1a,b. Area of flowslides during hydrogeological
the crustal seismic events. disaster of May 5–6, 1998 in Campania Region.

3 DAMAGES ON CONSTRUCTIONS
IMPACTED BY LANDSLIDES

As said in the previous paragraphs, significant exam-

ples of landslides have occurred in several areas of
the world. For example, those periodically occurring
in the Campania Region (South Italy) triggered by
critical rainfall events. They involve unsaturated pyro-
clastic soils – originated by the explosive phases of the
Somma-Vesuvius volcano – which mantle the lime-
stone and tuffaceous slopes over an area of about
3000 km2 (see Figure 1a).
In this area, there are more than 200 towns that Figure 2. Typical shape of a flowslide from detachment zone
frequently suffer from flowslides, as pointed out by to deposit one.
historical data acquired over a period from the 16th
century up to the present (Cascini & Ferlisi, 2003). One
of the worst events occurred on May 5–6, 1998, when the constructions which were located near incisions
159 casualties and serious damages were recorded in and valleys, determining wide-spread damage (see
four towns (Bracigliano, Quindici, Sarno and Siano) Figure 2).
located at the toe of the Pizzo d’Alvano relief (see These types of landslides may be events induced
Figure 1b). also by the eventual eruption of the Vesuvius and by
During the quoted hydrogeological disaster of 1998 the connected seismic motions. So it is interesting for
in the Campania Region, numerous flowslides due the main topic of the present paper to investigate the
to the detachment of the pyroclastic deposits from possible effects of such kinds of landslides on the urban
the calcareous massif of “Pizzo d’Alvano” impacted areas around the Vesuvius, according to other papers

154
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
of the same conference and the activities of the WG4
of Cost Action C26.
The lessons from previous events may be very use-
ful to learn the effects of landslides on constructions,
as the data from the quoted hydrogeological disaster of
1998 in Campania Region. The description and inter-
pretative analysis of the effects of the dynamic impact
of the landslides on the constructions, generally build-
ings, are reported in the following, with special care to
the structural resistance and/or vulnerability. As it is
known, some of these constructions were completely
destroyed by the flowslides, others were seriously dam-
aged in the structural parts, further others exhibited
damages only in the non-structural elements.
The data which are briefly presented in the fol-
lowing are based on the surveys and the analysis of
the building damages developed immediately after the
event by the Structural Group of the Operating Unit
stated by the Civil Protection Agency of the Italian
Government at the University of Salerno. The aim
is the analysis of the structural damages in order to
better understand the impact of debris flows on the
constructions and the collapse mechanisms produced
by the same phenomena, evaluating in the same time
the impact velocity of the flows on the constructions
(Faella & Nigro, 2003a,b).
The effects of the debris flow impact are signif-
icantly different depending on the following para-
meters:

– position of the structure with reference to the

impact direction (see Figure 3);
– level of kinetic energy of the debris flow, related to Figure 3. Position of the structure with reference to the
its velocity; impact direction of the flowslide.
– structural typology (reinforced-concrete or masonry
buildings, structural or non-structural members).

On the basis of the analysis of the structural and – Masonry buildings:

non-structural damages in the buildings impacted by
the debris flows, it is possible to derive the following
synthesis (see Faella & Nigro, 2003a), referring to the
main collapse mechanisms (Figure 4–6):
– Reinforced concrete framed buildings:
A) Collapse of the ground floor external walls,
directly impacted by the flows, without signif-
icant damage to the structural parts (columns
and beams) – see Figure 4b;
B) Serious damage or collapse of single structural
elements, generally columns, without collapse
of the whole structure, but with formation of
plastic hinges at the ends and/or in the midspan
of the columns (see Figure 5a);
C) Serious damage and/or collapse of the struc-
ture, with formation of floor mechanism (plastic
hinges at the top and bottom of the column; see
Figure 5b);
D) Translation of part of the building as a con-
sequence of the collapse of the ground floor
bearing structures.
E) Serious damage and/or collapse of bearings
walls at ground floor, directly impacted by
flows, without collapse of the overall building;
F) Serious damage and/or collapse of the overall
building (see Figure 6).
The described types of damages may be interpreted
by means of appropriate mechanical models, deduced
utilising also hydrodynamic concepts; the models are
capable to interpret the effects of the landslide impact
on the constructions and the collapse mechanisms of
various types of structures. The application of these
models to building types representative of the urban
areas around the Vesuvius will allow to estimate their
vulnerability against the expected landslide events,
providing some useful informations concerning the
risk mitigation.
The following paragraphs contain the description
and the assessment models concerning the effects of
the dynamic impact of the landslides on construc-
tions, generally buildings, with special care taken of
structural resistance and/or vulnerability.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 4a,b. (a) Height of debris flow; (b) Breaking of brick Figure 5a,b. R.C. structures: (a) Failure of corner column;
or tuff external walls in R.C. framed structure. (b) Plastic collapse mechanism of columns.

4 COLLAPSE RESISTANCE MODELS OF

STRUCTURAL AND NON-STRUCTURAL
ELEMENTS

The analysis and the interpretation of the structural and

non-structural damages in the buildings impacted by
the debris flows point out some types of collapse mech-
anisms for reinforced concrete and masonry buildings,
extensively described in the previous paragraphs.
The described damage types can be interpreted by
means of appropriate collapse mechanisms, which
allow to deduce the ultimate bearing capacity of
members or of the overall structure. The comparison
between the ultimate bearing capacity and hydrostatic
and hydrodynamic thrusts due to the flow impact on
the structures allows to determine the impact velo-
city. In the hydrodynamic models the hypothesis of a
fluid stream of constant density is assumed, neglect-
ing the possible presence of masses concentration (for
instance trees, rocks and other transported material).
It needs, besides, to point out the uncertainties both
of the hydrodynamic and structural models. In the
first ones the direction of the debris flow is assumed
founded on damage surveys, considering with approx-
imate formulations the influence of the impacted
members shape; moreover, the height of the debris
flows has been assumed generally equal to the first
floor height on the basis of the surveys. In the second Figure 6a,b. (a) Masonry building impacted by debris
ones the approximations refer to the material strength flows; (b) Residual parts of masonry buildings.

156
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 7. Tuff or brick external wall – arc-mechanism.
and the evaluation of the internal forces due to ver-
tical loads. Nevertheless, the whole approximations
doesn’t invalidate in significant way the results of
the investigation, due to the moderate influence of
the different parameters of uncertainty, considering the
non-negligible number of the analysed situations.
In the following the mechanical models related to
the main collapse mechanisms with reference to RC
and masonry structures and the analytical formula-
tions to evaluate the corresponding impact velocities
are described.
4.1 Reinforced concrete buildings
4.1.1 Type-A mechanism: Collapse of the tuff or
brick external walls
Type-A Mechanism concerns the collapse of the
ground floor external walls, directly impacted by
the debris flow, without appreciable damages to the
structural elements.
For the external walls inserted in r.c. structural
framework an arc-resistant mechanism is considered
related to the vertical strip of unitary width, based on
the formation of two struts after the cracking of the
ends and the midspan of the wall (see Figure 7).
With reference to theoretical-experimental mod-
els available in the technical bibliography, the vari-
ation of the effective dimension <a> of the struts
with midspan horizontal displacement (δ in cm) is
expressed by the following relationship:
where t represents the wall thickness and L1 the dis-
tance between the wall end and the horizontal load
resultant.
The evaluation of the maximum horizontal pressure
bearable from the wall in ultimate conditions can be
performed determining the whole load-displacement
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
curve; for each assigned value of the midspan displace-
ment δ, the corresponding value of the load P, related to
the vertical strip of unitary width, is deduced through
the following procedure:
• evaluation of the effective dimension of the struts
applying relationship (1);
• calculation of the shortening l of the struts on basis
of geometric considerations;
• calculation of the axial deformation ε of the struts;
• calculation of the corresponding normal stress
σ = E·ε, being E the elastic modulus of the material;
• calculation of the resultant axial forces in the struts
and determination of the ultimate load P impos-
ing the equilibrium condition with respect to the
horizontal translation.
The procedure stops when the axial stress in the
struts reaches the ultimate value σu .
Considering the average hydrostatic pressure act-
ing on one side of the wall and assuming a flow height
equal to the wall height, the ultimate load Pu is trans-
formed into pressure pu on the basis of the midspan
bending moment equivalence:
being γ the specific weight of the debris flow material.
Utilising the hydrodynamic relationship, related to
the thrust of a fluid stream of constant density ρ = γ/g
and velocity V against a wall inclined of an angle
α as regard to the stream direction, and assuming a
shape coefficient Cf = 1.0 (Ghetti 1984, Marchi 1990,
Viparelli), the pressure on the wall may be obtained by
the relationship:
Making equal the relationships (2) and (3), the
impact velocity of the debris flow on the wall able
to produce the wall collapse holds:
The described mechanical model is useful for the
cases in which the impact of debris flow has deter-
mined the collapse of the ground floor external walls
without appreciable damages to the structural skeleton
of the building: in such a way it allows to determine a
lower-bound of the flow impact load on the building,
while the resistance of the un-collapsed columns can
provide the upper-bound value of the impact load.
4.1.2 Type-B mechanism: Three-plastic-hinges
collapse mechanism in RC columns
This model refers to wide damages and/or failure of
single structural members (columns) with formation
of three plastic hinges and without global collapse).

Figure 8. Three-plastic-hinges mechanism for a RC
column.
The static scheme is constituted by a column fixed
at the ends (horizontal displacements prevented) and
subjected to an uniformly distributed load q. The fail-
ure mechanism is represented by the formation of three
plastic hinges, at the ends and in the midspan respec-
tively (see Figure 8), where the bending moments reach
the ultimate value Mu .
The application of the static or kinematic theorem
of the limit analysis allows to determine the uniformly
distributed collapse load qu of the column:
As it is known, the ultimate moment of the cross-
section of the column Mu depends on the axial effort
acting on the same column and is deduced applying
the limit states theory utilising the design values of
the materials strength (concrete and rebar steel):
where reduced values of the γm –factors may be
adopted in order to simulate the actual concrete and
steel strength of the considered members.
Utilising the hydrodynamic relationship, related to
the thrust of a fluid stream of constant density ρ = γ/g
and velocity V against an obstacle of square or rectan-
gular form, and assuming a shape coefficient Cf = 1.0,
the uniformly distributed load along the column may
be obtained by the relationship:
being D the characteristic impacted dimension of the
column. Making equal the (5) and (6) relationships
and assuming zero the hydrostatic pressure of the fluid
because the flow surrounds the column along all the
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 9. Two-plastic-hinges mechanism for ground floor
RC columns.
sides, the impact velocity of the debris flow able to
produce the collapse of the column holds:
This type of collapse is related to cases in which the
damage is concentrated in isolated columns directly
impacted by the debris flow without determining the
global collapse of the structure.
4.1.3 Type-C mechanism: Two-plastic-hinges
collapse mechanism in RC columns
The model refers to wide damages and/or failure of
whole structure with formation of storey-mechanism
at ground floor.
The static scheme of each column of the ground
floor is constituted by a column fixed at the foot and
with free horizontal displacement and restrained rota-
tions at the head, subjected to uniformly distributed
load q. The collapse mechanism is represented by the
formation of two plastic hinges located at the ends
of the columns (see Figure 9), where the bending
moments reach the ultimate value Mu .
The application of the static or kinematic theorem
of the limit analysis allows to determine the uniformly
distributed collapse load qu of the column:
The calculation of the ultimate bending moment of
the column cross-section of the pillar Mu is performed
as already described above.
Making equal the (6) and (8) relationships and
assuming zero the hydrostatic pressure of the fluid
because the flow surrounds the columns along all the
sides, the impact velocity of the debris flow able to
produce the collapse of the column holds:

Figure 10. Shear failure mechanism in RC column.
This type of collapse is related to cases in which
the debris flow impacts all the ground floor columns,
determining the failure of the same elements and
consequently the collapse of the whole building due
to a storey-mechanism. In the presence of different
columns the previous model allows an approximate
evaluation of the average value of impact velocity:
being Mu,i and Di the ultimate bending moments
and the characteristic dimensions of the ground floor
columns respectively.
4.1.4 Type-D mechanism: Shear collapse
mechanism in reinforced concrete columns
The model concerns the translation of building parts
due to shear failure of ground floor columns.
The shear collapse of RC columns is due to the
concrete strut or steel tie failure close to one end of
the column (see Figure 10).
The ultimate resistance shear Tu of the column is the
minimum of the following values, related respectively
to the crushing failure of the compressed strut and to
the tension failure of the steel stirrups:
As being the stirrups area in a 0.9d long segment.
With reference to the two cases of uniformly dis-
tributed external load on the column and of load acting
on the part of length L1 only, the following expressions
are deduced for the ultimate loads:
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 11. Resistant mechanisms of masonry walls.
Making equal the (6) and (11) relationships and
assuming zero the hydrostatic pressure of the fluid
because the flow surrounds the columns along all the
sides, the impact velocity of the debris flow able to
produce the shear collapse of the column holds:
The described failure type is related to the cases in
which the damages are concentrated in a section of one
column directly impacted by the debris flow.
4.2 Masonry buildings: Type-E mechanism
The model described below refers to the cases of debris
flow impact against the ground floor walls of masonry
buildings (Type-E Mechanism).
The resistant system of an impacted masonry wall
(width b, height L, thickness s), restrained by the
foundations, the floor and the orthogonal walls, is con-
stituted by the superposition at the ultimate limit state
of two resistant schemes (see Figure 11):
• bending-type vertical resistant scheme, related to
the collapse mechanism of the vertical panel with
the formation of three plastic hinges, respectively
at the ends and in midspan, in which the bending
moments reach the ultimate value Mu ;
• shear-type horizontal resistant scheme, related to
the shear resistance of the horizontal panel of the
wall.
With regard to the bending-type resistant scheme
related to vertical masonry panel of unitary width
fixed at the ends, the application of the static theorem
of the limit analysis allows to determine the uni-
formly distributed pressure puv that produces the panel
collapse beginning from the presence of the fluid
hydrostatic pressure p(x) = γ·x. With this aim, being
Mu the ultimate bending moment of the masonry panel
cross-section, dependent on the axial effort Nv acting
on the same panel, and ξ = L2 /L the unknown posi-
tion of the central plastic hinge (see Figure 11), the
 collapse pressure puv corresponding to three-plastic-
hinges mechanism and the position ξ can be deduced
by the following relationships:

The evaluation of the ultimate pressure puv is

obtained determining the ξ value that maximizes the
bearing capacity of the vertical panel.
The ultimate bending moment Mu of the masonry
panel, with cross-section of width b and thickness s, is
obtained neglecting the tensile strength of the masonry
and assuming a constant stress path at the ultimate limit
state over the compressed portion:

being σu the compression strength of the masonry,

assumed equal to the characteristic value σk suitable
for the masonry type, and σvm = Nv /bs the average
vertical stress in the panel.
With reference to the shear-resistant scheme related
to the horizontal masonry panel of unitary width and
length b restrained at the ends, making equal the maxi-
mum shear in correspondence of the restraints and the
ultimate shear resistance of the masonry panel, it is
possible to determine the ultimate pressure puo which
produces its shear failure:
Therefore, the total resistant pressure of the
masonry wall at the ultimate limit state results:
Utilising the usual hydrodynamic relationship,
related to the thrust of a fluid stream of constant den-
sity ρ = γ/g and velocity V against a wall inclined of an
angle α as regard to the stream direction, and assum-
ing a shape coefficient Cf = 1.0, the pressure on the
masonry wall can be obtained by the relationship:
Making equal the relationships (17) and (18), the
impact velocity of the debris flow on the masonry wall
able to produce its collapse holds:
Figure 12a,b. I.A.C.P. building impacted by debris flow
(“Episcopio” – City of Sarno).
5 APPLICATION OF THE COLLAPSE
MODELS
5.1 Application to a case-study
As an example, the previously described collapse mod-
els are applied to an actual case, related to an I.A.C.P.
council building situated in place “Episcopio” (city of
Sarno), constituted by a ground-floor, three floors in
elevation and a garret. The structural system is consti-
tuted by a spatial RC framed structure, tile-lintel floor
and brick external walls.
The building is located on the edge of an occurred
debris flow and therefore it was only partially impacted
by the same one. The impacted building portion
exhibits three destroyed external walls and the fail-
ure of the column A, while the column B has not been
damaged (see Figure 12 and Figure 13).
On the basis of the surveyed data it is possible
to deduce an interval of impact velocity. In fact, the
impact velocity of the debris flow has to be greater
than the one necessary for the failure of the col-
umn A, while it must be surely be lower than the
one necessary for the failure of the not-damaged col-
umn B. The collapse model assumed for the columns
the three-plastic-hinges mechanism (par. 4.1 – Type-B
mechanism). Therefore, the estimated impact velocity
of the debris flow is within the range:

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 13. Geometric scheme of the I.A.C.P. council
building impacted by the debris flow (Episcopio – City of
Sarno).
Column A Data
L = 2.70 m, b = 300 mm, h = 300 mm
As,tot = 615 mm2 (4φ14 smooth rebars)
Rck = 20 N/mm2 , fsk = 320 N/mm2
N = 300 kN , Mu = 57.81 kNm
qu = 126.88 kN/m
Estimated collapse velocity = 14.5 m/s
Column B Data
L = 2.70 m, b = 300 cm, h = 500 cm
As,tot = 920 mm2 (6φ14 smooth rebars)
Rck = 20 N/mm2 , fsk = 320 N/mm2
Nv = 480 kN, Mu = 135.61 kNm
qu = 297.62 kN/m
Estimated collapse velocity = 18.9 m/s
5.2 Synthesis of the application of the collapse
models to structures impacted by landslides
The models described in the previous paragraph are
now applied to some significant buildings, selected
between those surveyed after the quoted hydrogeo-
logical disaster of 1998 in the Campania Region, with
the purpose to assess the debris flow impact velocity
on the basis of the surveyed damages.
In some cases it is possible only to deduce a lower
bound of the velocity, as for instance in the case of
masonry walls destroyed by the debris flow and in the
case of global collapse of the building. In other cases,
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
instead, the range which contains the probable impact
velocity can be evaluated: this is possible, for instance,
when the debris flow has destroyed the external walls
of a reinforced concrete building without the failure
of the ground-floor columns, or when some impacted
columns have collapsed and others have withstood the
impact due to their greater bearing capacity (the last
one is the case of par. 5.1).
In the application of the models described in the
par. 4 the specific weight γ = 14.00 kN/m3 of the fluid
is assumed (density ρ = 1427.1 kg/m3 ). The complete
results in terms of debris flow impact velocity are
reported in Faella & Nigro (2003b). The analysis of
the results allows some interesting remarks:
– The collapse of masonry buildings impacted by
debris flows occurs in the presence of relatively
low velocities (approximately lower than 5÷6 m/s);
in some cases, moreover, only hydrostatic thrust is
enough to determine the collapse.
– The collapse of external walls in RC buildings occur
for very low velocities (about 3 m/s).
– RC buildings completely impacted by debris flows
exhibit intermediate values of collapse velocity
(about 10 m/s); in this case the collapse model is
interpreted by the two-plastic-hinges mechanism
(see type-C mechanism), related to the formation
of storey-failure-mechanism at the ground floor.
– In the case of RC buildings only partially impacted
by debris flow, instead, the failure of single
columns may occur; the corresponding veloci-
ties are greater than the previous cases (within
the range 15÷20 m/s), due to the most favorable
three-plastic-hinges (type-B) failure mechanism.
– Obviously, the obtained results are related to the
examined building types, characterised by two or
three-floors buildings; if the number of floors
increases, the collapse velocity also increases both
for masonry and reinforced concrete buildings: in
the first case, the resistance capacity of the ground-
floor walls increases thanks to the increments of
the acting vertical load and the wall thickness; in
the second case, the geometric dimensions of the
ground floor columns and the corresponding axial
forces increase, determining the increment of the
ultimate bending moments.
5.3 Technical codes on the structural design in
urban areas with high debris-flow-risk
Being socially unacceptable to delocalise the popu-
lation hit by the above described disaster, Campania
Region Authorities (2001, 2002) have provided the
areas having a significant debris-flow-risk with spe-
cific technical codes, partially based on the results
previously summarized in par. 4, to allow to rebuild or
repair constructions capable to resist to debris flows
phenomena (Faella & Nigro, 2003c).
The codes refer to the areas of the cities, where
there is a residual risk of debris flows, also taking into
account the effects of the foreseen protection works
 able to reduce or eliminate the debris-flows-risk. These
protection works are mainly:
• naturalistic engineering works, to prevent irregular
concentration of water flows or local soil collapse,
which could constitute the primer of more general
landslides;
• hydraulic works, to regularize the flows and to pre-
vent the detachment of unstable pyroclastic layers
along the valleys;
• dams, to contain the debris flows phenomena and to
protect the built-up area.
The Technical Code on rebuilding (Campania
Region Government, 2001) is based on the funda-
mental remark that it results practically impossible
that ordinary built constructions resist to the hydrody-
namic action due to the debris flow impact. Therefore,
when it is impossible to protect the construction with
specific works or to deflect the flow, the defence strat-
egy consists in reducing the impact surfaces adopting
a construction typology with isolated columns at the
ground floor.
In this case it is necessary to quantify the impact
actions, mainly deriving from the impact velocity.
With this purpose, the territory of interest has been
subdivided in areas with different expected velocity:
A) High velocity expected zone: 10 m/sec
B) Medium velocity expected zone: 7 m/sec
C) Low velocity expected zone: 5 m/sec
The Technical Code on repairing of existing build-
ings (Campania Region Government, 2002) assumes
that these buildings are not able to sustain the orthog-
onal dynamic impact of debris flows. Therefore, the
repair of damaged buildings located in areas with high
debris flow risk is only allowed in the case of tan-
gential impact of the flow against the building, thanks
to the local orography or protection systems. In such
a case the flow action can be assumed as equivalent
to hydrostatic pressure due to fluid with high mass
density (ρc = 1500 kg/m3 ).
Finally, it has to be remarked that these codes do
not substitute the planned works devoted to the reduc-
tion of the area risk, but have the aim to reduce the
vulnerability of the constructions, being aware that,
notwithstanding the defence works, a residual risk
remains, which should be eliminated only with an
un-acceptable impact on the environment.
6 CONCLUSIONS
Landslides may be secondary events of earthquake or
eruptions. The urban areas around the Vesuvius, which
are within the interest of the Cost Action C26, are areas
exposed to such risks, so that it is important to examine
the effects of landslides on the constructions possibly
impacted by landslides.
In the paper mechanical models deduced utilizing
also hydrodynamic concepts are introduced; the mod-
els are capable to interpret the effects of the landslide
impact on structures and the collapse mechanisms of
various types of structures.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
The application of these models to building types
representative of the urban areas around the Vesuvius
will allow us to estimate their vulnerability against
the expected landslide events, providing some useful
information concerning the risk mitigation.
Also the Technical Codes, summarily illustrated in
the previous paragraphs, may represent a reference
in order to write guidelines concerning the refurbish-
ment or retroffiting of existing buildings to resist to
catastrophic events due to landslides.
REFERENCES
Campania Region Government, 2001. Code Provisions to
Rebuild Private Residential Buildings Damaged by Debris
Flow Occurred on 5th and 6th May 1998 in the Cities
of Sarno, Siano, Bracigliano, Quindici and San Felice a
Cancello. Ordinance n. 1991 of 9 November 2001. Napoli
(Italy).
Campania Region Government, 2002. Code Provisions to
Repair Private Residential Buildings Damaged by Debris
Flow Occurred on 5th and 6th May 1998 in the Cities of
Sarno, Siano, Bracigliano, Quindici and San Felice a Can-
cello. Ordinance n. 2631 of 24 December 2002. Napoli
(Italy).
Cascini L., Ferlisi S., 2003. Occurrence and Consequences of
Flowslides: a Case Study, in L. Picarelli (Ed.), Proceed-
ings of Int. Conf. on Fast Slope Movements-Prediction
and Prevention for Risk Mitigation (FSM2003), Napoli
(Italy), 11–13 May 2003. Patron Ed.: Bologna.
Cascini L., Sorbino G., Cuomo S., 2003. Modelling
of flowslides triggering in pyroclastic solis, in L.
Picarelli (Ed.), Proceedings of Int. Conf. on Fast Slope
Movements-Prediction and Prevention for Risk Mitiga-
tion (FSM2003), Napoli (Italy), 11–13 May 2003. Patron
Ed.: Bologna.
Faella C., Nigro E., 2003a. Dynamic Impact of the Debris
Flows on the Constructions during the Hydrogeological
Disaster in Campania-1998: Description and Analysis of
the Damages, in L. Picarelli (Ed.), Proceedings of Int.
Conf. on Fast Slope Movements-Prediction and Preven-
tion for Risk Mitigation (FSM2003), Napoli (Italy), 11–13
May 2003. Patron Ed.: Bologna.
Faella C., Nigro E., 2003b. Dynamic Impact of the Debris
Flows on the Constructions during the Hydrogeolog-
ical Disaster in Campania-1998: Failure Mechanical
Models and Evaluation of the Impact Velocity, in L.
Picarelli (Ed.), Proceedings of Int. Conf. on Fast Slope
Movements-Prediction and Prevention for Risk Mitiga-
tion (FSM2003), Napoli (Italy), 11–13 May 2003. Patron
Ed.: Bologna.
Faella C., Nigro E., 2003c. A Hypothesis of Technical Code
on the Structural Design and Repairing in Urban Areas
with High Debris Flow Risk, in L. Picarelli (Ed.), Proceed-
ings of Int. Conf. on Fast Slope Movements-Prediction and
Prevention for Risk Mitigation (FSM2003), Napoli (Italy),
11–13 May 2003. Patron Ed.: Bologna.
Nigro E., Faella C., 2008. Effects of debris flow on build-
ings, Proceedings of the International Workshop “Urban
Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events” COST
Action C26, Malta, 22–24 October.
Ranguelov B. (2003), Classification and Description of the
Secondary Effects Accompanying Earthquakes with Dif-
ferent Magnitudes, European Commission, Directorate
General JRC (Joint Research Center).
U.S. Geological Survey (1999), Most Recent Natural
Disasters.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Measurements of shear wave velocities for seismic and volcanic hazard

assessment in urban areas

C. Nunziata, G. De Nisco & M.R. Costanzo

Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli studi di Napoli Federico II, Italy

F. Vaccari
Dipartimento di Geoscienze, Università degli studi di Trieste, Italy

G.F. Panza
Dipartimento di Geoscienze, Università degli studi di Trieste, Italy
The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, ESP-SAND Group, Trieste, Italy

ABSTRACT: Detailed VS profiles with depth can be obtained in urban areas from the nonlinear inversion with
hedgehog method of the Rayleigh waves group velocity dispersion curves of the fundamental mode extracted
with the FTAN method from the recorded signal of active seismic experiments at a single station. Recently, the
approach has been applied to cross correlations of long time series of ambient seismic noise as they have been
demonstrated to recover surface wave dispersion (Green function) over a broad range of distances.
We present some examples of FTAN measurements, for both active and passive experiments, performed in
the highly noisy urban area of Napoli, with the definition of VS profiles to depths of 2 km. Such examples aim
to show the successful application of the proposed approach for the mitigation of both seismic and volcanic
risk in that stratigraphies, blind because of unaccessible outcrops in densely urbanized areas, can be reliably
reconstructed.

1 INTRODUCTION errors is computed, from FTAN analysis made on a

One of the key parameters for the study of the effects
of local site conditions is the S-wave velocity structure
of unconsolidated sediments and the S-wave velocity
contrast between bedrock and overlying sediments.
Shear wave velocities give important information to
reconstruct the thickness of the different eruption
deposits in volcanic environments as well.
Detailed VS profiles with depth can be measured
with standard borehole logging and hole measure-
ments, like down-hole and cross-hole. Such measure-
ments are expensive, very local (point measurements)
and may be not representative of large areas. Power-
ful methods for VS measurements, that do not need
drillings, are all based on the dispersion properties of
Rayleigh wave phase and group velocities. Methods
for phase velocity measurement of surface waves need
recordings along dense arrays, with small geophone
spacing, to avoid spatial aliasing, or, in case of 2
receivers, there is the problem of getting the right
number of cycles and, hence, the analysis may lead
to wrong values (Nunziata, 2005). Instead, the group
velocity dispersion curve of the fundamental mode of
Rayleigh waves can be extracted from the recorded sig-
nal at a single station by using the FTAN (Frequency
Time Analysis) method (Levshin et al., 1989). An aver-
age dispersion curve of Rayleigh group velocities with
few (4–5 or more) signals, which can be inverted
to determine VS profiles versus depth. A non-linear
inversion is made with the hedgehog method (Panza
et al., 2007 and references therein) that is an optimized
Monte Carlo non-linear search of velocity-depth dis-
tributions. In the inversion, the unknown Earth model
is replaced by a set of parameters (VP , VS , density
and thickness) and the definition of the structure is
reduced to the determination of the numerical values
of these parameters. In the inversion VS and thickness
are variable parameters, while density is fixed and VP
is dependent on VS through an assigned VP /VS ratio.
In the inversion problem of VS modeling, the parame-
ter function is the dispersion curve of group velocities
of Rayleigh fundamental mode.
Given the error of the experimental group velo-
city data, it is possible to compute the resolution of
the parameters, computing partial derivatives of the
dispersion curve with respect to the parameters to
be inverted (Panza, 1981). The theoretical velocities
computed during the inversion are compared with the
corresponding experimental ones. If the root mean
square error of the entire data set is less than a value
defined a priori on the basis of the quality of the data
and if, at a given frequency, no individual computed
velocity differs from its experimental counterpart by
more than an assigned error, depending upon the

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 1. Top: Dispersion curves of group velocity relative
to receivers with different offsets at Napoli. Bottom: Shear
wave velocity models: the dashed line indicates the searched
part of the parameter’s space, while the accepted models are
represented by the solid lines. The chosen solution has been
selected as the closest to the known stratigraphy (green line).
accuracy of the measurements, the model is accepted
as a solution. From the set of solutions, we accept as
representative solution either the one with rms error
closest to the average rms error of the solution’s set,
to reduce the projection of possible systematic errors
into the structural model (Panza, 1981), or the one
closer to the, when available, reliable geological infor-
mation. An example of hedgehog inversion is shown
in Figure 1.
Other selection criteria could be followed as
described by Boyadzhiev et al. (2008).
At urban sites, the impossible use of explosive
sources or heavy masses blows, limits the penetration
depth to the uppermost 20–30 m, depending upon the
rock velocities. Recently, cross correlations of long
time series of ambient seismic noise have been demon-
strated to recover surface wave dispersion (Green
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 2. Location of VS measurements with FTAN-
hedgehog methods at urban areas in Italy.
function) over a broad range of distances, from a few
hundred metres to several hundred kilometres (e.g.
Lobkis & Weaver, 2001; Bensen et al., 2007; Nunziata
et al., 2009).
Aim of this paper is to present examples of the
FTAN and hedgehog methods applied to both active
and passive experiments, to obtain reliable VS profiles
to depths of 2 km in a complex urban area like Napoli,
with high seismic and volcanic risk.
2 ACTIVE EXPERIMENTS
FTAN measurements have been successfully per-
formed, at engineering scale, in italian urban areas
with different soil and rock environments (Fig. 2) (e.g.
Natale et al., 2004; Nunziata et al., 2004). A weight
drop of 30 kg is used as source and one or more low
frequency 4.5–1 Hz vertical geophones are used as
receivers for offsets less or greater than 50 m. Only
one receiver is requested, or, alternatively, a seismic
refraction spreading, in order to evaluate an average
group velocity dispersion curve from 4–5 receivers or
4–5 sources (Fig. 1).
In the following some examples are reported at the
neapolitan area to show the main advantages of FTAN
method in complex geological settings of noisy urban
areas.
2.1 FTAN measurements at Napoli
Several measurements have been performed at the
urban area of Napoli for which, taking into account the
stratigraphies, six geologically homogeneous zones
have been recognized (Nunziata, 2004) (Fig. 3). The
geological setting of Napoli is mainly characteri-
zed by pyroclastic materials, soil (pozzolana) and
rock (tuff), produced by different eruptive centres at
Campi Flegrei and Somma-Vesuvio volcano. The most
widespread lithotype is the Neapolitan Yellow Tuff
(NYT, 12 ka) which constitutes the skeleton of the
historical urban area. Comparisons between FTAN
measurements and down-hole tests have indicated a
good consistency (e.g. Nunziata et al., 2004).

Figure 3. Urban map of Napoli showing the quarter limits
and the representative stratigraphic column for each of the six
geological zones (bold underlined numbers), together with
drillings (black dots), FTAN measurement sites (blue dots)
and all available VS measurements (modified after Nunziata
et al., 2009).
Figure 4. VS velocities of Neapolitan Yellow Tuff, both soil
and lithoid facies (modified after Nunziata et al., 2004).
The need of doing robust VS measurements vs.
depth in volcanic settings is strictly dependent on their
wide ranges of variations. They are the consequence of
the profound differences in the physical properties and
textural conditions that can be found even in the same
formation. An additional important factor responsible
for the observed scatter in the VS values is the different
hardening degree, due to the diagenetic process. As an
example, VS measurements relative to NYT, both in
soil and lithoid facies, are shown in Figure 4.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 5. Results of nonlinear inversion (hedgehog method)
of the average dispersion curve of Rayleigh group velocities,
with error bars, together with a close drilling stratigraphy.
2.2 FTAN measurements at Portici
(Somma-Vesuvio)
Somma-Vesuvio is a very densely populated area,
and accurate VS measurements are requested for the
volcanic and seismic hazards. FTAN measurements
performed at the Royal Palace of Portici, famous town
for the highest population density in Italy, have given
detailed VS models for the shallower 40 m (Fig. 5).
These results are important for seismic zoning and
give precious volcanological information in terms of
thickness of the erupted products. In fact, taking into
account the stratigraphy of a close drilling, it resulted
that a Vesuvio shallow lava (medieval or 1631 erup-
tion) is characterized by VS of 500 m/s, which is higher
than that of Somma lava at 30 m of depth, and that
pyroclastic deposits have low VS velocities around
200–300 m/s.
3 PASSIVE EXPERIMENTS
Recently, cross correlations of long time series of
ambient seismic noise have been demonstrated to
recover surface wave dispersion (Green function) over
a broad range of distances, from a few hundred metres
to several hundred kilometres (e.g. Bensen et al., 2007;
Nunziata et al., 2009 and references therein). Experi-
ments of noise cross correlation have been conducted
at Napoli over distances ranging from 50 m to about
4 km (Fig. 6).
3.1 Signal analysis
The analysis of noise cross correlation consists of
the steps that are illustrated in Figure 7 and refer
to measurements at 50 m receiver spacing. A one-bit
normalization is applied to the vertical components
of the recorded noise (Fig. 7a), which retains only
 Figure 6. Location of the seismic stations employed in the
cross correlation experiments at the urban area of Napoli.

the sign of the raw signal by replacing all posi-

tive amplitudes with a 1 and all negative amplitudes
with a−1, in order to increase the signal-to-noise
ratio. After average removal, power spectra are eval-
uated to discern the frequency band of interest (Fig.
7b). Signals are iteratively band-pass filtered (But-
terworth filters) to enhance the dispersed wavetrains
in the cross correlation (Fig. 7c). The resulting cross-
correlations contain surface wave signals coming from
opposite directions along the path linking the sta-
tions. The cross-correlations are often asymmetrical
due to the inhomogeneous distribution of ambient
noise sources. To simplify data analysis and enhance
the signal to noise ratio, we average the positive and
negative lags of the cross-correlation to form ‘sym-
metric signals’. Cross correlation and symmetric cross
correlations are computed for one-bit normalized sig-
nals (Fig. 7d). Then FTAN analysis is performed
to extract the fundamental mode of Rayleigh waves
(Figs. 7d-e).
Three experiments have been conducted at the his-
torical centre of Napoli (SMN, SOC and SLOR in
Fig. 6). Two broadband Kinemetrics Quanterra Q330
stations equipped with 3-component Episensor broad-
band FBA (Force Balance Accelerometer) sensors
have been employed being one (SMN), permanently
installed and continuously recording at the rock foun-
dations of the SS. Marcellino and Festo monumental
complex (www.geosism.unina.it). The other Q330 sta-
tion was mobile and recorded ambient noise, for at Figure 7. Example of noise analysis: (a) noise recordings
least 1 hour, using a 100-Hz sampling frequency, at with 1 Hz vertical geophones 50 m apart (1 and 2 receivers)
S. Lorenzo Maggiore basilica (SLOR) and the Socio- at SMN courtyard and 1-bit normalized signals; (b) power
logy Faculty of University (SOC). The SMN-SOC and spectra of noise recordings (on the left) and 1-bit normali-
SMN-SLOR distances are 260 m and 400 m, respec- zed signals (on the right); (c) cross correlation of signals
shown in (a) and band-pass filtered; (d) Cross correlation
tively. Another experiment has been conducted at the of 1-Bit 10–15 Hz band-pass filtered signals (top) and its
courtyard of SS. Marcellino and Festo complex by symmetric (bottom). The fundamental mode Green function
noise recordings with a 24 bit Geometrics StrataVisor extracted with FTAN method (red line) is overlapped. (e) Raw
seismograph and 1 Hz vertical geophones (Geospace and cleaned FTAN maps of the symmetric cross correlation
GS-1), along a spreading with geophone distance of [bottom of (d)].
50 m.
The retrieved VS models (Fig. 8) are very consistent
with the stratigraphy of a deep borehole (400 m) drilled Another experiment has been performed at the
in the Plebiscito square (Fig. 6), and give important Partenope street (PART in Fig. 6), with highly chaotic
stratigraphic results regarding the thickening of the traffic, by noise recordings with a 24 bit Geometrics
NYT layer (Nunziata et al., 2009). StrataVisor seismograph and 1 Hz vertical geophones

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 8. The VS solutions and the chosen solution (red
line) for SMN-SLOR path compared with the stratigraphy of
the deep drilling at Plebiscito square (located in Fig. 6). Leg-
end: R = man made ground material and recent pyroclastic
deposits; NYT = NeapolitanYellow Tuff; WT = Whitish tuff;
IC = Campanian Ignimbrite; AT = Ancient Tuffs; ST = Tuffs
and sedimentary rocks; S = Sedimentary rocks.

(Geospace GS-1), along a spreading with geophone

distance of 180 m. The VS distribution vs. depth is very
consistent with the stratigraphy of a deep borehole at
Vittoria square (Fig. 6), close to the investigated area
(Fig. 9).
Very recently, a further experiment has been per-
formed over a distance of 4 km in order to define the
thickness of the tuff cover. Two 24 bit digital tromo-
graphs with a wide frequency range (0.1–200 Hz) have Figure 9. The VS solutions and the chosen solution (red line)
simultaneously recorded noise for 1 hour at Mergel- for the spreading at Partenope st. with geophone distance of
lina (MERG) and harbour (PORT) (for their location 180 m. The statigraphy is relative to Vittoria square borehole
(located in Fig. 6). In the top, the photo of the investigated
see Fig. 6). The results are very important as, for area; symmetric cross correlation of 1-Bit 6-25 Hz band-pass
the first time, structures have been defined below filtered signals and the fundamental mode Green function
Napoli at 2 km of depth (Fig. 10). The obtained VS extracted with FTAN method (red line); average dispersion
models are in agreement with VS velocities obtained curve of the fundamental mode, with error bars.
by Nunziata (2010) along the Vesuvio-Campi Flegrei
path, crossing Napoli and its gulf. The agreement with
the data relative to Mofete (Campi Flegrei) drillings, the following interpretative structural model can be
that is VS computed from VP sonic log measurements formulated. The first 0.5 km consists of tuffs while
(AGIP, 1987) by assuming a reasonable VP /VS ratio of tuffs and tuffites are present at 0.5–1.2 km depth;
1.8, and ultrasonic measurements on saturated spec- tuffs and tuffites with lava interbedding, probably
imens (Zamora et al., 1994) is quite impressive and thermometamorphic, might be present at depths of

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 10. The VS solutions and the chosen solution (red
line) for the MERG-PORT path (Fig. 6). The overlap of
the fundamental mode Green function extracted with FTAN
method (red line) on cross correlation of 1-Bit 0.3–0.8 Hz
band-pass filtered signal is shown together with the aver-
age dispersion curve of the fundamental mode, with error
bars. Ultrasonic measurements on specimens from Campi
Flegrei (Zamora et al., 1994) and Vesuvio (Trecase drilling)
(Bernard & Zamora, 2003) are reported together with VS
values computed from VP sonic log measurements (AGIP,
1987).
1.2–2 km. At these depths, both the agreement with
ultrasonic velocity measured on a conglomerate sam-
ple (Bernard & Zamora, 2003) and the stratigraphy
at Plebiscito square (Fig. 8), suggest that the pres-
ence of highly fractured sedimentary rocks cannot be
escluded. The compact sedimentary horizon, with a VS
of 3.6–3.7 km/s, has been found below the Neapolitan
area at about 3 km of depth (Nunziata, 2010).
4 CONCLUSIONS
The results obtained in Napoli metropolitan area, with
the non linear inversion of Rayleigh wave group veloc-
ity dispersion curve of the fundamental mode extracted
with FTAN method from both active seismic surveys
and noise cross correlation, show that the proce-
dure is a powerful and reliable instrument to get VS
profiles versus depth in urban areas. The proposed
methodology is low cost, as one (active experiments)
or two (passive experiments) receivers are requested
on ground surface and is particularly suitable for urban
areas as doesn’t require spreadings. The depth of pene-
tration is manly controlled by the distance and the soil
velocities.
A new intriguing prospective is open by noise
cross correlation as deep structures can be investi-
gated in absence of specific energy sources. This is
promising in terms of both seismic zoning and, even
more, of volcanological zoning as stratigraphies can
be reconstructed whereas they would be blind because
of unaccessible outcrops in densely urbanized areas.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Stratigraphic correlations can be assessed and used for
volcanic hazard scenarios.
REFERENCES
AGIP, 1987. Geologia e geofisica del sistema geotermico dei
Campi Flegrei. Int. Report, 17 pp.
Bensen, G.D., Ritzwoller, M.H., Barmin, M.P., Levshin, A.L.,
Lin, F., Moschetti, M.P., Shapiro, N.M., and Yang, Y.
2007. Processing seismic ambient noise data to obtain reli-
able broad-band surface wave dispersion measurements.
Geophys. J. Int. 169, 1239–1260.
Bernard, M. L. & Zamora, M. 2003. Mechanical properties of
volcanic rocks and their relations to transport properties,
in the CD of: P. Capuano, P. Gasparini, A. Zollo, J. Virieux,
R. Casale, M. Yeroyanni (eds). The internal structure of
Mt. Vesuvius, Liguori Editore.
Boyadzhiev, G., Brandmayr, E., Pinat, T. and Panza, G.F.
2008. Optimization for non-linear inverse problems. Ren-
diconti Lincei 19, 17–43, DOI: 10.1007/s12210-008-
0002-z.
Levshin, A.L.,Yanovskaya, T.B., Lander, A.V., Bukchin, B.G.,
Barmin, M.P., Ratnikova, L.I., and Its, E.N. 1989. Seismic
Surface Waves in a Laterally Inhomogeneous Earth, ed.
Keilis-Borok, V.I., Kluwer, Norwell, Mass.
Lobkis, O. I., and Weaver, R. L. 2001. On the emergence of
the Green’s function in the correlations of a diffuse field.
J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 110, 3011–3017.
Natale, M., Nunziata, C., Panza, G. F. 2004. FTAN method
for the detailed definition of Vs in urban areas. Proc. 13th
World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Vancou-
ver, B.C., Canada, August 1–6, CD-Rom, pp. 11.
Nunziata, C. 2004. Seismic ground motion in Napoli for the
1980 Irpinia earthquake. Pageoph, 161, (5/6), 1239–1264.
Nunziata, C. 2005. FTAN method for detailed shallow
VS profiles. Geologia Tecnica e ambientale, n.3, 25–43
(www.consiglionazionalegeologi.it).
Nunziata, C., Natale, M. and Panza, G.F. 2004. Seismic
characterization of neapolitan soils. Pageoph 161 (5/6),
1285–1300.
Nunziata, C., De Nisco, G., Panza, G.F. 2009. S-waves pro-
files from noise cross correlation at small scale. Eng.
Geol., 105, 161–170.
Nunziata, C. 2010. Low shear-velocity zone in the
Neapolitan-area crust between the Campi Flegrei and
Vesuvio volcanic areas. Terra Nova, doi: 10.1111/j.1365-
3121.2010.00936.x.
Panza, G. F., Peccerillo, A., Aoudia, A., Farina, A. 2007. Geo-
physical and petrological modelling of the structure and
composition of the crust and upper mantle in complex of
geodynamic setting: The Thyrrenian Sea and surrounding.
Earth-Science Reviews, 80, 1–46.
Panza, G. F. 1981. The resolving power of seismic surface
wave with respect to crust and upper mantle structural
models. In: Cassinis, R. (ed.), The solution of the inverse
problem in Geophysical Interpretation. Plenum press, pp.
39–77.
Zamora, M., Sartoris, G., Chelini, W. 1994. Laboratory mea-
surements of ultrasonic wave velocities in rocks from the
C. F. volcanic system and their relation to other field data.
J. Geophys. Res., 99: 13553–13561.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Tsunami impact evaluation for coastal areas

T. Rossetto & T.O. Lloyd

Department of Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering, University College London, UK

C. Coelho
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Aveiro, Portugal

J.P. Carlier
Laboratoire de Mécanique de Lille, Université de Lille 1, France

W. Allsop
Technical Director Maritime Structures, HR Wallingford, Wallingford, UK

ABSTRACT: The 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami caused immense devastation to coastal communities and infra-
structure around the Indian Ocean and further afield. This event highlighted significant lack of awareness, and a
lack of tools to predict tsunami impact on coastal zones, structures and infrastructure. This paper reviews the state
of the art of the different components necessary for the evaluation of coastal vulnerability to tsunami. Strategies
for coastal zone management require better understanding of the hazard drivers (e.g. storms, surges, or tsunamis)
or the responses (flooding, erosion, structural damage) and of community vulnerability. Prediction methods for
these rare but damaging coastal processes are far from perfect, so physical and/or numerical modelling are still
essential tools to understand storm and tsunami actions and require further study. Following the 2004 event there
has been various international research efforts to investigate tsunami processes, and some research on those
tsunami actions that cause structural damage. This paper presents some of the state of the art advancements
made towards the quantification of tsunami impact and highlights persisting gaps of knowledge in the field.

1 INTRODUCTION

The 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami caused an immense

devastation to coastal communities and infrastructure
located around the Indian Ocean and further afield.
This event highlighted a lack of tsunami impact assess-
ment tools for the prediction of tsunami impact on
natural and urban coastal environments and on peo-
ple. Following the 2004 event there has been a large
international research effort to investigate tsunami
processes, and some research on tsunami effects on
coastal zones and infrastructure. This paper reviews
some of the state-of-the-art in the evaluation of coastal
vulnerability to tsunami, by looking at literature on
general vulnerability assessment, the assessment of
impact on coastal zones, people and structures. Diffi-
Figure 1. Damage to a reinforced concrete residential build-
culties in assessing tsunami impact are highlighted ing in Thailand following the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami
together with the main gaps in current research. (source: EEFIT 2006).

2 TSUNAMI VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT and predicted sea-level rises due to global warming, it
is becoming increasingly more important to develop
In view of major infrastructure developments along tools for understanding the vulnerability of coastal
coastlines, increasing urbanization of coastal cities areas and the potential impact of tsunami. This can

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 be accomplished crossing vulnerability and hazard
information in risk maps depicting spatial analysis (as
a recommendation from the European Union (EU),
Directive 2007/60/CE).
The first step in assessing tsunami risk (and impact)
is the evaluation of tsunami hazard. Tsunami haz-
ard can be defined as the likelihood of a tsunami of
a given size occurring and causing flooding of the
assessed coastline. Methods for the deterministic and
probabilistic assessment of tsunami occurrence are not
covered in this paper. However the issue of inundation
modeling is briefly covered in Section 6.
The second step in assessing tsunami risk is the
mapping of potential vulnerability. The Vulnerability
of an area may be defined as the likelihood of damage,
loss of life or erosion, conditional on a characteristic
of the tsunami or its flooding. The vulnerability of
a coastal area is therefore dependent on a multitude
of factors, like (but not limited to): distance to the
shoreline, ground elevation above sea level, geology,
geomorphology, ground cover, history rates of ero-
sion/accretion, population density, warning systems,
hazard awareness in the population, building structural
systems, configurations and materials. Different meth-
ods for the collection of vulnerability data may be more
adequate for particular factors that may be quantita-
tive or qualitative. A holistic vulnerability assessment
method must therefore be able to advise on data collec-
tion for all identified vulnerability factors, and suggest
an appropriate manner to combine them and interpret
the results. No such system currently exists in the liter-
ature. This is mainly due to the fact that vulnerability
studies require a multidisciplinary approach (Nicholls,
1998), which is difficult to achieve in practice.
Nevertheless, some limited attempts have been
made towards this goal. Papathoma and Dominey-
Howes (2003) proposed a tsunami vulnerability
assessment model called PTVA, which provides a
framework for defining vulnerability attributes, which
are classed into the categories of: Built Environment,
Sociological Data, Economic Data and Environmen-
tal/Physical Data. Each category contains between 1
and 5 parameters (total of 10 parameters).According to
the attributes of the parameter, they are assigned a high,
medium or low vulnerability descriptor. However, no
explicit guidance is provided for how the parameters
and their descriptors should be combined. The parame-
ters themselves are not detailed and can be ambiguous.
For example there are only two attributes that can
be assigned to the parameter of number of people in
buildings: many and few, with no number attached
to these. The parameters describing the built envi-
ronment include building ground floor description,
number of stories, building material and the existence
of moveable objects. The way these parameters and
their attributes are chosen does not reflect the phys-
ical properties of a coastal zone or the engineering
properties of a building that will make it vulnerable
to a tsunami. In the case of buildings, the parame-
ters actually reflect how building characteristics may
prove more or less lethal to people. For example, the
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
parameter of “number of floors” is described by the
attributes: one floor (high vulnerability) or more than
one floor (low vulnerability). The justification given
is that if a structure has more than one floor then it
can be used for vertical evacuation. This reflects the
vulnerability of people and not the built environment.
Dall’Osso et al. (2009), modified the PTVA model by
introducing a relative vulnerability index to account
for structural vulnerability. Again this index, although
a slight improvement in terms of the number of struc-
tural characteristics considered, is used to attribute
descriptors of vulnerability to buildings (from “minor”
to “very high” vulnerability). Thus this method fails
to provide a quantitative evaluation of vulnerability.
There is therefore a need to develop a framework
for holistic vulnerability assessment. Such a frame-
work should take a more scientific and engineering
approach to the determination of parameters represent-
ing the built and natural environment and be flexible
enough to include methods developed in social sci-
ence (e.g. Benson et al., 2007, Chapter 6) to assess
social vulnerability. It is expected that vulnerability
maps created through such a framework would require
periodic revaluation, since it is expected that the cho-
sen parameters will change over time and be affected
by things like the shoreline evolution, on the changes
on land use and on the human activities in the coastal
area.
In the following text some of the state of knowl-
edge and difficulties associated with the vulnerability
evaluation of coastal zones, constructions and people
are presented. This is followed by a discussion on the
evaluation of onshore flows from tsunami.
3 VULNERABILITY OF COASTAL ZONES
TO TSUNAMI
Coastal zones are dynamic regions responding at
different temporal and spatial scales with geomorpho-
logical changes to natural and anthropogenic actions.
Nature acts on coastlines through waves, winds, tides
and surges. Man also influences coastlines through
resource exploitation, construction and pollution.
The prediction of shoreline evolution over time is
very complex, and varies widely between different
timescales. At a given moment, a beach may change
rapidly due to a short term disturbance, such as a win-
ter storm, from which it can recover during calmer
wave conditions, maintaining equilibrium over the
mid-term. Over the mid-term itself, changes may occur
due to sea level rise or storm direction changes, and
the shoreline may cycle through several morphological
states over years or even decades.
Outside of these natural cycles, abrupt (possi-
bly irreversible) changes may be triggered by very
extreme events such as tsunamis (Coelho et al., 2009).
Overviews of the major parameters of coastal vulner-
ability to tsunamis have been carried out by Cochard
et al. (2008) and Feagin et al. (2010), relying mainly
on evidence from surveys performed after tsunami
and storm events carried out since the 2004 Indian
Ocean Tsunami. The authors focus on the relation
between existing ecosystems and their positive or neg-
ative influence on the intensity of flood damage. They
identify several types of ecosystems (coral reef, sea-
grass bed, mangrove forests, beaches and dunes, beach
forest and other dense forest) and assess their role as
“buffers” for normal waves, storm waves and tsunami,
as well as their tsunami energy exposure. However,
these reviews highlight conflicting evidence as to the
benefit or not of these “buffers”. For instance, based
on data from the 2004 Indian Ocean disaster Kathire-
san and Rajendran, (2005), Liu et al., (2005), Marris
(2005), Morton et al., (2006), and Usha et al., (2009)
observed that intact sand dunes, rock platforms, man-
grove forests, coral reefs and barrier islands all offered
enhanced protection against wave impact, flooding and
scour. Feagin et al. (2010), throw doubt on some of
these findings and call for controlled physical experi-
ments to be carried out to investigate the effects of
vegetation on coastal defense from storm surges and
tsunami.
In terms of coastal geomorphology, Chatenoux and
Peduzzi (2005) instead find that the most important
parameters (apart from source distance) affecting wave
impact on coastlines are the nearshore bathymetry,
coastline profile and offshore features. As mentioned
later, the ability of numerical models to estimate inun-
dation is highly dependent on the availability of high
resolution topographical and bathymetric data. Thus
in order to carry out a tsunami impact assessment
for coastlines a significant effort is required from the
research and professional community to obtain better
resolution bathymetric and topographic data.
4 VULNERABILITY OF CONSTRUCTIONS
TO TSUNAMI
In an engineering sense, determination of the vulnera-
bility of constructions to tsunami is composed of two
parts: determination of the tsunami actions (forces) on
constructions, and the analysis of the constructions for
these actions.
Broadly speaking, there is little established guid-
ance for determining tsunami actions on structures
in existence. Various bodies have produced coastal
manuals and design guides in the past, particularly
in the US (e.g. USACERC, 2002, FEMA, 2005 and
ASCE, 2006), but generally guidance specifically for
tsunami action is brief. The majority of work is based
largely on existing work on fluvial flood loading and
storm surge. A special report by Camfield (1980) con-
tains much of what is still considered state of the
art by several current design manuals and is cited
regularly. More recently FEMA produced guidelines
for design of structures for vertical evacuation from
tsunami (FEMA, 2008) which drew on more recent
research (Yeh, 2006). The document is effectively a
state of the art review of research up to the point of pub-
lication and produced methodologies for the design
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
of structures based upon agreed best practice and the
broader realms of hazard mitigation and master plan-
ning. It is a useful guide, but developed for the US,
in particular to address the problems associated with a
near-source tsunami threat from the Cascadia subduc-
tion zone. This should be remembered when applying
the recommendations to other parts of the world.
Breaking wave forces are accepted not to be an area
of concern for tsunami on the whole, as tsunami gen-
erally break off-shore or inundate without breaking.
Further justification for this is given in Yeh (2008).
In the rare instance that they break on the shoreline,
extremely high forces can be generated. An example
of this happening was the Scotch Cap lighthouse on
Unimak Island which was destroyed in the 1946 Aleu-
tian tsunami. No specific treatment of these forces for
tsunami exists in literature, but classic wave breaking
can be found in FEMA (2005).
An area acknowledged as being particularly poorly
understood is that of debris impact loads from objects
picked up by turbulent tsunami currents. FEMA (2008)
list the various relationships proposed to describe this
phenomenon which has been the source of enormous
destruction in recent tsunami events (EEFIT, 2010).
The list shows that debris impact force, F has been
related to the impact velocity, u and mass, m in the
following ways in separate studies (n.b. ∝ stands for
proportional to):
F ∝ um0.5 , F ∝ um, F ∝ u2 m, F ∝ u2.5 m0.58 and
F ∝ u1.2 m0.66 . Clearly, there is still a great deal of work
which needs to be done in this area to better understand
the fundamentals processes at work. A major issue in
the case of tsunami is the fact that field measurements
of tsunami forces, or any other tsunami characteris-
tic, are near impossible. This is due to the infrequency,
suddenness and violence of these events. This has led
to a lack of knowledge on tsunami and lack of data
available for the calibration of numerical models.
Hence recent research has been directed at physical
modeling of wave impacts on constructions to better
understand and help quantify the tsunami actions. For
example, full scale physical modeling of wave impacts
on reinforced concrete walls has been carried out by
Arikawa (2009) using short piston-generated solitary
waves. However, the majority of these experiments
fail to reproduce realistic forms of tsunami. A step
change in physical modeling of tsunami actions on
constructions occurred in 2009 in the UK, where a
unique pneumatic wave generation system capable of
generating longer waves than piston-type generators
was used to generate tsunami-like waves and to mea-
sure wave forces on model structures (Lloyd et al.,
2009, Rossetto et al., 2010). The results of these tests
are expected to give further insight into the evaluation
of tsunami actions.
As in the case for tsunami actions, very little guid-
ance is provided as to how to analyse and assess the
damage from the application of these loads on build-
ings. The latter especially provides a large hindrance
to the development of an appropriate vulnerability
assessment tool using numerical methods.
 Some vulnerability curves have been proposed for
buildings that have been derived from post-tsunami
damage surveys but these are few (Peiris, 2006,
Reese et al., 2007, Ruangrassamee et al., 2006, and
Koshimura et al., 2009). Due to the location of
recent tsunami occurrences, they only represent non-
engineered buildings (i.e. all use data from Thailand,
Sri Lanka or Sumatra), which limits their useful-
ness. Furthermore, in the absence of a good under-
standing of tsunami actions on buildings they only
adopt inundation height as the hazard parameter in
the vulnerability function, which does not account
for the other components of onshore flow contribut-
ing to tsunami loads on buildings, such as flow
velocity.
Hence, the development of an appropriate engineer-
ing vulnerability evaluation of constructions requires
a concerted effort by the research community to
resolve these problems. It is expected that this will
only be achievable through a combination of research
methods, i.e. experimental, numerical and field obser-
vation.
5 TSUNAMI LETHALITY
In a similar way to building vulnerability, a few
researchers have attempted to develop relationships
between inundation depth and likelihood of death from
tsunami (e.g. Koshimura et al., 2009 and Reese et al.,
2007). All such relationships are based on past event
data and are heavily affected by the type and quality of
available casualty data and pre-event census data.After
a tsunami event it is difficult to know who was where
when they died and assumptions are often made that
people died in the location/district where they lived.
This is clearly not always the case as people may be
away from their residence at the time of the event. Fur-
thermore, casualty data usually lacks detail as to the
case of death, e.g. from drowning or from building col-
lapse. The derivation of these casualty relationships s
further complicated by the disparity between the geo-
graphic area definitions of the census data, (which may
be at town or district level), compared with the geo-
graphic areas covered by different levels of tsunami
inundation. For example within one census district sev-
eral inundation values may be present (as seen in Reese
et al., 2007). All these issues result in a very large
scatter in the data used to derive the death-inundation
relationships. However, existing studies do indicate
that the potential for tsunami casualties increases when
tsunami inundation depths exceed 2 m (Koshimura et
al., 2009)
6 MODELLING OF TSUNAMI ONSHORE
FLOW
Generation and propagation of tsunami can be
simulated numerically. Tsunami transformations into
coastal margins can be simulated by many well-known
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
numerical models such as Non Linear Shallow Water
or Boussinesq models. However, a real hindrance
to the development of tsunami impact assessment
tools is the inability of current numerical codes to
model tsunami onshore flows over real topography
and around structures. These flows are highly com-
plex and are influenced by interactions with beaches,
sediment, and coastal defences. Many numerical mod-
els can simulate one or more of the key wave or flow
processes at large or small scale, but without high reso-
lution bathymetries and topographies these models fail
to deliver accurate results in the onshore regions. There
are two main issues (Rossetto et al., 2010): the grid res-
olution used in the numerical code and the resolution
of the actual bathymetry/topography data. Both need
to be very accurate for one to obtain reliable results.
This is especially when impact on buildings must be
assessed, as the grid resolution needs to be able to
pick up the scale of the building and hence grid resolu-
tions of say 0.2 m are necessary. Within their derivation
of vulnerability functions for buildings in tsunami,
Koshimura et al. (2009) adopt a simplified numerical
model for the onshore flow based on non-linear shal-
low water equations, which accounted for buildings as
additional roughness in the bottom friction term. This
provided them with approximate estimates of inunda-
tion depths but erroneous flow velocities. It also did
not take into account effects such as increased flow on
roads between structures.
It is expected that as more large-scale physi-
cal experiments are carried out for the calibration
of numerical models, and improved computational
capacity is developed, that better onshore flow models
will be generated.
7 CONCLUSION
In order to develop tsunami risk models it is important
to develop tools for the multi-disciplinary vulnera-
bility assessment of coastal communities. This paper
shows that current frameworks proposed for carry-
ing out this vulnerability assessment are not adequate.
This is largely due to the lack of tools and fun-
damental knowledge in the different components of
vulnerability. The paper shows that there are gaps in
knowledge on the effect of tsunami on shorelines, on
the effect of natural barriers in mitigating tsunami
impact on shorelines, in onshore inundation mod-
elling, on the determination of actions on structures
and on the lethality of onshore flows from tsunami.
Theories derived for short waves cannot be applied
to tsunami, and knowledge of tsunami impact can
only be improved through concerted efforts to improve
available numerical models, to collect past and future
tsunami event data, to improve the resolution of exist-
ing topographic and bathymetric data near shore and to
develop new ways to simulate tsunami impact in exper-
iments. In particular the authors have been involved
in the development of new wave generators for large
scale tsunami physical testing in order to generate data
for numerical model calibration, which is necessary
due to the scarcity of observational data from real
events.
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ASCE, 2006, Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and
Other Structures, ASCE/SEI Standard 7-05, American
Society of Civil Engineers, Reston, Virginia.
Benson, C., Twigg, J. with Rossetto, T. 2007. Tools for
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Camfield F.E 1980, Tsunami Engineering. Special Report
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tecting role of environmental features. Nat. Hazards 40
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Choi, B.H., Hong, S.J., Pelinovsky, E., 2006. Distribution of
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Indian Ocean. Geophys. Res. Lett. 33 (L13601), 1–4.
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Engineers, Springfield, Va.
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damage. Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 9, 1557–65.
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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Avalanche actions on constructions

A. Talon & J.P. Muzeau

LaMI – Polytech’Clermont-Ferrand (CUST), Blaise Pascal University, Clermont-Ferrand, France

J.Ph. Carlier
Laboratoire de Mécanique de Lille (LML), University of Lille 1, France

ABSTRACT: Avalanches are the cause, each year, of very numerous injured, deaths, environmental damages
and material damages. These damages are due to a bad-knowledge of the initial phenomena of these avalanches,
of their process and of their impact on human life and construction. This paper is focused on the presentation of
the knowledge on avalanche phenomena and on their consequences (actions) on constructions. The second part
is dedicated to the forming of snowy coat and its constitutive components. The third part details the properties of
a snowy coat and compares them to soil properties. The explanation of the forming and the properties of a snowy
coat, allow distinguishing the different types of avalanche release and avalanche process and allow to explain the
available avalanche classifications; these considerations are examined in the fourth part. The final part identifies
the avalanche actions, by avalanche type, deduced from the knowledge of avalanche characteristics.

1 INTRODUCTION

Avalanches are the cause, each year, of very important

injured, deaths, environmental damages and material
damages. These damages are due to a bad-knowledge
of initial phenomena of these avalanches, of their pro-
cess and of their potential impact on human life and
construction (Boissier et al., 2008). The present paper
is focused on the presentation of the present knowl-
edge on avalanche phenomena and their consequences
(actions) on constructions in a context of risk analysis.
The risk is the combination of hazard occurrence
and issue damages. In the avalanche risk context, haz-
ard is the avalanche and issues can be persons, struc-
tures, infrastructures, communications, environment, Figure 1. Illustration of snow stratification (LEGOS, 2005).
economy, etc.
The snow deposit phase (see § 2) conditions the
snow characteristics (see § 3) and so the avalanche Several variability scales of snow stratification may
departure. Then, an avalanche classification (§ 4) is be considered:
proposed that depends on these snow characteristics
and avalanche departure modes. Finally, the avalanche – the temporal variability: hourly, daily (daytime,
progress over constructed areas generates impacts or night-time or morning and afternoon), weekly,
actions (see § 5) that has to be foreseen to reduce annually, secularly, millenary;
consequences on issues. – the spatial variability: vertical or lateral on one part,
at a centimetre scale, and at metre to decimetre scale
on other parts.
2 SNOW DEPOSIT
Several snow bases may be considered:
The snow deposit depends on the snowfall frequency – snow coat, rock, soils or grass,
and intensity and on the snow base. – North, South, East, West mountain face,
The stratification of the snowy coat (Figure 1) is – high, moderate or low slope declivity.
made according to a wind-driven deposit mode. The
order of magnitude is one centimetre by ten minutes. In The variability of the snow deposit and of the snow
comparison, the wind-driven deposit of loess average base conditions the snow characteristics and, therefore,
rate is one centimetre by century (Burlet, 2002). the avalanche departure.

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Table 1. Main snow characteristics (Naim-Bouvet et al.,
2000).

Unit weight ρ 20 kg/m3 for new snow

500 kg/m3 for old snow
Cohesion 8 to 35 kPa for ρ contained
between [300 to 460 lg/m3 ]
0 to 20 kPa for ρ < 300 kg/m3
Compression strength σt = 58.3 (ρ/ρice )2.65 for faceted
grains and cups
σt = 79.7 (ρ/ρice )2.39 for all
others type of grain
Elastic modulus 2462ρ02.826 kPa

Figure 3. Fine grains (courtesy of Météo France, 1998).

Figure 4. Faceted grains (courtesy of Météo France, 1998).

Figure 2. Crystal of fresh snow (courtesy of Météo France,

1998).

3 SNOW CHARACTERISTICS

The mechanical properties of the snowy coat are based

on the theory of soil mechanics. It is a multi-phases
coat with the average values of the main characteristics
presented Table 1.
Several grain types can be encountered:
– crystal of fresh snow that present a weak sintering
cohesion and are stable on steep slope (Figure 2),
– fine grains that have a good sintering cohesion
(Figure 3), Figure 5. Cups (courtesy of Météo France, 1998).
– faceted grains (Figure 4),
– cups that have no frottage sintering cohesion and
on snowy coat due to the increasing of the cohesion.
generate sliding on superior slopes (Figure 5),
However, this phenomenon also encourages the prop-
– round grains that have a capillary cohesion and frost
agation of failures due to the rigidifying of the snowy
cohesion. In consequence, the snowy coat has a
coat.
more resistant cohesion (Figure 6).
The avalanche departure depends on the snow
The sintering phenomenon (Figure 7) corresponds deposit phase and on the snowy coat characteristics.
to the realization of a glass bridge between two grains. The mechanical system of antagonistic forces
The bridge number is higher when the grains are includes: the traction strength (FT ) and the resistance
smaller. This phenomenon has a stabilization effect strength (FR ). The avalanche departure corresponds to

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Figure 6. Round grains (courtesy of Météo France, 1998). Figure 9. Powder avalanche (Avalanche, 2008).

Figure 7. Sintering phenomenon (Anena, 2008). Figure 10. Plate avalanche (Avalanche, 2008).

Figure 8. Mechanism of avalanche departure.

an equilibrium break into the snowy coat: FT > FR . Figure 11. Wet snow avalanche (Avalanche, 2008).
The mechanism of equilibrium break is the same for
natural and accidental break (Figure 8).
At the massif scale, three kinds of avalanche may
be distinguished:
4 AVALANCHE CLASSIFICATION
– bottom avalanche (Figure 12),
Depending on the considered spatial scale (local slope – streaming avalanche (Figure 13),
scale or regional massif scale), different types of – valley avalanche (Figure 14).
avalanches can be encountered.
When considering the slope scale, an avalanche
At the slope scale, three kinds of avalanche may be
can be composed of the following generic items
distinguished:
(Figure 15):
– powder avalanche (Figure 9),
– a departure zone (accumulation basin),
– plate avalanche (Figure 10),
– a flow zone (throat)
– wet snow avalanche (Figure 11).
– a stationary zone (dejection cone).

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 Figure 15. Schemes of an avalanche progress (Avalanche,
2008).
Figure 12. Bottom avalanche (Avalanche, 2008).
5 AVALANCHE ACTIONS

Actions of avalanches may be the causes of several

kinds of damages:
– Corporal damages:
• deaths,
• serious injured,
• minor injured,
– Structural damages:
• on buildings,
• on roads,
• on electrical network,
• on water pipes,
– Functional damages:
• lack of goods,
Figure 13. Streaming avalanche (Avalanche, 2008).
• stop of communication means,
• stop of mechanical climbers,
– Environmental damages:
• zone erosion,
• destruction of animal habitat.
Those damages are due to mechanical actions of
avalanches. Those actions depend on the avalanche
characteristics.
The main characteristics to consider in the case of
a powder avalanche are:
– avalanche lengthwise profile depending on the
wind direction,
– reference pressure (Pd ) which may vary from
10 kPa to 30 kPa,
– pressure Pd has to by applied on all the height of
the exposed walls,
– direction of the Pd application is the wind direction,
Figure 14. Valley avalanche (Avalanche, 2008). – effects to be taken into account (Figure 16).
The main characteristics to be considered in the case
of a wet snow avalanche are:
The following table (Table 2) presents a morphologi-
cal classification of avalanches considering essential – avalanche lengthwise profile depending on three
criteria (site morphology, site topography, site expo- zones (accumulation, flow, deposit) configuration,
sition, physical properties of the snowy coat in the – reference pressure (Pd ) in the blue area (Muzeau
departure zone, departure cause, detachment shape, et al. 2007) is taken equal to 30 kPa,
flow dynamics, deposit characteristics, event situ- – application height of Pd that depends on the sub-
ation of the snow-meteorological chronology) that mersion (Figure 17) or not (Figure 18) of the
characterize avalanches. building,

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Table 2. Morphological classification of avalanches (Avalanche, 2008).

Zones Criteria Distinctive characters

Departure Departure type – Spontaneous departure: internal causes of snowy coat

(spontaneous avalanche)
– Provoked departure: external causes of snowy coat (provoked avalanche)
– non human (cornice, serac, animal, etc.)
– human
– involuntary (accidental avalanche)
– voluntary (artificial avalanche)
Departure shape – Punctual departure: avalanche starting from a point (departure with a
pear shape or a cone)
– Linear departure: avalanche starting from a line (plate avalanche)
Snow quality Potency of – Null: avalanche of dry snow
liquid water – Poor: avalanche of humid snow
– Important: avalanche of wet snow
Cohesion – Poor: avalanche of pulverulent snow
– Poor to moderate: avalanche of crumbly plate (stretch)
– Important: snow avalanche of hard plate
Type of snow – New:
– non windswept: fresh snow or recognizable particles
– windswept: recognizable particles or fine grains
– Evolved: fine grains, plane faces, recognizable particles or round grains
Position of the sliding plane – In the layer of the snowy coat (surface avalanche)
– On the soil (bottom avalanche)
Flow Land shape – Open slope (side avalanche)
– Lane or gorge (gorge avalanche)
Dynamic (or flow type) – With a cloud of snow particules:
– at the front level (aerosol avalanche)
– behind the front (avalanche with a panache)
– Without a cloud (streaming avalanche)
Corrected snow – With
– Without
Presence of blocks – With (tabular blocks, ice, rocks, trees)
and / or other elements – Without
Deposit Superficial roughness – Poor (fine deposit)
– Important (bad deposit: blocks, bowls)
Snow quality – Humid (humid deposit)
– Dry (dry deposit)
Visible soiling – With (soiling avalanche: earth, blocks, trees)
– Without (clean avalanche)

Figure 17. Effects of wet avalanche – submerged buildings

Figure 16. Effects of powder avalanche (Givry et al., 2004). (Givry et al., 2004).

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Figure 18. Effects of wet avalanche – non-submerged
buildings (Givry et al., 2004).
– direction of the Pd application is the direction of
the more downgraded slope,
– effects to take into account are the normal and
tangential stresses,
– additional punctual stresses may be taken into
account to represent the impact of items carried
by the avalanche.
6 CONCLUSIONS
Neige. URL: http://www.
Avalanches may generate very important mechanical,
social, environmental and economical impacts. These
avalanches may be characterized at the snowy coat
scale, at the slope scale and the massif scale. The
parameters and properties that distinguished the dif-
ferent kinds of avalanche depend on the study scale
considered. The knowledge of the avalanche actions
in populated area on constructions is of main interest
180
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
to reduce the occurrence of avalanche and to mini-
mize the consequences of avalanches, in a context of
risk analysis.
REFERENCES
Anena. Association Nationale pour l’Etude de la Neige et des
Avalanches. URL: http://www.anena.org (2008) [On line].
Avalanche. Programmes d’études des avalanches. URL:
http://www.avalanches.fr (2008) [On line].
Boissier D., Muzeau J.P. Avalanches. Int. Symp. COST C26:
Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events,
Malte, October 2008.
Burlet J.L. Mécanique de la neige et variabilité – Application
à la prévision du risque d’avalanche. Civil Engineering
Thesis (2002). Université Blaise Pascal Clermont-
Ferrand II.
Givry M., Perfettini P. Construire en montagne – la prise en
compte du risque d’avalanche. Ministère de l’écologie et
du développement durable et Ministère de l’équipement,
des transports, du logement, du tourisme et de la mer
(2004).
LEGOS, Cryosphère satellitaire, URL: http://www.legos.
obs-mip.fr (2005) [On line].
Metéo France, Panneaux Série
cnrm.meteo.fr (1998) [On line].
Muzeau J.P., Bouchaïr A., Sesov V., Coelho C. Identifica-
tion & classification of exposure events. Exceptional or
infrequent event scenarios, Workshop COST C2: Urban
Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events, Prague,
March 2007.
Naim-Bouvet F., Prat M., Jacob J., Calgaro J.A., Raoul
J. La neige – recherche et réglementation (2000). Edi-
tions Presses École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées &
Cemagref.
 Analysis of behaviour of constructions
under catastrophic events
Analyses of structures under fire

© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Partial interaction behaviour of composite steel-concrete members

at elevated temperatures accounting for geometric nonlinearities

P. Ansourian & G. Ranzi

The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

A. Zona
University of Camerino, Ascoli Piceno, Italy

ABSTRACT: This paper presents a numerical model for the analysis of composite steel-concrete beams at
elevated temperatures accounting for both longitudinal and transverse interaction within the framework of non-
linear finite deformation theory. A reduced formulation, useful for solving structural problems, is then derived on
the basis of the theory of small strain and moderate rotations. The numerical solution proposed relies on the use
of the finite element method. As the scope of this study is restricted to moderately elevated temperatures, elastic
material properties are assumed for all materials while still accounting for their degradation with temperature.
A bilinear constitutive model is adopted for the transverse interface connection to reflect the more realistic case
in which an extremely high connection stiffness exists for the bearing condition of the concrete slab against
the steel joist, and a relatively weaker stiffness is manifested when the joist and slab are separating. A brief
numerical example is then presented for a beam configuration subjected to a thermal distribution typical of real
fire scenarios and pinned at its ends.

1 INTRODUCTION been made to further extend it by releasing some of its

Steel-concrete composite members have been exten-
sively used in the last decades for both building and
bridge applications. Their advantage relies on their
ability to exhibit enhanced stiffness and strength when
compared to those of identical members not acting
compositely.
In the case of composite floor systems the com-
posite action of the steel beam and concrete slab is
provided by the presence of mechanical devices, usu-
ally in the form of shear connectors. Early works
in this field highlighted that an accurate numerical
representation of the behaviour of composite beams
requires the inclusion in the analysis of the deforma-
bility of the shear connection (Newmark et al. 1951)
and introduced a composite beam model with partial
interaction, usually been referred to in the literature as
Newmark model. The partial shear interaction high-
lights the fact that under loading a relative movement
takes place between the steel beam and slab, to distin-
guish it from the case of full shear interaction for which
no relative displacement occurs between the concrete
and the steel. Partial shear interaction is particularly
important when considering that modern design are
oriented to minimise the number of shear connectors
included in floor systems. Several researchers utilised
the Newmark model to study the composite response
in the linear-elastic range, accounting for material non-
linearities and for time effects. Attempts have also
assumptions, e.g. Adekola 1968, Aribert & Aziz 1985,
Robinson & Naraine 1998, Dall’Asta 2001, Nguyen et
al. 2001, Ranzi et al. 2006, Ranzi & Zona 2007, Schn-
abl et al. 2007, Chen et al. 2007. The work presented in
this paper belongs to this second category. It is worth
noting that among nonlinear formulations, attention
has been mainly placed to date on material-nonlinear-
only problems while a limited number of works have
focussed on geometric nonlinearity (Girhammar &
Gopu 1993, Girhammar & Pan 2007, Oven et al. 1997,
Hajjar 1998, Schnabl et al. 2006, Cas et al. 2007, Pi
et al. 2006, Ranzi et al. 2010, Sousa et al. 2010, Kroflic
et al. 2010, Heidarpour & Bradford 2010).
In this paper a kinematical model for planar com-
posite beams including longitudinal partial interaction
as well as vertical uplift (referred in the following as
transverse partial interaction) is developed within the
nonlinear finite deformation theory. A reduced for-
mulation, useful for solving structural problems, is
afterwards derived on the basis of the theory of small
strain and moderate rotations (Naghdi & Vongsarn-
pigoon 1982, De Tommasi & Marzano 1993, De
Tommasi 2004). This simplification involves some
limitations in the magnitude of displacements and
strains, and in the geometry, which are compatible with
the results observed in civil structures such as bridges
and building frames. The resulting nonlinear problem
is solved using a displacement-based finite element
formulation.

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 Figure 2. Typical composite beam and cross-section.
Figure 1. Typical thermal distribution and thermal response
of a generic non-composite and composite beam.
where (X , Y ) ∈ Sα and Z ∈ [0, L], {Ax , Ay , Az } are the
The proposed model is then applied to investigate unitary vectors forming an orthonormal base, Sα are
the situation that occurs at moderately elevated tem- the plane domains describing the cross-sections of the
peratures in which a steel joist that is unprotected two beams and L is the beam length. It is also assumed
against fire has only a moderate temperature gradi- that X = 0 defines the plane of symmetry.
ent through its depth, and whose average temperature The two beams are coupled by an interface connec-
is much higher than that of the concrete (Figure 1). tion located at Y = Yc whose trace on the symmetry
Conversely, the cooler concrete slab experiences a plane is defined by
significant thermal gradient in a compartment fire.
Although the steel and concrete have similar coef-
ficients of thermal expansion (≈ 10 × 10−6 /◦ C), the
different thermal fields within the two materials joined During deformation the cross-sections of the two
compositely lead to different rates of expansion and, beams can only undergo a rigid motion, so that the
consequently, to an extremely complex stress state, final position of their points is
particularly in the shear connectors. This is illustrated
in Figure 1(b), which shows the deformations of the
two components in the absence of shear connectors.
When the joist and slab are attached by means of shear
connectors, the interface is subjected to shear forces where u0α (Z) describes the cross-section translations
and also (unlike the situation at ambient temperature) on the symmetry plane
to significant axial tension because of the tendency of
the two layers to separate (Figure 1(c)).

2 ANALYTICAL MODEL
Two rectilinear beams denoted by subscripts α = 1, 2
are considered (Figure 2). The positions of their
material points are identified as follows
being vα (Z) and wα (Z) the displacements in the direc-
tion of Ay and Az respectively, while Qα (Z) describes
a rotation about Ax and can be expressed as a function
of the rotation angle ϕα (Z) as follows (it is assumed
φα (Z) positive if clockwise) .

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Figure 3. Displacement field.
where I is the identity operator and  = Ay ⊗ Az −
Az ⊗ Ay . Consequently the displacement field can be
expressed as (Figure 3)
It is also assumed that cross-sections remain orthog-
onal to the deformed beam axis so that the rotation
angle can directly be related to the axis displacements
(Simo 1985):
where the prime denotes the derivative with respect to
Z and the function
describes the axial strain of the two axis.
The proposed beam model is able to describe large
deformations of the system without limitations on the
displacement field. In this format it is however rather
complicated to obtain a numerical solution of the prob-
lem. It can be observed that the collapse of beams
usually used in civil applications occurs when the max-
imum strains of materials are very small, i.e., from
about 0.2% to 1.0%, while the maximum rotations
of the cross-sections are about 1/20. These quantities
can be considered moderately small and, thus, it is
convenient to develop a simplified theory within this
framework (Ranzi et al. 2010).
3 MATERIAL PROPERTIES
As the scope of this study is restricted to moder-
ately elevated temperatures, a linear representation of
the strain-displacement relationship is appropriate and
consistent with the end restraints considered, while still
accounting for the degradation of the elastic mate-
rial properties with temperature. For this purpose, a
retention function fDm (T ) is introduced to quantify the
elastic properties for material m that are retained after
they degrade at temperature T (where m = c for the
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concrete slab, m = r for the reinforcement and m = s
for the steel joist) with respect to its properties at the
reference temperature T0 . Throughout this study, T0 is
assumed to be the ambient temperature 20◦ C.
The typical constitutive relationships for the con-
crete, steel joist and reinforcement can be expressed as
in which the subscript m identifies the material under
consideration, σm is the stress resisted by material
m exposed to a temperature T , εm is the total strain
in material m, Em is the elastic modulus of mate-
rial mdegraded according to its temperature T (i.e.
Em = E0m fDm (T ), adopting E0m as its elastic modulus
at the reference temperature T0 ) and εTm represents the
thermal (non-mechanical) strain induced by a change
in temperature T = T − T0 in material m.
In a similar manner, the linear constitutive model
for the longitudinal shear connection at elevated tem-
peratures is expressed as
in which the longitudinal connection stiffness kT .z
relates the longitudinal shear connection force per
unit length qz to the longitudinal slip sz . Also in this
case, the shear connection stiffness at temperature T ,
kT .z , has been expressed as a function of an appro-
priate retention function, fDsc.z (T ), which modifies
the reference stiffness, k0.z , calculated at the refer-
ence temperature T0 due to its degradation at elevated
temperature.
Based on service load behaviour at ambient tem-
perature, a bilinear model is adopted for the trans-
verse partial interaction to better reflect the realistic
condition for which the stiffness of the transverse con-
nection varies significantly for the cases of uplift, i.e.
(v2 − v1 ) > 0, and of bearing between the two layers,
i.e. (v2 − v1 ) ≤ 0. This bilinear representation takes the
form
in which qy is the transverse force per unit length,
fDsc.y (T ) is the stiffness retention function for the
transverse connection which relates the stiffness at
the reference and elevated temperatures, i.e. , k0.y
and kT .y respectively. In particular, kT .yu and kT .yb are
the transverse connection stiffness for the cases of
uplift and bearing respectively for which, realistically,
kT .yb >> kT .yu .
The proposed constitutive models are assumed to
be valid at service conditions, being applicable for
stress levels in the steel less than its yield strength,
and for compressive (tensile) stresses in the concrete
less than about one half of its compressive (tensile)
strength (Gilbert & Ranzi 2010). Therefore, the results
obtained using the proposed approach are assumed Table 1. Coefficients for the retention functions of concrete
to be acceptable from both a qualitative and quanti- and steel.
tative viewpoint when the calculated stresses remain
Concrete material
within this stress range. When the calculated stresses
are outside this range, the results nevertheless may cj2c cj3c Temperature
still have a qualitative significance, e.g. in compar- j cj0c cj1c (× 10−6 ) (× 10−9 ) range (C)
ing the effects of different cross-sectional properties
or thermal distributions, while the nonlinearities of the 1 1.075 0.0039 5.64 −2.61 20◦ C ≤ T < 400◦
materials might need to be accounted for to produce 2 1.061 −0.0031 3.07 −1 400◦ C ≤ T < 1200◦
quantitatively acceptable results.
Without any loss of generality, the retention func- Steel material
tions considered in this study are expressed by means
of generic cubic polynomials. Other functions could be Temperature
used with the derivation being modified accordingly. j cj0s cj1s cj2s cj3s range
The generic retention function for material m can be
1 1 0 0 0 20◦ C ≤ T < 100◦
written as
2 1.1 −0.001 0 0 100◦ C ≤ T < 500◦
3 1.775 −0.0023 0 0 500◦ C ≤ T < 700◦
4 0.312 −0.0026 0 0 700◦ C ≤ T < 1200◦
where cim (i = 0, . . . , 3) are appropriate coefficients Shear connection
for material m. Due to the complex nature of the degra-
dation at increasing temperatures, it is prohibitive to Temperature
establish one set of retention coefficients cim capable j cj0sc cj1sc cj2sc cj3sc range
of depicting the degradation of material m for a wide
range of temperatures. For this reason, the tempera- 1 1 0 0 0 20◦ C ≤ T < 200◦
ture domain has been sub-divided into n domains and 2 1.15 −0.0007 0 0 200◦ C ≤ T < 400◦
appropriate retention coefficients cjim ( j = 1, . . . , n; 3 1.73 −0.0022 0 0 400◦ C ≤ T < 700◦
i = 0, . . . , 3) have been determined based on available 4 0.54 −0.0005 0 0 700◦ C ≤ T < 800◦
guidelines (EC4, 2004): 5 n/a n/a n/a n/a 800◦ C ≤ T < 1200◦

Table 2. Coefficients for the thermal expansion of the

concrete and steel.

Concrete material
All relevant temperature ranges and retention coef-
ficients are given in Table 1. The retention coefficients aj1c aj2c ai3c Temperature
for the longitudinal connection stiffness, also included j aj0c (× 10−6 ) (× 10−9 ) (× 10−11 ) range (C)
in Table 1, have been determined based on the exper-
imental results reported by Zhao and Kruppa (1995) 1 0 9.0276 1.38 2.3 20◦ C ≤ T < 700◦
assuming that the shear connection stiffness degrades 2 0.014 0 0 0 700◦ C ≤ T < 1200◦
proportionally to the shear connection strength. To the Steel material
knowledge of the authors, no relevant data is currently
available for the transverse connection behaviour at aj1s Temperature
elevated temperatures. Because of this, the retention j aj0s (× 10−5 ) aj2s ai3s range (C)
function proposed for the longitudinal connection will
also be adopted for transverse one, despite being very 1 0 1.216 4 0 20◦ C ≤ T < 750◦
conservative for the bearing situations. 2 0.011 0 0 0 750◦ C ≤ T < 860◦
The thermal expansion coefficients related to the 3 −0.0058 2 0 0 860◦ C ≤ T < 1200◦
materials considered in this study have been deter-
mined based on Eurocode 4 (2004), with cubic polyno-
mials being adopted to depict the variation of the ther-
mal expansion coefficient for material m appropriate 4 APPLICATION
for various temperature sub-domains:
For illustrative purposes, the proposed model is
applied in this section to the analysis of a beam sub-
jected to a constant temperature loading applied to the
steel joist and with pinned supports at both its ends.
This loading is representative of the possible thermal
gradients occurring in a real fire scenario as depicted
in which T = T − T0 , and all relevant values are in Figure 1(a). The numerical solution is implemented
given in Table 2. by means of the finite element method (Ranzi et al.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 3. Coefficients for the degradation function for the
yield strength of steel.
Steel material
j cj0s cj1s cj2s ci3s Temperature range
1 1 0 0 0 0◦ C ≤ T < 215◦ C
2 1.31159 −0.00145 0 0 215◦ C ≤ T < 905◦ C
2010) and, due to space limitation, only very limited
results are included in the following.
The shear connection is linear elastic and its stiff-
ness is equal to k both in the longitudinal direction and
in the transverse direction relevant to separation. It is
assumed that no coupling exists between transverse
and longitudinal response. Penetration between the
two components is prevented numerically by means of
the penalty method. Different values of the connection
stiffness are considered and the degree of connection is
measured by means of a dimensionless stiffness coef-
ficient αL commonly used in composite modelling and
defined as
in which L is the member length, h is the distance
between the centroidal axes of the two section com-
ponents, A1 and A2 are the cross section areas and J1
and J2 are the moments of inertia of the two compo-
nents, being the moments of inertia calculated about
the respective centroidal axes.
For the purpose of this study a value of 5 is used
for αL of both transverse and longitudinal shear con-
nection to calculate the variation of the deflection
along the member length due to different levels of
temperature which are depicted in Figure 4.
5 CONCLUSIONS
This paper described a numerical model for the anal-
ysis of composite steel-concrete beams at elevated
temperatures. The proposed model is derived within
the framework of nonlinear finite deformation theory
and its particularity relies on its ability to account for
both longitudinal and transverse interaction.
A numerical solution utilized in the proposed appli-
cation is based on the finite element method obtained
from a reduced formulation, useful for solving struc-
tural problems, derived on the basis of the theory of
small strain and moderate rotations. The scope of this
work is applicable only to moderately elevated temper-
atures, in which case linear-elastic material properties
are assumed for all materials while considering the
effects of thermal degradation of their stiffness.To pro-
vide a realistic representation of the shear connection
a bilinear constitutive model is adopted for the trans-
verse interface behaviour to reflect the case in which
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 4. Variation of the vertical displacements for differ-
ent levels of temperatures.
extremely high connection stiffness exists for the bear-
ing condition of the concrete slab against the steel joist,
and a relatively weaker stiffness is manifested when
the joist and slab are separating. Some results have
been provided for illustrative purposes for the case of
a composite member pinned at its end supports and
subjected to different levels of temperature.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The contribution of the second author to the work
reported in this paper was supported by the Australian
Academy of Science and by the Australian Research
Council under its Discovery Projects funding scheme.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Thermal and thermo-mechanical behaviour of timber connections in fire

M. Audebert, A. Bouchaïr & M. Taazount

Clermont Université, Université Blaise Pascal, LaMI, Clermont-Ferrand, France

D. Dhima
CSTB, Marne-la-Vallée, France

ABSTRACT: Among the various structural components, the connections are often the weakest elements in a
timber construction. In fire as well as in normal conditions, they govern the bearing capacity of the structure
and its safety. Although the progress in the design methods of timber connections is real regarding the Eurocode
1995-1-2, large limitations still exist due to the lack of data. As it is difficult to characterize the behaviour of
the joint exclusively by experimental way, a numerical model based on the finite element method is developed.
It is used to perform the thermo-mechanical analysis of the joints, using two different meshing and calculation
procedures: one for the thermal analysis and the other for the mechanical calculations. The thermal model is
validated by comparison with temperatures measured at different locations inside the joint. The mechanical and
the thermo-mechanical models are validated, respectively, on the basis of load-slip curves and the times of fire
resistance failure. The study is focused on the steel-to-timber joints in tension parallel to grain but it is developed
in such a way that it can be generalized to a wide range of timber connections.

1 INTRODUCTION numerical approaches. The number of experimental

As timber is a combustible material, fire safety is of
main importance for the development of its use in
buildings. Large wood members have long been rec-
ognized for their ability to maintain structural integrity
while exposed to fire. Exposed wood structural mem-
bers are popular, in modern buildings, because of
their architectural aspects while guaranteeing good
fire endurance. The high fire performance of heavy
timber structures is due partly to the rate of wood
charring.
Several scientific works showed that timber struc-
tures exhibit a good thermo-mechanical behaviour in
fire (König 2005). In general, the charring rate of
wood in timber structures is well known, consequently
the fire resistance of members during fire exposure
can be predicted easily. However, among the various
structural components, the joints are characterized by
a complex thermo-mechanical behavior due mainly
to the geometrical configuration combining various
materials (steel and timber). They govern the load-
carrying capacity of the structure and its safety, as
well in normal conditions as in fire situation. Under
fire exposure, the degradation of the mechanical char-
acteristics of wood has to be considered. To predict
the fire resistance of the connections, it is necessary
to know the thermo-mechanical properties of all the
components and mainly wood.
In order to ensure the fire performance of timber
structures, it is necessary to develop safe and accurate
design rules justified on the basis of experimental and
data and sophisticated numerical models available in
the literature is relatively limited. Besides, experimen-
tal tests remain expensive, complex to do and do not
allow exploring the influence of an isolated parameter.
Thus, the design procedure, based on mechanical
approaches, given in Eurocode 5 (EN 1995-1-2) for
timber joints is covering a limited range of possibilities
for joints.This procedure, based on a limited number of
experimental and numerical results, needs to be more
extended to cover a large variety of joints and fire
resistances.
The development of accurate thermo-mechanical
numerical models is necessary.
In order to compensate the limited number of
tests of connections in fire. In this study, a three-
dimensional finite element model (FEM) is developed
and validated on the basis of the available experimental
results. The model is developed in two stages to simu-
late the behaviour of steel-to-timber connections with
dowels and bolts. The first stage simulates the heat
transfer inside the joint components and the second
stage represents the non linear mechanical behavior of
the connections in fire.
In this paper, the experimental results, of two types
of connections in tension parallel to grain, are pre-
sented. They are used to validate the numerical models.
The validation includes the heat transfer inside the
joints, the load-displacement curves of joints with nor-
mal temperature and the time of fire resistance of
some joints. It is based on the comparison between
the numerical and the experimental results.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 2. Geometry of the tested connections (type 2).
Figure 1. Geometry of the tested connections (type 1).
Table 2. Dimensions of the tested connections (mm)
Table 1. Geometry of the tested connections (mm) (type 1). (type 2).

Connections φ t1 h hp a1 a2 a3 e1 δ Connections φ Nb. t1 h hp a1 a2 a3 δ

A’ 16 76 252 114 112 64 159 25 8 1 20 16 60 240 200 140 60 140 6

A’13d 16 76 254 114 208 64 255 25 8 2 12 8 50 170 130 84 48 84 6
B’ 20 75 292 143 140 80 167 32 10 3 12 16 50 170 150 84 48 84 6
C’ 12 77 212 87 84 48 131 20 6 4 12 32 50 240 200 84 48 84 6
D’ 20 100 288 143 140 80 187 32 10

Table 3. Experimental and theoretical load bearing capaci-

2 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS ties.

2.1 Characteristics of the connections Type 1 Type 2

Two series of tests on steel-to-timber connections, in Rexp Rth (EC5) Rth (EC5)
tension parallel to grain, were realized in fire condi- Connections kN kN Connections kN
tions using the thermal standardized fire curve (ISO
R834). The results of these tests are used in this study A’ 335.1 271 1 501
A’13d 374 316.4 2 103
to validate the numerical model for the thermal and
B’ 456.3 339.7 3 207
the thermo-mechanical aspects. C’ 198.4 211.3 4 413
The first series of tests (type 1) concerns a double D’ 450 415.2
shear steel-to-timber connections with six dowels and
two bolts (Racher 2002). Some specimens were tested
in normal conditions (20◦ ) to obtain the mean value of members. The calculated values of load bearing capac-
the ultimate resistance to be used as reference loads for ities, according to Eurocode 5 without partial safety
fire tests. The specimens in fire conditions were tested factors, for the type 1 connections are summarized in
with applied loads equal to 10, 20 or 30% of the refer- Table 3. They are always lower than the experimental
ence load. The geometrical configurations of the tested values, except for the connection C’ where the failure
connections are shown in Figure 1 and Table 1 (type 1). occurred in the steel plate. During tests, the ultimate
The second series of tests (type 2) concerns connec- failure arises by shear in timber even after large defor-
tions with two or four rows of bolts, without dowels mations of dowels in bending. Thus, the prediction
(Dhima 1999) (Fig. 2 and Table 2). The number of bolts of the failure mode and its associated ultimate load
varies from 8 to 32 (2 rows with 2 or 4 bolts in each is acceptable for dowelled connections. It is used to
row and 4 rows with 4 bolts in each row). The ratios define the ultimate load in normal conditions for the
of applied load vary from 19 to 58 % of the ultimate type 2 connections.
resistance obtained according to ENV 1995-1-1. The experimental values of time exposure failures
called tfi,exp , are presented in Table 6. For the type 1
tests (connections A’ to D’), the fire resistance time
2.2 Test results: Normal and fire conditions is higher than 30 minutes for all the load levels. For
The ultimate loads obtained by tests in normal condi- the type 2 tests (connections 1 to 4), the time of the
tions (connections A’ to D’) are given in Table 3. fire resistance is lower than 30 minutes even for load
For these connections, the expected failure modes levels equal to those applied to the type 1 connections.
are the plastic deformation of dowels, the timber This difference can be explained by the increase of
embedment, the wood shear or tension perpendicular the timber thickness in the type 2 of tests and by the
to grain. They depend on the material characteristics, type of fasteners used in the connections. Indeed, bolt
the diameter of dowels and the thickness of the timber fasteners play a negative role in the fire resistance

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 3. Evolution of the thermal conductivity of timber.
Figure 4. Evolution of the specific heat of timber.
of steel-to-timber connections. In fact, the heating of
bolts is more important than that of dowels, because
of the presence of nuts and washers that increase the
surface exposed to the thermal action.
3 HEAT TRANSFER MODELLING
The heat transfer modeling is done on the real geom-
etry of the joints. The evolutions of the thermal
properties of materials as a function of the temper-
ature are needed to simulate the heat transfer inside
the different components of the joints under fire expo-
sure. These evolutions are introduced in the 3D-FEM
model to simulate the heat transfers within the steel
plates, the fasteners and the wood components.
3.1 Thermo-physical properties of materials
The well known thermo-physical characteristics of
steel, as homogenous material, are taken from the
Eurocode 3. However, the thermo-physical properties
of timber as orthotropic material are less known. Sev-
eral researches can be found in literature. They give the
evolution of the thermal conductivity and specific heat
versus the temperature (König 2005, Knudson et al.
1975, Fredlund 1993, Janssens 1994). The thermal
characteristics used in the numerical simulations are
chosen on the basis of a sensitivity study (Laplanche
2006). Figures 3 and 4 show the evolution of the
thermal characteristics versus the temperature using
different available models developed by Knudson,
Fredlund and Janssens or given in Eurocode 5-1-2.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 5. Calculated and measured temperatures in steel
fasteners (TC1 = bolt, TC2 = dowel).
Figure 6. Calculated and measured temperatures in timber.
The two models selected for the numerical model
are obtained by combination of the thermal conduc-
tivity given by Janssens and the specific heat given by
Fredlund/Janssens. However, an important heat trans-
fer phenomenon appears at the interface between the
wood members and the metal plate. The measured tem-
perature in fire exposure tests show the presence of a
temperature plateau value around 90◦ C. This is due
to the phenomenon of migration of water vapor con-
tained in wood. That is why a peak of specific heat of
100 kJ/(kg. K) is taken into account in the 3D-FEM
modelling at this interface.
3.2 Meshing and boundary conditions
For the thermal analysis, a 3D-FEM model is devel-
oped using the MSC.MARC software package with
20-noded hexahedral elements. By considering the
symmetry, only one quarter of the joint geometry
was modelled: symmetrical plans are adiabatic sur-
faces. A perfect contact, with continuous meshing, is
considered at all the interfaces between timber, steel
plates and fasteners. The external temperature applied
to the connection is given with the evolution of the
normalized time-temperature curve ISO R834.
3.3 Results of the heat transfer modelling
The comparison between the calculated and the mea-
sured temperatures show that the numerical model
exhibit a good accuracy. Figures 5 to 7 show the
 Table 4. Mean values of the mechanical properties of
timber.

E0 E90 G ρ
Tests MPa MPa MPa νLR = νRT νRL kg/m3

A’ to D’ 12600 420 780 0.41 0.02 450

1 to 4 12600 420 780 0.41 0.02 480

Table 5. Strength values of timber given by tests.

fc,0 fc,90 τ
Tests MPa MPa MPa
Figure 7. Calculated and measured temperatures in steel
plate. A’ to D’ 50.64 3.14 10.98
1 to 4 37.5 3.90 4.16
evolutions of the calculated and the measured tem-
peratures for different components of the connection
A’ (Figure 1).
These curves show a good agreement between mea-
sured and computed values of temperature. Similar
results were obtained for all tests of the two types of
tested connections presented in this paper using the
same thermal properties and hypothesis of the model.
The validated numerical thermal model is used as a
basis for the thermo-mechanical model.

4 MECHANICAL MODELLING

The mechanical model concerns the joints in nor-

mal conditions considering the non linear behavior
of materials and the contact between the different
components of the joints.
4.1 Material modelling
Steel is considered isotropic (Young modulus
E = 210 000 MPa and Poisson ratio ν = 0.3). The
mechanical characteristics of steel are taken from the
stress-strain curves given by tests (yield and ultimate
limits: fy and fu ). The von Mises criterion is used to
manage the plastic flow of steel.
The timber behavior is considered with transverse
isotropy assuming identical properties in the radial
and the tangential directions (Laplanche 2006). The
Hill yield criterion is used to manage the evolution of
plasticity in the timber components. This criterion is a
generalized version of the von Mises yield criterion to
consider the anisotropy of the materials (Eq. 1).
Figure 8. Comparison of experimental and numerical
load-slip curves.
4.2 Meshing and boundary conditions
The interaction between the different components
of the joints is modelled using deformable contact
elements at each interface (timber-steel plate, timber-
fasteners and fasteners-steel plate). Thus, the meshing
of the mechanical model is discontinuous and differs
from that used for heat transfer.
Friction between the different contact bodies is
modelled using the Coulomb criterion. Although the
friction coefficient varies with the direction of wood
grain, a constant coefficient is considered. The friction
coefficient between fasteners and timber is taken equal
to 0.3. Because of the low zone of contact between fas-
teners and steel plate, a friction coefficient of 0.001 is
adopted. The presence of friction between timber and
steel plate does not influence the behavior of the joint.

4.3 Results of the mechanical model

with: a1 = f 2 − f 2 ; a2 = a3 = f 2 ; a4 = a5 = a6 =
2 1 1 The 3D-FEM mechanical model is validated on the
2
c,90 c,0 c,0 basis of the load-slip curves of the joint in normal
3·τ 2
; conditions. The stress distributions in the joint are
The mechanical characteristics of timber are given presented to check the failure mode.
in Table 4. Figure 8 shows the comparison between the exper-
Compressive and shear strength values are deter- imental and the calculated load-slip curves for the
mined by tests (Table 5), excepted for the values of connection A’. In the experimental curves, the first
fc,90 and τ of the timber used in connections 1 to 4, cycle of loading was deleted to avoid the initial slip
taken from NF EN 1194. due to the gap between the dowels and the holes.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 10. Comparison of the experimental and the numeri-
Figure 9. Stress distributions in the connection A’. cal slip-time curves (connection 2 – η = 29%).

The numerical model predicts well the initial stiff-

ness of the joint representing the stiffness measured
during the unloading/reloading stages. However, at the
plastic stage, the numerical curve shows the same ten-
dency as the experimental one but with higher values of
strength. This is due partly to the fact that the mechan-
ical model does not take into account the progressive
local failures developed in the area around the dowel
(Xu 2009).
Figure 9 shows the stress distributions in the joint,
at the yield load level, at the interface between tim-
ber and steel plate. The distribution of maximum
values of shear and tension perpendicular to grain
stresses, in the dowels zone, is close to the failure zone
Figure 11. Comparison of the experimental and the numeri-
observed experimentally. In fact the failure seems to
cal slip-time curves (connection 3 – η = 49%).
be influenced by the combination of shear and tension
perpendicular to grain.

5 THERMO-MECHANICAL MODELLING

The thermo-mechanical analysis of the joints is based

on the same 3D-FEM used for the mechanical model-
ing considering the temperature-dependent mechan-
ical properties of the materials. The evolutions of
these characteristics are taken into account by using
the reduction factors of the mechanical properties,
depending on temperature. The coefficients used in
the model are taken from Eurocode 3-1-2 for steel and
from Eurocode 5-1-2 for timber. The same value is
used for the Young modulus of timber both in tension
and compression. For the yield (or strength) charac- Figure 12. Comparison of the experimental and the numeri-
teristics, the values of compression are considered cal time-slip curves (connection B’ – η = 30%).
because timber is mainly loaded in compression, under
the dowels, in the connection zone. The model needs temperature. A procedure was developed to make
to be improved to take account of the brittle character the transition between the field of temperature and
of wood in tension perpendicular to grain and in shear. the thermo-mechanical model considering the corre-
The meshes of the thermal and the mechanical spondence between the nodes of the meshes and the
models are different. The mesh of the heat transfer adequate boundary conditions of each model.
model is continuous, what allows insuring the ther- The results of the thermo-mechanical model are
mal continuity between the various members of the evaluated on the basis of the predicted time of fire
joint, whereas the mesh of the mechanical model is resistance of the connections in comparison with
discontinuous to take account of the contact zones. the experimental values. They are defined using the
To perform the thermo-mechanical analysis, the field slip-time curves. Figures 10 to 12 show the compar-
of temperature inside the connection calculated using ison between experimental and simulated curves for
the thermal model is stored for each increment of different connections.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 6. Comparison between calculated and experimental a mean value of 46%. However, for the experimental
failure times of the connections. resistances lower than 30 min., equation 2 overesti-
mates the calculated values but with a mean error
η tfi,FEM tfi,exp ε1 td,fi(EC5) ε2
Tests % Minutes Minutes % Minutes %
close to 10%. The numerical approach developed in
this study gives the possibility to obtain fire resistance
A’ 10 47 55.5 15 31.6 43 values for a wide range of geometrical configurations
20 36 41 12 23.2 43 of connections. These values can be used to improve
30 29.7 36 17.5 18.4 49 the precision of the current design methods and to
A’13d 10 29.4 36 18 31.6 12 extend their application domain, in particular for fire
B’ 10 45 52 13.5 31.6 39 resistance higher than 30 min.
30 28 37 24 18.4 50
C’ 10 50 54 7.5 31.6 41
30 34.8 39 11 18.4 53 6 CONCLUSIONS
D’ 10 65.7 90 27 31.6 65
30 42.6 45 5 18.4 59 A 3D-FEM non-linear model is developed. The heat
1 19 20 22 9 23.8 −8 transfer model gives the field of temperature in the
39 12 15 20 15.3 −2
2 29 14.5 17 15 18.8 −10
connection with a good agreement regarding the mea-
58 9 10 10 10.7 −7 sured values in different points. This model represents
3 25 14.7 18 18 20.9 −16 well the thermal transfers in timber as well as in steel
49 9.8 11 11 12.7 −15 components. The non-linear mechanical model is vali-
4 24 13.5 18 25 21.1 −17 dated by comparison with the experimental load-slip
48 11.2 13 14 12.9 0.7 curves.
The thermo-mechanical model makes it possible to
obtain the fire resistance times of the connections with
The high increase of displacement, representing the various geometrical and material configurations. For
failure of the connection, is well predicted by the the analyzed examples, the calculated ressistances are
model. To define the calculated time of fire resistance, always lower than the experimental ones with an aver-
the tangent to the end part of the curve is used. Table 6 age relative error of 15 %. The model will be used as a
shows comparisons between the calculated (tfi,FEM ) tool to extend the application domain of the Eurocode.
and the experimental (tfi,exp ) times to failure with the The model is validated for the connections in ten-
relative error (ε1 ). sion parallel to grain. However, as a general tool, it will
The failure times of the connections calculated be extended to various types of connections loaded in
using the thermo-mechanical model are always lower tension perpendicular to grain, at 45◦ or in bending.
than the experimental values. The relative error is due For further developments, the numerical results will
partly to the non-convergence of the model and its be used to calibrate the simplified models to be used
consequence on the definition of the time of fail- for design practice.
ure. However, the thermo-mechanical model predicts
well the first stage of failure characterized by a sig-
nificant acceleration of the local displacement (slip). REFERENCES
Experimentally, the connections show few minutes of
Dhima, D. 1999. Experimental analysis of the fire resistance
additional resistance beyond the failure point defined of timber connections. CTICM ; 1999, 61p. [in French]
numerically. Fredlund, B. 1993. Modelling of heat and mass transfer in
Eurocode 5-1-2 provides a simplified method to wood structures during fire. Fire Safety Journal 1993;
design timber connections in fire conditions. Equa- 20:39–69.
tion 2 is proposed to calculate the time fire resistance, Janssens, M. 1994. Thermo-physical properties for wood
lower than 30 min., of unprotected connections, with pyrolisis models. Pacific Timber Engineering Conference
a given design load in fire situation. Gold Coast, Australia.
Knudson, RM & Schniewind,AP. 1975. Performance of struc-
tural wood members exposed to fire. Forest Products
Journal 1975; 25(2):23–32.
König, J. 2005. Effective thermal actions and thermal prop-
Where ηfi is the reduction factor for design load in fire erties of timber members in natural fires. Journal of Fire
situation; γM is the partial safety factor for connection and Materials 2005; 30:51–63.
(see EN 1995-1-1, subclause 2.4.1); γM,fi is the par- Laplanche, K. 2006. Study of the behaviour of timber joints in
tial safety factor for timber in fire (the recommanded fire – experimental and numerical approaches.. PhD The-
value is γM,fi = 1); kfi is a parameter depending on the sis, Université Blaise Pascal Clermont-Ferrand and CSTB,
connection type (here, kfi = 1.15) and k is a coefficient France ; 140p. [in French].
equal to 0.085. Racher, P. 2002. Fire resistance of steel-timber joints. Report
n◦ 2002-55-1. Polytech’Clermont-Ferrand ; 12/2002 [In
The fire resistance times given by equation 2 are French].
presented in Table 6 (td,fi ). The relative errors between Xu B.H., Taazount M., Bouchaïr A., Racher P., Numerical
these values and the experimental ones, called (ε2 ), 3D Finite Element Modelling and Experimental Tests for
show that Eq. 2 underestimates the fire resistance Dowel-Type Timber Joints. Journal of Construction and
times higher than 30 min. (connections A’ to D’) by Building Materials 2009, Vol. 23, No. 9, pp. 3043–3052.

194
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Numerical assessment of structural assembly between steel beam

and CFT columns under fire

F.R. Carvalho Lopes, A. Santiago & L. Simões da Silva

ISISE-Department of Civil Engineering, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

J.G. Santos da Silva

Department of Civil Engineering, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

ABSTRACT: This paper presents the joint design and numerical results related to the structural behaviour
of steel beam to Concrete Filled Tubular (CFT) column assembly using reverse channel connections subject to
fire loading. In this investigation, a three-dimensional finite element model is developed in order to predict the
complex interaction between the composite joints and the surrounding structural elements under fire exposure
condition (standard fire curve ISO 834). The proposed analysis methodology adopted the usual mesh refinement
techniques present in the finite element method simulations implemented in the ABAQUS program. Solid finite
elements and surface-to-surface contact interaction are considered in the numerical model. This paper in mainly
focused on the modelling techniques, however preliminary results are investigated and discussed in order to help
the design of the composite sub-frame that should be used in an experimental program related to this subject.

1 INTRODUCTION Owing to accumulative effects of a number of factors

Composite steel-concrete structures combine the
advantages of steel and concrete and they are often
assumed to possess inherently high fire resistance and
have been used to achieve cost reduction of the steel
construction without compromising safety. Concrete
filled hollow sections have been used as an efficient
structural solution for designing without fire protec-
tion where the columns are exposed (Newman &
Simms 2000). Design methods are presented on com-
posite action of the steel section, concrete core and
additional reinforcement in fire conditions are pre-
sented in the Eurocode 4 Part 1.2 (EN 1994-1-2 2005).
Although there have been extensive research stud-
ies of member and frame structural behaviour under
fire conditions (Wang 2002, Wang 2005) as well as
the behavior of joint between concrete filled tubular
columns assembly at ambient temperature (Neves et
al., 2004, Silva et al. 2003), there is a lack of research
on this joint typology in fire. Indeed, past research
studies have largely neglected how steel and com-
posite (steel-concrete) joints actually behave in fire.
Mainly, the ENV version of Eurocode 3 Part 1.2 (ENV
1993-1-2 1995) did not require evaluation of steel joint
behaviour under fire loading; this rule was justified by
the argument of the increased massivity of joint region
and thereby slowing down temperature rises in the joint
region in fire compared with the connected beams and
columns. However, recent observations from real fires
show that, on some occasions, joints fail from their ten-
sile components (Bailey et al. 1999, Wald et al. 2006).
that occur in fire conditions, including hogging bend-
ing moments, tension field action in shear and high
cooling strain or pulling in effect at large deflection
of the connected beam, the tensile components of the
joints fracture (Ding & Wang 2007). The great danger
of joint fracture may be the potential for progressive
collapse of the composite (steel-concrete) structure. In
the experimental study on structural fire behaviour of
different type of steel beam to concrete filled tubular
column assemblies (Ding & Wang 2007), the reverse
channel connection appears to have the best combina-
tion of desirable feature: moderate construction cost,
ability to develop catenary action and extremely high
ductility through deformation of the web channel.
The numerical study presented in this paper is part
of the European RFCS COMPFIRE project which the
principal aim is to provide an integrated approach
for the practical application of performance-based
fire engineering design of composite (steel-concrete)
structures, including joint performance under natu-
ral fire conditions. In order to address the complex
behaviour of this kind of joints in fire, experimental
fire tests on sub-frame are prepared at the University
of Coimbra.
2 CASE OF STUDY
2.1 Introduction
The main objective of this paper is to provide a three-
dimensional finite element model able to predict the

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 1. Sub-frame test model (dimensions given in mm).
Figure 2. Reverse channel joint (dimensions given in mm).
behaviour of the joints under fire exposure condition
and to help the design of the composite sub-frame to
be tested at the University of Coimbra.
The experimental setup consists of a compos-
ite sub-frame made up with a steel beam and
two CFT (concrete filled tubes) columns assem-
blies (Figure 1). IPE300 unprotected steel beams and
SHS 250 × 250 × 8 columns filled with concrete are
considered as structural members.
In the proposed tests, reversel channel joints are
used to connect the steel beam to CFT columns.
The channel sections could be obtained by welded
plates, therefore, same flanges and web thicknesses
are assumed in the preliminary design. The reverse
channel connections are formed through bolted end-
plate to web of a channel section and channel flanges
are welded to column face. Steel grade S355 is adopted
for columns, beam, end-plates and channels, and M20,
Class 8.8 is considered for the bolts. The joints con-
figuration proposed for this experimental programme
is shown in Figure 2.
2.2 Design of reverse channel connections
Since there are no comprehensive analytical approaches
or specific design codes to design the proposed joint
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 3. Notation of the yield area and failure mechanisms.
typology, the bending resistance and initial stiffness
of the connection is obtained with the application of
the component method included in Eurocode 3 Part
1.8 (EN 1993-1-8 2005) and the CIDECT Report
5BP-4/05 (Jaspart et al. 2005).
The joint between beam and channel is assumed
as an I-beam to RHS (rectangular hollow section)
column bolted connection using flush endplate. This
joint typology is included in CIDECT Report which
identifies the following components: i) beam flange
in compression; ii) bolts in tension; iii) end-plate in
bending; iv) beam web in tension; v) RHS in trans-
verse tension: chord face failure; vi) RHS in transverse
compression: chord face failure; vii) RHS in trans-
verse tension: punching shear failure; and viii) RHS
in transverse compression: punching shear failure. The
first four components are calculated with the aid of the
CoP program (CoP 2005), considering a beam splice
joint. An equivalent T-stub in tension is used to model
the design resistance of the end-plate in bending.
Joints between I-beams and RHS present similar
behaviour of the weak-axis joints. Because of the lack
of a central stiffening web, the loaded chord of the
column must resist the tensile and compressive forces
arising from the beam flanges in bending like a plate
supported on its vertical sides (Neves 1996). The ana-
lytical approach is based on the yielding mechanism
in a bolted connection that is defined by bending of
a rigid rectangle with dimensions b × c at the tension
and compression zone, as shown in Figure 3. It is also
analysed the punching shear failure load for circular
and non-circular patterns around the bolts.
The strength of each component is presented in
Table 1. The moment resistance and initial stiffness
of the joint could be calculated by Equations 1 and 2,
respectively:
Table 1. Strength and stiffness of the joint components.

Strength Stif. coef.

Component FRd (kN) ki (mm)

Beam flange in compression 771.06 ∞

Bolts in tension 352.80 19.12
End-plate in bending 207.22 3.22
Beam web in tension 506.64 ∞
RHS in transverse tension: 169.97 0.89
Chord face failure
RHS in transverse compression: 287.27 7.23
Chord face failure
Figure 4. FE model development.
RHS in transverse tension: 332.77 ∞
Punching shear failure
RHS in transverse compression: 632.16 ∞
Punching shear failure

where MRd = plastic moment resistance; FRd = resis-

tance of the weakest component; h = distance between
the center of the tension zone and the compres-
sion zone; Sj,ini = initial stiffness; E =Young’s mod-
ulus of the steel; and ki = stiffness coefficient of the
component.
The moment resistance and the initial stiffness of the
joint have been found 39.9 kNm and 7123.7 kNm/rad,
respectively. Once the moment resistance of the
beam IPE 300 at ambient temperature is 223 kNm,
the joint may be classified as pinned connection
(Mj,Rd /Mb,pl,Rd < 0.25).
3 FINITE ELEMENT MODEL DISCRIPTION
3.1 Finite elements and mesh discretization
The FE analysis adopted the usual mesh refinement
techniques implemented in the ABAQUS program.
The numerical analysis is focused in the joint con-
figuration to be tested. The beam-column assembly
was described in Section 2.1. In order to reduce the
processing time, symmetry conditions are imposed at
the beam mid-span. The eight-node reduce-integration
hexahedral brick elements are used to model the con-
nection area. This element is able to perform complex
nonlinear analysis involving contact, plasticity, and
large deformations. In order to use a coarse mesh
far away from the connection, a transition zone takes
place in beam and column using four-node tetrahe-
dral elements. Surface-to-surface contact is modelled
using contact surfaces with friction coefficient taken
as 0,25. The contact areas in the joint region com-
prise bolt shank-to-holes, bolt head-to-end plate, bolt
nut-to-channel and end plate-to-channel.
Figure 5. Mechanical load applied at the ambient tempera-
ture FE model (simulation B).
displacements of all nodes at the plane of symmetry
are restrained from moving in its normal direction.
The beam is allowed to deflect downward and hori-
zontal displacement is restrained to prevent possible
premature failure of the beam by lateral torsional buck-
ling. Three translational displacements are restrained
at the bottom column, while the top is restrained in
lateral and horizontal directions only and free to move
in its vertical axis (Figure 4). Two simulations are
performed:
Simulation A (ISO 834 temperature) – The mechan-
ical loading applied at ambient temperature and
remained constant during the heating, corresponds to
the self-weight and a uniform loading of 15 kN/m
distributed along the top flange of the beam which
represents about 20% of the beam resistance at ambi-
ent temperature. The standard fire curve ISO 834
(EN 1991-1-2 2002) is adopted for the temperature
increased at the beam web and bottom flange and
the connection zone. The beam upper flange and the
column ar not directly heated.
Simulation B (ambient temperature) – In order to
assess the failure modes at ambient temperature, a
second simulation is carried out: the FE model is sub-
jected to a static load uniformly distributed on the
beam upper flange and linearly increased beyond the
beam load-carrying capacity calculated as a simply-
supported beam (Fig. 5). Thermal loading is not taken
into account.

3.2 Loading and boundary conditions 3.3 Material properties

As mentioned before, symmetry of the structure An elastic-plastic material model is adopted in FE
from beam mid-span is taken into account. The simulation. The stress-strain relationship of structural

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Table 2. Ultimate strain assumed in this study.

Ambient High
Steel Elements temperature temperature

End plate and channel 0,15 0,2

Beam 0,15 0,2
Bolts 0,035 0,035

steel at elevated temperature is specified in Eurocode

3 Part 1.2 (EN 1993-1-2 2005). In order to per-
form a nonlinear geometrical analysis, the true stress-
logarithmic strain law (σ − ε), calculated by Equa-
tion 3, is used to define the material behaviour of
the structural elements. It describes the behaviour of
S355 structural steel under various temperatures. A
constant Poisson ratio of 0.3 is used. At ambient tem-
perature, the yield and ultimate stresses are taken as
355 and 470 MPa, respectively, for structural steel of
the beam, column, endplate and channel. Yield and
ultimate stresses of 640 and 800 MPa are assumed for
the bolts. 210 GPa is adopted for the Young’s modulus.

Figure 6. Deformed mesh (and von Mises stresses) up to

25 min of fire.
where σnom = nominal stress; εnom = nominal strain.
An elastic law is assumed for the infilling concrete.
It plays as a rigid support for the compression zone at
the channel flange bottom and its inelastic behaviour
is neglected in this model. The Young’s modulus of
30 GPa is adopted for the concrete with a density equal
2300 kg/m3 .

4 NUMERICAL RESULTS

4.1 Global behaviour and failure modes during

the fire event
Failure criteria should be established to analyse the
joint behaviour and its failure modes at ambient tem-
perature and throughout the fire event. This study
assumes that cracking occurs when the joint ele-
ments reach their respective ultimate strain. The failure
condition is assessed comparing the maximum equiv-
alent strain (εE,max ) with ultimate strain (εu ) which
is adopted following literature recommendations (EN
1993-1-1 2005, EN 1993-1-2 2005, Santiago 2008),
see Table 2.
The model deformed mesh up to 25 min of fire and
a detail of the connection is presented in Figure 6. The
maximum beam mid-span deflection is about 0.40 m
which corresponds to L/10 (Fig. 7); this value cor-
responds to the bolt failure and is reached at around
21 min when εE,max ≈ εu (Table 2) at the tension row.
Because this numerical model is a preliminar simu-
lation, automatic failure criteria is not implemented
yet, and values measured after bolt failure should be
neglected.
Figure 7. Deflection at the beam mid-span under fire.
The temperature evolution on the beam around the
joint area is illustrated in Figure 8. It is noted that
channel face rises temperature slower than the end-
plate which allowed a slow decrease in the channel
resistance during the fire event.
4.2 Behaviour of the FE model at ambient
temperature
As mentioned in the Section 3.2, a new simulation was
carried out with the FE model subject to an incremental
loading at ambient temperature.
The evolution of the beam mid-span deflection with
the beam loading is indicated in Figure 9. The gradual
deflection can be noted until the applied load achieves
the load-carrying capacity of the beam. Thereafter,
the rate of deflection increases notably. The maximum
deflection reached was 0.40 m (Fig. 10).

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 8. Temperature evolution at the connection zone.

Figure 10. Deformed mesh of the ambient temperature FE

model.

Figure 9. Deflection at the beam mid-span at ambient

temperature.

The connection rotation was estimated from verti-

cal deflection at a point along the beam and near to
the joint (at 300 mm from the channel face) and the Figure 11. Connection rotation at ambient temperature.
Force × Rotation curve is illustrated in Figure 11.
The connection behaviour reproduce a characteris-
tic pinned joint, as predicted in the preliminary design
at ambient temperature. Using failure criteria defined
before, figure 12 shows that the reverse channel is the
weakest component with maximum equivalent strains
of 0,15 (ultimate strain of steel), showing that this
numerical results are in line with the design rules
presented before (see table 1).

5 CONCLUSIONS

This paper presented the results of the design and

numerical study, using ABAQUS Program, of the
reverse channel joints to connect an I-beam to CFT
column with square cross-section filled with concrete. Figure 12. Maximum equivalent strains in the joint.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
This study corresponds to a preliminary analysis of
these joints to be experimentally tested subject to fire
exposure condition at the University of Coimbra under
the European RFCS COMPFIRE Project. This numer-
ical analysis was developed to help the design of the
composite sub-frame to be tested at the University of
Coimbra, predicting the failure modes of the connec-
tion at ambient and high temperatures. However, at this
moment only preliminary results were quantified and
a detailed interpretation will be required.
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of full-scale steel framed building subjected to compart-
ment fires. The Structural Engineer 77(8): 15–21.
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Weynand, PSP Technologien GmbH and Jean-Pierre Jas-
part, University of Liège.
Ding, J. & Wang, Y.C. 2007. Experimental study of structural
fire behaviour of steel beam to concrete filled tubular col-
umn assemblies with different types of joints. Engineering
Structures 12(29): 3485–3502.
European Committee for Standardization CEN. EN 1991-
1-2:2002. Eurocode 1: Action on structures, Part 1.2:
General actions – Actions on structures exposed to fire.
Brussels.
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1:2005. Eurocode 3: Design of steel structures, Part 1.1:
General rules and rules for buildings. Brussels.
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2:2005. Eurocode 3: Design of steel structures, Part 1.2:
Structural Fire Design. Brussels.
European Committee for Standardization CEN. EN 1993-1-
8:2005. Eurocode 3: Design of steel structures, Part 1.8:
Design of joints. Brussels.
European Committee for Standardization CEN. EN 1994-
1-2:2005. Eurocode 4: Design of composite steel and
concrete structures, Part 1.2: General Rules – Structural
Fire Design. Brussels.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
European Committee for Standardization CEN. ENV 1993-
1-2:1995. Eurocode 3: Design of steel structures, Part 1.2:
Structural Fire Design. Brussels.
Jaspart, J-P., Pietrapertosa, C., Weynand, K., Busse, E., and
Klinkhammer, R. 2005. Development of a full consistent
design approach for bolted and welded joints in build-
ing frames and trusses between steel members made of
hollow and/or open sections. Application of the compo-
nent method. CIDECT Research Project 5BP, Draft final
report – Volume 1: Practical design guide.
Lima, L.R.O., Simões da Silva, L., Vellasco, P.C.G.S.
& Andrade, S.A.L. 2004. Experimental evaluation of
extended endplate beam-to-column joints subjected to
bending and axial force. Engineering Structures 26(10):
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Neves, L.C., Simões da Silva, L. & Vellasco, P.C.G.S. 2004.
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of concrete filled tubes to Eurocode 4. Ascot: The Steel
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Silva, L.A.P, Neves, L.F.N. & Gomes, F.C.T. 2003. Rotational
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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Numerical simulations of full-scale enclosure fires in a multilevel library

P. Ciambelli, M.G. Meo, P. Russo & S. Vaccaro

Department of Chemical and Food Engineering, University of Salerno, Fisciano (SA), Italy

ABSTRACT: In accordance with European policy, Italian regulations concerning building fire safety have
been reformulated from prescriptive into performance-based rules. In this context field modeling based on
Computational Fluid Dynamics methodology can potentially be applied to fire safety design in order to assess
the performance of different designs and safety measures over a wide range of scenarios, so as to minimize the
potential danger to life and property. In this work, a CFD code has been used to estimate the consequences of a
fire occurring in a multilevel library. The evolution of gas temperatures, velocity field, radiative heat flux, gas
and smoke concentrations has been predicted after the fire start. Simulation results have been evaluated with
reference to tenability conditions along the evacuation paths in the building. Results have been also used to
estimate the exposure to heat of the library ceilings and walls.

1 INTRODUCTION requirements for both passive and active, structural and

Nowadays fire safety in buildings is a prime concern,
in light of recent major events that have raised public
awareness about the serious potential hazards to life,
property and the environment. The level of fire safety
in a building is the result of the interaction among
many phenomena, such as: fire initiation, fire growth
and spread, fire behavior of building components and
protection measures, response of occupants and of fire
brigade (Yung & Beck 1995).
Traditionally, the fire safety requirements in the
building sector have been highly regulated by pre-
scriptive rules, which provide fire classes of mate-
rials and criteria for building design. In accordance
with European policy, today in many countries the
trend of fire safety building regulations is moving
towards the definition of performance-based require-
ments for fire safety measures, based on Fire Safety
Engineering (FSE) calculations. The Italian directive
(Ministero dell’Interno 2007a), reports the common
key characteristics of performance-based codes for
FSE calculations and defines a set of quantifiable per-
formance targets likely to achieve, and a set of methods
to establish whether they are fulfilled. Therefore,
performance-based FSE codes offer different advan-
tages with respect to the prescriptive codes because
they allow more flexibility in design, provide the
same safety level in various types of buildings and
allow the optimization of safety measures with the
intent to provide comprehensive fire protection for life,
property and environment.
In particular, for large complex structures, often not
specifically covered by national regulations and, thus,
with uncertainties in applying prescriptive approach,
FSE may be the most suitable and rational approach
for the design of buildings because it optimizes
technical fire protection measures. In general, there are
four principal objectives that have to be fulfilled when
designing a fire safe building. The structure should:
i) retain its load-bearing capacity; ii) protect peo-
ple from harmful smoke and gases; iii) shield people
from heat; iv) facilitate the fire-fighters intervention.
The structural behavior of a building depends upon
a number of variables, e.g. materials degradation at
high temperatures, excessive deflection, insufficient
strength, and instability (CIB 2001). For people the
main hazards derive from fire-induced gas tempera-
tures, smoke and toxic concentrations, which affect
the ability to evacuate the building (CFPA-E 2009).
The design methods may be currently classified into
two classes (Ma 2000):
– methods only related to fire resistance;
– performance-based methods related to global fire
safety.
The first approach concerns the verification
methods of fire resistance to standard heat exposure:
the current Italian directives (Ministero dell’Interno
2007b) give a group of nominal temperature-time fire
curves including a standard fire curve (ISO 834), an
external fire curve and a hydrocarbon fire curve. These
methods are simple to apply, but they lead to design
a specific building with an uncertain safety margin.
On the contrary, the second approach, based on the
fire risk assessment in any particular building, is more
complex but also cost-effective and with known safety
margin.
In this context, among the various available mod-
els, field modeling based on Computational Fluid
Dynamics methodology is able to describe the physical
and chemical processes (e.g., turbulence, combustion,

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 radiation, etc.) controlling fire and smoke develop-
ment in an enclosure and their relative interactions as
well as that with the surroundings. Therefore, CFD
codes can be applied in the fire safety design to eval-
uate the effect of different emergency systems and to
assess the performance of safety measures for vari-
ous fire scenarios, allowing the minimization of the
potential hazard to life and property. As reported
in the directives (Ministero dell’Interno 2007b) and
by various authors (e.g. Ma & Mäkeläinen 2000),
in performance-based design methods natural design
fire curves are used instead of the nominal standard
fire curves, to verify stability and fire resistance of
structures as well as their functions of load-bearing,
separating and fire-shielding. Indeed, in compartment
fires the natural temperature-time curve consists of
three phases: fire growth, full development or flash
over (which is responsible of most of the structural
damage) and decay. All these steps are influenced by Figure 1. A picture of the library.
compartment properties such as fuel load, ventilation
opening, thermal properties of boundaries and geom-
etry of the compartment. As an example, the effect of
wall and lining thermal properties may cause a tem-
perature variation of the order of 10%, as reported by
Ma (2000).
In this work, a CFD code has been used to esti-
mate the consequences of a severe fire occurring in a
multilevel library. Simulation results have been used
to estimate the exposure to heat of the library ceiling,
walls and installations. Moreover, with reference to
tenability and safety conditions in terms of gas temper-
atures, toxic concentrations and obscuration by smoke,
Figure 2. The computational domain and location of the
the available safe egress time (ASET) has been also
first bookcase burning, the exit doors and the main escape
estimated and compared with the required safe egress routes A, B at the fire level.
time (RSET) along the escape routes (Pauls 2002,
CFPA-E 2009).
area where the fire was assumed to start, potential
ignition sources can derive from failure, overheating
or sparking by various electrical equipment (lamps,
2 SCENARIO wiring, computers or photocopiers, heaters), or by
smokers’ material (cigarettes, matches, lighters); acci-
The CFX code by ANSYS (2009) has been used dental or deliberate ignition (arson) could also occurs.
to simulate a fire occurring in a multilevel library. Fire detectors and portable extinguishers are available
The ANSYS CFX solver uses the most modern in the library, while compartmenting of the building is
solution technology and extremely efficient par- applied to prevent fire spread. A fire starting from a
allelization. The solver software applies a hybrid bookcase in the lower level (Fig. 2b) has been hypoth-
finite-element/finite-volume approach to discretize esized, and the progressive fire spread to the nearest
the Navier-Stokes equations. six bookcases (the so-called “domino effect”) has been
The library, of which a picture of the external view also accounted for, by checking the times when each
is shown in Figure 1, is a complex multi-level build- bookcase reached the ignition temperature for paper
ing, built in the early ‘90s. Each area is equipped (230◦ C). According to this assumption, three couples
with HVAC (heating, ventilating and air conditioning) of bookcases symmetrically located with respect to the
vents and fan coils, smoke detectors, fire alarms and first burning one ignited respectively 60, 110, 125 sec-
fire extinguishers, recommended escape routes and onds after the fire start. Each bookcase (2 m high, 4 m
exit doors, compliant with the building Emergency wide and 0.5 m deep) contains about 700 books.
Contingency Plan. Firstly, simulations have been run assuming the cur-
According to the fire safety engineering approach, rently available ventilation equipments. Then, in view
a fire scenario, representative of a realistic incident of possible improvements in fire safety, the presence
that could occur in the building, has been identified of several smoke vents in the ceiling has been assumed
for the analysis. The choice of the fire scenario has and its effect on fire development and safety conditions
taken into account the likely ignition sources and any have been analyzed, to compare safety performance in
fire detection/suppression systems available; in the both configurations. Each vent is 1 square meter and

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
acts through natural ventilation. The activation of such
emergency system has been simulated after about 2
min from the fire start when the smoke concentration,
measured by detectors located in the fire area, reaches
the value of 0.04 ppm.
3 SIMULATIONS SETTINGS
The computational domain, shown in Figure 2,
includes two large storeys of the library both 3.8 m
high: the lowest level where fire occurs and the upper
level. The two storeys are connected by a stairway,
leading via a corridor to an upper large and very
high atrium, where the main entrance of the library
is located. The position of the bookcase supposed to
first burn, the location of the exit doors for emergency
evacuation, the main escape routes A and B, together
with the wire-frame boundaries, the HVAC equipment
and the main furnishings (the bookcases) are shown in
Figure 2.
The total volume of the computational domain is
about 7450 m3 . The initial temperature in the library
has been set to 20◦ C, while outside conditions to 10◦ C
and 101 kPa.
CFX simulations have been run with the following
numerical input data and assumptions:
– an unstructured mesh approach has been used, with
about 1.7 millions of cells and a finer grid res-
olution where strong local gradient of properties
is expected, that is near the bookcases, the open-
ings, the air intake vents, the exhaust ports and the
fan-coils;
– the upwind advection scheme and the first order
backward eulerian transient scheme has been set;
the integration time step is 0.5 s; the residual con-
vergence criterion is 10−4 ; parallel processing has
been executed;
– the modified k-ε model for turbulence and the
Volumetric Heat Source model for bookcase com-
bustion have been assumed;
– the radiative heat transfer has been modeled by
the Discrete Transfer model in “surface to surface”
assumption. It has been assumed that radiative
exchange only occurs between solid surfaces, while
the fluid domain is a transparent media not emit-
ting/absorbing radiation. This enable us to limit the
computational time. However, even so, it took about
approximately 2 days of run time to compute each
minute of real time.
Moreover, the following conservative approximations
have been used in the simulations:
– adiabatic walls and ceilings. Actually, this is a very
important factor influencing the temperature-time
history of the building because the heat loss through
the compartment boundaries is usually about
10–30% of the global heat release (Ma 2000);
– the Heat Release Rate (HRR) of each burning book-
case is assumed to consist of three main phases: fire
growth with fast rate up to about 2 MW in 200 s for
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 3. Location of smoke exhaust vents.
burning paper and cellulosic materials (D’Anna &
Kent 2002,); full developed fire (until about 10 min)
with constant HRR, and an exponentially decay
phase;
– windows and glass facade breakage due to high
gas temperatures is not simulated. This event could
ensure free flow of air and smoke in and out of the
building;
– people in the building did not use available fire
extinguishers, and fire brigade intervene only
20 min after fire start.
4 RESULTS
In compliance with guidelines (Ministero dell’Interno
2007a, b), the main aim of fire safety has been iden-
tified in ensuring that exposure to the fire does not
impede the safe escape of occupants and that fire dam-
age to the structure be limited. The evolution of gas
temperatures, velocity field, radiative heat flux, gas
(O2 , CO and CO2 ) and smoke concentrations after the
fire start have been predicted. Simulation results have
been used to estimate the exposure to heat of the library
installations, ceiling and walls, mainly made of con-
crete and/or brickwork. Moreover, the available safe
egress time (ASET), i.e. when tenability criteria of
smoke, toxic effluents and heat are not exceeded, has
also been estimated and compared with the required
safe egress time (RSET) along the escape routes. The
RSET is estimated to be at the most 5 min, according
to the equations reported in the literature (Pauls 2002,
CFPA-E 2009).
With reference to tenability and safety conditions,
simulations predict that along the escape routes A and
B, shown in Figure 2, the concentrations of toxic sub-
stances (CO, CO2 ) at breathing height do not exceed
the safety limits (1200 ppm for CO and 40000 ppm
for CO2 reported in CFPA, 2009) during the egress
time. On the other hand, dangerous conditions are due
to high temperatures and soot concentration causing
a significant reduction in visibility along the escape
routes near the fire area. The addition of smoke vents,
whose location is showed in Figure 3, induces a con-
siderable improvement, both in enhancing visibility
along the main escape routes close to the fire area, and
in cooling gas temperature at the fire storey. In fact,
vents allow the entry of fresh air flow into the library
 far from the fire and the exit of hot smoke through the
nearest vents.
As an example, results of smoke movement and
reduction in visibility can be expressed in terms of
smoke obscuration as defined by Kang (2007). In
Figure 4 the profiles of smoke obscuration at the lower
library storey, calculated at eye level along the evac-
uation routes A and B towards the main emergency
exit door, shown in Figure 2, are reported as a func-
tion of time for both different ventilation cases. 90%
obscuration can be used as a threshold for tenability
conditions (Blake and Suo-Anttila 2008).
The addition of smoke vents allow a longer available
safe egress time along both the escape routes. In par-
ticular, along route B, the farthest from the fire, smoke
obscuration during the required safe evacuation time
(5 min) is limited to 30% with respect to the tenability
limit of 90%. In addition, along the escape route A, in
the presence of vents, the ASET increases from 3 min
up to about 4.5 min.
In the case of the fire scenario here hypothesized,
the time of full fuel involvement, that is when all
exposed combustible surfaces reach ignition temper-
ature and burst into flame (flashover) is about 125 s
after the fire start, when the last two bookcases burn.
Figure 5 illustrates the occurrence of the flashover
and the field of temperatures observed at that instant.
Predicted results are in agreement with literature
(Mehaffey & Bert 1997), stating that flashover occurs
when the temperature of the upper hot gas layer reaches
500–600◦ C.
Figure 4. Smoke obscuration at eye level along the main
escape routes A, B at the fire floor.
Figure 5. Gas temperature contours predicted at fire level when the flashover occurs. a) Ceiling plan view. b) Side view.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
With regard to structural response, CFD simulations
may allow the prediction of fire development and the
determination of the thermal impact of the fire on the
structure, in view of a subsequent structural analysis
for the assessment of the fire’s effects on the structure.
For the fire scenario here studied, in the traditional
prescriptive approach the nominal curve ISO 834 for
cellulosic fuels may be used as reference. However,
modern complex buildings and ventilation conditions
rarely would be expected to produce the standard
temperature-time curve in any point.
In order to compare simulations results with the
ISO 834 curve, in Figure 6 gas temperatures, predicted
under the ceiling at three different positions in the
library, are reported besides the ISO curve. The ceiling
points where virtual ceiling thermocouples are located
are shown by crosses in Figure 7, and are relevant to:
– the fire area above the bookcase that first burn,
where critical conditions are expected (point A);
– near the main emergency exit at the fire floor, which
is fundamental for people evacuation (point B);
– the end of the central stairway at the upper level con-
nected to the library atrium, in order to assess the
upward movement of hot gases and the importance
of chimney effect (point C).
As shown in Figure 6, the predicted gas tempera-
ture profiles agree with the set fire HRR, but presents
Figure 6. Gas temperature predicted under the ceiling at
three different points of the library.
a slower growth phase in the early minutes in com- radiative heat fluxes. The safety criteria in terms
parison with the ISO curve. Therefore, in comparison of incident radiation are: 11.7 kW/m2 for electrical
with simulation results the ISO 834 curve does not cables, 40 kW/m2 for steel and 60 kW/m2 for concrete.
seem able to predict performance in real, uncontrolled In Table 1, the time when such limits are reached under
fires. For the sake of clarity, the standard temperature- the ceiling at the three different points of the library
time curve is relevant to conservative fire endurance shown in Figure 7 are reported for both the equipment
tests carried out in furnaces on samples of structural configurations analyzed.
elements. In the prescriptive approach it is applied irre- Simulation results demonstrate the potential hazard
spective of real fire size and of building and scenario throughout the building in the case of current available
characteristics. equipment, and also above the burning bookcases in
On the other hand, in the fully-developed phase the the case of the presence of smoke vents in the ceil-
peak gas temperatures in all monitored points with ing. However, as for the peak gas temperatures, the
the current ventilation equipment, and above the fire calculated values must be considered conservative,
(point A) in the case of additional smoke vents, are with significant overestimation. In any case, the risk
much larger than those of the standard curve. How- of structural damage and of a partial collapse in the
ever, it must be highlighted that, as said above, the fire area has to be considered during the fire expo-
predicted results are expected to be overestimated due sure, and could not be ruled out in the case of delayed
to the conservative approach used in simulations. In fire extinguishment.
any case, results show that the addition of smoke vents
induce a significant reduction in ceiling temperatures,
and that structural damages could be limited to the
library area where fire occur. Moreover, also at the
5 CONCLUSIONS
upper level (point C) the impact on structure is possi-
ble to be not negligible, due to high temperatures and
The consequences of a severe fire of bookcases occur-
the fast and upward fire-induced hot gases movement.
ring in a multilevel library have been estimated by
Apart from the elevated gas temperatures, struc-
CFD modelling. Simulation results have been ana-
tures can suffer damages when exposed to high direct
lyzed according to a global fire safety approach in
terms of ambient conditions (visibility, gas tempera-
ture, toxic concentrations) along the evacuation paths
in the building with respect to tenability criteria, and in
terms of heat exposure of the library structures during
the fire.
CFD simulations have been run both with the
presently available ventilation equipments and assum-
ing the presence of further ceiling smoke vents, in
order to assess possible improvements to fire safety.
From the comparison between safety performances
in both configurations, the addition of smoke vents
could be able to improve the safety level in the case
of fire scenario here hypothesized by providing both
better evacuation conditions, in terms of temperature
and visibility along the escape routes, and lower gas
temperature under the ceiling, thus reducing the risk
of structural damages.
On the whole, temperature results highlight the
Figure 7. Localization of the virtual ceiling thermocouples importance of using natural fire curves for safety
and measurement points. design in real buildings, and the potential of FSE cal-
culation by CFD modeling to evaluate the effect of
different equipment configurations in improving the
Table 1. Time in min for radiant exposure risk, under the safety level in existing building.
ceiling at three different points of the library. In comparison with the CFD temperature-time
curves, the standard ISO curve for structural expo-
Electrical sure to fire reveals unsatisfactory in reproducing fire
Damages to: cables Steel Concrete scenario, both in the early phase (underestimated fire
growth) and after flashover (overestimation of peak
Current equipment Point A 2.5 3.1 3.3 temperatures).
Point B 4.4 5.1 5.5
Point C 4.9 5.7 6.2
Finally, CFD simulations allowed a global fluid
dynamic analysis for fire development assessment,
Smoke vents Point A 2.5 3.1 3.3 and results could be useful to be applied in future works
Point B 5.8 – –
Point C 6.6 – –
in conjunction with structural analysis program for the
building response to fires.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 REFERENCES
ANSYS 2009. CFX help, Release 12.1.
Blake, D. & Suo-Anttila, J. 2008. Aircraft cargo compartment
fire detection and smoke transport modeling. Fire Safety
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CFPA-E 2009. Fire safety engineering concerning evacuation
from buildings. European Guideline No 19:2009.
Ciambelli, P., Meo, M.G., Russo, P. & Vaccaro, S. in prep.
Thermal radiation modelling in tunnel fires. Advances in
Applied Mathematics and Mechanics.
CIB 2001. Rational Fire Safety Engineering approach to fire
resistance of buildings. CIB Report, Publication 269.
D’Anna, A. & Kent, J. 2002. Modelling of enclosed fires and
smoke dispersion by computational fluid dynamics. La
rivista dei combustibili. 56: 95–103.
Italian Fire Brigade website, www.vigilfuoco.it.
Kang, K. 2007. A smoke model and its application for smoke
management in an underground mass transit station. Fire
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Ma, Z. 2000. Fire safety design of composite slim floor struc-
tures. Espoo, Finland: Helsinki University of Technology
Laboratory of Steel Structures. TKK-TER-18.
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Ma, Z. & Mäkeläinen, P. 2000. Parametric temperature-time
curves of medium compartment fires for structural design.
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Mehaffey, J.R. & Bert, J.L. 1997. Fire Protection – NIOSH
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9/5/2007: Direttive per l’attuazione dell’approccio ingeg-
neristico alla sicurezza antincendio.
Ministero dell’Interno 2007b. Decreto Ministeriale del
9/3/2007: Prestazioni di resistenza al fuoco che devono
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del Corpo nazionale dei Vigili del fuoco.
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tection Engineering, 3rd edition: Section 3, Chapter 13.
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Protection Association.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Assessment of the robustness of structures subjected to fire following

earthquake through a performance-based approach

B. Faggiano, D. De Gregorio & F.M. Mazzolani

Department of Structural Engineering, University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

ABSTRACT: The analysis of the behaviour of structures under the effect of fires following an earthquake is
a significant research field, which is not yet fully explored. The high probability of occurrence of fires in civil
and industrial buildings after being struck by a seismic shake justifies the need to investigate the response to
high temperatures of the structural systems, they being already in a state of irreversible deformed configuration
due to earthquake. In order to preliminary take into account in the design phases the effect of the combination
of the seism and fire accidental loads, the paper presents a proposal for a methodology aimed at the robustness
assessment under fire of structures already damaged to different extent by the earthquake, through a performance-
based approach. The procedure should be valuable as a design tool in all seismic prone area, as it is envisaged
for buildings of high strategic importance. In this paper the methodology will be exemplified with reference to
steel structures.

1 INTRODUCTION

Frequently dangerous fires develop in settlements

subjected to earthquake, where urban density, build-
ing characteristics and meteorological conditions meet
together to realize a hazard scenario. The risk of fires
is very high in the seismic urban areas because of the
huge presence of flammable elements within the build-
ings, such as timber or plastic and synthetic materials,
on one side, for the damage produced by earthquakes
on the services networks and the transport systems, on
the other side. The latter circumstance, by producing
the partial or total failure of the water and gas systems
and the collapse of roads and bridges, makes the work
of the fire brigades very difficult.
The history shows that large fires occurring after
earthquakes are rare, but they are often of catastrophic
proportions (Faggiano et al., 2008a, b, c). In the twen-
tieth century, in USA and Japan, fires were the most
destructive cause during a seismic event, like for exam-
ple 1906 San Francisco, 1923 Kanto, 1994 Northridge
and 1995 Kobe earthquakes show and today the fires
produced after 2009 Indonesia and 2010 Chile earth-
quakes prove that the problem is always significant
(Fig. 1).
Definitely, being fire following earthquake one of
the most concerning earthquake-related hazard, the
behaviour in fire of structures which have been dam-
aged by earthquakes represents an important investi-
gation field.
In fact, negative effects of fires on structures
and human lives may be comparable to and even
more important than those of earthquakes themselves.
Moreover, also in case no fire develops immediately
after an earthquake, the possibility of delayed fires
Figure 1. Example of fires after earthquake: a) San Fran-
cisco Bay, 1906 (The virtual museum of the city of
San Francisco); b) Kobe, 1995 (http:// nzdl.sadl.uleth.ca);
c) Pandang (Indonesia), 2009 (assets.nydailynews.com);
d) Santiago (Chile), 2010 (app/getty images).
affecting the structure must be adequately taken into
account, since the earthquake-induced damage makes
the structure more vulnerable to fire effects than the
undamaged one. This is because the consequence of
fire on a structural system is mainly a gradual decay of
the mechanical properties as far as temperature grows.
It is apparent that the more the structural behaviour
is degraded after an earthquake the more time up to
collapse due to fire is short.
For these reasons, with the aim of assessing the
resistance of structures subjected to fire follow-
ing earthquake, in this paper a performance-based
methodological approach is proposed and exemplified
with reference to steel structures. It is also valuable as
a design tools in seismic area, when the fire would be

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 taken into accounts, as it is envisaged for buildings of
high strategic importance.
2 THE FIRE AFTER EARTHQUAKE SCENARIO
2.1 Risk factors
The earthquakes constitute one of the worst natural
catastrophes because of their destructive impact on
the natural and anthropic environments on one hand
and their unpredictability on the other hand. How-
ever, occasionally, the combination of urban density,
structural characteristics and meteorological condi-
tions can contribute to the development of disastrous
fires, which become the main cause of the partial or
total collapse of the constructions. In this cases, the
fire, generally due to gas leak and/or electric short-
circuit, acts on a structure already damaged by earth-
quake therefore the time to collapse, such as the fire
resistance, is reduced, and contemporary the time of
firemen to occur in situ for rescue operations and to
provide their services for water supply increases, due
to the difficulties in reaching the place for concomi-
tant seismic collapses of road networks and failure of
the water systems. In Figure 2 typical pipes damage
produced during different earthquakes are illustrated.
2.2 Structural behaviour under the effect of seism
Generally constructions are much more inclined to
resist the vertical loads than the horizontal ones gen-
erated by an earthquake. In the course of recent times,
the seismic engineering has been improved, based
on experience, mainly the observation of structural
damage, and research, so that current codification
standards include design criteria for new constructions
and mitigation techniques for the existing ones lead-
ing to a higher structural safety level. Nevertheless,
a seism of medium or large intensity still produces a
large amount of local or total collapses on buildings,
made of any materials, like the different earthquakes
occurred in the history attest.
As an example, timber structures are very light and
so they are subjected to smaller seismic actions com-
pared to masonry or reinforced concrete structures,
but they can perform a fragile behaviour because of
poor connections between members. In case of
masonry buildings, damages are mainly weave
disgregation, with detachment of external layers, col-
lapse of the walls out of their plane, because of local
thrusts or overturning of the masonry piers insuffi-
ciently connected, collapse of the walls in their plane
for shear or bending. For reinforced concrete build-
ings main causes of seismic damages are soft floor,
failure of the confinement in the columns, weakness
of the architraves, rupture of beam-column nodes.
Also the steel buildings, which are often considered as
performing the best response against the earthquakes
can undergo significant damage. For example, during
the Northridge seism, the most commonly observed
damage occurred in or near the welded joint, as brittle
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 2. Pipes damaged during different seisms: (a) 1971
California; (b) 1994 Kobe; (c) 1995 Northridge; (d) 2009
L’Aquila.
fractures. In some cases damage was so severe that the
moment resisting connections at one or more floors
failed, or significant permanent lateral displacements
occurred. In one case, damage was so severe that the
building was demolished, and several buildings were
evacuated.
2.3 Structural behaviour under the effect of fire
Structural materials exposed to fire are subjected to
high thermal stresses, that, in many cases, compromise
their mechanical resistance. What is more if a material
has an heterogeneous composition and its constituents
are characterized by different dilatation capabilities,
under effect of fire, differential thermal stress are
produced, which can cause crushing and crumbling
detrimental for the material resistance. Hereafter, the
fire effects on the main structural materials are briefly
described (Bianco, 2006).
The timber is a combustible with low thermal con-
ductivity. Under fire it is not subjected to deformations
and its fire resistance increases as far as the charred
layer thickness enlarges, despite the resistant cross sec-
tion reduces. For the sake of reference, the dimensions
of the timber elements under effect of fire generally
reduce of about 1 mm/min. So a timber element with
adequate section could offers a fire resistance for a
time of the order of the hours.
Historically, masonry structures have demonstrated
excellent fire resistance, provided that the foundations
and more generally the supporting structures can keep
the wall in place during the fire. In addition the bricks,
which constitute a masonry, present good behaviour
to high temperature. For example, tile bricks can resist
1000–1100◦ C and in general they suffers the fire after
about one hour if they are protected with a plaster layer
2–3 cm thick. However, thermal bowing of very tall
unreinforced cantilever masonry walls, due to a severe
fire on one side of the wall, can lead to collapse.
The concrete has low thermal conductivity, which
produces a slow transmission of heat into the mass.
Therefore, in a concrete structure exposed to fire,
the reinforcement rods are usually protected by the
concrete cover. Under effect of fires, as the tem-
perature increases, the volume of concrete initially
increases and afterwards it contracts because of evap-
oration of the water mixture. If the cover moulders, the
concrete-steel solidarity is compromised and the bars
are exposed to fire with strong negative consequences.
In particular, for the concrete, the critical temperature,
which produces significant resistance reduction of the
material, is equal to 300◦ C.
For the steel structures the temperature increment
causes important thermal dilatations and rapid reduc-
tion of its mechanical properties. When the tem-
perature reaches 500◦ C, the steel ultimate strength
reduces of 50% and it annuls at 600◦ C. In particular, a Figure 3. Temperature-time nominal curves defined in the
Eurocode 1, Part 2-2 (CEN 2002).
steel structure, exposed to fire without protection, can
collapse after about 10–20 min.
In case of fire occurring after earthquake, the structure continues to support gravity loads but
structure has been previously damaged by the seism, retains no safety margin against collapse.
therefore the structural behaviour under fire is affected
by the irreversible deformation due to the earthquake. 3.2 The fire
In particular, the fire finds the structure in a deformed
Today, the most modern approach relating to the design
configuration and in some zones, where permanent
of the structures under effect of the fire is the Fire
deformation is concentrated, the full strength is already
Safety Engineering (FSE), defined for the first time
exploited. This means on one side that the collapse
in the ISO/TR 13387 document (1999). It is a proce-
shapes under fire can be different as respect to the
dure of performance type, based on simulations able
case of a structure struck by fire in its initial unde-
to define different functions of state for the fire phe-
formed configuration, on the other side that the fire
nomenon. They can be also very complex and require
resistance is varied.
the evaluation of several input data, like geometry of
the calculation domain, conditions of ventilation, type
3 THE CURRENT CODIFICATION APPROACH and amount of fuel and time–temperature curves. The
fire simulations, associated to Finite Element struc-
3.1 The seism tural analyses, are used to investigate and to reduce
the loss of life and damage to property, quantifying
The Performance Based Design has been generally
the risks and the hazards involved and providing an
acquired by the modern technical codes as the seismic
optimal solution to the application of preventive or
design methodology. It allows to design a structure so
protective measures, as it follows (Purkiss, 2007):
that in case of the design earthquake it behaves accord-
ing to predetermined performance levels, related to – control of ignition, checking the flammability of
both structural and non structural components, which materials within the structure;
are commonly the ones defined by the FEMA 356 – control of means of escape, imposing statutory
Guidelines (November 2000), they are: requirements on provision of suitable escape
facilities;
– Operational (O). Very Light overall damage: the
– detection of fire at the earliest possible stage,
post-earthquake damage state in which the struc-
through the installation of ad hoc systems;
tural and non-structural components are able to
– control of the spread of fire within the building or
support the pre-earthquake functions present in the
to adjacent properties, through compartmentation,
building.
venting, smoke screens or sprinklers;
– Immediate Occupancy (IO). Light overall damage:
– prevention of local or global structure collapse.
the post-earthquake damage state guaranteeing the
structure to remain safe to be occupied and to essen- On the contrary, in the traditional approach, which
tially retain the pre-earthquake design strength and is of deterministic type, the structural design is con-
stiffness. ducted through conventional evaluation adopted for
– Life Safety (LS). Moderate overall damage: the all the building classes, without particular distinction
post-earthquake damage state related to structural concerning the real contents. In fact, it is based on
components, guaranteeing the structure to retain prescribed requirements, consisting in rigid rules, with
a safety margin against onset of partial or total reference to the fire action, which is modeled through
collapse. the temperature-time nominal curves, as illustrated in
– Collapse Prevention (CP). Severe overall dam- Figure 3.
age: the post-earthquake damage state related The two illustrated approach are very different,
to structural components, guaranteeing that the the former one, even if more complex, has a good

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 flexibility, while the second one, more simple and
characterized by homogeneity of results, is exces-
sively rigid, neglecting the specific requirements, con-
cerning, for example, the strategic or historic-artistic
importance of the building.

4 METHODOLOGY FOR THE ROBUSTNESS

ASSESSMENT OF STRUCTURES UNDER
FIRE AFTER EARTHQUAKE Figure 4. Steel structure adopted as study case [m].

4.1 General approach

Hereafter, a methodology for the assessment of the
robustness of structures subjected to fire following
earthquake is presented. It is the application of a
performance-based approach inspired from the FEMA
356 Guidelines and the philosophy of the FSE, it
considering each behavioural condition to be under-
gone by the construction, from the application of
vertical service loads, through the earthquake-induced
damage, up to the exposure of the structure to fire.
The methodology consists of two main subsequent
phases: 1) the identification of the seismic damage
state, according to the pre-fixed seismic performance
levels, in relation to the intensity of the seismic event;
2) the determination of the residual bearing capabil-
ities of the seismic damaged structures subjected to
fire, according to pre-fixed fire performance levels, in
relation to the fire event.
The preliminary task to be accomplished is the
definition of the fire performance levels. They could
be easily borrowed in the general terms from the
seismic ones (FEMA 356), as it follows:
– Operational fire (Of). Very Light overall damage.
It shall be defined as the fire damage state in which
the structural and non-structural components are
able to support the pre-event functions present in
the building.
– Immediate Occupancy fire (IOf). Light overall
damage. It shall be defined as the fire dam-
age state that preserves equipments and contents
and guarantees the structure to remain safe to be
occupied.
– Life Safety fire (LSf). Moderate overall damage. It
shall be defined as the fire damage state that guar-
antees the structure to retain a safety margin against
onset of partial or total collapse, while architectural,
mechanical and electrical systems are damaged.
– Collapse Prevention fire (CPf). Severe overall dam-
age. It shall be defined as the fire damage state that
allows the structure to support gravity loads, with-
out retaining a safety margin against collapse; while
extensive damage to the non structural components
are present.
4.2 Exemplification of the methodology to steel
structures
4.2.1 The case study
For the sake of understanding, the procedure is illus-
trated with reference to a simple steel framed structure
Figure 5. Considered fire locations: a) fire on the whole
structure; b) fire at the ground level; c) fire at the first level;
d) fire on half structure.
made of S275 steel, whose geometrical features are
shown in Figure 4.
In particular, four following fire locations are
assumed (Fig. 5):
a. fire on the whole structure (Fig. 5a);
b. fire at the ground level (Fig. 5b);
c. fire at the first level (Fig. 5c);
d. fire on half structure (Fig. 5d).
Equivalent static incremental seismic analyses and
fire analyses have been carried out by means of the
ABAQUS Ver.6.5 software (2004a, b).
4.2.2 Seismic performance levels for the
steel frame
The seismic performance levels for a steel structure
can be characterized by the extent of the inter-storey
drift δ/h (where δ is the lateral displacement and h is the
storey height) and the plastic hinge rotation  accord-
ing to the FEMA 356 Guidelines. The reference values
indicated in Table 1 have been assumed. In particular,
two Collapse Prevention levels are considered: (CP1)
with an inter-storey drift equal to 5.0% and (CP2) with
a plastic hinge rotation equal to 0.05 rad.
The seismic behaviour of the structure is deter-
mined through a non linear pushover static analysis.
The obtained push-over curve is shown in Figure 6,
where the performance levels are evidenced, in relation
to the corresponding calculated PGA, together with the
plastic hinge distributions.
4.2.3 Fire after earthquake performance for the
steel frame
For the sake of brevity and simplicity, as a first rough
attempt of application, the performance levels in fire
have been identified with reference only to structural

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Table 1. Reference seismic performance levels of the steel
structure (FEMA 356, 2000).

δ/h 
Performance level [%] [rad]

Immediate Occupancy (IO) 0.7 –

Life Safety (LS) 2.5 –
Collapse Prevention 1 (CP1) 5.0 –
Collapse Prevention 2 (CP2) – 0.05

Figure 8. Fire after earthquake performance chart relating

to the fire on half structure (Fig. 3d).

Table 2. Times (s) to reach a fire performance level (Of,

LSf, CLf, CSf, CGf) from a seismic damage state (IO, LS,
CP1, CP2).

Fire performance level

Fire Seismic
location level Of LSf CLf CSf CGf

IO 387 1304 1327 1408 1568

LS 0 0 1327 1408 1578
CP1 0 0 1341 1407 1590
CP2 0 0 1046 923 1292
Figure 6. Push-over curve with the individuation of the IO 310 1171 1192 1240 1490
performance levels, according to FEMA 356. LS 0 0 1198 1235 1461
CP1 0 0 1210 1159 1441
CP2 0 0 1159 1034 1308
IO 361 1198 1457 1468 1510
LS 0 0 1457 1468 1709
CP1 0 0 1435 1438 2552
CP2 0 0 1426 1110 1510
IO 387 1382 1451 1587 3076
LS 0 0 1446 1574 3015
CP1 0 0 1418 1544 2340
CP2 0 0 938 1168 1980
Figure 7. Fire performance levels rough identification for
steel structures.

damage according to the following definitions, which With reference to the fire locations considered in
are strictly pertinent to steel structures (Fig.7): Figure 5, the results, in terms of the time (s) necessary
to reach the different performance fire levels, starting
– Operational fire (Of): attainment of the yield stress
from the predetermined seismic performance levels
in the most stressed section (Figure 7a);
IO, LS, CP1 and CP2 are indicated in Table 2.
– Life Safe fire (LSf): formation of the first plastic
The same results are illustrated through a 3-
hinge (Figure 7b);
Dimensional histogram in Figure 8, with reference to
– Section Collapse fire (CSf): failure of the cross-
the condition of fire on half structure only (Fig. 3d).
section (Figure 7c);
From Table 2 and Figure 8 it is apparent that as far
– Local Collapse fire (CLf): formation of the beam
as the seismic damage is large (from IO to CP2) the
mechanism (Figure 7d);
fixed fire performance level is reached in shorter time.
– Global Collapse fire (CGf): formation of the global
mechanism (Figure 7e).
Fire analyses have been performed once the seismic 5 CONCLUSIVE REMARKS AND FURTHER
analyses were carried out and the fixed seismic perfor- DEVELOPMENT
mance levels reached. The fire load has been modelled
through the ISO834 time-temperature nominal curve Fire following earthquake is the most concern-
(Fig. 3). ing earthquake-related hazard. For this reason,

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 in this paper a performance-based methodological
approach for the robusteness assessment of struc-
tures damaged by earthquake then subjected to fire is
proposed.
Apart from the analytical examination of the results,
that is not the purpose of the present dissertation, it is
worth noticing that the fire after earthquake perfor-
mance chart seems to be a very useful and powerful
tool both for fire after earthquake capability analy-
sis and for fire after earthquake design. In fact for a
given structural type, given a fire scenario, once fixed
the seismic damage extent corresponding to the design
seismic performance level, it is possible either to carry
out a fire performance capability analysis according
to the prefixed fire performance level, or to design
the structure in fire in order that it could reach the
fire performance level required at the given acceptable
time.
This methodology is particularly appropriate for
the analyses of constructions of particular strategic
or historic-monumental importance. In the first case
(hospitals, police station, government buildings), it
is necessary to guarantee performance levels able to
assure the usability of all functions of the buildings
also under effect of a fire after seism. In the second
case (churches, museum, villas, palace, theatres), the
safety measures must be balanced with conservation
requirements of the historic-artistic heritage. So for
both cases, the standard seismic or fire regulations
cannot be applied.
In this perspective, for the future, the develop-
ment of this study must be directed to individuate and
quantify the fire performance levels peculiar of the
particular classes of buildings.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Authors acknowledge Eng. Nicola Di Stasio
who has developed the numerical analyses within
his graduation thesis, under Dr. Eng. Matteo Esposto
supervision.
REFERENCES
ABAQUS. 2004a. ABAQUS Analysis User’s Manual, Ver.6.5.
ABAQUS. 2004b.ABAQUS Standard User’s Manual, Ver.6.5.
CEN 2002. EN 1990, Eurocode. Basis of structural design.
Bianco L. 2006. Effects of the fire on structural material (in
Italian). www.buildup.it.
Faggiano B., Esposto M., Mazzolani F.M. 2008a. Risk assess-
ment of steel structures under fire, 14th World Conference
on Earthquake Engineering, Beijing, PR of China, 12–17
October, paper No. S19-015.
Faggiano B., Esposto, M., Zaharia, R. and Pintea D. 2008b.
Risk management in case of fire after earthquake. Pro-
ceeding of COST Action C26 Symposium on Urban
habitat construction under catastrophic events, Malta,
23–25 October 2008. Datasheet n◦ 1.13: 75–80. ISBN
978-99909-44-40-2.
Faggiano B., Esposto, M., Zaharia, R. and Pintea D. 2008c.
Structural analysis and design in case of fire after earth-
quake. Proceeding of COST Action C26 Symposium
on Urban habitat construction under catastrophic events,
Malta, 23–25 October 2008. Datasheet n◦ 1.14: 81–86.
ISBN 978-99909-44-40-2.
FEMA 356. 2000. Guidelines for seismic rehabilitation of
building.
ISO/TR 13387. 1999. Fire safety engineering.
Purkiss J.A. 2007. Fire safety engineering. Design of struc-
tures. Butterworth-Heinemann, Elsevier. ISBN-13: 978-
0-7506-6443-1.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Fire resistance of self-compacting concrete beam-column sub-assemblage

I.K. Fang, C.C. Lee, L.W. Chou, P.S. Chiu, T.W. Liu & J.M. Yeh
Department of Civil Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan

ABSTRACT: The fire resistance of three full-scale beam-exterior column sub-assemblage specimens, designed
according to ACI 318 seismic provisions and subjected to ISO 834 fire test, is presented. Two specimens were
made of Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC) and one was made of Normal Concrete (NC). Analysis based on
thermal properties of materials suggested in EC2 and ANSYS software was carried out to predict the temperature
distribution of specimens. The specimens performed satisfactorily after subjected to three hours ISO834 fire
exposure. The significant explosive spalling occurred in about 25 minutes after heating. The beam deflection
at the end of heating was approximately 10 times that before heating. The interaction of deformation between
beam and column is presented. In the residual strength test, two specimens failed in ductile flexural mode, while
another one failed in shear after significant yielding. The predicted and measured temperature distribution of
specimens is well correlated.

1 INTRODUCTION behavior of beam-exterior column sub-assemblage

The reinforced concrete structures are inherently fire
resistant. However, the spalling of concrete would
expose steel reinforcements in a reinforced concrete
member during fire hazard, which could further dam-
age the components or structure. The critical factors
affecting concrete spalling have been an important
subject studied by some researchers (Sullivan, PJE
2002, Hertz 2003, Anderberg 1997, Person 2004). The
self-compacting concrete (SCC) is one of the high
performance concretes and has been used in some
buildings and infrastructures in Taiwan recently. The
dense properties and lower permeability of SCC make
it susceptible to spalling under severe fire environ-
ment. The fire endurance of SCC materials has been
one of the major concerns of its use in structures sub-
jected to the elevated temperature (Kodur & Phan,
2007).
The current prescriptive provisions of fire resistant
design of buildings are primarily based on the results
of single components. The deformation characteris-
tics and associated restraining effect on components
are useful data for the validation of computer program
used for fire resistant performance based design of
structures. The results of half scale reinforced high
performance concrete portal frames recently tested by
(Xiao et al., 2008) indicated that significant longitu-
dinal elongations of beam and column were observed
during the early stage of heating. The existing data
for the behavior of sub-assemblage under elevated
temperature is still very limited.
The results presented here is part of a series of tests
conducted to study the fire performance based design
drafts currently developed in Taiwan. The specific
objective of this study is to investigate the fire resistant
designed according to ACI 318 seismic provisions.
2 EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM
The exterior beam-column sub-assemblage from a
seven-storey reinforced concrete model residential
building, designed according to ACI 318 seismic
details, was used for the specimens as shown in Fig-
ures 1–2. The magnitude and locations of concentrated
loads, P1 and P2, applied at the beam of specimens
were designed to correlate the moment distribution in
beam of the model residential building.
Three full-scale specimens were fabricated ver-
tically as they were constructed in practice. The
dimensions of column, beam and spandrel beam
are 500 × 500 × 2860 mm, 400 (W) × 500 (H) × 7680
(L) mm, and 400 (W) × 500 (H) × 600 (L) mm,
respectively. The height of column is designed to sim-
ulate the point of inflection located at both ends of
column as the exterior column deforming in service
load condition of the model building.
Two types of concrete, i.e. normal (NC) and self-
compacting concrete (SCC), were used. The mix pro-
portion of the concrete materials is shown in Table 1.
The cylinder compressive strength was 39 MPa for
specimen NC5 and 46 MPa for specimens SCC4 and
SCC5 at test date.
The column and beam of specimens were loaded
and followed by the ISO 834 standard temperature test
for three hours in a beam-column composite furnace
built in Tainan, Taiwan. The dimensions of the furnace
are 4 m wide by 8 m long. The depth of furnace for
column is 5 m, while that for beam is 4 m. There are
totally 30 burners, using natural gas and air as fuel, on

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 3. Load procedure.

Figure 4. Average furnace temperature in specimens.

Table 1. Mix proportions of specimen materials (kg/m3 )

Ratio NC SCC

Water 182 166

Cement 190 200
Slag powder 114 160
Fly ash 76 110
w/binder 0.49 0.35
Figure 1. Model of test specimen and residential building. Fine aggregate 823 830
Coarse aggregate 938 790
Superplasticizer 3.8 5

15 minutes of heating as shown in Figure 3. The top of

Figure 2. Reinforcement details and locations of thermal
couples.
both sides of the long wall of furnace for generating the
computer controlled temperature. The recorded aver-
age furnace temperatures of the three specimens were
very close to ISO834 standard curve except in the early
beam was wrapped with 50 mm thick ceramic fiber to
simulate the 150 mm thick concrete slab. The exterior
half of the column faces was also wrapped with 50 mm
ceramic fiber to simulate the condition of three-face
exposure to fire. At the end of heating, the loads on col-
umn and beam were retained and the data acquisition
was turned to automatic mode to continue monitoring
the recovery of deformations of specimens during the
cooling stage. Fifteen hours after cooling the specimen
was unloaded and the door of furnace was opened.
One week later, the residual strength test was con-
ducted. The loads applied to column and beam was
increased stepwise in magnitude as shown in Figure 4,
for the observation of overload behavior of specimens

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
and avoiding the premature failure in column before
beam.

3 ANALYSIS

A 3D finite element model is developed using the

software ANSYS and the thermal properties of mate-
rials suggested in EC2 to predict the behavior of test
specimen under combined actions of applied loads
and elevated temperature effect. In this study only the
results of temperature distribution inside the specimen
is presented.

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

4.1 Concrete spalling

During approximately the first twenty five minutes
of heating, concrete spalling were observed along the
bottom corners of beam as shown in Figures 5a to c.
The debris of spalled concrete was also found spread-
ing at the floor of beam furnace. Severe spalling was
found at the bottom of beam near column in all spec-
imens. In this study, normal concrete specimen NC5
had more spalling at bottom of beam than SCC spec-
imens SCC4 and SCC5. The corner spalling of lower
column in the three specimens, shown in Figures 5d
to f, were observed approximately in the first 18 min-
utes of heating. Following that spalling also occurred
at some corners of beam-column joint, and at surface
and corners of upper column.

4.2 Temperature distributions inside specimens

Most of concrete spalling occurred in the early twenty
five minutes of heating. The temperature gradients in
beam sections near joint face and load points at early
stage of heating are shown in Figures 6a-c, respec-
tively. The temperature of longitudinal reinforcement
in lower column close to joint was 580◦ at 180 min-
utes as shown in Figure 6d. The severe spalling did
not expose the corner longitudinal reinforcement. The
maximum temperature of bottom corner longitudinal
reinforcement and vertical leg of stirrup in specimen
SCC5 was 583◦ and 530◦ , respectively, at the end of
heating as shown in Figure 7.
The maximum recorded temperature of longitudi-
nal tension reinforcements mentioned above is slightly
over the 550◦ limit at single point specified in Tai-
wanese Standard CNS 12514. Figure 5. Spalling of concrete.

was ten times that at room temperature. The increase

4.3 Deformations during heating stage
The deformed shape constructed by vertical displace-
ments recorded at two load points of beam before and
during heating are shown in Figure 8. More beam
deformations occurred in the early thirty minutes of
heating, and the maximum value was approximately
60 mm at the end of 180 minutes of heating, which
of beam deformations was much smaller from thirty
to sixty minutes of heating, which is believed due to
the lower temperature rise caused by phase change
of moisture inside concrete. Similar results were also
recorded in other two specimens. The beam elongated
toward both ends during the early eighty minutes, as
shown in Figure 9, and then most of the elongations

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 6. Temperature gradients of concrete.
occurred at far end of beam due to the inward deforma-
tions of column subjected to three-face heating. The
total elongation of beam in specimen SCC4 was 34 mm
after 170 minutes of heating.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 7. Temperature variations of reinforcement.
The rate of vertical displacement at load point was
further calculated for every five-minute interval, and
then the maximum value was picked within every
thirty-minute interval as shown in Figure 10. The max-
imum value was 0.72 mm/min. in the first thirty minute
at load point P2 of the specimens, which is far below
the limit L2 /90000d specified in Taiwanese Standard
CNS 12514, i.e. 11.3 mm/min. in this study.
4.4 Behavior during residual strength test
The flexure-shear cracks at top surface of beam near
joint and slight shear cracks at load point P1 were
observed after heating test. The shear cracks were also
observed in the beam tests reported by (Ellingwood &
Lin, (1991)). As mentioned previously in Experimen-
tal program, the loads applied to beam and column
were increased stepwise in residual strength test to
monitor the overload behavior of specimens. Figure 11
shows the variations of displacement at load point
P2 of beam with respect to various total beam loads.
The results were very close in three specimens, which
show that specimens made of normal concrete and self-
compacting concrete behaved quite closely after three
hours fire exposure.
 Figure 9. Elongation of beam and horizontal displacement
of column (Specimen SCC5).

Figure 10. Rate of deflection at load point P2.

Figure 8. Deformed shape of beam during heating.

The ductile flexural failure with concrete crushing

at top of beam near load point P2 occurred in speci-
mens SCC4 and NC5. However, the specimen SCC5
failed in diagonal tension failure within the region of
load point P1 and joint face after exhibiting significant
yield behavior. The location of shear failure occurred
almost right at the start of stirrup spacing changed from
100 mm to 200 mm. The reason of causing the unfavor-
able shear failure appears to be due to higher column
load applied in specimen SCC5. Further studies on the
Figure 11. Variation of vertical displacement at load point
P2 during residual strength test.
residual flexural and shear strength of fire damaged
beam are still working.
The upper and lower columns exhibited slightly
nonlinear moment-curvature relationship at the over-
load stage as shown in Figure 12.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 12. Variation of moment-curvature relationship of
upper and lower columns during residual strength test.
5 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Three full-size beam-column sub-assemblage speci-
mens designed according to ACI 318 seismic provi-
sions were subjected to combined actions of applied
loads and ISO 834 elevated temperature for three
hours. The following conclusions are drawn based on
the test results.
(1) The specimens behaved satisfactorily under
ISO834 standard fire exposure for three hours.
(2) Most of the concrete spalling occurred along the
bottom edge of beams and corner of lower column
during the early twenty five minutes of heating.
Relatively more spalling was observed at bottom
of beam in normal concrete specimen NC5.
(3) The concrete spalling did not expose the longitudi-
nal reinforcements in beam and column. However,
the maximum temperatures recorded at several
locations in longitudinal reinforcements of beam
and column reached 580◦ , which exceeds the
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
limit 550◦ at single point specified in Taiwanese
Standard CNS 12514.
(4) Most of the vertical displacements in beam
occurred in the first thirty minutes of heating,
and then the increase of vertical displacement
decreased during the thirty to sixty minutes due
to the low temperature rise in beam.
(5) The normal and self-compacting concrete spec-
imens behaved quite closely in their load- dis-
placement relationships at load point in residual
strength test.
(6) Two specimens failed in ductile flexural mode
and one specimen failed in unfavorable diagonal
shear after exhibiting significant yield behavior
in beams. Further studies are still needed for the
residual flexural and shear strength of members.
REFERENCES
Anderberg, Y. 1997, Spalling phenomena of HPC and OC,
NIST Workshop on Fire Performance of High Strength
Concrete, February, Gaithersburg, USA
Ellingwood, B., & Lin, T. D. 1991, Flexure and Shear Behav-
ior of Concrete Beams during Fires, Journal of Structural
Engineering, American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol.
117, No. 2, pp. 440–458
Kodur, V. K. R., & Phan, L. 2007, Critical Factors Governing
The Fire Performance of High Strength Concrete Systems,
Fire Safety Journal, Vol. 42, pp. 482–488
Hertz, K. D. 2003, Limits of Spalling of Fire-Exposed
Concrete, Fire Safety Journal, Vol. 39, pp. 103–116
Person, B 2004, Fire resistance of self-compacting concrete,
SCC, Materials and Structures, Vol. 37, November, pp.
575–584
Sullivan, PJE 2002, Deterioration and Spalling of High
Strength Concrete under Fire, Health & Safety Offshore
Technology Report OTO/2001/074
Xiao, J. Z., Li, J.& Huang, Z. F. 2008, Fire response of high-
performance concrete frames and their post-fire seismic
performance, ACI Structural Journal, Vol. 105, No. 5, pp.
531–540.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

The effect of different plaster types on critical limit for fire resistance
used by horizontal load-bearing structures

M. Hajpál & A. Somorjai

ÉMI, Non-profit Ltd. for Quality Control and Innovation in Building, Scientific Department for Fire Protection,
Budapest, Hungary

ABSTRACT: The aim of the research was to define what kind of effect the different types of plaster have on
the critical limit for fire resistance used by horizontal load-bearing structures. To recognize this phenomenon
13 fire tests were made altogether. First the critical limit for fire resistance was characterized by two types
of unplastered prestressed lintel with clay shell and one unplastered beam and clay block floor system. After
these two types of lintel with five different plaster types (cement-lime, gypseous and perlitic) at two plaster
thickness (10 and 15 mm) and even a plastered (10 mm cement-lime plaster) beam and clay block floor system
were investigated. All fire resistance tests of these horizontal load-bearing structures were performed according
to EN 13501-2:2008 and EN 1365-3:2000 using the standard fire curve. It was observed that the critical limit for
fire resistance can be increased in a small measure by the using of cement-lime or gypseous and significantly
by using perlitic plaster. The results of the tests have also shown that increasing the plaster thickness does not
necessarily mean an increase in fire resistance.

1 INTRODUCTION used 2 × 2 bracing 2,5 mm and mild steel 4,2 mm in

The aim of this research was triple, complex: product
development, completion of documents and adequacy
for the new requirements. On the one hand a new type
of prestressed lintel with clay shell was developed and
it was necessary to test it. On the other hand in conse-
quence of harmonization of the European Standards it
was indicated in Hungary to actualize the Hungarian
Fire-protection Regulation (OTSZ) – the working-out
of this is in progress now. For the new version of OTSZ
it is very useful to define the effect of different plaster
types in different thickness on the critical limit for fire
resistance.
In this research the critical limit for fire resistance
of unplastered and plastered horizontal load-bearing
structures was investigated.
2 MATERIAL
2.1 Prestressed lintels with clay shell
2.1.1 Lintel type 1
The fabricant developed a new type of prestressed
single action lintel with clay shell. From the three
developed version with different building-up of the
new type with help of mechanical and structural inves-
tigation, the most adaptable version (“C” type version)
was chosen. For the fire resistance test the “C” ver-
sion was used. The overall dimensions of the lintel
were 3500 mm × 65 mm × 238 mm.The clay shell was
15–18 mm thick, the fill-up concrete C 40/50 and the
diameter
2.2 Lintel type 2
A former type of prestressed lintel with clay shell was
also investigated. The overall dimensions of the lintel
were 3000 mm × 100 mm × 85 mm.The clay shell was
20 mm thick, the fill-up concrete C 40/50 and the used
one bracing 5 mm in diameter.
2.3 Beam and clay block floor system
The floor system consists of floor beams and clay
blocks. The overall dimensions of the beams were
4250 mm × 120 mm × 65 mm, the fill-up concrete
was C 30, the used one bracing 2,5 mm, the link
4,2 mm in diameter. The overall dimensions of the
clay blocks were 250 mm × 370 mm × 170 mm and
250 mm × 520 mm × 170 mm.
2.4 Plaster
To recognize what kind of effect the different types of
plaster have on the critical limit for fire resistance used
by horizontal load-bearing structures 6 different plas-
ter types were chosen: 3 conventional (cement-lime,
gypseous and perlitic), 2 kind of pre-mixed perlitic
and a pre-mixed cement-lime plaster. In the case of
the 3 conventional plasters two plaster thickness (10
and 15 mm) were investigated.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 1. The arrangement of the test model of unplas- Figure 2. The placing of the test model of beam and clay
tered prestressed lintel Type 1 in the furnace before the fire block floor system into the furnace before the fire resistance
resistance test. test.

3 METHODS

The fire resistance test of the horizontal load-bearing

structures was performed according to EN 1365-
3:2000 (lintels) and EN 1365-2:2000 (floor) at the ÉMI
Non-profit Ltd. for Quality Control and Innovation in
Building, Fire Laboratory in Szentendre.

3.1 Prestressed lintels Type 1

For the fire resistance test three 3,50 m × 238 mm ×
65 mm prestressed single action lintels constituted a
test sample. The subject of the test has a cross-section
of 205 × 238 mm. For the load distribution on the top
of the lintels two brick courses were laid. The model
was loaded with two point test load of 69 kN with
2 hydraulic loading systems, the distance between the
two loads was 650 mm. The model was exposed to
three-way fire effect (Figure 1). At the plastered lin-
tels for observation 1-1 thermocouple was fixed on the
tensioning strand at its half-span.
3.2 Prestressed lintels Type 2
For the fire resistance test two 3,25 m × 85 mm ×
100 mm prestressed lintel built a test sample. The sub-
ject of the test has a cross-section of 200 × 250 mm.
For the load distribution on the top of the lintels a two
brick course was laid. The model was loaded with two
point test load of 3,91 kN with 2 hydraulic loading sys-
tems, the distance between the two loads was 650 mm.
The model was exposed to three-way fire effect. At the
plastered lintels for observation 1-1 thermocouple was
fixed on the tensioning strand at its half-span.
3.3 Beam and clay block floor system
For the fire resistance test 4 4,25 m × 65 mm × 120 mm
prestressed beam and 51 250 mm × 520 mm × 170 mm
clay blocks constituted the test sample. The sys-
tem had a reinforced-concrete cornice on two
sides and the subject has a 40 mm concrete top-
ping. The overall dimension of the test model was
Figure 3. The test model of unplastered prestressed lintel
Type 1 in the furnace during the fire resistance test. Spalling
of the clay shell.
4250 mm × 120 mm × 65 mm (Figure 2). The test load
of the model was q = 1,5 kN/m2 . At the plastered floor
system for observation 1-1 thermocouple (altogether
3 per beam) was fixed on the middle tensioning strand
of the prestressed beams at its quarter-span.
4 INVESTIGATIONS
The unplastered prestressed lintel test models were
investigated singly. The three test models of the
plastered lintels were investigated simultaneously.
4.1 Prestressed lintels Type 1
Firstly, the critical limit for fire resistance of unplas-
tered lintel Type 1 was characterized (Figure 3). For
the second fire resistance test of lintel Type 1 3 differ-
ent conventional (cement-lime, gypseous and perlitic)
plaster types in 10 mm plaster thickness were used
(Figure 4). At the third fire resistance test of lintel
Type 1 the same 3 different conventional plaster types

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 4. The arrangement of the thermocouple by the fire
resistance test of prestressed lintel Type 1. with 10 mm.
Figure 5. The test model of prestressed lintel Type 1 with
but with 15 mm plaster thickness were investigated 15 mm cement-lime plaster in the furnace during the fire
resistance test. Spalling of the clay shell.
(Figure 5).

4.2 Prestressed lintels Type 2

Firstly, the critical limit for fire resistance of unplas-
tered lintel Type 2 was characterized. By the results of
the fire resistance tests of plastered lintel Type 1 for
the second fire resistance test of lintel Type 2 3 dif-
ferent perlitic (a conventional and 2 kind of pre-mixed
perlitic) plaster types in 10 mm plaster thickness were
chosen (Figure 6).

4.3 Beam and clay block floor system

Firstly the critical limit for fire resistance of unplas-
tered beam and clay block floor system was charac-
terized. At the second fire resistance test the beam
and clay block floor system with 10 mm cement-lime
plaster was investigated.
5 RESULTS
The results of this research are the critical limit values
for fire resistance of unplastered and plastered hori-
zontal load-bearing structures (two type of prestressed
lintels with clay shell and one beam and clay block
floor system). To recognize this phenomenon alto-
gether 13 fire tests were made. Altogether five differ-
ent plaster types (conventional cement-lime, gypseous
and perlitic, two type of pre-mixed perlitic and a pre-
mixed cement-lime plaster) at two plaster thickness
(10 and 15 mm) were investigated.
Figure 6. The arrangement of the test model of plastered
prestressed lintel Type 2 in the furnace before the fire
resistance test.
5.1 Prestressed lintels Type 1
At Figure 7 the prestressed lintel Type 1 with different
plasters (cement-lime, gipseous, perlitic) are repre-
sented by various graph-lines. The tendency of the
surface temperature of tensioning strands at gipseous
and cement-lime plaster are similar, but the disper-
sion is in the case of cement-lime plaster smaller – the
curves are closer to each other. The warming-up in the
inner of the lintel Type 1 with perlitic plaster is signif-
icantly lower than at the other two plaster types, only
tierce at the end of the investigation. In the test model

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 7. The surface temperature of the tensioning strands
of the prestressed lintel Type 1 with 10 mm different conven-
tional plasters as a function of time.
Figure 8. The surface temperature of the tensioning strands
of the prestressed lintel Type 1 with conventional perlitic
plaster in different plaster thickness as function of time.
with perlitic plaster, it can be observed, that the surface
temperature of the two external and middle tensioning
strands deviate from each other at the end of the fire
resistance test.
Figure 8 shows a comparison between the surface
temperatures of tensioning strands at two different
plaster thicknesses (10 and 15 mm) used by prestressed
lintel Type 1 with perlitic plaster. By observation of
fire resistance tests of prestressed lintel Type 1 with
different plaster type and thickness, it can be stated
that increasing the plaster thickness of cement-lime
and gipseous plaster didn’t increase but decreased the
critical limit values for fire resistance. Although the
15 mm thickness of plaster were laid on two layer, all
of them were falling away by about first 30 minutes of
the test and they couldn’t serve longer as fire protection
for the lintels.
5.2 Prestressed lintels Type 2
After testing the prestressed lintels Type 1 the con-
clusion was that, among the conventional plasters, the
perlitic has the best fire protection effect. Through in
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 9. The surface temperature of the tensioning strands
of the prestressed lintel Type 2 with 10 mm different
pre-mixed perlitic plasters as function of time.
Figure 10. The deflection of the beam and clay block floor
system model with 10 mm pre-mixed cement-lime plaster as
function of time.
these, the prestressed lintels Type 2 were tested only
with perlitic plaster. Due to easier applicability beside
the conventional perlitic type two different pre-mixed
perlitic plaster types with similar parameters (grain
size, components, density, etc.) were chosen.
It could be seen on Figure 9 that the surface tem-
peratures of tensioning strands as a function of time
are very similar in the three perlitic plaster types – the
deviation is minimal.
5.3 Beam and clay block floor system
Figure 10 shows that deflection of the beam and clay
block floor model as a function of time is nearly linear
till directly the collapse. At this time the deflection is
increasing and at the end the floor is collapsing.
The last minutes before the collapse are to seen on
Figure 11.
The inner warming-up of the two middle beams of
floor model is similar. The measured surface temper-
atures of the tensioning strands at 3-3 places at both
beams as function of time are shown on Figure 12.
Apart from a small break at about 20 minutes a linear
 Table 1. Results of the fire resistance tests.

Critical limit for

Plaster fire resistance

Structure type v* [mm] [min] [class]

Lintel without plaster – 53 R45

Type 1 cement-lime 10 65 R60
gypsum 10 61 R60
perlitic 10 >77 R60
cement-lime 15 53 R45
gypsum 15 52 R45
perlitic 15 >122 R120
Lintel without plaster – 32 R30
Type 2 pre-mix perlitic 10 >152 R120
Floor without plaster – 32 R30
system cement-lime 10 145 R120

* Plaster thickness.

and structural investigation. Further on this version

Figure 11. The test model of beam and clay block floor sys-
tem in the furnace before collapsing during the fire resistance
test.
Figure 12. The surface temperature of the tensioning strands
of prestressed beams at the beam and clay block floor system
with 10 mm cement-lime plaster as function of time.
changing of the surface temperature by both beams
can be observed.
6 CONCLUSIONS
In summary, from the research and results, it can be
established that as first step from the three version
of a new type of prestressed single action lintel with
clay shell developed by a fabricant, the most adapt-
able version was chosen by the help of mechanical
was used for fire resistance test of prestressed lintel
Type 1.
The aim of the research was to ascertain how
different types and thickness of plaster effects the
critical limit for fire resistance used by horizontal
load-bearing structures (e.g. lintel).
To this end, unplastered – and with different types
and thickness of plaster cover – prestressed lintels
Type 1 were investigated by fire resistance tests. Alto-
gether seven (one unplastered, three with 10 mm and
three with 15 mm different conventional plaster) tests
were made at this Type 1 lintel. In accordance with the
results of these fire resistance tests we can state, that
the critical limit for fire resistance of prestressed sin-
gle action lintel with clay shell Type 1 can be increased
by using these plaster types investigated – its degree
depends on the type of the plaster used. This advan-
tageous effect is the lowest with the gypseous plaster,
a little better at the cement-lime plaster; but by using
perlitic plaster a major increase in the critical limit for
fire resistance arises.
The load bearing capacity of unplastered pre-
stressed lintel Type 1 from 53 minutes(R 45) was
increased by gypseous plaster to 61 minutes (R 60),
by cement-lime plaster to 65 minutes (R 60) and by
perlitic plaster to 77* minutes (R 60) used in 10 mm
thickness. (*The fire resistance tests of plastered pre-
stressed lintel Type 1 were in both case stopped to save
the auxiliary construction from overheating, Hence
we might expect that with the use of perlitic plaster
the value of critical limit for fire resistance could be
higher.)
The observation of the fire resistance tests has
shown that increase of plaster thickness doesn’t imply
an increase in value of the critical limit for fire resis-
tance. The 15 mm thick cement-lime and gypseous
plasters, which were laid in two layers to the lintels col-
lapsed at the beginning of the fire resistance test and so
they couldn’t protect the structure and so the value of
the critical limit for fire resistance decreased in cor-
relation with the 10 mm plaster thickness (Table 1).

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Whereas the load bearing capacity of the prestressed
lintel Type 1 with cement-lime and gypsous plaster
decreased, at the lintel using perlitic plaster, this value
actually increased.
As second part of the research another lintel Type 2
was investigated. In these fire resistance tests the best
plaster type, the perlitic plaster (one conventional and
two pre-mixed) was used at 10 mm. As a result the
load bearing capacity of unplastered prestressed lin-
tel Type 2 from 32 minutes (R 30) was increased by
perlitic plasters to 152 minutes (R 120). Possibly it
is higher, but the fire resistance tests of plastered pre-
stressed lintel Type 2 were stopped to save the auxiliary
construction from overheating.
As third part of the research work the effect of the
cement-lime plaster in 10 mm on the critical limit
for fire resistance used by beam and clay block floor
system was investigated. The load bearing capacity
of unplastered floor was increased from 32 minutes
(R 30) for 10 mm cement-lime plaster to 145 minutes
(R 120).
Summarising the result of this research, it can
be stated that with horizontal load bearing structure
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
(e.g. lintel, floor) adequately used plaster can increase
the critical limit for fire resistance. The research has
answered the question, if there is a difference between
fire protection ability for plaster with different types
and thickness.
It was observed that the critical limit for fire resis-
tance can be increased in a small measure by the
using of cement-lime or gypseous and significantly
by using perlitic plaster. The results of the tests have
also shown that the increasing of plaster thickness does
not necessarily mean the increase in fire resistance.
REFERENCES
MSZ EN 1365-3:2000 – Fire resistance tests for load bearing
elements – Part 3: Beams
MSZ EN 1365-2:2000 – Fire resistance tests for load bearing
elements – Part 2: Floors and roofs
MSZ EN 13501-2:2008 – Fire classification of construc-
tion products and building elements. Part 2: Classification
using data from fire resistance tests, excluding ventilation
services
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

The combined effect of high temperature and high loading rate on the
fracture resistance of a grade S355J0 steel section

A.J. Horn
Corus Research, Development & Technology, Rotherham, UK

ABSTRACT: When designing structures to resist extreme or unplanned events such as explosions, impacts
or earthquakes, it is necessary to define both the ‘demands’ placed on the materials of construction and the
‘resistance’ available. Integrity is ensured when resistance exceeds the demand with a suitable margin of safety.
This paper characterises the fracture resistance of a grade S355J0 steel section subject to a combination of
high loading rates and high temperatures. Conventional J-Resistance (J-R) curve tests are used to characterise
quasi-static fracture resistance over a wide range of temperatures and instrumented, pre-cracked Charpy tests
are used to characterise fracture resistance at impact loading rates over the same temperature range (ambient to
+550◦ C). The results show that tearing resistance increases with increasing loading rate at all temperatures stud-
ied. Tearing resistance generally decreases with increasing temperature, but this relationship is also dependent on
loading rate.

1 INTRODUCTION the same temperature range using pre-cracked Charpy

In order to ensure the structural integrity of a building
or structure has not been compromised, it is necessary
to define both the ‘demands’placed on the materials of
construction and the ‘resistance’ available. For exam-
ple, modern structural integrity approaches (BSI 2005;
BritishEnergy 2009) use the applied stress and applied
crack driving force to characterise the demand on a
structure. Resistance is quantified by the yield stress
and material toughness. When the demand placed on
the structure exceeds the resistance available, failure
is predicted to occur.
When designing structures to resist extreme or
unplanned events such as explosions, impacts or earth-
quakes, it is important to account for material resis-
tance being a function of demand. For example, yield
stress and material toughness are both functions of
applied strain rate and temperature. This paper pro-
vides an experimental study of the fracture resistance
of a grade S355J0 section as a function of tempera-
ture and loading rate. The objective is to characterise
how the material toughness changes over a range of
temperatures from ambient to +550◦ C and a range of
loading rates from quasi-static to impact loading. The
combined effect of both high temperature and high
loading rates is also investigated.
This paper is structured as follows. The mate-
rial used for the experimental work is described in
Section 2. The methodology used in the study is pre-
sented in Section 3 and comprises two main parts: a
quasi-static fracture toughness test programme cover-
ing a wide range of temperatures (Section 3.1) and a
high-rate fracture toughness testing programme over
specimens (Section 3.2). A comparison of different
test specimen geometries is also provided in Section
3.3. The results of the test programme are presented in
Section 4 and discussed in Section 5. Conclusions are
made in Section 6.
2 MATERIAL
The material used was a steel grade S355J0
457 × 191 × 89 UB section manufactured by Corus
with flange thickness of 17.7 mm. At the standard 1/6
flange width position, room temperature yield stress
(0.2% proof stress) and UTS was measured to be
396 MPa and 520 MPa respectively.
Fracture toughness testing to standards such as
ASTM E1820-09 (ASTM 2009) requires knowledge
of the tensile properties at the relevant test temperature.
A series of useful correlations for estimating high tem-
perature tensile properties have recently been derived
by the US National Institute of Standards and Tech-
nology (NIST) (Luecke, McColskey et al. 2005; Gayle
2007). These correlations are based on results of ten-
sile tests performed on undamaged beams and columns
recovered from the World Trade Centre. A large num-
ber of historical data from the general literature was
also used in the derivation of the correlations. Further-
more, historical high-temperature yield and UTS data
for Corus sections have been found to fit the NIST cor-
relations particularly well (Horn and Bannister 2009).
The tensile properties calculated using the NIST cor-
relations and used in the current work are summarised
in Table 1 below.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 1. Tensile properties used in the current work.
0.2% yield stress UTS Elastic modulus
Temperature MPa MPa MPa
Room temp 396 521 208000
+200◦ C 337 521 195000
+400◦ C 277 468 180000
+550◦ C 218 286 160000
3 METHODOLOGY
In order to measure the fracture resistance of the sec-
tion over a range of temperature and loading rates,
two different test specimens and test methods were
employed. Quasi-static fracture resistance was mea-
sured using compact tension (CT) specimens to obtain
J-Resistance curves over a range of temperatures (Sec-
tion 3.1). Dynamic fracture resistance was measured
using pre-cracked Charpy specimens tested on an
instrumented machine (Section 3.2). In a different set
of tests, the geometry effect between different speci-
men types was investigated by measuring quasi-static
J-Resistance curves using three different geometry test
pieces (Section 3.3).
3.1 Fracture resistance at quasi-static loading rate
Compact tension (CT) specimens were machined for
the purposes of measuring fracture resistance at quasi-
static loading rates over a range of temperatures.
Twenty CT specimens were machined in the L-T orien-
tation from adjacent positions in the same flange. Each
CT specimen was close to full flange thickness with
specimen thickness B = 16 mm and specimen width
W = 32 mm. Pre-cracking was performed at ambient
temperature to a crack depth, a0 , to specimen width
W ratio of approximately 0.5. The location of each
CT specimen in the flange was designed to ensure the
location of the pre-crack tip coincided with the 1/6th
flange width position of the section. Following pre-
cracking, each specimen was side-grooved to a depth
of 1.6 mm on each side.
Fracture resistance at quasi-static loading rates was
characterised by measuring J-Resistance (J-R) curves
in accordance with Annex A8 of ASTM E1820-09
(ASTM 2009). J is a measure of toughness (tearing
resistance) and can be interpreted as the rate at which
energy is released during crack extension. The magni-
tude of crack extension is denoted by a. Tests were
carried out using the unloading compliance technique
in a thermostatically controlled furnace. All tests were
held at the test temperature for at least 16 minutes (one
minute per millimetre of specimen thickness) prior to
testing.
Tests were performed at temperatures of room
temperature, +200◦ C, +400◦ C and +550◦ C.
3.2 Fracture resistance at dynamic loading rates
Pre-cracked Charpy specimens were used to mea-
sure fracture resistance at impact loading rates.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 2. Pre-cracked Instrumented Charpy test matrix.
Temperature
Numbers refer
to no. of tests Room T +200◦ C +400◦ C +550◦ C
Charpy 25◦ 3 3 3 3
drop 45◦ 3 3 3 3
angle 150◦ (*) 3 3 3 3
* Full-blow Charpy test
Each Charpy specimen was a standard size of
10 × 10 × 55 mm with a 2 mm deep V-notch of radius
0.25 mm. Specimens were machined in the mid-
thickness position and the same L-T orientation as the
CT specimens. Specimens were pre-cracked at ambi-
ent temperature to an a0 /W ratio of 0.5. The location of
each Charpy specimen was designed to ensure the pre-
crack tip coincided with the 1/6th flange width posi-
tion. Following pre-cracking, all Charpy specimens
were side-grooved to a depth of 1.0 mm on each side.
Each pre-cracked Charpy specimen was tested on
an instrumented Charpy machine in accordance with
ISO14556 (ISO 2000). Low blow tests, where the angle
of the striker is reduced prior to release of the hammer,
were performed in order to investigate the effect of dif-
ferent loading rates. Full blow tests with the hammer in
its standard release angle of 150◦ were also performed.
Fracture resistance was characterised by measuring
J-R curves in accordance with the 3-parameter ana-
lytical method described in Annex E3 of Final Draft
ISO/FDIS 26843 (ISO 2009).
Tests were performed over a range of temperatures
and the test matrix showing Charpy hammer drop
angles is shown in Table 2.
3.3 Geometry effects on J-R curve
In order to investigate any geometrical differences
between different specimen geometries, a series of
room temperature J-Resistance curve tests was per-
formed on different test specimen geometries: three-
point bend SE(B) specimens with square (B × B) and
rectangular (B × 2B) cross-sections and compact ten-
sion (CT) specimens identical to those reported in
Section 3.1. All specimens had specimen thickness
B = 16 mm and were fatigue pre-cracked to an a0 /W
ratio of 0.5. The fatigue crack tip in all specimens
coincided with the 1/6th flange width position of the
beam. Following pre-cracking, each specimen was
side-grooved to a depth of 1.6 mm on each side.
J-R curves were measured at quasi-static loading
rates in accordance with Annex A8 of ASTM E1820-
09 (ASTM 2009) using the unloading compliance
technique.
4 RESULTS
4.1 Fracture resistance at quasi-static loading rate
The results of the quasi-static J-R tests performed
according to ASTM E1820-09 are shown in Figure 1
Figure 1. Quasi-static J-R curves measured using CT spec- Figure 2. Quasi-static tearing initiation J0.2 values as a
imens at various temperatures. function of temperature.

below. Tests performed at room temperature and

+200◦ C resulted in the least scatter of individual
(J,a) datum pairs; J-R curves are consequently rel-
atively consistent between different specimens. Con-
versely, tests at higher temperatures were subject to
greater scatter of (J,a) datum pairs because of slight
non-linearlities in the elastic unloading lines used to
calculate a. The J-R curves fitted to the (J,a) datum
pairs at +400◦ C and above therefore have lower cor-
relation coefficients and are also more scattered, as
evident in Figure 1.
Despite the scatter associated with higher tempera-
ture J-R curves, some basic observations can be made
from the results shown in Figure 1. Firstly, tearing
resistance is greatest at room temperature. Secondly, Figure 3. Dynamic J-R curves measured using pre-cracked
there is a significant reduction in tearing resistance at Charpy specimens at a drop angle of 25◦ .
+200◦ C. Thirdly, the three test results at +400◦ C indi-
cate that tearing resistance is higher than at +200◦ C.
Finally, there is some indication that tearing resistance
reduces again at +550◦ C.
The value of J at 0.2 mm crack growth (J0.2 ) is
commonly taken as an engineering definition of tear-
ing initiation and is often used in structural integrity
assessments. The variation of J0.2 is shown in Fig-
ure 2 as a function of temperature. The trend is
for J0.2 to decrease significantly from room temper-
ature to +200◦ C. Tearing resistance then increases
with increasing temperature up to +400◦ C where J0.2
is only slightly below the room temperature value.
Above +400◦ C tearing resistance decreases rapidly
with increasing temperature.
Figure 4. Dynamic J-R curves measured using pre-cracked
Charpy specimens at a drop angle of 150◦ (i.e. full-blow).
4.2 Fracture resistance at dynamic loading rate
√
Dynamic tearing resistance, measured using pre- 4 × 107 MPa m/s. J-R curves corresponding to a
cracked Charpy specimens, was very similar in the 25 × angle are shown in Figure 3 above.
tests performed at a drop angle of 25◦ and 45◦ . This In Figure 3 there is a clear effect of reducing tear-
is unsurprising given the similarity in stress intensity ing resistance with increasing temperature at this strain
factor rate (K-rate) values obtained in the tests. For rate. The full blow results (150◦ drop angle) are shown
the 25◦ drop angle,
√ K-rates varied between 6 × 10
6
in Figure 4 and show a slightly different trend: the
and 1 × 107 MPa m/s; for the 45◦ drop angle, √ K- general trend is for tearing resistance to reduce only
rates varied between 7 × 106 and 1 × 107 MPa m/s. marginally with increasing temperature up to +400◦ C.
◦
In comparison, the K-rate values for the 150 drop Only above this temperature is there a significant
angle tests were higher, ranging from 1 × 107 to reduction in tearing resistance.

227
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 5. Tearing initiation J0.2 values as a function of test
type and increasing temperature.
Figure 6. Geometry effect on J-R curves measured using
different test pieces at room temperature.
The difference in behaviour between low-blow and
full-blow Charpy results is clearly visible in Fig-
ure 5 which shows the tearing initiation value J0.2
as a function of temperature. For low-blow Charpy
tests, J0.2 decreases almost linearly with increasing
temperature whereas for full-blow Charpy tests, J0.2
remains approximately constant up to +400◦ C before
decreasing rapidly with increasing temperature. The
quasi-static J-R curves measured using CT specimens
are shown in Figure 5 for comparison.
4.3 Geometry effects on the J-R curve
J-R curves derived using different specimen geome-
tries are shown in Figure 6. There is little difference
in terms of J0.2 values between BxB and Bx2B SE(B)
specimens; the compact tension (CT) specimen has a
slightly lower initiation value. At higher values of a
the differences between the specimens become more
significant due to constraint differences under fully
plastic conditions.
5 DISCUSSION
At quasi-static loading rates, there is a clear drop
in fracture resistance at tests conducted at +200◦ C
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 7. General trend showing tearing initiation J0.2 as a
function of temperature and stress intensity factor rate.
according to Figure 1. This is consistent with other
work (Wagner, Moreno et al. 2001) where the effect
of dynamic strain ageing has the effect of reducing
toughness in the region +200◦ C to +300◦ C. The effect
is also clearly evident in Figure 2. At intermediate
strain rates (Figure 3), there appears to be no effect
of dynamic strain ageing and toughness decreases
approximately linearly with increasing temperature.
At high strain rates (Figure 4), fracture resistance
remains almost constant up to +400◦ C before decreas-
ing rapidly. It is interesting to note that one full-blow
pre-cracked Charpy test at +200◦ C resulted in a tear-
ing resistance of comparable magnitude to tests at
+550◦ C. However, without further testing at +200◦ C
it is difficult to conclude with certainty whether this
individual low result is evidence of a real trend.
The combined effects of stress intensity factor rate
and temperature on tearing initiation J0.2 are shown in
Figure 7.
It is clear in Figure 7 that tearing resistance
increases with increasing stress intensity factor rate
at all temperatures tested. This implies that impact
loading is, in general, beneficial to the steel’s tear-
ing resistance, as long as the steel is at a temperature
where crack extension occurs by ductile tearing.
Tearing resistance generally decreases with increas-
ing temperature, although (as already discussed) the
precise relationship depends on the strain rate. At
quasi-static rates, the effect of dynamic strain ageing
is visible as a dip in J0.2 values around +200◦ C, but the
effect is not apparent at intermediate strain rates where
tearing resistance decreases linearly with increasing
temperature.
It is interesting to note that the J0.2 values
√ measured
at a combined high rate (1 × 107 MPa m/s) and high
temperature (+550◦ C) are comparable in magnitude to
the room-temperature, quasi-static value (100 kJ/m2 ).
In terms of the tearing resistance of this S355 section
there is therefore a trade-off between the ‘beneficial’
effect of high strain rate and the ‘detrimental’ effect of
high temperature.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The following conclusions can be made from this
work:
1. At all temperatures studied, tearing resistance
increases with increasing loading rate. This implies
that impact loading is, in general, beneficial to
tearing resistance of this S355 steel.
2. At intermediate loading rates, tearing resistance
decreases linearly with increasing temperature.
3. At high loading rates, tearing resistance is approx-
imately independent of temperature up to +400◦ C
and drops sharply above this temperature.
4. At quasi-static loading rates, there is a ‘dip’ in
tearing resistance around +200◦ C due to dynamic
strain ageing.At +400◦ C, tearing resistance returns
close to ambient value. Above +400◦ C there is a
sharper decrease in tearing resistance.
5. There is a trade-off between the ‘beneficial’
effect of high strain rate and the ‘detrimental’
effect of high temperature: at a combined high
◦
temperature (+550
√ C) and impact loading rate
(1 × 107 MPa m/s), tearing resistance is similar to
the quasi-static, room-temperature value.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author wishes to acknowledge Corus Long Prod-
ucts for funding the work.
229
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
REFERENCES
ASTM 2009. ASTM E1820-09: Standard Test Method for
Measurement of Fracture Toughness. ASTM.
BritishEnergy 2009. R6: Assessment of the Integrity of
Structures Containing Defects, Revision 4. British Energy
Generation Limited.
BSI 2005. BS 7910: Guide on methods for assessing the
acceptability of flaws in metallic structures. British Stan-
dards Institute.
Gayle, F. W. 2007. “The collapse of the world trade centre
towers: a metallurgist’s view.” MRS Bulletin 32: 710–716.
Horn, A. J. and Bannister, A. C. 2009. Review of Sections
performance at high temperatures and high strain rates.
Swinden Technology Centre, Corus Research, Develop-
ment and Technology.
ISO 2000. ISO14556: Steel – Charpy V-notch pendulum
impact test – instrumented test method. ISO.
ISO 2009. ISO/FDIS 26843: Metallic materials – measure-
ment of fracture toughness of steels at impact loading rates
using precracked Charpy specimens. ISO.
Luecke, W. E., McColskey, J. D., et al. 2005. Federal Building
and Fire Safety Investigation of the World Trade Centre
Disaster: Mechanics properties of structural steels, NIST.
Wagner, D., Moreno, J. C., et al. 2001. “Dynamic strain ageing
in C-Mn steels and associated welds II: Effect on fracture
toughness behaviour.” La Revue Metallurgie(May 2001):
473–484.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

A study on the full scale fire test of medical modular block

for the fire resistance performance evaluation

Heung Youl Kim

Korea Institute of Construction Technology, Republic of Korea

Hyung Jun Kim

University of Seoul, Republic of Korea

Jae Sung Lee

Hannam University, Republic of Korea

Ki Hyuk Kwon
University of Seoul, Republic of Korea

Bong Ho Cho
Ajou University, Republic of Korea

ABSTRACT: Modular construction method is based on pre-fabricated unit module in a factory and assembling
of the unit module in a construction site. The main advantage of the modular system is that the construction
time can be reduced by small weather impact on scheduling, the relatively easy availability of machines and
services in a well-structured factory environment, and so on. This study is to evaluate the fireproof performance
for a modular block consisted of columns, slabs, and walls. To conduct this study, It was used the large scale
calorie meter (10 MW) in Korea Institute of Construction Technology, which is proper to the full scale fire test,
and conducted the full scale fire test by causing the fire with the standard woods. The fire load was the fixed
fire load and the loading fire load (ave. 50 kg/m2 ). The total applied load was 417 kN considering the dead load
(279.7 kN) and the live load (136.9 kN) for a medical modular building of four stories.

1 INSTRUCTION inefficient on the current buildings with advanced

The researches for the fire safety were started in
Europe since the mid-1600s and focused on develop-
ing the evaluation criteria and technologies of structure
members related to the various types of fire which
might be able to occur in each country. In the case
of the developed countries, through the full scale fire
tests such as Churchill fire test (England, 1986) [1],
Brodgate fire research (England, 1991) [8] Collin
street fire test (Australia, 1992) [7], William street
fire test (Australia, 1994) [9] they analyzed dynamic
behaviors such as changes in the loading path, the
phenomenon in which the non-bearing walls become
the bearing walls and so on[10]. BRE in England
conducted seven full-scale fire tests with the eight-
story building (45 m × 21 m) in Cardington to develop
the technologies to improve the fire resistance of the
structure [4].
The fire design on buildings in South Korea relies
on the results of standard fire tests for structure mem-
bers to ensure the fire resistance rating requirements
prescribed by national building codes [3]. However
the design method is not only uneconomic, but also
technologies. BRE in England, SP in Sweden, and BRI
in Japan have adopted a performance-based approach
as the safety and evaluation method of structures on
fire since the mid-1980s. Recently, the performance-
based design (PBD) seems to be importantly con-
siderable with increase of high-rise and huge spatial
structures. Despite the importance of PBD, full-scale
fire studies are very little due to the financial limits
including test equipments.
This study was conducted to evaluate the fire resis-
tance performance of a four-story modular building
under a natural fire condition because the modular
buildings constructed in the steel structure have the
potential to collapse by rapid decrease of the bear-
ing force depending on the conditions of loading. The
tested structure was length 6.7 m, width 3.75 m and
height 3.6 m as a medical modular block. The applied
loads on the upper floor of the modular block were
the dead load of 3 floors (279.7 kN) and live load
(136.9 kN). To purify the smoke from the large scale
test under the natural fire using standard woods, the
large scale calorie meter (10 MW) in Korea Institute
of Construction Technology (KICT) was used. The

231
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 1. Detail drawing of the modular block.
changes of the deformation and the temperature of
the modular block were measured according to the
international standard ISO 834.
2 PLAN OF FIRE TEST
2.1 Shape of the modular block
The modular block (length 6.7 m, width 3.75 m and
height 3.6 m) for the experiment is a unit module con-
sisting of the prefabricated hospital building. The unit
module is composed of a restroom and a ward. To
secure the fireproof performance of the square steel
columns and the beams, the fireproof plaster boards
were attached 30 mm (15 mm × 2 layers) on the wall,
37.5 mm (12.5 mm × 3 layers) on the ceiling like the
Figure 1.
2.2 Measurement for displacement and
temperature
The three experiments were conducted and the loca-
tions of the thermocouples were changed according to
the purpose of each experiment. Total 59 thermocou-
ples including thermocouples attached on the internal
walls were installed to evaluate the fire behavior con-
sidering the conditions of ventilation for openings. The
measured items were the temperature in the room, tem-
peratures and displacements of structural members,
and the temperatures on the internal and external wall.
Referring to Figure 2(a, b), the thermocouples were
installed at each 500 mm downward from the ceiling
using the vertical wire at the five point in the room
to measure the internal room temperature. In order
to measure the temperature changes of the structural
members, the three thermocouples were installed at
the right and left side of 750 mm from the center and
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 2. Detail of installed thermocouples and LVDT.
the center of the girder. In case of the column, the
four thermocouples were installed like Figure 2(c).
The displacements of the girder and column were
measured using LVDTs (Linear Variable Differential
Transformer). The measured locations for the girder
were two points and the LVDTs to measure displace-
ments of the end two columns were installed using
jig(see the figure 2(a)).
2.3 Fire load
The fire load was the combined load (14.08 kg/m2 ) of
the average dead fire load (5.76 kg/m2 ) and the average
live fire load (8.32 kg/m2 ), which were investigated
from 21 hospitals in Seoul, South Korea [6]. In the
test fire load, the weighting coefficient of 3.5, which
is higher than 2.5 in New Zealand codes, was used
under the assumptions of the worst fire scenario as the
special conditions. Table 1 is to summarize the weight-
ing coefficients, fire loads and total caloric values used
in the experiments.
2.4 Dead and live load
The tested modular block was considered as the first
story of a four-story hospital building. Thus, the
Table 1. Fire Load of Test.

Coefficient (Kc) Fire Load (kg/m2 ) Caloric Value (Mcal)

3.5 50 5503.63

Figure 4. Room temperatures.

Figure 3. Loading and large scale calorimeter.

Table 2. Designation of thermocouples and LVDTs.

Definitions Examples

Girder(G), ex) G – A(a) – 1:

Column(C), G: Girder, C:Column, W:Wall
Wall(W) A: Location of the thermocouple
(surface of wall: A∼D, Location:
a∼d) 1: No. of the thermocouple
Room ex) I –R- 1
temperatures (I) I: Thermocouple in the room
R: Room, W: Wall (a) Temperature changes of the girder (part – a)
1: Location of the thermocouple
Displacements ex) DIS – C – 1
(DIS) DIS: Displacement
C: Column, G: Girder
1: No. of the LVDT

applied total load on the upper floor was 417 kN con-

sidering the dead load of 3 floors (279.7 kN) and the
live load (136.9 kN). This load was applied evenly with
the sand bags in the vessels like the Figure 3. The load
was applied before the 30 minutes of the fire test. The
large scale calorimeter of 10 MW was used to collect
the smoke and the hazard gas by the fire. (b) Temperature changes of the girder (Part – b)

3 TEST RESULT

The fireproof performance for the modular block

was evaluated by the allowable displacements and
temperatures of the structural members and the heat
resistance capabilities of the walls with the tempera-
ture increase. Table 2 is the designation of the installed
thermocouples and LVDTs.

3.1 Room temperature

At the I-2, the center of the modular block test object, (c) Temperature changes of the girder (Part – c)
the maximum temperature of 1170◦ was measured
at 34 minutes like the Figure 4. The locations of Figure 5. Temperature changes of the girder.

233
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 (a) Temperature changes of the column (Part – a)
(b) Temperature changes of the column (Part – b)
(c) Temperature changes of the column (Part – c)
d) Temperature changes of the column (Part – d)
Figure 6. Temperature changes of the column.
the thermocouples were determined on the basis of
GOST-302470 [2].
3.2 Temperature of structural girder
The temperature increased by 181◦ C at G-b-2, the bot-
tom surface of the middle of the girder, in 90 minutes
234
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
(a) Temperature changes of the wall (External surface A)
(b) Temperature changes of the wall (External surface B)
(c) Temperature changes of the wall (External surface D)
Figure 7. Temperature changes of the external wall.
like Figure 5 because the fire was transferred to the
center in the spreading time of the fire, although the
fire was ignited at the entrance.After 34 minutes which
was the peak time, it was changed to the decreas-
ing period and the temperature of the inside of the
room was decreased. However, the temperatures of
the structural members increased by the internal left
heat. Therefore, unless the fire is not completely extin-
guished for a medical modular building, the strengths
of the structural members can be decreased by the
increasing heat due to the left heat.
3.3 Temperature of structural column
As the result of the test to evaluate the temperature
increase of the columns by the fire, the temperatures at
C-a-3 and C-c-4 increased by 264◦ C in 90 minutes.The
Figure 8. The phase of Fire Spread Stage.
temperature differences by the height and the locations
of the section were not remarkable like Figure 6. At 10
minutes, the time for the flashover, the temperatures of
the girders and the columns increased remarkably due
to the incoming oxygen. At the 60 minutes, the temper-
ature increased again. This seems to be affected by the
left heat and the delayed time effect by the fireproof
plaster board.
3.4 Temperature of external wall
The heat resistance capability of the wall showed
the similar property with the changes of room tem-
perature depending on the progress of the fire. The
temperature changes of the wall were delayed for 15
minutes in average because of heat resistance of the
fireproof plaster board and the ceramic wool. At 80
minutes after the ignition, the temperature at W-B-4,
near to the upper window on the external surface of
the wall, rapidly increased like the Figure 7. This hap-
pened because the part was heated directly through
the outgoing fire out of the window. Because of such
outgoing fire, there was no a serious risk to the struc-
tural members but such part should be designed with
the nonflammable materials. Also, the inflammables
should not be placed around the openings.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The full scale fire test of a medical modular block
was conducted under the natural fire scenarios. The
phase of fire spread stage like the Figure 8. From
this experimental study, the derived conclusions are
as follows.
1) The flashover occurred about 10 minutes after igni-
tion early by inflow air because the window was
opened about 1/3.
2) External walls satisfied the fireproof performance
of 90 minutes by the temperature critical tem-
peratures (average temperature: 140◦ , maximum
temperature: 180◦ ) in GOST 30247.1-94 [2].
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
3) In order to evaluate the fire resistance performance
of the medical modular block, the temperature
changes by the time were measured. The result of
evaluation by ISO 834 and KS F 2257-1 satisfied
the fire resistance performance of 90 minutes in
the natural fire test.
REFERENCES
1. Anon. 1986. Fire behavior of steel and composite
construction, Verlag, TUV, Rheinland.
2. CNISK, MNTKS & BNIIPO. 1996. Elements of
Building Constructions, Fire – Resistance Test Meth-
ods(General Requirement): GOST-30247.0-94. IPK
3. Lee, J. S., Kim, H.Y., Cho, B. H., Kim, H. J. & Kim. G. D.
2008. Research for the Fireproof Method of MCO slab
with the Fireproof Plaster Board. Book 24 of Thesis
issued by Architectural Institute of Korea No. 11: 93–
100.
4. Kirby, B.R. 1994. Natural Fires in Large Scale
Compartments-A British Steel Technical, Fire Research
Station Collaborative Project.
5. Korean agency for technology and Standards. 2005.
Methods of fire resistance test for elements of build-
ing construction-General requirements. KS F 2257-1.
Korean Standards Association.
6. Korea Institute of Construction Technology. 2004.
Development of Fireproof Design Technology for the
Architectural Buildings Volume 1. Ministry of Land,
Transport, and Maritime Affairs: 97–99.
7. Proe, D. J. & Bennetts, I. D. 1994. Real fire tests in
380 Collins street office enclosure. BHPR/PPA/R/94/
SG021A. BHP Research: Melbourne, Austrakia.
8. Steel Construction Industry Forum. 1991. Investiga-
tion of Broadgate phase 8 fire. The Steel Construction
Institute.
9. Thomas, I. R., Bennetts, I. D., Dayawansa, P, Proe, D. J.
& Lewis, R. R. 1992. Fire Tests of the 140 William
Street Office Building. BHPR/ENG/R/92 /043/SG2C:
BHP Research, Melbourne Australia.
10. Wang, Y. C. 2000. An analysis of global structural
behavior of the Cardington steel-framed building dur-
ing the two BRE fire tests. Engineering Structures 22:
401–412.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Numerical modeling of steel columns in fire

L. Kwaśniewski & P.A. Król

Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland

K. Ła˛cki
The Main School of Fire Service (SGSP), Warsaw, Poland

ABSTRACT: During fire some additional forces are imposed on columns due to varied thermal deformations
in the neighboring structural components. Axial and rotational restraints can produce substantial loadings, which
together with thermally reduced stiffness, can lead to a premature column’s buckling and reduction of the column
fire resistance. The paper presents a study on numerical modeling of steel columns subjected to prescribed
axial and rotational restraints and time dependent temperatures. The problem is investigated using nonlinear
finite element simulations carried out using general purpose program LS-DYNA® . The paper focuses on model
development and its verification and validation. Several modeling options and strategies for modeling thermal
and mechanical boundary conditions have been considered. A numerical prediction of structural response during
heating is compared with published experimental data. Both, test results and numerical analyses show that axial
restraint significantly reduces the column fire resistance.

1 INTRODUCTION as fully reliable. One of the challenges for numeri-

According to the provisions given in EN 1993-1-2
(CEN 2005) load bearing resistance of a structure dur-
ing fire can be analyzed on the levels of a member, a
part of structure and an entire structure. For columns
subjected to fire some additional forces are imposed
due to varied thermal deformations in the neighboring
structural components. Axial and rotational restraints
can produce substantial loadings difficult for precise
identification, which together with reduced thermally
stiffness, can lead to a premature column’s buck-
ling and reduction of the column fire resistance. The
problem considered is dependent on many param-
eters such ones defining time and space variation
of temperatures, interactions with adjacent structural
components, and material degradation due to heating.
A member analysis can be performed using exper-
iments and simple or advanced calculation models.
Numerical analysis of structural members can be used
for structural fire design and as an addendum of experi-
ments. The limitations of furnace tests due to large cost
and associated technical difficulties impose a need
for virtual testing with the aid of reliable numeri-
cal models. Advanced calculation techniques can be
helpful in the areas where experiments encounter
difficulties such as testing large specimens, imple-
mentation of loading and boundary condition, mea-
surements and interpretation of specimen’s behavior.
The maximum effort should be undertaken to obtain
the best mechanical, geometrical and thermal similar-
ity between the real structure and analyzed numerical
model. Only then the outcomes could be recognized
cal modeling is estimation of the fire resistance and
the structure’s performance under heating and cooling
caused by local fires (Kosiorek 2002).
The paper presents a study on numerical model-
ing of steel columns subjected to axial and rotational
restraints and elevated temperatures. The problem is
investigated using nonlinear dynamic finite element
simulations carried out using general purpose program
LS-DYNA® . The paper focuses on model devel-
opment and its verification and validation. Several
modeling options and strategies for modeling thermal
and mechanical, initial and boundary conditions have
been considered. A numerical prediction of structural
response during heating is compared with published
experimental data. Both test results and numerical
analyses show that axial restraint significantly reduces
the column fire resistance.
2 MODELING CONCEPTS
2.1 Type of analysis and solution methods
Numerical analysis should be based on principles of
physics, encounter all crucial test conditions, should
be verified and validated. Depending on the simu-
lated test scenario, three types of analysis can be
considered: structural, thermal or coupled structural-
thermal. Structural stress analysis should be able to
take into account strains due to elastic and plastic
deformation and due to thermal elongation if coupled
structural-thermal analysis is performed. Creep strains
can usually be omitted for transient analysis.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Application of finite element codes is considered
as a most feasible solution method. Incremental, tran-
sient structural analysis should be based on explicit
or implicit methods for time integration. Applica-
tion of explicit methods in coupled structural-thermal
fire analysis is not feasible due to consideration of
relatively long time intervals. For the thermal cal-
culations usually unconditionally stable implicit time
integration is applied (Shapiro 2005).
2.2 Geometry and FE meshes
For most of practical cases an analyzed member should
be represented as a three dimensional object built of
solid or shell elements. If it is required by the analy-
sis, shell elements should allow for through-thickness
heat conduction. If solid elements are chosen to
represent metal plates (e.g. flanges and webs) at least
four layers of finite elements through the thickness are
required to produce properly bending behavior. With
the maximum aspect ratio of four, modeling of thin-
walled structures with solid elements requires usually
application of large numbers of finite elements.
2.3 Material models
Nonlinear material properties, thermal and mechan-
ical, should be considered as dependent on current
temperature. For porous materials like concrete, some
important but very complex hygral, thermal, chemi-
cal phenomena such as convective flux of humidity,
humidity pressure, and dehydration are often omitted.
The material model for steel applied in the presented
work allows for piecewise linear variation of the mate-
rial parameters due to temperature (Hallquist 2006).
The temperature dependence includes: elastic modu-
lus, Poisson’s ratio, coefficients of thermal expansion,
yield stress, and plastic hardening modulus. For cou-
pled structural-thermal and thermal only analyses,
thermal properties such as heat capacity and thermal
conductivity are specified in the additional material
model. All parameters can be defined as temperature
dependent.
2.4 Loading and mechanical boundary conditions
Defined mechanical boundary conditions, loading and
interactions should be relevant with the actual features
of the analyzed test. Depending on the type of anal-
ysis, the mechanical loading can be represented by
pressures and forces, or prescribed displacements. If
necessary, the time or temperature dependent bound-
ary conditions can be represented indirectly by contact
definitions. In engineering practice there are typi-
cally two loading and heating scenarios taken into
account. One scenario considers increasing static load-
ing at constant elevated temperature. This scenario
is used to determine the critical loading for selected
temperatures. In the second scenario the structure is
analyzed under constant loading but at increasing tem-
perature. The objective here is to determine the critical
temperature and time. It’s widely recommended by
238
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
many researchers that this scenario most precisely
reflects behavior of existing structures under real fires
and should be used for evaluation of mechanical prop-
erties of structural materials (Franssen & Zaharia
2006). It is expected that parameters obtained from
this method should guarantee the highest reliability
of further analyses and their results. Using repeat-
able calculations following both scenarios diagrams
can be formulated and for assumed loading L the fire
resistance can be determined in terms of critical tem-
perature Tcr or critical time tcr . In the third scenario,
e.g. following experiment, both temperature and load-
ing are time depended, and loading can be temperature
dependant due to thermal elongation.
2.5 Thermal boundary conditions
Depending on the considered case, thermal condi-
tions can be modelled applying variety of time and
temperature dependent boundary conditions includ-
ing prescribed temperature fields, insulation, flux,
convection, and radiation.
One of the simplest options is the direct thermal
loading where prescribed time dependent tempera-
tures are applied to the model nodes (including inter-
nal). This solution is relevant for structural analysis
without heat conduction within the model.
In the next approach, applicable especially for insu-
lation layers, constant or time dependent prescribed
temperatures are applied to selected nodes, on external
model surfaces. In this simplified approach the heat
transfer between surroundings and the model exter-
nal surfaces is not analysed. The heat transfer inside
the model is considered. To model full insulation the
heat transfer on the model surface can be completely
inhibited.
As a more advanced solution, prescribed fluxes,
applied to external model surfaces, can be defined. The
flux can be time or temperature dependent or constant
through analysis. It can be used for thermal or cou-
pled structural-thermal analysis. This option requires
reliable data specifying the flux magnitudes.
In the most realistic solution the heat transfer
between a member and surroundings, is defined in
terms of convection and radiation. The convection and
radiation can be defined for selected model external
surfaces. This option is applicable for thermal and
coupled structural-thermal analysis.
Transient convection can be expressed by the fol-
lowing formula (Shapiro 2005), (CEN 2002)
where: hnet,c = net convective heat flux in [W/m2 ];
αc = convective heat transfer coefficient [W/m2 K]
(can be constant or temperature dependent), depends
on the model’s material, surface finish, fire pro-
tection and type of the surrounding gas (CEN
2002); TM = calculated current temperature on the
model surface [K]; TS = prescribed temperature of the
surroundings, can be constant or time dependent (e.g.
nominal temperature curve) [K].
 Radiative transfer between gas and member can be
expressed as (Shapiro 2005), (CEN 2002):
where hnet,r = net radiative heat flux in [W/m2 ];
εm = surface absorptivity (emissivity) coefficient can
be constant or time/temperature dependent (Shapiro
2005), depends on the model’s material, surface finish,
and fire protection; σSB – is the Stefan Boltzmann con-
stant [5,67 × 10-8 W/m2 K4 ]; TM and TS = the same as
above [K]. For the nonlinear relationship 2, the tem-
perature should be expressed by Kelvin degrees [K].
Compound convective heat transfer can also be
used with resultant heat transfer coefficient including
radiation effects (CEN 2002).
3 EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION
3.1 General rules for V&V
The FEA model verification and validation (V&V) is
necessary for warranting modeling accuracy. Verifica-
tion must precede validation. The calculation verifica-
tion is intended to estimate the numerical errors due
to discretization approximations. Validation, mainly
through comparison with experiments, evaluates the
accuracy of the mathematical model depicting the
actual physical event (Oberkampf et al. 2004).
As an example of validation, the experimental test
presented by Ali and O’Connor (2001) has been
selected. In this work the structural performance of
steel columns is investigated using half scale spec-
imens tested in fire under two values of rotational
restraint and one value of axial restraint.
3.2 Experimental furnace test
The results of experimental investigation for steel
columns127x76UB13, performed atThe Fire Research
Center, University of Ulster in the collaboration with
The University of Sheffield, presented by Ali and
O’Connor (2001) were used. For the chosen loading
scenario the investigated members were first loaded
up to the level of about 205 kN and then heated up.
During the test, both – axial forces and column
expansion as well as lateral displacements in a mid-
section were measured and recorded. Temperature was
controlled and monitored by the set of thermocouples
distributed uniformly at three levels of the furnace and
two levels of the tested specimen. At each level of the
column five thermocouples were used in the following
arrangement: one attached to the center of the web and
four attached to the column flanges.
3.3 Numerical test
All structural analysis presented in the paper are based
on static calculation using implicit solver. A numerical
model of the selected steel specimen used in the
experiment was developed, as shown in Figure 1. Due
to relatively small thicknesses of the component walls
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 1. Numerical model of column before (left) and after
simulation (right).
(i.e. flanges and web) a shell model was used and the
heat transfer through the wall thickness was neglected.
The time dependent temperature was uniformly dis-
tributed over most of the model based on the average
temperature profile recorded during the experiment.
The heat transfer between the surroundings (interior
of the furnace) and the beam was ignored. The whole
volume of the column part, which was placed inside the
furnace, was subjected to the same temperature vary-
ing in time. During first 100 seconds of simulation
only the compressive load of the member is applied
through an elastic plate (AB in Fig. 1) as a prescribed
displacement applied at the upper edge A. The stiff-
ness of the connecting plate and the magnitude of the
prescribed displacement is set to produce the experi-
mental load of 205 kN. Later, the displacement at the
upper edge of the connector is fixed and the value of
growing temperature is applied in accordance with the
experimental recordings.
3.4 Numerical vs. experimental results
As a result of the computer simulation the resultant
loading and a few deflections were estimated. The
column contraction was monitored as the movement
of the central node B at the top of the modeled col-
umn (Fig. 1). The transverse deflection was recorded
as the lateral displacement of the node located at the
midsection of the model (Fig. 1, point C). The axial
compressive force, applied in the first step of com-
puter simulation and increased later due to the thermal
elongation and imposed restraints, was estimated in
the constrained nodes at the edge A (Fig. 1). The
numerical results are compared with the results of the
experimental investigation in Figures 2–4. Compar-
ing the results of both types of investigation one can
see that the values of all parameters established in the
numerical simulation are lower than those measured
during the real experiments (Figs 2–4). It is also clear
 Figure 2. Axial load as a function of temperature.
Figure 3. Lateral displacement as a function of temperature.
Figure 4. Axial displacement of the top end vs. temp.
that the numerical model buckles at lower tempera-
ture. The critical value of axial load (Fig. 2) obtained
in the simulation is about 9 kN (2.6%) lower than in
the experiment and occurs at the temperature level of
about 60◦ C (14.3%) lower. The post-buckling behav-
ior is more sudden in the computer simulation than
in the experiment. When analyzing Figures 2 & 3 it
can be easily seen that the sudden decrease of axial
force is accompanied by initial loss of stability, but
later it stabilizes and the failure stage is different than
in the case of experiment (without asymptotic varia-
tion). This indicates differences between the loading
conditions in post-buckling phase in numerical and
experimental environment. When the column buck-
les in the numerical model the loading decreases as
the connecting plate expands and in the experiment
the axial force drops to the initial value applied by
hydraulic rams. To improve the numerical model the
loading conditions should be modified involving con-
tact between the top of the column and the lateral beam
used to transmit the load.
4 COLUMN SUBJECTED TO LOCAL FIRE
4.1 Model development
The last example presents a feasibility study on
the coupled structural-thermal analysis of a column
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 5. Thermal and mechanical boundary conditions for
axially loaded column subjected to local fire.
subjected to thermal conditions caused by a local fire.
An axially loaded steel column 254x102UB22 is sub-
ject to the local fire causing the heat transfer through
only a half of one of the flange outer surfaces. The
bottom base is fixed and the top is pinned and axially
loaded through a roller parallel to the web, as shown
in Figure 5.
The three dimensional FE model is built with solid
elements. The external flange surfaces (top and bot-
tom) are subjected to heat transfer through convection
and radiation, Equations 1 and 2, with the following
assumed constant parameters: convective heat trans-
fer coefficient αc = 25 W/m2 K (for exposed side) and
4 W/m2 K (for unexposed one), absorptivity (emissiv-
ity) coefficient εm = 0.7. The absolute insulation (no
heat transfer) is assumed for the rest of the external sur-
faces (see Fig. 5). Elevated temperature caused by the
local fire is subject to a 1 m long segment at one of the
flanges. The assumed time variation of elevated tem-
perature is defined by the diagram shown in Figure 6.
The temperature – time curves for localized fires can
be estimated using EN 1991-1-2 (CEN 2002). The rest
of the surroundings have constant temperature 20◦ C.
The thermal and mechanical properties for steel S275
are applied. The effects of elevated temperature on the
material behavior are taken into account in accordance
with EN 1993-1-2 (CEN 2005). The numerical results
for three basic loading scenarios are presented in the
subsequent sections.
4.2 Buckling at ambient temperature
In the first considered scenario the loading is applied
as the prescribed, increasing in time displacement. The
results of structural analysis of inelastic buckling at
Figure 6. Assumed time variation of temperature (CEN
2002).
Figure 7. Structural analysis of inelastic buckling at ambi-
ent temperature.
constant ambient temperature 20◦ C are presented in
Figure 7, showing diagram with the load versus verti-
cal displacement of the nodes, located along the web
at the pinned end of modeled column and deformation
mode with contours of the effective Mises stress.
4.3 Column under prescribed displacement and
elevated temperature
In this loading scenario, first the loading is applied
as prescribed displacement generating around 50%
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 8. Calculated resultant reaction force vs. time, for
second loading scenario.
Figure 9. Deformation and contours of temperature and of
Mises effective stress at time t = 31 min.
of the ultimate load, estimated in section 4.2. Then
time dependent elevated temperature is applied (see,
Fig. 6) while the displacement of the top end is
kept constant. The structural response of the column
is estimated numerically using incremental coupled
structural-thermal analysis.
Figure 8 shows time variation of the axial force with
early buckling due to additional forces generated by
thermal elongation. Figures 9 & 10 show deformation
and contours of temperature and of Mises effective
stress at selected time instances, for the heating phase
at t = 31 min and for the cooling phase at t = 90 min.
4.4 Column loaded with concentrated forces and
elevated temperature
In the last scenario the loading is applied first as a set
of concentrated forces and then elevated temperature
caused by local fire (Fig. 6). As in the previous case the
 Figure 10. Deformation and contours of temperature and
of Mises effective stress at the end of simulation, at time
t = 90 min.
Figure 11. Vertical displacement of the top end vs. time.
coupled structural-thermal analysis is conducted. Fig-
ure 11 presents vertical displacement vs. time diagram
indicating buckling at around t = 17 min. Figures 12
shows deformation and contours of temperature and
of Mises effective stress at time t = 17 min 8s, just
before buckling.
5 SUMMARY
The main objective of the presented work was to
examine the capabilities of computer simulations
for coupled structural thermal analysis of columns
subjected to combination of mechanical loading and
elevated temperatures. The paper presents the first
step of the feasibility study for the FE modeling
using the general purpose program LS-DYNA® . The
whole research is focused on improving prediction
capabilities for the purpose of virtual testing.
The experimental validation indicated that the main
sources of differences between numerical and experi-
mental results, especially for the post-buckling phase,
are due to simplified numerical material model and
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 12. Deformation and contours of temperature and
of Mises effective stress at time t = 17 min 8s, just before
buckling.
complexity of actual mechanical boundary condi-
tions. The selected material representation allows only
for bilinear approximation of stress – strain relation-
ships through specification of hardening modulus.
This approach led to underestimated stresses for higher
strain values and resulted with lower loading in the
buckled column, comparing to the experimental data.
For the future investigation a fully coupled structural
thermal analysis is planned with new material models
and modified boundary conditions involving contact
interactions.
REFERENCES
Ali F., O’Connor D. 2001. Structural performance of rota-
tionally restrained steel columns in fire, Fire Safety
Journal 36.
CEN, European Committee for Standardization, 2002. 1991-
1-2 Eurocode 1: Actions on structures – Part 1-2; General
Actions – Actions on structures exposed to fire. Brussels,
Belgium.
CEN, European Committee for Standardization, 2005. EN
1993-1-2, Eurocode 3: Design of steel structures – Part
1-2: Structural fire design. Brussels, Belgium.
Franssen, J-M. & Zaharia, R. 2006. Design of Steel Struc-
tures Subjected to Fire: Background and Design Guide
to Eurocode 3. Fire Safety Journal, Volume 41, Issue 8:
628–629.
Hallquist, J.O. 2006. LS-DYNA Keyword Manual. Livermore:
Livermore Software Technology Corporation.
Kosiorek, M., Fire safety in regulations and designing; Fire
Protection, 1/2002 (1).
Oberkampf, W.L. Trucano, T.G. & Hirsch C. 2004. Verifi-
cation, validation, and predictive capability in computa-
tional engineering and physics, Appl. Mech. Rev. 57 (5),
345–384.
Shapiro, A., 2005. Heat Transfer in LS-DYNA, 5th Euro-
pean LS-DYNA Users Conference New Applications and
Developments, Birmingham, UK.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

An experimental study on the thermal property of concrete under

the load ratio condition in tunnel fire

Kyung suk Cho, Heung Youl Kim & Hyung Jun Kim
Korea Institute of Construction Technology, Gyeonggido, Korea

Jae Sung Lee

Hannam University, Daejeon, Korea

Younghan Jung
OURMRO, Daejeon, Korea

ABSTRACT: Under the fire, the strength of concrete decreases due to the rapid temperature increase. The
ratio of the axial force under the temperature increase is a major factor in deformations of concrete structures.
This study has been conducted to evaluate fire performance of the concrete lining by various fire conditions
under the constant loading. The specimens are prepared according to the small scale test method in EFNARC
(Specification and Guidelines for Testing of Passive Fire Protection for Concrete Tunnels Linings). To analyze
the thermal properties by the strength, the adopted strengths of the specimens are 24 MPa, 40 MPa and 50 MPa.
The loading ratios are 20% and 40% of the each concrete compressive strength. MHC fire is used to study the
thermal impact of the concrete by rapid temperature increase. Under the same loading ratio, the 50 MPa specimen
shows more cracks and spalling as time goes on as compared with the specimens of 24 MPa and 40 MPa.

1 INTRODUCTION to Structure Members in Tunnels (Korean Society

Concrete in a fire is exposed to high temperature,
and the elevated temperature of the concrete results
in strength reduction comparing to the concrete at the
ambient temperature. Especially a tunnel fire gener-
ates a sudden increase of temperature at the beginning
stage of the fire because tunnel is almost airtight,
which in turn generates breaking-off of layers from
the spalling of linings that is tunnel structure. In
Europe, continuous efforts have been made to conduct
such collaborated researches as EUREKA Project,
FIT (Fires in Tunnel) Project, and DARTS (Durable
and Reliable Tunnels Structures) Project to develop
fire preventive technologies since 1990s due to the
consecutive tunnel fires in Europe after the Mont
Blanc Tunnel fire in 1999. Similar research project
in U.S., MTFVTP (Memorial Tunnel Fire Ventila-
tion Test Program, as well as in Japan (Carvel, 2002;
2003) also have been car-
ried out.
In Korea, the seriousness of large scale fire in a tun-
nel structure was recognized due to the subway fire in
Daegu that killed 192 and wounded 146 with 21 miss-
ing persons. Repairs and reinforcement of the subway
structures to recover the accident for 8 months cost
more than 100 billion Won (Daegu Metropolitan Tran-
sit Corp. 2003). Therefore, analytic researches about
thermal characteristics in a tunnel fire have been car-
ried out including “Evaluation of fire-induced Damage
of Civil Engeering, 2006),” “Fire-induced damage to
shield TBM concrete segment (Korean Geotechni-
cal Society 2005),” and “An Experimental Study on
Spalling properties of concrete in Fire (Korean Society
of Fire Science and Engineering 2009).” In this study,
changes and deformation characteristics by heating
and loading condition are to be investigated through a
experiment in order to analyze the thermal damage of
concrete lining in a fire.
2 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
To reveal the thermal properties of the rapid tem-
perature increase in concrete lining, the Modified
Hydrocarbon Fire(MHC), which is a tunnel fire sce-
nario with the most prominent thermal shock effect
among other tunnel fire conditions due to sudden tem-
perature increase, was selected as fire scenario. The
material test with UTM was performed in advance to
investigate the compressive strength of the concrete
lining, 24 MPa for the normal strength variable and
40 and 50 MPa for high strength were selected The
Small Scale Test in the Specification and Guideline
for Testing of Passive Fire Protection for Concrete
Tunnels Linings (EFNARC) specimen was applied as
the experiment standard with necessary modifications,
and the loading condition was determined so to be

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 2. Fire Scenario of Test.
Figure 1. Preparation of Test Specimen.

20 to 40% of the compressive strength of tunnel lin-

ing specimen to reveal the thermal properties under
specific loading conditions. Reliability of the external
force as the flame condition of the heat application was
secured by the modification test according to 2257-1
(ISO 834-1), and the condition of external force was
determined to be UTM (200 Ton) with that the modifi-
cation of loading was performed in order to apply the
pre-loading conditions simultaneously with the heat-
ing. An experiment was performed based on the above
test plan to analyze the depth of spalling on the con-
crete lining under a certain loading condition, and the
deformation characteristics of the concrete lining by
the loading condition was investigated.

3 EXPERIMENTAL STUDY Figure 3. The Shape of Fire Test Furnace.

3.1 Test specimens

Since the size of the specimen (600 × 600 × 150 mm)
should be appropriate to heating and simultaneous
loading conditions, the heat conduction on the UTM
loading area is to be minimized. Therefore, buffering
areas against heat conduction was given as 100 mm
thick concrete on the four sides of the specimen to
control the heat condition on the loading area among
the area for direct heat application (400 × 400 mm).
The shape condition on the heating area conformed to
the shape reference of Small Scale Test in EFNARC. It
was prepared as of Figure 1 with the specimen without
any fire resistance material.
The K-Type thermo couples were installed at 5, 10,
20, 30, 50, 100, and 150 mm points on both right and
left sides if the specimen to measure the distribution
characteristics of the internal temperature of the con-
crete. Averages on both sides were obtained, and the
thermo conduction property as per the depth of the
heated side was analyzed.
3.2 Fire scenario
Among the external force conditions in terms of fire
intensities upon the specimen such as ISO, MHC,
and RWS, which are recommended by PIARC, the
MHC with the sudden temperature increase at the
beginning stage was applied. The maximum tolerance
within 5% was resulted as of Figure 2 after the analy-
sis of the standard temperature curve and the furnace
temperature.
MHC fire curve shows the hydrocarbon tempera-
ture with ratio modification as a fire scenario that
analyzes thermal shock on the concrete material by
the rapidly temperature rising at the beginning stage
of a fire and was established to substitute the RWS
standards in France. The maximum temperature of
the hydrocarbon curve, 1,100◦ C was adjusted to be
1,300◦ C for the Modify Hydrocarbon so for the con-
crete spalling by the thermal shock to be analyzed at
the beginning stage of a fire, providing foundation ref-
erence for the fire curve researches about the spalling
of concrete structures with the temperature slope as
the result of initial minutes of temperature increase.
Therefore, this study was to analyze the fire damage
and depth of spalling of the concrete lining by applying
the worst tunnel fire scenario of the MHC.
3.3 Apparatus
The available loading at maximum is 2,000 kN, and
two compressive jigs were installed additionally to

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Table 1. Mixing ratio and material test results of concrete lining.

Unit content (kg/m3 )

fck w/c s/a Results
(MPa) (%) (%) C S G (19 mm) W SP(%) (MPa)

24 47.2 46.8 341 874 993 161 1.02 25.1

40 39.4 38.8 405.7 676.5 1066.1 159.8 6.5 41.1
50 34.3 39.03 437.3 694 1084 150 7 48.36

Table 2. Load ratio of concrete lining.

Load condition
Design Compressive
strength strength Load Load Ratio
Specimen (MPa) (MPa) (kN) (%)

L-L-1 24 25.1 451.8 20

L-L-2 903.6 40
L-L-3 40 41.1 739.8 20
L-L-4 1479.6 40
L-L-4 50 48.36 870.48 20
L-L-6 1740.96 40

control the heat conduction to UTM by the temperature

rising of the specimen.
Figure 4. Appearance of specimen after test.

3.4 Concrete mixture and material properties

3.4.1 Design for concrete lining mix and material
property
The design for the specimen concrete mix and the
compressive pressure test results are summarized in
following Table 1.
As in Table 2, the loading was applied after the cal-
culation based on the strength evaluation results from
the above material compressive pressure test.

4 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
4.1 Spalling pattern and failure mode
As the test results, no spalling occurred on all speci-
mens except the specimen LL6 (50 MPa, 40%). About
10 mm spalling on the LL6 was observed.
The spalling upon loading conditions was com-
pared with the spalling without loading. In case of
the 24 MPa concrete, the 16 mm spalling occurred
under the no loading condition (Lee Chul-ho 2007),
but no spalling was observed under the loading con-
dition. In case of the 40 MPa concrete, the 30 mm
spalling occurred under the no loading condition (Kim
Heung-ryol, 2009), but no spalling was observed under
the loading condition. More, in case of the 50 MPa
concrete, the no spalling occurred at 20% loading
conditions, but spalling occurred at 40%.
The spalling turned out to be reduced under appro-
priate loading conditions. The relationship between
Figure 5. Concrete inner temperature according to depth
(LL1).
loading and spalling is in line with other researches
performed by Phan L.T. (2002) and Harada K. (2002).
4.2 Variation of temperature
4.2.1 Load ratio
As the loading increases from 20% to 40% under
24 MPa concrete lining compressive strength, the tem-
perature changes were similar so to be within differ at
22◦ C at the depth of 20 mm (Figure 5, 6).
Though the temperature increase from 12◦ C to 51◦ C
was observed along with the increase of loading at
40 MPa compressive pressure, the temperature can be
said nearly identical once the temperature increase

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 6. Concrete inner temperature according to depth
(LL2).
Figure 7. Concrete inner temperature according to depth
(LL3).
Figure 8. Concrete inner temperature according to depth
(LL4).
of internal concrete up to 958◦ C was considered
(Figure 7, 8).
The temperature difference of 41◦ C was observed
at 10 mm depth along with the loading increase at the
specimen with 50 MPa compressive strength (Figure
9, 10). Though a maximum temperature increase in the
range within 5% as the loading increases was observed,
the effects of loading on the temperature increasing
deemed to not be significant.
4.2.2 Concrete strength
The temperature effect on the concrete strength was
analyzed by the analysis of the temperature increase
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 9. Concrete inener temperature according to depth
(LL5).
Figure 10. Concrete inner temperature according to depth
(LL6).
ratio during 15 minutes after the initial heating of the
specimen. The temperature increase in 50 MPa spec-
imen for the first 10 minutes (assuming it exhibits
a linear increase) was revealed to be 34% higher
than that of 24 MPa specimen. The initial temperature
increase ratio turned out to be higher as the concrete
strength increases, and consecutive thermal damage
for higher concrete strength is also higher under the
identical fire condition. Since the characteristic parti-
cle distribution in the 50 MPa high strength concrete
is dense due to low water-cement ratio, the thermal
conduction is assumed to occur very quickly through
internal medium.
The temperature effects upon specimen strength
along with depth, the temperature increase of 40 MPa
specimen with 20% loading was lowest at 10 mm, the
ratio of temperature increase in 50 MPa specimen was
fastest, the ratio of temperature increase was faster as
the strength increases in case of 40% loading condi-
tion, and no temperature difference was observed after
82 minutes since the initial heating (Figure 11, 12).
In case of 30 mm, 40 MPa specimen with 20% load-
ing turned out to have the lowest temperature increase,
and the 40% showed a similar temperature increase
(Figure 13, 14).
Not significant difference was detected for different
strength in case of 40 mm (Figure 15, 16).
Figure 11. Concrete inner temperature according to com-
pressive strength (depth-10 mm, load ratio-20%).
Figure 12. Concrete inner temperature according to com-
pressive strength (depth-10 mm, load ratio-40%).
Figure 13. Concrete inner temperature according to com-
pressive strength (depth-30 mm, load ratio-20%).
4.3 Fire resistance
Range of the fire damage on tunnel linings by a fire
was drawn, and depths and time that exceeds the limit
temperature 380◦ C for the concrete strength reduction
suggested by ITA were measured (Table 3). As results,
time to reach at 380◦ C became faster as the load ratio
increases. Especially for 40 MPa specimen, 32 min-
utes of time difference was observed. Therefore, micro
cracks are deemed to be generated under specific load
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 14. Concrete inner temperature according to com-
pressive strength (depth-30 mm, load ratio-40%).
Figure 15. Concrete inner temperature according to com-
pressive strength (depth-50mm, load ratio-20%).
Figure 16. Concrete inner temperature according to com-
pressive strength (depth-50mm, load ratio-40%).
condition so to reduce the spalling, but thermal trans-
mission is thought to be accelerated through these
micro cracks resulting increase in temperature.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The temperature increase ratio of the high strength
concrete was revealed to be greater than that of the
ordinary concrete during the initial heating by rapid
Table 3. Results of concrete damage in fire. Khoury, G.A. 2002. Passive protection against fire; & Tun-
nelling International, Nov. 2002, pp. 40 ∼ 42
Damage Khoury. G.A. 2002. EU tunnel fire safety action; Tunnels
Strength Load Range (ITA, Time (min., Tunnelling International, April 2003, pp. 20–23.
Specimen (MPa) ratio(%) 380◦ C) 380◦ C) EFNARC, 2006. Specification and Guidelines for Testing
of Passive Fire Protection for concrete Tunnels Linings,
L-L-1 24 20 0∼50 57 pp. 15–27
L-L-2 40 0∼50 55 ITA Working Group No.6, 2004. Guidelines for Structural
L-L-3 40 20 0∼50 69 Fire Resistance for RoadTunnels, InternationalTunnelling
L-L-4 40 0∼50 37 Association, ITA pp. 36–41
L-L-5 50 20 0∼50 35 Phan L.T., Carino N.J., 2002. Effects of test conditions
L-L-6 40 0∼50 37 and mixture proportion on behaviours of high-strength
concrete exposed to high temperatures, ACI Material
Journal
Arita F., Harada K., and Miyamoto K., 2002. Thermal
spalling of high-performance concrete during fire, 2nd
heat conduction through internal medium because International Workshop on Structure in Fire, Christchurch
50 MPa high strength concrete is denser than the March.
ordinary concrete. 2003.
Micro cracks in the high strength concrete specimen
subjected the appropriate loading condition decrease KSA, 1999. KSF 2257-1. Method of fire resistance test for
the occurrence of the spalling by leading reduction of elements of building construction-General requirements.
the pore pressure. Chang Soo-Ho , Choi Soon-wook, Kwon Jong-wook & Bae
Though temperature of the concrete specimens was Gyu-jin, 2006. Evaluation of fire-induced Damage to
Structure Members in Tunnels. Korea Society of Civil
lightly increased as the increase of loading, the effect
Engineers. pp. 219–228
was not significant by considering the temperature of Choi Soon-wook, Chang Soo-ho, Lee Gyu-phil & Bae Gyu-
the concrete increasing up to 1,000◦ C. jin, 2005. Fire-induced damage to shield TBM concrete
The internal temperature increase in 50 MPa spec- segment, Korea Geotechnical society. Vol. 21, No. 5
imen was fastest followed by 24 MPa and 40 MPa, Lee Choul-ho, Choi Seng-kwan, Han Sang-hoon & Jung
but the effect on temperature increase by the strength Sung-hyun, 2007. An Experimental study on spalling
increase at the same load ratio was insignificant. properties of concrete in Fire, Korea Concrete Institute
As the loading ratio increase, the time to be reached Vol.19 No.2 pp. 953–956
at 380◦ C became faster. Especially, the time difference Kim Heung-ryol, Kim Hyung-jun, Cho Kyung-suk, Lee Jae-
sung & Kwon gi-hyuk, 2009, An Experimental study
of 32 minute was observed in 40 MPa specimen.
on Thermal Damage and Spalling of Concrete Lining in
Tunnel Fire, KIFSE Vol. 23, No. 3 pp. 112
Daegu Metropolitan Transit Corp. 2003. Accurate Safety
REFERENCES Evaluation Report for the Jungangro Station, Daegu Metro
Line 1
Carvel, R. 2000.The history and future of fire tests.Tunnels &
Tunnelling International, Nov. 2002, pp. 34 ∼ 35
Haack, A. 1998. Fire Protection in Traffic Tunnels: Aspects
and Results of the EUREKA Project; Tunnelling and
Underground Space Technology, Vol. 13, No. 4, pp.
377–381.

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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Finite element modelling of lap shear riveted connections in fire

R. Marmo, M. D’Aniello, F. Portioli & R. Landolfo

Department of Construction and Mathematical Methods in Architecture,
University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

ABSTRACT: Ancient metal structures represent an important architectural and historical heritage in Italy.
These structures are generally affected by a spread damage state mainly due to corrosion and structural inade-
quacy. In particular, a recent research carried out by the authors showed that riveted connections represent the
weaker elements of these structures. To characterize the mechanical behaviour of riveted connections under actual
service load and under exceptional action, like fire, a wide experimental-theoretical study is still on-going. This
work faces the basic modelling issues and introduces the preliminary fire modelling issues. Using the ABAQUS
software, a highly detailed three-dimensional (3-D) Finite Element (FE) model was created. Material and geo-
metric non-linearity, large deformation and contact behaviour have been taken into account. The connection
model has been analysed through the elastic and plastic ranges up to failure.

1 INTRODUCTION The ongoing study consists in experimental tests

Hot-driven rivets were extensively used in iron and
steel structures in the past. Nowadays, these construc-
tions represent an important part of the architectural
and cultural heritage that needs to be preserved and
protected. Historic metal structures include several
typologies, as large span roofing of urban passages,
gasholder structures and railway constructions.
The majority of historic steel structures are still
in service and they are exposed to loads larger than
expected. The reliability of these structures is also
affected by deterioration and the poor quality of
material (Sustainable bridges 2006).
After several decades from their erection, this class
of constructions reveals some damages and/or struc-
tural inadequacies (Guerrieri et al. 2005). The ancient
metal structures, generally made of puddled iron or
wrought steel riveted plates, were built on the basis
of the experience on timber constructions and conse-
quently without an adequate knowledge and maturity
about typical aspects of design of steel structures.
These types of constructions are generally character-
ized by trussed structural schemes. Hence, the failure
of connections can produce the overall failure of the
structure, because the riveted connections represent
the weaker elements of these structures.
These considerations lead to identify the vulnera-
bility of connections as the crucial aspect concerning
the structural capacity of ancient metal structures.
The research presented in this paper is devoted
to investigate the structural capacity of the above-
mentioned connections under actual service loads and
under exceptional actions, like fire and impact, in order
to provide a tool for structural safety assessment of the
historical steel structures that are still in service.
and theoretical and numerical analyses which are per-
formed in collaboration with Italian railway society
(RFI) on selected riveted connections in order to ana-
lyze the influence of different parameters such as load
eccentricity, net area, plate width, joint length and rivet
clamping force on the shear capacity.
The current work presents the numerical study, after
a brief description of the testing programme and the
relevant results.
This research investigates the robustness of a sym-
metric lap shear riveted connection under fire con-
ditions. A highly detailed three-dimensional (3-D)
finite element (FE) model has been created using the
ABAQUS software. This is a complex model account-
ing for material and geometric non-linearity, large
deformation and contact behaviour.
As recognized by several authors (Hu et al. 2007,
Sarraj et al. 2008, Chung et al. 2010) contact is a crit-
ical issue to model the shear behaviour of the joint,
and contact elements have been used both at the rivet–
hole interface and for the surface between the plate in
contact, considering for friction between the surfaces.
The connection model has been analysed through the
elastic and plastic ranges up to failure. In particular,
a preliminary fire modelling has been carried out, to
evaluate the ultimate strength of the connection under a
fire elevate temperature, which is an exceptional action
for this kind of elements.
2 EXPERIMENTAL ACTIVITY
2.1 Tests on materials
The plates and the rivets constituting the riveted speci-
mens have been obtained by materials stored by Italian

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 1. Manufactured riveted specimens to be tested.
Railways (RFI) and they are dated from the ’60s of
last century. The average yield stress of steel plate
was 291 MPa (measured at 5‰ strain), while the
average ultimate stress was 433 MPa and an aver-
age ultimate strain (corresponding to necking) of
about 28%. In case of rivets, the average value of
yield stress was 315 MPa, the average ultimate stress
was about 412 MPa, while the average ultimate strain
(corresponding to necking) was 16%.
2.2 Tests on riveted specimens
The riveted specimens have been designed and man-
ufactured in order to characterize the mechanical
behaviour of ancient metallic riveted connections,
namely investigating on the influence of different geo-
metrical properties on the shear capacity of lap shear
connections. It was possible to test different rivet
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 2. Synthesis of experimental results.
configurations as follows: 1. One rivet joint; 2. Single
row rivet joint (D’Aniello et al. 2008, 2009).
Three specimens have been built up for every kind
of joint. This choice was due to the fact that simi-
lar riveted connections can show a different capacity
response, because they can be affected by the hand
made riveting process (Fisher & Yoshida 1969). More-
over, all specimens have been designed considering
both symmetric and asymmetric lap plates, as shown
in Figure 1.
Tests showed various failure modes exhibited by
each specimen typologies. In particular, regarding
asymmetrical specimens, it was observed mixed fail-
ure modes combining types rivet shear failure, plate
tearing and plate shearing. On the contrary, a single
failure mode due to either rivet shear or the yield in
bearing of thinner sheets occurred for the symmetrical
specimens.
Figure 2 shows for each specimen the ratio between
the average experimental strength (Fexp ) and the the-
oretical calculated one (Fec3 ). In particular, the lat-
ter values are calculated using the average material
mechanical properties. As it can be easily noted, the
calculated resistances are not in accordance to the
measured values. In particular, this plot demonstrates
that the calculated strength underestimates signifi-
cantly the actual capacity. Indeed, the average value
of (Fexp /Fec3 ) ratio is 1.40. Moreover, the predicted
failure mechanisms differ from the experimental ones
in six cases only. In the plot, the letter that corresponds
to the appropriate failure mechanism indicates the just
mentioned cases.
3 CALIBRATED NUMERICAL MODELLING
AT AMBIENT TEMPERATURE
On the basis of experimental outcomes it was possi-
ble to calibrate and validate FE models. For brevity
sake, the present paper presents only the numerical
modelling of S16-10-1 riveted specimen.
Numerical analyses have been carried out by means
of the finite element program ABAQUS 6.7 The
8-node brick continuum element C3D8R, with 8 nodes
 Figure 4. Mesh thickening in the parts in contact.

Figure 3. Modelling assumptions: implemented contact

conditions.

per element, 3 degrees of freedom per node and a

linear interpolation function was adopted for mod-
elling both rivet and plates. All degree of freedom
of the end portion of the plates were restrained in
order to reproduce the actual boundary condition dur-
ing the test. The material stress-strain relation-ships Figure 5. Simulation of the rivet clamping.
for the rivets and plates have been obtained starting
from the relevant experimental test on the captioned
materials (as reported in Section 2.1). In particular, the
average experimental stress-strain curve has been con-
verted into the true stress-true strain relationship, with
a plateau corresponding to the ultimate strength (fu ).
The plasticity behaviour was based on the Von Mises
yield surface criterion. Large deformation effects have
been considered.
In particular, the following contact conditions were
introduced: a) between the internal surfaces of the
hole and rivet shank (Fig. 3a,b,c); b) between the rivet
heads and the external plate surfaces (Fig. 3a,b,c); c) at
interface between the plates (Fig. 3d). After a prelimi-
nary sensitivity study of the mesh, in order to minimize
numerical discrepancy due to the contact boundary
conditions, it needed to thicken the mesh sizing, mak- Figure 6. Simulation of the experimental load pattern.
ing refined partitions of plates and rivet as shown in
Figures 4a,b.
Moreover, the Coulomb friction model (with a fric- was given to the rivet shank. The shank shrinking due
tion coefficient of 0.3) has been considered in all to the cooling process after the riveting was simulated
contact conditions. by the release of the rivet shank.
In order to take into account the rivet clamping, the Finally, the load pattern has been simulated by
rivet shank was modelled with an initial length smaller applying a relative displacement between the two
than the nominal length in the actual configuration. opposite terminal ends of each connected plates, as
The rivet clamping was introduced imposing a relative shown in Figure 6.
elongation in tension to the rivet shank that was ini- The load versus in-plane deformation behaviour of
tially modelled with a length shorter than its nominal lap joints is plotted in Figure 7. The failure mecha-
value, as illustrated in Figure 5. The modified initial nism of the symmetric splice S16-10-1 is the bearing
length was L1 . A relative elongation of 0,038 mm, cor- of the inner plate, essentially due to the shear load
responding to a strain equal to the 80% of the yield one, concentration.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 7. Predicted collapse mechanism of S16-10-1.
Figure 8. Numerical vs. Experimental response curve.
The response of the finite element model was
compared with the experimental results. The load-
displacement curve obtained from numerical simu-
lation is reported in Figure 8. It can be noted that
the predicted response is in a good agreement with
experimental results in terms of stiffness and strength.
4 FIRE MODELLING
The calibrated model showed in Section 3 has been
updated to simulate the fire condition.
This matter implied the modification of the mate-
rial, mesh and contact properties. Indeed, the material
properties at the elevate temperatures were determined
from the engineering stress-strain relationship using
nonlinear material curves recommended in Eurocode
3, Part 1.2. Both elastic modulus and yield strength
were reduced by a factor, due to the increasing
of the temperature (Fig. 9). The expansion coeffi-
cient was also defined, assumed to be 10−5 at the
ambient temperature and reduced according to EC3
when temperature increases. Similarly, specific heat
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 9. Mechanical properties of steel in function of
temperature.
Figure 10. The applied fire (time-temperature curve given
by the EN 1991 Part 1.2).
and conductivity were assumed to be respectively
439,8 J/kgK and 53,3 W/mK at the ambient temper-
ature and both reduced according to EC3 at the ele-
vated temperatures. The Stefan-Boltzmann constant
and the absolute zero temperature were also defined
in Abaqus, to be respectively 5,76 · 10−8 W/m2 K4 , and
−273◦ C.
Both the rivet and the plates were re-meshed
using a 3D 8-node, thermally coupled brick element,
with trilinear displacement and temperature, reduced
integration (1 Gauss point) and hourglass control
(C3D8RT). Large deformation, and geometric and
material non-linearity were taken into account once
more.
As in the calibrated model, contacts were mod-
elled among rivet and plates, and among the plates.
These interactions are defined as “surface to surface”
and the finite-sliding option was used for the sliding
formulation. Owing to hard convergence problems, a
tangent behaviour frictionless was used for each con-
tact instead of the tangential behaviour used in the
previous model.
The boundary conditions were the same of the pre-
vious model, but in the latter case a tensile force
was applied to the connection, to reproduce a loading

Figure 11. Investigated mesh subdivision: model 1(a);
model 2(b); model 3(c).
condition reasonably comparable to the one of the real
structure in site.
A thermal load was also added to apply the fire
condition. The amplitude was set according to the
temperature-time curve given by the Eurocode 1 Part
1.2, which is showed in Figure 10.
It was modelled the heat transmission due to radi-
ation from the ambient where the fire develops to the
external surfaces of the connection. All the connec-
tion surfaces were considered as exposed to fire. The
emissivity of steel was assumed to be 0,5, which is an
intermediate value between the zinc-plated steel and
the oxidized steel (Faggiano et al. 2007).
In order to optimize the accuracy of the analysis
and the CPU time for calculation, a sensitivity study
of the mesh was also performed. The investigated mesh
subdivision are shown in Figure 11.
The responses of the different models are plotted in
Figure 12. It is possible to note that, in case of smaller
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 12. Responses of different models.
Figure 13. Time-Displacement curve of lap shear joint to
fire.
plates elements, the response is stiffer than the model
with larger elements. The subdivision of the plates in
thickness does not affect the response of the model.
Model 3 was chosen for fire analysis, due to the most
accurate response.
The temperature versus time behaviour of lap joints
is summarized in Figure 13. It is possible to note that
the displacement due to service loads remains almost
the same for the first 10 minutes.After this time, a great
increase of displacement is observed. This behaviour is
due to the increase of temperature. As a matter of fact,
until 500◦ C, the response of the connection is almost
the same. An increase of 5% of the displacement is
observed respect to the displacement due to the service
load at the ambient temperature.
After about 5 minutes, the temperature reaches
500◦ C, and a great reduction of the connection
response is noted. This behavior advised that the lap
shear joint worked until 500◦ C, that corresponds to an
increment of the displacement of 5%. After this time-
lapse (about 5 minutes), the connection failed due to
the reduction of its mechanical characteristics.
5 CONCLUSION
Structural integrity assessment of historical metallic
structures can be considered one of the main issue in
the field of structural engineering.
 In order to assess the safety level of these old
constructions under current loads and under excep-
tional actions, like fire, the strength of their riveted
connection must be reliably estimated.
This paper shows, on the basis of a wide experimen-
tal research (D’Aniello et al. 2008, 2009), a numerical
study aimed to analyse the response of lap shear riveted
connection typically present in historic metal struc-
tures. Moreover, the results of the predictive numerical
analyses performed on some representative specimens
have been shown. The 3-D FE models simulated
the shearing and bearing behaviour in simple sym-
metric lap shear connection. The models incorporate
non-linear material properties for all the connec-
tion components, geometric non-linearity and contact
interaction by means of the ABAQUS/Standard code.
In most cases, contact elements were crucial for
modelling the steel connection performance, and so
creation of the fin plate connection model was a big
challenge. However, the contact interaction between
the connection components was introduced and suc-
cessfully achieved on all the interfaces. Moreover, a
preliminary fire modelling is presented as well. The
behaviour of steel in fire is well represented, in par-
ticular the reduction of bearing capacity at elevate
temperatures. The response of the connection shows
that until 500◦ C the strength and the deformability of
the material is almost the same of the ones at ambient
temperature. However, further efforts are necessary to
improve the fire model, especially for what concerns
the interaction definition such as the Coulomb friction
in contacts.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The following subjects are gratefully acknowledged:
– PROHITECH project “Earthquake Protection of
Historical Buildings by Reversible Mixed Tech-
nologies”;
– PRIN prot. 2005087058_004 “Vulnerability and
reversible consolidation techniques for historical
metal structures”;
– Eng. Antonio D’Aniello, Department director of
the Italian railways (RFI), to the courtesy, coop-
eration and assistance during the whole research
activity.
254
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
REFERENCES
ABAQUS, Inc. User’s Manual. ABAQUS Standard V6.5.
ABAQUS, Inc.; 2005.
Chung H.Y., Lee C.H., Su W.J., Lin R. Z. (2010). “Application
of fire-resistant steel to beam-to-column moment connec-
tions at elevated temperatures”, Journal of Constructional
Steel Research, Vol. 66, September.
D’Aniello M., Fiorino L., Portioli F., Landolfo R., (2009).
“Experimental analysis of riveted connection in historic
metallic structures”. Proc. of PROHITECH Conference
2009. Roma (Italy), 21–24 June
D’Aniello M., Fiorino L., Landolfo R., (2008). “Structural
performance of riveted connections in historical metal
structures. Proc. of SAHC’08 VI international confer-
ence on structural analysis of historical constructions
evaluating safety and significance, Bath, UK 2, 3, 4 July.
Eurocode 1, Actions on structures, Part 1-2: General actions –
Actions on structures exposed to fire (UNI EN 1991)
Eurocode 3, Design of steel structures, Part 1-2: General
rules – Structural fire design (UNI EN 1993)
Faggiano B., Esposto M., Mazzolani F.M., Landolfo R.
(2007). “Fire analysis on steel portal frames damaged
after earthquake according to performance based design”,
Proc. of COST Action C26 Workshop in Prague, 30–31
March.
Fisher J.W. & Yoshida N. (1969) “Large Bolted and Riv-
eted Shingle Splices,” Journal of the Structural Division,
ASCE, Vol. 96, ST9, September.
Guerrieri M.R., Di Lorenzo G., Landolfo R. (2005). Influ-
ence of atmospheric corrosion on the XIX century “iron”
structures: assessment of damage for Umberto I Gallery in
Naples. Proc. of XX CTA Conference, Ischia (Italy) 26–28
September.
HuY., Burgess I.W., Davison J.B., Plank R.J. (2007). “Model-
ing of flexible end plate connections in fire using cohesive
elements”, Proc. of the Fifth Int. Conf. on Structures in Fire
(SiF’08), Singapore (China), 28–30 May.
Sarraj M., Burgess I.W., Davison J.B., Plank R.J. (2008).
“Finite element modeling of steel fin plate connections
in fire”, Fire Safety Journal, Vol. 42, July.
Shoukry Z. & Haisch W.T. (1970). “Bolted Connections
with Varied Hole Diameters,” Journal of the Structural
Division, ASCE, Vol. 96, ST6, June.
Sustainable bridges – European research project under
the EU 6th framework programme. http://www.
sustainablebridges.net/; 2006
SB3.4. Condition assessment and inspection of steel rail-
way bridges, including stress measurements in riveted,
bolted and welded structures. Background document D3.4
to “Guideline for Condition Assessment and Inspection”.
Prepared by Sustainable Bridges- a project within EU FP6
(Available from: www.sustainablebridges.net.), 2007
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Application of FSE approach to the structural fire safety assessment of

steel-concrete composite structures

E. Nigro, A. Ferraro & G. Cefarelli

D.I.ST., Department of Structural Engineering, University of Naples “Federico II”, Napoli, Italy

ABSTRACT: Fire Safety Engineering can be defined as a multi-discipline based on the application of engineer-
ing principles, rules and expert judgement to the effects of fire in order to reduce the loss of lives and damages
to property by quantifying the risks and hazards involved and provide an optimal solution to risk mitigation.
This paper is devoted to the application of the Fire Safety Engineering (FSE) concepts to the evaluation of the
structural fire safety of an office building with steel and concrete composite structures. First of all, the layout
of the FSE approach is introduced with reference to the European Codes (EN1990; EN1991-1-2; EN1994-1-2)
and the recent Italian National Codes (Technical Code for Constructions, 2008; D.M.Int., 2007a,b). Afterwards
the FSE layout is applied to an office building. Finally, a comparison between the prescriptive approach and the
FSE approach is presented.

1 INTRODUCTION In order to compare the two approach, in this paper

According to ISO/TR 13387-1, the Fire Safety Engi-
neering (FSE) is the application of engineering princi-
ples, rules and expert judgement based on a scientific
appreciation of the fire phenomena, the effects of fire
and the reaction and behaviour of people, in order to:
– save life, protect property and preserve the environ-
ment and heritage;
– quantify the hazards and risk of fire and its effects;
– evaluate analytically the optimum protective and
prevention measures necessary to limit, within
prescribed levels, the consequences of fire.
Actual European codes (NTC 2008; EN 1991-1-2;
EN 1993-1-2; EN 1994-1-2) allow the use of a perfor-
mance approach through the concept of “Fire Safety
Engineering”. The temperature distribution within the
elements and the nonlinear mechanical and geometric
structural response are taken into account in the fire
performance approach.
The prescriptive approach is characterized by fire
design procedures not unlike those used for design in
ordinary situation. It is mainly based on the assumption
that the structural fire behaviour is determined only
by the reduction of the material mechanical properties
at the elevated temperatures.
The main parameters that influence the code
requirements are the building height, the purpose of
the building and the number of occupants. The require-
ments for fire resistance, however, should essentially
be based on the parameters affecting the growth and
development of fire, including: fire load, ventilation
conditions, exodus conditions, safety of fire brigades,
active and passive fire protection, etc.
we describe an application of “Fire Safety Engineer-
ing” to a public office building with steel and concrete
composite structures. Finally, a comparison between
the prescriptive approach and the FSE approach is
presented, according to the Italian Code (Ministry of
Interior 2007a,b).
2 NATIONAL AND EUROPEAN CODES
The Directive 89/106/CE on Construction Products of
the European Community introduced the definition of
the requirement of “safety in case of fire”, which is the
base for the application of the fire safety engineering.
This requirement, implemented in national codes of
European member countries, is explained by achieving
the following five objectives:
1) the load-bearing capacity of the construction can
be assumed for a specific period of time;
2) the generation and spread of fire and smoke within
the works are limited;
3) the spread of the fire to neighbouring construction
works is limited;
4) occupants can leave the works or be rescued by
other means;
5) the safety of rescue teams is taken into considera-
tion.
The results of each application of the performance
approach to the fire safety should be evaluated by the
analysis of the achievement of these objectives.
The European codes for structural fire safety is the
“Fire Parts” of Structural Eurocodes: EN1991-1-2,

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
“Actions on structures. Part 1–2: General actions –
Actions on structures exposed to fire”; EN1992-1-2,
“Design of concrete structures. Part 1–2: General
rules – Structural fire design”; EN1993-1-2, “Design
of steel structures. Part 1–2: General rules – Struc-
tural fire design”; EN1994-1-2, “Design of compos-
ite steel and concrete structures. Part 1–2: General
rules – Structural fire design”; EN1995-1-2, “Design
of timber structures. Part 1–2: General rules – Struc-
tural fire design”; EN1996-1-2, “Design of masonry
structures. Part 1-2: General rules – Structural fire
design”.
In Italy, the new Technical Code for Constructions
has been published in 2008 (NTC2008 – Ministry of
Infrastructure and Transport 2008). For the first time
in Italy, the fire action is introduced within the defini-
tion of the actions on constructions, as an “exceptional
load”. The document defines the performance safety
levels of buildings according to the safety objectives
required by the Directive 89/106/CE. The NTC2008
defines five safety performance levels depending on
the building importance, which establish the damage
level that can accepted. These rules define the fire
structural performance requirements and refer to spe-
cific technical codes issued by the Ministry of Interior
for all activities under the control of the National Fire
Brigades (Ministry of Interior 2007a,b). Figure 1. Fire Safety Engineering: Layout.
In this scenario the “Fire Safety Engineering”
allows a more precise adjustment of the safety mea-
sures at specific risk of the building. 4 CASE STUDY: PUBLIC OFFICES BUILDING
Finally, it is important to note that in the actual WITH STEEL-CONCRETE COMPOSITE
code the performance-based approach does not replace STRUCTURE
prescriptive approach, but the two approaches coex-
ist. The technical solutions imposed by the pre- 4.1 Building description: analysis of the structural
scriptive approach remain one of the possible ways characteristics
that the designer can choose for the structural fire
design. The case study is a steel-concrete composite structure
for a public office building, already described in a
paper within the same Conference Proceedings (Nigro
et al., 2010), which we refer for further details.
3 FIRE SAFETY ENGINEERING Each floor can be considered as a compartment. The
compartment is open space and it has a plant area of
The performance approach, as opposed to prescriptive, 576 m2 , 12 windows width 5.0 m and height 1.50 m.
is based on a detailed analysis of the structural behavior The enclosure is by material with density 2000 kg/m3 ,
using advanced analytical models. specific heat 1113 J/kgK and thermal conductivity
Therefore, through the engineering method, follow- 1.04 W/mK.
ing the steps in the layout of Figure 1, it is possible to
evaluate the structural fire safety level.
Particularly, it should be defined: 4.2 Choice of safety performance level
1) the ignition fire hazard according to the purpose According to NTC2008, it was chosen the performance
of the building (type and amount of fire load, type level III because the building has a specific use of
of users) and if there are active and passive fire public offices. In this way, it required to the structure
protection systems; that it retains its strength for the overall duration of the
2) the design fire scenarios, fire development and the fire without collapsing.
movement and evacuation of smoke, depending on
the geometric characteristics and ventilation con-
ditions of the fire compartment and the type and 4.3 Choice of the active and passive fire protection
amount of fire design load. systems
The application of the Fire Safety Engineering Active Fire Protection include both the use of facili-
method to the case study follows the steps shown in ties for extinguishing fire in its initial phase, such as
Layout of the Figure 1. automatic detection systems, alarm systems, smoke

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
evacuees, etc..; and the adoption of design decision
to make quick the evacuation of the building and the
timely intervention of fire brigades that before burning
spreading uncontrollably (exceeding the flash-over).
Passive Fire Protection comprise the set of mea-
sures to minimize the damage of building during the
generalized fire (post flashover), such as systems that
prevent the spread of fire, smoke and heat within the
works (fire compartments), or using materials with low
flammability and with little ability to produce smoke
(fire reaction).
In this case study, smoke detection automatic sys-
tems and fire automatic alarms are present.
4.4 Static and fire design load calculation
The NTC 2008 classify the fire as an exceptional load,
so the fire design load combination is defined by:
where Gk1 is the characteristic value of permanent
structural load; Gk2 is the characteristic value of
permanent non structural load; ψ2i · Qki is the quasi-
permanent value of a variable action i; Ad is the design
value of an exceptional action.
The specific fire load (Ministry of Interior 2007b)
is defined as the total heat potential of all combustible
materials that are situated in the fire compartment
with reference to the gross area of the compartment,
adjusted by parameters corresponding to the participa-
tion in the combustion of individual materials. The fire
load is an index of fire hazard: the more is the fire load,
the more is the severity of the fire. In the case study the
fire load density is assumed equals to qf = 655 MJ/m2 .
It’s corresponding to the 95% fractile of the fire load
Gumbel statistical distribution (Schleich et al, 2003).
The design fire load density is calculated using the
following equation:
where δq1 is a factor taking into account the fire acti-
vation risk due to the size of the compartment (Table 1
attached to D.M. Int. 03/09/2007); δq2 is a factor taking
into account the fire activation risk due to the type of
occupancy (Table 2 attached to D.M. Int. 03/09/2007);
δn is a factor taking into account the different active
fire fighting measures (sprinkler, detection, automatic
alarm transmission, firemen, – Table 3 attached to
D.M. Int. 03/09/2007).
4.5 Fire model and fire design scenarios
According to EN1991-1-2 (2002), the fire scenario is
the qualitative description of the course of a fire with
time identifying key events that characterise the fire
and differentiate it from other possible fires. It typi-
cally defines the ignition and fire growth process, the
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 2. Parametric temperature-time curve.
fully developed stage, decay stage together with the
building environment and systems that will impact on
the course of the fire.
The ignition of a fire can occur when one or more
fuels coming into contact with a heat source; this ini-
tial phase is characterized by a small fire burning that
involves very small area and it is characterized by
wide temperature range within environment. At this
point, if some active fire protection systems are present
and fully functional, the fire would be extinguished.
Instead, if active fire protection systems are not present
or not fully functional, the fire spreads to a larger area
but still with varying temperatures within the compart-
ment, developing a localized fire. If the “flashover”
occurs there is a widespread fire that involves the entire
compartment.
Therefore, the possible types of fire are both local-
ized fire and generalized fire. The first can be dan-
gerous for some structural members, the second can
be dangerous for all structural elements present in the
compartment.
The parametric temperature-time curve (Figure 2)
can be evaluate from the value of design fire load den-
sity and the characteristics of the compartment (see
section 4.1) as described in Annex A of EN 1991-1-2.
Moreover the thermal action of a localized fire can
be assessed as described in Annex C of EN 1991-1-2)
from the rate of heat release curve of Figure 3.
Five different fire scenarios are chosen in order to
evaluate the structural behavior through the analysis
of a representative plane frame, which is highlighted
by blue line in Figure 4 and Figure 5. In Figure 5 is
reported the localized fire position and the diameter D
of the fire).
4.6 Design and structural model
The fire design is performed with an advanced struc-
tural model, which allows to take into account the
 Figure 3. Heat Rate Release.
Figure 4. Generalized fire scenario (Post-flashover Fire).
nonlinear behavior of materials and structure and the
effects of thermal elongation. The structural analysis
is carried out on the plane frame, which is highlighted
by blue line in Figure 4 and Figure 5. The columns
are arranged with the axis of maximum inertia within
the plane of the frame. Beam-to-column connections
ensure the rigidity of the nodes and they are assumed to
be able to withstand the forces for a time at least equal
to the fire resistance time of the members transmitting
the forces.
Structural analyses are conducted by using the non
linear software SAFIR2004 (Franssen et al., 2000),
developed at the University of Liege (Belgium), which
performs the structural analysis under fire conditions.
In Figure 6 and Figure 7 are reported the analy-
sis results (temperature, bending moments and axial
forces) for all analyzed fire scenarios. In particular
Figure 6 shows the results for the beams, while Figure 7
those relating to the columns.
In order to understand the structural behavior, it
is analyzed the generalized fire scenario 1 (black
curves in Figure 6 and Figure 7). As a consequence of
the heating the structural members begin to expand.
The thermal elongation of the beam is constrained by
the lateral stiffness of the columns and therefore the
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 5. Localized fire scenarios (Pre-flashover Fire).
heated beams are subjected to compressive axial forces
(Figure 6). Moreover, an increment of the hogging
bending moments is produced by the thermal bowing
(Figure 6). The deformed shape and the corresponding
bending moment diagram at different fire exposure
time are reported in Figure 8. The lateral columns,
heated on a single side, show an increase of the bend-
ing moment due to both the beam thermal bowing and
the P- effects.The axial force of the internal columns,
heated on all sides, increases; in fact, the columns ther-
mal elongation is constrained by the shear stiffness of
the beams.
After about 50 minutes of fire exposure the cool-
ing of the structural members begins (Figure 6), with
consequent thermal bowing opposite to that of the
heating phase; such curvature is able to reverse the
trend both of the bending moment and the displace-
ment of the beams (Figure 8). The structure does not
return to the same initial conditions after the fire expo-
sure; in fact, during the heating and cooling phase
plastic deformations occur at the ends of the struc-
tural members, as shown by the diagrams of bending
moments during the fire exposure time (Figure 7) and
the residual strain at the end of the cooling phase
(Figure 8).
Figure 6. Temperatures, bending moments and axial forces
in beams during the fire exposure time.
Figure 7. Temperatures, bending moments and axial forces
in columns during the fire exposure time.
The previous remarks can be done for each other
scenarios. The deformed shape and the corresponding
bending moment diagram at different time of expo-
sure to fire scenario 2 are reported in Figure 9. This
case is interesting because, as can be seen from Fig-
ures 6 and 7 (red curves), after the fire exposure the
beam is stressed by sagging bending moments over the
entire central span and it has plastic hinges at its ends.
However, the residual strains after fire exposure of the
members not directly exposed to fire are smaller than
the ones of fire scenario 1; even the bending moment
diagrams of these members are slightly different from
the ones at the beginning of fire.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The analyses developed in this paper confirm that
the Fire Safety Engineering allows to evaluate the
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 8. Deformed shape and bending moment (Fire
Scenario 1).
structural fire behavior through advanced computa-
tional models applied to both fire and structure.
A natural fire is characterized by a heating phase
and by a cooling phase. The thermal gradient in
structural elements produced by the cooling phase is
opposite to that produced by the heating phase.
During the heating fire exposure the structural
behaviour is non-linear and plastic strains can be
achieved in the structural elements; for this reason, the
structure during the cooling phase is different from the
initial structure. Therefore, after the cooling phase the
stresses and the forces in the structural element can be
different from the ones before the fire exposure.
The stresses and forces induced by constrained
thermal deformations may cause structural collapse;
however, they cannot fully controlled by the pre-
scriptive approach, as this approach is based on the
assumption of a standard fire curve which increases
unrealistically.
It is interesting to note that the generalized
fire scenario, represented by parametric fire curve
(scenario 1), is in this case, as is easily plausible, the
most dangerous in terms of maximum temperatures
achieved in the structural elements exposed to fire
action. The study of the other scenarios is still neces-
sary to take into account the effects of localized fires,

Figure 9. Deformed shape and bending moment (Fire
Scenario 2).
which may result in partial collapses or damages with
consequent risks for the intervention of Fire Brigades.
REFERENCES
EN 1991-1-2 2002. Eurocode 1. Actions on structures – Part
1–2: General Actions–Actions on structures exposed to
fire. November.
260
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
EN 1992-1-2 2004. Eurocode 2. Design of concrete
structures – Part 1–2: General Rules – Structural Fire
Design. March.
EN 1993-1-2 2005. Eurocode 3. Design of steel structures –
Part 1–2: General Rules – Structural Fire Design, April.
EN 1994-1-2, 2004. Eurocode 4. Design of Composite Steel
and Concrete Structures: Structural Rules- Structural Fire
Design, Part 1 -2, 1994-1-2. June.
ISO/TR 13387-1 1999. Fire safety engineering – Part 1:
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tives. October.
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09/03/2007, Prestazioni di resistenza al fuoco delle
costruzioni nelle attività soggette al controllo del Corpo
nazionale dei vigili del fuoco. GU n. 74 of 29/03/2007.
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09/05/2007, Direttive per l’attuazione dell’approccio
ingegneristico alla sicurezza antincendio. GU n. 117 of
22/05/2007.
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n. 29 of 14/02/2008.
Franssen J.M., Kondor, V.K.R., Mason, J. 2000. User Man-
ual for SAFIR98: A Computer Program for Analysis of
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analysis of composite steel-concrete frames (in Italian).
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gettazione di strutture in acciaio e composte acciaio-
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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Member, substructure and global structural fire analyses of steel-concrete

composite frames

E. Nigro, A. Ferraro, G. Cefarelli

D.I.ST., Department of Structural Engineering, University of Naples “Federico II”, Napoli, Italy

ABSTRACT: The advanced calculation models allow to evaluate the structural fire behaviour of single mem-
bers, substructures and entire structures. The topic of this paper is the application of advanced calculation models
for fire structural analysis of composite steel and concrete frames in order to compare the results of member,
substructure and global analyses in terms of fire safety assessment. The influence of some aspects of structural
response developing during the fire exposure, generally neglected in the member analysis, on the assessment
of the fire structural safety is pointed out, such as: indirect fire actions, large displacements, geometrical and
mechanical non-linearities. Composite steel-concrete frames are designed with this purpose and are subjected
to different fire scenarios. For each fire scenario the fire behaviour of entire structures, members and several
possible substructures is analyzed. Some suggestions are proposed concerning the choice of the substructures
which need to be analyzed for assessing easier the structural safety in fire situation.

1 INTRODUCTION into account, through the application of advanced com-

The technical codes devoted to the assessment of the
structural safety in fire conditions evolved signifi-
cantly during the last years.
In Italy, for example, the traditional codes were
based mainly on a prescriptive approach (Ministry of
Interior, Circ. n. 91/1961), with verification methods
similar to those used in normal conditions.These codes
generally assume that the structural behavior in fire sit-
uation is determined only by the heat degradation of
materials.
The theoretical structural analysis carried out in
mechanical and geometrical non-linear field (Usmani
et al., 2001; Moss et al., 2004) and full scale tests
(BRE 2004) show that the behavior of structures sub-
jected to fire scenario is influenced not only by thermal
degradation of materials, but also by several phe-
nomena, such as the statical scheme and structural
redundancy, the constraint conditions, the stiffness
ratios between the various parts of the structure, the
member ductility, the loading paths and the fire expo-
sure type. No less important are the fire scenarios
and their severity, the flame spreading, the growth rate
and the ventilation factor of the compartment (which
influences the type of fire).
Therefore, the current Italian (Ministry of Interior
2007a,b,c; Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport
2008) and European (EN 1991-1-2 2002; EN 1992-
1-2 2004; EN 1994-1-2 2004) codes for structural fire
design allow both prescriptive and performance based
analysis approaches (Figure 1). The Fire Safety Engi-
neering performance based approach allows to take
putational models, both the actual distribution of tem-
peratures within the members and the mechanical and
geometric non linear behaviour of the whole structure.
Due to the heating produced by fire exposure,
the structural materials are subjected to damages and
mechanical degradation with a progressive reduction
of the load bearing capacity of the structural elements.
However, in addition to the thermo-mechanical degra-
dation, the fire can produce increases of the internal
forces in the structural members due to constrained
thermal deformations (Nigro et al., 2008, 2009), which
may lead to unexpected structural collapse.
For this reason, the quoted Italian and European
codes state that the simplified analysis methods, that
disregard the effects of thermal expansion, can only
be applied if these effects are negligible or if they
are taken into account by conservative calculation
methods or assumptions.
In order to evaluate the structural fire safety,
National and European codes allow the structural
global analysis (which takes into account the ther-
mal degradation of materials, the hyperstatic effects
and possible equilibrium configurations in large dis-
placements), the analysis of part of the structure
(substructure analysis) and the analysis of a member
(single member analysis), as shown in Figure 1.
In the first part of this paper the results of the global
fire analysis of composite steel-concrete frames are
reported with the aim of highlighting the influence
on structural fire response of different seismic design
level, fire scenarios and types of beam (simple steel-
concrete composite beam or partially encased beams).

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 Figure 1. Fire design procedure according to the Eurocodes.

In the second part of the paper the substructures

and single member analyses (carried out on the same
frames of global analysis) are described by comparing
these two simplified models and the global analysis.
Structural analyses are conducted by using the non
linear software SAFIR2004 (Franssen et al., 2000),
developed at the University of Liege (Belgium), which
performs the structural analysis under fire conditions
in mechanical and geometrical non-linear field with
the assumption of large displacements.

2 FIRE EFFECTS ON STRUCTURAL

PERFORMANCE: PRELIMINARY REMARKS
Figure 2. Reduction factors of mechanical properties
The main structural materials (steel and concrete) are depending on temperature.
non-combustible materials. However, the temperature
increment due to fire causes in the same materials
a progressive damage resulting in loss of strength
and stiffness and a consequent reduction of bearing
capacity of the structural members.
Figure 2a,b shows the curves of reduction coeffi-
cients of the mechanical properties versus the tem-
perature respectively in steel (a) and concrete (b), as
defined in Parts 1-2 of Eurocode 2 (EN 1992-1-2 2004)
and Eurocode 4 (EN 1994-1-2 2004).
With regards to the structural effects of the temper-
ature, a constant distribution of temperatures through- Figure 3. Fire effects on a statically indeterminate beam.
out the section produces in a structural member of
homogeneous material an uniform thermal expan-
sion, which, in the absence of translational restraints, deflection, which, together with the deflections due to
only leads to an increase of the longitudinal dis- external loads, can lead to possible development of the
placements: the collapse is exclusively due to the “catenary effect” characterized by a tensile stress state.
thermo-mechanical degradation of materials. On the Instead, if there are rotational constraints, the same
other hand, when there are translational restraints thermal bending deflections induce in the structural
(see Figure 3) or in the case of statically indeter- member bending moments which strains the upper
minate structures, a constant temperature throughout fibers (negative bending moments).
the section determines the development of significant Therefore the thermal deformations can cause a
compressive axial force in the beam. wide variety of stress states in a structural element
Assuming large displacements, if there are trans- as high compressive stresses, when thermal prevented
lational horizontal restraints, the linear part of expansion is dominant, and development of catenary
the temperature gradient produces thermal bending actions in the presence of large displacements.

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Figure 4. Floor and frame geometric characteristics.
3 GLOBAL FIRE ANALYSIS OF COMPOSITE
STEEL-CONCRETE FRAMES
In this section the description of the global fire analy-
sis of composite steel-concrete frames is reported. The
considered frame presents a 24 meters overall length
consisting of three equal spans and a 14 meters height
consisting of four levels. The frame belongs to a three-
dimensional structure with a square plan braced along
the direction perpendicular to the studied frame: Fig-
ure 4 shows a typical floor and geometric features of
the considered frame.
The columns are arranged with the axis of maxi-
mum inertia within to the plane of the frame. Beam-
to-column connections ensure the rigidity of the nodes
and they are assumed to be able to withstand the forces
for a time at least equal to the time of fire resistance
of elements transmitting the forces.
The building was designed and checked under nor-
mal conditions for all load combinations required by
the Italian Technical Standards for Construction (Min-
istry of Infrastructure and Transport 2008). After the
analysis in normal situation, it was performed a design
in case of fire by the tabular method proposed by EN
1994-1-2 (2004). It is useful to underline that the new
ItalianTechnical Code is largely inspired to Eurocodes.
The seismic design of the frame was done in low
ductility class and by respecting the capacity design
criteria according to the quoted Italian Code.
For sake of brevity, this paper does not present
a detailed description of the performed design, but
here follows the description of the different types of
structural elements derived from it.
The composite steel-concrete floor consists of a
profiled steel sheeting Siscofloor 5/75/720 bond with
concrete slab thickness of 75 mm, for a total height of
the slab of 150 mm. Moreover, there is a longitudinal
reinforcement φ10/25 cm for the limitation of crack
width. The secondary beam is composite with steel
beam HE140B connected to the slab with heated stud
connectors.
The design of structures for earthquake resistance
was conducted with reference to two different seis-
mic zones (similar to seismic zone 2 and seismic
zone 4), according to the Italian Code. The columns
of the frame designed for seismic zone 2 are partially
encased with HE500B steel profile. The beams are
composed by a HE260B steel profile and a composite
slab 15 cm thick. Instead the frame of seismic zone 4
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 5. Overview of the global fire analysis of composite
steel-concrete frames.
has HE280B partially encased columns and HE240B
composite beams with the same type of slab used in
seismic zone 2. The design of the columns in seismic
zone 2 is mainly regulated by the damage limitatation
state, therefore they result oversized in relation to the
ultimate limit state; however, for zone 4, the column
design was influenced by the vertical loads rather than
seismic actions, as these are significantly lower than
those of the previous case. In particular, for the ulti-
mate limit state, the beams have a load level in hogging
bending moment close to unity, in each case.
Moreover, in order to have a standard fire resis-
tance of 45 minutes (R45), the composite beam was
also designed as partially encased (concrete encase-
ment provided by steel rebar area equal to 16 cm2 ),
based on the tabular data suggested in EN1994-1-2
(2004). The partially encased composite columns have
a standard fire resistance of 45 minutes.
The design vertical loads on the structure were
determined according to the Italian Code, which clas-
sify the fire as an exceptional action. Therefore, the
mechanical actions to be considered for fire design
situation were defined by the exceptional load combi-
nation. The characteristic value of variable load was
assessed according to the specific use of the office
areas.
The fire action is taken into account considering two
different fire scenarios: a) Scenario 1: assuming each
floor as a single fire compartment, the fire involves
only the first floor; b) Scenario 2: assuming the com-
partimentation of both each span and floor, the fire
involves only the central span of the first floor. For
both fire scenarios the thermal action is taken in accor-
dance with standard fire exposure. The fire resistance
time and the failure member section are shown in the
overview of Figure 5.
 Figure 6. Axial force versus fire exposure time in the heated
beams (frame with simple steel-concrete composite beams in
seismic zone 2 and subjected to the fire scenario 1).
Figure 7. Bending moments versus fire exposure time in the
heated members (frame with simple steel-concrete composite
beams in seismic zone 2 and subjected to fire scenario 1).
3.1 Frames with composite beams comprising steel
beams with no concrete encasements
First it is analysed the case of the frame in the seis-
mic zone 2 with composite beams comprising steel
beams with no concrete encasements, subjected to
the fire scenario 1. As a consequence of the heating
the structural members begin to expand. The thermal
elongation of the beam is constrained by the lateral
stiffness of the columns and therefore the heated beam
is subjected to compressive axial forces (). Morever,
an increment of the hogging bending moment is pro-
duced by the thermal curvature (). The deformed shape
and the corresponding bending moment diagram at
different fire exposure time are reported in Figure 8-b.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 8. Deformed shape and corresponding bending
moment diagrams at different fire exposure times (frame with
simple steel-concrete composite beams in seismic zone 2 and
subjected to fire scenario 1).
The axial force of the internal columns, heated on all
sides, increases; in fact the columns thermal elonga-
tion is constrained by the shear stiffness of the beams.
Instead, the lateral columns, heated on a single side,
show an increase of the bending moment due to both
the beam thermal curvature and the P- effects. After
about 12 minutes of fire exposure, the axial force in
the beam begins to reduce its value (). The axial force
continues to reduce until it becomes a tensile force
(catenary actions develops in heated beam); the lateral
displacement at the column top reduces and, conse-
quently, also the bending moment reduces in the same
section. The failure occurs with the simultaneous pres-
ence of tensile force and bending moment at the end
sections of the beam.
The previous remarks can be done also for the frame
designed in seismic zone 4 with simple steel-concrete
composite beams subjected to the same fire scenario 1.
The comparison between the two cases of frame of
seismic zone 2 and frame of seismic zone 4 (see Fig-
ure 5) shows that the collapse time are similar; this is
due to the fact that in both cases the failure takes place
in a beam cross-section. However, the displacements
value of the top of heated lateral column, in frame of
the seismic zone 4, is 1.5 times higher than the same
column in frame of seismic zone 2. Indeed, in the frame
designed in seismic zone 2, the thermal elongation of
the heated beams is more constrained by the higher
lateral stiffness of the columns than the heated beams
of the frame designed in seismic zone 4. Therefore,
the internal forces produced in the column from this
displacement are higher in first frame (frame of seis-
mic zone 2) rather than in the second one (frame of
seismic zone 4).
Figure 9. Temperature during fire exposure time. Figure 10. Axial force versus fire exposure time in the
heated beams (frame with partially encased composite beams
in seismic zone 2 and subjected to the fire scenario 1).
A similar behaviour was found for the fire sce-
nario 2; also in this case the failure takes place in
a beam cross-section. Infact, the heated beam is the
weak element, because the columns adjacent to the
fire compartment (heated from only one side) suffer
a smaller stress increment thanks to stiffening of the
adjacent cold structural element.

3.2 Frames with partially encased composite beams

The frame with partially encased composite beams
designed to seismic zone 2 and subjected to fire sce-
nario 1 has shown a significant increase of the fire
resistance time; it’s due to the slower steel mechanical
properties reduction thanks to the protection of con-
crete between the steel flange. In fact, at the same fire
exposure time, the temperatures in the steel profile of
partially encased composite beam (see dashed curves
in Figure 9) are lower than those of the nude steel beam
(see continuous curves in Figure 9). Furthermore, steel
reinforcements embedded in concrete casting benefit
from protection of the cover.
In this case the collapse type of the frame is different
than the case of frame having composite beams with
no concrete encasements. Infact, in Figure 10 it can be
noted that the catenary action does not developed in
the composite beams; the collapse is due to the failure
of top cross-sections of the lateral heated columns. In
this latter cross-sections the bending moment increase
during the fire exposure time (see Figure 11 and Fig-
ure 13-c) due to interstory drift caused by the thermal
expansion of the heated beams. The collapse occurs
not only due to material thermal degradation of the
column top section, which is heated from only one
side, but mainly due to the stress increase induced by
hyperstatic effects due to heating.
The collapse is with the simultaneous presence of
compressive force and bending moment at the top
cross-sections of the lateral heated columns. At the fire
exposure time if 57.2 minutes the combined bending
Figure 11. Bending moment versus fire exposure time in
the heated members (frame with partially encased composite
beams in seismic zone 2 and subjected to fire scenario 1).
and axial compression reach the boundary of the N-M
resistance domain (see Figure 12).
The previous remarks can be done also for the frame
designed in seismic zone 4 with partially encased com-
posite beams subjected to fire scenario 1. As for the
case of frame designed in seismic zone 2, the collapse
is due to the failure of top cross-sections of the lat-
eral heated columns. These columns have, at their top
cross-section, a lateral displacements higher than the
previous case, due to a lower stiffness. However, for
this reason, the bending moment increase in the lateral
columns, due to hyperstatic effects, is about one third
of the same increase of zone 2-frame. The collapse
time, however, is not very different between this case
and the previous one. Indeed, the columns of the frame
designed for seismic zones 4 have resistance and stiff-
ness lower than the columns of the frame designed for

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 12. N-M resistance domain at the collapse fire expo-
sure time (frame with partially encased composite beams in
seismic zone 2 and subjected to the fire scenario).
seismic zone 2. Therefore, the hyperstatic force, which
are proportional to the stiffness of the member itself (at
least in linear-elastic range), are smaller in the frame
designed for seismic zone 4.
In fire scenario 2, for both seismic zones, the failure
does not occur again in the columns, but it occurs at
the end of the heated beam (central span). Infact, the
heated beam is the weak element, because the columns
adjacent to the fire compartment (heated from only one
side) suffer a smaller stress increments thanks also to
the stiffening of the adjacent cold structural element.
Moreover, the collapse times of the two types of frames
(seismic zone 2 or 4) are similar in the case of frames
with partially encased beams, because, as mentioned
earlier, the beams have a similar resistence in both
cases.
On the basis of the results shown in the overview in
Figure 5, some considerations can be made.
First of all, it is evident the benefic effect produced
by the concrete encasement on the beams’ strength;
in fact, for the frame with partially encased beams
designed for seismic zone 2 and subjected to the fire
scenario 2 (beam failure), the collapse time is 162
min, while for the corresponding frame with simple
composite beams, the collapse time is about 31min.
Moreover, it appears that fire in a small comparti-
ment (fire scenario 2) are less dangerous than fire in a
great compartment (fire scenario 1) in terms of indi-
rect actions: infact, the lower thermal expansion of the
beams and the wider cold part of the structure limits
the additional hyperstatic forces and the P- effects
on the columns.
Finally, it is possible to notice that, despite the dif-
ferent seismic design, similar maximum fire exposure
times have been obtained for the two classes of frames
(seismic zone 2 or 4), obviously with reference to cor-
responding types of beams and fire scenarios. This is
obvious when the failure occurs on the beams, because
the cross-sections are very similar in both seismic
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 13. Deformed shape and corresponding bending
moment diagrams at different fire exposure times (frame
with partially encased composite beams in seismic zone 2
and subjected to the fire scenario 1).
zones; when the failure is in the columns, the struc-
tural response is governed by the relationship between
the stiffness and the resistance of the members, as
described above.
4 SUB-STRUCTURE FIRE ANALYSIS OF
COMPOSITE STEEL-CONCRETE FRAMES
The aim of the substructure analysis is to capture
the fire structural response through the modeling of
significant parts of the global structure (Franssen &
Zaharia, 2005). The part of the structure to be analysed
should be specified on the basis of the potential ther-
mal expansions and deformations, in such a way that
their interaction with other parts of the structure can
be approximated by time-independent supports and
boundary conditions during fire exposure (EN 1994-
1-2, 2004). Possible substructures differ for their limits
and boundary conditions, which are closely linked: in
fact they are defined in order to be able to hit the best
stiffness triggered by thermal expansion, which deter-
mines the magnitude of indirect actions. In general,
the indirect actions are predominant compared to the
effects of the vertical loads in fire situation. In order to
identify the selection criteria of the substructure for the
case of framed structures, several possible substruc-
tures for each structural type and each fire scenario
are considered for the frames described above.
For the fire scenario 1 (Figure 14) the parts exposed
to fire (ILMN beam and columns EI, FL, GM and
HN) obviously belong to the substructure. The part of
the structure below the fire compartment is excluded,
Figure 14. Overview of the substructure analysis of com-
posite steel-concrete frames subjected to fire scenario 1.
because it stays cool and may be replaced with rigid
constraining conditions: during fire its stiffness is
greater than the ones of the hot parts. The columns
above the fire compartment, by contributing to transla-
tional and rotational constraint conditions of the nodes
of the ILMN beam, are part of the substructure.
For the fire scenario 2 (Figure 15), instead, the fire
exposed parts (beams LM and columns FL and GM)
obviously belong to the substructure. Moreover, the
beams (IL and MN) belonging to the fire comparti-
ment are part of the substructure, since they contribute
to translational and rotational condition of the nodes
L and M of the beam. Similar considerations can be
applied to the columns LP and MQ above the fire
compartment which contribute to the translational and
rotational condition of the nodes of the beam LM. Sim-
ilarly to the previous case, the portion of the structure
below the fire compartment is excluded, because by
staying cold it may be replaced with rigid constraining.
Figure 14 and Figure 15 show for each scenario
the various types of substructures analysed (limits and
boundary conditions) and the analysis results in terms
of resistance exposure time to standard fire.
For fire scenario 1 two types of substructures are
considered (Figure 14), which differ only for rotational
constraining conditions of the nodes O, P, Q, R. The
boundary conditions in nodes E, F, G, H can be simu-
lated with good accuracy through both traslational and
rotational fixed constraints: part of structure below the
beam EFGH (included EFGH) remains cold and there-
fore during the fire its stiffness increases compared
to the heated part of frame. The burning of a single
floor should not lead to high differential elongation
in the heated columns such to activate the shear stiff-
ness of the beams above the beam OPQR (with OPQR
included): therefore, the axial force in nodes O, P, Q,
R can be assumed constant during the fire exposure
and equal to the axial force in the columns calculated
on the entire structure at time t = 0 (Nfi,d,0 ). The beam
OPQR remains cold and so it can be assumed that it has
enough axial stiffness to resist to elongation induced
by thermal expansion of the heated beam ILMN: the
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 15. Overview of the substructure analysis of com-
posite steel-concrete frames subjected to fire scenario 2.
horizontal displacements at the nodes O, P, Q, R are
restrained. The effective boundary rotational condition
of the nodes O, P, Q, R, instead, is between the con-
dition of constant bending moment and the rotation
restrained. In Figure 14 it can be noted that, in these
cases, the boundary rotational condition in these nodes
does not change substantially the analysis result. How-
ever, analysis by the substructure b2 provides a value of
fire resistance time of 60.6 minutes, 13% higher than
the value of 53.8 minutes obtained by global analysis
in the case of the frame with partially encased beam
designed in seismic zone 4.
For fire scenario 2 six types of substructures are
considered (Figure 15), which differ both for limits and
boundary conditions. The substructure b1 is equivalent
to substructure b1 of Figure 14. The fire exposure of
a single span causes differential elongation between
the heated and non-heated columns of the same floor,
which activates the shear stiffness of the beams above
the heated beam ILMN. In substructure c1 the shear
stiffness effect of the beams was simulated by the pres-
ence of vertical translation restraints in the nodes O,
P, Q, R. The substructures b2, b3, c2, c3 may be con-
sidered as substructures of the substructures b1 and
c1. The analysis results of substructure b1 and c1 are
very similar to those of the global analysis and they
 are between the results obtained with substructure b2,
b3, c2, c3. The presence of horizontal translational
restraints in nodes I and N of the substructures b2
and c2 allows a greater development of the catenary
effect of the beam, heated resulting in an overestima-
tion of the fire resistance time of the structure. Instead,
the catenary effect is underestimated in the substruc-
tures b3 and c3 and consequently the duration of fire
resistance is underestimated too.

5 SINGLE MEMBER FIRE ANALYSIS OF

STEEL-CONCRETE COMPOSITE FRAMES

In this section we apply the method of analysis of single

members to the frame with partially encased beams.
This method allows to consider the structure as the
assembly of single members, beams and columns. The
resistance during the fire exposure time is calculated
for each element and is compared with the effects of
quasi-permanent load combination at the beginning of
the thermal transient, so that the hyperstatic effects
due to constrained thermal expansion are neglected.
The collapse time of a single member is defined as
the fire exposure time corresponding to a load bearing Figure 16. Results of single member analysis applied to the
capacity of the structural member equal to the design frame with composite partially encased beams designed for
value of effect of actions for the fire situation. The seismic zone 2 and subjected to the fire scenario 2.
collapse time of the structure is the minimum value
of the collapse time of each structural member that
composes it. Figure 16 shows the bending moment
resistance during the fire exposure time for each ele-
ment belonging to the frame with composite partially
encased beams for seismic zone 2 and subjected to
fire scenario 1. The “incremental-iterative method”
(Nigro & Cefarelli 2007) was used to calculate the
resistance during the fire exposure time. This method
is an automatic calculation procedure for determining
the moment-curvature diagrams of the cross-sections;
the slenderness of the columns is taken into account Figure 17. Overview of the single member fire analysis of
in this procedure with the “method of model col- composite steel-concrete frames.
umn” (Nigro et al. 1998). The effect of actions due
to the quasi-permanent load combination at the time 6 CONCLUSIONS
t = 0 were calculated by the finite element software
SAP2000 v. 9.0.3. By the comparison between steel-concrete composite
The results of the member analysis are summarized frames designed in two different seismic zones it is
in Figure 17. It shows the types of structural cross- clear that, despite the different column overstrength
sections, the fire scenario and the structural element resulting from the design criteria in normal condi-
which has the minimum collapse time and it shows the tions (capacity design and damage limit state), the
results of the global analysis too. two structures show similar collapse time in fire situ-
The comparison of results shows that in case of fire ation. It’s due to the level of indirect actions caused by
in a small compartiment (fire scenario 2), for which the constrained thermal expansions which result, indeed,
collapse is linked to the beam failure, the single mem- higher in the case of frames having more stiff columns.
ber analysis provides a fire exposure time lower then With regard to the substructure analysis, the main
global analysis; in fact, the single member analysis processes for defining the size and boundary condi-
does not take into account the development of cate- tions of the substructures have been highlighted. From
nary effect, which appears to be favorable for the load the performed comparisons it is clear that, in gen-
bearing capacity of the beam itself. Instead, the analy- eral, the reliability of the substructure analysis depends
sis is on the unsafe side for fire scenario 1; in this case on the substructure itself. Particularly significant is
the single member analysis neglects the hyperstatic the case of substructures b2 and c2 for fire sce-
effects, which become important for the structural nario 2, where the presence of horizontal translational
design especially for widespread fire scenarios. restraints in nodes I and N allows the development of

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
the catenary action on the heated beam overstating the
structural fire resistance.
Moreover, the comparison between single-member
analysis and global analysis points out that single
member analysis can lead to results on the safe side
when the failure occurs on the beams, because the
stresses on the beams are less affected by the effect
of constrained thermal expansion. Instead, the single
member analysis is on the unsafe side when the failure
is in the columns, because the columns are impor-
tant for both the second order effects and the effects
associated with constrained thermal expansions.
Obviously, since a full parametric analysis has not
been carried out, these remarks are basically valid for
the cases analysed in this paper, although it is reason-
able that the results may be extended to a significant
class of framed structures. In order to establish simple
criteria for the verification of composite structures tak-
ing into account the different described phenomena, it
is necessary to consider further cases of analysis, by
varying the main influencing parameters, as appro-
priate consideration for the actual temperature trend
during a natural fire.
REFERENCES
EN 1991-1-2 2002. Eurocode 1. Actions on structures –
Part 1–2: General Actions–Actions on structures exposed
to fire. November.
EN 1992-1-2 2004. Eurocode 2. Design of concrete
structures – Part 1–2: General Rules – Structural Fire
Design. March.
EN 1994-1-2, 2004. Eurocode 4. Design of Composite Steel
and Concrete Structures: Structural Rules – Structural
Fire Design, Part 1–2, prEN 1994-1-2. June.
Ministry of Interior (Italian Government) 1961. Circolare
n. 91 of 14-09-1961, Norme di sicurezza per la pro-
tezione contro il fuoco dei fabbricati a struttura in acciaio
destinati ad uso civile.
Ministry of Interior (Italian Government) 2007a. Decree
16/02/2007, Classificazione di resistenza al fuoco di
prodotti ed elementi costruttivi di opere da costruzione.
GU n. 74 of 29/03/2007.
Ministry of Interior (Italian Government) 2007b. Decree
09/03/2007, Prestazioni di resistenza al fuoco delle
269
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
costruzioni nelle attività soggette al controllo del Corpo
nazionale dei vigili del fuoco. GU n. 74 of 29/03/2007.
Ministry of Interior (Italian Government) 2007c. Decree
09/05/2007, Direttive per l’attuazione dell’approccio
ingegneristico alla sicurezza antincendio. GU n. 117 of
22/05/2007.
Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport (Italian Govern-
ment) 2008. Technical Code for the Constructions. G.U.
n. 29 of 14/02/2008.
Alderighi E. 2007. Performance of unprotected composite
Moment Frames with Concrete Filled columns subjected
to seismic and fire loadings. PhD thesis in Structural
Engineering. School of Engineering, University of Pisa,
Italy.
Bontempi F., Crosti C., Petrini F., Giuliani L. 2007. La
valutazione quantitativa delle capacità prestazionali di
strutture in acciaio in presenza d’incendio. XXI Con-
gresso CTA “Costruire con l’acciaio”, Catania, Ottobre:
513–520.
BRE 2004. Results and Observations from full-scale fire test
at BRE. Cardington.
Franssen J.M., Kondor, V.K.R., Mason, J. 2000, User Man-
ual for SAFIR98: A Computer Program for Analysis of
Structures Submitted to the Fire. University of Liege,
Belgium.
Franssen J.M., Zaharia R. 2005, Design of Steel Structures
Subjected to Fire, Les Èditions de l’Universitè de Liège,
Belgium.
Moss P.J., Buchanan A.H., Seputro J. 2004. Effect of support
conditions on the fire behaviour of steel and composite
beams. Fire and Materials (28): 159–175.
Nigro E., Materazzi A.L., Cosenza E. 1998. Stabilità di
colonne composte acciaio-calcestruzzo in caso di incen-
dio. III Workshop Italiano sulle Costruzioni Composte,
Ancona, Ottobre.
Nigro E., Cefarelli G. 2007. Procedura generale e metodi
semplificati per la verifica in caso di incendio di travi com-
poste acciaio-calcestruzzo. XXI Congresso CTA “Costru-
ire con l’acciaio”, Catania, Ottobre: 533–542.
Nigro E., Ferraro A., Cefarelli G. 2008. Structural fire
analysis of composite steel-concrete frames (in Italian).
Costruzioni Metalliche n. 6: 49–62.
Nigro E., Pustorino S., Cefarelli G., Princi P. 2009, Pro-
gettazione di strutture in acciaio e composte acciaio-
calcestruzzo in caso di incendio. Ed. Hoepli, Milano.
Usmani A.S., Rotter J.M., Lamont S., Sanad A.M.,Gollie
M. 2001. Fundamental Principles of Structural Behaviour
Under Thermal Effects. Fire Safety (36): 721–724.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Thermo-mechanical analysis of composite slabs under fire conditions

D. Pantousa & E. Mistakidis

Laboratory of Structural Analysis and Design, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece

ABSTRACT: The paper studies the behavior of composite slabs with corrugated steel sheeting in elevated
temperatures. Two structural systems are considered: a simply supported composite slab and a continuous
composite slab that consists of two equal spans. Both of them are designed according to the respective Eurocodes
for strength and fire resistance. In the sequel sophisticated three-dimensional models of the slabs are developed
and they are submitted to coupled-thermo mechanical analysis, which takes into account the various nonlinearities
that are present in the physical model (dependence of the thermal and mechanical properties of the material on
temperature, nonlinear material behavior, cracking etc). The results are compared with those expected by the
procedures of Eurocode 4.

1 INTRODUCTION temperature sensor placed 75 mm bellow the top sur-

Composite slabs made of corrugated steel sheeting are
commonly used nowadays for the covering of large
spans. With respect to ordinary reinforced concrete
slabs, they exhibit a number of advantages, as e.g.
the ability for the casting of concrete without addi-
tional scaffold structures, ease of construction etc.
However, concerning fire resistance, they exhibit a sig-
nificant drawback with respect to reinforced concrete
slabs, due to the fact that the corrugated steel sheeting
may be directly exposed to fire and consequently may
lose quickly its mechanical properties (stiffness and
strength degradation). For this reason, additional rein-
forcement is usually used in order to ensure that the
slab will retain its robustness for the amount of time
required by the various fire design codes.
For the modeling of composite slabs, various mod-
els have been proposed in the literature. Yu X. et al.
(2008) proposed a model of an orthotropic slab in fire,
which is developed in the software code Vulcan. In
order to obtain the real temperature distribution within
the slab, the upper continuous portion of the profile is
modeled through layered isoparametric slab elements.
In this respect the temperature of each layer of the slab
is not necessarily uniform in the horizontal plane and
it is assumed that temperature can be varied between
different Gauss integration points. A beam element is
used to represent a group of ribs of the slab, and the
width of this element is an equivalent width calculated
from the geometric properties.
In the study of Gillie M. et al. (2001), a finite ele-
ment analysis of the first Cardington test is carried out.
In particular, 3-dimensional shell elements are used to
model the behavior of the composite slab, which takes
into account material and geometric non-linearity as
well as curvature and non-linear thermal gradients.
The time-temperature curve that is obtained from the
face of the rib, is used for the thermal loading of the
composite slab. This work underlines the effects of
thermal expansion during the fire exposure.
A more accurate thermal analysis of composite
slabs is performed in Lamont S. et al. (2001), where a
finite element adaptive heat transfer program is used.
This model takes into account the temperature differ-
ential between hot steel metal deck and cold concrete
as well as the air gaps that arise between the materi-
als. This problem is modeled using interface elements
between the concrete and the steel profile. The para-
metric analysis indicates that the key factors affecting
the predicted temperatures are the heat conduction and
the moisture content of concrete.
In this paper a numerical model is used to assist the
evaluation of the behavior of composite slabs in ele-
vated temperatures, which is based on the coupling of
three-dimensional solid elements that model the con-
crete with 4-node shell elements that model the steel
profile. Reinforcing steel bars are modeled through
three-dimensional beam elements. The model takes
accurately into account the effects of the increased
temperature. The temperatures in the corrugated steel
sheeting and in the mass of the slab are calculated for
the standard ISO fire curve. The thermal and structural
material properties in elevated temperature are taken
into account according to the latest structural codes.
The results of the numerical model are compared to
those obtained following the provisions of Eurocode 4.
2 NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
2.1 Description of the problem
The goal of this study is the numerical simulation of
composite slabs under fire conditions. In order to study

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the fire performance of composite slabs, two structural
systems are considered: a simply supported compos-
ite slab having span equal to 3.5 m and a continuous
composite slab 7 m long, which consists of two equal
spans.
The dead load G of the slabs is calculated
G = 3.97 kN/m2 while the live load is Q taken equal to
5 kN/m2 . In both cases the composite slabs are con-
structed by a trapezoidal steel profile and concrete
and they have the same cross-section properties. The
slab has an overall depth of 150 mm and the depth
of the steel decking is 73 mm. The steel decking is
α thin walled cold formed profile, made of structural
steel FeE320G. The thickness is equal to t = 1 mm.
A normal-weight concrete with calcareous aggregates
is used which has a compressive strength of 25 Mpa
and a tensile strength of 2.9 Mpa, at room tempera-
ture. The steel reinforcement has a yield stress equal
to 500 Mpa. All the material properties of steel and
concrete are according to EN 1993-1-2 (2003) and EN
1992-1-2 (2002), respectively.
In both cases the slabs are designed to have almost
the same load-bearing capacity at room temperature.
More specifically, the sagging moment resistance of
the simply supported slab is approximately equal to
the hogging moment resistance of the continuous slab.
Consequently the over-strength factor λ which demon-
strates the ratio between the moment resistance and
the design moment, is the same for both structural
systems, at room temperature.
The design of the continuous slab at room tem-
perature for the ultimate limit state combination
(1.35G + 1.5Q) is performed considering the fact that
the load bearing capacity must be almost the same
for both structural systems. Taking into account this
assumption, first the lower reinforcement is deter-
mined assuming a single 8 bar at every rib of the
composite slab (i.e. 8/187.5 mm). This reinforce-
ment, is assumed to extend along the total length
of the slab. Then, the upper reinforcement is calcu-
lated, so that it leads to hogging moment resistance
equal to the sagging one. The calculations give an
upper reinforcement demand of 12/120 mm. This
reinforcement is divided into two groups of reinforce-
ment bars. In the first group the bars are placed every
240 mm (12/240) and extend along the total length of
the slab. In the second group, the bars are placed every
240 mm (12/240) and extend from the mid-length
of the left span to the mid-length of the right span.
This configuration sums to 12/120 over the area of
the central support, while the regions near the left and
right outer supports remain with 12/240. All the rein-
forcement bars are assumed to have a cover of concrete
of 30 mm. Table 1 summarizes the results of the struc-
tural design at room temperature, for both cases. The
design values of material properties are resulting from
the partial safety factors for fire conditions (γM,fi = 1).
The fire design is based on the loading combination
for accidental design situations which is given in EN
1991-1-2 (2002) and it can be simplified to G + ψ1,1 Q
(Fig. 1).The combination factor ψ1,1 is considered here
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 1. Structural systems and cross sections of compos-
ite slabs.
Table 1. Load bearing capacities and amounts of reinforce-
ment.
Over
(+) (−)
MRd MRd Lower Upper strength
kN · m/m kN · m/m reinf. reinf. factor λ
Simply 54.19 – 8/187.5 – 0.363
supported
slab
Continuous 55.09 54.61 8/187.5 12/120 0.357
slab
equal to 0.5. For the simply supported system, the fire
resistance time is easily calculated according to EN
1994-1-2 (2003), from the properties of the mid-span
cross-section. With the data given above, the fire resis-
tance time for the simply supported system results to
be 75 mins (R75).
The case of the continuous slab is a little bit more
complex, due to the fact that the system is stati-
cally indeterminate and some simple calculations are
needed in order to find it’s fire resistance time (Fig.2).
In the specific continuous slab studied here, first the
moment at the span will reach the resistance moment.
This happens at the 96th minute of the ISO fire. After
this point, moment redistribution takes place and the
moment increases at the internal support. As the fire
continues, both the hogging and sagging resistance
moments decrease. At a critical time, both the sag-
ging moment and the hogging moment reach to the
corresponding resistance values and the slab becomes
kinematically unstable. Simple calculations show that
this happens at the 145th minute of the ISO fire, i.e
the continuous slab has a fire resistance of R145.
In this study numerical models are developed in
order to obtain both the resistance of the composite
slabs in fire exposure and the temperature profile at
elevated temperatures. The R criterion will be satisfied
if the collapse times exceed the aforementioned failure
times.

Figure 2. Progressive collapse of the continuous slab in
elevated temperatures (moments given in kNm/m).
2.2 Development of the numerical model
The numerical analysis was carried out using the non
linear finite element code MARC. Due to the fact that
composite slabs are formed using continuous profiled
sheeting, it is adequate to simulate a section which is
187.5 mm wide (Fig. 3). Moreover, due to the sym-
metry of this section with respect to the vertical axis,
it is adequate to finally model only half of this. For
further simplification, as trying to reduce the com-
putational cost which is associated with the nonlinear
three-dimensional modeling, only half of the total span
is modelled (1.75 m), using the appropriate symmetry
boundary conditions. The simplified model and the
accurate dimensions of the composite slab are given
in Fig. 3.
The advanced models which are developed for the
simulation of the composite slabs use three different
types of elements. The steel profile is modeled through
a four-node shell element while concrete is simulated
with three-dimensional solid elements. The nodes of
the shell elements are connected to the corresponding
nodes of the 3D-solid elements of concrete (Fig. 4).
Two-node frame elements are used for modeling the
reinforcing bars.
The numerical analysis for the determination of the
fire resistance of the composite slab, presents a lot of
difficulties. During the fire exposure, the following
non-linear phenomena evolve:
• Non-linear material response of both steel and
concrete.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 3. Simplification of the analysis model.
Figure 4. Connection of shell elements with brick elements.
• Dependence of all the mechanical-thermal proper-
ties of the materials on temperature.
• Possible cracking of concrete due to its low tensile
strength.
• Non-linear temperature distribution in the section
of the slab.
2.3 Analysis
In order to find numerical solutions to the described
problems, the following thermal boundary conditions
were taken into account (Fig. 5).
• Along the symmetry boundaries, adiabatic bound-
ary conditions were considered.
• On the upper side of the composite slab (ambi-
ent air side), a solid-fluid boundary condition was
considered.
In this case, where solid boundaries are in con-
tact with moving fluids, the following boundary
condition can be written:
where hf is the heat transfer coefficient and T is
the temperature difference between the fluid and the
 Figure 5. The thermal boundary conditions.

solid boundary surface. In this case Tf is the fluid

ambient temperature (assumed as known) and Ts is
the temperature of the solid surface, which is not
a priori known, but is calculated as a result of the
solution process. For cases which are of interest in
structural analysis problems, both convective and
radiation heat exchange takes place and (1) can be
written in the form

Figure 6. Variation of the temperature in characteristic

where, α and β are coefficients that depend on the
side of the structural elements (fire side or ambi-
ent temperature air side),  is the configuration
or view factor, εr is the resultant emissivity (which
depends on the fluid and solid emissivities) and σ
is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant. The first part of
the r.h.s. of equation (2) is known as the convec-
tive term whereas the second one is known as the
radiative term. The term εr can be evaluated by the
simple formula
where εr is the emissivity of fire (usually taken equal
to 1.0) and εs is the emissivity of the structural mate-
rial. For the upper side of the slab, in equation (2)
the parameters were taken as α = 2.2 and β = 1/4
according to Wang Y.C (2002). The second term of
the r.h.s of (2) was ignored.
• On the lower side of the composite slab (fire side),
solid-fluid boundary conditions were also consid-
ered. The parameters of equation (2) were taken as
α = 1.0 and β = 1/3 according to Wang Y.C (2002).
In the second term of the r.h.s of (2) the emissivity
of fire εf and the emissivity of construction mate-
rial εm (in this case the corrugated steel sheeting)
are considered according to EN 1991-1-2 (2002).
The parameters were taken as εf = 1.0 and εm = 0.7
respectively. The view factor of the lower flange
of the profiled steel sheeting was taken equal to
l.f . = 1.0. The view factors of the web and of
the upper flange of the steel sheeting were cal-
culated following the approach first developed in
Wickström U. & Sterner E. (1990) and adopted
cross-section points with time.
also by EN 1994-1-2 (2003). The calculations for
the specific profile used here give web = 0.510
and u.f . = 0.647 for the web and the upper flange
respectively.
The behavior of the composite slab in elevated
temperatures is modeled through combined thermal-
mechanical analysis. In such a case, the temperature
increase contributes to the deformation of the slab
through thermal strains and influences the properties
of the materials. Actually, a heat transfer analysis is
first performed which is followed by a stress analysis.
In this case study the composite slabs are exposed
to the standard ISO 834 fire curve for 180 minutes
and the problem is simulated through transient heat
transfer under constant imposed load. The temperature
distribution is assumed to be constant along the length
of the slab. The initial temperature for the composite
slab is taken equal to 20◦ C.
3 RESULTS OF THE NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
3.1 Results of the heat transfer analysis
Figure 6 provides the temperatures at characteristic
points for the slab cross-section. It is noticed that
the maximum temperatures that are calculated for the
lower flange are close to the corresponding values of
the standard fire curve. The temperature at points F

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Table 2. Comparison of numerically obtained tempera-
tures in the composite slab with those obtained applying the
recommendations of Eurocode 4.

Mean
temperature in
the numerical Eurocode 4
model procedure

60 minutes Lower Flange 914.0 870.1

Web 846.4 775.1
Upper Flange 818.5 694.4
Lower Reinf. 573.3 571.4
90 minutes Lower Flange 989.9 965.2
Web 947.8 906.1
Upper Flange 922.4 840.1
Lower Reinf. 732.0 743.5
120 minutes Lower Flange 1038.7 1021.6
Web 1008.2 977.8
Upper Flange 986.5 924.3.
Lower Reinf. 843.9 844.7

Figure 7. Temperature distribution in the slab cross-section

at 60 minutes.

and G is quite lower due to the reduced incident ther-

mal radiation on the web and the upper flange. As the
distance from the steel decking is increasing, the tem-
perature is decreasing and the minimum values are
calculated for the upper part of the slab.
According to EN 1994-1-2 (2003) the decisive fire
resistance time with respect to the maximum tem-
perature rise, is calculated equal to 70 mins. The
temperature of points E, D at the upper side of the
concrete slab does not exceed the value of 180◦ C for
the time of 70 minutes and this indicates that the slab
satisfies the “I” criterion for thermal insulation.
The temperature distribution that is illustrated in
Fig. 7 depicts accurately the isotherms of the cross
section. The differentiation of the temperature in hori-
zontal planes is due to the presence of the ribs. The
developed temperature pattern is absolutely similar
with the one that is indicated in Figure D.3.2.a on EN
1994-1-2 (2003). The temperature of the steel decking
after the 20th minute of the analysis (points A, H, F,
G) is very high, verifying that it does not contribute
significantly in the resistance of the composite slab.
Table 2 gives the comparison between the numer-
ically obtained results for the temperatures of the
various parts of the profiled steel sheeting and for
the temperatures of the steel lower reinforcement, with
respect to those obtained by applying the recommenda-
tions of Eurocode 4 for the same problem. It is noticed
that the values of temperature which are resulting from
the heat transfer analysis for the steel reinforcement
are almost the same, compared with those obtained
by Eurocode 4. However, significant differences are
observed for the temperatures of the steel sheeting,
indicating that Eurocode 4 is rather conservative in
this respect.
Figure 8. Development of the maximum vertical displace-
ment with time.
3.2 Results of the mechanical analysis
The curves of Fig. 8 give the evolution of the maximum
vertical displacement with respect to time.
Considering the case of the simply supported com-
posite slab, the failure occurs at 70 mins. The response
of the continuous composite slab is completely dif-
ferent and it finally fails at the 154th minute. When
collapse occurs, significant deformations at the span
are observed, in both cases. The difference in the
response lies mainly on the moment redistribution that
takes place during the fire exposure in the case of the
continuous slab.
In both cases the contribution of the profiled steel
sheeting in the resistance of the composite slab is
quite low when the temperature increases significantly,
since it loses very quickly its strength. Moreover, it is
obvious that the contribution of steel reinforcement is
significant to the fire performance of the composite
slabs, especially in the case of the simply supported
structural system.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 The simply supported slab is designed as it is men-
tioned above, according to Eurocode 4, to have a load
bearing capacity during fire exposure for 75 mins.
However, according to the numerical analysis, the fire
resistance time as it is indicated in Fig. 8, is 70 minutes.
The difference is not considerable and can be attributed
to the fact that the temperature values that are pro-
posed by the Eurocode 4 for the steel sheeting are
lower compared with the relevant values that result
from the thermal analysis. Finally, the slab fails due to
excessive deformation at the mid-span.
As explained above, the continuous slab was found
to have fire resistance for 145 mins according to
Eurocode 4. The results of the numerical analysis indi-
cate that the failure occurs at the 154th minute which is
very close to the time obtained by means of advanced
numerical analysis (145 mins). The difference is rea-
sonable and can be attributed to the assumptions that
are adopted by the simplified calculation method.
It is noticed that in both cases the values of the
maximum vertical deflections of the composite slabs
are significantly increased in elevated temperatures.
In the case of the simply supported slab the failure
displacement is equal to 250 mm when the temper-
ature is 968◦ C. In the case of the continuous slab,
the maximum vertical deflection reaches the value of
210 mm when the corresponding temperature is equal
to 1086◦ C. In practice, deflection limits are imposed in
order to avoid the excessive deformation (Purkiss J.A.
2007).The limitations that are used in the standard fire
tests is δmax = L/30 for all structural members. Specif-
ically for the flexural members the limit value that is
used is δmax = L2 /400d, where d is the depth of the
section and L is the length of the span. Comparing the
results of these analyses with the proposed limits, in
the case of the simply supported slab the limit deflec-
tion δmax = L2 /400d = 204 mm occurs around the 67th
minute, while the continuous slab reaches the limit
deflection approximately at the 152th minute.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The paper presents the accurate thermo-mechanical
modeling of the behavior of a simply supported and
of a continuous two-span slab which are submitted
to elevated temperatures, according to the standard
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
ISO fire curve. The slabs are designed for strength
and for fire resistance according to the provisions of
Eurocode 4. The numerical models are based on com-
bination of three dimensional finite elements for the
concrete, shell elements for the profiled steel sheet-
ing and frame elements for the steel reinforcement.
All the necessary mechanical and thermal boundary
conditions are taken into account and symmetry pro-
cedures are applied in order to reduce the dimension
of the problem. The analysis results lead to a quite
good agreement with Eurocode 4 for the temperatures
of the steel reinforcement and to some differences for
the temperatures of the steel sheeting. Moreover, the
maximum periods of time that each slab is capable of
bearing the applied load, as calculated from the numer-
ical procedure, present minor discrepancies with those
calculated by means of simple methodologies.
REFERENCES
EN 1991-1-2. European Committee for Standardization,
2002. Eurocode 1. General actions – Actions on structures
exposed to fire – Part 1–2. General actions – Actions on
structures exposed to fire.
EN 1992-1-2. European Committee for Standardization,
2002. Eurocode 2. Design of concrete structures – Part
1–2. General rules – structural fire design.
EN 1993-1-2. European Committee for Standardization,
2003. Eurocode 3. Design of steel structures – Part 1–2.
General rules – structural fire design.
EN 1994-1-2. European Committee for Standardization,
2003. Eurocode 4. Design of composite steel and con-
crete structures. Part 1–2. General rules – Structural fire
design.
Gillie M. et al. 2001. A structural analysis of the first Card-
ington test Journal of Constructional Steel Research 57:
581–601.
Purkiss J.A. 2007. Fire safety Engineering – Design of
structures. Oxford: Butterworth – Heinemann.
Lamont S. et al. 2001. Heat transfer analysis of the composite
slab in the Cardington frame fire tests. Fire Safety Journal
36: 815–839.
Wickström U. & Sterner E. 1990. TASEF. Temperature anal-
ysis of structures exposed to fire-user’s manual, Swedish
National Testing Institute, SP report 05.
Yu X. et al. 2008. Nonlinear analysis of orthotropic slabs in
fire. Engineering Structures 30: 67–80.
Wang Y.C. 2002. Steel and composite structures: behavior
and design for fire safety. London: Spon Press.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

A comparative numerical simulation study on blast response of reinforced

concrete slabs subjected to fire

F. Pascualena, J. Vantomme & J.M. Ndambi

Royal Military Academy, Brussels, Belgium

Ulrika Nyström
Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden

ABSTRACT: The paper deals with the determination of the load bearing capacity of a reinforced concrete slab
when it is submitted first to fire and secondly to a blast load. The software Autodyn (Ansys) is used to perform
the numerical simulations. This software permits to analyze transient phenomena such as an explosion, where
material properties change very rapidly (milliseconds). On the other hand, fire does not change properties that
fast. This is not compatible with the philosophy of softwares for transient phenomena such as Autodyn. The
paper shows how to avoid this difficulty by the gradual change of material properties due to fire and in relation
to the exposure time, which allows to find the proper input for the numerical blast analysis by means of Autodyn.
Several numerical simulations are carried out and the comparison between the structural behaviour for blast with
and without fire is also presented. The mayor conclusion of this analysis is that dynamic behavior of structural
elements due to blast is not much altered by the exposure to a 30 min of standard fire when both loads are on
the same side of the structural element.

1 INTRODUCTION
The concern about the security related to the risk of
fire and explosion in reinforced concrete buildings
and facilities is getting more important nowadays. On
the other hand, the actual design methodology with
respect to fire and explosion safety is often only based
on semi-empirical approaches. The fact that the cost
of developing real tests on fire and explosions is not
low makes the numerical simulation attractive for this
assessment.
Since there are no numerical tools available which
can analyze both fire and blast effects together, it is
mandatory to find out another way to examine this
complex nature of the effect of combining fire and
blast.
Autodyn is a software capable to analyze the struc-
tural response of dynamic actions such as blast loads.
The fire action is studied by means of the estimation of
the reduction of different material properties based on
literature; these changes are then applied as an input
in Autodyn prior the blast load.
Material modeling for concrete maybe realized by
means of RHT (Riedel, 2000) strength and failure
model with some small modifications for a better dam-
age description. In the case of steel, a modification
of the Johnson-Cook (Johnson & Cook, 1985) model
applied. The mel are also exposed related to a lack of
reliability for long time simulations.
The present paper discusses the necessary theore-
tical background for the used models and the results
for both blast load with and without fire, where
blast and fire are on the same side of the structural
element.
2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
2.1 Blast and explosion phenomenon
An explosion can be defined as a large-scaled, rapid
and sudden release of energy. When detonation of an
explosive occurs, a blast wave is generated due to the
expansion of gases at high temperature and pressure.
This blast wave suddenly increases to a value of pres-
sure above the ambient atmospheric pressure. After a
short time, the pressure behind the front wave decays
below the atmospheric pressure creating a vacuum
(negative phase) (Ngo et al. 2007).
When a shock wave finds an obstacle in its path,
the peak reflected overpressure increases with a cer-
tain factor, and so it does the blast wave velocity. The
amplification factor depends on the intensity of the
shock wave and the incident angle.
2.2 Fire assessment
The influence of fire on structures can not be directly
assessed in Autodyn due to the fact that this software
is just capable to analyze transient phenomena. Thus,
this impossibility is overcome by means of an analysis
on the change of material properties due to fire.

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Figure 1. Temperature profiles in function of the thickness
for RC walls and slabs. Different fire resistance classes for
diverse durations of standard fire exposure is shown (EN
1992-1-2:2004).
When concrete is subjected to fire, dehydration of
the cement paste occurs, turning back to water (actu-
ally steam) and cement. This results in a reduction
of strength and modulus of elasticity (stiffness) of the
concrete (fib, 2008). In some fires, spalling (detaching
of layers on the surface of concrete structures which
is exposed to high rising temperatures) occurs as well
(fib, 2007). Spalling is not considered in this paper.
Thermal and physical properties also change with
fire, principally, specific heat, thermal conductivity
and thermal elongation. The latter one is not consid-
ered in this paper due to the impossibility to model
initial deformations in Autodyn. Specific heat and
thermal conductivity are used to calculate the tem-
perature inside the concrete. The result from such an
analysis is presented in Figure 1.
This is the way the slab of this study is sub-
divided into different layers, where, depending on
the temperature, a certain reduction on the compres-
sive strength and Young modulus is applied. This
reduction is already tabulated in the Eurocodes (EN
1992-1-2:2004) for both concrete and steel.
3 MATERIAL MODELING
3.1 Concrete
Due to its porosity and heterogeneity, concrete has a
complex non-linear behavior. Therefore, these partic-
ularities should be taken into account in the Equation
of State, which relates the local hydrostatic pressure
in function of the density (or specific volume) and
the specific energy. In the case of Autodyn (Autodyn,
2007), generally p-α EOS is used for brittle materi-
als. It’s a phenomenological approach which provides
the correct description at both high and low stresses.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 2. Representation of the three yield surfaces through
the relation pressure-deviatoric stress (Riedel, 2000).
The principal assumption is that the specific inter-
nal energy is the same for a porous material as for
the same material at solid density at identical condi-
tions of pressure and temperature. Thus, it combines
a polynomial equation together with a factor which
describes the influence of the porosity, α. It determines
the volumetric stiffness of the porous material between
initial compaction pressure pe and the fully compacted
pressure, ps .
where αp = porosity in the initial plastic yield,
p = current pressure, n = compaction exponent. (Zhou
et al. 2008).
The polynomial equation results on:
ρ
where µ = − 1 with ρ = density and ρs = density
ρs
at zero pressure.
K1 , K2 , K3 , B0 and B1 are material parameters
which describe the polynomial equation and
e = internal energy.
The concrete is modeled by means of the RHT mate-
rial model (Riedel W. 2000). It is an enhancement
of the Johnson and Holmquist concrete model devel-
oped by Riedel, Hiermayer and Thoma and based on
Chen’s summarizing work (Chen WZ. 1982) on fully
tri-axial stress based failure surface. Consequently, the
RHT model is composed of three pressure dependent
stress surfaces: elastic limit surface, failure surface and
residual surface (Figures 2, 3).
Taking the basics of Chen and Johnson & Holmquist
work, the model includes the influence of the strain
hardening and the third invariant dependence. Besides,
the softening (strain and crack softening) of the mate-
rial is also taken into account by the addition of a
fracture strength surface.
In this analysis, modifications are applied in the
basic configuration of the RHT model: the crack

Figure 3. Representation of the three yield through the
relation pressure-uniaxial compressive stress (Riedel, 2000).
development is better described with the principal
stress tensile failure criteria (instead of Hydro Pmin)
together with crack softening and an associated flow
rule (called bulking in Autodyn). (Nyström, U. &
Gylltoft, K. 2009).
3.2 Reinforcement steel
The steel behavior is modeled by the use of the piece-
wise Johnson-Cook model (Johnson & Cook, 1985).
According to JC model, the yield depends on strain,
strain rate and temperature, as follows:
where εnp = effec. plastic strain, ε∗p = effec. plastic
strain rate, TH = homologous temperature, A, B, C, n
and m are material constants.
The piecewise model is a modification of the com-
mon JC model, where the dependence on effective
plastic strain (first term of equation (3)) is replaced
by a piecewise linear function of yield stress Y versus
effective plastic strain εp . The different stress-strain
values are taken from (Vantomme, 2010) for a S500
steel.
4 NUMERICAL MODEL
4.1 Slab element and explosion features
The slab analyzed in the present study is 6 m long,
0.6 m wide and 0.13 m thick. The concrete quality is
C40/50. The main reinforcement is composed of 4 bars
Ø12 of S500 steel with a cover of 30 mm. The techno-
logical reinforcement is equally distributed but with
Ø8. Shear reinforcement is also added: diameter is
6 mm distributed along the slab every 150 mm. Figure
4 shows the geometry of the slab and its section.
The amount of explosive is 2 kg of C4 for both
blast response individually and fire + blast response
together. The stand off distance is 1.5 m from the center
of the slab (Figure 6).
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 4. Slab characteristics.
Figure 5. Stand off distance.
4.2 Meshing
By use of symmetries, just a quarter of the entire model
is evaluated.
To get a realistic pressure distribution in the numeri-
cal simulation, some points must be taken into account.
First, and knowing that the blast wave will move away
from the source of the explosive spherically, it is
allowed to represent the explosive in a 1D “wedge”
with axial symmetry and then remap it in 3D. This
makes the simulation both faster (the amount of cells
is always lower than in 3D) and more accurate (the size
of the cells is smaller than in 3D). Secondly, the air
mesh must be precisely defined. This is because a cell
has the same pressure in the entire volume, thus, the
bigger the cell is, the more information is lost. For this
case, a fine mesh (5 mm) is defined next to the middle
of the slab, where the maximum reflected overpressure
is taken place, and is progressively increasing until it
reaches the maximum size of 17 mm at the ends of the
slab (Figure 6). This air mesh uses an Eulerian solver
in order to solve the equilibrium equations every time
step. The main advantage is that cells are not deformed
and this way grid distortions are avoided. On the other
hand, the slab itself is defined with Lagrangian cubic
elements of 10 mm; this solver is more suitable since
deformations are better described.
Finally, reinforcement steel is modeled with beam
solver and then by joining it to concrete.
In the case where fire is acting prior to the blast
load, the concrete and steel are defined with new mate-
rials created by reducing the value of different material
properties as explained in point 2.2. Thus, the concrete
and steel meshes are filled in with these new materi-
als depending on the distance from the fire exposure
(Figure 7).

Figure 6. (a): Quarter of the model after the first cycle of
the simulation including air gauges. (b) air and slab mesh. (c)
detail of the air and slab mesh.
Figure 7. Subdivision of the concrete slab into layers with
different concretes depending on the temperature for R30
class concrete.
4.3 Boundary conditions
In order to reproduce the simple support, two semi-
cylinders are added close to the ends and they are
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 8. Slab configuration for the simple support.
attached to the slab through joins. Then, no veloc-
ity in z axis is imposed in the upper row of nodes so
that rotation is permitted around this line (Figure 8).
The semi-cylinders are modeled in steel with an elas-
tic strength model. This way of defining the simple
support is taken from the work of (Magnusson et al.
2005).
Furthermore, to avoid any non existing reflection,
out flow boundary condition is defined for every ver-
tical plane of the air mesh as well as in the horizontal
plane above the slab.
5 RESULTS
First, an analysis of the pressure distribution through-
out the air mesh is shown below. Then, the structural
response for the two cases, blast load and fire + blast
load is presented by means of damage contours
together with the crack patterns.
5.1 Pressure distribution
The present study determines the response of the RC
slab submitted to direct loading, without considering
reflections; this makes possible to verify whether the
air mesh is correctly defined or not with Conwep.
The pressure time profile for the gauges in Figure 6,
obtained with Autodyn, are shown in Figure 9.
Same features are used in Conwep as an input and
are presented in Figure 10.
As the output from Conwep is the reflected over-
pressure, the atmospheric pressure still needs to be
added. The comparison between these two ways of
getting the pressure distribution is shown in Table 1.
These results show good correspondence; it may be
concluded that the air mesh is correctly defined.
5.2 Structural response for blast load
The contour plot (which shows the damage zones of
the slab from 0 no damage to 1 totally damaged) after
35 ms of the simulation is shown in Figure 11.
Maximum displacement is observed in the central
part of the slab with 53 mm after 52 ms. Cracks are
generated in two directions, horizontally along the
 Figure 12. Damage contour plot for the case of 30 min fire.

reinforcement axis and vertically along the stirrups.

Around the support, some shear effects can also be
observed. For simulations far in time, big distortions
occur in concrete cells near the supports, this is still to
be analyzed.
Figure 9. Pressure distribution on the slab coming from
Autodyn.

5.3 Structural response for fire and blast load

Based on the theory described in point 2.2, the numer-
ical simulation of the combination of fire and blast
is carried out for 30 minutes of fire exposure. The
resulting damage contour is described in Figure 12.
In this case, maximum deformation is 58 mm at
53 ms. The damage pattern is exactly the same as in the
case without fire but, as could be expected, it is more
extended throughout the whole slab. In any case, the
first clear conclusion coming out from the analysis of
the results is that there are not big differences neither in
maximum displacement nor in damage pattern when
comparing the case without fire and with 30 min of
Figure 10. Reflected overpressure distribution on the slab fire. A mayor explanation may be that blast and fire are
coming from Conwep. coming from the same side which means that fire just
affects the compression zone of the concrete when the
element is submitted to blast. The tensile part, which is
Table 1. Comparison between pressure values obtained in the one that actually works with the blast load, remains
Autodyn and Conwep (in kPa). intact. This makes no big differences between the two.
Gauge number Autodyn Conwep

18 3991 3998 6 CONCLUSIONS & FUTURE

19 3444 3270 DEVELOPMENTS
20 2152 2019
21 1237 1101 This paper deals with the assessment of the struc-
22 659 570 tural response of a reinforced concrete slab when it
23 372 439 is submitted first to fire and secondly to a blast load.
24 260 341 Autodyn, an explicit software for non linear modeling
25 178 305 is used to perform the numerical simulations.
The paper focuses on the way to take into account
fire damage in blast response calculations.
The main conclusion of this analysis is that dynamic
behavior of structural elements due to blast does not
significantly vary by the exposure to a 30 min of stan-
dard fire when both loads are on the same side of the
structural element. Crack development along the rein-
forcement axis as well as shear around the supports
are the main damage patterns in both cases.
Actual simulations suffer from doubts in what sense
the material models are representative for long time
simulations.
Figure 11. Damage contour plot for the case without fire. Future work takes into account the spalling by
Only half of the slab is presented, as symmetry can be applied. means of an estimation of the concrete loss.

281
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 A real scale test program is underway which will Kinney G. & Graham K. 1986, Explosive shocks in air, 2nd
confirm the actual dynamic response of this particular edition. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 80, Issue 2: pages.
slab. 708–708
Phan L. & Carino N. 1998. Review of mechanical properties
of HSC at elevated temperature. Journal of materials in
civil Engineering, Vol 10. No 1.
REFERENCES Magnusson J, Hansson H, 2005. Simuleringar av explosions-
belastade betongbalkar – en principstudie (numerical sim-
Autodyn, Users manual, version 6.1, 2005. Concord (CA,
ulations of concrete beams – a principal study, in Swedish).
USA).
National Defence Research Establishment (FOI), FOI
Autodyn, Theory manual version 11 2007. Concord (CA,
Report 1686–SE, Tumba (Sweden)
USA).
Ngo T., Mendis P., Gupta A. & Ramsay J. 2007. Blast Load-
Chen WF. Plasticity in reinforced concrete, 1982. New York.
ing and Blast Effects on Structures – An Overview. EJSE
McGraw Hill, ISBN 0-07-010687-8.
Special Issue: Loading on Structures.
Conwep, 1992. Collection of conventional weapon effects
Nyström, U. & Gylltoft, K. 2009. Numerical studies of the
calculations based on TM 5-88-1, Fundamentals of
combined effects of blast and fragment loading. Interna-
Protective Design for Conventional Weapons, U. S.
tional Journal of Impact Engineering, Volume 36, Issue
Army Engineer Waterboys Experiment Station, Vicksburg
8: pages 995–1005.
(MS,USA)
Riedel W. 2000. Beton unter dynamischen lasten, meso.
Eurocode 1, 2002: Action on structures – Part 1.2: General
und makromechanisme modelle und ihre paremeter
actions – Action on structures exposed to fire.
(in German). Doctoral Thesis, Universität der Bun-
Eurocode 2, 2004: Design of concrete structures – Part 1.2:
deswehr München, Freiburg (Germany): Ersnt-Mach-
General rules – Structural fire design.
Institut, 210 pp.
fib, fédération international du beton (International Fed-
Vantomme J. 2010. Calcul des structures en béton. Tome 1.
eration for Structural Concrete), 2007. Fire design of
L’armature principale des poutres. Ecole Royale Militaire.
concrete structures – materials, structures and modelling.
Zhou X.Q. et al. 2008. Numerical prediction of concrete slab
Bulletin 38.
response to blast loading. International Journal of Impact
fib, fédération international du beton (International Federa-
Engineering. Volume 35: pages 1186–1200.
tion for Structural Concrete), 2008. Fire design of con-
crete structures – structural behaviour and assessment.
Bulletin 46.
Johnson G. & Cook W. 1985. Fracture characteristics of
three metals subjected to various strains, strain rates, tem-
peratures and pressures. Engineering Fracture Mechanic.
Volume 21, Issue 8: pages 995–1005.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Evaluation of the residual strength of square CFT columns after

a fire through structural performance evaluation test

Sang-Keun Jung, Sun-Hee Kim & Sung-Mo Choi

Department of Architecture and Architectural Engineering, University of Seoul, Seoul, Korea

Yong-Ahn Won
Ministry of National Defense Yongsan –gu, Seoul, Korea

Heung Youl Kim

Fire Safety Research Division, Institute of Construction Technology, Korea

ABSTRACT: The concrete inside the steel tube of CFT columns enables them to have great strength and
ductility. CFT columns also excel in fire-resistance because the concrete debris caused by explosive heat upon
a fire can be contained in the tube. However, the studies to evaluate the residual strength of CFT columns after
a fire have not been conducted enough. The studies to evaluate the residual strength of CFT columns after a
fire are indispensible because it is the barometer of the damage of composite columns caused by a fire and the
degree of repair and reinforcement work for the columns after a fire. Accordingly, the purpose of this study
is to evaluate the deterioration of load capacity and structural behavior of square CFT columns with the same
shapes and boundary conditions before and after a fire. The study also evaluates the influential factors of the
CFT columns reinforced to secure the residual strength after a fire.

1 INTRODUCTION 2 SPECIMEN PLAN & TEST PROCESS

The concrete inside CFT columns significantly 2.1 Specimen plan

improves their resistance to load. In addition, they also
Eight specimens were fabricated, as shown in Table 1,
excel in durability and the debris caused by explo-
for loaded heating tests and unloaded heating tests
sive heat upon a fire can be confined to the inside of
the steel tubes. Accordingly, the superiority of CTF Table 1. Specimens.
columns over their unprotected counterparts in terms
of fire-resistance has been proved by previous tests and Reinforcement/ Steel Heating/
analytical studies. Many studies have been conducted Specimen Unreinforcement ratio (%) Non-heating
on the practical performance of CFT columns upon a
fire. (Wang (1999), Kodur (1999), Kodur and Sultan FS Unreinforced – Heating
(2000), and Han (2001)) However, only a few studies FSB 8D-19 (Steel bars) 2 (180 min)
have been made to evaluate the residual strength of FSC ∅140 × 6.6 3
CFT columns. The studies on the evaluation of the (Circular tube)
residual strength of unreinforced CFT columns are FSS
140 × 6 3
(Square tube)
needed because it tells the potential damage to com-
posite columns to be caused upon a fire and thus is S Unreinforced – Non-heating
the criterion for the repair and maintenance work after SB 8D-19 (Steel bars) 2
the fire. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to SC ∅140 × 6.6 3
carry out comparative analysis of temperature distri- (Circular tube)
bution under unloaded heating, analyze load capacity SS
140 × 6 3
(Square tube)
deterioration ratio and structural behavior before and
after heating and evaluate the influence of reinforce- F: Heating, Variables: SB-Reinforced with steel bars, SC-
ment (steel bars, double tubes) on securing the residual Reinforced with an inner circular tube, SS-Reinforced with
strength of CFT columns. an inner square tube.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 1. CFT specimens.

Table 2. Concrete mix Proportion & Slump test results.

fck slump W/C S/a S G

(MPa) (mm) (%) (%) (kg/m3 ) (kg/m3 )

36 210 39 45.9 822 1013

in order to evaluate the residual strength of CFT

square columns after being heated for three hours.
Two steel plates were bent to be <-shaped and butt-
welded to make each square column. FS is a basic
CFT specimen without reinforcement. FSB is a spec-
imen reinforced with eight D19 mm-main bars and
D10 mm-stirrups made of SD40. Steel ratio in the
specimen is 2%. FSC is reinforced with an inner cir-
cular tube (∅140 × 6.6) and FSS is reinforced with an
inner square tube (
140 × 6). (Figure 1) SS400 steel
was used for both inner and outer (360 × 9) tubes of
the specimens. In each column, six to nine thermo cou-
ples were placed at D/4, D/2, center, the outer surface
of inner tube and surface of concrete core to measure
and compare the temperatures inside the column upon
heating.

2.2 Material test

Twelve test pieces with a dimension of φ100 mm ×
200 mm were fabricated upon concrete-casting to be
cured under the same condition with the specimens.
Compressive strength of 36MPa was confirmed by
averaging the compressive strengths observed from
the test conducted for twenty-eight days in compliance
with the KS 2405 ‘How to Test Concrete Compres-
sive Strength’. Concrete mix proportion is shown in
Table 2. SPSR400 was used for both inner and outer
tubes of the specimens. For each of the columns
reinforced with steel bars, in addition to eight D19
mm-steel bars, D10 mm-stirrups (tie bars) were placed
at a vertical interval of 295 mm. Figure 2. Details of sectional areas.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 3. Heating furnace.
Figure 4. 10000 kN UTM.
2.3 Test process
The test to evaluate the residual strength of CFT
columns was structured into two stages consisting of
heating test and structure test. In heating test, heat-
ing furnace set in the Korea Institute of Construction
Technology was used. The heating furnace shown in
Figure 3 is 5 m × 7.5 m × 1.5 m in dimensions. Being
placed at the center of the heating furnace for unloaded
heating test, each specimen was heated for 3 hours in
accordance with the ISO-834 Standard Heating Curve.
After the unloaded heating test, each specimen was
cooled down at room temperature and then the maxi-
mum load capacity and displacement before and after
heating were measured by a 10,000 kN UTM with
hinge applying to both ends as shown in Figure 4.
3 TEST RESULTS
3.1 Evaluation of the temperature inside the
specimens
Figure 5 shows the ISO-834 standard heating curve
and those obtained from the tests. The specimens were
heated for 180 minutes at a constant temperature. In
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 5. Temperature distribution inside heating furnace.
each test, the temperature inside the furnace was within
the deviation of 5%, meaning that the heating curves
are almost identical.
As shown in Figure 6, the temperatures at dif-
ferent points on each column’s sectional area were
measured for comparative analysis. Since the con-
crete inside the column restrained temperature rise,
the closer it was to the center of sectional area,
the less temperature rise was. All of the four speci-
mens presented almost identical curves regardless of
reinforcement/unreinforcement.
As shown in figure 6 (b), FSS displayed rapid tem-
perature rise at D/4 point after 120 minutes, while the
rest of three specimens showed identical temperature
curves. In terms of the temperature at the outer surface
of inner tube or steel reinforcement after 180 minutes,
FSB presented the highest temperature and FSC dis-
played the lowest one. It is deduced that temperature
rise of main reinforcement bars in FSB up to over 450◦
caused the biggest temperature rise.
3.2 Load-displacement relation after heating
Figure 7 shows load-displacement relation for each
variable after and before heating. Displacement was
measured by LVDTs set up at the upper end plate of
each specimen. Rapid deterioration in load capacity
was observed after yield stress at room temperature,
whereas load capacity of the specimens after heating
deteriorated gradually. Table 3 shows initial stiffness,
maximum load capacity and maximum displacement.
SB reinforced with steel bars displayed the strongest
load capacity at room temperature, while FSC rein-
forced with an inner circular tube showed the strongest
load capacity after being heated.
3.3 Destructive behavior
Figure 8 shows failure mechanism after the test. The
specimens displayed distinctly different failure behav-
iors before and after heating despite the fact that they
had identical shapes and material properties. In loaded
test at room temperature, the specimens displayed
tube-shaped destructive behavior until maximum load
 Figure 6. Temperatures at different sectional points.

capacity was reached due to buckling. In heated load-

ing test, on the other hand, steel tube surface peeled and
bents were displayed proving the occurrence of buck-
ling multiple times. In addition, buckling was observed
at the ribs which had been installed to prevent local
buckling to be caused by stress concentration on the
upper and lower parts of plates, which indicated that
severe buckling caused deformation.

4 EVALUATION OF RESIDUAL STRENGTH

In order to evaluate residual load capacity of CFT

columns after heating, residual strength ratio was
obtained from formula (1) as shown in Table 4. After
heating CFT Column to evaluate the residual strength Figure 7. Load-displacement relation after/before heating.

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Table 3. Maximum load capacity & Maximum Table 4. Residual strength (Unit: kN).
displacement.
RS
Maximum load Maximum P-fire
Specimen capacity (kN) displacment (mm) NO-F test NO P-test P-KBC P-Xio Eq 1 Eq 2 Eq 3

FS 4284 11.86 FS 4284 S 6954 6151 – 0.62 0.70 –

FSB 5382 15.33 FSB 5382 SB 9127 6628 – 0.59 0.81 –
FSC 5355 17.68 FSC 5355 SC 7751 6382 7858 0.69 0.84 0.68
FSS 4323 16.18 FSS 4323 SS 7477 6374 7655 0.58 0.68 0.56
S 6954 4.26
SB 9127 3.12
SC 7751 4.36
SS 7477 3.89

Figure 9. Residual strength ratio after heating.

Residual strength ratio of specimens reinforced

Figure 8. Failure mechanism of the specimens before/after
heating.
it applied Eq 1. The Eq 2 case of double skin CFT
columns by simplicity calculated with normal tem-
perature of the composite column. Also the case
Eq 3 applied an actual normal temperature value with
Zhong Tao (2005) Double skin CFT predictions and
heating with the experimental it compared.
with steel bars whose maximum capacity at room tem-
perature was stronger than others was 0.59 and that of
the specimens reinforced with an inner circular tube
was 0.69 which was the highest of all. Although the
load capacity of FSB at room temperature was stronger
than that of FS, FSC and FSS, it was observed that the
load capacity of the reinforcing steel bars deteriorated
after heating due to the thermal damage to the bars. It
is induced that the rise in temperature around the main
reinforcement deteriorated the reinforcement effects
of the bars and resulted in rapid degeneration in load
capacity. Reinforcement with steel bars was evaluated
to be more effective than that with an inner steel tube
in loaded test at room temperature, while the residual
strength of FSC reinforced with an inner circular tube
was higher than that of FSB by 10% after heating.
Eq 2 normal temperature at the time of value and
it compared and case which will evaluate the residual
strength was overestimated, Eq 3 comparison of the
double skin CFT with actual experimental value was
visible the confrontation which is similar.
5 CONCLUSION
In this study to analyze load capacity deterioration and
structural behavior of CFT columns reinforced with
steel bars and an inner tube before and after heating,
temperature distribution upon unloaded heating and
the influence of heating were observed and analyzed.
The results are as follows.
In a comparison of load-displacement curves before
and after heating, the specimens displayed rapid
deterioration in load capacity after yield point at

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 room temperature, while load capacity after heating
presented gradually declining curves.
In a comparison of residual strength ratios after
heating, the specimens reinforced with an inner circu-
lar tube presented higher residual strength ratio than
those reinforced with steel bars by 10% and the resid-
ual strength ratio of the specimens reinforced with steel
bars was lower than that of unreinforced specimens by
6.9%.
It is deduced that reinforcement with an inner cir-
cular tube is the most effective way to secure higher
residual strength of CFT columns upon a fire.
6 NOTATION
RS : Residual strength
Nuf : After fire strength
Nu : Ultimate strength of the composite column
Po : Ultimate strength of the composite column
As : Cross-sectional area of steel
Fy : Yield strength steel
Asr : Reinforced steel area of steel
Fyr : Yield strength Reinforced steel
fck : Characteristic concrete strength
Ac : Cross-sectional area of concrete
Nosc,u : Compressive capacity of the outer steel tube
and the sandwiched
Ni,u : Compressive capacity of the inner tube
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the Korea Science and
Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) grant funded by
the Korea government (MOST) (No. ROA-2007-000-
10047-0)
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
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Constructional Steel Research 62, 631–646.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Evaluation of the steel structure fire resistance of a shopping centre

using structural fire engineering

P. Vila Real & N. Lopes

LABEST-Department of Civil Engineering, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal

ABSTRACT: This paper presents a study on the passive fire protection needs, to fulfil the standard fire
requirements, of the steel structure of a shopping centre. Due to the large dimension of the shopping centre
a prescriptive approach using the standard fire curve ISO 834 revealed to be too severe, quite unrealistic and
uneconomical.Therefore, the results were obtained in accordance with the advanced calculation methods included
in the recently approved Parts 1-2 of Eurocode 1 and Eurocode 3. Two zones model and localized fires were used
in the simulation of several fire scenarios. The steel structure, which is located predominantly in the last floor of
the building, is composed of irregular 3D frames, and has Class 4 columns with built-up section profiles, which
have been analyzed using the Finite Element Method.

1 INTRODUCTION Dolce Vita shopping centre in Braga (Portugal), are

In the Portuguese Technical Regulations for Build-
ings Fire Safety, on the Decree No. 1532/2008 (MAI,
2008), which is now implemented, two approaches are
recommended for assessing the safety of structures
exposed to fire: a prescriptive approach using the stan-
dard fire curve ISO 834; and a performance based
design using the natural fire development concept.
The natural fire curve definition takes into account
the size of the fire compartment, the ventilation condi-
tions and the surrounding walls coatings, in opposition
to the standard fire curve that does not depend on any
of these parameters.
In addition, in the last decade several European
projects (EC, 1999a,b, RFCS, 2008) have shown that
in large compartments, the prescriptive regulation
based on the standard fire curve is too conservative
and unrealistic.
According to Part 1-2 of Eurocode 3 (EC3) (CEN,
2005a), the stability verification can be made verifying
that:
a) with the standard fire the structure collapse does
not occur before the fire resistance time defined
by the regulation; or
b) with the natural fire and advanced calculation
methods the structure collapse does not occur dur-
ing the complete duration of the fire including the
decay phase or during a required period of time,
which may coincide with the fire resistance time
defined by the regulation.
In this work, the studies, performed to assess the
needs of passive protection in the steel structure of the
presented.
Advanced calculation methods were used
(Franssen, & Vila Real, 2010), both for the natural fire
characterization (programme Ozone (Cadorin 2003,
Cadorin et al., 2006), developed at the University of
Liege and Arcelor Profil Luxembourg Research Cen-
tre) and to simulate the thermo-mechanical behaviour
(finite element program SAFIR (Franssen, 2005,
2008) also developed at the University of Liege).
It were also considered the occurrence of pos-
sible localize fires, in accordance with Part 1-2 of
Eurocode 1 (EC1) (CEN, 2005b), and simplified meth-
ods as prescribed in EC3 Part 1–2 (CEN, 2005a) were
used. These methodologies from both Eurocodes were
implemented in the program Elefir-EN (Vila Real
et al., 2010) (developed at the Universities of Aveiro
and Liege).
The fire compartment temperature definition was
determined, as defined in Part 1-2 of EC1, with each
of the following fire models: the localise fire and 1 or 2
zone models, according to whichever is more appropri-
ate. These models correspond to different types of fire
and different phases of the same fire. The favourable
effects, of protective active measures against fires and
ventilation conditions inherent to the building (in par-
ticular smoke evacuation systems), were not taken into
accounted.
The steel structure of the shopping centre (see Fig-
ure 1) is located predominantly in the 3rd floor of
the building, having eight Class 4 columns with non-
uniform cross-section. The heights of these columns
develop throughout all the building levels.
This study, on the steel structure fire behaviour,
aimed at verifying that the structure fire resistance

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 1. Analyzed structure.
would be of 60 minutes (R60), recommending the
application of fire protection, when necessary.
2 FIRE SCENARIOS
Due to the large dimensions of the building stud-
ied in this work, a prescriptive approach using the
standard fire curve ISO 834 revealed to be too con-
servative and unrealistic. There is a large amount of
air, which, in a real fire, provides temperatures reduc-
tions (EC, 1999b). The temperature evolutions were
then determined using the calculation software Ozone
V2.2 (Cadorin 2003, Cadorin et al., 2006).
Although, as it will be shown, in all studied fire
scenarios occurred flashover, on the localized fires, the
maximum flame height Lf was evaluated according to
EC1 and based on the Heskestad model (Heskestad,
1983, CEN, 2005b, Vila Real et al., 2010).
In these analyses the fire compartment have an
average height of 12.67 m, the rate of heat release
was RHRf = 250 kW/m2 , it was also considered a
high fire growth rate, and the fire load density was
qf ,k = 730 MJ/m2 (CEN, 2005b).
2.1 Compartment fires
The considered compartment fire scenarios were:
Scenario 1 – Fire compartment simultaneously in
3 cinemas of Part D1 (see Figure 1). It was assumed
that the most realistic severe case would be to consider
three cinemas burning simultaneously. The considered
maximum area was Af ,max = 3960 m2 , and the fire
area Afi = 960 m2 , (area of the three cinemas). It was
considered an openings area of 237.6 m2 located at
10.5 m height and an area of 203.2 m2 , on the separa-
tion between the Part D1 and the inside of the mall.
Although, it is known that above 500◦ C all the win-
dows should be broken, the glass breakage criterion
considered was that 10% of the openings would be
always open, being this the most severe case observed
on a parametric study conducted with the other pos-
sible percentages. The temperature evolution in the
compartment can be observed in Figure 2a.
Scenario 2 – Fire in the compartment of Parts
C2, C1 and D2 (see Figure 1). The maximum area
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 2. Temperatures evolution in the compartment: a)
scenario 1; b) scenario 2.
is Af ,max = 7560 m2 . The fire area Afi = 7560 m2 . It
was considered an opening area of 554.4 m2 located
at 10.5 m height and an area of 762 m2 on one of
the walls. The breaking glass criterion adopted was
that 10% of the openings would be open until the
temperature reached 400◦ C, 50% between 400◦ C and
500◦ C and 100% after the 500◦ C. The temperature
evolution in the compartment can be observed in
Figure 2b.
2.2 Localized fires
Regarding the localized fires, the following scenarios
were considered:
Scenario 3 – Localized fire in the purlins with
Afi = 36 m2 (corresponding to a diameter of 6.8 m)
(EC, 1999b, Heskestad, 1983). The compartment tem-
perature evolution is presented in Figure 3a.
Scenario 4 – Localized Fire on the ground floor of
the level 1 of Part C2 with a diameter of 10 m (EC,
1999b). The temperature is calculated at different lev-
els (every meter along the height) of the columns with
non-uniform section, in Part C2. These columns are
developed throughout the three floors of the building
and extend to more approximately 12 m, resulting in a
total height of about 36 m. The temperature evolution
is plotted in Figure 3b.
3 MECHANICAL ANALYSIS
A 3D mechanical analysis using the software SAFIR
(Franssen, 2005, 2008), with beam and shell finite

Figure 3. Temperatures evolution in the compartment: a)
scenario 3; b) scenario 4.
elements was used and, the simplified methods,
recommended in EC3 were also used (through the
software Elefir-EN (Vila Real et al., 2010)).
3.1 Mechanical actions
The fire is considered an accident action, which means
that the design value of the action effects in fire situa-
tion, should be obtained using an accident combination
as defined in EN 1990 (CEN, 2005c) and in accor-
dance with the Portuguese National Annex of the EN
1991-1-2 (CEN, 2005a):
The shopping centre roof loads were determined,
in accordance with Annex A1 of the EN 1990
(CEN, 2005c), adopting the category D for commer-
cial buildings, which corresponds to the accidental
combination:
where Gk refers to the permanent loading and Qk to
the variable action.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 4. Structures: a) Part C; b) Part D.
3.2 Analyzed structural systems
The steel structure of the roof was modelled in 2 Parts
(C and D) according to the figures 1 and 4, where each
of them has its own specificities. The overall structure
is mainly supported by reinforced concrete columns.
Several analyses were performed, being the struc-
tural elements subjected to the natural fire curves
obtained from:
a) Widespread fire in Part D1 (scenario 1 as defined
in Section 2).
b) Widespread fire in Part D2, C1 and C2 (scenario 2
as defined in Section 2).
c) Localized fire in Part C2 (scenario 4 as defined in
Section 2).
In Part D, five structural systems were used, cor-
responding to two parts (Part D1 and Part D2). Part
D1 was analysed in a single three-dimensional frame,
and in Part D2 one three-dimensional frame, two
truss structures and an isolated beam were considered
(Figures 4b and 5).
Since there is an I beam in Part D2 (indicated in
Figure 4b) with class 3 cross-section, its fire resistance
was determined using the simplified methods recom-
mended in EC3 (CEN, 2005a), through analysis made
with the program Elefir-EN (Vila Real et al., 2010),
concluding that the beam critical temperature is never
reached throughout the all fire duration, as illustrated
in Figure 6.

Figure 5. Deformed shape (x1) of: a) Part D1 after 2 h of
natural fire; b) the truss structure 1 of Part D2 just before
collapse (70 minutes).
Figure 6. Temperature-time curve of the class 3 beam in
Part D2 subjected to 2 h of natural fire.
The Part C was also divided into 2 smaller parts
(Part C1 and Part C2). In Part C1 five trusses were
analyzed (Figures 4a and 7a). In Part C2 were analyzed
two structural systems as highlighted in Figure 4a cor-
responding to: a three-dimensional frame (Figure 7b);
and a class 4 column with a built-in non-uniform cross-
section subjected to two fire scenarios (scenarios 2 and
4), as illustrated in Figure 8.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 7. Deformed shape of (x1): a) the truss structure 5
of Part C1 just before collapse (82 minutes); b) Part C2 after
2 h of natural fire.
Figure 8a shows the deformed shape of the class
4 column, with non-uniform cross-section and 36.5 m
height, just before the collapse, when subjected to fire
scenario 2. It was considered that the fire only acted on
the last 22 m of the column. Finally figure 8b shows the
deformed shape of the same column with passive fire
protection to ensure a fire resistance of 60 minutes (to
the standard fire ISO 834) in the first 9 m, when sub-
jected to fire scenario 4. Different temperatures were
considered in the first meters of the column, resulting
from the localized fire evolution (see Figure 3).
Table 1 summarizes the results of the different anal-
yses described above, indicating the time of collapse
(tcollapse ).
From the presented results, it can be concluded that,
provided the purlins in Part D1 have passive protection
to ensure a fire resistance of 30 minutes to a critical
temperature of 500◦ C (considered in the calculation,
using the standard fire ISO 834), the structure does
not collapse for more than 60 minutes.
Regarding Part C1 and Part D2, it is not necessary to
use any passive protection, to ensure a fire resistance
of 60 minutes.
In Part C2 passive fire protection is required only
on the first 9 m of the columns with non-uniform
cross-section (1st floor of the building). The passive
protection needs to guarantee a fire resistance of 60
minutes to a critical temperature of 500◦ C.

Figure 8. Deformed shape of the column with a built in
non-uniform cross-section of Part C2 (x10) subjected to: a)
fire scenario 2, just before collapse (64 minutes); b) fire
scenario 4, after 2 h of natural fire.
It can be also concluded that, according to the
deformed shape of all the analyzed structural systems,
the collapse, when it occurs, is towards the inside of
the building, thus resulting in no danger to fire-fighters
intervention.
4 CONCLUSIONS
In this work it was presented a case study to the
passive fire protection needs of the steel structure
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 1. Results of the different analyses.
Structural systems/Analysis Result
Part D1 without protection subjected to tcollapse = 53 min
scenario 1
Part D1 with protection of R30 on the No collapse
purlins subjected to scenario 1
Frame of Part D2 subjected to scenario 2 tcollapse = 78 min
Truss 1 of Part D2 subjected to scenario 2 tcollapse = 70 min
Truss 2 of Part D2 subjected to scenario 2 tcollapse = 77 min
Beam of Part D2 subjected to scenario 2 No collapse
Truss 1 of Part C1 subjected to scenario 2 No collapse
Truss 2 of Part C1 subjected to scenario 2 tcollapse = 87 min
Truss 3 of Part C1 subjected to scenario 2 tcollapse = 65 min
Truss 4 of Part C1 subjected to scenario 2 tcollapse = 71 min
Truss 5 of Part C1 subjected to scenario 2 tcollapse = 82 min
Frame of Part C2 subjected to scenario 2 No collapse
Column with non-uniform cross-section tcollapse = 64 min
without protection subjected to scenario 2
Column with non-uniform cross-section tcollapse = 14 min
without protection subjected to scenario 4
Column with non-uniform cross-section, No collapse
with protection of R60 in the first 9 m,
subjected to scenario 4
of a Shopping Centre using simplified and advanced
calculation methods.
Based on studies conducted within European
projects (EC, 1999a,b, RFCS, 2008), the steel struc-
ture temperatures development, resulted from a fire
in the Dolce Vita shopping centre in Braga, Portugal,
was analysed, in which the several compartments fit
the classification of a large compartments.
The temperatures obtained with this analysis are rel-
atively low, meaning that the steel structure fire passive
protection needs are low (or even no protection was
needed) when compared to a prescriptive assessment
following the standard ISO 834 fire curve.
The use of finite element models, on the mechanical
analysis, has also revealed to be decisive, on better
predict the actual behaviour of these structures in case
of fire.
REFERENCES
Cadorin, J.-F., 2003. Compartment Fire Models for Struc-
tural Engineering, Thèse de doctorat, University of Liege,
Belgium.
Cadorin, J.-F., Franssen, J.-M., Pintea, D., Cajot, L. G., Haller,
M., Schleich J. B., 2006. Software Ozone V2.2. Univer-
sity of Liege, Belgium and Arcelor Profil Luxembourg
Research Centre, Luxembourg.
CEN (European Committee for Standardization), 2005a. EN
1991-1-2, Eurocode 1 – Basis of design and actions on
structures – Part 1-2: General rules – Structural fire
design.
CEN (European Committee for Standardization), 2005b. EN
1993-1-2, Eurocode 3 – Design of steel structures – Part
1-2: Actions on structures exposed to fire.
CEN (European Committee for Standardization), 2005c, EN
1990, Eurocode – Basis of structural design.
 EC (European Commission), 1999a. Development of Design
Rules for Steel Structures Subjected to Natural Fires in
Closed Car Parks, EUR 18867 EN.
EC (European Commission), 1999b. Development of Design
Rules for Steel Structures Subjected to Natural Fires in
Large Compartments, EUR 18868 EN.
Franssen J.-M., 2005. “SAFIR. A Thermal/Structural Pro-
gram Modelling Structures under Fire”, Engineering
Journal, A.I.S.C., Vol 42, No. 3, 143–158.
Franssen, J.-M., 2008. “User’s manual for SAFIR 2007a,
a computer program for analysis of structures subjected
to fire”, Structural Engineering, ArGEnCO, University of
Liege, Belgium.
Franssen, J.-M. & Vila Real, P., 2010. “Fire Design of Steel
Structures. Eurocode 1: Actions on Structures. Part 1-2
– Actions on Structures Exposed to Fire. Eurocode 3:
294
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Design of Steel Structures. Part 1-2 – Structural Fire
Design”, ECCS, Ernst & Sohn.
Heskestad, G., 1983. “Luminous heights of turbulent diffu-
sion flames”, Fire Safety Journal, Elsevier.
MAI (Ministério da Administração Interna), 2008. Portaria
no. 1532/2008 (in portuguese).
RFCS (Research Fund for Coal and Steel), 2008.
DIFISEK+ – Dissemination of Structural Fire Safety
Engineering Knowledge.
Vila Real, P., Franssen, J.-M., 2010. Software Elefir-EN – Fire
design of steel structural members according to Eurocode
3. http://elefiren.web.ua.pt
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

To the composite slab on beams with corrugated web exposed to fire

F. Wald, T. Jána, P. Kyzlík & M. Strejček

Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic

ABSTRACT: The paper presents the comparison of the fire design of the unprotected composite beam with
corrugated web to the results of the fire test on administrative building. The beam shear and bending failure
modes of the simplified mechanical prediction of the behaviour at elevated temperature are well visible on
the load deformation curve and on relative deformation of the beam web close to its support. The slab was
reinforced by ductile mesh to carry the load by its membrane action. The analysis shows the partial activation
of the membrane action.

1 INSTRUCTIONS

The main goal of the fire test on a floor of an adminis-

trative building of size 18 × 12 m with height 2,68 m
was the overall behaviour of the structure, which may
not be observed on the separate tests on individual
elements. A new building was erected in front of
the Czech Technical University in Prague educational
centre Joseph gallery in Mokrsko Central Bohemia.
The experiment followed the seven large fire tests
in Cardington laboratory on steel frame conducted
between 1998 and 2003, see [1]. The complex design
of structure allowed simulating a simple as well
as advanced modelling of today modern buildings.
Except of the three types of flooring systems were
tested six wall structures with mineral wool. On a quar-
ter of the floor was used the composite slab supported
by the fire unprotected composite pretty beams with
corrugated web, see Figure 1. The aim of this paper
is to show the accuracy of simplified modelling of the
behaviour of the composite beam with trapezoidal web.
The prediction of the beam CS2 and CS3 is presented.
The composite slabs on the castellated beams was
designed with a span 9 to 12 m and on beams with cor-
rugated webs with a span 9 to 6 m, see Figure 2. The
deck was a simple trapezoidal composite slab of thick-
ness 60 mm with the height over the rib 120 mm with
sheeting CF60 (Cofraplus 0,75 mm) and concrete of
Figure 1. Thermocouples located in the midspan and at the
measured cubic strength 34 N/mm3 in 28 days rein-
end of the beam with corrugated web CS2.
forced by a smooth mesh ø 5 mm 100/100 mm; with
strength 500 MPa and coverage 20 mm.
Two beams with corrugated web WTB 500/220 × The test was observed apart from other by more
12, see [2], were design for span 9 m in distance then 300 thermocouples, twenty deflectometers, six
2 m. Full connection was realised by studs 19 mm flux density meters, two meteorological stations, ten
with length 110 mm in distances 207 mm. The studs video, and four thermo imagine cameras, see [3]. The
were welded in shop and on side put on through the gas temperature round the beam with corrugated web
holes with diameter 40 mm: The beams were design was measured by thermocouples TG05 and TG06 at
as simple with header plate connection with improved the level of lower flange, see Figure 1. Round the
partially encased in the concrete slab to improve its experimental building was erected the structure from
fire resistance. scaffold. The vertical deformations were measured

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 3. The gas temperatures at level of beam lower
flanges.

Figure 2. Structure of experimental building for fire test.

from the twins of timber formwork beams, which were

fixed on linear scaffolds and on bridged truss girders
1,5 m above the building floor.
The mechanical load was designed for typical
administrative building, where the variable action
in Czech Republic reached usually from 2,5 to
3,5 kN/m2 . The dead load of the composite slab and
Figure 4. The beam lower flange temperatures.
beams reached 2,6 kN/m2 . The load was created by
bags. The load represents the variable load at ambi-
ent temperature 3,0 kN/m2 and added permanent load
1,0 kN/m2 in characteristic values. Mechanical load
3,0 kN/m2 was represented by 78 sand bags; each bag
had approximately 900 kg. These sand bags were put
on wooden pallets and uniformly distributed on the
composite slab and pre-stressed panels.
Two window openings in the front wall with dimen-
sion 2,43 × 4,0 m provided air supply into the fire
compartment. Fire load was made of rough battens
from soft pine wood, total volume of 15 m3 . The usual
characteristic value of the fire load for administrative
building is 420 MJ/m2 , by the experiment the fire load
reached 515 MJ/m2 . Figure 5. Temperatures measured at the midspan of the
beam.

2 BEAMS TEMPERATURE
the lower flange difference, see Figure 4, with maxi-
mum 782,2◦ C and 735,4◦ C. The temperature gradient
In fire, the temperature distribution across a compos-
along the beam height is demonstrated for mid span at
ite member is non-uniform, since the web and bottom
Figure 5. The thermo imagine camera visualised the
flange have thin cross-sections and a greater exposed
temperature difference between both beams and along
perimeter than the top flange. The deterioration of the
its height at Figure 6.
material properties of the web may therefore become
an important effect on the overall performance of the
member in the event of fire. The previous fire engi-
neering studies has been focussed to standard fire test 3 BEAM RESISTANCE
only, see [4].
In the test was measured the gas temperature Several investigations into the beams with corrugated
round the castellated beam by thermocouples TG05 web structural behaviour have supported the use of
and TG06, see Figure 3 with maximum 88,9◦ C and as structural members in steel to concrete compos-
842,2◦ C respectively. The position of both beam brings ite frames and bridges. Extensive measurements were

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 6. The temperature along the beam by the thermal
imaging camera during the cooling in 32 min of experiment.
Figure 7. The temperature along the beam by the thermal
imaging camera during the cooling in 63 min of experiment.
made of the stress distributions across the cross-
section, and these were compared with the predictions
of various theoretical studies, see [5]. It is assumed
that the web carries only shear forces due to the accor-
dion effect, see [6]. Because of this characteristic, the
corrugated steel webs fail due to shear buckling or
yielding, while the flanges resist the moment.
The elastic shear buckling strength of corrugated
steel web is controlled by the elastic interactive shear
buckling strength.The solution proposed by Pasternak,
see [7] was utilised. The corrugated web was taken as
an orthotropic plate of different shear stiffness, Dx in
vertical axes parallel to the waves, and Dy to the hori-
zontal axes, perpendicular to the waves. The stiffness
Dy is much higher
The critical shear stress may be expressed as
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 8. The description of the beam behaviour on the
beam deflection during the fire test.
The relative slenderness or the web
The buckling factor
The shear resistance of the web
For the acting shear force during the fire
was calculated during the heating. The diminution may
be expressed by the material reduction factors kE and
for resistance by kyθ and kyθ , see Figure 8.
Close to connections was the beam web instru-
mented with strain gauges for high temperatures to
assume the shear stress across the web during the
fire test. The application of the free-filament high-
temperature strain gauges, which are sandwiched
between two thin ceramics cement layers, allow to
measure up to a temperature of 1150◦ C. The accu-
racy of the measurement is 3% till the 5000 µm, which
limits the positioning of the strain gauges. Two strain
gauges were applied on the web height of castellated
beam, see Figure 9. The stress at elevated tempera-
ture σθ was derived from the measured strain using
Young’s modulus of elasticity at elevated tempera-
ture Ea,θ = kEθ E and the corresponding temperature
recorded by the thermocouples.
where kE,θ is the reduction factor for the slope of the
linear elastic range at the steel temperature, see [8],

Figure 9. The web of the beam with corrugated web after
the fire test.
Figure 10. The measured stresses in the beam with corru-
gated web.
E is the elastic modulus of steel; εθ is the strain at
elevated temperature; ky,θ is the reduction factor for
the yield strength of steel at the steel temperature,
see [8]; fy is the yield strength at ambient tempera-
ture, 355 MPa. The strain development corresponds to
the predicted loss of the shear resistance, see Figure 9,
and the internal forces developed in the beam during
its heating.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 11. Comparison f the deflection of the beam with
corrugated web before and after the fire test from laser
scanning.
Figure 12. The comparison of the beam and the slab cate-
nary action resistances to the applied load effect during
the test.
4 SLAB RESISTANCE
The steel sheeting temperature during the fire follows
the gas temperature and the sheeting lost its bending
stiffness and resistance in early stage of the fire. The
sheeting deforms and separate from the concrete slab.
The bending stiffness of the unprotected composite
beam was decreasing. The beam web is keeping losing
its shear resistance and the beam flanges its bend-
ing resistance. Under the high deformations the upper
mesh in the composite slab allows to help transfer the
load by its plate behaviour, see [9]. The membrane
action was not reached, see Figure 12 from [10].
5 CONCLUSION
The fire test approved a good fire resistance of com-
posite slab with unprotected beams with corrugated
web, which is higher compare to the separate compos-
ite beam resistance, see Figure 12. The slab resistance
was not reached at 62 min of the fire when the test
was terminated, the floor with cellular beams reached
its resistance, but the beam shear resistance run out in
22 min, see Figure 13.
The experimental data confirms a reasonable accu-
racy of prediction just by a simple model, even though
the stresses of beam in real structure are highly
influenced be elements elongation/shortening.

Figure 13. The beam during the fire test.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The outcome has been achieved with the financial
support of Grant Agency of Czech Republic No.
P105/10/2159.
10. Jana T., Evaluation of fire resistance of beam with cor-
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
2. Corrugated web beam, technical documentation,
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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Fire after earthquake

R. Zaharia, D. Pintea & D. Dubina

Department of Steel Structures and Structural Mechanics, The “Politehnica” University of Timisoara, Romania

ABSTRACT: The paper presents a study done by the authors as part of their contribution to the WG1 “Fire
Resistance” of the COST Action C26 “Urban habitat Constructions under catastrophic Events”. The study
evaluates the fire resistance time for some unprotected steel moment resisting frames, in the hypothesis of a fire
after a seismic event, using both standard and natural fire scenarios. Moderate and severe seismic actions are
used for designing the steel structures. The influence of the damage level induced by the earthquake on the fire
resistance is emphasized.

1 INTRODUCTION 2 ANALYZED STRUCTURES

The authors have contributed with an extended and The moment resisting steel plane frames considered
comprehensive state-of-art on the risk management in for the study have the dimensions given in Figures 1,
case of fire after earthquake, in the frame of COST a and b (Zaharia et al. 2009; Zaharia & Pintea, 2009).
C26 Action “Urban habitat Constructions under catas- The structures are made using European steel profiles
trophic Events”, WG1 “Fire Resistance” (Faggiano
et al., 2008a). The fire following earthquake risk man-
agement requires an approach at two different scales:
a local scale, referred to the building itself (building
scale), and a global scale, referred to a whole region
(regional scale).
Concerning the building scale aspect of the fire
problem, in recent years, some studies on the behavior
of steel structures with no fire protection, damaged
by earthquakes and exposed to fires, have been car-
ried out. A state-of-the-art on the existing studies of
structural analysis in case of fire after earthquake was
presented in the COST Action C26 by (Faggiano et al.
2008b).
The authors (Zaharia et al. 2009; Zaharia &
Pintea, 2009) considered both standard and natural fire
approach for a case study (unprotected steel moment
resisting frame) in which the difference between the
situation “before” and “after” the earthquake was pre-
sented also from the point of view of available active
fire fighting measures.
This paper presents the study in which a method-
ology to evaluate the fire resistance of the structures
already damaged by the earthquake, using advanced
methods for earthquake and subsequent fire analysis
is presented.The influence of the damage level induced
by the earthquake on the fire resistance is empha-
sized. Advanced non-linear analyses for determining
the damage level induced by the earthquake and for
calculating the fire resistance time of the damaged
structures were considered. Figure 1. Frame characteristics.

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 Figure 3. Seismic demand spectra vs. capacity diagram for
Figure 2. Seismic demand spectra vs. capacity diagram for Frame A – Vrancea.
Frame A – Banat.

of S235 steel grade and all beam-to-column connec-

tions are rigid. Both frames were dimensioned for
the same fundamental load combinations of actions
(4 kN/m2 for dead load and 2 kN/m2 for the live load
of the current storey, 3.5 kN/m2 for dead load and
1.5 kN/m2 for the live load of the top storey, 0.5 kN/m2
for the wind action). The frames were further verified
for two seismic regions in Romania, with different
ground motions: a near–field type (Banat region)
and a far-field type (Vrancea region). The design
was made according to the Romanian seismic code
(P100-1/2004, 2005), adapted from the correspond- Figure 4. Seismic demand spectra vs. capacity diagram for
ing European standard EN1998 (2005). The elastic Frame B – Banat.
spectral analysis was applied considering the response
spectrum for the Romanian Banat region (moderate
seismic area with the design peak ground accelera-
tion ag = 0.16 g and control period Tc = 0.7 seconds),
and for Vrancea region (severe seismic area with the
design peak ground acceleration ag = 0.32 g and con-
trol period Tc = 1.6 s). The behavior factor for the
moment resisting frames was considered q = 6.
The design of the Frame A – Banat structure was
governed by the fundamental load combination (no
changes in elements dimensions after the seismic
design verification). For all other cases (Frame A –
Vrancea and Frame B – Banat and Vrancea) the design
of the structures was governed by the seismic combina-
tion. Figure 1 shows the steel sections of both frames.
Figure 5. Seismic demand spectra vs. capacity diagram for
The values in parenthesis represent the profiles used Frame B – Vrancea.
for Vrancea structures, which resulted with stronger
beams for some levels and with stronger columns on
the height of the building, due to the higher seismic on the assumption that the response is governed by the
demand. fundamental mode of vibration.
The seismic response of the structures was evalu- Figures 2 to 5 show in a graphical form the proce-
ated using a pushover analysis, while the displacement dure used to determine the displacement demand of the
demand under the corresponding seismic event was SDOF systems (Zaharia et al. 2009; Zaharia & Pintea,
determined using the N2 method, developed by (Fajfar 2009).
2000), and implemented in EN1998-1. This method The Banat Frame A remains elastic after the occur-
combines the push-over analysis of a multi-degree rence of the corresponding earthquake. The Banat
of freedom model (MDOF) with the response spec- frame A was dimensioned from the fundamental load
trum analysis of a single degree of freedom system combination, being sensitive to the horizontal wind
(SDOF). The push-over analysis was performed based action and the steel sections remained the same after

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Figure 6. Reduction factors for carbon steel at elevated
temperatures.
the verification for the code seismic action. Frame A –
Vrancea responded to the seismic motion in inelastic
range, experiencing maximum interstorey drifts of
2.7%, slightly larger than the 2.5% limit correspond-
ing to “Life safety” performance level according to
the informative classification given by (FEMA 356,
2002). This means that the structure is expected to
present important damages of non-structural elements
and moderate damages of structural elements, but the
safety of the people is guarantied. The same perfor-
mance level was attained for Frame B (1.8% maximum
drifts for Banat frame and 2.2% maximum drifts for
Vrancea frame).
Consequently, after the earthquake code, the Frame
A – Banat structure remains undamaged, while for the
other structures in fire analysis, two hypotheses will
be considered:
– a lower intensity earthquake occurs and the struc-
ture remains undamaged;
– an earthquake with the intensity given by the Roma-
nian code for Banat and Vrancea regions occurs and
the structures suffer the damage determined by the
above procedure.
3 FIRE ANALYSIS
3.1 Principles of fire design
The basic principle in determining the fire resistance of
a structural element or of a structure is that the elevated
temperatures produced by the fire reduce the materials
strength and stiffness until possible collapse. Figure 6
shows the reduction factors for the stress-strain rela-
tionship of carbon steel at elevated temperatures, as
given in EN1993-1-2 (2005).
When the temperatures on the cross-section of a
structural element produce the reduction of the ele-
ment resistance bellow the level of the effect of actions
for fire design situation, it is considered that that ele-
ment lost its load-bearing function under fire action.
The fire is considered an accidental situation which
requires, with some exceptions, only verifications
against the ultimate limit state.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
There are several fire models (thermal actions),
accepted by the European Standard EN1991-1-2,
which describe the thermal and mechanical actions to
be considered for a structure under fire.
The standard ISO834 fire model is given by the
following temperature-time relationship:
where:
θg , is the gas temperature of the fire compartment [◦ C],
t is the time of fire exposure [min].
The nominal standard temperature-time ISO 854
fire curve does not take into account any physical
parameter, and can be far away from reality. From the
beginning, the nominal curve supposes that the entire
compartment is in the flashover phase and the tem-
perature is increased continuously, without taking into
account the cooling phase.
A modern fire model approach is the combined
‘Two Zone’ and ‘One Zone’ model. In this natural
fire model, in the pre-flashover phase, the fire com-
partment is divided in a hot upper zone and a cold
inferior one. For each zone, with uniform tempera-
ture, mass and energy equations are solved. Complex
equations describe the air movement in the fire plume,
the radiative exchanges between the zones and the
gas movements on the openings and adjacent com-
partments. After the flashover, the temperature is
considered uniform and is determined by solving the
equations of mass and energy of the compartment, tak-
ing into account the walls and openings. In the frame
of the ECSC research “Natural Fire Safety Concept”
(CEC, 2001) a computer program for this model was
developed, called OZone (Cadorin et al. 2003).
The fire scenario for a post-earthquake fire may
consider a combined ‘Two Zone’ – ‘One Zone’ natural
fire model, with the design fire load density calculated
considering or not the active fire fighting measures,
which could be all available in a normal fire situation,
but could be partially available after the occurrence of
an earthquake.
For the calculation of the fire resistance of the
considered structures, the SAFIR computer program
(Franssen, 2005) was used, which is a special purpose
program for the analysis of structures under ambient
and elevated temperature conditions. The analysis of
a structure exposed to fire consists of two steps. The
first step predicts the temperature distribution inside
the cross-section, referred to as “thermal analysis”.
The second part of the analysis, termed the “struc-
tural analysis”, determine the structural response due
to static and thermal loading.
3.2 Thermal analysis under ISO fire
The fire was applied only for the unprotected columns
and beams of the first storey of the frames, in the
hypothesis that the ground floor represents the fire
compartment. On the beams the fire was applied on
three sides (the top being protected by the concrete
 Figure 8. Fire compartment.

Table 1. Fire fighting measures before and after the

earthquake.

Fire Scenarios Before After

Autom. Water Exting δ1 0.61 1

Figure 7. IPE400 Beam exposed on 3 sides – ISO fire. Indep Water Supply δ2 0.87 1
Auto Fire Detection δ3/4 0.73 1
slab). In the structural analysis, the collaboration Alarm Fire Brigade δ5 0.87 1
between the steel beam and the concrete slab was not Fire Brigade δ6/7 0.78 1
Access Routes δ8 1 1.5
considered. Figure 7 shows, for example, the tem-
Fire Fight Devices δ9 1 1.5
perature distribution in ground floor IPE400 beams Smoke Exhaust δ01 1 1
exposed to fire on three sides after 15 minutes of ISO Total δν 0.26 2.25
fire. It may be observed that the zone with highest
temperature is the web, which is has the lowest thick-
ness on the cross section. The lower flange exposed on
all sides to the fire has temperatures around 600◦ C, in which m is the combustion factor,δq1 is a factor
while the upper flange, exposed on three sides has taking into account the fire activation risk due to
lower temperatures, around 500◦ C. the size of the compartment (1.51 for frame A and
1.65 for frame B), δq2 is a factor taking into account
the fire activation risk due to the type of occupancy
3.3 Thermal analysis under natural fire 
(1.00 for both frames – offices) and δn = 10 i=1 δni is
Several assumptions must be made when dealing with a factor taking into account the different active fire
a natural fire scenario, like the maximum fire area, the fighting measures i (sprinkler, detection, automatic
fire load, and the surface of the openings. alarm transmission, firemen, etc.).
For the studied plane steel moment resisting frames, Table 1 gives the values of the active fire fight-
Frame A was considered as part of a structure of ing measure factors considered. Before an earthquake,
18 m × 18 m in plane, while Frame B was consid- considering that the building is provided with sprin-
ered as part of a structure of 24 m × 24 m (Zaharia klers, the coefficient which takes into the account the
et al. 2009; Zaharia & Pintea, 2009). The walls are existence of automatic water extinguishing system (δ1 )
made out of normal concrete having a thickness of and the coefficient which takes into account the exis-
20 cm, and the following thermal characteristics: con- tence of the independent water supplies (δ2 ) are both
ductivity 0.8 W/mK and specific heat of 840 J/kgK. As sub unitary.
shown in Figure 8, the windows (openings) in three For a fire situation immediately after an earthquake,
adjacent walls have a sill height of 1 m and a soffit considering the possible disruptions, the sprinkler sys-
height of 3.5 m. In the fourth wall the sill height is 2 m tem and the automatic fire detection are no more
and the soffit is 2.5 m. A linear variation of the open- considered, and the corresponding coefficients are
ings was considered, i.e. of the glass panes. At 300◦ C both 1.00. In relation with the prompt intervention of
30% of the windows were considered broken, while at the fire brigades, which is no more possible due to the
500◦ C all the windows are broken, based on available number of emergencies and traffic congestion, associ-
literature research results (Zaharia & Pintea D 2009). ated to the possible lack of the active fire measures, the
The occupancy of the fire compartment is con- coefficients δ5−9 are considered with the unit value.
sidered as for offices, with a characteristic fire load Using these parameters and running the Ozone soft-
density qf ,k of 511 MJ/m2 .The design fire load density, ware, two fire curves were produced for each building,
according to Annex E in EN1991-1-2 (2005) is see Figure 9 (Zaharia et al. 2009; Zaharia & Pintea,
2009). The “after earthquake” curves are fuel con-
trolled. The peak temperatures for Frame B are higher

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 9. Temperature-time evolution.

than those of the Frame B, due to the higher design

fire load density and to the size of the compartment.
These curves were used in SAFIR program to find
the temperature evolutions on each of the exposed pro- Figure 10. Displacement-time characteristics for Frame B –
files, without fire protection. As in case of standard Banat under ISO fire.
ISO fire, the fire was applied only for the steel ele-
ments of the ground floor, and on the beams the fire
was applied on three sides.

3.4 Structural analysis

The analysis procedure for damaged structures is
shown in Figure 10b for the damaged Frame B –
Banat under ISO fire. The structure subjected to
vertical loads corresponding to the fire load combi-
nation is loaded with the lateral forces (push-over, as
described previously) up to the target displacement for
the MDOF system, determined using the N2 method.
The structure is then discarded of the lateral loads and,
because the frame responded in the inelastic range,
presents residual displacements. At this stage of struc-
tural damage, starts the fire analysis under vertical Figure 11. Collapse mechanisms for frame B.
loads corresponding to the fire load combination.
Figure 10 shows the response of both damaged
and undamaged Frame-B Banat structure under ISO For all cases, considering all fire fighting mea-
fire, in terms of displacement – time characteristics sures active (in a situation before an earthquake)
(Zaharia et al. 2009; Zaharia & Pintea, 2009). both frames, designed for the two seismic regions,
Two types of collapse modes were observed during resist to the fire action. Therefore, no collapse is pro-
the fire analysis using standard or natural fire: a global duced for “before earthquake” natural fire scenario,
mode and a mode characterized by the collapse of the for which no flashover occurs. Table 2 summarizes the
beams. For all fire analyses, frameA presented a global fire resistance times and collapse modes for the stan-
collapse mechanism, while frame B presented both dard and natural “after earthquake” fire scenarios for
modes, as shown in Figure 11. each frame.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 2. Fire resistance times and collapse modes. 4 CONCLUSIONS

Frame A Frame B The study emphasized that there are important differ-
ences in time resistance under standard and natural
ISO fire Banat Vrancea Banat Vrancea
fire between the undamaged structures and the dam-
Undamaged 16 10  26 10  16 30 26 20
aged structures, in case of a fire after an earthquake.
global global global global The fire resistance time of the damaged structures is
influenced by the damage level. The highest differ-
Damaged 20 40 15 40 23 20
global global global
ences in terms of fire resistance appear between the
damaged and undamaged structures experiencing a
Frame A Frame B global type of collapse mechanism. For the fire scenar-
Natural fire ios with all fire fighting measures available in a regular
(after earthquake) Banat Vrancea Banat Vrancea fire situation, both structures resisted to the fire action
(considering all measures available, the fire does not
Undamaged 74 00 no collapse 56 20 71 40 reach flashover). The structures adapted for seismic
global beam beam action, or designed for stronger seismic action, have
Damaged no collapse 54 40 71 20 an important reserve of resistance in case of a fire
global beam after an earthquake, but also in case of a regular fire
situation.

There are important differences of time resistance REFERENCES

under standard and natural fire, between the undam-
aged structures (before earthquake, or for an earth-
quake of lower intensity than the code seismic action
for the corresponding region) and the damaged struc-
tures. The differences in fire resistance times between
the damaged and undamaged structures are affected by
the damage level. Under ISO fire, the differences are
ranging from around 5% for the Banat frame B (expe-
riencing maximum inter-storey drifts of 1.8% in the
inelastic range), 11% for the Vrancea frame B (expe-
riencing maximum inter-storey drifts of 2.2% in the
inelastic range), to around 21% for the Vrancea frame
A (experiencing maximum inter-storey drifts of 2.7%
in the inelastic range). In case of frame B for Banat
region under natural fire, the difference is lower, but
it is to be also taken into account that for the damaged
and undamaged structures, the collapse mechanism is
different. In case of frame B for Vrancea region under
natural fire, for both damaged and undamaged struc-
tures, the collapse mechanism is local (beam) and the
fire resistance time is not influenced in a significant
way by the damage of the structure.
For both structures and under both fire scenar-
ios, the Vrancea frame, designed for stronger seis-
mic action, presents higher fire resistance times than
the corresponding structures designed for the Banat
region. Moreover, in case of frame A, for a natural fire
scenario after earthquake, the stronger Vrancea frame
resists the fire, even if the structure is damaged after
the seismic action, while the Banat frame collapses,
even if its structure remains undamaged after the code
earthquake.
Therefore, it must be underlined that the structures
designed for seismic action (or for stronger seismic
action) have an important reserve of resistance into a
fire situation.
Cadorin, J.F., Pintea, D., Dotreppe, J.C., Franssen, J.M.,
(2003), “A tool to design steel elements submitted to
compartment fires- Ozone V2. Part2: Methodology and
application”, Fire safety Journal, Elsevier, 38, 439–451.
CECAgreement 7210-PA/PB/PC/PD/PE/PF/PR-060, (2001),
“Natural Fire Safety Concept”, Implementation in the
Eurocodes and Development of an User friendly Design
Tool
Faggiano B., Esposto M., Zaharia R., Pintea D., (2008),
“Risk management in case of fire after earthquake”,
Urban habitat constructions under catastrophic events,
COST Action C26, Malta University Publishing, ISBN
978-99909-44-40-2, 75–80.
Faggiano B., Esposto M., Zaharia R., Pintea D., (2008),
“Structural analysis in case of fire after earthquake”,
Urban habitat constructions under catastrophic events,
COST Action C26, Malta University Publishing, ISBN
978-99909-44-40-2, 75–80.
Fajfar P., (2000), “A non linear analysis method for perfor-
mance based seismic design”, Earthquake Spectra, vol.
16, no. 3, pp. 573–592.
FEMA 356, (2002), “Guidelines for Seismic Rehabilitation
of Buildings”, Vol. 1: Guidelines, FEMA 356, Washington
DC, 2002 (formerly FEMA 273).
Franssen J. M., (2005), Safir – “A thermal/structural program
modelling structures under fire”, Engineering Journal,
AISC, Vol. 42, No 3, 143–158.
P100-1/2004, (2005), “Seismic design code – Part 1: Rules
for buildings (in Romanian) Indicativ P100-1/2004”,
Buletinul Constructiilor, Vol. 5
Zaharia R., Pintea D., Dubina D., (2009), “Fire analysis of
structures in seismic areas”, Proceedings of the Interna-
tional Conference “Application of Structural Fire Engi-
neering”, 19–20 February, Prague, Czech Republic, ISBN
978-80-01-04266-3
Zaharia R., Pintea D., Fire after earthquake analysis of steel
moment resisting frames, International Journal of Steel
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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Analysis of steel-framed open car parks under localized fire

R. Zanon, M. Sommavilla, O. Vassart & L.-G. Cajot

ArcelorMittal R&D, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg

R. Zandonini & F. Gadotti

University of Trento, Italy

ABSTRACT: In this paper is presented a review of the latest analysis methods for steel-framed open car parks
subjected to localized fires. This structural typology has been in the last two decades matter of intensive research
concerning its real behavior under fire conditions. The interest consists in the fact that fire load, its location
and its propagation are strictly connected with the combustion of cars and therefore it is feasible to propose
an analytical model to describe it. The result of this research is the development of a consistent and robust
natural fire design method which is nowadays accepted by many European countries and is entering in the fire
engineering practice.

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background
One of the major objectives of modern traffic planning
is to reduce, as much as possible, the use of private
transport in densely populated areas. Parking facili-
ties located in the suburbs, having optimal connections
with the public transport network (Park and Ride) are
necessary prerequisites for this purpose. In this view
open over ground car parks are gaining more and more
relevance.
In the past, only some building authorities recog-
nized the specificity of open car parks concerning
fire risk, whereas others classified them using the
criteria for classical building (from multi-storey com-
mercial buildings to even storage areas). This has
led to a curiously wide difference in the normative
approaches: from no fire requirement in some coun- Figure 1. Overview of the fire requirement for multi-storey
tries up to 90 minutes of ISO fire resistance in others open car parks in different European countries in 1993.
(see Figure 1).
This discrepancy has implied a different con-
structional practice according to the regional fire
1.2 Structural typology
regulation. On one hand, in the countries were no
fire requirement was imposed (like Germany), steel- Open Car Parks are over ground buildings provid-
framed structures gained the major market share in ing parking facilities. The adjective Open is very
open car parks thanks to their advantages of flexibility, important, since it refers to the requirement that such
construction speed, possibility of attractive architec- buildings must provide sufficient natural ventilation
tural layout and benefits in functionality. On the other through permanent openings along the façades (the
hand, where severe fire resistance were required (like requirement is slightly different from country to coun-
Italy), the additional costs of active and passive fire try but is typically expressed as minimal ratio of
measures made steel-framed structures not competi- permanent façade openings on built surface).
tive on the market in favor of more massive solutions, In many European countries this kind of buildings
despite other functional disadvantages. are realized by means of steel-framed structures. This

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 2. Typical configuration of open car park (Mathieu
et al. 2003). Figure 4. Calorimetric hood used at CTICM laboratory to
determine the fire combustion model of a car (Joyeux et al.
2001).

Figure 3. Example of open steel framed car park.

choice is based both on economical as well as on archi-

tectural aspects, since it is appreciated the possibility
to avoid obstacles between parking lots which affect
the functionality of the building. This leads to rather
considerable main spans – usually from 16 up to 18
meters (Hanley, 2007).

1.3 Research topic

From this inhomogeneous European situation arises
the question of the actual fire activation risk of such
buildings. In order to realistically assess the reliabil-
ity and the behavior of their supporting structures it
is first of all necessary to replace theoretical standard
temperature curves by natural fire conditions which
reflect reality in a much better way. For this reason in
recent years various experimental tests were carried
out, followed by extensive numerical simulations aim-
ing to understand deeply the thermal and mechanical
phenomena. These results were used to calibrate and
validate calculation models, which simulate combus-
tion process of vehicles, flame propagation, temper-
ature field and deformation behavior of the structure
submitted to fire. In the following paragraphs these
subsequent steps will be explained in detail.
2 FIRE CHARACTERIZATION
2.1 Burning model of a vehicle
In the scope of various national and European projects,
a total of 20 cars were burnt at the CTICM laboratory
in order to assess the combustion process of standard
vehicles. The tests were performed under calorimetric
hood to collect all smokes, combustion products and
pollutants emitted during the fire.At the same time, the
car was placed on a weighting platform that recorded
the mass loss during the test (see Figure 4).
From these tests various experimental curves were
obtained, and on this basis a simplified combustion
model of a car was validated. For the sake of fire
Figure 5. Experimental and modeled RHR curves for a
vehicle (Cajot et al. 2003).
engineering of structures, the interesting information
is the RHR (Rate of Heat Released) curve in function
of time (see Figure 5).
2.2 Fire scenarios
In a recent European project (Joyeux et al. 2001) a real
steel-framed car park was built in Vernon (France) in
the scope to validate experimentally natural fire sce-
narios to be applied and to determinate the way to
calculate the heat flux which the structure is submit-
ted. The end goal is to determine the real temperature
distribution in the structural elements. Three big full
scale tests involving several cars were run. No struc-
tural damaged could be observed, and the deflection
occurred during the fire could be fully recovered after
cooling.
From this experience the burning model of the cars
was confirmed. A propagation time of 12 minutes
between a burning car and the ignition of the adja-
cent one was found to be a reasonable hypothesis for
fire modeling.

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Figure 6. Some pictures of the fire tests performed in
Vernon (Joyeux et al. 2001).
Figure 7. Notations adopted for the Hasemi method
(EN1991-1-2).
2.3 Thermal analysis
The mentioned tests were also of fundamental impor-
tance to validate the thermal model to predict the
structure temperature exposed to the fire. For this spe-
cific application the Hasemi model, explained in the
Annex C of EN1991-1-2, showed to be appropriate,
since the flames are impacting the ceiling from the
early phase (Schleich et al. 1997).
The source of the fire hf was taken as 0.3 meters
from the ground, whereas an equivalent fire diameter
D of 3.91 meters (equivalent to the surface of a parking
lot 5 × 2.4 m), was adopted (see Figure 7). The other
parameters for the thermal analysis have to be taken
directly from the normative code (EN1991-1-2).
Such a simplified thermal model showed a very
good qualitative correspondence with the experimen-
tal test results, whereas the calculated temperature
remained well above the measured ones (during the
tests the steel temperature never exceeded 700◦ C,
whereas with these assumption a temperature up to
about 800◦ C can be reached).
3 STRUCTURAL BEHAVIOR
3.1 Calculation code
In modern fire safety engineering the designer has to
face a lot of different and complicated aspects coming
from one hand the thermal actions and on the other
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
hand from the structural response. For this reason the
trend of the last decades has been to develop special-
purposed calculation tools (mainly based on the Finite
Element method) in order to manage this problem in
a possible accurate manner.
The Research Center of Esch/Alzette has been
involved since the ’80 in partnership with the Uni-
versity of Liege in the development of fire design
software: CEFICOSS (Franssen, 1986), which became
SAFIR in the ’90 following to the complete reorgani-
zation of the code (Franssen, 1997). Since many of the
requirements imposed by structural fire analysis of a
car park are not useful (and therefore not always avail-
able) in software for the cold design, they are reminded
in the following points:
– Inhomogeneous section temperature: the tempera-
ture is calculated with the Finite Element method
for each cross-section (beam or shell). This allows
having an accurate temperature distribution in the
structure (Franssen, 1986).
– Material non-linearity: the non-linear stress-strain
material law for steel and concrete from the
Eurocodes are implemented in the code, including
the decreasing branch for important strain levels
(Franssen, 1997).
– Geometric non-linearity: the effect of big displace-
ments play in fire engineering a major role. In the
code they are fully considered, since the whole
resolution matrixes are rewritten at each calcula-
tion step in the deformed configuration and with
the tangent stiffness properties (Franssen, 1986).
– Multi-material beam sections: the code must be
able to represent cross-sections with many materi-
als and temperature differences inside. In this scope
a fiber model is needed to have possibly a different
stress-strain law for every location of the section
(Franssen, 1986).
– Shell elements with reinforcement layers: the code
must be able to represent shell elements with one
non-linear material, whose properties can vary over
the thickness in function of the temperature gra-
dient. This shell can be reinforced by additional
layers which are active in only one direction (e.g.
to represent rebars – Franssen et al. 2005).
– Post-critical solution technique: in order to bypass
local instability phenomena and transient phase,
which may cause the failure of structural members
but not necessary the collapse of the structure as a
whole, it is necessary to use post-critical solution
technique. In SAFIR the full dynamic technique is
used (Vassart et al. 2006).
3.2 Structural model
Concerning the mechanical behavior of the struc-
ture, in several recent experimental studies (from the
Cardington tests in the 90ies – Bailey et al. 1999 –
up to the Belfast test in 2010 – Vassart et al. 2010)
it was observed that the fire resistance of composite
steel-concrete frames is much higher than estimated
 according to the traditional prescriptive approach.
Following to the exposure to important temperature
gradient, the structure develops additional mecha-
nisms that allows for the transmission of stresses
through alternative load paths. Under certain condi-
tions such alternative load paths are able to ensure the
whole load carrying capacity in fire.
In the case of open car parks, it was experimentally
observed (Joyeux et al. 2001) that the fire concerns
the structure only locally, affecting the structural ele-
ments in inverse proportion to their distance from the
flames. The steel beams next to fire heat up quickly and
consequently loose their mechanical properties, while
the temperature increase in the slab appears moder- Figure 8. Finite element model used in SAFIR.
ate and slower due to its bigger thermal inertia. The
reinforcement bars present in the slab usually are not
significantly heated, due to their consistent concrete
cover. As well, the part of the building enough far
from the fire (which means about 10 meters) can be
considered as not affected.
In the early stages of the fire, this inhomogeneous
heating establishes an elastic transversal repartition
of the loads resulting from the stiffness variation
between the composite beams, transferring loads from
the most heated to the less heated. At a later stage,
when the weakening of the steel skeleton leads to
the yielding of the cross-sections in bending, large
deformations appear. As a consequence of relevant
displacements, additional resistance mechanisms are
developed such as the catenary effect of the beams
and the membrane action of the slab. These alternative
load carrying mechanisms allow a complete utiliza-
tion of the resistance reserves of the structure. Thanks
to the concurrence of these phenomena, no structural
collapse in open car parks was ever registered.
On the basis of the experimental test, a finite ele-
ment model of the structure was calibrated (Zhao et al.
2002) in order to be able to reproduce the observed
fire behavior. This model was used afterwards for a
large campaign of numerical simulations with differ-
ent fire scenarios, architectural grids and structural
typologies. From these results it was possible to define
standard construction types able to withstand the given
scenarios (Fraud et al. 2003, Zanon 2008). Figure 9. First example – deflection in function of time
under local fire exposure.

3.3 First example: burning of one vehicle

It is considered a typical open car park with the
usual support grid 16 × 5 meters, with typical com-
posite beams (IPE 400 S355 as secondary and primary
beams) and a composite slab (trapezoidal steel profiles
rib height 58 mm + full concrete C30/37 thickness
62 mm + welded steel mesh B500C type Q257) is
used. The entire structure is not fire protected.
As first scenario the extremely severe fire of a van
charged with painting below the mid-span of a main
beam is considered (Fraud et al. 2003). The numerical
simulation has been run with SAFIR – the structural
model is represented in Figure 8.
In cold situation the deflection of the beam is
relatively small and the slab is completely under
compression. During the heating phase the vertical dis-
placement of the beam grows quickly. The progressive
change of derivative starting at about L/40 (40 cm, see
Figure 9) is due to the membrane effect in the slab. It
can be observed in the picture from the main stresses in
the slab changing from blue (that means compression)
to red (that means tension).
After about 16 minutes the temperature peak is
reached, with a relevant deflection of about 60 cm
but no structural collapse occurs. This is due to the
complex resisting mechanism in the slab; with the
central part in tension and a compression ring around
it (see Figure 9). With the cooling phase during the
smoldering of the fire the steel beams recover quickly
the mechanical properties and the residual permanent

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 10. Second example – fire scenario.
deformation is less than one half of the maximum
reached at the temperature peak. The slab returns to
work in compression and this means that the system
has recovered its initial load carrying mechanism.
In Figure 9 the graph of the deflection in function of
the time for different steel beam types (hot-rolled pro-
files and castellated beams) is shown (Zanon 2008).
The relative small difference between the curves con-
firms that the fundamental load carrying mechanism
for this scenario is the membrane action of the slab.
3.4 Second example: loss of a column
The same structural typology presented in the previous
example is considered. In this case the most severe fire
scenario for the internal column, which is surrounded
by four burning vehicles (of which the second one is
a van charged with paintings), is used.
After about 21 minutes the temperature in the
central column exceeds 650◦ C and thus its capacity
reserve is exhausted. It comes to a buckling of this
compression member, which causes a sudden verti-
cal deformation of the entire system (see Figure 11).
After this local instability, the system has still a sub-
stantial resistance reserves. Alternative load paths can
be formed through the moment redistribution in the
frame, the catenary effect of the beams and the mem-
brane effect of the slab. Under large deformations, it
is possible to find a new equilibrium which ensures
the stability of the building throughout the fire (see
Figure 11).
Anyway it should be noticed that such calculations
with large deformations are extremely demanding
regarding the ductility of the supporting structure and
its elements. On the one hand the proposed Finite Ele-
ment model can predict with satisfying accuracy the
behavior of beams and floor systems, with the capac-
ity to reproduce their relevant plastic failure modes.
But on the other hand the structural engineer must pay
special attention to local instability phenomena and
possible brittle fracture failures, which are not neces-
sary taken into account by these structural models and
need additional detail verifications.
For example, a key question point is the moment-
rotation behavior of the connections under large
displacements, in particular regarding the interaction
311
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 11. Second example – deflection in function of time
under localized fire exposure.
Figure 12. Additional cost of fire protection measures
compared to global construction cost – economic compar-
ison with different fire safety approaches for 5 structural
typologies.
between normal forces and bending actions. With
this and other problems concerning the occurrence
of extreme events are dealing recent research projects
(e.g. Kuhlmann et al. 2009).
4 ECONOMICAL CONSIDERATION
The conclusion of the various experimental and numer-
ical studies is that steel-framed open car parks can
be basically left without fire protection, with the
only exception of internal columns where commercial
vehicles can be present (Technical Committee 3, 1993;
Zhao et al. 2002, Dokumentation 557, 2002; Fraud
et al. 2003; Zanon, 2008; Pustorino et al. 2010).
A detailed economic study made in collaboration
with steel contractors showed how this important result
leads to a substantial reduction of the costs of construc-
tion and maintenance (Zanon, 2008). Five different
structural solutions for open car parks commonly
used in European countries were studied and calcu-
lated with a standard prescriptive method and the
innovative natural fire safety approach. Compared to
estimates based on prescriptive methods of verifica-
tion, where protection measures have to be foreseen,
the performance-based approach allows a percentage
cost reduction between 10% and 20% (see Figure 12).
 5 CONCLUDING REMARKS
In the presence of localized fires it has been shown
that composite steel – concrete braced frames ade-
quately designed stand for a good overall behavior
characterized by large deformations but without struc-
tural collapse even in the absence of active and passive
protection systems. Thanks to these recent research
developments, nowadays the application of the natural
fire safety concept to open car parks has proven its
consistency and robustness.
The recent acknowledgement of this approach in
the French regulation has led to a change in the con-
struction practice to steel-oriented solutions with many
realizations each year (Mathieu et al. 2004). Other
countries (e.g. Italy) are following this trend from a
prescriptive fire approach to a performance-based fire
approach (Pustorino et al. 2010).
In a more general view, the positive results obtained
for open car parks are a promising premise for the
application of the performance-based approach to
other types of buildings in order to achieve a more
rational definition of security in case of fire.
REFERENCES
EN 1991-1-2; Eurocode 1: Action on structures, Part 1–2:
General actions – Actions on structures exposed to fire
(2002) CEN European Committee for standardization.
EN 1993-1-2; Eurocode 3: Design of composite steel struc-
tures, Part 1–2: Structural fire design (2005) CEN
European Committee for standardization.
Franssen, J.-M. Etude du comportement au feu des structures
mixtes acier-béton (1986), PhD University of Liege.
Technical Committee 3, Fire safety in open car parks –
Modern fire Engineering (1993), ECCS Publication
No 75.
Schleich, J.B., Cajot, L.G., Franssen, J.M., Kruppa, J.,
Joyeux, D., Twilt, L., Van Oerle, J., Aurtenetxe, G. Devel-
opment of design rules for steel structures subjected to
natural fires in closed car parks (1997), CEC Agreement
7210-SA/211/318/518/620/933, Final report.
Franssen J.-M. Contributions à la modélisation des incendies
dans les bâtiments et de leurs effets sur les structures
(1997), Habilitation Thèses University of Liege.
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Bailey, C.G., Lennon, T., Moore, D.B., The behaviour of full
scale steel-framed buildings subjected to compartment
fires (1999), The Structural Engineer, Vol. 77, 15–21.
Joyeux, D., Kruppa, J., Cajot, L.G., Schleich, J.B., Van de
Leur, P., Twilt, L. Demonstration of real fire tests in
car parks and high buildings (2001), European Research
Contract no 7215 PP 025, Final report.
Zhao, B., Kruppa, J., Structural Behavior of an Open Car
Park under real fire Scenarios (2002), Second Interna-
tional Workshop “Structures in Fire” – Christchurch.
Dokumentation 557 Parkhäuser – Weltweit (2002) Stahl
Information Zentrum, Düsseldorf.
Cajot, L-G., Mathieu, J., Thomas, L., Les structure met-
alliques pour les parkings ouverts (2003), La revue de
Metallurgie CIT.
Fraud, C., Zhao, B. Guide pour la verification du com-
portement au feu de parcs de stationnement largement
ventilés en suprestructure metallique (2003), Internal
Communication CTICM-Arcelor.
Mathieu, J., Thomas, L. Parkings aériens métalliques large-
ment ventilés (2004), Les Carnets de l’Acier, 9.
Franssen, J.-M, SAFIR, A thermal/structural program mod-
elling structures under fire (2005), Engineering Journal,
Vol 42, 143–158.
Vassart, O., Cajot, L.-G., Franssen, J.M., Gens, F. Dynamic
approach of structural fire calculation with FEM software
(2006), 12th Interflam conference.
Henley, S., The architecture of parking (2007), Thames &
Hudson.
Zanon, R. La verifica al fuoco delle strutture metalliche: il
caso delle autorimesse fuori terra (2008), Master thesis
University of Trento.
Kuhlmann U., Rölle L., Jaspart J.-P., Demonceau J.-F.,
Vassart O., Weynand K., Ziller C., Busse E., Lendering M.,
Zandonini R., Baldassino N., Robust structures by joint
ductility (2009), Contract RFSR-CT-2004-00046, Final
report.
Pustorino, S., Princi, P., Nigro, E., Ferraro, A., Caciolai,
M., Cirillo, V., Approccio ingegneristico per la sicurezza
strutturale in caso di incendio di parcheggi aerati realiz-
zati con struttura di acciaio (2010), Activity n. 9 of the
italian Technical Committee for the Fire Safety of steel
structures, Final Report.
Vassart, O., Bailey, C.G., Hawes, M., Nadjai, A., Simms, W.I.,
Zhao, B., Gernay, T., Franssen, J.M. Large-scale fire test
of unprotected cellular beams acting in membrane action
(2010), Sixth International workshop of Structures in Fire.
 Evaluation of structural response under exceptional seismic actions

© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Micro and macro-finite element modeling of brick masonry panels subject

to lateral loadings

M. Annecchiarico, F. Portioli & R. Landolfo

University of Naples, “Federico II”, Italy

ABSTRACT: In this paper a comparison of different modeling strategies for brick masonry panels under lateral
loads is presented. The aim of the study was to evaluate the reliability of numerical results provided by selected
modeling approaches available in commercial finite element codes. Two approaches were considered to model
structural masonry by numerical analysis, namely a simplified micro and a macro-modeling approach. In the
case of the simplified micro-model approach, units and mortar in the joints were considered but no interface
element was taken into account. As far as macro-modeling strategy, the masonry was treated as a homogeneous,
isotropic continuum. The concrete damage plasticity model was selected as constitutive laws of bricks and mortar.
Sensitivity studies were carried out to investigate the influence of some parameters on models response, as tensile
strength, fracture energy and mesh size. The results of numerical analyses were compared with experimental
tests available in the literature.

1 INTRODUCTION The wall samples, with dimensions of 990 ×

Different approaches have been developed in the liter-
ature to analyze the behavior of masonry structures.
According to Lourenço, the modeling strategies
can be classified as detailed micro-modeling, simpli-
fied micro-modeling and macro-modeling (Lourenco
et al. 1995). Micro-modeling includes the simulation
of units, mortar and the unit-mortar interface. It is
suitable to analyze the structural behaviour of small
masonry parts and requires long CPU time in the case
of models with a large number of elements. In current
practice, macro-modeling is preferred due to reduced
computational effort. In this case, no distinction is
made between units and joints and masonry is regarded
as a continuum material.
A number of studies can be found in the litera-
ture on these different modeling approaches using or
implementing different finite element codes.
This paper is aimed to give a contribution to the
comparison of different modeling strategies with spe-
cific reference to the use of commercial finite element
code ABAQUS.
Two approaches have been considered to model
structural masonry by FE analysis, namely a simpli-
fied micro and a macro-modelling approach. As far
as macro-modelling strategy, the masonry was treated
as a homogeneous, isotropic continuum. In the case of
simplified micro-modeling approach, units and mortar
in the joints were considered but no interface element
was taken into account.
The case study selected as example of application
is represented by the shear wall tested by Raijmakers
and Vermeltfoort (Lourenco et al. 1995).
1000 mm2 , were built up with 18 courses of wire-
cut solid clay bricks (210 × 53 × 100 mm3 ) and 10 mm
thick mortar (Fig. 1). Tests were carried out by apply-
ing first a vertical load uniformly distributed equal to
0.30 MPa and then a horizontal load monotonically
increased till the collapse, under top displacement
control.
In the following a description of implemented
numerical models is presented, as well as the results
of numerical analysis and comparison with selected
experimental tests.
2 THE FINITE ELEMENT MODEL
A detailed description of geometric, load and material
models implemented in ABAQUS is provided in the
following sections.
2.1 Geometric and load modeling
A two-dimensional planar part was generated in the
FE code. A solid homogeneous section was assigned
to the part with a thickness of 100 mm.
As far as micro-modeling, the geometric model was
partitioned as shown in Figure 2, in order to reproduce
the masonry texture.
CPS4R linear quadrilateral elements were used for
the micro-modelling. In the case of macro-model,
CPS3 linear triangle elements were considered as well.
The mesh sizes of shear samples range from 10 mm to
100 mm.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 1. Geometric dimensions and loading phases of
modeled shear walls. a) phase 1 vertical loading; b) phase 2
horizontal loading (Lourenco et al. 1995).
Figure 2. View of the micro-modeled wall sample subjected
to shear test.
According to the test setup, the load was applied
in two different steps. In the first step, a dis-
tributed pressure load of 0.30 MPa was applied on the
top surface. Afterwards, starting from the deformed
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 3. Geometrical model and boundary conditions of
the numerical macro-model subjected to shear test.
Figure 4. Geometrical model and boundary conditions of
the numerical micro-model subjected to shear test.
position, a horizontal load was applied under displace-
ment control at a reference point placed at the center
of top surface.
The nodes of the loaded surface were restrained
to the reference point using kinematic coupling con-
straint between all the degrees of freedom.
The horizontal load was applied by a displacement
of 20.0 mm assigned at the top surface as a boundary
condition of shear models. The other degrees of free-
dom of defined control point were assumed equal to 0
(Figs. 3, 4).
As far as boundary conditions, a fully clamped
restraint was considered at the base of the models.
2.2 Material model
The CONCRETE damaged plasticity model was
selected as constitutive law in ABAQUS for material
modeling.
Table 1. Masonry material properties assumed for micro-
modelled wall.
E ψ fc ft GFI
◦
MPa ν MPa MPa N/mm
9000 Bricks 0.15 30 66 2.8 0.5
1000 Mortar 0.22 1 4 0.5 0.125
Table 2. Masonry material properties assumed for macro-
modelled wall.
E ψ fc ft GFI
◦
MPa ν MPa MPa N/mm
3000 0.15 20 7 0.35 0.1
This model is based on the incremental plasticity
theory and is rate-independent.
It was proposed by Lubliner et al. (1989) and by
Lee & Fenves (1998) and is especially suitable for
the analysis of the quasi-brittle materials (ABAQUS,
2007). It is based on the concept of isotropic dam-
aged elasticity to describe the irreversible damage
that occurs during the fracturing process for materials
under fairly low confining pressures. The predicted
main failure mechanisms are crushing in compres-
sion and cracking in tension. The main features of the
model are: the different yield stress in compression and
in tension; softening behaviour in tension and hard-
ening in compression followed by softening beyond
the ultimate stress; different degradation of the elastic
stiffness in tension and in compression. In particular,
the following strain rate decomposition is assumed:
where the stress-strain relations are governed by scalar
damaged elasticity. A degradation variable d takes
into account the loss of stiffness caused by cracking
and crushing. The microcracking and crushing depend
on the hardening variables that are the tensile and
compressive equivalent plastic strains. These variables
control the evolution of the yield surface and the degra-
dation of the elastic stiff-ness and are strictly related
to the dissipated fracture energy required to generate
microcracks.
The material properties assumed for micro and
macro-modeling are presented in Tables 1 and 2.
The uniaxial behaviour of material in compression
was elastic-perfectly plastic while the tension stiffen-
ing was formulated through a fracture energy cracking
criterion, defined by a linear softening. According
to brittle facture concepts, the fracture energy is the
necessary energy to open unit area of crack. This is the
main parameter that governs the post failure behavior
in terms of the stress-displacement response.
To define the constitutive models, parameters were
calibrated on the basis of selected experimental results
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 5. Min. principal stress components at integration
points of the micro-modelled wall subjected to shear load
(Deformation scale factor: 10).
and according to material properties given in (Lorenco
et al. 1995).
In particular, a dilation angle of 30◦ and 1◦ for the
bricks and mortar were considered to define the non-
associate potential flow for plastic behaviour. Further,
to characterize the material softening in tension, a dif-
ferent fracture energies equal to 0.5 and 0.125 N/mm
were assumed to take in account the cracking of the
units in direct tension and the sliding along the bed or
head joint at low values of normal stress.
3 RESULTS OF FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS
The results of finite element analysis in terms of
deformed shapes at collapse, distribution of stresses
and plastic strains are presented in the following.
The predicted collapse mechanisms, as well as the
distribution of minimum principal stresses and equiv-
alent plastic strains of micro-modeled sample agrees
with the typical failure mode of brittle material under
shear load.
As far as the micro-model, the predicted response
of the panel can be divided in different steps.
In the first step, two horizontal tensile cracks
develop at the top and bottom of wall. After, a stepped
diagonal crack develops through head and bed joints
when the tensile strength was attained. Finally, the
crushing at the top and bottom corners of the panel
is observed (Figs 5, 6).
As for the macro-model, a similar behaviour is pre-
dicted. In Figures 7 and 8 the distribution of stresses
and plastic strain at the collapse load are presented. In
this case, the development of a diagonal crack when
the tensile strength is attained can be observed, as well
as the formation of two compression struts.
4 SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
The results of sensitivity analysis carried out to cali-
brate mechanical properties and evaluate the response

Figure 6. Max. principal plastic strains at integration
points of the micro-modelled wall subjected to shear load
(Deformation scale factor: 10).
Figure 7. Min. principal stress components at integration
points of the macro-modelled wall subjected to shear load
(Deformation scale factor: 50).
Figure 8. Max. principal plastic strains at integration
points of the macro-modelled wall subjected to shear load
(Deformation scale factor: 50).
variability to selected parameters are presented in this
section.
The following parameters were considered in the
analysis: tensile strength, fracture energy and mesh
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 9. Sensitivity to tensile strength in micro-modeling.
Figure 10. Sensitivity to tensile strength in macro-
modeling.
Figure 11. Sensitivity to fracture energy in micro-
modeling.
size. The considered ranges of variation for tensile
strength and fracture energy were 0.25 ÷ 0.5 MPa
and 0.06 ÷ 0.125 N/mm, respectively. Mesh sizes used
for micro and macro-modeling were included in the
interval 5.0 ÷ 10.0 mm and 10.0 ÷ 100.0. It should be
noted that in micro-modeling the size was dictated by
the thickness of the mortar joints.
The results of the analysis show that both micro and
macro-modeling simulations are very sensitive to the
different values of tensile strength.
Figure 12. Sensitivity to fracture energy in macro-
modeling.
Figure 13. Sensitivity to mesh size in micro-modeling.
Figure 14. Sensitivity to mesh size in macro-modeling.
On the contrary, the results of the analyses are not
very sensitive to the variation of fracture energy, which
affect numerical response in the softening branch
(Figs 11, 12).
The sensitivity analysis to mesh size showed that
the results are remarkably influenced in this case.
In particular, the analysis showed that increasing the
mesh size causes convergence problems in numerical
solutions (Figs 13, 14).
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 15. Comparison of load-displacement curves for
shear test.
Figure 16. Experimental crack pattern (Lourenco et al.
1995).
5 COMPARISONS WITH EXPERIMENTAL
TEST
The comparison of experimental and numerical results
in terms of load displacement curves and damage
distribution showed a good agreement of predicted and
measured response.
In particular, a good fitting of experimental crack
pattern is obtained with micro-modeling, as the
comparison with the distribution of plastic strains
shows (Figs 6, 16).
6 CONCLUSIONS
The results of simplified micro and macro-finite ele-
ment models of brick masonry panels subject to lateral
loadings were presented in this paper to evaluate the
suitability and reliability of implemented modelling
approaches.
The results of the numerical analysis and compa-
rison with selected experimental tests showed that the
 use of simplified approaches allows a good prediction
of response to be achieved, both in terms of failure
loads and collapse mechanisms.
However, a remarkable sensitivity of results to
calibrated parameters, with particular reference to
tensile strength, was noted. Convergence problems
were detected with smaller mesh sizes than calibrated
values as well.
With respect to micro-modeling, a good prediction
of experimental results can be obtained in macro-
modeling with larger mesh sizes.
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by homogeneous continuum models: analysis and calibra-
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of Historical Buildings, PROHITEC 09, Rome, Italy,
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report on Shaking table testing of Mustafa-Pasha
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age 7-Experimental analysis. University Sts.Cyril and
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Pasha Mosque without and with FRP. In Proc. of VI
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ical Constructions, SAHC 2008, Bath, 2–4 July 2008. Ed.
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2007. Finite element and limit analysis of the large scale
model of Mustafa Pasha Mosque in Skopje strengthened
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Lee, J. & Fenves, G.L. 1998. Plastic-Damage Model for
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Lourenço P.B., 1998. Experimental and numerical issues in
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Roca, J.L. González, E. Oñate and P.B. Lourenço, CIMNE,
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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Seismic performance of RC frame buildings with masonry infill

R. Apostolska, G. Necevska-Cvetanovska & J. Cvetanovska

Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology, IZIIS, University “Ss. Cyril and Methodius”,
Skopje, Republic of Macedonia

ABSTRACT: The experience from the occurred earthquakes and performed investigations show that the effect
of the infill can be different – favorable (when the structural system has low resistance) and unfavorable (short
column effect, shear failure of joints, global instability of the system – “soft” storey mechanism etc.). Taking into
account the fact that it is a common engineering practice to neglect the infill effect in the design of structures, it
is obvious that investigations for definition of the actual seismic resistance of frame RC buildings with masonry
infill are currently of a high concern. This paper deals with selected results from analytical investigations and
comparison of the seismic resistance of a five- and a seven-storey RC frame structure with and without a masonry
infill. The results from the analyses show that the infill essentially affects the seismic resistance of RC buildings.

1 INTRODUCTION Field experience from recent earthquakes and

Design and construction of RC structures with
masonry infill are common in European engineering
practice especially in its seismic active southern part.
The effects of infill on seismic performance of integral
structure are very important (Fig. 1).
analytical/experimental research show that the effects
of masonry infill could be (Fardis 2006):
– Positive – in case that the bare structural system has
little seismic resistance
– Negative – if the contribution of masonry infill to
lateral strength and/or stiffness is large relative to
that of the frame itself. In such a case the infill may
override the seismic design and render ineffective
the efforts of the designer to control the inelas-
tic response by spreading inelastic deformation
demands throughout the structure.
The unfavorable effects can be representing through-
out:
– Loss of the integrity of the infill in the ground storey
that may produce “soft storey” and trigger global
collapse (Fig. 2)
– If infill are non-uniformly distributed in plan or in
the elevation, inelastic deformation demands will

Figure 2. Negative effect of infill on seismic performance

Figure 1. Damages on infill. of structure – “soft” storey mechanism.

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 Figure 2. Negative effect of infill on seismic performance
of structure (cont’d).
concentrate in part of the building which have more
sparse infill
– Local effects of infill may cause brittle failure of
frame member, notably columns (Fig. 2)
The masonry infill significantly increase structural
strength and stiffness until seismic demands become
greater than infill strength. After this moment deteri-
oration of global strength and stiffness is registered.
Experience from the recent experimental investiga-
tions show that infill can change damage distribution
in structure, (Dolsek, Fajfar 2006).
In the new buildings design according to Eurocode
8, (EN 1998: Eurocode 8.2004) the masonry infill
are threat as a source of structural additional strength
and so called “second line defense”. So the reduction
of input seismic action as a result of favorable infill
effects is not allowed. Considering this, design of RC
buildings with masonry infill according to EC8 is on
safety side but it is not rational because leads to signifi-
cant increase of reinforcement in the structural element
in comparison with the bare frame. Having in mind that
the design EC8 method for RC frames with infill are
too conservative it is necessary to quantify the effects
of the infill on seismic performance of the structure
properly, which means:
– The infill should be explicitly incorporate in the
structural model for analysis and design
– Performance of the infill should be verified against
seismic demands as a results of the nonlinear
analysis and design of structures
The problem is even more complex in the case of
seismic performance evaluation of the existing RC
buildings with masonry infill. It was previously stated
that the influence of the infill is most significant when
the structural system itself doesn’t posses adequate
seismic resistance, which is often case in large num-
ber of substandard RC buildings constructed before
implementation of seismic codes, as well as in the case
on newly design building without respecting capac-
ity design approach. In such buildings the explicitly
consideration of infill in analytical model and their
verification are necessary and beneficial not only for
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 3. 3D model of five storey RC building without
infill.
the designer but also for the investors and society
as whole. Nevertheless Part 3 of Eurocode 8 which
is use for seismic assessment and strengthening of
the existing structures doesn’t give any opportunity
to the designer to incorporate the (positive) influence
of the infill in the process of seismic assessment of
existing structure.
2 SEISMIC PERFORMANCE OF RC
BUILDINGS WITH MASONRY INFILL
Having in mind the necessity for quantitative defi-
nition of influence of infill on seismic performance
of RC building structures, selected results obtain
from analytical investigations of two buildings mod-
eled without and with masonry infill (Apostolska,
Necevska-Cvetanovska et al. 2010) are presented
within the frame of the paper.
2.1 Linear elastic analysis of five storey RC frame
building
The analysis of the structural system was carried
out under vertical loads and seismic action defined
according to the Rulebook for construction of building
structures in seismic areas, (PIOVS, 1981) for intensity
of IX after MCS. A seismic effect on the structure was
defined according to the lateral force method of anal-
ysis. Two different analysis have been performed i.e.
structural system without (Fig. 3) and with masonry
infill.
Comparison between fundamental period of vibra-
tion of structure, relative story displacements, as well
as stiffness, for both of the models, without and with
infill is presented in Table 1.
Distribution of maximum absolute story displace-
ments as well as force-displacement relationship for
both of the models is given in the Figures 4 and 5.
The effect of the infill is obvious and it is reflect
through reduction of total displacements and increase
of stiffness.
Table 1. Relative story displacements and stiffness.

Without infill, With infill, Difference,

T1 = 0.52sec T1 = 0.47sec T = 9.5%

δ rel. K δ rel. K δ rel. K

Story (cm) (kN/cm) (cm) (kN/cm) (%) (%)

5 0.16 8984 0.14 10461 14.1 16.4

4 0.30 9700 0.25 11671 16.9 20.3
3 0.41 9815 0.33 12144 19.2 23.7
2 0.47 10198 0.34 14080 27.6 38.1
1 0.32 16276 0.24 21146 23.0 29.9

Figure 6. 3D mathematical model of seven storeys RC

building without infill.

Figure 4. Absolute story displacement.

Figure 6. 3D mathematical model of seven storeys RC

building with infill (cont’d).

Figure 5. Force – displacement relationship.

2.2 Linear elastic analysis of seven storey RC

frame building
The analysis of the seven storey RC building struc-
ture without and with masonry infill (Fig. 6) has been
performed under vertical and seismic loads. The seis-
mic loading are defined in three different ways: as
equivalent static lateral forces for intensity IX after
MCS, (PIOVS, 1981.); EC8 design spectra (EN1998-
1: 2004) and real earthquake registration- El Centro for
two levels of acceleration – 0.25 g and 0.35 g. The anal-
ysis of the structural system was performed by finite
element method using SAP2000v10.0.0 Advanced
software (Wilson & Habibulah, 2006).
Distribution of the absolute maximum storey dis-
placements for both models (without and with infill)
Figure 7. Distribution of the displacements at the storey
levels.
under input acceleration of amax = 0.25 g is presented
in Figure 7.
In the Table 2, calculated relative story displace-
ments and elastic stiffness for structural model without
and with masonry infill are presented.
2.3 Nonlinear “push-over” analysis of seven storey
RC frame building
In order to make assessment of the seismic perfor-
mance of the building structural system considering

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Table 2. Relative story displacements and stiffness.

Without infill With infill Difference

δ rel. K δ rel. K δ rel K

Story (cm) (kN/cm) (cm) (kN/cm) (%) (%)

7 0.34 4500 0.23 6623 32.2 47.2

6 0.52 4481 0.34 6807 34.3 48.5
5 0.67 4487 0.44 6883 34.9 49.1
4 0.78 4848 0.51 6941 35.0 43.2
3 0.72 5471 0.49 8066 32.2 47.4
2 0.68 6204 0.48 8722 29.4 40.6
1 0.38 11332 0.29 14893 24.0 31.4

Figure 8. Distribution of plastic hinges in the characteristics

frames (cont’d).

structural stiffness and strength and decrease funda-

Figure 8. Distribution of plastic hinges in the characteristics
frames.
the influence of the masonry infill, nonlinear “push-
over” analysis has been carried out. As a result of
the analysis the most probably mechanism of damage
distribution is elaborated also.
Infill is modeled as equivalent diagonals. Nonlin-
earity is concentrated in those diagonals and with
increase of the level of input horizontal displacements
plastic hinges entry even in the collapse prevention
zone (point “E” in Fig. 8). The beams are in the initial
range of nonlinearity, mainly in transition from elas-
tic to post-elastic state (point “B” in Fig. 8) and in
immediate occupancy range (point “IO” in Fig. 8).
Distribution of the plastic hinges in two charac-
teristics frames of analyzed RC building structure at
selected steps of “push-over” analysis is presented in
Figure 8.
3 CONCLUSION
In order to define seismic performance of RC build-
ing structures with masonry infill and to evaluate the
influence of the infill on structural behaviour ample
analytical investigation of two structures with different
stories and without/with infill have been realized.
Generally can be concluded that the effect of the
infill on the seismic performance of the structure is
significant. The presence of infill increases initial
mental period of vibration as well as absolute and
relative storey displacements. As a result large elas-
tic stiffness and small deformability, immediately after
appearance of first cracks nonlinearity increase rapidly
up to failure of infill. One can concluded that in the
elastic range and in the beginning of nonlinear range
masonry infill increase seismic resistance of RC build-
ings and has significant influence on the nonlinear
dynamics response of structural systems.
Having in mind fact that in common design practice
the influence of infill is not consider, further research
for definition of appropriate mathematical models for
nonlinear behaviour of infill is necessary. The main
goal of such investigations should be as much as pos-
sible realistic definition of seismic performance of
RC buildings with masonry infill. In line with this as
one of the several identified research needs to achieve
improved design guidelines for seismic protection in
the EU is seismic assessment and retrofitting with
emphasis to masonry-infilled frame buildings (Pinto
et al., 2007).
REFERENCES
Apostolska R., Necevska-Cvetanovska G., Cvetanovska J.,
Jankovska B. 2010. Analytical investigations of seismic
behaviour of RC building structures with masonry infill,
Proc.of the GNP, February, Zabljak, Montenegro, 2010.
Dolsek M., Fajfar P. 2006. Simplified Seismic Assesment
of Infilled Reinforced Concrete Frames, Proc. of the
13ECEE, Geneva, 2006.
EN 1998: Eurocode 8: Design of structures for earthquake
resistance. Part 1: General rules, seismic actions and rules
for buildings, 2004.
Fardis M. 2006. Seismic Design Issues for Masonry – infilled
RC Frames, Proc. of the 13ECEE, Geneva, 2006.
Pinto A., Taucer F., Dimova S. 2007. Pre-normative research
needs to achieve improved design guidelines for seismic
protection in the EU – EUR 22858 EN – 2007.
Rulebook for construction of building structures in seismic
areas – PIOVS. Official Gazete of SFRJ, No. 32/1981.
Wilson and Habibullah 2006. SAP2000 – Structural Analysis
Programme, CSI, Berkeley, California, 2006.

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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Modelling influence of paraseismic tremors on precast apartment buildings

J. Barański, P. Berkowski & G. Dmochowski

Wrocław University of Technology, Wrocław, Poland

ABSTRACT: Although Poland is not situated in seismic region, there are areas were deep underground mining
of copper ore is conducted causing that paraseismic tremors are there a very frequent phenomena. As the copper
exploitation is surrounding the urban areas, assessment of the influence of surface vibration on existing and also
newly designed buildings is very important. Many of the existing buildings are precast ones and such tremors
can be dangerous for them and could be the reason of cracks and displacements development, especially in joint
zones between concrete precast elements. Results of sample numerical modelling, static and dynamic analyses of
multi-storey precast buildings are presented in this paper. Numerical structural analysis based on FEM takes into
account ideal and damaged model of joints between precast elements and influence of real tremors received from
acceleration recordings. Finally, computer modelling can be used to check if there is a necessity to strengthen
buildings and whether proposed strengthening system for buildings is able to carry on additional loads caused
by paraseismic tremors.

1 INTRODUCTION in a large-panel technology constitute a large percent-

The phenomena that occur in copper mining areas
in Poland can be divided into two groups. The first
of them includes: abasement of terrain, slope of ter-
rain, and creep of soil surface. The second group
includes ground vibrations caused by mining tremors,
generally described using velocity and acceleration
of soil vibrations. Processes of mining tremors are
recorded in various places on the surface of the area of
exploitation by use of accelerometers. In these areas of
deep exploitation of copper, ore deposits are situated
beneath the dolomitic limestone rocks, which in the
case of the rock mass movements can release signifi-
cant amounts of potential elastic energy. Phenomena
of the accumulation of elastic energy are also favoured
by large depth of exploitation, reaching 1000 meters.
Fracturing of rocks is caused primarily by backfilling
of excavation or, to a lesser extent, by shooting used
in mining exploitation technology.
On the basis of the observations recorded in
the described area it can be said that the first group
of the described phenomena has no decisive influence
on the technical condition of buildings and struc-
tures located in the area of copper mining in Poland.
However, the phenomena of the second group cause
cracks in structural elements or at the contact surfaces
between different structural elements or materials.
The apartment buildings, existing in this mining
region, can be divided into two groups. The first one
includes low buildings made of such materials as
bricks, hollow bricks or aerated concrete, and in the
second there are multi-storey buildings made of large-
size precast elements (eg. “Wrocław-large-panel” –
WWP or “big-block” – WBL). Buildings constructed
age of the total number of buildings in this region. For
this reason, the paper addresses the impact of para-
seismic tremors on these latter objects (Baranski &
Berkowski 2003).
2 DESCRIPTION OF CONSTRUCTION OF
SELECTED TYPES OF PRECAST
BUILDINGS
2.1 Short description of WWP building system
Precast WWP buildings (Fig. 1), built in Poland in the
70s and 80s of the 20th century, had the transversal
arrangement of construction system with the typical
height of 5 or 11 storeys. Their foundations were made
in the form of concrete continuous footing or founda-
tion plate, and basement walls were made as mono-
lithic ones. Internal transversal bearing walls were
14 cm thick. Their vertical edges were finished with
the so-called “locks” and also had reinforcing steel
bars left, both elements were made with aim to create
vertical cores filled with concrete during assembly.
Figure 1. Horizontal plan of WWP building with
strengthening.

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Figure 2. Horizontal plan of WBL building.
The horizontal edges were provided with two steel
bolts, helping to stabilize and mount higher storey
walls. Those horizontal joints were filled with cement
mortar. Gable walls were designed as three-layer ones
with total thickness of 21 cm and with reinforced 12 cm
thick concrete bearing layer. The curtain walls, also
the three-layer ones, were precast with a thickness
of 16 cm, with reinforced concrete bearing layer 5 cm
thick. Floor slabs were 14 or 16 cm thick. Typical floor
span (load-bearing wall spacing) was 2.4, 3.0, 4.8 and
5.4 m. Ends of the plates, based on the load-bearing
walls, were canted to allow the realization of the ring
beam and mounting of walls of higher storeys. Plates
were reinforced in one direction, as being based on the
vertical walls on the opposite ends only.
Because of damages and displacements caused by
paraseismic tremors some of these buildings were
strengthened using mixed steel-concrete pillars and
internal walls thickening, as presented in Figure 1.
2.2 Short description of WBL building system
In the building system called the “big-block” – WBL
(Fig. 2), transversal load-bearing wall system was used
and floor slabs were based on the external gable and
internal bearing walls. The height of these buildings
was up to 8 or 10 storeys. Underground storeys were
constructed from precast elements or made as mono-
lithic ones. The walls were made of full or hollow
precast blocks.
Ground floor concrete walls were 24 cm thick with
longitudinal circle channels. Floor slabs were also
hollow ones with 24 cm of thickness. These plates were
canted on the ends what allowed the realization of ring
beam.
3 STATIC AND DYNAMIC NUMERICAL
MODELLING
3.1 FEM WWP building model
The model of analyzed building was prepared in two
stages, using the standard LUSAS program elements
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Figure 3. 3D FEM model of precast WWP building.
(Lusas 1999). In the first stage 2D model of the
11-storey building was created. In place of all the struc-
tural horizontal joints 2D elastic elements “joint2D”
were introduced. Bearing lateral walls system of the
building was replaced by beam elements with equiv-
alent geometric characteristics. System was tested for
dead and wind loads and uneven settlement in the
longitudinal direction of the building. During the cal-
culation static system of structure was changed by
changing stiffness of “joint2D” elements. Influence
of curtain walls and technological service loads were
not taken into account.
The second model, presented in this paper, was a
fully 3D model of a building constructed in the WWP
system. The building consisted of three segments con-
nected together. Bearing carrying system was modeled
with help of rigid floor slabs and load bearing verti-
cal walls based on them in transversal direction. In the
longitudinal direction sections of walls along stairways
were also the bearing elements. In the model the walls
were not connected to the floor slabs directly, but by
using elements of “joint3D", analogous to “joint2D”,
but working in the spatial layout. Using them horizon-
tal joints in three dimensional space were modeled.
Support of building was modeled as the fixed one in
all of the examples. In this case examples of calcu-
lations under action of wind, uneven settlement and
paraseismic tremors were realized.
3.2 FEM primary joint model
Primary joint model was geometrically identical with
the typical horizontal joint used in precast WWP
building system.
In this joint, shown in Figure 4, there are four dif-
ferent elements: 1 – slab plate, 2 – wall plate, 3 – joint
fulfilment – concrete, 4 – cement mortar.
All these elements were divided using finite element
mesh and nonlinear material characteristics according
to Feenstra (1993), Ignatakis et al. (1989) and Lusas
(1999). 3D elements with 8 nodes were applied as
finite elements. Nonlinear analysis was carried out
using built-in LUSAS FEM System multi-crack con-
crete Jefferson model (Jefferson, 1998). Figures 5–6
show some of the results of the nonlinear analysis. It
Figure 4. FEM primary model of joint between precast
elements.

Figure 6. Primary model – results of σx stresses – failure

phase.

Figure 7. LUSAS FEM substitute model of joint between

precast elements.

Figure 5. Primary model – results of σx stresses – beginning

phase.

appears that failure mechanism starts in the middle of

the joint.

3.3 FEM substitute joint model

Primary model is useless during large models analy-
sis because of its complicated form described above.
Therefore, a substitute, more simplified, model was
prepared, shown in Figure 7. It is built with LUSAS
finite element called “joint”, which contains transla-
tional and rotational springs. All “joint” characteris-
tics, as spring stiffness, were calculated according to
the primary model. Such element is suitable for static Figure 8. FEM model of whole horizontal joint.
and dynamic analysis when substitutes part of the hor-
izontal joint. An example of using substitute model is horizontal joint – i.e. the connection of wall and slab
shown in Figure 8. elements – from monolithic to hinge one, with pos-
Therefore, by changing the stiffness of each spring sibility of sliding, which is a good approximation of
it is possible to simulate different states of the whole damaged elements in real prefabricated building. A lot

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Table 1. Comparison of natural frequency values – building
model from Figure 1.

Building model with

Ideal joint Damaged joint Strengthening

Frequency (Hz)
Eigen form

1 0.88832 0.10197 0.67402

2 1.33362 0.11388 0.67606
3 1.33988 0.12753 1.70303
4 2.55177 0.36422 2.11986
5 2.57210 0.37888 2.12288
6 2.60117 0.38068 2.54593

of analyses were carried out considering cracks and Figure 9. Sample of a read-out from an accelerometer.
stress distribution in horizontal joints.
However, the main subject of the realized computa-
tional simulations was to define how damaged joints
effect on dynamic characteristics of the whole building
before and after strengthening (Fig. 1).

4 MODEL OF DYNAMIC CALCULATIONS

4.1 Natural frequency results

After preparing three main building models (Fig. 1):
1st – with ideal horizontal joints, 2nd – with degen- Figure 10. Sample of spectral curve.
erated horizontal joints, and 3rd – strengthened con-
struction, natural frequency analysis was carried out.
It was obtained that natural frequencies values of the
loads. LUSAS FEM system uses spectral response
building with degenerated (damaged) horizontal joints
method, so a read-out from an accelerometer is needed
are much lower than for two others models of build-
to determine a spectral curve. In Figure 9 an example
ing. Table 1 shows a comparison of calculated natural
of a read-out from an accelerometer is shown. X axis
frequencies results for all three building models.
shows time of the quake in sec andY axis an amplitude
To diagnose the dynamic state of the build-
of an acceleration in m/sec2 .
ing a global damage coefficient γM , developed by
In Figure 10 a spectral curve calculated from Figure
DiPasquale & Çakmak (1990a, b), and described by
9 is shown. X axis shows frequency in Hz and Y axis
Equation 1 can be calculated:
an amplitude of an acceleration in m/sec2 . Data from
this spectral curve entered into the LUSAS System
allows loading the structure with a kinematic loads.
System uses the CQC (Complied Quadratic Combina-
where: T0 – first natural period of an ideal build-
tion) method to calculate the building response. It is
ing, TM – first natural period of a building with
possible to see the response animation and read which
strengthening or damaged joints.
eigen form is a dominated one. Comparing displace-
Corresponding values of δM were: for the 2nd
ments and stresses in characteristic nodes for different
building model – 0.885 and for the 3rd one – 0.241.
structures (it means with dif-ferent state of joints) it is
It shows the global change of dynamic characteristics
possible to diagnose which building is more flexible
comparing with an ideal building. In Table 1 it is also
on such a tremor and also to define if the strengthening
shown that without a technical expertise of the struc-
system is well designed. Table 2 shows displacement
ture state it is not possible to define properly dynamic
results in one node (situated at the top corner of the
characteristics of a building.
building) for different paraseismic tremors. Because
it is still not decided which parameter is suitable
to describe univocally paraseismic quake the maxi-
4.2 Spectral response analysis and results
mum value of the ground acceleration read from the
Natural frequency analysis is the first step in diagnos- accelerometer read-out was used. As it is shown in
ing the building structures under paraseismic loads. Table 2 a tremor with smaller value of acceleration
Following, it is necessary to prepare adequate dynamic can evoke bigger displacements.

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 Table 2. Comparison of displacements calculated for elaborated building models.

Displacement direction
Maximum value
of horizontal Horizontal Vertical
acceleration
State of building structure mm/s2 mm

Damaged joints 250 4.5 1.6 8.2

Strengthened building 0.6 0.4 0.8
Damaged joints 570 201 26.2 16.4
Strengthened building 3.2 0.4 0.3
Damaged joints 800 64.7 8.4 5.3
Strengthened building 1.1 0.2 0.1

5 CONCLUSIONS the building is able to carry out all loads, especially

Response of the building structure not only depends on
the maximal value of ground acceleration but also on
the frequency corresponding to this acceleration and
natural frequencies of building structure. To diagnose
properly if a tremor is dangerous for a building we
have to know all the parameters of a structure and also
all the parameters of tremors. If paraseismic tremors
occur often they may lead to slow degradation of the
so-called “weak points” in building structures, espe-
cially if the buildings are made from precast concrete
elements and has mixed cement-mortar and steel bar
joints between them.
The numerical model of such a structural joint of
elements in precast building was developed. Along
with structure technical state diagnosis it was used
to define the real structural response to paraseismic
tremors. It was made in order to check properly struc-
tural safety of buildings situated in underground mine
exploitation areas.
In diagnosing and designing complex structures
it is necessary to use specialized software to define
building behaviour and its response to ground tremor.
Finally, computer modelling is useful when we want
to check if the proposed strengthening system for
paraseismic tremors.
REFERENCES
Baranski, J. & Berkowski, P. 2003. Computational simula-
tions for homogenizated masonry structures by using 3-d
damage model. In Fib-Symposium Concrete structures in
seismic regions; Electr. Proc. Intern. Conf., Athens, 6–8
May 2003.
DiPasquale, E. & Çakmak, A.Ş. 1990. Detection of seismic
structural damage using parameter-based global dam-
age indices. Probabilistic Engineering Mechanics 5(2):
60–65.
DiPasquale, E. & Çakmak, A.Ş. 1990. Seismic damage
assessment using linear models, Soil Dynamics and Earth-
quake Engineering 9(4): 194–215.
Feenstra, P.H. 1993. Computational Aspects of Biaxial Stress
in Plain and Reinforced Concrete. Delft: University Press.
Ignatakis, C., Stavrakakis, E. & Penelis, G. 1989. Analytical
Model for Masonry Using the FEM. In C.A. Brebbia (ed.),
Structural Repair & Maintenance of Historical Build-
ings. 511–523. Southampton: Computational Mechanics
Publication.
Jefferson, A.D. 1989. Finite element analysis of concrete
structures, PhD Thesis, University of Wales. Cardiff.
LUSAS, v. 13. Theory Manual vol-II. 1999. FEA Ltd.,
Kingston upon Thames.

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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

The solid springer rule – behavior under dynamic stress

M. Candela
P.A.U. Department, Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria, Reggio Calabria, Italy

R. Fonti
D.I.S.T. Department, “Federico II” University, Napoli, Italy

ABSTRACT: After the last Aquila’s earthquake, we was charged to draw up the Gagliano Aterno’s castle
restoration and seismic improvement project. During the preliminary study about its damage status, we survey a
particular cracks outline on the cross vaults of the first portico’s level. These structures are completely extradosed
and covered by many triangular brackets. The cracks outline appraisal is typical for this structural elements, except
for the first one of them. According to this thinking we studied the engineering construction and degradation
in each component and then we compared the theoretical study about fracture mechanics to the study case.
Immediately, we observed that only in this vault it’s possible find a masonry solid springer built on its extrados
like an abutment. We note similarities between the results of a scientific research directed to understand the
structural role of these elements and the real behaviour of it under a seismic strain.

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 The 6th April 2009 L’Aquila’s earthquake

Articulated sector studies (contribution of Re.Luis
program, devoted to understand the 6th April 2009
L’Aquila’s earthquake), conducted on the basis of sev-
eral acceleration records concerning the 6thApril 2009
L’Aquila’s earthquake, pointed out many particulari-
ties in this seismic activity. Among them, two aspects
can be considered mostly significant in comparison to
the Italian existing regulations in this field. In fact, it
was recognized that the highest values both in acceler-
ation and in total resulted definitely superior to those
provided in Italian regulations of 2008, with reference
to surrounding fault’s area that generated the seis-
mic activities at a distance of 15 km from it. This
occurrence is so infrequent that the return period was
estimated between 475 and 2500 years. Instead, the
spectral acceleration, with its parameter related, is
maximum in the whole area at more than 15 km from
the epicenter. This is the Gagliano Aterno’s case.
2 THE GAGLIANO ATERNO’S CASTLE
2.1 Morphological area’s features
Gagliano Aterno is a small centre situated in a sube-
quana valley’s ridge. It is placed at about 35 km
from L’Aquila, in Abruzzo and is completely lost in
the Regional natural park of Sirente-Velino. From
its altitude, 650 m on the Sirente mountain slope, it
dominates the Aterno’s river. The homonymous cas-
tle is place in the highest site of the village on an
high-ground.
Figure 1. Photo captured by Gagliano Aterno’s Castle – :
Gagliano Aterno’s village view – it remarks eminent Castle
position.
2.2 History and the main phases of development
In 1328, Isabella di Celano built the Gagliano Aterno’s
castle. It was probably built or rebuilt on some Dark
Age or late-roman pre-existences.
Two elements, convergent to the same direction,
induce us to advance the following hypothesis: the first
one is an inscription affixed on the entrance-wall of
the castle. It testifies the visit of Saint Francesco from
Assisi in 1216. The second one is the struts-tower.
The second one is the struts-tower. It could be
naturally considered as the mainstays-tower of an
enclose-castle. The latter is a complex castle typology,
generally compounded by a boundary wall, associated
to a keep and with a large courtyard.
However, the mainstays-tower’s orientation is com-
pletely different from the other towers; so, it is possible
to suppose that it was the keep or a mainstays-tower of
a tower-house; a common typology in this area.

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Figure 2. Draw: Typological reading – plan section.
Consequently, the keep and the area surrounding
can be considered as pre-existences, implemented by
the Earls of Celano a century later. The whole struc-
ture is dated back to fourteenth century; in fact,
it had a large parade ground, well-defended by the
circular-towers buttressed through large scarps and a
bascule bridge equipped with some balance weights
and anchors.
The whole construction is surrounded by a double-
curtain wall connected to some embattled donjons;
each one enclosed in a dry-moat, that divided the first
curtain wall from the second one. In fifteenth century,
it was destroyed by the legendary braccio di Montone,
an Aragonese mercenary. In 1463, it was a property of
Piccolomini. Then it was governed by Barberini family
until 1806. Finally, it became a possession of Lazzaroni
and now it is divided in different properties.
The strength of this monument is its versatility, that
marked it through time and gave it the possibility of
arriving intact and useful until now.
Through a careful typological reading of this good,
it is possible to distinguish five main phases of
development:
1. An early phase preceding the Celano’s foundation.
2. Its reconstruction and/or extension in the fourteenth
century.
3. In the seventeenth century, there is a period of tran-
sition. It represents a turning point at both social
and stylistic-architectonic level. The castle became
an house-castle and the most clear architecture fig-
ure was the double open gallery; it was inserted by
force in the south-west façade, leaving unfortified
the castle’s part turned to the village.
4. The restoration carried out in late 1800’s and early
1900’s. It was probably restored after Lazzaroni’s
acquisition, in order to elevate it to the past stylis-
tic and architectonic level. So, the closed open-
ings were replaced and some vaults were erected;
while some vaults of the double open gallery were
replaced by a wooden covering.
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Figure 3. Photo: Gagliano Aterno’s Castle – before Lazza-
roni restoration (Ing. Petrucci).
5. The last phase of development was carried out by
Giulia Lazzaroni: she decided to enter into joint
ownership, dividing the castle in 18 apartments.
So in 1970s, a businessman from Naples trans-
formed the castle in a block of apartments called:
Il Castello.
Among the most important interventions, we can
mention: the construction of a staircase with elevator,
the covering replacement with some concrete trusses
instead of the classic wooden one, the summit masonry
replacement, which caused the loss of battlements,
several openings and the replacement of some entire
floor coverings.
All these additions, variations and planimetric
changes make this defensive construction an exem-
plar nearer to a fortified house than a castle. So this
case is unique of its kind.
2.3 Earthquake damages
The crack outlines’ survey on the premises was care-
fully studied. This analysis was carried out by means
of some investigative methods. They mostly followed
two different research methodologies: the first one
was focused on historical field and the second one
on technical and scientific field. The latter employed
no destructive and partially destructive tests. These
tests were planned and recognized by an investiga-
tive campaign. In particular, the employment of these
technologies was useful to check the highest dete-
rioration level of several materials. Moreover, some
tests were planned according to the supposed main
phases of development, based on some historical dis-
coveries and on an accurate masonry walls’ study, that
produced, as a result, the classification of different
masonry settings.
Therefore, several tests were carried out on some
masonry walls’ cross-section, crosses and many vaults
and floors. Since this analysis emphasized the high-
est tampering level of this historical structure, it’s
now possible to find out a reasonable motivation
for the main crack outlines. In fact, many crack

Figure 4. Draw: Gagliano Aterno’s Castle – Masonry set-
ting.
Figure 5. Photo: Gagliano Aterno’s Castle – Open gallery
(M. Grolla).
typologies were found: buckling, kinematics move-
ments, translations, such as the crack outline of the
north-west tower or the turnover of some masonry
panels in the south-west façade. These disarrange-
ments were generated by the 6th April earthquake, but
they are mainly caused by the lack of clamps in both
planes.
Finally, it’s possible to include the second level
vaults of the open gallery. The open gallery was car-
ried out as an elevating arc sequence on two levels: it
is a slender structural element, free to move from the
ground to the top, connected to it by some deteriorated
wooden ties and anchors.
However, the second level cross vaults are con-
nected to the boarding masonry by steel tie-rod
devices. The latter is placed on the springer’s level
and linked to each side by steel anchors. The vault’s
typology is a cross extradosed.
After the earthquake, these structural elements pro-
duced some hinges located in the intrados; while the
crack outlines emphasized the lack of clamps among
the transversal arcs and the vaults’ groins. In addition,
the fourth vault had no similar hinges’ configuration;
in fact, the last vault produced a hinge located at about
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Figure 6. Photo: Gagliano Aterno’s Castle – Open gallery’s
cross vault (M. Grolla).
10 grades more than the classical 30 grades. So, we
researched the reasons of it.
At the end, we discovered the existence of a par-
tial masonry solid springer (tas-de-charge) on the
extrados.
3 THE ROLE OF SOLID SPRINGER IN THE
STATIC OF MASONRY VAULT
3.1 What is tas-de-charge?
«[. . .] they laterally inserted bricks here and there,
with ends connected as comb. This setting suggests
the image of right and left hand’s fingers tightening
one another [. . .]»
«[. . .] inserivano qua e là dei mattoni con le estrem-
ità collegate in forma di pettine, quasi che stringessimo
le dita della destra con quelle della sinistra.[. . .]»
(L.B. Alberti, De re aedificatoria).
Through this sentence, Leon Battista Alberti was
caption our attention on these particular masonry ele-
ments able to give the necessary balance in static
condition and a particular involvement in dynamic
one: like somebody how tightening fingers.
Tas-de-charge is an arc-double or thickening of arc
that in particular structural configuration like extra-
dosed vaults or high-rise dome can giving a sufficient
contribute for the stabilization of the pier, without
compressing and crushing it.
3.2 Case history: The Madonna delle Grazie’s
church in Lipari
Beginning from this idea, we want emphasized solid
springer value. We quote an example: the central nave
of a church; it is generally covered by a vault stiffened
by some lunette. This is common like a stiffening. It
was demonstrated through a scientific research Fonti
(2009) that analyzed many cases, among them the
Madonna delle Grazie’s church in Lipari. The pressure
curve contained in arc ‘section of the church’s nave can
be equilibrate only by lunette’s presence. Without it the
equilibrium it’s not possible.
 Figure 10. Draw: Gagliano Aterno’s Castle – Open gallery
cross section detail – Solid Springer project.

Figure 7. Draw: Madonna delle Grazie’s church in Lipari –

nave section – pressure curve calculation. 4 CONCLUSIONS

On the basis of all this we verified solid springer value.

It has a fundamental rule in hinges ‘localization, in
particular under dynamic stresses. In fact, the proposed
intervention is an whole tas-de-charge’s setting.

REFERENCES
Viollet – Le – Duc, E. 1859, Dictionnaire raisonné de
l’architecture française du XIe au XVIe siècle. Paris. B.
Bance, Editeur.
Alberti, L. B. 1966. L’Architettura (De Re aedificatoria),
Milano, Il Polifilo.
Giuffrè, A. 1991. Lettura sulla Meccanica delle Murature
Storiche, Roma. Edizioni Kappa.
Chiarizia, G. Clementi, A. Colapietra, R. Mattiocco, E. Per-
Figure 8. Draw: Madonna delle Grazie’s church in Lipari – ogalli, C. Properzi, P. Santoro, L. 1993. Abruzzo dei
nave section – pressure curve calculation with lunette. Castelli – gli insediamenti fortificati abruzzesi dagli italici
all’unità d’Italia. Carsa edizioni.
Becchi, A. Foce, F. 2002. Degli archi e delle volte Arte di
costruire tra meccanica e stereotomia, Venezia. Marsilio
Editori.
Ceradini, V. 2003. Area Gracanica Codice di Pratica per la
sicurezza e la conservazione degli insediamenti storici,
Roma. Gangemi editore.
Giuffrè, A. 2006. Sicurezza e Conservazione dei centri storici
Il caso Ortigia. Roma-Bari. Editori Laterza.
Fonti, R. 2007. first level thesis of degree: Extradosed thin
vaults, cases comparison: Capri and Lipari. Chairman:
Prof. Ing. M. Candela.
Candela, M. Bianco, A. Guastella, S. Fonti, R. Tuzza, S.
2007. The covering in extrados vault built in the south
of Italy, case study: Capri and Lipari, III International
Conference on Architecture and Building Technologies,
Ischia, June 15–16, 2007, Regional Architecture in Euro-
Mediterranean area.
Fonti, R. 2009. second level thesis of degree: The role of solid
springer in the static of masonry vault. Chairman: Prof.
Ach. V. Ceradini; Cochairman: Prof. Ing. M. Candela.

Figure 9. Draw: Gagliano Aterno’s Castle – Open gallery

cross section.

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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Modelling issues of steel braces under extreme cyclic actions

M. D’Aniello, F. Portioli & R. Landolfo

Department of Construction and Mathematical Methods in Architecture, University of Naples “Federico II”,
Naples, Italy

ABSTRACT: The modelling of non-linear cyclic response of conventional concentric braces is a crucial aspect
when seismic analyses have to be carried out to assess the capacity of steel braced structures under seismic
events, becoming an urgent need in case of catastrophic earthquakes. In those cases the “exact” evaluation
of brace ductility demand is essential to get the structural response in a reasonable manner. With the aim to
provide effective and useful modelling tool, a numerical study is presented in this paper. The study is devoted to
examine and validate the capability of physical-theoretic brace models implemented using available features of
the nonlinear finite element based software “SEISMOSTRUCT”. The nonlinear cyclic axial force-deformation
simulations were performed for braces made of steel hot-rolled wide-flange and cold-formed tubular sections.
The developed nonlinear brace model is verified using available test results from the literature. The results are in
excellent agreement to those given by experimental tests in terms of accuracy of the shapes of hysteresis loops.
In addition, for what concerns the computational effort the proposed model is satisfactory for seismic analysis
and design purposes in practice.

1 INTRODUCTION to assess the seismic performance of steel braced

Nonlinear static and dynamic analyses are commonly
used to estimate the structural seismic demand, espe-
cially under catastrophic seismic events where the
collapse prevention should be investigated.The param-
eters generally used to characterize global damage are
the interstorey drifts (normalized by the height of each
story). Interstorey drifts are related to the maximum
plastic deformations in structural components, the
degree of displacement-sensitive nonstructural dam-
age, and the tendency for the structure to develop
global instabilities due to P- effects. However, the
analytical models and computational procedures intro-
duce uncertainties (epistemic errors) into the response
predictions, especially for what concerns the hysteretic
models of the dissipative members.
In conventional concentrically braced steel frames
the seismic performance is primarily dependent on
the behaviour of the bracing elements, which are
the primary members devoted to dissipate the input
energy. This aspect implies that in the seismic assess-
ment of such structures it is fundamental to properly
mimic the brace response. In general, the hysteretic
models used to mimic the brace response introduce
significant simplifications if compared to experi-
mental behaviour. These differences in brace hys-
teretic characteristics may result in errors in predicting
peak responses, or even behaviour modes (Khatib
et al. 1988; Uriz & Mahin 2008). Therefore, the
characterization of reliable and effective hysteretic
models of bracing elements is a fundamental issue
structures.
In the last thirty years, the hysteretic behaviour of
steel concentric braces has been experimentally and
theoretically investigated (Black et al. 1980; Gugerli &
Goel 1980; Roeder 1989, Tremblay 2002). In particu-
lar, in the variety of developed modelling approaches
three different main classes may be recognized: (i) phe-
nomenological models; (ii) physical-theory models;
(iii) continuum finite element models.
After a brief overview of peculiarities of these
modelling approaches, the capability of a physi-
cal theory brace model implemented using features
of the free computational framework Seismostruct
(http://www.seismosoft.com/en/HomePage.aspx) has
been examined in this paper
This software permits a wide variety of material,
section, member and structure level characteristics
to be combined to achieve a versatile physical the-
ory representation of various members, including
simple braces, and more general three-dimensional
beam-columns. Recommendations for formulating the
model for classic concentric braces are developed, and
the model is validated, by means of an extensive set
of correlation studies with experimental results per-
formed by Black et al. 1980 on steel braces having
different types of cross section. structural analysis
software capable of handling material and geomet-
ric nonlinearity. Furthermore, the developed analytical
model is intended for design purposes in practice.
Thus, local buckling and low-cycle fatigue effects are
kept beyond the scope of this study.

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 2 THE MODELLING APPROACHES OF
CONCENTRIC BRACINGS IN LITERATURE
The modelling approaches to mimic brace response
can be grouped in three categories that are pre-
sented and described in order of increasing accuracy
in the following. The first category to be described
is the so-called “Phenomenological model”. These
kind of models are based on one-dimensional truss
elements with hysteretic behaviour simulating the
response observed experimentally (Gugerli & Goel
1980; Ikeda & Mahin 1986). The hysteretic prop-
erties are defined using a set of empirical rules
describing the shape of hysteretic loops without repre-
senting the physical phenomena (e.g. the out-of-plane
displacement induced by buckling) that could physi-
cally characterized the brace response. Although this
approach allows mathematically simulating the overall
behaviour of such braces, there are some disadvantages
limiting their effective use:
The great number of parameters to be specified to
characterize the rules controlling the shape of the hys-
teretic models. Indeed, the reliability and accuracy
of these models depend on the availability experi-
mental data with which to determine the appropriate
modelling parameters. Unfortunately, the available
experimental databases are limited.
These models simplify the hysteretic loop shapes
neglecting some important parameters as the post-
yield and post-buckling stiffness, whose importance
on stability predictions has been highlighted by
MacRae (1994). Indeed, the most of these models
represent the brace force-displacement response dur-
ing shortening as a horizontal line following a brief
descending branch from the initial or reduced buckling
load (e.g. Rai et al. 1996).
The bracing members are schematized by a one-
dimensional truss element with pined ends without
taking into account the bending stiffness. This means
that braces with different boundary conditions (e.g.
one or both ends fixed) are improperly represented
using pinned-end members having equivalent slender-
ness properties.
These models do not provide information on dam-
age produced by the lateral buckling of braces. There-
fore, in performance-based assessment it is not pos-
sible to evaluate the lateral displacements which can
damage nonstructural elements and interfere with the
operation of adjacent mechanical components, such as
elevators.
These disadvantages can be generally overcome
by using the so-called “Physical-Theory Models”.
This approach allows simulating the brace hysteretic
behaviour by using two linear elastic beam-column
element connected together by a generalized plastic
hinge for braces simply pinned, while inelastic hinges
concentrated at the element ends and midspan in the
case of fixed-end braces. In this kind of models geo-
metric nonlinearities (e.g. an initial camber) should be
directly introduced to account for buckling of braces
(Ikeda & Mahin 1986). Hall & Challa (1995) firstly
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used a fiber discretization of the cross section and a
form of the corotational formulation for the element
adopted to describe the inelastic hysteretic response of
steel members. More recently, Uriz & Mahin (2008)
examined the capability of a physical theory brace
model implemented in OpenSees (Open System for
Earthquake Engineering Simulation).
The main advantage of physical-theory models
consists in their less dependency on experimental
parameters. Generally speaking, the basic input data
to be implemented are the material properties, the
brace geometry and the distribution of fibers at crit-
ical sections. However, respect to phenomenological
models an increased computational effort should be
recognized.
Although physical theory approaches allow repre-
senting in more adequate manner the brace response
there are a few factors not accounted for, such as
initial stresses (that are generally unknown), geo-
metric imperfections, variations of the shape of the
cross section occurring during loading (e.g. when
local/distortional buckling occurs), lack of a validated
failure model for the materials, etc.
Finally, the most accurate approach consists in
implementing “Continuum Finite Element Models”.
They allow overcoming the remaining modelling lim-
itations by means of general purpose finite element
programs capable of large displacement analysis (e.g.
ABAQUS, ANSYS, etc.), which allow representing
braces and their connection by meshing with shell
or solid elements characterized by appropriate mate-
rial models. Several studies of this type have been
carried out recently. Because of their inherent com-
plexity, the difficulty in preparing input files and the
computational time expense, such detailed finite ele-
ment models may be satisfactorily used to simulate
some geometric details but they cannot be effectively
used to perform extensively seismic analyses of build-
ing frames. Therefore, they are not convenient for
structural engineering practice or research in seismic
assessment of structures. At the light of the above
considerations, physical-theory model seems to be the
most suitable to automatically represent conventional
braces having a variety of cross-sectional shapes and
boundary conditions
3 PROPOSED NUMERICAL MODEL
The model developed distributed inelasticity elements
(Filippou & Fenves 2004, Fragiadakis & Papadrakakis
2008) are used. The inelastic element utilized herein
accounts for distributed inelasticity through integra-
tion of material response over the cross section and
subsequent integration of section response along the
length of the element. SeismoStruct implements the
so-called fibre approach to represent the cross-section
behaviour, where each fibre is associated with a
uniaxial stress-strain relationship and the sectional
stress-strain is obtained through the integration of
the nonlinear uniaxial stress-strain response of the
individual fibers in which the section has been sub-
divided. The hysteretic steel material model used in
the implemented fiber models is the Menegotto-Pinto
hysteretic model, with extensions included for kine-
matic and isotropic hardening (Filippou et al. 1983).
The steel hysteretic parameters are calibrated on the
basis of the cyclic and monotonic coupon tests per-
formed by Black et al. (1980) representative of the
material properties of the investigated braces.
In fiber models implemented by Seismostruct the
inelasticity may be taken into account using either dis-
tributed inelasticity element or plastic hinge elements
having the inelasticity concentrated within a fixed
length of the element, as proposed by Scott & Fenves
(2006). In the present study both distributed and con-
centrated inelasticity element are examined, in order
to evaluate the advantages of those formulations. It is
worth noting that the concentrated inelasticity model
allows reducing the analysis time (since fibre integra-
tion is carried out for the two member end section
only), but also a full control/calibration of the plastic
hinge length (or spread of inelasticity).
In this study the implemented elements are based
on the force formulation (Spacone et al. 1996,
Neuenhofer & Filippou 1997), which provides over the
more common displacement formulation the follow-
ing advantages: (i) the force-formulation has proven
numerically robust and reliable, even in the pres-
ence of strength softening, as is the case for buckling
steel braces; (ii) a single element can be used to
represent the curvature distribution along the entire
member with sufficient accuracy through selection
of a sufficient number of integration points (moni-
toring sections); (iii) the force-interpolation functions
are always exact in the absence of second-order effects,
since it is independent from the assumed sectional con-
stitutive behaviour. However, this approach introduces
an approximation given by the discrete number of the
controlling sections along the element that are used for
the numerical integration.
The numerical integration method used by Seis-
mostruct is based on the optimized Gauss-Lobatto dis-
tribution, which includes, at a minimum, monitoring
points at each end of the element. In addition, a finer
subdivision is necessary for representing accurately
local deformations and, in particular, steel strains at the
critical sections of the brace. The issue of mesh refine-
ment (i.e. the number of integration sections and the
number of elements) is addressed in parametric studies
presented hereinafter.
4 PARAMETRIC ANALYSIS
4.1 Generality
The investigated parameters are the number of nonlin-
ear beam-column line elements that the individual strut
should be subdivided, the number of integration points
used along each of these line elements, the initial cam-
ber (imperfection) to be assumed along the strut, the
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Figure 1. Experimental set-up of the examined stocky strut
(Black et al. 1980).
number and distribution of fibers used to represent the
cross sections at the integration points. The reliability
of the modelling assumptions are validated on the basis
of the experimental results performed by Black et al.
(1980). The selected braces are the following:
1) a stocky pin-fix ended circular hollow brace;
2) a slender pin-pin ended hot-rolled wide flange
brace.
These braces differ for what concerns the cross-
section, the slenderness and the boundary conditions.
Indeed, they were chosen in order to cover the range of
different cyclic behaviour of the steel brace typologies
usually adopted for seismic resistant steel buildings.
The stocky brace consisted of a 4 × 0.337 (measure-
ments in inches) steel circular hollow strut. As shown
in Fig. 1a, the strut was welded to a physical clevis at
one end and to flanged connection bolted to a reaction
frame at the other. This arrangement was able to rep-
resent a pin connection in the former case and a fixed
connection in the second. The geometric slenderness
λ = kL/r was equal to 41, the nondimensional slen-
derness λ̄ equal to 0.4. The reported yield strength of
the steel was 190 MPa. This particular strut was cho-
sen due to its cross-sectional properties, which was
rather compact (i.e., D/t = 11.9). As such, the effects
of local buckling (and lateral torsional buckling) can
generally be ignored for these analyses. The axial force
vs. axial displacement hysteresis loops in Fig. 2a and
the axial force vs. lateral deflection in Fig. 2b are
illustrated.
The slender brace consisted of a W 8 × 20 (US
measurements) steel wide flange brace. As shown in
Figure 3a, the strut was welded to a physical clevis at
both ends. This arrangement was able to represent a
perfectly pin-pin connection. The geometric slender-
ness λ = kL/r was equal to 118, the nondimensional
slenderness λ̄ equal to 1.4. The reported yield strength
of the steel was 280MPa. The axial force vs. axial dis-
placement hysteresis loops in Figure 4a and the axial
force vs. lateral deflection in Figure 4b are illustrated.
4.2 Material characterization
The Menegotto-Pinto hysteretic model (Filippou et al.
1983) has been used for the steel fibers. The parame-
ters characterizing the monotonic and cyclic response
have been calibrated on the basis of the average cyclic
 Figure 3. Experimental set-up of the examined slender strut
(Black et al. 1980).

Figure 2. Experimental hysteretic response of the examined

stocky strut (Black et al. 1980).

Table 1. Calibrated parameters of Menegotto-Pinto model.

Eh R0 A1 A2 A3 A4

0.003 20 19 0.15 0.01 1

0.005 20 18 0.1 0.025 2

stress-strain coupon tests performed by Black et al.

(1998). These parameters are the following:
– the kinematic hardening Eh;
– The curvature parameters R0, which characterize
the shape of the transition curve between initial and
post-yield stiffness;
– A1 and A2, which affect the shape of the hysteretic
curve (Bauschinger effect and the pinching of the
hysteretic loops).
– A3 and A4, which quantify isotropic hardening.
The calibrated material parameters are directly
shown in Table 1.
4.3 Initial deformation
A bi-linear perturbation shape was used to define the
initial camber, which introduces a perturbation that
triggers buckling. The camber δ was placed at the
0.35L (being L the brace length) for stocky brace and
0.50 L for slender brace in accordance to their relevant
theoretical peak of lateral deflection (see Fig. 1 and
Fig. 3). The initial camber was assumed to be 0.001%,
0.01%, 0.02%, 0.03%, 1%, 3% of the total length of the
brace and, finally, the value calculated in accordance
to Georgescu (1996).
Fig. 5 show the axial force vs. lateral deflection
curves and the monotonic curves in compression of
Figure 4. Experimental hysteretic response of the examined
slender strut (Black et al. 1980).
stockey brace. These plots clearly illustrate the sensi-
tivity of the initial buckling load to the assumed initial
camber; differences in load-carrying capacity dimin-
ish as axial displacements increase. It is worth noting
a striking resemblance between the test and analysis
result. This gives some confidence in the approach
used herein. In the following the value of camber
obtained by Georgescu model (1996) has been used,
since using a referenced value allows having results
not susceptible to arbitrary choices by second users.
4.4 Extension of plastic length
The response of distributed plasticity elements are
compared to those exhibited by concentrated plasticity
elements. In both cases two sub-elements were assem-
bled and the initial camber was fixed equal to that given
by Georgescu (1996). In order to calibrate the plastic
hinge length, this parameter was assumed to be 10%,
15%, 20% and 25% of the total length (L) of the brace.
It is worth noting that in both examined cases (i.e.
stocky and slender brace) reducing the plastic length
reducing the computational time. In the examined

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Figure 5. Stocky brace: effect of initial deformation on hys-
teretic and buckling behaviour: the initial camber varies from
0.001%L to 3%L.

cases, respect to the distributed plasticity elements the

analysis time may be reduced up to 1/5. This implies
a significant benefit when complex structural models
are assembled and analyzed.
With regard to the slender brace, the prediction of
buckling load in compression is affected by hinge
length. This is clearly evident comparing the mono-
tonic response obtained for different length of plas- Figure 6. Slender brace: sensitivity to the plastic length: the
hinge length varies from 10%L to L.
ticity zone (Fig. 6a). In addition, if concentrated
plasticity elements are used reducing the plastic length
a strengthening of response can be recognized. This
effect is clearly evident analyzing the cyclic response
where shortening the plastic length induces a kine-
matic expansion effect (Fig. 6b). The entity of lat-
eral displacement is in good accordance in all cases
(Fig. 6c).

4.5 Number of nonlinear sub-elements

The number of sub-elements used was 2, 4, 8 and 16.
The number of integration points is kept constant at
five integration points per sub-element.
The distributed plasticity element are not sensi-
tive to the number of sub-elements being effective
the Lobatto integration among the five reference
sections along each sub-elements. Conversely, when
concentrated plasticity elements are used the compu-
tational results are strongly sensitive to the number
of sub-elements. As it can be noted by plots in Fig-
ure 7 increasing the number of sub-elements does
not correspond an improvement of the model predic-
tive response capability. The number of sub-elements
has a stiffening effect in the descending post-buckling
branch. As it can be easily foreseen, the computational
Figure 7. Sensitivity to the number of sub-elements: the
sub-elements varies from 2 to 16.
time is also affected by the number of sub-elements,
increasing practically in a linear manner with the num-
ber of elements. These analyses highlighted that using
more than 2 sub-elements is a meshing choice not
adequate and inconvenient.
4.6 Number of integration sections
The number of integration sections per element con-
sidered was 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, all of them
equally spaced along the element.

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Figure 8. Stocky brace: sensitivity to the number of inte-
gration sections.
Figure 9. Stocky brace: sensitivity to the number of fibers.
Figure 8 shows the result of a monotonic short-
ening of the brace. In this instance, the model with
only two elements and two integration points per ele-
ment exhibits the stiffer response in the post-buckling
regime. From 2 to 3 sections a slightly significant
loss of compressive strength (about the 40% in the
final stage) was recognized. This is due to an under-
integration of the element. The models containing four
to ten integration sections have almost identical results
under monotonic loading, providing cyclic response
practically coincident to the experimental results.
4.7 Number of fibers
The number of fibers across the section was varied as
follows: 10, 25, 50, 100, 200, 400 and 800.
Figure 9 show the results for the monotonic
response. Using 10 fibers does not accurately repre-
sent the hysteretic behaviour and the lateral deflection,
especially for concentrated plasticity elements. How-
ever, both in case of distributed plasticity and con-
centrated plasticity elements from 25 to 800 fibers
the axial hysteretic and monotonic response become
independent from the accuracy of the mesh, while
increasing the number of fibers makes more stable the
computational effort, even if the computational time
increased. It is suggested as a satisfactory compro-
mise among computational stability and time effort a
number of fibers equal to 200.
5 CONCLUSION
In this paper a physical-theory model for the inelastic
buckling behaviour of steel concentric braces has been
340
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
presented. The model has been developed with free
computational framework SeismoStruct
In order to validate the model, the results of the
study have been correlated to experimental outcomes
(Black et al. 1980). The parametric investigation
results in the following modelling recommendations:
1. The brace member is subdivided into two inelastic
beam-column elements (which can formulated with
distributed or concentrated plasticity).
2. It is suggested to use the value of the initial cam-
ber given by Georgescu model (1996), which is
generally restrained in that range.
3. At least 200 fibers should be adopted to mesh
the cross section for an accurate representation of
inelastic strains for stable and less time consuming
analysis.
4. It is suggested to use concentrated plasticity ele-
ments with plastic zone equal to 25% of the element
length.
5. If distributed plasticity elements have to be used it
is suggested to implement a number of integrating
section larger than 4 (5 is a good compromise).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The financial support of HSS-SERF project (N. RFSR-
CT-2009-00024) is gratefully acknowledged.
REFERENCES
Black, G. R., Wenger, B. A., Popov, E. P. (1980). Inelastic
Buckling of Steel Struts Under Cyclic Load Reversals.
UCB/EERC-80/40, Earthquake Engineering Research
Center, Berkeley, CA.
Filippou F.C., Popov E.P., Bertero V.V. (1983). Modelling
of R/C joints under cyclic excitations. ASCE Journal of
Structural Engineering, 109:11, 2666–2684.
Fragiadakis M., Papadrakakis M. (2008). Modeling, analysis
and reliability of seismically excited structures: compu-
tational issues. International Journal of Computational
Methods, 5:4, 483–511.
Georgescu, D. (1996). Earthquake-Recent developments in
theoretical and experimental results on steel structures.
Seismic resistant braced frames. Costruzioni metalliche,
1, 39–52,
Gugerli, H., Goel, S. C. (1980). Large Scale Tests for the
Hysteresis Behavior of Inclined Bracing Members. Pro-
ceedings of the Seventh World Conference on Earthquake
Engineering.
Hall, J., and Challa, M. V. R. (1995). Beam-Column Model-
ing. Journal Of Engineering Mechanics, 121:12, 1277.
Khatib, F., Mahin, S.A., Pister, K. S. (1988). Seismic behavior
of concentrically braced steel frames. UCB/EERC-88/01,
Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of
California, Berkeley, CA.
Ikeda, K., and Mahin, S. A. (1986). “Cyclic response of steel
braces.” Journal of Structural Engineering, ASCE, 112:2,
342–361.
MacRae, G. A. (1994). P-delta effects on single-degree-of-
freedom structures in earthquakes. Earthquake Spectra,
10:3, pp. 539–568.
Neuenhofer A., Filippou F.C. (1997). Evaluation of nonlin-
ear frame finite-element models. Journal of Structural
Engineering, 123:7, 958–966.
Rai, D. C., Goel, S. C., and Firmansjah, J. (1996). User’s
Guide Structural Nonlinear Analysis Program (SNAP).
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Uni-
versity of Michigan; College of Engineering, Ann Arbor,
Michigan.
Roeder, C. (1989). Seismic Behavior of Concentrically
Braced Frame. ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering,
115:8, 1837–1856.
Scott M.H., Fenves G.L. (2006). Plastic hinge integration
methods for force-based beam–column elements. ASCE
Journal of Structural Engineering, 132:2, 244–252.
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Spacone, E., Filippou, F. C., and Taucer, F. F. (1996).
Fiber Beam-Column Model for Nonlinear Analysis of
RC Frames: I: Formulation. Earthquake Engineering and
Structural Dynamics, 25:7, 711–725.
Tremblay, R. (2002). Inelastic seismic response of steel brac-
ing members. Journal of Constructional Steel Research,
58, 665–701.
Uriz, P., Mahin, S. A. (2008). Toward earthquake-resistant
design of concentrically braced steel-frame structures.
PEER report 2008/08. Earthquake Engineering Research
Center, University of California.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Response of BRBs to catastrophic seismic actions: Experimental results

G. Della Corte & F.M. Mazzolani

University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

ABSTRACT: Buckling Restrained Braces (BRB) represent an excellent solution for the seismic protection
of both new and existing structures. Several research studies and practical applications in the last decade have
shown the potentialities and limitations of this advanced bracing system. When BRBs are used as the main (or
the only) seismic load-resisting system, a reliable calculation of the inelastic demand to the structure becomes a
key point of the structural analysis. Since this calculation is always affected by uncertainties, a question could be
raised about what would be the system response in case of earthquakes demanding deformations larger than the
maximum values tolerable by the device. The paper tries to address this issue on the basis of recent experimental
tests carried out by the Authors.

1 INTRODUCTION buildings equipped with BRBs. Two tests were per-

1.1 Previous research on BRBs
Steel braces have long been used for both wind and
seismic resistant structures. With normal braces, com-
pression buckling is the source of strength and stiffness
degradation. A relatively recent development is repre-
sented by the so-called “buckling-restrained” braces
(BRBs), for which global buckling is inhibited by an
appropriate system. The avoidance of global buckling
reflects into a compression response very similar to
the tension one. Typically, a yielding steel plate (called
brace “core”) is encased within a concrete-filled tube
that restrains the core from global buckling (Black
et al. 2002, Xie 2005). An “unbonding” layer of appro-
priate material must be placed at the interface between
the steel core and the concrete encasement, so that this
type is usually called “unbonded” BRB. The concrete-
filled buckling restraining system may be found to be
expensive, because of the concrete pouring and cur-
ing phases, though a relatively cheap “unbounded”
BRB has recently been proposed and tested (Palazzo
et al. 2009). As an alternative, “all-steel” buckling
restraining systems have been proposed (Palazzo et al.
2009, Chen 2002, Della Corte et al. 2005, D’Aniello
et al. 2007, Della Corte & Mazzolani 2009), where
the steel core is separated from the steel buckling-
restraining unit by a small gap. “All-steel” BRBs have
also the advantage to be demountable, thus permitting
inspection and monitoring.
1.2 Recent research results considering
“catastrophic” seismic demands
This paper describes an experimental research activ-
ity on novel “all-steel” BRB prototypes. The research
consisted of two series of full scale tests on two RC
formed on the first building (first series) (Della Corte
et al. 2005), while three tests were carried out on
the second building (second series) (D’Aniello et al.
2007). The prototypes designed for the second series
are different from those used in the first series, as
described in the next Sections. The buildings used
for testing are both located in Bagnoli (Naples, Italy),
in the area where competent Authorities destined to
demolition the plants of the steel mill named ILVA
(former Italsider), including the two RC buildings
shown in Figure 1.
The first building (Fig. 1a) was preliminarily
divided into six independent substructures, by remov-
ing all non-structural components and cutting the floor
slabs. Each substructure was equipped with a differ-
ent seismic upgrading system and subsequently tested
more than one time (Fig. 2a). The tested substructures
are characterized by a very similar geometry (Fig. 2b)
(exception made for the base-isolated substructure)
(Mazzolani 2006). This paper summarizes the tests
carried out on one of the substructures (the second
from the left in Figure 2), which was equipped with
BRBs and tested two times, with two different BRB
prototypes. As shown in Figure 2b, the bare RC struc-
ture was made of two floor slabs sustained by four
square section columns. Information about geometry
and reinforcement are given in Mazzolani (2006).
The second building (Fig. 1b) was initially tested
two times (i) in its original conditions, up to a strong
damage state and (ii) after some minor repair of
damaged parts and reconstruction of some perimeter
masonry infill walls. Detailed information about these
two tests can be found in (Della Corte et al. 2008).
Subsequently, the building was equipped with BRB
prototypes and three tests were carried out, on three
different BRB prototypes.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 1. The two buildings.
Figure 2. Building 1 substructuring.
Figure 3. First series test setup.
The paper describes the test set-up, the BRB
geometrical and mechanical details and the results
obtained with the two series of tests. Then, the experi-
mental results are exploited in order to derive sug-
gestions for the development of design guidelines for
robust seismic design of BRBs.
2 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
2.1 First series of tests
Figure 3a shows the substructure of building #1
equipped with BRBs. The diagonal braces were
directed in alternate way, in order to highlight even-
tual differences between the tension and compression
response of BRBs. In fact, the load was applied sym-
metrically, but the rotation about a vertical axis of the
story slab was also measured. Lateral loads have been
applied by means of two hydraulic jacks working alter-
nately in two opposite directions, in order to apply
load reversals, and contrasted by a purposely designed
steel reacting frame (Fig. 3b, 3c). The height on the
ground of the two loading jacks (hence the height of
the load center) was fixed as it was the center of a linear
height-wise distribution of horizontal forces. Horizon-
tal story displacements were measured by means of a
very simple mechanical system (Fig. 3d), consisting
of a tape measurement anchored to a fixed point and
a video-camera reporting the measure to a monitor at
the ground level. This displacement measuring sys-
tem was proved to have the same precision as that of
a normal topographical station.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 4. BRB type 1: a) longitudinal sections; b) cross
section A-A; c) cross section B-B.
Figure 5. BRB type 2: a) longitudinal sections; b) cross
section A-A; c) cross section B-B.
The BRB specimens for the two tests of the
first series were made using a rectangular steel
plate (25 mm × 10 mm) for the yielding core, while
two sligthly different buckling-restraining units were
designed. In fact, in both tests, the buckling-restraining
unit was made by two rectangular steel tubes
(100 mm × 50 mm × 5 mm). The difference between
type 1 and type 2 consisted of the different end tapering
details, gap size and connection between tubes (welded
for type 1 and bolted for type 2). Figure 4 sgows the
geometry of BRB type 1, while Figure 5 illustrates the
geometry of BRB type 2. The gap size was 0.5 mm for
BRB type 1 and 1 mm for BRB type 2.
The steel grade was the European S 275. Both types
of BRBs were characterized by a ratio between the
Euler buckling load (NE ) of the two tubes and the yield
force (Ny ) of the internal steel core NE /Ny ≈ 2.1.
Test results are summarised in Figures 6 and 7 for
BRB type 1 and Figure 8 and 9 for BRB type 2.
Figure 6a shows the relative displacement between
the core and the restraining tubes when the braces
were subjected to tension. In compression, the brace
ductility was limited by local buckling of the unre-
strained end portion of the core (Fig. 4a, longitudinal
section), near the end tapering. The plates used to weld
together the restraining tubes at their ends were thus
subjected to strong flexural deformations (Figs 6b,c)
and localized punching forces (see the white circle in
Figure 6d). Because of this flexural failure, the end
stitch plates were unable to restrain the end portion of
Figure 6. Test results for BRB type 1: damage pattern.
Figure 7. Test results for BRB type 1: force vs.
drift response.
Figure 8. Test results for BRB type 2: damage pattern.
the core. This localization of damage ultimately led to
significant plastic engagement at the transition section
between the core and the end tapering (Fig. 6e), leading
to premature core fracture (Fig. 6f ). Figure 7 shows the
“average” hysteresis response of the tested structure in
terms of base shear force vs. 1st interstorey drift ratio.
Figure 7 gives information about the peak interstorey
drift ratio (θmax ), which was about 1.9%. The calcu-
lated value of the first interstorey yield drift ratio (θy )
is equal to about 0.004 radians. Then, the global storey
ductility µ (expressed as the ratio θmax /θy ) reached a
maximum of about 4.8.
The experimental response of BRB type 2 showed
a significant improvement of performance over the
previous type. Figure 8 shows the damage pattern.
The dark part of the BRB core in Figures 8a,b high-
lights the relative displacement between the core
and the restraining tubes, developed when the BRBs
were either in tension (Fig. 8a) or in compression
(Fig. 8b). Figure 8c shows the inelastic high-order
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 9. Test results for BRB type 1: force vs. drift
response.
Figure 10. Plan layout of the second building.
buckling of the core plate. Figure 8d illustrates the
local/distortional buckling at the end connection of one
BRB at the first storey. This undesired phenomenon
occurred at just one location and may be explained
as due to some damage produced in the gusset plate
connections during mounting of BRBs. Figure 8e and
8f show the state of the BRBs at the end of the
test: significant localization of plastic deformation at
the transition section between the core and the end
tapering can be observed.
Figure 9 shows the base shear vs. average first storey
drift ratio. The local strain concentration at the end of
the yielding zone occurred at an interstorey drift of
3.84% and a corresponding ductility of 9.6. The max-
imum interstorey drift ratio (5.58%) was associated
with a global storey ductility µ = 17.8.
2.2 Second series of tests
Figure 10 shows the plan layout of the second build-
ing equipped with BRBs. The vertical section of a
perimeter frame parallel to the load direction (verti-
cal direction in Figure 10) is also shown in Figure 11.
As previously mentioned, this building was initially
tested two times: (i) in the original conditions and (ii)
after some repairing. Both tests showed the formation
of a 1st-story column sway mechanism (Della Corte
et al. 2008). After these tests, the structure was again
 Figure 11. Vertical section of second building (a) and BRB
hidden inside masonry claddings (construction stage) (b).

Figure 13. BRB type 3.

Figure 12. Second series test setup.

partially repaired and equipped with BRBs, as shown

in Figures 10 and 11a (dashed lines).
The BRBs were designed to be hidden in the inner
space between the two panels constituting the masonry
claddings (Fig. 11b).
The test set-up consisted of a reacting steel struc-
ture with a push-pull system made of six hydraulic
jacks (Fig. 12a). The horizontal forces were distributed
between first and second floor of the building by
means of a triangulated steel structure, which was
fixed to the two floor slabs of the building. Storey dis-
placements were monitored by means of a diastimeter Figure 14. BRB type 4.
(Zeiss-Trimble S10) and six reflecting prisms (i.e. six
measuring points), three per each floor (Fig. 12b).
The new tested BRB prototypes (henceforth called
type 3, type 4 and type 5) (Fig. 12) have also been
designed to be demountable, but they differ in some
aspects from both the previous ones and among them.
One difference with the former BRBs was in the
buckling-restraining elements (compare Figures 4–5
and 13–14–15). In this second series of BRBs, the
buckling-restraining system was made by two omega-
shaped built-up shapes, which were joined together by
means of a bolted stitch connections. Two welded lon-
gitudinal bars on each side were used to provide the
required restraining action to the core. This arrange-
ment permitted to reduce the transverse size of the
sleeve thus allowing to hide the brace between the two
panels of the masonry claddings. Indeed, the transverse
Figure 15. BRB type 5.
size of the sleeve reduced from 130 mm of BRB type
2 to 94 mm of BRB type 3 and type 4, up to 92 mm
of BRB type 5. Notwithstanding the sleeves were still by the device. This length was reduced from 180 mm
characterized by a ratio NE /Ny equal to 2.06. of BRB type 3 to 50 mm of BRB type 4. For the last
One important difference between BRBs type 3 and device, BRB type 5 (Fig. 15), this length was fixed to
type 4 (Fig. 13 and 14) was the length of the unre- 70 mm. Besides, stiffener details of the unrestrained
strained end-portion of the core, which determines the end portions of the core were slightly different from
range of interstorey drift ratios that could be sustained one BRB to another.

346
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 16. Test results for BRB type 3: damage pattern.
Figure 17. Test results for BRB type 3: force vs. drift
response.
The ratio between the core length (Lc ) and the total
BRB length (L) was 0.39 for type 3, 0.33 for type 4
and 0.40 for type 5.
BRB type 3 has been designed with an inner clear-
ance between the yielding core and the restraining
sleeve equal to 1 mm, while for BRBs type 4 and type
5 the clearance was set equal to 2 mm.
It must be noted that, in the last test, the RC build-
ing has been equipped with the novel BRBs (type
5) in one bay and classic concentric braces (CCBs)
in the adjacent bay. In such a way, it was possible
to compare directly the performance of BRBs and
CCBs. The CCBs have been designed to have a ten-
sile axial strength large enough to avoid tension in the
RC inner column and a normalized slenderness λ not
larger than 2. The selected brace was a circular tube
(101.6 mm × 2 mm), characterized by a cross section
of class 2 according to Eurocode 3 (CEN 2004), and a
normalized slenderness λ = 1.8.
BRB type 3 showed the occurrence of an undesired
local-distortional buckling failure (Fig. 16a) occurring
at an interstorey drift angle of about 1.25% (Fig. 17).
The reasons generating the undesired buckling failure
may be found in the negative synergy of two com-
bined events: (i) the actual yield stress of the core
steel plate was appreciably larger than the expected
value; (ii) the actual inner clearance between the core
and the sleeve was equal to 0.5 mm, lower than the
design value (1 mm). BRB buckling induced also the
out of plane failure of the corresponding masonry
cladding (Fig. 16b). The correct behaviour for drifts
below 1.25% is testified by Fig. 16c, emphasising the
relative deformation between the core and the sleeve.
BRB type 4 showed yielding of the core both in
tension and compression (Fig. 18a). For larger defor-
mation demand, the sleeve started to exhibit localized
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 18. Test results for BRB type 4: damage pattern.
Figure 19. Test results for BRB type 4: force vs. drift
response.
Figure 20. Test results for BRB type 5: damage pattern.
deformations induced by the locally buckled core.
When the design deformation capacity of the device
was achieved, two different secondary failure mecha-
nisms occurred: (i) local buckling and related plastic
bending of the steel plates constituting the sleeve (Fig.
18b); (ii) global brace buckling (occurring in only one
brace, Figure 18c). At the end of the last loading cycle,
fracture of the core was recognized in the braces that
globally remained stable. Figure 19 illustrates the base
shear force vs. first story drift response.
BRBs type 5 showed an excellent response, with
core yielding both in tension (Fig. 20a) and compres-
sion (Fig. 20b) in a range of drift values of ±3% (Fig.
21). Figure 20c illustrates the high-order local buck-
ling mode of the yielding core, which is the expected
behavior. After reaching the maximum drift ratio of
±3%, the test continued applying fully reversed storey
displacements in the range of ±1.5% of the first storey
height, up to core fracture. Three and one half cycles
were necessary to bring the core to fracture. Notwith-
standing both the presence of CCBs, which affected the
overall response in terms of loss of strength and stiff-
ness because of their global buckling in compression,
and the degrading behavior of the reinforced concrete
elements, Figure 21 shows that the cyclic response of
the whole structure was satisfactory stable.

Figure 21. Test results for BRB type 5: force vs. drift
response.
3 CONCLUSIONS
Two novel “all-steel” BRBs have been tested under
cyclic loading. Tests were carried out beyond the max-
imum displacement capacity of the devices in order to
understand the behavior also in case of “exceptional”
earthquakes, i.e. earthquakes demanding exception-
ally large deformation. Two groups of conclusions can
be drawn. With reference to design conditions, it can
be concluded that (i) wrong detailing of end portions of
BRBs may lead to undesired local buckling; (ii) prop-
erly designed, fabricated and erected BRBs showed
excellent response; (iii) even when undesired fail-
ure modes occurred, RC frames equipped with BRBs
showed superior performance over bare RC frames or
frames with classic braces. With reference to “excep-
tional” earthquakes it can be concluded that two failure
modes may be activated: (a) global buckling in com-
pression; (b) local opening of the sleeve and associated
plastic deformation. The last failure mode appears to
be more ductile and is associated to smaller peak forces
transmitted to non dissipative components. Therefore,
mode (b) seems to be preferable over mode (a).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The financial support of the following subjects is
gratefully acknowledged:
1. The Italian Civil Protection: ReLUIS Project – Task
5 “Development of innovative approaches to design
steel and composite steel-concrete structures”.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
2. The Italian Ministry for Research and Educa-
tion (MIUR): PRIN 2005-2007 project “Innovative
techniques and strategies for seismic upgrading of
existing RC structures”.
3. The European Commission: PROHITECH project
“Earthquake Protection of Historical Buildings by
Reversible Mixed Technologies”.
REFERENCES
Black, C., Makris, N., Aiken, I., “Component testing, stabil-
ity analysis and characterization of buckling re-strained
braces”, PEER Report 2002/08, University of California
at Berkeley, 2002.
Chen, C.C., “Recent advances of seismic design of steel
buildings in Taiwan”, International Training Programs
for Seismic Design of Building Structures (ITP2002),
Taipei, Taiwan (www.ncree.gov.tw/itp2002), 2002.
D’Aniello, M., Della Corte, G., Mazzolani, F.M., “A special
type of buckling-restrained brace for seismic retrofitting
of RC buildings: design and testing”, Proceedings of the
XXI Italian Congress on Steel and Composite Structures,
Catania (Italy), 1–3 October, 2007.
Della Corte, G., D’Aniello, M., Mazzolani, F.M., “Seis-
mic upgrading of RC buildings using buckling restrained
braces: full-scale experimental tests”, Proceedings of the
XX Italian Congress on Steel and Composite Structures,
Ischia (Italy), 26–28 September, 2005.
Della Corte, G., Fiorino, L., Mazzolani, F.M., “Lateral load-
ing tests on a real RC building including masonry infill
panels with and without FRP strengthening”, Journal of
Materials in Civil Engineering, ASCE, 20(6), 2008.
Della Corte G., Mazzolani F.M. (2009). Advanced systems
for seismic upgrading of existing reinforced concrete
buildings. Environmental Semeiotics, 2(3), 120–134, DOI
10.3383/es.2.3.1.
Mazzolani, F.M., (ed.), Seismic upgrading of RC buildings by
advanced techniques. The ILVA-IDEM research project.
Polimetrica, Italy, 2006.
Palazzo, G., Lopez-Almansa, F., Cahis, X., Crisafulli, F., “A
low-tech dissipative buckling restrained brace. Design,
analysis, production and testing”, Engineering Structures,
31, 2152–2161, 2009.
Xie, Q., “State of the art of buckling-restrained braces in
Asia”, Journal of Constructional Steel Research, 61, 727–
748, 2005.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Direct design approach for seismic resistant steel frame buildings

under extreme loading

F. Dinu & D. Dubina

The “Politehnica” University of Timisoara, Romania
Romanian Academy, Centre for Advanced and Fundamental Technical Sciences, Timisoara, Romania

G. De Matteis
University of Chieti/Pescara, Pescara, Italy

ABSTRACT: It is difficult and uneconomical to design buildings against unknown loads produced by different
hazards. In such cases, the collapse control design may better provide the robustness of the structure by assuming
the loss of structural members due to different accidents and asses how many members may be lost until the
collapse occurs. Seismic resistant structures, designed according to capacity approach, are expected to mitigate
the probability of collapse in case of rare earthquakes by obtaining a global plastic mechanism. Moreover, when
these structures are designed for Collapse Prevention, according to a Performance Based methodology, they are
expected to be also less vulnerable to other hazards, such as blasts, impacts or fires. In the paper, the robustness
of multi-story frames is investigated and different scenarios for column loss are examined. The main aim is
to evaluate in what extent the seismic provisions for overstrength, ductility and continuity are able to provide
enough robustness to mitigate the progressive collapse.

1 INTRODUCTION monotonic loading, while in case of seismic action it

Multistory buildings subjected to extreme loadings,
like blast or impact, have the potential for progres-
sive collapse. For steel structures designed for gravity
loads, the beams catenary action represents the last line
of defense against global collapse (Liu 2010). Both
the beams and their connections to columns must be
capable to resist the large axial forces induced by the
catenary effect. This behavior is normally not consid-
ered and the design relies on the flexural mechanism
(or Vierendeel action). Unlike the structures designed
mainly for gravity loads, seismic resistant structures,
designed according to capacity approach, are expected
to be less vulnerable to other hazards, such as blast
(FEMA 277 1996) or impact. This attribute comes
from the redundancy, continuity and ductility of the
seismic resistant structural systems. However, this
should not be assumed apriori, as there are many
differences between these hazards and their effects
on structures, for instance, the rotation demands of
connections associated with the loss of key struc-
tural elements (e.g. loss of a column). Seismic codes
require generally that beam-to-column connections
should provide adequate rotational ductility. For exam-
ple, EN1998-1 (2004) requires for high dissipative
moment frames minimum plastic rotations of 0.035
radians. But the column loss event that can trigger
progressive collapse might not replicate the cyclic
behavior of ground motion events. Thus, the rota-
tion demand in case of column loss should refer to
refers to cyclic loading.
Previous studies of the authors (Dubina et al.
2008) have shown that when columns are made by
High Strength Steel HSS (fy = 460 N/mm2 ), it can be
expected to have a larger elastic rotation of the con-
nection compared to the case of Mild Carbon Steel.
Therefore, the robustness of the connections or their
capacity to withstand large deformations without fail-
ure can be much improved by using two types of steel
grades, in which HSS is used in “elastic” members and
connection components (i.e. column and end plate),
while Mild Carbon Steel (MCS) is used in dissipative
members – a so called Dual-Steel Structure (DSS).
A second issue refers to the influence of the level of
axial force on the ultimate rotation capacity of connec-
tions. Most of the experimental and numerical research
devoted to the rotation capacity of the beam-to-column
connections was done for limited or in the absence of
axial loads. For structures under seismic loading, the
level of axial force in the beams and in the beam-to-
column connections is reduced, as horizontal forces
are guided to the concrete floors. In case of column
loss, when moment resisting frame devolves from a
flexure dominant system to a tensile membrane or
catenary dominant system, the level of axial force in
beam-to-column connections can be several orders of
magnitude larger than in case of a seismic action and
therefore the connections must be designed for the
combined effects of bending and axial load. If catenary
action develops, in order to enhance the connections

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 1. Sixteen story dual frame structure and six story moment resisting frame structure: a) perimeter moment resisting
frame for DUA structure; b) internal dual frame for DUA structure; c) current moment resisting frame for MRF structure;
d) structural framing plan for MRF and DUA structures.
Figure 2. Typical sections and connections: a) columns; b) beams and braces; c) beam-to-column connections; d) brace
connections.
resistance, they can be designed for two limit states:
1) developing beam plastic moment and 2) devel-
oping beam axial tension capacity (Marchand et al.
2004).
In the paper, the robustness of two seismic resistant
steel frame systems in case of column loss is investi-
gated. The study investigates in what extent the seismic
provisions for overstrength and ductility of members
and connections are able to provide such structures
with enough robustness to survive the loss of a col-
umn. Alternate load paths strategy, which is based on
the acceptance of the failure of some components,
but with the preservation of the main structural ele-
ments, is employed. A nonlinear dynamic procedure
was employed to evaluate the demand on structural
members. Hazard scenarios include loss of perimeter
and interior columns.
2 DESIGN OF STRUCTURES
Moment Resisting Frame structures MRF and Dual
Centrically Braced Frame structures DUA are con-
sidered in the study (see Fig. 1). Structures are
designed for low and high seismic intensity (i.e.
design ground acceleration ag amounts 0.08 g and
0.32 g, respectively), and two types of response spectra
350
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
(i.e. soft soil with control period TC = 1.6 s and stiff
soil with control period TC = 0.7 s).
The two acceleration intensities are the lowest and
highest from the Romanian seismic map. The story
height and the bays of both systems are 3.5 m and 6 m,
respectively. Columns have cruciform section made
from hot rolled profiles, while beams and braces are
made of I hot rolled sections (Figs. 2a,b). As seen from
Table 1, the design of tall structures is governed by
seismic load, and the sections of the lateral load resist-
ing system elements increase as the seismic hazard
increases. For low rise buildings, the increase of the
seismic hazard led to the increase of columns, only.
Seismic design of the structures was done accord-
ing to EN1998-1 and Romanian seismic code P100/1
(2006). A 4.0 kN/m2 dead load and 3.0 kN/m2 live
load on the typical floor were considered. The behavior
factor q for MRF structures amounts 6 and for DUA
structures amounts 4.8. An inter-story drift limitation
of 0.008 of the story height was considered in design.
According to the capacity design requirements, con-
nections of dissipative members (beams and braces)
must be stronger than the members, to direct the devel-
opment of plastic hinges in members and not in their
connections. For beams of the moment frames, the over
strength requirements were fulfilled by strengthening
the end beams with haunches (Fig. 2c), and for X
 Table 1. Size and steel grade of the members.
6-story structure (MRF)
beams X beams Y braces
ag (S235) (S235) (S235)
0.08 g IPE360 IPE330 – 2HEA400
0.32 g IPE360 IPE330 – 2HEM550
16-story structure (DUA)
0.08 g IPE360 IPE330 HEA240
HEA200
HEA160
0.32 g IPE450 IPE400 HEB260
HEA260
HEA220
braces by using a steel with a higher yield strength
for the inner section (Fig. 2d). In assessing the poten-
tial benefits of using HSS, different steel grades were
used for members. Structures use MCS (grade S235)
for all members, except the columns, which are HSS
steel (grade S460).
3 PROGRESSIVE COLLAPSE ASSESSMENT
3.1 Progressive collapse approach
Progressive collapse refers to the spread of an ini-
tial local failure from element to element, eventually
resulting in a disproportionate extent of collapse rel-
ative to the area of initial damage. Localized damage
due to direct air-blast effects may or may not progress,
depending on the design and construction of the build-
ing. Previous studies (Hayes et al. 2005) showed that
seismic resistant structures may survive to such events,
mostly due to the redundancy incorporated in the
structure. The best approach for the mitigation of
progressive collapse in case of column loss is the
direct design, which includes explicit consideration of
resistance to progressive collapse. The direct design
method follows two main strategies:
– Key element strategy (specific local resistance
method), which is based on the correct design and
detailing of the vulnerable structural components
against the action;
– Alternative load paths strategy, which is based on
the acceptance of the failure of some components,
but with the preservation of the main structural
elements.
One main problem arising when the key element
strategy is employed is the difficulty of estimating
the amplitude of the abnormal load caused by an
extreme event. It is difficult and uneconomical to
design buildings against unknown loads.
The alternate load path method provides a formal
check of the capability of the structural system to resist
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
int. columns ext. columns
(S460) (S460) story name
2HEA400 0–5 MRF-L
2HEM550 0–5 MRF-H
2HEA550 2HEA450 0–4 DUA-L
2HEA500 5–9
2HEA450 10–15
2HEM600 2HEM500 0–4 DUA-H
2HEM550 5–9
2HEM500 10–15
the removal of specific members, such as columns
within the building perimeter. The method does not
require the characterization of the threat causing loss
of the member, so it is a threat independent approach.
An advantage of this approach is to promote structural
systems of ductility, continuity and energy absorbing
properties that are very effective in preventing pro-
gressive collapse. In case of column loss, the flexural
resistance of the beams ensures the transfer of the loads
through alternative paths. Moreover, moment resisting
frames can span over the location of the affected part
through a Vierendeel truss girder action. This action
has an important contribution at improving the robust-
ness of the structure. The catenary action may arise
only after the exhaustion of the flexural resistance of
the beams (Hamburger & Whittaker 2004; Jinkoo &
Dawoon 2009).
The transition from the original structural con-
figuration to the damaged state is assumed to be
instantaneous, exposing the structure to a dynamic
effect. Depending on the level of protection (LOP)
and the importance of building, the UFC 4-023-03
guidelines (DOD 2009) recommends considering the
dynamic effects due to instantaneous removal of a
column. If static nonlinear analysis is performed, the
dynamic effect of gravity load is simulated through
amplification load factor of the gravity loads above
the affected area, only (DIF). If dynamic analysis is
performed, the removal of the member should take
place in a fraction of the period of vibration associ-
ated with the expected structural response mode. This
fraction can be considered one-tenth to one-twentieth
of the corresponding period of the structure. More
details about the DIF are given in the next section.
Removal of columns in case of a blast can considerably
affect the integrity of the connections with neigh-
boring elements (e.g. top beam-to-column connection
for first story columns). The same document (DOD
2009) recommends to explicitly address and to provide
beam-to-column connections with the ability to with-
stand destructive loading conditions that accompany
a column removal without rupture. In the paper, the
351
 Figure 3. Application of vertical load on the model with lost
column in the dynamic analysis.
beam-to-column connections at the top of the removed
column were considered unaffected, due to their large
overstrength compared to the connected beams.
3.2 Analysis technique and performance criteria
In order to evaluate the structural response in case
of column loss, a nonlinear dynamic procedure was
employed. Dynamic analysis was carried out using
initial conditions of the unloaded, undamaged struc-
ture. This allows the modeling of the dynamic loss of
the column using the unstressed state or initial con-
ditions. The load combination for dynamic analysis is
D + 0.5 L + 0.2 × W, where D, L and W are dead, live
and wind loads, respectively. The term 0.2W in these
combinations is intended to ensure the lateral stabil-
ity of the structure is taken into account. This can be
replaced by the global imperfections of the structure.
In order to activate the vertical vibration, the load was
applied for one-twentieth of the corresponding period
of the structure and than kept constant (Fig. 3).
An important reason of the study is the evalua-
tion of the dynamic amplification in case of column
loss. If a static nonlinear analysis is employed, gravity
loads are incrementally applied resulting in a push-
down analysis. The load combination for analysis is
DIF × (D + 0.5 L) + 0.2 W. Previous research has
shown that, if a static nonlinear procedure is employed,
a DIF of 2.0 may be very conservative and sug-
gested that multipliers of between 1.2 and 1.5 are more
realistic when members achieve significant plastic
rotation/deformations. In fact, UFC 4-023-03 guide-
line (DOD 2009) proposes the selection of the DIF
as a function of the level of nonlinear behavior (i.e.,
structural performance level) that the designer wishes
to employ, using the following equation:
According to eq. 1, if linear behavior is selected, the
corresponding DIF amounts 2.0. When the level of
nonlinearity is very large, DIF amounts 1.2 approxi-
mately.
The inelastic response of the material can depend on
the rate of loading (strain rate). Increasing of strain rate
produces a rapid increase of yield plateau, but contrary
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 4. Column loss scenarios.
a slow increase of the ultimate strain. A reduction of
ductility was also reported in case of high strain rates
and monotonic loading. Therefore, the influence of
strain rate must be taken into account in the direct ana-
lysis of the blast or impact, for example in the specific
local resistance approach. However, for progressive
collapse analysis of the main structural system, the
behavior of the material can be considered rate inde-
pendent. This can be explained by the fact that even
if the air-blast load removes instantaneously the col-
umn, the transition from original structure to damaged
structure and the development of alternative loads path
occurs in larger time interval.
The columns, beams and braces were modeled using
nonlinear plastic hinge elements. The material was
modeled using a bilinear law with a strain-hardening
ratio of 0.03. A damping ratio of 5% of the critical
damping was assumed.
Three different column loss scenarios were
assessed. The aim is to prevent progressive collapse
by limiting the post-elastic deformations in members
to the rotation capacity of the elements and connec-
tions. The development of global plastic mechanism
may prevent the total collapse if the beams and their
connections may develop large plastic deformations
without failure. Therefore, the rotation demand in
the plastic hinges may indicate the state of damage
in the structure and the potential to global collapse. In
the study, the failure of the beams may be considered
when the plastic rotation exceeds the limit of 0.035rad.
3.3 Analytical results
To evaluate the progressive collapse resistance of the
structures, designed for gravity and seismic loadings
but without considering the progressive collapse, three
scenarios of column loss were considered. The failure
of the corner column is scenario C1, the failure of the
perimeter column is scenario C2 and the failure of
an internal column is scenario C3 (Fig. 4). All hazard
scenarios refer to first story columns. Due to the very
rapid decay of blast pressure with distance, the direct
effect of the blast leads, in general, to the failure of
one column, while the other neighboring columns may
remain unaffected. For example, in case of Murrah
Building attack, the bomb was located approximately
Table 2. Plastic rotation in beams (in rad).

Structure

Scenario MRF-L MRF-H DUA-L DUA-H

C1 0.0015 0.0017 0.0015 –

C2 0.002 0.002 0.003 –
C3 0.014 0.014 0.002 –

Figure 6. Vertical deflection for moment resisting structures

in time-history analysis: a) MRF-L; b) MRF-H.

Figure 5. Vertical deflection for dual frame structures in

time-history analysis: a) DUA-L; b) DUA-H.

4.9 m from one of the columns in the north side of

the building. The blast immediately removed this col-
umn only, but with the progressive collapse being
initiated, the failing of neighboring columns in shear
followed afterwards. What concerns the loss of inte-
rior columns, this cannot be attributed to an external
blast. Instead, this may be caused by an interior charge.
Even a potential interior charge is generally smaller,
the blast pressure can be very large especially due to
multiple reflection from interior surfaces.
Table 2 shows the plastic rotation in beams obtained
from the dynamic analysis. Figure 5 and Figure 6 show
the time history of vertical deflections. For the impor-
tance of the results, only the first second is noteworthy
and therefore the timescale ends after 1 second. Fig-
ure 7 shows the DIFs obtained for each scenario and
structure and plot them vs. the values obtained with
the eq. 1.
As seen from Table 2 and Figure 5, tall structures
designed for high seismic hazard show better behav-
ior and vertical deflections are reduced by more than
half compared to structures designed for low seis-
mic hazard. Plastic rotations in beams are lower than
the capacity expected for these members, which was
considered 0.035rad. The presence of the braced core
Figure 7. Dynamic increase factors for different loss
scenarios.
improves the robustness by increasing the redundancy
of the system. This is particularly important for the loss
of internal columns, when the loss of support increases
the span (double span condition). For low rise struc-
tures, increase of the seismic hazard in design does not
considerably influence the robustness (Fig. 6). This
influence cannot be captured by alternate load path,
because even the columns are stronger for MRF-H
compared to MRF-L, the beams size is determined
from gravity load conditions and is identical for the
two structures. In this case, the specific local resis-
tance approach can better investigate the benefit of
seismic resistance on the robustness of the structures.
Results obtained from numerical analysis are in
good correlation with the eq. 1 (Fig. 7). Most values
range between 1.25 and 1.5, excepting the cases with

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 8. Plastic hinge development in time-history analy-
sis for DUA-L and MRF-L structures.
no plasticity, where the values amounts 2.0. If fire after
blast scenario is a high probability event, it would be
necessary to limit the allowable level of plastic defor-
mations in the structure for the column loss scenario, as
the fire can lead to an increase of these deformations.
This can be done by imposing larger values of DIF in
the alternate load path verification. As part of the move
toward performance based robustness design, some
attempts were made to define performance matrices
for this multi-hazardous event (API RP 2FB 2006).
Figure 8 shows the distribution of plastic hinges
from the dynamic analysis for the DUA-L and MRF-L
structures. As the level of vertical deflection and plas-
tic rotation is low, the structures do not reach the state
in which the catenary action is achieved.
4 CONCLUSIONS
Buildings designed to resist seismic loads have a good
ability to avoid global collapse in case of column loss
and the strategies employed to resist seismic actions
generally aim to provide ductility and redundancy.
Alternate load path analysis on two types of frames,
designed for low and high seismic hazard, has shown
that rotation capacity of beam-to-column connections
is critical in assuring force redistribution after the
loss of columns. High resistance materials (i.e. high
strength steel S460) may prove suitable for critical
members (i.e. columns) that should not fail prema-
turely and therefore preventing global collapse. The
study has shown that the static non-linear analysis may
reproduce the behavior of the structure with sufficient
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
accuracy, if the dynamic amplification of the gravity
loads above the damaged area is properly accounted
for. Values of the dynamic increase factor for the cases
analyzed in the paper were in very good agreement
with the relation proposed in UFC 4-023-03 guide-
lines. The case study considered the blast as cause of
the column loss, but other types of extreme actions
may cause similar effects (fire, for instance). If fire
after blast scenario is also considered, the allowable
level of damage from the columns loss scenario need
to be adjusted, in order to take into account more
damages are expected in the aftermath of the fire. If
static nonlinear analysis is employed, this can be done
by considering larger values of DIF. By considering
the two loading events, i.e. blast and fire after blast,
it is possible to optimize the performance criteria of
the structure. A multilevel risk matrix similar to that
used in performance based seismic design can than be
developed and combined with the seismic risk matrix.
REFERENCES
API RP 2FB 2006. Recommended practice for the design
of offshore facilities against fire and blast loading. First
Edition.
DOD 2009. Design of Buildings to Resist Progressive
Collapse. Unified Facilities Criteria (UFC) 4-023-03.
Department of Defense.
Dubina, D., Stratan, A., Muntean, N. and Dinu, F. 2008.
Experimental program for the evaluation of moment
beam-to-column joints of high strength steel components.
Proc. of International Workshop on Connections in Steel
Structures, June 22–25, 2008, Chicago, USA.
EN1998-1 2004. Design provisions for earthquake resistance
of structures – 1–1: General rules – Seismic actions and
general requirements for structures, CEN.
FEMA 277 1996. The Oklahoma City Bombing: Improv-
ing performance through multi-hazard mitigation. Federal
Emergency Management Agency Mitigation Directorate.
Hamburger, R. & Whittaker, A. 2004. Design of Steel Struc-
tures for Blast – Related Progressive Collapse Resistance.
Proc. of 2003 AISC and Steel Institute of New York Steel
Building Symposium: Blast and Progressive Collapse
Resistance, American Institute of Steel Construction.
Hayes, Jr., J. R., Woodson, S. C., Pekelnicky, R. G., Poland,
C. D., Corley, W. G. and Sozen, M. 2005. Can strengthen-
ing for earthquake improve blast and progressive collapse
resistance?. Journal of Structural Engineering, ASCE,
131(8), 1157–1177.
Jinkoo, K. & Dawoon, A. 2009. Evaluation of progressive
collapse potential of steel moment frames considering
catenary action. Struct. Design Tall Spec. Build., 18,
455–465. Liu, J.L. 2010. Preventing progressive collapse
through strengthening beam-to-column connection, Part
1: Theoretical analysis. Journal of Constructional Steel
Research, 66, 229–237.
Liu, J.L. 2010. Preventing progressive collapse through
strengthening beam-to-column connection, Part 1: Theo-
retical analysis. Journal of Constructional Steel Research,
66, 229_237.
Marchand, K.A. & Alfawakhiri, F. 2004. Blast and Pro-
gressive Collapse. Facts for Steel Buildings, Number 2,
American Institute of Steel Construction, Chicago, Il.
P100/1 2006. Cod de proiectare seismicã Partea I. Prevederi
de proiectare pentru clãdiri (in Romanian).
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Application of high strength steel to seismic resistant multi-storey buildings

D. Dubina, A. Stratan, F. Dinu, D. Grecea, N. Muntean & C. Vulcu

The “Politehnica” University of Timisoara, Romania

ABSTRACT: The paper analyses the application of high strength steel (HSS steel) to seismic resistant multi-
storey buildings. It summarizes an extensive experimental program aiming to evaluate the performance of
Moment Resistant Beam-to-Column Joints in Dual-Steel Building Frames. Joint components, either bolted or
welded, are of High Strength Steel (HSS) and Mild Carbon Steel (MCS). In this paper, test results on different weld
details, used to connect HSS with MCS components and Bolted T-stub specimens are presented and analyzed.

1 INTRODUCTION connection, besides the column web, the end-plate in

Previous studies realized by authors (Dubina et al.
2006, Dubina & Dinu 2007, Dubina et al. 2007)
have shown the advantages of using High Strength
Steel (HSS) in combination with Mild Carbon Steel
(MCS) in so called Dual-Steel Structures (DSS),
to enhance robustness and control the response of
Seismic Resistant Building Frames (SRBF).
To get a rational design of a seismic resistant
structure – e.g. both safe and economic – the dissi-
pative elements have to approach the plastic capacity
under design forces, in order to reduce the demand on
non-dissipative members. The best way to accomplish
this is not to reduce the size of sections in dissipa-
tive members and increase these non-dissipative ones
(overstrength), but to realize them of MCS and HSS,
respective. Such a DSS system, properly designed
to obtain a good balance between stiffness, strength
and ductility of members and connections, enables to
achieve the three critical tasks of a seismically robust
structure i.e. (1) secure plastic deformation capacity
in structural members, targeted as dissipative; (2) pre-
pare multiple routes for transfer forces and ensure their
redistributions through yielding of other members;
(3) provide sufficient overstrength to structural mem-
bers that are not allowed to collapse.
In a DSS system, MCS members or components
have to work like fuses, dissipating the seismic energy
through plastic deformation, while HSS ones, have to
remain predominantly elastic, or with limited dam-
age, being responsible for robustness of the structure.
This principle applies both for members and joint
components.
In case of SRBF, based on Strong Column Weak
Beam (SCWB) philosophy, the columns are usu-
ally designed to remain predominantly elastic during
earthquakes, while the beams have to be ductile.
For beam-to-column joints, the main contribu-
tors for ductility are column web in shear and
beam flanges, while for extended end-plate bolted
bending becomes very important.
Starting from these ideas, a large experimental
research program was carried out at the “Politehnica”
University of Timisoara (CEMSIG Research Centre,
http://cemsig.ct.upt.ro) in order to study the perfor-
mance Dual-Steel configuration for beam-to-column
joints under monotonic and cyclic loading. This paper
summarizes this program.
2 DESCRIPTION OF TESTING PROGRAM
In EN 1998-1, the contribution of column web in shear
to the joint inelastic rotation capacity is limited to 30%
of the total, in order to prevent low cycle fatigue frac-
ture in heat affected zone (HAZ) of column or beam
flanges, in case of welded joints, while in case of bolted
ones, in HAZ of extended end-plate. However, test
results currently proved larger contribution of column
web (Dubina et al. 2005) and there are authors who rec-
ommended to extend this contribution at 50% of total
inelastic rotation (Lu et al. 2000). When HSS columns
are used, it can be expected to have a larger elastic
component of total rotation capacity of the joint. Also,
in case of HSS end-plates, one expects to have a larger
capacity to follow in elastic range the distortion of col-
umn web in shear and, consequently, a larger margin
of safety in regard with low fatigue fracture in HAZ.
Having in mind these facts, the joint specimens were
designed with strong beams in order to play mainly
with column web and end-plate components. There-
fore, HSS has been used in columns (S460 – hot rolled
sections) and in end-plates (S460 and S690), only,
while beams were designed of S235. The whole testing
program is summarized in Table 1.
The characteristics of T-stub specimens are dis-
played in Table 2, while of the joints in Table 3. The
T-stubs have been designed to fail at the border between
mode 1 and mode 2 (EN1993-1-8), in order to get

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 1. Summary of testing program.
both strength and ductility, while in case of joints, the
designed failure mode was rather mode 2, because of
using stronger bolts.
3 TEST RESULTS
Materials have been supplied by ARCELOR-MITAL,
sections, and SALZGITTER, the plates. Table 4 shows
the measured values of fy , fu and elongation A.
One observes there is a big difference in what was
ordered and what supplied. With these values, the
joint properties have been calculated and are presented
comparatively with the designed ones in Table 5.
356
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Notations: Mj,Rd – Moment resistance; Sj,ini – Ini-
tial stiffness; CWPS – Column web panel in shear;
BFWC – Beam flange and web in compression; EPB –
End plate in bending.
ForT-stub specimens, for space reasons, only results
for thickness corresponding to the end-plates of joints
are presented in Table 6 and photos for TST16S460
are shown in Figure 1.
For specimens of types B and C was not possi-
ble to have full reversible cycles due to the buckling,
but in all cases the failure mode (1=>2) predicted by
calculation for monotonic loading was confirmed for
cyclic one, and a quite good ductility can be observed,
too.
Table 2. T-stub characteristics.

Table 3. Joint characteristics.

Table 4. Material properties.

Nominal Steel fy [N/mm2 ] fu [N/mm2 ] A [%] Actual Steel

Plates
S235 266 414 38 S235
S460 430 526 32 S420
S690 697 839 15 S690
Section IPE500
S235 Flange 375 470 32 S355
Web 418 525 25
Section HEB300
S355 Flange 448 560 32 S460 M or ML
Web 465 603 29
S460 Flange 464 550 33 S460 M or ML
Web 451 600 30

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 5. Properties of joints: nominal/actual materials.

Joint properties Weakest component

Specimen Mj,Rd [kNm] Sj,ini [kNm/rad] Bolt row 1 Bolt row 2 Bolt row 3 Bolt row 4
[kN] [kN] [kN] [kN]

C355W 455.8/584.1 183184/183184 CWPS 941.7/CWPS 1206.9

C460W 545.6/584.1 183184/183184 BFWC 1127.3/CWPS 1206.9
C355EP12 447.7/532.7 92768/92768 EPB 430.5/ EPB 430.5/ CWPS 80.7/ –/CWPS 80.0
S690 EPB 432.3 EPB 432.3 EPB 262.3
C460EP12S 532.5/532.7 92768/92768 EPB 430.5/ EPB 430.5/ EPB 257.1/ BFWC 93.9 /
690 EPB 432.3 EPB 432.3 EPB 262.3 CWPS 80.0
C355EP16 456.4/541.5 106830/106830 EPB 462.6/ EPB 462.6/ CWPS 16.6/ –/CWPS 41.8 kN
S460 EPB 449.2 EPB 449.2 EPB 266.6
C460EP16 549.4/541.5 106830/106830 EPB 462.6/ EPB 462.6/ EPB 267.3/ CWPS 19.8 /
S460 EPB 449.2 EPB 449.2 EPB 266.6 CWPS 41.8 kN
C355EP20 445.2/538.3 112209/112209 EPB 421.2/ EPB 421.2/ CWPS 99.4/ –/CWPS 55.0
S235 EPB 442.8 EPB 442.8 EPB 266.3
C460EP20 525.0/538.3 112209/112209 EPB 421.2/ EPB 421.2/ EPB 229.3/ CWPS 140.6/
S235 EPB 442.8 EPB 442.8 EPB 266.3 CWPS 55.0

Beam plastic resistance Mpl,b = 515.6/822.8 kNm

S355 column plastic resistance Mpl.c = 663.5/852.3 kNm
S460 column plastic resistance Mpl.c = 859.7/852.3 kNm

Table 6. Behaviour of tested joints.

Table 6 shows synthetically the behavior of tested
joints. Associated to that table there are Tables 7 and 8
with Moment (M) – Rotation (θ) values for monotonic
and cyclic loading respectively.
In Table 9, a brief description of failure modes
of joints is presented and in Figure 2, a selection
of photos during testing of specimens. C355WC-C1,
C460EP16-M1 and CP460EP16-C1 are shown.
4 NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
During the experimental research, it was used for the
end plate of T-stub macro-component, different steel
grades as S355, S460 and S690. It is well known that
the failure mode of a T-stub macro-component could
be type 1, 2 or 3, which means ductile, semi-ductile
and fragile (Table 11).
The numerical analysis started with two types of
real rigid full-resistant joints from two multi-storey
buildings of 21 and 16 stories, respectively, designed
in two seismic loading circumstances, in Bucharest
and Brasov (see Fig. 3 and Table 12). The joint is not
containing the beam component.
Using different steel grades (S355, S460, S690)
and thickness for the end-plate we obtained the fail-
ure modes of interest for our study, mode 2→1 and
2→3. The numerical analysis was performed with
ABAQUS computer program. These T-stubs config-
urations and classification are presented in Table 13.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 6. (Continued.)

Figure 1. Results of T-stub specimen TST16S460.

Table 7. Monotonic test values.

web
Specimen θy θu θpannel My Mmax

C355WC-M1 0.011 0.097 0.097(100%) 519 787.8

C460WC-M1 0.011 0.098 0.098(100%) 521 830.1
C355EP12-M1 0.013 0.061 0.037(61%) 598.7 729.2
C460EP12-M1 0.016 0.064 0.046(72%) 524.9 650.3
C355EP16-M1 0.015 0.068 0.061(90%) 556.9 716.2
C460EP16-M1 0.011 0.075 0.075(100%) 516.3 736.1
C355EP20-M1 0.012 0.052 0.042(81%) 527 652.3
C460EP20-M1 – – – – –

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Table 8. Cyclic test values.

Specimen θy± θu+ θu− web

θpannel My± +
Mmax −
Mmax

C355WC-C1 0.009(10) 0.060 0.059 0.059(100%) 543.1 748.8 756.2

C460WC-C1 0.010 0.076 0.059 0.076(100%) 658.4 959.3 916.3
C355EP12-C1 0.013(14) 0.039 0.039 0.030(77%) 567.3 670.8 661.2
C460EP12-C1 0.015(16) 0.038 0.038 0.027(71%) 664.9 733.8 741.8
C355EP16-C1 0.012(14) 0.051 0.049 0.036(70%) 564.3 706.8 679.6
C460EP16-C1 0.014(15) 0.039 0.045 0.026(58%) 620 737.6 761.8
C355EP20-C1 0.012(13) 0.018 0.035 0.035(100%) 617.6 635.2 685.2
C460EP20-C1* 0.015(17) 0.031 0.032 0.022(69%) 600 659.6 651.7
C460EP20-C2 0.014(14) 0.050 0.048 0.033(66%) 616 731.3 683.9
∗
Tested with displacement stroke, after attainment of elastic limit, dy , ±2dy , ±4dy , …, according to ECCS Recommendation.
All other specimens have been tested with cycles of dy , ±2dy , ±3dy , ±4dy …

Table 9. Brief description of failure modes of joint specimens.

C355WC-M1 Buckling of compressed stiffener between column and beam flanges; shearing of panel zone;
buckling of beam flange; weld cracks initiated at stiffener in tension (max displacement 200 mm)
C355WC-C1 2ey – shearing of panel zone; 4(6) ey – weld cracks initiated at stiffener in tension
C460WC-M1 Buckling of compressed stiffener between column and beam flanges; shearing of panel zone;
buckling of beam flange; weld cracks initiated at stiffener in tension (max force 3490 kN)
C460WC-C1 2ey – shearing of panel zone; 4(6) ey – weld cracks initiated at stiffener in tension
C355EP12-M1 End plate visible deformations in tension zone; shearing of panel zone; T-stub in mode 2 and bolt failure
C355EP12-C1 3ey – end plate visible deformations on both directions; 4ey – small weld cracks at stiffeners;
shearing of panel zone; T-stub in mode 2 and bolt failure
C460EP12-M1 End plate visible deformations in tension zone; shearing of panel zone; T-stub in mode 2 and bolt failure
C460EP12-C1 3ey – end plate visible deformations on both directions; 4ey – small weld cracks at stiffeners;
shearing of panel zone; T-stub in mode 2 and bolt failure
C355EP16-M1 Small end plate visible deformations in tension zone; shearing of panel zone; bolt failure in mode 3
C355EP16-C1 3ey – end plate visible deformations on both directions; 4ey – small weld cracks at stiffeners;
shearing of panel zone; T-stub in mode 2 and bolt failure
C460EP16-M1 End plate visible deformations in tension zone; shearing of panel zone; T-stub in mode 2 and bolt failure
C460EP16-C1 Important end plate visible deformation in tension zone; shearing of panel zone; T-stub in mode 2
and bolt failure
C355EP20-M1 Small end plate visible deformation in tension zone; shearing of panel zone; bolt failure in mode 3
C355EP20-C1 Small end plate visible deformation in tension zone; shearing of panel zone; bolt failure in mode 3
C460EP20-C1 3(4)ey – small end plate visible deformation in tension zone; shearing of panel zone;
bolt failure in mode 3
C460EP20-C2 3(4) ey – small end plate visible deformation in tension zone; shearing of panel zone; 4ey –
bolt failure in mode 3; 5ey – weld cracks initiated at stiffeners

Figure 4 shows two examples of T-stubs behavior and
failure modes obtained by numerical simulations for
specimens derived from Bucharest joint, while Fig-
ure 5 describes the behavior curves for the T-subs
corresponding to all the cases in Table 13.
In failure mode (2), at the end, almost always, the
bolt failure (3) might occur. In case of T-stubs designed
for failure mode (2→1) (Fig. 4a), which are more duc-
tile, first occurs the plasticization near the end-plate –
beam flange junction, and starts the plasticization near
the 1st and 2nd bolt rows, prior bolt fractures; in case
of specimens of (2→3) failure mode (Fig. 4b), the
second plasticization, usually does not occur, and bolt
failure (3) arrives earlier.
In order to check the behavior of T-stubs in the MR
joints, the response of two specimens of Table 10 has
been simulated with ABAQUS, for monotonic loading
only. The results, with a zoom of T-stub deformation
mode are displayed in Figure 6.
Going back from the T-stub to the joints, we ana-
lyzed numerically also with ABAQUS, two types of
joints from the same family, e.g. Bucharest, but with T-
stub configuration from the 2 borders of failure mode
(2→1) and (2→3). In Figure 6 there is evident that
both are confirming the way that they were designed.
T-stub macro-component of the joint, which is
falling down in mode 2 has sufficient rotation capacity
and ductility (e.g. 40 mrad) to develop a plastic mech-
anism in joint if necessary, but only in mode (2→1)
and not in mode (2→3), where the rotation capacity is
quite poor like 15–20 mrad; on the hand, mode (2→3)
is obviously stronger than mode (2→3).

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Table 10. Sample of results for T-stub specimens.
Figure 2. Joint tested specimens.
5 CONCLUDING REMARKS
It is clear due to the significant difference
between design and actual values of materials, that
tested specimens are practically other than initially
planed.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
However, the intention to test and evaluate perfor-
mance of joint specimens of S460 columns has been
realized.
Excepting one case, all cyclic specimens demon-
strated their rotation capacity, at least equal to the limit
of qu,min = 0.035 specified in EN 1998-1.
 The contribution of web panel larger than 30% does
not affect the robustness of joints.
Thick end-plates, even of MCS reduce the ductility
of joints without increasing the moment capacity.
Seismic provisions, EN 1998-1 impose both
minimum over-strength (1.373 Mj,Rd ) and ductil-
ity (35 mrad) for beam-to-column joints. Since the
column web panel contribution is limited by design,
in case of bolted extended and stiffened end-plate
beam-to-column joints, the main source of ductil-
ity is the end-plate, providing that its plastic failure
mechanism is governed by mode 2.
Present paper demonstrates the end-plate can be
sized by design (thickness & steel grade) to supply
the ductility requested by code provisions.

Figure 3. Brasov joint configuration.

Table 11. Classification of joints according to T-stub failure

mode.

Failure mode Ductility Classification

Mode 1 Ductile Partial-strength/Semi-rigid

Mode 2 Semi-ductile Full strength/Rigid
Mode 3 Fragile Full strength/Rigid

Table 12. Real joints configuration.

Joint Column Beam Haunch Bolts

Bucharest HEB 800 IPE 500 200×400 12 M24 gr 10.9

Brasov HEB 500 IPE 400 170×300 12 M20 gr 10.9 Figure 4. T-stub behavior and failure mode according to
numerical analysis.

Table 13. Joint properties and classification.

T-stub
Mj,Rd Mj,Rd / Sj,ini,Rd EC3-1.8 failure mode
Joint [kNm] Mb,Rd [kNm] Classification (predicted)

BUC_EP15_S355 1027 1.320 804972 Rigid/full-strength 2 →1

BUC_EP22_S355 1125 1.446 879040 Rigid/full-strength 2 →3
BUC_EP14_S460 1056 1.357 766240 Rigid/full-strength 2 →1
BUC_EP20_S460 1133 1.456 858772 Rigid/full-strength 2 →3
BUC_EP11_S690 1038 1.334 603458 Rigid/full-strength 2 →1
BUC_EP20_S460 1132 1.455 782508 Rigid/full-strength 2 →3
BV_EP13_S355 553 1.192 448862 Rigid/full-strength 2 →1
BV_EP20_S355 631 1.360 555632 Rigid/full-strength 2 →3
BV_EP12_S460 567 1.222 412836 Rigid/full-strength 2 →1
BV_EP16_S460 617 1.330 507110 Rigid/full-strength 2 →3
BV_EP10_S690 571 1.230 323794 Rigid/full-strength 2 →1
BV_EP12_S690 604 1.302 398500 Rigid/full-strength 2 →3

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 REFERENCES
ABAQUS Inc. ABAQUS analysis user manual, version 6.6,
2006.
Dubina, D. et al. 2006. Opportunity and Effectiveness of
using High Strength Steel in Seismic Resistant Building
Frames. Steel, a new and traditional material for building,
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Leiden, Netherlands.
Dubina, D. et al. 2005. Components and Macro-Components
of Rotation Capacity of Moment Connections. 20th CTA
Congress Advances in Steel Constructions, ACS ACAI,
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Dubina, D. & Dinu, F. 2007. High strength steel for seismic
resistant building frames. 6th Int. Conf. Steel and Alu-
minium Structures – ICSAS’07, Ed. R. G. Beale, Oxford
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Dubina, D. et al. 2007. High Strength Steel EB Frames with
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Dubina, D. et al. 2008. Dual-steel T-stub behaviour under
monotonic and cyclic loading. ECCS/AISC Workshop:
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Dubina, D. et al. 2008. Experimental program for evalua-
tion of Moment Beam-to-Column Joints of High Strength
Steel Components. ECCS/AISC Workshop: Connections
in Steel Structures VI, Chicago, Illinois, USA, June.
Dubina, D. et al. 2008. Testing program to evaluate behaviour
of dual steel connections under monotonic and cyclic
Figure 5. T-stub behavior according to numerical analysis. loading. Proc. of 5th European Conference on Steel and
Composite Structures – Eurosteel 2008, 3–5 September,
Graz, Austria, 609–614.
EN 1993-1.8 2003. Eurocode 3. Design of steel structures.
Part 1-8: Design of joints, European standard.
EN 1998-1 2004. Eurocode 8. Design of structures for earth-
quake resistance. General rules, seismic actions and rules
for buildings, European standard.
Girao Coelho, A.M. & Bijlaard, F.S.K. 2007. Ductility of
high performance steel moment connections. Advanced
Steel Construction, Vol.3, No.4.
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the behaviour of bolted T-stub connections made up of
welded plates. Journal of Constructional Steel Research
60, 269–311.
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Figure 6. Joint behavior.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Inelastic torsional response of an asymmetric-plan hospital building in Italy

M. Ferraioli
Department of Civil Engineering, Second University of Naples, Aversa (Caserta), Italy

ABSTRACT: The inelastic torsional response of an asymmetric-plan hospital building in Italy is studied. At this
aim, a nonlinear analytical model is developed and verified using system identification based on environmental
vibration tests. A non linear static procedure for the assessment of inelastic response of irregular buildings is
proposed.This procedure accounts for mass distribution, higher modes contribution and mode-shapes correlation.
Finally, the seismic assessment of inelastic torsional response is evaluated and the influence of eccentricity
between mass centre and stiffness centre is investigated.

1 INTRODUCTION composed of different RC wall-frame structures

designed and constructed in 70’s and separated by
Torsion in buildings during earthquake ground dilatation joints (Figures 1,2). The study is carried out
motions is generated not only by non-symmetric dis- on an irregular T” plan shape building (Structure A)
tributions of mass and stiffness, but also due to other designed for earthquake action according to old Italian
causes difficult to predict and quantify that may occur Code. The hospital building was subjected to labo-
generating additional eccentricities, such as excita- ratory and on-site investigations. In particular, both
tion differences at the support points, stiffness and destructive and non-destructive testing methods were
strength of non-structural elements, non-symmetric applied: 53 monotonic compressive tests on cylindri-
distributions of live loads. The torsional response may cal specimens, 24 tensile test on steel rebars, ultrasonic
be intensified in the inelastic range due to increased
eccentricities caused by yielding in the perimeter of
the structure and by torsional coupling effects espe-
cially under bidirectional seismic excitation. On the
other side, torsional effects generally decrease with
increasing intensity of ground motion and with related
increase of plastic deformations. However, the linear
analysis may be not conservative, especially for the
stiff edge in the strong direction of torsionally stiff
buildings and for the stiff edge in the weak direction
of torsionally flexible buildings.
The application of nonlinear static procedures to
multi-storey irregular buildings requires various prob-
lems to be solved: 1) direction of seismic excitation; Figure 1. Aerial view of the Hospital of Avezzano (Italy).
2) eccentricity of lateral force distribution; 3) higher
modes contribution; 4) node control for monitoring the
target displacement. The conventional pushover anal-
ysis with lateral force applied in the centre of mass of
the building may underestimate the seismic torsional
response obtained from step-by-step time history anal-
ysis. Furthermore, the use of the centre of mass as node
control may influence the accuracy of nonlinear static
procedures based on the capacity spectrum method.

2 CASE STUDY

2.1 Geometry, materials and soil survey

The case study is the hospital building of Avezzano
near L’Aquila (Abruzzo, Italy). The building is Figure 2. Plan view of the Hospital of Avezzano (Italy).

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 tests, 40 carbonation depth measurement test, 163
rebound tests, 180 radiographic tests. The compres-
sive strength was finally estimated by the combined
Sonreb method. The mean value of the compres-
sive strength of concrete on cylindrical specimens is
fcm = 234 daN/cm2 .
Finally, geological and geotechnical tests were car-
ried out to evaluate the soil profile and to determine
the ground type “C” according to Eurocode 8 (2003)
and new Italian Code (NTC 2008).
2.2 Structural identification by environment
vibration measurement
In-situ experimental tests were performed applying
the Ambient Vibration Testing Method. In particular,
the environmental vibration measurements under wind
and traffic vibration were carried on the structure A
(Figure 2) in July 2008, before the 2009 L’Aquila earth-
quake. The identification was performed using tech-
niques of modal extraction in the frequency domain
(Frequency Domain decomposition). The results were
used for the calibration of refined finite element model
(Ferraioli et al. 2010).
3 INELASTIC RESPONSE OF TORSIONALLY
IRREGULAR BUILDINGS
3.1 Inelastic torsion of multistory buildings
In order to deal with torsional effects modern codes
have introduced the so-called accidental design eccen-
tricity to be used to displace the mass in every floor
also in the case of fully symmetric buildings. This pro-
vision is based on the studies about torsional response
of buildings that are carried primarily using simplified
elastic multi-storey buildings or simplified inelastic,
one-story, systems of the shear beam type. In general,
simplified models have been developed especially for
the elastic response while general conclusions regard-
ing the inelastic torsional response of real multi-storey
building are still lacking. Most of the published work
on inelastic earthquake response of non-symmetric
buildings is based on simplified, highly idealized,
one-storey models. Many studies focused on the iden-
tification of the most significant parameters governing
the nonlinear behaviour of asymmetric-plan build-
ings: the eccentricity between the centre of stiffness
and the centre of strength (Chopra et al. 2004), the
in plan asymmetry distribution, the bi-directionality
of the seismic excitation, the un-coupled translational
and rotational frequencies ratio (Fajfar et al. 2005),
the ground motion properties in frequency, intensity
and duration. Non-linear dynamic analyses of asym-
metric building structures have also been performed
in connection to the development of the 3D pushover
analyses (Kilar et al. 2001). Stathopoulos et al. (2005)
studied the problem of inelastic torsion by means of
multi-storey inelastic building models.
In recent years, Lucchini et al. (2008) pre-
sented results from nonlinear dynamic analysis on
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
single-storey frame buildings characterized by dif-
ferent strengths distributions and excited by ground
motions of increasing intensities. Bosco et al.(2008)
proposed a procedure based on two nonlinear static
analyses with two different corrective eccentricities
determined analyzing statistically the response of a
wide set of idealized one-storey systems. De Stefano
et al. (2008) found that the envelope of lateral displace-
ments at the top floor obtained with elastic dynamic
analysis is generally conservative for frame struc-
tures, whereas it becomes unsuitable for shear-wall
structures.
3.2 Pushover for torsionally irregular buildings
The validity and applicability of the static pushover
analysis have been extensively studied in literature,
and implemented in procedures based on Capacity
Spectrum Method (CSM) or Displacement Coefficient
Method (DCM), such as in FEMA 273, FEMA 356
(2000), ATC-40 (1996), Eurocode 8 (2003), Italian
Code (2008), FEMA-440 (ATC-55, 2003), ASCE/SEI
41-06 standard (ASCE, 2007). The application of
pushover analysis to real multi-storey buildings may
create some problems connected to their irregular-
ity in plan and/or in elevation. In fact, although
the formulation for inelastic response of asymmetric
building under earthquake motions was extensively
studied in 70ties, only starting in 1997 various pro-
cedures have been proposed to extend the pushover
analysis to asymmetric-plan buildings. In fact, the
pushover nonlinear analysis of plan-asymmetric build-
ings proved to be a very difficult problem. Some
authors observed that the torsional effects generally
decrease with increasing intensity of ground motion
and with related increase of plastic deformations.
Consequently, a conservative estimate of torsional
effects may be determined by the results of elastic
modal analysis and the global displacement demand
may be determined by unidirectional pushover anal-
ysis of a 3D structural model. However, the torsional
response in the elastic and inelastic range is not similar
for the stiff edge in the strong direction of torsionally
stiff buildings and for the stiff edge in the weak direc-
tion of torsionally flexible buildings. Some authors
have observed that while the first mode contribution
requires a nonlinear analysis to be determined, the
response of higher modes may be estimated by linear
analysis. Consequently, they proposed to calculate the
torsional response by the combination of the inelastic
first mode contribution with the elastic higher mode
contributions. In particular, in the Modified Modal
Procedure Analysis (MMPA, Chopra et al., 2004) the
first mode contribution is determined by nonlinear
static analysis using two lateral forces and torque at
each floor level for each mode.The higher mode effects
on seismic demand are calculated from linear elastic
analysis and then combined using the CQC rule in
order to obtain an estimate of the total inelastic demand
of the building. The extension of N2 method (Fajfar
2005) is based on conventional pushover analysis of
Figure 3. Calibrated mode shapes. Natural frequencies obtained from the refined model and from the measurement “on site”.
a 3-D model of the building using a modal horizon-
tal load pattern with a target displacement computed
from inelastic demand spectra. Torsional effects are
considered by amplifying pushover analysis results by
an amplification factor, determined from elastic modal
analysis of the 3-D building as the ratio of horizontal
nodal displacement to the corresponding displacement
at the mass centre of the level considered.
A new procedure, called Force/Torque Pushover
(FTP) analysis, to select storey force distributions for
3D pushover analysis of plan-irregular RC frame struc-
tures was proposed by Ferracuti et al. (2009). The force
distribution is proportional to the fundamental mode
shape. The floor force resultant is divided into lateral
forces in X- and Y-directions and a torque with respect
to the centre of mass. A weight coefficient for the
two components (Force/torque) has to be calibrated
to capture the more severe configurations depending
on the degree of irregularity of the structure. These
pushover methods tend to have some problems to
give consistently good agreement with the Response
History Analysis (RHA) results for both the stiff and
the flexible sides. In general, the agreement is better at
the centre of mass while deteriorates at the two edges
where the torsional motion amplifies or de-amplifies
the translational response. Moreover, the differences
tend to increase as the motion intensity increases and
the response becomes more non-linear.
3.3 Proposed procedure: 3D CQC load pattern
In this paper, the torsional effects are evaluated by a
tridimensional CQC distribution of the lateral loads.
In particular, the load Fk (x,y) to be applied at the kth
floor in the node of coordinates (x,y) is proportional to
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
the mass mk (x,y) associated to the node and to the dis-
placement Uk (x,y) defined by the CQC combination
of the modal lateral displacements calculated from the
response spectrum analysis of the building, including
sufficient modes to capture at least 90% of the total
mass, as follows (3D CQC Distribution):
where φik (x,y) is the shape of the ith mode at the kth
floor as a function of the node coordinates (x,y); Gj
is the corresponding participation factor; Sa (Ti ) is the
spectral acceleration, ρij is the correlation coefficient
between ith and jth mode shapes.
4 INELASTIC TORSIONAL RESPONSE
The inelastic torsional response of the wall-frame
hospital building was evaluated with a model imple-
mented in SAP 2000 computer program (2010). In
particular, a Coupled PMM hinge model for the mem-
bers of the framed structures and a beam-column
element model for the RC walls were considered
in the analysis. The coupled PMM model has some
computationally advantages over distributed plastic-
ity models, but it may suffers some limitations to
capture the member behaviour under the combined
actions of compression, bi-axial bending and buckling
effects, which may significantly reduce the load-
carrying capacity of the structure. The length of plastic
hinge was calculated with the Italian Code formula
(2008).The beam-column joint is represented as a rigid
zone having horizontal dimensions equal to the column
cross-sectional dimensions and vertical dimension Italian Seismic Code (2008) are reported. The seis-
equal to the beam depth. A fiber element uniaxial mic vulnerability assessment was carried out with the
model for confined concrete is used. In particular, the four performance levels considered in this code for
concrete stress-strain model is an enhanced version existing structures: Operational Limit State (SLO),
of the well-known model of Mander, et al. (1988). Damage Limit State (SLD), Life Safety Limit State
Steel was modeled with an elastic-plastic-hardening (SLV), Collapse Prevention Limit State (SLC). The
relationship. parameters of the elastic demand response spectra are
Various analytical models have been proposed in synthesized in Table 1. In Table 2 are reported the
literature for predicting the inelastic response of RC risk indices defined by the capacity/demand quotients
structural walls. A common modeling approach for in terms of peak ground acceleration. In particular,
wall hysteretic behavior uses a beam-column element both ductile and brittle (shear failure of structural ele-
at the wall centroidal axis with rigid links on beam ments, failure of beam-column joints) failure modes
girders (Orakcal et al., 2006). In this study, a one- are considered in the analysis. The results obtained
component beam-column element model is adopted. show that both the ELFD and the UD distributions
This model consists of an elastic flexural element with may overestimate the risk index when compared to
a nonlinear rotational spring at each end to account CQC distribution, and so they are conservative for
for the inelastic behavior of critical regions (Figure 4). the vulnerability assessment. In Figure 6 the varia-
The fixed-end rotation at any connection interface can tion of capacity curve with node control is shown.
be taken into account by a further nonlinear rotational The results obtained give evidence of the sensitivity
spring. The non linear static analyses were carried out of the capacity curve to the node control, especially
considering the following parameters: 1) accidental
eccentricity of lateral force distribution; 2) node con- Table 1. Elastic response spectra, in terms of horizontal
trol for monitoring the target displacement; 3) lateral acceleration for the Limit State SLO, SLD, SLV, SLC (NTC
force distribution. In particular, an accidental eccen- 2008).
tricity of the storey mass equal to ±5 percent of planar
dimension orthogonal to the direction of earthquake Parameter SLO SLD SLV SLC
ground motion is considered.
Probability of excedence 0.81 0.63 0.10 0.05
Three different locations for the node control are PVR
used for monitoring top-floor target displacement: A) Return Period TR (years) 120 201 1898 2475
stiff edge; B) center of mass; C) flexible edge. Finally, Peak ground acceleration 0.144 0.178 0.397 0.433
the 3D CQC distribution here proposed is compared ag /g
to Equivalent Lateral Force Distribution (ELFD) and Amplification factor Fo 2.297 2.315 2.425 2.434
Uniform Distribution (UD). Transition Period TC (sec) 0.471 0.485 0.537 0542
In Figure 5 the capacity curves (Base shear vs top
floor displacement) and the points corresponding to
the attainment of the different limit states of the new
Table 2. Risk indices.

Ductile Failure Modes

Force Node Brittle
Distr. Control αSLO αSLD αSLV αSLC Failure

ELFD A 1.16 1.20 1.00 1.22 0.10

ELFD B 1.13 1.14 0.91 1.13 0.10
ELFD C 0.92 1.00 0.81 1.08 0.10
UD A 1.41 1.48 1.31 1.36 0.09
UD B 1.16 1.24 1.11 1.25 0.09
UD C 1.06 1.17 1.03 1.20 0.09
CQC A 0.86 0.85 0.72 0.80 0.10
CQC B 0.95 1.00 1.00 1.17 0.10
CQC C 0.90 1.00 1.00 1.15 0.10
Figure 4. Model for RC walls (Orakcal et al. 2006).

Figure 5. Variation of capacity curve with lateral force distribution.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 6. Variation of capacity curve with node control.

Figure 7. Variation of capacity curve with accidental eccentricity.

Figure 8. Pattern of lateral displacement: 1) ELFD Distribution; 2) UD distribution; 3) 3D CQC distribution.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 for e/L = 0.05 when the accidental eccentricity has the
same sign of the structural eccentricity (defined as the
offset of the centre of stiffness CS from the centre
of mass, CM). In Figure 7 the variation of capacity
curve with the accidental eccentricity (e/L = −0.05;
e/L = +0.05; e/L = 0) is reported. The agreement is
better at the centre of mass while deteriorates at the
two edges where the torsional motion amplifies or
de-amplifies the translational response.
However, it seems evident that the capacity curve
is not much sensitive to the accidental eccentricity.
On the contrary, the pattern of lateral displacement is
influenced both by the accidental eccentricity and by
the lateral force distribution (Figure 8). In particular,
for e/L = 0.05 the addition of accidental eccentricity to
structural eccentricity strongly increases the torsional
rotation. In this case, both the ELFD and the UD dis-
tributions understimate this effect when compared to
CQC distribution, and so they may be inaccurate for
the estimation of torsional inelastic response.
5 CONCLUSIONS
A study on the inelastic torsional response of an
asymmetric-plan hospital building in Italy was carried
out.At this aim, a non linear static procedure for irregu-
lar buildings was proposed. The results obtained show
that both the equivalent lateral force distribution and
the uniform distribution may overestimate the capac-
ity of the structure when compared to the proposed
procedure. In particular, they may be inaccurate for
the estimation of torsional rotation and lateral dis-
placement on the flexible edge. The effectiveness of
the procedure may be improved combining the effects
obtained under the multimodal distribution that give
the maximum displacement, with the results of an
other pushover analysis under the multimodal distri-
bution that give the maximum rotation. In fact, these
effects do not occur at the same time step, and so the
most severe conditions for all the structural elements
may be obtained only with two pushover analyses.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author wishes to thanks Mr. S. Della Volpe,
Mr. N. Nappa, and the professional team belong-
ing to Studio KR & Associati, Lenzi Consultant and
Aires Ingegneria. Many thanks also to ASL (Hospitals
complex) No.1 of Avezzano-Sulmona represented by
Mr. F. Dalla Montà (P.E.) for the support during
the structural monitoring activities.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
REFERENCES
Bosco, M., Ghersi, A. & Marino, E.M. 2008. Eccentricities
for the evaluation of the seismic response of asymmet-
ric buildings by nonlinear static analysis. Fifth European
Workshop on the Seismic Behaviour of Irregular and
Complex Structures. Catania. Italy.
Chopra, A.K., Goel, R.K. & Chintanapakdee, C. 2004. Eval-
uation of a Modified MPA Procedure Assuming Higher
Modes as Elastic to Estimate Seismic Demands. Earth-
quake Spectra. 20 3: 757–778.
De Stefano, M. & Pintucchi, B. 2008. Parametric bounds for
application of pushover analysis to plan irregular build-
ings. Fifth European Workshop on the Seismic Behaviour
of Irregular and Complex Structures. Catania. Italy.
Fajfar, P., Marušić, D. & Peruš, I. 2005. The extension of
the N2 method to asymmetric buildings, Proceedings of
the 4th European Workshop on the Seismic Behaviour of
Irregular and Complex Structures. Thessaloniki. Greece.
FEMA 440. 2006. Improvement of nonlinear static seis-
mic analysis procedures. prepared by the Applied Tech-
nology Council (ATC-55 Project). Federal Emergency
Management Agency. Washington. D.C.
Ferracuti, B., Savoia, M. & Pinho, R. 2009. 3D Pushover
Analysis for Evaluating Torsional Effect of RC Structures.
L’Ingegneria sismica in Italia. Imready (SMR), Anidis
2009.
Ferraioli, M., Abruzzese, D. & Miccoli, L. & Vari, A. 2010,
Structural identification from environmental vibration
testing of an asymmetric-plan hospital building in Italy.
International Conference COST Action C26. Napoli.
Ghersi, A., Marino, E. & Rossi, PP. Inelastic response of
multi-story asymmetric buildings. 12th World Conference
on Earthquake Engineering 2000: id.1716.
Italian Code. 2008. D.M. 14.01.08, G.U. No.9 – 04.02.08.
Kilar, V. & Fajfar, P. 2001. On the applicability of pushover
analysis to the seismic performance evaluation of asym-
metric buildings. European Earthquake Engineering,
15:20–31.
Lucchini, A., Monti, G. & Kunnath, S. 2008. Investigation on
the inelastic torsional response of asymmetric-plan build-
ings. Fifth European Workshop on the Seismic Behaviour
of Irregular and Complex Structures. Catania. Italy.
Orakcal, K., Massone, L. M. & Wallace, J.W. 2006. Ana-
lytical modeling of reinforced concrete walls for pre-
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1449–1465.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

L’Aquila earthquake: A survey in the historical centre of Castelvecchio

Subequo

A. Formisano, P. Di Feo & M.R. Grippa

Department of Structural Engineering, University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

G. Florio
Department of Constructions and Mathematical Methods in Architecture, University of Naples “Federico II”,
Naples, Italy

ABSTRACT: In the current paper the usability assessment of residential buildings of the historical centre of
Castelvecchio Subequo after l’Aquila earthquake is performed. This activity, carried out by filling ad hoc survey
forms, has allowed to point out the main collapse mechanisms of masonry buildings, giving a clear picture of
the damage level affecting the investigated built-up.

1 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

On April 6, 2009 at 3:32 a.m. an earthquake (ML = 5.8

and MW = 6.3) stroke the city of L’Aquila, a city
of about 73.000 people which is the capital of the
Abruzzo region, and the surrounding villages. The
earthquake was generated by a normal fault, located
in a valley contained between two parallel mountain
located along the direction North – South (Fig. 1)
(Fanale et al., 2009), with a maximum vertical dis-
location of 25 cm and hypocentre depth of about
8.8 Km.
It was the third main earthquake recorded in Italy
since 1972, after the Friuli event (1976; Mw = 6.4) Figure 1. The fault geometry interesting the land of
l’Aquila.
and the Irpinia one (1980; Mw = 6.9). Also, this event
was the strongest among a sequence of 23 earth-
quakes having Mw > 4 and occurred between 2009
March, 30th and 2009 April, 23rd (Fig. 2), it pro-
viding strong motion recordings from accelerometer
stations placed very close to the epicentre, that is
4–5 Km (Fig. 3). Within the epicentre area, the max-
imum recorded horizontal and vertical acceleration
components were larger than PGAs of the elastic spec-
tra given by the Italian code (M. D., 2008) (Table 1).
The earthquake occurred when most people were
sleeping. So, a large number of people were killed
(305) or injured (1.500). The fatalities were concen-
trated in two age groups, namely 20–29 years and
over-70 years, but this does not reflect the demographic
age of L’Aquila province. In fact, the peak in the 20–29 Figure 2. Sequence of seismic events occurred in the
years group was due to the collapse of a student hall in l’Aquila district (Italian National Institute of Geophysics and
the downtown of L’Aquila. Moreover, the earthquake Vulcanology – INGV).
produced the temporary evacuation of 70.000–80.000
residents and 24.000 of them remained without home in the official earthquake damage declaration was
(AA.VV., 2009). 60.352.Generally, towns were composed of people
A total of 81 municipalities were affected by the in the range [1.000÷3.000], with only two larger
earthquake. The whole population of the towns listed muni cipalities having 5.000 and 8.500 inhabitants.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 4. Views of Castelvecchio Subequo.

Figure 3. Elastic acceleration spectrum 4.3 km far from the

epicentre.

Table 1. Earthquake effects at different epicentre distances.

Dir. x Dir. y Dir. z

Record Epicentre
identifier PGA (g) distance (Km)

GX066 0.626 0.597 0.420 4.8

FA030 0.416 0.434 0.215 4.3
CU104 0.394 0.451 0.380 5.8
AM043 0.342 0.340 0.350 5.6 Figure 5. Masonry wall types: a) irregular matrix of
EF021 0.153 0.149 0.112 18.0 rounded stones with horizontal bricks layers; b) sack con-
TK003 0.081 0.089 0.045 31.6 struction.

2 THE HISTORICAL CENTRE OF

49 towns were characterised by a damage level from
VI to X according to the Mercalli-Cancani-Sieberg
(MCS) classification. In particular, the historic centres
of villages in the Aterno River valley southwest of
L’Aquila, namely Onna, Paganica and Castelnuovo,
were essentially destroyed, with shaking intensities up
to the X level of the MCS Scale. On the contrary,
damage did not exceed the MCS Scale VI grade
nearly anywhere to the northwest of L’Aquila. This
concentration of the damage pattern towards south
probably reflects a combination of rupture directivity
and seismic local amplification effects.
After the earthquake about 10.000–15.000 build-
ings were destroyed or damaged. Above all, many
of the region cultural sites, including Romanesque
churches, palaces and other monuments dating from
the Middle Ages and Renaissance, were harmed in
a severe way or demolished. The total damage was
estimated larger than 25 billion €.
Starting from the days immediately after the seis-
mic event, the Civil Defense Department members, in
cooperation with a large number of Italian University
Institutions researchers, visited those places in order to
evaluate the usability of the whole built-up of l’Aquila
and its districts.
Within this framework, the team n. 807, composed
by the Authors of the current paper, had the purpose
to investigate the damage level occurring in the his-
torical centre of the town of Castelvecchio Subequo.
Two days (April 25th and 26th) were spent for this
activity, whose results are summarised in the present
work.
CASTELVECCHIO SUBEQUO
2.1 Overview
Castelvecchio Subequo is a small town, 490 m on the
sea level, located about 60 km to the South-East of
L’Aquila, at the feet of Mount Sirente (Fig. 4). Nowa-
days, the total population is approximately of 1150
residents. The ancient centre of the town, although
it suffered significant damage due to past and recent
earthquakes, still retains many elements of historical,
artistic and cultural value, such as Medieval, Baroque
and Renaissance monuments and, therefore, deserves
to be restored.
2.2 Construction typologies
The buildings of the historical centre, ranging from res-
idential houses to monumental palaces, are typically
2–4 storeys high. They are inserted into either aggre-
gates or urban blocks, which are often situated on rocky
outcroppings.
All buildings consist of either unreinforced
masonry (URM) or stone constructions. Such types of
structures generally have low mechanical properties,
due to the use of poor materials, i.e. rounded stones
from riverbeds bounded with weak mortar. More in
detail, some masonry typologies are representative of
the built-up heritage of Castelvecchio Subequo. In
any case, the walls were erected with stones placed in
a random manner with the interposition of horizon-
tal bricks layers for the reinforcement of the masonry
matrix (Fig. 5a). In larger buildings, the sack construc-
tive practice was detected where the walls are made of

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 6. Horizontal structures types: a) floors with steel
beams and vaulted or flat tiles; b) timber roofing structures.
Figure 7. Typical surveyed retrofit interventions: a) installa-
tion of metallic ties; b) realization of roofing RC ring beams.
two external layers of cut stones with the gap filled
with small dimension rubble pieces. Furthermore, cut
stone coins are often present in the buildings corners
(Fig. 5b).
About the horizontal structures, masonry vaulted
ceilings largely covered the lower storey of the build-
ings, spanning along one or two directions. Other floor
types with flexible diaphragms are made of steel beams
and vaulted or flat tiles (Fig. 6a). Instead, roofing
structures are often composed of double frame timber
beams with clay tile covering (Fig. 6b).
In the second half of the 20th century, after the seis-
mic events which have affected the L’Aquila region
(i.e. 1958 and 1984, Mw 5.2), most of these buildings
have been strengthened by means of traditional tech-
niques. The following main retrofitting interventions
have been identified during the in situ inspections:
• Metallic ties at floor levels along the two principal
directions of the structure and anchored by means
of bearing plates, aiming at providing a valuable
connection between orthogonal walls, so leading
towards a box behaviour of the building (Fig. 7a);
• Floor-to-wall connections, in order to ensure both
the structure integrity and the diaphragm action;
• New RC ring beams at the roof level, in order to
guarantee the connection among walls (Fig. 7b);
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
• Substitution of damaged roofing structures with
new timber constructions.
3 SEISMIC DAMAGE EVALUATION TOOLS
3.1 General
Nowadays in Italy, after the occurrence of seismic
events, the usability evaluation of buildings represents
the first step to be performed in order to take the emer-
gency measures for reducing the risk for people. To this
purpose, a series of building data, such as typological
characteristics and damages, is collected in this first
emergency phase by using common tools, namely the
AeDES form and the MEDEA handbook.
3.2 The AeDES form
The AeDES tool is the first level form for post-
earthquake damage and usability assessment and
emergency measures in ordinary buildings (CDD,
2000). It is based on the comparison among different
parameters involved both in the vulnerability evalua-
tion and the structural safety judgment, it being able
to give an usability assessment of buildings.
This type of survey methodology is applied only
to ordinary constructions, such as residential build-
ings principally made of reinforced concrete or
masonry, whereas for monumental or strategic build-
ings other specific analysis procedures are imple-
mented. Therefore, the form does not require very
detailed information, in order both to allow for a first
quick investigation and a database definition and to
accelerate the reconstruction process. The final form
layout represents the result of several past experiences,
generated from the necessity to optimise different
parameters. At the present, the form is easy to be filled,
in order to allow a quick codification and an immediate
check of the recorded data. Finally, the final usability
decision is made by the investigation team on the basis
of data collected through visual inspection.
The form consists of the following nine sections:
1. Building identification: address, cadastral unit,
photographs, position in the aggregate;
2. Building description: dimensions, mean surface,
number of stories, heights, age, function, percent-
age of use, number of dwellings and inhabitants,
property;
3. Building type: materials, vertical and horizontal
structures, type of roof, regularity;
4.-5. Damages to structural and non structural ele-
ments and existing emergency measures: dam-
age measurements and expeditious interventions
carried out on elements;
6. Falling objects from other building and existing
emergency measures;
7. Soil and foundation: site geomorphology, slopes;
8. Usability assessment;
9. Notes on the damage, emergency measures,
usability, etc.
Table 2. Risk evaluation vs. usability assessment.
Risk Assessment Building classification
Small Usable
Small after measures Usable after emergency measures
or temporarily unusable (to be
re-inspected)
High Partially unusable or unusable
High for external risk Unusable due to external risk
Each section of the form is compiled by using either
the single or the multiple reply criterion: when a circle
symbol is present, a single answer in required, while
multiple answers are allowed when a square symbol
appears. Principally, the key section is represented
by the third one, in which typological and struc-
tural characteristics of the building are described. The
mentioned section includes the following horizontal
structures:
– Vaults without ties;
– Vaults with ties;
– Flexible floors;
– Semirigid floors;
– Rigid floors;
and the following vertical ones:
– Irregular layout or bad quality masonry (round
stones), with or without ties or tie beams;
– Regular layout or good quality masonry (hewn
stones, bricks), with or without ties or tie beams;
– Isolated columns;
– Mixed structures;
– Strengthened structures.
In the same section, other types of structure can
be identified, namely r.c. frames, r.c. shear walls and
steel frames. Moreover, the building regularity in plan
and in elevation and the cladding distribution are also
taken into account.
Concerning the data of Section 4, the inspec-
tors have to identify the damage level and assess its
extension for five different structural components,
that is vertical and horizontal structures, stairs, roofs,
claddings and partitions, also evaluating their possi-
ble pre-existing damage. The damage estimation is
recorded in a simplified “fuzzy” way, since it is quan-
tified according to three different levels: very heavy,
severe and light. Then, the usability assessment is
correlated to the risk evaluation. In fact, for each vul-
nerability factor (structural, non structural, external
and geotechnical), a risk estimation is given. In par-
ticular, the correlation between risk assessment and
building classification is summarised in Table 2.
Later on, the investigation team members have to
indicate the inspection accuracy: from the outside
only, partial, complete (>2/3) or not inspected. Finally,
the inspectors can suggest speedy interventions and
emergency measures to be performed, which can be
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
also integrated by some notes about the executed
survey.
3.3 The MEDEA handbook
The MEDEA tool is a didactic handbook for seismic
damage evaluation (Zuccaro & Papa, 2001). It is a self-
training multimedia form, divided into several main
sections, which represents a guided step-by-step train-
ing path used by users both to know the typological
features of masonry and r.c. buildings and to evaluate
seismic damage and safety level in post-earthquake
management.
The first tool section concerns with a detailed dic-
tionary of the main terms frequently used in this
technical and scientific field. Instead, the second sec-
tion is an archive containing a rich anthology of
pictures showing different structural typologies and
levels of damages.
The most important part of MEDEA is represented
by a detailed catalogue of the main damages on struc-
tural and no structural elements of masonry buildings.
This tool part is divided into three sub-sections: 1)
Collapse Mechanisms Abacus (CMA); 2) Damages
Abacus (DA); 3) Interactive Training Table (ITT).
First, the CMA allows to classify the main recog-
nisable collapse mechanisms of structures, giving to
each of them a specific number. In particular, they can
be classified as:
– Global mechanisms (from 1 to 10), which involve
the whole structure with the propagation of cracks
in a sufficient number of elements;
– Local mechanisms (from 11 to 16), which engage
marginal parts of the building, not compromising
its whole structural equilibrium.
Later on, the DA identifies the main damages that
may be found by means of visual inspection, that is
23 and 13 damage types, respectively, for vertical
(V) and horizontal (H) structures. This is performed
through the analysis in diagnostic key of the whole
cracking structure characterised by different fail-
ures, all compatible with respect to a possible global
structural behaviour and, consequently, to a single
mechanism.
Finally, the ITT allows to make the damage-
mechanism correlation. All failure mechanisms are
correlated to the vertical and horizontal structural
damages into an appropriate table. Therefore, the user,
starting from a given damage, is able to individuate
the occurred congruent collapse mechanism.
The last part of MEDEA is composed by the safety
evaluation section, in which it is possible to express
observations on:
– The construction typology, which a vulnerability
class can be associated to.
– The damage level for both single elements and the
whole building.
– The safety assessment of the building.
– The possible provisional intervention to be adopted.
4 DAMAGE SURVEY AND COLLAPSE
MECHANISM ASSESSMENT

In the emergency phase of the L’Aquila post-

earthquake (after 2010, April 6th), damage inspec-
tions, risk level and safety evaluation of damaged
buildings were carried out by numerous working
groups. In this context, the present section focuses the
attention on the damage survey performed by the team
n. 807 within the historical centre of Castelvecchio
Subequo.
During in situ investigations of several masonry
buildings, important failure patterns into both vertical
and horizontal structures have been detected. Firstly,
a quantitative damage description was performed by
using the AeDES form procedure. Accordingly, the
safety checks generally have provided high risk for
both structural and non-structural elements, so that all
surveyed buildings have been classified in unusable
condition. In a next step, for the same buildings, the
MEDEA form has been also used in order to obtain
more information about the damaged structures and,
therefore, to make hypotheses about both the damage
genesis and the post-event structural performance.As a
result, the following main collapse mechanisms, num-
bered as in the MEDEA form, have been identified
and correlated to possible vertical (V) and horizontal
(H) damages:

• Global in-plane mechanisms, consisting of storey

shear failures (types 1 and 2; Fig. 8a), due to:
– Diagonal shear cracks in the masonry piers (V1,
V2);
– Local crushing of the masonry with or without
expulsion of material (V16).
• Global out-of-plane mechanisms, characterised by
either whole or partial wall overturning or walls
bending collapse (types 3, 4 and 6; Fig. 8b), trig-
gered by:
– Vertical cracks at the wall corners (V9);
– Diagonal cracks in the transversal walls (V10);
– Out of plumb/incipient rotation of the wall (V21).
• Other global mechanisms, such as irregularity
among adjacent structures and floor and roof beam
unthreading (types 9 and 10; Fig. 8c), due to:
– Permanent deformation of either tie-beams or
their anchorages, with the failure of the former
and the pull-out of the latter (V11);
– Diagonal cracks starting from the discontinuity
between two adjacent buildings (V17);
– Vertical cracks along the interface between two
adjacent buildings (V18).
• Local mechanisms, especially consisting of lintel
or masonry arch failure, local weakness, corner
overturning in the upper building part and vault
or arch overturning (types 11, 14 and 16; Fig. 8d),
caused by:
– Diagonal and vertical cracks within the masonry
spandrels (V6; V13);
– Cracks in the keystone arches (H1);
Figure 8. Observed collapse mechanisms, numbered
according to the MEDEA tool: a) In-plane (types 1 and 2);
b) Out-of-plane (types 3, 4 and 6); c) Other global (types 9
and 10); Local (types 11, 14 and 16).
– Transversal cracks in the tunnel vaults (H5);
– Cracks with detachment of the vaults from the
walls (H6).
On the basis of the MEDEA approach, a set of data
on seismic damages has been collected in order to
analyse the correlation between the identified collapse
mechanisms and the distribution of the damage levels
(di ) suffered by the inspected buildings (Dolce et al.,
2004). The analysis results are displayed in Figure 9.
It is worth noticing that, according to EMS98, the sub-
sequent damage levels are considered: d1 ) weak; d2 )
medium-weak; d3 ) medium; d4 ) severe; d5 ) very heavy.
The following observations can be drawn:
• The frequency of the in-plane collapse modes (types
1, 2) grows together with the damage intensity, pre-
senting a maximum peak at the level d3 and a drastic
reduction at the level d4 , due to the development

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 9. Frequency of the collapse mechanism types vs.
the global damage levels.
of other mechanisms with seismic damages from
medium to severe.
• The out-of-plane mechanisms (types 3, 4, 6) are
characterised, on one hand, by lower values of fre-
quency as respect to in-plane modes, and, on the
other hand, by a frequency growing with damage
levels. In particular, these mechanisms appear to
be more frequent for high damage levels, which
the global collapse of the structure corresponds
to. Differently, local in-plane failures are generally
developed with weaker damage grades.
• Concerning the other global mechanisms (types 9,
10), all damage levels show similar frequency val-
ues, apart for the level d2 . The mechanism type 9
(irregularity between adjacent structures) has been
often identified, since the buildings of the histor-
ical centre are generally inserted into aggregates.
These urban blocks are characterised by slight struc-
tural anomalies which have caused frequent, but
moderate, failures.
• Finally, the local mechanisms (types 11, 14, 16) pro-
vide similar responses as respect to the in-plane
ones. This fact is due to the relevant influence of
the mechanism type 11 (lintel or masonry arch fail-
ure), which is often manifested through in-plane
damages.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
5 CONCLUSIVE REMARKS
In the paper the results of the usability assessment
of residential buildings within the historical centre of
Castelvecchio Subequo after l’Aquila earthquake are
presented. The most diffused type of surveyed build-
ings is made of poor quality masonry walls sustaining
deformable floors. After some earthquakes occurred
in the past, a number of steel ties have been used
as anti-seismic interventions. Nevertheless, in some
cases, because of the scarce consistency of masonry
walls, such ties were ineffective and, therefore, many
out-of-plane collapse mechanisms have been detected.
However, when correctly installed, they have mitigated
in a considerable way the damage effects due to the
recent earthquake, leading to in-plane failures instead
of out-of-plane ones.
From the collected data, the frequency of the
most significant mechanism types contemplated in
the MEDEA form with respect to the global dam-
ages has been investigated. To this purpose, firstly
the buildings have been grouped in accordance to
four main groups of collapse mechanisms and then,
into each group, the distribution of damage levels
has been assessed. The results achieved on the inves-
tigated buildings have shown that: – Out-of-plane
mechanisms are less recurring than in-plane ones,
but produce higher damages than those, whose fre-
quency grows with the damage levels. – In-plane and
local mechanisms occurred at the same time with
similar frequencies. – Other global mechanisms, char-
acterised by medium-low damage levels, were due
to the pounding effect among buildings grouped in
aggregates.
REFERENCES
AA. VV. 2009. Learning from Earthquakes – The Mw 6.3
Abruzzo, Italy, Earthquake of April 6, 2009. EERI Special
Earthquake Report, June.
Civil Defence Department (CDD). 2000. Manual for com-
pilation of the I level form for damage detection, quick
intervention and usability of ordinary buildings in the
post-earthquake emergency (in Italian).
Dolce, M., Masi, A., Samela, C., Santarsiero, G., Vona, M.,
Zuccaro, G., Cacace, F. & Papa, F. 2004. Examination
of typological and damaging characteristics of the built
heritage of San Giuliano di Puglia (in Italian). XI Ital-
ian Congress “L’Ingegneria Sismica in Italia”, Genoa,
January.
Fanale, L., Lepidi, M., Gattulli, V. & Potenza, F., 2009. Anal-
ysis of buildings damaged from the 2009 April seismic
event in the town of l’Aquila and in some neighbouring
minor centres (in Italian). DISAT publication n. 03.
Ministerial Decree of Public Works published on 2008,
January 14th (M.D.). 2008. New technical codes for con-
structions (in Italian). Official Gazette of the Italian
Republic.
Zuccaro, G. & Papa, F., 2001. Multimedial MEDEA CD-ROM
– Tutorial manual on damage and usability of ordinary
masonry buildings (in Italian). CAR Progetti srl, October.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Seismic response of sheathed cold-formed steel structures under

catastrophic events

L. Fiorino
Department of Structural Engineering, University of Naples “Federico II”

O. Iuorio
Department of Constructions and Mathematical Methods in Architecture, University of Naples “Federico II”

V. Macillo
Department of Structural Engineering, University of Naples “Federico II”

R. Landolfo
Department of Constructions and Mathematical Methods in Architecture, University of Naples “Federico II”

ABSTRACT: The paper focuses on the behaviour evaluation of sheathed Cold-Formed Steel Structures (SCFS).
Basically, if Cold-Formed Steel (CFS) structures are designed according to the “sheathing-design” methodology,
then the seismic behaviour of shear walls is strongly influenced by the sheathing-to-frame connections response,
characterized by a remarkable nonlinear response and a strong pinching of hysteresis loops. Therefore, non-linear
dynamic analysis using an ad hoc model of the hysteresis response of SCFS shear walls have been carried out. An
extended number of wall configurations has been considered investigating several parameters such as sheathing
panel typology, wall geometry, external screw spacing, seismic weight and soil type. Based on results of IDA,
three behaviour factors have been defined, which take into account overstrength, ductility and both overstrength
and ductility, respectively. A “multi-performance” approach has been proposed to evaluate the behavior factors
considering the response of SCFS walls also in the case of catastrophic earthquakes.

1 INTRODUCTION analysis. On the basis of analysis results the Authors

The seismic behaviour of cold-formed steel (CFS)
structures sheathed with panels is influenced by the
response of shear walls, which are characterized by
a highly non-linear structural response. In order to
assess the seismic performance of sheathed cold-
formed steel (SCFS) structures, several experimental
and/or numerical research programs have been carried
out on different wall configurations. On the basis of
results provided by tests and analysis, different seis-
mic design parameters, as behaviour or seismic force
modification factors (Dubina 2008, Boudreault et al.
2007) and interstory drift limits (Kawai et al. 1999,
Boudreault et al. 2007, Dubina 2008) have been iden-
tified, and interesting seismic design methods have
been proposed (Kawai et al. 1999). In addition, other
studies, focused on the dynamic characteristics of this
type of structures (Kawai et al. 1999, Gad et al. 1999,
Dubina 2008), identified typical values of vibration
periods and damping ratio.
Monotonic and cyclic tests on walls sheathed with
trapezoidal steel sheets or OSB panels with or with-
out openings were carried out by Dubina (2008). On
the basis of this experimental results, they developed a
numerical model and performed incremental dynamic
define three different behaviour factors: q1 , corre-
sponding to the overstrength, q2 corresponding to the
ductility, and q3 = q1 × q2 , which takes into account
both effects. The behaviour factor q1 ranges from 2.2
to 2.6, q2 ranges from 1.4 to 1.6 and q3 is in the
range 3.6 through 3.7. In particular, in the case of
walls sheathed with OSB panels and without openings
the Authors found the following average behaviour
factors: q1 = 2.7, q2 = 1.4 and q3 = 3.7.
Boudreault et al. (2007) evaluated the seismic
force modification factors (R) due to the ductil-
ity (Rd ) and overstrength (Ro ) as defined by the
National Building Code of Canada NBCC (NRCC
2005). The proposed values Rd = 2.5, Ro = 1.7, and
R = Ro × Rd = 4.3 were obtained by analyzing the
results of monotonic and cyclic tests on different
configurations of walls sheathed with plywood and
OSB panels (Branston et al. 2006, Blais 2006, Rokas
2006). The values obtained on experimental basis were
verified through the results of nonlinear dynamic anal-
ysis (time-history) carried out on two representative
buildings (Boudreault et al. 2007).
Values of seismic force reduction factor (R-factor)
for CFS buildings are also provided in some Codes,
as the Uniform Building Code (ICBO 1997), the

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 International Building Code (ICC 2003) and the Table 1. Variables assumed in the parametric study
FEMA 450 (FEMA 2003). The value of R-factor pro-
vided by the UBC is 5.5, for buildings with less than Sheathing panel typology G+G, G+O
three floors and walls sheathed with wood-based pan- Wall height (h) 2400, 2700, 3000 mm
Wall length (l) 1200, 2400, 9600 mm
els, and 4.5 for other wall typologies. The IBC gives
External screw spacing (s) 50, 75, 100, 150 mm
a value of the reduction factor R (Response modifica-
tion coefficient) equal to 6.5, for shear walls sheathed
with wood panels or steel sheets, and 2.0 for other Table 2. Selected stud thicknesses and hold down devices.
sheathings typologies. Finally, a R-factor equal to 6.5
is given in the FEMA 450 for walls with shear panels. Stud (tF ) Ka Wall typology
Hold down (mm) (kN/mm) (s and h in mm)

S/HD 8B 1.0 28 G+G; s = 75, 100, 150

2 MONOTONIC RESPONSE EVALUATION
In this paper the analytical-numerical model proposed
by the authors (Landolfo et al. 2010), that allows
the evaluation of the monotonic lateral response of
a SCFS wall, has been used. The method is based on
the most common assumptions made from other avail-
able approaches, such as full anchorage between frame
and foundation or other stories and sheathing-to-frame
interaction characterized by a “rigid body” behavior.
The method allows the evaluation of each wall deflec-
tion contribution, from which the total wall deflection
can be obtained, as deeply described in Fiorino et al.
(2009).
In order to study the behavior of different wall con-
figurations, the model has been applied to simulate
the monotonic response of 72 different wall configu-
rations. All the walls are designed with 100 × 50 ×
10 mm (outside-to-outside web depth × outside-to-
outside flange size × outside-to-outside lip size)
lipped channel studs, spaced at 600 mm, sheathed
with GWB panels on both sides (G+G) or GWB on
one side and OSB panels on the other side (G+O). The
thicknesses of GWB and OSB panels are 12.5 mm and
9 mm, respectively. For connecting sheathing panels
and frame 4.2 × 25 mm (diameter×length) flat head
self drilling screws have been considered for OSB and
3.5 × 25 mm bugle head for GWB. The fasteners have
spacing of 300 mm in the field, while different exter-
nal screw spacing have been investigated. Hold down
devices type Simpson Strong-Tie (2006) and chemi-
cal anchorage (type HIT-RE 500 with HIS-N 8.8 by
Hilti (2005)) have been considered at each end of
the wall, while mechanical shear anchors (type HST
M8 by Hilti) have been hypothesized. Sheathing panel
typology, wall geometry (height h and length l) and
external screw spacing (s) have been varied as summa-
rized in Table 1. For each wall configuration obtained
by combining the parameters given in Table 1, the stud
thickness (tF ) and hold-down device typology have
been selected in such a way to promote the sheathing
fasteners collapse as shown in Table 2.
The monotonic response of the walls has been
obtained by considering a shear modulus (G) of
1400 MPa for OSB panels and 750 MPa for GWB
panels. In addition, a Young modulus (E) for the steel
equal to 200000 MPa has been adopted, while the
assumed values of hold down device axial stiffness
(Ka ) are given in Table 2.
G+O; s = 150
S/HD 8B 1.5 28 G+O; s = 75; h = 2400, 2700
G+O; s = 100; h = 2400
S/HD 10B 1.0 27 G+G; s = 50
G+O; s = 100; h = 2700, 3000
S/HD 10B 1.5 27 G+O; s = 50; h = 2400
S/HD 15B 1.5 31 G+O; s = 50; h = 2700, 3000
S/HD 8S 1.5 29 G+O; s = 75; h = 3000
3 CYCLIC RESPONSE EVALUATION
In order to model the cycle lateral response of shear
walls in terms of horizontal force (H ) vs. lateral deflec-
tion (d), two limit curves are defined, representing
the upper bound and the lower bound to all possible
H −d values. For both curves a six parameter Richard–
Abbott type law is assumed. Then it is assumed that the
generic point of a loading branch belongs to a Richard–
Abbott type curve, whose parameters are given by the
linear convex combination of analogous parameters of
the lower bound and upper bound curves.
The model accounts for the strength degradation by
means the methodology proposed by Park and Ang
(Park 1989):
where H0,red is the reduced value of H0 and DF
represents the parameter accounting for the strength
reduction.
The calibration of the parameters describing the
whole cyclic response has been carried out on the
basis of available results of experimental monotonic
and cyclic full scale tests (Landolfo et al. 2006). The
calibration results in terms of H − d response curve
and dissipated energy are given in Figures 1 and 2,
respectively.
One story buildings have been considered as case
studies. They refer to a stick built constructions in
which, both floors and walls are realized with CFS
framing sheathed with structural panels. In particular,
in order to obtain a range of solutions, two different
schematic plants have been considered with span (L)
variable between 3 and 7 m. Unit weights ranging from
0.4 to 1.5 kN/m2 and from 0.3 to 1.2 kN/m2 have been
considered for floors and walls, respectively (Tab. 3).
Moreover, the building has been considered with-
out or with attic. In the first case, a variable load of

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 1. Calibration results in terms of force vs. displace-
ment response.
Figure 3. Typical IDA curves.

40 kN/m) and have been applied to the 72 wall con-

figurations defined in the parametric study, therefore,
a total number of 504 cases have been investigated.
In order to develop non-linear dynamic seismic
analyses, the seismic inputs have been selected in
such a way that they could cover all the soil types
classified by Eurocode 8 (CEN, 2004). In particular,
Eurocode 8 provides five different soil types A, B,
C, D, and E, but in this study only three spectra are
adopted grouping the soil types B, C and E under one
spectrum type. Therefore, 21 earthquake records have
been selected from the ESD (European Strong-motion
Figure 2. Calibration results in terms of dissipated energy. Database, www.isesd.cv.ic.ac.uk). For each soil type 7
accelerograms have been considered so that the shape
Table 3. Unit weights. of the average elastic response spectrum is close as
much as possible to the shape of the corresponding
Floor Eurocode 8 elastic acceleration spectrum. The selected
Steel members 0.08 ÷ 0.25 kN/m2 earthquakes include records from different European
OSB 0.10 ÷ 0.15 kN/m2 and Mediterranean regions. For these earthquakes the
GWB 0,00 ÷ 0.10 kN/m2 Richmond magnitude ranges from 5.8 to 7.6. In order
Insulation 0.02 ÷ 0.30 kN/m2 to match the design spectra the natural accelerograms
Floor finishing 0.10 ÷ 0.40 kN/m2 have been scaled by the PGA.
False ceiling 0.10 ÷ 0.30 kN/m2
Each wall has been schematized as a SDOF struc-
Total 0.40 ÷ 1.50 kN/m2
ture, in which a vertical load equal to the 100% of the
Wall seismic mass has been considered to account the sec-
Steel members 0.03 ÷ 0.08 kN/m2 ond order effects. A viscous damping ratio equal to 5%
External board – OSB 0.05 ÷ 0.20 kN/m2 is considered.
Internal board – GWB 0.10 ÷ 0.20 kN/m2 The used procedure is the well known incremen-
Thermal insulation 0.02 ÷ 0.30 kN/m2 tal dynamic analysis (IDA). Analysis outputs are the
Internal finishing 0.00 ÷ 0.20 kN/m2 IDA curves, that are presented as adimentionalized
External finishing 0.10 ÷ 0.30 kN/m2
elastic spectral acceleration (Sa,e /g, intensity measure
Total 0.30 ÷ 1.20 kN/m2
of the record) vs. maximum required interstory drift
angle (d/h, performance parameter). In particular, for
obtaining the IDA curves, each accellerogram has been
2.0 kN/m2 has been considered, to which, in the latter scaled in the range from 0.05 to 1.95 by considering
case, a variable load of 1.2 kN/m2 has been added. The 50 values. Therefore, a total number of 529200 single
seismic weights have been defined according to the analysis has been performed. Figure 3 shows a typical
following relationship: IDA curve obtained in the presented study.

4 BEHAVIOUR FACTOR EVALUATION

where Gki are the characteristic value of permanent
actions and Qki are the variable loads. Starting from Based on the results of performed dynamic analyses,
these conditions, 7 seismic weight per unit wall length the non-linear capacity of SCFS walls, in terms of
have been considered (10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and behaviour factor, has been assessed. The numerical

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Table 4. Behaviour factors for the “Multi-Performance”
approach.

Wall configuration q1 q2 q3

0.5 ≤ p ≤ 1 G+G Average 2.43 1.42 3.45

St. Dev. 0.37 0.15 0.71
C.o.V. 0.15 0.11 0.21
G+O Average 2.52 1.24 3.12
St. Dev. 0.37 0.12 0.52
C.o.V. 0.15 0.10 0.17
All types Average 2.48 1.32 3.27
(G+G and G+O) St. Dev. 0.37 0.16 0.64
C.o.V. 0.15 0.12 0.20
0.7 ≤ p ≤ 1 G+G Average 2.20 1.32 2.93
Figure 4. SCFS wall monotonic response curve. St. Dev. 0.42 0.19 0.84
C.o.V. 0.20 0.14 0.29
results have been interpreted considering three differ- G+O Average 2.35 1.20 2.81
ent limit displacements on the generic response curve Dev. St. 0.42 0.12 0.57
C.o.V. 0.18 0.10 0.21
(Fig. 4): dy is the conventional yielding displacement
All types Average 2.28 1.26 2.87
of the idealized bilinear obtained as recommended by (G+G and G+O) St. Dev. 0.43 0.17 0.71
Branston et al. (2006); dpeak is the peak displacement; C.o.V. 0.19 0.13 0.25
du is the conventional ultimate displacement. For each
IDA curve the intensity measures Sa,y , Sa,p and Sa,u
corresponding to the limit displacements dy , dpeak and
du , respectively, have been evaluated. These spectral
accelerations can be used to define three different (“rare”), and 2% (catastrophic or “very rare”) prob-
behaviour factors, as follows: ability of exceedance in 50 years have been associated
to the IO, LS and CP performance levels, respec-
tively. Moreover, for each seismic hazard level, three
different seismic intensities (low, medium and high
in which q1 takes into account the overstrength, q2 intensity) have been assumed: ag equal to 0.06 g,
takes into account the ductility and q3 = q1 × q2 takes 0.10 g, and 0.14 g for “frequent” earthquakes; 0.15 g,
into account both overstrength and ductility. 0.25 g, and 0.35 g for “rare” earthquakes; and 0.23 g,
In order to obtain an accurate assessment of the 0.38 g, and 0.53 g for “very rare” earthquakes. The
behaviour factors, a selection of wall configurations displacement capacity of the generic system has been
representing feasible design applications has been assumed as follows: dy for IO, dp LS and du for CP.
made. Realistic wall configurations have been selected Hence, in order to select only the feasible application
by introducing a performance coefficient (p = dD /dC ), for each wall configuration three performance lev-
in which dD and dC are the displacement demand and els p(IO) = dD /dy , p(LS) = dD /dpeak , p(CP) = dD /du
the displacement capacity of a generic wall config- have been considered. For this approach, so as for the
uration, respectively. Therefore, for a generic wall, “Classic” one, two different criteria have been adopted
in a given condition (wall geometry, type of sheath- for the wall selection: in the first one only the cases
ing, external screw spacing, seismic weight, soil type), presenting 0.5 ≤ p ≤ 1 for each performance level
p > 1 means that it is not adequate, while p << 1 cor- have been considered, while in the second one only
responds to an oversized configuration. The proposed those having 0.7 ≤ p ≤ 1 for at least one performance
behaviour factors have been evaluated by adopting two level have been considered. For each selection crite-
different wall selection criteria and using two different rion the behaviour factors have been evaluated. The
approaches, as described in following sections. obtained average, standard deviation and coefficient
In order to evaluate the behaviour of SCFS walls of variation values are shown in Table 4.
under earthquakes having different intensity levels, a From the obtained results, it can be observed that
“multi-performance” design approach have been intro- for the first criterion the behaviour factors are slightly
duced. This approach represents a more rational design higher than for the second one. In particular, consider-
methodology, which takes into account the structural ing all types of sheathing, q1 is 2.5 for 0.5 ≤ p ≤ 1 and
damage under different intensity levels of ground 2.3 for 0.7 ≤ p ≤ 1; q2 is about 1.3 for both criteria and
motion: “frequent”, “rare”, and catastrophic (“very q3 is 3.4 for 0.5 ≤ p ≤ 1 and 2.9 for 0.7 ≤ p ≤ 1. As for
rare”) events. Therefore, three performance levels as, the comparison between the two sheathing typolo-
according to FEMA 450 (FEMA 2003) have been con- gies, it can be noticed that G+G walls show a slightly
sidered: immediate occupancy (IO), life safety (LS) smaller overstrength but a quite larger ductility than
and collapse prevention (CP). To each performance the G+O walls. According to the obtained results, a
level corresponds a different stage of degradation and behaviour factor equal to 1 should be considered for
damage expected for the building components. In par- IO, while q1 = 2 and q3 = 3 could be used for LS and
ticular, earthquakes having 50% (“frequent”), 10% CP levels, respectively.

380
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 5. Plan view of the dwelling.
5 APPLICATION OF MULTI-PERFORMANCE
APPROACH: A CASE STUDY
In order to illustrate an application of the “multi-
performance” design methodology, a case study is
presented hereafter. The analyzed building is a typi-
cal one-family one-story dwelling with attic. The plan
dimensions are 12 × 8 m, while the height is 6.7 m
including a pitched roof with 100% slope. The struc-
ture is a stick-built construction in which floor, roof
and walls are sheathed cold-formed frames. The walls
dimensions are 2400 × 2700 mm (length × height),
sheathed with G+O panels. The walls components
are selected according to the data given in Table 2,
while the external spacing of sheathing-to-frame con-
nection represents the design parameter. The SCFS
walls represent the seismic resistant system and they
are placed symmetrically along the house perimeter as
shown in Figure 5. The unit dead loads of the main
elements are 0.60 kN/m2 for walls, 0.80 kN/m2 for
floor and 0.85 kN/m2 for roof, obtaining a total unit
dead load (gk ) equal to 1.99 kN/m2 while the live load
(qk ) is assumed equal to 2.00 kN/m2 . The unit seismic
weight evaluated by the relationship (2) results equal
to 2.59 kN/m2 .
The house is located in a medium intensity seis-
mic zone, in which the assumed values of PGA (ag )
is 0.10 g, 0.25 g and 0.38 g for IO, LS and CP lev-
els, respectively. The assumed soil conditions are type
B according to Eurocode 8 (CEN 2004) classifica-
tion. Type 1 elastic response spectrum Se (T ) proposed
by Eurocode 8 is adopted. The following hypothe-
ses are adopted for the seismic analysis: the ground
motion acting in longitudinal direction; the floor acts
as rigid diaphragms; the possible torsional effects are
neglected; the dynamic lateral behavior of the struc-
ture is represented by the dynamic lateral behavior of
the walls; the “Segment” method is used for describ-
ing the shear behavior of the SCFS walls, assuming
that the sum of the length of the resistant wall seg-
ments in longitudinal direction is 9.6 m; the dynamic
lateral behavior of the shear walls is described by
381
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 5. Design lateral strength for a G+O 2400 ×
2700 mm wall.
External screw spacing (s) Design lateral strength (Hd )
(mm) (kN/m)
150 8.2
100 12.2
75 16.3
50 24.5
a SDOF system. Hence, it is possible to define the
parameters describing the SDOF system. The seismic
weight per unit length (w) results equal to 25.9 kN/m,
while for the selected wall configuration the lateral
stiffness per unit length can be assumed ranging from
1.4 to 2.7 kN/mm/m depending on the external screw
spacing. Therefore, the natural vibration period ranges
between 0.19 s and 0.27 s. A damping ratio equal to
0.05 is adopted. A linear seismic analysis has been per-
formed, in which the design seismic force acting on a
wall with unit length may be calculate by the following
relationship:
where q is the behaviour factor and has been assumed
equal to 1, 2 and 3 for IO, LS and CP levels, respec-
tively. Therefore, the values of design forces (H D )
result equal to 7.8 kN/m for IO level, 9.7 kN/m for LS
level and, 9.8 kN/m for CP level. The external spac-
ing of fasteners has been selected in such a way to
exhibit an adequate lateral strength. The design val-
ues of wall lateral strength may be estimated by the
following relationship:
in which H y,av is the conventional yielding strength
on the idealized bilinear of monotonic response curve
obtained by the parametric analysis illustrated in
Section 2, 0.625 is the factor which convert the aver-
age values of wall strength into the characteristic
value and γw is a partial safety factor assumed equal
to 1.25. The design values of wall lateral strength
for different external screw spacing are shown in
Table 5. Therefore, an external screw spacing equal
to 100 mm corresponding a lateral strength per unit
length H C = 12.2 kN/m, have been selected.
Furthermore, the designed structure has been
checked by the results of non-linear dynamic analysis
exposed in Section 3. The seismic demand is estimated
on the IDA curve corresponding to a 2400 × 2700 mm
wall sheathed with G+O panels, having s = 100 mm,
w = 30 kN/m and type B soil. Entering with the PGA
(ag ) of each performance level in the IDA curve it can
be evaluate the corresponding displacement demand
(Fig. 6). In particular, for ag = 0.10 g (IO) the displace-
ment demand is 7.7 mm, for ag = 0.25 g (LS) the dis-
placement demand is 22.8 mm, while for ag = 0.38 g

Figure 6. Non-linear dynamic analysis.
(CP) the displacement demand is 37.4 mm. Instead, the
displacement capacity of the system is: dy = 14.6 mm
for IO, dp = 44.6 mm for LS and du = 48.0 mm for CP.
Finally, analyzing the values of the performance coef-
ficients (p(IO)=0.53, p(LS)=0.51 and p(CP) = 0.78) it
can be observed that the proposed approach approach
provides reliable results taking into account the effects
of catastrophic earthquakes.
6 CONCLUSION
In this paper the evaluation of behaviour of SCFS
structures in the case of “frequent”, “rare” and catas-
trophic seismic events has been presented. Three
behaviour factors have been defined: q1 related to over-
strength, q2 related to ductility and q3 which takes into
account both overstrength and ductility. The assess-
ment of the values of three behaviour factors have been
obtained by a “multi-performance” approach, which
takes into account also the structural damage under
catastrophic earthquakes. According to the obtained
results, a behaviour factor equal to 1 should be con-
sidered for IO, while q1 = 2 and q3 = 3 could be used
for LS and CP levels, respectively. Moreover, a case
study on the “multi-performance” design methodol-
ogy have been presented, in which the obtained results
confirm an adequate design allows SCFS construc-
tions to show an acceptable behaviour also in case of
catastrophic seismic events.
382
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
REFERENCES
Blais, C. 2006. Testing and analysis of light gauge steel
frame/9 mm OSB Wood panel shear walls, Master’s The-
sis, Dept. of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics,
McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
Boudreault, F.A., Blais, C., Rogers, C.A. 2007. Seismic force
modification factors for light-gauge steel-frame – wood
structural panel shear walls. Canadian Journal of Civil
Engineering 34(1): 56–65.
Branston, A.E., Chen, C.Y., Boudreault, F.A., Rogers, C.A.
2006. Testing of light-gauge steel-frame – wood structural
panel shear walls. Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering
33(5): 561–572.
CEN. 2004. EN 1998-1 – Eurocode 8: Design of structures
for earthquake resistance – Part 1: General rules, seismic
actions and rules for buildings, European Committee for
Standardization, Bruxelles.
Dubina, D. 2008. Behavior and performance of cold-formed
steel-framed houses under seismic action. Journal of
Constructional Steel Research 64: 896–913.
FEMA 450. 2003. NEHRP Recommended Provision for
seismic regulations for new buildings and other struc-
tures, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA),
Washington, D.C.
Fiorino, L., Iuorio, O., Landolfo, R. 2009. Sheathed cold-
formed steel housing: A seismic design procedure.
Thin-Walled Structures 47(8–9): 919–930.
Gad E.F., Duffield C.F, G.L. Hutchinson G.L., Mansell D.S.,
Stark G. 1999. Lateral performance of cold-formed steel-
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83–95.
Hilti. 2005. North America product technical guide.
ICBO. 1997. Uniform Building Code, International Confer-
ence of Building Officials, Whittier, CA.
ICC. 2003. International Building Code (IBC), International
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Kawai Y., Kanno R., Uno N., Sakumoto Y. 1999. Seismic
resistance and design of steel framed houses. Nippon Steel
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Landolfo, R., Fiorino, L., Iuorio, O. 2010. A Specific Proce-
dure for Seismic Design of Cold-Formed Steel Housing.
Advanced Steel Construction 6(1): 603–618.
Landolfo, R., Fiorino, L., Della Corte, G. 2006. Seismic
behavior of sheathed cold-formed structures: physical
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NRCC. 2005. National Building Code of Canada (NBCC),
National Research Council Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.
Park, R. 1989. Evaluation of ductility of structures and
structural assemblages from laboratory testing. Bulletin
of the New Zealand National Society for Earthquake
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Rokas, D. 2006. Testing and Evaluation of Light Gauge Steel
Frame/9.5 mm CSP Wood Panel Shear Walls. Master’s
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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

First considerations on the February 27, 2010 Chilean earthquake

M. Indirli
ENEA (Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development),
Bologna, Italy

F.M. Mazzolani
Faculty of Engineering, University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

A. Tralli
Department of Engineering, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy

ABSTRACT: About a month after the February 27, 2010 Chilean seismic event, an Italian investigation mis-
sion visited the area damaged by the earthquake and tsunami. The team surveyed various building typologies
(reinforced concrete, steel, masonry, adobe, etc.) from North to South towards the epicenter, i.e. the cities of
Santiago, Viña del Mar, Valparaiso, Rancagua, Curico, Talca, Chillan, Concepcion, Talcahuano, Yumbel, Lota
Alto, Schwager, etc. Furthermore, all the coastal line from Talcahuano to Constitucion has been also ran through,
in order to check the very impressive tsunami effects. Finally, the behaviour of some Chilean historic buildings
is briefly evaluated, in comparison with similar ones hit by the April 2009, L’Aquila earthquake.

1 THE EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI
Chile is one of the most earthquake-prone country in
the world, struck by the most powerful seismic events
ever recorded (1960 Valdivia, MW 9.5).
The features of the February 27, 2010 seismic event
are shown by Tables 1–3 and Figures 1–2. Data are
taken from available preliminary reports of Univer-
sity of Chile: a) Faculty of Physics and Mathemat-
ics, Department of Civil Engineering; b) Seismologic
Service. As previous earthquakes, it originated from
the subduction between Nazca and South American
tectonic plates. The tsunami waves (Figure 3) mea-
sured heights from 3 to 12 m (Saragoni 2010a).

Table 1. The February 27, 2010 Chilean earthquake.

Table 3. The February 27, 2010 Chilean earthquake.
Main features of the earthquake
Available Maximum Peak Ground Accelerations (PGA, [g])
Magnitude MW = 8.8
X V
Epicenter 43 km SW Cobquecura
(35.909◦ S 73.733◦ W)
Depth 35 km Concepcion 0.65 0.60
Duration 2.5 minutes Curico 0.47 0.20
Maximum Intensity IX (lower Constitución) Maipu 0.56 0.24
Victims 430 Santiago 0.24 0.13
Costs USD 30.000.000 Viña del Mar 0.35 0.26

Table 2. The February 27, 2010 Chilean earthquake.

Maximum Intensity

Concepcion IX
Talca VIII
Rancagua VIII
Santiago VIII
Viña del Mar VI
Valparaiso VI Figure 1. Subduction between Nazca-South American
plates.

383
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 2a. Subduction Figure 2b. Main shock (star),
activated fronts in the Chile aftershocks (yellow circles) and
historic seismicity. historic seismicity (red circles).
Figure 3. Tsunami wave heights along the Chilean coast.
2 THE ITALIAN MISSION
A month after the seismic event, an Italian investi-
gation mission (ENEA, Universities of Ferrara and
Naples “Federico II”, with the support of Universi-
ties of Padua and Trieste, and University of Chile in
Santiago) visited the area damaged by the earthquake
and tsunami (Italian mission 2010). The mission has
been planned with the endorsement of the International
Scientific Committee on the Analysis and Restoration
of Structures of Architectural Heritage (ISCARSAH),
the support of the Italian Embassy and ICE (Italian
Trade Commission) of Santiago del Chile, and under
the auspices of the COST Action C26 “Urban Habi-
tat Constructions under Catastrophic Events”. The
team surveyed various building typologies (r.c., steel,
masonry, adobe, etc.) from North to South towards
the epicenter, i.e. the cities of Santiago, Viña del Mar,
Valparaiso, Rancagua, Curico, Talca, Chillan, Concep-
cion, Talcahuano, Yumbel, Lota Alto, Schwager, etc.
All the coastal line from Talcahuano to Constitucion
has been also ran through, in order to check the very
impressive tsunami effects (Figure 4).
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 4. Map of the investigated cities.
Figure 5. Collapse and global overturning of the Alto Rio
building in Concepcion.
3 THE BEHAVIOUR OF CONSTRUCTION
3.1 Modern construction
In general, modern structures (r.c. and steel) per-
formed well under the seismic excitation, proving the
effectiveness of the Chilean seismic code, design and
construction details. Only a few examples of them,
widespread in the affected areas, showed damage or
collapse, due to specific reasons still under investiga-
tion. The data taken from the direct survey, websites,
Saragoni (2010a), and Mottadelli (2010) allow us to
discuss about some highlighting examples.
An unusual case of collapse and global overturn-
ing is the r.c. Alto Rio building in Concepcion (Figure
5), in spite of the good performance of similar adja-
cent structures. In the Alto Rio building, in addition
to possible soft soil local effects, maybe foundations
and vertical columns seemed to be strongly inadequate
to withstand the high PGAs (Peak Ground Acceler-
ations). A partial collapse in an intermediate floor
occurred in the r.c. O’Higgins building (always in
Concepcion, Figure 6), probably due to a subsequent
intervention which removed part of the vertical struc-
tures, in order to realize an “open space”. Maybe due to
local amplification and weakness of foundations and
first floor columns, an entire row (Don Luis and Don
Figure 6. O’Higgins building partial collapse
Concepcion.
Figure 7. Soft storey mechanisms in the Don Luis and Don
Tristan buildings, Maipu (Santiago).
Figure 8. Sol Oriente building local damage (Santiago).
Figure 9. Park Plaza building local damage (Santiago).
Tristan r.c. buildings) showed soft storey mechanisms
in Maipu, a municipality near Santiago (see Figure 7).
Other r.c. buildings in Santiago with minor damage are
Sol Oriente (Figure 8) and Park Plaza (Figure 9). In
Viña del Mar, some r.c. structures (Figure 10), located
in a very concentrated area, suffered some significant
damage. It can be due to the combination of two dif-
ferent main causes: the presence of the Marga Marga
fault and the insufficiency of construction details.
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
in
Figure 10. Damage in the Festival (up), Rio Imperial
(center) and other buildings (down) in Viña del Mar.
Figure 11. Santiago, The Divina Providencia Church.
Figure 12. Santiago, The El Salvador Church.
3.2 Historic buildings
This construction, mainly made of masonry, timber,
adobe, and sometimes with other additional materials,
suffered evident damages in all the places visited, get-
ting heavier towards the epicenter, but also remarkable
in cities enough far from it, as Santiago and Valparaiso.
Figures 11–20 show some of them (mainly churches)
investigated during the survey.
The lack of specific codes in Chile for cultural
heritage is an open question.
Therefore, the Italian team took some official con-
tacts in order to develop in the future, together with
385
 Figure 13. Valparaiso, The Doce Apostoles Church.
Figure 14. Rancagua, The Catedral Church.
Figure 15. Rancagua, The San Francisco Church.
Figure 16. Talca, The Maria Ausiliadora Church.
Figure 17. Talca, The Corazon de Maria Church.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 18. Yumbel, The San Sebastian Church.
Figure 19. Schwager, The Jesus Obrero Church.
Figure 20. Constitucion, The Catedral Church.
Chilean experts, targeted rules and guidelines for the
heritage seismic improvement, in agreement with the
conservation criteria, taking advantage of previous
cooperation running since 2004 (MAR VASTO 2007;
Indirli 2009; Indirli et al. 2010a; Indirli & Apablaza
2010).
The Italian team also investigated with particular
accuracy the three churches located in Valparaiso (San
Francisco del Baron, Hermanas de la Providencia, La
Matriz, see MAR VASTO 2007; Indirli 2009; Indirli
et al. 2010; Indirli & Apablaza 2010) object of pre-
vious studies. Among them, the first one (Figure 21)
had been selected in 2009 for a safety intervention, due
to its precarious conditions (Indirli et al. 2010b). After
the last earthquake, previous cracks worsened and new
ones appeared, in spite of the moderate Peak Ground
Acceleration (PGA  0.2 g) experienced by the struc-
ture with the 2010 earthquake (Saragoni 2010b). In
Figure 21. Valparaiso, San Francisco del Baron.

Figure 23. Adobe structure in Rancagua.

Figure 22. Adobe structure in Valparaiso and Viña del Mar.

the present condition, the safety intervention should be Figure 24. Adobe structure in Curico.
done immediately. Therefore, the Chilean Authorities
are now providing the funds and entrusting the work.

3.3 The historic centers

All the historic centers (spared by past earthquakes and
not reconstructed with modern techniques), investi-
gated by the Italian mission, showed an overall damage
in the adobe constructions. It is worth noticing that
this category includes in Chile a huge variety of struc- Figure 25. Adobe structure in Talca.
tural elements (timber, brick and stone masonry, pure
earth, other materials, often mixed together) with dif-
ferent resistance to horizontal loads, and rare presence
of strengthening devices. Figures 22–26 show some
examples met during the survey.
A very debated question in Chile now is how to
avoid the complete demolition of this kind of still
remaining construction, unable to withstand strong
earthquakes, but testimony of history and culture.
Therefore, new research and dissemination of
achieved results should drive to the urgent realiza-
tion of emblematic pilot interventions (in Chile and in Figure 26. Adobe structure in Cobquecura.
whole Latin America), foreseeing simple and effective
improvement techniques for adobe structures. Valparaiso has been done by members of the Italian
team (MAR VASTO 2007; Indirli 2009; Indirli et al.
2010a; Indirli & Apablaza 2010). The tsunami damage
4 THE TSUNAMI DAMAGE originated by the February 27, 2010 seismic event has
been very impressive, with wave heights (until 12 m
Sea inundations happened in Chile several times in and parallel to the coastal line) which destroyed almost
the past. A detailed study on tsunami scenarios in completely several fishermen and touristic villages,

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 29. Comparison between the L’Aquila April 6, 2009
and Chile February 27, 2010 seismic events.
Figure 27. Tsunami damage in Talcahuano.

Figure 30. Out-of-plane collapse mechanisms.

Figure 28. Tsunami damage in Constitucion.

but also parts of towns as Talcahuano and Constitu-

cion. The water run-up, coming in until 10 km inside
the land, was responsible of almost one half of the Figure 31. In-plane collapse mechanisms.
casualties. The pictures of Figures 27–28 have been
selected from data of various sources, as the direct
survey, websites, Saragoni (2010a), and Mottadelli
(2010). Certainly, the place with the most impact, due
both by the earthquake and the tsunami, has been the
town of Constitucion, about two hundreds km North
from the epicenter.

5 A COMPARISON WITH L’AQUILA EVENT

Thanks to the courtesy of Prof. Rodolfo Saragoni Figure 32. Roof-pushing mechanisms.
(Saragoni 2010a), a comparison between L’Aquila
April 6, 2009 and Chile February 27, 2010 seismic
events can be done (Figure 29). Even if the gap in
dimension (450 × 200 vs 26 × 11 km, almost 20 times
more), magnitude (8.8 vs 6.3) and duration (150s
vs 15s, ten times more) is enormous, the Maximum
Intensity reached in Abruzzo was a higher (X vs IX).
It is probably due to the combination of shal-
low focal depth and near-field effects, with L’Aquila
historic center located exactly on the rupture fault.
Moreover, also the quality of the construction (mod-
ern and historic) plaid an important role. In any case,
significant parallelisms can be done with regards to
heritage damage mechanisms (Figures 30–33). Figure 33. Damage mechanisms in churches.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
REFERENCES
Indirli M., 2009. The organization of a GIS database on nat-
ural hazards and structural vulnerability for the historic
center of San Giuliano di Puglia (Italy) and the City of
Valparaiso (Chile). In International Journal of Architec-
tural Heritage, Vol. 3, N. 4, October–December 2009.
Indirli M., Razafindrakoto H., Romanelli F., Puglisi C.,
Lanzoni L., Milani E., Munari M., Apablaza S., 2010a.
Hazard evaluation in Valparaiso: the MAR VASTO
Project. Pure and Applied Geophysics, 2010, in press.
Indirli M., Modena C., Munari M., Tralli A., Milani E.,
2010b. An antiseismic prompt safety intervention pro-
posal on the San Francisco del Baron Church in Valparaiso
(Chile), 14th European Conference on Earthquake Engi-
neering, Ohrid, Former Republic of Macedonia, August
30 – September 3, 2010.
Indirli M., Apablaza S., 2010. Heritage protection in
Valparaiso (Chile): The “Mar Vasto” project. Revista
Ingegneria de Costruccion, ISSN-0716-2952 (print),
389
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
ISSN-0718-5073 (on line), n. 1, Vol. 25, April 2010,
Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, in press.
Italian Mission, 2010. Italian Mission in Chile after the
February 27, 2010 earthquake. Investigation Report. In
progress, 2010.
MARVASTO, 2007. Risk Management inValparaíso/Manejo
de Riesgos en Valparaíso, Servicios Técnicos (acronym
MAR VASTO), funded by BID/IDB (Banco Inter-
Americano de Desarrollo/Inter-American Development
Bank). Project ATN/II-9816-CH, BID/IDB-ENEA, Con-
tract PRM.7.035.00-C, March 2007-October 2008,
http://www. marvasto.bologna.enea.it.
MottadelliA., 2010. Private communication in the framework
of the Italian mission, April 2010.
Saragoni Huerta R.G., 2010a. The February 27, 2010 Chilean
earthquake (El terremoto de Chile del 27 de Febrero 2010),
Presentation at the Italian Community, March 30, Santiago
2010.
Saragoni Huerta R.G., 2010b. Private communication in the
framework of the Italian mission, April 2010.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Seismic responses of continuous twin I-girder bridge using

three-dimensional modal pushover analysis procedure

An Hong Nguyen
Department of Civil Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Toshiro Hayashikawa
Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan

Chatpan Chintanapakdee
Department of Civil Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

ABSTRACT: Nonlinear static procedures are now widely used in engineering practice to evaluate seismic
responses of structure in the inelastic range. The main objective of this study is to assess the Modal Pushover
Analysis (MPA) procedure for seismic evaluation of bridges that requires a three-dimensional analysis procedure.
The spatial modal load patterns are applied to pushover analysis. The accuracy of MPA procedure for seismic
evaluation of an existing continuous twin I-girder bridge with PC slab was assessed due to a set of 20 strong
ground motions. Different bearing supports of the bridge are also considered in this study. The MPA estimates
are compared to results from nonlinear response history analysis as well as conventional pushover analysis. The
results presented show that the MPA procedure slightly underestimates peak seismic responses compared to
results from Nonlinear Response History Analysis (NL-RHA) while the one ‘mode’ pushover analysis fails to
identify seismic demands in the transverse direction of the studied bridge.

1 INTRODUCTION and Goel, 2002; Chintanapakdee and Chopra, 2003a;

Nonlinear response history analysis (NL-RHA) is a
powerful tool for study of structural seismic responses.
The seismic performance of structures can be esti-
mated accurately due to a set of ground motions.
However, NL-RHA is an onerous task to estimate
seismic demands due to its complexity for practical
design applications. Therefore, approximate proce-
dures (known as nonlinear static procedures) which are
rooted in structural dynamic theory were developed as
an alternative to rigorous NL-RHA. Nonlinear static
procedures (NSPs) using the lateral force distributions
recommended in ATC-40 (ATC, 1996) and the FEMA-
356 (ASCE, 2000) documents are now widely used
in engineering practice. These NSPs based on invari-
ant load patterns provide accurate seismic demand
estimates only for low- and medium-rise moment-
frame buildings where contributions of higher ‘modes’
response are not significant and inadequate to pre-
dict inelastic seismic demands in buildings when
the higher ‘modes’ contribute to the response. To
overcome these limitations, a multi-mode pushover
procedure called modal pushover analysis (MPA) was
proposed by Chopra and Goel (2002) to include con-
tributions of higher ‘modes’. The MPA procedure has
been demonstrated to increase accuracy of seismic
demand estimation in taller moment-frame buildings
compared to conventional pushover analysis (Chopra
Chopra and Chintanapakdee, 2004; and Chopra et al.,
2004).
These researches focused mainly on two-
dimensional analysis of buildings while corresponding
works on three-dimensional analysis and bridges have
been very limited. Recently, an extension of modal
pushover analysis procedure to seismic assessment of
bridges was proposed by Paraskeva et al. (2006). The
main goal of this study is to propose the displacement
monitoring points of the bridge. At the same time as
Paraskeva et al. (2006), a displacement-based adap-
tive pushover for assessment of buildings and bridges
was developed by Pinho et al. (2006). This method is
an extended version of adaptive pushover which takes
into account both the contributions of higher ‘modes’
to response and the redistribution of inertia forces due
to structural yielding and associated changes in vibra-
tion properties. A number of idealized bridges were
analyzed to verify this procedure. In these studies, the
finite element models of the bridges were simplified.
Therefore, these simple models may not able to capture
the torsional and vertical vibrations of the deck of the
bridges and their seismic behaviors may not represent
for the actual bridges.
One of critical steps of multi-mode pushover pro-
cedures is to select the displacement monitoring point,
which is usually the roof when buildings are ana-
lyzed. The selection of the monitoring point affects the

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 shape of the pushover curve in the inelastic range. For
bridges, intuitive selections for the monitoring point
are the centre of deck mass or the top of the near-
est pier to it as recommendation by CEN (2004). It
can be also selected as the point of the deck which is
determined from the properties of the structure recom-
mended by Paraskeva et al. (2006). Another proposal
for the displacement monitoring point of single col-
umn bent viaducts is at the maximum displacement of
the superstructure as recommended by Isakovic and
Figure 1. (a) Pushover curve and (b) the nth-‘mode’inelastic
Fischinger (2006).
SDF system curve.
The main objective of this study is to assess the
modal pushover analysis procedure for seismic evalu-
modal frequency ωn . The nth-‘mode’ inelastic
ation of bridges that requires a three-dimensional anal-
SDF system is defined by the force–deformation
ysis procedure. The monitoring displacement, which
curve of Figure 1b (with post-yield stiffness
is the roof displacement in building analysis proce-
ratio αn ) and damping ratio ζn specified for the
dure, is proposed to take into account the contributions
nth ‘mode’. Where Mn∗ = n Ln is the effective
of torsional and vertical vibrations of bridges. An φT mι
investigation on the accuracy of MPA procedure for modal mass, Ln = φnT mι, n = φTnmφ , and each
n n
seismic evaluation of an existing continuous twin I- element of the influence vector ι that has the same
girder bridge with PC slab was assessed due to a direction as the ground motion is equal to unity.
set of 20 strong ground motions. The peak modal (5) Peak value of deformation, Dn ≡ max|Dn (t)|, of
responses are combined by using both Square-Root- ∀t
the equivalent inelastic SDF system of nth ‘mode’
of-Sum-of-Squares (SRSS) and Complete Quadratic
(with force–deformation relation of Figure 1b)
Combination (CQC) rules.
due to ground excitation üg (t), are determined
rigorously by nonlinear response history analysis
(NL-RHA) to solve Equation (1) instead of using
capacity spectrum method (CSM) recommended
2 MODAL PUSHOVER ANALYSIS FOR
by ATC-40.
SEISMIC EVALUATION OF BRIDGE

To assess the applicability of MPA procedure, which

was found to provide good results for buildings, to
the case of bridges, a MPA procedure to estimate the (6) Calculate the peak monitoring displacement umno
seismic demands for bridges is presented as a sequence associated with the nth-‘mode’ inelastic SDF
of steps: system from Equation (2).

(1) Compute the natural frequencies, ωn , and mode

shape vectors, φn , for linearly elastic vibration
modes of the three-dimensional structure.
(2) For the nth-‘mode’, develop the pushover curve
(capacity curve), the relationship between base-
shear and displacement of the monitoring point
(Vbn − umn ), by nonlinear static analysis of
the bridge using the spatial force distribu-
tion s∗n = mφn where m is the mass matrix of
the structure. Gravity loads are applied before
each pushover analysis, and P −  effects are
included. The displacement monitoring point of
the bridge for the nth-‘mode’ is proposed at the
degree of freedom of mode shape whose value is
maximum to take into account the contributions
of torsional and vertical vibrations of bridges.
(3) Idealize the pushover curve as a bilinear curve
(Figure 1a).
(4) Convert the idealized pushover curve to the
force–deformation (Fsn /Ln − Dn ) relation of the
nth-‘mode’ inelastic single-degree-of-freedom
(SDF) system by using Fsny /Ln = Vbny /Mn∗ ;
Dny = umny / n φmn in which φmn is the value of
φn at the monitoring point in correlative vibra-
tion direction of mode; and determine the elastic
(7) The response quantities of interest (displace-
ments of deck, piers or pylons, plastic hinge
rotations, internal forces, etc.), rn+g , are evaluated
by extracting from the pushover database when
the displacement of monitoring point equals to
umno due to the combined effects of gravity and
lateral loads.
(8) Repeat Steps 2–7 for as many ‘modes’as required
for sufficient accuracy.
(9) Compute the dynamic response due to the nth-
mode: rn = rn+g − rg , where rg is the contribution
of gravity load alone.
(10) Determine the total response rMPA by combin-
ing the peak ‘modal’ responses using appropriate
modal combination rule, e.g., SRSS [Equation
(3)] or CQC [Equation (4)] rules.

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Figure 2. Configuration of Chidorinosawa river bridge.
Figure 3. Finite element model of the studied bridge.
where the correlation coefficient ρin is given by:
in which βin = ωi /ωn is the ratio of the ith and nth
modal frequencies, and ζi and ζn are the damping ratios
for these modes.
3 STRUCTURAL SYSTEM
3.1 Analytical model of the bridge
An existing continuous twin I-girder bridge with PC
slab was analyzed to evaluate the bias and accuracy of
modal pushover analysis procedure. The bridge con-
sidered in this study is Chidorinosawa river bridge
which has four spans with two steel main girders and
concrete slab (Tamura et al., 1998). These I-girders
have lower structural damping and less torsional stiff-
ness than conventional plate girder bridges. This type
of bridge is commonly used in Japan because of the
simplicity of its fabrication and construction, speed
of erection as well as low cost for maintenance. The
selected bridge is 194 m total length with three piers
whose height varies from 32 m to 34 m along the
length. The configuration of this bridge is shown in
Figure 2.
The three-dimensional finite element model of the
selected bridge is created by using appropriate ele-
ments. The piers are modeled as a series of frame
elements. ATC-32 (1996a–b) suggested that a min-
imum of three elements per bent should be used.
However, the piers are modeled by using twenty ele-
ments to represent long piers in this study. Plastic
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
hinges and shear failures are considered for all girder,
pier and crossbeam elements. The three-dimensional
P-M-M interaction yield surface proposed by El-Tawil
and Deierlein (2001a–b) was used. Cross-section prop-
erties of girders and piers were defined using bilinear
moment-rotation relationships for each P-M plan with
1% post-yield stiffness ratio. Rayleigh damping was
used with 2% damping ratios for the first two modes,
according to common practice for code designed steel
structures (Julian et al., 2006). P− effect was also
considered for this study. Nonlinear static and dynamic
analyses were carried out using a combination of
computer program PERFORM 3D (CSi, 2006) and
MATLAB (2007). The finite element model of the
studied bridge is shown in Figure 3.
3.2 Bearing supports
Two cases were considered in this study: a first case
in which the superstructure is supported on steel bear-
ings (S), and the second case in which the deck has
been seismically isolated with Lead Rubber Bearings
(LRBs). In the viaduct equipped with steel bearings
(S), fixed bearings are installed on all piers and steel
roller bearing supports are applied at both end of the
bridge to allow for movement in the longitudinal direc-
tion while restrained in the transverse direction. For the
isolated case, the superstructure is supported on three
piers (P1, P2 and P3) by LRBs. The LRBs used in this
study is L1 representing the small bearing. The prop-
erties of L1 LRB can be found in Julian et al. (2006).
The orientation of the LRBs is such that they allow for
longitudinal and transverse movements. The LRBs are
represented by the trilinear force-displacement hys-
teresis loop shown in Figure 4. This trilinear model is

Figure 4. Trilinear analytical model of LRB bearing
support.
Figure 5. Pseudo-acceleration spectra of LMSR ground
motions.
capable of accurately capture the large strain harden-
ing behaviour and, due to its simplicity, enables an easy
implementation with efficient use of computational
effort (Morishita et al., 2002).
4 EARTHQUAKE GROUND MOTIONS
The seismic excitation is defined by a set of
20 LMSR (Large-Magnitude-Small-distance) records.
These ground motions were obtained from Califor-
nia earthquakes of magnitude ranging from 6.6 to 6.9
recorded at distances of 13 to 30 km on firm soil
(NEHRP site class D) and presented by Chintana-
pakdee and Chopra (2003b). The pseudo-acceleration
for the set of ground motions is shown in Figure 5
together with the median spectra (black solid lines).
These ground motions was applied in both horizon-
tal directions of the bridge, namely transverse and
longitudinal directions.
5 EVALUATION OF MPA PROCEDURE
The extension of MPA procedure was implemented
in estimating seismic demands of the selected bridge
due to the set of LMSR ground motions. The bias and
accuracy of this procedure are evaluated by a com-
parison of displacements, hinge rotations and internal
forces with results from nonlinear response history
analysis (NL-RHA) which can be considered as ‘exact’
results. Pushover curves (which show the relationships
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 6. First ‘mode’ pushover curves of the bridge with
steel bearings in the longitudinal and transverse directions.
between base shear force and monitoring displace-
ment) based on modal load patterns were performed in
the longitudinal and transverse directions of the bridge.
For the bridge considered in this study, the natural
vibrations in the longitudinal and vertical directions
are usually coupled while the transverse and torsional
vibrations are combined. Figure 6 shows the pushover
curves calculated by applying the modal load patterns
of the first modes in the longitudinal and transverse
directions of the bridge with steel bearings (referring to
the displacement monitoring points where the degree
of freedom of mode shape whose value is maximum).
The peak displacements of the deck determined by
NL-RHA due to 20 LMSR ground motions in both
directions are also shown in Figure 6. The bridge was
driven far into the inelastic range in most of cases.
The responses of the studied bridge to the selected
ground motions were determined by extension of MPA
procedure and also by NL-RHA. For buildings design,
it is recommended that MPA considers as many modes
as to include participating mass at least 90% of the total
mass (usually the first two or three modes for build-
ings shorter than 10 stories). However, the number of
modes required to capture 90% of the total mass is far
too many in the case of bridges. It will need consid-
eration of 50 modes to capture 90% of the total mass
in transverse direction of the bridge considered in this
study. It is also found in this study that the contribution
of modes whose effective modal mass is very low (say
less than 0.1%) is not significant. Therefore, to avoid
a large computation, the contributions of the first 6
‘modes’ in the longitudinal direction and the first 10
‘modes’ in transverse direction whose effective modal
mass is larger than 0.1% were considered to estimate
the seismic demands of the studied bridges. For the
bridge with steel bearings, the 95.6% and 86.66% of
the total mass have been included in the longitudinal
and transverse directions, respectively. The 95.85%
and 86.21% of the total mass have been included in
the longitudinal and transverse directions in case of
the LRB bearing supports, respectively. The combined
values of displacements, internal forces, and hinge
rotation were computed by using SRSS or CQC modal
combination rules.
5.1 Peak displacements
The median peak displacement responses of the bridge
with steel bearings subjected to LMSR ground motions
Figure 7. Median peak displacements of the bridge with steel bearings determined by one ‘mode’ pushover analysis, MPA
and NL-RHA due to LMSR ground motions.
Figure 8. Median errors of (a) longitudinal displacements, (b) transverse displacements, (c) vertical displacements and
(d) rotations of the deck of the bridge with steel bearings.
from two analysis procedures are compared in Fig-
ure 7; the results from pushover analysis including only
fundamental mode (conventional pushover analysis)
are also shown. The results show that the contribu-
tions of higher modes in estimating the peak transverse
displacements and rotations of the deck are signifi-
cant (Figure 7b–d). The peak transverse displacements
and rotations of the deck predicted by MPA are able
to capture the NL-RHA results while fundamental
mode pushover analysis is inadequate. On the contrary,
including response contribution of higher modes in
estimating the peak longitudinal and vertical displace-
ments is indifferent (Figure 7a–c). This can easily be
understood that the longitudinal vibration of the bridge
is dominated by the longitudinal fundamental mode
whose effective modal mass of the first mode alone is
91.3% and the bridge behaves very much like a SDF
system.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 8 shows the median error in estimating dis-
placements of the bridge with steel bearings. It can be
seen that the MPA procedure can accurately estimate
displacements of the deck of the bridge. The bias is
generally less than 10% in the cases of the longitu-
dinal, vertical and transverse directions and 20% in
estimating rotation of the deck. The MPA estimates
combined by CQC are slightly more accurate than by
SRSS rule. This is because the modes are coupled.
Nevertheless, the couplings of modes are not signi-
ficant for the first few modes in this case. Both MPA
using SRSS and CQC (MPA-SRSS, MPA-CQC) can
estimate the peak displacement reasonably well with a
tendency to slightly underestimate peak displacements
compared to NL-RHA. On the contrary, the bias of
one ‘mode’ pushover analysis in estimating transverse
displacements or rotation of the deck can be large,
especially near both ends of the bridge.
 Figure 9. The pier drift of the bridge with LRB bearings due to record number 1 (LP89agw) of the set of LMSR ground
motions.
Figure 10. Median internal forces and hinge rotations at the base of the piers of the bridge with steel bearings due to the set
of LMSR ground motions.
The pier drift of the studied bridge equipped with
LRB supports due to an individual ground motion,
record number 1 (LP89agw) of the set of LMSR
ground motions, is presented in Figure 9. Similar to
investigation of the peak displacements, the pier drift
of the bridge predicted by MPA is able to capture
the NL-RHA result while fundamental mode pushover
analysis is inadequate.
5.2 Internal forces and hinge rotations
Figure 10 shows the median internal forces and hinge
rotations at the base of the piers of the studied
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
bridge with steel bearings due to the set of LMSR
ground motions. Similar to investigation of the peak
displacements, the contributions of higher modes
in estimating the peak bending moments and shear
forces of the piers when subjected to excitation
in the transverse direction are significant (Figure
10b–f). The conventional pushover analysis slightly
underestimates internal forces and hinge rotations in
the longitudinal direction (Figure 10a–c–e–g) but it
fails in estimating seismic responses of the bridge
in transverse direction while both MPA-SRSS and
MPA-CQC are able to capture the NL-RHA results
(Figure 10b–f).
Figure 11. Median errors of (a) moment about y-axis, (b) moment about x-axis, (c) hinge rotation about y-axis, (d) hinge
rotation about x-axis, (e) shear along x-axis, (f) shear along y-axis, and (g) axial force at the base of the piers of the bridge
with steel bearings.

Figure 11 shows the median error of the internal
forces and hinge rotations at the base of the piers of
the studied bridge with steel bearings. The bias of MPA
procedure in estimating internal forces at the base of
the piers are less than 5% and 10% when subjected to
excitation in the longitudinal and transverse directions,
respectively. However, the bias of MPA in estimating
hinge rotations at the base of the piers can be as large
as 30%. This is consistent with the intuition that the
local quantities, for example, hinge rotations, are less
accurately estimated than global quantities, for exam-
ple, the peak deck displacements; especially when the
bridge was driven far into the inelastic range and more
inelastic deformations have occurred and led to large
bias of MPA.
The shear forces along x- and y-axes in LRBs
of the bridge with LRB bearings predicted by one
‘mode’ pushover analysis, MPA and determined by
NL-RHA due to record number 1 (LP89agw) of the
set of LMSR ground motions are shown in Figure 12.
Similar to investigation of the internal forces of the
bridge equipped with steel bearings, the contributions
of higher modes in estimating the shear forces of the
LRBs when subjected to excitation are significant. The
MPA estimates are able to capture the NL-RHA results.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The following conclusions are obtained from the
assessment of MPA procedure in estimating seismic
demands of an existing continuous twin I-girder bridge
using LMSR set of ground motions. These conclusions
are based on a comparison of MPA estimates of seis-
mic demands and corresponding values determined by
NL-RHA.
(1) The one ‘mode’ pushover analysis predicts well
the peak displacements and internal forces only
in the longitudinal direction (first longitudinal
mode dominated), but it fails to identify seismic
demands in the transverse direction of the bridge.
(2) The contributions of higher modes in estimat-
ing the peak seismic demands of the bridge
in transverse direction are significant. Both
the MPA-SRSS and MPA-CQC procedures can
estimate the peak displacements and internal

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 12. Shear forces along x- and y-axes in LRBs of the bridge equipped with LRB supports due to record number 1
(LP89agw) of the set of LMSR ground motions.
forces reasonably well with a tendency to slightly
underestimate responses when compared to
NL-RHA.
(3) The bias of MPA in estimating the peak displace-
ments is generally small; however, the bias of
MPA in estimating hinge rotations at the piers
can be large for certain locations.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial
support provided by JICA through theASEAN Univer-
sity Network / Southeast Asia Engineering Education
Development Network (AUN/SEED-Net) program.
REFERENCES
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) 2000. Pre-
standard and commentary for the seismic rehabilitation
of buildings. Washington, D.C: Federal Emergency Man-
agement Agency, FEMA-356.
ATC-32 1996a. Improved seismic design criteria for Cal-
ifornia bridges: Provisional recommendation. Applied
Technology Council, Redwood City, California.
ATC-32 1996b. Improved seismic design criteria for Cali-
fornia bridges: Resource document. Applied Technology
Council, Redwood City, California.
ATC-40 1996. Seismic evaluation and retrofit of concrete
buildings: Volumes 1 and 2. Report no. ATC-40, Applied
Technology Council, Redwood City, California.
CEN 2004.EC8/2-Eurocode 8: Design of structures for earth-
quake resistance – part 2: bridges. prEN 1998-2:200X
draft 5(pr Stage 51), CEN, Brussels.
Chintanapakdee, C. and Chopra, A.K. 2003a. Evalua-
tion of modal pushover analysis using generic frames.
Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics 32(3):
417–442.
Chintanapakdee, C. and Chopra, A.K. 2003b. Evaluation of
the modal pushover analysis procedure using vertically
“regular” and irregular generic frames. Report no. EERC
2003-03, Earthquake Engineering and Research Center,
California: University of California, Berkeley.
Chopra, A.K. and Chintanapakdee, C. 2004. Evaluation of
modal and FEMA pushover analyses: vertically “regular”
398
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
and irregular generic frames. Earthquake Spectra 20(1):
255–271.
Chopra, A.K. and Goel, R.K. 2002. A modal pushover anal-
ysis procedure for estimating seismic demands for build-
ings. Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics
31(3): 561–582.
Chopra, A.K., Goel, R.K., and Chintanapakdee, C. 2004.
Evaluation of a modified MPA procedure assuming higher
modes as elastic to estimate seismic demands. Earthquake
Spectra 20(3): 757–778.
Computers and Structures Inc. (CSi) 2006. PERFORM
3D: Nonlinear Analysis and Performance Assessment for
3D Structures. Computers and Structures Inc.: Berkeley,
California.
El-Tawil, S., and Deierlein, G.G. 2001a. Nonlinear anal-
yses of mixed steel-concrete moment frames, Part I:
Beam-column element formulation. Journal of Structural
Engineering, ASCE 127(6): 647–655.
El-Tawil, S., and Deierlein, G.G. 2001b. Nonlinear anal-
yses of mixed steel-concrete moment frames, Part II:
Implementation and verification. Journal of Structural
Engineering, ASCE 127(6): 656–665.
Isakovic, T., and Fischinger, M. 2006. Higher modes in
simplified inelastic seismic analysis of single column
bent viaducts. Earthquake Engineering and Structural
Dynamics 35: 95–114.
Julian, F.D.R., Hayashikawa, T., and Obata, T. 2006. Seismic
performance of isolated curved steel viaducts equipped
with deck unseating prevention cable restrainers. Journal
of Constructional Steel Research 63(2): 237–253.
MATLAB 2007. The Language of Technical Computing, Ver-
sion R2007a. The Mathworks Inc., Natick, Massachusetts.
Morishita, N., Maeno, H., Mori, N., and Ouchi, H. 2002.
Experiments and applications of seismic characteristics
of isolation bearings in urban highway viaducts. Bridge
and Foundations 3: 39–46. (in Japanese)
Paraskeva, T.S., Kappos, A. J., and Sextos, A. G. 2006.
Extension of modal pushover analysis to seismic assess-
ment of bridges. Earthquake Engineering and Structural
Dynamics, 35(3): 1269–1293.
Pinho, R., Antoniou, S., Casarotti, C., and Lopez, M. 2006.
A displacement-based adaptive pushover for assessment
of buildings and bridges. Advances in Earthquake Engi-
neering for Urban Risk Reduction 66: 79–94.
Tamura, Y., Kawashiri, K., Ohgaki, K., and Sakugawa, K.
1998. Design of Chidorinosawa river bridge – A continu-
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Foundation 9: 18–22. (in Japanese)
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

The influence of piers on the dynamic behavior of bridges subjected

to earthquake acting in parallel to the deck

I.G. Raftoyiannis, T.G. Konstantakopoulos & G.T. Michaltsos

Laboratory of Steel Structures, Department of Civil Engineering, National Technical University of Athens,
Athens, Greece

ABSTRACT: In this paper, a simple model for studying the dynamic response of multi-span steel bridges on
pylons with different heights, subjected to the action of earthquake motion acting in parallel to deck and varying
spatially is presented. The analysis is carried out with the use of modal analysis technique while the solution
of the gathered integral-differential equations is obtained using the successive approximations technique. It has
been found that the piers’ height and the quality of the foundation soil are affecting significantly the dynamical
behavior of such bridges. Illustrative examples are presented and useful conclusions are gathered.

1 INTRODUCTION Mathematica symbolic manipulator. Illustrative exam-

Strong earthquake motion is a usual phenomenon.
Spatial variability of strong earthquake motion over
small distances is also likely to occur in long struc-
tures. This variation in the temporal and frequency
characteristics of ground motion produces in long-
span structures, forces, which are absent in structures
subjected to uniform excitation. Significant factors
such as: the absence of homogeneity of the ground
material, the nature of the propagating wave of seis-
mic excitation which leads to different arrival times at
the supports, the decay of the wave amplitude within
small distances due to a possibly existing fault and
due to geometric and material energy dissipation, and
variable ground conditions leading to different surface
motions along the structure are strongly affecting this
spatial variability. With reference to bridges, the effect
of non-uniform seismic excitation on the response of
the structure has been studied extensively for more
than two decades. One must refer to the works of Bog-
danoff et al. (1965), Zerva (1990), Abrahamson et al.
(1991), Betti et al. (1993), Price & Eberhard (1998).
Part 2 of Eurocode 8 refers to bridges (EC8-2 2002)
and suggests that one must take into account the influ-
ence of the pylon’s height on the bridge-deck dynamic
behavior without any further comments or instruc-
tions. In this paper, with reference to wave passage
and soil structure interaction effects, a simple model
is developed to analyze the response of long bridges
resting on tall or short pylons and subjected to spatially
varying ground motion. The so-considered system,
where shear deformation is neglected, can be ana-
lyzed as a bridge-deck continuous beam (with known
eigenshapes Un , Xn and eigenfrequencies ωn ), and a
cantilever beam regarding the pylons (with also known
eigenshapes X n and eigenfrequencies ωn ). The result-
ing expressions are calculated numerically using the
ples are given showing the effectiveness of the method,
and useful results are concluded.
2 BASIC ASSUMPTIONS
a. The bridge, shown in Fig. 1, is resting on a num-
ber of pylons that are either fixed or hinged to the
ground. We assume that each pylon has a differ-
ent displacement at its base that for the ith pylon is
denoted as fi (t).
b. The axial and shear deformations are neglected.
c. We assume that the top of the ith pylon moves
according to the time function ϕi (t), which has to
be determined.
d. All property and material data regarding the pylons
will be outlined within the text.
e. The considered system can be analyzed as a bridge-
deck continuous beam shown in Fig. 3a, with
known eigenshapes Un and eigenfrequencies ωn ,
and in the single pylon beam (Fig. 3b).
f. The “influence functions” gi (x) of the bridge with
unit displacement at the supports i are also known.
g. The time functions fi are known, while functions ϕi
will be determined.
h. The axial motion of the continuous beam-deck sys-
tem is not affected by the bending and torsional
motions (uncoupled system).
3 ANALYTICAL MODEL
3.1 Governing equations of motion
Neglecting the effect of damping, the equations of
motion are the following:

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 Figure 1. A typical bridge on high pylons moving
differently.
Figure 2. Equilibrium in the (j) node.
where P(t) is the axial force caused by the axial
motion.
3.2 The axial motion
For the (j − 1) − j span, the total elongation or shorten-
ing will be (j − 1) j = ϕj − ϕj − 1 , and the correspond-
ing axial force at the node (j), will be:
At the top of the pylon (j), the developed shear force
will be:
The equilibrium of the forces acting at the (j)
node (Fig. 2) gives: −Pj − Vj + Pj + 1 = 0. The above
relation, due to Eqs (2) and (3), becomes:
−αj (ϕj − ϕj − 1 ) − βj (ϕj − fj ) + αj+1 (ϕj+1 − ϕj ) = 0
or finally:
Therefore, the displacements ϕj (j = 1 to κ) can be
determined solving the following linear system:
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 3. Analysis of the entire bridge-deck beam and in
the pylon beam system.
Let us consider now the beam-deck as shown in Fig. 3a.
The total axial displacement of the deck’s beam, will
be: u(x, t) = ust (x, t) + uo (x, t), or
where ust , is the displacement of the beam as a solid, uo
is the so called elastic deformation, gj are the influence
functions for unit axial displacement of (j) support, and
ϕj (t) the time functions, given by the solution of the
system of Eqs (5).
The equation of axial motion of the deck beam is E
A u (x, t) − m ü(x, t) = 0.
Introducing u(x,t) from Eq.(6) into the above equa-
tion we obtain:
We are searching for a solution under the form:
where Un (x), are the shape functions of the beam in
axial vibrations and Tn (t) are functions of t, under
determination. Because of Eq. (8), Eq. (7) gives:
Since Un satisfies the equation of free motion
E A U  + mωαn
2
Un = 0, Eq. (9) will take the following
form:
and finally:
The above Eq. (10), has the following solution:
3.3 The flexural motion
The bending moment is caused by:
a. The action of the developed axial force:
b. The reactions of the supports, acting on the deck
eccentrically with eccentricity ez and producing the
concentrated moments M at x = xj :
Introducing Eqs (12a) and (12b) into Eq. (1b), we have
the following equation of motion:
where δ is the Dirac function and:
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Since the bending moment M depends mainly on the
eccentricity of the supports’ reaction, one can neglect
the first term of the right side member in Eq. (13a). The
time function obtained by the solution of the equation
that results according to the above method can be used
as a first approximating function for a more accurate
study of the bending motion (Krasnov et al. 1971).
Thus, the first step will be the solution of the following
equation:
We are searching for a solution under the form:
where Xk (x) are the shape functions of the beam and
k (t) are unknown time functions under determina-
tion. Introducing Eq. (15) into Eq. (14), multiplying by
Xm , integrating the outcome from 0 to L, and using the
orthogonality conditions (Lovitt 1924), we conclude to
the following equation for the mth time function:
or finally:
The solution of the above equation is given by the
Duhamel’s integral as follows:
The second step will be the introduction of the above
found time function m (t) into the right side member
of Eq. (13a), which becomes as follows:
We are searching for a solution under the form:
where k (t) is the second step (new) time function
under determination. Following a similar to the above
process for the determination of m , we arrive to the
following differential equation:
The solution of Eq. (20) is given by the Duhamel’s
integral:
4 NUMERICAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In this section, we shall apply the above relations to
the following three characteristic cases. The first case
refers to a single-span bridge with supports moving
differently. The second case refers to a two-span bridge
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whose middle support lies on cantilever type pier with
heights h1 , while all supports are moving in the same
way. In this second case we shall study the influence of
the pier’s height on the dynamic behavior of the bridge.
Finally, in the third case, a three-span bridge on piers
of different height will be studied.
We prefix some basic principles regarding the sup-
ports movement. We assume that the supports 0 and
j of a bridge are moving differently according to the
following expressions:
where, for the studied cases a = 0.05, is the maximum
amplitude of the ground movement at the first pier, fj
is the movement at the jst pier and
is a coefficient showing the decrease of the ground
movement as the distance from the epicenter increases,
b = 0.2 is a constant expressing the damping of the
earthquake, ωe is the cycle frequency of the harmonic
seismic wave taking, in our case, values from 1 to 15,
and ρj is the phase angle due to the distance Lj between
the two supports 0 and j, given by the relation (Zerva
1999):
where v is the wave propagation velocity. The val-
ues of v depend on the ground and are 5.5 km/sec for
granite soil and 1.5 km/sec for mud soil. In this paper,
whose aim is the study of the piers’ different heights
and movements influence on the bridge’s dynamic
behavior and not to propose expressions for these
movements, the above simplest expressions (Zerva
1990, 1999) are preferred instead of the complicate
ones given in EC 8.
In the present study we will consider two values for
ωe : namely ωe = 3 sec−1 , that corresponds to a distant
source earthquake, and ωe = 15 sec−1 that corresponds
to a near source earthquake.
4.1 The single span bridge
We consider a single-span bridge made from isotropic
and homogeneous material with modulus of elasticity
E = 2.1∗ 108 KN/m2 , length L = 60 m, mass per unit
length m = 600 kg/m, moment inertia Iy = 0.60 m4 ,
and cross-sectional area A = 0.75 m2 . Thus, for
L = 60 m, the following data in Table 1 are valid.
In Figs 4 and 5 one can see the influence of
the ground quality on the seismic excitation and its
variation relatively to the supports distance.
For the axial motion, we easily find the eigen-
frequencies ωa1 = 134.132, ωa2 = 402.397, ωa3 =
670.661 sec−1 and from Eqs (6), (8), and (11), we
obtain the deformations u(x,t). In Fig. 6 one can see the
Table 1. Values of ρ and k for various soil types
v = 5500 m/sec v = 2500 m/sec v = 1500 m/sec
(granite) (mid-soil) (mud)
ρ k ρ k ρ k
ωe = 3 0.033 0.9992 0.072 0.9961 0.12 0.9892
ωe = 15 0.164 0.9798 0.36 0.9024 0.60 0.7257
Figure 4. The seismic excitation of the first support (con-
tinuous line), and of the second one for ω = 3 sec−1 ,
ρ = 0.033, k = 0.9992 (- - -) (granite), ρ = 0.072, k = 0.9961
(- - -) (middle), ρ = 0.12, k = 0.9892 (….) (mud).
Figure 5. The seismic excitation of the first support (contin-
uous line), and of the second one for ω = 15 sec−1 , ρ = 0.164,
k = 0.9798 (- - -) (granite), ρ = 0.36, k = 0.9024 (- - -)
(middle), ρ = 0.60, k = 0.7257 (….) (mud).
deformations u(L,t) of the right end of the bridge for
the case of mid-soil (continuous line) and for the case
of mud (dashed line). We observe that the amplitude
difference is negligible (∼0.5%).
For the flexural motion, we find: ωb1 = 12.563,
ωb2 = 50.254, and ωb3 = 113.071 sec−1 . From Eqs (15),
and (21), we get the deformations w(x,t).
In Fig. 7, one can see the deformations w(L/2,t)
at the middle of the bridge for the case of mid-soil
(continuous line) and for the case of mud (dashed line).
We observe that the influence of the ground qual-
ity on the amplitude increase is significant amounting
to ∼65%. Thus, non-cohesive soils produce greater
relative axial displacements between the two supports
and therefore the appeared reactions and correspond-
ing deformations are greater than the ones produced
in cohesive soils.
Now, it is easy to estimate the effect of the two func-
tions 1 and 2 , the summation of which constitutes
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 6. The axial movement of the right support of the
bridge for: mid-soil (___), and mud (_ _ _).
Figure 7. The flexural movement of the middle point of the
bridge for: mid-soil (___), and mud (_ _ _).
Figure 8. Contribution of the time functions 1 and 2 .
the time function m in Eq. (21). The plots in Fig. 8
provide a clear picture. We see that function 1 con-
tributes only the 0.003% of the total size of function
m , and thus it can be neglected.
4.2 The influence of the pier’s height (three-span
bridge).
We consider now a three-span bridge with a deck hav-
ing the same characteristics like those of the example
of §4.1 and spans of lengths L1 = 60 m, L2 = 70 m, and
L3 = 60 m, while its interim supports lie on the top of
piers with heights h1 and h2 . We assume, in addition,
that the motion of the ground (of mid-soil quality or
of mud), at the left support of the bridge is governed
by the equation: fo = a · e−bt sin ωe t, where a, b, ωe are
given in §4.1.
Thus for the support 1 we have k1 = 0.996,
ρ1 = 0.072 while for the support 2 we have k2 = 0.983,
ρ2 = 0.150 and for the support 3 we have k3 = 0.960,
ρ3 = 0.228.
For the study of the axial motion we find:
ωa1 = 42.358, ωa2 = 127.073, ωa3 = 211.788 sec−1 . In
the plots of Fig. 9, one can see the oscillations of the

Figure 9. The deformation of the deck supports of a bridge
on mid-soil for h1 = h2 = 2 m. uo ( __ __ ), u1 ( ___ ),
u2 (_ _ _ ), and u3 (….).
Figure 10. The deformed bridge deck at t = 1.50 ( ___ ),
t = 2.00 ( __ __ ), t = 2.50 ( _ _ _ ), and t = 3.00 ( ……).
four supports of the bridge deck on piers based on
mid-soil. For the study of the flexural motion we find:
ωb1 = 11.010, ωb2 = 15.724, ωb3 = 20.128 sec−1 . The
plots in Fig. 10 show the deformations of the bridge at
the instants t = 1.5, t = 2.0, t = 2.5, and t = 3.0 sec. We
observe that the middle span is deformed significantly
less than the other two spans.
5 CONCLUSIONS
A simple mathematical model is proposed for study-
ing the dynamic response of a multi span bridge on
piers of different heights under earthquake forces act-
ing in parallel to the deck. From the above analyses and
numerical examples, one can conclude the following:
a. The characteristics of the piers (height and rigidity)
strongly affect the oscillations of the bridge.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
b. The influence of the ground quality produces dif-
ferent movements of the supports and affects the
deformation of the bridge. The effect, for the model
studied, amounts to about 4%.
c. The increase of the piers height, for the models
studied, causes an increase of the deformations
amplitude in the order of 40% for Jpylon = 0.2,
while for piers with different heights this amplitude
increase drops to 10%.
From the above examples it becomes obvious that
following an optimum design for the pylons, one
can achieve a satisfactory decrease of the appearing
deformations and a better dynamic behavior of the
bridge.
REFERENCES
Abrahamson, N.A., Schneider, J.F., Stepp, J.C. (1991),
“Empirical spatial coherency functions for application to
soil-structures interaction analyses”, Earthquake Spectra,
7(1), 41–54.
Betti, R., Abdel-Ghaffar, A.M., Niazy, A.S. (1993), “Kine-
matic soil-structure interaction for long-span cable-
supported bridges”, Earthquake Eng & Struct Dynamics,
22(6), 415–430.
Bogdanoff, J.L., Goldberg, J.E., Schiff, A.J. (1965), “The
effect of ground transmission time on the response of long
structures”, Bull seismological Soc. of Am., 55, 627–640.
ENV 1998-2 2002, Eurocode 8-Part 2 (EC8-2): Bridges,
European Committee for Standardization, Brussels.
Krasnov, M., Kiselev A., Makarenko G. (1971), Problems and
exercises in integral equations. Mir Publishers, Moscow.
Lovitt, W.V. (1924), Linear Integral Equations, New York.
Michaltsos, G.T. (2005), Dynamic problems of Steel Bridges.
Ed. Symeon, Athens, (in Greek).
Price, T.E., Eberhard, M.O. (1998), “Effects of spatially vary-
ing ground motions on short bridges”, J Struct Engrg,
ASCE, 124(8), 948–955.
Wylie, C.R. (1975), Advanced Engineering Mathematics,
McGraw-Hill Kogakusha, Ltd, Tokyo.
Zerva, A. (1990), “Response of multi-span beams to spatially
incoherent seismic ground motions”, Earthquake Eng &
Struct Dynamics, 19(6), 819–832.
Zerva, A. (1999), “Spatial variability of seismic motions
recorded over extended ground surface areas”. Wave
motion in earthquake engineering, E. Kausel &
G. Manolis. Eds., MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

A model for limit state analysis of wooden structures

F. Ramundo & M.R. Migliore

Department of Civil Engineering, Second University of Naples, Italy

ABSTRACT: The evaluation of safety and of structural response under exceptional actions in the case of
wooden elements requires the implementation of numerical model that overcome classic mechanics taking into
account fracture mechanics since basic hypothesis as uniform stress distribution and homogeneity of the material
collapse. This approach is compelled because of the nature of this material, heterogeneous and anisotropic, and
because of the waste presence of defects where fracture phenomena can easily set up. The work present a FEM
model for the evaluation of fracture parameters and safety condition supported by laboratory mechanical tests
carried out on chestnut specimens under tensile loading condition. The research underlines the need of charac-
terizing completely fracture wood behaviour, since it determines a significant reduction of material resistance.

1 INTRODUCTION Physical and mechanical properties can be

The study of fracture mechanics applied to structural
timber allows understanding its behaviour in particular
conditions, where classic resistance mechanics is not
applicable, since basic hypothesis as uniform stress
distribution and homogeneity of the material collapse.
In particular the presence of a crack determines
a discontinuity in the material, which easily rises
up because of the morphology of the material, as
separation between grains and matrix. Besides, in cor-
respondence of connections fracture mechanisms rise
up more easily, since not always the material is stressed
along its strong directions and also because of the
frequent presence of holes, pivots or other metallic
elements.
2 FRACTURE MECHANICS IN WOOD
2.1 Heterogeneous and anisotropic medium
Fracture mechanics is based on the assumption that
discontinuities determine in a material mechanical
performance lower than those that might be expected
according to its chemical constitution.
Wood is characterized by an anisotropic and het-
erogeneous fibrous microstructure filled of defects,
whose cellular arrangement suffers a marked variabil-
ity because of the considerable number of botanic
species, as well as the influence of environmental and
climatic factors, that determine the enormous unpre-
dictability of the intrinsic properties, apart from causes
of deterioration by biological agents.
It can be considered as a fibrous system made up of
several concentric cellulose walls variously organized
in space, drowned in a lignin matrix.
described according to three principal directions: lon-
gitudinal, radial and transverse, considering wood as
orthotropic, but appropriate considerations based on
the results of mechanical tests let the material be con-
sidered as transversal isotropic in tangential – radial
plane, so its characteristics can be described according
to two principal directions: parallel and orthogonal to
grains. The theories of fracture mechanics are applied
in cases where the continuum mechanics is abandoned
in favor of methods that can simulate the evolution of
strain or the development of a gap and allows relating
the cracking of the material with its strength.
Most of the knowledge on this subject have been
developed for metals or other homogeneous materials,
in fact literature solutions always refer to homoge-
neous elastic and isotropic solids.
The application of fracture mechanics to wood
requires a modification of Griffith’s original relation-
ships, referred to brittle materials, to obtain general
expressions which take into account the onset of plas-
tic deformations together with the orthotropic nature
of this material.
2.2 Observing scale
In a homogeneous material, like many metals, the basic
characteristics of the material are mainly contained in
the scale of the crystal structure. This material can be
considered as continuum at any scale above this base
level and only a few parameters are needed to predict
its mechanical behaviour.
In the case of wood the problem is complicated
because of the wide range of observing scales, the
distribution of nodes, fibres deviation, growing rings,
and properties of the cell wall and also geometry of
micro-fibres.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Any approach has been able to consider all these
aspects together, by now, a typical approach is to
choose a scale of interest and undertake a determinis-
tic or probabilistic way to explain the effects on other
observing scales.
Figure 1. KI in a notched specimen
3 FRACTURE PARAMETERS

3.1 Stress intensity factor

Different type of experimental tests and numerical
simulation have been planned and then carried out to
determine fracture and strength parameters of ancient
chestnut wood, as the stress intensity factor, in parti-
cular the one relative to the first mode of fracture KI ,
able to characterize the stress condition at the apex of
the crack and to predict fracture resistance defining a
critical value of K, Kc , whose overcome involves the Figure 2. Specimens for laboratory tests.
material breaks with an unstable propagation of the
crack (crash breaking). E399, referred to the metallic materials, adapting it to
K depends on specific geometry, the applied load wood since no specific directive for the wood fracture
and the length of the crack, while Kc is a property of are present in national or international standard.
the material and defines its resistance at crack increas- The specimen is characterized by a notch and loaded
ing. Therefore, it turns useful to operate in terms of K perpendicular to the grain direction.
and Kc (KIC , KIIc , KIIIc depending on breaking mode) The tension value corresponding to fracture begin
rather then the maximum tolerable stress values. of propagation is:
The expression for KI is:

where b = dimensionless geometric parameter, s =
maximum stress value, a = crack length the depen-
dence between β, K and σ, implies that considering a
2a length of a crack and Kc value of the tested mate-
rial, a σmax applicable can be defined, below which the
crack is stable, decreasing at crack length increasing.
Thus the maximum stress the structure can be submit-
ted without incurring a crash brittle fracture depends
only on the size of his longer clique perpendicular to
the direction of tensile stress (mode I) or parallel shear
(modes II and III).
To assess structural safety critical length of the crack
has to be measured in a structure, to verify if there is
a risk of incipient fracture:
ac represents the critical value of the crack length used
to make structural inspections on site, quality control
and security checks.
The samples size to required by ASTM standards
are:

4 CASE STUDY

4.1 Experimental test

The case study is referred to chestnut clear wood sam-
ple, without defects such as spread of grain, presence
of macroscopic cracks, degradative changes and above
all nodes.
The tests were performed in order to determine the
stress intensity factor in the direction orthogonal to
the grain, and more specifically the value for the first
mode of fracture.
This direction also represents the minimum strength
of the material since the matrix that binds the fibers
is also a path of minimum energy to the crack
development.
The laboratory tests have been carried out under
tensile stresss according to the prescription of ASTM
where: a is the crack length, σy is the material strength,
KIC is the critical amplification coefficient.
Displacements have been measured at the notch end
by strain gauges. Five fracture tests have been carried
out and the specimen behaviour has been always char-
acterized by a sudden rupture and a crack perfectly
aligned with the existing notch.
Analysing the results of all the tests a failure load
of about 121,55 dan can be assumed.
The stress intensity factor can be calculated accord-
ing to ASTM E 399 standard:

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Figure 3. Fracture test. Figure 4. STRAUS model with 0,5×0,5 cm mesh.

Table 1. Example of results of a fracture test.

Displacement (mm)
Phase Load (kg) crack opening

0 16 0,043
1 32 0,106
2 42 0,244
3 47 0,300
4 52 0,323
5 57 0,374
6 62 0,407
7 67 0,442
8 77 0,505
9 87 0,575
10 97 0,623
11 113 0,711
Figure 5. Post processing results.

Table 2. Numeric analysis results.

Load Displacements Crack

Load factor opening
N cm node 64 (cm) node 65 (cm) (mm)
5 MODELING AND NUMERICAL 50 1 0,0005 −0,0037 0,042
SIMULATION OF FRACTURE TEST 100 2 0,01 −0,0074 0,084
150 3 0,0015 −0,0112 0,127
The reference model is a lattice system implemented 200 4 0,002 −0,0149 0,169
for the numerical simulation in Straus 7. 250 5 0,0025 −0,0186 0,211
The model is composed of individual squared 300 6 0,003 −0,0223 0,253
meshes made of of horizontal, vertical and oblique 350 7 0,0035 −0,0260 0,295
elements. 400 8 0,004 −0,0297 0,337
450 9 0,0044 −0,0335 0,379
At each element of the model strength and stiffness
500 10 0,0049 −0,0372 0,421
parameters coming from laboratory tests have been 550 11 0,0054 −0,0409 0,463
attributed. So tensile strength and stiffness in parallel 600 12 0,0059 −0,0446 0,505
to grain direction has been considered for grains and 650 13 0,0064 −0,0483 0,547
tensile strength and stiffness orthogonal to grains for 700 14 0,0069 −0,0521 0,590
the matrix. 750 15 0,0074 −0,0558 0,632
Working by a non linear static solver, load steps that 800 16 0,0079 −0,0595 0,674
cause specimen failure have been found. 850 16,1 0,008 −0,0599 0,679
The wood specimen is compact, according to
ASTM, with 12×12×13 cm dimensions and notch
with 4,5 cm length and 1 cm high. The results of the numerical simulation are reported
Failure happens in matrix elements reaching a fail- in the table.
ure load of about 80 daN in correspondence of the two So a failure load PQ , of about 805 N can be
beams elements at the notch end. considered and the stress intensity factor KQ can be

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 determined according to ASTM E 399 standard by the
relation:
since PQ = 805 N, the value of KQ becomes:
6 CONCLUSIONS
The results obtained from the numerical simulation
compared with values coming from experimental tests
show how the model is able to simulate the fracture
behavior of the material.
Stiffness and fracture tenacity of the material are
approximated by a small discrepancy, that quantify-
ing the differences between the values calculated in
the model and the average drawn from the tests, the
numerical analysis results are lower in the order of 15%
for load and 10% for displacements. These differences,
especially the ones concerning failure load, depends on
the ideal schematization of the material morphology,
with grains perfectly orthogonal to loading direction.
In the real case defects like grain deviation or knots
represents an obstacle to crack propagation increasing
the value of failure load.
The numerical analysis underlines that failure hap-
pens in matrix elements at the end of the notch.
Lattice model caracterized by horizontal, vertical
and diagonal elements consistently simulate the mor-
phology of wood, made of fibers embedded in a
resin matrix, and results particularly adapt to simulate
fracture behavior.
The approach can be used especially in the case of
connections where fracture phenomena are more evi-
dent because of the presence of discontinuities in the
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
material or particular stress conditions often caused by
dynamic actions. The evaluation of fracture parame-
ters together with strength and stiffness characteristics
allows ensuring safety and conservation of wooden
structure.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to thank eng. Luigi Iaderosa for the
collaboration during his degree thesis development.
REFERENCES
Tsai, S.W. & Wu, E.M. 1971. A general theory of strength of
anisotropic materials. Journal of composite materials n.5
Zandbergs, J.G. & Smith, F.W. 1988. Finite element fracture
prediction for wood with knots and cross grain. Wood
Fiber Science, n.20.
Nemat-Nasser, S. & Hori, M. 1993. Micromechanics: overall
properties of heterogeneous materials. North-Holland.
Vaziri, R., Olsen M.D. & Anderson, D.L. 1993. Finite ele-
ment analysis of fibrous composite structures: a plasticity
approach. Computers and structures n.44
Yang, G., Kabel, J., Van Rietbergen, B., Odgaard, A.,
Huiskes, R. & Cowin, S.C. 1999. The Anisotropic Hooke’s
Law for Cancellous Bone and Wood. Journal of elastic-
ity, n.53.
Smith, J., Landis, E. & Gong, M. 2003. Fracture and fatigue
in wood. Chichester, England: Wiley.
Ramundo, F. 2004. Caratterizzazione meccanica del legno
strutturale antico: identificazione dei parametri costitutivi
mediante indagini sperimentali. PhD thesis in Consol-
idamento ed adeguamento sismico di opere murarie e
strutture in c.a. – XVII ciclo, Napoli.
Svetlana Vasic, Ian Smith, Eric Landis. Finite element tech-
niques and models for wood fracture mechanics. 2004
Migliore, M.R. & Ramundo F. 2009. Mechanical models
for the analysis of timber structures. Proceedings of
PROHITECH conference. Rome.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Lateral capacity of steel structures designed according to EC8 under

catastrophic seismic events

S. Tortorelli, M. D’Aniello & R. Landolfo

Department of Constructions and Mathematical Methods in Architecture, University of Naples Federico II,
Naples, Italy

ABSTRACT: The philosophy of Performance-Based Design (PBD) aims all the modern seismic codes. As
it is well known, EN 1998:1-1 implements a performance-based structural engineering framework, providing
two performance objectives: life safety and damage limitation of a buildings at two corresponding levels of
earthquake motions. EN 1998:1-1 does not provide any further design and verification criteria against strong
ground motion corresponding to the collapse prevention limit state. This implies that frames designed according
to EN 1998:1-1 have to exhibit some extra-capacity in order to face such unexpected catastrophic events. With
the aim to evaluate this residual capacity, different steel structural typologies (CBFs, EBFs, MRFs), designed
according to Eurocode 8 principles, have been analyzed by means of non linear multimodal pushover analyses
(Chopra 2004). The drifts and the local ductility demand have been monitored in order to evaluate both the
seismic performance and the erection costs for the different examined structural typologies.

1 INTRODUCTION collapse prevention limit state. Since steel structures

Performance-based design (PBD) for structures is
the worldwide design philosophy aiming the modern
seismic codes. For twenty years several researchers
(Krawinkler 1995, Hamburger 1997, Mahoney &
Hanson 1998, Ganzerli et al. 2000) proposed vari-
ous methodologies, which incorporated performance-
based concepts and criteria, to improve structural
performance against earthquakes, that are imple-
mented in the US codes (e.g. FEMA 368). In Europe,
EN 1998:1-1 (EC8) introduce these principles provid-
ing the seismic design guidelines for new buildings.
According to EC8, two limit states should be con-
sidered for building structures to protect the life and
property of the occupants against earthquake motions:
life safety and damage limitation. To satisfy the life
safety limit state (in which the reference seismic force
has a probability of exceedance equal to 10% in 50
years, i.e. a return period equal to 475 years), buildings
should be designed so that neither the entire build-
ing nor an individual storey collapses. The damage
limit state (in which the reference seismic force has a
probability of exceedance equal to 10% in 10 years,
i.e. a return period equal to 95 years) aims to prevent
and control the building damage, though some perma-
nent deformation to the dissipative parts is acceptable.
Even if some damage occurs, the building must still
satisfy the life-safety limit state during a subsequent
earthquake.
EC8 does not consider other limit states. In par-
ticular, it does not provide any additional provisions
for what concerns the seismic capacity under more
severe earthquakes, which may correspond to the
may exhibit some extra-resistance as respect to that
strictly required by design earthquake, it is impor-
tant to quantify this further reserve of capacity. In
this paper, the assessment of seismic capacity of
EC8 compliant structures has been carried out under
severe earthquakes for the following steel structural
typologies:
1) Concentric Braced Frames (CBFs)
2) Eccentric Braced Frames (EBFs)
3) Moment Resisting Frames (MRFs)
In order to compare the seismic performance the
erection and the erection costs, a six-storey residential
building has been used as a case study. The seismic-
resistant system has been alternatively designed for
the same initial input data. In such a way it has been
possible to directly compare the relevant outcomes.
2 THE CASE STUDY
2.1 General description
The case study is a six storey residential build-
ing with a rectangular plan, 31.00 m × 24.00 m. The
storey height is equal to 3.50 m with exception of
the first floor, which is 4.00 m high. A uniform
mass distribution on the floor has been assumed. The
floor mass assigned to each frame are obtained by
the applied design loads that are Gk = 4.20 kN/m2
and Qk = 2 kN/m2 . The elastic design spectrum is
taken from EC8: type 1, ground type C, PGA
on bedrock = 0.25 g. Under these assumptions the

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 Figure 1. Structural plan of the typical floor and plan Figure 2. Vertical configuration and cross sections of CBFs.
location of braces in CBFs and EBFs.

seismic-resistant systems have been alternatively

designed as follows:
– For the CBFs solution two different bracing typolo-
gies were adopted: X bracings in X direction and
inverted V bracings inY direction. S275 steel grade
was used for both beams and columns and S235
steel grade for diagonal bracings, which are made
of circular hollow cold formed sections.
– For the EBFs solution the short link typology was
adopted for both directions. S275 steel grade was
used for beams columns and diagonal bracings.
– For MRFs it was adopted the spatial frame config-
uration. S275 steel grade was used for beams and
S355 steel grade for columns. The latter are made
of two double-T shaped sections placed orthogo-
nally (by cutting one of them into two parts and
then welding on the web of the other one).
Figure 1 shows the schematic view of the structural
layout of the typical floor and the location in plan of
bracings for CBFs and EBFs and Figures 2–4 show
the vertical configuration of the three seismic resis-
tant systems in the two main plan directions and the
relevant cross-section labelling.
2.2 Structural modeling
The numerical models of steel CBFs, EBFs and MRFs
have been developed adopting the software SAP2000
v.11. For all the examined cases, planar models with
lumped masses and mono-dimensional elements hav-
ing lumped plasticity have been used, moreover P-
effects have been taken into account.
In detail, for CBFs axial plastic hinges in braces and
columns have been positioned at their middle length.
The linear branches in the post-buckling response
have been obtained on the basis of an equal energy
approximation of the brace axial force-deformation
relationship given by Georgescu (1996). For EBFs the
non-linear behaviour of shear links has been simulated
using the shear force vs. shear displacement relation-
ship proposed by Ricles & Popov (1994). For MRFs
the non-linear behaviour of beams and columns has
been simulated by perfectly plastic non-linear hinges.
3 SEISMIC ANALYSES
For the preliminary assessment of the actual capacity
and seismic demand, a set of nonlinear static analyses
Figure 3. Vertical configuration and cross sections of EBFs.
Figure 4. Cross sections of MRFs.
of all the structural models have been performed. Tak-
ing into account the regularity of structures, among
the pushover procedures suggested by literature, the
modal pushover analysis (MPA) procedures proposed
by Chopra (2004) was selected. This method com-
bines the improved estimation of demands (allowing
to take into account the contribution of higher modes)
with the conceptual simplicity and computational
attractiveness of nonlinear static pushover procedures.
Therefore, the seismic assessment is performed
comparing in Acceleration Displacement Response
Spectrum (ADRS) format, the demand, that is rep-
resented by the response spectrum, to the structural
capacity, that is represented by the modal pushover
curves. The modal pushover is performed drawing up
to the target displacement demand relevant to each
mode. The inelastic displacement demand is computed
using available R-µ-T relationships for each mode and
then peak displacement demands associated to the first
two modes are combined according to SRSS rule.
3.1 Concentric braced frame structures
Figure 5 illustrates the fundamental modal shapes of
the X-CBFs (placed in the X-direction of the building)
and inverted-V CBFs (placed in the Y-direction of the
building).
Figure 6 shows the two inelastic modal pushover
curves normalized in the ADRS format, both for X

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Figure 5. Modal shapes of CBFs in X and Y direction. Figure 8. Inter-storey drifts for inverted-V CBFs.

Figure 6. Inelastic Modal Pushover curves compared with Figure 9. Ductility demand for braces in X direction.
Elastic Spectra for different ag in ADRS format for CBFs.

Figure 10. Ductility demand for braces in Y direction.

Figure 7. Inter-storey drifts for X-CBFs.

and Y directions, compared with the elastic demand

ADRS spectra, obtained scaling from 0.1 to 2.5 the
design PGA (ag ).
In Figures 7, 8 the SRSS combination of the peak
displacement demands in terms of inter-storey drift
ratios associated to the first two modes are shown.
Figures 9, 10 show the ductility demands at the
peak displacement response of compression braces
normalized as respect to their displacement capacity Figure 11. Modal shapes of EBFs in X and Y direction.
estimated according to the Tremblay (2002).
Both damage parameters are calculated for different
For X CBFs, braces in tension are moderately
scaled values of PGA to show the different behaviour
engaged in plastic range, while in case of inverted-V
of the structure at different performance levels.
CBFs they are still in elastic field.
At the design PGA (1ag ), both structures are charac-
terized by a first-mode dominated response with buck-
ling in compression of braces and, only for inverted-V
3.2 Eccentric braced frame structure
CBFs, non relevant plastic flexural engagement of
beams. Increasing the seismic demand up to 2.5 ag Figure 11 illustrates the fundamental modal shapes of
the damage concentration of the buckled braces was the EBFs. Figure 12 shows the two inelastic modal
clearly evident at some storey. pushover curves normalized in the ADRS format, both

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 Figure 12. Inelastic Modal Pushover curves compared with
Elastic Spectra for different ag in ADRS format for EBFs.
Figure 13. Inter-storey drifts for EBFs in X direction.
Figure 14. Inter-storey drifts for EBFs in Y direction.
for X and Y directions, compared with the elastic
demand ADRS spectra, obtained scaling from 0.1 to
2.5 the design PGA (ag ).
The SRSS combination of peak displacement
demands in terms of inter-storey drift ratios associ-
ated to the first two modes are shown in Figures 13,
14. The ductility demands at the peak displacement
response of shear links normalized as respect to their
rotation capacity equal to 0.08 rad are shown in Fig-
ures 15, 16. Both damage parameters are calculated for
different values of ag to show the different behaviour
of the structure at different performance levels. For
brevity sake, in this paper are shown the ductility
demand at 1ag (corresponding to the design accel-
eration) and 2.5ag (corresponding to the maximum
expected seismic event). The structure is characterized
by a first-mode dominated response developing an
overall mechanism, with plastic engagement of shear
links well distributed along the height of the build-
ing. However, differently from the previous case the
effect of the second mode is not negligible. Indeed,
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 15. Ductility demand for links in X direction.
Figure 16. Ductility demand for links in Y direction.
Figure 17. Modal shapes of MRFs in X and Y direction.
as shown in Figures 15, 16, the second modes modify
the displacement distribution along the height of the
building.
3.3 Moment resisting frame structure
Figure 17 illustrates the fundamental modal shapes of
the MRFs.
Figure 18 shows the two inelastic modal pushover
curves normalized in the ADRS format, both for X
and Y directions, compared with the elastic demand
ADRS spectra, obtained scaling from 0.1 to 2.5 the
design PGA (ag ).
The structure is characterized by a first-mode dom-
inated response with all beams at each storey involved
in the plastic mechanism.
Figures 19, 20 show the SRSS combination of the
peak displacement demands in terms of inter-storey
drift ratios associated to the first two modes.
Figures 21, 22 show the ductility demand in terms
of beam rotation, normalized as respect to their rota-
tion capacity estimated by means of the relationship
Figure 18. Inelastic Modal Pushover curves compared with
Elastic Spectra for different ag in ADRS format for MRFs.
Figure 19. Inter-storey drifts for MRFs in X direction.
Figure 20. Inter-storey drifts for MRFs in Y direction.
Figure 21. Ductility demand for beams in X direction.
proposed by Mazzolani &Piluso (1996). Both dam-
age parameters are calculated for different values of
ag to show the different behaviour of the structure at
different performance levels.
As it can be observed the ductility demand at the
design PGA. (ag ) is far from the ultimate deforma-
tion capacity of the beams, while it is theoretically
exceeded at 2.5ag .
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 22. Ductility demand for beams in Y direction.
Figure 23. Incidence of steel weight on the total seismic
weight (a); incidence of the seismic-resistant weights on the
total steel weight (b).
Figure 24. Comparison of the pushover curves of the three
structures in X and Y direction.
4 COMPARATIVE ANALYSES
4.1 Weight incidence
The three structural solutions significantly differ in
terms of self weight. In particular, EBF is the less
expensive in terms of steel weight as respect to the
total seismic weight, with a percentage of steel weight
equal to 8.9%. While 12,5% and 11,2% are estimated
for CBFs and MRFs, respectively. This difference is
more evident comparing the weight incidence of the
seismic resistant structure on the total structural mem-
bers weight. In this case EBFs incidence is of 3,9% ,
while 34,8% for CBFs and 26,1% for MRFs.
4.2 Seismic performance
Comparing the pushover capacity curves of all exami-
ned structural typologies (Fig. 24) it is possible to
recognize that both EBFs and MRFs exhibit large

Figure 25. Comparison of the roof drift normalized to
building height at different ag .
displacement ductility as respect to CBFs. Indeed, dis-
placement capacity of the latter structures is impaired
by the ductility capacity of the braces in compression.
In addition, the maximum base shear forces of CBFs
are larger than those exhibited by EBFs and MRFs.
This implies higher forces transmitted to foundations
in the former case, which correspond to higher costs of
construction. On the contrary, EBFs and MRFs exhibit
larger inter-storey drift demands and larger plastic
engagement along the structure than those required
to CBFs. This can be observed in Figure 25, where the
roof displacement demand of the six structural models
at different values of seismic input (obtained scaling
the design peak ground acceleration from 0.1 to 2.5) is
plotted. Indeed, the ductility demand does not increase
linearly with ag , and the EBFs and MRFs exhibit the
larger displacement demands than CBFs.
As a consequence, in EBFs and MRFs the final
damage should result harder, thus resulting in higher
repairing costs and burdensome rehabilitation works
(especially for MRFs which exhibit the larger plastic
engagement of beams and inter-storey drift demand).
5 CONCLUSIONS
In EN 1998:1-8 no performance criteria are provided
for steel buildings subjected to earthquakes with return
periods exceeding 475 years (Ultimate limit State).
However, steel structures may exhibit some extra-
resistance as respect to that strictly required by design
earthquake. In this paper, the assessment of seis-
mic capacity of EC8 compliant structures has been
carried out under severe earthquake in order to quan-
tify their further reserve of capacity. To this aim the
same structure has been alternatively designed with
Concentric Braced Frames (CBFs), Eccentric Braced
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Frames (EBFs) and Moment Resisting Frames (MRFs)
according to EC8 and then analyzed.
The numerical outcomes show that all the examined
structures could exhibit a sufficient extra capacity as
respect to the design demand. However, each structural
typology showed a different seismic response.
CBFs showed the lower drift demands and the lower
level of damage, but the larger base shear forces which
correspond higher forces transmitted to foundations
than those exhibited by EBFs and MRFs.
On the contrary, EBFs and MRFs exhibit larger
inter-storey drift demands and larger plastic engage-
ment along the structure than those required to CBFs.
Thus a final damage state results with higher repairing
costs.
Therefore, a multi-criteria analysis must be per-
formed to select the best structural typology, which
depends on the peculiar design needs.
REFERENCES
Chopra, R. 2004. Estimating seismic demands for
performance-based engineering of buildings. Proceedings
of 13th WCEE, CD-ROM: Paper No. 5007.
EN 1993:1-1 Design of Steel Structures
EN 1998:1-1 Design of Structures for Earthquake Resistance
Hamburger, R.O. 1997. A framework for performance-
based earthquake resistive design. UBC/EERC-97/05, The
EERC-CUREe Symposium in honor of Vitelmo V. Bertero:
101–108.
Ganzerli, G., Pantelides, CP. and Reaveley, L.D. 2000.
Performance-based design using structural optimization.
Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, Vol.
29 No. 11: 1677–1690.
Georgescu, D. 1996. Earthquake-Recent developments in
theoretical and experimental results on steel structures.
Seismic resistant braced frames. Costruzioni metalliche
n.1: 39–52.
Krawinkler, H. 1995. New Trends in seismic design method-
ology. Proceedings of 10th European Conference on
Earthquake Engineering, Vol. 2: 821–830.
Mahoney, M. & Hanson, R.D. 1998. An action plan for
performance-based design. Proceedings of the 6th US
National Conference on Earthquake Engineering, EERI.
Mazzolani, F.M. & Piluso, V. 1993. Member behavioural
classes of steel beam and beam-columns. Proceedings of
XIV CTA, Ricerca Teorica e sperimentale: 405–416.
Ricles, J.M. & Popov, E.P. 1994. Inelastic Link Element for
EBF Seismic Analysis. Journal of Structural Engineering,
vol.120, No. 2: 441–463
Tremblay, R. 2002. Inelastic seismic response of steel bracing
members. Journal of constructional steel research n.58:
665–701.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Seismic assessment of historical mosques under exceptional

earthquakes: A case study in Skopje

F. Portioli, O. Mammana, R. Landolfo & F.M. Mazzolani

University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

ABSTRACT: This paper is concerned with the evaluation of seismic behaviour of Mustafa Pasha mosque
in Skopje by numerical analysis. The numerical investigation was carried out by a finite element model that
was calibrated and validated against shaking table tests on a large scale model performed in the framework of
PROHITECH project. In order to determine the capacity of original monument, to design the FRP reinforcements
and to analyze their effects on the full scale prototype, pushover analysis analyses were carried out. The analysis
allowed the effectiveness of proposed intervention to be evaluated in case of catastrophic earthquakes and the
existing crack pattern on the mosque to be analyzed.

1 INTRODUCTION in Skopje in the framework of PROHITECH project

(Mazzolani et al., 2007; Mazzolani, 2008).
Ottoman mosques are located in high-risk seismic The length scale of the model was 1: 6. The model
regions and their vulnerability is affected by several was built using the same materials and techniques used
factors. for the original prototype and according to the gravity
Although numerous collapses and structural dam- forces neglected approach. The results of experimental
age were caused by earthquakes, in the literature investigation have been presented in (Krstevska et al.,
not many studies investigated their seismic behaviour 2009).
(Dogangun et al., 2008). In order to support the experimental investigation,
In this paper, an assessment of the seismic to design the FRP reinforcement and to analyze its
behaviour of Mustafa Pasha mosque in Skopje as a effectiveness on the prototype, a finite element anal-
representative historical monument of Ottoman archi- ysis was performed on a detailed three dimensional
tecture is presented.The evaluation of the effectiveness model of the Mosque.
of a strengthening intervention with FRPs is carried The numerical model was calibrated and validated
out as well. against the results of experimental tests on the large
The mosque was built in 1492 and is located in the scale mosque. The comparison of experimental and
central area of the city of Skopje. The structural frame-
work of the monument is typical of the mosques in the
provinces of Ottoman Empire. The mosque presents
a square-plan, topped with a monumental dome sup-
ported by a system of a polygonal tambour and four
pendentives. The dimensions of the main square area
are 20.0 × 20.0 meters.The diameter of the dome span-
ning over the main part is about 16 meters. The massive
walls and the tambour of the dome are composed of
two outer-leaves of natural stones and bricks with an
inner core of stone and brick rubble set in the lime
mortar, in accordance with typical design technique
of Byzantine churches in Macedonia. The height of
the main structure is about 22.0 meters. Connected to
a corner of the main part is the minaret, that is about
47 meters in height with 138 spiral stairs and which
was built with cut stone blocks.
To investigate the seismic behaviour of the mosque
and to determine if any strengthening or repair work
is required, shaking table tests were carried out on a
large scale model at the Laboratory of the Institute of
Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology Figure 1. View of Mustafa Pasha mosque.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 2. Main dimensions of the mosque.
numerical results allowed to validate a modelling
approach based on inelastic homogeneous isotropic
constitutive law for masonry and push-over analysis
for the assessment of structural response under seismic
loads.
On the basis of developed finite element model, an
assessment of the seismic behaviour of the original full
scale prototype was performed. The analysis allowed
the results of experimental investigation to be extended
to the historical monument, addressing in particular
issues related to scale effects as the influence of gravity
loads and the inelastic behaviour of materials.
In the following, a description of the different
types of finite element analysis and relevant results
is reported in detail.
2 THE FINITE ELEMENT MODEL
The finite element model of the mosque was developed
in ABAQUS. In particular, three-dimensional models
of the whole structure and of the main square part
of the mosque were generated for linear dynamic and
non-linear pushover analysis, respectively (Fig. 3). In
the following, the details of geometric, material and
load modeling are presented.
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Figure 3. The FE model of the mosque.
2.1 Geometric modeling and meshing
The three dimensional solid model of the experimen-
tal prototype was implemented in a computer aided
design system and then was imported into the finite
element code to generate the geometry of FE models.
In order to properly evaluate the structural inter-
actions among the different parts, the implemented
geometrical model reproduces all the main parts of
the building accurately, including the openings and the
pendentives connecting the walls with the dome.
Modal analysis was carried out on the whole three
dimensional model presented in Figure 3.
As far as nonlinear analysis on the mosque, the sym-
metry of the model along the vertical plane parallel to
the direction of the input displacement was consid-
ered, in order to save CPU time for solving non-linear
equations.
To model the reinforcement, the outer surfaces of
the mosque were partitioned into different areas and
strings corresponding to the FRP sheets and bars that
were designed to strengthen the structure.
The solid parts of the model were meshed with the
C3D4 4-node linear tetrahedron element, with three
degrees of freedom at each node, namely the trans-
lations along the nodal x, y, and z directions. S4R
elements were used to model the FRP sheets.The shells
corresponding to the FRP reinforcement were directly
overlapped to the masonry bricks and no interface
elements were considered. The parts of the mosque
Table 1. Masonry material properties considered for
concrete damaged plasticity model.

Material properties

γ E  σc σt GFI
(kN/m3 ) (MPa) ν (Deg) (MPa) (MPa) (N/mm)

19.0 900 0.2 30 2.1 0.04 0.18

model reinforced with bars were modelled using beam

elements T3D2.
Different mesh sizes were used for modal and non- Figure 4. FE model of masonry wall sample in shear com-
linear analysis in the range from 600 to 720 mm, pression with distribution of maximum principal stresses at
respectively. collapse load.

2.2 Material modeling

The concrete damaged plasticity model was selected
for constitutive law. The model is based on isotropic
damaged elasticity in combination with isotropic ten-
sile and compressive plasticity to represent the inelas-
tic behaviour of brittle material. The yield function
of Lubliner is considered as failure surface, with the
modifications proposed by Lee and Fenves to account
for different evolution of strength under tension and
compression (ABAQUS, 2007).
The values of parameters considered in the analysis
are reported in Table 1.
The elastic parameters are referred to the values
that have been calibrated on the basis of performed
ambient vibration tests. The mosque was tested in Figure 5. Comparison of experimental and numerical
situ by ambient vibration tests in order to identify the response of wall samples under shear-compression loads.
dynamic properties of the structural system, namely
natural frequencies and mode shapes. The natural fre-
quencies and the mode shapes of the structural system analyses were carried out. In particular a mesh sen-
were derived from recorded data of different sen- sitivity analysis was performed and the influence of
sors placed along the height of the structure and by tensile strength and fracture energy was considered. It
means of Fourier analysis. The elastic properties of should be noted in this case that a significant variation
the numerical model were calibrated by modal anal- in the ultimate capacity and ductility was obtained for
ysis by varying the value of Young’s modulus until selected values of tensile strength and fracture energy.
the natural frequencies become close to the measured With regard to composites, an elastic material
values. The comparison of experimental and numeri- model was considered. In particular, the Young’s mod-
cal frequencies for the calibrated values of the elastic ulus is equal to 240 GPa and the considered equivalent
Young’s modulus showed that all the initial frequencies thickness is 1.0 mm. For pultruded bars in the shear
measured on the mosque were well fitted. walls the nominal material properties and geomet-
The non-linear material properties of the finite ric dimensions declared by the manufacturer were
element model were calibrated on the basis of com- assumed. In particular, a cross-section of 6 × 1 mm2
pression and shear compression tests carried out on was considered.
masonry wall samples at the IZIIS Laboratory and
on the results of shaking table tests on the original
large scale mosque (Figs. 4, 5). As far as compres-
2.3 Load modeling and boundary conditions
sion behaviour, an elastic-perfectly plastic response
is assumed. The post-failure behaviour of cracked With regard to the load modeling in pushover analy-
masonry in tension is modelled with linear strain- ses, a uniform distribution of accelerations along the
softening, defined by the fracture energy GFI. The horizontal direction was applied to the FE model of
considered value of dilation angle  characterizes the mosque.
the non-associated potential plastic flow. To evaluate As far as the boundary conditions are concerned,
the sensitivity of the implemented numerical model full restraints were assumed at the base of the structure
to calibrated material properties, different parametric in the performed analyses.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 6. Strengthening of Mustafa Pasha mosque
(Mazzolani et al., 2009).
3 SEISMIC RETROFITTING WITH FRP
On the basis of numerical and experimental inves-
tigation carried out on the large scale model, the
strengthening of the actual prototype was designed as
shown in Fig. 6 (Mazzolani et al., 2009; Landolfo and
Mazzolani, 2009).
The proposed retrofitting intervention for Mustafa
Pasha mosque consists in the placement of CFRP
wraps on the dome, in the incorporation of carbon rods
in longitudinal mortar joints of shear walls and in the
strengthening of the foundation structure. As far as the
dome, a C-FRP wraps on a layer of epoxy glue will be
placed along the perimeter at the base within a width
of 2.9 m, according to the system applied to the testing
model. C-FRP bars have to be located in the horizon-
tal joints of the outside surface of the walls with a
depth of about 8.0 cm and covered by an epoxy mortar
layer, connecting them to the vertical joints. Then, it
is planned to fill the joints with pointing lime mortar.
4 PUSHOVER ANALYSES
The results of pushover analysis carried out on the
original and strengthened mosque are reported in the
following.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 7. Distribution of plastic strains on the original
model of the mosque prototype at collapse load. Amplifi-
cation factor of the deformed shape: 50.
This type of analysis allowed the experimental
results obtained on the large scale model to be extended
to the full scale prototype and to assess the effective-
ness of the designed strengthening intervention.
The results of the analysis in terms of plastic strain
distributions are shown in Fig 7.
The numerical analysis shows that original model
collapses with an out of plane mechanism of the shear
walls with cracks along the spandrels.The formation of
collapse mechanism determined by the finite element
analysis can be divided in different phases. The first
tension cracks occur in the shear walls, namely in the
spandrels under the openings at the first level. In this
phase, the damage also develops at the base of the
walls perpendicular to the direction of ground motion,
owing to bending moments induced by out of plane
horizontal loads.
The seismic strength of the structure is attained
when the damage in the shear walls extends from the
spandrels up to the openings in the tambour.
In Fig. 8 the crack pattern on the mosque after the
Skopje Earthquake in 1963 is depicted. The compar-
ison with distribution of plastic strains obtained with
the finite element model shows a good agreement of
prototype response and numerical results.
The non-linear analysis of strengthened model
showed that the wraps around the dome and the top

Figure 8. Crack patterns on the mosque after Skopje earth-
quake in 1963.
of shear walls contribute to prevent the propagation of
cracks from the bottom part to the drum. The FRP bars
in the shear walls allow the spandrels to be stiffened
and strengthened forming a sort of reinforced masonry
beams at different levels able to distribute the seismic
action among the piers.
5 SEISMIC PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
The assessment of the seismic capacity of the mosque
was carried out according to N2 method (Fajfar, 2000).
The elastic seismic demand was defined according
to Eurocode 8, considering a soil type C.
As for inelastic demand, a reduction factor Rµ equal
to ductility factor µ was assumed.
The capacity diagrams were derived from pushover
curves on the basis of modal characteristics obtained
from numerical analysis.
The comparison of seismic capacity and demand
for the original and strengthened mosque shows that
the seismic performance is increased of about 50%
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 9. Seismic performance evaluation of original and
strengthened mosque.
by retrofitting with FRPs (Fig 9). The corresponding
return periods of seismic events were estimated to be
475 and 975 years. It is worth to note that the peak
ground acceleration obtained for the seismic capacity
of the original mosque is consistent with the level of
input acceleration measured during the 1963 Skopje
earthquake, of about 0.30 g.
6 CONCLUSIONS
In order to support a large scale experimental inves-
tigation on the seismic behavior of Mustafa Pasha
mosque in Skopje carried out in the framework of
PROHITECH project, different types of finite element
analysis were performed.
In particular, the numerical analysis of the mosque
allowed to extend the experimental results obtained on
the large scale model built at IZIIS Laboratory to the
prototype structure and to assess the effectiveness of
proposed retrofitting intervention with FRPs.
The mechanical properties of the non-linear finite
element model were calibrated according to experi-
mental results obtained from shaking table tests on the
large scale model and ambient vibration tests on the
full scale prototype.
The obtained results on the original mosque in
terms of damage distribution are in good agreement
with existing crack patterns that occurred after past
earthquakes. The analysis on the strengthened proto-
type shows a remarkable increase of capacity under
lateral loads.
The implementation of non-linear dynamic analysis
including soil interaction will be taken into account
in further developments of this study for the seismic
assessment of the monument.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Authors are grateful to the financial support of the
European Commission for funding the research project
PROHITECH (earthquake PROtection of HIstorical
 buildings by reversible mixed TECHnologies), which
is the main framework of the study presented in this
paper, within the Sixth Framework Programme Pri-
ority FP6-2002-INCO-MPC-1 “Specific Measures in
support of international cooperation – Mediterranean
Partner Countries”, Contract No. INCO-CT-2004-
509119.
REFERENCES
ABAQUS. 2007. Theory manual, Hibbit, Karlson and
Sorenson, Inc.
Dogangun,A.,Acar, R., Sezen, H., Livaoglu, R. 2008. Investi-
gation of dynamic response of masonry minaret structures
In Bull Earthquake Eng (2008) 6:505–517.
Fajfar, P. 2000. A Nonlinear Analysis Method for Perfor-
mance Based Seismic Design. Earthquake Spectra, Vol.
16, No. 3, pp. 573–592.
Krstevska, L., Tashkov, L., Gramatikov, K., Landolfo, R.,
Mammana, O., Portioli, F. and Mazzolani, F.M. 2010.
Large scale experimental investigation on Mustafa-Pasha
mosque. Journal of Earthquake Engineering. (Accepted
for publication).
420
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Landolfo, R., Mazzolani, F.M. 2009. Design of the
retrofitting system with FRP of Mustafa Pasha Mosque
in Skopje by numerical models. In Proc. of Int. Conf.
“Mechanics of Masonry Structures Strengthened with
Composite Materials” (MuRiCo3), Venice, 22–24 April,
2009.
Mazzolani, F.M., Krstevska, L., Tashkov, Lj, and Gramatikov,
K. 2007. Shaking Table Testing of Mustafa Pasha Mosque
Model, Final report, EU-FP6 PROHITECH project.
Mazzolani, F.M. 2008. The PROHITECH research project.
Proc. of Sixth Int. Conf. on Structural Analysis of His-
torical Constructions, Preserving Safety and Significance
(SAHC08), 2–4 July, Bath, UK., Vol. 2, pp. 1157–1165.
Ed. D. D’Ayala & E. Fodde. CRC Press, Balkema, The
Netherlands, 2008.
Mazzolani, F.M. 2009. The output of the PROHITECH
research project. Proc. of Int. Conf. Protection of Histor-
ical Buildings (Mazzolani ed.), Rome, 21–24 June 2009,
Rome, 21–24 June 2009, CRC Press, Vol. 1, pp. 63–74.
Mazzolani, F.M., Sendova, V.I. and Gavrilovic, P. 2009.
Design by testing of seismic restoration of Mustafa Pasha
Mosque in Skopje. Proc. of Int. Conf. Protection of Histor-
ical Buildings (Mazzolani ed.), Rome, 21–24 June 2009,
Rome, 21–24 June 2009, CRC Press, Vol. 1, pp. 169–174.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Experimental methodology for verification of effectiveness of innovative

seismic strengthening techniques of historical monuments

L. Krstevska, Lj. Tashkov & K. Gramatikov

University “St. Cyril and Methodius”, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia

F.M. Mazzolani
University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

G. De Matteis
University of Chieti – Pescara, Italy

ABSTRACT: Presented in the paper are the experimental activities that should be performed for verification of
the effectiveness of innovative techniques for seismic strengthening of historical monuments. On site testing of
representative monuments for definition of the dynamic characteristics is one of the first steps to be performed
within the experimental investigation. Then, shaking table testing in simulated seismic conditions should be
performed on reduced scale models on which the proposed innovative strengthening solution is applied. Following
this experimental methodology, several characteristic historical monuments have been investigated within the
activities of the Sixth Framework Program PROHITECH – “Earthquake Protection of Historical Buildings by
Reversible Mixed Technologies” and the main experimental results are presented herein.

1 INTRODUCTION deformability of the main materials constituting the

Assessment and the validation of the protection tech-
niques and methodologies, as well as assessment of
limitations of materials (such as concrete, masonry,
FRP and others) that may be affected by signifi-
cant non-linearity under strong earthquakes cannot be
made by using only numerical analysis. In this case,
laboratory tests play a major role.
For the structures which are not specially designed
with seismic rules and codes as historical buildings and
monuments are, there is a necessity to perform tests
for assessing their safety and designing appropriate
upgrading.
The repair and/or strengthening of historic monu-
ments depends on the earthquake conditions to which
they have been exposed in their past history and the
ground motions to which they will be exposed in
future, as well as the materials and methods applied in
their construction. It is therefore of a great importance
that repair and strengthening, as part of preservation,
restoration and conservation of historic buildings and
monuments located in seismically active regions, be
planned based on detailed study of the expected seis-
mic hazard, the local soil conditions, the dynamic
characteristics of the structures, the strength and
deformability characteristics of the structural elements
and the built-in materials, and the dynamic response
of structures to expected earthquake ground motions.
The specific nature of the structural systems and
the limited possibilities for a higher resistance and
historic monuments impose the need for application
of a corresponding strengthening methodology that
will comply with the specific characteristics of these
monuments. All these mentioned aspects are strongly
related to the need for laboratory testing of models on
shaking table.
2 TESTING METHODS
To evaluate the seismic behavior of the historical
monuments, most of which have been damaged and
restored in the past, three of several important aspects
that should be considered are the following:
1. Definition of the actual state of the monuments,
i.e. obtaining of the dynamic characteristics by
means of natural frequencies, shapes of vibration,
damping coefficients and soil-structure interaction;
2. Definition of the mechanical material
characteristics;
3. Testing of the seismic stability of the monuments
by means of shaking table testing of scaled models.
2.1 In situ testing by ambient and forced vibration
testing methods
For determination of the actual state of the monuments,
i. e. definition of their dynamic characteristics: natural
frequencies, mode shapes of vibration, damping coef-
ficients and soil-structure interaction, two different

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 experimental testing methods are applied: ambient
vibration testing method and forced vibration testing
method.
2.2 Definition of the mechanical material
characteristics of the monument
For design analysis, construction and testing of the
full-scale and large scale models, elements and sub-
systems, definition of the physical and mechanical
characteristics of the material of the particular mon-
ument is necessary. These tests are carried out on
site or in laboratory, applying non-destructive and/or
destructive methods.
2.3 Laboratory testing of models by shaking table
Experimental testing of historical monuments by
means of shaking table testing of scaled models is an
important research activity for evaluating their seismic
stability. Applying an appropriate modeling technique Figure 1. Mustafa Pasha Mosque – Skopje, Republic of
and according to the similarity laws, the models can be Macedonia.
designed to different scales and tested under various
seismic inputs. Based on experimental data obtained
from site testing of the monuments, as well as the
results of the seismic hazard analysis, the laboratory
testing of models gives very reliable data on the seis-
mic behaviour and stability, pointing out the weak
points of the structures. These data are of a great
importance for further analysis and development of
an appropriate methodology for seismic strengthening
of monuments.
The testing procedure applied to the large scaled Figure 2. Mustafa Pasha Mosque – Skopje, Republic of
Macedonia.
model consists of two main phases:
•
Macedonia. It is built at the end of 15th century, in
Tests for definition of dynamic characteristics of the
1492. It is one-dome structure 20 × 20 meters in plan
model, before and after performing seismic tests at
and it consists of massive double-leave walls with
each phase, in order to check stiffness degradation
thickness of 2 m constructed of stone and bricks in
of the model produced by micro or macro cracks
lime mortar. The mosque has one slender minaret with
developed during the tests;
• Seismic testing by selected earthquake record until
spiral staircases.
In order to define the dynamic characteristics of the
collapse. The tests are performed in several steps,
mosque, an ambient vibration test has been performed.
increasing the input intensity of the earthquake
The vibrations at selected points of the structure and
motion, in order to obtain the response in lin-
the minaret were measured. The first natural frequency
ear range, as well as to define the initial crack
of the mosque was 3.0 Hz and is very clearly expressed
state, development of the failure mechanism and the
in the spectra, Fig. 2. The first natural frequency of the
collapse of the model.
minaret is 1.04 Hz. The corresponding mode shapes
Following this experimental methodology several were defined by measuring the vibrations at several
characteristic historical monuments have been inves- points at different levels.
tigated within the activities of Sixth Framework The design of the mosque model was based on the
Program PROHITECH – “Earthquake protection of capacity of the shaking table facility at IZIIS and also
historical buildings by reversible mixed technologies – on the results obtained from laboratory experimental
a mosque, a cathedral and a church. The main objec- tests on materials as well as wall samples tested to
tive of the testing was to investigate experimentally the obtain the strength and deformability characteristics
effectiveness of the proposed reversible technology for of the masonry.
strengthening and increasing the seismic resistance of The model was constructed in the IZIIS Laboratory,
selected type of historical monuments. Fig. 3. It has been designed according to “grav-
ity forces neglected” modeling principle, using the
3 REPRESENTATIVE MOSQUE STRUCTURE – same materials as in the prototype structure: stone
MUSTAFA PASHA MOSQUE IN SKOPJE (travertine), bricks and lime mortar. The walls of
the model were constructed in accordance with the
Mustafa Pasha Mosque, Fig. 1 is one of the most typical Byzantine design: two faces of stone and brick
impressive monuments of the Islamic architecture in separated by an infill of stone and brick rubble set

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 3. Original model of the mosque.
Figure 4. Model with strengthened minaret.
in lime mortar. The seismic shaking table testing was
performed in three main phases:
1. Phase 1 – Testing of the original model under low
intensity level, with the aim of provoking damage
to the minaret only;
2. Phase 2 – Testing of the model with strengthened
minaret under intensive earthquakes, with the aim
of provoking collapse of the minaret and damage
to the mosque, Fig. 4;
3. Phase 3 –Testing of the strengthened mosque model
until reaching heavy damage.
The testing procedure applied to the model consists
of several steps:
Test of the model’s dynamic characteristics before
and after each seismic testing in order to check the
stiffness degradation of the model produced by micro
or macro cracks during the test;
Seismic testing by selected earthquake records.
The test of the dynamic characteristics was per-
formed by two methods: ambient vibration and random
excitation.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 5. Details of strengthening and the strengthened
model ready for testing in phase 3.
Figure 6. Damage of the model after phase 3 tests accom-
plishment.
The seismic investigation of the model was per-
formed by simulating the 1979 Montenegro earth-
quake (Petrovac record, N-S component) selected
as a representative one. According to the simili-
tude requirements, the original earthquake record was
scaled by 6 in time (compressed). The excitation was
applied in horizontal direction. To follow the dynamic
response, the model was instrumented with accelerom-
eters and displacement transducers at characteristic
points for measuring the absolute displacements as
well as the relative diagonal deformation of the walls
in the direction of the excitation.
The strengthening solution consisted of:
– Formation of a horizontal belt course around the
tambour by applying a CFRP.
– Formation of a horizontal belt course at the base of
the dome by use of a CFRP wrap. The strengthened
model ready for phase 3 seismic testing is given in
Figure 5.
After the performed seismic tests the model was
heavily damaged, Fig. 6. Push-over curves were con-
structed based on the different intensity level of the
repeated seismic test, within an input acceleration of
0.05 g – 1.50 g, Fig. 7.
Shaking table testing for the original model and for
model strengthened by FRP showed that the strength-
ening of the minaret by application of a CFRP wrap
 Figure 8. Fossanova Abbey, Italy.

Figure 7. Response of the model: acceleration measured at

the top of the shear walls and of the dome as a function of Figure 9. The obtained spectrum, Fossanova Abbey, Italy.
input acceleration, phase 2 and phase 3.
enabled stiffening and increasing of its bending resis-
tance. The mosque model’s behaviour, after strength-
ening, was evidently different in respect to that of the
original model. During the intensive tests, the failure
mechanism was transferred to the lower zone of the
bearing walls, in the direction of the excitation, where
typical diagonal cracks occurred due to shear stress.
Considering the obtained experimental results for
the original model and for the strengthened one, it can
be concluded that the applied strengthening technique
has significantly improved the seismic resistance of
the monument.

4 REPRESENTATIVE GOTHIC CATHEDRAL – Figure 10. The model of Fossanova cathedral in scale 1/5.5.
FOSSANOVA ABEY, ITALY

The Fossanova Gothic cathedral dating back to the 15th The seismic shaking table testing was performed in
century is located in Priverno, Lazio, Italy, Fig. 8. two main phases:
In the first phase of the experimental testing
– Phase 1: Testing of the original model (as-built
methodology, the dynamic characteristics of the pro-
model) until occurrence of severe damage.
totype were measured applying the ambient vibration
– Phase 2: Testing of the strengthened model until
testing method. The Fourier amplitude spectrum in
reaching of heavy damage.
transversal direction is presented in Fig. 9.
For seismic shake table testing, a very detailed The testing procedure applied to the model con-
model has been conceived in order to take into account sisted of several steps:
the complexity of the prototype. For this reason, the
– Tests for definition of the dynamic characteristics of
design model was very accurate also to keep correctly
the model (before and after the seismic tests in each
the scale factor in terms of dynamic response of the
phase), in order to check the stiffness degradation
model.
of the model produced by micro or macro- cracks
To this purpose, equivalent materials (both stone
developed during the tests;
and mortar) have been considered, which have the
– Seismic testing by selected earthquake record.
same weight but a reduced strength according to the
adopted scale factor. The model was designed as a true The seismic investigation of the model was per-
replica, to the scale 1:5.5, Figure 10. formed by simulating the Calitri Earthquake (time

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 11. Push-over curve at the level of arches, original
model, phase 1.

Figure 13. Damage of the model after the final test.

Figure 14. Push-over curves for the top of the central arch
Figure 12. Strengthening of the model with pre-stressed obtained for the strengthened model.
vertical and horizontal external and internal carbon-fiber ties.

history – North-South component) selected as a rep-

resentative one. According to the similitude require-
ments for true-replica models,
√ the original earthquake
record was scaled by 5.5 in time domain (com-
pressed). The excitation was applied in horizontal
direction only.
To follow the dynamic response during the seismic
shake-table testing, the original model was instru-
mented at characteristic points with accelerometers
and displacement transducers-for measuring the abso-
lute displacements (LPs) as well as relative defor-
mations between the columns in the direction of the
excitation (LVDTs).
The push-over curve obtained during the testing of
the original model at the level of the central arches is Figure 15. St. Nikola Church, Psacha, Macedonia.
presented in Fig. 11.
After the testing of the original model and the devel- while for the strengthened model 0.40 g. These param-
opment of the failure mechanism, the cracks were eters clearly show the effectiveness of the applied
repaired by an expansive aluminum-cement mortar. strengthening techniques, enabling confining of the
Then, the proposed methodology for strengthening structure.
consisting of incorporation of pre-stressed vertical and
horizontal carbon fiber ties at several levels of the
model was applied, Figure 12. 5 REPRESENTATIVE CHURCH STRUCTURE –
During the final test for the strengthened model ST. NIKOLA CHURCH, MACEDONIA
with intensity of 0.4 g, the cracking mechanism
developed completely. Severe damage of the model The church “St. Nikolas” dating from the Byzantine
was observed, Figure 13. period, is built in the middle of 14th century. It is
Presented in Fig. 14 is the push-over curve for the located about 150 km from Skopje, at Psacha village
top of the central arch for the strengthened model. near Kriva Palanka, Figure 15.
The main conclusion after the performed seismic The shake-table test of the church model was per-
shake-table testing of the Fossanova model in phase 2 is formed in the IZIIS Laboratory. The model of the
that the integrity of the model is significantly improved church was designed to the length scale of 1:3.5
by the applied strengthening methodology. For the according to the “gravity force neglected” modeling
original model the critical input intensity was 0.14 g, principles, Figure 16.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 16. Model of the Byzantine church “St. Nicholas” –
Psacha to the scale of 1/3.5.
Figure 17. Input-response acceleration relationship for the
basin (black) and the sliding plate (red).
Figure 18. Response of the church model fixed to the base.
The seismic shake-table testing was performed in
two main phases: phase 1-testing of the base-isolated
model with the ALSC floating-sliding system and
phase 2-testing of the original fixed-base model.
The model with the sliding base was tested first
because it was expected that no damage will occur.
This was confirmed even under the maximum capac-
ity of the shaking table (1.5 g). The second phase was
realized with the fixed base model, which simulates
the original structure on the site.
The dynamic characteristics test was performed by
two methods: ambient vibration and random exci-
tation. The seismic investigation of the model was
performed by simulating the Montenegro-Petrovac
1979 earthquake, selected as a representative one.
According to the similitude requirements for gravity
force neglected models, the original earthquake record
was scaled by 3.5 in time domain (compressed). The
excitation was applied in horizontal direction only.
The model was tested by different levels of input
acceleration: 0.45 g, 0.8 g, 1.2 g and 1.45 g. Uniform
sliding of all parts of the structure was recorded
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 19. Damage to the walls and the openings, fixed
base.
(sliding plate, walls and tambour). The maximum
response acceleration of the sliding plate in all the
cases was about 0.2–0.3 g, Figure 17. This was actu-
ally a limitation of the transmissibility of the forces
from the basin to the sliding plate. This level of accel-
eration didn’t produce any cracks in the model, except
an increased relative sliding displacement between the
basin and the sliding plate.
In the testing phase 2 the model was transformed
into a classical fixed-base structure. The input accel-
eration was changed in several tests from 0.1 g–0.7 g.
The amplification of the response was: 1.5–2.0 for
the top of the wall and 3–4 for the top of the dome,
Figure 18.
The damage detail around the openings is shown in
Fig. 19.
The comparative test between the base-isolated
model by ALSC system and the classical fixed base
model clearly shows the superior behavior of theALSC
floating-sliding base-isolation system. The role of the
springs, controlling the lateral motion, was effective,
allowing the structure to slide in the desired and
controlled range.
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Krstevska, L., Tashkov, L., Gramatikov, K., Mazzolani,
F.M., and Landolfo, R. [2008] “Shaking Table Testing
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Mammana, O., Portioli, F. and Mazzolani, F. [2008]
“Shaking table tests on the large scale model of Mustafa
Pasha Mosque without and with FRP”, Proceedings of
the sixth international Conference on Structural Analy-
sis of Historic Construction – SAHC2008, 2–4 July, Bath,
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Krstevska, L., Tashkov, L., Gramatikov, K., and Kozinakov, D.
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tal activity, COST C26-WG2 Urban Habitat Construction
Under Catastrophic Events. Malta.
Tashkov, Lj., Krstevska, L. & Gramatikov, K. 2008. Shaking
table test of model of St. Nicholas church to scale 1/3.5.,
PROHITECH, Final Report. Skopje:IZIIS.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

In-situ experimental testing of four historical buildings damaged

during the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake

L. Krstevska, Lj. Tashkov & N. Naumovski

Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology, University “St. Cyril and Methodius”,
Skopje, Republic of Macedonia

G. Florio, A. Formisano, A. Fornaro & R. Landolfo

University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

ABSTRACT: Presented in the paper are the results obtained by experimental in-situ testing of four selected
historical monuments in the region of Abruzzo damaged during the earthquake in 2009. Ambient vibration testing
method was applied to obtain their dynamic characteristics: natural frequencies, mode shapes of vibration and
damping coefficients. The testing of the monuments has been performed in the frames of the Short Term Scientific
Mission within COST Action C26, as cooperation between the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje and
the University of Naples “Federico II”. Besides the description of the tested buildings and the main collapse
mechanisms provoked by the earthquake, the applied testing procedure and the main obtained experimental
results are presented and discussed.

1 INTRODUCTION 2 MEASUREMENTS IN ABRUZZO

Italy is one of the most seismic prone countries in the 2.1 The investigated historical centres
world. In particular, many active faults are located in
The measurements have been performed in the histori-
Central Italy, where a magnitude 6.3 earthquake, corre-
cal centres of two towns of the Abruzzo region, namely
sponding to the VI-VII grade on the Modified Mercalli
Poggio Picenze and Castelnuovo of San Pio, both of
Intensity scale (MMI), occurred at 3.32 a.m. local
them in the territory of L’Aquila.
time on April 6th 2009 (AA. VV., 2009). Although the
Poggio Picenze is a small town situated on the top
epicentre depth was not so deep, approximately 8 km,
of a hill, 760 meters above sea level, and it is located
the seismic waves associated with shallow quakes
about 10 km to the South-East of L’Aquila. The muni-
produced very strong shaking and many damages;
cipality has a population of about 1000 inhabitants. It
therefore, the main shock was followed by many
is one of the most damaged towns under the Abruzzo
aftershocks. The maximum peak ground acceleration
main shock with a grade of 5.8 and 6.3 on the Richter
recorded at a distance of about 5 km from the epicentre
scale and the moment magnitude one, respectively.
was estimated as 0.63 g and 0.42 g for the horizontal
Also, several thousands of aftershocks occurred, more
and the vertical earthquake component, respectively.
than thirty of which had a Richter magnitude greater
This seismic event produced fatalities, injuries,
than 3.5.
homeless and severe damages to more than 10.000
Most of Poggio Picenze was partially destroyed by
building in L’Aquila and the surrounding area. Gener-
the earthquake, which produced both significant dam-
ally, the damaged buildings are part of the historical
ages to buildings of the historical centre and death of
heritage of the zone, since they were built in the
5 people. The historical centre of Poggio Picenze is the
Roman times, in the Middle Age or in the Renais-
result of the process of continuous urban growth from
sance. Churches and palaces with either unreinforced
the ancient times up to the present days. In particu-
masonry or stone structure were the historic buildings
lar, the farming town can be divided into two different
most affected by the earthquake. For these structures,
urban areas. The oldest nucleus was founded by Piceni
the most common failure mechanism was the out-
around the 3rd century B.C. on the slope of Mount
of-plane overturning of facades, with the separation
Picenze. The subsequent urban configuration devel-
between two orthogonal masonry walls due to the poor
oped around the medieval castle built approximately
connection of stones.
in the 1st century A.C. Originally, the ancient castle
In the present paper, the seismic behaviour of build-
had fortified walls and six towers, including a high
ings belonging to the above categories is illustrated
one in the middle. Therefore, in the oldest part, the
with reference to four study cases, in which dynamic
urban planning is typical of a medieval town with
identification tests based on environmental vibrations
buildings arranged in almost concentric arrays which
have been performed.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 1. Monumental and typical architecture of Poggio
Picenze: a) the medieval house; b) a masonry complex.

follow the contours. On the contrary, the other area,

which is the new one, has an irregular urban plan with Figure 2. The historical centre of Castelnuovo of San Pio
some important palaces, like the mercantile Medieval after the Abruzzo earthquake.
House, built in the 13th century (Fig. 1a). The entire
town suffered heavy damages during the 1762 October
6th earthquake, which required substantial reconstruc-
tion works. In fact, the castle of Poggio Picenze became
unsafe and it was demolished. Ruins of this structure
are still visible in the oldest part of the town.
Nowadays, the historical centre consists of masonry
complex, generally ranging from 2 to 3 stories (Fig.
1b). Sack masonry with chaotic texture inside and bad
quality mortar is the typical structure for load-bearing
walls, which are, in some cases, connected to each
other by metal ties. In general, the first level horizon-
tal structure represents vaulted floors, while the other
levels are constituted by either wooden or steel floors.
The most common roof typology is the pitched one.
Moreover, from the architectural viewpoint, finishing,
doorways, balconies, patios and porches are usually Figure 3. The Visitazione church.
embellished with local limestone, the so-called white
stone of Poggio Picenze, which has a gentle appearance earthquake, which produced several collapses in the
and is easy to work. historical centre (Fig. 2).
The most important monumental buildings of the
town are the three churches, namely San Felice Mar-
2.2 The selected buildings
tire, Visitazione and St. Giuliano. and two palaces,
namely Galeota and Ferrari. An experimental campaign based on environmental
More information on the history and the most vibration measurements has been performed from
important buildings of Poggio Picenze are reported 2010, May 16th to 20th on four structures of the stud-
in (Galeota, 2006). ied historical centres: two churches and one palace in
Castelnuovo of San Pio is a hamlet of the munic- Poggio Picenze and one palace in Castelnuovo.
ipality of San Pio delle Camere. The ancient walled The first structure tested was the Visitazione church
nucleus is situated on the top of a hill, while an irreg- (Fig. 3), an isolated building located in the lowest
ular urban area following the contours develops on part of the centre of Poggio Picenze. This small parish
the mountainside. The urban scheme of the town high church was built probably between the 14th and 15th
part is regular and develops according to the so-called century and it was enlarged in 1832, as declared also
“chessboard or hippodamian” plan, in which all the on an internal epigraph. The church has a long cen-
streets are orthogonal to each other. The whole rectan- tral rectangular shape with a 18 m long unique nave.
gular area identified by these streets has dimensions of The building is constructed as a local stone masonry
70 m × 56 m and is divided into four blocks. Formerly, structure surmounted by a wooden pitched roof, prob-
the entrance of the ancient village was a round arch and, ably rebuilt after the collapse of the original one. The
probably, the walled zone was surrounded by a moat main façade contains elegant architectural decorations
(http: //www.castelnuovoonlus.com/castelnuovo). typical of the romanesque-aquilano style. Due to the
The most important monuments in Castelnuovo are earthquake, the main façade of the church suffered
the St. Giovanni Battista Church built in 1703 on the an out of plane overturning mechanism, which is now
ruins of another church previously destroyed by the stopped by an appropriate retaining system.
earthquake, and the Sidoni Palace. Also Castelnuovo The second investigated structure was the St. Giu-
of San Pio was seriously damaged by the Abruzzo liano church, which was built in the 14th century

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 4. The St. Giuliano church.
Figure 5. The Ferrari palace.
(Fig. 4). This building was originally constructed
within a small hospital, whereas presently, time it is
within a masonry building complex. The remaining
part of the original hospital consists of two rooms:
one at the ground floor with vaulted ceilings and the
other at the mezzanine floor. The church has a central
layout with a unique nave. The main vertical struc-
ture is constructed of sack local stone masonry walls
surmounted by a wooden pitched roof. This structure
is more damaged than the Visitazione church, since
its façade suffered a more pronounced out-of-plane
collapse mechanism.
The Ferrari palace (Fig. 5) is a monumental build-
ing placed in the post-medieval part of Poggio Picenze.
It was originally a small independent district, charac-
terized by the presence of farms built over the years
around the central nucleus. In the subsequent years,
the original owners sold part of the building com-
plex. Nowadays the palace has an irregular plan shape,
due to the several interventions performed over the
years. Indeed, the original sack masonry structure was
reinforced with stone buttresses, stretches of listed
masonry and concrete lintels. In addition, the horizon-
tal structures were reinforced with metal ties at various
levels.These structures suffered some serious damages
to masonry walls and vaults due to the earthquake.
Finally, the Sidoni palace (Fig. 6) is a monumental
building in the old medieval nucleus of Castelnuovo. It
is an isolated building, having a regular and symmetric
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 6. The Sidoni palace.
plan shape. The façade is also symmetric, and is char-
acterized by regular openings and several architectural
ornaments. The entrance is constituted by an arch
located in the central part of the façade. The building
represents a sack stone masonry two storey structure
surmounted by a wooden pitched roof that was rebuilt
after the demolition of the original vaulted one. The
first floor is developed on a rectangular surface of
about 300 m2 . The first level floors are composed
of tunnel vaults, while the second level horizontal
structure is realised with steel floors. No damage was
recorded in the building facade, whereas significant
damages and collapse of the masonry vault, took place
inside.
3 TESTING EQUIPMENT
For ambient vibration measurements of the monu-
ments, seismometers Ranger type, Kinemetrics prod-
uct, were used and the measured signals were
amplified by a Four Channel Signal Conditioner. The
amplified and filtered signals from the seismometers
were then collected by a high-speed data acquisition
system which transformed the analogue signals into
digital. PC and special software for on-line data pro-
cessing have been used to plot the time histories of the
recorded velocities together with the Fourier amplitude
spectra of the response at each measured point.
For post-processing and analysis of the recorded
vibrations at all the measuring points ARTeMIS soft-
ware was used. This software is based on frequency
domain decomposition and peak picking technique
and has possibilities for good graphical presentation
of the obtained results.
4 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
All the measurements were performed in transversal
and longitudinal direction of the monuments, enabling
the obtaining of the frequencies and mode shapes in
both orthogonal directions and torsion. The results are
presented for each monument taken separately.
 Figure 7. Test set-up, Visitazione church.

Figure 8. Peak-picking of the dominant frequencies, Visi-

tazione church.

Table 1. Dominant frequencies and damping coefficients.

Dominant frequency (Hz) Damping coeff. (%)

3.52 3.3
Figure 9. Mode shapes of vibration, Visitazione church.
5.08 2.6
6.84 2.4
7.32 1.5
11.62 –
13.28 –

4.1 Visitazione church, Poggio Picenze

The measured points are presented on the generated
geometry of the monument by ARTeMIS testor, Fig. 7.
Several frequencies are dominating on the obtained
spectrum, as shown in Fig. 8 and specified in Table 1.
The mode shapes of vibration are presented for the Figure 10. Test set-up, St. Giuliano church.
frequency of transversal vibrations, f = 3.51 Hz, for
the frequency in torsion f = 5.08 Hz as well as for the which the structure is vibrating in longitudinal direc-
frequency of longitudinal vibration f = 7.32 Hz, Fig. 9. tion, with dominant separation of the façade wall, and
frequency of 7.03 Hz in which the torsional effect is
noticeable as a result of the influence of the neighbour-
4.2 St. Giuliano church, Poggio Picenze ing connected structures (Fig. 3), which prevent free
The points of measurement on this monument are transversal vibration of the monument.
presented on the generated geometry, Fig. 10. The
dominating frequencies in the obtained spectrum are
4.3 The Ferrari palace, Poggio Picenze
presented in Fig. 11 and Table 2, along with the
corresponding damping coefficients. The generated geometry of the measured part of this
The mode shapes of vibration are presented in palace and the test set-up are presented in Fig. 13. The
Fig. 12 for frequencies of 5.37 Hz and 6.64 Hz under dominating frequencies are presented in Fig. 14 and

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 13. Test set-up, Ferrari palace.
Figure 11. Dominant frequencies, St. Giuliano church.

Table 2. Dominant frequencies and damping coefficients –

St. Giuliano church.

Dominant frequency (Hz) Damping coeff. (%)

4.98 1.4
5.37 2.2
6.64 2.2
7.03 1.9

Figure 14. Dominant frequencies, Ferrari palace.

Table 3. Dominant frequencies and damping coefficients –

Ferrari palace.

Dominant frequency (Hz) Damping coeff. (%)

4.88 2.8
5.76 2.5
7.42 1.6
8.50 1.4
10.55 1.8

and complex vibration, which is the result of the

heavy damage state and the extreme irregularity of
the building.

4.4 The Sidoni palace, Castelnuovo

The measured points on the Sidoni palace are pre-
sented in the geometry of the monument generated
by the ARTeMIS testor (Fig. 16). Several frequencies
dominate on the obtained spectrum, as given in Fig. 17
and specified in Table 4.
The frequency in transversal direction is 5.08 Hz,
while longitudinal vibration is expressed at frequency
of 5.27 Hz, as presented on the mode shapes in Fig. 18.

5 CONCLUSIONS

The ambient vibration testing of four historical mon-

Figure 12. Mode shapes of vibration, St. Giuliano church.
in Table 3, together with the corresponding damping
coefficients.
The first two mode shapes of vibration are pre-
sented in Fig. 15. They are indicating non-uniform
uments in the historical centres of two towns of the
Abruzzo region, Poggio Picenze and Castelnuovo of
San Pio, damaged during the L’Aquila earthquake
in 2009 has been performed in order to obtain their
actual dynamic characteristics: natural frequencies,
mode shapes and damping coefficients. Due to their

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Table 4. Dominant frequencies and damping coefficients –
Sidoni palace.

Dominant frequency (Hz) Damping coeff. (%)

2.54 5.8
4.10 3.3
5.08 4.8
5.27 4.8
6.35 3.8
7.7 2.3
8.8 1.4

Figure 15. Mode shapes of vibration, Ferrari palace.

Figure 18. Mode shapes of vibration, Sidoni palace.

Figure 16. Test set-up, Sidoni palace.
monuments. It is recommended to repeat the ambient
vibration measurements after repair and strengthening
of these structures in order to identify the effects of the
applied strengthening solution.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The support by COST Action C26 and the Chair

Figure 17. Dominant frequencies, Sidoni palace.
heavy damage state and stiffness degradation, the spec-
tra also contain the frequencies of the damaged parts,
like front (façade) walls, vaults, arches etc., which
complicates the identification of the global structural
frequencies. The experienced collapse modes of the
monuments can be used for setting up sophisticated
numerical models and analytical procedures by means
of which the retrofitting intervention can correctly be
implemented. The obtained experimental results could
enable a better detection of the damaged parts of the
of the Action Prof. Dr Federico Mazzolani in real-
ization of the scientific mission in which the pre-
sented experimental activities are realized, is greatly
acknowledged.
REFERENCES
AA.VV. 2009. L’Aquila Italy, M6.3 Earthquake, April 6
2009. Earthquake field investigation report, Myiamoto
International, CA.
Galeota, A. 2006. Dizionario Poggiano. Associazione cultur-
ale il castello, Poggio Picenze.
http://www.castelnuovoonlus.com/castelnuovo.
Krstevska, L. & Tashkov, L. 2006. Ambient vibration test-
ing of historical monuments. Proc. of the First European
Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology,
Geneva, Switzerland, September 3–8, Paper Number 543.

432
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Ambient vibration tests on three religious buildings in Goriano Sicoli

damaged during the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake

L. Tashkov, L. Krstevska & N. Naumovski

Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology, Skopje, Macedonia

G. De Matteis & G. Brando

Department of Engineering, University “G.d’Annunzio” of Chieti-Pescara, Italy

ABSTRACT: The present paper provides the main results of the experimental measurements carried out for
the purpose of detecting the main natural frequencies and mode shapes of three churches by means of ambient
vibration tests. The studied buildings belong to the historical center of Goriano Sicoli, a town placed in the
Aquila Earthquake crater, which were seriously damaged due to the seismic event of 06.04.2009. In the first part
the tested buildings are described and the main collapse mechanisms provoked by the earthquake, as well as the
provisional structures which have been installed, are shown. Successively, the implemented tests and the main
obtained outcomes are presented and discussed.

1 INTRODUCTION in which a large part of the roofing system entirely

The seismic event that took place on 06.04.2009 (3.32
a.m. local time) in the district of L’Aquila showed the
high vulnerability of the existing buildings belonging
to the historical centers of Italian cities. This outcome
could be dated back to the medieval period and is usu-
ally referred to masonry buildings characterized by
poor construction materials and scarce construction
techniques.
Many buildings stroked by the earthquake were
used for religious rituals and were very valuable
from both artistic and monumental point of view.
The severe damages developed made them unusable
(GRM, 2009). Significant examples of monumental
assets destroyed by earthquake are represented by the
“Anime Sante” church (fig. 1-a), whose precious dome
collapsed irremediably under the action of ground
motion, or by the “Collemaggio” basilica (fig. 1-b),
Figure 1. Monumental Buildings destroyed by the L’Aquila
Earthquake: a) “Anime Sante” Church and b) Collemaggio
Basilica.
fell down.
After a year a huge debate is still focused on the
possible recovering this type of buildings by proper
structural interventions or proceed their reconstruc-
tion by using different structural systems based on
application of new technologies.
In any case, all the operators agree about the
hard lesson learnt from the L’Aquila earthquake: the
Italian heritage must be retrofitted by using the most
advanced techniques able, on one hand, to improve
effectively the structural response of the buildings
and, on the other hand, to preserve their precious
monumental features.
In this context, studies on innovative technologies
having the above prerogatives must be carried out and
the collapse modes provoked by the earthquake should
have a guiding role in this operation.
The historical centers of the L’Aquila district could
be used as a sort of natural laboratory in which each
building can be considered as a full-scale specimen
subjected to a natural shake table test. The expe-
rienced collapse modes may therefore be used for
setting up sophisticated numerical models and ana-
lytical procedures by means of which the retrofitting
intervention should be correctly implemented. In addi-
tion, complementary experimental tests may help to
better determine the structural behavior of the studied
building and solve problems such as the ones related
the equivalent mechanical property to be assigned in
the material modeling, identify the dynamic features
of the buildings, better detection of the damaged parts
and so on.
On this basis, the current paper presents an experi-
mental campaign carried out with the aim of detecting

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 3. St. Gemma church before the L’Aquila
earthquake.

Figure 2. The historical center of Goriano Sicoli.

the main natural frequencies and mode shapes, by

means of ambient vibration tests, of three churches
which have been strongly damaged by the L’Aquila
earthquake. Firstly the proposed buildings will be
described, and damages due to the seismic event
of 6.04.09 will be shown. Successively, the main
outcomes of the proposed tests will be discussed.

2 THE STUDIED BUILDINGS

2.1 The center of Goriano Sicoli
The three main churches in the center of Goriano
Sicoli have been analyzed. Goriano Sicoli is a vil-
lage of 600 inhabitants of the twelfth century. It is
located at the heart of the district of L’Aquila at 700
meters above the sea level. It presents the typical fea-
tures, landscape, historical and cultural characteristics
of the small towns in the Abruzzi highlands. Cross-
ing the historical center, it is possible to recognize
the urban stratification over time. It consists of both
ancient-medieval and recent buildings.
In Figure 2, the historical center of the town is
depicted and the main monumental buildings marked.
In particular, those labeled with numbers 1 (St. Gemma
church), 3 (St. Francesco church) and 5 (St. Maria
Nova church) are the ones that are dealt with in the
paper.
2.2 St. Gemma church
St. Gemma church (Fig. 3) was built between the six-
teenth and seventieth century and rebuilt over the years
on a site upon which initially was placed an old church
devoted to St. John the Baptist.
The façade, constructed in the late eighteenth cen-
tury, has a central part crowned with a tympanum and
is higher than the lateral ones on its sides The plant
(Fig. 4) has three naves with transept and apse.
The central nave, preceded by a space of transverse
width equal to the one of entrance facade, is covered by
Figure 4. The plant of St. Gemma church.
Figure 5. The plan and the front of St. Francesco church.
a barrel vault with lunettes supported by cross section
masonry column connected by arches, while the lateral
naves present characteristics elliptical vaults on arches
constrained by ties.
2.3 St. Francesco Church
In the same area of St. Gemma church is placed
St. Francesco church, a masonry building perhaps dat-
ing from the twelfth century. It is probably the most
ancient building in Goriano Sicoli, but it has to be
considered that during the successive centuries, it has
been subjected to numerous changes and expansion so
to include the old monastery.
Currently, the church consists of a single nave
(Fig. 5), a small house that develops in longitudinal
direction.
The interior is empty, with a timber truss, supporting
the wooden roof with two pitches, which ends on a R.C.
beam built after the 1984 earthquake and placed on top
of the masonry wall (Fig. 6).

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 6. The interior of St. Francesco church.
Figure 7. Santa Maria Nova church.
Figure 8. The plant of St. Maria Nova church.
On the right side of the main façade there is a more
recent building that is connected to the church by weak
elements that, although not effective under a severe
earthquake may influence the church response under
ambient vibrations.
2.4 St. Maria Nova Church
St. Maria Nova church (Fig. 7) is the biggest religious
building in Goriano Sicoli. It is a Romanic church built
in the fifteenth century on the surrounding wall of an
ancient castle, some of its masonry elements belong
to the present structure.
The main facade of the simple flat smooth surface
has a central part crowned with a small tympanum.
The plan (Fig. 8) shows three naves.
In the lateral naves, sail vaults are present, whereas,
in the central one, a welsh barrel vault can be observed.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 9. Damages to St. Gemma church.
These are supported by arches constrained by ties
in both longitudinal and transversal direction.
3 EXPERIENCED DAMAGES
In the subsequent text, a synthetic overview of dam-
ages provoked on the studied churches by the seismic
event of 06.04.2009 is provided.
In Figure 9, the most severe mechanism collapse
arisen in St. Gemma church, the most affected one
among the studied buildings, is shown. As it is
observed, the main façade (fig. 9-a) undergo over-
turning detaching itself from the remaining part of
the building. The apse, as well as the greater part
of the perimetric wall, suffered deep diagonal crack
due to shear (Fig. 9-b). Internally, the heaviest dam-
ages were recorded on columns (Fig. 9-c), which have
been squashed probably becauseof the strong vertical
acceleration that has characterized the earthquake, and
arches, whose key stones have been partially moved
out (Fig. 9-d). Significant damages have been also
detected on the vault of the naves. Figure 9 shows, the
provisional structures used for temporarily reinforcing
of the structure.
As it is observed in Figure 6, damages to St.
Francesco church consist only of cracks in the inter-
face between the upper rc beam and the masonry walls.
For this church, no provisional structures have been
necessary.
In Figure 10, damages to the interior of St. Maria
Nova are shown. Cracks are concentrated in the vault,
but no kinematics mechanisms of masonry walls have
 Figure 12. Installation of the seismometers from outside by
Figure 10. Damages to the (a) central nave and (b) the lateral means of auto-crane on Santa Gemma Church.
naves in St. Maria Nova church.

Figure 11. Equipment for ambient vibration measurements. Figure 13. Schematic presentation of measuring points at
Santa Gemma church.

been evidenced. Probably this was due to the beneficial

effect of the ties. Provisional structures are arranged
only on the bell tower that is completely separated from
the church main body.

4 AMBIENT VIBRATION TEST RESULTS

4.1 Testing method and measuring equipment

The ambient vibration testing method represents a
widely applied and popular full-scale testing method
for experimental definition of structural dynamic
characteristics. During the ambient vibration mea-
surements of the structures in Goriano Sicoli, three
seismometers Ranger type, Kinemetrics product, were
used and the measured signal was amplified by four
channel Signal Conditioner also Kinemetrics product.
The amplified and filtered signals from the seismome-
ters were than collected by a high-speed data acquisi-
tion system which transforms the analogue signals to
digital (Fig. 11).
Special software for on-line data processing has
been used to plot the time history and the Fourier
amplitude spectra of the response at any measuring
point. After recording, the ARTEMIS software was
used to define the Spectra density curves and mode
shapes of the structures.
Figure 14. Spectral density curves of Santa Gemma church.
4.2 Dynamic characteristics of the tested
structures
4.2.1 St. Gemma church
As it is mentioned in chapter 3, this church was
heavily damaged and it was dangerous to enter and
to put the instruments from internal side. Therefore,
an auto-crane with basket has been used to put the
seismometers on the window frames (Fig. 12).
The disposition of the instruments is schematically
shown on Fig. 13. The spectral density curves are pre-
sented on Fig. 14. The dominant frequencies of the
church are given inTable 1.The first three mode shapes
are presented on Fig. 15.

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Table 1. Dominant frequencies and damping coefficients of
St. Gemma church.

Mode Frequency (Hz) Damping (%)

1 2.402 1.42
2 3.027 1.34
3 3.652 1.07

Figure 17. Spectral density curves of Santa Maria Nova

Church.

Table 2. Dominant frequencies and damping coefficients of

St. Maria Nova church.

Mode Frequency (Hz) Damping (%)

1 2.246 3.15
2 3.711 2.55
3 4.590 2.55

Figure 15. Mode shapes of Santa Gemma church.

Figure 16. Schematic presentation of measuring points at

Santa Maria Nova church.

4.2.2 St. Maria Nova church

The damage to the church was visible from the internal
side mostly on the vaults. The measuring points were
located inside the church near the windows. Schematic
presentation of the measuring points is given in Fig. 16.
The spectral density curves are presented on Fig. 17.
The dominant frequencies of the church are given in Figure 18. Mode shapes of Santa Maria Nova church.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 19. Schematic presentation of measuring points at
St. Francesco church.
Figure 20. Spectral density curves of St Francesco Church.
Table 2. The first three mode shapes are presented in
Fig. 18.
4.2.3 St. Francesco Church
The damage to the church is slight. The measuring
points were located inside the church near the win-
dows. Schematic presentation of the measuring points
is given in Fig. 19. The spectral density curves are
presented in fig. 20. The dominant frequencies of the
church are given in Table 3.The first three mode shapes
are presented in Fig. 21.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The ambient vibration measurements of selected his-
torical buildings-churches in Goriano Sicoli, Italy,
were performed in rather difficult working conditions.
Out of 3, two churches were heavily damaged, with
many cracks visible from the external and internal side.
It was obvious that the initial stiffness of the structures
was decreased during the earthquake. The measured
resonant frequencies show the actual stiffness of the
damaged structures. The stiffness degradation is dif-
ficult to be defined the moment because of lack of
measurements before the earthquake. In that respect,
the obtained data should be carefully analyzed from
the aspect of dominant frequencies, mode shapes
and damping. These data could also be used as ref-
erent ones for the data which will be obtained by
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 3. Dominant frequencies and damping coefficients of
St. Francesco Church.
Mode Frequency (Hz) Damping (%)
1 4,98 2.47
2 6.25 2.77
3 9.47 5.29
Figure 21. Mode shapes of St. Francesco Church.
measurements after repair and strengthening of the
churches.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The support by COST Action C26 and the Chair
of the Action Prof. Dr Federico Mazzolani in reali-
zation of the scientific mission, in which the pre-
sented experimental activities are realized, is greatly
acknowledged.
REFERENCES
GRM (Global Risk Myamoto) (2009). 2009 M6.3 L’Aquila,
Italy, Earthquake field investigation report.
Krstevska L, Tashkov L, “Ambient vibration testing of histori
cal monuments”, First European Conference on Earth-
quake Engineering and Seismology, Geneva, Switzerland,
3–8 September 2006, Paper Number 543.
Krstevska, L., Tashkov, Lj., “Dynamic testing of histori-
cal monuments in Istanbul applying ambient vibration
method”, EE-21C-International Conference on Earth-
quake Engineering, 27.08-01.09 2005, Skopje-Ohrid, CD
Proceedings.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Seismic response analysis of multiple supported piping systems with friction

characteristics

T. Yamauchi, K. Tsuchikawa, A. Masuda & A. Sone

Kyoto Institute of Technology, Kyoto, Japan

ABSTRACT: Fundamental study on seismic response of multiple supported piping systems in industrial plants
is described. Nonlinear characteristics such as friction appearing between the piping itself and supports are
specifically investigated. From the numerical simulations using the simple model, it is clear that the maximum
acceleration response of piping system with friction characteristics to two input excitations almost becomes large
with the increase of correlation coefficient between two input excitations.

1 INTRODUCTION

For seismic response analysis of multiple supported

piping systems in industrial facilities such as nuclear
power plants and petro-chemical plants, the several
conventional calculation methods have been proposed
and discussed (Gupta 1984, Leimbach 1980, Singh
& Mehta 1983, Wu & Hussain & Liu 1978). On the
other hand, gaps which are provided for thermal expan-
sion of piping and friction between pipe and supports
could have considerable effect upon seismic piping
response. For these piping systems in typical plants,
there have been some investigations of the dynamic
response characteristics of piping-support systems
considering the nonlinearities due to gap and fric-
tion (Watanabe & Suzuki 1998a, Watanabe & Suzuki
1998b, Watanabe & Tomoda & Tanaka 2006). Further-
more, hardly any analysis in piping systems subjected
support excitations have been made.
Considering the seismic response problems for
multi-loading systems, one of the authors has proposed
a conventional load combination scheme by evaluat-
ing the statistical correlation among dynamic loads
based on random theory (Suzuki & Sone 1989). In this
paper, for conventional calculation method of maxi-
mum response of multiple supported piping systems
with friction effect, using a simple analytical model of
single degree of freedom piping system with friction Figure 1. Multiple – supported piping model with friction.
characteristics to two support excitations, numerical
simulations are carried out with various correlation 2 ANALYTICAL MODEL OF PIPING SYSTEM
cases of two support excitations. The friction charac-
teristics are assumed to be as the Coulomb friction Consider a single degree freedom piping system sub-
model. Especially, the effect of correlation between jected two support excitations as shown in Figure 1.
two support excitations on the maximum accelera- m is mass of pipe. c1 , c2 , k1 and k2 are damping coef-
tion response of piping system is investigated. Finally, ficients, spring constants of support 1 and support 2,
relationship between response reduction factor and respectively. x is absolute displacement of pipe. y1 and
friction parameter is shown. y2 are two support displacement inputs. Friction force

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Fr between the pipe and support 1 are assumed to be as
Coulomb friction model and static friction force and
dynamic friction force are also assumed to be iden-
tical. When no sliding is generated, since the relative
acceleration response, relative velocity response and
relative displacement response become zero, Fr = 0
and then the absolute acceleration response is identical
to support acceleration input of support 1 as follows:
When sliding is generated, the equation of motion
of this piping system is given as
where z = x − y1 is the relative displacement response.
Also, in order to calculate Equation 2, the switching
conditions from the sliding to the rest and from the
rest to the sliding are necessary. When Equation 4 is
satisfied, the pipe is sliding. When Equations 5 and 6
are satisfied, the pipe is rest (Shintani & Hattori 2007).
For simplicity in this study, taking as k1 = k2 = k,
c1 =c2 = c, the equation of motion of this piping
system is rewritten as
As the nondimensional parameter corresponding to
friction effect, the following parameter α is used in
this study.
3 GENERATION METHOD FOR TWO INPUTS
The cross-correlation among support excitations for
the general case is given assuming the following
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 1. Parameters for simulated seismic motions.
Type 1 Type 2 Type 3 Type 4
ω0 (rad/s) 10π 10π 6π 6π
κ 1 10 1 10
Figure 2. Cross-spectrum for Type 1-excitations.
exponential-function-type cross-correlation, whereby
two random excitations ÿ1 and ÿ2 are simulated
through the Monte Carlo method.
In this equation, σi is a standard deviation of ÿij εij
(when i = j, εij=1 ) is correlation factor between two
excitations, and κ is a constant value which gives the
shape of the cross-correlation function. ω0 is a pre-
dominant circular frequency of generated excitation.
In this study, as correlation factor, five values are
set as ε12 = 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0. In order to investi-
gate the effect of κ and ω0 on the nonlinear response
of multiple supported piping system, four types of
two random excitations are selected in Table 1. Also,
σ1 = σ2 =20 cm/s2 and lower frequency and upper
frequency of generated excitation are 0 and 10 Hz,
respectively.
Figure 2 shows the cross-spectrum of Type 1-
excitations. This example is for κ = 1, ω0 = 10 π
rad/s and relatively narrow-band excitations. Figure 3
show the time histories of Type 1-excitations and their
velocities and displacements. Figure 4 shows the
power spectra of Type 1-excitation. From this figure, it
is shown that their predominant frequencies are almost
10π rad/s(5 Hz).
Figure 5 shows the cross-spectrum of Type 2-
excitations. This example is for κ = 10, ω0 = 10 π
rad/s and relatively broad-band excitations. Figure 6
show the time histories of Type 2-excitations and their
velocities and displacements. Figure 7 shows the
power spectra of Type 1-excitations.From this figure,
it is shown that their predominant frequencies are 10π
rad/s(5 Hz).
Figure 3. Time histories of Type 1-excitations.
Figure 4. Fourier spectra of Type 1-excitations.
Figure 5. Cross-spectrum for Type 2-excitations.
4 NUMERICAL SIMULATION WITH TWO
INPUTS
In this chapter, using two input excitations generated
in the previous chapter, the numerical simulations of
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 6. Time histories of Type 2-excitations.
Figure 7. Fourier spectra of Type 2-excitations.
SDOF piping system with friction characteristics are
carried out. Changing the values of natural circular
frequency ωp and damping ratio ζp of piping system
and parameter α of friction characteristics, the effect
of correlation factor between two input excitations on
the maximum response is examined. ωp is set from π
to 20π rad/s, ζp is set at two values of 0.05 and 0.1 and
α is set at six values of 0.0, 0.1, 0.2 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5.
Figure 8 shows the calculation results of maximum
acceleration response for Type 1-excitations, ζp = 0.05
and 0.1 and α = 0.0; that is acceleration response spec-
tra. This example is linear piping system because of
α = 0.0. From this figure, it is clear that the maxi-
mum acceleration responses increase with increase of
correlation coefficient between two inputs.
Figure 9 shows the calculation results of maxi-
mum acceleration response for Type 1-excitations and
α = 0.3. This example is nonlinear piping system
because of α = 0.3. From this figure, it is clear that
the maximum acceleration responses increase with
increase of correlation coefficient between two inputs.
 Figure 8. Response spectra (Type 1, α = 0.0). Figure 9. Response spectra (Type 1, α = 0.3).

However, the maximum acceleration responses for

this case become smaller than those for linear case.
For Type 2-excatation the same results are obtained.
Next, we discuss the reduction effect of maximum
response due to friction characteristics. As amplifi-
cation factor A, the ratio of maximum acceleration
response ẍmax and maximum input acceleration ÿ1,max
is defined as

Maximum acceleration response is the maximum

value of response spectrum. Figure 10 shows rela-
tionship between A and α for Type 1-excitaions and
ζp = 0.05. Figure 10. Amplification factor.
From this figure, it is clear that the amplification
factor A almost becomes smaller with increase of α,
irrespective of correlation coefficient. This shows the 5 RESPONSE REDUCTION FACTOR
reduction effect of response of piping system due
to friction characteristics. However, for large values In order to evaluate the response reduction effect due to
α = 0.4 and 0.5, the difference among the amplifica- friction characteristics, the following “response reduc-
tion factor A due to every correlation coefficients is tion factors” are defined based on the linear maximum
not clear and A fluctuates. responses.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 11. Response reduction factor.
Figure 12. Response reduction factor.
where ẍmax = maximum acceleration response; żmax =
maximum relative velocity response; zmax = maximum
relative displacement response of nonlinear pip-
ing system; ẍl,max = maximum acceleration response,
maximum of linear piping system; żl.max = relative
velocity response of linear piping system; zl,max =
maximum relative displacement response of linear
piping ; βa = response reduction factor for maxi-
mum acceleration response; βv = response reduction
factor for maximum relative velocity response; βd
a = response reduction factor for maximum relative
displacement response.
Figures 11, 12 and 13 show relationships of βa
and α, βv and α, βd and α for Type-1 excitations
and ζp = 0.05, respectively. From this figures, it is
clear that all response reduction factors become large
with increase of α. In the region of α > 0.3, response
reduction factors almost keep constant. Therefore,
the response reduction effect is not obtained over
large value of friction force, irrespective of correlation
coefficient.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 13. Response reduction factor.
6 CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, for the conventional calculation method
of maximum response of multiple supported piping
systems with friction effect, using a simple analyti-
cal model of single degree freedom piping system
friction characteristics subjected two support excita-
tions, numerical simulations are carried out taking
correlation coefficient in account. The main results
are summarized as follow:
(1) The maximum responses of linear piping systems
can be calculated depending on the correlation
coefficient between two input excitations. In other
words, the stronger the correlation coefficient
becomes, the higher these values grow.
(2) This relationship becomes the same results in the
case of small friction force, however, in the case
of large friction force, it is not clearly seen.
(3) It is clear that the response reduction factors due
to friction effect become large in the case of small
damping ratio of piping system and also in the case
of large correlation coefficient between two input
excitations.
Finally, based on these results, the further numerical
work is necessary in order to propose the conventional
calculation method of maximum responses of mul-
tiple supported piping systems using the correlation
coefficient and response reduction factor.
REFERENCES
Gupta, S. 1984. A comparative study of combination meth-
ods used in response spectrum analysis of nuclear piping
system. Trans. ASME, Jorn. Press. Vessl. Techn., 106:
25–31.
Leimbach, M. P. 1980, Comparison of multiple support exci-
tation solution technologies for piping system. Nuclear
Engn. And Design, 57: 295–307.
Singh, M. P. & Mehta, K. B. 1983, Seismic design response
by an alternative SRSS rule. Earth. Engn. And Struc. Dyn.,
11:771–783.
Wu, R. W. & Hussain, F. A. & Liu, L. K. 1978. Seismic
response analysis of structural system to multiple support
excitations. Nuclear Engn. And Design, 47: 273–282.
Shintani, M.& Hattori, Y. 2007. Study on isolation device
for decrease of displacement by using control of friction.
Tans. Japan Soc. Mech. Engn., 73–735:2883–2890.
Suzuki, K. & Sone, A. 1989. A load combination method
for aseismic design of multiple supported piping sys-
tems. Trans. ASME, Jorn. Press. Vessl. Techn., 111:
10–16.
444
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Watanabe, T. & Tomoda, A. & Tanaka, K. 2006. Response
Reduction Map Under Long Period Friction System. Tans.
Japan Soc. Mech. Engn., 72–722:3221–3226.
Watanabe, T. & Suzuki, K. 1998a. Seismic Response Analy-
sis of Piping System with Friction Support (Maximum
Response Estimation Using Frictional Response Spec-
trum). Tans. Japan Soc. Mech. Engn., 64–619:87–92.
Watanabe, T. & Suzuki, K. 1998b. Seismic Responses of Pip-
ing System with Friction Sliding on a Plane. Tans. Japan
Soc. Mech. Engn., 64–617:64–69.
 Analysis of structures under impact and explosion

© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Compressive behaviour of concrete at high strain rates

M. Belaoura
ENSTP- 1, Algiers, Algeria

ABSTRACT: The optimisation of the design for special works in civil engineering needs a good understanding
of dynamic behaviour of concrete material. And that, in the optics of the establishment of a macroscopic behaviour
model taking into accounts not only the microscopic effects in the quasi – static domain but in the dynamic as
well. The question of the dynamic strength of concrete is particularly a large open topics in the high strain rates
(10 to 1000 s−1 ) for which the mechanisms that govern the failure is not well clarified. Although having made
a great interest for this idea the last decades in the military and industrial construction, the knowledge in this
field is still limited. The compressive behaviour of concrete at high strain rate was more extensively studied in
these last decades. Many tests have been done in order to determine compression strength of concrete submitted
to high strain rate. Concerning the characterization of dynamic compression of concrete, many technical have
been used, as the universal machines, drop weights and split-Hopkinson pressure bars.
In this paper, different experimental techniques commonly used for high strain rates testing of concrete in
compression have been undertaken, together with the methods used for measurement and recording of stress and
strain. The results of these uniaxial compression tests of the concrete are summarized.

1 INTRODUCTION

The response of concrete at high strain rates in com-

pression was most largely studied, and this as from
the Forties and in a more extensive way these four last
decades. Many tests on the scale of material were car-
ried out concerning the measurement of the strength of
concrete subjected to high loading rates in compres-
sion. For the characterization of dynamic behaviour
of concrete in compression, various means and tech-
nique of test were used, namely of the multipurpose
machines, weights falling and Hopkinson bars.

2 UNIAXIAL COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH OF

PLAIN CONCRETE: STRAIN RATE
INFLUENCE
The experimental results regarding the relative com-
pression strength of concrete according to the loga-
rithm of the strain rate are presented on (Fig. 1). The
obtained dynamic compression strength is reported to
their quasi-static values, to mask eventual scale effects
and the differences of maturity of the tested concretes.
The tested specimens are a cylinders or relatively mod-
est prisms (height less than to 305 mm for a lateral
dimension less than 152 mm). The studied material is
generally wet and dry concrete with a maximal aggre-
gate size of 38 mm, with a report/ration E/C varied
from 0.24 to 0.95. The concerned concrete is aged
of 4 days to several months and characterized by a
Figure 1. Strain rate effect on the compressive strength.
quasi-static compressive strength varying from 11 to
110 MPa.
The analysis of the obtained results clearly puts for-
ward the phenomenon known as of rate effect, that is
to say the increase in relative compression strength of
material concrete with the strain rate. One thus distin-
guishes two zones from dynamic behaviour: for strain
rate going of the quasi-static field with 10 S−1 , the
strain rate effects are moderate; but beyond this thresh-
old, the rate effects tend to grow very quickly with the
strain rate. Thus, quasi-static strength is multiplied by

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 approximately 1.5 for a rate of 10 S−1 , it more than is
doubled for a rate of 100 S−1 .
Nevertheless, except this principal tendency put for-
ward, there remains sometimes of contradictions in the
conclusions of various researchers. Some researchers
straight forwardly call into question the existence of
this rate effect. They suppose that the variations of
strength between the various tests can be inherent in the
experimental techniques and not to translate in partic-
ular a property of material. Indeed, the conclusions of
various researchers are based on the results of several
test routines using of multiple techniques of loading
and various methods for the analysis and the inter-
pretation of the results. Moreover, the differences in
the mix design, the type of measurement, the face,
the form (cubic, cylinder or prism) and the report of
dimension of the samples are parameters which it is
necessary to consider at the time of the comparison of
the contradictory results of various researchers.
3 PARAMETERS INFLUENCING ON THE
DYNAMIC COMPRESSION STRENGTH
OF CONCRETE
3.1 Concrete quality
Many researchers have observed that the sensitivity
at the strain rate of stronger concretes (translated by
their great quasi-static compressive strengths unia-
xial) is less significant than weaker concretes, Popp
(1977), Hughes & Watson (1978). Cowel (1966) also
observed a small percentage of increase in strength
for concretes of good quality but supposed that the
rate effect noticed in the weak concretes could be
with their low quasi-static strength. However, there
are some researchers who find the opposite, Oh &
Shin (1987). For others, no significant difference is
observed for various qualities (strengths) of concrete,
Atchley & Furr (1967). The increase in the strength of
concrete during a dynamic loading is explained by the
longer way taken by the cracks while being propagated
through the solid aggregates, Bischoff & Perry (1986).
3.2 Aggregates
For the majority of the researchers, the nature and the
type of aggregates have an unquestionable effect on
the increase of the compressive strength dynamic with
the strain rate, Fagerlund & Larsson (1979). Aggre-
gates that exhibit a good bond, and which minimizes
the difference in stiffness with the surrounding mor-
tar matrix, will have a good impact resistance. Tests
by Sparks & Menzies (1973) showed that the con-
crete of stiffer aggregates was less rate- sensitive.
A smaller maximum size of aggregates should also
improve the compressive strength during an impact
loading, Zielinski (1984).
3.3 Curing and moisture conditions
It is obvious for the majority of the researchers whom
curing conditions are sometimes thought to have an
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
effect on compressive strength during high strain rate
loading. Katsuta (1943) observed that the method of
curing had a definite effect on strength. It raised a
clear increase of this strength for a concrete exposed
to moisture compared to a concrete preserved at the
dry air. Cowell (1966) also observed a great increase
in strength for a concrete exposed to moisture. Others,
Dhir & Sangha (1972), Kaplan (1980), Soroushian et
al. (1986) noted that the strain rates effect is reduced
when moisture decreases following the long periods
of exposure to the dry air. It should be noted that it is
sometimes difficult to estimate the effect of the cure
conditions on the dynamic strength of concrete start-
ing from the value of quasi-static strength. Because the
latter is connected it to the cure conditions affecting
thus, the relative increase in strength at high loading
rates. All in all, it arises clearly that the moisture condi-
tions must be taken into account during a quasi-static
or dynamic loading.
3.4 Concrete age
The effect of age on the relative increase in strength is
difficult to evaluate, especially when even quasi-static
strength increases with the age. With this difficulty
that of the evaluation of the effect of curing conditions
is added on strength. Cowell (1966) found an increase
in strength for a concrete of good quality, thereafter
this increase is stabilized when the age of the con-
crete increases. However, the results are affected by
the percentage of moisture contained in the sample
when the concrete tested is subjected for a long period
to a humid air before the test. By comparing the studies
of Souroushian et al. (1986), it was concluded that the
effect the strain rate is independent of the age when
the moisture conditions are similar. Nevertheless, the
dispersion of the results of various tests concerning
the age effect on the compressive strength of concrete
with the increase the strain rate lets suppose that this
effect is weak.
3.5 Side containment of inertia
The brutal increase in strength in dynamic compres-
sion of concrete for a strain rate higher than 30 S−1 ,
could be explained by the existence of a state of
transition in the mechanism of rupture governing the
response in deformation and strength. This transition
could be due to the sensitivity at the strain rate of
microfissuring in traction. During a fast loading, the
time of development or propagation of microscopic
cracks is reduced. It was also suggested that the fast
increase in strength in compression for high rates could
not be ‘reel’ but a result of a transition from a state
of uniaxial stress in a state of uniaxial deformation.
During the dynamic loading, quasi-static strength is
exceeded so much quickly, that the sample hardly has
time to discharge laterally, thus producing an effective
constraint of containment in the core of the test-tube.
The micocraking which develops starting from the
free face of the sample finds blocked on the level of
the core of test-tube because of the existence of this
side constraint of containment, Janach (1976). This
containment allows an increase in the strength of con-
crete, as well as an increase in the critical deformation
and quantity in the cracks, Bischoff & Perry (1986).
This last interpretation is most commonly allowed to
explain the notable increase in strength in compres-
sion of concrete for strain rates beyond the threshold
of 30 S−1 .
4 DEFORMATION BEHAVIOUR AND ENERGY
ABSORPTION CAPACITY
Many researchers studying high strain rate effects on
concrete have been concerned mainly with determin-
ing the strength increase, and hence information on
deformations is limited. Nevertheless, on the basis of
some data available, of the tendencies of evolution of
the deformation with the rate loading are given and
discussed in what follows. All in all, it comes out
from these data that the axial deformation criticizes
increases at high loading rates, but this increase is rel-
atively less significant than that awaited for strength.
Moreover, although the increase in the secant mod-
ules is known, there is no common consensus about
change in the initial tangent module. The changes in
the Poisson’s ratio confirm that the microscopic cracks
of traction are reduced at high strain rates. This is con-
firmed besides by the observation of the increased
linearity of the dynamic stress-strain curve of con-
crete. And since the constraint and the deformation
affect the aptitude of concrete to absorb energy, this
property also increases during a fast loading.
4.1 Strain rate influence on elastic modules
Concerning the elastic modulus, few results are avail-
able because the complexity of obtaining a good
measurement of this one in dynamics. In general, it
is allowed that the elastic modulus would increase
with the strain rates. This increase is nevertheless less
marked than for that observed for strength in dynamic
compression. In the past, this increase in module is
allotted either to viscosity, or with inertial resistance to
the micro internal cracking. Few researchers supposed
that the increases in strength and the module are com-
parable, Konig & Dargel (1982). Confusion occurs
about the variation of the tangent initial module with
the strain rates. Many researchers obtained an increase
in the tangent module when the strain rates increases,
Bresler & Bertero (1975), Ban & Muguruma (1960),
Mahin & Bertero (1972), while for others, the ini-
tial tangent module is not affected by the strain rates,
Takeda & Tachikawa (1972), Ahmad & Shah (1985).
During a fast loading, the slope remains linear up to
the great levels of constraints, indicating a delay in the
process of development of the internal cracks, Cowell
(1966). This can be explained and connected for pur-
poses of inertia intern coming to delay the propagation
of micro fissuring.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 2. Strain rates effect on the deformation due to
compression criticizes ε0 .
4.2 Strain rates influence on critical compressive
strain
Results of previous research relating the influence of
strain rates to the critical compressive strain are shown
in figure 2. The change in critical strain ranges from
a decrease of 30 % to an increase of 40 % for strain
rates up to 10 S−1 when compared to the quasi-static
loading of 10−5 S−1 .
The value of the critical deformation in compres-
sion ε0 can be affected by the quasi-static compressive
strength, the type of aggregates, the conditions of con-
servation and the conditions of tests, Ban & Muguruma
(1960).
The variation of this deformation criticizes with
the strain rates was the several contradictory conclu-
sion object. For many researchers, a reduction in the
deformation due to critical compression can occur for
high strain rates, Hjorth (1976), Hughes & Watson
(1978), Dilger et al. (1984). Evans (1958) noted that
the phenomenon of creep is the mechanism responsi-
ble for the determination for behaviour in short-term
compression for the concrete at high loading rates.
Other researchers, Hatano, et al. (1966) noticed
that the critical deformation remains constant with
the strain rates. Although Cowell observed a small
increase in the critical deformation for a rate of maxi-
mum deformation of 3 × 10−1 S−1 , its test results are
completely irregular, from where no definite conclu-
sion could be drawn. Lastly, for other researchers,
Takeda & Tachikawa (1972), Rostasy & Hartwich
(1985), Ahmad & Shah (1985), an increase in the
deformation due to compression criticizes with the
strain rate was observed. This increase varies from 10
to 30 % for a rate higher than 10 S−1 .
The dispersion of the results obtained by the various
researchers can be explained by the diversity of the
testing methods carrying out towards various ways of
rupture. The diversity of the types of machines used by
the authors can also explain this dispersion (hydraulic
machines, falling weights . . .). In addition, the stress-
strain curves are not always complete, Katsuta (1943),
this led to hazardous conclusions.
 4.3 Strain rates influence on Poisson’s ratio
Very little information is available, but an increase
in the Poisson’s number (inverse of Poisson ratio)
has been observed during rapid loading, Takeda &
Tachikawa (1972). Bishoff & Perry, to see references
quoted in Sercombe (1998), conclude that the Pois-
son’s ratio remains relatively constant when the strain
rates increases. This coefficient tends to move only
when the cracking of the test-tube appears, indepen-
dently the strain rates. Takeda & Tachikawa (1972)
observed that the Poisson’s ratio decreased at various
levels of constraints (by more than 40 %) with the
loading rate. This reduction in the Poisson’s ratio for
the compression of concrete at high strain rate con-
firms the assumption of a reduction of the microscopic
cracks on a particular level of constraints during a load-
ing at high strain rates. On another shutter, Paulmann &
Steinert (1982) did not observe any change in Poisson’s
ratio for strain rates as high as 0.2 S−1 .
4.4 Influence of strain rate on energy absorption
capacity
Those tests which have measured the energy absorp-
tion capacity (defined as being the area under the
stress-strain curve up to the maximum stress level)
have definitely shown an increased capacity with
higher strain rates, although it has been suggested
previously that the energy absorption capacity should
remain constant during rapid loading, Mander et al.
(1988). Watstein (1955) measured energy absorption
increases of up to 120 % for a strain rate of about
10 S−1 , while Takeda & Tachikawa (1962) reported
an increase between 20 and 80 % for a strain rate of
1 S−1 . An increase between 37 and 42 % was observed
by Atchley & Furr (1967) for several strengths of con-
crete at a loading rate of about 3 S−1 . Since the range
was quite small, they concluded that concrete was only
capable of absorbing a certain maximum amount of
energy which, if exceeded, would always lead to fail-
ure. Strength increase were observed to range from
about 51 to 63 % at the highest loading rates tested
by Atchley & Furr greater than the corresponding
increase in energy absorbed, and appeared to approach
a constant value as the rate of loading was increased.
5 CONCLUSION
From this study on the behaviour of concrete in
dynamic compression, it comes out that the increase in
strength and the secant module with the strain rates is
well established. Concerning the evolution of strength
with the loading rate, two zones of dynamic behaviour
is to be distinguished:
• Quasi-static field with 10 S−1 , the rates effects are
moderate and an almost linear increase in relative
strength with the logarithm rate is observed.
• Beyond the threshold of 10 S−1 , the rates effects
tend to grow very quickly with the strain rates. Thus,
quasi-static strength is multiplied by approximately
450
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
1.5 for a rate of 10 S−1 , it more than is doubled for
a rate of 100 S−1 .
Only the quality of concrete (or quasi-static com-
pressive strength) appears to have the most significant
effect on the increase of strength with the strain rate.
The influence of the other parameters is regarded as
secondary (E/C, size of the aggregates . . .). Several
interpretations are given to explain the physical ori-
gin of this proven rate effect. If for moderate rates
the argument of the presence of moisture in material
seems satisfactory to explain the modest increase in
strength, under no circumstances would it is enough
to explain the brutal increase in this strength for strain
rates beyond 30 S−1 . This strong increase would be
explained rather by the transition in the mechanism
of rupture of concrete from a state from uniaxial
constraint in a state from uniaxial deformation.
If the results obtained on the behaviour in deforma-
tion are soft and sometimes contradictory, the few valid
experimental data suggest that the deformation criti-
cizes to the maximum of compressive stress increases
with the strain rate. However, other tests are neces-
sary to confirm this assertion. It also comes out from
this analysis which the variations of the axial defor-
mations are less than those of strengths for the same
loading rates, and than the capacity for absorption of
energy for impact loadings depends on the degree of
increase in strength and deformation. Contradictions
and the lack of coherence of the conclusions concern-
ing the dynamic behaviour of concrete would come
owing to the fact that the researchers are dependent on
the technique of test used and the method of adopted
analysis.
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634–647.
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Bischoff, P. H & Perry, S.H. 1986. Compressive strain misses
effects of concrete, in Cement-Based Composites: Strain
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P. Shah, vol. 64 (Material Research Society, Pittsburg,)
pp. 151–165
Brara A., 1999. Experimental Study of the dynamic trac-
tion of the concrete by chipping, Thesis of Doctorate,
University of Metz, France.
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Cowell, W L, 1966. Dynamic properties of lime pit Portland
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Dhir R. K. & Sangha C Mr., 1972. A study of the relationships
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Evans R. H., 1958. Effects of misses of loading one some me
chanical properties of concrete, in Mechanical properties
of Non-Metallic Brittle Materials (Buttetworths, London,)
pp. 175–190.
Fagerlund G & Larsson B, 1979. Betongs slaghallfast-
thet (Impact strength of concrete), Cement-och Betong
Institutet (CBI), forskning FO4.79 (Stockholm,).
Katsuta T, 1943. One the elastic and plastic properties of in
compression tests with high deformation-velocity, Share.1
in Japanese, Trans. Inst.Jap.Arch.N 29 5, 268–274.
Kormeling, H., 1982. A model for concrete under tensile
impact loading, in Concrete Structures under Impact and
Impulsive Loading, edited by G Plauk (BAM, Berlin,) pp.
125–133.
Oh, B, H. & Shin, S. B, 1987. Dynamic behaviour of concrete
in compression, Structural mechanics in reactor techno-
logy, vol. H (Concrete and Concrete Structures), edited by
F H. Wittman (Balkema, Rotterdam,) pp. 293–298.
Popp, C, 1977. Unterschungenüber das Verhalten von Con-
crete EIB schlagartiger beanspruchung, (A concrete study
of the behaviour of under impact loading), Deutscher
Ausschuss fur Stahlbeton, N 281.
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Sercombe J, 1998. Modelling of the behaviour of the con-
crete in fast dynamics. Application to the calculation of
the containers with high integrity, LCPC, France.
Soroushian P., Choi, K B & Alhamad A., 1986. Dynamic
constitutive behaviour of concrete, ACI J 83(2) 251–259.
Sparks P. R. & Menzies J B, 1973. The effect of misses
of misses of loading upon the static and concrete tired-
ness strengths of lime pit in compression, Mag. Concr.
LMBO.25(83) 73–80.
Takeda J & Tachikawa H., 1972. Deformation and con-
crete fracture of subjected to dynamic load, in Mechani-
cal Behaviour of materials, vol. 4 (Society of materials
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Zielinski, A. J., 1984. Concrete structures under impact
loadding: miss effects, Steven Report 5-84-14 (Delft
University of Technology,).
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Numerical investigation of internal explosions in steel pipe

P. Bonalumi, M. Colombo & M. di Prisco

Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

ABSTRACT: A numerical investigation has been carried out on a steel pipe subjected to an internal explosion
by means of a finite element hydrocode specifically developed for fast transient dynamic analysis. Fluid-structure
numerical analyses have been performed adopting a Lagrangian description for the tube, a Eulerian mesh for
the fluid and an Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) description for the fluid-structure interaction problem.
A bubble model was adopted for the modelling of the explosive source. Axisymmetric 2D and 3D models were
adopted and compared. The numerical results were finally compared with the experimental data obtained by
previous tests carried out at the Politecnico di Milano on a steel pipe subjected to a single internal explosion
caused by the detonation of a solid explosive.

1 INTRODUCTION The problem here presented concerns an open-

Blast hardening of structures has been an active topic
with the military services for many decades, but now,
due to the threat of terrorism, renewed attention has
been paid on explosions derived from conventional
munitions, with the aim of designing and construct-
ing public buildings capable of providing life safety in
face of terrorist attacks (Britt 1983, Scheklinski-Glück
1997).
In order to properly analyze the behaviour of struc-
tures under air blast waves, the loading resulting from
explosions needs to be known.
The first comprehensive theories for predicting the
elastic response of a thin tube to an internal moving
load were developed by Tang (1965) and, for pre-
stressed shells, by Reismann (1965). Different studies
have been subsequently carried out on the transient
response of shells to internal detonation loads due to
gas detonations (Simkins 1995, Beltman et al. 1999,
Mazaheri et al. 2006, Shepherd 2009) and a brief
review of those researches can be found in Beltman &
Shepherd (2002). On the contrary, only few works have
been developed on the detonation of solid explosives
in steel pipes (Rushton et al. 2008).
In this study only explosions produced by con-
densed high explosives are considered, since they
are very important to the discussion of intentional
and accidental explosions, not only because they are
actually able to produce ideal blast waves but also
because homemade explosives manufactured by ter-
rorist organizations, in the quantities necessary to
attack substantial structures, usually behave as a deto-
nating high explosive material (Mays & Smith 1995).
The coupling between detonations and structures as
pipes is a model for the fluid-structure interaction
problem, which has been extensively treated in sub-
jects related to shock (blast wave) or impact loading
of structures (Baker 1983, Casadei & Halleux 1995).
ended steel pipe subjected to an internal explosion due
to the detonation of a solid explosive. Axi-symmetric
2D and 3D numerical models, simulating such sce-
nario, are first presented and compared throughout
computations. Then, the numerical results of the 3D
calculations are compared with the experimental data
obtained by previous tests carried out at the Politec-
nico di Milano. The study has been carried out in
the framework of a cooperative programme between
Italy and Switzerland, called ACCIDENT. The project,
funded by the European Community, is focused on
tunnel safety under exceptional loads such as fire and
explosion.
The main goal of the research here discussed is to
validate the 2D and 3D numerical modelling and check
the repeatability and reproducibility of the blast load
in such tests.
2 PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
The study here described concerns an open-ended steel
pipe subjected to a single centred internal explosion.
The tube is 1 m long and 10 mm thick with an outer
diameter of 0.61 m. It was simply supported, as shown
in Figure 1 and a layer of neoprene was placed between
the structure and the supporting steel beams to avoid
contact problem during the explosion tests (Bonalumi
et al. 2010).
A cylindrical explosive charge, made of 3 g of solid
explosive ERGODYN35E, was located in the middle
of the tube and placed in the centre of the cross section
in order to avoid contact problem between the struc-
ture and the explosive, such as large localised plastic
deformations of the tube. The charge was inserted in
a card cylinder and confined by two pieces of plasters
placed ahead and beyond the true explosive within
the cylinder. Before putting the plaster, a detonator

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 1. Tests on steel tube: a) geometry and boundary
conditions; b) positioning of the charge inside the tube.

was inserted in the card cylinder and kept in contact

with the explosive, in the centre of its flat face. The
cylinder manufactured in such a way was then sus-
pended in the middle of the tube section by means of
the two thin plastic wires connected with the detonator
and another thread placed at the other end of the card
cylinder (Fig. 1b).
Since there is a substantial lack of experimental
data on detonation of high explosives within tubes,
especially regarding small charges of the gram order,
different quantities have been tested, anyhow main-
taining the tube in the elastic regime. In this paper, just
the experimental data concerning the 3-grams charges
are presented.

3 NUMERICAL INVESTIGATIONS
The numerical investigations here described have been
carried out in cooperation with the European Joint
Research Centre (JRC) of Ispra, by means of the
finite element hydrocode EUROPLEXUS, specifi-
cally developed for transient dynamic analyses by the
Commissariatàl’Énergie Atomique (CEA) of Saclay
and the JRC of Ispra (Chavant et al. 1979, Hoffmann
et al. 1984, Bung et al. 1989, Potapov & Galon 2006).
3.1 2D and 3D models
The response of structures subjected to internal explo-
sion strongly depends on the input load, thus it is
important to first examine the numerical prediction
of the blast loading impinging on the structure.
2D and 3D simulations of the explosive tests above
described have been carried out. All the numerical
analyses have been performed adopting a Lagrangian
description for the steel tube and a Eulerian representa-
tion for the fluid, which is assumed to be compressible
and inviscid, due to the relatively high pressures
and pressure gradients that characterized explosion
problems. The Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE)
formulation of permanent type has been adopted
for the description of the fluid-structure interaction
phenomena.
An explicit time integration scheme, with a time
step variable not only in time, but also in space, has
been adopted to optimize the computational efficiency
Figure 2. Numerical models: a) 2D model; b) one-eighth
field 3D model (3D_A); c, d) one-half field 3D model without
steel boundaries (3D_B) and with the entire real boundary
(3D_C).
of the numerical calculations, preserving the good
properties of the basic uniform-step scheme.
In order to minimize the effect of mesh sizes, three
different meshes have been tried for both the 2D and
3D models. In Figure 2 are shown the final meshes
adopted, being capable of producing stable results,
in terms of pressure wave propagation, with tolerable
computation time. It is worth noting that both the inter-
nal and the external air have been taken into account
in the numerical models.
From a theoretical point of view, an axis-
symmetrical model should well simulate the problem
so that 2D and 3D calculations are expected to pro-
duce practically the same results, given the appropriate
model settings.
3.1.1 2D model
Considering the structure size and the results of some
trial analyses, the computational domains have been
chosen to be of the order of 0.6 m wide and 1 m deep
for 2D axis-symmetric calculations (Fig. 2a).
The steel tube has been modelled by 2-node
elements, capable of taking into account the effect
of arbitrarily large membrane strains over the ele-
ment thickness. 48 elements have been adopted for

454
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
representing the pipe and the smallest structural ele-
ment size is 10 mm.
The compressible fluid has been discretized by
4-nodes quadrilateral elements and 5760 elements
have been adopted for the fluid mesh. The size of the
smallest fluid elements is 10 mm × 10 mm and the
bubble dimension here adopted is 40 mm × 40 mm.
Several target points have been arranged along the
tube in three different control sections in order to
record the propagation of the pressure waves and the
deformation of the structure.
3.1.2 3D models
In the 3D calculations three different models have
been adopted (Fig. 2b, c). In the first one (3D_A),
only one eighth of the field has been modelled consid-
ering the symmetry around the x-y, x-z and y-z planes.
In the second model (3D_B), half field has been con-
sidered, exploiting the symmetry about the x-y plane,
but not including the real supports, that were instead
modelled in the third model (3D_C), thus capable of
taking into account possible asymmetries arising from
the experimental boundary conditions.
The computational domains have been chosen to be
of the order of 0.6 m × 0.6 m wide and 1 m deep for
the 3D_A model, and 1.2 m × 1.2 m wide and 1 m deep
for the 3D_B and 3D_C models, in order to have the
same conditions for the three cases. In the same way,
for all the 3D models, the tube has been discretized
by 4-node shell elements with 4 integration points and
the fluid by 8-node hexahedrons.
In the 3D_A model the fluid mesh is made
by 107328 elements, whose smallest size is about
2 mm × 2 mm × 3 mm within the explosive bubble,
which has been modelled by an appropriate cylin-
drical domain of size 40 mm × 40 mm × 40 mm. The
steel pipe has been discretized by 576 elements with a
regular size of 20 mm × 20 mm.
The 3D_B and the 3D_C models have the same fluid
and structural meshes, only differing for the boundary
conditions. The fluid mesh is made by 61440 elements,
whose smallest size is 20 mm × 20 mm × 25 mm,
while the steel tube is divided into 1280 elements with
a size of about 30 mm × 25 mm. The over pressurized
bubble is here modelled by a prismatic shape with a
dimension of about 40 mm × 40 mm × 80 mm.
As in the 2D models, also in these cases several
target points have been arranged along the length and
the cross section of the tube, in three different control
sections.
3.2 Materials
A description of the basic hypothesis adopted for all
the materials involved in the numerical calculations is
presented in this section.
3.2.1 Explosive
In order to achieve a good compromise between accu-
racy and computational cost, the model here adopted
for the explosive source is the balloon model (Brode
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
1955, Larcher 2007). The idea of this phenomenolo-
gical approach is to use a bubble with compressed air,
in a size much bigger than that of the solid explo-
sive, capable of generating a pressure-time function
that approximately matches the air blast wave curve.
The over pressurised bubble corresponds to an amount
of energy that can be converted in equivalent TNT, so
that for a given charge and a given volume of the charge
it is possible to calculate the overpressure inside the
bubble and therefore its density and energy.
In order to compare the numerical results with the
experimental data, all the numerical calculations have
been performed adopting a balloon model calibrated
for a 3 g equivalent TNT solid charge on the basis of
available experimental impulse-time curves (Larcher
2007). The initial over pressure to be assigned within
the bubble for each different model is: 2.42 × 107 Pa
for the 2D model; 2.53 × 107 Pa for the 3D_A model;
5.85 × 107 Pa for the 3D_B and 3D_C model.
3.2.2 Air
The air within and outside the tube has been modelled
as ideal gas. Thus the pressure p of the air follows the
ideal gas equation:
where ρ = density of the air; γ = heat capacity ratio:
cp /cv ; and eint = specific internal energy.
The heat capacity ratio, here assumed as constant is
set to 1.4, whereas the density of the air at atmospheric
pressure (p0 = 105 Pa) is ρ0 = 1.2 kg/m3 , which leads
to a specific internal energy at atmospheric pressure
of eint,0 = 2.0833 × 105 J/kg.
In the numerical simulations here presented the
classical artificial viscosity has been adopted for the
fluid, as usually did for fast-dynamic calculations
(Benson 1992). A pseudo-viscous pressure term is
built from the velocity, the density and the sound speed
and then added to fluid pressure, in order to stabilize
solution at shock fronts.
3.2.3 Steel tube
Due to the small charges considered, capable of main-
taining the structure in the elastic regime, a linear
elastic constitutive law has been adopted for the steel
tube and for the steel boundary, when modelled. The
pipe mechanical characteristics at ambient tempera-
ture are:Young’s modulus E = 2.1 × 1011 Pa, Poisson’s
ratio ν = 0.33, density ρ = 7800 kg/m3 . No damping
has been added to the structural behaviour.
3.3 Boundary conditions
Absorbing material is used to impose non-reflecting
boundary conditions along the open fluid boundaries,
in order to minimize wave reflections that do not
have to be considered. The model consists in simply
applying a fictitious external pressure:
 Figure 3. Radial displacements in the tube cross-section in Figure 4. Radial displacements in the tube cross-section in
position A (0.25 m). Comparison 2D and 3D_A model. position B (0 m). Comparison 2D and 3D_A model.

where ρ = density of the material at the boundary;

c = sound speed of the material at the boundary and
vn = normal component of the particle velocity at the
boundary.
In the 2D axis-symmetric and in the one-eighth field
3D model the tube was simply supported; on the con-
trary in the half field 3D model, the complete boundary
has been modelled, considering the contact conditions
between the Lagrangian sub-domains (the pipe and the
supporting bar; the pipe and the upper steel bar), by
means of the pinball model.

4 RESULTS

In this paragraph some results obtained by the 2D and

3D numerical calculations previously described are
shown. Two different parameters have been chosen for
the comparison: the pressure-time history of the pres-
sure wave at the structure’s interface and the radial
displacement of the steel pipe. Two different sections
have been considered: section A, corresponding to the
section 0.25 m far from the explosion point, being
placed half way between the central and the end sec-
tion of the tube; section B, corresponding to the central
section of the tube where the explosion occurred.

4.1 Comparison between the 2D and 3D_A model

In Figures 3–4 the radial displacements are reported,
which refer to one point of the structure’s cross-section
in two different positions, sections A and B, along the
tube. In Figure 5 the pressure waves recorded in the
fluid elements at the interface with the structure are
presented, in the same position of the structural points
considered for the displacement check. As expected,
there is a good agreement between the two models,
being the problem axis-symmetric.
4.2 Comparison among the 3D models
Figures 6–8 highlight a good agreement among the
different models, even if the 3D_A model gives slightly
different results in term of peak pressure and radial
displacements.
Figure 5. Pressure-time history at the interface between the
internal fluid and the structure. Comparison between the 2D
and the 3D_A model. a) section A (0.25 m); b) Section B
(0 m).
4.3 Comparison with experimental results
In Figure 9 the comparison between the 3D_B model
and the experimental tests (Bonalumi et al. 2010) is
presented, showing a quite good agreement of the
results in terms of pressure-time history.
In Figure 9a is shown the reflected pressure mea-
sured in the upper part of tube central section, at the
interface between the internal fluid and the structure
and in Figure 9b the incident pressure in the centre of
the end section of the pipe.

456
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 6. a) Radial displacements in the tube cross-section
in position A (0.25 m). Comparison between the three 3D
models. b) Zoom up to 3 ms.
Figure 7. a) Radial displacements in the tube cross-section
in position B (0 m). Comparison between the three 3D
models. b) Zoom up to 3 ms.
457
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 8. Pressure-time history at the interface between the
internal fluid and the structure. Comparison between the 2D
and the 3D_A model. a) Section A (0.25 m) b) Section B
(0 m).
Figure 9. a, b. Pressure-time history. Comparison between
the experimental and the 3D_B model results.
5 CONCLUSIONS
In this paper a 2D and 3D numerical investigation has
been carried out on a steel pipe subjected to internal
explosion.
 The 2D model is shown to be in a quite good
agreement with the 3D model, although limited by
symmetry. The 3D model is able to predict satisfac-
torily the blast wave propagation within the tube, on
the basis of the experimental data available.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The research was financially supported by European
INTERREG IT/CH 2006_2013 project ACCIDENT
ID 7629770, Measure 2.2.
The authors would like to thank Dr. Folco Casadei,
of the Joint Research Centre of Ispra, for the precious
support and helpful suggestions.
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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Experimental study of composite column and wall systems for impact

resistance

A. Britner
Versuchsanstalt für Stahl, Holz und Steine, Karlsruhe Institut of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany

M. Gündel
Institute for steel structures, RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany

R. Obiala
ArcelorMittal Belval & Differdange S.A. Research and Development, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg

ABSTRACT: Nowadays civil engineers pay more attention to exceptional loads like blast and impact. This
trend was set off by the political development after the Cold War when the risk of terrorist attacks increased.
The passive protection of the buildings becomes more important. The effects of such loads are not the same as
the effect of a static load with the same maximum amplitude. It is a fact that currently used structures are not
designed for such extreme events.
Within the European RFCS research project – COSIMB (Hauke 2007) – experimental study on composite
column and wall systems made out of high performance steel and concrete was done. The experimental study
includes static testst and dynamic tests (vehicle impact and blast). In addition FE-analyses including fire resistance
after the dynamic loads were performed. This paper presents the results of the impact tests on composite columns
and composite walls as well as the corresponding FE-analysis.

1 IMPACT LOAD EFFECTS 2 IMPACT TESTS

An impact is an interaction of at least two colliding 2.1 Test performance

bodies. In this discussion one body is the structure
Composite column-wall systems (Fig. 1) and com-
and the second body is a vehicle. The response of a
posite columns (Fig. 2) were tested as a single span
structure to an impact depends on several parameters
girder, simply supported. For the steel sections an
and their interactions. The acting load on the structure
HEA140 with a steel grade S460 (tested yield strength
during an impact is therefore dependent on the charac-
529 N/mm2 , ultimate strength 611 N/mm2 ) was used.
teristics of both structure and impact body. These two
The concrete strength of the slab was C40/50 with a
aspects render the acting load an the structure difficult
tested cube strength of 71 N/mm2 . Reinforcement with
to predict. In general the impact can be subdivided in
the steel grade S500 was used. The dimensions of the
elastic and plastic impact. The elastic impact is easier
concrete slab were 12.5 × 75 cm. The effective span of
to deal with but is not of interest in this discussion.
the specimen was 3.0 m.
In this paper only the plastic impact of a vehicle is
The load acting on the specimen and the dura-
considered.
tion of this load during an impact depends on various
During the impact the structure is affected in a lim-
parameters. One of the most important parameter is
ited area which is usually given by the size of the
impact body. The whole impact energy is therefore
concentrated only on the affected area. The damages
can be therefore very severe in the affected area, which
can lead to severe local damages. If it is ensured
that the failure of a single structural member (or few
of them) does not cause a progressive collapse of
the whole building, the impact itself is not essential
for the collapse of the building. In case of a non-
accidental impact is often followed by an explosion or
a fire. Although the building withstands the impact the
damaged structure can collapse due to the ensuing fire. Figure 1. Composite column-wall system.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 2. Composite column.
Figure 3. Experimental set-up.
the stiffness of the impact object and its compress-
ibility. For the impact tests an impact body with a
stiffness similar to a big car respectively a van was
used. The impact body – made of aluminium foam
(Alporas®) – was mounted at an impact moving bar-
rier (IMB). The experimental set-up including IMB,
test-rig and specimen are shown in the Figure 3.
2.2 Test results
The impact tests were performed with varios speci-
fied impact velocities between 6.0 m/s and 14.5 m/s.
For this the IMB was accelerated to the desired impact
velocity and hit the specimen. After the first contact of
the impact body with the specimen the IMB deceler-
ated till the velocity of the IMB was zero. At this point
of time the specimen had the maximum deflection in
the mid-span. Afterwards the specimen accelerated the
IMB into the opposite direction till the velocity of
the specimen in the mid-span stopped increasing. The
IMB separated from the specimen. Measurements dur-
ing the test included displacement of the specimen in
the mid-span, the velocity of the IMB, the acceleration
of both the IMB and the specimen in the mid-span and
strains at different positions. The time-impact force-
diagram with the impact velocities and the weight
of the IMB is shown in Figure 4. The corresponding
time-deflection-diagram is shown in Figure 5.
The tests show that the general behaviour of the
member in case of a dynamic loading is different from
the static loading. The impact caused a plastic hinge
in the mid-span of the specimens. The concrete slab
of the composite walls failed in all tests by a penetrat-
ing crack in the mid span (Figs. 6–8). In the test with
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 4. Time-impact force-diagram.
Figure 5. Time-deflection-diagram.
the impact velocity of 14.5 m/s the impact area was
severely destroyed. Big parts of the concrete failed, the
reinforcement and the studs were exposed. The longi-
tudinal reinforcement bars buckled in both layers. In
the following tests lower velocity was used. According
to the decreasing velocity the damages also decreased
(Figs. 6–8).
After the impact tests the cracks in the concrete were
analysed in terms of the width and depth. The data
obtained from the crack analysis were used for a FE fire
resistance analysis. The results of the fire resistance
analysis are presented in chapter 4.
3 DISCUSSION ON THE IMPACT TEST
RESULTS
By neglecting and by smoothing the oscillation of the
measured impact load on the composite column the
load can be approximated by a linear constant load over
a period of time. The constant load value is 155 kN.
This load corresponds to the plastic bending capacity
of the tested member in case of a static load.
For the composite walls such an approximation
is not appropriate. By a detailed evaluation of the
Figure 6. Test specimen V = 14.50 m/s. Figure 8. Test specimen V = 7.42 m/s.

Figure 9. Measured and approximated time-load-diagrams.

wall failed the stiffness of the member changed. This

Figure 7. Test specimen V = 9.89 m/s.
is clearly visible in the reaction of the specimen
(Fig. 9). The second load level increased with decreas-
ing impact velocity. This is reasonable if we consider
load-time functions it is obvious that the load reaches
the damages after the impact (Figs. 6–8). The second
a maximum value at the very beginning of the impact.
load level indicates a residual capacity of the compos-
A few milliseconds afterwards the load decreases to a
ite wall after partial failure of the concrete wall due to
load level that corresponds to the capacity of the mem-
the impact. The mass and the stiffness of the impact
ber in case of a static load. After a period of time the
car was the same in all three tests. This indicates that
load decreases again to a load level below the capacity
the initial failure of the concrete wall depends on the
of the composite wall but still above the capacity of
impact velocity.
the composite column. The measured load functions
The first peak of the load which is higher than the
and the corresponding approximated load functions
capacity of the member is a dynamic response of the
are shown in Figure 9.
member to the impact load. In order to understand
The first load level of the approximated load was
the impact procedure FE analyses on a composite col-
nearly constant (556–557 kN) during the performed
umn were carried out. In the FE model three different
tests on the composite walls. The second load level
conditions were analysed.
was different in every test. The evaluation of the high-
speed video showed that the decrease of the load level Mechanical model 1 (supported):
correlates with the propagation of the cracking of The boundary conditions corresponded to the
the concrete wall in the mid span. After the concrete performed tests (Fig. 10).

461
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 10. Mechanical model 1.
Figure 11. Mechanical model 2.
Figure 12. Mechanical model 3.
Figure 13. Time-Impact Force-Diagram FE-models.
Mechanical model 2 (unsupported):
The analysed model has no supports, the compos-
ite wall was able to move freely after the impact
(Fig. 11).
Mechanical model 3 (weightless):
The boundary conditions corresponded to the per-
formed tests but the mass of the member was set
to zero in the FE analysis (Fig. 12).
The time-impact force-diagram of the FE models
are shown in Figure 13 and Figure 14.
In the FE analysis an ideal-elastic ideal-plastic
material behaviour of the materials of the member
was used. The cracking but not the crushing of the
concrete was considered. The properties of the impact
body and the impact velocities reminded unchanged
in all analyses.
The FE model 1 and model 3 show coincident results
after 8 ms. The noise of the time-impact force curve of
the model 1 is caused by the vibration of the analysed
member. This vibration is caused by the acceleration of
the mass distributed over the member. The vibrations
cannot occur if the mass is missing (model 3). The
impact-force after 8 ms equals to the member capacity.
The first 8 ms of model 1 and model 3 show essential
different behaviour. The impact-force in model 1 rises
suddenly to a peak value. The increase of the load with
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 14. Time-Impact Force-Diagram FE-models
(close up).
the time in the model 3 is rather linear till the maximum
impact-force is achieved. The sudden rise of the impact
force is caused by the inertia of the member.
Although the member in model 2 is not supported
and can move freely the impact force achieves a high
value. This value is equal to the peak impact force
of the supported member (model 1). The time-impact
force pathway of model 1 and model 2 are equal in the
first ≈2.5 ms of the impact (phase I in the Figure 14).
Summarizing the results of the FE analysis the path-
way of the time-impact force diagram can be divided
into three phases.
I. phase: The inertia forces of the member are
decisive for the impact force.
II. phase: The impact force is dominated by the
co-action of the member behaviour and
the inertia forces.
III. phase: The inertia forces are of minor impor-
tance and cause noise in the curve but
are not decisive for the behaviour of the
member. The behaviour of the member
is quasi-static.
4 FIRE RESISTANCE ANALYSIS
In the further step columns damaged in the impact
tests have been numerically analysed in terms of their
fire resistance and behaviour in fire. Finite Element
software SAFIR (FEM software developed by Prof
Franssen of the University of Liège “ULg “ that is able
to deal with high deformations under fire actions) has
been used for this purpose.
In respect to composite columns, the impact dam-
ages do not influence the temperature distribution
across the section, which is anyway very high. After
1hour ISO fire the flange exposed to fire reaches
900◦ C as illustrated in Figure 15.
The major parameters influencing loss of the fire
resistance in the damaged columns are the initial defor-
mation and weaker material properties of concrete in
the central part of the columns, where the impact took
place and a lot of cracks appeared. The loss of fire
 Figure 17. Temperature distribution in undamaged compos-
ite walls after 1hour ISO fire.

Figure 15. Temperature distributions in a column after 1

hour ISO fire.

Figure 18. Temperature distribution in damaged composite

walls after 1hour ISO fire.

Table 1. Maximum loads calculated for composite walls in

hot conditions – with load-bearing wall.

Impact Bearing capacity of Bearing capacity of

velocity undamaged wall damaged wall
m/s kN kN

V = 14.50 800
Figure 16. Behaviour of composite column HEA140 in fire.
V = 9.89 2380 1160
V = 7.42 2160
resistance was measured by the values of compres-
sive axial load under which the column can withstand
1hour ISO fire. The values of the load were 360 kN Table 2. Maximum loads calculated for composite walls in
for undamaged columns with sections HEA140. After hot conditions – without consideration of load-bearing wall.
the columns were damaged in impact the maximum
loads were reduced to 165 kN and 365 kN for the cor- Impact Bearing capacity of Bearing capacity of
responding sections. As shown in the Figure 16 both velocity undamaged wall damaged wall
damaged and undamaged columns demonstrate the m/s kN kN
same type of behaviour characteristic for columns in
V = 14.50 600
fire. V = 9.89 1650 850
In the composite wall system the steel section V = 7.42 1150
remains at ambient temperature (Fig. 17) and only
in the central part of the columns, due to spalling of
concrete, the temperature of the upper flange reaches
300◦ C, as shown in Figure 18. The temperature does by the values of compressive axial load, applied to the
not weaker the column neither control the column centre of the steel section, under which the column
behaviour. can withstand 1 hour ISO fire. The values of the load
In the case of composite wall there are two types for undamaged columns and columns after impact are
of behaviour observed, which are characterised by a presented in Table 1 and Table 2.
failure towards the source of fire or outside. The rea- Result of the thermal and stress/displacement anal-
son for the different behaviour modes is the balance yses have been investigated in respect to the remaining
between bending moments – created by load eccentric- strength of the columns damaged in impact in hot con-
ity and geometrical deformation. This balance is more ditions. It can be concluded that in order to obtain 1
dominant than the high temperature distribution. The hour ISO fire resistance the load applied to the dam-
system acts differently if the wall is considered respec- aged columns should not be more than 30% of the
tively load-bearing or no-load-bearing wall. Similarly absolute load calculated for undamaged columns in
to the column the loss of fire resistance was measured hot conditions.

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 5 CONCLUSION AND OUTLOOK
The experimental inelastic behaviour of composite
column and column-wall systems subjected to impact
loads was studied in this paper. Even impact actions
induced some local damage to the concrete parts
of the members the overall response and especially
the remarkable residual strength demonstrates the
very good qualification of such innovative high per-
formance composite members for effective passive
protection from impact or other extreme actions. With
the deformation and damage pattern observed after
the impact tests ensuing fire conditions have been
numerically simulated as well. It can be concluded that
the studied composite members are behaving advanta-
geous: rather geometrically non-linear effects then the
fire actions are limiting the structural performance.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
The here reported experimental impact study and
numerical fire resistance analysis are an essential part
towards a rational design concept for impact, blast
and fire resistant composite column and column-wall
system which will be reported elsewhere. Herewith,
structural engineers and architects will have new
possibilities at hand for new unobtrusive and aes-
thetic composite protection structures in an urban
environment.
REFERENCE
Hauke B., Obiala R., Elghazouli A., Gündel M., Britner A.,
Bangert F., Preuss J., Haller M., Hoffmeister B., Völling
B. 2007. Composite Column and Wall Systems for Impact
and Blast Resistance. Research Fund for Coal and Steel,
Final Report RFS-CR-04047
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Insulated concrete thin-shells under exceptional loads

R.B. Esplin & J.P. South

Engineering System Solutions, Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA

G. Whipple
C-Shells, Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA

B. Davis
Dome Technology, Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA

ABSTRACT: This paper discusses the response of double curvature concrete thin-shell structures under excep-
tional loads. Concrete thin-shells can be built economically for a variety of building uses such as schools,
auditoriums, housing, storage, worship facilities, and other large free span structures. These shells are con-
structed using inflated forms and local materials such as concrete and rebar as described in American Concrete
Institute technical document, ACI 334.3R-05. There are many advantages to this type of structure including
strength, durability, energy efficiency, and relatively low cost. The inherent strength of concrete thin-shells allow
these structures to be able to withstand exceptional loads caused by man-made and natural hazards. Even if the
structures are not designed for extreme loads, they perform well in catastrophic events. The natural shape of the
structure provides redundancy through multiple load paths. If there is a localized failure, the building envelope,
still maintains an adequate safety level. A few case studies of concrete thin-shell domes under exceptional loads
are provided. These case studies include finite element analysis results of buildings, and examples of thin-shell
structures that have seen exceptional loads.

1 DOUBLE CURVATURE CONCRETE ring beam, as the foundation is called, is a circular

THIN-SHELL STRUCTURES
1.1 Concrete thin-shells can be built economically
for large free span structures
Thin-shell concrete structures are free span concrete
double curved roofs that are used in a variety of
ways. From storing tens to hundreds of metric tons
of bulk material to roofs over institutional buildings or
recreation centers. The strength, durability, and energy
efficiency of these structures are excellent. The idea
of the modern thin-shell concrete half-sphere or dome
was created by two loggers in the rural western United
States in the 1970s. The original idea was to create a
way to build storage domes to store vegetables such
as potatoes. Since then, engineering, computer pro-
cesses and more innovation have given birth to a host
of options and applications for the concrete thin-shell.
1.2 Concrete thin-shell construction process
Construction of thin-shell concrete structures is com-
pleted per American Concrete Institute technical docu-
ment, ACI 334.3R-05. The construction of a thin-shell
begins at the foundation. Robust engineering analy-
sis is conducted and the structure is designed to meet
local wind loads, snow loads, earthquake movement,
and any other factors that may affect the design. The
or elliptical foundation designed to resolve any out of
plane loads and to transfer the loads to the soil. A step
is formed on the ring beam where an air form will later
be attached.
At this point an optional vertical stem wall made of
reinforced concrete, pre-stressed concrete or insulated
concrete forms (ICF) is built with an additional ring
beam located at the top of the wall. This upper ring
beam is designed to resolve any non-vertical loads.
The vertical loads are then applied to the top of the
wall and transferred down to the foundation.
Once the equipment and material have been placed
under the air form and it is attached to the foun-
dation, large industrial fans are then used to inflate
the shell to its fabricated shape (Figure 1). After the
shell is inflated, nearly all construction work will be
completed inside the shell. First, a primer is sprayed
onto the air form and then several centimeters of
polyurethane foam are sprayed onto the air form. Rein-
forcing attachment wires 17–23 cm long are attached
to the foam perpendicular to the air form on a grid
of approximately 0.6 m to 1 m square and additional
foam is applied to secure them in place. Rebar is tied
to the wires and thin layers of shotcrete (sprayed con-
crete) is applied to the rebar over successive passes
see Figure 2. As the successive layers of shotcrete
cure, the shell increases in rigidity until it reaches the

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 1. Equipment and material under the air form just
prior to inflation.
Figure 2. Shotcrete application.
capacity to support itself. The thickness of the concrete
on the walls is tapered from a thicker portion at the
base of the-thin shell and a thinner portion at the apex.
The final thickness of the concrete is governed by the
design loads. The construction process from start to
finish is very rapid considering the clear spans of the
structure. Thin-shells of this type have been built all
over the world.A majority of the materials used to build
shells – concrete and reinforcing bar – are readily avail-
able around the world. The air form, foam and some
specialty construction equipment are all that needs to
be imported.
1.3 Advantages of concrete thin-shell structures
There are many advantages to concrete thin-shell struc-
tures including strength, durability, energy efficiency,
and relatively low cost. Thin-shell concrete structures
have the benefit of being made from high strength con-
crete.This concrete by nature is very durable especially
when it is protected from the elements, as modern thin-
shell concrete structures are by the insulation and air
form. Due to the protected nature of the large ther-
mal mass, concrete thin-shell structures have superior
energy efficiency to other similarly sized structures.
Construction costs can be reduced, since most mate-
rials used in the construction of these structures are
from local sources.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
2 STRUCTURAL STRENGTH OF CONCRETE
THIN-SHELL STRUCTURES
The strength of concrete thin-shells allow this struc-
ture to be able to withstand exceptional loads caused
by man-made and natural hazards. They perform well
in catastrophic events, even if the structures are not
designed for extreme loads.
2.1 Strength through redundant load paths
The shape of the structure provides redundancy
through multiple load paths. If there is a localized
failure, the building envelope will still maintain an ade-
quate safety level. Since the thin-shell structure gains
its tensile capacity from the strength of the individual
reinforcing bars, there is great redundancy if individual
bars are broken. Exterior loads applied to the shell are
able to flow around the hole through the undamaged
bars. If these bars are overstressed, they tend to stretch
more than their original design; however this stretch-
ing is a ductile process. As individual bars become
overstressed, adjacent bars take more load, reducing
the localized stress increase. There are many paths
for excess loads to travel around the localized fail-
ure, since the thin-shell is made of a large number of
reinforcing bars.
2.2 Strength through composite action
The composite nature of concrete and reinforcing steel
works very well together. Reinforcing steel is very duc-
tile, and is excellent in tension. Individual reinforcing
bars alone have significant issues with buckling; there-
fore, the steel cannot be used to its full capacity. The
concrete which does not work well in tension does
work very well in compression. Therefore, together
as a composite structure, these two complementary
materials provide an excellent structural system.
3 IN-SITU CASE STUDIES
Many thin-shell concrete structures have survived
multiple tests of strength and durability in both man-
made and natural disasters. These structures have been
built in earthquake prone areas such as the Western
United States, Canada, Mexico, Romania, Turkey, and
Latvia. Many structures have also been built in areas
prone to extreme winds such as the Gulf Coast of the
United States. Structures throughout the world have
also been subject to unanticipated loads caused by man
and nature.
3.1 Dome of a Home
One example is a thin-shell concrete structure called
“Dome of a Home.” This dome withstood the forces of
Hurricane Ivan in 2004 while homes on either side suf-
fered severe damage as seen if Figure 3. It withstood an
approximately 3.5 m storm surge and winds of 145 km
per hour. There was minor damage to the exterior of
the structure, but no major structural damage (Wang &
Manausa 2005).
Figure 3. Dome of Home shortly after Hurricane Ivan
(Sigler 2005).
Figure 4. Braswell home during the 2002 Bryant Street Fire.
3.2 Delisle, Mississippi, Dupont hurricane shelter
The DuPont plant in Delisle Mississippi, constructed
a 15 m by 5.5 m dome to act as a storm shelter for key
plant personnel. The structure withstood the 160 km
per hour winds of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 without
any structural damage (Parker 2005 and USGS 2005).
3.3 Maranatha Church
Maranatha Church in Belvieu, Texas built two thin-
shell concrete structures in 1984. These structures
withstood 160 km per hour gusts from Hurricane Rita
(South 2005).
3.4 Braswells’ home
A three dome complex built for Al and Ruth Braswell
survived a brush fire that destroyed 550 acres. The fire
came up the west side of the building, and over the
top as shown in Figure 4. A number of out structures
were also destroyed in the fire. The thin-shell concrete
structure, however, was unscathed (South & Parker.
2008).
3.5 Saddam Hussein’s Palace
Before the first Gulf War, a thin-shell concrete struc-
ture was built for Saddam Hussein. This structure was
over one of his main bunkers. During the Gulf War two
5,000-pound bombs were dropped through the roof.
These two bombs penetrated the apex of the struc-
ture, but the main shell still maintains its integrity.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 5. Saddam Hussein’s Palace after two 5,000-pound
bombs exploded inside.
There was extensive damage to the interior architec-
tural features of the structure as can be seen in Figure 5.
The only damage to the shell is where it was punctured
(Kippes 2003).
3.6 Homer City, Pennsylvania bulk storage
In Homer City, Pennsylvania an industrial storage
dome was damaged by a frontend loader. Due to inat-
tention and errors on the part of the operators, the
loader bucket was put through the side of the struc-
ture. This structure was not specifically designed to
withstand this type of damage. After the holes were
repaired, the dome was able to continue being used for
bulk storage.
4 FINITE ELEMENT CASE STUDIES
Finite element analysis is done to ensure that the thin-
shell structure has the required strength in areas where
extreme forces are expected.
4.1 Romania seismic
A 75 m by 48.2 m clinker storage dome was con-
structed in 2009 in Romania. This large storage struc-
ture is designed for 4000 kN of load on the apex and
stores 150,000 mt of clinker. Due to the high seismic-
ity in Romania, a finite element model was performed
to ensure adequate strength of the dome. Even with the

Figure 6. Deflection under seismic loading
Figure 7. First mode with significant mass participation.
high seismicity of the region the seismic loading did
not control the design of the structure. The deformed
shape is shown in Figure 6.
4.2 Modal analysis of 41 m by 40 m storage dome
Due to the rigid nature of the thin-shell concrete
structures, they perform very well in earthquakes.
Modal analysis has been done on a 41 m by 40 m
storage dome. The first mode with significant mass
participation is at 9.17 Hz see Figure 7. The high fre-
quency of this mode shape allowed for a less restrictive
foundation system to be used.
4.3 ABC Domes Texas
In order to provide business continuity in the face of
natural disasters, ABC domes has built a number of
domes on the Gulf Coast of the United States. These
domes are designed to meet FEMA safe room pro-
visions. The provisions require the structure to be
designed to withstand 400 km per hour wind loads
(Figure 8). Even with the extreme loads caused by
hurricane force winds, the domes can be constructed
economically. Due to the small profile and aerody-
namic nature of the domes, the extreme wind forces
do not significantly increase costs.
5 CONTINUING DEVELOPMENT OF THE
MODERN THIN-SHELL
Using the basic technology and construction method-
ology described previously, the modern concrete
thin-shell continues to evolve through refinement for
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 8. Deflection under 400 km per hour wind loading.
Figure 9. Sample school with planted roof assembly.
architectural building uses. Thin-shell structures are
ideal for architectural applications where long spans
and large volume spaces are critical for the ideal func-
tion of the building. These building uses include but
are not limited to performance halls, sport arenas, wor-
ship facilities, and convention halls. Furthermore the
durability of the concrete structure makes the modern
concrete thin-shell ideal for natatoria and recreational
waterpark uses where alternative structure types are
more susceptible to exposure to the harsh environ-
ment of humidity and chemicals from the water. The
free-span capabilities of the current modern concrete
thin-shell have been proven successful with 90 m spans
in existing buildings. Through continued research and
development it is anticipated that the allowable spans
of the modern concrete thin-shell system will con-
tinue to increase. The large free span nature of the
concrete thin-shell creates interior spaces with unob-
structed views and usable building volume that is not
dependent on interior bearing walls & columns.
5.1 Dome school campus
One example of concrete thin-shell structures in an
architectural application is for use in a campus style
school development. This use allows for managed
growth of facilities, including allowance for interior
build-out flexibility and remodeling without the limi-
tations of typical building systems. This campus style
school facility offers a flexible long-lasting facility
option that will perform under exceptional loading.
The sample school in Figure 9, features a planted
roof assembly, this configuration adds significant dead
loading to the roof. The concrete thin-shell can eas-
ily handle this additional loading without significant
increase in the cost of the thin-shell.

Figure 10. Six-thousand seat hockey arena.
Figure 11. ARFF facility for Spaceport America.
5.2 Concrete Thin-shell Sports Arena
The modern concrete thin-shell structure allows for
deconstruction of the solid shell while maintaining
redundancy in load paths within the structure. Fig-
ure 10, concept image shows a multi-tiered 6,000 seat
hockey arena.
5.3 Spaceport America
The ARFF facility for Spaceport America, New Mex-
ico, USA has been designed as a concrete thin-shell.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
This facility is elliptical in plan with a long axis span-
ning 59 m and a short axis spanning 43.6 m. This
building also features large cuts in the concrete thin-
shell, the largest spanning more than 30 m at the main
facade of the building. This facility will showcase
the potential of concrete thin-shells to utilize rela-
tively minimal amounts of structural material to obtain
relatively long spans across the large openings see
Figure 11.
6 CONCLUSIONS
Thin-shell concrete structures can be designed to
withstand extreme loads economically. Even with-
out special design considerations, thin-shell concrete
structures perform very well under extreme loads.
The doubly curved surface of the concrete thin-shell
ensures that even with these large spans the perfor-
mance of the structure will excel under exceptional
loads, especially when compared to other primary
structural systems under similar conditions.
REFERENCES
Kippes, Carla 2003. Impact Point. http://www.af.mil/
weekinphotos/wipgallery.asp?week=16
Parker, F. 2005. Dupont and Katrina: The Category 5
Dome. http://www.static.monolithic.com/domenews/2005/
dupont-katrina.html
Sigler, M. & Sigler V. 2004. MSNBC Eerie Calm. http://www.
domeofahome.com/msnbc_eerie_calm.html
South, D. & Paker, F. 2008. “Vista Dhome” – The home of
Dr. and Mrs. Al Braswell. http://www.monolithic.com/
stories/vista-dhome-the-home-of-dr-and-mrs-al-braswell
South, R. 2005. Maranatha Church Members Call Hur-
ricane Rita “Eerie”. http://www.static.monolithic.com/
domenews/2005/maranatha-rita.html
USGS 2005. Hurricane KatrinaWind Speeds. Stock Number:
205592.
Wang, R. & Manausa, M. 2005. Huricane Ivan Character-
istics and Storm Tide Evaluation. Beaches and Shores
Resource Center Institute of Science and Public Affairs
Florida State University.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Detailed micro-modelling of masonry under blast and earthquake loads

T. Linse & N. Gebbeken

University of the Federal Armed Forces Munich, Germany

ABSTRACT: Modelling masonry under dynamic loads, possibly caused by earthquakes or explosions, requires
sophisticated finite element models able to represent the complex material behaviour of the masonry units, the
mortar and the bond between the two materials. This article gives a state of the art overview of the behaviour
of masonry and its materials, the possible modelling approaches and how appropriate material models can be
developed. Regarding dynamic loads and high deformations, it is of special interest to realistically reproduce
the dynamic increase of the material strength and the fracture behaviour.

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Objectives of this research project

Masonry is one of the most important construction
materials used for commercial and residential build-
ings worldwide. During the last years, exceptional
loadings like explosions, earthquakes and impacts on
masonry structures showed the necessity to develop
models to allow the assessment of consequences of
such events.
Due to its composition of bricks and mortar,
masonry is a heterogeneous and anisotropic material
showing nonlinear material and structural behaviour.
Under dynamic loadings with large deformations, the
increase of material strength and the degradation of the
material properties after fracture must be considered.
This requires special modelling approaches and appro-
priate material models that can realistically represent
the nonlinear behaviour. In addition, masonry exists
in very different types. A wide range of materials
for masonry units and for mortar is used. The differ-
ent sizes of the units and the different possibilities to
assemble the masonry units must also be considered.
The aim of this research project is to develop material
Figure 1. Failure mechanisms of masonry under in-plane
models that can be used for the assessment of masonry stress.
under dynamic loadings and that can be easily adapted
for a wide range of masonry types.
because the bearing capacity of masonry under an
in-plane stresses state is important for the bracing
1.2 Failure mechanisms of masonry system of buildings. Figure 1 shows the possible
Under different loadings like vertical, horizontal, failure mechanisms under in-plane stress. Under hori-
shear or combined loadings, masonry shows different zontal tension, either the mortar joints fail, because the
failure mechanisms. Since the understanding of these shear resistance is exceeded, or the masonry units fail
failure mechanisms is essential for the choice of the under tension. Under vertical tension the mortar joints
modelling strategies and the development of material usually fail. Under compression, the masonry units are
models they are described here. failing with vertical cracks as tension is introduced
in the unit, due to the lower stiffness of the mortar.
In-plane stress: Usually horizontal and vertical loadings appear at the
Most existing research [3,4,5,6,7,11,14] deals same time. Under biaxial loadings, the type of fail-
with the behaviour of masonry under in-plane stress ure depends on the combination of stresses. Often

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 2. Masonry wall with out of plane loading, failure
mechanisms.
Figure 3. Masonry column with vertical cracks due to
vertical overload.
the mortar joints crack under excessive vertical loads,
cracks will also be observed in the masonry units.
Out-of-plane loading:
Under blast and impact loadings, which are out-of-
plane loadings, masonry walls behave quite differently.
Due to the low tensile bond strength of the joints
masonry cannot support bending moments. Therefore
the out-of-plane load must be carried by a compression
arc. Arcs generate high reaction forces in the sup-
ports and high normal stresses (Figure 2). The masonry
joints will open on the opposite side of the load and
on the side of the load the masonry will fail under
a combined compression-tension stress state, that is
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 4. Failure mechanism due to lateral deformation of
the joints.
generated due to the low stiffness (Young’s modulus)
of the mortar (Figure 4).
Failure due to lateral deformation of the joints:
The interaction of the mortar and the masonry unit
plays an important role for the compressive behaviour.
As the Young’s Modulus of the mortar is small, the
mortar tends to deform laterally, and tension is intro-
duced in the brick. Therefore, the mortar is under a
triaxial compression state and the brick under a triax-
ial compression-tension state. (Figure 4). This failure
mechanism is not only of theoretical importance, as
the photograph (Figure 3) of a overloaded masonry
column shows.
2 MODELLING MASONRY
2.1 Requirements for adequate modelling
To obtain good results for masonry structures with
numerical simulations, the model must be able to
– describe the nonlinear material behaviour including
the post-cracking regime,
– consider the anisotropy of flexibility and strength,
– describe the failure modes,
– consider the degradation of the material properties,
after fracture and
– describe large deformations.
Further on, the material description should be as
simple as possible, but at the same time any important
aspect must not be neglected. All material parameters
should be easily determinable and assessable.
2.2 Modelling strategies
There are different methods existing to model
masonry. These models can be classified by macro-
models and micro-models. Micro-models are usu-
ally distinguished between simplified and detailed
micro-models. Figure 5 shows the existing modelling
strategies.
Macro-Models:
The inhomogeneous composite material masonry
composed of mortar and bricks is replaced by a

Figure 5. Strategies for modelling masonry.
homogeneous material. This means, that the proper-
ties of the masonry unit, the mortar and the transition
zone are described by one material. So the properties
of the two materials are “smeared”. This is the most
widely used approach to model masonry.
Simplified Micro-Model:
This modelling strategy distinguishes between the
masonry unit and the joints. The joints are described by
interface elements, which describe the material prop-
erties of the mortar. At the same time they describe the
properties of the transition zone and the bond between
the two materials. The interface elements usually do
not have a thickness. So the dimensions of the masonry
units have to be adapted. To describe the properties of
the joints and the bond between the two materials, non-
linear springs are used for the interface elements. The
“Distinct-Element-Method” or “Discrete-Element-
Method” (DEM) belongs to this modelling strategy.
Detailed Micro-Model:
The bricks and the joints have their real dimensions
in the detailed mirco-models. The two components are
modelled with continuum elements and two material
models, one for the masonry units and one for the
joints. In addition, some authors use interface elements
to describe the bond between the brick and the joint.
Using the detailed micro-model the Young’s Mod-
ulus, the lateral contraction and the inelastic material
properties of the mortar and the bricks can be mod-
elled. This is important to assess the failure due to
lateral tension in the bricks. So, the interaction between
the mortar and the bricks and the different failure
modes can be realistically reproduced.
The advantage of the simplified micro-model is that
numerical models are smaller and easier to handle. As
the joint with its inelastic properties is not modelled,
it is difficult to reproduce the failure due to lateral
tension in the bricks. Nevertheless, this approach is
an important strategy for the modelling of masonry
structures. For example, Sarhosis et al. [14] showed
how masonry arches can be modelled with the DEM
and Chetouane [5] used the DEM to model granular
materials.
The “smeared” modelling strategy with macro-
models is useful to assess large masonry structures,
because for large structures it is not possible to model
each brick and each joint. Certainly, the results will
not deliver detailed information about the failure
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
mechanisms, but this is not always necessary.
Schlegel [16] and Seim [20] developed models that
are based on the Model of Ganz [7] and studied
masonry structures like historic bridges and churches.
This method is relatively easy to handle and can be
used with ordinary finite element programs.
3 OWN APPROACH
The aim of this research project is to develop a mod-
elling approach for masonry under dynamic loads like
earthquakes, explosions or impacts. The model should
be able to asses any types of masonry. For this vast
range of application, including loadings in and perpen-
dicular to the wall, an appropriate modelling strategy
must be chosen. As loadings perpendicular to the plane
of the wall cause high normal stresses in the wall and
create the failure due to lateral tension in the bricks, it
is important to reproduce the interaction between the
mortar and the bricks.
Therefore, a detailed micro-model has been cho-
sen for the own modelling approach. The idea was to
develop two material models, one for the brick and one
for the mortar joint, that can be easily adjusted to dif-
ferent types of bricks and mortar. The advantage of this
approach is that the behaviour of masonry walls made
of different materials can be studied because the mate-
rial models can be adjusted relatively simple. As these
models need a huge number of elements, they are not
suitable to study entire structures, but with the con-
stant increase of the performance of computers, this
drawback will probably disappear in the near future.
3.1 Properties of masonry materials
As the model should be suitable for a wide range
of masonry types, the authors collected experimental
data for masonry materials.
Although lot of experiments on masonry specimens
exist, there is little data available for the basic masonry
materials. Often, tests are performed on masonry
specimens in order to determine the maximum bear-
ing load, but the properties of the components are not
reported or not tested at all. Generally, most tests were
performed to develop design guidelines and not to
determine material properties.
But anyway, there are some publications that deliver
detailed information on mortar and bricks. Bierwirth
[1] tested mortar with triaxial tests and compared the
properties of mortar that hardened in joints with mor-
tar that hardened in steel moulds. Even the humidity of
the bricks, when the bricks are laid, has an important
influence on the compressive strength of the mortar.As
the bricks are hygroscopic, they suck the water out of
the fresh mortar. Consequently the water cement ratio
of the mortar decreases. This is why the compressive
strength of mortar dried out in masonry specimens
is usually higher than the compressive strength of
mortar that dried out in steel moulds. Bierwirth
calibrated the Ottosen fracture model for different
types of mortar. This is a good base to start for a more
sophisticated material model that includes the dynamic
 increase of the material strength. Vermeltfoort [21]
and Pluijm [13] carried out tests to determine the
tensile strength of mortar joints, the compressive and
tensile strength of different types of bricks and deter-
mined Young’s Modulus for both materials. They
also determined the fracture energy of masonry joints.
Sarangapani [15] studied the bond between brick and
mortar and published data for Indian mortar and bricks.
Schubert [17,18] and Brameshuber [2] assembled
further data, specially for typical German masonry
materials.
The main problem of the description of masonry
materials is that there is a wide range of different Figure 6. Graphical representation of the elastic limit, the
failure surface and the residual strength in the stress space.
masonry units and mortars existing. Masonry units can
be made of adobe, clay, clinker, concrete or calcium
silicate, for example. So, the uniaxial compressive
strength of masonry units can range between 3 to
50 MPa. In addition, there are more and more highly
sophisticated masonry units with voids and internal
thermal isolation in order to provide a better thermal
isolation. Mortars are usually composed of cement,
lime and sand but the mass fraction varies considerable
so that compressive strengths between 2 and 15 MPa
can be encountered. Consequently, as the scattering
of the masonry materials strengths is more important
than for other materials, it is important to have at least
some key parameters describing the units and the mor-
tar, before numerical modelling of masonry walls can
start. Another challenge is to analyze the results of
experimental tests, because testing methods have an
important influence on the results of the tests. This
is especially true for tensile tests of bricks and mor-
tar joints. The collection of all the experimental data
found in the literature can be found in Gebbeken and
Linse [8]. Figure 7. Stress-Strain-Diagram for mortar with differ-
ent lateral confining pressures (from Bierwirth [1]) with
3.2 Own material models definition of the residual uniaxial strength.
The new dynamic material models can be based To describe the residual strength of the material after
on recently developed dynamic material models for fracture, a damage model is used. The damage model
concrete or ceramics (e. g. Hartmann [10]). can determine the residual strength in function of the
These models are usually based on failure criteri- actual strain of the material and the maximal plastic
ons, from Willam-Warnke or Ottosen for exam- strain of the material. Certainly, this damage model
ple. Usually, these failure or fracture criterions are must respect the dependency of the residual strength
enhanced to better represent the material strength on the actual state of stress.
in tension. To consider the increase of the material Figure 6 shows the different surfaces, describing
strength with higher strain rates, these criteria are for- the elastic limit, the failure surface and the residual
mulated with strain rate dependency. Thus, the failure strength in the stress space graphically.
surface is adapted as a function of the current strain To determine the residual strength after fracture,
rate, that the material is exposed to. After fracture, the the material tests performed by Bierwirth [1] can
degradation of the material properties must be repre- be used to determine the residual strength (Figure 7).
sented. So, the history of the loading must be taken into For bricks, such experiments could not be found in the
account. It is also important to consider the different literature. Triaxial experiments on bricks could not be
behaviour under tension and under compression. found either.
For the strain rate dependant increase of the material
strengths, the investigations of Hao et al. [9] deliver Model for masonry unit:
good information, because the published data delivers To model the masonry units a relatively general
detailed information about the dynamic increase of approch has been chosen. As failure surface the
the compressive strengths for bricks and mortar, the William-Warnke Five Parameter Model combined
Young’s Modulus and the fracture strain. In addition, with a tension cut-off criterion is used. This approach
to describe the dynamic mortar tensile strength, the has the advantage, that it can represent the triaxial
data assembled by Schuler [19] can be useful. stress combinations and it can be adjusted only by a few

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
parameters (tensile strength, compressive strength,
ductility, Young’s Modulus, Poisson’s ratio). Up to
now, only isotropic masonry units are examined. Later
this can be extended for anisotropic masonry units.
Model for Mortar:
The material model for mortar must be able to repre-
sent the tensile bond strength, the shear bound strength
and the compressive strength of the mortar. To assure
this, a combination of the Ottosen criterion cali-
brated for different types of mortar by Bierwirth [1]
with a tension-cut-off criterion is used. The material
is assumed to be isotropic. As the tensile strength of
the mortar is not much higher than the tensile bond
strength, this simplification will not cause great uncer-
tainties. The increase of the material strengths will be
adapted according to the tests of Hao [9]. The material
model can be adjusted to various mortar types by the
parameters proposed by Bierwirth [1] and the tensile
bond strength of the mortar.
4 SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK
This article sums up the basics of modelling masonry
under dynamic loadings. It describes the characteris-
tics of masonry and its components and explains the
chosen approach to model masonry under blast and
earthquake loadings. The literature research delivered
many suitable experimental data, but it also showed
the necessity for own tests, that will be performed in
the near future. In the next months the authors will
also accomplish the implementation of the material
models in Ansys Autodyn and will start to simulate
blast test that were performed by the Wehrtechnische
Dienststelle 52 (WTD 52) in Oberjettenberg
(Germany). These simulations will show the accu-
racy of prediction and the performance of the material
models and the modelling approach.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to express their gratitude to Mr.
Burbach of the Wehrtechnische Dienststelle 52 (WTD
52) and Lt.Col. Heckersbruch of the Streitkräfteamt
(SKA) for the support, technical discussions and the
financing of this project.
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[1] Bierwirth, Henric: Dreiachsiale Druckversuche an
Mörtelproben aus Lagerfugen von Mauerwerk, PhD
Thesis, Technische Universität München, 1995.
[2] Brameshuber, Wolfgang, Markus Graubohm and Ulf
Schmidt: Mauerwerkskalender 2006 – Festigkeit-
seigenschaften von Mauerwerk Teil 4: Scherfestigkeit,
Kapitel A IV, 193–226. Ernst & Sohn Verlag, 2006.
[3] Buhan, de P. & Felice de G.: A homogenization
approach to the ultimate strength of brick masonry,
Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 45,
1085–1104, 1997.
[4] Butenweg, C., C. Gellert and K. Meskouris: Ein
neuer Ansatz zum Nachweis von Mauerwerksbauten,
Baustatik-Baupraxis 10, 103–116, 2008.
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[5] Chetouane, B., F. Dubois, M. Vinches and C. Bohatier:
NSCD discrete element method for modelling masonry
structures, International Journal for Numerical Meth-
ods in Engineering, 64(1): 65–94, 2005.
[6] Dialer, C. P.: Basic behaviour of masonry: case studies,
alternative approaches and modelling hints, Tech-
nology, Law & Insurance, Routledge, 4: 131–136,
1999
[7] Ganz, Hans Rudolf: Mauerwerksscheiben unter Nor-
malkraft und Schub, Institut für Baustatik und
Konstruktion Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule
Zürich, 1985
[8] Gebbeken Norbert and Tobias Linse: Hochdynamis-
ches Materialmodell für Mauerwerk, Forschungsauf-
trag für die WTD 52, University of the German Armed
Forces Munich, Germany, April 2010.
[9] Hao, H. and B. G. Tarasov: Experimental study of
dynamic material properties of clay brick and mortar
at different strain rates Australian Journal of Structural
Engineering, 8: 117–131, 2008.
[10] Hartmann, Thomas: Zur mesomechanischen Mod-
ellierung von Beton und ihrer Anwendung zur
makromechanischen Modellbildung, PhD-Thesis, Insti-
tut für Mechanik und Statik, Universität der Bun-
deswehr München, 2009.
[11] Lourenço, Paulo B. and Jan G. Rots: Multisurface
Interface Model for Analysis of Masonry Structures,
Journal of Engineering Mechanics, 123(7): 660–668,
1997.
[12] Pluijm, Rob van der: Material Properties of Masonry
and its Comportements under Tension and Shear,
6th Canadian Masonry Symposium, University of
Saskatchewan, 1992.
[13] Pluijm, Rob van der: Non-Linear Behaviour of
Masonry under Tension, Heron, 42: 25–54, 1997.
[14] Sarhosis, V., S.W. Garrity and Y. Sheng: Distinct
Element Modelling of Masonry Wall Panels with Open-
ings, Proceedings of the Ninth International Confer-
ence on Computational Structures Technology, 2008.
[15] Sarangapani, G., B. V. Venkatarama Reddy and K. S.
Jagadish: Brick-Mortar Bond and Masonry Compres-
sive Strength, Journal of materials in civil engineering,
17(2): 229–237, 2008.
[16] Schlegel, Roger: Mauerwerkkalender 2009,
Möglichkeiten der numerischen Simulation von
Mauerwerk heute anhand praktischer Beispiele,
791–820. Ernst & Sohn Verlag, 2009.
[17] Schubert, Peter: Eigenschaftswerte von Mauerw-
erk, Mauersteinen und Mauermörtel, Mauerwerk-
Kalender 2005, 30: Seiten 127–130, 2005.
[18] Schubert, Peter: Mauerwerkkalender 2007, Eigen-
schaftswerte von Mauerwerk, Mauersteinen und
Mauermörtel, 3–24. Ernst & Sohn Verlag, 2007.
[19] Schuler, Harald, Christoph Mayrhofer and Klaus
Thoma: Spall experiments for the measurement of
the tensile strength and fracture energy of concrete
at high strain rates, International Journal of Impact
Engineering, 32(10): 1635–1650, 2006.
[20] Seim, Werner: Numerische Modellierung des
anisotropen Versagens zweiachsig beanspruchter
Mauerwerksscheiben, PhD-Thesis, Universität Karl-
sruhe, 1994.
[21] Vermeltfoort, A. Th. and R. van der Pluijm: Strength
and deformation properties of masonry to be used in
computercalculations, Proc. of the 9th IBMac (Inter-
national Brick and Masonry Conference), 244–251,
1991.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Behaviour of deformable blast walls for protective structural design

S.A. Kilic
Department of Civil Engineering, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey

P.D. Smith
Department of Engineering Systems and Management, Cranfield University, Shrivenham, UK
Defence Academy, Shrivenham, UK

ABSTRACT: The response of deformable reinforced concrete blast walls is investigated using the commercial
finite element code LS-Dyna. The design of the wall is based on 20 kg of TNT-equivalent mass of explosive
material. The amount of explosive material is further increased and the damage pattern of the wall is demonstrated
in the finite element analysis results. Significant wall failure occurs when the amount of explosive material is
increased well beyond the 20 kg design level.

1 INTRODUCTION

This study investigates the response of deformable

reinforced concrete blast walls under various levels
of explosive threat. The walls are designed to resist
the impulse caused by the detonation of the explosive
material.

2 BLAST WALL PARAMETRIC STUDY

Figure 1 shows the layout used in the parametric

numerical study. The design of the wall is based on the
impulse generated by 20 kg TNT-equivalent explosive
material placed at a distance of 2 m from the wall and at
a height of 2 m above ground (Baker, 1983). The wall Figure 1. Reinforced concrete blast wall parametric study.
height is taken as 3 m. Separate design checks are done Table 1. Numerical analyses presented in the study.
for bending and shear response of the wall (Mays and
Smith, 1995). The wall thickness is 0.35 m. The rein- Analy. R WTNT he H Z (m/ t θmax
forcement of the wall consists of a grid layout of 16 mm Code (m) (kg) (m) (m) (kg0.33 ) (m) (degree)
diameter rebars placed in both the horizontal and the
vertical direction. Additional shear reinforcement is F20 2.0 20 2.0 3.0 .7368 0.35 0.56
not required in these particular design calculations F30 2.0 30 2.0 3.0 .6347 0.35 0.86
(Mays and Smith, 1995). F50 2.0 50 2.0 3.0 .5429 0.35 1.62
F100 2.0 100 2.0 3.0 .4309 0.35 X
Design criteria: F200 2.0 200 2.0 3.0 .3420 0.35 X
F815 2.0 815 2.0 3.0 .2141 0.35 X
– Protection Level 2.
– Maximum support rotation (Mays and Smith, 1995)
– Concrete cover; c = 0.04 m.
for medium level of damage; θmax = 4 degrees.
– Rebar yield strength, fY = 450 MPa.
– Amount of TNT explosive (WTNT ) = 20 kg.
– Longitudinal reinforcement ratio, ρs = 0.5 %.
– Explosion height above ground, hE = 2 m.
– Bi-axial reinforcement layout spacing, s = 0.15 m.
– Distance to the wall, R = 2 m.
– Rebar modulus of elasticity, ES = 200 GPa.
– Wall height, hW = 3 m.
– Rebar diameter, φ = 16 mm.
– Unconfined concrete compressive strength, fc’=
30 MPa. Table 1 provides the quantities used in the paramet-
– Concrete density, ρC = 2400 kg/m3 . ric study of deformable reinforced concrete walls. The
– Concrete modulus of elasticity from the ACI Stan- amount of explosive material is varied from 20 kg to
dard (ACI-318, 2008); EC = 28 GPa. 815 kg. The scaled distance is provided by the Z values.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 2. State of the finite element mesh for the F20 analy- Figure 3. F20 analysis pressure contours on the exposed
sis showing the reinforcement details and the damage pattern surface of the blast wall at the reference time step + 0.00
after the blast wave front hits the blast wall. milliseconds.

3 FINITE ELEMENT MODELLING OF THE

DEFORMABLE WALL

Figure 2 shows the details of the finite element mesh

for the F20 analysis. The blast pressure is applied to the
front surface of the wall by using the *LOAD_BLAST
loading option of the LS-Dyna program (Hallquist,
2006).TheArbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) mod-
elling approach is not used in this study.
The concrete material is modelled with 8-node brick
elements, and the rebars are modelled with 2-node
line elements. A material erosion criterion based on an
ultimate level of compressive strain of 0.0025 is used
such that it allows disintegration of the blast wall. The Figure 4. F20 analysis pressure contours on the exposed
8-node brick elements of the concrete material reach- surface of the blast wall at the reference time step + 0.05
milliseconds.
ing the erosion limit are taken out of the simulation for
the remaining time steps of the analysis.This is demon-
strated by the missing brick elements of the concrete
matrix in Figure 2.
The 8-node brick elements in the concrete cover of
the exposed surface of the wall are almost immediately
taken out when the blast wave front hits the wall as
shown in Figure 2.
Four layers of 8-node brick elements are used within
the thickness of the wall. The first and last layers repre-
sent the concrete in the cover section within a distance
of 0.04 m. The two inner layers of the concrete sec-
tion placed between the rebars have a higher level
of strength due to the confinement provided by the
reinforcement. Figure 5. F20 analysis pressure contours on the exposed
The 8-node brick elements of the concrete material surface of the blast wall at the reference time step + 0.10
share common nodes with the 2-node line elements of milliseconds.
the rebars, and are completely attached to each other.
above ground. The height of the blast wall is 3 m.
The successive attenuation of the pressure contours
4 SEQUENTIAL RESPONSE OF THE BLAST on the front surface of the blast wall is illustrated in
WALLS IN THE F20 ANALYSIS Figures 4–7 as the pressure intensity decreases with
elapsed time.
Figures 3–7 show the pressure contours on the blast
exposed surface of the wall at intervals of 0.05 mil-
lisecond in the F20 analysis, which demonstrates the 5 DAMAGE PATTERN OF THE BLAST WALL
response to the amount of explosive material used IN THE PARAMETRIC STUDY
(20 kg TNT) in the design of the blast wall. The inner
circular region of pressure concentration clearly marks In order to quantify the damage to the blast wall the
the height of the explosive placed at a distance of 2 m procedure described in the UFC 3-340-02 Manual

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 6. F20 analysis pressure contours on the exposed
surface of the blast wall at the reference time step + 0.15
milliseconds.
Figure 7. F20 analysis pressure contours on the exposed
surface of the blast wall at the reference time step + 0.20
milliseconds.
Figure 8. Damage pattern of the wall for the F20 analysis.
(UFC, 2008) is used to calculate the maximum base
rotation of the wall θmax .The results of the base rotation
are provided in Table 1.
Figure 8 shows the minor level of damage of the
blast wall under the design level of 20 kg TNT explo-
sive material. Concrete cracking is observed at the
bottom of the wall near the fixed support.
Figure 9 illustrates the damage pattern for the F30
analysis with 30 kg TNT explosive material. The con-
crete cracks are shown by the white lines (lighter
shading). The erosion criterion causes more concrete
material to vanish along the height of the wall.
Figure 10 provides the damage pattern when the
amount of explosive material is increased to 50 kg
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 9. Damage pattern of the wall for the F30 analysis.
Figure 10. Damage pattern of the wall for the F50 analysis.
Figure 11. Damage pattern of the wall for the F100 analysis.
TNT. A vertical segment on the top portion of the wall
shows the failure under the erosion criterion. The dam-
age at the base of the wall is increased compared to the
F30 analysis.
The damage on the upper section of the wall for
the F100 analysis is shown in Figure 11. A circular
segment that complies with the pressure contours of
Figures 4–7 is almost punched out in the F100 analy-
sis. This is caused by the intensity of the initial blast
wave front hitting the wall, and occurs before the fixed
supports at the base can react. A significant number
of concrete elements around the base are taken out of
the analysis due to the erosion criterion used for the
concrete material.
Figures 12 and 13 illustrate the damage pattern for
the explosive amounts of 200 kg TNT (F200 analy-
sis) and 815 kg TNT (F815 analysis), respectively. The

Figure 12. Damage pattern of the wall for the F200 analysis.
Figure 13. Damage pattern of the wall for the F815 analysis.
apparent damage in the punched out circular region is
clearly marked in Figure 12 for the F200 analysis.
The extent of this region is further increased as
shown in Figure 13 for the F815 analysis. The pro-
jection of the spherical blast wave on the blast wall is a
circular region for the F100 and F200 analyses. How-
ever, when the diameter of the spherical blast wave
exceeds the height of the blast wall as illustrated in
Figure 13 for the F815 analysis, and the punched out
segment of the wall attains a shape close to a rectan-
gular region. The curvature due to the spherical shape
of the blast wave can still be observed around the left
and right edges of the punched out region in Figure 13.
The maximum base rotations (θmax ) calculated per
the UFC 3-340-02 Manual (UFC, 2008) are given in
Table 1. The values for the F100, F200, and F815
analyses are indicated by the “X” mark. As these anal-
yses involve complete failure of the blast wall, the
maximum rotation values are not computed.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
6 CONCLUSIONS
A realistic design of reinforced concrete blast walls is
carried out using the available codes of practice for an
explosive amount of 20 kg TNT. The design is based
on the impulse of the explosion.
The amount of explosive material is increased in
various stages up to 815 kg TNT. The LS-Dyna finite
element code results demonstrate the capability of the
numerical simulations to show the extent of the wall
damage. Significant failure of the blast wall occurs for
amounts over 30 kg TNT as shown in the F50, F100,
F200, and F815 analyses. The F100, F200, and F815
analyses illustrate the complete failure of a segment
of the wall right in front of the explosive material.
Failure on the top portion of the wall occurs when a
circular region is punched out of the wall plane due to
the high intensity of the blast wave and the high level
of impulse.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The support of the Scientific and Technological
Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) through the
contract no. 107M002 is gratefully appreciated.
REFERENCES
Baker, W. E.; Cox, P. A.; Westine, P. S.; Kulesz, J. J.;
Strehlow, R. A., 1983. Explosive Hazards and Evalua-
tion, Fundamental Studies in Engineering No. 5, Elsevier,
pp 807.
Hallquist, J. O., March 2006, LS-Dyna Theoretical Manual.
Livermore Software Technology Corporation: Livermore,
California, U.S.A.
Mays, G. C. and Smith, P.D., 1995. Blast Effects on Buildings,
Thomas Telford Publishers: London, United Kingdom.
Unified Facilities Criteria (UFC), 2008. Structures to Resist
the Effects of Accidental Explosions, Department of
Defense, U. S. A.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Simulation of pressures behind rigid blast walls

S.A. Kilic
Department of Civil Engineering, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey

P.D. Smith
Department of Engineering Systems and Management, Cranfield University, Shrivenham, UK Defence Academy,
Shrivenham, UK

ABSTRACT: This work presents numerical studies for predicting the protection to buildings provided by blast
walls (sometime called ‘blast barriers’). The blast walls are assumed to be non-deformable. Simulations are done
by using the Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) technique of the commercial finite element code LS-Dyna.
The effects of the blast wall height and the stand-off distance of the building behind the blast wall in reducing
the overpressure of the blast wave are investigated.

1 INTRODUCTION

Although there have been a number of studies of the

performance of blast walls over the years (Smith,
March 2010), the influence of the various parame-
ters that define the wall and its location relative to the
explosive threat and the building it is protecting is still
not fully understood. In this study, therefore, the pro-
tection provided by blast walls in which factors such
as wall height and stand-off distances are changed is
systematically investigated. In order to quantify the
protection provided, the pressures behind the blast
walls are compared with the pressures obtained in the Figure 1. Model building placed behind a rigid blast wall
absence of blast walls. The blast walls are assumed to with a thickness of 0.30 m.
be non-deformable. A model building of 15 m height is
placed behind the rigid blast wall, and pressures along Table 1. Numerical analyses presented in the study.
the front façade are computed.
Analysis he hw D1 D2 D-total
Code (m) (m) (m) (m) (m)

S1 2.0 1.50 2.00 4.00 6.30

2 BLAST WALL PARAMETRIC STUDY S2 2.0 1.50 2.00 10.00 12.30
S3 2.0 1.50 2.00 14.00 16.30
Figure 1 shows the layout used in the numerical study. S4 2.0 3.00 2.00 4.00 6.30
The distance D1 between the high explosive device S5 2.0 3.00 2.00 10.00 12.30
and the rigid wall is fixed, and it is assumed that the S6 2.0 3.00 2.00 14.00 16.30
explosive detonates at close range near the blast wall. S7 2.0 7.50 2.00 4.00 6.30
The distance D2 between the blast wall and the model S8 2.0 7.50 2.00 10.00 12.30
building is varied from 4 m to 14 m. The height of the S9 2.0 7.50 2.00 14.00 16.30
A1 2.0 – 2.00 4.00 6.30
blast walls varies from 1.50 m to 7.50 m in the Analysis
A2 2.0 – 2.00 10.00 12.30
Codes S1–S9 (see Table 1). The results obtained in the A3 2.0 – 2.00 14.00 16.30
absence of a blast wall are provided by the Analysis
Codes A1–A3.
The TNT equivalent mass of the high explosive truck transporting the explosive device and detonation
device is 815 kg, which corresponds to half a cubic occurs at close range to the blast wall. The commercial
meter volume of TNT. The scenario considered in the finite element code LS-Dyna is used in the numerical
numerical study is a threat level that corresponds to a study (Hallquist, March 2006).

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 2. Analysis Code S1 with a stand-off distance D2
of 4 m.
Figure 3. Analysis Code S5 with a stand-off distance D2
of 10 m.
3 FINITE ELEMENT MODELS
The LS-Dyna finite element mesh consists of around
290,000 elements and 300,000 nodes. The surround-
ing air is represented with a volumetric mesh with
8-node brick elements. The blast wall and the build-
ing are modeled with non-deformable brick elements.
The Eulerian volumetric mesh of the surrounding air
is disjoint with the Lagrangian mesh of the blast wall
and the building.
3.1 Analysis Codes S1–S3 for low blast walls
These cases represent low blast walls with varying
stand-off distance to the building being protected.
Figure 2 shows the finite element mesh used for the
Analysis Codes S1 with a stand-off distance D2 of 4 m.
The boundaries of the rectangular prism-shaped Eule-
rian volumetric mesh used to model the surrounding
air is illustrated with the thin lines. The Eulerian mesh
complies with the Cartesian coordinate axes.
3.2 Analysis Codes S4-S6 for medium height blast
walls
Medium height blast walls are investigated in the Anal-
ysis Codes S4–S6. Figure 3 shows the finite element
mesh used for the Analysis Code S5 with a stand-off
distance D2 of 10 m.
3.3 Analysis Codes S7-S9 for high blast walls
The effect of high blast walls for reducing the over-
pressure are provided by the Analysis Codes S7-S9.
Figure 4 shows the finite element mesh used for the
Analysis Code S9 with a stand-off distance D2 of 14 m.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 4. Analysis Code S9 with a stand-off distance D2
of 14 m.
Figure 5. Iso-surfaces of pressure for the Analysis Code A1.
4 SIMULATION RESULTS WITHOUT BLAST
WALLS
The Analysis Codes A1, A2, and A3 provide the
results in the absence of blast walls for the explosive
device to building distance, denoted with the D-total
(= D1 + D2 + 0.3 m) parameter of 6.30 m, 12.30 m,
and 16.30 m, respectively.
4.1 Analysis Code A1 for close range distance
Figure 5 shows the pressure distribution for the Anal-
ysis Code A1 when the explosive charge detonates at
close range to the building with a D2 distance of 4 m.
The highest pressure in the iso-surface plot at 7 mil-
liseconds after detonation is around 600 kPa. The time
of 7 milliseconds is chosen because this is when the
blast wavefront has just reached the front façade of
the building. The finite element mesh is cut into half
in order to better illustrate the peak pressures in the
iso-surface plot.
4.2 Analysis Code A2 for medium range distance
Figure 6 shows the pressure distribution for the Anal-
ysis Code A2 when distance D2 is increased to 10 m.
The highest pressure in the iso-surface plot at 17 mil-
liseconds after detonation when the blast wavefront
just reaches the front façade is around 200 kPa.
Figure 6. Iso-surfaces of pressure for the Analysis Code A2.
Figure 7. Iso-surfaces of pressure for the Analysis Code A3.
Figure 8. A1 analysis blast wave at 7 milliseconds time
instance.
4.3 Analysis Code A3 for long range distance
Figure 7 shows the pressure distribution for the Analy-
sis code A3 when the D2 distance is further increased
to 14 m. The highest pressure in the iso-surface plot at
an instance of 27 milliseconds is around 90 kPa. The
time instance of 27 milliseconds is chosen such that
the blast wave reaches the front façade of the building.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 9. A1 analysis blast wave at 16 milliseconds time
instance.
Figure 10. A1 analysis blast wave at 36 milliseconds time
instance.
Figure 11. A1 analysis blast wave at 43 milliseconds time
instance.
4.4 Progression of the blast wave in the Analysis
Code A1
Figures 8–12 illustrate the progression of the blast
wave for the Analysis Code A1 as time progresses from
7 to 60 milliseconds.
 Figure 12. A1 analysis blast wave at 60 milliseconds time Figure 13. Pressure at the instance that the blast wave
instance. reaches on the front façade of the building for the Analysis
Code S1.

The circular hollow regions in the pressure iso-

surface plot in Figure 10 arise from the fact that
the blast wavefront is beyond the boundaries of the
Eulerian mesh of the surrounding air. The 4 side
faces and the top face of the rectangular prism-shaped
Eulerian air domain are modeled such that they do
not reflect the blast wave. The bottom face of the
domain that represents the ground is modeled with
non-deformable shell elements such that the blast wave
is reflected.
Figures 11 and 12 illustrate the attenuation of the
pressure as the blast wave engulfs the building and
moves beyond.

Figure 14. Pressure at the instance that the blast wave

5 OVERPRESSURE IN THE PRESENCE OF reaches on the front façade of the building for the Analysis
BLAST WALLS Code S4.

In order to illustrate the shielding effect of the blast

walls, the Analysis Codes S1-S9 are used. The numer-
ical study demonstrates the effectiveness of increasing
the blast wall height in reducing the pressure on the
front façade of the building. Another parameter for
blast reduction is to increase stand-off distance D2
between the blast wall and the building.
In order to illustrate the effect of changing the blast
wall height, the peak pressures of the Analysis Codes
S1, S4, and S7 are compared in Figures 13, 14, and 15,
respectively. The time instances in Figures 13–15 are
chosen such that the blast wavefront has just reached
the front façade of the building.
Figure 13 shows the pressure iso-surface for the
Analysis Code S1 with a low wall height of 1.50 m.
The peak pressure on the front façade of the building
Figure 15. Pressure at the instance that the blast wave
is around 600 kPa at 5 milliseconds. reaches on the front façade of the building for the Analysis
Figure 14 shows the pressure iso-surface for the Code S7.
Analysis Code S4 with the medium blast wall height
of 3.00 m. The peak pressure on the front façade of the
building is around 300 kPa at 5 milliseconds. building is around 200 kPa at 10 milliseconds. Since
Figure 15 shows the pressure iso-surface for the the blast wave climbs up the high blast wall during the
Analysis Code S7 with the maximum wall height of engulfing stage, the time at which it reaches the front
7.50 m. The peak pressure on the front façade of the façade of the building elongates to 10 milliseconds.

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Table 2. Comparison of peak pressures for the Analysis
Codes A1, S1, S4, and S7 with a stand-off distance D2 of 4 m.
Analysis Peak pressure on Blast wall height
Code the building façade (kPa) (m)
A1 600 –
S1 600 1.50
S4 300 3.00
S7 200 7.50
Figure 16. Pressure at the instance that the blast wave
reaches on the front façade of the building for the Analysis
Code S5.
Table 2 provides the comparison for the peak pres-
sures on the building façade for the Analysis Codes
A1 (no wall), S1 (low wall), S4 (medium height
wall), and S7 (high blast wall) for a stand-off distance
D2 of 4 m.
The peak pressure in the Analysis Code S1 does not
show a reduction compared to the A1 case that rep-
resents the absence of a blast wall. This is due to the
fact that the blast wall height of S1 is not sufficient to
cause a shielding effect for the building behind. As the
blast wall height increases in the Analysis Codes S4
and S7, the peak pressures are successively reduced.
The wall height in the Analysis Code S7 may be con-
sidered excessively high for practical uses. Since the
peak pressures levels for the Analysis Codes S4 and
S7 are relatively similar compared to the ‘no wall’ sit-
uation, the medium wall height in the Analysis Code
S4 may be considered to provide a reasonable level of
pressure reduction for the protected building.
In order to quantify the effect of increasing stand-
off distance D2 for the medium height blast walls, the
peak pressures on the front façade of the building are
investigated in the Analysis Codes S5 and S6.
Figure 16 provides the pressure distribution for the
Analysis Code S5 with a stand-off distance D2 of 10 m.
The peak pressure on the front façade of the building
is around 125 kPa.
The pressure distribution for the Analysis Code
S6 with a stand-off distance D2 of 14 m is given in
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Figure 17. Pressure at the instance that the blast wave
reaches on the front façade of the building for the Analysis
Code S6.
Table 3. Comparison of peak pressures for the Analysis
Codes S4, S5, and S6 with a blast wall height of 3.00 m.
Analysis Peak pressure on Stand-off distance
Code the building façade (kPa) D2 (m)
S4 300 4.00
S5 125 10.00
S6 75 14.00
Figure 17. The peak pressure on the front façade of
the building is around 75 kPa.
Table 3 shows the peak pressure comparisons for
medium height blast walls. The stand-off distance
D2 is an effective measure for shielding the building
behind. The attenuation of the blast wave pressure with
the increased stand-off distance D2 provides the most
effective protection for the building.
Discussion of the high wall Analysis Codes S7,
S8, and S9 is omitted due to the fact that the 7.50 m
wall height maybe of limited practical application. The
Analysis Codes S2 and S3 (low blast wall cases) are
also omitted in the discussion of the results due to the
ineffectiveness of short wall height as discussed in the
Analysis Code S1.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The medium blast wall height of 3.00 m provides rea-
sonable protection for the pressures on the front façade
of the building for the Analysis Codes S4, S5, and S6
with peak pressures of 300 kPa, 125 kPa, and 75 kPa,
respectively. As the stand-off distance D2 between the
blast wall and the building is increased, the attenuation
of the blast wave provides a higher level of protection
for the building behind. Although this paper has con-
centrated on the reduction in overpressure developed
on the building façade, this overpressure reduction
was accompanied by a reduction in the level of blast
impulse delivered. This is an important point to note
 given that building damage is often determined by
impulse.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The support of the Scientific and Technological
Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) through the
contract no. 107M002 is gratefully appreciated.
REFERENCES
Hallquist, J. O., March 2006, LS-Dyna Theoretical Manual.
Livermore Software Technology Corporation: Livermore,
California, U.S.A.
Smith, P.D., March 2010. Blast walls for structural protec-
tion against high explosive threats: a review. International
Journal of Protective Structures 1(1): 67–84.

486
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Robust design – Alternate load path method as design strategy

L. Roelle & U. Kuhlmann

Institute of Structural Design, University of Stuttgart, Germany

ABSTRACT: The paper highlights the ductility demand of beam-to-column connections in the frame of pro-
gressive collapse assessment of framed steel or composite structures. Local failure in a structure (e.g. sudden
column loss due to impact or explosion) could lead to progressive collapse propagation of the global structural
system resulting in a total collapse. To avoid progressive collapse initiated by local damage a redistribution of
force from the damaged part of the structure has to be enabled by alternate load path. Activation of alternate
load paths by change of the bearing mechanism from pure bending state to more or less pure membrane state is
a measure but only possible by allowing large global deformations resulting in high deformation requirements
for the joints. Therefore highly ductile and partial-strength joint solutions have been investigated which allow
placing the plastic hinges into the joints instead of the former concept to strengthen the joints in order to achieve
a development of the plastic hinges in the beams.

1 ALTERNATE LOAD PATH METHOD

1.1 General
In order to be effective as robustness measure alter-
nate load paths have to be designed sufficiently strong
to transfer the actual occurring forces, including e.g.
over-strength effects. An alternate load path may on
the one hand be formed within the structural system
(global level) by e.g. strengthening of transfer girders
or by bracing a full floor level to suspend the loads
above the damaged part like an outrigger, see Fig-
ure 1a. On the other hand redundancy can be achieved
by allowing force redistribution within a structural
member (local level). Structural steel and composite
buildings with inherent sufficiently ductile material
behavior allow large deformations when local fail-
ure occurs. Large deformations result in large plastic
strain rates of material which enables the activation of
additional plastic material reserves. So on local level
the material steel has the capability to form plastic
hinges which all activating also plastic system reserves
by redistributing. On global level the redundancy of
steel structures for progressive collapse mitigation
may form alternate load paths e.g. by activation of
catenary action in the horizontal members that means
by transition from flexural loading to membrane ten-
sile acting in the members and joints, see Figure 1b.
Therefore a highly ductile behavior of all structural
members combined with sufficient strength is neces-
sary [Starossek 2005]. In framed structures the joints
are in general the weakest link and therefore special
focus is on the joint design to avoid a premature fail-
ure of the connections during the procedure of force
redistribution.
Figure 1. Alternate load paths by a) strong transfer girders
or b) catenary action.
1.2 Alternate load paths by catenary action
Alternate load paths may be achieved by transition
from flexural to tensile forces by catenary action of
a beam member or by the transition of planar to
spatial structural behavior within the slab system. In
these cases a membrane fixation and sufficient duc-
tile behavior of members and especially of joints are
demanded [GSA 2003]. Steel and composite members
benefit from the ductile material behavior of struc-
tural steel. So steel has the capability to combine
strength, ductility and absorption capacity which are
basic properties for designing robust and redundant
buildings.
In particular, if partial strength beam-to-column
joints are used, it is at the joint level that this deforma-
tion capacity has to be ensured by activating adequate
collapse modes. Under regular service load, i.e. before
the column loss, the joints are mainly subjected to
bending and shear forces. Then, further to the col-
umn loss, significant membrane forces are developing
within the directly affected part and the joints are pro-
gressively subjected to combined bending, axial and
shear forces.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 1.3 Ductility demands for members
For common steel profiles in structural engineering
depending on the rotation capacity of the cross-section
diverse categories of ductility classes exist. So the
capability of the cross-section to undergo locally a
total plastification i.e. to develop a plastic hinge and
to assure additionally sufficient rotation capacity with-
out premature stability failure (class 1 cross-section)
is ensured by slenderness limits of cross-sectional
parts. Therefore for plastic analysis of a steel structure
including redistribution the requirements according
the various codes are to use only those cross-sections
with sufficient moment bearing capacity as well as
rotation capacity. By using rigid and full-strength
joints the plastic hinges are located in the beams. So
the total required deformation and rotation capacity to
activate the membrane effect in the direct affected part
of the structure has to be offered by the beam mem-
bers. But full-strength joints cause much additional
effort and they are costly.
1.4 Ductility demands for joints
Ductility demands for joints are decisive for partial-
strength joints which have less resistance than the
beams but also reduced fabrication costs compared to
full-strength joints. Using partial-strength joint con-
figurations the plastic hinges are developing initially
in the joint which requires high rotation capacities
of the joints. Therefore a detailed joint design is
necessary considering the interaction of all joint com-
ponents including over-strength effects to ensure that
for the whole loading sequence of the joint the deci-
sive weakest component is always ductile, see also
chapter 3.
For bolted connections there is an interplay of
hardening or over-strength effects and the various
deformation capacities of the single components. By
ensuring that especially the components “endplate in
bending” and “column flange in bending” have a cer-
tain ductility additional membrane effects on local
level (in the T-Stub) may be activated leading to a
further increase of the resistance provided there is
sufficient bearing capacity of the bolts. Furthermore a
sufficient deformation capacity the joints also enables
the redistribution of the internal force from the pure
bending state into a mixed bending and tension state,
up to a more or less pure tension state which is con-
ditional for the development of catenary action in a
framed beam structure.
2 REDUNDANCY OF DIFFERENT SLAB
SYSTEMS
2.1 General
In steel-concrete-composite structures the choice of
the slab system not only influences the erection
time and building costs but also the redundancy of
the global structure or the structural robustness as
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 2. Composite frame under the event column loss
with a) 2D-effect and b) 3D-effect.
characteristic of the structural system. Depending on
the slab design, for exceptional load cases like col-
umn loss either 3D-behavior or only 2D-behavior is
available.
2.2 System with 2D behavior
For framed composite structures without a continuous
slab (floor system as single spans with only minimum
reinforcement) the single slabs are not transversely tied
together. For this reason in case of column loss the
membrane action may only be activated in plane of the
directly affected frame. So only the composite main
beam system is able to redistribute forces and offer
alternate load paths.
The slab in this case is unable to activate additional
membrane effects transversally to the frame plane. So
only a 2D-behavior may be assumed within a large
displacement analysis.
2.3 System with 3D behavior
Having a continuous RC slab in the composite struc-
ture including a uniform amount of reinforcement the
slab is connecting the single frames trans-versally.
Consequently for the event of column loss the slab
is not only contributing to the resistance of the com-
posite beam in the plane of the directly affected frame
but also acting as a tie in transversal direction. The
RC slab provides ties in two horizontal directions and
enables therefore a 3D-behavior for the case of column
loss. However, for effective operation the continuity
and anchorage of the ties is obligatory.
Activating membrane action in longitudinal direc-
tion within the composite beams and joints and addi-
tionally in transversal direction within the RC slab
the redundancy of the composite frame is clearly
in-creased in comparison to the 2D system.
3 STRUCTURAL JOINT DESIGN
3.1 General
For partial-strength joint solutions highly ductile joint
behavior is especially important due to the fact that
the plastic hinge is located in the joint and all
global deformations have to be realized mainly by
joint rotation/deformation. Therefore the joints are
the decisive link in the structure and their resistance
Table 1. Qualitative influences of main steel joint
parameters.

Influence on Influence on
rotation bearing
Parameter capacity capacity

ratio dbolt /tendplate + −

bolt arrangement
steel grade endplate
ratio tendplate /tcolumnflange
+ disproportionate high
+ −
+ −
o n.n
Figure 3. Influence of the ratio fu/fy for the available ulti-
o proportionate – little mate strain of a reinforced concrete bar in tension [Schäfer
2005].

and deformability define the global redundancy of the
structure. In comparison to nominally pinned joints
there are only small extra costs (material + labor) but
much more redundancy of the structure, so by only
small additional efforts the effectiveness concerning
progressive collapse mitigation is improved [Rölle,
Kuhlmann 2009].
3.2 Design of the steel elements of the joint
For the design of pure steel joints or for steel ele-
ments of composite joints the adjustment of the single
joint components is of high importance in order to
design highly ductile joint configurations. Therefore
the parameters mainly influencing the joint behavior
have to be treated with special care. Table 1 describes
the qualitative degree of influence concerning the rota-
tion capacity as well as the bearing capacity of the
various parameters investigated for the joint compo-
nents. So small changes of some of these parameters
might positively influence the ductility of the joint in
a significant way whereas at the same time the bear-
ing capacity is only decreasing marginally. The listed
parameters are mainly influencing the components
“endplate in bending” and “column flange in bending”
which are able to activate additional local membrane
effects under large deformations. So local additional
bearing effects may compensate the decrease of the
joint bending capacity when reducing e.g. the endplate
thickness or the steel grade.
3.3 Design of the concrete slab in a composite joint
By adding a reinforced concrete slab and shear con-
nectors to the pure steel joint a composite joint is
obtained. To get also a highly ductile behavior for
the composite joints the tension bar in the slab in the
hogging moment region should be designed with high
deformation capacity. Thus the reinforcement within
the joint region should be able to undergo high plas-
tic strains. As meshed reinforcement has a negative
influence on the deformation capacity only steel rods
should be used. Furthermore the following parameters
are influencing significantly the available extension in
the slab:
– class of reinforcement
– reinforcement ratio
– and arrangement of shear connectors
According to [EN 1992-1-1], Annex C there are
three classes of reinforcement A, B and C in which
class C (seismic steel) is the most ductile one in terms
of maximal available strain and high ratio of fu /fy . For
class C the ratio fu /fy is higher than 1.11, which is
relevant for high available strains of the reinforced slab
under tension resulting in a high deformation capacity
as visible in Figure 3.
The reinforcement ratio is influencing the moment
resistance and the deformation/rotation capacity of the
joint. By increasing the amount of reinforcement the
deformation capacity is also increased. The reason is
that the reinforcement ratio is significantly influencing
the steel stress σsr1 of the rebar when a first crack
has formed. The ratio of σsr1 /fyk is important for the
available plastic strain εsmu of the reinforced concrete
slab under tension, where fyk is the yield strength of
the rebars. For high deformation capacities of the slab
a higher reinforcement ratio is advantageous because a
rising ratio causes steel stresses σsr1 when a first crack
has formed which are well below the yield strength.
Beside the reinforcement ratio and class the
arrangement of the shear studs in the hogging moment
region are influencing the deformation capacity of the
slab. More precisely the distance of the first shear
stud to the column profile is decisive for the available
expansion length of the rebars. By increasing the dis-
tance of the first stud the length for activating plastic
strain in the reinforcement is clearly increased result-
ing in increase of deformation capacity. It is pointed
out that also a discontinuous amount of reinforcement
within the “tension bar” in the joint region should be
avoided to profit from the modified stud arrangement,
see Figure 4.
3.4 Over-strength effects
According to the basic design criteria (ULS + SLS)
members and joints are designed assuming nominal
material values. This is justified by the present safety
concept. However for large displacement analysis con-
sidering only nominal values may lead to results which
are non-conservative. So aside of the plastic behav-
ior of the material and the stability sensitivity of the
sections which dominate the ductility of the members
the joint behavior is decisive.
Composed of various components the aim should
be that only ductile components control the overall

489
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 4. Influence of stud and reinforcement arrange-
ment in the hogging moment zone of a reinforced concrete
composite slab [Schäfer 2005].
Figure 5. Influence of over-strength of a single component
on the rotation capacity of the joint.
joint behavior. For this not only the component behav-
ior itself is of importance but the interplay of the
various components considering also possible over-
strength effects play an important role.
Figure 5 gives the example of a joint composed of
a ductile and a brittle component, e.g. the endplate in
bending acting together with bolts which usually fail in
a brittle manner. The design according to the nominal
values of strength leads to a moment rotation curve of
the joint also acting ductile, see case a). However the
actual values of strength may exceed the nominal val-
ues (over-strength effects) so that no longer the ductile
component dominates the failure load, but the brittle
one, see case b). As a consequence the overall behavior
of the joint shows a very limited rotation capacity as
consequence no redistribution of forces can take place
that means the structure has only reduced redundancy.
4 EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL
INVESTIGATIONS ON JOINTS
4.1 General
The European RFCS research project Robustness
[Kuhlmann et al. (2008)] recently finished has carried
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Figure 6. Influence of the steel grade to the rotation
capacity.
out extensive experimental and theoretical investiga-
tions on the behavior of steel-composite joints under
biaxial loading, especially concerning the joint ductil-
ity to create robust structures which are able for load
redistribution under exceptional loading and are insen-
sitive to progressive collapse. It has demonstrated that
the former concept to strengthen the joints in order
to achieve that the plastic hinges appear in the beams
is not a necessary condition for activation of catenary
action in a frame structure for the design strategy alter-
nate load path method, but that it is also possible to
place the plastic hinges into the joints by designing
partial-strength joints with sufficient ductility.
Within a national research project [Kuhlmann, Rölle
2008] parameters influencing the ductility of bolted
beam-to-column connections were investigated. Fur-
thermore the influence of over-strength effects on
the resistance and rotation capacity of the joint was
analyzed.
Furthermore the event column loss in a compos-
ite structure was analyzed in a current diploma thesis
[Kleiner 2009] at the institute.
4.2 Experimental investigations
Within the two mentioned research projects the joint
deformability and ductility as well as the combined
bending and tensile resistance have been investigated.
The performed steel joint tests mainly aimed at
the investigations of increasing the joint ductility by
varying different parameters. The main parameters
influencing the deformability in the tension zone of
the joint are the ratio of the endplate thickness and
the bolt diameter (under consideration of the individ-
ual material strength) and the arrangement of the bolts
depending on the distance to the web, see also Table 1.
By decreasing the ratio of the bolt diameter and the
endplate thickness the rotation capacity is increased.
By modifying the bolt arrangement particular by
increasing the distance of the bolts to the beam web
and beam flange the rotation capacity is also increased.
A test series in [Kuhlmann, Rölle 2008] examined
the influence of the steel strength and the simul-
taneous activation of the components endplate and
column flange in bending. The resulting moment-
rotation curves are given in Figure 6. By reducing

Figure 7. Deformed steel joint test specimen.
Figure 8. Results of the composite joint tests under
combined M-N-loading a) test specimen, b) recorded
M-N-interaction.
the steel grade of the endplate and the column flange
the rotation capacity is also increased accompanied by
only small decrease of the resistance as, see e.g. test
curves Z6 and Z3 in Figure 6.
The objective of the composite joint tests was the
determination of the simultaneous moment-tensile-
resistance within the joint.
The tests simulated the loading procedure from pure
bending state to a mixed bending and tensile state up
to a pure tensile state at the end. The tests were suc-
cessfully following the whole theoretical M-N-curve
(as shown in Figure 8b). The failure of the joints
always occurred under mainly pure tensile exposure.
From the results of the composite joint tests under
combined bending and tension exposure it can be
concluded that having a highly ductile joint behavior
due to well-advised adjustment of the single compo-
nents the transition from pure bending state up to a
membrane state in the joint is feasible. The design of
the joint specimens considered already over-strength
491
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 9. Deformed shape of steel joint considering a)
nominal material values and b) over-strength effects.
effects and the bolts were intentionally oversized to
exclude premature brittle failure of the connection.
The results of the joints tests have been also con-
firmed by a substructure tests executed by the project
partner ULg (Liége, Belgium). Within this substruc-
ture test the activation of catenary action, after the
event column loss happened, was possible due to the
highly ductile performance of the joints [Kuhlmann
et al.]. Failure was mainly induced by the concrete
slab: for the hogging moment joints by increased
cracks and final rupture of the reinforcement, for the
sagging moment joints by crushing of the concrete. In
addition a remarkable residual resistance and ductility
remained when the concrete slab had already failed.
4.3 Numerical investigations
The numerical simulations were executed by the FE
software ANSYS. First recalculations were made to
verify the FE-Model at the tests results and afterwards
parametrical studies followed to extend the range of
parameters as well as investigate the actual influence
of material over-strength effects on the joint behav-
ior. The influence of the material properties on the
joint behavior (ductility and bearing capacity) depend-
ing on stochastic distribution of the material strength
was investigated in a first step by considering vari-
ous combinations of characteristic values [Kuhlmann,
Rölle 2008]. Numerical simulations were used due to
the fact that the local membrane effect in the T-stub
of the components “endplate in bending” or “column
flange in bending” is not yet implemented in the ana-
lytical approach of the component method acc. to [EN
1993-1-8].
In terms of resistance the over-strength effects usu-
ally cause an additional material reserve which can be
activated in the case of progressive collapse analyses.
But considering connections where different types of
steel grade are assembled the over-strength effects may
result in unintentional negative effects. Particular lim-
ited ductility is the main phenomena as the distribution
of the available joint rotation depending on the statis-
tical spread of the material properties in the diagram
of Figure 10 shows.
Within a current diploma thesis numerical simula-
tions on global level at steel and composite structures
have been performed to analyze the collapse resistance

Figure 10. Moment–rotation curves for varied material
strengths.
Figure 11. Simulation of column loss in a composite frame.
of the structure as well as requirements for the imple-
mented partial-strength joint configurations. Another
aspect is also to determine the additional positive con-
tribution of the continuous RC slab in two horizontal
directions [Kleiner 2009].
First results showed that such a composite beam-
column structure is able to resist the event of a column
loss under the accidental load combination for about
70–80% utilization of ULS loading. The identified
requirements for the partial-strength joints concern-
ing ductility and M-N-resistance are also feasible and
within the range of the available rotation capacity and
strength determined by the experimental investigation.
5 CONCLUSIONS AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT
As terrorist attacks become more and more frequent
the demand of building safety has been raised. Under
such exceptional loading situations, the ability of a
structure to survive largely depends on the perfor-
mance of key structural elements and their connec-
tions, preventing progressive collapse. But until now,
aside of some theoretical concepts there are only very
few and insufficient recommendations in the codes.
Whereas heavy reinforced concrete buildings are gen-
erally regarded as safe, light steel framed structures
have to provide evidence of a sufficient robustness
against impact or blast in order to be accepted.
492
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
However, former and ongoing research projects
have shown that intelligent robust design concepts
such as the alternate load path method achieved by
ductile joints solutions lead to advantages of steel and
composite structures. In comparison to RC structures,
steel and composite structures combine the charac-
teristics high strength, ductility, great plastic reserves,
high residual strength and energy dissipation. Further-
more the own research activity showed that obviously
intelligent and highly ductile joint design is increas-
ing the robustness of the structure. So by only small
additional effort in joint design additional resistance
for exceptional loadings such as column loss may be
activated.
Part of the work presented here is carried out, as a
joint research project by different European partners,
with a financial grant from the Research Fund for Coal
and Steel (RFCS) of the European Community. The
authors like to thank their partners for co-operation
and gratefully acknowledge the financial support, also
from the German funding of AiF.
REFERENCES
ANSYS User’s manual (2007). ANSYS Mechanical Solu-
tions Release 11.0. 2007
EN 1991-1-1 (2002): Eurocode 1 – Actions on structures –
Part 1–7: General Actions – Accidental actions due to
impact and explosions, CEN, 2002
EN 1992-1-1 (2005): Eurocode 2 Design of concrete struc-
tures - Part 1–1: General rules and rules for buildings.
CEN, 2005
EN 1993-1-8 (2005): Eurocode 3. Design of Steel Struc-
tures – Part 1–8: Design of Joints, CEN, 2005
GSA 2003: US General Services Administration: Progressive
Collapse Analysis and Design Guidelines for New Fed-
eral Office Buildings and Major Modernization Projects,
GSA. 2003
Kleiner, A. (2009): Untersuchung der Robustheit und Kol-
lapsresistenz von Stahl- und Verbundrahmentragwerken –
Numerische Simulation eines Stützenausfalls. Universität
Stuttgart, Mitteilung des Instituts für Konstruktion und
Entwurf Nr. 2009-43X, 2009
Kuhlmann, U. et al. (2008): Robust structures by joint duc-
tility. Publishable Report. Contract-No. RFS-CR-04046,
2008.
Kuhlmann, U., Rölle, L. (2008): Duktilitätskriterien
für typisierte Stirnplattenverbindungen, Schlussbericht,
DASt-Forschungsvorhaben im Auftrag der AiF, AiF-
Vorhaben Nr. 14627, Dezember 2008.
Rölle, L.; Kuhlmann, U. (2009): Alternate load path method
for robust design by ductile steel and composite joints,
Proceedings of IABSE Symposium Bangkok, September
2009
Schäfer, M. (2005): Zum Rotationsnachweis teiltragfähiger
Verbundknoten in verschieblichen Verbundrahmen. Dis-
sertation. Universität Stuttgart, Mitteilung des Instituts für
Konstruktion und Entwurf Nr. 2005-1, 2005.
Starossek, U., Wolff, M. (2005): Progressive Collapse –
Design Strategies. Proceedings of the IABSE Symposium
Lisbon, 2005.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Tests and simplified numerical simulation of vehicle impact on guardrails

with respect to normative regulations

C. Seiler
Faculty of Civil Engineering, Munich University of Applied Sciences, Germany

ABSTRACT: Guardrails on bridges have to fulfill specific normative requirements which can be only verified
by impact tests. For successful approval, however, pre-design of the guardrail is recommended on the basis of
numerical simulations. In this context, a simplified computation method is presented in this paper with special
focus on the modeling, numerical stability and iterative design procedure. Finally, a comparison between impact
forces due to German standard and due to numerical simulation is drawn.

1 INTRODUCTION

Requirements for guardrails on roads are given in DIN

EN 1317, part 1 und 2. Special criteria have to be
fulfilled on the basis of crash tests which cannot be
substituted by numerical simulation. Depending on
the restraint class impact tests are carried out with dif-
ferent types of vehicles which characteristics such as
mass and height of gravity point are defined in detail.
During the tests the behavior of the guardrail and the
vehicles are measured in order to verify specific crite-
ria. The guardrail construction fails the approval if only
one criterion is not fulfilled. In this case the guardrail
has to be revised and the tests have to be repeated. As
these tests are quite expensive they should succeed
for the first time. Therefore, numerical simulations
with verification of the design criteria are strongly Figure 1. Guardrail construction of restraint class H2.
recommended.
Because of the extremely complex problem which
comprises the simulation of contact, the considera- Main aim consists in performing a simple, but reliable
tion of nonlinear material and nonlinear geometrical calculation of the impact tests to design the guardrail
behavior, dynamic interaction effects, etc. a numer- construction and to evaluate the behavior of the vehi-
ical simulation of the impact tests is indispensable cles. Finally, a comparison between numerical results
for an iterative pre-dimensioning process of the main and tests is drawn.
construction members. In this context, the draft of
the guardrail components is quite sophisticated as the
stringent criteria due to DIN EN 1317 require a soft 2 TESTS DUE TO DIN EN 1317
construction to reduce impact intensity of passenger
cars and at the same time a stiff construction to reduce Depending on the so called restraint class, in general,
deformations due to heavy vehicle impact (Seiler, two impact tests with different vehicles are required.
2006). Approximate formula or a good engineers’ For restraint class “H2” and “H4b” the test types
feeling are not sufficient anymore to estimate impact “TB11” and additionally “TB51” or “TB81”, respec-
forces for design and the behavior of the vehicles tively, have to be accomplished. Test type “TB11” is
during and after impact. performed with a passenger car whereas “TB51” and
On the basis of guardrails of different restraint “TB81” is carried out by use of a bus or a heavy truck,
classes H2 (Fig. 1) up to H4b the procedure of respectively. The total mass, the location of mass grav-
pre-design due to requirements of DIN EN 1317 is ity, the impact velocity as well as the impact angle
illustrated. Special emphasis is focused on the mod- are defined in DIN EN 1317 and illustrated in Table 1
eling and the required numerical stability applying and Figure 2. However, test results can differ in a wide
time integration and nonlinear structural behavior. range as the type of vehicle is not prescribed.

493
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 1. Extract of characteristic data of test vehicles.
Impact velocity Vehicle mass
Impact test km/h t
“TB 11” 100 0,9
“TB 51” 70 13,0
“TB 81” 65 38,0
Figure 2. Definition of permissible rebound area.
Table 2. Extract of threshold values for the criteria.
ASI THIV
– km/h
1.4 (level B) 33
Depending on the test type the following criteria
which are based on visual observation and on the
evaluation of test data have to be verified:
– Impact intensity of passengers for test type “TB11“
– Guardrail deformation for test types “TB51“ and
“TB81“
– Vehicle behavior for all test types
– Guardrail behavior for all test types
2.1 Test type “TB11”
For test type “TB11” few criteria have to be fulfilled
which refer to the vehicle and passengers’ behavior
during impact. In order to analyze impact intensity of
the passengers the following indices are measured and
evaluated:
– ASI index – averaged (during 50 ms) acceleration
of passengers in all directions during impact
– THIV index – theoretical impact velocity of the
passengers’ head on the vehicle
– PDH index – theoretical impact acceleration of the
passengers’ head on the vehicle
In Table 2 the corresponding threshold values due
to DIN EN 1317 part 2 are illustrated. They intend to
mitigate risk of injury for passengers during impact
with the guardrail.
In order to analyze vehicle behavior a certain
rebound zone is defined which vehicles must not leave
during and after impact (Fig. 2). The aim of this crite-
rion consists in preventing impact with other cars and
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 3. Dynamic deformation D und impact area W.
to provide them enough time to react. The length A
and the width B of the area are defined according to
the vehicle type.
Additionally, the gravity point of the vehicle must
not excess the deformed guardrail system. Moreover,
the vehicle must not overturn whereas small tilting
motions are allowed. The deformation of the guardrail
itself is not limited. However, members of the guardrail
PHD must not detach or penetrate the vehicle.
g
20 2.2 Test types “TB51“ and “TB81“
Concerning test types “TB51” and “TB81” the
strength and the deformation capacity of the guardrail
is of great importance as heavy vehicles have to
be restraint by the construction. In this context,
the dynamical deformation and the remaining defor-
mation are measured. The dynamic deformation D
represents the maximum deformation during impact
whereas the remaining deformation affects the so
called impact area W (Fig. 3).
Depending on the resulting impact area the
guardrail construction is assigned to a specific class
from W1 (W ≤ 0.6 m) up to W8 (W ≤ 3.5 m). In gen-
eral, both the required impact area and dynamical
deformation depend on the provided space behind the
guardrail as e. g. noise barriers should not be damaged
by any casual impact. Typical values W of guardrails
on bridges are in the range of 0.8 m to 1.0 m. The cri-
teria for the vehicle behavior correspond to the test
type “TB11” whereas the rebound area is defined with
larger dimensions.
2.3 Test performance
For testing of guardrails special areas are provided as
e. g. the one of the TÜV in Allach near Munich. The
guardrail is erected on a length of 80 m (Fig. 4) and
is positioned in a way that it corresponds to its final
installation. In general, test type “TB11” is performed
first as damages due to impact are small and only a
short part of the guardrail has to be substituted for the
subsequent test “TB51” or “TB81”, respectively.
The preparation of the tests is quite affordable as
few measurement instruments have to be installed in
494

Figure 4. Guardrail construction on the testing area.
Figure 5. Test vehicles – passenger car (“TB11”) and heavy
truck (“TB81”).
the vehicles in order to evaluate the required criteria
(Fig. 5). On the other hand vehicles have to be modified
in a way that gravity point and total mass match the
normative regulations. To this aim water containers are
e. g. installed in the bus in exactly calibrated positions.
Inclined by an angle of 20◦ with respect to the lon-
gitudinal direction of the guardrail a guiding cable
is installed in the carriage way to direct the vehicles
with exact position and velocity. In this manner it is
also guaranteed that the vehicle impacts the guardrail
at the most disadvantageous location, in general at
dilatation joints. Above the impact area a high speed
camera is installed in order to be able to evaluate the
maximum dynamic deformation. Additionally, other
cameras are installed along the guardrail to analyze
the vehicle behavior during and after impact. The per-
missible rebound area is designated with tooth paste.
The maximum impact area is quantified after the test.
If required impact forces can be measured.
3 NUMERICAL SIMULATION AND DESIGN
Because of the regulations due to DIN EN 1317 the
guardrail construction has to fulfill two extremely dif-
ferent requirements. On the one hand it has to exhibit
sufficient elasticity (softness) to mitigate impact inten-
sity of passenger cars. On the other hand the structure
has to possess certain stiffness to reduce deformation
due to impact of heavy vehicles. In DIN EN 1317 an
approximate formula for estimation of impact forces
on the basis of guardrail deformation is provided.
However, it is pointed out that effective forces can dif-
fer by a factor of about 2.5. Additionally, the criteria
such as the acceleration index ASI or the verification
of the limited rebound area cannot be evaluated. There-
fore, it is obvious that pre-design of the guardrail and
dimensioning of its most important structural mem-
bers is impossible without assistance of numerical
495
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
simulation. Moreover, a program has to be applied
being able to consider dynamic interaction between
the vehicle and the guardrail and geometrical and
material nonlinearities. Moreover, plastic deformation
should be exploited for economical reasons according
to the capacity design rules in earthquake engineering
(Bachmann, 1995), (Priestley et al., 1996).
Numerical simulations of vehicle crash tests may
be found e. g. in (Rechnitzer & Grzebieta, 1999),
(Vesenjak & Ren, 2004), (Atahan & Cansiz, 2004).
However, in these investigations the vehicles are mod-
eled by complete shell structures so that no character-
istic values could be deduced for the simplified model
used in the present paper.
3.1 Iterative design procedure
In order to reduce acceleration of passenger car (test
type “TB11”) during impact a soft construction ele-
ment in the form of an eight-shaped or circular loop
were placed between the post and the spars (Fig. 6).
Because of its highly plastic behavior the member acts
like a damping element and limits the impact forces
to its plastic capacity. The thickness of the loop has to
be small enough to guarantee plastic deformation, but
at the same time sufficient high to deviate the vehi-
cle as much as possible before the spars get in direct
contact with the post. Otherwise the impact forces and
consequently the acceleration of the car increase dra-
matically as the post represents the stiffest construction
element of the guardrail.
In case of heavy vehicle impact the soft element
has no specific function as its plastic capacity is very
small in comparison to the high vehicle mass. After
contact of the spars and the post huge impact forces
arise from the high stiffness of the posts and the mass
inertia of the vehicle due to dynamic interaction. These
forces finally lead to the deviation of the vehicle and
determine the maximum deformation of the guardrail.
However, it should be noticed that higher stiffness does
not reduce deformations proportionally as interaction
forces increase. Therefore, plastic deformation should
be taken into account especially for economical rea-
sons if larger deformations are permissible. However,
special attention should be paid to the anchorage con-
struction. In case of plastic deformation at the bottom
of the post the guardrail could act as a ramp for the
vehicles.
With approximate pre-dimensioning of the con-
struction members a dynamic calculation of the
required tests has to be carried out considering nonlin-
ear material behavior and large deformation (theory of
third order) as well as contact conditions. The results
may then be evaluated by a pre-designed EXCEL sheet
in order to verify the required criteria. By modifying
the decisive construction elements such as thickness
of damping elements an optimal solution can be found
after some iteration steps (Fig. 6). Afterwards the
remaining construction elements such as anchorage
of the post or expansion joints can be designed with
maximum impact forces.

Figure 6. Guardrail construction of restraint class H2 after
iteration process.
Figure 7. Modeling of passenger car (“TB11”), guardrail of
restraint class H2 (left) and H4b (right).
3.2 Modeling
For numerical simulation of the impact tests a simpli-
fied model of the vehicle-guardrail-system is used. In
general, it should be emphasized at this point that the
model is regarded appropriate for preliminary design
in order to estimate the dimensions of the structural
members and to be able to evaluate the criteria due to
DIN EN 1317. Modeling of the vehicles with nonlin-
ear shell elements as e. g. used in automobile industry
surely provides more sophisticated numerical simu-
lation but requires time consuming computation and
often does not lead to more reliable results as vehicle
types may vary for testing.
All vehicles are modeled each by a rigid beam ele-
ment with total mass and height of gravity centre
according to the normative requirements (Fig. 7). The
beam element is supported on vertical contact spring
elements which are placed at the wheel location and
which are coupled rigidly to the beam element. In case
of the heavy truck the trailer is modeled separately,
but coupled by a hinge to the tractor. The carriage way
modeled by plate elements acts as reference plane on
which the contact elements of the vehicle are “sliding”
with an estimated friction coefficient of 0.5.
At the edges of the vehicle horizontal contact spring
elements are located at level of the spars to simulate
impact between vehicle and guardrail. As the stiffness
of the spring elements was unknown in advance it was
varied in a specific range. Damping was set to zero
representing the most unfavorable case. After the first
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
impact tests the spring characteristics could be cali-
brated on the basis of the results. For bus and heavy
truck impact also contact elements at the upper spars
were modeled.
Each member of the guardrail is modeled by a beam
element with its corresponding cross section. Elastic-
plastic material behavior of steel (S 235) is considered.
Additional to the beam elements representing the spars
cable elements are modeled at location of their gravity
centre to take into account third order effects. Consid-
ering large deformations contributes on the one hand
to an economical design and on the other hand to the
essential effectiveness of the guardrail in case of heavy
truck impact. The posts are regarded clamped for test
type “TB51” as the base plate and the anchorage with
the carriage way is designed on the basis of maximum
plastic internal forces of the post. In case of test type
“TB81” a rupture of anchorage is considered.
The eight-shaped or circular loops between the spars
and the posts are modeled with beam elements in a
polygon-shaped way. As these members are respon-
sible for reduction of impact intensity of passengers
a sufficient large number of elements should be cho-
sen to realistically simulate plastic behavior. Between
the spars and the posts an additional spring element
is located with a gap corresponding to the clearance
between these members. Its stiffness has to be chosen
in a way that on the one hand the impulsive contact
between spar and post is simulated realistically and on
the other hand the stiffness skip does not cause any
numerical instability.
3.3 Time integration and numerical stability
For simulation of the impact tests a time integra-
tion method is applied to take into account essential
dynamical effects. Because of the nonlinearities the
time increment has to be chosen quite small. Whereas
for linear systems a time step of Tmin /10 (Tmin : low-
est Eigen period) is appropriate (Newmark, 1959),
(Clough & Penzien, 1993) the increment for the non-
linear calculation was chosen to 0.0025 s for test type
“TB11” and to 0.001 s for “TB51” and “TB81”. In
this way the required number of nonlinear iteration
steps is reduced which increases dramatically during
the contact of the vehicle with the post. In addition, a
small time increment is necessary to realistically simu-
late the impact process which takes place within a few
hundredths of seconds. Last but not least the criteria
due to DIN EN 1317 require a small time interval as
the acceleration index ASI is evaluated by an average
value over a period of 50 milliseconds.
As time integration methods are only condition-
ally stable in case of consideration of nonlinearities
the numerical results may diverge from the exact
solution. In this case high-frequent Eigen forms are
artificially activated rendering the obtained results
unusable. Therefore, it is recommended to apply
numerical damping which can be controlled by inte-
gration parameters (Hilber et al., 1977), (Wood et al.,
1982), (Crisfield, 1997). Choosing these parameters

Figure 8. Numerical simulation and test type “TB11”.
in an appropriate way high-frequent Eigen forms are
damped while the dominant low-frequent Eigen forms
which govern the final solution are hardly influenced.
As convergence criteria and the maximum number
of iteration steps within the nonlinear iteration process
decide on the abort of an iteration interval they should
be determined reasonably. If the program evaluates
the so called residual forces they should be verified
as they represent the degree of unbalanced forces and
hence, the degree of reliability of the solution. Espe-
cially in dynamic systems an initial unbalanced-force
state can cause divergent results with following time
steps (initial value problem).
Among the numerical integration parameters also
the modelling is relevant for numerical stability of
the solution. In this specific case the stiffness of the
springs simulating the contact between the spars and
the post after a certain gap has to be determined in
an appropriate way. Defining its stiffness too high
the overall stiffness skip leads to divergence of the
solution. Setting the stiffness too low the intensity
of impact is not simulated properly so that the cri-
teria and the vehicle and guardrail behaviour cannot
be evaluated realistically.
4 NUMERICAL SIMULATION, TEST RESULTS
AND NORMATIVE REGULATION
On the basis of numerical simulations the guardrail
constructions were designed in an iterative way taking
into account the criteria due to DIN EN 1317. Details
such as connection joints could be assessed afterwards.
Regarding impact with passenger cars the eight-
shaped or circular steel loops between the spars and
the posts (Fig. 8) are of great importance to reduce
impact intensity. Choosing the thickness too large plas-
tic behavior does not occur. A small thickness does
not develop sufficient forces to divert the vehicle and
impact intensity is then determined by contact with the
stiff posts.
In case of bus impact the post stiffness and its plastic
behavior are decisive to reduce deformations and to
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 9. Numerical simulation and test type “TB51”.
Figure 10. Numerical simulation and test type “TB81”.
Table 3. Maximum horizontal forces due to impact for
three different guardrail constructions.
Normative Numerical
value/class value
Restraint class kN/– kN
H2 200/B 170
H4b 400/C 300
H2 (guardrail not specified) 300
prevent the vehicle from breaking through. A critical
moment represents the second impact by the back of
the vehicle as the position often coincides with the
guardrail location which has been already weakened
by the first impact with the front of the bus (Fig. 9).
For heavy truck impact plastic behavior of the posts
should not be mainly used to restrain the vehicle as
due to large deformations the guardrail could act as a
ramp for the vehicle. In this case it is more convenient
to use the anchorage of the posts as predetermined
breaking point with lower capacity than the post. As
soon as a larger number of anchorage members are
fractured effects of third order theory could be taken
into account due to large deformations of the spars.The
guardrail then acts as a flexible “cable wall” which is
able to restrain heavy trucks and to prevent them from
breaking through.
In DIN-Fachbericht 101, the German standard for
specification of actions on bridges, horizontal loads on
guardrails are given for the classes A to D. Guardrails
which possess a general approval are assigned to these
classes by a separate list provided by the Federal
Highway Research Institute (BASt). In combination
with vertical loads these horizontal loads have to be
applied in the accidental load combination to structural
members serving for anchorage of the guardrail.
In Table 3 the maximum horizontal actions on the
guardrail due to numerical simulation are illustrated
for three different constructions. In addition, the cor-
responding loads due to German standard are given for
 comparison. As one of the guardrails was not foreseen
for Germany there are no normative values.
Obviously, the numerical simulation provides lower
values for maximum horizontal forces as the German
standard, thus lying on the safe side. Moreover, it
should be noticed that guardrails can cause extremely
different impact actions which mainly depend on the
stiffness of the construction. The guardrail of restraint
class H2 which is not specified in German standards
points out horizontal loads due to bus impact which
are in the range of a construction of restraint class
H4b (impact by a heavy truck). Therefore, the overall
stiffness of guardrail constructions should be cho-
sen as low as possible to reduce impact intensity and
deformations for all types of vehicles.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Because of the high costs of guardrail tests at least
simplified numerical simulation of the impact tests
is recommended for pre-design of its most important
members and for evaluation of the criteria provided
by standard DIN EN 1317. For economical reasons
plastic behavior and geometrical nonlinearities of the
construction should be considered. As computation
of the highly nonlinear behavior could lead to diver-
gent results special emphasis should be focused on
numerical stability by introducing numerical damping
and appropriate modeling. The simulations carried out
show that impact forces provided by German standard
are lying on the safe side.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
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two Wooden-post W-beam Guardrails to Eliminate Wheel
Snagging. International Journal ofVehicle Design,Vol. 11,
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Bachmann, H. 1995: Erdbebensicherung von Bauwerken,
Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel.
Clough, R. W. & Penzien, J. 1993. Dynamics of Structures.
McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Crisfield, M. A. 1997. Non-linear Finite Element Analysis
of Solids and Structures, Advanced Topics. John Wiley &
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Hilber, H. M., Hughes, T. J. R. & Taylor, R. L. 1977. Improved
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rithms in Structural Dynamics. Earthquake Engineering
and Structural Dynamics, Vol. 5: 283–292.
Newmark, M. M. 1959. A Method of Computation of Struc-
tural Dynamics, Journal of the Engineering Division 85:
67–94.
Priestley, M. J. N., Seible, F. & Calvi, G. N. 1996. Seismic
Design and Retrofit of Bridges, New York: John Wiley &
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Rechnitzer, G. & Grzebieta, R. 1999. Crashworthy Sys-
tems – a Paradigm Shift in Road Safety Design. Transport
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Seiler, C. 2006. Auslegung von Straßengeländern der Rück-
haltestufe H2 nach DIN EN 1317 auf der Grundlage von
Crash Simulationen, Bauingenieur, Band 81: 87–98.
Vesenjak, M. & Ren, Z. 2004. Computational Simulations for
Safer Roads. Benchmark, The International Magazin for
Engineering Designers & Analysts, NAFEMS: 23–26.
Wood, W. L., Bossak, M. & Zienkiewicz, O. C. 1982. An
Alpha Modification of Newmark’s Method. International
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1562–1566.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Behaviour and structural evaluation procedure of a precast R.C. multi-storey

building subjected to blast loading

D.V. Stoian, I.S. Pescari, S.C. Florut & V.A. Stoian

Politehnica Univeristy of Timisoara, Timisoara, Romania

ABSTRACT: The paper presents the evaluation procedure of the load bearing capacity of a building that was
damaged by an accidental blast.
The behaviour of the structure, the blast effect and the amount of damage are dependent on several factors
such as: load intensity, configuration of the structure, materials’ response, etc. Each case is new and different,
as well as the solutions.
Therefore, investigation methods must be innovative and efficient. A laser scanner based method associated
with numerical analysis is proposed in order to evaluate the remaining load bearing capacity of the structural
elements subsequent to the occurrence of the blast. A precast reinforced concrete panel structure is studied,
aiming to evaluate and to propose viable rehabilitation method.

1 OVERVIEW OF THE BUILDING

1.1 Structural description

The studied building is a five storey one, located in
Timisoara, Romania and is in service for over 30 years.
Its geometrical characteristics are: 30 meters in length,
12 meters wide and 15 meters in high up to eaves.
The vertical structure of the building consists
of reinforced concrete (RC) precast structural walls
placed on both the transversal and longitudinal direc-
tions. The horizontal structural elements are the RC
precast floor panels.
The infrastructure was constructed in the solution
of continuous RC foundations beneath the structural
walls. The roof consists in an uncirculated terrace.
The concrete used for building the structural ele-
ments was a C16/20 class of concrete. The slabs Figure 1. The affected building façade.
were designed as simply supported panels being rein-
forced using steel welded wire meshes positioned at respectively. The thickness of the interior RC walls is
the inferior side. 0.14 m.
The walls were also reinforced using steel welded In Figure 1, the exterior facade of the building, with
wire meshes positioned only in the mid plane of the the damages produced by the explosion, is presented,
elements and steel rebar at extremities of each panel whereas in Figure 2, the horizontal plan of the 1st floor
and around the openings. with the blast’s source position.
In Figure 1 is presented the exterior facade of the
building.
The building was constructed on a modular sys- 2 BLAST EFFECT AND DAMAGE ASSESMENT
tem, the transversal walls being placed at every 2.70
meters, leading to wall panels with length/high ratio 2.1 Blast effect
of 2.70 × 2.50 m. All of the exterior wall panels are In one of the rooms on the 3rd floor, due to gas accu-
constructed as sandwich ones, with 0.27 m thickness, mulation, an explosion occurred. The explosion has
incorporating a layer of 0.085 m of thermal insulation seriously affected a large number of elements in the
made out of Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC). The vicinity of the room where it occurred, however the
other two layers are: exterior plain concrete and inte- blast effects have affected, more or less significantly,
rior RC wall with thicknesses of 0.06 m and 0.125 m the structural elements from all of the levels of the

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 2. Horizontal floor plan.

Figure 3. Deformations indicating the affected panels.

structure. By analyzing the power of explosion, an

empowered institution has concluded that the pressure
on the walls and floors of the room was 0.01 N/mm2 .
Taking into account that value, a simulation was per-
formed in order to assess the explosions’ impact on the
structure’s overall behavior and load bearing capacity.
Analysis was performed using finite element software
AXIS VM.
All of the plane structural elements (walls and
floors) were modeled using shell finite elements.
Figure 4. Maximum deformations.
The results of the performed analyses indicate that
the area affected by the explosion extends well outside
the room where the blast occurred.
In Figure 3 and Figure 4, the deformations on the
structural elements provoked by the explosion are
illustrated. The evaluation was made in elastic range.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 5. Effect of the explosion in the room where it
occurred.
2.2 Damage assessment
The blast led to a series of structural and non struc-
tural damages, some of them with high significance
on the overall bearing capacity of the structure. The
inventoried damages were as follows:
– collapse of the two transversal structural walls
adjacent to the room where the explosion occurred.
– destruction of the floor and ceiling panels of the
room;
– deformations and cracking of a series of panels;
– blow up of the doors and windows on the 3rd floor.
In Figure 5, the state of ruin induced by the blast in
the room where it occurred is presented.
3 CALCULATION METHODOLGY
3.1 General method
Following the occurrence of the destructive event of
the gas accumulation and of the blast, the first concern
is the safety of the building and of the people who dwell
in it. In consequence, is necessary to assess the safety
factor of the structural elements. The safety factor
represents the ratio between the required load bearing
capacity of the element and the load bearing capacity
provided in its actual state after 30 years of service,
after being subjected to several seismic actions, and
off course after the occurrence of the explosion.
In order to ascertain the overall safety factor of a
building, the behavior and failure modes of the struc-
ture and the individual safety factors for all of the
structural elements have to be determined. Afterwards,
it is to be established which element (or elements)
is dominant and is determining the collapse of the
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
structure. Consequently, the overall safety factor of
the structure can be assimilated with the partial safety
factor of the dominant element.
In this case, all of the walls and floor panels that
are completely destroyed are to be replaced with new
ones. This intervention however, does not necessarily
restore the capacity of the structure to its initial value,
leaving the series of elements that are now deformed,
and surely, below their original capacity. By analyz-
ing the loss of capacity for each of the deformed walls
that are not to be replaced, the overall safety factor
can be established as the minimum partial safety fac-
tor from the series of such walls. If the overall safety
factor results with values higher than 1.00, the struc-
ture is still capable to withstand the stresses to which
it could be subjected during a seismic action. If this
value is below 1.00, the damages during an eventual
earthquake are most likely to be substantial.
4 THE EVALUATION OF THE REMAINING
LOAD BEARING CAPACITY OF THE
STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS
4.1 Evaluation procedure and technical equipment
As it cans be seen in Figure 5, the adjacent prefabri-
cated panels were extremely affected by the blast. The
wall panels were broken due to the lack ok the rein-
forcement, while the floor panels were deformed. The
presence of the reinforcement into the floor panels lim-
ited the damages at these elements. It is obvious that
the destroyed panels must be replaced, while other pan-
els remained in the initial position. For these panels a
quick procedure was applied, aim up to determine the
load bearing capacity. Thus, has been evaluated the
relative eccentricity of the vertical load, taking in to
account the deformed shape of the panel.
The deformed shape of the panel was evaluated
using the laser scanner equipment, composed of high
resolution digital camera, a red light laser scanner
equipped with a device allowing to scan the entire
required surface. The digital information is instantly
recorded on computer
In Figure 6 the set-up of the laser scanner is
presented.
4.2 Evaluation process phases
The procedure consists of several steps.
In the first step, one of the most deformed structural
wall was scanned using the laser scanner, the resulted
image being afterwards exported as a 3D image into
the dedicated software.
In Figure 7, the rough image of the wall as taken
by the laser scanner is presented. The insufficient dis-
tance between the scanner and the element (due to the
small space available inside) and the poor illumina-
tion led to some drawbacks of the scanning process:
the partial scanning the entire surface of the desired
wall and the existence of a series of shadows onto the
scanned element.
 The second step of the process consists in meshing
the wall. The mesh was automatically generated by
the laser scanners’ software. In this step, the irregular-
ities of the rough scanned element were also corrected
automatically by the software. The resulted element is
presented in Figure 8.
The operations in the third step aim to completely
remove any faults of the scanned element. In this step,
the gaps that can be observed in Figure 8, caused by the
above mentioned illumination issues were corrected
so the element became a continuous one, as it is. In
Figure 9, the corrected meshed is presented.
The fourth step was to export the rectified image of
the wall into a CAD platform (Auto Cad was used).
Figure 6. Laser scanner equipment.
Figure 7. The raft picture of the wall.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
A series of corrections were then applied to obtain
the structural model. After these operations, the CAD
model was continuous and regular. This step is essen-
tial for the effectiveness of the entire evaluation, since
the FEA model is generated by using this final rectified
model.
The structural CAD model was used to evaluate
the maximum displacement of the affected panels,
governing the vertical stability of the prefabricated
panel.
The procedure described above, was applied in
order to evaluate geometrical eccentricity of the
deformed prefabricated panel and after that the buck-
ling coefficient used to obtain the critical stresses due
to the gravitational load.
Figure 8. Image of the wall after automatic meshing and
correction.

Figure 9. The mesh after complete rectification.
Figure 10. The deformations of prefabricated panel.
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The critical stress σlim associated to the buckling
limit was compared with the maximum compressive
stress σ induced by the gravitational load:
where Rc is the compressive strength of concrete and ϕ
is the buckling coefficient, evaluated in function of the
relative eccentricity and the slenderness of the panel.
The panels’ thickness is 140 mm. The compressive
strength of the concrete panel is 10.5 N/mm2 .
The maximum geometrical displacement evaluated
using the described procedure is 27 mm. Thus, the
final eccentricity of the panel is 43 mm, the buckling
coefficient is 0.1, and the limited compression stress
1.05 N/mm2 . The maximum compression stress due to
the vertical loads is 0.75 N/mm2. Thus the calculated
safety coefficient is 1.4.
REFERENCES
David Johnson, 2008, Mesh Lab Manual.
AXIS VM, 2010, Analysis and Design Software.
 Consequence of natural disasters on constructions

© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Air fall deposits due to explosive eruptions: Action model and robustness
assessment of the Vesuvian roofs

D. De Gregorio, B. Faggiano, A. Formisano & F.M. Mazzolani

Department of Structural Engineering, University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

ABSTRACT: During an explosive eruption, a construction is hit by several actions, which are associated
to elevated temperatures causing fires, possible explosions and reduction of the mechanical properties of the
structural materials. In this paper, the attention is focused on the analysis of a specific volcanic event constituted
by the pyroclastic deposits, falling on the roofs due to gravity, the so-called air fall deposits. The study faces
two important aspects. The first one concerns the proposal of a model of the action on the basis of a similitude
between the air fall deposits and the snow load. The second item is the robustness evaluation against the air fall
deposits of the most common roof types in the Vesuvian area, which are made of timber, steel and reinforced
concrete. Consequently, some mitigation systems have been identified.

1 INTRODUCTION by the pyroclastic deposits, falling on the roofs due to

The most dangerous volcanoes are the explosive ones,
likeVesuvius (Naples, Italy).They are characterized by
a violent emission through the so-called eruptive col-
umn similar to a mushroom cloud, formed by gas-solid
dispersal, which rises vertically from the eruptive cen-
ter, due to the initial high pressure of the magmatic gas.
As a consequences of an explosive eruption,
a construction is hit by several actions: the vol-
canic earthquake; the vertical accidental load on the
roofs produced by pyroclastic deposits; the horizontal
dynamic pressures on the façades due to pyroclastic
flows and lahars; and the impact produced by flying
fragments. They all are associated to elevated temper-
atures, which can produce fires, possible explosions
and degradation of the mechanical properties of the
structural materials.
Down the century, the volcanic eruptions have pro-
duced many fatalities and economic losses. Today,
almost half billion people is in danger (Tilling and
Lipman, 2007). In Europe, the Vesuvius area is among
the ones with highest risk. A probable explosive erup-
tion of Vesuvius, in fact, is persistently menacing
the surrounding urban zones and their about 600,000
inhabitants.
The peculiar risky situation of the Neapolitan vol-
cano has induced the European project COST Action
C26 ‘Urban habitat constructions under catastrophic
events’(2006–2010) to introduce the assessment of the
volcanic vulnerability of the Vesuvius area as a case
study within the research subjects. The objectives are
substantially two: the vulnerability evaluation of the
urban environment towards a Vesuvian eruption and
the identification of simple and economical mitiga-
tion interventions. In this context, this paper focuses
on the analysis of a specific volcanic event constituted
gravity, the so-called air fall deposits.
The study faces two important aspects. The for-
mer one concerns the proposal of a model of the
action on the basis of a similitude between the air fall
deposits and the snow load. In fact, as for the snow, the
action produced by the air fall is a gravitational load,
which depends on the slope and the exposure of roofs.
Besides, as respect to snow, the thermal degradation
of mechanical properties of materials also occurs, it
being produced by the clasts high temperature, which
ranges between 150 and 400◦ C.
The second item presented in this paper is the
robustness evaluation against the air fall deposits of
the most common roof types in the Vesuvian area,
which are made of timber, steel and reinforced con-
crete. Accordingly, some mitigation systems have been
identified.
2 AIR FALL DEPOSITS
2.1 The eruptive phenomenon
The main products of an explosive eruptions are
the pyroclasts, originated by the magma fragmenta-
tion. Their deposits are generically called tephra and
divided in three basic types: air fall, pyroclastic flows
and surges.
The air fall (or tephra fall) deposits are formed
by the accretion of clasts, which fall by gravity from
the eruptive column or which are thrown directly
in surrounding areas from the crater, according to
ballistic trajectories (Fig.1a); while the deposits of
pyroclastic flows and surges are formed by gas-solid
dispersions with high or low concentration of particles
respectively, which move along the surface (Fig. 1b),
following either the collapse of the eruptive column,

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Figure 1. Representation of the air fall (a) and pyroclas-
tic flow and surge (b) during an explosive eruption (Nelson,
2010).
Figure 2. Pyroclastic deposits of Vesuvius volcano dur-
ing: a) 79AD Plinian eruption, b) 1631 sub-Plinian eruption
(INGV- OV, www.ov.ingv.it).
or a directional explosion for the sliding of a part of
the volcano, or a lateral explosion at the base of a lava
dome.
During violent explosive eruptions (Plinian and
sub-Plinian), large deposits of tephra fall cover an area
of elliptical shape around the crater, reaching also large
distances, according to the direction of stratospheri-
cal winds, as illustrated in Figure 2, with reference to
two historic Vesuvian eruptions. On the contrary, mod-
erately explosive eruptions produce deposits of clast,
whose distribution is symmetrical around the crater,
because the launches are not sufficiently high to be
influenced by the wind. Generally, the thickness of
air fall deposits decreases with the distance from the
eruptive centre.
2.2 The action model
The air fall deposits action on the ground level can be
considered as a gravitational distributed load, which
can be estimated as it follows:
where g is the gravity acceleration (9.81 ms−2 ), h is
the deposit thickness (m), ρ is the deposit density
(kgm−3 ). The last one depends on the following fac-
tors: the composition of pyroclasts, their compactness,
the deposit moisture and the subsequent rains. Actu-
ally, the deposit density is weather dependent: in dry
conditions it ranges from 400 kgm−3 to 1600 kgm−3 ,
according to its compactness; in damp conditions it
ranges from 800 kgm−3 to 2000 kgm−3 (Spence et al.,
2005). As an example, during the explosive Plinian
79AD eruption of Vesuvius, Pompeii was buried by
280 cm of pumice, with density ranging from 600
to 1000 kgm−3 , which was followed by a deposit of
pyroclastic flows and surge (Sigurdsson et al., 1982).
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 1. Values of the shape coefficient µ, as a function of
the angle pitch α (M.D. 2008).
0◦ ≤ α ≤ 30◦ 30◦ < α < 60◦ α ≥ 60◦
µ 0.8 0.8 · (60 − α)/30 0.0
Table 2. Values of the exposition coefficient CE , as a
function of different topography classes (M.D. 2008).
Topography Description CE
Windy Flat areas exposed along all sides, 0.9
without constructions or higher trees
Normal Areas without important removal of 1.0
the snow on the roof
Sheltered Construction lower than the 1.1
surrounding reliefs, trees or other
constructions
The air fall deposits action on the roofs can be evi-
dently assimilated to the snow load, therefore it can be
modelled in a similar way. In particular with reference
to the Italian technical code (M.D. 2008) the air fall
deposits action on the roofs can be determined through
the following relationship:
where µ is the shape coefficient (Table 1), function of
the pitch angle (α) of the roof, qG is the air fall load
at the ground level and CE is the exposure coefficient,
which takes into account the effect of the topography
of the construction site, as indicated in Table 2.
With reference to 1631 sub-Plinian Vesuvian erup-
tion, it being considered in the current Evacuation Plan
by the Civil Protection, in Figure 3 the isopachs of
the air fall deposits, which give the distribution of
thickness of the deposits, are depicted.
Moreover, in Table 3 the air fall deposit loads on the
ground (qG ) and on the roof (qR ) are indicated. They
relate to a normal exposure (CE = 1) and a deposit
density ρ equal to 1400 kgm−3 . They vary with the
deposits thickness h and the pitch angle α. The positive
effect of high values of α is apparent: as an example,
for α equal to 45◦ , the deposit load qR is halved as
respect to the one on the planar roof.
In addition to the relationship (2), for completing
the model of the air fall deposits action, it is neces-
sary to consider the high temperatures (200–400◦ C) of
the clasts, which are able to produce important ther-
mal degradation of the mechanical properties of the
materials (Mazzolani et al., 2008 and 2009).
3 EVALUATION OF THE VESUVIAN ROOFS
ROBUSTNESS
3.1 The in situ surveys
With the purpose to examine the Vesuvian urban envi-
ronment, within the COST Action C26 project, two
 Table 4. Distribution of roof types in the Vesuvian
pilot areas.

Timber Steel Concrete Vault

% % % %

Historical centre 4 64 18 14
Residential area 0 20 75 5
Schools 0 2 98 0
Total number 11 184 80 41

Figure 3. Air fall deposits isopaches (cm) due to 1631

sub-Plinian Vesuvian eruption (www.ov.ingv.it).

Table 3. Air fall deposit loads on the ground (qG ) and

on the roof (qR ) due to 1631 Vesuvian eruption (CE = 1,
ρ = 1400 kgm−3 ).

qR

h qG α = 0◦ α = 20◦ α = 30◦ α = 45◦

cm kNm−2 kNm−2 kNm−2 kNm−2 kNm−2

10 1,4 1,1 1,1 1,1 0,6

20 2,8 2,2 2,2 2,2 1,1
30 4,2 3,4 3,4 3,4 1,7
50 7,0 5,6 5,6 5,6 2,8
100 14 11 11 11 5,6

h is the deposits thickness; α is the pitch angle.

missions, aiming at in situ surveys, were organized

involving members of the partner countries, with the
cooperation of the PLINIVS Centre (Hydrological,
Volcanic and Seismic Engineering Centre, Director
prof. G. Zuccaro).The pilot area was identified inTorre
del Greco, which is the most populous town in the
volcanic area (about 90,600 inhabitants). Three differ-
ent urbanized zones were investigated: 1) the historic
centre, with 281 buildings; 2) a residential decentral-
ized area, with 20 buildings, located 4 km far from the
Vesuvius crater; 3) 15 schools, located on the whole
city territory.
3.2 Types of roofs in the Vesuvian area
The most common constructive types are made of
masonry and reinforced concrete. Buildings were
designed to resist gravity loads only, they being erected
before 1980, when the Neapolitan area was included
for the first time into a low seismicity zone.
With the aim of evaluating the vulnerability of
constructions against the air fall deposits, the atten-
tion is focused on the roofs. Therefore, hereafter the
main structure roofs typologies are described. They
are predominantly horizontal and made of timber or
steel beams or concrete-clay mixed structure, besides
some vaults also exist. The related type distribution is
indicated in Table 4.
3.3 The applied methodology
The behavior of the main typologies of the Vesu-
vian roofs under effect of air fall deposits is
Figure 4. Main Vesuvian roof typologies: a) not ventilated
timber b) ventilated timber; c) steel; d) RC.
evaluated in two steps focusing on correlated
aspects.
The first one consists in the determination of the
ultimate vertical load which the structure is able to
sustain, in addition to permanent load. In particular, the
study is extended to roofs having different geometries
and design live loads (0,6 and 2,0 kNm−2 ). The second
one is the thermal analysis of the roofs, which aims
at evaluating the mechanical degradation due to high
temperatures.
Finally, results are combined to furnish the maxi-
mum collapse time for each typology corresponding
to different deposits thicknesses.
3.4 Case studies
The examined roof typologies are ventilated and not
ventilated timber, steel and reinforced concrete struc-
tures. Their features are represented in Figure 4.
The considered static scheme is a simple beam sup-
ported at both ends (Fig. 5), subjected to dead load g
and live load qR due to the air fall deposits.

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 Table 5. Ranges of ultimate residual loads q [kNm−2 ] for
each roof type (Fig. 5), pitch angle α and temperatures T
considered.

α = 0◦ α = 20◦ α = 30◦ α = 45◦

T = 20–100◦ C
Timber Circular 0.6–3.4 0.7–3.7 0.8–4.0 0.9–4.9
(vent.) Rectangular 0.7–5.2 0.8–5.6 0.9–6.0 1.1–7.4
Timber Circular 0.6–2.8 0.7–3.0 0.8–3.2 0.9–4.0
(not vent) Rectangular 0.6–7.6 0.7–8.1 0.8–8.8 0.9–10.8
Steel IPE 1.2–5.1 1.3–5.5 1.4–5.9 1.8–7.3
RC ‘39 0.8–2.6 0.8–2.7 0.9–3.0 1.1–3.6
‘72 0.9–2.2 0.9–2.3 1.0–2.5 1.2–3.1
‘96 0.9–2.4 1.1–2.6 1.1–2.8 1.3–3.4
‘08 1.1–3.1 1.1–3.3 1.2–3.6 1.5–4.4

T = 200◦ C
Steel IPE 0.8–4.4 0.9–4.7 0.9–5.1 1.2–6.3
RC ‘39 0.1–1.6 0.1–1.7 0.1–1.9 0.2–2.3
‘72 0.2–1.3 0.2–1.4 0.2–1.5 0.2–1.9
Figure 5. Static scheme and geometrical features of ‘96 0.3–1.6 0.3–1.7 0.4–1.8 0.5–2.2
the roofs. ‘08 0.4–2.5 0.4–2.5 0.5–2.8 0.6–3.3

T = 300◦ C
Steel IPE 0.4–3.8 0.4–4.0 0.5–4.3 0.6–5.3
RC ‘39 0.0–0.9 0.0–0.9 0.0–1.0 0.0–1.2
‘72 0.0–0.6 0.0–0.7 0.0–0.7 0.0–0.9
‘96 0.0–0.8 0.0–0.9 0.0–0.9 0.0–1.2
‘08 0.0–1.5 0.0–1.6 0.0–1.8 0.0–2.2

T = 400◦ C
Steel IPE 0.0–3.1 0.0–3.3 0.0–3.6 0.1–4.4
RC ‘39 0.0–0.1 0.0–0.1 0.0–0.1 0.0–0.2
‘72 0.0–0.0 0.0–0.0 0.0–0.0 0.0–0.0
Figure 6. Portions of roof considered in the thermal anal- ‘96 0.0–0.1 0.0–0.1 0.0–0.1 0.0–0.2
yses: a) not ventilated timber; b) ventilated timber; c) steel; ‘08 0.0–0.7 0.0–0.8 0.0–0.8 0.0–1.0
d) RC.
The mechanical thermal degradation of structural
materials (Eurocodes 2, 3 and 5, Parts 1.2) has been
considered at four temperatures, such as 20, 200, 300
and 400◦ C, they being assumed as uniformly dis-
tributed within the cross section. In all, the analyzed
cases are 880 for timber roofs, 1440 for steel roofs and
5440 for RC roofs.
Thermal analyses are carried out by ABAQUS v.
6.5 non linear calculation program. The FEM model
of a roof area, 1.6 m × 1.0 m extended, has been set up
(Fig. 6), assuming the beams 16 cm height for the tim-
ber and steel roofs, 12cm height for the RC one, with a
80 cm interaxis. The different layers (tile, slab, water-
proofing, etc.), which the thermal properties of the
constitutive material (density, conductivity and spe-
cific heat) have been assigned to, have been modelled
through 3D heat transfer elements.

3.5 The vertical load bearing capabilities of roofs

For each considered roof typologies, the ultimate resid-
ual live load q is determined, at varying pitch angles α
(0–45◦ ) and temperatures T (20–400◦ C). In particular,
with reference to timber temperature up to 100◦ C is
considered, at which the timber does not offer resis-
tance anymore. For the sake of brevity, in Table 5, only
the couples of minimum and maximum values of q are
indicated.
Figure 7. Ultimate residual loads q vs. the span L, for steel
roofs, i = 1,00m, at T = 20◦ C and varying pitch angle α (a);
at α = 0◦ and varying T (b).
As the same, the diagrams of q, for the section
geometries and spans L considered, are illustrated with
reference to the most frequent roof type, it being the
steel one (Fig. 7). They refer to ambient temperature

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Table 6. Critical times of roofing slabs.

Without insulator With insulator

min min
Tcr
◦
Roof type C A B A B

Timber 100 90 180 190 430

Ventilated timber 100 50 120 120 300
Steel 400 2000 6200
RC 400 2900 12950

(20◦ C) at varying pitch angle (Fig. 7a), and to a 0◦

pitch angle at varying temperature (Fig. 7b).
Results have shown that the ultimate residual load
q has an increment of about 30–40% as far as the pitch
angle α varies from 0 to 45◦ . Contrary, high tempera-
tures T produce a decrease of the collapse vertical load
due to the thermal degradation of the materials, which,
as an average, can be quantified as 30% at 200◦ C and
50% at 300◦ C. When the clasts temperature reaches
400◦ C, for most of the considered sections, any addi-
tional load cannot be resisted, the collapse occurring
already for the permanent load. Figure 8. Thermal trend in the roofing slab: a) timber;
b) ventilated timber; c) steel; d) RC.
3.6 Thermal capabilities of roofing slabs
Starting from a deposit temperature equal to 400◦ C (TB ) at TA equal to 100◦ C is 50◦ C. In addition, taking
on the roof extrados, the times up to reach the critical into account the effect of the layers (tile, slab, water-
temperature Tcr at the extrados and the intrados of the proofing, insulator, etc.) which constitute the roofs and
beam has been estimated for each investigated roof assuming a linear trend of the curves T-t up to the criti-
type. In particular for timber members Tcr is equal to cal temperature (100◦ C), the heat transmission speeds
100◦ C, while for steel and RC members Tcr is consid- in the φ16 timber beams are the following:
ered as the maximum temperature of a deposit, equal
to 400◦ C. – 1.77 mm/min for timber roofs without insulator;
Aiming at increasing the heat transfer time from – 0.67 mm/min for timber roofs with insulator;
extrados to intrados, a thermal insulator, consist- – 2.28 mm/min for ventilated timber roofs without
ing in 3 cm thick rock wool with a conductivity insulator;
coefficient of 0,04 Wm−1 K−1 , it being considerably – 0.88 mm/min for ventilated timber roofs with
smaller than those of timber (0,1204 Wm−1 K−1 ), steel insulator.
(53,3004 Wm−1 K−1 ) and concrete (1,9104 Wm−1 K−1 ),
has been also added.
The obtained critical times Tcr are reported in
Table 6, and the curves temperature-time (T-t) are illus- 4 PROPOSED VULNERABILITY CHARTS
trated in Figure 8. They show the temporal trend of
the temperatures for the timber (a), ventilated timber Vulnerability charts (Fig. 8) are proposed, where, at the
(b), steel (c) and RC (d) roofs with or without insula- 1631 Vesuvian eruption isopachs, they corresponding
tor, with reference two different monitored points: the to deposit thickness at certain distances from the crater,
extrados (A) and the intrados (B) of the beam. the resistant roof types (with reference to a medium
The results, further to highlight the beneficial effect span of 6m, a roof normal exposition CE = 1, a deposit
of the insulator layer, specially for RC roofs, show that, density of 1400 kgm−3 ) and the related collapse times
in case of steel (c) and RC (d), the curves of the A are represented, in the case either of a pitch angle α
and B points are almost superimposed. So, the times equal to 0◦ and no insulator layer (Fig. 8a), or pitch
relating to the attainment of the critical temperature angle α equal to 0◦ , 20◦ , 30◦ and 45◦ and the insulator
(Table 6) can be adopted and extended to beams of layer (Figs. 8b–e).
whatever height. On the contrary, in case of timber,
because of the thermal inertia of the material, in the
same instant, the temperature of the extrados and the 5 POSSIBLE MITIGATION MEASURES
intrados of the beam are different. For example, with
reference to the beams made of timber with a 16cm With reference to the Vesuvian area, roofs designed
long diameter (φ16), the temperature reached in B to resist ordinary vertical loads (0,6 and 2,00 kNm−2 )

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 9. Maximum collapse time produced by air fall
deposits relating to 1631 Vesuvian eruption for roofs without
insulator and α = 0◦ (a) and roofs with insulator and α equals
to 0◦ (b), 20◦ (c), 30◦ (d) and 45◦ (e).
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
collapse if they are subjected to the air fall deposits
due to a sub-Plinian eruption, as that one of 1631.
As it appears, the roofs behaviour under air fall
deposits is influenced by two main factors: the mate-
rials thermal degradation and the roof pitch angle.
The former one is due to the high clasts tempera-
tures (150–400◦ C) and it can be mitigated through the
use of a thermal insulator with a conductivity coeffi-
cient of 0.04 W/mK, able to triple the collapse time of
timber, steel and concrete roofs. Besides, with regards
to the pitch angle, when it increases, the load on the
roof due to the air fall deposits decreases and the ulti-
mate residual vertical load increases. So, in the areas
at risk of pyroclastic deposits, a minimum slope of the
roofs, such as 30◦ , should be required. In particular, for
the existing plane roofs, a pitch angle can be obtained
through the realization of over-structures in light mate-
rials provided with an adequate thermal insulation.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Authors acknowledge the European Project COST
Action C26 ‘Urban habitat constructions under cata-
strophic events’(2006–2010), which has promoted and
inspired the research activity.
They also would like to thank the Institutions
involved in the survey activity, which are Univer-
sity “Federico II” of Naples (Italy), PLINIVS Centre
of Naples (Italy), ENEA of Bologna (Italy), Second
University of Naples (Aversa, Italy), University of
Aveiro (Portugal) and University of Malta (Malta).
The contribution of Eng. Antonio Esposito, who has
developed the numerical analyses within his gradua-
tion thesis, is also gratefully acknowledged.
REFERENCES
INGV-OV. Vesuvian Observatory. www.ov.ingv.it.
Mazzolani, F.M., Faggiano, B. and De Gregorio, D. 2009.
The catastrophic scenario in explosive volcanic eruptions
in urban areas. PROHITECH 2009, Rome 21–24 June.
Mazzolani, F.M., Faggiano, B. and De Gregorio, D. 2008.
Actions in the catastrophic scenarios of a volcanic erup-
tion. COST Action C26 Symposium on Urban habitat con-
struction under catastrophic events, Malta, 23–25 October
2008. Datasheet n◦ 5.1: 449–467. ISBN 978-99909-44-
40-2.
MD 2008. Ministerial Decree 14 January 2008. New techni-
cal rules relating to the constructions (in Italina). Official
Journal n.29, 4 February 2008, Ordinary Supplement n.30.
Nelson, S.A. 2010. Introduction & texture & structures of
igneous rocks. Tulare University, USA. www.tulane.edu
Sigurdsson, H., Cashdollar, S. and Sparks S. R. J. 1982.
The Eruption of Vesuvius in A. D. 79: Reconstruction
from Historical and Volcanological Evidence. American
Journal of Archaeology. 86(1): 39–51.
Spence, R., Kelman, I., Baxter, P.J., Zuccaro, G. and Petraz-
zuoli S. 2005. Residential building and occupant vulner-
ability to tephra fall. Natural Hazard and Earth System
Sciences. 5: 477–494.
Tilling, R.I. and Lipman, P.W. 2007. Lessons in reducing
volcano risk. Nature 364: 277–280.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Review of the impacts of volcanic ash fall on urban environments

V. Sword-Daniels, T. Rossetto & J. Twigg

Department of Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering, University College London, UK

D. Johnston
Massey University, New Zealand Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, New Zealand

T. Wilson & J. Cole

Department of Geology, University of Canterbury, New Zealand

S. Loughlin & S. Sargeant

BGS British Geological Survey, UK

ABSTRACT: A review has been undertaken to assess the extent of current knowledge on the impact of volcanic
ash on urban environments. A systems engineering framework is applied to the topic in order to assess strengths
and gaps in the state-of-the-art. It is found that existing studies are limited but do provide some insight into
the impacts of volcanic ash on: health, structures, water and contamination, electrical distribution networks and
computers, agriculture and emergency management. This paper presents these findings and identifies knowl-
edge gaps in the assessment of ash fall impact on whole urban areas, which compromise assessment of urban
vulnerability to this hazard. The literature is complemented by a recent field study, undertaken by the author on
Montserrat. Observations are made both on physical and social elements of vulnerability, and on soft system
functionality in the context of an eruption that has spanned over two decades.

1 INTRODUCTION from volcanic ash fall. The collective understanding

has been brought together and summarised. This work
1.1 Background is intended to inform future studies on ash fall impacts
research, and to provide an insight into some of the
Many countries have potentially active volcanoes and
collective knowledge in this field for the purpose
volcanic centres. Population growth has caused the
of understanding and reducing vulnerability to this
progressive encroachment of urban development into
hazard.
higher risk areas, closer to volcanic centres, increasing
Research over the last decade has shown complex
the human exposure to volcanic hazards.
vulnerability and interdependencies between impacts,
Ash is dense, abrasive and chemically corrosive.
both physical and social, and across sectors. There has
Volcanic ash is a frequent volcanic hazard which can
been research in this, and other fields to understand
have wide reaching affects on populations due to its
and model complex interdependency; a recent study by
distribution in the atmosphere. Most impacts are dis-
Buxton et al. (2010) has proposed the use of Bayesian
ruptive rather than destructive; however it is the hazard
Belief Networks to this end, although numerous alter-
which most frequently affects the most people. The
native methods have been employed to model system
size of the eruption and the wind speed and direc-
complexity. Vulnerability has similarly been assessed
tion affect the extent of the distribution. As a result,
using numerous techniques including the derivation
populations are vulnerable to the impacts caused by
of vulnerability curves for buildings (Spence et al.,
volcanic ash.
2005), and the use of a vulnerability index to evalu-
Several recent eruptions have illustrated the vul-
ate vulnerability holistically for farm water supplies
nerability of urban areas which receive only a few
(Wilson et al., 2009a), although this could be applied
millimeters or centimeters of volcanic ash (Johnston
in other ash fall impact sectors.
et al., 2000 & 2004; Leonard et al., 2005; Stewart et al.,
2006 & 2009; and Wilson et al., 2008 &2009a and b).
2 METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK
This has been sufficient to cause disruption of trans-
portation, electricity, water, sewage and storm water
2.1 Systems engineering
systems.
This review aims to identify the main sectors where Many methodologies have been applied to conceptu-
studies have been undertaken concerning the impacts alise complexity and critical interdependency in a bid

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 Figure 1. Approach to problem intervention – using the Seven Samurai of Systems Thinking (After Martin, 2006).
to tackle whole-system issues. In this review a Systems
Engineering framework has been employed to address
the topic of volcanic ash fall impacts, and to under-
stand the collective knowledge in this field and assess
strengths and gaps in the state-of-the-art.
Using a systems engineering framework, a holis-
tic approach to problem-solving can be achieved. In
order to understand the problem, we must first under-
stand the context, how the context will be changed
once the topic is addressed, and the interfaces between
each of the sub systems, and the system and its envi-
ronment (Martin, 2006). Rather than focusing on one
impact area, the consequences of actions and inter-
ventions are considered, the necessary sustainment
systems and collaborators and the possible develop-
ment of new problems that will need to be solved. This
understanding allows early identification of problem
areas and pre-planning of how to mitigate or avoid
them. These tools are incorporated into the methodol-
ogy model, following the Seven Samurai of Systems
Thinking, developed by Martin (2006), a modification
of which is shown in Figure 1. This conceptualisation
ties a practical element to research; an understanding
that research and knowledge alone cannot improve or
reduce the impacts felt in a community. But that the
stakeholders must be addressed and involved, and key
collaborators identified. A sustainable maintenance
system must put in place for continuity. Cost benefit
analysis is implicit in this model as whole-life costing
is introduced for the lifetime of the project.
The dynamic interactions between the affected
systems are considered using systems thinking.
2.2 Ash impact model
Figure 2 conceptualises a possible impact model,
and how the impacts might be managed and their
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consequences understood. There is an inter-relation
between the environment and infrastructure; as the
environment changes, it impacts and changes the func-
tionality of the infrastructure within it. If infrastructure
and services become affected then the consequences
are manifest on the population that are dependent on
these systems. All of these impacts can be broken-
down into social and physical impacts, however the
two are not mutually exclusive, and a physical impact
may have multiple physical and social consequences.
Understanding physical and social disruptions
allows the mapping of complex interactions between
them and allows a greater understanding of whole-
system issues. In this conceptual model resilience is
one potential outcome, if the impacts can be managed
effectively through mitigation and adaptation mea-
sures. However the model theorises that if stress on
the system, caused by ash fall impacts, is not relieved
then the background stress on the system is increased.
This background stress steps up a level, but with time
this becomes the perceived normal level of stress that
systems and people adjust to. From this new level of
stress on the system, further impacts may worsen or
cause decline in physical and social coping capacities.
This is the process of ‘normalisation’ which may
mask the underlying increasing stress in the system.
3 REVIEW OF THE IMPACTS OF
VOLCANIC ASH
3.1 Past impact studies
In accordance with the holistic approach to impact
studies, this review encompasses the main sectors
where studies have been undertaken concerning the
impacts from volcanic ash fall and hence their
vulnerability. The work has been brought together and
Figure 2. shows a conceptual Ash Impact Model.
summarised with the intention to inform future studies
on ash fall impacts research, and to provide an insight
into some of the collective knowledge in this field.
Although the review of studies is not exhaustive, the
purpose is to review the main sectors that have been
investigated and to use a whole-systems perspective to
unearth the gaps in our knowledge and understanding
of ash fall impacts and vulnerability.
The engineering and volcanological literature has
been searched for references to volcanic ash and its
effects, impacts and management. Studies are multi-
ple, and vary in quality and depth. The most infor-
mative studies have been summarised in brief, in the
following sector-by-sector impacts.
It can be seen that despite multiple impact-related
studies, only a handful of sectors have thus-far been
considered. Sectors are broad and include many sub-
topics within them; however there are many potential
areas of research that remain little-explored.
The following sectors have been studied for ash
fall impacts and the main findings are summarised
below from the following papers: Blong, 1981 & 2003;
Casadevall, 1996; Horwell & Baxter, 2006; Cowie
et al., 2003; Newnham et al., 2010; Shriever & Hansen,
1964; Spence et al., 1996; Frameworks Architects
et al., 1996; Spence et al., 2005; Cook et al., 1981;
Inbar et al., 1995; Wilson et al., 2008; Wilson et al.,
2009a and b; Stewart et al., 2006; Stewart et al., 2009;
Johnston et al., 1997a; Johnston et al., 1997b; Gordon
et al., 2005.
3.2 Health
The health effects of volcanic ash depend on the grain
size, mineralogical composition and chemical coatings
on the surface of the ash particles. The reporting of
asthma-type symptoms following eruptions is vari-
able and may depend on the ash characteristics and
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duration of exposure, as well as the social context
and willingness to report such personal information. It
is thought that pre-existing asthma or bronchitis suf-
fers are at greater risk of suffering from respiratory
impairment than those without a history of respiratory
problems, however the health impacts of volcanic ash
are inconclusive.
3.3 Structures
Wet tephra is known to have a greater load than dry
tephra, and various observations from historical vol-
canic eruptions in the 20th Century have shown vari-
able critical thicknesses of tephra under which roofs
have collapsed; observations vary from 75–300 mm
thickness. Building styles, materials and general con-
dition are important factors in the live load bearing
capacity. Increasing the cross-sectional area of trusses
and reducing the truss span, increases the threshold
value that can be withstood by a building. The observa-
tions of roof pitch have ambiguous results. Accelerated
corrosion of metal roofing is known to occur following
ash fall events.
3.4 Agriculture & Environment
Ash reduces water infiltration in the ground and
increases surface albedo. When ash falls on leaves
it reduces photosynthesis and can cause collapse and
crushing of plants and crop. Ingesting ash may be
harmful to livestock; causing abrasion of the teeth and
in cases of high fluorine content, fluorine poisoning.
Acid rain, a result of ash and rain, is capable of burning
crops and leaves. Tilling ash into the soil where pos-
sible, is thought to be an effective mitigation of ash
impacts. A correlation between ash fall thickness and
the level of damage caused from the Hudson eruption
has been reported.
 3.5 Water & Contamination
Numerous studies have been undertaken on the com-
position of volcanic ash leachates and many soluble
components have been detected. aluminium, iron,
manganese, fluorine and sulphate are amongst them.
Ash also causes a lowering of the pH level. These con-
taminants are not thought to pose health risks, but
rather cause impacts on potable water supplies, and
associated issues of corrosion, scale deposition and
staining may affect distribution networks.
Ash fall is known to increase the turbidity of water,
which at heightened levels can prevent disinfection
treatments from working effectively. Studies have also
focused on recording the turbidity of water supplies
following eruptions; which increases with the amount
of ash entrained into water systems.
Ash also clogs water networks; blocking irrigation
systems and clogging the intakes at water process-
ing plants. This build-up of ash in water infrastructure
systems can cause extensive corrosion, abrasion and
damage or failure.
Ash clean-up commonly involves the hosing down
of surfaces, and can therefore cause strain on water
supplies.
3.6 Electrical distribution networks & computers
Ash in combination with rain is known to cause power
outages on electrical distribution systems. This is a
result of electrical flashover which occurs due to the
conductive properties of ash.
Ash falling on overhead power lines can also cause
breakages due to the weight of the ash.
Computers have been tested for failure under ash
fall conditions. Abrasion was evident and failures
occurred, more prevalently if the conditions were also
humid.
3.7 Aircraft
Ash is abrasive and causes abrasion damage to sev-
eral parts of the aircraft, it also blocks intakes and
re-melts and accumulates in engines that are running
at temperatures of hundreds of degrees Celsius. This
can cause a loss engine power and can require entire
engine replacement following an encounter with an ash
cloud. Some mitigation and prevention measures have
been developed including: avoidance of flying near ash
clouds and development of ash warning systems to avi-
ation industries, setting engines to low power during
an encounter with ash, and covering grounded planes
with protective sheeting across windows and openings.
Costs of damage, rerouting, delays, cancellations
and clean-up are extensive.
3.8 Land transportation infrastructure
Ash is known to reduce traction on roads and reduce
visibility, making driving on roads more dangerous
and disrupting traffic networks. This also restricts
access for emergency services which is of critical
concern during a crisis. However few studies have
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focused on the impact of volcanic ash on land transport
infrastructure.
3.9 Emergency management
Some effective techniques for the management of ash
have been developed in preparedness and planning for
ash fall events, public education and training, cleaning
methods and apparatus and also preventative measures
to ensure damage limitation.
3.10 Cost impact assessment
The costs of ash fall disruption have been estimated
where possible in a few studies. The cost implications
depend on the industry affected, distribution of the
ash and the duration of the event. However ash fall
is known to cause extensive losses in business inter-
ruption, exemplified in the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull
in Iceland in April 2010, with reported airline losses
of €1.5–2.5 billion (The Daily Telegraph, 27th April
2010). Following the Ruapehu eruption in 1994/95 the
Rangipo hydroelectric power station was damaged by
ash carried in the river and cost an estimated $12 mil-
lion NZD in loss of power generation and $6 million
NZD in replacing damaged blades (Johnston et al.,
2000). Cook et al. (1981) estimated crop losses from
Mount St Helens ash fall at $100 million in 1980.
Ash is also known to have caused damage to aircraft
engines; mechanical parts; agricultural industries from
crop or livestock losses; losses in the tourism industry;
costs of emergency response and clean-up, and many
more. Many losses are unquantifiable.
4 DISCUSSION
It has been shown that research has been undertaken
across several topics, to better understand the impacts
of volcanic ash fall. Each sector has been discussed
to draw out the collective knowledge and understand-
ing of vulnerability within each area. Impacts in any
sector have cost implications associated with: repair,
maintenance, disruption to businesses and ash clean-
up. These costs can soar into the billions of Euros as
seen from recent airline disruptions in Europe as a
result of airborne ash from Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland.
Several sectors have been studied to explore their vul-
nerability to ash fall impacts but there is variability in
the number of studies and in their depth. It can be seen
that there is scope and need for further understanding
of vulnerability to volcanic ash across many different
sectors.
Using a systems engineering framework a holistic
approach to volcanic ash fall impacts can be conceptu-
alised.This allows for all of the interdependent impacts
to be identified and understood and placed into the
background context of the problem. An understand-
ing of how each component or impacts area interfaces
and is connected with others, is critical for addressing
the whole problem. An example of interdependency is
highlighted from recent fieldwork on Montserrat and
looking at the consequence of power failure. By nature
the impact of power failure not only affects electricity
supply and electrical appliances in the home, but also
critical infrastructure system functionality, communi-
cations networks, and air conditioning units. Knock-on
effects that have been found to manifest in Montserrat
following power outages, include power surges when
the power is restored, and subsequent failure of elec-
trical appliances. Several costs are associated with this
disruption and include: the cost of replacing appli-
ances, cost of business interruption and cost of any
repair work on the electrical system, plus the cost of
regular maintenance. Fieldwork in Montserrat indi-
cates that the loss of one such physical system, can
also have social impacts, and may lead to discomfort,
anxiety and contribute to depression. Exacerbations
of these problems could lead to physical relocations
of people to less affected areas, and the consequent
disruption of community networks.
Without understanding the whole problem, the com-
plex array of interfaces within any system, soft or hard,
cannot be addressed. Meheux et al. (2007) identified
that there has been a failure to understand the com-
plexity of interactions between impacts as a result of a
limited number of in-depth studies and their isolation
in different fields of research.
Ash fall impacts studies lend themselves to inter-
disciplinary and collaboration. Affected systems may
be outside of the researcher’s expertise, but must be
understood sufficiently well to identify interfaces and
knock-on effects with collaborating systems. Collabo-
ration with systems experts, facility managers and the
local community is essential to understand the needs
and constraints that surround the problem. Financial,
physical or emotional constraints may lend inoperabi-
lity to any intervention system and need to be identi-
fied prior to development.
By applying a systems thinking perspective to the
problems of ash fall impacts a gap analysis has been
undertaken. Using systems engineering as the frame-
work upon which we can add detail by researching a
particular area of importance, new areas of research
have been identified. Supplemented by research find-
ings from Montserrat, several areas have been identi-
fied that require further research. With time and further
investigations, the field will move towards identifying
new impacts and innovative ways of solving them to
reduce vulnerability.
Some of the gaps that have been found in the
current published research include: transportation
infrastructure and access; corrosion; critical facilities;
communications networks; early warning networks;
social networks; long term impact studies.
Meheux et al. (2007) identified that research in nat-
ural hazard impacts should look to incorporate social
and environmental impacts on development, to bet-
ter understand how natural hazards affect sustainable
development. In this way disaster mitigation can be
in-built into development planning to support sustain-
ability objectives. More studies in natural hazards and
sustainable developments are required.
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5 CONCLUSIONS
To move forward in ash fall impact studies we need
to understand the limitations of our knowledge and
identify where the gaps lie; not only in topics for
research but in holistic thinking and interdependency.
A physical problem has both physical and social con-
sequences. In order to address this initial problem the
interfaces must be understood to begin to research the
areas of importance. Perceived physically important
services may not be of importance to the community,
and minor assistance and adaptation may provide criti-
cal relief to those living with the impacts of ash fall. For
example on Montserrat, the functionality of air condi-
tioning not only allows for comfort in tropical climates,
but prevents critical (and expensive) computer systems
from overheating, helps to mitigate ash ingress into
buildings, allows schools to continue to function with
windows and doors closed to the ash, and preserves
longevity of computer systems, healthcare equipment
and reduces interior corrosion. A less ashy environ-
ment reduces emotional stress, costs of cleaning and
mitigates against some of the causes of depression.
The complexity and breadth of these impacts is clear,
but is so far poorly understood.
Any one impact has a variety of consequences, both
physical and social, and drives a need for interdisci-
plinary and whole-systems thinking. Ash fall impact
studies push us outside of our areas of expertise
and encourage new learning and collaborations. One
important aspect of volcanic ash fall impact studies
is to understand the vulnerability of critical compo-
nents. Once understood, a build-better strategy can be
employed. This can be for development of new systems
or as a gradual replacement of old for new components.
Another aspect of impact studies is resilience. How
can we help to compliment existing coping strategies
and move towards developing more resilient societies?
What makes a resilient society when faced with vol-
canic ash fall hazards? Mitigations and adaptations
to the impacts of volcanic ash fall may be critical in
developing community resilience. It is important to
find effective tools and ways of maintaining system
functionality, or operability across different sectors,
in order to relieve physical and emotional stress, and
reduce cost impacts.
In order to develop resilience, adaptations need to
be sustainable and low cost. Researchers must work
with communities and managers to identify key prob-
lem areas and methods of adapting practices in order to
reduce impacts, or ideally to provide protection. Col-
laboration and mutual learning provide a sustainable
resource base which is left behind after the event. Sus-
tainable ways of working provide an ongoing legacy
with a successful intervention system.
A review of the published literature in volcanic ash
fall impacts has been undertaken, and although not
exhaustive, it highlights areas of collective knowledge.
A holistic view of the impacts of volcanic ash has been
carried out and a gap-analysis undertaken to iden-
tify potential areas of new research. Vulnerability to
 volcanic ash fall has been manifest across numerous
sectors; with a variety of impacts and consequences.
It has been shown that it is important to address the
entire lifecycle and changed context of any intended
intervention system or mitigation measure. It is con-
cluded that it is necessary to have an understanding
of complex interfaces between systems when address-
ing impact studies, and to work in collaboration with
areas outside of traditional comfort zones in order to
address the whole problem. Systems engineering has
some useful tools for approaching this work holis-
tically and exploring the issue surrounding critical
interdependency.
The authors current research is addressing some
of these research gaps; addressing volcanic impacts
on critical facilities, both physical and social, in a
holistic manner using a systems engineering approach;
to explore vulnerability assessment and find physical
mitigations and adaptations for critical infrastructure
systems. Results will be applicable for immediate
actions to be taken in ash fall areas during emergencies,
and also for a long-term impact management focus.
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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Structural design of urban habitat construction against catastrophic

wind actions

T. Stathopoulos & Ioannis Zisis

Centre for Building Studies, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

C.C. Baniotopoulos
Department of Civil Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

ABSTRACT: A significant amount of casualties and losses have been associated with recent and past strong
wind events on urban habitat construction. Post-disaster damage assessments reveal the severity and in several
cases fatal consequences of such phenomena. The discipline of wind engineering has invested a substantial
amount of time and effort towards a better understanding of such extreme events, as well as towards the improve-
ment of the available resources in order to increase confidence on the design process of low- and mid-rise
structures against strong winds.
The paper will describe a cooperative research project, the main scope of which is to study wind load paths.
Specifically, a low-rise wood building was built and equipped with weather, pressure and load monitoring
instrumentation and a state-of-the-art data acquisition system. In addition, detailed wind tunnel tests on a scaled
model of the building were carried out to study the wind effects. The validation of the simulation tools using the
field collected data is one of the main objectives of this study.

1 INTRODUCTION urged wind engineers to better understand the transfer

Modern cities have been growing rapidly over the past
decades as a result of global urbanization. The concept
of efficient design in urban habitat construction fol-
lowed this modernization era rather slowly. It has been
drastically redefined over the last years adapting not
only to the habitats demand but to global environmen-
tal change as well. Unfortunately, it was particularly
the increased number of disastrous natural phenomena
occurred in the recent past that guided the interest, or
to a certain extent the demand, of both community and
scientists to a more sustainable yet safe construction.
Some of the most fatal and costly events were the result
of extreme wind incidents. Hurricanes, typhoons and
tornadoes were reported and tracked around the globe.
The social and economic impact associated to these
natural disasters initiated a drastic response from a
number of political and academic institutions.
Wind-structure interaction is a special field of engi-
neering which has as a scope to study the wind effects
on buildings. Several studies were conducted speci-
fically to evaluate the effect of wind action on urban
habitat construction, such as residential buildings and
other shared public spaces. In most of these studies
the interest was heavily shifted towards the estimation
of wind-induced pressure applied on the building’s
envelope, ignoring or insufficiently commenting on
the actual flow of these forces through the structural
system. The concept of sustainable design along with
the increased concern on wind-related catastrophes,
mechanism of wind-induced loads and try to evaluate,
and if possible define, the so-called wind load paths.
2 CATASTROPHIC WIND ACTION
Urban habitat constructions (e.g. low-, medium- and
high-rise buildings) are prone to excessive damage
during extreme wind events. Rapid climatic changes
are sometimes accountable for some of these destruc-
tive natural phenomena. It is also important to point
out that extreme wind events affect in much more
severe way low-rise structures than high-rise build-
ings. The latter suffer mainly from local damages e.g.
façade and non-structural elements failure (Fig. 1)
whereas lower buildings have in many cases collapsed
or torned apart (Fig. 2), even during moderate intensity
cyclone events. The aftermath of recent catastrophic
wind events revealed the excessive amount of damage
which translates in billions of dollars, e.g. hurricane
Katrina will cost over 200 billion dollars to the US
nation (source: Associated Press, September 2005).
Research conducted towards the understanding of
the response of urban habitat construction during
strong wind events is valuable and aims to the safety
of the occupants and the reduction of casualties due
to such events. Before discussing the experimental
approach followed to study the response of a low-rise
structure subjected to strong winds, it is important to
present some of the fundamental background related

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 1. Façade failure after a hurricane event (AAWE).
Figure 2. Damaged low-rise building in France after a
tornado event (source The Independent).
to extreme wind events and their codification process
in current wind standards.
2.1 Wind nature and climatology
Engineers are particularly interested for wind charac-
teristics within the atmospheric boundary layer, which
is actually extended up to a few kilometers over the
surface of earth. Current wind building codes and stan-
dards (e.g. ASCE/SEI 2005) have adopted the so called
power law or log law to describe the wind velocity
profile within the boundary layer which for structural
engineering applications is assumed to be extended
only up to a few hundred meters above the ground.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Primary circulations are fundamental air mass flows
due to changes of radiation, rotation of the earth and
complex water/land distribution. Secondary circula-
tions are atmospheric flows due to thermal variation
over the lower atmosphere. This category includes the
tropical cyclones, which are also known as hurricanes
and typhoons in different places of the earth. The clas-
sification of the various types of tropical cyclones is
based on maximum sustained winds. The lower inten-
sity tropical depressions and tropical storms occur
for wind speeds up to 17 m/s (39 mph) and 33 m/s
(74 mph) respectively. For maximum sustained winds
over 33 m/s the tropical cyclone is considered to be a
hurricane (or typhoon, severe tropical cyclone). Local
winds, which have negligible effect on primary and
secondary circulations, are of smaller scale but in some
cases, may be equally destructive. Tornados are the
most catastrophic among local winds with Chinooks
(North America) and thunderstorms to occur on a more
frequent basis. Tornado’s tangential wind speeds can
exceed in extreme cases 108 m/s (250 mph).
2.2 Structural damage and building codes
Building codes assist designers to make buildings
resist high wind effects. In some cases, excessive dam-
age is noticed during hurricane events, even if the
recorded wind speeds were lower than the maximum
recommended by the code design value (Kareem,
1984). Local, national and international building
codes have been revised several times over the last
few decades but the losses and damages due to wind
are still considerably high (ABI 2003, Munchener
Ruck 2006). These facts indicate the necessity of
advanced research in the area of extreme wind action
and building interaction.
The nature of extreme wind phenomena is very
complex and researchers must focus on the under-
standing of such events. If the design wind speed
is not exceeded, could it be that the pressure coef-
ficients or perhaps the exposure factors have been
miscalculated? Alternatively, could it be that design
parameters are appropriate but the buildings have been
constructed poorly in terms of materials, connections
and workmanship? Notwithstanding the relevance of
these questions, the structural response of structures
subjected to extreme wind loads must be evaluated
through model and full-scale studies in order to be able
to consider safe and economical design parameters.
Of particular interest is the case of low-rise build-
ings, since the effect of extreme wind effects is much
more pronounced and severe compared to high-rise
buildings.
3 ENGINEERING DESIGN OF LIGHT-FRAME
WOOD STRUCTURES
A collaborative effort among Canadian Universities
was initiated in 2002 and had as main scope to assess
the application of environmental loads and their actual
Figure 3. Test house and meteorological tower location.

transferring through the buildings’ elements to their

foundation. Several experimental approaches were
implemented in this study with most important the
structural monitoring of a light-frame wood struc- Figure 4. Foundation and roof load cell location.
ture subjected to high wind loads. The field facilities
include three anemometers mounted in two masts and
a single-storey test-house constructed according to the
needs of the particular research project (Fig. 3). The
external dimensions of the house are 8.6 m by 17.2 m
and the roof height is 5.6 m. The experimental building
is equipped with forty wall and roof pressure taps (Fig.
4). In addition, twenty-seven foundation and six roof
load cells were placed at key points inside the struc-
tural system (Fig. 5). The unique characteristic of the
building is the fact that it is completely isolated from
the foundation and the only points of contact with the
ground are the 3-D foundation load cells.
In parallel with the structural monitoring of this
building, wind tunnel tests were conducted in the
Building Aerodynamics Laboratory at Concordia Uni-
versity and a finite element model of the test building
was also developed. The wind tunnel model was tested
for thirty-six angles of attack (Fig. 6) and for three dif-
ferent upstream exposures i.e. open, light suburban and
heavy suburban terrains. The power law exponents for
these simulated exposures were 0.16, 0.22, and 0.28
respectively. Having obtained both full-scale and wind
tunnel results, the computer-based analysis provided
the opportunity to compare and assess the data of each
individual approach. Details regarding the wind tun-
nel and finite element models are presented by Zisis
(2007) and Zisis & Stathopoulos (2009).
The full-scale facilities in conjunction with the
model scale testing generated a vast amount of data. In
the subsequent sections some representative compara-
tive results are presented. These results are grouped
under two separate categories i.e. results related to
wind-induced pressures on the envelope and results Figure 5. Wall and roof pressure tap location.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 6. Wind angles of attack tested in the wind tunnel
experiments.
Figure 7. Pressure coefficient comparison between full-
related to wind-induced forces at the foundation of the scale and respective wind tunnel results (May 14th, 2009).
house.

3.1 Wind-induced pressures

The pressure data obtained through simulation in the
wind tunnel were verified by the full-scale acquired
measurements. The results are presented in the form
of dimensionless pressure coefficients using the fol-
lowing two equations:

where ρ is the air density (kg/m3 ), V5.5 m is the mean

wind speed at 5.5 meters (m/s), pa is the ambient
atmospheric pressure (Pa), pmean is the mean surface
pressure (Pa) and ppeak is the peak surface pressure
(Pa).
It should be noted that for the full-scale calculations
the mean values where based on a 10-minute aver-
age and the instantaneous peak on a 3-second average
(full-scale time scale). Moreover field data were inte-
grated over a wind angle of attack of 10-degree range to
account for the higher standard deviation values and
to be directly compared to wind tunnel tests carried
out using intervals of 10 degrees. All three values, i.e.
mean, minimum and maximum, were considered for
both wall and roof pressure taps. The comparison was
made for all three wind tunnel exposures (i.e. open,
light suburban and heavy suburban) with the urban ter-
rain showing the best agreement and therefore selected
and discussed in this paper.
Figures 7 and 8 show results from two representa-
tive records. The first was recorded during May 14th,
Figure 8. Pressure coefficient comparison between full-
scale and respective wind tunnel results (June 1st, 2009).
2009, had duration of 10 minutes, with mean wind
speed equal to 8.36 m/s and mean wind direction equal
to 204◦ . The second record was acquired during June
1st, 2009, had also duration of 10 minutes, with mean
wind speed of 7.06 m/s and mean wind direction of
285◦ . The pressure coefficients are presented as scat-
ter plots and for both cases they compare very well to
each other. The correlation coefficients are 0.93 and
0.88 respectively which indicates the accurate sim-
ulation process followed in the wind tunnel testing.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
A minor deviation occurs, specifically for some max-
imum pressure coefficient values that correspond to
the wall pressure taps. This verification process is of
great importance because it will allow the use of the
wind tunnel data for further analysis and, along with
the finite element model, for estimation of the wind-
induced forces indirectly, using only the simulation
approach.

3.2 Wind-induced forces

The most important aspect of this project was the avail-
ability of load data induced by real wind events. These
data were considered to evaluate the distribution of the
applied wind load on the four walls and consequently
to the four foundation wall segments. All acquired
force data were transformed into dimensionless instan-
taneous uplift force coefficients using the following
equation:

Figure 9. Notation of wall segments with respect to the

orientation of the test house.

where ρ is the air density (kg/m3 ), V5.5 m is the mean

wind speed at 5.5 meters (m/s), Fi is the foundation
load cell force reading (N) and A is the building area
(m2 ).
In a similar manner to the calculation of the pres-
sure coefficients, the wind speed was averaged over
a period of 10 minutes and the instantaneous forces
were the averages of 3 seconds duration. The load cells
considered for this analysis were grouped in four sets
based on their location, namely North-East wall (five
load cells located underneath the NE wall), South-East
wall (nine load cells located underneath the SE wall),
South-West wall (four load cells located underneath
the SW wall) and North-West wall (nine load cells
located underneath the NW wall). This selection was
made in order to help us identify the load sharing for
each of the four foundation wall segments. The nota-
tion used along with the orientation of the test house
is shown in Figure 9.
The participation of each wall, as expected, was
varying with respect to the wind angle of attack
Figure 10. Uplift force coefficients for end walls and
therefore the results were grouped in four basic sets,
sidewalls for particular wind direction range.
i.e. north-easterly winds (13.5◦ –66.5◦ ), south-easterly
winds (66.5◦ –193.5◦ ), south-westerly winds (193.5◦ –
246.5◦ ) and finally north-westerly winds (246.5◦ –
13.5◦ ). The records considered in this analysis were becomes 0.23, for the South-West range is 0.24 and
collected during Fall 2008 and Spring 2009. The com- finally for the North-West range it takes its minimum
parisons are performed among the load transferred value of 0.14.The results from two representative cases
towards the end walls (i.e. North-East and South-West) are presented in Figures 10 (north-easterly winds) and
and that transferred towards the sidewalls (South-West 11 (south-easterly winds). All these field observa-
and North-East). tions are undoubtedly closely related to the specific
All four principals directions considered show high response and load transfer mechanisms of the structure
correlations and reveal the dominant contribution of when subjected to wind-induced loads. This structural
the sidewalls as the house resists the wind-induced behavior is of great importance to identify the critical
load. More specifically, for winds approaching from components of the structural system and design them
North-East, the ratio between the load carried by the accordingly. Moreover, these results can be considered
sidewalls to that carried by the end walls is in aver- for direct comparisons to the simulated experimental
age equal to 0.21, for the South-East range the ratio approaches (wind tunnel and finite element modeling).

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Figure 11. Uplift force coefficients for end walls and
sidewalls for particular wind direction range.
4 CONCLUSIONS
One of the major requirements for safe urban habitat
construction is the proper design against strong wind
events. The process of defining the wind-induced pres-
sure applied to such structures is thoroughly described
in most of the recent wind standards and building codes
of practice. Despite the several studies conducted in
this field from wind engineers the concept of wind
load paths has not been considered in detail.
The project “Engineering design of light-frame
wood structure” was initiated particularly for this
reason i.e. to evaluate how environmental loads are
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
transferred through the structural system down to
the foundation level. The up to date findings from
the field monitoring verify the wind tunnel simula-
tion approach. Moreover the field data related to the
load distribution of the wind-induced load to the four
foundation walls reveal the major contribution of the
sidewalls on transferring the load to the foundation
level.
REFERENCES
AAWE. American Association for Wind Engineering.
www.aawe.org.
ABI 2003. The Vulnerability of UK Property to Windstorm
damage, London, UK: Association of British Insurers.
ASCE/SEI 7-05 2005. Minimum Design Loads for Build-
ing and Other Structures, New York, NY, USA: American
Society of Civil Engineers.
Associated Press. <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/
9281409/>, Retrieved April 2010.
Kareem A. 1984. Wind Speed – Damage Correlation in Hur-
ricane Alicia, Hurricane Alicia: One Year Later, Specialty
Conference, ASCE – EMD: 81–93. Galveston, Texas.
Munchener Ruck 2006. Knowledge Series, Hurricanes-More
intensive, more frequent, more expensive: Insurance in a
time of changing risks, 302-04891, Germany: Munich Re
Group.
The Independent, Tornado kills three in northern France,
4 August 2008, <http://www.independent.co.uk/news/
world / europe / tornado - kills - three - in -northern-france-
884670.html>, (date retrieved: 2 May 2010)
Zisis, I. 2007. Structural monitoring and wind tunnel studies
of a low wooden building. MASc Thesis, Montreal, QC,
Canada: Concordia University.
Zisis, I. and Stathopoulos, T. 2009. Wind-induced cladding
and structural loads on a low wooden building, Journal of
Structural Engineering ASCE 135 (4): 437–447.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Minimizing the risks associated with fire and floods in illegal and unplanned
settlements in a developing country

B.W.J. van Rensburg

Department of Civil Engineering, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

ABSTRACT: Massive migration of people to urban centres in a developing country poses significant chal-
lenges. Shelters are erected illegally in an unplanned fashion in unsuitable areas, amongst others, close to river
banks. As the affected people are resettled new migrants move in. The main threats to human lives are due to
floods and fires. Strategies have been devised for risk reduction, early warning systems and disaster response.
The solution to the problem should, however, also be set up as to be sustainable at grass roots level.

1 INTRODUCTION dwellings from illegally settled public land. The local

The author has in the past done research on estimating
the increase in the temperatures in the steel members
of a structure subjected to a fire, and the resulting
geometrical nonlinear elastic-plastic response of the
structure. Significant amounts of research has been
published on this and related problems.
However, the issue addressed in this paper is the
safety of people living illegally in structures in areas
exposed to high risks of flooding and fire. The solu-
tions to this problem do not involve state-of-the-art
structural engineering knowledge but a combination
of climatic and hydrological science with politics,
sociology and psychology.
This paper is an acknowledgement of the ground-
breaking work done by the author’s colleague in the
same department, professor emeritus W J R Alexander.
2 ILLEGAL URBAN SETTLEMENT
Over the last number of decades there has been a con-
tinuous migration of people from the rural areas to
the industrialized urban areas in South Africa. This
has placed pressure on the authorities to provide suit-
able housing, not only for the natural growth in the
population, but also for the migrants. This problem
has been compounded by illegal immigrants entering
South Africa due to the long and porous border of the
country.
The numbers of these illegal immigrants from states
to the north of South Africa are not known but the
number is estimated to be in the order of 6 million
people (Solomon, 2000); with a South African popu-
lation of just over 40 million. It is estimated that one
in five of the inhabitants of townships surrounding
Johannesburg was an illegal alien.
One approach to prevent people from being exposed
to this risk is by forcibly removing people and their
authorities in South Africa do not choose to exercise
this option. The approach is to develop new housing
sites and to provide either basic housing or support for
housing for citizens qualifying for this.
The problems associated with illegal settlements are
addressed by the local authorities. Johannesburg, for
example, recognized that informal settlements are a
serious problem and that relocation of people appears
to be unavoidable (GJMC, 2000). Another example is
the planning of the City of Cape Town (Mukheibir &
Ziervogel, 2006).
The efforts by the local authorities to relocate ille-
gally settled people are laudable. However a dilemma
remains: people move in to fill the voids and people
higher up on the waiting list for government supported
housing are frustrated by being overlooked.
People in illegal settlements and housing not built
to acceptable standards face several risks. In the South
African situation the two most important risks that can
lead to loss of life are associated with floods and fires.
In fact, many lives have been lost in South Africa due
to flooding and fires.
For the foreseeable future the problem of people liv-
ing under hazardous conditions seems to be insoluble.
It appears that the only solution is to accept that peo-
ple will living in perilous conditions and deal with the
situation.
3 FLOODING
The larger part of South Africa is semi-arid with the
result that many “rivers” in the urban areas are for the
larger part of the year small streams. This could create
the perception that living close to the river banks does
not pose a risk. The central regions of the country are
at certain times of the summer season prone to the ran-
dom rapid build-up of thunderstorms and the resulting
flash floods. A small rivulet could in a short period of

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Photograph 1. Aerial view of settlement within flood lines
(GJMC, 2000).
Photograph 2. Jukskei river before rain storm (Alexander,
1999).
time be turned into a torrent of water sweeping away
shelters. If this situation was to occur during the night
this could lead to loss of life.
Many settlement areas are subjected this risk.
One example of the above scenario will be outlined.
Migrants have settled along the banks of the Jukskei
River near the township of Alexandra in the northern
region of the greater Johannesburg metropolis. When
towns are planned housing sites are not allowed below
the one in hundred year flood line. Thus open areas are
created along rivers.
Photograph 1 illustrates the settlements within the
flood lines. Photograph 2 shows the river in its nor-
mal state. Photograph 3 indicates a rapid rising river
and Photograph 4 shows how shelters are being swept
away. Fortunately this specific flood occurred during
daylight. Clearly, if such a flood was to occur in the
night, lives could be lost.
The Jukskei river channel through Alexandra is nar-
row and steep. The water velocities are high and will
cause severe damage. The huts are densely packed
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Photograph 3. Jukskei river during rain storm (Alexander,
1999).
Photograph 4. Jukskei river: Shacks being washed away
(Alexander, 1999).
which will make it difficult for occupants to escape
to safety once the water level has risen above the floor
level of the huts. This is because huts along the escape
routes will start collapsing and the debris will block
the narrow passages between the buildings. There will
inevitably be a large loss of life in Alexandra if the
river overtops its banks.
Alexander (1993a, b) recommended a number rain-
fall measuring stations in the catchment area. The
rainfall measurements were to be forwarded to a com-
puting centre. Based on hydraulic considerations the
level of the river was to be predicted. A colour coding
system was devised to indicate the degree of danger.
This information was then to be fed to the affected
communities and warning system, including sirens,
were to be activated.
4 FIRE
Another significant risk to human life is that of fire
in these informal settlements. Because of poverty and
because the shelters could be seen as temporary, any
freely available material is used for building, such as
timber and plastics. Because open public space close
to possible work opportunities is at a premium the

Photograph 5. Cape Flats shacks (Mukheibir & Ziervogel,
2006).
Photograph 6. Cape Flats fire (Mukheibir & Ziervogel,
2006).
building density of the shacks are high. Furthermore,
people make open flame fires for cooking and heating.
What is making settlements on the Cape Flats (Cape
Town) even more perilous as far as fire is concerned
is that in that area strong winds could start without
obvious warning. This combination of factors has lead
to several serious fires in the past, leading to loss of
life. Therefore, early warning systems and escape and
fire fighting access routes for fires should be devised
and maintained.
Photograph 5 illustrates the arrangement of the
shacks on the Cape Flats (during a normal rainy sea-
son). Photograph 6 shows the fire fighting services
in action during a rapid spreading blaze through the
settlement.
5 DEVELOPING STRATEGIES
The authorities recognize that early warning strategies
need to be developed. Alexander (1999) produced a
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
“Coping study on risk and society”. The study was
commissioned by the Secretariat for the International
Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction of the United
Nations.
At national level Botha (2004) indicated that after
the June 1994 floods on the Cape Flats (Cape Town),
Cabinet decided to assess South Africa’s ability to
deal with risk reduction and disaster management.
This resulted in the review of disaster management
structures and approaches in government.
The National Disaster Management Centre under
the Department of Provincial and Local Government
has been developing an electronic database that con-
tains extensive information on disasters that may
occur, including information on early warning sys-
tems. The Disaster Management Act, provided for the
establishment of national, provincial and municipal
disaster management centres.
At local level Johannesburg (GJMC, 2000) recog-
nized that informal settlements below the flood line
are a serious problem: “Many of those shacks (±3000
families) constructed along the banks of the Jukskei
River are in danger in times of flood …” Johannesburg
are developing strategies to address the problem.
Cape Town commissioned various studies.
Mukheibir & Ziervogel (2006) stated that one of the
reasons for the high frequency of fires is the high
housing density found in informal settlements. For
example, on 15 and 16 January 2005 large fires in
Langa and Joe Slovo settlements left 12 000 people
homeless. A strategy was recommended for disaster
response and risk reduction measures.
6 COMPREHENSIVE EARLY WARNING AND
RESPONSE SYSTEMS
Assuming that people will be living in areas exposed
to risk, comprehensive early warning and response
strategies would need to be devised to prevent loss of
life. Government strategies, commitment and financial
support need to be in place.As indicated in the previous
paragraph, initiatives have been taken to implement
strategies.
Early warning systems need to be developed and the
technology put in place for the measuring and detec-
tion of input parameters. The information technology
to collect and process the data (based on reliable
meteorological and hydraulic models), make predic-
tions and to distribute warnings, say to sirens in the
affected communities, has been outlined in research
papers. Certain local authorities have been involved in
implementing these proposals.
These first levels of the systems involve the authori-
ties and state-of the-art technologies. To some extent
these parts of the overall systems could be imple-
mented more readily. The real challenge lies in getting
the affected communities to respond to the warnings
and take the necessary actions.
The various communities need to educated and
mobilized. The role of Non-governmental Organiza-
tions (NGO’s) is cardinal to ensure success. (In South
Africa NGO’s have demonstrated their effectiveness in
rallying people around social and health issues.) Con-
tinuous education and motivation are required.Tertiary
educational institutions, as part of their outreach pro-
grammes, could get involved in the communities in
their areas.
The effective sustained implementation of the sys-
tems at grass roots level requires a pragmatic approach.
The communities living in informal housing normally
settle according to cultural orientation and areas of
origin. It is important to recognize the social struc-
ture and identify the leaders that have standing in the
communities.
The leadership structure might initially be moti-
vated to cooperate to keep access and escape routes
open, to respond to warnings, and to organize the evac-
uation of people. The initial enthusiasm might wane
if no emergency occurred for a certain period of time.
The leaders should be motivated to maintain the action
plans. Incentives for them, such as being appointed
“marshals” with an associated honorarium appears to
be necessary. In that case the leaders could be held
accountable.
A continuous revitalization of the strategy and
implementation plans is necessary. Although the
overall strategy could be in place it is important to
continuously revisit and evaluate the functioning of
the warning, evacuation and support actions. Amongst
others, NGO’s and academic institutions should
remain involved with the communities concerned.
7 CONCLUSION
The challenge is to create a system that combines
the physical and human sciences and information
technology as well as one that involves government,
non-governmental organizations and the affected
communities in sustainable operational mechanisms.
Global knowledge and experience are valuable at the
higher levels of the strategy, but the grass roots execu-
tion of the action plans requires pragmatic approaches.
Unique solutions for each community need to evolve
and maintained.
AKNOWLEDGEMENT
This paper would not have possible without the com-
munications with, and the papers and photos of the
author’s colleague in the same department, professor
528
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
emeritus W J R Alexander. He has been publishing in
the field of civil engineering, and specifically on cli-
mate change, hydrology, floods, water resources and
natural disasters for over fifty years.
REFERENCES
Alexander, W.J.R. 1993a. Flood risks in informal settle-
ments in Soweto and Alexandra. A preliminary report.
Department of Civil Engineering. University of Pretoria,
February.
Alexander, W.J.R. 1993b. Flood warning systems. S A Water
Bulletin. March/April 1993.
Alexander, W.J.R. 1994a. Flood risk reduction measures for
informal settlements in urban areas. Report. Department
of Civil Engineering. University of Pretoria, November.
Alexander, W.J.R. 1994b. Disaster mitigation proposals for
South Africa. World conference on natural disaster reduc-
tion, Yokohama, Japan, 23–27 May 1994.
Alexander, W.J.R. 1999. Coping study on risk and society.
Commissioned by the Secretariat for the International
Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction for the IDNDR
Programme Forum 1999: “Partnerships for a safer world
in the 21 st century”. United Nations.
Botha, N.G.W. 2004. Integrated Measures for Drought Relief
and Food Security. Speech Delivered in The National
Council Of Provinces. Department of Provincial and Local
Government. South Africa.
Bouchard, B., Goncalo, A., Susienka, M. & Wilson, K. 2007.
Improving flood risk management in informal settlements
of Cape Town. A project report submitted to the faculty of
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Project Spotlight Alexandra Township. In Report on the
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Mukheibir, P. & Ziervogel, G. 2006. Framework for adap-
tation to climate change in the City of Cape Town.
University of CapeTown. Submitted to City of CapeTown:
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Solomon, H. 2000. Contemplating the impact of illegal immi-
gration on the Republic of South Africa. Unit for African
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Studies, University of Pretoria.
 Evaluation of vulnerability of constructions
Vulnerability of existing buildings under fire

© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Computational Fluid Dynamic analysis of water mist system performance

for fire safety of a nineteenth century cast-iron structured building

J. De la Quintana, J. Aurtenetxe, F. Morente & R. Ugartetxe

Labein Tecnalia-saix, Bilbao, Spain

ABSTRACT: A performance based analysis was the key to solve a serious compromise for an historic building
caused by the strict requirements of the fire regulations. The cast iron structure behaviour was analised in detail
considering the effect of a fire suppression system as an alternative to passive protection that may have caused
the beautiful structure to disappear under it.

1 GENERAL CASE DESCRIPTION

An iconic historic building nestled in the very heart

of Madrid, in the Cibeles square, was seriously com-
promised by the strict requirements of fire safety
regulations.
The building, a 250,000 m2 and seven floors high,
is being renewed to house the Spanish capital town
hall. A nineteenth century cast-iron riveted structure,
sometimes massive, sometimes in delicate trusses, was
in the way to disappear under a thick sturdy layer of
intumescing protection. The requirement was gener-
ally ninety minutes resistance to ISO fire, being one
hundred and twenty minutes in some zones of the
building located under the ground line.
Labein-Tecnalia was asked to do a complete
“research meets practice” work identifying, defining
and validating an alternative integrated solution based
on a water based fire suppression system.
The necessary water supply and the material losses
in case of fire conditioned the preliminary designs,
so a water mist system was selected to increase the
effectiveness of the water as a suppression agent
with the small droplet sizes and very high working
pressures, that characterized this sort of technology,
thus obtaining the pursued benefit of a water supply
reduction.
Figure 1. CFD simulations of the large-scale fire tests.
Complex numerical models were built to reproduce
the real thermal interactions measured in the tests, and
were extrapolated in the real geometry of the studied
building.
Firstly, a risk analysis of the whole building was
made, in which four fire design scenarios were identi-
fied as the most extremely dangerous because of their
high impact on the structural stability and people’s
safety.
The scope of the project consisted of the analysis of
the structural stability of three fire scenarios situated
on ground level, and the advanced egress analysis of
a fourth scenario, located in an underground zone, in
which an added difficulty arises because smoke evac-
uation was highly limited. The height of these rooms
were 5, 9 meters and 3, 9 meters, respectively.

3 COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS

2 METHODOLOGY
The integration of water mist effects in the thermody-
namics of a fire was a non-sufficiently explored issue,
so an innovative research project was on the way com-
bining experimental tests and numerical simulations.
Therefore, the project required a basic stage, based
on real large-scale tests, where fire load was modelled
and the interactions between fire and extinguishing
system was properly characterized. Temperature pro-
files were accurately adjusted to test measurements.
To avoid any kind of intumescing protection in the cast
iron structure, the water mist system was designed to
extinguish the fire, being critically important the way
the system was activated. The building was divided
into several detection zones, with independent circuits
for the water mist system.
The optical smoke detection sensitivity was fixed
into two different levels (3%/m and 10%/m of extinc-
tion coefficient), configuring a pre-alarm and alarm
stage based protocol in case of fire.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 2. CFD model of the second scenario.
Figure 3. Results of smoke detection.
This protocol was included in the Computational
Fluid Dynamics (CFD) numerical model, to take into
account the real behaviour of the safety measures
installed in the building in view of a fire emergency.
By means of the fluid dynamic analysis, lots of
results related to fire situation were got, such as: tem-
perature maps, radiative and convective boundaries,
visibility maps, heat fluxes, smoke transport or con-
centrations of dangerous substances. Some of these
magnitudes have been used in structural analysis and
others in advanced egress analysis.
In that way, the most important results of CFD
numerical model for the second fire scenario were the
following ones, corresponding to a fire initiated on an
office desk.
As the graphic below shows, the smoke was detected
rapidly so pre-alarm was activated, and after the second
alarm plus one minute delay, the water mist system
started off. So the extinguishing system action will
begin 99 seconds after the fire had begun.
The aspect of the smoke layer, before and after
the water mist system activation, is represented in the
next figure. This image shows a vertical section of
the building, and it could be noticed how the falling
water droplets cooled the smoke making it go down,
destroying stratification, just only in the zone where
the system had been activated, maintaining smoke
stratified in other areas.
532
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 4. Smoke transport, after and before of the water
mist activation.
Figure 5. Visibility, calculated for fourth fire scenario.
The maximum temperature around the structure was
also calculated, this maximum peak happens an instant
before the extinguishing system starts. In this scenario,
total heat flux was calculated to the forthcoming
structural analysis in order to take into account the
convective and radiative heat transfer, the estimated
value was 2, 74 KW/m2 .
4 ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
Regarding to people’s safety, concentrations of sub-
stances from the combustion and the visibility level
had been calculated for the fourth scenario, where low
ceiling of the enclosure and limited ventilation made
environment hazardous for tenability conditions.
5 STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS
After having known the thermal effects of the fire, the
next stage of the project was to know the damage suf-
fered by different structural elements, such as beams,
truss structures and columns. In the structural analysis,
all cross-sections of columns and beams of the struc-
ture were characterized making different assumptions
to take into account the particularities of these old cast-
iron elements, and through a finite element method,
 Figure 8. Advanced egress analysis of the most critical
scenario.
Figure 6. CO2 , calculated for fourth fire scenario.

Figure 7. Mechanical behaviour of truss structure with heat

flux interaction. Figure 9. Final aspect of the structure without any additional
protection.
the evolution of the temperature inside the structural
elements was calculated. Then, resistance calculation
has been made, including the previous temperature
evolution and the material properties’ losses.
With structural study of isolated elements and sub-
structures, the critical temperatures and failure modes
of elements had been calculated, in case of an ISO fire.
Moreover, the displacements produced by temperature
and mechanical loads had been also calculated. As an
example, in the next figure the mechanical behaviour
of truss structure is shown.
The same procedure had been repeated in all fire Figure 10. A general view of the case study building.
scenarios, deciding in which structural elements pas-
sive protection must be added.
Another important aspect was the width of the emer-
gency exits and hallways, which produced holdups
6 EVACUATION ANALYSIS in some occasions while occupants’ capacities were
reduced, because of fire conditions. Nevertheless,
On the other hand, the project was completed with these situations did not put anyone at risk. Only in
the study of advanced egress analysis for the most this way, it could be possible to notice how the people
critical fire scenario. As it is said before, the results evacuate the building through emergency exits even if
obtained in the fluid dynamic analysis were incorpo- any queue was produced.
rated in it. Moreover, population was estimated inside
the office distinguishing general public from work-
ers, who know the geometry and exits available in the 7 CONCLUSION
building. In the same way, physiological and psycho-
logical features were defined for each person, taking As a conclusion, we can say that the safety level
into account the age and the genus. Among these char- achieved by the proposed water mist system in case
acteristics, the following ones deserve an emphasis: of fire validated and verified for the people safety and
height, weight, breadth capacity, orientation, extreme structural stability, fulfilling the objectives settled by
behaviour, impatience… In this analysis, specific fea- the regulation through a performance based approach.
tures and protocols of emergency plan were included, Thus, the majority of cast-iron structure does not
such as visual signals and emergency paths. require any additional protection, demonstrating that

533
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 heritage can survive to fire scenarios without jeopar- European Commission, Development of design rules for steel
dizing its beauty and splendour. structures subjected to natural fire in closed car parks,
Report 18867, 1999.
Jesus de la Quintana George W. Mullholland, Smoke production and properties,
Head of Fire Safety Engineering The SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering, June
Labein-Tecnalia 1995.
jq@labein.es Maria E.M. Garlock, Spencer E. Quiel, Combined Axial
load and Moment capacity of fire-exposed beam-columns
with thermal gradients, Structure In Fire 2006, Aveiro,
REFERENCES Portugal, 2006.
Norma española UNE 23585, Sistemas de control de temper-
B. Yao, W.K. Chow, A review of water mist fire suppression atura y evacuación de humos, December 2004.
systems, J. Applied Fire Science, 2000–2001, Vol 10-277– P.L. Hinkley, Smoke and heat venting, The SFPE Handbook
294. of Fire Protection Engineering, June 1995.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Reflectometric interrogation technique for structural damage assessment

using FBG-based fiber optic strain sensors

Yu.N. Kulchin, O.B. Vitrik & A.V. Dyshlyuk

Institute for Automation and Control Processes FEB RAS, Vladivostol, Russia

A.M. Shalagin, S.A. Babin & A.A. Vlasov

Institute for Automation and Electrometry SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia

ABSTRACT: The paper presents a reflectometric technique for interrogation of multiple fiber Bragg grat-
ing (FBG) strain/temperature sensors based on conventional optical time domain reflectometery (OTDR). The
method proposed rests on the differential measurement of FBGs’ response to a short probing laser pulse.
Implementation of differential measurement principle using several reference FBGs allowed us to eliminate
the susceptibility of the system to intensity fluctuations as well as to increase the measurement range as com-
pared to the previous developments. The experimental threshold sensitivity amounted to ∼50 µ strain with the
measurement range being defined by the number of reference FBGs and limited only by optical fiber tensile
strength. Due to its simplicity, efficiency and usage of conventional OTDR equipment the proposed FBG in-
terrogation technique can find a wide range of applications dealing with strain and temperature measurements
for structural damage assesment.

1 INTRODUCTION range of measuring FBG resonant wavelength which

Nowadays fiber optic sensors represent a major trend
in the development of metrology. This results from
their fundamental advantages over conventional mea-
suring devices such as complete immunity to electro-
magnetic interference, sensitivity to a wide variety of
physical quantities, environmental ruggedness, long
lifetime, easy coupling with high-speed and noise-
immune fiber-optic communication links, possibility
of multiplexing and integration of large numbers of
sensors in distributed information-measurement net-
works (Lee 2005). As indicated by a vast number of
publications one the most popular types of fiber optic
sensors is a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor, which
proved to be particularly effective in structural health
monitoring applications (Rao 1999, Kersey 1997, Ou
2004). However, a significant problem in the practical
application of FBG sensors deals with the complexity
and expensiveness of interrogation systems detecting
their wavelength-encoded signals. A major simplifi-
cation of the interrogation scheme can be achieved
by utilizing conventional optical time domain reflec-
tometery (OTDR) (Kulchin et al., 2007, Kulchin et al.,
2008, Kulchin et al., 2009). Moreover combining
OTDR-based interrogation with wavelength division
of measuring channels and differential measurement
principle it is possible to interrogate hundreds of FBGs
inscribed in a single fiber optic line as well as ensure
immunity of the measuring system to light power fluc-
tuations (Kulchin et al., 2009). However the limitation
of the previous developments consists in the narrow
is restricted to about double FWHM of FBG reflection
spectrum (Kulchin et al., 2009). In the present paper we
propose an OTDR-based differential FBG interroga-
tion technique enabling measurement of FBG sensors
resonant wavelength in the wide spectral range with
corresponding strain measurement range being limited
only by tensile strength of the optical fiber.
2 METHOD
A schematic illustrating the method is presented in
Figure 1. Probe pulses generated by a conventional
OTDR 1 (Fig. 1, a) pass through fiber optic circu-
lator 2 into the fiber line with low-reflectivity FBG
sensors (FBG-1, FBG-2, … FBG-N). When a probe
pulse reaches the first of the FBG sensors, an opti-
cal signal is reflected within its reflection spectrum
R1(λ, λ) (fig.1b), which then passes trough circu-
lator 2 onto the reference Bragg gratings (FBG-01,
FBG-02, FBG-03). The reference FBGs have shifted
reflection spectra R01 (λ), R02 (λ), R03 (λ) as shown in
fig.1c. Each reference FBG reflect a portion of the inci-
dent pulse back to the OTDR, and because of the spatial
interval between them and corresponding time delays
the reflected pulses are registered by the reflectome-
ter as separate reflection peaks (fig. 1d). The intensity
the pulses depends on the overlap of the FBG sen-
sor reflection spectrum and that of the corresponding
reference FBG which in its turn is a function of the
resonant wavelength of the sensor and therefore its

535
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 1. Differential registration of FBG signals based on
optical time-domain reflectometery: 1 – OTDR, 2 – fiber
optic circulator, FBG-1, FBG-2, … FBG-N – FBG sensors,
FBG-01, FBG-02, FBG-03 – reference FBGs. In the insets:
a – schematic representation of interrogation pulse spectrum;
b – reflection of the interrogation pulse from the FBG sensor;
c – reflection of the probe pulse from the reference FBGs;
d – schematic representation of the OTDR trace.
strain/temperature. After a time delay the next FBG
sensor produces reflected pulses in the very same man-
ner with their number being determined by the number
of the reference FBGs, and so on and so forth (fig. 1d).
Thus by measuring with OTDR the intensity of the
reflection peaks associated with the given FBG sen-
sor it becomes possible to determine its strain and/or
temperature.
To compute the dependences of the registered sig-
nals on the shift of FBG sensor resonant wavelength
induced by strain/temperature variations we used the
following expression (Kulchin et al., 2007, Kulchin
et al., 2008):
where i – number of the reflected pulse correspond-
ing to the given FBG sensor, λ = 2neff mod (α1 ε +
α2 T ) – FBG resonance wavelength shift as a func-
tion of temperature variation (T ) and strain (ε),
α1 , α2 – coefficients defined by the properties of the
optical fiber material, neff – optical fiber effective
refractive index, mod – refractive index modulation
depth in the FBG; PRi – intensity of the i-th registered
reflected pulse corresponding to the given FBG sen-
sor, R(λ, λ) – spectrum of the pulse reflected from
the given FBG sensor, R0i (λ) – reflection spectrum of
the i-th reference FBG.
It is convenient to use as registered signals ratios
of the measured intensities PRi as they are invariant to
the initial intensity of the probe pulse. The results of
computing direct and inverse ratios PR1 (λ)/PR2 (λ)
and PR2 (λ)/PR3 (λ) (for the case of three reference
FBGs) are presented in fig. 2.
As seen from the above figure being expressed
in logarithmic units PR1 (λ)/PR2 (λ) and PR2 (λ)/
536
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 2. Calculation results.
PR3 (λ) are linear functions of λ which makes them
perfect in terms of measuring strain / temperature
of the interrogated FBG sensors. Another important
observation one can make is that the range of mea-
suring λ is limited by the number of the reference
FBGs which we can use as many as necessary. Thus in
contrast to the previous developments (Kulchin et al.,
2008, Kulchin et al., 2009) the approach presented
here can be used to measure resonant wavelengths of
multitudes of FBG sensors in as broad spectral range as
one likes. Furthermore because of differential registra-
tion of the intensity modulated signals the measuring
system will be immune to light power fluctuations
resulted from e.g. laser source instability, bend loss
in the lead optical fiber, etc.
As it was mentioned in (Kulchin et al., 2007 &
Kulchin et al., 2008) the following requirements must
be satisfied in order to realize OTDR-based FBG
interrogation schemes:
– So as to cancel out oscillations of the registered sig-
nals resulted from the multimode spectral structure
of the probe pulse the FWHM of FBG reflec-
tion spectrum should exceed the gap between two
adjacent longitudinal modes in the probe pulse
spectrum.
– So as to avoid saturation of the highly sensitive pho-
toreceiver of the OTDR the reflectance at the res-
onance wavelength of the FBGs being interrogated
should be within 2–3%.
In order to assess the maximum number of FBG sen-
sors that can be interrogated by the proposed technique
we must take into account that additional spectral divi-
sion of measuring channels can be used. In this case
FBG sensors are inscribed in the fiber line in groups
with the same initial resonant wavelength inside the
group and different for different groups. So as to
interrogate each of the groups the wavelengths of the
reference FBGs can be synchronously tuned to the val-
ues corresponding to the resonant wavelength of the
given group. Another advantage in terms of the maxi-
mum number of FBG sensors is their low reflectivity.

Figure 3. The dependence of the registered signal on the
relative elongation of the FBG sensor.
E.g. a series of 50 2% reflectivity FBG sensors at the
same wavelength will not reduce the power of the probe
pulse in the given spectral range below 30% which is
still sufficient for interrogating all of them well above
the noise level. Summing up the above we can esti-
mate the maximum number of the FBG sensors that
can be multiplexed by the proposed technique at sev-
eral hundreds and more which by far surpasses the
requirements of most practical applications.
3 EXPERIMENT
For the purpose of experimental investigation of the
proposed technique we used a setup presented in fig. 1.
Measurements of PRi (λ)/PRj (λ) were per-
formed by conventional ANDO AQ7250 OTDR. We
used 3% reflectivity FBG sensors and 30% reflectiv-
ity reference FBG. In the course of the experiment
FBG sensors were subjected to calibrated deformation
with 0,1·10−3 steps. We measured the ratio of the cor-
responding reflection peaks intensities in the OTDR
trace. The experimental results are presented in fig. 3.
As seen from the figure the dependence is linear which
proves the above conclusions. The threshold sensitiv-
ity of the FBG sensors to strain amounted to ∼50 µ
strain.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
4 CONCLUSIONS
Thus a differential reflectometric method for the inter-
rogation and multiplexing of FBG sensors in the wide
spectral range is developed and studied. The threshold
sensitivity of the method in the strain measurement
mode is 50 µstrain, and the maximum number of
interrogated Bragg gratings is estimated at several
hundreds. Due to the implementation of differential
measurement principle the interrogation system is
immune to the light power fluctuations resulted from
the pulsed laser source instability, bend loss in the
lead optical fiber, etc. Thanks to its inherent simplic-
ity and utilization of conventional OTDR equipment
the technique proposed can find wide application for
the monitoring of deformation and thermal processes
using FBG-based control and measurement systems.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The work was supported by Russian Foundation for
Basic Research, Federal Agency for Science and Inno-
vation, as well as by the Far-Eastern and Siberian
Branches of Russian Academy of Sciences.
REFERENCES
Kersey, Alan D., et al. 1997. Fiber Grating Sensors. Journal
of Lightwave Technology. vol. 15. No. 8. pp. 1442–1463.
Kulchin, Yu.N., et al. 2007. Application of Optical Time-
Domain Reflectometry for the Interrogation of Fiber
Bragg Sensors. Laser Physics. vol. 17. No. 11. pp.
1335–1339.
Kulchin, Yu. N., et al. 2008. Combined Time–Wavelength
Interrogation of Fiber-Bragg Gratings Based on an Optical
Time-Domain Reflectometry. Laser Physics. vol. 18. No.
11. pp. 1301–1304.
Kulchin, Yu. N., et al. 2009. Differential interrogation of
FBG sensors using conventional optical time domain
reflectometry. Proc. of ISMTII-2009. v.3. pp. 93–97.
Lee, B. 2003. Review of the present status of optical fiber
sensors. Optical Fiber Technology. 9. pp. 57–79.
Ou, Jinping. 2004. Some recent advances of intelligent health
monitoring systems for civil infrastructures in HIT. Proc.
SPIE. vol. 5851. p. 147.
Rao, Y.J. 1999. Recent progress in applications of in-fibre
Bragg grating sensors. Optics and Lasers in Engineering.
v. 31. pp. 297–324.
 Performance based evaluation and
seismic risk analysis

© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Development and validation of a procedure of seismic performance

evaluation of structures

A.G. Ayala & M. Mendoza

Instituto de Ingeniería, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico, D.F., Mexico

R. Apostolska
Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology, IZIIS, University “Ss. Cyril and Methodius”,
Skopje, Republic of Macedonia

ABSTRACT: This paper presents the result of an investigation on an approximate method for the construction
of the capacity curve of a structure. It presents a comparison of results obtained from force pushover, evolutive
modal spectral and incremental dynamic analysis; using as a reference the last one; with the aim of showing their
potentials and limitations. For the evaluation of the proposed and other methods the seismic capacity curves of
two reinforced concrete frames 8 and 17 storeys tall are investigated. Finally the conclusions derived from this
investigation are given.

1 INTRODUCTION defining the CC do not correlate in displacements

The occurrence of destructive seismic events through-
out the world has brought to light the deficiencies of
the current force based seismic design methods as the
target performances assumed in their applications are
not always those shown by the structures when they
are subjected to earthquakes as those considered in
the design demands.
Motivated by this fact several approximate simpli-
fied procedures for the seismic evaluation of existing
structures have been developed. These include the
capacity spectrum method; the displacement coef-
ficient method; the N 2method, and several others
referred in documents such as FEMA 440 (FEMA,
2005). The main structural characteristic used by these
procedures is the capacity curve, CC, of the struc-
ture, which represents its overall performance to a
seismic demand of increasing intensity. To build the
“exact” CC of a structure, the only option is the incre-
mental dynamic analysis, IDA, which is a procedure
with strong analytical basis, but with the limitation
of assessing the performance of a structure when sub-
jected to only one or several earthquakes of known time
history and not to a seismic demand given by a design
spectrum. Less complex options to the IDA are the
simplified methods proposed by Alba (2005), Antoniu
and Pinho (2004) and Aydinogliu (2003), which pro-
duced CCs within reasonable limits when compared
with the corresponding CCs of the IDA.
This paper shows that while the approximate shape
of the CCS curves obtained from any the above meth-
ods represent, for a particular record, a good approxi-
mation to the shape of the IDA curves, all of them have
the problem that the intensities associated to each point
with the corresponding IDA curve, the differences
between them, are due to the fact that these methods
ignore the energy dissipation that occurs due to the
hysteretic behaviour of the structural elements under
load reversals. To eliminate this limitation this paper
proposes an approximate procedure that produces a
point to point correspondence between curves with
an acceptable degree of approximation. This modi-
fication places this method as a seismic evaluation
method which gives acceptable approximations to the
results of the IDA method with the advantage that
the approximate method is simple and computation-
ally efficient with the additional advantage over the
IDA of accepting as seismic demands not only the
records of particular events but also in a more practical
approach smooth spectra such as the uniform hazard
spectra prescribed by the codes.
2 SIMPLIFIED METHODS OF SEISMIC
EVALUATION
2.1 Capacity spectrum method
The capacity spectrum method, originally proposed by
Freeman (1978), is detailed in documents such as the
FEMA-440 (FEMA, 2005). In a graphical represen-
tation, this method confronts the seismic capacity of
the structure to the seismic demand. The seismic capa-
city of the structure is described by the CC, obtained
from a pushover analysis whereas the seismic demand
is represented by a reduced spectrum for an equiva-
lent damping ratio. This method defines the maximum
inelastic displacement as the performance displace-
ment and corresponds to the point of intersection

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 1. Capacity spectrum method.
of the CC and the reduced spectrum (Fig. 1). The
steps involved in the application of the method are
as follows:
i. Obtain the CC of the structure by means of a
pushover analysis with a predefined distribution
of lateral loads.
ii. Convert the CC and the demand spectrum to the
ADRS format, i.e, pseudo spectral acceleration,
Sa , versus spectral displacement, Sd , of a single
degree of freedom, SDOF, system. An approximate
way to transform the CC to this format is by using
the following equations:
where V is the base shear, W is the total weight,
α1 is the effective mass of the fundamental mode,
roof is the roof displacement, FP1 is the partici-
pation factor of the fundamental mode and φroof ,1
is the roof displacement of the fundamental mode.
iii. Calculate a bilinear approximation of the CC nec-
essary to estimate the equivalent viscous damping,
βeq . The FEMA-440 (FEMA, 2005) suggests, for
this sake, to use as a first approximation for the
performance point in the original CC any accept-
able location; maintaining the initial stiffness of
the structure i.e, the slope of the initial branch,
and defining the rest of the bilinear approxima-
tion using a rule of equal deformation energy. The
performance point proposed may be that obtained
from the equal displacement rule with its ad hoc.
short period correction or any other approximation
deemed appropriate.
iv. Obtain the demand spectrum reduced to perfor-
mance conditions through an approximation of
the βeq .
v. Obtain the performance point that in a representa-
tion in ADRS format corresponds to the crossing
of the reduced spectrum and the behaviour curve
derived from the CC. When the difference of Sd
corresponding to the performance point and the
542
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 2. The coefficient method.
value proposed in step iii is less than 5%, the cal-
culated value may be considered as final. If this
difference is larger, a new iteration needs to be
carried out starting from the bilinear approxima-
tion of the CC considering the new estimation of
the performance point.
vi. Once the performance Sd is reached, the maxi-
mum roof displacement of the structure is obtained
by transforming this displacement in the ADRS
format to the V- format using the approximate
equations of step ii.
2.2 The displacement coefficient method
This method uses a simplified procedure to find the
performance point of a structure by means of the calcu-
lation of a target displacement, a CC and the definition
of indexes associated to each performance level gener-
ally given by displacement thresholds. The considered
performance levels are Immediate Operation, IO, Life
Safety, LS, and Collapse Prevention CP. (Fig. 2).
The steps involved in its application are:
i. Define in your model a control node usually the
centre of mass of the top level of the structure,
which would be used in the CC and for which the
maximum displacement demand is obtained.
ii. Carry out a pushover analysis of the structure,
which may be force or displacement based, using a
minimum of two different load patterns, congruent
with those that would be produced by earthquake
action.
iii. Carry out a bilinear approximation of the CC of
the structure following the procedure proposed in
the FEMA-440 (FEMA, 2005) (Fig. 2).
iv. Obtain the equivalent period, Te , using eq. 3, where
Ti is the initial (elastic) fundamental period, Ki
is the initial stiffness of the structure and Ke is
the effective stiffness of the second branch of the
approximate bilinear CC
v. Use eq. 4 to calculate the target displacement
of the control node, δt , which is the maximum
 displacement expected when the structure is sub-
jected to the design demands,
where Sa is the pseudo spectral acceleration corre-
sponding to the effective period, g is the accelera-
tion of gravity and the Ci are coefficients defined
as: C0 is a shape factor which transforms the Sd to
the δt ; C1 is the ratio of the expected displacement
of the nonlinear SDOF system to the displacement
of the corresponding linear SDOF system; C2 con-
siders the pinching effect in the load-deformation
characteristics of the structure due to the hysteretic
behaviour of the structural elements with stiff-
ness and strength degradation and C3 is a factor
which includes the P- effects on the performance
displacement.
2.3 N2 method
The N2 method (Fajfar and Gaspersic, 1996) pro-
posed a method to obtain the seismic performance of a
structure given by its displacements, interstorey drifts
and local rotations experienced by the structure when
subjected to a seismic demand level defined by an
inelastic response spectrum. Its application involves
the following steps:
i. Transform the elastic response spectrum from the
standard to the ADRS format.
ii. Obtain the CC of the structure, by means of a
nonlinear pushover analysis. Fajfar and Gaspersic,
(1996) propose a force based pushover analy-
sis, using as basic assumption that the pattern
of applied loads remains constant throughout
pushover.
iii. Transform the CC of the structure or in this case
the behaviour curve of an equivalent SDOF system
in the ADRS format by means of the equations of
structural dynamics.
iv. Obtain maximum displacement of the SDOF sys-
tem corresponding to the intersection of the CC
with the nonlinear spectrum for ductility, µ.
v. Once the performance displacement of the equiv-
alent SDOF system is obtained, it needs to be
multiplied by a transformation constant, eq. 2,
to give the maximum roof displacement of the
structure, δt .
To obtain the displacements, interstorey drifts and
local rotations of the whole structure and structural
elements, a pushover analysis is carried out until the
maximum roof displacement of the structure, δt , is
reached, using the results of the corresponding analysis
the performance information for local displacements
and element forces.
From the description of the method it may be
observed that it combines the advantages of the graph-
ical representation of the capacity spectrum method
with the theoretical foundations of an inelastic demand
spectrum. Aware of the existing relationship between
ductility demand and equivalent viscous damping ratio
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 3. Capacity curve.
is that this method may be considered a variant of the
original capacity spectrum method.
3 CAPACITY CURVE
The quality of the results of the simplified seismic
evaluation methods described in the previous section
depends importantly of the representation made of the
global seismic behaviour of the structure. Usually, for
this sake CC is used. The CC of a structure shows
the relation of the based shear induced by seismic
demands of increasing intensity and the corresponding
maximum displacement of a control node, which for
building structures is assigned to the centre of mass of
their last storey (Fig. 3).
To construct the exact CC of a structure for a
given demand, the only option is the IDA, method.
Even though, this analysis method has strong analyti-
cal basis it has the limitation of requiring the nonlinear
step by step analysis of the structure subjected to a par-
ticular seismic record or to a normally reduced number
of of them. This limitation has some practical impli-
cations as in a practical application a smooth uniform
hazard spectrum cannot directly be used as seismic
demand. A practical and less complex alternative to
using the IDA is the use of the simplified nonlin-
ear static methods, based in forces or displacements,
which, properly used may produce approximate results
comparable to those produce by the IDA.
3.1 Incremental dynamic analysis
The IDA is a parametric analysis method which allows
the exact determination of the seismic performance of
a structure subjected to a single demand of increasing
intensity (Vamvatsikos and Cornell, 2002). It consists
of a series of nonlinear dynamic analyses which have
as seismic demand in its more general form, one or
several seismic records whose intensities are scaled to
characterize seismic demands of increasing intensity,
starting with those for which the structure reaches its
elastic limit, to continue with intensities that produce
increasing damage until the collapse of the structure
occurs or else a given performance index is achieved
(Fig. 4).
 a structure uses the results of a series of modal spectral
analyses corresponding to increasing seismic demands
and associated damage produced, Alba (2005), and a
modification to introduce the dissipation of energy due
to hysteresis, Cardenas (2010). The application of the
method involves the following steps:
i. Define the seismic demand by a design spec-
trum of variable intensity, whose shape depends
directly of the design objective for which the
structure is evaluated.
ii. Define the yield moments of the elements
from their moment-curvature diagrams calcu-
Figure 4. Incremental Dynamic Analysis, IDA. lated using the properties of the materials and
the details of the reinforcement of the element
3.2 Pushover analysis sections.
Pushover analysis is a simplified static method of seis- iii. Locate the damage caused in the structure by the
mic analysis currently used for the seismic evaluation incremented demand. For analysis j, a scale fac-
and design of structures. In its simplest conception tor, Sfj is calculated by identifying the structural
it is a method involving a series of static analyses element which requires the minimum seismic
for lateral loads of fixed distribution, representing a demand increment to reach its yield moment, i.e.,
seismic action increasing monotonically at each suc- there is a Sfj for each end section of an element,
cessive analysis until a predefined limit state or failure defined by eq. 5 where, Mint is the acting moment
mechanism is reached. This type of analysis considers obtained from the modal spectral analysis, My
the essential characteristics which influence signifi- is the yield moment from its moment-curvature
cantly structural performance under seismic demands, diagram, and Mac(j) the moment produced by
it is based on the consideration that the global per- gravitational loads, MVL , (eq. 6) for the first point
formance of a structure may be approximated from in the CC, whereas for the subsequent points it is
the performance of a SDOF system chosen either as defined by eq. 7. Once the smallest Sfj is obtained,
reference or as equivalent. this is used to scale the seismic demand, which
The original pushover analysis has experienced sev- corresponds to the intensity necessary to produce
eral modifications and improvements, e.g., Bracci one or a group of hinges at step j .
et al. (1997) included for the first time the evolution of
the load distribution pattern due to the occurrence of
structural damage along the pushover process. Some
other authors consider, within the pushover process,
the contribution of higher modes of vibration to the
performance, e.g., Chopra and Goel (2002), carry out
the pushover process for each vibration mode to finally vii. Define the coordinates of the CC from the evo-
integrate the CC using a modal combination rule; lutive modal spectral analyses (eqs. 8 and 9)
along these lines. Requena and Ayala (2000), carry
out the pushover process using evolutive load patterns
defined using as basis a smooth spectral shape and a
modal combination rule.
viii. Once the initial branch of the CC is defined, carry
Considering that the seismic performance of struc-
out a correction for each subsequent analysis,
tures is more linked to displacements than to forces,
consisting in the successive use of an equivalent
these authors also suggested a methodology in which
damping ratio, e.g., using the Rosenblueth and
the pushover is carried out using displacements instead
Herrera (1964) criterion.
of forces. Current literature shows other evolutive mul-
ix. Introduce the damage produced, e.g., as hinges,
timodal methods based on the application of displace-
to carry out the modal spectral analyses until the
ment patterns instead than forces. Among these there
maximum deformation capacity of the structure
are three equivalent methods independently proposed
is reached. Strictly, it is necessary to introduce
by Aydinoglu (2003), Antoniou and Pinho (2004) and
new damage as it occurs, however, for practi-
Alba (2005), in which the results of the incremental
cal purposes, the coordinates of the CC do not
procedure for each mode are combined by means of a
need to be calculated every new hinge but instead
modal combination rule.
every new group of hinges which modify the CC
under similar damage levels. When the number of
3.3 Evolutive modal spectral analysis
hinges introduced in the model leads to a failure
In the method of evolutive modal spectral analy- mechanism the results of the analyses required to
sis, EMSA, based on the formulations developed by define the CC become unreliable and therefore
Requena and Ayala (2000), the calculation of the CC of the process should be stopped.

544
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 5. M8N & M17N Models.
It is important to point out that step viii, involves a
new concept as none of the other methods described
in this paper consider the dissipation of energy due
to hysteresis and even less the fact that the equivalent
damping used to approximate it varies with the inten-
sity of the seismic demand, aspects of relevance in the
quality of the results obtained.
4 ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES
To illustrate the application of the methods used to
construct the CC and aiming to show their poten-
tial and limitations, the seismic performances of two
reinforced concrete, RC, plane frames are calculated.
4.1 Description of the investigated frames
Plane frames of two regular RC buildings typical of
the construction practice in the soft ground zone of
Mexico City are used. These frames, 8 (M8N) and
17 storeys (M17N) (Fig. 5); have the following prop-
erties: concrete, type I with f’c = 2.45 × 104 kN/m2 ,
Ec = 2.17 × 103 kN/m2 and γ = 23.53 kN/m3 ; and
steel bars with fy = 4.11 × 105 kN/m2 and Es = 1.96 ×
108 kN/m2 . All columns of the M8N model are
0.80 × 0.80 m and its beams 0.40 × 0.80 m; in the
M17N model all beams are of rectangular sec-
tion 0.35 × 0.90 m and columns of 1.10 × 1.10,
0.90 × 0.90, 0.75 × 0.75 and 0.60 × 0.60 m for levels
1 to 7, 8 to 10, 11 to 13 and 14 to 17 respectively.
To evaluate the seismic performance of the models,
the acceleration histories used as seismic demands are
the records obtained at the SCT station in Mexico City
during the September 19th, 1985 Michoacan earth-
quake. The N-S component was used for the M8N
model and the E-W for the M17N model.
5 PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF
RESULTS
Being the CC the most important component of the
evaluation methods here described, the comparison of
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 6. Capacity curve without correction (EMSA),
M8N.
Figure 7. Capacity curves for the M8N model.
the approximate CCs with the IDA CC used as refer-
ence, shows that the results of the pushover analyses
based on forces had the largest differences, Cardenas
(2010). To illustrate this fact, this paper only presents
the CCs obtained with the IDA, and the EMSA meth-
ods for the 8 storey building (Fig. 6). The comparison
of these CCs show that the differences in the displace-
ments for each intensity are due to a limitation of the
original EMSA method and to the effect of the error
inherited from previous steps.
To correct this limitation and minimize the effects
of the inherited errors, the original EMSA method is
modified to introduce the energy dissipation due to
hysteresis at each step of analysis by considering the
CC as the behaviour curve of an equivalent SDOF
idealization of the structure. The effect of this mod-
ification in both frames is shown in Figs 7 to 9 where
now there is a closer correspondence of the EMSA
and IDA displacements associated to demands of equal
intensity.
The maximum roof displacement differences for a
given demand intensity grow as damage increases. In
percentages it is observed that when the damages is
small the accumulated error is less than 2% and when
the damage is large the error is close to 9%. It is impor-
tant to point out that the application of any method to
calculate the CC, including the original EMSA (with-
out corrections), may give errors in the CC larger
than the 9% previously discussed something that is
explained by the fact that no energy dissipation due to
hysteresis is taken into consideration.

Figure 8. Capacity curves for the M17N model.
Figure 9. Confrontation of IDA and EMSA roof displace-
ments for same demand intensities, M8N model.
6 CONCLUSIONS
From the analysis of the results presented it is con-
cluded that the EMSA method is a good and efficient
alternative to estimate the global seismic performance
(base shear and maximum roof displacement) of a rein-
forced concrete structure. It has as advantage not only
to produce CCs that reflect the global performances
of the structures, but also, acceptable approximations
in the one to one correspondence of displacements
and seismic demand intensities comparable to the
results obtained using the IDA, just by using a correc-
tion based on the successive calculation of equivalent
damping ratios.
The IDA as a method of nonlinear analysis method
which uses hysteresis rules for its elements which may
include de degradation of stiffness and strength under
load reversals, contrary of to the simplified methods of
sequential elastic analyses. However, when compared
with the other two methods investigated, it has as lim-
itation that the effort involved in the modelling and
processing of results is higher.
The conventional pushover analysis is a force based
method of fast application, which has as disadvantages
to use a pattern of lateral forces which may change
the characteristics of the real CC, and to ignore the
dissipation of energy due to hysteretic behaviour of its
elements.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
The EMSA method described in this paper is a sim-
ple displacement based method of fast application in
practice which indirectly considers the dissipation of
energy due to hysteresis.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The project “Development of the Conceptual Frame-
work, Theoretical Models and Simplified Methods
for the Seismic Evaluation and Performance Based
Design of Structures” and the grant of the stu-
dent author were sponsored by the National Council
for Science and Technology of Mexico. The careful
manuscript revision by H. Castellanos is acknowl-
edged.
REFERENCES
Alba, F. 2005. Seismic performance evaluation procedure for
frames. Master of Engineering Thesis, Graduate program
in Engineering, UNAM, Mexico (in Spanish)
Antoniou, S & Pinho, R., 2004. Development and verification
of a displacement based adaptative pushover procedure.
Journal of Earthquake Engineering, 8(5), 643–661
Aydinoglu, M. 2003. An incremental response spectrum
analysis based on inelastic spectral displacements for
multi-mode seismic performance evaluation. Bulletin of
Earthquake Engineering, Holland. 1(1), 3–36
Bracci J., Kunnath, S. & Reinhorn, A., 1997. Seismic per-
formance and retrofit evaluation of reinforced concrete
structures. Journal of Structural Engineering. 123(1),
3–10
Cardenas, R. 2010. Comparative study of simplified seismic
analysis and the IDA in the calculation of the capacity
curve. Master of Engineering Thesis, Graduate program
in Engineering, UNAM, Mexico (in Spanish)
Chopra, A. & Goel R., 2002. A modal pushover analysis
procedure for estimating seismic demands for buildings.
Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics. 31(3),
561–582
Fajfar, P. & Gaspersic, P. 1996. The N2 method for the
seismic damage analysis of RC buildings. Earthquake
Engineering and Structural Dynamics, 25(1), 31–46
FEMA, 2005. FEMA 440, Improvement of nonlinear static
seismic analysis procedures. Federal Emergency Manage-
ment Agency, Washington D.C.
Freeman, S. 1978. Prediction of response of concrete build-
ings to severe earthquake motions. Proceedings of Dou-
glas McHenry International Symposium on Concrete and
Concrete Structures, Detroit, 55, 589–605
Requena, M. & Ayala, G. 2000. Evaluation of a simplified
method for the determination of the nonlinear seismic
response of RC frames. Proceedings of the Twelfth World
Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Auckland, New
Zealand
Rosenblueth, E. & Herrera, I., 1964. On a kind of hysteretic
damping. Journal of the Engineering Mechanics Division
ASCE, 90, 37–48
Vamvatsikos, D. & Cornell, C.A., 2002. Incremental
Dynamic Analysis. Earthquake Engineering and Struc-
tural Dynamics, 31(3), 491–514
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

A method for the evaluation of the seismic vulnerability of fortified

structures

A. Baratta & I. Corbi

Department of Structural Engineering, University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

S. Coppari
Department of Civil Protection, Ministry Council, Rome, Italy

ABSTRACT: In the paper a prompt method to evaluate the seismic vulnerability of a fortified structure is
developed, based on the elaboration of rather gross data about the state, the consistency and the history of the
considered population of the fabric. Moreover the procedure is applied to some study cases relevant to the recent
quake in Abruzzo (Italy) and is proved to be rather effective and able to produce reliable results, despite the poor
initial data.

1 INTRODUCTION Considering the seismic sequence of the events

Forecasting the vulnerability of ancient buildings due
to seismic events is a problem particularly felt in some
regions, as the Italian peninsula, where the historical
heritage is particularly rich and the earthquake is the
main cause of its damage. In order to reduce as much as
possible the inaccuracy of the data and the subjectivity
of the operator, also taking into account the difficulties
in finding the data relevant to the specific problem, the
precision of the single evaluation is not significant if
not compared with the statistic global population to
which the fabric belongs. Obviously the significance
of the results is directly dependent on the basic data,
deriving from the archives’ literature and documents,
and the final evaluation can loose significance if the
data do not contain exhaustive information. The effort
consists of treating the information in such a way to
draw out the essentials and having a so called “weak”
evaluation.
Within this context the Historical Damage Method
(or HDM) is introduced as a procedure that, originally
aimed at an evaluation of a single building’s seismic
vulnerability on the basis of historical data and of the
up-to-date state of the fabric, is extended to fortified
architecture.
2 HISTORICAL DAMAGE METHOD FOR
ORDINARY BUILDINGS
occurred in an area as a series of shaking tests on the
buildings, the “seismic experimental resistance of the
building” can be highlighted. The seismic experimen-
tal resistance is conditioned both by the characteristics
of the shaking at the site and by the effective behav-
ior of the building, but also by the interaction between
the soil substratum and the structure. That means that
any building presents its own particular behavior with
respect to other similar fabrics in the same area, well
expressed by the so evaluated experimental vulner-
ability. Thus, the HDM method works on the basis
of the observation of the seismic damage historically
suffered by a fabric. The damage is expressed in per-
centiles, from 0 to 100% in proportion of its severity;
while seismic intensity is expressed according to some
macro-seismic scale by using, when it is necessary, the
common linear formulas for the conversion between
the various seismic scales (MSK, MCS, MM, etc.)
(Medvev 1997).
Starting from the classification of buildings in the
MSK seismic scale, which considers the weak rural
buildings in class “A”, the squared-stone buildings in
class “B” and the armed or wooden buildings in class
“C”, the conditional expected damage “mw ” after a
quake of intensity “I” can be built up as a function of
the class of the building “X”, and in coherence with
the expectation inherent the macro-seismic scale at any
given intensity

The Historical Damage Method (or HDM) is origi-

nally elaborated for ordinary buildings (Baratta 1985,
Baratta & Voiello 1998) and consists of a procedure
designed for the evaluation of the seismic vulnerability
of monumental buildings where much historical infor-
mation is available so that the direct correlation of the
damage with the seismic event is made evident.
where x = 1,2,3,… according to “X” in class “A”, “B”,
“C”,… and the formula works for intensity larger than
a minimum significant intensity.
The seismic vulnerability is measured by the seis-
mic capacity, which is a synthesis of the seismic

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 strength of the fabric, and is identified as the minimal
seismic intensity able to produce a significant damage
to the fabric. For example, for the MSK scale, a “sig-
nificant damage” corresponds to “single damages of
4th degree and many damages of 3rd degree”.
Assuming that after a given quake with intensity I
the observed damage is a random variable  w, the most
reliable evaluation of the capacity of the fabric prior
to the event can be calculated by taking the maximum
of the Likelihood Function

Figure 1. Diagram for the evaluation of the seismic capacity

of AFI vs. the seismic intensity of an expected earthquake.
where sw = Vw mw and Vw is the coefficient of varia-
.
tion of the estimation w of the observed damage w
After maximizing and developing some algebra, the
procedure yields the following estimation of the vul-
nerability class x of the fabric, which is implicitly
defined by

and hence the seismic capacity Io of the fabric, which,

after linearization, is given by

with α and β two coefficients dependent on Kv , which

is poorly affected by the uncertainty of the damage
evaluation, and is given by

The seismic capacity Io of the fabric can be directly

inferred by means of the diagram in Fig. 1 where the
observed damage w and the intensity at site Is are
known for different values of the coefficient Vw . By
comparing the diagrams in Figure 2.a–b) it is pos-
sible to observe the inefficacy of coefficient Vw on
the seismic capacity evaluation for the highest reliabi-
lity prevision of the damage (Vw = 10%) or the lowest
reliability prevision of the damage (Vw = 50%).
The coefficient Kv varies between 1 (Vw = 0%) and
0,83 (Vw = 50%).

3 HDM FOR FORTIFIED ARCHITECTURES

3.1 The adopted procedure
A number of databases containing rough data about
the fabrics and the sites where they are built have been
created. In particular, the identification codes, geo-
graphical coordinates and similar information have
been taken by the data base elaborated by ISTAT
(Italian Institute for Statistics) about 8100 Italian
Figure 2. Seismic capacity inferred by means of the
expected damage w and the intensity at site (curves in leg-
end) for different values of the coefficient Vw: a) Vw = 10%,
b) Vw = 50%.
municipalities; the data recorded and elaborated in
some seismic catalogues for Italian territory by GNDT,
ING and INGV, have been used in the reconstruc-
tion of the seismic sequences at any site; some other

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
information about the actual state and the historical
proceeding of the Italian Fortified Architectures (or
AFI) have been taken by the database of the Italian
Institute of Castles. Moreover, some compensation has
been implemented, for example, to take into account
the distance of the fabric from the station at which
the quake intensity has been recorded. By establish-
ing connections among the source databases above, it
is possible to build up a new database including the
seismic sequences relevant to any of the 7870 fabrics
contained in the AFI report.
Essentially HDM requires three basic parameters,
that can be recognized in the articulation of any macro-
seismic scale, in particular for the MSK scale: 1) the
typological class of the building (“A”, “B” or “C”),
yielding a presumable vulnerability of the building;
2) the damage level (6 damage levels are considered Figure 3. Correlation between the consistency (in percent-
from 0 up to 5, where 5 corresponds to total col- age) and the intensity (in MCS scale).
lapse); 3) the percentage of buildings that suffer a given
damage level (5% means “single buildings”, 50% – the hazard function can be estimated as
means “many buildings”, 75% means “most build-
ings”). With respect to ordinary building typologies,
the HDM needs to be adapted to AFI buildings, both
because AFI are rather particular and differ from res-
idential buildings, so that classes of macro-seismic – with its linear regression
scales cannot be used and because the AFI database
does not contain detailed information and reports do
not refer to damage after a single seismic event but – and the observed reliabilities of consistency classes
are referred to a concurrence of events not necessarily “G” and “M”
only of seismic nature, practically simply reflecting
the present state of the fabrics. For these reasons,
when dealing with a non-specialized database, as in
the present case, it is necessary to find criteria and
methods to isolate and to use significant data. In – The transition probabilities can be expressed by the
this regard, the first point was to select the build- matrix
ings located in sites where historical reports exist of
at least one event of significant intensity (say larger
than 6 MCS), thus reducing the number of “use-
ful” castles contained in the AFI database from 7870
to 4887. where PXY (I) are the transition probabilities from the
Stated that the AFI have been subdivided into class “X” to the class “Y” (“P” being the ultimate dam-
three consistency classes (G” for “Good consistency”, age consistency class with “Poor/null consistency”),
“M” for “Medium consistency”, “P” for “Poor or and PXX (I) are the permanence probabilities, with the
null consistency”), from the elaboration of the AFI conditions
database one remarks that the number of castles in
class “P” increases with the occurred intensity while
the numbers in classes “G” and “M” decrease, and
the percentage degree of “consistency” of the cas-
tles decreases when increasing the seismic intensity
to which they have been exposed (Fig. 3).
In synthesis the steps of the method are:
– the consistence curves ĈX (I) (“X” is equal to “G”
or “M” in turn) are regularized and are assumed as
the reliability function of the fabrics as a function
of the seismic intensity: R̂X (I) = ĈX (I) All the elements of the matrix in Eq. (10) would
– the derivative of the seismic intensity function be known if the reliability functions are solved by
R̂X (I) is considered adopting, for example, a binomial model of type

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Nevertheless some filters must be introduced in order
to correct the distortion deriving by the own charac-
ter of some observed functions. For example, for the
observed probability P̂MP (I) the distortion is due to the
fabrics actually present in class “M” (“Medium con-
sistency”) which derive by the sum of the fabrics that
pass from the class “G” (“Good consistency”) to the
class “M” and the fabrics that pass from the class “M”
to the class “P” (“Poor/null”).
Some further filtering is applied to keep into
account the “disturbance” in the above process intro-
duced by maintenance and obsolescence, acting with
opposite effects on the apparent consistency of the fab-
rics. At the end of such update, the final transition
probabilities are obtained.

Figure 4. Comparison between the damage curves of the

3.2 Expected damage of a fortified architecture castles classes (“G”, “M”) and the damage curves of the ordi-
nary buildings (“A”, “B”, “C”) vs the seismic intensity (in
By comparing the castles’ architectures (“G”, “M”, MCS scale).
“P” classes) with the ordinary residential buildings
(“A”, “B”, “C” classes of the MSK scale), one can
infer that the damage thresholds for the passage from
class X to Y can be set at the following values

Using the updated transition probabilities, one can

assume that such values can be applied also to simi-
lar class passages for the castle classes, so allowing
to evaluate the expected damage of castles’ typology
through the relationships

Figure 5. Abacus for the evaluation of seismic damage after

After some further manipulation, aimed at homog-
enization of statistical uncertainty, that is originally
inhomogeneous due to the different size of samples in
different consistency classes and for different seismic
intensities, parabolic approximation is applied (as it
has been done also for the vulnerability classes “A”,
“B”, “C”) and the results obtained for AFI architecture
are compared with ordinary buildings (Fig. 4).
Whence one can conclude that castles found
at present in “G” (“Good consistency”) or “M”
(“Medium consistency”) consistency can be roughly
assimilated, respectively, to class “A” and class “B” of
ordinary buildings in the MSK scale.
After estimating the consistence of the AFI before
an earthquake (“initial consistence”) and the consis-
tence after an earthquake (“final consistence”), by
means of the abacus in Figure 5, the expected damage
is evaluated in percentage.
the knowledge of the initial and final consistence of the AFI
under an earthquake.
and the seismic capacity is evaluated by means of the
HDM procedure.
The initial consistence of the architecture is eval-
uated by means of the seismic sequences. The final
consistence of AFI is “weakly” evaluated by globally
considering the fabric after the occurred earthquake.
So the initial and final consistencies are introduced
in the abacus of Figure 5 and the seismic damage (in
percentage) of the AFI is found.
Then the coefficient Kv is evaluated by Equation 5
and is introduced in Equation 4 for the solution of the
seismic capacity of the studied AFI. It is possible to
solve more simply the seismic capacity Io by introduc-
ing the coefficient Kv , the intensity at site Is and the
expected damage w into the diagram of Figure 1.

4.1 Barisciano castle (AQ)

4 SAMPLES IN ABRUZZO
After the recent earthquake occurred on April of 2009
in Abruzzo (Italy) some samples of fortified architec-
tures have been analyzed in the area of L’Aquila (AQ)
The procedure HDM for fortified architecture is
applied to the castle in Barisciano (AQ).
The intensity at site is 6 MCS (by INGV fonts). The
initial consistence is estimated poor by the seismic

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 6. Seismic sequences for the Barisciano Castle (AQ).
Figure 7. Seismic damage of the Barisciano Castle after the
L’Aquila earthquake.
Figure 8. Seismic capacity of Barisciano Castle vs the
seismic intensity of L’Aquila earthquake.
sequences (Fig. 6) and about 0,23 by the photos of the
castle before the earthquake.
The final consistence by photos and other investi-
gations on site after the earthquake is about 0,17 and
the estimated damage is 40%. (Fig. 7).
The coefficient Kv w varies between 0,4 (Vw = 10%)
and 0,33 (Vw = 50%) and the seismic capacity Io of the
Barisciano Castle is about 5 (5,2 for a good reliabi-
lity prevision of the damage and 4,9 for a mediocre
reliability prevision (Fig. 8).
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
4.2 Ocre castle (AQ)
The HDM method is applied to the castle in San Panfilo
d’Ocre (AQ).
The intensity at site is 6 MCS (by INGV fonts). The
initial consistence is estimated about 0,4 by the photos
of the castle before the L’Aquila earthquake.
The final consistence by photos and other investi-
gations on site after the earthquake is about 0,25 and
the estimated damage is 50%.
The coefficient Kv w is about 0,5 and the seismic
capacity Io of the Ocre castle is about 4,5.
4.3 Camarda tower (AQ)
The HDM method is applied to the fortified tower in
Camarda (AQ).
The intensity at site is 7,5 MCS (by INGV fonts).
The initial consistence is estimated about 0,6 by the
photos of the tower before L’Aquila earthquake.
The final consistence by photos and other investi-
gations on site after the earthquake is about 0,4 and
the estimated damage is 40%.
The coefficient Kv w is about 0,4–0,33 and the
seismic capacity Io of Camarda Tower is about 6,8.
4.4 Fossa castle (AQ)
The HDM method is applied to the castle in Fossa
(AQ).
The intensity at site is 7,5 MCS (by INGV fonts).
The initial consistence is estimated about 0,8 by the
photos of the castle before L’Aquila earthquake.
The final consistence by photos and other investi-
gations on site after the earthquake is about 0,7 and
the estimated damage is 10%.
The coefficient Kv w is about 0,1 and the seismic
capacity Io of the Fossa Castle is higher than 7,5.
4.5 Spanish fort of L’Aquila (AQ)
The HDM method is applied to the Spanish fort in
L’Aquila (AQ).
The intensity at site is 8,5 MCS (by INGV fonts).
The initial consistence is estimated of 1 by the
photos of the castle before L’Aquila earthquake.
The final consistence by photos and other investi-
gations on site after the earthquake is about 0,8 with
the collapse of some covertures, so that the estimated
damage is 20%.
The coefficient Kv w is about 0,2 and the seismic
capacity Io of the Spanish fort is about 8–8,5.
4.6 Some considerations about the results
The solved seismic capacity of AFI represents the seis-
mic intensity able to produce a significant damage
to the fabric. According to MCS macroseismic scale,
even low-quality buildings should not undergo signifi-
cant damage if the intensity is estimated at a level less

Figure 9. Seismic damage “w” of some fortified architec-
tures in Abruzzo vs the intensity at site Is .
than 6MCS. So, for fabrics in a medium state of main-
tenance, this capacity is expected to be at least 6MCS.
The seismic capacity of the ruins of the castles of
Barisciano and Ocre has turned out to be lower (about
5) than this threshold already before the 2009 earth-
quake, and it is expected to be even lower at present.
This means that such ruins are expected to suffer fur-
ther damage by future events, even if they should have
an intensity significantly smaller than 5MCS.
On the contrary the Camarda tower presents an
higher capacity (about 7MCS) in coherence of the
intensity at site of 7,5 MCS. The castles of Fossa and
L’Aquila have also a seismic capacity larger than 8
that means also a good maintenance of the fabric in
the years.
In Figure 9 the expected damage for the selected
fortified architectures, in their state before the 2009
event, are put in comparison with the general behavior
of the castles in Italy under an earthquake.
The differences between the cases of Barisciano,
Ocre and Camarda with the general behavior of the
Italian castles is due to a series of reasons. First of all,
Barisciano and Ocre are largely reduced to ruins.
Then the typology of the fabric varies from the sin-
gle tower to the fortress or the fortified city. The nature
of the materials used in the Abruzzo’s buildings and
their organization in the structure do not favorite the
seismic strength of the most ancient fabrics, even if the
castle usually is a fabric more resistant than common
buildings on the territory.
The planar dimensions and the structural complex-
ity of castles also requires larger maintenance than in
other architectures.
5 CONCLUSIONS
In the paper the HDM method has been tested for the
evaluation of the seismic vulnerability of the forti-
fied architecture in Italy. The methodology is based
on the elaboration of the historically recorded damage
due to a seismic sequence of quakes, as experimental
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
expression of the seismic input absorption capacity
by the single structure. The method assumes that the
seismic sequence can be considered as a series of shak-
ing tests on the buildings, by which the experimental
seismic resistance can be known, for the evaluation of
the seismic vulnerability of the observed building. By
elaborating some basic data of five fortified architec-
tures sited in L’Aquila area (the fortified architecture
consists of very different types of fabric, ranging from
the tower to the fortified city) the curves of the mean
“damage of the consistency classes” are individu-
ated for the single castles, similarly to the original
application of the method for the ordinary building
typologies.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research has been developed in the convention
on the evaluation of the seismic vulnerability of the
fortified architectures in Italy between the Italian
Department of Civil Protection (section of Seismic
Risk) and the Department of Structural Engineering
of the University of Naples “Federico II”.
REFERENCES
A.A.V.V. 2009. Onna prima e dopo il terremoto del 6 Aprile
2009. Analisi del danno. Pubblicazione del Dipartimento
di Protezione Civile, Roma (in Italian).
Baratta, A. 1985. The role of historical data in assessing seis-
mic safety of old buildings: the likelihood approach. Proc.
of ICOMOS, n. 2, pp. 15–23.
Baratta A. & Voiello G. 1998. Storia sismica e vulnerabi-
lità degli edifici monumentali. In R. Ballardini, Gangemi
(eds.), La protezione del patrimonio culturale: la ques-
tione sismica pp.445–466, Rome (in Italian).
Baratta A. & Corbi I. 2005. Evaluation of the Hazard Density
Function at the Site. Computers & Structures, vol. 83,
Issues 28–30, November 2005, pp. 2503–2512, Elsevier.
Benedetti D. & Parisi M.A. 1998. Vulnerabilità sismica degli
edifici in muratura e ipotesi per la riduzione del rischio
del territorio umbro. Ingegneria sismica, N. 2, 1998 (in
Italian).
Braga F., Dolce M. & Liberatore D. 1982. A statistical
study on damaged buildings and an ensuing review of the
M.S.K.-76 scale. Proc. of the 7th European Conference
on Earthquake Engineering, Athens.
Cherubini A, Di Pasquale G., Dolce M. & Martinelli A. 1999.
Vulnerability assessment from quick survey data in the
historic centre of Catania. In E. Faccioli & V. Pessina (eds),
The Catania Project, CNR-GNDT, Rome, pp. 213–225.
GNDT Catalogo parametrico di terremoti italiano al di sopra
della soglia del danno. Italian Group for the Defense By
the Earthquakes, NT4.1, Rome.
INGV. Catalogo dei Forti terremoti in Italia dal 461 A.C. al
1990. Italian Institute of Geophisic.
INGV. Database di osservazioni macrosismiche di terremoti
italiani al di sopra della soglia del danno. Italian Institute
of Geophisic, DOM4.1.
ISTAT. 1991. 13◦ Censimento Generale della Popolazione
1991 – Dati sulle caratteristiche strutturali, della popo-
lazione e delle abitazioni, Rome.
Medvedev S.V. 1997. Seismic Intensity Scale M.S.K., 76.
Publ. Inst. Geophys. Pol. Acad. Sc., A-6 (117).
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Seismic vulnerability by extrinsic kinematics: The St. Mary’s Church,

Naples, Italy

A. Bianco
PAU Department, Mediterranea University, Reggio Calabria, Italy

L. Picardi
Deanery of Third Archdiocese, Naples, Italy

ABSTRACT: This paper aims to report the scientific findings of a research concerning the St. Mary’s Church
of the Immaculate Conception of Montecalvario in Naples, an important monumental church situated into the
historic center of Naples, built between 1718 and 1726 by one of the greatest Italian architects of the XVIII century,
Domenico Antonio Vaccaro. The building, that presents all the structural and lexical peculiarities of Neapolitan
Baroque (central plan, altimetric development of concentric volumes, plastic virtuosity of structural and formal
apparatuses), finds in its formal conception and in its stylistic conception part of its structural vulnerabilities. The
study examines the understanding of cracks affecting the Church, also in relation to around historic buildings, in
order to determine a diagnosis and to understand how this condition of structural vulnerability could be combined
with future seismic strain, having high local seismicity and damages suffered during the earthquakes of the last
three centuries.

1 THE ST. MARY’S CHURCH OF THE

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF
MONTECALVARIO IN NAPLES

1.1 Brief history

The St. Mary’s Church of the Immaculate Concep-
tion of Montecalvario is a monumental building of
great architectonic and testimonial value of the historic
centre of Naples.* The Church, built by the greatest
exponent of Neapolitan Baroque, Domenico Antonio
Vaccaro, can be considered a example of reference of
Neapolitan Baroque; it was realized during the period
1707 to 1734 and it is characterized by a develop-
ment of plan showing the Vaccaro’s aspiration to merge
central plan with elongated plan, already evident in
previous works, although the iconography is not set
on an oval shape, as it seems at first glance, but on
a rectangles with rounded corners. This geo-metric
approach is reflected in the dome, in fact it has not
elliptical or polycentric plan, but a rectangle with cor-
ners replaced by arcs of ellipse, so it is divided into
eight segments, each with a central window. Outside
the dome is circular, the wise passage from the elon-
gated shape internal to the circular shape external is Figure 1. The St. Mary’s Church of the Immaculate Con-
highlighted by different thickness of masonry from ception of Montecalvario.
the cuts of the windows to the base of the dome. The
elongated shape of the central volume involves the
architecture in unusual trapezoidal forms on the ambu- building plan and for the vertical articulation is cer-
latory around the Church, and he took advantage of tainly a peculiarity and value of the Church, but at
them to find ingenious solutions for the oblique vaults the same time due to the intrinsic vulnerability of this
of four choruses. The compositional virtuosity in the building, located in an heavily seismic area (Fig. 1).

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 Figure 2. The dome before (left) and after (right) restoration
previous to the earthquake of 1980.
Figure 3. The facade bfore (left) and after (right) restoration
following the earthquake of 1980.
1.2 Earthquakes and restorations
The building, what during the strong earthquake of
1732 was under construction, seems, from literature
sources, to have not received significant damage; for
this reason probably the most severe earthquake, which
has been, pertains to 1980, when the extent of dam-
age was significant, although in 1978 the building was
abject of interventions, in accordance with academic
and professional guidelines usual at that time for struc-
tural reinforcement. This intervention, consisting of
flat roofs with welded wire mesh and reinforced con-
crete; static consolidation to the dome (Fig. 2), the ribs
and drum with bars and concrete; restoration of the bell
platform with implementation of a pair of steel beams
and the demolition of the pillars, in order to improve
the seismic performance of the Church, was itself con-
tributory cause of landslides during the earthquake of
1980, what was repaired with operations homologous
to the first, namely consolidation of the main facade
with injections of concrete (Fig. 3), the consolidation
of the four arches supporting the dome with bars and
concrete; construction of new slabs for the flat roof,
micropiles for fondation; bars and concrete to close
the cracks, located on the corners of vertical walls.
Hence the presence in the building of external disrup-
tion causes, those successive reflections will show how
ineffective and, contrary to the intention, finalized to
increase the seismic vulnerability of the Church.
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Figure 4. The cracks.
2 ANAMNESIS AND DIAGNOSIS OF SEISMIC
VULNERABILITY OF THE CHURCH
2.1 The cracks and the current conservative
structural conditions
The evaluation of seismic vulnerability of the Church
began with a thorough inspection to value and the cur-
rent conservation conditions of the building, from the
relief of cracks, in order to determine the extrinsic
causes of landslides and confirm man-kind genesis, in
terms of increased vulnerability to the compositional
aspects of the building especially due to subsequent
tampering by interventions of consolidation not appro-
priate to technical lexicon and identity construction
of the Church, taking into account that no significant
earthquake has affected the building in the decades fol-
lowing the restorations realized after the 1980 Irpinia
earthquake. The whole Church is in fact characterized
by a dense network of superficial and deep cracks in
its structures.
Specifically the pronaos presents localized cracks
in the vault with trend parallel to the front and trans-
verse cracks in proximity of these extremes of that
vault. Inside the Church itself is characterized by
cracks with vertical development in the central dome,
with extension to the underlying pillars; its continuity
is interrupted by a crack that develops entirely along
the longitudinal axis of the herself and from another
crack situated in the central portion. Other cracks,
mainly superficial, often interest slanting vaults used
to cover the ambulatory that runs all around the
Church. Last, but not negligible, are cracks developing
along vertical walls, near the point of connection with
those interesting two minor altars. There are cracks
interesting all the direction of keystone of minor vaults.
The drawing of cracks contributed to understand the
kinematic present in the Church and to determine their
genesis.
In fact the described cracks are the result of a series
of mechanisms of damage involving the entire Church.
Figure 5. Some internal cracks.

Specifically, there are two categories of problems:

– the kinematic of fondation, induced by differen-
tial settlement resulting from the implementation of
micropiles poorly positioned and highly localized,
determining an alteration of the soil-foundation
system and leading causes of disturbance (in this
issue era connected the following cracking events: a
short horizontal terminal translation interesting the
pronaos; a rotation of the facade; a vertical transla-
tion of the subsoil, which has been about the ends
of a Greek cross, resulting in a first step sag, then
rotating of large portion of overhanging walls. These
mechanisms of damage in turn generated a lower-
ing of the central dome, whose movement has not
left unscathed its structure and that of the adjacent
rooms to it).
– the kinematics for rotation of internal pillars (cracks
in the dome, in two pillars and three chapels)
induced by alteration of equilibrium of forces and
contrast in the overall system of arches, vaults,
domes and covers of the core.
The articulated and not irrelevant complex of cracks
was caused by the common, but fatal, choice, to cut
the tie-beams. But this intervention is not currently
dating, probably it is prior to the intervention of 1978,
therefore the building during the earthquake of 1980
was devoid of the original tie-beams, documented by
nineteenth-century sources and described in an hypo-
thetical original configuration (Fig. 6), derived in part
from the sources and partly by signs those the building
preserves.

2.2 Computations of seismic vulnerability

Highlighted the presence of a wide problem related
to the equilibrium of the inclined stresses, not
opposed (arches and vaults) and not confined (deep-
read),determined by the articulated curved structures,
we proceeded with a numerical computation of the
entire building, which is given below, for extremely
short, only the reconstruction of the final model
of damage scenario (Fig. 7). The numerical results
emphasized that the elimination of tie-beams in an Figure 6. Hypothetical reconstruction of system of
architectural system, already characterized by great tie-beams.

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Figure 7a-b. Hypothesized damage scenario.
compositional and volumetric virtuosity, determined
a significant increasing of structural and behavioral
vulnerability of the building in static, but above all
seismic, conditions, taking account of significant vari-
ation of inclined stresses, in case of horizontal action
induced by an earthquake. Finally, we remember that
these are added the extrinsic vulnerabilities induced
by inadequate interventions, such as injection and
bars in pillars or heavy and rigid flat roofs, not eas-
ily computable in a numeric analysis, but determinant
on reducing its residual structural capacity-behavioral
general and detailed.
3 CONCLUSIONS
The study highlighted as also in an architectural system
great and characterized by a complex system of broad
and uncertain cracks, the application of a cognitive
route observation-anamnesis-diagnosis may come to
define a simple, almost trivial, crack genesis, starting
form a serious, but mediocre, error, such as cutting the
tie-beams.
However this diagnosis, starting from a complex
and seemingly rather alarming damage scenario, high-
lights how the simple re-proposition in the building
of a system of tie-beams could return adequate struc-
tural resources, especially in terms of reduction of
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seismic vulnerabilities, taking into account the high
seismic hazard of this area and the significant specific
exposure seismic, given the monumental value of this
Church.
4 NOTES
*I thank for cooperation to the implementation of
research: Tiziana Meduri, Carmela Tramontana, Ser-
ena Verduci.
REFERENCES
Di Pasquale, S. 1996. L’arte del costruire. Tra conoscenza e
scienza, Venezia: Marsilio.
Genovese, C. 1988. Monumentale Chiesa parrocchiale
della Concezione a Montecalvario, Napoli: opera di
Domenico Antonio Vaccaro architetto, scultore e pittore
del ’700 napoletano : guida storica ed artistica. Napoli:
D’Alessandro.
Giuffre, A. 1986. La meccanica nell’architettura : la statica.
Roma: Carocci.
Giuffre,A. 1988. Interventi di restauro su archi e volte. Roma:
Dipartimento di ingegneria strutturale e geotecnica.
Giuffre, A. 1988. Valutazione della vulnerabilita sismica
dei monumenti: metodo di verifica e tecniche di inter-
vento. Roma: Dipartimento di ingegneria strutturale
e geotecnica.
Giuffre, A. 1988. Monumenti e terremoti: aspetti statici del
restauro. Roma: Multigrafica.
Giuffre, A. 1991. Letture sulla meccanica delle murature
storiche. Roma: Kappa.
Gravagnuolo, B. 2005. Domenico Antonio Vaccaro : sintesi
delle arti. Napoli: Guida.
Heyman, J. 1995. The stone skeleton: structural engineer-
ing of masonry architecture, Cambridge: Cambridge:
University Press.
Heyman, J. 1996. Arches, vaults, buttresses: masonry struc-
tures and their engineering, London: Imperial College
Press.
Rizzo, V. 2001. Lorenzo e Domenico Antonio Vaccaro :
apoteosi di un binomio. Napoli: Altrastampa.
NNTC’08.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

L’Aquila earthquake April 6th, 2009: The damage assessment methodologies

R.P. Borg
Department of Building & Civil Engineering, University of Malta, Malta

M. Indirli
ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, Italy

T. Rossetto
Department of Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering, University College London, UK

L.A. Kouris
Department of Civil Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

ABSTRACT: Different Methodologies were adopted during the field investigations and the assessment of
damage in structures following the Abruzzo (Italy) Earthquake of the 6th April 2009. The scope of the paper
is to review the different methodologies adopted by the COST Action C26 Field Investigation Team, and the
methodologies considered by the EEFIT Team in the field assignments conducted in the aftermath of the earth-
quake. The COST C26 team based the assignment on a number of methodologies: the AeDES (AeDES & AeDES
Modified) and the MEDEA, used by the Italian Civil Protection for Masonry and Reinforced Concrete struc-
tures; the EEFIT team methodology included the general observations, the rapid survey using EMS-98, and the
detailed survey. The aim of the paper is to review the methods, assess the type and extent of data collected and
the scale considered, and analyse each methodology with respect to the scope of the tasks undertaken. A critical
assessment of the methods, is presented with respect to the varying parameters including the scale and detail of
assessment, the structure type, and the evaluation criteria for risk and conformity.

1 INTRODUCTION M. Indirli (ENEA, Italy), R.P. Borg (University

An earthquake of magnitude MW = 6.3 (9 km shallow
focal depth) struck the Abruzzo Region in Central
Italy on the early morning (03:32 local time) of
6th April 2009. The epicenter was very close to the
city of L’Aquila (sources: INGV, http://portale.ingv.it/;
USGS, http://www.usgs.gov/). The starting point of
the seismic sequence is considered to be the March
30th, with a MW = 4.4 event, though several small
shocks had been recorded before. The MW = 6.3 main
event has been followed by several aftershocks, the
major of which occurred on April 7th (MW = 5.6).
The number of casualties was 306 and the injured
people approximately 1500. The area affected by the
earthquake includes L’Aquila city center, the suburbs
and some villages in the region, and many buildings
were severely damaged or collapsed. Old buildings
and more recent constructions, were unable to with-
stand the intensive shaking that occurred close to the
rupture fault. The earthquake caused many losses and
damage (about 18000 unusable buildings) in the most
affected area (Indirli, 2010).
An extensive damage survey of the whole historic
centre of L’Aquila was conducted by the PLINIVS
centre after the earthquake, with the contribution of
of Malta, Malta) and L.A. Kouris (University of
Thessaloniki, Greece), experts from COST Action
C26, Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic
Events (COST C26). The COST researchers, in addi-
tion to an overall review of the consequences of
the earthquake in L’Aquila and its surroundings,
contributed to the aforementioned work, through a
detailed investigation of various areas, including areas
of the historic city centre. Various methods were
adopted during the surveys to assess the damage,
including the following developed in the framework
of the Italian Civil Protection Activities: AeDES &
AeDES Modified (“Scheda di I livello di rileva-
mento danno, pronto intervento e agibilità per edi-
fici ordinari nell’emergenza post-sismica/First level
form for safety assessment, damage investigation,
prompt intervention for ordinary buildings in the post-
earthquake emergency; Protezione Civile 2010a);
MEDEA (“Manuale di Esercitazioni sul Danno Ed
Agibilità/User’s manual on damage and safety for
ordinary buildings”; MEDEA 2005).
The Earthquake Engineering and Field Investiga-
tion Team (EEFIT) is a group of UK engineers and aca-
demics that organises field missions in the immediate
aftermath of earthquakes in order to gather data on

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 the performance of structures, foundations, services
etc. EEFIT was formed in 1982 and has been carry-
ing out regular investigations of earthquake damage
ever since. Following the Aquila earthquake a recon-
naissance team sent by EEFIT and led by T. Rossetto
visited the affected area (EEFIT 2009). The Methodo-
logy adopted included the general observations, rapid
survey using EMS-98, and the detailed survey.
2 DATA COLLECTION & MANAGEMENT
2.1 Classification of data collection methods
The data collection methods concerning structural
damage can be classified in accordance to the scope
of the survey, the discipline considered, the time of
data collection, the accuracy of data collection, and
the amount of the data collected. Many of the above
are correlated; the damage assessment methods can be
classified with respect to the scope, the discipline and
the time of data collection (Goretti et al. 2002).
The Scope: short term usability assessment; assess-
ment of economic losses or required funds for
reconstruction; evaluation of individual contributions;
social impact assessment; prevention and emergency
management; scientific purposes.
The Discipline: geosciences; structural
engineering – buildings; structural engineering – other
systems; social sciences; economy and overall impact
of the seismic event.
The Time of data collection: pre-event; post event
(preliminary macroseismic intensity assessment 2–3
days, reconnaissance survey 2–3 weeks); post event
(usability & damage assessment Level I accuracy,
3–60 days); post event (Level III accuracy, 30 days –
some years).
Pre-event data collection: Systematic typological,
dimensional and functional data collection of build-
ings can be conducted, and result in an inventory based
on technical information on buildings on a regional or
national level.
Post-event data collection methods, and usability/
damage evaluation, are considered the major source of
information in Italy, Turkey and Japan. (Goretti et al.
2002). In the evaluation of methodologies used for
data collection, a distinction is made between usability
and damage survey. The post-seismic event usabi-
lity assessment is intended to evaluate the possible
short term use of the building. During the assessment,
the buildings that can be safely used are identified
and emergency measures are implemented in order to
reduce risk for people.
The post-earthquake damage evaluation is carried
out for a variety of reasons. It is reported that in
Japan the aim of the damage assessment is to evaluate
the long term use of the building, and the evalua-
tion includes recommendations concerning repair and
retrofit, or demolition. In Italy the assessment had a
similar scope in the past. However, today the damage
data collection survey is performed together with the
usability survey, and the main purpose is to evaluate
the usability, and the overall amount of direct economic
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loss. This is important to assess the financial contri-
butions by the government for the reconstruction. The
decision on long-term use of the building is addressed
through an engineering evaluation in the reconstruc-
tion process. In Greece the financial contributions are
based on the usability classification, while in Turkey
the damage classification is used to assign the finan-
cial contribution to each building (Goretti et al. 2002).
The advantage of a joint damage and usability survey,
as conducted in Italy, is considered to speed up the
overall survey and the reconstruction process. While
the completion of the usability survey is slowed down,
much of the data collected in the damaged survey is
required to be taken into account also in the usabi-
lity survey. In addition the slow down is compensated
by the fact that the usability and damage survey is
conducted in two steps, with a limited percentage of
buildings requiring the second inspection.
The post earthquake damage/usability evaluation
needs to take account of the following;
• the seismic event is not over, and the assessment
is valid until a new shock occurs; both cumulative
damage and soil motion are recorded for each shock;
• a large number of inspections is required; therefore,
the inspection management should be effective;
• the inspections should be completed over a short
period of time, in order to reduce the risk for
the inhabitants (with respect to usability assess-
ment) and to accelerate the reconstruction process
(damage assessment).
2.2 Data collection and data management
As a result of the large amount of buildings to be
quickly surveyed in a post-earthquake assessment,
only level I information is collected (Goretti et al.
2002). The data cannot be used for an engineering
assessment (level II and level III), but can be statis-
tically processed and analysed, recording data useful
for the usability assessment and the estimate of repairs
(economic losses), in addition to social data. All this
information should be required in detail:
• identification of the building;
• dimensional data (area, storey number, height);
• function (use of the building, number of dwellings
and number of inhabitants);
• building type (materials, structural systems, age of
construction, maintenance);
• soil and geomorphology;
• building damage (levels of damage and extent
in different components, overall measure of the
damage);
• social data (homeless and people evacuated);
• quality of the inspection, whether complete, partial,
exterior only;
• usability assessment;
• remarks and observations.
In order to obtain reliable data, it is neces-
sary to reduce subjectivity; therefore, clear methods,
unambiguous data collection forms (detailed and easy
to compile), and well trained inspectors are required. In
the data collection, the assessment of component per-
formance is preferred to the component description.
The accuracy of the data is related to the accuracy of
the inspection, and it is recommended that buildings
should not be inspected only from the exterior.The pro-
cessing should allow for checks on the data collected.
The management of the data is an important considera-
tion, and includes the data processing, the validation of
the data input and maintenance. In this regard, the use
of GIS systems and pre-event databases help acceler-
ate the data processing and validation. Dissemination
and easy access to the data are important considera-
tions, and depend on the users including researchers,
the purpose of use of the data, and the type of data
required.
3 STRUCTURAL DAMAGE ASSESSMENT
The structural damage assessment after a seismic event
provides important data for understanding the build-
ing’s response. Other indispensable post-earthquake
information is the construction’s usability, in order to
identify prompt interventions.TheAeDES (Protezione
Civile 2010a) and the MEDEA (MEDEA 2005) survey
methodologies, specifically developed in Italy to this
purpose, were utilised together in L’Aquila immedi-
ately after the earthquake, with other assessment tools,
during the COST C26 post-event field investigations.
The AeDES (both AeDES and AeDES Modified)
level I form is intended for the post-earthquake inter-
vention in Italy (Protezione Civile 2002 and 2010a).
The aim is to carry out a damage survey in the ordi-
nary structures, check their usability, and determine
the required emergency actions.
The MEDEA tool is designed to support earthquake
damage assessment in Italy (MEDEA 2005). However,
it can possibly be used in regions with similar struc-
tures. Its scope is to carry out an objective evaluation
of damage, in particular with respect to masonry and
reinforced concrete (r.c.) structures, evaluating also
the associated failure/damage mechanisms. A vari-
ety of damage types are identified and linked to the
corresponding mechanisms.
4 THE AeDES LEVEL I SURVEY
The AeDES level I survey of damage, emergency
action and usability for ordinary buildings in the post-
seismic event (Protezione Civile 2002 and 2010a) is
a comprehensive form used for data collection in the
field, with respect to specific buildings damaged by
earthquakes. Its structure is based on a number of
sections, as indicated below.
• Section 1: building identification;
• section 2: building description;
• section 3: structural typology (masonry and r.c.);
• section 4: damage of structural elements and com-
pleted emergency interventions;
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
• section 5: damage of non-structural elements and
completed emergency interventions;
• section 6: danger due to external/adjacent structures
and completed emergency interventions;
• section 7: geotechnics and foundation;
• section 8: evaluation on the structure usability and
emergency action;
• section 9: remarks and observations.
For each structural system (masonry and r.c.),
different typologies are identified, with respect to
materials, construction technology and detailing. The
damage assessment of structural elements is carried
out with respect to a matrix, taking account of the struc-
tural elements, and considering for each the level of
damage, and emergency action completed; the same
data collection is carried out also with respect to
non structural elements. Furthermore, danger due to
neighbouring structures, geotechnics and conditions
of foundations is also evaluated.
As already said, the AeDES form requires the eval-
uation of usability. The risk evaluation is carried out
using a matrix which assigns a level of risk (from high
risk to low risk), according to the damage observed in
structural/non-structural elements and foundations, in
addition to the danger posed by neighbouring struc-
tures. The outcome is expressed on a scale from A to
F, where: A means “fit for use (safe)”, B “fit for use
with prompt interventions”, C “partially fit for use”, D
“not fit for use, necessity of a deeper analysis”, E “not
fit for use (unsafe)” and F “not fit for use, due to risk
from neighbouring structures”. The form also allows
for suggestions for emergency action to be completed
on the building.
5 THE MODIFIED AeDES LEVEL I SURVEY
The Modified AeDES Level I survey follows, in prin-
ciple, the AeDES methodology, with some important
modifications to specific sections of the data collec-
tion survey sheet. In particular, the AeDES Modified
Form shows the following changes:
– section 3 has been updated and divided into two
main distinct parts (Masonry and Reinforced Con-
crete structures);
– section 4 refers to the damage of structural elements
and completed emergency interventions, which is
in general similar to the AeDES form; the section
related to the damage of non structural elements
has been synthesised, but refers to the presence
or otherwise of the damage; the AeDES Modified
form includes an additional part in section 4, refer-
ring to the summary of damage with respect to the
EMS 98, both for the single components of the
building (structural and non-structural) and also
for the building as a whole; the level of damage
varies between level 0 (no damage) to level 5 (total
collapse);
– the part of section 6 in the AeDES form, referring
to the danger due to external/adjacent structures
 and completed emergency interventions, has been
removed in the AeDES Modified;
– in addition, section 8, referring to the assessment
of usability of the structure, has been removed in
the AeDES Modified; however, the part of section
8 referring to the accuracy of the visit is retained,
and included in section 9 of the AeDES modified
form;
– section 9 includes also general remarks and obser-
vations.
6 CULTURAL HERITAGE METHODOLOGY
Cultural heritage buildings (Linee Guida 2006) can
be studied by decomposing the entire structure into
architectural portions characterized by an autonomous
structural behaviour with respect to the construction
as a whole. In fact, in historic complexes, effec-
tive connections between vertical walls and floors are
often scarce or absent, leading to specific mechanisms
(global/local collapse and/or damage) caused by loss
of equilibrium of masonry portions under out-of-plane
actions. In addition, also in-plane actions are evalu-
ated. The earthquake damage and structural vulnera-
bility of churches is assessed through a specific survey
form (Protezione Civile 2010b), in which failure/
collapse mechanisms are identified with a similar
methodology as told before. The nature and the level
of damage is assessed. The damage index is evaluated
on the basis of the mechanisms and level of damage
recorded. A similar approach is used for monumental
buildings (Protezione Civile 2010c).
7 THE MEDEA DAMAGE ASSESSMENT TOOL
7.1 Introduction
The structural damage assessment after an earthquake
provides important information for the understanding
of the construction response to the seismic event. The
evaluation needs to be based on criteria and meth-
ods that can guarantee an objective evaluation of the
damage, in order to find the best correlation between
the parameters measuring the seismic action, and the
damage in the structures. In fact, potential uncertain-
ties and ambiguities can result either in the definition
of the level of damage to be considered or in the
identification of the damage by the operators work-
ing in the field after the event. The operators are
required to take important decisions during the post-
event emergency activity, with regards the safety of the
buildings. Consequently, the identification of objec-
tive methodologies, that can serve as tools in the
damage evaluation and in the determination of levels
of safety, is of fundamental importance.
7.2 MEDEA: Seismic damage evaluation
The MEDEA tool (MEDEA 2005) is designed to sup-
port earthquake structural damage evaluation in Italy,
with respect to masonry and r.c. structures, but can
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also be used effectively for pre-earthquake assessment.
MEDEA drives to the definition and identification
of several damage/failure mechanisms associated to
an earthquake. Therefore, structural damage can be
linked to the related mechanisms. This results in a bet-
ter safety assessment, a more homogeneous evaluation
of damage across the affected area and an improvement
of the damage statistics obtained in the assessment.
MEDEA is intended to derive the most frequent dam-
age typologies in masonry and r.c. structures, and a
possible damaging model for a rapid assessment of
safety. In fact, the damage assessment protocol is sup-
ported by forms where every damage type is described
with notes, diagrams representing different damage
levels, and possible links to their associated collapse
mechanisms. This approach helps to reduce the level
of uncertainty in the assessment of safety during the
survey (Papa et al. 2004 ).
MEDEA contains a technical glossary, a picture
archive, and a section describing seismic damage anal-
yses, which are also linked to compatible collapse
mechanisms. It also refers to examples of damage
surveys and safety evaluations. MEDEA is mainly
intended for the surveyors involved in safety assess-
ment or active in the post event macro-seismic evalua-
tion. The judgment of the surveyor, who needs special
training, is a very important factor for the success of
the whole procedure, because of the scientific aspects
resulting from an assessment of the damage. This is
considered important for the improvement of the vul-
nerability function, and for a wider harmonization in
the definition of macro-seismic fields. The judgement
is also important with respect to other considera-
tions concerning the fair estimate of damage and fair
evaluation of safety.
7.3 The collapse mechanisms
MEDEA includes a detailed catalogue of the main
damage types encountered in structural and non-
structural elements in masonry and r.c. buildings. The
damage classification of the masonry structures is
supported by linking the earthquake damage to the
possible collapse mechanisms induced in the build-
ing. Therefore, the catalogue is organized such that
it addresses the identification of the probable mech-
anism (Papa et al. 2004). This is supported through
the Collapse Mechanisms table and the Damage Clas-
sification table. The Collapse Mechanisms table is a
summary datasheet which includes the classification
of the main recognisable collapse mechanisms for a
standard construction. A similar procedure is followed
for r.c. structures.
The above said mechanisms are firstly classified as:
• global mechanisms;
• local mechanisms.
Global mechanisms are those mechanisms involv-
ing the structures as a whole, and related to the
evolution of the cracks in a sufficient number of ele-
ments, such that the static and dynamic equilibrium of
the structural system is compromised.
 Local mechanisms refer to marginal parts of the
construction; their evolution, even if it determines the
collapse of a single element, generally does not involve
the equilibrium of the whole structure.
7.4 Masonry structures: Damage mechanisms
The global mechanisms are subdivided as follows.
In-plane mechanisms: they occur when the clas-
sical diagonal X cracks appear as a consequence of
the formation of diagonal compressive forces in the
walls of the masonry box, excited by in-plane actions
in both directions; these mechanisms are due to the
poor tensile strength of the masonry.
Out-of-plane mechanisms: they appear through an
out-of-plane movement of one or more walls of the
masonry box, due to failure of the connection between
the walls of the facade and the orthogonal ones, as a
result of the seismic forces; this is possibly enhanced
through the thrust of heavy floors and roofs.
Other mechanisms: this category includes those
mechanisms that could not directly be recognized as in
plane or out of plane mechanisms, but which involve
the building as a whole, generating the total collapse of
the structure (i.e. detached floor and roof beam, irre-
gularity between adjacent structures, etc.). The local
mechanisms are classified as follows.
Local dislocation: they are mechanisms, for exam-
ple, that arise for arch or architrave failure, or in part
of the structure characterized by different irregulari-
ties, often connected to significant stiffness variations
(i.e. inappropriate retrofitting such as reinforced con-
crete interventions in masonry structures, etc.); the
phenomenon generally determines the crumbling and
the expulsion of the material in the areas adjacent to
the element involved.
Elements causing horizontal thrust: these mecha-
nisms are determined by the action of single elements
that produce horizontal thrust on the supporting struc-
tures; good examples are the thrusting elements of a
roof or the vaults, the thrust action of which is not
sufficiently balanced.
Therefore, with reference to the classification out-
lined above, 16 different collapse mechanisms have
been identified for masonry structures, which are
related to the seismic damage types. The collapse
mechanisms for masonry structures are shown in
Figure 1 (global mechanisms) and Figure 2 (local
mechanisms). The seismic damage has also been
classified in table form.
7.5 R.c. structures: Damage mechanisms
The global mechanisms are subdivided as follows.
Strong beam-weak column: they occur in buildings
characterized by beams having high strength com-
pared to columns with significant lower resistance;
this causes the creation of plastic hinges in the columns
(weaker elements) instead of the beams (stronger ele-
ments), with the subsequent concentration of inelastic
deformation in the columns; the mechanisms could
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 1. MEDEA: Global Collapse Mechanisms
(masonry).
Figure 2. MEDEA: Local Collapse Mechanisms
(masonry).
involve all or several storeys, leading to a “pancake
type” collapse.
Weak beam-strong column: they occur in buildings
characterized by beams having low strength against
columns with appreciable higher resistance; the plas-
tic hinges develop in the beams (weaker elements) and
not in the columns (stronger elements), and therefore
inelastic deformation occurs in the beams; the mech-
anisms could occur for bending in the beams (more
ductile elements), shear in the beams (less ductile
elements) or detached reinforcement.
Weak joints: they occur when the structural frame is
characterized by weak nodes compared to the actions
transferred by beams and columns; the mechanism
starts with the creation of diagonal cracks in the joints
leading to sliding between beam and column; the col-
lapse of a number of joints affects frame stability,
causing the loss of the equilibrium and the subsequent
collapse of the whole structure.
Weak storey: they occur in buildings with a storey
which is less strong than the others, and with resis-
tance characteristics significantly different at one level
with respect to the other levels; it results as a conse-
quence of a lack of elements with adequate stiffness
and strength (i.e. infill panels) against the horizon-
tal actions; in these cases, seismic energy is mainly
dissipated through that floor.
Foundation subsidence: these mechanisms occur
when seismic actions involve the foundation level
causing a vertical subsidence effect; in these cases
the structures show diagonal cracks in the infill pan-
els, horizontal misalignment in the beams and cracks
at the ends, or increase in vertical cracks along the
height of the building; in the case of frame structures
of significant stiffness and when extensive subsidence

Figure 3. MEDEA: Global Collapse Mechanisms (r. con-
crete).
Figure 4. MEDEA: Local Collapse Mechanisms (r. con-
crete).
is reported, a rigid rotation or sliding movement of the
building can occur.
The local mechanisms are classified as follows.
Due to structural elements: this category refers to
those mechanisms caused by structural elements pro-
ducing a localized action in a part of the structure, such
as the hammering between adjacent buildings, the strut
action at the ends of the column due to the infill pan-
els, the floor collapse caused by large displacements
at a joint/support; these circumstances are usually the
result of structural deficiency.
Due to the infill panels or partitions: these mech-
anisms are similar to the ones occurring in masonry
structures, related to the poor tensile strength of the
material; they could produce in plane or out of plane
ruptures.
Due to the roof collapse: these mechanisms occur
due to the collapse of weak masonry walls supporting
the roof or as a result of the thrust effect of pitched
roofs.
The collapse mechanisms for r.c. structures are
shown in Figure 3 (global mechanisms) and Figure 4
(local mechanisms). The seismic damage has also been
classified in table form. In addition to the above, in
the case of r.c. structures, wall collapse mechanisms
are also classified, taking into account the differences
among structural typologies: single walls (solid or with
various openings), double walls, walls/frame.
7.6 The damage assessment
The damage tables provide a classification of the
main damage types that may be encountered during
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a survey, for each single element (vertical structures,
horizontal structures, stairs, non-structural elements).
Every damage type is described by a specific form
containing notes, diagrams showing different damage
levels following a predefined scale. The scope is to
address the macro-seismic assessment and to provide
a tool to assist the surveyor in the completion of the
sections of the safety check relating to the evaluation
of the damage level of the structural component anal-
ysed. MEDEA provides a hypothesis of possible links
to other damage types in the same elements exam-
ined or in those elements of the structure that could
be recognized as compatible with respect to a specific
collapse mechanism. The tool allows for the analy-
sis of the structure through the association among the
existing damage types and their recognition as con-
gruent to a possible global structural behaviour (Papa
et al. 2004). MEDEA allows for a seismic damage
and mechanism correlation. The tool indicates the pos-
sible mechanisms congruent to the chosen damage.
It also allows for the safety analysis, and to carry
out the evaluation of the construction typology and
associated vulnerability class, the damage level for
elements and building, the safety assessment of the
building and potential interventions. The MEDEA sur-
vey forms refer to the damage tables and the global
and local collapse mechanisms tables. Separate forms
refer to masonry structures and reinforced concrete
structures respectively. The MEDEA form includes
various sections including the following: a section on
the identification of the building; a section on vulner-
ability parameters for the structure; and a matrix for
the mechanisms and structural damage. In the case of
masonry buildings, the matrix refers to the global and
local mechanisms, and to the structural damage with
respect to vertical and horizontal structures. In the case
of reinforced concrete structures, the matrix refers to
the mechanisms which are classified as; global, local
and wall collapse mechanisms, and to the structural
damage with respect to vertical structures, horizontal
structures, panels and walls. The survey form allows
for the collection of information regarding the col-
lapse mechanisms on the damaged structure, and it is
possible to make a hypothesis regarding the total col-
lapse. A procedure was proposed, for the evaluation
of the Safety Index IA , based on the analysis of the
degree of development of the prevalent mechanism in
the building.Through this tool, the correlation between
the Safety Index range and the global damage has been
investigated (Papa et al. 2004).
During the Investigation carried out by the COST
C26 team, the damage types were recorded in the struc-
tures assessed in the areas investigated, on the basis
of detailed external and internal surveys. A scale of
the intensity of damage was assigned, with a score
from 1 to 3, according to the intensity of the observed
damage recorded during the survey. Detailed informa-
tion was compiled, including photographic surveys.
The damage types recorded were linked to the associ-
ated collapse mechanisms in the matrix. In particular,
the assessment included the review of damage types
in masonry and reinforced concrete buildings (Kouris
et al. 2010; Borg 2010).

8 THE EEFIT METHODOLOGY

The Earthquake Engineering and Field Investigation

Team (EEFIT) organises field missions in the immedi-
ate aftermath of earthquakes in order to gather data on
the performance of structures, foundations, services
etc. EEFIT has been carrying out regular investiga-
tions of earthquake damage and following the Aquila
earthquake a reconnaissance team visited the affected
area over a period of 10 days (EEFIT 2009). The towns
visited by EEFIT comprised: L’Aquila, Coppito, Scop-
pito, Onna, San Gregorio, Barisciano, Poggio Picenze,
Fossa, Valle D’Ocra, Lucoli, Preturo, Cansatessa and
San Demetrio ne’Vestini. In each town visited building
damage, infrastructure damage (e.g. damage to bridges
and roads), damage to industrial plants and to historical
buildings were observed and reported. Furthermore,
evidence of faulting and geotechnical failures were
sought out. In order to collect this information, three
main types of survey were employed by the EEFIT
Team in the field:
• general observation;
• rapid survey using EMS-98;
• detailed survey. Figure 5. The EMS-98 damage scale for masonry buildings.

General observation of damage and damage extent

were carried out in every location visited by the team.
Rapid surveys were carried to quantify the propor-
tion of different damage levels in selected streets.
These consisted in noting down the structural type,
height, size and damage state of each building along
a road, from an external survey. Internal damage was
not assessed. For this rapid survey the damage scales
for reinforced concrete and masonry presented in
EMS-98 (Grünthal 1998) were used. EMS-98 presents
graphical illustrations and descriptions of damage for
different structure types in terms of 5 damage states.
Figure 5 shows the damage scale for masonry build-
ings. The results of these assessments were used to
estimate the EMS-98 intensity (Grünthal 1998) in each
city. These surveys were not comprehensive macro-
seismic surveys and were carried out in a small time
window, sometimes for only part of the village/town
visited, with the purpose of gaining an overall under-
standing of the extent of the affected area. For the
purpose of the EMS-98 intensity survey, masonry res-
idential buildings were assumed to be vulnerability
Class B and reinforced concrete buildings vulnerabi-
lity Class C, except for in locations of new buildings
(post 2003) where reinforced concrete buildings were
assigned to vulnerability Class D. The intensity sur-
vey for the locations was carried out assigning an
aggregated percentage of buildings to each damage
state.
Detailed surveys were instead carried out for struc-
tures of particular interest. As the team was large, in
order to get a consistent evaluation of damage, a survey
sheet was drawn up for the detailed damage surveys.
These sheets allow data to be collected on the structure:
its lateral load resisting system, roof system, number of
stories above and below ground, storey height, building
material type and quality, occupancy type, approxi-
mate building age, approximate floor area, regularity
in plan and elevation. The sheet also records dimen-
sion of structural members. The overall damage state
is recorded (as per EMS-98 damage scale), and there is
space on the form for entering a more detailed descrip-
tion of the damage. Where the information is available
(from say, owners) details of deaths and injuries in
the building are collected. Furthermore, for each of
these surveys detailed photographs, measurements,
and GPS coordinate readings were taken. The damage
observed from the L’Aquila earthquake varied substan-
tially depending on the location, building typology, age
of construction and condition. However, the EMS-98
intensity surveys show that there appears to be more
damage in the valley region of L’Aquila than over the
sloping topography, and more damage east of Aquila
compared to the west.
9 CONCLUSIONS
The seismic damage data, collected after an earth-
quake, is related to actual building performance, and
therefore recognised to be of great importance. The use
of unambiguous and homogenous techniques is impor-
tant in order to guarantee an objective evaluation.

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 The assessments are required for the protection of
human life and property by identifying buildings prone
to collapse during after shocks, and problems in trans-
portation routes. The assessments are also important
for the estimation of temporary housing needs. Fur-
thermore, damage assessment can provide data for
future research studies and urban planning. More-
over, the post-earthquake data is important in order
to prepare reasonable prevention plans, for effective
emergency management. The post-seismic damage
assessment is considered to be an important step in
establishing the reconstruction strategy.
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PALAZZI_ 2006.pdf.
USGS. http://www.usgs.gov/.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Seismic vulnerability of the “Quinto Orazio Flacco” school

Alessandra Fiore & Pietro Monaco

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Politecnico di Bari, Bari, Italy

ABSTRACT: Historical buildings in seismically active regions are severely damaged by earthquakes, since
they certainly were not explicitly designed by the original builders to withstand seismic effects. The assessment
of their seismic safety is an important first step in planning the appropriate interventions for improving their
pertinent resistance. This paper deals with the investigation of the seismic behaviour of the “Quinto Orazio
Flacco” school. Its construction goes back to the early 20th century. The three-storey main masonry building
has a M-shaped plan with maximum dimensions equal to 57.8 m and 82.4 m respectively in the transversal and
longitudinal directions. In 1963 a new reinforced concrete building separated from the pre-existent masonry
one as realized along its free perimeter. In order to simulate the actual seismic behaviour of the school, both
non-linear static procedures and time history analyses are carried out, using detailed finite element models of
the two buildings and suitable numerical procedures.

1 INTRODUCTION In 1963, dictated by the necessity of finding fur-

The construction of the main masonry building of
the “Quinto Orazio Flacco” school goes back to the
year 1933, when the school became a point of ref-
erence for the educational training of young people
not only of the city of Bari but of the entire Province.
The three-storey masonry building is characterized by
an M-shaped plan with maximum dimensions equal
to 57.8 m and 82.4 m respectively in the transversal
and longitudinal directions. The typologies of masonry
employed are of three kinds: irregular quarrystones,
carried out with stones crumbled up by hammer and
overlapped on alternate courses (placed is situ) in order
to avoid the recurrence of the vertical joints between
consecutive returns; claved stone blocks worked by
marteline, broken into regular pieces with sharp cor-
ners on the external face and joined together with 3 mm
thick mortar; tufa parallelepiped-shaped blocks, in dif-
ferent sizes ranging from 32 to 90 cm, with perfectly
squared faces and sharp corners, joined together with 1
cm thick cement mortar. The documents available and
the tests carried out with some single masonry units
have shown that foundation walls are in irregular quar-
rystones and basement walls are in claved stone blocks.
Contrarily ground floor walls are in different materi-
als: internal walls are in tufa blocks, while external
ones are in claved stone blocks covered by “mazzaro”
tufa units. Finally on the upper floors claved stone
blocks have been replaced by tufa blocks. The staircase
spaces, the architraves for wide openings and the hori-
zontal structures are realized in reinforced concrete. In
particular floors consist of reinforced concrete beams
with an infill between them made of hollow clay blocks
and have a total height varying according to the span
(H = 22, 23.5, 36 cm).
ther premises, a new reinforced concrete building,
separated from the pre-existent masonry one, was
realized along its free perimeter. Figure 1 shows the
ground floor of the final buildings.The separation gaps
between masonry and concrete buildings are about
2 cm.
Moreover, in the long run, other variants were real-
ized above all in the ground floor of the masonry build-
ing, damaging the functionality and aesthetics of this
floor. In particular smaller school-rooms have been
obtained by dividing the bigger ones with partition
walls; these often divide into two the windows, too.
The partition walls, probably leaning directly on the
floor, have suffered evident cracks which have more
than once been repaired. Of course the presence of new
rooms has made it necessary to realize new openings
on the longitudinal walls, reducing their resistance.
In the light of the complexity of the described case
study, it emerges the necessity to asses the seismic
safety of both masonry and reinforced concrete build-
ings and to investigate the level of seismic pounding
risk of the adjacent structures.
2 EARTHQUAKE-INDUCED STRUCTURAL
POUNDING
By the results obtained by suitable pushover pro-
cedures performed separately for each building, it
emerged that masonry and reinforced-concrete build-
ings are vulnerable to earthquake-induced structural
pounding in the longitudinal direction.
In particular, due to the geometric configuration
of the school, a special case of impact between three
buildings occurs. In fact the reinforced concrete build-
ing is situated between two bodies of the masonry one

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 1. Ground floor of the masonry and reinforced concrete buildings.

and building separations gaps, equal to about 2 cm, The MATLAB algorithm is set in order to solve
are insufficient to accommodate the relative motions the following dynamic equation of motion in the
of the three adjacent structures. In addition the adja- longitudinal direction:
cent buildings are characterized by natural vibration
periods sensibly different, which produce out-of-phase
vibrations. Therefore an earthquake-induced pound-
ing simulation is performed, by means of non-linear
time-history analyses. with:

2.1 Numerical procedure

The commercial Finite Element code MIDAS Gen
allows to perform pounding-involved response anal-
yses simulating the impact by non-linear viscoelastic
models, while just an elastic behaviour of the storey
shear force can be assumed.
Nevertheless a preliminarily time-history analysis
of this type can be useful since, referring to a three-
dimensional model of the structures under examina-
tion, it allows to suitably calibrate some structural data
to insert in the numerical algorithm. Pounding between
the three adjacent buildings in the longitudinal direc-
tion is controlled by gap-friction elements placed
between the nodes of the models at all the storey levels.
As above mentioned, in order to evaluate more real-
istically the pounding-involved forces acting on the
reinforced concrete and masonry buildings, a suit-
able numerical procedure is elaborated by MATLAB
software. In this case, besides using a non-linear vis-
coelastic model to simulate impact, an elastic-perfectly
plastic approximation of the storey shear force-drift
relation is assumed. Each colliding 3-storey building is
modelled like a three-degree-of-freedom system, with
each storey’s mass lumped on the floor level (Fig. 2).

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where ÿi (t), ẏi (t), yi (t) (i = 1,…, 9) are the accelera-
tion, velocity and displacement of a single storey in
the longitudinal direction; FyiS (t) (i = 1, . . . , 9) are the
inelastic storey shear forces; cyi are the elastic damp-
ing coefficients; Fyij (t) (i = 1, . . . , 6) (j = 4,…, 9) are Figure 2. Numerical model.
the pounding forces between storeys with masses mi ,
where β is the impact stiffness parameter simulating
mj ; ÿg (t) is the longitudinal acceleration component
the local stiffness at the contact point, d is the ini-
of the input ground motion. The storey shear forces,
tial separation gap and ξ denotes the impact-damping
according to an elastic-perfectly plastic behaviour, are
ratio.
expressed for the elastic range by:
The term ξ is estimated using Jankowski’s formula
(Jankowski 2006):

and for the plastic range by:
Kyi and FyiY (i = 1,…, 9) being respectively the elastic
structural stiffness coefficients and the storey yield
strengths. The pounding forces in the longitudinal
direction are simulated according to the nonlinear
viscoelastic model based on the Hertz’s contact law
(Jankowski 2008):
where e is the coefficient of restitution accounting for
the energy dissipation during impact.
The correct value of the coefficient e is obtained
numerically through iterative simulations in order to
satisfy the following relation between the post-impact
(vi ) and the prior-impact (vi ) velocities (Jankowski
2005):

The stiffness parameter β is calculated as a func-

tion of the elastic properties of the colliding bodies
(Muthukumar & DesRoches 2006, Ye & Li 2009):

with:

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where υi , Ei and ρi are respectively the Poisson’s ratio, Table 1. Design conditions and seismic zone parameters.
the modulus of elasticity and the density of the material
of the i-th colliding body. Vn VR Ground
In order to solve the equation of motion (1) numeri- [years] Cu [years] Longitude Latitude type
cally, it is useful to transform the initial value problem
50 2 100 16.51◦ 41.07◦ A
of the second order into a problem of the first order.
This transformation allows to use suitable numerical
solvers provided by MATLAB software, such as the
solver ode15s. The alghoritm so obtainable represents Table 2. Seismic hazard parameters.
a simple and effective method for properly simu-
lating the seismic-pounding response between three ag /g F0 TC∗
colliding structures; it allows, with a small numer-
0.281 2.368 0.394
ical burden, to take into account both impact and
structural non-linearities, differently from many com-
mercial softwares which admit just one non-linearity.
This aspect makes the presented procedure particularly
useful for practical purpose.

2.2 Analysis results

The seismic acceleration spectrum adopted in the
present paper is calculated according to Italian code
(M.I.T 2008). The design conditions are reported in
Table 1, where Vn , Cu and VR represent respectively
the nominal expected life of the structure, the uti-
lization coefficient and the reference period for the
seismic action. Table 1 also shows the characteris-
tics of the seismic zone. Seismic hazard parameters
of the site for the no-collapse requirement (NCR) are Figure 3. Accelerogram of Bari.
reported in Table 2, where ag is the design ground
acceleration, Fo is the maximum amplification fac- Table 3. Material properties.
tor of the acceleration response spectrum and TC∗ is
the upper period of the constant acceleration branch Claved
of the response spectrum. The accelerogram (Fig. 3) stone Tufa
corresponding to the seismic motion herein consid- Reinforced concrete Masonry block block
ered has been artificially generated using the design
ρc [kN/m3 ] 25 ρm [kN/m3 ] 22 18
response spectrum just described. The values of the
Ec [kN/m2 ] 3.1·107 Em [kN/m2 ] 3.4·106 2·106
mechanical properties of materials are based on lab- νc 0.2 νm 0.25 0.25
oratory tests and are reported in Table 3, where ρi? , fcd [kN/m2 ] 12000 fd [kN/m2 ] 1400 6000
Ei and νi (i = m, c) represent respectively the unit fcfm,d [kN/m2 ] 2260 fvd [kN/m2 ] 28 90
weight, the Young’s modulus and the Poisson’s ratio of Es [kN/m2 ] 2.1·108 fhd [kN/m2 ] 700 3000
masonry (i = m) and concrete (i = c), while Es is the fyd [kN/m2 ] 3·105 fvdo [kN/m2 ] 25 84
Young’s modulus of reinforcement. Moreover fcd and
fcfm,d are respectively the design compressive strength
and mean tensile strength of concrete, while fyd is the
design yield strength of steel. Piers and spandrels are modeled by assuming an
In order to simulate the actual seismic behaviour elastic-perfectly plastic behaviour based on the plastic
of the school, non-linear static analyses are pre- hinge concept.
liminarily carried out, using detailed finite element In particular a suitable moment-displacement
models of the two buildings (Fig. 4). Since sufficient (M − δ) plastic hinge is provided at both ends of each
anchorage and bond of masonry units is provided, element, while a shear-displacement (V − δ) plastic
the behaviour of the masonry building can be simu- hinge is located at the mid-span. The flexural and shear
lated by adopting an equivalent frame element model, resistances of pier and spandrel panels are defined
characterized by an assemblage of pier, spandrel and according to CEN 2005 and P.C.M. 2005.
joint panels (Salonikios et al. 2003). The horizon- The reinforced concrete building is treated as
tal floor diaphragms can be considered rigid in their a frame element model, in which the spread of
own plane and adequately resistant to distribute lat- inelasticity is implemented through the formation of
eral loads between piers, which can absorb in-plane nonlinear plastic hinges at the frame element’s ends
forces; contrarily the pier resistance to out-of-plane during the incremental loading process. More pre-
loads is neglected. Also the tensile strength of masonry cisely pure moments hinges and axial-moment hinges
is neglected. are assigned to the two ends respectively of beams and

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 4. MIDAS Gen finite element model.
Figure 6. Pushover curves and CP target displacements of
the concrete building in the y direction.

Figure 5. Pushover curves and CP target displacements of

the masonry building in the y direction.
columns. The moment-rotation relationship of a plas-
tic hinge is modelled as a trilinear curve constituted
by the elastic segment, the hardening segment and the
softening segment (CEN 2001, M.I.T 2008). Figures
5 and 6 show respectively the capacity curves of the
masonry and reinforced concrete buildings obtained
by the pushover analyses performed in the y direc-
tion separately for each building. Figures 5 and 6 also
show the final target displacements associated to the
Collapse Prevention (CP) seismic performance level.
Observing all the capacity curves obtained, that is Figure 7. Left masonry building (node 3): a) pounding
the maximum allowable displacements of the control force history; b) displacement history.
nodes, it appears that the structures under examina-
tion are vulnerable to earthquake-induced structural Ky5 = 2.942 × 108 N/m, Ky6 = 3.133 × 108 N/m,
pounding in the longitudinal direction.
cy1 = cy7 = 5.21 × 107 kg/s, cy2 = cy8 = 5.409 ×
In order to investigate this structural aspect, Eq. (1)
is solved by the MATLAB alghoritm. The basic values 107 kg/s,
describing the structural characteristics of the build- cy3 = cy9 = 3.49 × 107 kg/s, cy4 = 2.08 × 106 kg/s,
ings under examination have been derived by the FE cy5 = 5.88 × 106 kg/s, cy6 = 6.27 × 106 kg/s,
three-dimensional model just described and are herein
Y
Fy1 = Fy2Y
= Fy3
Y
= Fy7
Y
= Fy8
Y
= Fy9
Y
= 2.37 × 107 N,
summarized: Y
Fy4 = 1.28 × 106 N, Fy5 Y
= Fy6
Y
= 1.209 × 106 N.
m1 = m7 = 2814264 kg, m2 = m8 = 1708400 kg, The non-linear viscoelastic pounding force model’s
m3 = m9 = 1621229 kg, m4 = 482290.5 kg, parameters assume the following values: β = 2.6 ×
m5 = 500952.74 kg, m6 = 323769 kg, 109 N/m3/2 , ξ = 0.25 (e = 0.73). The initial separa-
Ky1 = Ky7 = 1.04 × 1010 N/m, Ky2 = Ky8 = 1.08 × tion gap between buildings is equal to d = 0.02 m.
1010 N/m, Ky3 = Ky9 = 7 × 109 N/m, Ky4 = 1.041 × The final results of the analysis in the hypothesis of
108 N/m, elastic-perfectly plastic behaviour of the storey shear

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 8. Reinforced concrete building (node 6): a) pound-
ing force history; b) displacement history.
forces are reported in Figures 7–8. In particular Fig-
ures 7 and 8 show the pounding force and displacement
time-histories for the third storeys respectively of the
left masonry and reinforced concrete buildings. In fact
the contact points at the level of the third storeys are
the most critical ones for the pounding problem since
they correspond to the maximum pounding forces.
The results indicate that collisions have a signifi-
cant influence on the behaviour of the lighter and
more flexible reinforced-concrete building, causing
substantial amplification of the response. On the other
hand, the behaviour of the heavier and stiffer masonry
building is nearly unaffected by collisions between
structures.
3 CONCLUSIONS
In the present paper a detailed pounding-involved
response analysis of three adjacent structures has
been carried out. The study has concerned pounding
between two bodies of the “Quinto Orazio Flacco”
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
school main masonry building and the reinforced
concrete structure built in the long run along its
free perimeter. In order to investigate the pounding-
involved response, a suitable numerical procedure has
been elaborated by MATLAB software. Both a non-
linear viscoelastic model to simulate impact and a
non-linear behaviour of the storey shear force have
been employed in the algorithm, differently from
many commercial softwares which admit just one non-
linearity. The proposed procedure represents a sim-
ple and effective method for properly simulating the
seismic-pounding response between three colliding
structures.
REFERENCES
CEN, 2001. Eurocode 2. Design of concrete structures –
Part 1: General rules and rules for buildings. EN 1992-1.
CEN, 2005. Eurocode 6. Design of masonry structures.
Part 1-1: General rules for reinforced and unreinforced
masonry structures. UNI EN 1996-1-1:2006.
Ye, K. & Li, L. 2009. Impact analytical models for earthquake-
induced pounding simulation. Front. Archit. Civ. Eng.
China 3(2): 142–147.
Jankowski, R. 2005. Non-linear viscoelastic modelling
of earthquake induced structural pounding. Earthquake
Engineering and Structural Dynamics 34(6): 595–611.
Jankowski, R. 2006. Analytical expression between the
impact damping ratio and the coefficient of restitution in
the non-linear viscoelastic model of structural pounding.
Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics 35(4):
517–524.
Jankowski, R. 2008. Earthquake-induced pounding between
equal height buildings with substantially different
dynamic properties. Engineering Structures 30: 2818–
2829.
Magenes, G. & Calvi, M. 1997. In-plane seismic response of
brick masonry walls. Earthquake Eng Struct Dyn J 26:
1091–1112.
Muthukumar, S. & DesRoches, R. 2006. A Hertz contact
model with non-linear damping for pounding simulation.
Earthquake Engng. Struct. Dyn. 35: 811–828.
M.I.T., 2008. D.M. 14/01/2008. Norme Tecniche per le
Costruzioni. Ministero Infrastrutture e Trasporti, Rome,
Italy.
P.C.M., 2005. Norme tecniche per il progetto, la valutazione
e l’adeguamento sismico degli edifici. Testo integrato
dell’Allegato 2 – Edifici – all’Ordinanza 3274 come
modificato dall’OPCM 3431 del 3/5/05, Italy.
Salonikios, T., Karakostas, C., Lekidis, V., Anthoine, A.
2003. Comparative inelastic pushover analysis of masonry
frames. Engineering Structures 25, 1515–1523.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Seismic vulnerability analysis of a masonry school in the Vesuvius area

A. Formisano & F.M. Mazzolani

Department of Structural Engineering, University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

M. Indirli
Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA),
Bologna, Italy

ABSTRACT: In the current paper the seismic vulnerability evaluation of a masonry school located in Torre
del Greco is performed in the framework of the Working Group 4 (WG4) “Risk Assessment for Catastrophic
Scenarios in Urban Areas” of the COST Action C26 “Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events”.
The school building has been surveyed and its behaviour under seismic actions has been appraised by means of
different methodologies, namely the CNR-GNDT form, the VM method, the FAMIVE procedure and the 3MURI
analysis program. The achieved results have been compared each other, allowing for the complete knowledge of
the seismic vulnerability of the study building.

1 INTRODUCTION 3) University of Malta, Malta; 4) University of Aveiro,

After the 2002 Molise earthquake in Italy (Indirli,
2010), where the collapse of the primary school
“Francesco Iovine” in San Giuliano di Puglia caused
the death of 27 children and one teacher, a large atten-
tion to the problem of the seismic vulnerability of
schools has been deserved. As a consequence, the
development of a new seismic zonation of the Italian
land was done and an updated seismic code was first
promulgated and then improved during recent years
up to the release of the new technical Italian code
(M. D., 2008) with its explicative Circular (M. C.,
2009). These are the only normative reference, aligned
to modern international codes, to be employed from
2009 July 1st both for designing new buildings and
retrofitting existing ones.
Starting from these premises, the current paper
deals with the problem of assessing the seismic vul-
nerability of a historical masonry school in Torre
del Greco, a city nearby to Naples. This activity
is framed within the COST C26 project “Urban
Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events”
(http://www.civ.uth.gr/cost-c26/), which has the pur-
pose to evaluate the vulnerability of the urban built-up
towards catastrophic (natural and man-made) actions
with particular reference to the risk scenario deriv-
ing from a possible Vesuvius eruption, that has been
assumed as a study case in the WG4 “Risk Assess-
ment for Catastrophic Scenarios in Urban Areas”.
In the framework of this project, an in situ sur-
vey activity (developed in January 2009) was organ-
ised with the aim to survey residential and school
buildings. In this activity, the following Institutions
were involved: 1) University of Naples ‘Federico II’,
Italy; 2) Second University of Naples, Aversa, Italy;
Portugal; 5) ENEA (Italian National Agency for
New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic
Development), Bologna, Italy and 6) PLINIVS Cen-
tre (Hydrological, Volcanic and Seismic Engineering
Centre), Naples, Italy.
Four teams (A, B, C and D), each composed of four
people, investigated three different urbanized zones.
The first zone, including 281 buildings, coincides with
the historic centre of Torre del Greco; the second one,
with 20 buildings, is relative to a decentralized residen-
tial zone, 4 km far from the Vesuvius crater; the third
one comprises 15 schools, located on the whole city
territory. Each team inspected one area of the selected
ones, according to the distribution of Figure 1.
The attention is herein focused on the analysis of a
school building, which has been subjected to a visual
inspection, followed by a photographic survey, with
the aim to fill a ad hoc survey form, developed by
the PLINIVS Centre, for evaluating its seismic and
volcanic vulnerability through appropriate simplified
and refined methodologies. In particular, different
seismic vulnerability assessment methodologies have
been herein compared aiming at appraising the real
susceptibility of the building to be damaged under
earthquake. This activity is of a primary importance
for the programming of next retrofitting interventions.
2 THE SCHOOL “GIOVANNI MAZZA”
2.1 Historical news
From careful researches, it is established that the
erection of the school building “Giovanni Mazza”
started around 1910, before the outbreak of the

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Figure 1. The in-situ survey of some built areas of Torre
delGreco performed within the COST C26 research project.
Great War of 1915/18, and terminated in 1925/26
(http://www.primocircologiovannimazza.it/homepage/
homepage.htm). The school, which opened in 1929,
was initially dedicated to Armando Casalini, hero of
the fascist period, then to the teacher Nicola Fornelli
and finally to the poet, writer and educator Giovanni
Mazza, whose name appears in huge letters on the
pediment of the building.
The poet Mazza was born in Torre del Greco in
1877, April. His parents were traders in gold and coral.
He had a shy and reserved character. Absorbed in his
studies as a young man and his literary creations as an
adult, everything about him steeped in classical stud-
ies. So, he was wise and thoughtful according to the
canons of classical philosophy. He graduated soon in
Literature and Philosophy at the University of Naples.
He taught at the School of Humanities “Diego Cola-
marino”. Giovanni Mazza wrote and published in 1902
a collection of one hundred poems “Prime rhymes.”
Subsequently, he participated at an international com-
petition in 1843, where he won a prize for the best
Latin poem. He died in November 1943 in the midst
of war, but not because of war.
The school building was erected on a rectangu-
lar plan and developed on two floors. It was situated
in the old city, surrounded by small green spaces,
courtyards and outdoor pitches, on a subsoil char-
acterised by natural burrows, formed following the
eruption of Vesuvius. The external facade, which faced
on Veneto street, had two separate entrances: one for
the male classes and the other for women classes,
because before the fascist regime, mixed classes were
not admitted in the schools.
During the Second World War, between 1940 and
1945, people took refuge in neighboring areas of
underground tunnels that became real air-raid shelters.
Immediately after the passage of allies (1943/01/10),
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
American and British people occupied the building,
which became their headquarters for the health care,
the public policy, the reorganization of the machinery
and other municipal services.
In 1965/66, for renovation works, the school was
closed and the students were hosted in the schools
Cesare Battisti and Nazario Sauro. Also, immediately
after the tragic earthquake of 1980, November 23rd,
the school was closed again, since it was considered as
unfit to be used. For this reason, classes were hosted
by other school institutions. Finally, the school was
reopened in 1982/83 and is working now, it hosting
about 800 students having age between 3 and 11 years.
2.2 Geometrical and mechanical features
At the present time, the school building Mazza arises
with three floors (inter-storey height of 5.10 m) having
a surface of about 1200 m2 . It is composed of orthogo-
nal masonry walls made of squared tuff blocks which
do not have a good connection degree each other. The
area of masonry walls in direction x and y is equal
to 132 m2 and 150 m2 , respectively. The knowledge
level of the building is LC1 (M. C., 2009), which is
attained when both the geometrical survey and lim-
ited in-situ investigations on constructive details and
material properties are performed. Therefore, the cor-
responding confidence factor is 1.35. So, for masonry
strength and Young modulus the minimum and mean
value of the range reported in the provisions of the
Italian Ministerial Circular (2009) have been adopted,
respectively.
The school has steel beams-hollow tiles mixed
floors, but at the first floor a part of the lobby is covered
by vaults. The roof has a plain geometry with r.c.-tile
structure. Openings are of aluminium without pro-
tection and their extension is ranged, on the average,
between 25 and 50% of the building facade surface.
The plan configuration and bird-eye-views of the
school building are shown in Figure 2. The school is
characterised by a crack pattern both on the facade
(Fig. 3a) and in the internal walls corresponding to the
support of floor steel beams (Fig. 3b), whose connec-
tion with walls below is not made by RC tie beams.
3 SEISMIC VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT
METHODS
3.1 The CNR-GNDT procedure
As a first investigation tool for seismic vulnerabil-
ity assessment of the school building the procedure
setup by the National Group for Defence against
Earthquakes of the Italian Research National Coun-
cil (CNR-GNDT) has been considered. The method
evaluates the building seismic behaviour, determining
a normalised index of vulnerability obtained by filling
an appropriate survey form. The CNR-GNDT method
can be applied to stone rubblework buildings and rein-
forced concrete ones, considering that a very detailed
form exists for each one (GNDT, 1994).

Figure 2. Plan layout (a) and bird-eye views (b) of the school
Mazza.
Figure 3. Presence of cracks on the external (a) and internal
(b) walls of the school Mazza.
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The method checks the building characteristics,
i.e. type of construction, building use and state of
preservation, quality of materials, structural system,
geometric aspects of the structure, etc. These char-
acteristics are shared in eleven parameters, each of
them having four classes with relative scores and a
weight factor. The weight factors associated to these
classes tried to recognize the degree of importance of
the vulnerability factors in the structural resistance of
the building.
Finally, the normalized index of vulnerability is
obtained as the weighted sum of the product of the class
score of each vulnerability factor by its correspond-
ing weight factor. In order to facilitate the comparison
between buildings in a sample, the index is normalised
by making the ratio with the maximum value that can
be obtained from the base table, which is equal to
382.50. When the building is very susceptible to col-
lapse during an earthquake, the maximum normalized
value is 1.0. Otherwise, when the structure is free of
damage, this value tends to be zero.
3.2 The VM procedure
The methodology used in the framework of the SAVE
research project “Adjourned tools for the seismic
vulnerability of the building heritage and the urban
systems” (Dolce and Moroni, 2005) allows to eval-
uate the vulnerability of both RC (VC method) and
masonry buildings (VM method), with particular ref-
erence to public and strategic constructions, such as
schools and hospitals, aiming at reducing their seismic
risk. Such methods are based on simplified calcula-
tion models, implemented within an excel sheet, which
allow to evaluate the operational and collapse acceler-
ation levels of buildings, providing their vulnerability
as the ratio between such values and the correspond-
ing demand spectra peak accelerations given by the
code. The risk is therefore referred to the conditions
of seismic hazard of the building site, also taking into
account possible local amplification effects, and can
be expressed also in terms of return period of the
earthquake that produces the attainment of the above
limit states.
The VM method is applied neglecting the activation
of out-of-plane mechanisms, therefore considering
effective wall-floor connections, achieved by means
of RC tie beams, as well as the presence of ade-
quately stiff floors. As a consequence, only in-plane
mechanisms are considered. The model considers the
plasticity and collapse mechanisms due to shear and/or
bending-compression of masonry piers males, leading
to the global shear of the structure. The shear resis-
tance to horizontal forces is evaluated according to the
formulation of Turnsek and Cacovic (1970). This for-
mula is able to assess the pier strength when a shear
collapse occurs, while a resistance overestimation is
provided for slender piers, where the combined actions
of bending effects and compression forces are con-
siderable. In order to take into account this situation,
 a reduction factor of the shear resistance, depend-
ing on the slenderness and the average compressive
stress, is applied (M. D., 2008). The building resis-
tance is obtained by summing the contribution of piers
for each direction considered. Instead, the stiffness is
achieved by considering the pier shear and bending
deformability. Then, the method allows to transform
the storey force into the ground accelerations which
determine the achievement of the critical conditions,
namely the serviceability limit states and the ultimate
limit ones. Therefore, the maximum acceleration is
first reported to the site where the building is located,
also including amplification and spectral distortion
produced by the deformable soil foundation. Subse-
quently, this earthquake acceleration is immediately
put in comparison with the design seismic event one in
order to determine a seismic safety index Ir . Finally, the
vulnerability index can be expressed as complement to
one of Ir .
3.3 The FaMIVE method
The programme FaMIVE “Failure Mechanisms Identi-
fication and Vulnerability Evaluation” is based on the
limit analysis of external bearing walls of masonry
buildings for vulnerability assessment of European
historic city centres (D’Ayala and Speranza, 2002).
FaMIVE can be applied to either individual buildings
or a medium size group of buildings by perform-
ing a detailed analysis on the main geometrical and
structural parameters which can affect the seismic per-
formance of buildings and are easy to collect from a
street survey. First, the recurring typological layouts,
masonry fabrics and quality of materials, which are
related to the constructive practice of a given place,
are identified by operators. Later on, the geometri-
cal dimensions of accessible facades are established
and the presence of strengthening devices is assessed.
Then, the correct typological layout and material from
those surveyed is assigned to each building. This is
a crucial step in the investigation process, since it
associates to each external wall a set of informa-
tion, which otherwise would be unknown. However,
from this association, a margin of uncertainty exists,
which is recorded on the survey form. On the basis
of the information collected, the method then asso-
ciates to each external wall the loading and con-
straint conditions deduced from the survey, identifying
a group of potential mechanisms. Finally, the pro-
gramme calculate the ultimate load factor of the lateral
loads which activate the beginning of each of these
mechanisms.
This is expressed by the following relationship:
where the equivalent shear capacity (ESC) is the
collapse load factor, which is a function of the slender-
ness, the connection with other walls and floor struc-
tures, and the friction coefficient; de and di are two
factors which are function of the extension of both the
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
facade and floor structures involved in the collapse and
the catastrophic character of the collapse, respectively.
Depending on the achieved value of V , four classes
of seismic vulnerability are defined: – low (V<3.5); –
medium (3.5 < V < 7); – high (7< V < 15); – extreme
(V > 15). These classes have proven to have good
correlation with damage levels for Modified Mercalli
Macroseismic Intensity (MMI) level.
The mechanisms are then ranked in terms of both
their associated ESC and the extension of the building
involved in it, and a judgement is then made on the dan-
ger they could cause. This represents the vulnerability
of the building.
Under the practical point of view, the procedure is
developed to input directly the data in a electronic
form, where first the failure load factors are calcu-
lated for each feasible mechanism, then the lower
one is selected and finally the vulnerability class is
identified.
3.4 The 3MURI analysis software
3MURI (S.T.A.DATA, 2010) is a computer analy-
sis program for assessing the behaviour of masonry
buildings by means of static linear and non linear
(pushover) analyses. This program is based on an inno-
vative computational analysis procedure, that is the
Frame by Macro Element (FME) method, which is
able to provide all information required by design-
ers to examine in detail masonry buildings in order
to correctly evaluate their seismic behaviour. In par-
ticular, 3MURI is able to simulate the behaviour of
masonry and mixed structures, the latter characterised
by combining masonry elements with either steel, or
reinforced concrete or timber ones.
The seismic analyses can be performed on both new
and existing structures by evaluating their vulnerabil-
ity degree. When the seismic behaviour of existing
structures is not satisfactory, it is possible to improve
the earthquake safety through either reinforcing exist-
ing masonry or inserting new structural elements made
of masonry, reinforced concrete or FRP. 3MURI offers
a drawing area for setup the geometrical model of the
structure with intuitive controls, as well as both a solver
for creation and resolution of computational models
and a post-processor for immediate presentation of
results and creation of the computation report.
4 VULNERABILITY ANALYSIS AND
COMPARISON OF RESULTS
First of all, the CNR-GNDT method has been applied
to the investigated building, leading to a total score
of 131.25 which is converted to 0.34 if a normalised
scale [0÷1] is used. According to a previous study
(Formisano et al., 2010), this index should correspond
to a medium-high vulnerability level.
Second, the school has been analysed by the VM
procedure, which provides four acceleration levels
associated to the basic limit states (OLS; DLS, LSLS
Table 1. Vulnerability analysis results according to the VM Table 2. Vulnerability analysis results according to the
procedure. FaMIVE method.

Demand Vulnerability Seismic Damage Vulnerability Damage Collapse

spectra index level grade Facade ESC index index mechanism

OLS 0.29 VI 0.05 (slight) 1 0.05 19.4 1.5 A

DLS 0.33 VII 0.15 (slight) 2 0.12 8.3 1.5 B1
LSLS 0.68 IX 2.66 (heavy) 3 0.08 12.0 1.3 B1
CLS 0.70 X 3.76 (very heavy) 4 0.10 10.2 1.12 H
5 0.05 21.0 1.5 A
6 0.05 18.4 0.98 D
7 0.17 5.8 1.04 H
8 0.11 9.1 1.5 B1

Figure 4. Collapse mechanism of masonry walls contem-

plated in the FaMIVE method.

and CLS)) considered in the new technical Italian code

(M. D., 2008). If we make the complement to 1 of the
ratios between these PGA values and the maximum
accelerations of the four earthquake demand spec-
tra given by M. D. 08 (in the pilot study area for a Figure 5. 3D FEM model of the school building.
soil type B), the vulnerability indexes are calculated
(Table 1).
It is apparent that, also in this case, the seis-
mic vulnerability index of the school at ULS is of
a medium-high level. In addition, in the same table
the code seismic levels are transformed in terms of
macroseismic intensities (Grunthal, 1998) and the cor-
responding damage grades are determined (Frassine &
Giovinazzi, 2004). It is apparent that at the SLS the
building should suffer low damages only, whereas at
the ULS damages from heavy to very heavy should
occur. Figure 6. Capacity curve of the examined building in the
Later on, the FaMIVE method has been applied to direction of the main façade (dir. x).
the eight external facades of the school illustrated in
Figure 2. Within this method, the wall failure mecha-
nisms are indicated with the following letters (Fig. 4): – Finally, a FEM model of the school has been setup
A, B1, B2, C, D and E: out-of-plane mechanisms; – F by means of the 3MURI analysis program (Fig. 5).
and G: arch mechanisms; – H: in-plane mechanism. Static non linear analyses according to the provisions
The analysis results are summarized in Table 2. of M.D. 08 have been performed along plane direc-
From the table it is noticed that the facades most tions of the building. In Figure 6 its capacity curve
at risk, with very high vulnerability, are n.1 and 5, related to the most severe analysis case (dir. x) is
which exhibit a global overturning mechanism, n. 3, reported. Considering that the displacement required
characterized by an overturning involving also one by the earthquake at LSLS is 5.27 cm (Dmax ), it is
orthogonal wall, and n. 6, showing a partial over- apparent that it is larger than the ultimate displace-
turning. All the other ones, with the façades n. 4 ment (Du = 3.06 cm) characterizing the capacity curve
and 7 exhibiting an in-plane collapse, show highly of the building. So, the vulnerability index is expressed
vulnerable failures. Therefore, the building in-plane as the ratio between Dmax and Du , it being equal
and out-of-plane vulnerability is high and very high, to 1.72. As consequence, the building vulnerability
respectively. toward in-plane failure is very high.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 The comparison among the above described analy-
sis method results allow to draw interesting indications
on their reliability. First of all, it is worth noticing that
only FaMIVE is able to take into account both the in-
plane and out-of-plane behaviour of masonry walls,
whereas the others consider the in-plane failure only.
Among these, it is obvious that the most precise result
is achieved with the 3MURI software, which judges
the building as very highly vulnerable. So, this can
be considered as the reference vulnerability level for
comparison. Therefore, from the obtained results, it is
apparent that the best forecast on the building in-plane
vulnerability, as numerically predicted, is given by
the FaMIVE method, which considers a high building
vulnerability level, whereas for the other two meth-
ods a medium-high level of susceptibility at damage
is found.
For this reason, and considering also the capacity to
take into account the out-of-plane wall failures, which
are attained in this case before the in-plane ones, the
FaMIVE procedure can be judged as the most effec-
tive method in predicting the seismic behaviour of the
examined masonry building.
5 CONCLUSIVE REMARKS
In the paper the seismic vulnerability assessment of
a masonry school building in Torre del Greco has
been faced. The effectiveness of different analysis
methodologies (simplified, theoretical and numerical
procedures) in predicting the building vulnerability
has been assessed. The analysis results have shown that
all examined methods consider the building as vulner-
able to in-plane seismic actions, with a vulnerability
level changing from medium-high (CNR-GNDT and
VM) to high (FaMIVE) to very high (3MURI). Nev-
ertheless, due to the lack of RC tie beams at the floor
levels of the building, it is evident that out-of-plane
failures are attained before in-plane ones. For this rea-
son, the FaMIVE method, which is the only procedure
among the examined ones able to take into account
also the out-of-plane collapse of masonry walls, can
be considered as the most effective analysis process
in predicting the whole seismic behaviour of masonry
buildings.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
REFERENCES
Circular n. 617 published on 2009, February 2nd (M. C.).
2009. Instructions for application of “New technical
codes for constructions” (M. D. 14/01/08) (in Italian).
Official Gazette of the Italian Republic n. 47, Ordinary
Supplement n. 27.
D’Ayala, D. & Speranza, E. 2002.An integrated procedure for
the assessment of seismic vulnerability of historic build-
ings. Proc. 12th European Conference on Earthquake
Engineering, Paper Reference 561.
Dolce, M. & Moroni, C. 2005. Seismic vulnerability and
risk assessment of public buildings by the VC (rein-
forced concrete vulnerability) and VM (masonry vul-
nerability) procedures (in Italian). Internal report of the
Dept. of Structures, Geotechnical and Geology applied to
Engineering of the University of Basilicata.
Formisano, A., Florio, G., De Masi, G., Delli Priscoli, G.,
Landolfo, R. & Mazzolani, F. M. 2010. Seismic vulnera-
bility analysis of historical centres: a GIS application in
Torre del Greco. Proc. of the COST C26 Final Conference,
Naples, September 16–18 (accepted for publication).
Frassine, L. & Giovinazzi, S., 2004. Comparison of databases
for the seismic vulnerability analysis of residential build-
ings: an application for the city of Catania (in Italian),
Proc. of the 11th Italian Congress “L’Ingegneria Sismica
in Italia”.
Grunthal, G. 1998. European Macroseismic Scale 1998.
Chaiers du Centre Europèèn de Géodynamique et de
Séismologie 15, Luxembourg.
http://www.civ.uth.gr/cost-c26/.
http://www.primocircologiovannimazza.it/homepage/home-
page.htm.
Indirli, M. 2010. Natural multi-hazard and building vulner-
ability assessment in the historic centers: the examples
of San Giuliano di Puglia (Italy) and Valparaiso (Chile).
Ph. D. Thesis, University of Trento.
Ministerial Decree of Public Works published on 2008,
January 14th (M.D.). 2008. New technical codes for con-
structions (in Italian). Official Gazette of the Italian
Republic.
National Group for Defense against Earthquakes (GNDT).
1994. 1st and 2nd level vulnerability and damages detec-
tion forms (masonry and RC structures) (in Italian).
S.T.A. DATA. 2010. 3MURI. General description, version 4.
http://www.3muri.com/3muri/documenti/3MuriGeneral-
Description.pdf
Turnsek, V. & Cacovic, F. 1970. Some Experimental Results
on the Strength of Brick Masonry Walls. Second Interna-
tional Brick Masonry Conference, Stoke-on-Trent.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

A quick methodology for seismic vulnerability assessment of historical

masonry aggregates

A. Formisano & F.M. Mazzolani

Department of Structural Engineering, University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

G. Florio & R. Landolfo

Department of Constructions and Mathematical Methods in Architecture, University of Naples
“Federico II”, Naples, Italy

ABSTRACT: The work deals with the proposal, the validation and the application on a large scale of a quick
methodology for seismic vulnerability assessment of masonry building aggregates typical of the historical centres
of Italian towns. The proposed procedure has been firstly setup by performing parametric analyses on a masonry
structural unit representative of the municipality of Sessa Aurunca. Then, a masonry building block has been
initially chosen within a built up area of the historical centre of Torre del Greco, a town in the district of Naples,
and afterwards numerically analysed for the form validation. Finally, the proposed methodology has been applied
on the aforementioned urbanised area of Torre del Greco, allowing also to plot a damage map of investigated
buildings with respect to a given ground shaking level.

1 INTRODUCTION from both the numerical and the theoretical point of

In many cases, Italian historical centres are the conse-
quence of an uncontrolled urban development, since
the major part of buildings located there have been
erected in continuity each other, giving rise to struc-
tural complexes developed during time without any
constructive rule.
As a consequence, historical building aggregates
are the result of the progressive growth of towns, in
which elevation floors are added to existing buildings
and plan enlargements are made by adding structural
cells to the previously existing ones, so that adjacent
units often share the same boundary wall (Giovinazzi
et al., 2004). As a result, it is very difficult, if not
impossible, both to distinct the structurally indepen-
dent units and to identify the global response of the
building aggregates. Therefore, seismic vulnerability
assessment of masonry blocks in the Italian historical
centres represents a specific and very actual problem.
The main difficulties of this task are related to the
low knowledge level of the structures, which were in
many cases built in absence of anti-seismic design reg-
ulations, particularly due to the absence of drawings or
reports. In addition, the analysis of these building com-
plexes should require the complete modelling of all
structural units. Considering that this is a very difficult
job, in the present paper a simplified method to per-
form a first screening on the vulnerability assessment
of aggregated structural units has been implemented
aiming at individuating the cases most at risk under
earthquakes, which will be then analysed into detail
view.
First, a new methodology has been defined and a
parametric analysis on a typical masonry structural
unit in Sessa Aurunca, a town close to Caserta in the
Campania region, has been executed. The achieved
results have been initially applied on a masonry block
of the same town. Second, the procedure has been vali-
dated on a masonry building aggregate of the historical
centre of Torre del Greco, a town in the district of
Vesuvius about 20 Km far from Naples. Finally, the
proposed method has been applied on a large num-
ber of masonry building aggregates positioned in the
historical centre of the same volcanic town, also with
the purpose to assess their damage under the possible
seismic event that could occur in that area.
2 THE PROPOSED SEISMIC VUNERABILITY
METHODOLOGY
2.1 The form implementation
Generally, seismic vulnerability analysis aims to eval-
uate the construction density in a particular zone
in order to evaluate the propensity of the buildings
to undergo a specific damage level against a given
intensity earthquake. Therefore, several methodolo-
gies have been developed to assess seismic vulnera-
bility, based on either quick or mechanical procedures,
according to the different detail levels.
The applied methodology has been originally pro-
posed in Formisano et al. (2010) in order to quickly

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 assess the seismic vulnerability of structural units
within masonry aggregates. This procedure has been
implemented on the basis of the well known Benedetti
and Petrini’s form (1984), generally used for a speedy
estimation of the vulnerability of isolated masonry
constructions. This simplified technique consists of
the assignment of a score (s) to ten different geometri-
cal and structural factors collected in a form in order to
calculate a vulnerability indicator. Each factor is dif-
ferentiated into four vulnerability classes (A, B, C D),
classified from the lowest (A) to the highest vulnera-
Figure 1. The FEM model of the masonry structural unit in
bility grade (D). The class score ranges from 0 to 45,
Sessa Aurunca used in the parametric analysis.
since the method does not take into account parame-
ters reducing the vulnerability by means of a negative
the assumed model allows to follow the progressive
score. The influence of the single parameter on the
decrease of the element strength and stiffness dur-
seismic behaviour is measured by means of a specific
ing the analysis, by modelling an hysteretic structural
score multiplier, that is the weight (w). So, the final
behaviour. The ultimate shear deformation is referred
vulnerability index is expressed as the sum of class
to the maximum drift value designated from the Italian
scores multiplied by the corresponding weights.
code (0.4%).
The form herein proposed aims to extend the orig-
So, by using the calculation model of the 3MURI
inal one to masonry building blocks by taking into
software, parametric analyses on a typical structural
account the effects deriving from interaction among
unit within a masonry building aggregate located in the
adjacent buildings. To this purpose, the following
municipality of Sessa Aurunca, a small town placed
five additional parameters have been introduced in
in the province of Caserta, have been implemented
the basic form: 1) presence of adjacent buildings
(Formisano et al., 2010).
with different height; 2) position of the building in
The examined construction (Fig. 1) has a vertical
the aggregate; 3) number of staggered floors among
structure made of 60 cm thick tuff squared stones with
aggregated buildings; 4) effects of either structural or
a reduction of 10 cm in thickness at each floor. Mixed
typological heterogeneity among adjacent structural
r.c. – hollow tiles floors with r.c. tie beams are used
units; 5) percentage difference of opening areas among
at each storey. In particular, the presence of these tie
adjacent facades.
beams allows to assume that the walls were effectively
The synthetic vulnerability index is obtained in
connected to the floors and, therefore, only the in-
the same manner already described for the original
plane seismic mechanisms have been investigated due
form. Therefore, the scores to be assigned to classes
to the high probability of occurrence. The values of the
and weights of the new performance modifiers have
structure mechanical properties, that is compressive
been opportunely calibrated by means of the numerical
and shear stresses and the Young modulus, have been
model explained in the following section.
assigned as foreseen in the Italian Code (M. D., 2008).
Pushover analyses along the longitudinal (x) and
2.2 Calibration of weights and scores of the new
transverse (y) directions of the building have been per-
factors
formed by assigning horizontal forces proportional to
In order to calibrate scores and weights of the new its first vibration mode. For the spectrum definition the
five additional parameters, some parametric analyses following parameters have been considered: – subsoil
have been performed on the numerical model of a type A; – topographic category T1; – ordinary build-
masonry structural unit typical of the urban tissue of ing (class of use II) with nominal life of 50 years. The
the Campania region. so-called mechanical vulnerability index IM has been
Such a calibration activity has been carried out evaluated according to the N2 method (Fajfar, 1999)
by using the 3MURI non linear numerical software, as the ratio between the maximum horizontal displace-
distributed by S.T.A.DATA. (2010). This program is ment of the building in the analysis direction under
based on the Frame by Macro Element (FME) cal- the assigned system of forces Dmax and the ultimate
culation approach and considers only two collapse one before collapse Du , both of them provided in the
mechanisms, namely the compression – bending fail- pushover analysis (Cattari et al., 2004).
ure and the shear one. In the first case, the effective Several parametric analyses have been performed
redistribution of the compression due to the reduc- reproducing the boundary condition of each addi-
tion of the section is considered when the maximum tional form parameter, in order to calculate a different
strength is reached. Therefore, the ultimate displace- index for each single case. In particular, the base
ment depends on the maximum drift value expected structural unit has been modelled between two units
for this mechanism (0.6%), as provided by the new having features so to reproduce from the numeri-
technical Italian code (M. D., 2008). Instead, in case cal point of view the distinctive features of each
of shear mechanism, the phenomena is defined by the class of each additional parameter introduced in the
the Mohr-Coulomb model on the basis of the Gam- original survey form. The scores have been defined
barotta – Lagomarsino joint (S.T.A.DATA, 2010). So, so that the difference among the indexes associated

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 1. The new proposed form for seismic vulnerability
assessment of masonry building blocks.

Class score (s)

Weight
Factors A B C D (w)

1. Organization of 0 5 20 45 1
vertical structures
2. Nature of vertical 0 5 25 45 0.25
structures
3. Location of the 0 5 25 45 0.75
building and type
of foundation
Figure 2. The examined masonry block in Sessa Aurunca.
4. Distribution of plan 0 5 25 45 1.5
resisting elements
5. Plain regularity 0 5 25 45 0.5
6. Vertical regularity 0 5 25 45 0.5÷1
7. Type of floor 0 5 15 45 0.75÷1
8. Roofing 0 15 25 45 0.75
9. Details 0 0 25 45 0.25
10. Physical conditions 0 5 25 45 1
11. Presence of adjacent −20 0 15 45 1
buildings with
different height
12. Position of the building −45 −25 −15 0 1.5
in the aggregate
Figure 3. model of the masonry block.
13. Number of staggered 0 15 25 45 0.5
floors
14. Effect of either
structural or typological
heterogeneity among
steel-tile floors on other storeys, where in some cases
adjacent structural units −15 −10 0 45 1.2 also RC tie beams are allocated.
15. Percentage difference A numerical model of this building aggregate has
of opening areas among been implemented by means of the 3MURI software
adjacent facades −20 0 25 45 1 (Fig. 3) in order to compare the achieved results with
the ones deriving from the form application.
The pushover analyses have been performed by
with different classes of each parameter is proportional modelling each of the single structural unit both as iso-
to the difference among the corresponding mechani- lated and as part of the block. The seismic behaviour
cal vulnerability index values obtained in the analyses of buildings has been assessed along their longitudinal
performed in the most severe direction (direction x). (x) and transverse (y) direction, considering the force
Instead, the definition of weights has been performed distribution proportional to their first vibration mode.
for each parameter considering as a first step the abso- Finally, two different mechanical vulnerability indexes
lute value differences of the vulnerability index among have been evaluated for each structure considered as
classes. Then, the weights have been assigned to each isolated (IM1 ) or within the aggregate (IM2 ). The global
new parameter proportionally to this difference, repre- vulnerability indicator IM has been obtained as the
senting the influence of each parameter on the building ratio between IM2 and IM1 in the most vulnerable direc-
seismic behaviour. Finally, these weights have been tion, that is the longitudinal one (x). On the other hand,
homogenized with those of the original form. the quick vulnerability index IV has been calculated as
The final version of the new form is depicted in the ratio between the vulnerability index IV1 achieved
Table 1, where the new factor background is grey. by applying the Benedetti and Petrini’s form and the
index IV2 obtained by means of the compilation of the
new form. Similarly to the application of the numeri-
2.3 The form application
cal model, the IV1 refers to the building considered as
The effectiveness of the new proposed procedure isolated, while the IV2 refers to the aggregate condition.
has been proved by analysing a historical masonry The comparison among results of the two different
aggregate located in Sessa Aurunca. methodologies is shown in Table 2, while the values
The study case is a building block composed of distribution is displayed in Figure 4. It is noticed that
5 different structural units having a vertical structure when the structural unit is within the block its seismic
made of squared tuff masonry stones (Fig. 2). vulnerability is reduced if compared with the one of
The block develops along a curtain on the street and the same building considered as isolated. In addition,
has an elongated shape. Its constitutive units have 2 or the classification of the building vulnerability is the
3 stories and different types of floors, such as vaults same with the two applied methods. This proves the
with or without ties on the ground level and mixed effectiveness of the proposed form.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 2. Comparison between the results of the two vulner-
ability assessment forms.

Numerical model Vulnerability form

IM1 / IV1 /
Isolated Aggregate IM2 Isolated Aggregate IV2
Unit IM1 IM2 IM Iv1 Iv2 Iv

1 0.51 0.58 1.15 25.00 29.75 1.19

2 0.38 0.35 0.93 12.15 12.15 1.00
3 0.55 0.50 0.90 34.38 24.88 0.72
4 0.68 0.70 1.03 51.74 48.89 0.94 Figure 5. Plan and bird-eye views of the study masonry
5 0.47 0.45 0.97 20.49 20.96 1.02 aggregate in Torre del Greco.

Figure 4. Distribution of the two calculated vulnerability

indexes IM and IV . Figure 6. Plan view of the masonry block ground floor.

Table 3. Masonry mechanical properties of the aggregate

3 THE FORM VALIDATION structural units.

Aiming at validating the new proposed survey form, fm τ0 E G w

the analysis of a study case represented by an Unit [N/cm2 ] [N/mm2 ] [N/mm2 ] [N/mm2 ] [kN/m3 ]
existing masonry building aggregate in the his-
torical centre of Torre del Greco has been done. 1 100 3,5 1080 180 16
The study complex is within a pilot area, selected 2 80 2,8 900 150 16
3 110 3,5 1020 170 16
for the seismic and volcanic risk management in
4 100 3,5 1080 180 16
the framework of the COST Action C26 “Urban 5 120 4,2 1260 210 16
Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events”
(http://www.civ.uth.gr/cost-c26/).
The examined masonry block (Figs 5 and 6) con-
sists of 5 structural units made of tuff stones having
a regular layout but with different mechanical prop-
erties (Table 3). The horizontal structures consist of
vaults without tie beams at the first level and mixed
steel-hollow tiles floors at the other levels, while the
roofing structures have a plain configuration.
Similarly to the study case of Sessa Aurunca, the
same methodological approach with the 3MURI anal-
ysis program has been followed. Therefore, each struc-
tural unit has been modelled both as isolated and as part
of the aggregate system (Fig. 7) and pushover analyses
Figure 7. FEM model of the masonry aggregate in Torre del
according to two different load distributions defined in Greco.
M.D. (2008), namely forces distribution proportional
to the masses and to the first vibration mode, have been case of Sessa Aurunca, the mechanical vulnerability
executed in both plane directions of buildings. index. The vulnerability analysis results are illustrated
Subsequently, according to the Capacity Spec- in Table 4, where it is evident that the same conclu-
trum Method (CSM), the capacity curves have been sions of the case of Sessa Aurunca are drawn for the
compared with the demand spectrum provided by the analysis case in direction x. Contrary, in direction y,
code in order to define, analogously to the analysis the aggregate condition of structural units does not

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 4. Mechanical vulnerability indexes obtained by
means of the numerical analyses.

Isolated Aggregate condition

dmax du dmax du
Unit Dir. (cm) (cm) IM,i (cm) (cm) IM,a

1 X 2.58 1.79 1.44 2.27 1.36 1.67

Y 1.98 2.04 0.97 1.78 2.20 0.81
2 X 1.17 1.65 0.71 1.14 1.81 0.63
Y 0.54 1.75 0.31 0.69 1.77 0.39
3 X 3.58 3.40 1.05 2.85 1.92 1.48
Y 1.77 2.27 0.78 1.67 2.00 0.84
Figure 8. The building n. 2 within the masonry building
4 X 3.86 2.44 1.58 2.70 2.49 1.08
block examined in Torre del Greco.
Y 1.62 2.26 0.72 1.75 1.51 1.16
5 X 3.89 1.87 2.08 2.62 2.50 1.05
Y 0.99 1.44 0.69 1.53 1.16 1.31 to validate the proposed quick evaluation methodol-
ogy, so to consider the forms as a reliable indicator of
the seismic vulnerability of masonry aggregates into
Table 5. Comparison among vulnerability indexes calcu- historical centres. This methodology does not allow to
lated according to the two assessment procedures. evaluate the damage grade that buildings into masonry
aggregates should suffer under earthquakes, but per-
IM,a IM,a mits to identify the most vulnerable units in order to
Unit IV Longitudinal (X) Transverse (Y) establish the priority of retrofitting interventions, to
be performed on the basis of subsequent numerical
1 22.24 1.67 0.81
2 8.58 0.63 0.39
activity results.
3 21.84 1.48 0.84
4 21.75 1.08 1.16
5 19.82 1.05 1.31 4 LARGE SCALE APPLICATION OF THE NEW
FORM

always reduce their susceptibility at damage as respect
to the isolated case. The distribution of the seismic
vulnerability indexes numerically calculated IM is dis-
played inTable 4 for the two different analysis direction
considered.
Later on, the new quick methodology for seismic
vulnerability assessment of building blocks has been
applied to this study case and the achieved index val-
ues Iv have been compared with the numerical ones
(Table 5).
The comparison among vulnerability index values
related to the two examined methodologies illustrated
in Table 5 allows to declare that the most vulnerable
direction in the numerical analyses is the longitudinal
one. Therefore, according to a vulnerability classifi-
cation in the longitudinal direction, the building n. 1
is the most vulnerable one, while the building n. 2
is less vulnerable than others. The latter conclusion
is due to the fact that building n.2 (Fig. 8) is com-
posed of good quality tuff masonry blocks and is
characterised by regularity both in plan and in ele-
vation. Furthermore, this unit is surrounded by three
taller buildings and it occupies an internal position in
the aggregate. These characteristics certainly reduce
its seismic vulnerability, improving the unit struc-
tural performances under earthquake. In addition, if
the results deriving from applying the two methods
are compared, it is apparent that the simplified tech-
nique provides the same vulnerability classification as
respect to the mechanical method applied in the lon-
gitudinal direction. Therefore, the comparison allows
The validation of the proposed investigation form for
seismic vulnerability assessment of masonry blocks
has allowed its application on the whole pilot area
of Torre del Greco selected within the COST C26
research project.
The data used for the methodology application were
achieved during specific visual in-situ inspections of
the aggregates of the zone. During this survey activity,
the geometric and mechanical properties of about 300
buildings were collected.
After the survey campaign, the seismic vulnerabil-
ity of the built up has been firstly estimated on the basis
of the Benedetti and Petrini’s form (Fig. 9) and, later
on, by means of the new one, whose results in terms
of normalised vulnerability index have been managed
through the Geographic Information System (GIS)
application, leading to the vulnerability map of Fig-
ure 10. The comparison among results has shown that,
averagely, when the buildings are in aggregate, their
seismic vulnerability grade is one level lesser than the
grade relative to the same constructions considered as
isolated.
In a subsequent study phase, aiming at surmounting
the problem of the damage level definition of masonry
buildings grouped in aggregates, the results of a pre-
vious investigation have been employed (Frassine &
Giovinazzi, 2004). Therefore, according to the classi-
fication of damages provided by the European Macro-
seismic Scale (Grunthal, 1998), five different damage
levels, namely light, moderate, heavy, very heavy and
destruction, have been defined. Then, considering the

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 9. Seismic vulnerability assessment by of the
Benedetti and Petrini’s procedure.
Figure 10. Seismic vulnerability assessment by means of
the new method proposed for historical masonry blocks.
Figure 11. Damage map of masonry building aggregates
for an earthquake with TR = 975 years.
earthquake at Life Safety Limit State given by M. D. 08
for the area of Torre del Greco under study, the damage
level of masonry building aggregates has been plot-
ted (Fig. 11). From Figure 11 it is observed that most
buildings should suffer heavy damages. Furthermore,
the most vulnerable buildings are located at either the
corner or the end of aggregates and are made of bad
quality sack masonry sustaining deformable floors.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
5 CONCLUSIONS AND FURTHER
DEVELOPMENTS
In this paper the issue of seismic vulnerability assess-
ment of masonry building aggregates within Italian
historical centres has been treated. These structures
show a different behaviour as respect to isolated con-
structions, since adjacent buildings influence each
other during earthquakes. So, in order to study their
seismic behaviour, a quick procedure has been pro-
posed and validated on study cases in Sessa Aurunca
and Torre del Greco, respectively. In particular, in the
latter case, the validation has been done by compar-
ing the achieved synthetic vulnerability indexes with
the ones obtained under numerical way. The analysis
results have shown that the proposed technique pro-
vides the same vulnerability classification defined in
the numerical method.Also, the most vulnerable build-
ings are the ones having the major number of floors
and located at the corner of the aggregate. Instead, the
less vulnerable buildings occupy an internal position
within the aggregate and are among taller buildings.
Finally, the proposed form has been applied to a his-
torical centre area of Torre del Greco, showing that, on
average, the aggregate condition improves the seismic
performance of the single buildings compared to the
isolated ones.
REFERENCES
Benedetti, D. & Petrini, V. 1984. On the seismic vulnerability
of masonry buildings: an evaluation method (in Italian),
L’Industria delle Costruzioni 149: 66–74.
Cattari, S., Curti, E., Giovinazzi, S., Lagomarsino, S.,
Parodi, S. & Penna, A. 2004. A mechanical model for the
vulnerability analysis of the masonry built-up at urban
scale (in Italian). Proc. of the 11th Italian Congress
“L’Ingegneria Sismica in Italia”, Genoa.
Fajfar, P. 1999. Capacity Spectrum Method based on Inelastic
Demand Spectra. Earthquake Engng. and Struct. Dyn. 28:
979–993.
Formisano, A., Florio, G., Landolfo, R. & Mazzolani, F.M.,
2010. A method for seismic vulnerability assessment of
historical aggregates (in Italian). Proc of the Workshop
Wondermasonry “Design for Rehabilitation of Masonry
Structures”, Ischia.
Frassine, L. & Giovinazzi, S. 2004. Comparison of databases
for the seismic vulnerability analysis of residential build-
ings: an application for the city of Catania (in Italian).
Proc. of the 11th Italian Congress “L’Ingegneria Sismica
in Italia”, Genoa.
Giovinazzi, S., Balbi, A. & Lagomarsino, S., 2004. A vul-
nerability method for buildings into historical centres (in
Italian). Proc. of the 11th Italian Congress “L’Ingegneria
Sismica in Italia”, Genoa
Grunthal, G. 1998. European Macroseismic Scale 1998.
Chaiers du Centre Europèèn de Géodynamique et de
Séismologie 15, Luxembourg.
http://www.civ.uth.gr/cost-c26/.
Ministerial Decree (M. D., 08), 2008. Technical codes for
constructions. Official Gazette of the Italian Republic
published on January 14th.
S.T.A. DATA. 2010. 3Muri User Manual, rel. 4.0.0, Torino.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Seismic vulnerability analysis of historical centres: A GIS application

in Torre del Greco

A. Formisano & F.M. Mazzolani

Department of Structural Engineering, University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

G. Florio & R. Landolfo

Department of Constructions and Mathematical Methods in Architecture, University of Naples “Federico II”,
Naples, Italy

G. De Masi & G. Delli Priscoli

Consultant Engineers

M. Indirli
ENEA (Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development),
Bologna, Italy

ABSTRACT: The Geographical Information Systems (GIS) represents a suitable approach for seismic risk
assessment of large territorial zones, since it allows both to easily manage different types of data related to a
number of surveyed buildings and to prepare damage scenarios deriving from different locations of earthquakes.
The main goal of the current work is the GIS implementation of the seismic vulnerability and damage analysis
results on existing masonry buildings in the historical centre of Torre del Greco, in order to prevent their
susceptible damaging under future earthquakes.

1 GENERAL

Italy has experienced destructive earthquakes through-

out its history. In particular, Naples represents a typical
example of a city sufficiently close to seismogenic
zones to suffer serious damages due to both the seismic
phenomena and the volcanic one, the latter because of
its closeness to Vesuvius.
Generally, it is known that the volcano Vesuvius
eruption should have an explosive behaviour, char-
acterized by pyroclastic surges and flows, lahars, ash
and tephra fall out, which could provoke the evacua-
tion of about 600.000 people from an area of about
200 km2 around it (Nunziata et al., 2000). There-
fore, the risk management is very difficult, because Figure 1. Municipalities in the province of Naples and
of both the degraded conditions of the historical built identification of the land of Torre del Greco with indication
environment and the high density of population. In of occurred earthquakes (Mw,max = 6.99 in the study area).
addition, the coastal area, located at south of the Vesu-
vius and subjected to environmental crisis, represented Vesuvius region as investigation area, in order to
by anthropic pressures, expansions towards agricul- evaluate the impact of the volcano on built up for
tural areas, processes of degradation, abandonment both minimizing life loss and implementing protection
and congestion, could be seriously compromised from measures for cultural heritage and ordinary buildings.
a possible eruption, also deriving from the sea. Within this area, Torre del Greco (Fig. 1), a city about
For this reason, the Working Group 4 (WG4) 20 Km far from Naples, is one of the municipali-
“Risk Assessment for Catastrophic Scenarios in ties most exposed to the Vesuvius risk, since it was
Urban Areas” of the COST Action C26 “Urban destroyed in the eruption of 79 A. D. Furthermore, this
Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events” town is interesting from the architectural and historical
(http://www.civ.uth.gr/cost-c26/) has selected the viewpoint, it presenting a large monumental heritage,

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
such as Roman archaeological ruins, monasteries,
churches, villas and museums. Therefore, an investi-
gation area of its historical centre has been selected as
a study case with the purpose to develop both vulner-
ability analyses and damage scenarios of the built up.
In particular, in the present paper, through the
application of a speedy procedure, the vulnerability
assessment of buildings has been made and the conse-
quent expected damage levels they should suffer under
different degrees of ground shaking have been eval-
uated. A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a
powerful tool able to integrate different types of infor-
mation in an unique platform. Therefore, it is possible
to conceive a digital archive in which alphanumeric,
geographic (vector or raster) and narrative (text docu-
ments, historical data, etc.) data can be stored, queried
and crossed. Various institutional actors can access and
reference this core database, in order to support the
decision-making process, implementing and/or modi-
fying the information. The tool could be also based
on WebGIS technology for the dissemination of the
stored data.An interesting GIS application is presented
at this COST Action C26 Final Conference (Indirli
et al., 2010), being a reference point of the WG4 since
the beginning of the Action. In fact, during the MAR
VASTO International Project (MAR VASTO, 2007),
multi-hazard maps (earthquake, tsunami, landslide
and fire) for the city of Valparaiso (Chile) and architec-
tonic/urban planning/structural vulnerability studies
for a historic Valparaiso district, partially located in
the UNESCO zone, had been developed. This experi-
ence showed the importance of a reliable GIS platform,
which can organise a huge amount of data in a clear
and user-friendly system, crossing information of gen-
eral interest with hazard maps and building inventories
for target sectors. Also in the framework of the inves-
tigation activity regarding the Vesuvius area, the GIS
has played a leading role, not only in the organization
and representation of the acquired data, but also in the
result elaboration phase. In fact, the GIS application
has permitted the visual and immediate representation
directly on the digital cartography of vulnerability and
damage maps to be used in the next future to setup a
priority program of preventive measures for protecting
the examined historical centre.
2 FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY
2.1 Survey of a pilot area
In January 2009 the WG4 members of the COST C26
research project performed a survey activity on a pilot
study area of Torre del Greco (Fig. 2) in order to
assess the built up behaviour under seismic and vol-
canic actions. The data were collected in situ through
an external visual inspection of the buildings by using a
specific quick investigation methodology. The survey
technique consisted of the in-situ identification of the
most relevant construction properties under both the
volcanic and the seismic point of view. This procedure,
commonly used by the Civil Protection Department,
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 2. The pilot area selected within the historical centre
of Torre del Greco.
is implemented in a synthetic form subdivided in the
following eight different sections:
1. Identification of the structure, referred to the geo-
graphical localization of the building given by the
Campania region.
2. General information, referred to the type (ordinary
building, warehouse, electrical station, etc), use,
destination and exposure of investigated buildings.
3. Condition, referred to the building age and the
finishes state of conservation and typology.
4. Descriptive characteristics, referred to geometri-
cal parameters of buildings, such as the number of
storeys above the ground, the number of residen-
tial apartments, the presence of basement, the first
storey height, the maximum heights up to the roof,
the presence of barriers with height larger than 2 m,
the orientation (angle between either the longest
or the main façade and the North) and the position
of the structural unit in the aggregate.
5. Structural characteristics, referred to the main
building typology (reinforced concrete, masonry,
wood, steel and mixed), the material of the primary
vertical structures (sack masonry with or with-
out reinforcements, hewn stones masonry, masonry
or tuff blocks, RC frames with weak or resistant
claddings, etc.), the primary horizontal structure
type (timber floor, steel-tile floor, concrete-tile
floor, vault, etc.), the roofing geometry (plane,
single pitched, multi pitched and vaulted), the wall
thickness and the typology of curtain walls (tuff
blocks or squared stones, concrete blocks, etc.).
6. Openings, referred to the dimensions of open-
ings and their percentage area with respect to the
façade, the number of small, typical and large win-
dows, together with their material, protection and
condition.
7. Interventions, regarding the age and the type of the
performed restoration works.
8. Regularity, referred to the in plan and in eleva-
tion distribution of curtain walls, the structure type
(single or two-directional frames, single or two-
directional walls and walls with frames), the soft-
storey mechanism (pilotis on a part of the ground
floor, totally open ground floor and intermediate
soft-storey) and the possible presence of stocky
columns.
 Subsequently, all the above collected data are orga-
nized and put in a database, in order to have at disposal
geometrical and structural characteristics of the built
environment to perform a vulnerability analysis on the
selected territorial area.

2.2 Organization and processing of acquired data:

the GIS approach
The post-survey phase was the computer transfer of
the collected data with the aim to be managed into a
GIS database.The GIS represents a suitable instrument
for multi-disciplinary studies, where it is essential to
cross the data and verify, from many points of view, the
effects deriving from specific territorial phenomena.
In particular, analyses with GIS allow to capture, store, Figure 3. The investigated pilot area: main structural
typologies.
analyse, manage and show data linked to a specific
zone. Moreover, in the emergency management, the
GIS approach is a strategic support for development
of analyses, studies and procedures for the evaluation
of urban and territorial risks.
For vulnerability assessment purpose, a suitable
elaboration of data acquired over the whole pilot area
has been carried out in the GIS environment.
By processing these data, homogeneous groups
of buildings have been identified, their main fea-
tures being displayed in several thematic maps cre-
ated by means of the ArcGIS version 9.2 software
(http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/index.html).
These maps are related to the main structural typo-
logy (Fig. 3), the class of age (Fig. 4), the number of
floors (Fig. 5), the state of conservation (Fig. 6) and the
main vertical (Fig. 7) and horizontal (Fig. 8) structures Figure 4. The buildings of the investigated pilot area: age
of study constructions. classes.
For each of these groups, the percentage of build-
ings belonging to a specific subcategory is provided.
In particular, for the main structural typology, it can
be noted that the 80% of the buildings has a masonry
structure, while the 9.5% is made of reinforced con-
crete. Other important information on the surveyed
constructions are reported as follows: 1) 58% of
buildings was built before 1919, while 18% of them
was erected between 1919 and 1945; 2) the majority
of buildings has 3 floors (38%), whereas 25% of them
has 4 floors and 17% of them has 2 floors; 3) 38% of
the built up has a mediocre state of conservation, while
30% and 21% of buildings is in a good condition and
in a poor state of maintenance, respectively; 4) 46% of
buildings is made of tuff or squared masonry stones,
4% of them has a hewn stone masonry and 29% of Figure 5. The buildings of the investigated pilot area:
them is composed of a sack masonry structure; 5) 51% number of floors.
of buildings has floors consisting of steel beams and
hollow flat tile, 16% of them is made of either mixed building categories with the purpose to assess the seis-
concrete-tile or r.c. floors and 16% and 5% of them has mic vulnerability of the historical aggregates within
vaults without and with tie beams, respectively. There- that area by using a rapid evaluation technique.
fore, by observing the several thematic maps shown in
the previous figures, the most relevant data and infor-
mation necessary to the vulnerability management of 3 SEISMIC VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT
the investigated area can be achieved. OF MASONRY BUILDING AGGREGATES
Within the GIS tool, automatic procedures have
been created and performed in order to process Seismic vulnerability analysis usually aims to the eval-
and share out the data collected from the identified uation of the built up density in a particular zone in

585
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 6. The buildings of the investigated pilot area:
conservation state.
Figure 7. The buildings of the investigated pilot area: main
vertical structures.
Figure 8. The buildings of the investigated pilot area: main
horizontal structures.
order to evaluate the building propensity to undergo a
specific damage level versus a given intensity earth-
quake. This activity has been carried out in the present
paper with reference to the masonry building blocks
of the selected pilot area. The seismic vulnerability of
the building complexes has been quantified through a
specific index, evaluated by means of the application
of a methodology compatible with the available data.
In particular, the applied procedure consists on a quick
methodological approach proposed in Formisano et al.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 9. Vulnerability map of the surveyed area according
to the original form.
(2010a) on the basis of the well known Benedetti and
Petrini’s vulnerability assessment form (1984). First
of all, the speedy approach is founded on the eval-
uation of fifteen different geometrical and structural
factors of buildings. In particular, the ten vulnerabil-
ity factors of the original Benedetti and Petrini’s form
have been integrated by five additional parameters
considering the interaction of structural units when
inserted within aggregates. So, a new survey form is
defined, it being used to extend the basic investigation
methodology to masonry building aggregates.
Later on, the assignment of a score (s) to these fac-
tor is done. This score is differentiated into four classes
indicated with A, B, C and D, where A and D represent
the lowest and highest vulnerability grade, respec-
tively. Indicating with (w) the factor weight, which
represents the influence of each parameter on the seis-
mic behaviour of the building, a synthetic vulnerability
index is obtained according to the following equation:
The calibration of scores and weights to be assigned
to these performance modifiers of the behaviour of
aggregated buildings under quakes has been carried
out by the support of a numerical model of a typical
structural unit located in Sessa Aurunca, a small town
in the district of Caserta (Formisano et al., 2010b).
The analyses have been developed by means of the
3MURI numerical software for analysis of masonry
structures. Initially, both the original form and the
new one have been compiled for each structural unit
within the selected area, leading to different vulnera-
bility indexes. Then, the calculated index values have
been expressed in a centesimal scale directly in the
GIS environment and, therefore, two different vulner-
ability maps have been created (Figs 9 and 10). From
figures, it is noted that the two applied methodologies
keep the same vulnerability scale, although the original
methodology overestimates the effective seismic vul-
nerability of the buildings in aggregate, since it does
not take into account the significant parameters typ-
ical of the interaction among adjacent constructions.
In fact, it is apparent that, in the case under question,
the aggregate condition makes the structural units one
 Table 1. Earthquakes considered in the damage analysis.

Macro-seismic level S
TR (years) ag (m/s2 ) MCS scale (MMI scale)

101 0,83 VII 8

475 1,61 VIII 10
975 2,06 IX 11
2475 2,72 X 12

Figure 10. Vulnerability map of the surveyed area according

to the new form.

level less vulnerable than the same units considered

as isolated. So, the aggregate condition improves the
seismic performance of the single buildings compared
to the isolated ones. In addition, the analysis results
show that the most vulnerable buildings were built
before 1919, develop on 3–4 storeys and have a poor
or mediocre conservation state. Moreover, their verti-
cal structures, which sustain either mixed steel-hollow
Figure 11. Damage map for an earthquake with TR = 101
tile floors or vaults, are made of sack masonry. Instead, years.
regarding the aggregate condition, it is apparent that
the most vulnerable buildings are the ones comprised
between lower constructions and placed at either the
corner or the end of the block.

4 HAZARD ESTIMATION AND MEAN

DAMAGE GRADE

Once the new seismic vulnerability indexes of build-

ings are known, a deterministic correlation between
them and the expected seismic input have been done
in order to estimate the seismic damage within the
examined area. In fact, considering that the vulner-
ability index does not give information about the
damage level caused by earthquakes, an appropriate
formulation based on previous studies (Frassine &
Giovinazzi, 2004) can be used to evaluate the mean
damage grade (µD ) of buildings on the basis of the
following trigonometric expression:
where: µD = mean damage grade; Q = ductility factor
equal to 2.3; S = macro-seismic level ranging from 1 to
12 (Grunthal, 98); VI = vulnerability index correlated
to the Iv value through the following equation:
The earthquake scenario for different seismic inten-
sities has been considered by changing the macro-
seismic level S, so to obtain different values of µD
related to different values of the seismic acceleration
Figure 12. Damage map for an earthquake with TR = 475
years.
ag (Table 2). In particular, the mean damage grade has
been calculated for 4 different seismic events, defined
in the new technical Italian code (M.D, 14/01/08) and
identified in Table 1 by both their return period (TR )
and the corresponding macro-seismic level. The varia-
tion of the mean damage grade of each structure within
the studied area for each of the seismic events listed
in Table 1, is shown in the damage maps created by
means of the GIS instrument (Figs 11, 12, 13 and 14).
In the previous figures the following damage levels
can be identified (Grunthal, 1998): – Light, for µD
ranging from 0 to 1; – Moderate, for µD ranging from
1.1 to 2; – Heavy, for µD ranging from 2.1 to 3; – Very
heavy, for µD ranging from 3.1 to 4; – Destruction, for
µD ranging from 4.1 to 5.
The analysis results have shown that at Life Safety
Limit State the major part of buildings should suffer a

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 13. Damage map for an earthquake with TR = 975
years.
Figure 14. Damage map for an earthquake with TR = 2475
years.
heavy damage with large and extensive cracks in most
walls and failure of roof tiles and chimneys. Instead,
considering the possible earthquake occurring after
the Vesuvius eruption, having a degree lower than tec-
tonic quakes, it has been detected that the investigated
masonry building aggregates should undergo a dam-
age from light to moderate. In the first case, hair-line
cracks in very few walls and fall of both small pieces
of plaster and loose stones from upper part of build-
ings should occur. Instead, moderate damages should
be accompanied by cracks into many walls, fall of large
pieces of plaster and partial collapse of chimneys.
5 CONCLUSIVE REMARKS
The seismic vulnerability and damage analysis of the
historical centre ofTorre del Greco has been performed
by means of the GIS approach in this paper. First,
a vulnerability analysis by using a new survey form
proposed for buildings in aggregates has been applied
to a selected investigation area and the achieved results
have been compared with the ones deriving from
applying the basic analysis form. It has been detected
that when buildings are grouped in aggregates, the
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
structural units are less vulnerable (one level below)
than the same units considered as isolated. Further-
more, the analysis results have shown that the most
vulnerable buildings were built before 1919, develop
on 3–4 storeys, have a poor or mediocre preserva-
tion state and their vertical structures, made of sack
masonry, sustain either mixed steel-hollow tile floors
or vaults.
Finally, the damage enquiry of the pilot area under
four seismic events considered in the Italian code has
been carried out. The analysis results have shown that
at Life Safety Limit State the main part of build-
ings should suffer a heavy damage with large and
extensive cracks in most walls and failure of roof
tiles and chimneys. Instead, considering the possible
earthquake occurring after an explosive eruption of
Vesuvius, having a degree lower than tectonic quakes,
the investigated building aggregates should undergo a
damage from light to moderate.
REFERENCES
Benedetti, D. & Petrini, V. 1984. On the seismic vulnerability
of masonry buildings: an evaluation method (in Italian).
L’Industria delle Costruzioni 149: 66–74.
Formisano, A., Mazzolani, F.M., Florio, G. & Landolfo, R.
2010a. A quick methodology for seismic vulnerability
assessment of historical masonry aggregates. Proc of the
COST C26 Final Conference, Naples, September 16–18.
Formisano, A., Florio, G., Landolfo, R. & Mazzolani, F.M.,
2010b. A method for seismic vulnerability assessment of
historical aggregates (in Italian). Proc of the Workshop
Wondermasonry “Design for Rehabilitation of Masonry
Structures”, Ischia.
Frassine, L. & Giovinazzi, S. 2004. Comparison of databases
for the seismic vulnerability analysis of residential build-
ings: an application for the city of Catania (in Italian),
Proc. of the 11th Italian Congress ANIDIS, Genoa.
Grunthal G., 1998. European Macroseismic Scale 1998.
Chaiers du Centre Europèèn de Géodynamique et de
Séismologie 15, Luxembourg.
http://www.civ.uth.gr/cost-c26/.
http://www.esri.com/ software/arcgis/index.html.
Indirli, M., Puglisi, C., Screpanti, A., Romanelli, F., 2010.
Multi-hazard maps for the Valparaiso area (Chile). Proc
of the COST C26 Final Conference, Naples, September
16–18.
MARVASTO, 2007. Risk Management inValparaíso/Manejo
de Riesgos en Valparaíso, Servicios Técnicos. Project
ATN/II-9816-CH, BID/IDB-ENEA Contract PRM.7.035.
00-C, March 2007 – October 2008, www.marvasto.
bologna.enea.it.
Ministerial Decree (M. D.). 2008. Technical codes for con-
structions. Official Gazette of the Italian Republic pub-
lished on January 14th.
Nunziata, C., Luongo, G. & Panza, G.F. 2000. Mitigation of
seismic hazard in Naples and the protection of cultural
heritage. Proc. of the EuroConference on Global Change
and Catastrophe Risk Management: Earthquake Risks in
Europe, Laxenburg.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Evaluation of RVS method for pre-seismic assessment of structures utilizing

post-earthquake damage investigations

A.I. Karabinis & T.C. Rousakis

Department of Civil Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace (D.U.Th), Greece

ABSTRACT: The presented paper is focused on the evaluation of a macroscopic methodology, used to assess
pre-seismically the vulnerability of a population of existing structures in order to propose risk management
measures. The methodology is based on the rapid visual screening method (RVS) described in FEMA 154, while
it is suitably modified to account for the particularities of former and new Greek design codes and detailing
of existing structures. The RVS-modified tool has been applied after the 1999 Athens earthquake in selected
building blocks surrounding structures with heavy damage or collapse. Also it has been applied after 2003
Lefkada earthquake, Greece. At first, the structural identity of the building samples is presented that is limited
herein only to reinforced concrete buildings. The performance of the structures under investigation is discussed
relating the vulnerability to the period of design and construction of the building, the significant variation of
vertical members’ stiffness (soft story, etc), interaction among adjacent buildings and the seismic code used. In
structures with significant damage or collapse the main reasons for the reduction of the seismic capacity were
evaluated: overloading problems owed to short columns, absence of masonry infill in the ground floor, interaction
of masonry infill and reinforced concrete bearing frame, interaction of adjacent buildings, inadequate joint region
detailing, indirect supports, bad morphology of the bearing system of the structure in plan (discontinuities of
frames) or in elevation (lofts), reduced bearing capacity due to inadequate confinement, inadequate anchorages
and splices, inadequate maintenance. In carefully selected areas in Athens and Lefkada Island, there has been
performed RVS-modified of buildings in order to assess qualitatively the vulnerability of existing structures.
The accuracy of the proposed method is discussed in relation to the post-earthquake vulnerability of reinforced
concrete structures.

1 INTRODUCTION been developed in several countries (BSSC 1992a&b,

During last decades, after a strong disastrous earth-
quake, besides the main task of the state engineers
to: evaluate structural capacity of damaged buildings
in order to evacuate them or not, propose temporary
shoring measures in heavily damaged buildings, or
demolish others in order to anticipate a potential col-
lapse, significant studies take place. Many researches
aim to assess the performance of existing buildings
macroscopically (or in more depth) in order to identify
significant vulnerability parameters of existing build-
ings and propose improvements in seismic codes or
specific structural intervention measures (Sezen et al.,
2003 among others). Another area of after-earthquake
in-situ studies aims at further improvement or devel-
opment of suitable tools in order to be able to visually
identify with success the potential most vulnerable (to
a future earthquake) existing buildings among total
population of buildings of interest. The buildings are
screened pre-seismically using a feasible and thus
least time-consuming procedures in order to propose
appropriate interventions in buildings (or other sig-
nificant structures) that are expected to collapse or
suffer from irrecoverable damage. Numerous proce-
dures of Rapid Visual Screening of structures have
FEMA 154 1988, FEMA 154 2001, NZSEE 2000 &
2006, Y EXE/OA 2001 among others) vary-
ing according to the particularities and differences of
existing buildings.
Herein, the performance of the Greek procedure
(Y EXE/OA, 2001) in reinforced concrete
buildings is evaluated through post-seismic in-situ
RVS of building surrounding heavily damaged or
collapsed buildings for two disastrous earthquakes:
Athens 1999, belonging to a low seismic hazard zone
as well as Lefkada 2003, being in the most high seismic
hazard zone according to Greek Seismic Code.
2 ELABORATION OF STATE DATA AND
IN-SITU INSPECTIONS
The section of rehabilitation of earthquake-striken
people (TA in Greek) collects calls for emergency
post-seismic inspections of structures, providing sig-
nificant data for the identification of most damaged
buildings and primitive data collection for the type of
bearing system, the building materials, the period of
construction, the number of story, the cases of soft
story, etc. Also a characterization of each building

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 Figure 1. Variation of damage level for 463 reinforced concrete buildings in Athens 1999 earthquake.

according to the level of damage is given: “red” for 3.1 Collapsed buildings during earthquake
structures with heavy damage of the bearing system or
During Athens earthquake 93 buildings of the study
collapsed, that are going to be demolished, “yellow” for
had collapsed. Among them 57 buildings presented
structures with light or significant damage of the bear-
significant characteristics of local overloading: 10
ing system or heavy damage of infill walls, that have
buildings had short columns (mainly due to infill walls
to be temporarily evacuated, some of them temporarily
detailing) and 47 buildings had soft story (mainly total
shored and could be rehabilitated, “green” for struc-
or partial absence of infill walls at the ground floor).
tures with no damages, or light damage of infill walls
Another 35 buildings were found critical to interaction
or light damage only in horizontal structural members
with adjacent buildings. Also the vast majority – 89
of the bearing system (beams etc). Given primitive
buildings – were constructed prior to 1985 that is the
data for the post-seismic vulnerability of buildings,
year that a major upgrade of codes took place imposing
the research is organized in suitably chosen areas sur-
a capacity design philosophy. Among them 19 build-
rounding heavily damaged buildings for application
ings had been designed without seismic code. It should
of the Rapid Visual Screening (RVS) methodology.
be mentioned that the buildings constructed prior to
That is the RVS a tool for pre-seismic risk manage-
1985 were the ones that loss of human lives happened.
ment is evaluated post-seismically over the results of
During Lefkada earthquake only 1 reinforced con-
an experiment in 1:1 scale.
crete building had collapsed partially (figure 2). The
Herein the results are presented from the Athens
structure had short columns in the ground floor and
7th of September 1999 concerning the elaboration of
unauthorized interventions-additions at the belvedere.
RVS application to 463 reinforced concrete buildings
It was constructed before 1985. In Lefkada – belong-
including 93 buildings that had collapsed (charac-
ing to the highest seismic hazard zone in Greece – a
terized as “black”) and 202 heavily damaged ones
more conservative and earlier seismic design philoso-
(figure 1). Also the corresponding study from the 14th
phy had been developed even for structures of previous
of August 2003 Lefkada earthquake is presented for
centuries made of wood and or masonry in order to
49 reinforced concrete buildings including 1 building
resist frequent and strong earthquakes.
merely collapsed and 7 heavily damaged buildings that
had to be shored (“yellow” general category).
3.2 Heavily damaged buildings during earthquake
(to be demolished)
3 INTERRELATION OF STRUCTURAL In Athens earthquake 202 buildings of the study pre-
CHARACTERISTICS AND DAMAGE LEVEL sented very significant damage and had to be demol-
ished. Significant characteristics of local overloading
The elaboration concerns 463 buildings of Athens had been identified in 62 buildings: 10 buildings had
earthquake and 124 buildings of Lefkada earthquake short columns and 52 buildings had soft story. Another
for which there were available data. 45 buildings were found critical to interaction with

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Figure 2. Variation of damage level for 124 reinforced concrete buildings in Lefkada 2003 earthquake.
adjacent buildings. Again the vast majority – 195
buildings – were constructed prior to 1985. Among
them only 1 building (out of 194) had been designed
without seismic code, revealing the high vulnerability
of those buildings that are much more critical to col-
lapse during earthquake. During Lefkada earthquake
no reinforced concrete building was found. However, 7
heavily damaged buildings were temporarily shored in
order to be repaired and/or strengthened.
4 POST-SEISMIC RVS APPLICATION
The first (A) level of the RVS methodology was applied
according to the methodology adopted by the Organi-
zation of Anti-seismic Design and Protection (OA
in Greek). In Athens it was applied in whole building
blocks of several areas with the highest seismic inten-
sity including collapsed structures among them (Ano
Liosia, Menidi, Nea Filadelfia, Adames, Nea Kifisia).
In Lefkada the RVS was applied in areas surrounding
reinforced concrete buildings with heavy damage (city
of Lefkada, Asprogerakata, Nikiana).
The Athens sample included 463 buildings while
286 of them consisted of moment resisting frames with
unreinforced masonry infill, 177 of them consisted of
moment resisting frames and shear walls.
In Lefkada 23 buildings consisted of moment resist-
ing frames, while 8 buildings had also shear walls.
In figure 3 a typical data collection form for RVS of
a building with severe damage in Lefkada is presented
(Fig. 3b–d). The methodology concerns the identi-
fication of significant structural and non structural
parameters affecting the structural seismic vulnerabil-
ity of the building and the significance of the structure
according to its use etc. According to the type of bear-
ing system, the period of construction and the seismic
hazard of the area, a basic score comes out. Then by
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
identifying visually other significant structural param-
eters, the basic score is modified (modifiers). The final
score is compared to a milestone score in order to
sort out the potential insufficient structures. A mile-
stone score of 2 was used in the study, as proposed by
Karabinis et al. (2001).
For Athens sample of buildings (figure 4), it comes
out that the vast majority of the collapsed structures
lays below the limit score 2, that is 78 out of 93 build-
ings (84%). The remaining collapsed structures fall
near the limit score 2 with highest score of 2.5.
The structures that presented heavy damage (“red”)
have score below 2 in a number of 133 out of 202
(66%). Still the higher final score of all “red” buildings
is 2.5.
For “yellow” or “green” buildings the success of
identification of them as “sufficient” ones is 61% and
77% correspondingly.
It seems that despite the margin for further improve-
ment of the methodology, the most critical buildings
for the loss of human lives (collapsed buildings) dur-
ing earthquake could be identified with satisfactory
accuracy.
For Lefkada elaboration (figure 5) it comes out
that all structures of the sample as well as the col-
lapsed structure present a score lower than the limit
value 2. The buildings with light damage or no dam-
age in bearing system turn to be potentially insufficient
with respect to the limit score. This could be attributed
to the low basic score of the RVS methodology for rein-
forced concrete structures designed before 1985 that
are located in high seismic hazard areas. However the
80% of those buildings (damage level “green”) present
final score equal or higher than 1 and rank among the
structures with higher final scores.
Consequently, it could be concluded for the spe-
cific sample that a satisfactory prediction resulted of
the structures that presented insufficiency for the spe-
cific earthquake, while the escalation of the final score
 Figure 3. Reinforced concrete earthquake damaged structure.

Figure 4. Final structural score for buildings of Athens earthquake with different damage level (vulnerability).

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Figure 5. Final structural score for buildings of Lefkada earthquake with different damage level (vulnerability).
corresponds satisfactorily to the vulnerability level of
the structures.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The first (A) level of the RVS methodology was
applied post-seismically according to the methodol-
ogy adopted by Greek Organization of Anti-seismic
Design and Protection.
The results from the application to low seismic
hazard area (Athens) suggest that the methodology
provides a tool that could identify structures that may
collapse in a future earthquake and prevent human loss
with 84% accuracy. However, the methodology needs
further improvement in order to identify in a more
accurate way buildings with heavy damage or exclude
remaining buildings (with lower vulnerability) from
further investigations. The research could be directed
to the high basic score for some types of buildings
together with the low reduction values for some of the
modifiers concerned.
The results from the application of the RVS in a
high seismic hazard region (Lefkada) seem to be more
conservative, leading to final scores lower than the
milestone limit value of 2. This could be attributed to
the low basic score for structures designed before 1985
that are located in high seismic hazard areas.
Finally the post-seismic research should be further
rationalized by utilizing existing geological surveys or
seismic microzone studies for the soil effect on the vul-
nerability of structures. Also the structures should be
also elaborated in separate pouches of structures sur-
rounding the ones with significant damage in order to
minimize the effect of the variation of ground accel-
eration among different areas of research or of soil
type.
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REFERENCES
Sezen H, Whittaker S.A., Elwood K.J., Mosalam K.M. 2003.
Performance of reinforced concrete buildings during the
August 17, 1999 Kocaeli, Turkey earthquake, and seismic
design and construction practise in Turkey. Engineering
Structures, Vol. 25, Issue 1, pp. 103–114.
BSSC, 1992a, .NEHRP Handbook of Techniques for the Seis-
mic Rehabilitation of Existing Buildings.,developed by
the Building Seismic Safety Council for the Federal Emer-
gency Management Agency (Report No. FEMA 172),
Washington, D.C.
BSSC, 1992b, .NEHRP Handbook for the Seismic Rehabil-
itation of Existing Buildings., developed by the Building
Seismic Safety Council for the Federal Emergency Man-
agement Agency (Report No. FEMA 178), Washington,
D.C.
FEMA, 154, 1988: Rapid Visual Screening of Buildings for
Potential Seismic Hazards: A Handbook., Report No 154,
Washington D.C., USA.
Handbook (FEMA-154). 2001. 2nd Edition. ATC, Redwood
City, California.
New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering (NZSEE).
2006. Assessment and Improvement of the Structural
Performance of Buildings in Earthquake” – Recommen-
dations of the NZSEE Study Group on Earthquake Risk
Buildings.
New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering (NZSEE).
2000. An Initial Evaluation Process for Identifying Build-
ings Not Safe in Earthquake – Recommendations of the
NZSEE Study Group on Earthquake Risk Buildings –
Draft 8.
Y EXE/OA. 2001. First Level of Pre-seismic
inspections of public buildings. Athens.
Karabinis A, Fotopoulou A, Avramopoulos I. 2001. Appli-
cation of the Pre-seismic Inspection in Earthquake Dam-
aged Structures. 2nd Greek Conference of Antiseismic
Mechanics and Technical Seismology, Thessaloniki, Vol-
ume B. pp. 229–238.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Robust design of seismic up-grading of R.C. structures with innovative

bracing systems

J.-U. Sickert, M. Kaliske & W. Graf

Institute for Structural Analysis, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany

A. Mandara
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Seconda Università di Napoli, Aversa, Italia

ABSTRACT: Framed r.c. structures can be up-graded by an innovative bracing system on the basis of integrative
steel structures. The steel structures can be connected with the original r.c. structure by means of damping devices.
In the paper, a design approach is developed for the determination of the steel structure stiffness and the viscosity
of the damping devices. Thereby, a new robustness measure is applied as design objective in order to compare the
different designs. Uncertainty is considered by means of fuzzy models because of the imprecision concerning
the condition of the existing r.c. structure, the design values as well as the earthquake loading.

1 INTRODUCTION

Existing r.c. framed structures not designed for hori-

zontal forces have been found extremely vulnerable
to seismic action, both in terms of strength and
deformability. The use of innovative techniques, able
to maintain the structure in its elastic range also under
earthquakes of the highest intensity for the considered
area, comes out particularly appropriate in the case of
this type of construction, see Mandara et al. 2007 and
Mandara et al. 2009. Structural control systems based
on dynamic coupled systems demonstrated their effec-
tiveness in the application of retrofit especially in the
reduction of seismic induced vibrations and can be
relatively easily implemented and installed on exist-
ing structures (Mandara & Mazzolani 2001, Mandara
et al. 2008).
A theoretical study on the seismic improvement of
existing r.c. buildings by means of integrative steel Figure 1. 3D pictorial view of the upgraded structure with
structures and energy dissipation devices is presented scheme of the bracing system configuration.
in this paper, dealing with a two-storey reinforced
concrete frame structure, see Figure 1. The bracing
system has to be designed in terms of the applied steel
bar cross sections. Further, the properties of the cou- contains a summary of the description of uncertainty
pling between existing r.c. structure and steel frame in seismic design.
are required. The structural analysis with uncertain input vari-
The assessment of structural resistance of existing ables results in uncertain structural responses, see
structures is always linked to uncertainty which results Section 2.3. These responses provide the basis for the
from missing construction plans/documents and an assessment of robustness. In view of an quantitative
unknown load-history. Moreover, the realized values description of robustness and the here applied uncer-
of design variables describing e.g. the stiffness of the tainty model fuzziness, a suitable robustness measure
steel frame and the properties of the devices, are impre- is presented in Section 2.4. This measure allows to
cise during design process. In order to obtain realistic compare different design variants and supports the
estimates of the load-bearing behaviour and the struc- decision process. Finally, the design of the bracing
tural reliability, the uncertainty has to be considered system under consideration of fuzzy variables and the
within the design process appropriately. Section 2 introduced robustness measure is shown in Section 3.

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 2 ROBUST DESIGN AND FUZZINESS

2.1 Uncertainty in earthquake engineering

The uncertainty of the earthquake excitation results
from aleatory sources (random variations). The
description of this variations, however, is linked with
epistemic uncertainty (imprecision) due to missing
or rare data. The different characteristic of aleatory
and epistemic uncertainty demands to utilize adequate Figure 2. Fuzzy quantity x̃, convex and not convex.
uncertainty models for quantification. On one hand,
random variations may be described with probabilis-
tic methods which represent the traditional uncertainty
model. On the other hand, non-traditional uncertainty
models are more suitable for the modelling of the
imprecision because they reflect the available rare
information adequately, see Möller & Beer 2008.
The developed generalized uncertainty model should
provide the possibility to distinguish the sources of
uncertainty within the assessed structural responses
and reliability measures.
For conventional investigations of the loading case Figure 3. Support and α-level sets.
earthquake, only heterogeneous information about the
earthquake loads exists. Specifying the measure inten-
sity as an interval, a classification of seismic zones
is available. Each zone is characterized by a dedi- segmentally continuous and has the functional value
cated effective acceleration. The spectrum form is µ(x) = 1 at precisely one of the x values. In exten-
independent of intensity. More appropriate, the uncer- sion to this, a fuzzy interval has an interval [x1 ,
tainty of earthquake excitation may be quantified with x2 ] whereby all elements of [x1 , x2 ] possess the
˜
the aid of fuzzy random acceleration processes v̈(τ), membership µ(x) = 1.
˜ From the fuzzy quantity, crisp sets Aαk = {x ∈
fuzzy random velocity processes v̇(τ), or fuzzy ran-
X|µ(x) ≥ αk } may be extracted for real numbers
dom displacement processes ṽ(τ), see e.g. Möller et al.
αk ∈ (0, 1]. These crisp sets are called α-level sets.
2003.
All α-level sets are crisp subsets of the support.
The procedures to consider fuzziness in structural
For several fuzzy quantities x̃1 , . . . , x̃n on the funda-
analysis are subdivided into fuzzification, fuzzy struc-
mental sets X1 , . . . , Xn , the Cartesian product can be
tural analysis and evaluation of fuzzy results. Fuzzifi-
determined.Thereby, the product space X = X1 ×. . .×
cation is the quantification of imprecision by means of
Xn is formed, whose coordinate axes are perpendicular
fuzzy variables. Thereby, the fuzziness of the uncertain
physical structural parameters is described mathemati- to one another. The Cartesian product K̃ comprises all
cally. Fuzzy analysis means the mapping of fuzzy input combinations of elements x1 , . . . , xn of the x̃1 , . . . , x̃n .
variables onto fuzzy structural responses. The struc- The membership values µK (x) = µK (x1 , . . . , xn ) of
tural responses may be evaluated by means of infor- each n-tuple (x1 , . . . , xn ) are determined with the aid
mation condensing measures, e.g., with a robustness of the minimum operator µK (x) = min [µ(xi )]. The
measure or defuzzification. Cartesian product K̃ thus represents a n-dimensional
fuzzy set in the product space X with the membership
value µK (x).
To specify the membership function, a general
2.2 Fuzzy variables
algorithm is not available. The obtained membership
Fuzzy variables x̃ represent the results of fuzzification functions represent a subjective assessment reflecting
on the basis of the fuzzy set theory. Thereby, the clas- actual facts. It is reasonable selecting simple functions
sical set theory which provides binary assessment to to describe the membership function µ(x), e.g., lin-
crisp conditions is extended to permit gradual assess- ear or polygonal. Therefore, fuzzy triangular numbers
ment of the membership of elements in relation to a x̃T = x1 , x2 , x3  are frequently used which are deter-
set. This is described with the aid of a membership mined by specifying the smallest and the largest value
function. x1 and x3 (interval bounds of the support) as well as
The membership function µ(x) is denoted as stan- the value x2 belonging to µ(x2 ) = 1.
dardized, if the maximum functional value is equal to If the fluctuation of an uncertain parameter depends
one. If µ(x) monotonically decreases on each side of on time, fuzzy processes may be defined. A fuzzy pro-
the maximum value the fuzzy quantity x̃ is referred to cess of the form x̃(τ) is the result of the uncertain
as convex, s. Figure 2. mapping of the fundamental set T ⊆ R onto the set
A fuzzy number is a convex, standardized fuzzy F(X) of fuzzy variables x̃ belonging to the fundamental
quantity whose membership function is at least set X.

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2.3 Fuzzy analysis sufficient large number of αk , the functions µ(zj ) are
completely described in the case of convex fuzzy result
The analysis with certain (or uncertain) algorithms and
variables.
with fuzzy variables as inputs is referred to as fuzzy
In search of the largest and the smallest element
analysis. Depending on the task focused, the fuzzy
of each Bj,αk , the α-level-optimization requires the
analysis is also referred to as fuzzy structural analysis
repeated solution of an optimization problem using
or fuzzy earthquake analysis, see Marano et al. 2008,
general performance functions. A sophisticated opti-
Marano & Quaranta 2009, Sickert et al. 2009. The
mization algorithm has to be efficient, robust and
results of fuzzy analyses are also fuzzy variables z̃j .
reliable. Because standard optimization algorithms
They depend on fuzzy input variables x̃i , i = 1, . . . , I .
are limited in application, a combination of evolution
The introduction of fuzzy variables into the dynamic
strategy, gradient method and Monte Carlo methods
analysis leads to the fuzzy differential equation system
was developed as solution. This optimization method
(equation of motion)
is referred to as modified evolution strategy.

2.4 Robustness measure

The robustness of a structure may be selected as
M̃ fuzzy mass matrix D̃ fuzzy damping matrix a comprehensive design objective or as a part of a
K̃ T tangential fuzzy v̈˜ I (τ) acceleration process multi-criteria problem. However, a general definition
stiffnes matrix of the base is not established in the literature. Many approaches
The solution of Equation (1) requires: provide only qualitative construction rules which are
1) all elements x̃i out of the space of fuzzy input vari- inappropriate to compare diverse designs. More exten-
ables x̃ have to be transformed into the space of sive approaches on the basis of stochastic uncertainty
fuzzy result variables z̃ and models are reviewed in Zang et al. 2005. Here, the
2) the membership functions µ(z) have to be deter- robustness measure for fuzzy variables
mined.
The transformation x̃ 6 z̃ according to 1) is realized
with the aid of the mapping z̃ = f(x̃). f(.) represents
the deterministic model of the fuzzy analysis. Fuzzy
model variables m̃r are included in the model M lead-
ing to an uncertain mapping f̃ = M̃. In the analysis
algorithm, they are considered just like the fuzzy input
variables x̃i .
The determination of membership values µ(zj ) is suggested which is based on the more general mea-
of the elements zj of the fuzzy result variables z̃j sure presented, e.g., in Graf et al. 2010. Therein, the
[p]
according to 2) is feasible with several methods. The uncertainty of fuzzy load variables x̃i and additional
[p]
extension principle in combination with the Carte- fuzzy inputs x̃k is related to the uncertainty of the
sian product of uncertain sets utilizes the max-min- [p]
fuzzy results z̃i,j . The robustness of the p-th design
operator. The application demands the discretization depends on the uncertainty measure M(.), penalty
of the fuzzy input variables x̃i in almost indefinitely functions P
(.) and weighting factors k
. Uncertainty
points along the xi -axes. This leads frequently to measures M(.) for fuzzy variables assess the variability
numerical problems. Therefore, a method is required, in terms of fuzziness. They are determined by means
which discretizes the axis of the membership values of the membership function, e.g. with
µ – in contrast to the extension principle – and which
does not presume special requirements of the mapping
like linearity or monotonicity. The developed method,
called α-level-optimization, substitutes the max-min-
operator of the extension principle, see Möller et al.
2000.
Thereby, the concept of α-discretization is adopted. For result variables, it is reasonable to include the
All fuzzy input variables are discretized using the same [p]
distance zDC between the z̃i,j and predefined design
number of α-levels αk . For a certain αk , the α-level
objectives into the measure M(.). Then, Equation (3)
sets Ai,αk form the crisp subspace Xαk by means of the
is adapted to
Cartesian product. With the mapping z = f (x1 , . . . , xn ),
elements of the α-level set Bj,αk of z̃j may be com-
puted on αk . The mapping of all elements of Xαk
yields the crisp subspace Zαk = B1,αk × . . . × Bm,αk .
Once the largest element and the smallest element
of Bj,αk have been found, two points of the member- The index N points on the normalization which is
ship function µ(zj ) are known. Repeating this for a introduced for the reason of comparability.

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Figure 4. Deformed shapes of the fundamental vibration
modes for one principal directions.
3 DESIGN OF A BRACING SYSTEM
3.1 Investigated structure
The investigated building (Figure 1) has a rectangular
plan whose dimensions are 10.80 × 20.40 m2 . The ele-
vation of the first floor is 7.40 m, whereas the second
one is at 11.10 m. It is characterized by a reinforced
concrete structure framed in the longitudinal direction
only and is designed against vertical loads, with-
out account for seismic action. Columns and beams
have rectangular 40 × 50 cm2 and 40 × 70 cm2 cross-
sections, respectively. The T-shaped hollow tile r.c.
floors have a 6 cm thick concrete slab, so that the total
depth of the first floor is 36 cm, whereas the second,
at the roof level, is 30 cm.
In Mandara & Mazzolani, 2009, the results of the
vulnerability evaluation have been published. Thereby,
a three-dimensional FEM model of the structure has
been created considering floors like rigid diaphragms
in the horizontal plane. Two nonlinear static analyses
and a set of linear and nonlinear time history anal-
yses have allowed to evaluate the vulnerability of the
structure in the as-built condition and the effectiveness
of the upgrading interventions. First of all, a calcula-
tion of the natural frequencies of the system has been
carried out. Relevant values are 0.482 s in x direction
(longitudinal – see Figure 4) and 1.256 s in y direc-
tion (transverse). The mass participation factors are
higher than 95% for such modes, so that the structure
can be assumed as a matter of fact as made of two
mutually independent SDOF systems in both x and
y directions. This consideration assumes relevance in
the determination of the optimal value of the damping
devices. In fact, a design procedure for viscous devices
based on simplified 2-DOF system can be used when
the structural dynamic behaviour can be interpreted
through two SDOF systems (Mandara & Mazzolani,
2001, Mazzolani & Mandara, 2004).
A PGA of 0.25 g has been assumed in the analy-
sis, considering the combination of site effect and the
importance of the structure regard to collapse.
The time history analysis has shown an excessive
deformability of the original structure, not compatible
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
with the structural safety and immediate occupancy
requirement after seismic events (Mandara et al,
2007, 2008). The assumed upgrading interventions are
aimed at reducing the lateral floor displacements of the
structure by means of steel braces fitted with additional
energy dissipation devices. Such devices connect the
original structure at the first floor level with rigid steel
braces and act due to the relative displacements occur-
ring between the original structure and the steel braces.
The study, presented in this paper, has been carried
out considering the connection with purely viscous
devices. As shown in Mandara et al. 2009, the reduc-
tion of horizontal floor displacements obtained thanks
to the addition of this kind of devices is greater than
the one obtained with a rigid connection of the original
structure to the steel braces.
3.2 Description of the uncertain input
parameters
No technical documentation regarding the history of
the structure is available, apart from the period of
construction, which can be dated at the end of the 60’s
of XX century, on the basis of oral testimony.
Because of the lack of technical data and in order to
find information about, the quality of structural mate-
rials, some characterization tests have been carried out
on concrete core bored specimens and steel bars taken
out of the structure. In result of the tests, the mechan-
ical resistance of concrete is evaluated by means of
fuzzy quantities. The concrete compressive and ten-
sile strength are modeled as fuzzy triangular numbers
f̃ck = 14, 16.5, 20 N/mm2 and f̃t = 1.5, 2.0, 2.5
N/mm2 , respectively. A magneto-metric survey has
been also carried out in order to locate the position
and the diameter of steel bars in beams and columns.
For the numerical study, 12 steel bars with a fuzzy
cross section area à = 2.69, 3.14, 3.21 cm2 are
considered.
In order to assess the seismic vulnerability of the
existing structure, non-linear static analyses have been
carried out under consideration of fuzzy resistance
variables. The response of the as-built structure along
both principal directions has then been evaluated in
terms of fuzzy capacity curves F − d(Figure 5). These
curves have been represented in an approximate way
by means of equivalent SDOF nonlinear relationships.
Thereby, the kernel curve with µ(d(F)) = 1 is scaled
according to
with ã = −3.3, 0.0, 6.010−3 . The steel braces are
also modeled as SDOF system with fuzzy stiffness K̃
and fuzzy mass M̃. Two variants are investigated espe-
cially: Variant 1 K̃1 = 39000, 40800, 43000 kN/m
with M̃1 = 1.1, 1.3, 1.5 t and Variant 2 K̃2 =
50000, 52500, 55000 kN/m with M̃2 =1.2, 1.55, 1.8
t. The uncertainty of the viscosity cx of the connect-
ing devices is with a fuzzy scaling factor according to
c̃ = b̃ · cx with b̃ = 0.9, 1.0, 1.1.
 Figure 7. Realization of the fuzzy displacement-time
dependency due to the Taiwan earthquake.
Figure 5. Fuzzy load-displacement dependency of the
existing r.c. frame structure.

Figure 8. Fuzzy top displacement in dependency of the

viscosity.

Figure 6. Acceleration of the Taiwan earthquake scaled to

PGA value of 0.25 g.

3.3 Fuzzy structural analysis

Nonlinear time-history analyses of the simplified
2-DOF system have then been performed consider-
ing the seismic input of El Centro (1940), Calitri
(1980) and Taiwan (1999) earthquakes, scaled to PGA
value of 0.25g. As an example, Figure 6 displays
the time-history of the ground acceleration of Tai- Figure 9. Comparison of robustness.
wan earthquake. For each seismic input, the fuzzy
maximum displacement ṽTD at the top of the struc-
ture has been calculated on the basis of the fuzzy 10 variants (two different steel braces and 5 viscosi-
displacement-time dependency, as shown for one real- ties). The three considered earthquakes represent three
ization in Figure 7. The parameter study further yields load cases. The uncertainty of the fuzzy maximum
a fuzzy function ṽTD (cx ) as presented in Figure 8 also top displacement is determined by the area (zeroth
for the Taiwan earthquake. moment) of the fuzzy results ṽTD according to Equa-
tion (3). The distance to zero is computed within the
measure M* in order to favor small values of top dis-
3.4 Robust design of steel brace and device
placement. The results of robustness analysis R3,1 are
viscosity
displayed in Figure 9. The indices point on three load
The results of the fuzzy structural analysis for differ- cases and one structural response (maximum top dis-
ent designs are compared by means of the introduced placement). The value 1.00 indicates the design with
robustness measure. Altogether, the study comprises the highest robustness.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 4 CONCLUSIONS
The paper shows the applicability of the uncertainty
model fuzziness in seismic analysis of structures in
order to describe the epistemic uncertainty which is
always linked with earthquake engineering. In result,
structural responses are fuzzy values which can be
evaluated by means of a comprehensive robustness
measure presented. The introduced approaches are
applied to design a bracing system for the seismic
up-grade of an existing r.c. structure.
REFERENCES
Graf, W., Sickert, J.-U., Pannier, S. & Kaliske, M. 2010.
Robust design with uncertain data and response sur-
face approximation. In Proceedings of 4th International
Workshop Reliable Engineering Computing (REC), NUS
Singapore, 554–574.
Mandara, A. & Mazzolani, F.M. 2001. On the Design of
Retrofitting by means of Energy Dissipation Devices. In
7th International Seminar on Seismic Isolation, Passive
Energy Dissipation and Active Control of Vibrations of
Structures, Assisi.
Mandara, A., Ramundo, F. & Spina, G. 2007. Seismic up-
grading of an existing r.c. building by steel braces and
energy dissipation devices. In XXI National Congress of
CTA, Catania.
Mandara, A., Ramundo, F. & Spina, G. 2008. Steel Bracing
for the Optimal Seismic Control of Existing r.c. Struc-
tures. In 5th European Conference on Steel and Composite
Structures, Graz.
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Mandara, A., Ramundo, F. & Spina, G. 2009. Seismic up-
grading of r.c. structures with innovative bracing systems.
Proceedings of PROHITEC, London: Taylor & Francis
Group.
Marano, C.M., Morrone, E., Quaranta, G. & Trentadue, F.
2008. Fuzzy Structural Analysis of a Tuned Mass Damper
Subject to Random Vibration. Advances in Acoustics and
Vibration, 9 pages, 2008. doi:10.1155/2008/207254
Marano, C.M. & Quaranta, G. 2009. Robust optimum criteria
for tuned mass dampers in fuzzy environments. Applied
Soft Computing, 9 1232–1243
Mazzolani, F.M. & Mandara, A. 2004. Seismic up-grading
of an Old Industrial Building by Dissipative Steel Roof-
ing. In International Seminar on. Structural Analysis of
Historical Constructions, Padova.
Möller, M. & Beer, M. 2008. Engineering computation under
uncertainty – Capabilities of non-traditional models.
Computers & Structures, 86 1024–1041.
Möller, B., Graf, W. & Beer, M. 2000. Fuzzy structural analy-
sis using α-level optimization. Computational Mechanics
26 547–565.
Möller, B., Graf, W. & Nguyen, S.H. 2004. Modeling the life-
cycle of a structure using fuzzy processes. Intern. Journal
of Computer Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering,
19 157–169.
Sickert, J.-U., Graf, W. & Steinigen, F. 2009. Structural
dynamics under consideration of imprecise probability
In Papadrakakis, M., Lagaros, N.D. & Fragiadakis M.
(eds.), ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Computa-
tional Methods in Structural Dynamics and Earthquake
Engineering (COMPDYN2009), Rhodos, p. 186, CD-
ROM (11 p.)
Zang, C., Friswell, M.I. & Mottershead, J.E. 2005. A review
of robust optimal design and its application in dynamics.
Computers & Structures, 83 315–326.
 Vulnerability and damageability of
structures under impact and explosion

© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Robustness analysis of bridge when exposed to train collision due to

derailment

I. Björnsson & S. Thelandersson

Lund University, Division of Structural Engineering, Lund, Sweden

ABSTRACT: This paper considers evaluation of structural robustness for a multi-span concrete bridge crossing
multiple rail tracks, in particular the effect of extraordinary exposures on the bridge system. A case study is
performed investigating the bridge system’s response to a train collision caused by derailment in an area near
the bridge supports. The probability of such an event occurring is estimated from derailment statistics on the
railway net. An examination of subsequent propagating actions is carried out based on mechanical and structural
considerations. Conclusions drawn here concern the issues of low probability exposures with high consequence
and possible strategies for increasing overall robustness of these types of bridges.

1 INTRODUCTION (Starossek 2009). The aim of the analysis is to deter-

Structural robustness of engineered systems has
obtained much attention from the engineering com-
munity in the past few decades in light of recent
unanticipated structural failures. The term robustness
in the context of structural engineering is still an issue
of much debate and a universally accepted interpreta-
tion is still lacking. A common robustness requirement
given by structural codes states that a structure shall
be designed and executed in such a way that it will
not be damaged to an extent disproportionate to the
original cause (e.g. CEN 2002). Although some pre-
scriptive design requirements may also be given, there
is still much interpretation and intuitive reasoning
required on the part of the engineer with regard to the
implementation of robustness in the design of struc-
tures. This paper considers the evaluation of structural
robustness for a multi-span concrete bridge and in par-
ticular the effects of an extraordinary exposures on the
bridge system.
Presently, bridges are designed and constructed to
endure what is considered normal use over the dura-
tion of the structures intended lifetime. This includes
foreseeable circumstances which may be expected
to occur, to a certain degree or magnitude, during
the bridge’s lifespan. Extraordinary and low proba-
bility events are, however, less prominent. In cases
where guidelines are given to account for these events,
there is still no guarantee that their inclusion in
the design process completely eradicates the prob-
lem. The overwhelming uncertainty attributed to their
occurrence and magnitude suggests that more detailed
investigation is required.
This paper considers the robustness of a bridge
case in terms of its collapse resistance for a given
exposure event. Collapse resistance is defined here as
the bridge’s insensitivity to accidental circumstance
mine the global response of the bridge structure to
an assumed extraordinary exposure, in this case train
collision due to derailment. The acceptable degree of
global malfunction is prescribed and the total prob-
ability of collapse evaluated. Although this approach
does not conclusively determine whether the bridge
is robust, it may provide an indication of inade-
quate robustness in which case robust promoting
countermeasures are briefly discussed.
2 ROBUSTNESS CONSIDERATIONS
The growth of structural forensic engineering as an
active professional field in the modern day engineer-
ing world leaves much to be said about the increase
of structural failures today. In light of this, it has
become even more paramount not to take short-cuts
and neglect so called improbable or extraordinary cir-
cumstances and their effect on structural performance.
Two general design cases could be considered. The
first deals with identifiable extraordinary exposures
which can be modeled in some way, intuitively or oth-
erwise, in which the structural response of the system
can somehow be gauged. The second deals with events
altogether unknown in which analysis of an assumed
damaged could be considered without identifying the
source.The aim is then to minimize the extent of poten-
tial global damage from localized failure. The ability
of a structural system to survive these events without
disproportional damage or loss of function is referred
to as robustness (Knoll & Vogel 2009). The term sur-
vival refers to the preservation of the intended function
of the structure.
There is much controversy as to a universally
accepted interpretation of robustness, methods of

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 quantifying robustness and deciding if a structure is
adequately robust (Schubert & Faber 2008). The focus
of this paper will not be of the ongoing debate over
the varying interpretations of robustness and robust-
ness assessments. The main emphasis will rather be
on investigating the effects of an assumed extraordi-
nary event for an actual structural system – a bridge
structure. In this way, the potential of a rare exposure
to cause disproportionate collapse may be evaluated.
3 BRIDGE CASE STUDY
The bridge structure being considered is a multi span
post-tensioned reinforced concrete bridge located in
Malmö, Sweden. The bridge crosses multiple rail
tracks as well as a highway. The structure has been
designed according to Swedish bridge, road and rail-
way standards; e.g. BRO 2004 (Vägverket 2004).
The focus of this paper will be to analyze the
bridge’s response to accidental circumstance, specif-
ically train collision due to derailment. The proba-
bilities associated with collision occurring will be
determined and subsequent structural responses of the
structural system as a whole will be examined. The
method of analysis which will be used to carry out
this analysis will be a probabilistic assessment and the
total probability of global collapse will be determined
for the given exposure event.
3.1 Structural bridge system
The longitudinal section of the bridge is shown in fig-
ure 1. The bridge has a total span of 172,5 m and
consists of a cast in-situ concrete cross section with
post tensioning cables running the length of the bridge.
The longitudinal geometry of the cross section varies
from span to support sections as can be seen on fig-
ure 1. The traffic running along the bridge consists
of road, cycle and pedestrian lanes and the total deck
width is around 20 m.
In addition to the bridge girder there are four inter-
nal supports and two land abutments all of which are
composed of reinforced concrete cast in-situ.The inner
supports are constructed as wall elements approxi-
mately 12 m in length. The bridge deck and supporting
sub-structure are connected using a pot bearing sys-
tem. There are a total of four bearings per support the
majority of which are uni- or multidirectional with the
exception of the central support which contains two
fixed bearings.
3.2 Transportation infrastructure
The super-system of the structural bridge system is
the surrounding infrastructure including transport net-
works such as road, railway and pedestrian networks.
Their reliance on the bridge itself is relatively local-
ized but the failure of the bridge may have varying
degrees of indirect consequences to the former. These
consequences are dependent on the topology of the
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
infrastructure network and the location of the bridge
within that network.
The transportation infrastructure in the region of
the bridge being analyzed is comprised of a series of
railroads connected to a one of the largest railway hubs
in southern Sweden and there is a relatively high traffic
density in both directions. There is a four lane road
highway running under the bridge and a double lane
road running over it.
3.3 Circumstances of failure
The first step in trying to understand the problems
associated with the collapse of the bridge is to iden-
tify the relative circumstances for which failure may
occur. A simplified expression for the total probabil-
ity of collapse can be represented as a chain of partial
probabilities in the following form:
where P(Ei ) is the probability of an exposure Ei occur-
ring, P(Fj |E i ) is the probability of local failure mode
Fj given the occurrence of Ei and P(C|F j ) is the prob-
ability of global collapse C given the occurrence of Fj .
The index i represents the number of possible hazard
scenarios and j represents the number of possible local
failure modes.
Equation (1) serves as a good indicator of the var-
ious factors that can bring about the collapse of the
bridge (Starrosek 2009). The term P(C|F j ) helps in
expressing the robustness of the system and P(Fj |E i )
refers to the property of the exposed element to resist
the hazard Ei . The latter is included in standard struc-
tural component based design whereas the former is
not directly reflected in the verification procedures
of current design codes (Starossek 2009). In order
to increase the system’s collapse resistance, counter-
measures aimed at minimizing these probability terms
should be considered. In cases where an extraordi-
nary exposure event can be identified and modeled,
the evaluation of these probabilities may be done
directly.
The exposure event examined here is the occur-
rence of train impact to a bridge support as a result
of derailment. The probability of the event occur-
ring is determined with the aid of railway accident
statistics. Mechanical and dynamic considerations of
consequent events will be used to evaluate the relative
failure and collapse probabilities from equation (1). To
determine the probability of collapse, it was prescribed
that the failure of two or more of the span sections of
the bridge deck constitutes global failure of the struc-
tural system. This is reasonable given the relatively
small span of the bridge.
The supports that were considered are the second,
third and fourth bridge supports shown in figure 1. The
next section gives an overview of the methods used
to determine the total collapse probability associated
with this scenario.
Figure 1. Longitudinal section of multi-span bridge crossing rail tracks and highway.
4 EVALUATION OF TRAIN COLLISION
The hazard scenario which was considered is a train
collision to supports 2, 3 & 4 as a result of derailment.
The examination of this scenario starts with a check
of the probabilities associated with train derailment
near the bridge, on track adjacent to a support and in
the direction of that support. Then the corresponding
impact force to the bridge support and the proba-
bility of support failure can be determined. Finally,
the behavior of the remaining bridge structure given
support failure can be analyzed.
4.1 Train derailment towards support
The probability of a train leaving the track in a direction
towards one of the bridge supports is determined with
the aid of a probabilistic derailment model developed
by Fredén (2001) for the Swedish National Railway
Authority (Banverket). The calculation model deter-
mines the expected number of derailments per year on
Swedish railways based on accident statistics between
the years 1985 and 1995 (Sparre 1995). The model
accounts for the varying causes of derailment, such
as heat distortion or misaligned tracks, in relation
to different exposure variables including traffic den-
sity, train type, rail type etc. The derailment rate
attributed to each cause is determined independently
as the product of an associated exposure variable, W ,
and intensity factor ξ. The total expected number of
derailments per year is then obtained as the sum of
inter-dependent linear functions:
where Wi and ξi are the exposure variables and
intensity factors associated with derailment cause i.
Once the annual derailment rate has been deter-
mined for a length of track in the region near the bridge,
the probability of the train derailing on tracks adjacent
to a support and within the critical region for which
collision is possible is evaluated. This critical region
was defined for a set of limiting derailment angles; i.e.
a maximum and minimum angle of departure from the
original direction of travel towards a bridge support.
The maximum derailment angle was determined for
a given initial velocity in which toppling of the train is
possible. In the event that a derailed train were to roll
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
onto its side, its movement becomes more restrictive
and these cases were neglected. Östlund et al. (1995)
determined an inverse relationship between this angle
and the derailment speed for toppling of a locomotive
engine.
The minimum derailment angle was determined
based on the distance between the track and support
for a given initial derailment velocity. The stopping
distance for a runaway train was analyzed in relation
to the derailment angle, velocity and distance between
the point of derailment and impact point. A simplified
single mass model was used and the friction properties
of the surrounding soil estimated; the post-derailment
model is described in the next section.
4.2 Post derailment model
The amount of research published pertaining to the
post-derailment behavior of train vehicles is consid-
erably lacking. The complexity of the post-derailment
model depends on a variety of factors including the
number of degrees of freedom (DOF) considered for
the derailment mechanism, the number of rail cars
and how the coupling between them is accounted for,
how the rail cars themselves are modeled and how
interaction between the train and the surrounding envi-
ronment is modeled. Examples include Birk et al.
(1990a,b) & Jeong et al. (2007).
The post derailment model used for this analysis
is based on a simplified derailment mechanism in
which the derailment angle and lateral movements of a
derailed train are considered (Östlund et al., 1995). The
train is represented by a single mass traveling along a
constant path governed by the derailment angle, which
is limited to a degree where rolling of the derailed
vehicle is possible. The ground force is modeled as a
Coulomb friction force acting in the reverse direction
of the velocity vector.
Events occurring just after the point of derailment,
such as interactions between the train wheels, rail
and concrete sleepers, were not considered (refer to
Brabie & Andersson 2008).
4.2.1 Impact model
There are various modeling techniques that can be used
for the evaluation of train collisions. Complex finite
element (FE) models or multi-body system (MBS)
simulations are two possible approaches (e.g. Kim
et al., 2008 & Pereira et al., 1997). These approaches,
 Figure 2. Illustrative comparison of force/crush behavior
from full-scale collision test of passenger trains (Tyrell et al.,
2000, 2002) and simplified spring model.
however, require a significant amount of input data
and are not easily applied in a probabilistic analysis.
The determination of the collision forces used for
this analysis will be based on the so called hard-
impact model (CEN 2006) in which the support wall
is assumed rigid and the impact energy is mainly dissi-
pated by the train. The train is then modeled as a single
DOF system and a linear deformation during impact is
assumed. The impact force is then determined (CEN
2006):
where m is the mass of the train, vr is the velocity of the
train at impact and k is the equivalent spring stiffness
of the train.
In order to estimate the equivalent spring stiffness
of the train, the force/crushing characteristics of the
train vehicle were considered. Given the variety of
train types that could possibly collide with the sup-
ports, significant variations should be expected. To aid
in the estimation, results obtained from two passen-
ger car impact tests will be considered (Tyrell et al.,
2000, 2002). These tests involved crashing a single and
two car passenger train set into a rigid obstacle. The
force/crushing results were plotted using interpreted
data obtained from accelerometers located at varying
key points on the train.
Figure 2 shows an illustrative comparison of the
force crushing characteristics of the train using the
spring model compared to test results (Tyrell et al.,
2000, 2002). The equivalent spring constant was
estimated to 10 MN/m.
The impact force was determined using Monte-
Carlo simulations. In this way the probability den-
sity function of the impact force can be numerically
simulated (Nowak & Collins 2000). The stochastic
variables used in the simulations included train mass,
impact speed, spring stiffness, ground friction and the
derailment angle.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 3. Cumulative distribution functions (CDFs) for the
perpendicular force component of the train impact force given
collision due to derailment.
Considering that the supports are built as walls, the
vector component of the impact force which is per-
pendicular to the wall is of special interest. Figure 3
shows the cumulative probability distributions of this
force for supports 2, 3 & 4.
4.3 Failure of support
The probability of support failure is conditioned on the
impact force and normal force in the support wall. The
failure modes that were considered depended on the
support being checked but in most cases it was mod-
eled as a fixed column where combined normal force
and bending about the weaker axis of the wall was
decisive. The probability of support failure given train
impact was determined. The resulting annual proba-
bility of failure for supports 2, 3 and 4 given train
impact was determined as 6.8 × 10−3 , 2.4 × 10−5 and
3.0 × 10−3 respectively.
Figure 4 shows a sensitivity analysis of the proba-
bility of failure for support 2 given baseline variations
of some of the variables used in the analysis.
4.4 Failure of bridge deck
The failure of the bridge deck is determined for the
sudden removal of one of the supports considered for
train collision. The structural system is then no longer
static and dynamic effects of loading for the remaining
structure must be considered. The failure of the bridge
deck is dependent on the vertical loading on the super
structure, specifically the dead loads and imposed live
loads.
To account for the dynamic effects of sudden fail-
ure of a support, a force based dynamic amplification
factor (DAF) may be utilized (Tsai & Lin 2009). In
the absence of a detailed dynamic analysis a dynamic
factor of 1.5 was assumed. This approximation was
estimated based on results from Tsai & Lin (2009) for
progressive collapse analysis of a reinforced concrete
building where it was shown that the force-based DAF

Figure 4. Sensitivity analysis of probability of support
failure given train impact for support 2.
decreases from 2.0, for perfectly elastic systems, to 1.0
with increasing ductility demand.
A plastic analysis of the flexural capacity of the
bridge deck given sudden support removal was con-
ducted; catenary action was not considered in this
analysis.
Intuitively, it was observed that the design of the
concrete deck for the fully functional bridge was deci-
sively inadequate given removal of one of the inner
support. At the instant of support removal, imposed
live loading was neglected and the loading on the
bridge was assumed to be dead loading only. In all
cases the resistance was between 25% and 60% less
than the applied load. In terms of a probabilistic analy-
sis, the expected probability of failure is likely to settle
in the vicinity of 1.
5 RESULTS
The results presented in the following sections were
determined using probabilistic methods described in
earlier sections.
5.1 System response
The evaluation of train collision due to derailment for
the bridge case determined an annual marginal proba-
bility of global system failure at 6.7 × 10−7 . In terms
of structural reliability, this corresponds to a reliability
index of β = 4.82 for a reference period of one year.
This constitutes a consequence class CC2 according
to Eurocode 0 (CEN 2002). Thus in terms of total sys-
tem failure given one rare exposure type, the bridge
is within realm of acceptable limits for code based
design.
The impact forces determined from the analysis
were compared to recommended values given by struc-
tural codes EN 1991-1-7 (CEN 2006) and BRO 2004
(Vägverket 2004). It was observed that the inclusion of
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
train collision forces given in these codes (table values)
would account for less than 50% of the collision situ-
ations as shown in figure 4. Thus the inclusion of train
impact loads in the design of the bridge structure based
on table values given in codes may not account for their
effects. It was also found that for supports 2 and 4 the
failure probabilities given train impact were signifi-
cantly high, corresponding to reliability indices less
than the recommended absolute minimum according
to Eurocode 0 (CEN 2002). However, coupled with the
probability of the train impact occurring, the support
failure probability decreased significantly.
A sensitivity analysis of the variables used to cal-
culate the system collapse probability yielded that
the normal force in the supports, the train mass and
equivalent spring stiffness of the train were governing
factors. Of these three, the spring stiffness contained
the most uncertainty and should be studied further.
In the case of a more thorough collision dynamics
analysis, possible validation procedures could be used,
such as full-scale collision testing or more detailed
computational modeling.
5.2 Qualitative consequences
In the event that a derailed train collides with the bridge
supports, an obvious direct consequence involves the
crashworthiness of the train itself, in other words,
the safety of possible passengers onboard. Given that
the support withstands the collision, there may only
be minor indirect consequences for the rail network.
On the other hand, if the support were to fail, it
was shown that global collapse was almost certain.
In which case, the consequences, direct and indirect,
material and immaterial, would be expected to increase
drastically.
The direct consequences expected to occur due to
impact include rebuild and repair cost of the bridge
structure, and possible human casualties such as those
on the train or in vehicles on the bridge deck or running
under it.
The indirect consequences include user costs as a
result of road and railway closure. The latter may bring
with it economic losses considering the volume of rail
traffic on the rails running under the bridge.
6 DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
A significant conclusion from the results of this anal-
ysis concerns issues of rare exposures that carry with
them high consequences. In the case of train colli-
sion due to derailment, the associated probabilities of
occurrence were relatively low. However, the failure
probabilities for two of the three supports given that
collision occurs were significantly higher. The result-
ing impact forces were also in most cases higher than
table values proposed by structural codes, indicating
that their inclusion in the design of the bridge do not
fully account for their effects.
It was also determined that the resistance of the
bridge deck itself was decisively inadequate given the
sudden removal of one of these supporting members.
This is an indication that the survival of the bridge
system is heavily reliant on the structural integrity of
its supporting members. Thus in terms of structural
vulnerability – the ratio of failure probabilities for a
damaged and undamaged system (Lind 1995) – the
bridge does not fare well.
On the other hand, the total collapse probability was
determined to be within the realm of acceptable lim-
its. However, this result was based solely on this one
hazard scenario. The contribution to the system fail-
ure probability given the variety of other hazard events
may cause the collapse probability to exceed accept-
able limits. Other more robust building strategies could
be considered to help with this problem. They may
include providing alternative loading paths, enabling
catenary action, etc. (Starossek 2009). While counter
measures aimed at decreasing the effects of train col-
lision specifically may include introducing localized
speed limits near the bridge, derailment rails and so on.
The important thing is to address robustness directly
in the design procedure and provide clear indications
of what is to be expected with regard to robustness.
A possible continuation of this analysis could be
the examination of other rare events, such as vehicle
collision to the support or bridge deck, explosions,
etc. The direct and indirect consequences could also
be investigated and the relevant risks associated with
these events could be quantified.
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simulation of a derailment accident: Part I – Model basis.
Journal of Hazardous Materials, 25: 121–147.
Brabie, D. & Andersson, E. 2008. Post-derailment dynamic
simulation of rail vehicles – methodology and applica-
tions. Vehicle System Dynamics. 46(1): 289–300.
Carlsson, F. 2002. Reliability Based Assessment of Bridges
with Short Spans. Licentiate Thesis. Lund Institute
of Technology. Department of Structural Engineering.
TVBK-1025. Lund.
CEN 2002. Eurocode 0 – Basis of Structural Design. Europ.
Committee for Standardization.
CEN 2006. Eurocode 1 – Actions on Structures: Part 1–7:
General Actions – Accidental Actions. Europ. Committee
for Standardization.
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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Limitations of the tying force method for providing robustness in steel

framed buildings

M.P. Byfield & S. Paramasivam

School of Civil Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

ABSTRACT: This paper examines the redistribution of loads following removal of support to columns in multi-
storey buildings. The common types of alternative load path are discussed, including arching action, double span
beam action, catenary actions in the floor system, and alternative load paths through out-rigger trusses installed
in higher floors. The tying force method relies on catenary action to redistribute loads in the event of loss of
support at lower level. The mechanics of this mechanism are investigated by way of a case study of a steel framed
building. The structure comprises composite metal decking floor slabs and composite beams with flexible end-
plate connections. The rotation capacity of the connections is determined using the component method and the
tying capacity of the connections is determined using a standardised industry design approach. The factor of
safety against (progressive) collapse is estimated at between 0.08 and 0.19, depending on the assumptions made
concerning slab strength and the dynamic amplification of loads. This study would indicate that the tying force
method may not be able to successfully redistribute loads following loss of support to single columns.

1 INTRODUCTION by these infilled wall can endanger lives, for example

Disproportionate collapse occurs when the removal of
load bearing members (one or more columns, or load
bearing walls) results in localized structural damage
which leads to further loss of load bearing members
and, ultimately complete or partial collapse. The like-
lihood of such an event occurring can be minimized
by incorporating alternative load path throughout the
design so that, in the event of loss of support to a
column due to damage, loads can be redistributed with-
out triggering a progressive failure. Substitute load
paths could include: arching action, double span beam
action, catenary actions in the floor system and alter-
native load paths through out-rigger trusses installed
in higher floors.
During arching action, the accidental load from the
removed column is transferred through compression
struts formed in the beams either side of the damaged
column, see Figure 1. Such a mechanism is possible but
only for very short span beams. In the case of infilled
steel frames, load can be transferred by a compression
strut formed in the masonry infill as shown in Figure 2.
Restricted by US practice (UFC, 2005), strut action
within masonry infill panels is highly dependent on the
fixity of the masonry within the frame. Where the con-
nection between infill and frame is lacking strut action
will not be mobilised. Furthermore, the debris created
in the Oklahoma City bombing several persons lost
their lives after being struck by structural debris gen-
erated by infill walls of a concrete frame building in
the Water Resources building across the street from
the Murrah building (FEMA, 2003). US practice rec-
ommends double span beam action in which the load
is transferred through bending as shown in Figure 3.
This method also suggests an accidental load of dead
load plus 25% of imposed load, with a dynamic ampli-
fication factor of 2 (GSA, 2003). This method can be
expensive as full moment joints are required.
The catenary action mechanism upon which the
tying method relies is illustrated in Figure 4. This
method was introduced into the UK regulations after
the Ronan Point collapse and has subsequently been
incorporated into the Eurocodes. In this approach,
all floor members are required to be effectively tied
together. The tying force approach assumes the acci-
dental load, at the time of damage, is equal to 0.3 of the
imposed load plus 1.05 of the dead load. When support
to a column is removed, adjacent beams on either side
support the accidental load through catenary action.

Figure 1. Arching action in steel beam (support to central

column lost). Figure 2. Arching action in masonry panels.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 3. Double span beam action.
Figure 4. Catenary action.
As the shear force due to accidental load (double span)
is less than the design shear force (i.e. using factored
loads), the beams do not fail by shear and the tying
force should comfortably exceed the shear force at the
connection. In practise, designers must ensure that the
tensile strength of connections is at least equal to the
design shear force. The feasibility of this method will
be studied in this paper with a case study on a typical
building frame.
2 METHODOLOGY
The mechanics of catenary action are investigated by
way of a worked example on a steel frame. Support
at ground level to the central column is removed and
the factor of safety against collapse is estimated. All
other load paths are ignored and catenary action in
the floor system is assumed to be the sole means
for supporting the column loads. In practice alterna-
tive load paths may be present; cladding may provide
emergency bracing, as can stiff internal partition walls.
Thus the example would correspond most closely to
a glass clad building with open-plan internal architec-
ture. The example frame resembles a typical medium
rise office development, using a steel frame with sim-
ple connections and incorporating composite metal
decking.
The weak link in the catenary action mechanism is
the tensile capacity of the primary beam to column
connections. The tying capacity of the end-plate con-
nections joining the perimeter beams to the columns
(Figure 5) was calculated to be 587 kN, which is
the design value determined from industry standard
design guides (SCI, 2002). In accordance with stan-
dard practice for the tying force method this capacity
was calculated in the absence of beam rotation. Clearly,
rotation will affect the tying capacity of the connec-
tion, with the tensile load capacity calculated in the
absence of rotation representing the maximum tying
capacity. The analysis presented here has included
the full tying capacity of the connection, although
the beam rotation is limited to the maximum rota-
tion available for this particular connection, which was
calculated to be limited to 4.38 degrees, beyond this
rotation the connection will fail. Small moments are
generated in the connection at this limit of rotation,
however they have little effect on the redistribution
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 5. Details of beam-column (end plate) connection.
of loads and have therefore been ignored. The com-
posite slab has a tensile (tying) capacity and this was
included in the catenary action calculations. Failure
was deemed to occur when the tensile capacity of the
catenary system was exceeded.
The floor comprises a 125 mm thick composite slab,
reinforced with A142 fabric reinforcement and formed
on 1.2 mm gauge decking. Composite action between
the beams and slab is achieved with 19 mm diameter,
100 mm high headed studs, spaced at 300 mm centres,
i.e., 40 studs in each half span of the secondary beams.
For the main beams the studs are provided at 450 mm
centres, i.e., 22 studs in each half span. The floor slab
is extended by 0.5 m beyond the edge beams to support
a curtain wall system. All bolts were M20 grade 8.8
and the member and connection details of the frame
are shown in Figure 5.
2.1 Tying capacity of the composite floor slab
The tying capacity of the slab was taken as the sum of
the axial strength, Tslab = Tdeck + Tmesh , where, Tdeck is
the strength of the profiled metal decking and Tmesh
is the strength of the mesh reinforcement embedded
in the slab. Under tension, the profiled sheet failed
either by shear or bearing or insufficient end distance.
The minimum centre-to-centre spacing of stud shear
connectors should be five times the nominal shank
diameter along the beam (BS 5950 – 3.1:1990, clause
5.4.8.4.1). Furthermore, the end distance for profiled
sheet measured to the centre line of the studs should
not be less than 1.7 times the stud diameter (BS 5950-
4:1994, clause 6.4.3). Because of these provisions the
critical failure mode is bearing. Hence, the maximum
tying force carried by profiled sheet was 42 kN/m.
Tmesh was equal to 65 kN/m. These provide a total
tensile capacity of the slab, Ts equal to 107 kN/m.
2.2 Rotation Capacity of the connection
The integrity of the catenary action mechanism mainly
depends on the response of the connection which
includes the interaction of tensile force, bending
moment and rotation. The rotation of bolted connec-
tions is mainly produced by deformation in the column

Figure 6. End Plate Connection and its T stubs.
flange, end plate and bolts. Deformation of the column
flange and end plate is estimated using the equiva-
lent T stub method, Yee and Melchers (1986). Whilst
rotation capacity was calculated based on the plastic
deformation of T-stubs (Faella et al, 2000). In a bolted
T-stub, the flanges are connected by means of two bolts
only, i.e., with only one bolt row. The deformation and
strength of the T stub, due to axial load mainly depends
on flexural strength of the flanges and axial strength
of the bolts.
In this analysis, the end plate connection shown in
Figure 6 is divided into T stubs. The force displace-
ment of each component including bolts, 2 T-stubs
and column web, up to failure is modelled based on
the non-linear stress-strain curve presented by Kato
et al. (1990). As the ultimate strength of the end plate
(116.3 kN) is the lowest among the connection com-
ponents, it is considered the weakest joint component.
The contribution in the ultimate plastic deformation
from the compression of the column web is much
lower, hence it can be ignored. The deformation of
other components is obtained corresponding to this
axial force. The sum of the deformations (correspond-
ing to 116.3 kN) of the joint components is the ultimate
deformation capacity of one bolt row which is equal
to 29.86 mm. After the removal of column support, the
column starts to drop down and the beams on either
side rotate about the joints. The joints are assumed to
rotate about the bottom of the end plate. The lateral
movement of columns is assumed to be arrested by
the composite slab (as the stiff arrangement of sec-
ondary and primary beams bonded together by shear
studs can resist the tying loads without buckling). The
rotation capacity of the connection is 4.38◦ , calcu-
lated by dividing the ultimate deformation of top most
T-stub (29.9 mm) by its distance from bottom end plate
(390 mm).
2.3 Rotation Capacity of the connection
After removal of the intermediate support, the beams
on either side of it form an inverted three hinged arch.
This is a determinate structure, can be analysed using
force equilibrium. The horizontal thrust at the support:
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Where
W1 is the reaction from the secondary beam
W2 is the reaction from the main beam plus the
weight of column for that storey
q is the UDL acting directly onto the beams
Resolving vertically provides the vertical reactions:
√
And the tying force is given by T = H 2 + V 2
The load W1 is determined by multiplying the acci-
dental limit state load by half the area supported by
beam SS1 .
3 ASSESSMENT OF FRAME AGAINST
DISPROPORTIONATE COLLAPSE
The factor of safety (FoS) against disproportionate
collapse is defined herein as the ratio between tying
capacity of the joint and tying force acting in the joint
at the maximum rotation limit for the joint, which in
this example was 4.38◦ . If the capacity is less than
that demanded from the mechanical system, then fail-
ure will occur. The FoS is calculated with and without
considering the catenary action in slab, as the contri-
bution of the reinforcement mesh and profiled sheet is
uncertain. This is because high ductility is required to
accommodate the floor displacements and it is uncer-
tain whether such a lightly reinforced element will
possess the ductility necessary, Byfield and Sakthivel
(2007). A further issue of uncertainty is the dynamic
amplification of loads. After the sudden removal of
column support, there will be loss in potential energy
as it is converted into kinetic and strain energy. Some
of this energy is absorbed by damping which includes
the deformation and cracking of the slab and defor-
mation of steelwork, before the system comes to rest.
The maximum tying force generated during this pro-
cess can be represented by the final at rest tying force
multiplied by the dynamic amplification factor (DAF).
The extent of the DAF will depend on the amount of
damping in the system, as well as the time duration of
column removal. Fire would let a column down slowly
and produce a DAF of 1.0. At the other extreme, a bri-
sance failure in the column would represent an almost
instantaneous removal of support to the column. The
extent of damping is difficult to estimate accurately
but if the system were undamped, then the DAF could
be in the region of 2.0. Since blast is the trigger for
catenary action of most interest to this study, a DAF
of 1.5 is assumed in the absence of reliable data. Con-
sidering all the above issues, the following cases are
considered to estimate lower and upper bound values
of FoS.
In this upper bound case the full tensile strength
of the slab is included and the dynamic amplification
of loads is ignored (DAF = 1.0). This case provided a
factor of safety of 0.19 and can be considered as an
upper bound estimate.
In the lower bound case we do not rely on cate-
nary action in the slab because of the uncertainty as to
 whether the slab can accommodate large deflections
without fracture. In addition, the DAF has been taken
as equal to 2.0, in accordance with US practice (GSA,
2003).
4 CONCLUSIONS
The tying force method for providing robustness to
buildings relies upon catenary action in order to redis-
tribute column gravity loads. The high tensile forces
generated must pass through the beam to column joints
and these joints must be capable of accommodating the
rotations demanded from the mechanism. This study
considered a multi-storey steel framed building incor-
porating flexible end plate connections. The rotation
capacity of the connections was approximately 4.4
degrees, beyond which the connection can be expected
to fail. This study demonstrates that the tensile loads
necessary to redistribute column loads via catenary
action far exceed the tensile capacity of the connec-
tions. Therefore in the absence of other alternative
load paths then a collapse of the floor area previously
supported by the damaged column can be expected.
In practice, alternative load paths may be present,
for example masonry panel walling may successfully
brace a damaged frame. However, sometimes build-
ings do not possess sufficiently strong alternative load
paths and this paper would suggest that such buildings
would be vulnerable in the event of loss of support to
a column.
REFERENCES
British Standards Institution (1996). “Loadings for build-
ings”, BSI, London, BS 6399: Part 1.
612
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
British Standards Institution (1990), “Structural use of steel-
work in building”, BSI, London, BS 5950: Part 3.
British Standards Institution (1994). “Structural use of steel-
work in building”, BSI, London, BS 5950: Part 4.
British Standards Institution (2000). “Structural use of steel-
work in building”, BSI, London, BS 5950: Part 1.
Byfield, M. P. and Paramasivam, S. (2007). “Catenary action
in steel-framed buildings”, Structures and Buildings, ICE,
160(5), pp. 247–257.
Faella, C., Piluso, V. and Rizzano, G. (2000). “Structural Steel
Semi-rigid Connections”, CRC Press, London.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA, 2007),
“Primer for Design of Commercial Buildings to Miti-
gate Terrorist Attacks”, FEMA 427, [Online], Available:
http://www.fema.gov/pdf/plan/prevent/rms/427/fema427.
pdf, [20/10/2007].
General Services Administration (2003), “Progressive col-
lapse analysis and design guidelines for new federal office
buildings and major modernization projects”, Office of
Chief Architect, Washington, D.C.
Kato, B. Aoki, H. and Yamanouchi, H. (1990). “Standard-
ized mathematical expression for stress-strain relations
of structural steel under monotonic and uniaxial tension
loading”, Materials and Structures, Springer Netherlands,
23(1), pp. 47–58.
Pearson, C. and Delatte, N. (2005). “Ronan point apartment
tower collapse and its effects on building codes”, Journal
of Performance of Constructed Facilities, ASCE, 19(2),
pp. 172–177.
Steel Construction Institute (1989). “Design of composite
slabs and beams with steel decking”. SCI, Berkshire.
Steel Construction Institute (2002). “Joints in Simple Con-
struction”, SCI, Berkshire.
Unified Facilities Criteria (2007), “Structural Design Crite-
ria for Buildings”, UFC-3-310-02A, [Online], Available:
http://www.wbdg.org/ccb/DOD/UFC/ufc_3_310_02a.pdf
Yee, Y. L. and Melchers, R. E. (1986). “Moment Rotation
Curves for Bolted Connections”, Journal of Structural
Engineering, ASCE, 112(3), pp. 615–635.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Effect of column loss on the robustness of a high rise steel building

F. Dinu & D. Dubina

The “Politehnica” University of Timisoara, Romania
Romanian Academy, Centre for Advanced and Fundamental Technical Sciences, Timisoara, Romania

ABSTRACT: Steel structures are extensively used for construction of high-rise buildings. Design of high-rise
steel frame buildings is mainly governed by lateral loads generated by winds and/or earthquakes. In case of
seismic design, in order to ensure an economical design, plastic incursions of some members are allowed. In
recent years, a new design methodology, called capacity design approach, was developed in the seismic codes.
According to this approach, some members are designed and detailed for energy dissipation (e.g. beams) while
others (i.e. columns) should possess adequate overstrength to avoid premature fracture which may lead to a
partial or soft storey mechanism. Structures designed according to capacity approach are expected to mitigate
the probability of collapse in case of rare earthquakes by obtaining a global plastic mechanism. These features
make seismic resistant structures less vulnerable to other hazards, such as blasts, impacts or fires. It is difficult
and uneconomical to design buildings against unknown loads produced by different hazards. In such cases, the
collapse control design may better estimate the robustness of the structure by assuming the loss of structural
members due to different accidents and asses how many members may be lost until the collapse occurs. The
capacity of seismic resistant building structures to avoid progressive collapse in case of column loss is investigated
and a case study is presented.

1 INTRODUCTION the primary requirement at the SLS is prevention of

According to modern seismic codes, design of build-
ings is carried out for two limit states: Ultimate Limit
State (ULS) and Serviceability Limit State (SLS). Two
different levels of seismic action are associated to the
ULS and SLS and may be expressed through the return
period of the seismic event. The seismic event associ-
ated to ULS is a rare one, while the one associated
to SLS is more frequent. According to the concept
of dissipative design, a multi-storey frame building
should be able to dissipate a part of energy induced
by the ground motion through plastic deformations in
dissipative zones of ductile members (e.g. beams in
Moment Resisting Frames MRF or braces in Concen-
trically Braced Frames CBF). To approach as much as
possible the global plastic mechanism configuration,
it is necessary to control the history of plastic hinges in
dissipative members. On this purpose, a good balance
between strength, stiffness and ductility of members
and connections is mandatory. In real structures, this
requirement is difficult or impossible to accomplish, as
the lateral resisting system may be designed from con-
ditions other then seismic one, e.g. wind loads. In such
cases, the seismic performance should be checked by
means of nonlinear static or dynamic analysis and, if
necessary, the elements sizes corrected.
Structures designed using large dissipation capac-
ity (expressed in the seismic codes by the reduction or
behavior factor) are expected to experience consider-
able damage under the design seismic event. Moreover,
damage which is accomplished in codes by imposing
limits on inter-story drifts, related to type of non-
structural elements (brittle or ductile). Considering
that drift limits are not related to the structural typol-
ogy, SLS criteria do not necessarily prevent damage
(plastic deformations) of structural elements.
Apart from seismic hazard, multi-story buildings
should possess sufficient robustness to avoid local
or global collapse in case of other extreme events,
like blasts, impacts or fire after earthquake. Some
researches suggested that the structural integrity of
multi-story frames of the type used in seismic zones
(e.g. Special Moment Frames) may prove benefi-
cial to prevent progressive collapse. Moreover, struc-
tural configurations and details that were developed
for structures in seismic areas have the benefit of
over fifty years of construction experience, research
and public awareness. Further, these researches have
showed that many of the techniques used to upgrade
the seismic resistance of buildings also improve
the building’s ability to resist the extreme loads
(e.g. blast) and reduce the likelihood of progressive
collapse.
Thus, Hayes et al. (2005) investigated the relation
between the seismic design and the resistance against
progressive collapse. They found that special moment
frame detailing provisions required for structures in
high seismic areas would provide better response to
external explosions or impact loads than the detailing
requirements for ordinary moment frames.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 The paper presents the evaluation of the robustness
of a 26 story building located in a high seismic area.
The structure was designed according to EN1998-1
(2004) and P100/1 (2006) seismic codes. In order to
evaluate the robustness of the building in case of blast
or impact events, the alternate load path was employed.
In order to develop a multilevel evaluation, different
extension of damage was considered. It included loss
of several columns, located at the perimeter and inside
of the building. Columns are removed one by one
and 3D dynamic nonlinear analyses are employed. The
study demonstrated the ability of the structure to with-
stand loss of several columns without global collapse
and to ensure the life-safety of building occupants in
the event of multiple threats.

2 SEISMIC DESIGN

The TCI building is located in Bucharest, has 3 base-

ments, 26 floors and a total height of 106.3 m. The
building frame system uses steel braced and unbraced
frames. The cruciform cross sections columns, made
of hot rolled profiles were partially encased in rein-
forced concrete to increase the strength, stiffness and
fire resistance. Columns cross-section varies along
the height of the building, from 2 ×HEM800 at the
base to 2 ×HEA800 at the top for square sections and
from HEB1000 ×HEM500 to HEB1000 ×HEB500
for rectangular sections. Beams and braces are made
of I hot rolled sections. S355 steel was generally used
for frame members, excepting the braces designed as
dissipative members, which are of S235 steel (Fig. 1).
Perimeter belt trusses were mounted at mid-height
and top of the building, as they reduce the top lateral
displacement under wind and seismic actions. They
also reduce the torsional effects of the structure and
improve the seismic behavior.
The actions considered in design were as follows:
– dead load: 6.2 kN/m2
– live load: 2.0 kN/m2
– snow load: gz = 1.50 kN/m2
– wind load: base pressure gv = 0.55 kN/m2
– base shear force, P100-1/2006:
– ag = 0.24 g (Bucharest)
– q = 4 (dual frame structure)
– TB = 0.16 s; TC = 1.6 s; TD = 2.0 s; β0 = 2.75
As the seismic design concept was dissipative, the
target of the design was to locate the plastic hinges Figure 1. Structural system: a) transversal frame; b) longi-
in beams, near their connections to the columns (for tudinal frame; c) current floor plan; d) view of the structure.
moment resisting frames MRF), or in the braces (for
centrically braced frames CBF). Therefore, to avoid
the development of plastic hinges in connections, TCI structure, the solution was to use haunches at
they were provided with overstrength. According to beam ends. Non-dissipative connections of dissipa-
seismic codes P100-1/2006 and EN1998-1, bolted tive braces, made by means of full penetration butt
non-dissipative connections of dissipative members welds are deemed to satisfy the over-strength criterion.
must have a moment capacity greater than 1.375 times Shear studs were welded to the column webs near the
the plastic resistance of the member. For extended end beam-to-column joints, to ensure a composite action
plate bolted connections, it is difficult to achieve this in the column and the transfer of the shear forces from
high level of over strength. Therefore, in the case of column web to the concrete.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 2. Response of bracing members.
3 PERFORMANCE BASED SEISMIC
EVALUATION
In order to evaluate the performance of the structure
under seismic actions, a performance based proce-
dure was employed. Three performance levels were
considered: serviceability limit state (SLS), ultimate
limit state (ULS) and collapse prevention (CPLS) limit
state. Intensity of earthquake action at the ULS is equal
to the design one (intensity factor λ = 1.0). Ground
motion intensity at the SLS is reduced to λ = 0.5 (sim-
ilar to ν = 0.5 in EN 1998-1), while for the CPLS limit
state was increased to λ = 1.5. Based on FEMA 356,
the following acceptance criteria were considered in
the study:
– for braces in compression, plastic deformations at
SLS, ULS and CPLS are 0.25c , 5c and 7c ,
where c is the axial deformation at expected
buckling load.
– for braces in tension, plastic deformations at SLS,
ULS and CPLS are 0.25t , 7t and 9t , where t
is the axial deformation at expected tensile yielding
load.
– for beams in flexure, the plastic rotation at ULS
and CPLS are 6θy and 8θy, where θy is the yield
rotation.
– for columns in flexure, the plastic rotation at ULS
and CPLS are 5θy and 6.5θy, where θy is the yield
rotation.
Beams and columns were modelled with fibre hinge
beam-column elements, with plastic hinges located at
both ends. In order to take into account the buckling
of the compression diagonal, the post buckling resis-
tance of the brace in compression was set 0.2Nb,Rd
(Fig. 2), where Afy is the tensile yield resistance and
Nb,Rd is the buckling resistance for compression. A
strain-hardening ratio of 0.03 was used for all of the
analysis in this study.
In order to assess the structural performance, non-
linear dynamic analyses were performed. A set of
seven ground motions were used in the analysis (see
Fig. 3). Spectral characteristics of the ground motions
were modified by scaling Fourier amplitudes to match
the target spectrum. This results in a group of semi
artificial records representative to the seismic source
affecting the building site and soft soil conditions in
Bucharest.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 3. Elastic acceleration response spectra of the semi
artificial accelerograms and design spectra (P100-1/2006,
ag = 0.24 g, TC = 1.6 s).
Table 1. Plastic rotation in beams and columns (in rad) and
plastic deformation in braces (in %) at SLS, ULS and CPLS,
average of records.
Braces Beams Columns
SLS 0.002 0.002 –
ULS 0.006 0.01 0.002
CPLS 0.009 0.015 0.0035
The results obtained from nonlinear time-history
analysis shown that the frames progress in post-
elastic range, towards a “full plastic mechanism”
configuration, as it was considered in the design strat-
egy and effectively realised by the detailing of the
steel/composite members and connections of the struc-
ture (Fig. 4, Table 1). It can be observed that structure
has adequate performance at the SLS (λ = 0.5), ULS
(λ = 1.0) and CPLS (λ = 1.5) limit states. In the dual
configuration structure, the higher energy dissipation
capacity of MRFs brings important benefits to the
overall energy dissipated by the structure by plas-
tic deformations. Plastic deformations in braces and
beams indicate an incipient damage to the structure
at SLS (ag = 0.16 g), while plastic deformations in
non-dissipative elements (columns) are completely
avoided. For the ground motion scaled to the design
acceleration (ag = 0.24 g), the maximum plastic rota-
tion in the beams of MRF is of 0.01rad and this rotation
demand increases to 0.015 rad for ag = 0.36 g.
The distribution of the maximum interstorey drifts
in transversal direction is shown in Figure 4, for
the SLS (Sa = 0.16 g), ULS (Sa = 0.24 g) and CPLS
(Sa = 0.36 g). For frequent earthquakes, associated to
SLS, the maximum inter-story drift is less then 0.005
of the story height, which was the limit adopted in
design. It should be mentioned the effectiveness of
the perimeter truss belt in reducing the top lateral
displacement.
4 STUDY OF STRUCTURAL ROBUSTNESS IN
CASE OF COLUMN LOSS
4.1 Alternate path analysis
When subjected to extreme loadings, like blast or
impact, multi-story buildings may fail in a very

Figure 4. Plastic hinges: a) side transversal frame; b) current
transversal frame.
Figure 5. Peak inter-story drift ratio vs. storey level for
transversal direction, average of records.
specific manner, called progressive collapse. Progres-
sive collapse refers to the spread of an initial local
failure from element to element, eventually resulting
in a disproportionate extent of collapse relative to the
area of initial damage. Localized damage due to direct
air-blast effects may or may not progress, depend-
ing on the design and construction of the building.
Previous studies showed that seismic resistant struc-
tures may survive to such events, mostly due to the
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
redundancy incorporated in the structure (FEMA 277,
1996). In order to evaluate the robustness of the struc-
ture in case of column loss, alternate load path method
was used. The alternate load path method provides a
formal check of the capability of the structural sys-
tem to resist the removal of specific elements, such
as a column at the building perimeter. The method
does not require characterization of the threat causing
loss of the element, and is, therefore, a threat indepen-
dent approach. An advantage of this approach is that it
promotes structural systems with ductility, continuity
and energy absorbing properties that are desirable in
preventing progressive collapse. This method is also
consistent with the seismic design approach. The seis-
mic codes promote regular structures that are well tied
together. They also require ductile details so that plas-
tic rotations can take place. The alternate load path
approach assumes a hypothetical damage state that
ignores all other damage to the structural members that
may accompany the loss of critical column support in
the real situation.
The transition from the original structural con-
figuration to the damaged state is assumed to be
instantaneous, exposing the structure to a dynamic
effect. Dynamic effects are taken into account in differ-
ent ways depending on the analytical technique used.
Because it is not reasonable to require a structure
to respond elastically to the effects of an instanta-
neous column removal, structures are permitted to
develop plastic hinges and sustain significant inelas-
tic deformations when subjected to these extreme
loading conditions. This enables the structure to dis-
sipate significant amounts of energy that would oth-
erwise impose much greater dynamic loadings to the
individual members.
Depending on the level of protection (LOP) and the
importance of building, the UFC 4-023-03 guidelines
(2009) recommends considering the dynamic effects
due to instantaneous removal of a column in different
ways. If a static nonlinear analysis is performed, the
dynamic effect of gravity load is simulated through an
amplification of the gravity loads above the affected
area, only. This dynamic increase factor DIF can vary
from 1.15 to 2, depending on the level of allowable
plastic deformation in the members. The DIF can be
chosen as a function of the level of nonlinear behav-
ior (i.e., structural performance level) that the designer
wishes to employ or, else, the level of nonlinear behav-
ior can be assigned, resulting in a specific DIF. If
dynamic analysis is performed, the removal of the
member should take place in a fraction of the period
of vibration associated with the expected structural
response mode. This fraction can be considered one-
tenth to one-twentieth of the corresponding period of
the structure.
4.2 Analytical results
In a previous study (Dubina et al. 2010), the robust-
ness of the structure was investigated using a nonlinear
static procedure. The amplification due to sudden col-
umn removal was simulated by an amplification of
Figure 6. Application of vertical load on the model with lost
column in the dynamic analysis.
Figure 7. Column removal locations.
the dead load above the affected area by a factor of 2.
In this paper, dynamic analysis for progressive col-
lapse was carried out using initial conditions of the
unloaded, undamaged structure. This allows the mod-
eling of the dynamic loss of the column using the
unstressed state or initial conditions. The load com-
bination for dynamic analysis is D + 0.5 L + 0.2 × W,
where D, L and W are dead, live and wind loads. In
order to activate the vertical vibration, the load was
applied for one-twentieth of the corresponding period
of the structure and than kept constant (Fig. 6).
Based on the results of the previous study, the loss
scenarios considered columns from the top and top-
right of the structure, as illustrated in Figure 7. Each
removal was considered one at a time. The structure
remains elastic for all cases. It order to evaluate worse
case scenarios, removal of two columns at a time
were assessed. For all combinations of two columns
removal at a time, the structure remains stable and
is not damaged to an extent disproportionate to the
original damage. Deflection time history is shown in
Figure 8 for worst one column and two columns loss
scenarios. Figure 9 shows the plastic hinge formation
and axial force diagram for case C4-5. The use of
mega-trusses at the mid-height and top of the building
improves the global behavior and thus the robustness.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The robustness of a 26 stories building in case of col-
umn loss was investigated. The building is located in
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Figure 8. Dynamic analysis results.
Figure 9. Plastic hinge formation and axial force diagram
for loss of two columns at a time – case C4-5.
an area characterized by a high seismic hazard and
therefore is designed and detailed to meet the code
requirements, i.e. strength, ductility and redundancy.
The robustness of the structure was investigated using
alternate load path method. Different columns were
removed and structure was verified using nonlinear
time-history analysis. Even the robustness analysis
has rather a qualitative character, it shown that struc-
tures designed to meet high seismic demand are able
to survive when several critical members are affected
(e.g. columns). Seismic detailing is very important in
improving the progressive collapse resistance. More
studies are necessary in order to deepen the under-
standing of structural behavior under sudden column
loss.
REFERENCES
Dubina, D., Dinu, F., Stratan, A. 2010. Tower Centre Interna-
tional building in Bucharest. Part II: Performance based
evaluation. Steel Construction. Design and Research, Vol-
ume 1/2010, March 2010, ISSN 1867–0520, Ernst &
Sohn.
EN1998-1 2004. Design provisions for earthquake resistance
of structures – 1-1: General rules – Seismic actions and
general requirements for structures, CEN.
 FEMA 277. The Oklahoma City Bombing: Improving Build-
ing Performance Through Multi-Hazard Mitigation. Fed-
eral Emergency Management Agency and ASCE, August
1996.
FEMA 356 2000. Prestandard and commentary for the seis-
mic rehabilitation of buildings. Washington (DC): Federal
Emergency Management Agency, 2000.
Hayes Jr., J. R., Woodson, S. C., Pekelnicky, R. G., Poland, C.
D., Corley, W. G., and Sozen, M. 2005. Can strengthening
618
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
for earthquake improve blast and progressive collapse
resistance? ASCE, Journal of Structural Engineering,
131(8), 1157–1177.
P100/1 2006. Cod de proiectare seismică P100, Partea I:
Prevederi de proiectare pentru clădiri (in Romanian).
UFC 4-023-03 2009. Design of Structures to Resist Pro-
gressive Collapse. Unified Facilities Criteria (UFC),
Department of Defense, USA.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

On the catenary effect of steel buildings

A. Formisano & F.M. Mazzolani

Department of Structural Engineering, University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

ABSTRACT: This paper deals with the vulnerability to progressive collapse of steel framed buildings subjected
to sudden column loss. Two steel framed buildings (2-storeys 1-bay and 3-storeys 3-bays), designed according to
both the old and new seismic Italian code, have been analysed, by considering the uncertainties on the material
strength and on the applied loads. Linear static and non linear static analyses have been performed in order
to estimate the progressive collapse resistance of frames under different column-removed conditions. Also, the
capacity curves of the structures under vertical loads have been drawn, they being able to simulate their response
in non linear dynamic range. This behaviour has been achieved in a simple way in terms of system dissipation
energy when linear analyses accounting for the catenary effect have been carried out. The force-displacement
curves obtained from the above analyses allowed to evaluate the Dynamic Amplification Factors (DAFs) to be
used when static (linear and non linear) analyses instead of the non linear dynamic ones are made. The comparison
has shown that a DAF value less than 2 can be used, when the inelastic response of structures is considered.

1 ROBUSTNESS AND PROGRESSIVE
COLLAPSE OF STRUCTURES
The tragic event of the World Trade Centre collapse
has pushed the scientific community to find the way
to reduce the occurrence of progressive (or dispropor-
tionate) collapse, what is related to the improvement
of the structural robustness under extreme accidental
events.
Nowadays, different international codes [EN 1991-
1-7 (2006), United States Department of Defense
(DoD, 2005), the United States General Services
Administration (GSA, 2003), UK Building Regula-
tions (BS 6399-1, 1996)], starting from the collapse
of the Ronan Point building in London (1968), have
provided different definitions for robustness and pro-
gressive collapse, providing at the same time defensive
measures for the construction protection.
As an example, according to EN 1991-1-7, the
robustness is intended as “the ability of a structure to
withstand events like fire, explosions, impacts or the
consequence of human error, without being damaged
to an extent disproportionate to the original cause.”
On the other hand, different meaning for progressive
collapse are used. In general terms, when one or several
structural members suddenly fail due to either accident
or incidental conditions and subsequently every load
redistribution causes in sequence the failure of other
structural elements, then the complete failure of the
building or of a major part of it occurs and the pro-
gressive collapse is attained. In this framework, all the
above codes specify the extent of damage considered
as acceptable, by limiting the floor area for which col-
lapse is tolerated after the initial local failure. More
in detail, the United States General Services Adminis-
tration (GSA) published in June 2003 their guidelines
for progressive collapse mitigation to be applied for
all federal buildings in USA. The document provides
a flow-chart methodology to determine whether con-
structions require detailed verification for progressive
collapse. If the progressive collapse risk deserves to
be considered, the document proposes the alternate
load path design strategy when a local initial failure
happens. The document allows for sophisticated non-
linear static and/or dynamic procedures, but describes
in detail only a static linear procedure for progressive
collapse mitigation. The combination between dead
and live loads, as well as a dynamic amplification fac-
tor of 2, is specified for static analyses in order to
account for dynamic inertial effects due to the failure
of one ground floor column. The GSA static linear
guidelines are among the most complete provisions,
since they instruct the designer in all steps of the design
process.
Only the United States Department of Defense
(DoD) guidelines provide details about the nonlinear
procedures to be applied. In June 2005, they issued
latest guidelines for progressive collapse prevention.
Buildings are classified according to the required
level of protection. When a very low or low level
of protection is required, the safety of the structure
is ensured through horizontal and vertical ties, while
for higher protection levels an alternate path approach
is prescribed in addition to these ties. A step-by-step
procedure is provided for linear static and non-linear
(static and dynamic) analyses. The load combination,
involving dead, live and wind loads, is specified, along
with a dynamic amplification factor of 2, for static

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 analyses. The DoD step-by step procedure for linear
static analysis is similar to the GSA one in terms of
general philosophy. The main differences lie in the
choice of the material behaviour used in the sim-
ulations, as well as in the fact that the non-linear
procedures are detailed in the DoD guidelines only.
The U.K. building regulations required that build-
ings be designed to resist disproportionate failure by
tying together structural elements, adding redundant
members and providing sufficient strength to resist
abnormal loads. These requirements are considered
to produce more robust structures, that is strong and
ductile structures capable to redistribute loads. In par-
ticular, these specifications are intended to ensure that
the structure may withstand a column loss through
catenary effects. The load combination between dead,
live and wind loads is specified, as well as the area of
tolerated damage. However, both computational pro-
cedure to estimate the damage extension and dynamic
amplification factor are not specified. If the damage
amount exceeds the acceptance criterion, the particu-
lar key element is designed to resist an additional static
pressure of 34 kN/m2 .
Finally, the EN 1991-1-7 provides a classification of
buildings into four classes, based on the consequences
of collapse. For the lowest class, no progressive col-
lapse requirements are to be met. For the second class,
only horizontal tie force requirements are specified.
For the two remaining classes, not only tie require-
ments should be met, but the structure also needs
to be designed for the loss of a vertical load bear-
ing element, with damage not exceeding a specified
region. If the damage is too extensive, the vertical load
bearing element is considered as a key element and
should be designed to withstand an additional pres-
sure of 34 kN/m2 . Again, no computational procedure
is specified for the alternate load path analysis.
2 PROGRESSIVE COLLAPSE MITIGATION
OPTIONS
The progressive collapse design strategies have
been classified, according to the recent literature
(Starossek, 2006; NIST, 2007), into the following three
approaches:
a) Specific local resistance and non-structural protec-
tive measures (event control);
b) Alternate load path;
c) Prescriptive design rules.
Approaches a) and b) are referred to as “direct”,
since they are based on analytical computations for
specific load cases, while approach c) is referred to as
“indirect”, since it consists of applying design rules to
increase the overall robustness of a structure, without
performing an analytical computation for a specific
load case.
In the specific local resistance approach, key ver-
tical load bearing elements are designed to resist
anticipated threats, such as blast loads or fire.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
The alternate load path approach consists in design-
ing the structure so that stresses can be redistributed
after the loss of a vertical bearing element.
The prescriptive design rules approach includes
‘best practice’rules, such as continuous reinforcement,
minimum joint resistance and ductility, redundant
structural systems, etc. Included in this approach are
also the tie force provisions adopted by the current
codes aiming at ensuring sufficient tying between
horizontal and vertical building components so that
the structure may sustain the loss of a column through
catenary (i.e. membrane) effects.
The notional member removal provisions are
applied with conventional design checks and, there-
fore, they ignore the beneficial effects of the catenary
nonlinear phenomenon. Consequently, this can lead
to the prediction of an unrealistically large damage
area exceeding the prescribed limits. Also, a substan-
tial amount of local damage due to notional member
removal is allowed, but no guidance is given on debris
resulting from such a damage on other building areas,
which could potentially lead to progressive collapse of
the structure
A further significant shortcoming of the notional
member removal provisions is the assumption of a
static structural response rather than a highly dynamic
phenomenon. In this context, sudden column loss
represents a more appropriate design scenario, also
considered by two most recent USA guidelines (DoD,
2005; GSA, 2003) for progressive collapse mitiga-
tion, which includes the dynamic effect of the event.
Although such a scenario has not the same dynamic
effect with respect to the column damage resulting
from impact or blast, it is able to assess the influence
of the column failure over a short time on the response
of the structure.
In this paper, a simplified procedure is proposed for
progressive collapse assessment of multi-storey build-
ing structures considering sudden column loss as a
design scenario. This modus operandi offers a quan-
titative approach for considering important issues in
this field, such as ductility, redundancy and energy
absorption of structures. The simplicity of the pro-
posed method is such that it can be directly applied
in the design practice, so to transform the problem of
the evaluation of structural robustness from a general
issue to a quantifiable approach.
3 THE STUDIED STRUCTURES
Two different types of steel framed structures have
been analysed aiming at evaluating their robustness
under the exceptional load deriving from the sudden
column loss. The choice of the frame types has been
done according to a previous study performed by the
Authors (Formisano et al., 2009), where the robustness
of new and existing steel frames under exceptional
earthquakes has been evaluated.
The selected framed buildings are made of S275JR
steel profiles and subjected to permanent and variable

Figure 1. 2-storeys frame designed according to M. D. 96
(a) and M. D. 08 (b).
Figure 2. 3-storeys frame designed according to M. D. 96
(a) and M. D. 08 (b).
Figure 3. FEM models of 3D frames under investigation.
loads of 5.15 kNm−2 and 2 kNm−2 , respectively. The
first structure is composed of 3 transversal plane
frames spaced 5 m each other, with a single 5 m bay on
two levels with inter-storey height of 3.5 m. The lon-
gitudinal plane frames of the second structure develop
on three levels (H = 3.50 m at 1st floor and H = 3.00 m
at 2nd and 3rd floor), with three 5m bays. Both struc-
tures have been designed according to both the old
(M.D., 1996) and the new (M. D., 2008) seismic Ital-
ian code (see Figs. 1 and 2, where the used profiles are
indicated for the central frame of each study structure)
(Ferraioli & Lavino, 2007).
For these structures, the randomness of both mate-
rial (coefficient of variation COV m of 3%–5%–7%)
and vertical loads (coefficient of variation COV l of
10%–20%–30%) have been considered at the light
of a semi-probabilistic approach to be used for the
robustness analysis of new structures. Therefore, the
combination of the above COVs has led to nine analysis
cases. The examined structures have been numerically
modelled by means of the SAP2000 non linear analysis
program (CSI, 2008) (Fig. 3).
Flexural plastic hinges have been assigned to
the beam element ends. An elasto-perfectly plastic
moment-rotation behaviour have been adopted for
the hinges of double symmetric double T sections,
by assuming the ultimate rotation according to the
empirical method proposed by Mazzolani and Piluso
(1996). Preliminary studies carried out on similar
framed structures made of reinforced concrete (Lin,
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2007) indicated that the collapse of framed buildings
subjected to column loss is governed by the flexural
mode of beam elements. When these elements attain
their ultimate moment capacity, it is observed that the
columns remain in the elastic range. For this reason,
shear failure is not considered in the present analysis.
4 RESISTANCE TO PROGRESSIVE COLLAPSE
4.1 Analysis methodology
When a column is removed from a framed structure,
its robustness can be assessed in terms of progressive
collapse resistance, intended as the maximum load-
ing capacity to be sustained before failure. In fact,
when a building column failed in a sudden way due to
an accidental load, an instantaneous vertical loading
equal to the one supported by the collapsed column is
transferred to the remaining part of the building.
Different analysis types, namely linear static, non
linear static and non linear dynamic, are usually per-
formed to evaluate the progressive collapse resistance
of framed buildings (Tsai & Lin, 2008).
First of all, a step-by-step linear static (LS) proce-
dure according to the US General Service Adminis-
tration (GSA, 2003) and the Department of Defense
(DoD, 2005) guidelines can be considered. In the
GSA procedure, a step-by-step scheme of inserting
moment-release hinges is used to simulate the inelas-
tic structural behaviour. In particular, beam sections
attaining a bending moment larger than their yielding
one are replaced with hinges to simulate the struc-
tural behaviour in plastic range. In this analysis, the
vertical loads applied to the structure are gradually
increased up to achieve a local flexural failure mech-
anism resulting into a progressive collapse of the
building. Catenary effect is neglected and only flexu-
ral failure mode is considered. The load-displacement
response from LS analyses is obtained by putting
on the abscissa axis the displacement of the column
removed point and on the vertical axis the corre-
sponding applied load. Generally, the buildings have
an approximate linear behaviour up to the attainment
of the progressive collapse resistance. So, the load-
displacement curves are very similar to the response of
an elastic-perfectly plastic model. As a consequence,
this procedure should be used for elastic analysis only.
Contrary, a displacement control procedure is
utilised to carry out non linear static (NLS) analyses.
First dead loads and a percentage of live loads are
applied to the building and after a vertical pushover
analysis is done. Particularly, a vertical displacement
is gradually applied to the column-removed point, up
to the attainment of the maximum building resistance.
Generally, this analysis type provides a progressive
collapse strength lower than the one obtained by linear
static procedures. Besides, the response curve reached
from the non linear static analysis starts to deviate
in a significant way from the static linear one when
the structure is considerably pushed into the inelastic
field.

Figure 4. Static non linear response vs. dynamic non linear
curve and explanation of the DAF.
However, it is clear that the building behaviour
under exceptional actions deriving from a column
collapse is a dynamic problem rather than a static
one. Therefore, under this circumstance, it is more
appropriate to perform non linear dynamic (NLD)
analyses aiming at assessing the real progressive
collapse resistance of buildings. Nevertheless, this
analysis typology, which generally provides a lower
collapse resistance than static analyses one, is time-
consuming and result to be too difficult to be carried
out for practical applications. As a consequence, an
alternative method has been proposed in order to pre-
cisely estimate the building collapse resistance under
the described exceptional situation instead to perform
NLD analyses (Abruzzo et al., 2006). This is illus-
trated in Figure 4, where, considering that the area
below the non linear static load-displacement curve
represents the energy stored by the column-removed
building under gravity loads, a capacity curve can be
obtained by dividing the accumulated energy by its
corresponding displacements.
It was demonstrated that this capacity curve is
able to approximate very well the non linear dynamic
behaviour of buildings, when a column collapses.
Based on the energy conservation principle, FCC (ud )
in Figure 4 represents the equivalent dynamic load-
ing under the displacement demand ud . Accordingly,
when the building is deprived of a column, the column-
removed point attains a maximum displacement such
that both the hatched areas of Figure 4 are equal.
So, even if the precision of non linear dynamic
results is indubitable, generally more simple analy-
ses, that is the static ones, can be used. In these cases,
in order to take into account the dynamic effect due
to the removal of a column, the vertical loadings are
increased by means of a dynamic amplification fac-
tor (DAF), which is defined as the ratio between the
dynamic displacement response (dy ) of an elastic
SDOF system and its static displacement response
(st ) under the same applied load F (Fig. 4). In
the same figure it is apparent that the DAF can be
expressed also as the ratio between the static force and
the dynamic one under an equal displacement.
The GSA guidelines suggest to use a DAF equal to
2 for considering the behavioural difference between
static non linear and dynamic non linear analyses.
However, if the load originally supported by the lost
column and transferred to the remaining part of the
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
structure provokes an inelastic response, the DAF may
assume values different than 2, which depend on the
displacement demand. This aspect is investigated in
Section 4.2 with reference to the frame structures of
Section 3.
4.2 Analysis results on the examined structures
The robustness of the analysed structures has been
assessed in terms of progressive collapse resistance by
using the three analysis types described in the previous
Section.
Two and six threat-independent column-removed
conditions have been considered for the two levels
structure and the three levels one, respectively. In
the 2-storeys building, the first and the second level
columns of the central frame have been removed sep-
arately from the structure. On the other hand, in the
3-storeys building, the columns of the 1st, 2nd and
3rd level belonging to the external and internal align-
ment of vertical elements have been removed one by
one from the central frame.
So, for each of the examined 2-storeys framed
structure, also considering the randomness of both
material and loads, 18 × 3 analysis types (LS, NLS and
NLD) = 54 analyses have been performed. Instead,
for each of the studied 3-storeys framed structure, by
fixing a COV m = 7%, only the values of COV l have
been changed and, therefore, 6 × 3 analysis types = 18
analyses have been carried out. As a result, a total
number of 144 analyses has been done.
For the sake of example, in Figures 5 and 6 the
curves representative of the behaviour of the 2-storeys
building designed according to the old seismic code
and the new one, respectively, when the 1st storey
column and the 2nd storey one are separately removed
from the central frame, are plotted.
In the same picture, LS analyses accounting for the
catenary effect have been also plotted. From the analy-
sis results it is apparent that these modified LS curves
are able to assess the real building behaviour in terms
of stored energy, since the area under these curves is
equal to the one enclosed under the NLD curves. So,
a simplified way to evaluate the building behaviour
under dynamic conditions due to the column loss has
been found.
The robustness index of the structures can be eval-
uated for each NLD curve of Figures 5 and 6, by the
ratio between the progressive collapse strength and
the strength corresponding to the service loads. If the
index is larger than 1, then the structure is robust; con-
trary, the structure is not able to sustain exceptional
loads.
The analysis results have shown that: 1) the exam-
ined structures, except the one with COV m = 7% and
COV l = 10%, are not robust; 2) the robustness index
of the buildings designed according to the new code
is larger than 10% with respect to other buildings
satisfying the old seismic provisions; 3) the robust-
ness index of the tested structures is slightly larger
when the failure of the upper column occurs.

Figure 5. Progressive collapse resistance of the 2-storeys
structure (COV m = 7% and COV l = 10%) designed accord-
ing to M.D. 96.
Figure 6. Progressive collapse resistance of the 2-storeys
structure (COV m = 7% and COV l = 10%) designed accord-
ing to M.D. 08.
From the same Figures 5 and 6, the following DAFs
can be defined:
The variation of DAFs with the displacement
demand is plotted in Figures 7 and 8 for the 2-
storeys buildings (COV m = 7% and COV l = 10%)
with reference to the old and new code, respectively.
From the above figures it is apparent that: 1) DAF1
values are larger than DAF2 ones, the difference being
more marked when the 1st storey column is removed;
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 7. DAF vs. displacement demand for the 2-storeys
structure designed according to M.D. 96.
Figure 8. DAF vs. displacement demand for the 2-storeys
structure designed according to M.D. 08.
Figure 9. Change of DAFs with respect to the column
removal at different storeys.
2) in both cases DAF1 assumes a mean value of about
2.10 in the elastic field and a value in the range
[1.25 ÷ 1.90] in the plastic one; 3) in both cases, DAF2
assumes a mean value of about 2.03 in the elastic field
and a value in the range [1.22 ÷ 1.80] in the plastic
one.
From these results, it can be observed that the
GSA provisions are not on the safe side when elas-
tic analyses are performed, since DAF1 is larger than
2, and that the dynamic amplification in the inelas-
tic field depends on the maximum allowable plastic
displacement.
With reference to the 3-storeys structures, the
results have shown that the robustness index of the
structure designed with M. D. 08 is 10% larger than
the one of the same structure designed according to
the old code. Differently from the previous case, the
structures are always robust except when the column
is removed at the 3rd storey. In addition, the elimi-
nation of internal columns provide a robustness index
lower than the one when the columns are removed from
external alignments. In this case, the DAFs have been
calculated at the ultimate condition, that is with ref-
erence to the strength corresponding to the maximum
allowable displacement (Fig. 9).
 The results clearly show that, when upper columns
are removed, lower values of DAF are achieved. In all
cases, a decreasing behaviour of DAF is observed as
soon as the structure height increases. As in the previ-
ous case, DAF1 values are larger than the DAF2 ones.
Finally, DAF1 values are decreasing when number of
floors increases, with values comprised between 1.13
and 1.31 for M.D. 08 and 1.36 and 1.66 for M.D. 96.
Contrary, DAF2 is almost constant when the number
of floor is increased, with mean values of 1.07 and 1.04
for M. D. 08 and M.D. 96, respectively.
5 CONCLUDING REMARKS
In this paper, the resistance to progressive collapse of
steel framed buildings designed according to the old
and the new seismic Italian codes has been assessed
by using linear static, non linear static and non lin-
ear dynamic analyses. The linear static analyses can
be used when the column-removed building behaves
substantially elastically. Contrary, in plastic field, the
collapse resistance is better estimated by means of the
capacity curves, which can be obtained by a non linear
static response, according to the energy conservation
principle, with the purpose to simulate the structure
NLD behaviour. Linear static analyses accounting for
the catenary effect have been also performed, they
being able to assess in a simple way the real building
behaviour in terms of stored energy.
The analyses have shown that the robustness index
of buildings designed according to the new code is
averagely 10% larger than the one of other buildings
satisfying the old seismic provisions. Furthermore, the
use of DAFs has been assessed, for considering the
dynamic effect due to the column removal, when static
analyses are made. The obtained results have shown
that the GSA US code provisions are not on the safe
side when elastic analyses are performed, because the
DAFs values are greater than 2, and that the dynamic
amplification in the inelastic field depends on the max-
imum allowable plastic displacement. In particular, for
the 2-storeys and the 3-storeys structure, a mean DAF
value of 1.23 and 1.16 is respectively obtained, when
the maximum allowable displacement is attained.
REFERENCES
Abruzzo, J., Matta, A. & Panariello, G. 2006. Study of mit-
igation strategies for progressive collapse of a reinforced
concrete commercial building. Journal of Performance of
Constructed Facilities 30 (4): 384–390.
624
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
British Standards (BS) 6399-1. 1996. Loading for buildings.
Code of practice for dead and imposed loads. September.
Computer and Structures, Inc. (CSI). 2008. SAP 2000 Non
linear, version 11. Berkeley, California, USA.
Department of Defense (DoD). (2005). Unified Facilities
Criteria (UFC): Design of Structures to Resist Progressive
Collapse. Washington, D.C.
EN 1991-1-7. 2006. Actions on structures – Part 1-7: General
Actions – Accidental actions. January.
Ferraioli, M. & Lavino, A. 2007. Performance evaluation of
steel framed structures by means of simplified non-linear
analysis methods (in Italian). Proc. of the XXI C. T. A.
Italian Conference, Catania, October.
Formisano, A., Marzo, A. & Mazzolani, F.M. 2009. Robust-
ness based design of new and existing steel structures.
Proc. of the 6th Int. Conference on the “Behaviour of Steel
Structures in Seismic Areas” (STESSA 09), August 16–20,
Philadelphia.
Lin, B. H. 2007. Progressive collapse analysis and evalua-
tion of an earthquake-resistant RC building. Master thesis,
National Pingtung University of Science and Technology,
Taiwan.
Mazzolani, F.M. & Piluso, V. 1996. Theory and Design of
Seismic Resistant Steel Frames. London: Champan &
Hall.
Ministerial Decree of Public Works (M. D.). 1996. Technical
codes for constructions in seismic zones (in Italian). Offi-
cial Gazette of the Italian Republic published on January
16th.
Ministerial Decree of Public Works (M. D.). 2008. New
technical codes for constructions. Official Gazette of the
Italian Republic published on January 14th.
Starossek, K. 2006. Progressive collapse of structures:
nomenclature and procedures. Structural Engineering
International 16 (2): 113–117
Tsai, M. H. & Lin, B. H. 2008. Investigation of progres-
sive collapse resistance and inelastic response for an
earthquake-resistant RC building subjected to column
failure. Engineering Structures 30: 3619–3628.
United States General Services Administration (GSA). 2003.
Progressive Collapse Analysis and Design Guidelines for
New Federal Office Buildings and Major Modernization
Project. Washington DC.
United States National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST). 2007. Best Practices for Reducing the Potential
for Progressive Collapse in Buildings.TechnologyAdmin-
istration, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington,
D.C.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Damage and blast response of a steel frame building

J. Mediavilla
TNO Defence, Security and Safety, Rijswijk, The Netherlands

F. Soetens & J.W.P.M. Brekelmans

TNO Built Environment and Geosciences, Delft, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT: The effect of a blast explosion on a typical steel frame building is investigated by means of
computer simulations. The simulations help to identify possible hot spots that may lead to local or global failure.
The blast energy is transferred to the structure by means of the façade. Especial attention is paid to the modelling
of the façade using adequate failure criteria.

1 INTRODUCTION

Explosions in buildings due to terrorist attacks have

raised major concerns in many countries and govern-
ments. Blast mitigation measures have been proposed,
which are being incorporated in new design standards
and existing buildings are being retrofitted.
In this paper, the response of a steel frame building
under blast load is studied by means of finite ele-
ment computer models. Attention is paid to the various
aspects of the problem: blast load; load transfer and
failure of the facade and structural elements; mate-
rial behavior and failure. The failure models are based
on the experimental knowledge existing at TNO. The
results of this investigation will provide more insight
into the main issues and the knowledge gaps regarding Figure 1. Geometry and dimensions of steel multi-storey
steel frame structures against blast; and finally learn building.
how to build them more efficiently.

2 PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
A simplified multi-storey steel building has been
considered, with typical values of spans and heights
(Brekelmans 2009), see Figure 1. Standard steel pro-
files (HEA, HEB, IPE, UNP) are used for beams and
columns, made of S235 steel, dimensioned to with-
stand typical load combinations (static, live, wind),
using appropriate load factors. No bracing diagonals
are used for stability. Hence beam and column pro-
files are overdimensioned compared to a braced frame
structure. The building is not dimensioned against
blast loading. The dead weight is 5 kN/m2 and the
live weight is neglected, since this is the most criti-
cal load combination with the blast load. All floors
and roofs are made of prefab cellular concrete 0.1 m
thick. The façade is made of 0.01 m thick glass curtain
and 0.15 m thick reinforced concrete parapet. B30 con-
crete and FeB500 steel bars are used, 0.56% in both
directions.
Three blast scenarios are considered. The explosive
charge is placed on the ground floor, in front of the
building. The combinations of explosive charge m and
standoff distance d are studied: 5 kg–1 m; 100 kg–10 m
and 1000 kg–25 m.
3 FEM MODEL
Simulations have been performed with LS-DYNA
(Hallquist 2007). Fixed boundary conditions are
assumed at the ground floor. All connections are rigid
(no relative rotations), except when indicated. The
foundation is modelled as hinges. The static load
(5 kN/m2 ) is applied to all floors and roof by per-
forming an implicit static analysis, using a time ramp
function. When the total static load is reached, the
implicit analysis is switched to explicit to study the
dynamic response, upon blast loading. The blast load

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 2. Pressure contour plots. Front view.
Figure 3. Pressure points. Pressure-time history for the
100 kg(TNT) – 10 m scenario.
is modelled using ConWep, which is based on TM 5-
855-1 .(1998). This gives the reflected pressure-time
distribution at each point of the structure based on
the distance, incidence angle and amount of explosive,
assuming that the building is rigid (no fluid-structure
interaction).Belytshko-Tsay shell elements are used on
the façade, floor and roof. Hughes-Liu beam elements
are used for the columns and beams, with fixed joints.
The façade glass is modelled as an elastic material.
An erosion criterion based on the maximum prin-
cipal stress sigp1 has been defined. When sigp1 >
ft = 80 MPa, where ft dynamic tensile strength, the
element is eroded. Reinforced concrete (floors, roof
and parapets) is modelled as a homogenised material,
based on Eurocode 2 (Eurocode-2, 2005). Two failure
criteria have been added to account for crushing and
rebar traction failure, based on the minimum principal
strain and the maximum principal strain respectively,
(mneps = −0.0035; mxeps = 0.01). When either of
these criteria is exceeded, the concrete element is
eroded. Beams and columns are modelled as an elasto-
plastic material, with a strain based failure criterion.

4 THE BLAST
To illustrate the shock wave propagation, simulations
on a rigid block with the building dimensions have
been performed. Only an explicit analysis is per-
formed. After detonation, the shock wave reaches the
façade, reflecting back (faced-on pressure). Then it
surrounds the building, with the side-on pressure act-
ing on the sides and roof. Figure 2 shows the pressure
contour plots at different time steps and the three blast
scenarios.
The pressure at a number of representative points
of the building façade (Figure 3). Again, the pressure
profile of the first blast scenario (5 kg–1 m) should
not be trusted. The shock wave reaches the back of the
building before the sides, and the amplitude is compa-
rable to the front reflected pressure. Hence the error
can be significant. For the second and third blast sce-
narios, the shock wave does not arrive to the back of
the building before the sides, and the amplitude of
the shock wave at the back and building sides is also
much smaller than the front reflected pressure. Hence,
the error committed with CONWEP is small.
Figure 4. Final state for the 3 blast scenarios. (left)
5 kg–1 m; (middle) 100 kg–10 m; (right) 1000 kg–25 m.
5 RESULTS
5.1 Damage to the façade
Figure 4 shows the final state of the building after the
explosion, for the three blast scenarios. In the first case
(5 kg–1 m) only the glass of the first floors of the front
facade breaks. In the other two cases, all the glass has
been blown away. In the second case, there is fracture
of the front concrete parapets of the first and second
floor. The third blast case (1000 kg–25 m) is the most
destructive, with failure of the concrete parapets of the
first five floors, the side facades and collapse of the
concrete roof.
5.2 Damage to steel frame
The damage undergone by the steel frame can be visu-
alized by means of the plastic strain. Figure 5 shows

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 5. Plastic strain plots. (left) 5 kg–1 m; (middle) Figure 6. Plastic strain plot, 1000 kg–25 m. (left)
100 kg–10 m; (right) 1000 kg–25 m. ft = 25 MPa; (middle) ft = 80 MPa; (right) ft = 135 MPa.

the plastic strain contour plots for the three loading

cases. In the first and second blast scenario there is
hardly any plasticity (no damage) in any of the steel
elements. The third blast scenario, the most severe,
there is extensive damage of the front columns and
even failure, side columns and roof beams. There is
risk of progressive collapse.
The shock wave is transferred from the façade to
the frame structure. Depending on the fracture energy
of the façade, the amount of energy transferred to the
structural elements will vary. A very tough façade will
transfer a lot of energy to the steel frame, causing
great damage. This effect has been studied by vary-
ing the failure strength ft of the glass elements of the
façade for the third blast scenario. The following val-
ues have been studied, ft = 25 MPa, 80 MPa (default)
and 135 MPa. Figure 6 shows how the extent of damage
in the steel structure increases with increase in glass
strength. Figure 7. Resultant vertical reaction force for the three load
cases. (above) front column; (below) back column.

5.3 Foundation
The foundation is modelled as being infinitely rigid.
The blast explosion introduces large inertial forces
to the building, which try to push and pull out the
columns from their foundations. Figure 7 shows the
vertical reaction force at the middle column of the front
and back façade for the three blast scenarios. High
vibration modes are excited. In all three cases, the
minimum value of the reaction force of the front col-
umn becomes negative. The front columns are then
being pulled from their foundations, with the conse-
quent risk of failure of joints. The maximum reaction
forces of the front column ranges between twice to
three times the static value Rs (roughly 400 kN). Large
dynamic oscillations are observed on the back column
as well.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 6 CONCLUSIONS
The model focuses on the modelling of the façade
of a steel frame building, under a blast explosion.
The facade has been modelled realistically, using a
glass curtain and a concrete parapet, with realistic
properties.
The main conclusion that can be drawn from these
simulations concerns the effect of façade toughness
on the damage and response of the structure. The
tougher the façade, the more energy is absorbed by
the structural elements. As a consequence, the damage
increases and higher dynamic forces are transmitted
to the foundation with the subsequent risk of pull-
off (tension) or foundation collapse (compression).
Hence, although a tough façade will reduce the number
of direct human casualties due to fragment impact, it
has a negative influence on the structure. This consid-
eration should be taken into account when designing a
building against a blast load. It would be desirable to
have a glass façade that protects the people inside, and
has no effect on the structure. This could be achieved
by devising smart connection systems between glass
elements and structure.
The extent of damage of the three blast load scenar-
ios studied is very different. In the first case, 5 kg–1 m,
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
failure is limited to the front glass elements. In case 2,
100 kg–10 m, all glass is gone and there is localized
failure of some of the concrete parapets. In the case 3,
the concrete roof fails, there is extensive damage of the
concrete elements of the front façade and some of the
steel columns fail. The building is about to collapse.
The blast pressure on the building is computed
with ConWep. This is a good first approximation
for the second and third blast cases, but not so for
the first case (too short standoff distance). The main
limitations are that ConWep is based on the straight
distance from the blast source to the target; and that
the structure is assumed to be infinitely rigid (no fluid-
structure interaction). The latter assumption leads to an
overestimation of the pressure.
REFERENCES
US-Army. .1998. Design and Analysis of Hardened Struc-
tures to Conventional Weapons Effects. TM 5-855-1.
Brekelmans, J. W. P. M. 2009. Notitie staalconstructie, TNO-
B&O.
Eurocode-2 2005. Design of Concrete Structures, EN
1992-1-2.
Hallquist, J. O. 2007. LS-DYNA keyword’s user manual,
version 971, Livermore software technology corporation.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Assessment of explosion effects in railway stations

G. Solomos, F. Casadei & G. Giannopoulos

European Commission-Joint Research Centre, Ispra (VA), Italy

M. Larcher
Institut für Mechanik und Statik, Universität der Bundeswehr München, Neubiberg, Germany

ABSTRACT: Numerical simulation tools have been developed suitable for the assessment of the physical
vulnerabilities of rail transport infrastructures to explosion loads, mainly due to terrorist bomb attacks. The
source term, the air medium and the structure are properly modeled using the computational framework of
the explicit finite element code Europlexus. Several new features are added to the code. A case study of a rail
station has been conducted, whose geometry has been reconstructed using a laser scanning technique. For several
bombing scenarios the structural response is reliably determined, and through appropriate probit functions, the
associated risk of human injuries has also been calculated.

1 INTRODUCTION Empirical formulas are available (Baker et al.

Land mass transport systems usually have an open
architecture and widely dispersed assets, and mea-
sures like those used in aviation are seldom applicable.
The recent terrorist attacks in Madrid, London, and
Moscow have shown that rail transport constitutes a
high-impact target, and have exposed its vulnerabil-
ity. While security measures will always be taken for
preventing and foiling such attacks, improved architec-
tural design may also significantly contribute towards
mitigating the effects of explosions. Thus reliable sim-
ulation tools for assessing structural vulnerabilities
would be necessary.
Several investigations have been performed in the
direction of assessing the risk in railway systems.
Loukaitou-Sideris et al. (2006) compare the mea-
sures taken by four cities to reduce the risk in
their metro lines and stations. As reported, increased
surveillance and patrolling are mainly pursued, while
strategies, such as the Crime Prevention Through Envi-
ronmental Design (CPTED), start gaining acceptance
and are incorporated into new station planning and
design.
The number of deaths and injuries of the terrorist
attack of March 2004 in Madrid is reported by Peral-
Gutierrez et al. (2004). A comparison of the injuries
from detonations in confined structures and in open-
air is presented by Leibovici et al. (1996) showing that
the mortality rate in confined spaces is higher. The
reason is that the pressure of an air blast wave decays
much slower inside a long tube-like train or metro tun-
nel than in open space. Therefore, both the response
of the air medium inside the structure and the failure
of the structure itself have to be considered for the
determination of the risk in case of a blast.
1983), for the calculation of the risk inside relatively
simple rectangular structures. The maximum pressure
and impulse of an air blast wave can also be used to
determine the risk with more accuracy. These values
can be taken from experimental and analytical for-
mulas describing the development of air blast waves
inside complex geometries, as shown by Smith & Rose
(2006) for urban areas, where it is also postulated
that shielding and channelling have to be consid-
ered in city streets. Experimental data for explosions
between buildings are given for example by Smith et al.
(1992). Bogosian et al. (1999) investigate the damage
of complex buildings using a pressure-time function
to describe the air blast wave, which is applied to mul-
tiple degree of freedom models, whose stiffness is
determined using detailed finite element calculations.
More sophisticated Computational Fluid Dynamics
(CFD) codes have also been employed for the deter-
mination of the behaviour of air inside complex struc-
tures. Remennikov & Rose (2005) present the results
of such CFD calculations for complex city geometries,
computing the loads to which buildings are subjected
and determining their failure behaviour. Similar are
also the methodologies of Langdon & Schleyer (2005),
Luccioni et al. (2006) and Löhner et al. (2004). The
interaction of air blast waves with buildings in combi-
nation with a damage criterion is shown by Luccioni
et al. (2004). For urban environments, Van den Berg &
Weerheijm (2006) investigate the blast in underground
road tunnels with roof openings as venting areas.
Along the same direction, the blast analysis inside
partially confined, large spaces, like those of a train
station, is attempted in this work. The code Europlexus
is used, which has the feature of efficiently treating fast
fluid-structure interaction phenomena.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 1. Idealised form of a pressure-time function.
2 AIR BLAST WAVES
In the present study, air blast waves result from the
detonation of a solid high-explosive charge (a TNT
equivalent). The magnitude of the pressure of an air
blast wave that arrives at a certain point depends on
the distance and on the size of the charge. An idealised
form of a pressure-time function at a certain distance
from the explosive is shown in Figure 1.
As seen, the main characteristics of a free-field air
blast are: the arrival time ta (it includes the detonation
time itself), the peak overpressure pmax over the refer-
ence pressure p0 (atmospheric pressure), the duration
of the positive phase td , the minimum pressure, and the
duration of the negative phase tn . The positive impulse
I is the integral of the overpressure curve over the
positive phase td .
The form of the pressure wave of Figure 1 can
be greatly altered by the morphology of the medium
encountered along its propagation. For instance, inci-
dent peak pressure can be substantially increased if
the wave is reflected by a rigid obstacle. The effects of
the reflection depend on the geometry, the size and the
angle of incidence. The situation is much more com-
plicated if there are several reflection boundaries, as
happens between or inside buildings. Obviously these
arguments make clear that in confined environments
simplified models that relate the peak overpressure to
the distance from the explosion can lead to grossly
erroneous estimates.
It is widely accepted to describe the positive phase
of the free-field air blast wave by the modified Fried-
lander equation (Baker 1973), where the pressure p at
time t can be expressed as:
The decay mode of the pressure with time depends on
the constant b. All parameters of Equation 1 can be
taken from appropriate diagrams and equations, e.g.
Baker (1973), Kingery (1984), software CONWEP
(1991), the US Army Manual TM5-855-1 (1986), for
free field conditions and spherical and hemi-spherical
charge shapes.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
3 NUMERICAL INVESTIGATIONS
3.1 Computational environment
Numerical simulations are performed within Euro-
plexus (2010), an explicit finite element code for
non-linear dynamic analysis. This finite element tool
has been jointly developed by the French Commis-
sariat a l’Energie Atomique (CEA) and the Joint
Research Centre (JRC). Among the main advantages
of Europlexus over similar software is its ability to
handle complex fluid-structure interaction problems.
3.2 Air blast wave loading
There are available various ways of modeling explo-
sions and blast loading, which, in turn, define also the
type of geometrical discretization. Three of them have
been considered in this study.
– The solid TNT model. It describes the mechani-
cal behaviour of the explosive with a material law,
e.g. the Jones-Wilkins-Lee (JWL) equation. A fine
mesh is essential to obtain realistic results. The cal-
culation is therefore very expensive in terms of
computation time.
– The bursting balloon model (Larcher et al. 2010).
The pressure-time function resulting from the
release of a compressed balloon can match the air
blast history. The amount of initial compression can
be calibrated with the impulse. The computational
time is smaller compared to that of the solid TNT
model.
– Load-time function. Only the structure is modeled
and loaded by an appropriately scaled pressure-
time function, as presented previously in Figure 1.
The calculation is relatively inexpensive. Clearly,
since the air is neglected, the method cannot repre-
sent reflections, shadowing and channelling.
In the present work the bursting balloon tech-
nique has been preferably used. The advantages of
this approach lie in the fact that for big structures and
spaces (e.g. a rail station) larger dimension elements
can be used, and thus the computation time becomes
reasonable, while at the same time both the structure
and the fluid are modelled.
3.3 Geometrical modeling and discretization
A relatively old typical train station has been selected
for evaluation. The geometry of its structures has
been acquired using a 3D laser scanning technique.
A laser scanner was placed at various positions inside
and outside these structures and the whole geom-
etry was stored as a cloud of points. These points
were next transformed to continuous geometrical
primitives, like surfaces and volumes, using the JRC-
RECONSTRUCTOR (Boström et al., 2008), an in-
house developed tool, and a final elaboration of these
data yielded the finite element model for the structure,
depicted in Figure 2. It is composed of two principal
domains which are connected through a short, narrow
passage. The dimensions of the waiting hall area are

Figure 2. Geometrical finite element model of structure
consisting of a main hall and a long corridor.
about 50 × 30 × 12 m and those of the long corridor
about 100 × 10 × 8 m.
As mentioned above, for representing a certain TNT
quantity (while the JWL law has also been tried) the
bursting balloon model has mainly been used. The air
inside this balloon behaves as a perfect gas, and the
diameter and internal energy (or initial pressure) of
the balloon are properly chosen so as to generate a far-
field blast impulse equivalent to that produced by the
TNT charge under consideration.
The full simulation of the explosion is performed
using an Eulerian formulation for the explosive and
for the fluid representing the air. Apart from the nature
of the problem, this choice is justified by the fact that
the subsequent risk analysis requires the calculation of
pressure and impulse of the air inside the volume of
the structure.
3.4 Fluid-Structure interaction
Appropriate modelling of fluid-structure interaction
(FSI) phenomena has been a central issue in the numer-
ical simulations considered in this work, as Europlexus
contains quite powerful automatic FSI algorithms.
However, the simulation of terrorist attacks up to
possible complete failure and fragmentation of some
structural components introduces a new issue, for
which a novel dedicated FSI model has been devel-
oped (Casadei 2008, Giannopoulos 2010). The fluid
and structural sub-domains are topologically uncou-
pled (independent). Each sub-domain is discretized
separately and the two meshes are simply superposed.
At each time instant of the computation, a topological
search is performed (by suitable optimized algorithms)
of the fluid nodes which are reasonably close to the
structure, and appropriate FSI coupling conditions are
imposed.
4 RISK ANALYSIS MODULE
The formulation of human injuries risk is based on
the work of González Ferradás et al. (2008), Yet-Pole
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
(2008) and Mannan (2005). It uses the peak over-
pressure pmax (Pa) and the positive impulse I (Pa · s)
calculated inside each fluid finite element in order to
determine the probability of eardrum rupture and the
probability of death.
Three different causes of death are considered
through the following probit functions:
Y1 is the death probit function due to head impact,
Y2 is the one for whole body impact and Y3 is the
one for lung haemorrhage. A probit function for body
impact by flying debris has not yet been implemented.
The probit function of eardrum rupture Y4 is described
through the equation:
The probability of occurrence R (or the percentage
of the affected population) of the corresponding injury
is next determined for each of the above probit func-
tions using Equation 6 (González Ferradás et al. 2008),
which is a very good approximation of the relevant
cumulative normal distribution, i = 1,4:
Plausible influence and interaction of the differ-
ent causes of death is treated in a simplified manner
by considering the maximum of the relevant three
probabilities. Clearly, since pressure-time histories are
needed, a full FSI calculation is required for such kind
of analysis.
5 SIMULATIONS
5.1 Introduction
Several material models exist in Europlexus for large
strain analysis of metals up to failure. The structural
elements of the station (columns, roof trusses) are
modeled as metallic (steel) elements with rather duc-
tile characteristics. The material model used is based
on isotropic hardening formulation in order to describe
the elastoplastic behaviour, however failure is also
added. Strain rate effects are not considered. The floor
is rigid.
A brittle material model and element erosion tech-
niques are used for the glass tiles of the roof. The
 laminated glass used in the metro station is mod-
elled by using layered elements with a special failure
criterion. After the failure of the glass, the stresses
are set to zero if the strains are positive (traction),
but the material can still react to compression. The
failure behaviour of the interlayer of the laminated
glass requires a fine meshing. Since a rather coarse
element mesh is implemented (due to the large dimen-
sions of the complete numerical model), a displace-
ment criterion is used instead for the failure of the
interlayer.

5.2 Case study scenario

Several scenarios with different quantities of explosive
have been run. Two cases for the same explosive charge
of approximately 250 kg TNT equivalent, placed on
the floor at the center of the main hall, are presented
in Figures 3 and 4. Figure 3 is based on the results
of the pressure-time function approach, where only
the structure can be considered. Figure 4 is based on
the results of the more sophisticated bursting balloon
approach, where both the fluid and the structure are
included.
It is observed that both approaches manage to repro-
duce the main characteristics of the expected structural
behaviour, such as large deformations, failure of the
roof, fragmentation, projectile formation and motion.
The deformation and damage pattern of the structure
at the selected four time instants is quite similar. This
is also true for the whole response period and for the
picture of the final damage. Thus it can be concluded
that for structures directly exposed to an air blast
the pressure-time functions can provide a good and
inexpensive way for calculating their behaviour. How-
ever, this approach is not sufficient if the blast waves
arrive indirectly to the structure (reflections, chan-
neling), or if information about the pressure field is
required.
As described above, in the comprehensive simula-
tion, with the bursting balloon approach, an Eulerian
formulation has been used for the fluid mesh. The fluid
mesh is conforming to the external envelope mesh
on which the appropriate boundary conditions are set.
Areas of the station that are communicating with the
external environment are modeled using an absorbing
boundary condition. The complete model consists of
about 4000000 fluid brick elements, 175000 absorb-
ing boundary elements and 55000 elements for the
structure. Figure 3. Structural response at four time instants using the
The risk analysis performed for this structure pressure-time functions approach.
reveals the areas for which the human injury risk is
high. The results obtained at the end of the simulation
time are shown for the three-dimensional space in Fig- devastating effects of the explosion. At this section
ure 5 for the death risk and in Figure 6 for the eardrum of the structure the death risk is substantially reduced,
rupture risk, respectively. From these figures it is evi- providing a relatively safe area for the occupants of the
dent that for a large part of the main hall the death risk is station under this scenario. The eardrum rupture risk
very high, and the eardrum rupture risk is almost 100% remains still very high along a large part of the corri-
everywhere. However, the abrupt change of geometry dor. For the main hall (Fig. 5) it is also worth noticing
between the main hall of the station and the corridor spots at corners where enhanced values of death risk
appears to play a very important role in reducing the are encountered due to wave reflection phenomena.

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Figure 4. Structural response at four time instants using the
full fluid-structure interaction approach.
6 CONCLUSIONS
In the present work the finite element modeling of a
large structure representing a train station has been
elaborated and the numerical simulation of a terrorist
bomb attack scenario has been conducted. Attention is
drawn to the fact that several simplifying assumptions
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 5. Top view of death risk contours for the main hall
and corridor.
Figure 6. Bottom view of eardrum rupture risk contours for
the main hall and corridor.
have been made with regards to material and structural
properties.
The Europlexus code used has proven to be an
efficient and robust computation platform. Several
modelling approaches have been presented and imple-
mented in the code. It has been found that the bursting
balloon model demonstrates definite advantages when
explosion effects in such large spaces are simulated.
At the same time it allows a comprehensive study to
be carried out by including both the fluid and the
structure.
A number of additional simulation features have
been introduced and their theoretical basis explained,
with focus on the newly developed human injuries risk
analysis module. It is thought that such risk analysis
capabilities can be a useful tool for decision makers,
transport operators and stakeholders etc. in order for
them to assess the risks of certain events and perform
cost-benefit analyses of contemplated interventions.
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Baker W.E. 1973. Explosions in Air, Austin TX: University
of Texas Press.
Baker W.E., Cox P.A., Westine P.S., Kulesz J.J., Strehlow R.A.,
1983. Explosion Hazards and Evaluation. Amsterdam:
Elsevier.
 Bogosian D.D., Dunn B.W., Chrostowski J.D. 1999. Blast
analysis of complex structures using physics-based fast-
running models. Comput Struct 72(1): 81–92
Boström G., Fiocco M., Gonçalves J., Puig Alcoriza D.,
Sequeira V., Chartier B., Kiesser R., Mariotte F., Richard
M., Zamora P. 2008. 3D reconstruction in nuclear security.
ESARDA Bull 38: 17–24.
Casadei F. 2008. Fast Transient Fluid-Structure Interac-
tion with Failure and Fragmentation, WCCM8 Congress,
Venice (Italy), June 30–July 5, 2008.
Commissariat a l’Energie Atomique (CEA), Joint Research
Centre (JRC) 2010. EUROPLEXUS User’s manual.
http://europlexus.jrc.ec.europa.eu/.
Giannopoulos G., Larcher M., Casadei F., Solomos G. 2010.
Risk assessment of the fatality due to explosion in land
mass transport infrastructure by fast transient dynamic
analysis, J Hazard Mater 173: 401–408.
González Ferradás E., Díaz Alonso F., Doval Miñarro M.,
Miñana Aznar A., Ruiz Gimeno J., Sánchez Pérez J.
2008. Consequence analysis by means of characteristic
curves to determine the damage to humans from burst-
ing spherical vessels. Process Safety Environ Protect 86:
121–129.
Hyde D.W. 1991. CONWEP: Conventional Weapons Effects
Program, US Army Waterways Experimental Station,
Vicksburg.
Kingery C.N. & Bulmash G. 1984. Airblast parameters from
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listic Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground
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Langdon G., Schleyer G. 2005. Inelastic deformation and
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371–399.
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of explosions in trains by fluid–structure calculations.
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Heruti R.J., Shemer J. 1996. Blast injuries: bus versus
open-air bombings – a comparative study of injuries in
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J Trauma Inj Infect Crit Care 41(6): 1030–1035.
Löhner R., Cebral J., Yang C., Baum J.D., Mestreau E., Char-
man C., Pelessone D. 2004. Large-scale fluid-structure
interaction simulations. Comput Sci Eng 6(3): 27–37.
Loukaitou-Sideris A., Taylor B.D., Fink C.N.Y. 2006. Rail
transit security in an international context: lessons from
four cities. Urban Aff Rev 41(6): 727–748.
Luccioni, B.M.; Ambrosini, R.D., Danesi, R.F. 2004. Analy-
sis of building collapse under blast loads. Eng Struct 26,
63–71.
Luccioni B.M, Ambrosini D., Danesi R. 2006. Blast
load assessment using hydrocodes. Eng Struct 28(12):
1736–1744.
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tries; Volume 2: Hazard Identification, Assessment and
Control. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
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Díaz D., Sanz-Sánchez M., Martín-Llorente C., Guerrero-
Sanz J.E. 2004. 11 March 2004: The terrorist bomb
explosions in Madrid, Spain – an analysis of the logistics,
injuries sustained and clinical management of casualties
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Remennikov A.M., Rose T.A. 2005. Modelling blast loads
on buildings in complex city geometries. Comput Struct
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streets – an overview. Prog Struct Eng Mater 8(1): 16–28.
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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

On modeling and progressive collapse of the building subjected to shock

impact load

J. Vaiciunas & V. Dorosevas

Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania

ABSTRACT: A building as mechanical system is composed of elements with different properties and dis-
tinctions. A shock impact action is one of the most effective methods to produce substantial qualitative and
quantitative changes in such system. The reactions of a building to shock impact load and possibilities the
progressive collapse of buildings were investigated in this paper. This article presents recent result achieved
by solving the problem of estimation the progressive collapse of buildings caused by explosions. The esti-
mation method realized by calculation a point of risk level D for obtained information about the response of
displacements or pressure appeared through the explosion.

1 INTRODUCTION characteristic can be used no only to estimate direct

Progressive collapse is defined as “the spread of an
initial local failure from element to element, eventu-
ally resulting in the collapse of an entire structure or
a disproportionately large part of it” (ASCE 7). This
phenomenon is a relatively rare event but study of
its behavior is very important for new and existing
buildings in order to reduce the number of casual-
ties that occur during accidents. In general, the civil
engineering structures such as buildings are composed
of elements with different properties and distinctions.
Interaction between this elements subjected to shock
impact load can be analyzed using “missing column”
or “missing slab (beam)” scenarios.
There is created a method of heterogeneous sys-
tems estimation of accidents caused by explosions
(Dorosevas & Volkovas 2001). This can be realized
by calculation a point of risk level D. It can be given
by calculation the following mathematical equation:
shock impact on the object such as according to power
of explosion. This characteristic also can show action
of indirect, secondary factors which can take action
after explosion.
In this paper discusses about the estimation influ-
ence of main indirect factors – state of RC slab, that
we call a criterion of influence quality of RC slab. This
characteristic of the RC slab state is lettered k1 . In this
case, equation (2) can be rewrite
Our aim is to suggest the methodology allowing cal-
culate the qualitative changes of the RC framed struc-
tures, as heterogeneous mechanical systems, under
shock impact and apply a point of risk level D for
such accident estimation.

2 PROBLEM FORMULATION

where sd – maximum displacement in contact zone
under shock impact load; st – very small standard
displacement;
α secondary influence function α = f (αi ), that
depends on indirect factors like state of RC slab,
inflammable of structural element, existence of dan-
gerous material or technology and etc. This func-
tion can be given by summary all indirect influence
coefficients.
As we see, a point of risk level is a complex estima-
tion characteristic of respond to dynamic impact. This
Suppose we have the heterogeneous mechanical
system – RC framed structure (Figure 1), which can
be affected by the shock impact load. It is evident
that damage done by shock impact will depend on the
force impulse, the location of the force in the space of
analyzed system and physical-mechanical characteris-
tics of the elements, which composed heterogeneous
mechanical system.
As seen, in this context we can exclude three main
groups of characteristics:
1) characteristics, which define shock impact load;
2) characteristics which define structure;
3) characteristics which define the contact of the
object and the charge.

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Figure 1. RC framed structure. 1 – column; 2 – column
bracket, 3 – RC slab connection, 4 – beam, 5 – floor slab.
The characteristics of the first group can be grouped
by the type of shock impact load (e.g., lateral, ver-
tical, etc). The second group characteristics can be
grouped into subgroups by the nature of deforma-
tions (e.g. rigid, elastic, elastically plastic). In the
third group it is purposeful to exclude two subgroups
by the nature of contact: when the contact of shock
impact load and object is direct or indirect, i.e. through
the other medium. So, we have got a specific hyper
structure of the problem systemic view, which could
be more detailed. It is obvious, that analysis and
research of dynamic processes of interaction between
RC framed structures and shock impact is compli-
cated and can be analysed only using differentiated
physical and mathematical modeling. The latter can
be implemented in analytic way or using finite ele-
ments analysis (FEA), for example with the Explicit
Dynamics solver. Analytic and discrete mathematical
modeling allows generally analyse interaction of shock
impact load with RC framed structures, but it also has
its own restrictions.
After realization procedure of mathematical mod-
eling we obtain information about the response of RC
framed structure to the dynamical impact. It can be
described by the functions of the distribution of the
displacements of RC elements appeared under shock
impact load:
where si – displacements appearing under shock
impact load;
We get direct parameters of the building’s structural
system’s respond to dynamic impact. These parame-
ters characterize condition of system’s elements and
gives presumptions to foresee possible changes of the
condition.
However a problem of evaluation of the model-
ing results always arises, especially for progressive
collapse assessment.
Figure 2. RC slab interaction with impactor in state A.
initial velocity interaction in Figure 2. The follow-
ing three state of RC slab were used in the analysis:
(A) normal RC slab state – concrete and metal materi-
als condition are good; (B) RC slab have metal mate-
rials defects, for example, wantage of reinforcement
beam; (C) RC slab have concrete defects, for example,
there are segment with bad quality of concrete.
Let us assume that maximum displacement appear-
ing under shock impact load in state A is sA . In this
case the normal characteristics of the RC slab in state
A means that k1A = 0 and calculation a point of risk
level DA can be given by calculation the following
mathematical equation:
where the secondary influence function αA = 1.
The different k1B and k1C characteristics of the
RC slab corresponding state B and C, by taking into
account that sB > sA and sC > sA , can be given by
calculation the following mathematical equations
where sB – maximum displacement appearing under
shock impact load in state B; sC – maximum dis-
placement appearing under shock impact load in
state C.
The secondary influence function α corresponding
state B and C can be given by calculation the following
Finally, by taking account into (5)–(9) equations,
we can be calculation a point of risk level in the state
B and C

3 METHOD OF EVALUATION

In order to illustrate method of evaluation, compare

displacements of RC slab from same impactor with

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 4. Fragments of directional deformation results in
RC slab of A state of reinforcement (z axis).

Figure 3. RC slab interaction with impactor in state A.

This method allows to calculate and compare a point

of risk level according to (5), (10) and (11) equa-
tions which evaluates quality’s influence of RC slab.
That means, that this way of estimation can be used
not only for finding points of risk level of separate
RC slabs, but functional dependence between shock
impact parameters and distribution of risk point level’s
can be calculated as well. The result of this process of
calculation can give presumptions for estimation of Figure 5. Fragments of directional deformation results in
progressive collapse. RC slab of B state of reinforcement (z axis).

4 NUMERICAL EXAMPLES

The problem simulated numerically is sketched in Fig-

ure 3 and numerical investigation from same impactor
with initial velocity of up to 9 m/s interaction of three
state of RC slab (A, B, C) was carried out with FEA
modeling using the Explicit Dynamics analysis in
ANSYS software. The impactor was modeled as rigid
197 kg weight of cylindrical body with the density of
7830 kg/m3 , with an elastic modulus 159 GPa and
Poisson’s ratio of 0.2.
Let’s suppose that the beams model used for rein-
forcement is developed by Johnson–Cook is purely
empirical (Johnson & Cook 1983). The material prop- Figure 6. Fragments of directional deformation results in
erties of RHT concrete strength model developed by RC slab of B state (z axis).
Riedel are given an advanced plasticity model for brit-
tle materials (Riedel et al., 1999). Drucker-Prager’s
method of material was used for concrete’s defect Table 1. Maximum displacements appearing under shock
impact load in state A, B and C.
model in C state. (Drucker & Prager 1952).
Figures 4–5 illustrated fragments interaction reac- t (ms) sA (mm) sB (mm) sC (mm)
tion of reinforcement beams and results in RC slab of
A and B states. 0.1 1.0847 1.0999 1.0909
Figure 6 illustrated fragments interaction reaction 0.11 1.2341 1.2607 1.2704
of RC slab of C state. 0.12 1.3787 1.4175 1.4500
After realization procedures of modeling with 0.13 1.5250 1.5724 1.6296
Explicit Dynamics analysis in ANSYS software we 0.14 1.6701 1.7245 1.8098
obtain information about the response of RC framed 0.15 1.8132 1.8766 1.9893
structure to the shock impact load, which are described 0.16 1.9532 2.0330 2.1690
0.17 2.0927 2.191 2.3491
by the distribution of the maximum displacements of
0.18 2.2362 2.3526 2.5306
RC elements and are given in Table 1. 0.19 2.3821 2.5181 2.7148
Choosing limited very small standard displacement 0.2 2.5298 2.6847 2.9015
st , an example, 0.5 mm, and using (5)–(11) equations,

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 7. Comparison the point of risk level. Indicated to
parentheses in RC slab state.
we can calculate points of risk level of various condi-
tions of RC slabs during different moments of shock
impact. Comparison of the results is given in Figure 7.
As we see in Figure 7, if we chose, for example
Dcr = 2, as a critical point of risk level, we could state
that g/b slab in C condition will reach critical point
during shock impact duration of 0.2 ms.
It is important note that use the described method
which helps to estimate point of risk level of every
RC slab of the building when building is under shock
impact load is complicated because we must know
mechanical and physical characteristics of slabs. We
can use physical experiment and nondestructive con-
trol methods. Expression of the results would be
concrete complex results indexes such as point of risk
levels D distribution and affiliation of critical point
of risk levels. Usage of the method creates additional
presumptions to estimate consequences of progressive
collapse and may help to prevent those consequences.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
5 CONCLUSIONS
The proposed and developed method of estimation
allows the analysis the response of RC framed struc-
ture to the shock impact load. The method enables:
– calculate and compare point of risk level, where RC
slab’s influence of quality is estimated;
– not only for finding points of risk of separate RC
slabs, but functional dependence between shock
impact parameters and distribution of risk point
level’s can be calculated and used for estimation
of progressive collapse.
REFERENCES
ASCE 7. 2006. Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and
Other Structures. Published by American Society of Civil
Engineers.
Dorosevas, V. & Volkovas, V. 2001. The new method of het-
erogeneous systems estimation of accidents caused by
explosions. Journal of Vibroengineering. 1(6): 47–50.
Johnson, G. R. & Cook, W. H. 1983. A constitutive model
and data for metals subjected to large strains, high
strain rates and high temperatures. In: Proc. 7th Interna-
tional Symposium on Ballistics. The Netherlands: ADPA,
541–547.
Riedel, W., Thoma K., Hiermaier S. & Schmolinske E. 1999.
Penetration of Reinforced Concrete by BETA-B-500,
Numerical Analysis using a New Macroscopic Concrete
Model for Hydrocodes. Proc. Internationales Symposium,
Interaction of the Effects of Munitions with Structures,
Berlin: Strausberg, 315–322.
Drucker, D. C. & Prager, W. 1952. Soil mechanics and
plastic analysis for limit design. Quarterly of Applied
Mathematics. Vol. 10, No. 2: 157–165.
 Performance assessment under multiple hazards

© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Extreme flood effects as a combination of river and sea action

C. Coelho
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Aveiro, Portugal

J.P. Carlier
Laboratoire de Mécanique de Lille, Université de Lille 1, France

ABSTRACT: The European Parliament presented a Directive (2007/60/CE), related with the evaluation and
management of flood risks. The document intends to reduce the risk of damaging consequences associated to
floods in human being health and lives, environment, cultural patrimony, economic activities and infra-structures.
This risk is calculated as the product of the probability of flooding with its (damaging) consequences. Flooding
is defined as water covering land that usually is not covered by water. This definition includes coastal, river and
estuarine areas. Waves action on natural coastlines is influenced by numerous parameters, such as wave energy,
tides, bathymetry and topography, shoreline morphology and sediment budget, to name a few. Similarly, a large
number of factors can be associated with river flood risk, such as land occupation, topography and meteorological
conditions. This paper presents storm surges and river floods impacts and mitigation strategies, highlighting the
actual knowledge to reduce floods damaging to infrastructure or property, and cause lower human and economic
losses.

1 INTRODUCTION 2 CASE STUDIES

1.1 River floods 2.1 River flood in Languedoc-Roussillon (France)

River floods are one of the main hazards encoun-
tered by people living in the whole European Union.
Since these floods can take numerous forms, such as
flash floods, estuarine floods, mud floods…, almost
all kinds of landscapes can be impacted.
In the past decades, an increase in terms of fre-
quency and of importance of such catastrophic events
has been noticed, and can be related to numerous
causes: modification of land occupation (increase
of impervious areas, changes in agricultural prac-
tices), erratic river banks management (artificialized
hydrosystems) and the effects of climate changes on
storm events frequency.
1.2 Coastal floods
All European coastal states are to some extent affected
by coastal erosion. Most of the impact zones are
actively retreating (in spite of the coastal protection
works done in some of them). Some coastal zones have
become artificially stabilized.
Highly energetic wave regimes, some negative
effects from coastal interventions, littoral occupation,
exterior interventions in harbors, the weakening of
river sediment supply and the generalized sea level
rise and other effects of climate changes (frequency
of storm events, rotation of waves provenience) can
be pointed out as the main causes of the increasing
number of constructions exposed to waves.
As an illustration of the mechanisms involved in the
generation of highly damaging river floods, it is briefly
described the reference flood of November 1999, in the
southeastern part of France (see Gaume et al., 2004 for
a detailed hydrological analysis). This event, resulting
from 2 days of very heavy rain on an area of more
than 20000 km2 , caused 36 casualties and 533 million
euros of damages.
2.1.1 Meteorological context
The storm event that initiated the flood is a typi-
cal occurrence of what is called a “Cevenol episode”
in France, namely a very heavy rainfall event: 620
mm of precipitations have been recorded at Lézignan-
Corbières in 48 hours (more than one average year
of rain). These phenomena are cause by a conflict
between hot air masses coming from the Mediter-
ranean Sea, and much colder air masses settled on the
southern part of the Massif Central (Montagne Noire,
Cevennes).
Figure 1 depicts the cumulated precipitations dur-
ing the 2 days of the event. Based on the analysis of
all recorded significant event in the region, the return
period of the rainfall event can be estimated to be
between 50 and 100 years.
2.1.2 Reaction of catchment areas
This very long and intense rainfall event resulted
everywhere in very high runoff. Nevertheless, it can

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 1. Cumulated precipitations (millimeters). Novem-
ber, 12th and 13th, 1999.

be noticed different reactions on the catchment areas,

mainly depending on their size and location.
Small catchments located in the center of the
storm zone have very brutally reacted, and generated
very high flow rates, sometimes in areas where no
permanent river was located.
In medium sized catchments, the flood intensity
depended mainly on the distance with the epicenter
of the phenomenon.
In the largest catchments, there has been a superim-
position of a “classical” flood with flash floods result-
ing from localized extreme rainfalls. This resulted in
very peaky hydrograms (very high maximum flow rate
but moderate overall volume).
2.1.3 Worsening factors
Usually, the increase of impervious surfaces is pointed
out as the major cause of catastrophic floods. In the
present case, the epicenter of the phenomenon, and
then the most damaged area, is not densely popu-
lated. More than impervious areas, the hugest amount
of runoff has been generated by originally permeable
soils that have been quickly saturated due to heavy and
long rain.
In this particular case indeed, can clearly be stated
that bad choices in terms of river management (mod-
ifications of natural paths, replacement by undersized
buried pipes …) and land occupation (changes in land
and building use) are the major reason for this event
to cause so much damages and casualties.
As will be discussed in paragraph 4, the combina-
tion of this very high amount of precipitations with
the effects of the storms on the coastal area (sea level
upraise and strong surge) have also been a major
worsening factor for this event.
2.1.4 Impacts and damages in constructed areas
Three kinds of impacts on construction can be out-
lined:
– Submersions, logjams and dams or bridges failure
have caused collapses and destruction of buildings;
– Landslides and massive erosion highly damaged the
communication networks (roads, electricity …);
Figure 2. Ovar municipality location.
Figure 3. Groin (a) and rocky longitudinal revetment (b) at
Esmoriz and Cortegaça, respectively.
– Sediments carried out by the flow have invaded the
building, while water imbibed the masonry, causing
a long term weakening of the structures.
2.2 Erosion and flood in Ovar (Portugal)
Ovar is a coastal municipality, located in the north-
west coast of Portugal, facing the Atlantic Ocean. This
municipality is composed for some small coastal vil-
lages, as Esmoriz, Cortegaça, Maceda and Furadouro
(Figure 2). During February and March 2010, storm
waves from southwest (typical wave direction is from
northwest), low atmospheric pressures and high spring
tides had different impacts on these villages.
At north of the municipality, Esmoriz and Corte-
gaça were in the past exposed to important erosion
processes. Nowadays, the urbanized coastal sea front
is protected by groins and longitudinal rocky revet-
ments, due to the sediments deficit (Figure 3). These
structures recently received maintenance works and
they presented a good behavior under this storm event
conditions.
At south of these villages, Maceda is also vulnerable
to wave actions, but there are no human constructions
near. In this site, until the present days, the authorities’
option was to let shoreline retreat, corresponding to no
interventions solution (Figure 4a). Some authors refer
common retreat rates for this zone of about 10 m/year

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Figure 4. Generalized erosion (a) and local weakness of the
shore (b), at Maceda beach.
Figure 5. Furadouro beach at north of the groin (a) and sea
wall destruction and emergency rocky protection (b).
and during these 2010 storm events, important retreats
were observed and new weak points on shore were
developed by cliff collapses (Figure 4b).
Further south, Furadouro usually presented some
sand deposition at the north side of the groin (it is
mainly sand resulting from the erosion of Maceda
beach), protecting the promenade and the urban sea
front (Figure 5a). However, due to these winter storms
of 2010, combined with spring tides and southwest
waves, the sand deposit updrift of the groin was eroded,
causing the destruction of the promenade wall (Fig-
ure 5b). Emergency works to build a longitudinal rocky
revetment structure were carried out right after the first
storm, but some overtopping was registered and some
waves flooded the main avenue.
The frequency of the overtopping and flooding
events in the northwest coast of Portugal and the
damages in infrastructures or the cost of protection
structures are expected to increase in the near future,
mainly due to the increasing of the negative budget of
sediments.
Mitigation strategies are required by populations
and decision makers. The state of the art is presented
in the next section, for fluvial and coastal floods, look-
ing for vulnerability and risk assessment and modeling
capability.
3 FLOOD MITIGATION STRATEGIES
3.1 Vulnerability and risk assessment
Erosion and floods are a common problem in Europe
which is observable on a medium-term scale. Several
causes of varying degree are contributing to it. On
the one hand are the dynamic nature of coastal and
river zones and climate change, and on the other are
the anthropogenic influences (Eurosion, 2004).To deal
with the problem in an effective manner an adequate
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
understanding of these causes is needed. However,
actionable knowledge of these zones dynamics is lim-
ited, the effects of climate change are identified in a
context of great uncertainty, and the effects of coastal
and river interventions have not been systematically
monitored. Nevertheless, although the causes are not
clearly identified and understood, it is increasingly
clear that people and assets in some littoral and fluvial
urban fronts are endangered and that serious dam-
age and high costs should be expected. The situation
calls for measures to be taken, and it is increasingly
important to make scientific and technical informa-
tion available to decision makers to support their
resolutions.
To effect sustainable actions, plans should be con-
ceived based on a medium to long-term evolution
assessment. Due to inherent uncertainty the assess-
ment of future conditions can only be done on the basis
of scenario evaluations, for which numerical models
comprising the present state of knowledge may be used
as a tool.
To help in ranking action priorities, vulnerabil-
ity and risk must also be assessed. The risk can be
accomplished by crossing vulnerability and degree
of exposure information in risk maps depicting spa-
tial analysis (as a recommendation from the European
Union (EU), Directive 2007/60/CE).
Parameters, such as wave energy, tides, bathymetry
and topography, shoreline morphology, sediment bud-
get and meteorological conditions are important for a
vulnerability analysis. However, zones which are very
vulnerable to floods may not necessarily be considered
as at risk. An approach similar to the vulnerabil-
ity analysis needed to be established for evaluating
the degree of exposure. Storm surges in combina-
tion with river floods can be highly damaging to
infrastructure or property, and cause substantial human
and economic losses. In terms of exposure levels the
parameters considered important are population den-
sity, economic activities potentially affected by floods,
and ecological, cultural and historical values exposed
to devastation by sea actions or floods.
Spatial classification facilitates mapping the degree
of exposure. Risk maps consist of a classification
obtained from crossing vulnerability with degree of
exposure. Analysis based on the spatial classification
and weighting of the parameters is important for the
evaluation of the vulnerability and the risk of floods
(see also Coelho et al., 2009).
3.2 Modelling
3.2.1 Fluvial processes
While the damages and casualties of extreme flood
events is a major concern for almost everyone, scien-
tific study of such events is only at its very beginning.
Several reasons can justify this state of fact.
3.2.1.1 Data collection
Since by definition these events are of very high return
period, a classical statistical analysis of existing data
 is difficult and error-prone, especially as far as poorly
monitored watersheds are concerned. One have then
to adopt modified approaches (e.g.Klemes, 1988).
Large scale post-flood survey strategies are often
necessary to collect the data and to identify the
phenomena involved in the flood generation and
propagation (Marchi et al., 2009).
3.2.1.2 Mechanisms comprehension
The genesis and the propagation of extreme floods
are the result of the conjunction of many factors and
mechanisms which may be difficult to identify and
to quantify. Altogether with the lack of data, this ren-
ders the relation between rainfall and generated flow
difficult to predict.
As an example, the behavior of small protection
structures (levees and dams) is of critical importance.
Since they are designed to be efficient for relatively
small return period, one can expect them to be over-
flows in case of extreme event, but the exact moment
of their failure and its consequences on the flood is
crucial.
3.2.1.3 Modeling strategies
For all these reasons, modeling extreme flood remains
a challenge: the hydrologist has to select, or rather
to develop, a model that is able to predict accurately
such events with a restricted number of available data
(Moussa and Bocquillon, 2009).
3.2.2 Coastal processes
Understanding of coastal processes, to have capability
of prediction and improve the modeling of shoreline
evolution and coastal protections behavior is still a
challenge to the scientific community. Modeling capa-
bility is required to protect coastal areas of erosion and
floods.
Some one-line numerical models of shoreline con-
figuration (see Silva et al., 2007) were especially
designed for sandy beaches, where the main cause
of medium-term shoreline evolution is the alongshore
sediment transport, which is dependent on the wave
climate, water levels, sediment sources/sinks, sedi-
ment characteristics and boundary conditions. Usually,
the models input are the changing water level and
the bottom elevation of the modelled area, which
may change during calculations. The sediment vol-
umes transported are estimated through the application
of formulae (CERC, 1984; Kamphuis, 1991) depen-
dent on the shoreline to wave breaking angle, the
wave breaking height, the beach slope and the sedi-
ment grain size (Hanson and Kraus, 1989; Kamphuis,
1991). The models assume that each wave acts during
a certain period of time (the computational time-step).
The wave transformation characteristics depends on
refraction, diffraction, reflection, shoaling and wave
breaking phenomenon’s, and wave conditions may be
imported from more complex wave models such as
SWAN (Simulating Waves Nearshore).
Due to the importance of the boundary condi-
tions, definition of different conditions should be
tested, for a sensitive analysis of the results. Moreover,
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
different coastal protection works combinations
should be considered (groins, breakwaters and sea-
walls, sediment sources/sinks sites or artificial nour-
ishments). The models allows for assessment of some
medium-term scenarios of combined anthropogenic
and natural actions, permitting also the modeling of
climate change scenarios.
Generally speaking, numerical models of shoreline
evolution (Hanson and Kraus, 1989; Vicente and Clí-
maco, 2003) are based on the calculation of coastal
sediment transport through the application of the con-
tinuity equation to the volumes of sand moved. The
variation of the shoreline position is calculated in each
cell of the domain by the differences between the vol-
umes of sediments that enter and exit over a certain
time interval. Thus, the shoreline position changes due
to the spatial and temporal variations of the longi-
tudinal solid transport. For this reason, situations of
systematic tendency in position changing are better
represented (e.g. erosion down-drift of a groin). The
effects of the cross-shore transport are usually not con-
sidered in medium to long-term model simulations,
since its evolution representation is still not realistic
on temporal scales of years to decades. Over a time
interval, the analysis along the shoreline for different
cells allows establishing the relationship between the
volume variation of the cell and the variation of the
volume of sediments in transport.
The variation of the volume of sand along the beach
represents a variation in the depth level at points
of the same profile. Erosion/accretion is distributed
along the active cross-shore profile, between the clo-
sure depth and wave run-up limit. The closure depth
can be estimated according to the inshore depth limit
of Hallermeier (1978). According to Nicholls et al.
(1998), Hallermeier’s approach allows robust esti-
mates of the closure depth both for individual erosive
events and for the time-dependent case. This conclu-
sion was based on an analysis of a series of cross-shore
profiles measured bi-weekly and with high precision
on a sandy ocean beach. All the present parameters
and variables are complex to estimate. Thus, numeri-
cal modeling of shoreline behavior and coastal floods
probability is still poorly understood.
4 FLOODS EFFECTS COMBINATION
As mentioned in paragraph 2, combination of heavy
rainfall with severe marine conditions (storms and/or
high tides) can highly increase the damaging potential
of flood events.
Usually, storm events, with important winds and
rainfalls, low atmospheric pressure, high tides and sig-
nificant wave heights represent natural conditions for
floods combination in coastal and estuarine areas. As
an example, during the 1999 event in south of France,
the coast experienced a rather strong marine storm
(estimated return period of 5–10 years) creating 5 m
high and more waves and causing a general surge of the
sea level of 0.75 m (in Sete) to 1.3 m (in Port-Vendres).
The Mediterranean Sea is the natural outfall of numer-
ous rivers in the area. This phenomenon has directly
caused a raise of the downstream water surface profile
of these rivers, and then prevented a good evacuation
of the flood crests.
In fact, fluvial and coastal floods are frequently
related and present common characteristics. Coastal
shores and river banks management is very important
to reduce flood damaging costs and control the conse-
quences of flood events. Land use is very important on
soil erosion and thus, on river sediment transport. On
the other hand, fluvial floods are usually associated
with important sediment transport rates. These sedi-
ments represent the natural nourishment of the coastal
areas, preventing coastal erosion. In estuarine regions,
the extreme rainfall events can present more negative
impacts when associated to high tide periods, mainly
during spring tides. Storms and low atmospheric pres-
sure can amplify the consequences. In spite of all this,
the subject of combined flood effects of river and sea
actions is still poorly referred in the literature.
5 DISCUSSION
Floods can occur in rivers and coastal areas, when flow
exceeds the capacity of the river channel particularly
at bends or meanders, or overtop the coastal structures
or features. Floods often cause damage to homes and
businesses if they are placed in natural flood plains of
rivers or flat coastal areas. While flood damage can be
virtually eliminated by moving away from rivers and
other bodies of water, since time out of mind, people
have lived and worked by the water to seek sustenance
and capitalize on the gains of cheap and easy travel
and commerce by being near water. That humans con-
tinue to inhabit areas threatened by flood damage is
evidence that the perceived value of living near the
water exceeds the cost of repeated periodic flooding.
Thus, it is essential to try to mitigate coastal and
river flood processes in specific locations. At the
moment, in terms of coastal erosion, the so-called
hard coastal defenses are indispensable to protect
some of the existing settlements. Similarly, large scale
flood protection structures (dykes, levees…) have to
be maintained and sometimes reinforced to account
for new land occupation. An adequate plan of mon-
itoring of the existent defense structures should be
foreseen, keeping the maintenance costs and the failure
probability of the structures at low level.
Regarding the political point of view, it is crucial
to regulate urban seafront extension and floodplains
occupation. This implies more severe regulation (at
each decision level (European, national, local) in terms
of land occupation policies. In some cases, the pol-
icy options of managed realignment – identify a new
line of defense and re-settle the populations in the
hinterland – have to be considered.
The solution for coastal and/or fluvial flood prob-
lems must pass through a compromise between the
passive acceptance of erosion and flood, some soft
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
management (beach nourishment, floodplains man-
agement) and heavier intervention for urban protec-
tion. The validation of the models simulations of the
interventions effect on shoreline and riverbed config-
uration can only be done through the monitoring and
analysis of real situations.
6 CONCLUSIONS
It is important to understand the status and distribution
of coastal and fluvial populations, land cover, frag-
ile ecosystems and the causes of their vulnerability.
Strategies for coastal and fluvial zone management
require better understanding of the hazard drivers (e.g.
storms, surges, or tsunamis) or the responses (flood-
ing, erosion, and structural damage) and of community
vulnerability. A reliable assessment of the current sta-
tus of the global coastal and fluvial environment is long
overdue. The major constraint has been a widespread
lack of accurate and timely data at the global level.
Recent advances in spatial data gathering and pro-
cessing techniques, including satellite remote sensing
and Geographic Information Systems have however,
started to assist the scientific community in overcom-
ing these constraints and may allow the development
of a preliminary Flood Vulnerability and Risk Index.
The studies to prevent floods should allow reducing
the flood risk to people, property and the environment,
protecting human health, safety and employment by
minimizing the effects of flooding on key community
services, sectors and infrastructure. Risk is a complex
function of loadings, floodplain topography and the
spatial distribution of floodplain assets. The applica-
tion of flood risk approaches allows managers to obtain
an improved understanding of the flooding system, its
vulnerabilities and the most efficient means of allo-
cating resource to improve performance. It may also
be used to test how the system may respond to future
external perturbations.
Knowing and better understanding the fluvial and
coastal floods processes will support the achievement
of good ecological status, promoting sustainable land
use and protecting and enhance where possible land-
scape and townscape character and visual amenity,
features of archaeological and cultural heritage. In
the future, extreme floods effects reduction, trying to
enhance public access through walkways and cycle
paths, to promote the principles of sustainable devel-
opment and to reduce vulnerability to the impacts
of climate change and maintain flexibility for future
responses are goals to achieve.
REFERENCES
CERC – Coastal Engineering Research Center, (1984); Shore
Protection Manual, U.S. Government Printing Office,
Washington DC.
Coelho, C., Granjo, M., Segurado-Silva, C. (2009); Map of
Costal Zone Vulnerabilities to Wave Actions – Application
to Aveiro District (Portugal); International Symposium on
 Integrated Coastal Zone Management; Arendal, Norway,
11th to 14th June 2007, chapter 24, pp. 318–330, ISBN
978-1-4051-3950-2.
Directive 2007/60/EC of the European Parliament and of
the Council of the 23rd October 2007 on the assessment
and management of flood risks. Official Journal of the
European Union, L 288/27.
Gaume E., Livet M., Desbordes M., Villeneuve J.-P. Hydro-
logical analysis of the river Aude, France, flash flood on
12 and 13 November 1999 (2004) Journal of Hydrology,
286 (1–4), pp. 135–154.
Hallermeier, R.J. (1978). Uses for a Calculated Limit Depth to
Beach Erosion. Proceedings of 16th Coastal Engineering
Conference, ASCE, Hamburg, Germany, pp. 1493–1512.
Hanson, H., Kraus, N. C. (1989). “GENESIS: General-
ized Model for Simulating Shoreline Change”; Report 1,
Technical Reference, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
247 p.
Kamphuis, J. W. (1991). “Alongshore Sediment Transport
Rate”; Journal of Waterways, Port, Coastal and Ocean
Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 117(6), pp. 624–641.
Klemes V. (1988), The improbable probabilities of extreme
previous floods and droughts. In: O. Starosolszky and
O.M. Melder, Editors, Hydrology of Disasters, James and
James, London, UK, pp. 43–51.
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Marchi L., Borga M., Preciso E., Sangati M., Gaume E.,
Bain V., Delrieu G., Bonnifait L., Pogacnik N. (2009)
Comprehensive post-event survey of a flash flood in West-
ern Slovenia: observation strategy and lessons learned.
Hydrological processes, vol. 23, no26, pp. 3761–3770.
Moussa, R. and Bocquillon C. (2009) On the use of the
diffusive wave for modelling extreme flood events with
overbank flow in the floodplain. Journal of Hydrology
Volume 374, Issues 1–2, Pages 116–135.
Silva, R., Coelho, C., Taveira-Pinto, F., Veloso-Gomes, F.
(2007); Dynamical Numerical Simulation of Medium
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263–267. ISSN 0749–0208.
Vicente, C. M., Clímaco, M. (2003). Evolução de Linhas
de Costa. Desenvolvimento e Aplicação de um Mod-
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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Survey activity for the seismic and volcanic vulnerability assessment in the
Vesuvian area: The golden mile villas

L. Alterio, D. De Gregorio, B. Faggiano, P. Di Feo, G. Florio, A. Formisano & F.M. Mazzolani

University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy

F. Cacace & G. Zuccaro

PLINIVS Centre, Naples, Italy

R.P. Borg
University of Malta, Malta

C. Coelho
University of Aveiro, Portugal

M. Indirli
ENEA, Bologna, Italy

L.A. Kouris
Aristotele University of Thessaloniki, Greece

V. Sword-Daniels
University College of London, UK

ABSTRACT: Into the topics of the EU COST Action C26 (“Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic
Events”), a case study on Vesuvius has been developed. One important activity has been the in situ survey
for the seismic and volcanic vulnerability assessment on different construction typologies, such as residential
and historical buildings, school buildings and monumental villas, located in areas exposed to volcanic hazard.
During this activity, the buildings vulnerability elements to seismic and volcanic actions has been identified
through a visual investigation, aided by an ad hoc form. This paper illustrates the survey activity on 9 Vesuvian
Villas.The survey, developed in January 2010, involved experts and representatives of local authorities and several
institutions, as: ENEA, Bologna (Italy); PLINIVS Centre, Naples (Italy); University of Naples Federico II (Italy);
University of Malta (Malta); University of Aveiro (Portugal); Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece);
University College London (United Kingdom).

1 THE GOLDEN MILE VILLAS

1.1 Location
The examined villas, also know as Golden Mile Villas,
because they are located along the Golden Mile (part
of the Royal Calabria road between Portici and Torre
Annunziata), are 122 and they constitute an important
part of the cultural and artistic heritage of the Vesu-
vian area. Figure 1 and the Table 1–6 show the spatial
distribution of the villas in the Vesuvian town.
Figure 1. The localization of the Golden Mile villas in the
1.2 Historical background Vesuvian Area.

In the 1738 Queen Maria Amalia of Sassonia mar-
ried the king of Naples, Carlo of Borbone, and she
persuaded her husband to build a real villa in Portici.
From then on all neapolitan aristocrats built their
summer holiday villas along the coastal area at the foot
of Vesuvius. Therefore during the course of the eigh-
teenth century many villas were built and others were
restored, transforming the area, trasforming that place
in the so called “Golden Mile”, rich in architectural
and historical heritage.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 1. The 19 villas located in Torre del Greco. Table 4. The 30 villas located in San Giorgio a Cremano.

Villa Cardinale Villa Macrina Villa Prota Villa Bruno Villa Jesu
Villa Vallelonga Villa Solimena Villa Maria Villa Marulli Villa Righi
Palazzo Chicchella Villa Mennella Villa Ercole Villa Carsana Villa Leone
Villa San Gennariello Palazzo Petrella Villa Fienga Villa Borrelli Villa Menale
Palazzo del Salvatore Villa Caramiello Villa Guerra Villa Olimpia Villa Lignola
Masseria Donna Chiara Villa Bruno Prota Villa Ginestre Villa Bonocore Villa Cerbone
Villa delle Ginestre Villa Carafa Percuoco Villa Tanucci
Villa Tufarelli di Sotto Villa Cosenza
Villa Giarrusso e Maria Villa Sinicopri
Table 2. The 22 villas located in Ercolano. Villa Giulia o De Marchi Villa Pizzicato
Villa Galante, via Buozzi Villa Vannuchi
Villa Favorita Villa Aprile Villa Galante, via Pessina Villa Marullier
Palazzo Correale Villa Arena Villa Caracciolo di Forino Villa Salvetella
Palazzo Tarascone Villa Lucia Villa Avallone ora Tufarelli Villa Ummarino
Palazzo Capracotta Villa Passaro Villa Pignatelli di Montecalvo Villa Zampaglione
Villa Giulio de la Ville Villa Durante
Villa Tosti di Valminuta Villa Ruggiero
Villa Vargas Macchucca Villa Consiglio Table 5. The 9 villas located in Barra
Villa Principe di Migliano Villa Campolieto
Villa De Bisogno Casaluce Villa De Liguroro Palazzo Bisignano Villa Amalia
Villa Signorini (Via Roma) Villa Mannes Rossi Villa Nasti ora Letizia Villa Salvetti
Villa Signorini (Corso Resina) Palazzo Municipale Villa Spinelli di Scalea Villa Filomena
Villa Pignatelli di Monteleone Villa Sant’Anna
Villa Giuli o De Gregorio di Sant’Elia
Table 3. The 31 villas located in Portici.

Palazzo di Fiore Villa Zelo Table 6. The 11 villas located in San Giovanni a Teduccio
Villa Ragozzino Villa Nava
Palazzo Amoretti Villa Gallo I Villa Volpicelli Villa Vittoria Villa Papa
Palazzo Evidente Villa Meola II Villa Volpicelli Villa Cristina Villa Vignola
Collegio Landriani Villa Starita Palazzo Procacciani Villa Faraone Villa Paudice
Palazzo Moscabruno Villa Emilia Villa Raiola Scarinzi Villa Percuoco
Palazzo Lauro Lancellotti Villa Menna
Palazzo Ruffo di Bagnara Villa Aversa axis connecting the hall of the building to the internal
Palazzo Serra di Cassano Villa Maltese
Esedra (ex Villa Buono) Villa Sorvillo park, following the sequence portal–hall–courtyard–
Palazzo, Corso Garibaldi n.28 Palazzo Valle garden. The typical typologies of the Vesuvian villas
Palazzo, Corso Garibaldi n.40 Palazzo Reale are three: in the first, the building is surrounded by the
Palazzo, Corso Garibaldi n.100 Villa Mascolo garden, and the only contact with the street is a portal;
Rudere in C.so Garibaldi n.316 Villa d’Amore in the second, the garden is on a side of the villa, and
Palazzo Capuano (ora Villa Materi) Villa d’Elboeuf in the third, the build overlooks the street. The impor-
Palazzo, Corso Garibaldi n.101/111
tant views and panorama are visible from the interior
spaces, which are rich in decoration and stuccos.
1.3 The Architectural styles of the Vesuvian villas It must be pointed out that an important aspect of the
architecture of the Vesuvian villas is the context and
The predominant architectural styles present in the the relationship with the natural features of the area.
Golden Mile villas are Baroque and Rococò. Baroque
elements are evident in the villas of the first half of the 1.4 The Architects of the Vesuvian villas
eighteenth century, whereas in the second half of the
century a Rococò style predominates. Information on the architects of the villas is, only par-
The Vesuvian villas include typical elements of tially, available from historical documents, but a sig-
these architectural styles: all villas enjoy important nificant number of important architects were engaged
views and are open to the natural beauty, of Vesu- in their design. The list of architects includes Solimena
vius or the sea, in contrast to the elevation on the who painted frescoes in a villa in Barra; San Felice,
street. In all the villa, different architectural styles are whose work can be found in Villa d’Elboeuf in Por-
evident. In some cases, the villas have an elliptical tici; Villa Granito of Bel Monte-Signorini in Ercolano;
court with sculptures as in Villa Bruno, Palazzo Bisig- Palazzo Tarascone in Ercolano; Villa Durant; Villa Pig-
nano, Villa Pignatelli di Montecalvo, Villa Ruggiero, natelli of Montecalvo in San Giorgio a Cremano, Villa
Villa del Cardinale, Villa Bruno Prota. Other villas Pignatelli of Montecalvo in Barra.
are linked to the sea, with terraces and gardens reach- The works of other important architects such as Vac-
ing the coast, as in Villa Leone, Villa Vannucchi, Villa caro, Vanvitelli, Fuga are found respectively in Villa
Lauro Lancellotti. Meola and Villa Signorini in Ercolano, in Villa Cam-
In all the villas there is a clear contrast between the polieto in Ercolano and Villa Pignatelli of Monteleone
rational plan, characterized by axis of symmetry and in Barra; and finally in Villa Favorita in Ercolano.
the free interpretation of ornamental elements. A pre- Other less famous architects worked on the Vesu-
dominant feature in most of these villas is the main vian villa including Schiantarelli, Saluzzi, Gioffredo,

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Table 7. First record group in the volcanic vulnerability Table 8. Second record group in the volcanic vulnerability
form. form

General Structural characteristic Regularity

Information Condition Interventions
Principal typology Regularity in plan
Type Age Type of repairs Primary vertical structures Regularity along the height
Destination Conservation of Structure Age of the repairs Primary horizontal structures Arcade (soft floor)
Use Typology of finishes Geometry of the roofing Squat element (only to RC)
Exposure Structure of the roofing Distribution of the structure
Thickness of the wall Distrib. of curtain walls
in plan
Giustiniani, Pollio, Tagliacozzi, Astarita, Canevari, Thickness of the curtain walls Distrib. of curtain walls
Anaclerio and Cuomo. (U. Cardarelli, P. Romanello, along the height
A. Venditti.) Typology of the curtain walls

2 SURVEY ACTIVITY Table 9. Third record group in the volcanic vulnerability

2.1 Aims
The investigation and survey activity have been
inspired by two targets.
The first one is the assessment of the seismic
and volcanic vulnerability of the examined Vesuvian
Villas, and the second one is the identification of
appropriate damage mitigation techniques for such
important constructions, which must be protected from
possible exceptional actions, for posterity, due to their
important heritage status.
2.2 The used forms
The above-mentioned objects had been carried out
through a visual investigation, with the use of two
different forms, developed by the PLINIVS Centre
(COST Action C26 report, 2009; Mazzolani et al.,
2010):
– An ad hoc form for the identification of vol-
canic vulnerability elements, with an additional
form for recording of valuable artistic elements in
monumental building.
– MEDEA schedule for data collection of possible
damage mechanisms, the seismic damage and the
vulnerability elements;
The first form for volcanic vulnerability includes
different sections:
– General Information (GI),
– Condition (C);
– Interventions (I);
– Descriptive Characteristics (DC);
– Openings (O);
– Structural Characteristics (SC);
– Regularity (R);
In each of these sections different categories of
information are organized, in different sub-sections,
as shown in Table 7 – 8 – 9. Within each sub-
section described, it is possible to select different
options according to the specific characteristic of the
examined building.
“Type” refers to; ordinary building, ruin, green-
house, ENEL station, shack or similar, sport facilities,
form
Descriptive Characteristic Openings
N◦ of storeys % of openings on the facade
N◦ of apartments N◦ of small windows
Basement N◦ of typical windows
Occupied basement N◦ of large windows
Height of first storey Material of small windows
Minimum height Material of typical windows
Maximum height Material of large windows
Outer fence with h > 2 m Protection of small windows
Orientation Protection of typical windows
Position Protection of large windows
Condition of the windows
temporary structure, penthouse, light prefabricated
building or other. The sub-section “use” describes
whether the building is in use or not, or is partially
used or abandoned. “Exposure” refers to the vulnera-
bility related to particular use of the structure, such as
military, hospital, school, industry or ordinary. The
“age” of the building is addressed in eight classes;
“before 1900” to “after 2001”. The state of conser-
vation is qualitatively indicated through adjectives
namely poor, mediocre, good or excellent. In a similar
way the typology of the finish is divided as follows: in
economic, ordinary and luxury.
The age of the interventions is recorded with ref-
erence to a range of periods. The types of repairs are
classified in three categories: extraordinary repairs,
amelioration and adjustment.
In the “Principal typology” sub-section of “Struc-
tural characteristic” section the principal material is
specified. In the second sub-section it is possible to
report the constructional technology (sack masonry,
recent lamellar wood, mixed structure, frame with
structural steel, etc). Similarly, in successive sub-
sections the constructional technologies of the floor,
roofing and the curtain walls are identified. The sub-
sections “Regularity” and “Opening” refer to the reg-
ularity of the building, and the presence of openings.
Finally the “Descriptive characteristic” section con-
tains information on the presence or absence of a
basement, and as well as a fence. In this section, the ori-
entation of the building is indicated; this is understood

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Table 10. Vulnerability elements according to MEDEA
form
1. Absence of connection between orthogonal walls
and/or tie-beams or stringcourse at different levels
2. Vulnerability elements according to MEDEA form
Presence of stringcourses in breccia on masonries
with double facings
3. Any floors badly connected with the walls
4. Masonry of low-quality, reduced resistant area
along one or both directions
5. High percentage of openings
6. Foundations inadequate to resist the vertical load
increment due to the earthquake
7. Different consistencies of the foundation soils,
presence of landslide or liquefaction
8. Presence of added buildings with different
stiffness and/or with localized connections
9. Variation of the structural system at upper levels
10. Presence of a raising and/or a stiff and badly
connected roof structure
11. Presence of staggered levels
12. Excessive distance between bracing walls
13. Pushing structure and/or absence of connection
between the wall and the roof
14. Presence of lintel with reduced bending stiffness
or with inadequate support length
15. Presence of lowered arches or inadequate support
of lintel
16. Local reduction of the masonry section (presence
of flues, niches, etc.)
17. Local discontinuities (filling of old openings, bad
realization of masonry sewing, etc.)
18. Presence of ridge beam of considerable sizes
19. Presence of openings in the proximity of the
roof ridge
as the angle between the longest or principal facade
and the North. The last sub-section, refers to the rel-
ative position of the examined building with respect
to the others: “isolated”, “internal” (enclosed in two
opposite blocks), “external” (free on three sides) and
“internal corner” that is closed on two adjacent sides.
The supplementary form gives details about the
location of the building, in particular the site character-
istics as such as the gradient of the terrain; the urban
context (urban or historical centre, urban periphery,
industrial or agricultural area); the type of the access
and neighbourhood infrastructures; and at the end the
presence of industrial, or natural risks, such as land-
slides, inundations or others. Moreover it is possible to
specify the number and the area of each type of artistic
heritage recorded, during the survey.
Finally a section about the regularity of the plan
layout (Rectangular, extended rectangular, L-shaped,
C-shaped, with court yard or other) is included.
In the first part of the MEDEA form (F. Papa,
G. Zuccaro Manual on damage and practicability of
ordinary masonry building) the seismic vulnerability
elements, are recorded, as shown in Table 10.
In the second part, the damage to vertical structures
or to horizontal structures is recorded.
Each damage is related to global (GB) or local
mechanisms (LM), as listed in Table 11.
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Table 11. Damage Mechanism according to MEDEA form
M1 Storey shear mechanism (GB)
M2 Shear mechanism for upper storeys (GB)
M3 Whole wall overturning (GB)
M4 Partial wall overturning (GB)
M5 Vertical instability of the wall (GB)
M6 Wall bending rupture (GB)
M7 Horizontal sliding failure (GB)
M8 Foundation subsidence (GB)
M9 Irregularity between adjacent structures (GB)
M10 Floor and roof beam unthreading (GB)
M11 Lintel or masonry arch failure (LM)
M12 Material irregularity, local weakness (LM)
M13 Roof gable wall overturning (LM)
M14 Corner overturning in the upper part (LM)
M15 Overturning of the wall supporting the roof (LM)
M16 Vault and arch overturning (LM)
Figure 2. Examined villas in Ercolano: a) Palazzo dei
mosaici, b) Villa Ruggiero, c) Villa Aprile, d) Villa Cam-
polieto.
2.3 The villas investigated
The survey activity has been conducted in relation to
9 Vesuvian villas:
– in Ercolano: Palazzo dei mosaici in Villa Favorita’s
park on sea (PVF), Villa Campolieto (VC), Villa
Ruggiero (VR), Villa Aprile (VA) (Figure 2);
– in Torre del Greco: Villa Macrina (VMA), Villa
delle Ginestre (VG) (Figure 3),
– in Portici: Villa Mascolo (VMO) (Figure 4) ;
– in S. Giorgio a Cremano : Villa Bruno (VB) e Villa
Vannucchi (VV) (Figure 5)
Almost all villas are actually in use, excluding villa
Mascolo, that will be transformed into a museum. The
characteristics of the villas vary, and such variations
include the use of the building, including public office,
accommodation facilities, and building with different
uses, such as Villa Vannucchi and Villa Bruno.
The type of the construction is often not identifiable.
The state of conservation is good for all the vil-
las that have been subjects to recent rehabilitation,
except villa Campolieto, which is in a mediocre con-
dition. The typologies of finishes range from ordinary
to luxury.
With regards the structural characteristics all vil-
las are constructed in sack masonry; the exception is
Figure 3. Examined Villas in Torre del Greco: a) Villa
Macrina, b) Villa delle Ginestre. Figure 5. a) Villa Vannucchi; b) Villa Bruno in Portici.

Figure 4. Villa Mascolo in Portici.

Figure 6. Artistic heritage in Vesuvian Villas: a) Villa
Vannucchi Stucco, b) Villa Campolieto fresco.
Villa Vannucchi with reinforcements. In all villas the
primary horizontal structures are constituted of a com- Table 12. Vulnerability elements of the 9 Vesuvian villas.
bination of vaults without tie beams and plane timber
or steel floors. The roof structures are not structures V.E. PVF VMA VA VMO VG VC VB VR VV
with significant thrust in Villa Vannucchi, Villa Mas-
colo, Villa Ruggiero and Villa delle Ginestre, the struc- 1 • • •
• •
• •
2

–






ture includes vaults in Villa Campolieto, Villa Bruno 3 – • –






and Villa Macrina. However in the remaining villas 4 • • •
• • • •

one encounters a structure with thrust, made out of 5 • • •

• • • •
wood with two pitch, without ridge pole and tie beam. 6

–




•
7

–






In view of the complexities of these villas both in 8 • • •


• •

plan and also in elevation, it is hardly ever possible to 9
•




•

define them as regular. 10






•

The percentage of the openings varies from one 11

• •
• • •

façade to another, but in average, for half of the villas 12 •
•

• • • •
13
– •
• • –


the value is in the range 10%–25%; and for the remain- 14 • – •

• •


ing half between 25%–50%. The number of openings 15 – – –






varies substantially, in relation to the villas, whereas 16 •
•






the material of the openings (wood) is the same for 17

• •



•
18
•







all. In general the openings are in a good state of 19 • • •

•



conservation and their protection is efficient.
The number of storeys ranges from 2, in Villa delle • =Yes;
= No; – = I don’t know
Ginestre and in Palazzo dei Mosaici, to 6 in Villa Cam-
polieto. The number of storeys is 4–5 for the other In all the villas there is both pedestrian and vehicle
villas. The height of the storeys ranges from 4 m in access, and also neighbouring open spaces.
Villa Macrina to 10 m in Villa Campolieto; and the The cultural and artistic heritage present in the villas
maximum and minimum heights up to the eaves varies varies in type and extent: frescoes; mosaics, mold-
from 4 m in Villa Macrina to 24 m in Villa Campolieto. ings, tapestries, altars, books, paintings, furnitures and
A fence is present only in the case of half of the paper and parchment artefacts (Figure 6).
villas, that is Villa Campolieto, Villa of Ginestre, Villa The form described above was completed for each
Bruno and Villa Ruggiero. villa. In addition for each villa, the vulnerability ele-
All Villas are isolated from the surrounding build- ments to seismic action as reported in Table 10 and
ings, excluding Villa Campolieto that is enclosed in as defined in the MEDEA form, were recorded. These
two opposite blocks and Villa Vannucchi and Villa are summarised in Table 12.
Aprile that are free on three sides. As evident, from Table 12, most of examined vil-
The villas are located in the urban centre or the las include more than one vulnerability element. In
periphery, except Villa delle Ginestre, situated in an particular the following vulnerability elements could
agricultural area. In the case of almost all villas, the be identified; a good connection to bearing walls is
topography consists of flat land or inclined terrain. not present, the masonry quality is low, there is a high

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Table 13. Damage Mechanism of the 9 Vesuvian villas located in the, so called Golden Mile. The exam-
ined villas built during the eighteenth century, by the
D.M. PVF VMA VA VMO VG VC VB VR VV Neapolitan aristocrats, form a small but representative
part of a rich architectural heritage.
M1 • • • • • • • – • The collected data was assessed through quick
M2 – • • – – – – – –
methodologies which have been developed by the
M3 • • • – • • • – –
M4 • • • – • • • – – PLINIVS Centre (Mazzolani et al., 2010).
M5 – – – – – – – – – The investigation emphasizes a complex situation:
M6 – – – – – – • – – the characteristics of the villas vary considerably,
M7 • – – – – – – – • including their use and other aspects as structural char-
M8 – – – – – – – – • acteristics. It is difficult to identify a unique type of
M9 • • • • • – • • – construction: each villa represents a unique case. How-
M10 • • – – – – – • – ever some dominant characteristics are present. All
M11 • • • • • • • – – villas are constructed in sack masonry; the horizontal
M12 • – • • – – – – –
structures include a combination of vaults and plane
M13 – – – – – – • – –
M14 – – – – – – • – – floors; they are not regular in plan or elevation; the per-
M15 – • • – • • • – – centage of openings in the façade are on average for
M16 • • • • • • • • – half of the villas in the range of 10%–25%. The number
and the height of the storeys is different for each villa.
• = Possible; – = Improbable Almost all villas are isolated from the other buildings.
Each villa presents more than one seismic vulner-
percentage of openings on the facades, an excessive ability element, and the most recurrent vulnerability
distance between bracing walls and staggered levels, elements are; the absence of good connections to
lintel have reduced bending stiffness or with inade- bearing walls, an excessive distance between bracing
quate support length, and openings are located in the walls and staggered levels, lintel with reduced bend-
proximity of the roof edge. All these situations are ing stiffness. With regards the possible global or local
considered to be vulnerability elements because they collapse mechanism, the most recurrent in the exam-
prevent a “box” behaviour of the structure in case of an ined villas are: a storey shear mechanism (M1), the
earthquake, with the probable consequence of global whole or partial wall overturning (M3), irregularity
or partial mechanism. between adjacent structures (M9), detached floor and
On the basis of the vulnerability and the points roof beams (M10), the lintel or masonry arch failure
above, the second part of the MEDEA form was com- (M11), the overturning of the wall supporting the roof
piled. In this regard, it is necessary to point out that in (M15), and the vault and arch overturning (M16)
the form, only the possible collapse mechanism, have
been reported. These were not necessarily based on
the crack pattern, even because almost all the villas ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
investigated had been recently repaired.
The probable mechanisms recorded in the investi- The Authors acknowledge the European Project COST
gation are reported in Table 13. Action C26 ‘Urban habitat constructions under catas-
Is important to notice that the global or local mech- trophic events’ (2006–2010), which has promoted and
anism identified in Table 13 are possible mechanisms, inspired this research activity.
and consistent with the structural characteristics of the The contribution of Engineering students Nicola
villas. Chieffo, Ilaria Riccio,Antonio Esposito, Giovanni Pal-
ladino, who have taken part in the survey activity, is
also gratefully acknowledged.
3 CONCLUSIONS Finally, particular acknowledgments are directed
to the Foundation Agency for Vesuvian Villas for its
The Vesuvian area represents a zone of high hazard collaboration.
with regards to seismic and volcanic events. The vol-
cano, Vesuvius, is associated to an explosive event, REFERENCES
meaning that the catastrophic events related with its
possible eruption should be very violent. U. Cardarelli, P. Romanello, A. Venditti. Ville Vesuviane. Pro-
This risky situation has induced the European getto per un patrimonio settecentesco di urbanistica e
project COST Action C26 ‘Urban habitat construc- architettura. Electa Napoli. pp.39–46, 75–76, 81–96.
tions under catastrophic events’ to introduce the F. Papa, G. Zuccaro Manual on damage and practicability of
ordinary masonry building (MEDEA)
‘Vesuvius case’ within its research activities.
Mazzolani F.M., Faggiano B., Formisano A., De Gregorio D.,
With the intent to evaluate the seismic and vol- Indirli M. and Zuccaro, G. 2010. Survey activity for the
canic vulnerability assessment on different construc- volcanic vulnerability assessment in the Vesuvian area:
tive typologies located in this area, an intensive survey the ‘quick’ methodology and the survey Proceeding of the
activity has been carried out. International Conference COST Action C26 Urban habi-
In particular this paper illustrates the survey activ- tat constructions under catastrophic events, Naples, Italy,
ity on 9 historical and monumental Vesuvian Villas, 16–18 September 2010. Paper n. 202.

652
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Survey activity for the seismic and volcanic vulnerability assessment in the
Vesuvian area: The historical centre and the residential area in Torre
del Greco

D. De Gregorio, B. Faggiano, G. Florio, A. Formisano, T. De Lucia, G. Terracciano &

F.M. Mazzolani
University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy

F. Cacace, G. Conti, G. De Luca, G. Fiorentino, C. Pennone & G. Zuccaro

PLINIVS Centre, Naples, Italy

R.P. Borg
University of Malta, Malta

C. Coelho
University of Aveiro, Portugal

S. Gerasimidis
Aristotele University of Thessaloniki, Greece

M. Indirli
ENEA, Bologna, Italy

ABSTRACT: The Vesuvius Case Study was developed in the framework of Work Group 4 (‘Risk Assessment
for Catastrophic Scenarios in Urban Areas’) of the EU COST Action C26 (‘Urban Habitat Constructions under
Catastrophic Events’). An important activity has been the in situ survey, for the volcanic and seismic vulnerability
assessment of different construction typologies, such as residential buildings and historical buildings, school
buildings and monumental villas, located in selected areas exposed to volcanic hazard. During this activity, the
identification of buildings has been performed through a visual investigation, supported by an ‘ad hoc’ form,
related to the building vulnerability to seismic and volcanic actions. This paper refers to the survey activity
conducted during January 2009, on a part of the historical centre and the residential area of Torre del Greco.
Torre del Greco is the town with the highest population in the Vesuvian area.

1 INTRODUCTION In this perspective, it was necessary to analyze

Over the years and around the World, volcanic erup-
tions have led to many fatalities and economic losses.
In Europe, the Vesuvius area is considered to be the
area with the highest volcanic risk. A probable explo-
sive eruption of Vesuvius, in fact, is a persistent threat
to the surrounding urban areas and the c. 600,000
inhabitants of these urban areas.
In view of the peculiar risky situation of the Vesu-
vius volcano, the European project COST Action
C26 ‘Urban habitat constructions under catastrophic
events’has included the ‘Vesuvius case’as a case study
within its research activities. The objectives are sub-
stantially two: to evaluate the volcanic vulnerability of
the urban environment with regards a Vesuvian erup-
tion and to propose simple and economical mitigation
interventions.
the Vesuvian construction typologies and therefore a
survey activity was organized. The selected areas are
located in the town of Torre del Greco, on the Vesuvius
slope. The data has been collected through a survey
form developed by the PLINIVS Centre. The survey
form is used in order to assess the volcanic vulnerabil-
ity through quick methodologies (COST Action C26
report, 2009; Mazzolani et al., 2009 and 2010).
In particular, this paper includes the outcome of
the investigation carried out in the historical centre
and the residential area of Torre del Greco. The two
areas investigated were selected because they repre-
sent two different Vesuvian urban environments, in
terms of density, structural buildings typologies and
exposition to eruptive phenomena. In fact, the histori-
cal centre, which is densely populated, is characterized
by masonry constructions most of which were built

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 1. Torre del Greco historical centre (picture; Google
Earth).
Figure 2. Torre del Greco, 1794 (a) and 1861 (b) eruptions.
in the nineteenth century and in the first half of the
twentieth century. On the other hand, the residential
area is characterised by masonry and RC buildings,
built after 1920.
The data collected during the survey activities in
these two areas is presented in this paper.
2 THE HISTORICAL CENTRE
2.1 General information
The surveyed area of the historic centre of Torre del
Greco is located 6 km from the Vesuvius vent and com-
prises 281 buildings, on an area of about 0.15 km (see
Figure 1). It extends from the commercial area of the
city (Roma street) to the docklands where the port
authority is located.
Over the years this area of the city has been closely
influenced by the eruptive activity of Vesuvius. For
example, on 15 June 1794, an eruption buried the his-
torical centre of Torre del Greco under a 10 m thick
lava deposit, as indicated in Figure 2a. On 8 December
1861, another eruption, accompanied by continuous
earthquakes, resulted in damage in the town, rebuilt
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 3. ‘A’zone of the historical centre of Torre del Greco.
Figure 4. ‘B’zone of the historical centre ofTorre del Greco.
with great sacrifice after the 1794 eruption. In spite
of the fact that the lava stopped outside of the built-
up area, the town suffered many collapses (Figure 2b).
Economical aids arrived from different parts of Italy,
as the National Unification of Italy was attained in the
same year.
Today, the investigated area is mainly a residential
area, even though commercial outlets are located on
the ground floors of a number of buildings. The area is
divided in two parts by the Naples-Salerno railway line,
so it is possible to identify the two macro-zones A and
B indicated in Figure 1. The former one (Figure 3), in
the North area, is characterized by buildings in a good
state of preservation, while the latter one (Figure 4), in
the South area, is characterised by constructions in a
poor state of maintenance, in particular with detached
plaster and damage next to the architraves.
Two important buildings are located in the same
area, and are among the examined buildings. The
Figure 5. a) Santa Croce bell tower. b) Torre del Greco
emblem. c) Palazzo di città.
buildings are the Santa Croce bell tower and the strate-
gic historical building Palazzo di Città (Figures 1
and 5).
The baroque Santa Croce bell tower (Figure 5a),
built in the sixteenth century and included in the town
emblem (Figure 5b), is the symbol of Torre del Greco.
Although it was surrounded by the lava of the 1794
eruption, it resisted, while the adjacent Santa Croce
church was completely destroyed. Today the tower
emerges from the rock, with only the two upper levels
visible.
The Palazzo di città (Figures 5c), today, hosts the
Torre del Greco municipality offices. It was built as the
ancient castle of the first urban nucleus of Torre del
Greco. During the Anguvine period, the eastern part
of the castle was built, and integrated the first ancient
Norman-Swabian tower. The castle was not destroyed
by the disastrous volcanic eruption of 1794, thanks to
its location on high ground (28m above the sea level).
Therefore, it was equipped as a “strategic” building
to be used for the emergency management. The last
restoration works of Palazzo di città were completed
in 2003. The building is a tuff masonry structure. It is
a two storey building with a pitched roof. (Florio et al.,
2009).
2.2 Survey activity
The data collected during the survey activity of the
historical centre indicates that the examined construc-
tions are rarely isolated, being basically combined in
linear blocks or in blocks surrounding a court yard.
The prevalent buildings are irregular in plan and in
elevation. As indicated in Figure 6a, the main ver-
tical structures consist of sack masonry (33%) or
tuff masonry (51%), built before 1920. Just 10% of
vertical structures consist of mono-directional frames,
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 6. Main vertical structures in the historical cen-
tre of Torre del Greco: percentage (a) and geographical (b)
distributions.
Figure 7. Main horizontal structures in the historical centre
of Torre del Greco.
constructed in reinforced concrete. These are located
mostly in zone B and were built between 1960 and
1970 (Figure 6b).
The main horizontal structures are floors with steel
beams and vaults or hollow flat blocks without tie
beams (56%), while the remaining horizontal struc-
tures consist of concrete block or RC slabs and vaults
without tie beams. Their distribution is indicated in
Figure 7.
Two specific sets of data are required to be col-
lected, in order to assess the vulnerability under effect
of eruptive phenomena. They are related to geometry
and structure of the roofs, and the type and conditions
of openings. The roof is the most vulnerable part of
the building under the effect of air fall deposits. The
openings are the most vulnerable parts and responsi-
ble for collapse, in case of pyroclastic flows. It was
observed that the roofs are predominantly horizontal
and they are made out of steel beams with hollow clay
or concrete blocks. Vauls were also recorded in some
cases. (Figures 8 and 9).

Figure 8. Roofs structure in the historical centre of Torre
del Greco: percentage (a) and geographical (b) distributions.
Figure 9. Percentage distribution of the roofs geometry in
the historical centre of Torre del Greco.
The openings and their protections are made out of
wood or aluminium and are in efficient conditions. In
a prevalent number of buildings the openings cover
between 25 and 50% of the building facades (Figures
10 and 11).
With regards to the vulnerability under the effect of
the horizontal pressure produced by pyroclastic flows,
it is necessary also to investigate the typologies and the
thickness of the walls and curtain walls (Figure 12).
The data collected on the typologies of the walls
has shown that the walls are made out of tuff blocks or
regular stones and hollow bricks (Figure 12a), with
thickness of 60–80 cm (Figure 12b). The thickness
of the curtain walls ranges between 30 and 40 cm
(Figure 14c).
3 RESIDENTIAL AREA
3.1 General information
The residential area examined (Figure 13) is a decen-
tralized area of Torre del Greco in the vicinity of
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Figure 10. Percentage of openings on the building façades
in the historical centre of Torre del Greco.
Figure 11. Conditions of windows in the historical centre
of Torre del Greco.
Montedoro street, with 20 buildings. This zone is char-
acterized by a very high volcanic risk because of its
proximity of the Vesuvius. In fact, it is located only
4 km away from the volcanic crater.
3.2 Survey activity
As illustrated in Figure 13b, during the survey activity,
each construction has been identified through two ref-
erence numbers: one reference number for the block
with 7 digits, given by the Campania Region author-
ities, and the other reference number for the building
in the block with 1 or 2 digits, assigned by the data
collector teams.
The main information related to the surveyed con-
structions in the residential area, is given in Table 1.
This area is exclusively used for residential pur-
poses. The constructions are mainly isolated or com-
bined in linear blocks. About half of the vertical
structures are made out of sack or tuff, and with
regards the second half the structures consist of rein-
forced concrete mono-directional frames built in the
sixties (Figure 14). The main horizontal structures
are predominantly made out of RC (75%), while the
remaining structures consist in steel beams and vaults
or hollow flat tile with tie beams (20%) and vaults
(5%), according to the distributions in Figure 15.
The roofs are predominantly horizontal and they are
made out of RC, but floors with steel beams and vaults
also exist (Figures 16 and 17).
 Table 1. Information related to the surveyed constructions
in the residential area.

Openings
Building Type Roof % Condition

1009228 1 Masonry Plane 25–50 Efficient

2 Masonry Plane 25–50 Efficient
3 RC Single pitch 10–25 Efficient
1009251 1 RC Plane 25–50 Perfect
1014307 1 Masonry Multi pitch 10–25 Efficient
2 RC Plane <10 Efficient
1006575 1 RC Plane 10–25 Poor
1006527 1 RC Plane 25–50 Efficient
1006552 1 RC Plane 10–25 Poor
2 RC Plane 25–50 Efficient
1006593 1 Masonry Plane 25–50 Efficient
1006528 1 Masonry Plane 25–50 Efficient
1009227 1 Masonry Multi pitch 10–25 Efficient
1009463 1 Masonry Plane 25–50 Perfect
2 RC Plane 25–50 Perfect
1009350 1 RC Plane 25–50 Perfect
1009408 1 Masonry Plane 25–50 Efficient
1009351 1 Masonry Plane 10–25 Efficient
1011006 1 RC Plane 25–50 Efficient
1009378 1 Masonry Plane 25–50 Efficient

Figure 12. Typologies (a) and thickness (b) of the walls and
thickness of the curtain walls (c).

Figure 14. Main vertical structures in the residential area of

Torre del Greco.

Figure 15. Main horizontal structures in the residential area

of Torre del Greco.

Figure 13. Torre del Greco residential area: a) pictures by
Google Earth programs; b) indication of the progressive
number of blocks and the number of buildings in the block.
The openings and their protections are made out of
wood or aluminium and are in efficient conditions. In
a prevalent number of buildings, these cover a range of
between 25 and 50% of the building facades (Table 1).
The curtain-walls consist of 30 cm thick hollow
bricks (Figure 18a), while the thickness of the masonry
walls covers a range, from 40 to 60 cm (Figure 18b).
The visual examination of the constructions sur-
veyed was completed with a photographic survey.
Representative buildings are illustrated in the pictures
presented in Figure 19. These refer to the block num-
bers quoted in the map in Figure 13b. The buildings are

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 16. Percentage distribution of the roofs geometry in
the residential area of Torre del Greco.
Figure 17. Thickness of the walls (a) and the curtain
walls (b).
Figure 18. Roofs structure in the residential area of Torre
del Greco.
in a good state and well maintained in general. Only
damage due to the detachment of plaster is present, as
in the case of building 1 in block 1009408 (Figure 19f).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Authors acknowledge the European Project COST
Action C26 ‘Urban habitat constructions under catas-
trophic events’ (2006–2010), which has promoted and
inspired this research activity.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 19. a) 1009228-1; b) 1009251-1; c) 1014307-2; d)
1006552-1; e) 1009463-1; f) 1009408-1.
The contribution of Gennaro Guarino, Simone Let-
tieri, Fabio Pellegrino and Stefania Pellegrino, who
have taken part in the survey activity for developing
their graduation thesis, is also gratefully acknowl-
edged.
Finally, the administration of the municipality of
Torre del Greco is particularly acknowledged for the
collaboration.
REFERENCES
COST Action C26 report. 2009. Monograph on Survey
activity for the volcanic vulnerability assessment in
Torre del Greco (26-30 January 2009). COST ACTION
C26 “Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic
Events”. WG 4: Risk assessment for catastrophic scenar-
ios in urban areas.
Florio G., Landolfo, R., Formisano, A. and Mazzolani, F.M.
2009. Vulnerability of a historical masonry building in the
Vesuvius area. Proceedings of PROHITECH 2009 Interna-
tional Conference, Rome 21–24 June Vol. 2: 1483–1488.
ISBN: 978-0-415-55805-1.
Mazzolani F.M., Faggiano B., Formisano A., De Gregorio D.,
Indirli M. and Zuccaro, G. 2010. Survey activity for the
volcanic vulnerability assessment in the Vesuvian area:
the ‘quick’ methodology and the survey Proceeding of the
International Conference COSTAction C26 Urban habitat
constructions under catastrophic events, Naples, Italy, 16–
18 September 2010. Paper n. 202.
Mazzolani F.M., Indirli, M., Zuccaro, G., Faggiano, B.,
Formisano, A. and De Gregorio, D. 2009. Catastrophic
effects of a Vesuvian eruption on the built environment,
Proceeding of PROTECT Conference. Session 25, paper
n.007.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Volcanic actions and their consequences on structures

B. Faggiano, E. Nigro & D. De Gregorio

Department of Structural Engineering, University of Naples ‘Federico II’, Naples, Italy

G. Zuccaro & F. Cacace

PLINIVS Centre, Hydrological, Volcanic and Seismic Engineering Centre. University of Naples
‘Federico II’, Naples, Italy

ABSTRACT: In the course of history, the volcanic eruptions have always constituted a risk for the populations
who live in the proximity of the eruptive vents. The volcanic fury, especially in case of explosive eruption, have
caused many victims and today, almost half billion people is in danger. Therefore, the protection of buildings
situated in volcanic areas appear to be a matter of concern. For these reasons, the study presented below intends
to give an engineered characterization of the actions produced by the eruptions, in order to make the structural
analysis possible in view of a vulnerability assessment of constructions under eruptive scenarios.

1 INTRODUCTION
Today, about 500 million people are at risk from vol-
canic hazards. In the past 500 years, over 200,000
people have lost their lives due to volcanic eruptions.
An average of 845 people died each year between 1900
and 1986 from volcanic hazards and for the next years,
these numbers are predicted rising (Tilling, 1991). The
reason is not due to increased volcanism, but to an
increase in the amount of people populating the area
surrounding the active volcanoes. In Europe, this is
the case of the Neapolitan area (Italy), where Vesu-
vius and Phlegrean Fields volcanic complexes threaten
the safety of about one million of people. Instead, in
the rest of the World, metropolitan areas, like Tokyo
(Mt. Fuji), Mexico City (Popocatépetl) and Auckland
(Auckland Field) are affected by eruptive risk.
The peculiar importance of this aspect has induced
the COST Action C26 “Urban habitat constructions
under catastrophic events” (2006–2010) to introduce
the analysis of the volcanic risk in the urban areas in
its research activities. The objectives are substantially
two: to furnish a methodology to evaluate the vol-
canic vulnerability of the urban environment towards
an eruption and to propose simple and economical
mitigation interventions.
The first developed activity is relating to the defi-
nition of the actions produced by an eruption on the
constructions (Mazzolani et al., 2008 and 2009a). It
is synthetically illustrated in this paper with reference
to physical phenomenon and the consequences on the
structures. In particular, they are hereafter presented
distinguishing between the effects due to the specific
products of an effusive (lava flows) and an explosive
(air fall deposits, pyroclastic flows and surges and fly-
ing fragments) eruption and that one produced by the
secondary effects of an eruption, like lahar, tsunami
and volcanic earthquake.
2 EFFUSIVE ERUPTION
2.1 Lava flows
During an effusive eruption, the lavas, constituted by
totally or partially fused magma, emerge on the sur-
face. Their speeds are generally of few kilometres per
hour and they, as well as the temperature, decreases
with the distance from the vent.
The most abundant chemical component of a lava is
the silica. Depending on the SiO2 weight content, they
are classifiable in: acid, intermediate, basic and ultra-
basic. In general, more basic magmas present higher
eruptive temperatures (1000–1200◦ C), than more acid
magmas (700–900◦ C).
Lava and magma can be considered as not Newto-
nian Bingham type fluids and so, the viscosity is their
central peculiarity which influences eruptive behavior,
mobility and shape.
A construction invested by a lava front is subject
to an unavoidable destiny of destruction. Potentially,
the risk interests the settlements in areas around the
volcano and it grows near the eruptive vents and para-
sitical conesThe lava flow produces a lateral horizontal
pressure which can cause the collapse of the invested
buildings. The crisis is also caused by the degrada-
tion of the materials produced by high temperatures
of the magma. For example, during the Etna eruption

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Figure 1. Representation of the air fall phenomenon.
of 2001, the temperature of lava flow, measured with
the infrared radiometer, was 1075◦ C. However for-
tunately, the advancing speed of the lava flows is
sufficiently low to allow the evacuation and the safe-
guard of human lives. So, the mitigation of lava risk
can not require the reduction of structural vulnerabi-
lity, but it must be pursued by means of two types of
interventions: passive and active protection.
The passive protection consists on a proper planning
of the territory and of the emergencies management:
the buildings must not be built near the areas with
probable opening of eruptive vents and fractures or
morphologically depressed areas exposed to potential
invasion of lava flows.
The active protection consists on the containment
and/or the deviation of lava flows through barriers,
able to withstand lateral thrust of flow and high tem-
peratures. Today, the barriers of earth (generally of
unconnected material) have proved their reliability
(Colombrita, 1984). However useful contribution will
be certainly the study of innovative barriers which are
more efficient and more easily erectable than those
made of earth (Marsella et al., 2008).
3 EXPLOSIVE ERUPTION
3.1 Air fall deposits
During an explosive eruptions, the air fall deposits
are formed by the accretion of clasts which fall by
gravity from the eruptive column or which are thrown
directly in area from crater, according to ballistic tra-
jectories (Figure 1). They fall down to a distance which
depends on their speed and the initial ejection angle.
The largest pyroclastics fall in the environs of the
emission point, the most fragmented ones at greater
distance and the smallest ones can be transported by
stratospheric winds. Generally, air fall deposits cover
the topography with uniform thickness, but, because
of their poor consistency, they are removed from the
most steep slopes (>20–30◦ ) and accumulated in the
valleys.
During violent explosive eruptions (Plinian and
sub-Plinian), large deposits of pumice cover an area of
elliptical shape around the crater, which is elongated
in the direction of wind. The ashes deposit after very
long time reaching large distances, above it deposits
of pyroclastic flows often follow. Contrary, moderately
explosive eruptions, on the contrary, produce deposit
of clast fall, whose distribution is symmetrical around
the crater, because the launches are not sufficiently
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high to be influenced by the wind. Generally, the thick-
ness of air fall deposits decreases with the distance
from the eruptive centre.
The air fall deposits action on the ground level can
be considered as a gravitational distributed load, which
can be estimated as qG = ρgh ,where g is the grav-
ity acceleration (9.81 ms−2 ), h is the deposit thickness
(m), ρ is the deposit density (kgm−3 ). The last one
depends on the following factors: the composition of
pyroclasts, their compactness, the deposit moisture
and the subsequent rains. So, the deposit density is
weather dependent: in dry conditions it ranges from
400 kgm−3 to 1600 kgm−3 , according to its compact-
ness; in damp conditions it ranges from 800 kgm−3 to
2000 kgm−3 (Spence et al., 2005).
The air fall deposits action on the roofs is similar to
the snow load, so, with reference to the Italian technical
code (M.D. 2008) the air fall deposits action on the
roofs can be determine through the following relation:
where µ is the shape coefficient, function of the angle
pitch (α), qG is the air fall load on the ground level
and CE is the exposition coefficient which take into
account the effect of the topography of the construction
site (De Gregorio et al., 2010).
In addition, to the relationship (1), for completing
the model of the air fall deposits action, it is neces-
sary to consider the high temperatures (200–400◦ C) of
the clasts, which are able to produce important ther-
mal degradation of the mechanical properties of the
materials (Mazzolani et al., 2008 and 2009a).
3.2 Pyroclastic flows
The pyroclastic flows and surges are the most danger-
ous phenomena produced during an explosive erup-
tion. They are constituted by gas-solid dispersions with
high or low concentration of particles respectively,
which move along the surface under action of grav-
ity. They are characterized by high temperatures; they
can be partly fluidized. In general, they are controlled
by topography, they are channelled along the valleys
and they fill the depressions (Figure 2).
Pyroclastic flows can be generated either by the
collapse of the eruptive column, or by a directional
explosion for the slipping of a part of the volcano, or by
a lateral explosion at the base of a lava dome. Pyroclas-
tic flows are made of a mixture of gases with dispersed
solid particles of various sizes. The modelling of the
phenomenon is very complex, because it depends on
a number of factors difficult to catch among them the
mass eruption rate, the volcano topographic profile,
the magma properties, such as the water content and
the temperature at the crater exit.
Aiming at examining the evolution of a pyro-
clastic flow, Todesco et al. (2002) adopted a model
based on the solution of the Navier-Stokes genera-
lized equations for a multiphase mixture, the latter
being represented as a two-phase mixture composed

Figure 2. Representation of the pyroclastic flows and surges
phenomena.
Table 1. Dynamic pressure (kPa) in function of the angle of
flow propagation α at growing distance from the vent.
Distance from the vent
α els. Nevertheless, the lateral resistance of a building to
[◦ ] 2 km 4 km 6 km
30 – 5.0 – ria applied to resist ordinary load conditions: of course
45 – 3.0 – an earthquake-proof building presents larger strength
90 11.0 1.0 1.0
180 4.0 1.0 0.5
360 1.80 0.1 0.0
of a homogeneous melt phase, made up of magma
and crystals, and a gas phase, made up of water
vapor. The mechanical and thermal non-equilibrium
effects between gas and various particulates phases
are considered.
In the structural analyses, it is possible to schema-
tize the action of the pyroclastic flows as a uniformly
distributed static pressure (Petrazzuoli and Zuccaro,
2004), with temperature ranges between 200 and
350◦ C (Giurioli et al., 2008).
In particular, with reference to a sub-Plinian Vesu-
vian eruption, the dynamic pressure produced by
Vesuvian sub-Plinian event are determined (Esposti
Ongaro et al., 2002). The pressure was calculated as a
function of the angle of flows propagation α at grow-
ing distance from the vent, in undisturbed atmosphere
above the aerodynamic ground plane at 5 and 15m, as
it is shown in Table 1. Esposti Ongaro et al. (2002) also
determined the pressure corresponding to an angle α
equal to 30–45◦ , at 5 and 10 m above the ground and
at 4–5 km from the vent (Table 1).
The obtained results are related to 2D models such
as to the volcano transversal section. In the Exploris
Project (Neri et al., 2007) a 4D model was developed,
where Vesuvius is schematized with its real geometric
dimensions, besides, in the flows modelling the vari-
able time is included. In this case, for a sub-Plinian
eruption, a pressure equal to 1–3 kPa at 7.5 km from
the vent, with a temperature equal to 250◦ C was cal-
culated. In addition, with reference to a sector of the
town of Torre del Greco (6 km from Vesuvius), Zuc-
caro and Ianniello (2004) have analyzed the interaction
of pyroclastic flows with buildings in an urban settle-
ment. The generated turbolences produce an increment
factor of pressure varying over the range [−3; +2]. In
particular, with an angle α = 90◦ , the pressure equals
3–5 kPa.
The experience from the 1997 Montserrat erup-
tion (Canary Islands) has indicated that a building
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can survive under moderate pyroclastic flows pressure
(1–5 kPa) if it remains intact, while if one or more
openings fail, allowing hot gas and ash to enter, the
entire building is likely to be destroyed (Baxter et al.,
2005). In this case the contents of the construction and
any timber structure are likely to catch fire; at the same
time the principal structural walls and roofing will suf-
fer a combination of internal and external pressures,
which will cause partial or total failure (Spence et al.,
2004).
In general, the first elements to reach the col-
lapse are the glass windows and the shutters. However
they can be easily protected by more resistant pan-
pyroclastic flow strongly depends on the design crite-
and stiffness capabilities than a not earthquake-proof
building.
3.3 Flying fragments
The explosive eruptions also are able to produce flying
fragments of pyroclasts defined bombs and missiles.
The largest clasts are exploded directly from the crater
according to pure ballistic trajectories. On the contrary,
the smaller clasts can be sustained by convection in the
eruptive column. Then they are thrown in the atmo-
sphere from the main flow to fall or be transported
along the mountainside in gravitational currents. The
word missile can also relate to a flying debris, not
involved in the eruption, set in motion by pyroclastic
flows.
The law which regulates the movement in a vac-
uum of a volcanic fragment with ballistic trajectory
is (Dobran, 2006) R = (u02 · sin 2θ)/g, where R is the
block ejection distance, u0 is the ejection velocity, θ
is the initial ejection angle of the fragment from the
horizontal and g is the acceleration of free fall. This-
formula is applicable for very large blocks for which
the air drag has a negligible effect on the clast’s tra-
jectory. In this case, the most efficient ejection angle
is 45◦ . On the contrary, the presence of a stratified
atmosphere ensures that the optimum elevation angle
is less than 45◦ . In addition, the θ optimum take-
off angle from the eruptive column, and not from
the vent, ranges between 47◦ and 50◦ for the larger
blocks and in the range between 38◦ and 40◦ for the
smaller ones.
A separate examination is given for missiles (par-
ticulates, debris, stones, loose flower pots, dustbins,
etc) generated by pyroclastic flows. In fact they are
incorporated into the main current and added to the
destructive impact. These missiles can be related to the
aerodynamics of flying debris with respect to cyclone
and wind storm (Wills et al., 1998; Spence et al., 2005).
Bombs and missiles cause damage which depends
on the kinetic energy and the vulnerability of the struck
object. A flying fragment can impact the roofing or the
walls of a building, but, in particular, it can hit the most
vulnerable parts, like the openings.
 If a building collapses, it is assumed that all occu-
pants are killed. If buildings do not collapse, the main
factor which governs vulnerability is the resistance of
openings, especially the glass panes or the shutters
which can prevent the hot ash to enter. Contrary, pos-
sible consequent fires and/or breathing difficulties for
people inside can arise (Spence et al., 2005). Several
studies aim at the evaluation of the speed of bombs
and missiles, produced by explosive volcanic eruption,
but the analysis of the effects of these flying objects
buildings is not very much developed.
Spence et al. (2005) have examined the window
failure produced by missiles generated by pyroclas-
tic flows. The probability of impact of flying debris
on windows depends on the flow velocity, the flow
density, the density of potential missiles in the area
surrounding the volcano, as well as the surface and
the orientation of windows. Missile impact causes fail-
ure when a fragment has a sufficient kinetic energy
to break the window. It is assumed that the energy
required to break a glass panel equals the energy
absorbed by the panel in its elastic deformation up
to the point of failure.
For a Young’s Modulus of 65,000 MPa for glass, the
energy required to break the window ranges from 8
to 20J for typical and large window panes of 3–4 mm
thickness. Therefore, it can be assumed that, at any
given flow velocity, missiles with a kinetic energy less
than 8J will break few windows, missiles with a kinetic
energy between 8 and 20J will break some windows,
and missiles with a kinetic energy above 20J will break
many windows.
4 SECONDARY EVENTS
4.1 Lahars
After an eruptive events, especially if explosive, the
thermic change in the proximity of the volcano often
produces rain. Combined with the pyroclasts of poor
coherence, with the volcanic high slope of (20–30◦ )
and the distinctive seismicity of the eruptive phase, the
rain can cause the mobilization of the volcanic deposits
and the consequent formation of mudslide and lahar.
The term lahar has an Indonesian origin and indi-
cates any type of muddy flow containing volcanic
material. Lahar and mudslide are extremely dangerous
because of their high kinetic energy, they being gener-
ally characterized by speed of the order of some tens
kilometers per hour up to above 100 km/h (Carlino,
2001).
Lahars with a high water content can be assimilated
to the Newtonian fluids, whereas the lahar with a high
concentration (high solid/water ratio) are assimilated
to Bingham fluids. The Newtonian fluids freely move
under the gravity until the critical stability condition
arises, while the Bingham fluids, because of the greater
viscosity, offer some resistance to the motion and so
they need an additional strain to mobilize.
At the same conditions in terms of gradient, gran-
ulometry, etc, the motion capacity of a lahar depends
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on the water content and the ability of the flow to lose
or to absorb water during the way.
The effects of lahars on the constructions are
comparable to those ones produced by the debris flows.
Faella and Nigro (2002) have analysed the structural
and non-structural damage in the buildings impacted
by the debris flows, during the hydrogeological dis-
aster of may 1998 in Campania (Italy). The damage
is significantly different in relation with: the position
of the construction, the impact direction, the level of
kinetic energy of the flow and the structural typology.
This study, for masonry and reinforced concrete build-
ings, has identified the main collapse mechanisms and
the debris hydrodynamic horizontal pressures, which
assume the values of 150, 73.5 and 37.5 kNm−2 , for
speeds of 10, 7 and 5 ms−1 , respectively.
With particular reference to Vesuvius case, this
pressures can be adopted as lahars actions on the con-
structions. This because the debris velocities furnished
by Faella and Nigro result comparable to those ones
calculated by Vallario (1994), with reference to of the
possible lahar produced by a Vesuvian eruption on the
Cavallo riverbed (Torre del Greco city, south slope of
the Vesuvius). In fact, they ranges between 3.94 and
10.14 ms−1 .
However the lahars, as respect to the debris flows,
present the additional variable of the temperature,
which causes substantial degradation of mechanical
properties of construction materials. Actually, the tem-
perature of lahars is widely variable. It depends on the
typology and the quantity of the erupted materials and
on the time between the deposit and the mobilization.
Obviously, at the same conditions , as far as the time
passes, temperatures will be reduced.
4.2 Tsunami
Tsunami is a Japanese word which means “wave
(name) in the port (tsu)” and, since antiquity, it
describes the phenomena of the rogue waves which
produce devastating effects on the coast. It can present
with an initial and temporary withdrawal of the waters,
or with a flood which can show like a tide which rapidly
comes in, like a waves trains or like a water wall.
Among the cause of a tsunami, the volcanic erup-
tions are present. In particular, the anomalous waves
can be produced by massive pyroclastic flows which
reach the sea. That is the case of the explosive erup-
tion of the Krakatua volcano (1883), in the Sunda
Straits, between Sumatra and Java, that produced a
large tsunami that killed more than 30,000 people
living in the coastal villages of the Straits.
With reference to Vesuvius, tsunamis associated
with volcanic activity are not frequent. However,
according to historical documents, anomalous sea
oscillations and waves in the Gulf of Naples were
observed not only concomitantly of the largest erup-
tions (79AD and 1631), but also to some the smaller
events, such as the cases of 14 May 1698, 17 May
1813 and 4 April 1906 (Italian Tsunami Catalogue,
Tinti et al., 2007).
 According to Palermo et al. (2007), the actions pro-
duced by a tsunami on a construction can be grouped
into two loading combinations: Initial Impact and
Post-Impact Flow.
The Initial Impact includes surges and debris impact
force components. The surge force Fs is produced by
the impact of the flood waves on the structures, while
the debris force Fi is relating to impact structures
due to significant debris (such as vehicles, compo-
nents of buildings and drift wood) which the waves
can transport.
After the initial impact, a proposed second load-
ing combination results, namely, the Post-Impact Flow.
During this phase hydrodynamic (drag) forces FD are
exerted on structures due to continuous flow of water
around the structure. In addition, the inundation gives
rise to hydrostatic forces FHS . The hydrostatic forces
can occur on both the exterior and interior of the
structure. The latter depends on the degree of damage
sustained during the initial impact. Further, the struc-
ture is subject to debris from floating objects being
transported by the moving body of water. Therefore,
the second phase of loading includes Hydrodynamic
and Hydrostatic forces, Debris Impact forces, and
Buoyancy forces that result from the structure being
submerged after the initial impact.
4.3 Volcanic earthquakes
All volcanic eruptions are accompanied by local seis-
mic activity, as it is testified by the swarms registered
in occurrence of large eruptions (Benoit and Mc Nutt,
1996).
While tectonic earthquakes are generally related to a
shear-faulting mechanism, volcanic earthquakes may
involve tensile, isotropic, and/or shear rock fractures,
driven by the percolation of high-temperature flu-
ids/gases or directly by the magma-ascent mechanism
(Festa et al., 2004).
In particular, seism related to volcanic activity are of
two general categories: volcano-tectonic earthquakes
and long period earthquakes (Chouet, 1996).
The first category, volcano-tectonic earthquakes, is
produced, on one side, by stress changes in solid rock
due to the injection or withdrawal of magma through
the fractures and, on one other side, by tectonic dis-
placements. They can cause land to subside and can
produce large ground cracks. Volcano-tectonic earth-
quakes do not indicate that the volcano will be erupting
but can occur at anytime.
The second category, long period earthquakes, is
only produced by the injection of magma through sur-
rounding rock. Therefore they are a result of pressure
changes during the unsteady transport of the magma.
When pressure of the magma injection is high a lot
of earthquakes are produced. This type of activity
indicates that a volcano is about to erupt. Scientists
use seismographs to record the signal from these
earthquakes. This signal is known as volcanic tremor.
The intensity of a volcanic earthquake is a function
of the entity of the eruptive event. For example, in the
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case of Vesuvius, during several days before the 79AD
Plinian event, big earth tremors. Afterwards, the seis-
mic crisis preceding the 1631 Sub-Plinian Vesuvius
eruption has been characterized by earthquake inten-
sity equal to 4.0 degree on the Ricther scale, temporally
limited to some hours before the eruption (Cubellis
and Marturano, 2006). After this eruption up to recent
times the earthquakes were generally of low-moderate
energy and related to eruptive activity. The most dan-
gerous occurred on 15 June 1794 during the lateral
eruption which destroyed the town of Torre del Greco.
The shocks caused damage to buildings in theVesuvian
area and shattered window panes in Naples.
With reference to the Vesuvius case, a comparison
between tectonic and volcanic earthquakes has been
conducted, through two real seismograms recorded in
the Vesuvian area: the tectonic one of Irpinia (Avel-
lino, Campania, Italy) on the 23 November 1980 and
the volcanic Vesuvian one occurred in October 1999
(Mazzolani et al., 2009b and 2010). The first one with
a magnitude of 6.9 and an epicentre about 30km distant
from the sea surface. The latter one with 3.6 magnitude
and an epicentre 3.8km distant from the sea surface.
The substantial difference between these earth-
quakes is related to the peak maximum acceleration
frequencies: the peaks of the tectonic and volcanic
response spectra, equal to 0.37g and 0.05g respec-
tively, occurs next to periods T equal to 0.40s and 0.14s
respectively.
According to the new technical Italian code (MD,
2008), the building fundamental period T1 can be cal-
culated through the formula T1 = C1 · H 3/4 , where:
C1 is equal to 0.05 and 0.075 for masonry and RC
buildings, respectively, and H is the construction total
height. So for masonry buildings the period T1 almost
ranges from 0.11 to 0.28s for heights between 3 and
10m, while for RC buildings it almost ranges from
0.29 to 0.6s for height between 6 and 16m. This would
implicate that masonry buildings suffered much more
the volcanic earthquake, since its frequency is close to
that of the building, while RC buildings are sensible
to tectonic earthquakes.
5 CONCLUSIONS
In the perspective of a sustainable development of
urban areas near active volcano or at risk of eruption,
the structural vulnerability assessment constitutes an
aspect of primary importance.
In this paper, the first step necessary for this aim has
been conducted, identifying the actions produced by an
eruption on the structures. Synthetically, it possible to
affirm that, if the volcanic phenomenon is effusive, the
main effect is due to the horizontal actions produced
by the lava on the walls of the building, accompanied
by temperatures which can be ranged between 700 and
1200◦ C. Instead, if the eruption is explosive, the effect
on a structure are: a vertical load on the roof due to
the air fall deposits, an horizontal dynamic pressure
produced by pyroclastic flows and an impact on the
 roof, on the wall or on the openings produced by the
flying fragments. All these loads act with tempera-
ture of 200–400◦ C, causing important reduction of the
materials mechanical properties. To the specific erup-
tive products, other actions can be generated during
an eruption. They are the horizontal dynamic actions
on the lateral surface of the building due to the lahars
and the tsunami and the inertial forces produced by the
volcanic earthquakes.
The qualitative and quantitative information here
presented are useful for a volcanic vulnerability
assessment, but they must be completed with the
identification of the specific typological classes and
collapse mechanisms, because those one present in the
scientific literature are relating to the seismic weak-
ness and they are not applicable to volcanic case. In
fact, compared to the effect of a tectonic seism, the
presence of one or more exceptional volcanic actions
involves the building elements according to a different
hierarchical order, where also the no structural parts,
like openings and claddings assume a primary role.
Furthermore, while the methodology for the evalua-
tion of seismic vulnerability can use the observation
of the damage produced on constructions by occurred
seismic events, this is not possible where relating to
volcanic vulnerability. Indeed, the eruption, especially
if explosive ones, are not diffused and frequent as the
tectonic earthquakes.
On the basis of these observations, the future aim
consists in designing a method based on mechanistic
techniques to replace the construction with a theo-
retical mechanical model, whose structural response,
in terms of capacity curve, can compare with the
demand produced by a single volcanic action or by
their possible combinations.
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Spence R., Kelman I., Baxter P.J., Zuccaro G., Petrazzuoli S.
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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Survey activity for the seismic and volcanic vulnerability assessment

in the Vesuvian area: Relevant masonry and reinforced concrete school
buildings in Torre del Greco

G. Florio, D. De Gregorio, A. Formisano, B. Faggiano, T. De Lucia, G. Terracciano &

F.M. Mazzolani
University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy

F. Cacace, G. Conti, G. De Luca, G. Fiorentino, C. Pennone, G. Zuccaro

PLINIVS Centre, Naples, Italy

R.P. Borg
University of Malta, Malta

C. Coelho
University of Aveiro, Portugal

S. Gerasimidis
Aristotele University of Thessaloniki, Greece

M. Indirli
ENEA, Bologna, Italy

ABSTRACT: The Vesuvius Case Study was developed in the framework of Work Group 4 (‘Risk Assessment
for Catastrophic Scenarios in Urban Areas’) of the EU COST Action C26 (‘Urban Habitat Constructions under
Catastrophic Events’). An important activity has been the in situ survey, for the volcanic and seismic vulnerability
assessment of different construction typologies, such as residential buildings and historical buildings, school
buildings and monumental villas, located in selected areas exposed to volcanic hazard. During this activity, the
identification of buildings has been performed through a visual investigation, supported by an ‘ad hoc’ form,
related to the building vulnerability to seismic and volcanic actions. This paper refers to the survey activity
conducted during January 2009, on relevant masonry and reinforced concrete school buildings in Torre del
Greco. Torre del Greco is the town with the highest population in the Vesuvian area.

1 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
In the framework of the volcanic risk in Campania
(Italy), Vesuvius represents the highest source of dan-
ger. In the past, this volcano was characterized by
an explosive behaviour, resulting in ground motions,
pyroclastic surges and flows, lahars, ash and tephra
fall out. Therefore, the areas close to Vesuvius, can
be potentially subjected to these exceptional loads. In
particular, six municipalities, namely Torre Annunzi-
ata, Torre del Greco, San Giorgio a Cremano, Portici,
Ercolano and the eastern zone of Naples, fall within
a very high risk zone, that is the so-called “red area”.
These urban areas are located on the southern flank
of the Vesuvius characterized by the highest popula-
tion concentration next to the zone susceptible to be
destroyed by eruptions
Above all, Torre del Greco is the town with the
highest population in this area and, for this reason, the
most exposed one in terms of life loss and destruction
of the historic heritage. As a result, Torre del Greco
was selected for the pilot case study, in the EU COST
Action C26 “Urban Habitat Constructions under
Catastrophic Events” in order to estimate, through a
survey activity, the volcanic vulnerability of different
building typologies, namely residential, monumental
and strategic buildings. In particular, in this work, the
survey results on strategic constructions represented
by school buildings are presented. In fact in Italy, over
the past few years, large earthquakes have indicated the
high vulnerability of schools. In particular, during the
2002 Molise earthquake, the collapse of the primary
school in San Giuliano di Puglia, a municipality in the
province of Campobasso, resulted in a tragedy, with the
death of 27 children. In addition, most of these kinds of
buildings do not meet the seismic requirements stated
by the new seismic codes, since they were built to
withstand gravity loads only. For these reasons, school

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 buildings have been selected as a study case within the 8. Regularity, referring to the horizontal and vertical
current project. Accordingly, fifteen primary and sec- seismic behaviour of the building. In particular, for
ondary school buildings in Torre del Greco have been reinforced concrete structures, the type of frames
surveyed and the results achieved, concerning the data (mono or two-directional) and the possible presence
collected, are reported in this paper. of soft floors and stocky columns.
The above data was compiled for fifteen rein-
forced concrete and masonry schools in Torre del
2 THE SURVEY FORM Greco. Many of these schools were composed of more
than one building, resulting in a total number of 40
The in-situ data collection activity related to the school structural units identified.
buildings selected in Torre del Greco has been per-
formed during January 2009 by the members of the
Working Group 4 (WG4) “Risk Assessment for Catas- 3 THE SURVEYED SCHOOL BUILDINGS
trophic Scenarios in UrbanArea” of the EU COST C26
Action (COSTAction C26 report, 2009).The data were 3.1 General
collected by means of a specific survey form, prepared The fifteen surveyed school complexes are divided in
by the Civil Protection Department with the contribu- primary schools and secondary schools. In particular,
tion of the PLINVS Centre (Hydrological, Volcanic the following ten primary schools have been examined:
and Seismic Engineering Centre, Director prof. G. Orsi, S. Vito – Gianpietro, Chiazzolelle Camaldoli,
Zuccaro) and commonly used for seismic and volcanic Leopardi – Campanariello, Sauro, Mazza, Don Bosco,
vulnerability assessment of the built heritage. Don Milani, Cappuccini and Scappi- S. Elena. On the
Within the form, which is compiled in situ, the other hand, the following five secondary schools have
typology and the main structural characteristics of the been investigated: B. V. Romano, Angioletti, Morelli,
construction, as well as the main factors that mostly D’Assisi and Leopardi.
influence its vulnerability, are identified by means of The most diffused structural typologies in the
a visual inspections performed from outside. schools investigated in Torre del Greco are squared tuff
In particular, the investigation form is subdivided masonry block structures, reinforced concrete frames
into eight different sections: with masonry cladding and mixed r.c.- masonry struc-
1. Identification, related to the geographical location tures. The percentage distribution with reference to the
of the building, as given by the Campania region. 40 structural units is shown in Figure 1.
2. General information, describing the building type
and its use, destination and exposure. 3.2 Masonry buildings
3. Condition, related to age and some qualitative fac-
Among the surveyed schools, seven buildings consist
tors of the building, such as the conservation state
of a masonry structure.
and the finishes typology.
The primary school Orsi (Fig. 2) consists of two
4. Descriptive characteristics, mainly related to some
parts: the first part was built between 1946 and 1960,
useful information for risk management, such as
the number of residential apartments and people.
Furthermore, a number of building geometrical
parameters, that is the number of storeys above
the ground, the first storey and the inter-storey
height, the total height, the position of the unit in
the aggregate and its orientation, are collected.
5. Structural characteristics, describing the main
structure characteristics, such as the construc-
tion material (reinforced concrete, masonry, wood,
steel or mixed), the main vertical structures (sack
masonry with or without reinforcements, hewn
stones masonry, tuff blocks, RC frames with either
Figure 1. Distribution of the main structural typologies of
weak or strong cladding, etc.), the floor types (tim-
surveyed school buildings.
ber, mixed steel-tile, mixed concrete-tile, vaults,
etc.) and the roof. Moreover, the thickness of
either walls or curtain walls is measured and the
typology (tuff blocks or squared stones, concrete
blocks, etc.) is identified.
6. Openings, referring to the percentage area of open-
ings with respect to the façade and the number
of small, typical and large windows, and their
material, protection system and state of condition.
7. Interventions, describing the type of past works
carried out on the construction. Figure 2. The primary school Orsi.

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Figure 3. The primary school S. Vito – Gianpietro.
Figure 4. The primary school Chiazzolelle – Camaldoli.
while the second one has been more recently erected
(1972–1981). Each part is two storeys high, with a
total height of about 7 m. The structure is regular both
in plan and in elevation. The main vertical structure
consists of squared tuff masonry, while both the hori-
zontal structures and the plane roof are made of mixed
reinforced concrete- hollow tile floors. The area of
openings, covers a range, from 10% to 25% of the main
façade area. Windows are made out of aluminum with-
out protection system and are in an efficient state of
preservation. The building, subjected to extraordinary
maintenance interventions between 1971 and 1981, is
in a good state of conservation.
The primary school San Vito – Gianpietro (Fig. 3)
consists of five parts: the first and the second were
built between 1961 and 1971, the third is the most
recent one (1982–1991), while the fourth and the fifth
parts were constructed between 1972 and 1981. The
first and the fourth part are two storeys high, reaching
a total height of about 6 m, while the remaining parts
are one storey high. The second and the third part are
regular in plan, while the remaining parts are irregu-
lar. On the other hand, all parts are regular in elevation,
except for the second one. The main vertical structure
consists of squared tuff masonry, except for the most
recent part that consists of r.c. frames with resistant
masonry cladding. All the horizontal structures and the
plane roofs consist of mixed reinforced concrete-tile
floors. The opening area is on average 10–25% of the
main façades area. In many cases, windows, made out
of aluminum with either pvc or steel protection sys-
tems, are in an efficient state. The building, subjected
to extraordinary maintenance interventions after 2001,
is in a good state of conservation.
The primary school Chiazzolelle – Camaldoli
(Fig. 4) was built between 1946 and 1960. The build-
ing is two storeys high, with a total height of about 6 m.
The structure is regular in plan but it is irregular in ele-
vation. The main vertical structure consists of squared
tuff masonry, while both the horizontal structures and
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 5. The primary school Leopardi – Campanariello.
Figure 6. The primary school Sauro.
the plane roof consist of mixed reinforced concrete-
hollow tile floors. The area of openings is about
10–25% of the main façade area. Windows, are in
efficient condition without protection systems, and
are made out of aluminum. The building, subjected to
extraordinary maintenance interventions after 2001, is
in a good state of conservation.
The primary school Leopardi – Campanariello
(Fig. 5) was built between 1919 and 1945. The building
is two storeys high, each storey having a height of about
3 m. The structure is irregular both in plan and in ele-
vation. The main vertical structure consists of squared
tuff masonry, while both the horizontal structures and
the plane roof consist of mixed reinforced concrete-
tile floors. The area of openings is about 25-–50% of
the main façade area. The aluminium windows without
protection system are in an efficient state. The building
was subjected to extraordinary maintenance interven-
tions after 2001 and at present it is in a good state of
maintenance.
The primary school Sauro (Fig. 6) consists of two
parts: the first part was built before 1919, while the
second one has been more recently constructed (1972–
1991). The 1st structure is regular only in elevation
while the second one is also regular in elevation. The
main vertical structure of the 1st building consists of
squared tuff masonry, and it is 2 storeys high. The hori-
zontal structures consist of mixed steel-tile and vaults
floors. The 2nd building structure, is 3 storeys high,
and consists of a reinforced concrete frame with resis-
tant masonry cladding. Both constructions have a total
height of about 10 m, and a mixed r.c.- tile roof. The
area of openings is about 10–25% of the main façade
area. Aluminum windows with light protection system
are in good state. The buildings are in a good general
condition.
The two buildings of the primary school Mazza
(Fig. 7) were built between 1919 and 1945. The 1st
building is four storeys high, with a total height of
15.25 m, while the second is a single storey building
 Figure 7. The primary school Mazza.
Figure 8. The primary school Don Bosco.
with a 3.75 m high storey. The first building is not
regular in plan, but regular in elevation, while the sec-
ond one is regular both in plan and in elevation. The
main vertical structure of the 1st building consists of
squared tuff masonry while the horizontal floors are
vaulted without tie beams. The vertical structure of
the second building consists of a reinforced concrete
frame with weak masonry cladding, while the horizon-
tal structures consist of mixed reinforced concrete-tile
floors. The plane roof of the first building consists of
a mixed steel-tile floor, while the second building roof
structure consists of a mixed r.c.– tile floor. The area
of openings is about 25–50% of the main façade area.
Aluminium windows without protection are in an effi-
cient maintenance state. On the whole, the buildings
are in a poor state of conservation.
The two structures of the primary school Don Bosco
(Fig. 8) were built between 1919 and 1945. The first
structure is four storeys high, with a total height of
about 15.30 m, while the second one is one storey high
with a total height of about 5.55 m. The first structure
is not regular in plan, but regular in elevation, while
the second one is regular both in plan and in eleva-
tion. The main vertical structure of the first building
consists of a reinforced concrete frame with resistant
masonry cladding, while the structure of the second
building consists of squared tuff masonry construc-
tion.The main horizontal structures and the plane roofs
of the two parts consist of mixed reinforced concrete-
tile floors. The area of openings is about 10–25% of
the main façade area. Windows without protection are
made out of aluminum and are in a good preserva-
tion condition. The buildings are in a fine state of
conservation.
3.3 Reinforced concrete buildings
Five school buildings consist of a reinforced concrete
structure.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 9. The secondary school B. V. Romano.
Figure 10. The secondary school Angioletti.
Figure 11. The secondary school Morelli.
The secondary school B. V. Romano (Fig. 9) was
built between 1961 and 1971 and is three storeys high
for a total height of about 9 m. The structure is irreg-
ular both in plan and in elevation. The main vertical
structure consists of reinforced concrete frames with
resistant masonry cladding, while both the horizontal
ones and the plane roof consistmade of mixed rein-
forced concrete-tile floors. The area of openings is
larger than 50% of the main façade area. Windows
without protection system are made out of aluminum
and are in a good state. The building, subjected to
extraordinary maintenance interventions after 2001,
is in a mediocre state of conservation.
The secondary school Angioletti (Fig. 10) was built
between 1972 and 1981 and is three storeys high with a
total height of about 9 m. The structure is irregular both
in plan and in elevation. The main vertical and hori-
zontal structures of the school, consist of r.c. frames
with weak cladding and mixed r.c.-tile floors respec-
tively. The area of openings is about 25–50% of the
main façade area and the aluminium windows are in
an efficient state. The building, subjected to extraordi-
nary maintenance interventions after 2001, is in a poor
state of conservation.
The secondary school complex Morelli (Fig. 11)
consists of six parts and a gym built between 1992 and
Figure 12. The secondary school D’Assisi.
Figure 13. The secondary school Leopardi.
2001. All parts, irregular in plan but regular in eleva-
tion, are two storeys high with an average height of
about 6.55 m. The main vertical structure consists of
r. c. frames with weak masonry cladding, while both
the horizontal structures and the plane roof consist
of mixed r.c.- tile floors. The area of openings is on
average about 25–50% of the main façades area. The
aluminium windows without protection system are in
a poor state. In general, the building complex is in a
poor state of conservation.
The secondary school complex D’Assisi (Fig. 12)
consists of seven parts built between 1982 and 1991.
All parts, are two storeys high with an average height
of about 7.58 m, except the 4th and the 6th part which
are one storey high. All parts are irregular both in
plan and in elevation. The main vertical and horizontal
structures of the school complex, consist of r.c. frames
with weak cladding and mixed r.c.-tile floors respec-
tively. The area of opening is on average larger than the
50% of the main façades area. Windows without pro-
tection system are made of aluminum in an efficient
condition. The building complex is in a good state of
preservation.
The secondary school Leopardi (Fig. 13) consists of
three buildings built between 1982 and 1991. The first
and the second building are four floors high, while the
third one is three floors high. The structures are irreg-
ular both in plan and in elevation. The main vertical
structure consists of r. c. frames with resistant masonry
cladding, while both the horizontal structures and the
plane roof consist of mixed r. c.- tile floors. The area
of openings is about 25–50% of the main façade area.
Aluminum windows are in a good state but the pro-
tection system is absent. The building is in a mediocre
state of conservation.
3.4 Mixed r.c. – masonry buildings
Three school buildings consist of a mixed r. c. –
masonry structure.
The primary school Don Milani (Fig. 14) consists
of two buildings built between 1992 and 2001. Both
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 14. The primary school Don Milani.
Figure 15. The primary school Scappi – Cappuccini.
Figure 16. The primary school Scappi – St. Elena.
buildings are two storeys high with a total height of
about 7 m. The buildings consist of external masonry
walls with internal r. c. beams and columns and mixed
r.c.-tile floors. They are not regular, neither in plan
nor in elevation. The area of openings is larger than
50% of the main façade area. Windows without pro-
tection system are made of aluminum, and are in an
efficient condition. The building is in a mediocre state
of conservation.
The primary school Scappi – Cappuccini (Fig. 15)
was built between 1972 and 1981. The building is three
storeys high with a total height of about 10 m. The
structure is regular both in plan and in elevation. The
main vertical structure consists of reinforced concrete
frames placed inside external masonry walls, while
both the horizontal structures and the plane roof con-
sist of mixed r. c. – tile floors. The area of openings is
larger than 50% of the main façade area. Windows are
made of aluminium, have a pvc protection system and
are in good condition. The building is in a good state
of conservation.
The primary school Scappi – St. Elena (Fig. 16) con-
sists of three structures built between 1982 and 1991.
The central structure is two storeys high while the lat-
eral structures are one storey high. The first structure
is regular in plan, but irregular in elevation; the second
one is irregular both in plan and in elevation; the third
one is always regular. The buildings have the same
structural characteristics of the two previous schools.
The area of openings is about 10–25% of the main
façade area. The aluminium windows are in a good
 Figure 17. Age classes of the examined school structural
units.
state and without the protection system. The building
is in a mediocre preservation state.
4 THE SURVEY ACTIVITY RESULTS
The results of the survey activity have been assessed
and interesting conclusions have been drawn. In partic-
ular, it is shown that the majority of buildings, intended
as single parts of school complexes, were built between
1982 and 1991 and are two storey high buildings
(Figs. 17 and 18).
The mean total inter-storey height of investigated
buildings is equal to about 7.10 m, while the ground
level height is on average equal to about 3.35 m. In
addition 70% and 52.5% of surveyed structures are
regular in plan and in elevation respectively, whereas
only 20% of them have horizontal and vertical regu-
larity. In general the state of conservation of more than
half of the schools is good (Fig. 19). From the structural
point of view, the examined masonry structures consist
of squared tuff stone construction, while r.c. structures
consist of frames with either weak (74%) or resistant
(26%) masonry cladding. 95% of the main horizontal
and roofing structures consist of mixed r.c.-tile floors.
In general all the collected data will be elaborated in
order to perform a volcanic vulnerability analysis on
the schools investigated. The aim is to reduce their
possible damage in the case of an eruption of Vesuvius.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The survey methodology applied in Torre del Greco
has allowed for the collection of a lot of data related
to several features of school buildings. The procedure
is quick and intended for the compilation of the form
in situ following a visual inspection. Therefore, this is
an effective and rapid approach for collecting data on
the basic features of the buildings. The data is used as
the basis of the volcanic vulnerability assessment and
risk management.
The survey data has shown that the predominant
structural types are tuff masonry construction and r.c.
frames, whereas mixed structures are not commonly
used for school buildings. Furthermore, most of the
structures are in a poor state and have horizontal and
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 18. The distribution of the Number of floors of
investigated schools.
Figure 19. Conservation state distribution of surveyed
schools.
vertical irregularities. For these reasons, and consid-
ering also that the examined school buildings have a
large student population, suitable retrofitting projects
based on the results of this pilot project will be
implemented in order to reduce their susceptibility to
damage under volcanic actions.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Authors acknowledge the COST Action C26
project ‘Urban Habitat Constructions under Catas-
trophic Events’ (2006–2010), which has inspired this
research activity. The contribution of Gennaro Guar-
ino, Simone Lettieri, Fabio Pellegrino and Stefania
Pellegrino, who have taken part in survey activity for
developing their graduation thesis, is also gratefully
acknowledged. Finally, particular acknowledgments
are directed to both the dean of the schools and the
administration of Torre del Greco municipality espe-
cially Pasquale Laguda, for their collaboration in this
activity.
REFERENCES
COST Action C26 report. 2009. Monograph on Survey
activity for the volcanic vulnerability assessment in
Torre del Greco (26–30 January 2009). COST ACTION
C26 “Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic
Events”. WG 4: Risk assessment for catastrophic scenar-
ios in urban areas.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

The L’Aquila Earthquake, April 6th, 2009: A review of seismic damage

mechanisms

L.A. Kouris
Department of Civil Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

R.P. Borg
Department of Building & Civil Engineering, Faculty for the Built Environment, University of Malta, Malta

M. Indirli
ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, Italy

ABSTRACT: On the 6th April 2009, an earthquake hit the city of L’Aquila and some villages around it. The
aim of this paper is to review the technical features and assess the seismic behaviour of some representative
traditional and modern buildings of L’Aquila and the suburbs during the Abruzzo 2009 seismic event. The damage
induced in both unreinforced masonry (URM) and reinforced concrete (R/C) buildings was severe, and several
structures collapsed. This paper includes an overview of the dynamic characteristics of the earthquake and the
seismic history of the region. In order to investigate the seismic performance of URM and R/C buildings, a
detailed field investigation was carried out, for three residential quarters of the old city. The seismic behaviour
of the URM and R/C buildings is discussed. The main causes of building damage are investigated and these are
reviewed with respect to the characteristics of the earthquake. Moreover, the seismic behaviour of non-structural
members of buildings that increased the death-toll during the recent earthquake is investigated. In conclusion,
features that increase the earthquake resistance, related to the soil conditions and the use of lintels, anchors and
metal ties are discussed.

1 INTRODUCTION G. Zuccaro, made an extensive damage survey of the

In the early morning (03:32 local time) of 6th
April 2009 an earthquake (9 km shallow focal depth,
see Figure 1) of magnitude MW = 6.3 struck the
Abruzzo Region in Central Italy. The epicenter was
very close to the city of L’Aquila (sources: INGV,
http://portale.ingv.it/; USGS, http://www.usgs.gov/).
The starting point of the seismic sequence is con-
sidered to be the March 30th, with a MW = 4.4 event,
though several small shocks had been recorded before.
The MW = 6.3 main event has been followed by sev-
eral aftershocks, the major of which occurred on
April 7th (MW = 5.6). The number of casualties was
306 and the injured people approximately 1500. The
area affected by the earthquake includes L’Aquila city
center, the suburbs and some villages in the region,
and many buildings were severely damaged or col-
lapsed. Not only old buildings, but also more recent
constructions, were unable to withstand the intensive
shaking that occurred close to the rupture fault. The
earthquake caused many losses and damages (about
18000 unusable buildings) in the more affected area. A
general description of the seismic event and its conse-
quences is given by Indirli (2010). After the event, the
PLINIVS Centre (Naples), coordinated by Prof.
whole historic centre of L’Aquila, with the contribution
of experts (namely the authors of this paper) of COST
Action C26 (COST 2006). The COST researchers,
in addition to an overall review of the consequences
of the earthquake in L’Aquila and its surroundings,
contributed to the aforementioned work, through a
detailed investigation of three areas of the historic
city centre. The AeDES & MEDEA Methodologies
were adopted during the surveys. In particular, the
building damage was assessed with reference to the
MEDEA methodology (see Section 5.2), developed in
the framework of the Italian Civil Protection Activities
(MEDEA 2003, Borg et al. 2010). This paper focuses
on the findings of the survey and aims at illustrating the
performance of the buildings in the areas investigated.
2 SEISMOTECTONICS AND GEOLOGY
The city of L’Aquila is located in the central part
of the Apennine chain, on the margin of a plate
deformed during continental collision between the
African (to which it belongs) and the Euro-Asian
plates. According to geological investigation L’Aquila
lies on a tectonic basin bounded by a series of
normal faults, predominantly NW-SE-striking and

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 1. Characteristics of 23 earthquakes above MW 4.0
from March 30th to April 23rd (source: INGV).
SW-dipping (Galadini & Galli 2000). Many of these
faults are active, but none of them showed visible signs
of reactivation (such as surface ruptures or cracks)
during the April 2009 seismic event.
The L’Aquila city centre is set on a fluvial terrace
that forms the left bank of the Aterno River. The ele-
vation of the terrace reaches about 900 m above the
mean sea level. The basic soil formations found in the
area are alluvial deposits, that represent the main cause
of the amplification of the seismic waves during the
earthaquake (Bindi et al. 2009, De Luca et al. 2005,
ENEA Report 2009, Indirli 2010).
3 L’AQUILA HISTORIC SEISMICITY
The morphology of L’Aquila region and the fertility
of the land were the main reasons for the prosper-
ity of this city, which was firstly established in 1245
AD. However the city has been linked with earth-
quakes. Evidences of significant seismic activity in
the Abruzzo Region are reported since the 2nd cen-
tury AD (Ceccaroni et al. 2009). L’Aquila, and the
villages around it, were struck by strong seismic events
at least five times in the last 700 years, since 1300
(Boschi 2000), specifically in 1315 (Mw  6.7), 1349
(Mw  6.5), 1461 (Mw  6.5), 1703 (Mw  6.7), and
1915 (Mw  7.0), resulting in vast damage and deaths
(see Figure 2 Galadini & Galli 2000, Rovida et al.
2009, Stucchi et al. 2007). Due to the 1703 seismic
event, over 3.000 people died and most of the buildings
collapsed; therefore, L’Aquila was abandoned and later
repopulated by decision of Pope Clement XI. The 2009
L’Aquila earthquake is the third most severe event ever
recorded in Italy, after the 1976 Friuli (Mw 6.4) and
1980 Irpinia (Mw 6.9). Moreover, it is the second event
involving a medium sized city, since the 1908 Reggio
Calabria-Messina earthquake and tsunami.
4 MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE 2009
EVENT
4.1 Fault’s rupture
The 2009 earthquake was a usual Apennine event: its
magnitude, depth, and focal mechanism correspond
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Figure 2. Left: estimation of the epicenters of historical
earthquakes in the Abruzzo Region; top-right: CPTI08aq,
part of the CPTI08 Parametric Catalogue of Italian Earth-
quakes, seismic events which happened in the period
1000–2006 in Central Italy; bottom-right: historic MCS
macroseismic intensity of the major events near L’Aquila
since 1300.
to the seismo-tectonic features of past seismic events,
such as the long-lasting sequence of foreshocks and
aftershocks (Akinci et al. 2009a). The aftershocks epi-
centers (Figure 1) are along the Paganica normal fault,
not well known but considered responsible for the
ground shaking (Chiarabba et al. 2009).
The focal mechanism, produced by the active fault
normal movements, is extensional, with fault planes
oriented NW-SE and NE-SW (anti-Apennine). The
main shock fault segment extends in depth from 2 to
10 km and has a dip of 45◦ to the SW, and a length of
15 to 18 km. The main shock epicenter was very close
to L’Aquila, producing near field effects. Finally, there
is a strong directivity effect oriented NW-SE (Akinci
et al. 2009b).
4.2 Strong ground motion characteristics
Fifty-six of the approximately 300 digital strong-
motion stations operated by Italian Strong Motion
Network (RAN) managed by the Italian Department
of Civil Protection (DPC) recorded the main shock,
in addition to other 42 broad-band stations. Fourteen
stations are located in the Abruzzo region, while the
remaining ones are scattered in the Apennines mostly
NW and SE of L’Aquila. This makes the Abruzzo Mw
6.3 event one of the best recorded earthquakes, caused
by a normal fault mechanism. The most important five
stations, all on the hanging wall of the rupture, are
located as shown in Figure 3 and Table 1, while the
respective signals in Figures 4–8 (ENEA Report 2009;
Masi & Chiauzzi 2009; Indirli 2010). Three charac-
teristics of motion generally determine the damage
potential of the earthquake: amplitude, frequency con-
tent and duration. The characterization of the ground
motion can be made in terms of Peak Ground Accel-
eration (PGA), Peak Ground Velocity (PGV), Peak
Ground Displacement (PGD), and oscillation dura-
tion above a threshold amplitude. Time histories and
corresponding elastic response spectra (5% damping)
 Figure 4. Acceleration for the mainshock of the L’Aquila
seismic event.
Figure 3. Location of the most important stations in relation
to the epicenter.

Table 1. Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) for each sta-

tion (AQG, AQA, AQV, AQK) and for horizontal (X, Y) and
vertical (Z) components (fraction of g).

PGA [g]

ID station X-direction Y-direction Z-direction Soil type

AQG 0.42 0.43 0.22 B

AQA .039 0.45 0.38 B
AQV 0.63 0.60 0.42 B
AQK 0.34 0.34 0.35 C
Figure 5. Velocity for the mainshock of the L’Aquila seismic
event.

obtained from the main shock recordings are shown

in Figures 4–9 (ENEA Report 2009; Masi & Chiauzzi
2009; Rupakhety & Sigbjörnsson 2010; Indirli 2010).
The maximum value of PGA has been recorded for
the X horizontal direction (0.63 g) at the AQV station,
where the vertical component also recorded the high-
est value (0.42 g). Lower values of PGA have been
recorded in the other stations (0.45 g for AQA and
0.43 for AQG). The smallest value was recorded at
AQK, where a higher value of the vertical component
(0.35 g) has been found with respect to the horizon-
tal one (0.34 g). In particular, significant values of
PGA in the vertical direction have been observed in
all the stations. Moreover, permanent displacements Figure 6. Displacement for the mainshock of the L’Aquila
of more than 12 cm have been recorded. The duration seismic event.
of the strong motion has been approximately 10 s. The
predominant period according to the elastic response NTC 2009), when a primary school collapsed, killing
spectra can be identified between 0.20 s and 0.40 s. 29 children and a teacher (Indirli et al. 2004a, 2004b).
Furthermore, specific guidelines for strengthen-
ing intervention on cultural heritage were produced
4.3 The seismic classification of L’Aquila
in 2006 (Linee Guida 2006). Therefore, several con-
The seismic classification of the affected area at the structions were not able to resist the 2009 seismic
time of the earthquake is shown in Figure 9a (mostly event without significant damage, due to their age (old
Zone 2, fraction of gravity load reference value equal buildings) or because they were built before the above
to 0.25 g, for Tr = 475 years). Note that a new seismic mentioned changes. An example is reported in Fig-
classification of the Italian territory and an updated ure 9b, showing the evolution of the design spectra for
building code were adopted after the 2002 Molise Abruzzo Region from 1975 to 2008 (ENEA Report
earthquake (OPCM 3274 2003, OPCM 3316 2003, 2009). When the return period Tr = 475 years is con-
OPCM 3431 2005, further revised in NTC 2008 and sidered, the NTC generally underestimates the spectral

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Figure 7. Comparison of the pseudo-acceleration spectra of
the L’Aquila seismic event mainshock with the NTC08 Italian
Code (horizontal components).
Figure 8. Comparison of the pseudo-acceleration spectra of
the L’Aquila seismic event mainshock with the NTC08 Italian
Code (vertical components).
values of the recorded signals. On the other hand,
for Tr = 2475 years, the pseudo-acceleration response
spectra provided by NTC are comparable with the
recorded timehistories, showing higher values at the
stations AQA and AQV. Also in the vertical direc-
tion, the NTC generally underestimates the spectral
values of the recorded signals for Tr = 475 years
(ENEA Report 2009; Masi & Chiauzzi 2009).
4.4 PSHA and DSHA methods
Seismic hazard assessment, necessary to design
earthquake-resistant structures, can be performed in
various ways, following a probabilistic or a determin-
istic approach. Case studies indicate the limitations
of the PSHA (Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analy-
sis) currently used methodologies, deeply rooted in
engineering practice, providing indications that can
be useful but not sufficiently reliable (Decanini et al.
2001; Klügel et al. 2006), as shown in recent examples
(earthquakes of: Michoacan 1985, Kobe 1995, Bhuj
2001, Boumerdes 2003, Bam 2003 and E-Sichuan
2008 events). In fact, the PSHA could not be suffi-
ciently reliable to completely characterize the seismic
hazard, because of the difficulty to define the seismo-
genetic zones and evaluate correctly the occurrence
of the earthquakes (frequency – magnitude relations),
and the propagation of their effects (attenuation laws).
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 9. (a) Seismic classification of Abruzzo at the time
of the 2009 earthquake; (b) Evolution of the design spectra
for Abruzzo from 1975 to 2008.
Figure 10. Neo-deterministic scenarios for North-East and
Central Italy.
A more adequate description of the seismic input can
be done following a neo-deterministic approach (Neo-
Deterministic Seismic Hazard Assessment NDSHA),
which allows for a realistic description of the seismic
ground motion due to an earthquake of given distance
and magnitude (Panza et al. 2001). The approach, that
is feasible to apply at urban scales, is based on mod-
elling techniques that have been developed from the
knowledge of the seismic source generation and prop-
agation processes. It is very useful because it permits
the definition of a set of earthquake scenarios and
the computation of the associated synthetic signals,
without having to wait for a strong event to occur. A
complete description of the neo-deterministic method-
ology, from the definition of the hazard to the seismic
input calculation for the design of a building, is given
in Zuccolo et al. (2008).
Thanks to the information obtained by Panza
(2009), the neo-deterministic scenarios for the
Abruzzo Region foresaw respectively maximum dis-
placement and acceleration values of about 12 cm and
0.6 g, which are in agreement with the recorded data
for the 2009 seismic event (Figure 10). Therefore, the
NDSHA provides more realistic values (usually larger)
than those given by the PSHA in high-seismicity areas
and in areas identified as prone to high intensity
earthquakes (see also Indirli 2010).
5 THE DAMAGE SURVEY METHODOLOGY
5.1 Introduction
In the L’Aquila seismic event, structural damage and
collapse (distributed as shown in Figure 11) occurred
not only in old historic buildings (stone or brick
Un-Reinforced Masonry buildings, URM) but also
in several recent multistory structures (Reinforced

Figure 11. The Macroseismic Intensities in L’Aquila and
surroundings.
Concrete buildings, R/C, with brick infills) like the
hospital of L’Aquila (completed in 2000) and the uni-
versity dormitory (built in the late 1970s). This fact
could be attributed to the combination of different
causes: free-field effects, due to the vicinity of the
rupture fault, with the presence of high vertical PGAs,
which produces a decrease of the shear capacity of
the vertical walls, particularly in the upper storeys; the
inadequacy of the old seismic code (as shown in Fig-
ure 9b); the under-estimation of the earthquake values,
intrinsic in the PSHA method on which the post-2002
updated code is based; counterproductive subsequent
interventions and alterations; errors in design and con-
struction details. Specific analysis is reported in the
following sections.
5.2 The survey methodology
The MEDEA (MEDEA 2005) methodology is
designed to support earthquake damage assessment,
carrying out an objective evaluation (as much as pos-
sible) of various failure mechanisms in masonry and
R/C structures (Borg et al. 2010).
The survey, based on the MEDEA methodology,
consisted in the following three steps (for Masonry
structures).
– First step: the adjacent but separate buildings of the
examined blocks are identified, and numbered.
– Second step: the presence or absence of elements
that can affect the vulnerability of the structure are
evaluated.
– Third step: the damages of the vertical (walls, piers,
spandrels) and horizontal (vaults, floors, stairs)
structural elements of the building are identified
and classified in 23 types (for vertical elements)
and 13 types (for horizontal elements); The dam-
age of the structural elements are linked to 10 global
and 6 local collapse mechanisms. A scale of inten-
sity of damage is assigned, with a score from 1 to 3,
according to the intensity of the observed damage
(Borg et al. 2010, Kouris 2010).
The survey of reinforced concrete structures based
on the MEDEA methodology, followed a similar
procedure.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
6 STRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF
BUILDINGS IN L’AQUILA
6.1 Masonry buildings in L’Aquila
The predominant structural system of the buildings
located in the L’Aquila s’ historic city center consists
of old URM construction, built around the 14th cen-
tury and later. The urban fabric includes noble palaces.
Most of the URM buildings are made of solid brick
or rubble stone masonry, with the latter usually com-
posed of two exterior skins of stone with an inner core
filled with inhomogeneous aggregate. Furthermore,
the quality of the mortar (often lime) is generally poor.
These buildings usually consist of one-to-three storey
structures (rarely more). They are characterized by the
relatively smaller height of the upper levels, and also
by the post and lintel construction (decorative sill and
architrave). Usually, these buildings can sustain mod-
erate shakings without heavy damage, but exhibit an
inadequate behaviour under strong seismic actions, in
particular when the disaggregation of poor materials
occurs, or when out-of-plane mechanisms result due
the lack of horizontal connections.
Older structures typically have thick walls (1 m
approximately) and small openings, while noble
palaces (or more recent constructions) have wider
openings, sometimes in the proximity of the roof, and
walls which are less thick (0.60∼1.0 m). Medieval
buildings are characterized by thick piers in respect
to spandrels. In contrast, more recent URM structures
present more vulnerable piers than spandrels, due to
the presence of the larger openings. Usually, the marble
sills and the lintels consist of decorative elements not
adequately bonded with the external walls, and cover
low brick arches. Thus, the height of the spandrel is
formed by the head of the windows or doors, up to the
floor of the next storey. Therefore, this system is not
as strong as it visually seems to be.
Generally, cross walls are not adequately con-
nected to the external walls, due to the lack of bond
stones. However, in many buildings horizontal steel
ties are present (not always at each floor and in both
directions); these joints certainly improve the seismic
behaviour, preventing the separation of cross-walls and
subsequent overturning mechanisms.
A very common characteristic of L’Aquila’s
masonry buildings is the presence of decorative ele-
ments poorly connected to the walls, such as corbels,
architraves and balconies (Kouris 2009). The floor
structural systems can be classified into the following
different typologies:
(i) wooden floors, usually poorly connected to exte-
rior and interior walls, which provide no inplane
diaphragm;
(ii) masonry floors consisting of masonry vaults
in two orthogonal directions (acutely pointed
arches), which provide strong in-plane diaphragm
but have heavy mass;
(iii) masonry floors consisting of masonry vaults
in one direction (barrel vaults), which provide
 in-plane diaphragm perpendicular to the direction
of the vault;
(iv) floors formed of masonry tiles between cast iron
I-beams, which provide light diaphragm action
depending on the connection to the walls;
(v) reinforced concrete floors, providing strong
inplane diaphragm in both orthogonal directions.
In general, the type (i) is common in the upper
floors of old buildings, the type (ii) and (iii) in the
lower floor of old buildings, the type (iv) is typical
in relatively recent constructions of late 18th or early
19th centuries, and the type (v) is usually found in
constructions which have been recently restored.
Figure 12. Diagonal cracks in pier during the earthquake.
6.2 Reinforced concrete buildings in L’Aquila
The predominant structural system, used for construc-
tions in the most recently urbanized areas of L’Aquila,
consists of R/C frames (usually of low ductility), with
URM infill panels.
Such typologies were encountered in buildings of
varying occupancy, from single to multi-story com-
mercial, residential and office buildings (including the
hospital and the university dormitory). Frame-shear
reinforced concrete wall interactive systems are at
times used in modern buildings.
The exterior walls as well as interior partition-
ing normally consist of non-loadbearing unreinforced
hollow masonry block infill.
Figure 13. Diagonal cracks in piers between transverse
walls at the upper edges.
7 BEHAVIOUR OF BUILDINGS AND
OBSERVED DAMAGE

7.1 Masonry buildings in L’Aquila

The damage observed during the recent earthquake in
the load-bearing walls of URM buildings is divided in
out-of-plane and in-plane failure modes. The out-of-
plane damage is undesirable and appears when several
deficiencies exist such as lack of anchors and bonded
stones between orthogonal walls, large openings in the
proximity of the extremity of walls, irregularities etc.
Well built and preserved constructions normally suffer
in-plane damage.
The most important types of observed damage
in L’Aquila, can be classified with reference to the
Figure 14. Vertical cracks between openings in spandrels.
MEDEA Methodology, and defined as follows; 1 to
3 damage typologies refer to in-plane damage, 4 to 7
is generally low, with only some narrow cracks
damage typologies refer to out-of-plane damage, and
appearing at the top of the walls and the upper part
8 to 9 refer to damage in horizontal elements such as
of the comers. The damage is normally heavy if the
vaults and arches.
ground floor is damaged.
1) Diagonal cracks in piers (Figure 12). This type of Only rarely are the diagonal cracks noted to
failure appears in buildings exhibiting good seismic run along the entire height of the building moving
performance, with thick walls and small openings. towards the bottom corner.
Diagonal cracks exist in buildings with reinforced Sometimes, diagonal cracks in the load-bearing
concrete floors, reinforced concrete roof and/or piers start from the discontinuity between two adja-
tiebeams which provide a stiff diaphragm and good cent buildings caused by the different stiffness due
connection between orthogonal walls. If the upper to the difference in height between two planes.
storey is damaged due to the reduced shear capac- 2) Diagonal cracks in piers between transverse walls
ity of the upper levels, the intensity of the damage at the upper edges (Figure 13), or at intermediate

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 15. Diagonal cracks in spandrels.
Figure 16. Turnover of external wythe of the wall at the top.
floors, or at the base separating the corner. This type
of failure corresponds to in-plane seismic actions
in crossed walls and appears when there are no ties
between the orthogonal walls.
3) Diagonal cracks in spandrels across the lintels and
relieving (embedded) arches over doors and win-
dows (Figure 15). The majority of the buildings
suffered this type of damage to some degree, par-
ticularly at higher levels. Generally, spandrels are
weaker than piers due to lower shear capacity and
thus, are more vulnerable.
4) Vertical cracks at intersections between crosswalls
or edges due to the out-of-plane seismic action that
can lead to overturning of external wythe of the
walls at the top, when there is high percentage of
voids in the masonry (Figure 16), or even of the
whole wall.
5) Vertical cracks between openings in spandrels that
are more severe in the upper storey (Figure 14).
This type of damage is mainly caused by out-of
plane inertial forces in the load-bearing walls.
6) Local crushing of the masonry with or without
throwing out of the material.
7) Long vertical cracks at the line between two adja-
cent buildings.
8) Cracks in the keystone, in the springers (voussoirs)
or in the base of an arch, or transversal cracks in
the barrel of a vault that lead to the separation of
the vaults from the masonry walls.
9) Slippage or subsidence of the supports of the gird-
ers and the secondary beams of the floor and the
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 17. URM buildings with the interior totally
collapsed.
roofing system that leads to the loss of verticality
of the trusses due to the deformation of the lower
floor (Figure 17).
The majority of the very heavy damaged buildings
developed out-of-plane failures of the kind indicated
4, 5, 7 and 9, leading to collapse in some cases
(Figure 17).
In general, many buildings had some type of
anchors/ties and the majority of the ties did not suffer
any damage.
With reference to the MEDEA methodology, 16
types of global and local collapse mechanisms in
Masonry Structures, are related to the seismic damage,
including the most frequent damage types as discussed
above.
The desirable response of the building is the storey
shear mechanism, with cracks in the walls due to
actions in the plan. This type can take advantage of the
stronger in-plane shear capacity and appears when
the separation of crossed walls can be avoided due to
the presence of adequate anchors (steel ties) and stiff
diaphragm in the level of the floors. In this way, the
seismic forces are distributed to the walls according to
their stiffness parallel to the direction of the seismic
action.
On the contrary, out-of-plane damage related with
vertical flexural cracks and usually accompanied with
decomposition and overturning of the walls, often
results in collapse. Although R/C and vaulted floors
provide a stiff in-plane diaphragm, due to their big
mass they may contribute to increased inertial forces
and produce out-of-plane damage. A very dangerous
failure is the overturning of higher spandrels near the
roof when openings exist in the proximity of the roof
of the building (Figure 17). This severe type of failure
occurred in the collapsed buildings of L’Aquila, since
the high vertical component of the earthquake devel-
oped high principal tensile stresses in the upper floors
reducing even more their effective capacity.
7.2 Reinforced concrete buildings in L’Aquila
A large number of dwellings and commercial buildings
were built with soft stories at the ground floor. Severe

Figure 18. The column is damaged at the extremity:
inadequate confinement of reinforcement is noted.
damage and many collapses can be attributed to the
increased deformation demands caused by soft stories,
associated with weak ability of deformation, of poorly
designed and detailed columns.
In most frame structures, the beams were strong and
remained elastic, and the columns were weaker and
suffered damage and failure in the form of compres-
sion crushing, plastic hinging, or shear failure. In many
cases, relatively deep beams were used with flexible
columns, contributing to a strongbeam weak column
behavior.
The structural damage observed in frame buildings
is usually concentrated at column extremities (Fig-
ure 18). Sufficient confinement of reinforcement was
not always present in these members, and they were
unable to sustain the required ductility. A number
of detailing deficiencies exist in the damaged struc-
tures such as lack of anchorage of beams and columns
reinforcement, insufficient splice lengths, lacking 900
hook anchorage, poor concrete quality, reduced height
masonry infill partitions, and frequent combinations
of the above deficiencies. These faults were some-
times combined with geometric irregularities such as
eccentric beam-to-column connections that induced
severe torsion in short perpendicular secondary beams.
Foundation failures were generally not observed.
8 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
The main shock of Abruzzo (2009) earthquake had a
magnitude Mw = 6.3 and a duration of approximately
10 s. The city of L’Aquila was very close to the fault.
This caused high ground accelerations and widespread
damage to buildings. Particularly, the vertical compo-
nent increased almost equally to the horizontal one.
This resulted in a reduction of the masonry shear
capacity (especially in the upper floors) and resulted in
extensive damage of the URM buildings. The highest
recorded peak ground acceleration was 0.67 g for the
horizontal component and 0.51 g for the vertical com-
ponent, although it is estimated that soil amplification
may have led to higher values.
Masonry structures were built before earthquake
codes were adopted; many R/C buildings were built
according to outdated codes. This caused light to
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
moderate damage to 55% of buildings, and heavy
damage to collapse to the rest 45%. The percentage
of heavily damaged reinforced concrete buildings is
smaller than masonry buildings. However important
R/C buildings were significantly damaged, including
the dormitory causing lots of deaths.
Namely, very old brick masonry buildings without
adequate anchors (connecting orthogonal walls, floors
with the exterior walls etc.) exhibited a poor perfor-
mance, while stone masonry buildings with anchors
and stretcher bond stones in the crossed walls exhib-
ited a remarkable better response. In addition, there is
a clear trend for the extent of damage to grow with
the number of floors, especially if one considers the
damage of upper floors rather than the average damage
for the whole building. Most of the masonry buildings
which collapsed were three storey high buildings or
higher.
Deaths may result from the fall of architectural parts
of buildings that do not affect their stability; these
include decorative vaulted plastered ceilings, cornice
(decorative ledge), belt courses and any horizontal
band of plastered masonry extending horizontally
across the façade of a building, decorative architraves
(lintels), masonry balconies and corbels (supports
which protrude out of the façade of a building), and
roof tiles. These elements were poorly connected to
the structure. If the earthquake had occurred during
the working day, the death toll would have been much
higher due to the fall of these elements.
L’Aquila is a typical Italian city, and buildings of
other Italian towns can behave in a similar manner
under actions of near-field earthquakes.
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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

The Vesuvius case study in the framework of the EU COST

Action C26 activity

F.M. Mazzolani
Faculty of Engineering, University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

M. Indirli
ENEA (Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development),
Bologna, Italy

ABSTRACT: The Vesuvius extreme dangerousness has induced the Working Group 4 (“Risk Assessment for
Catastrophic Scenarios in Urban Areas”) of the European COST Action C26 “Urban habitat constructions under
catastrophic events” (2006–2010) to introduce the ‘Vesuvius case study’ within its research activities, with
particular regard to the examination of the effects on the constructions produced by a possible eruption of the
Neapolitan volcano.
The results of the studies, illustrated in this paper, have to be considered as a robust point of departure, which
provides the qualitative and quantitative definition of the loading conditions on the constructions, produced by
an explosive eruption, trough a critical reorganization of the considerable scientific literature on this topic from
the structural engineering point of view.

1 INTRODUCTION
The COST Action C26 “Urban habitat constructions
under catastrophic events” (COST C26 2006) started
with the meeting in Brussels (June 28, 2006). In agree-
ment with the Memorandum of Understanding, it had
been structured in 4 Working Groups (WGs):
– WG1, Fire resistance;
– WG2, Earthquake;
– WG3, Impact & Explosions;
– WG4, Resistance to Infrequent Loading Conditions.
In the Delft meeting (November 17–18, 2006),
the goal of WG4 has been devoted to any natural
hazard except earthquake (i.e. “infrequent events” as
flood, landslide, extreme wind and snow, avalanche,
tsunami and storm surge, coastal erosion, volcanic
eruption, etc.). The focus has been pointed on iden-
tification, characterization and modeling of natural
disasters (and their interrelations/scenarios), construc-
tion response and possible relevant consequences
of combined extreme loadings in the built environ-
ment. However, since the beginning, the work seemed
too huge and dispersive without a robust “Ariadne’s
thread” to follow. Therefore, three directions have
been identified for the research: the investigation on
each single catastrophic infrequent event; the set up of
a multi-hazard approach, together with the develop-
ment of a common methodology for risk assessment;
and, finally, the identification of a pilot study enough
general to join several disciplines in a transversal
approach, also involving other WGs.
In this context, the “Vesuvius case” was proposed
(in the aforesaid Delft meeting), discussed (with the
first invitation of field experts in the Prague Work-
shop, March 30–31, 2006) and selected (meeting of
Naples, June 8–9, 2007) as the reference study. In
Naples, the discussion was related to the organiza-
tion of WG4, deciding to modify its scope and name,
which changed in “Risk Assessment for Catastrophic
Scenarios in Urban Areas”.
After a general discussion among all the partici-
pants in Timisoara (October 26–27, 2007), a specific
enlarged WG4 meeting was held in Trieste (January
17–18, 2008), where the Vesuvius case study has
been better focused; not addressed to the issue of
evacuation, the study should have been restricted to
the modelling of loads acting on structures and the
corresponding construction response. The work on
Vesuvius continued in the following Action meet-
ings (Vilnius, April 11–12, 2008; Naples, 19 May
2008; Madeira, June 5–6, 2008; Malta Workshop,
October 23–25, 2008; Naples, January 23, 2009;
Southampton, March 27–28, 2009; Rome, June 22–24,
2009; Skiathos, September 4–5, 2009; Aveiro, Novem-
ber 27–28, 2009; Nicosia, March 19–20, 2010), with
the main result to find some paradigmatic sets of struc-
tures, to be investigated in the surrounding area of the
Neapolitan volcano.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 1. C. Coelho. Waves/Storm Surges/(Tsunamis), Figure 3. J.P. Muzeau, A. Bouchair, V. Sesov, C. Coelho.
Coastal Erosion Problems, Modelling of Coastal Protection Identification & classification of exposure events; excep-
Measures (Delft, November 17–18, 2006). tional or infrequent event scenarios (Prague, March 30–31,
2006).

Figure 2. D. Lungu, C. Arion. Extreme wind and snow loads

Figure 4. E. Nigro. Flow slides effects on constructions;
for structural design (Delft, November 17–18, 2006).
damage analysis and failure models (Trieste, January 17–18,
2008).
2 INVESTIGATION ON NATURAL DISASTERS

The investigation on natural catastrophes (except vol-

canic) has been carried out since the beginning of
the Action (Delft, November 17–18, 2006) and con-
tinued until its end. Some examples are reported in
Figures 1–5. Specific data-sheets have been published
(Table 1) in the Proceedings (Malta 2008) of the Malta
Workshop (October 23–25, 2008), and some papers
will take place in the Proceedings of the Final Confer-
ence (Coelho et al. 2010; Rossetto et al. 2010a; Sesov
et al. 2010; Stathopoulos et al. 2010; Talon et al. 2010a;
Talon et al. 2010b).

3 INVESTIGATION ON VOLCANIC ACTIONS

AND THE VESUVIUS PILOT STUDY
The study on the volcanic phenomena started a little bit
later, but increased strongly in the following activities
(see Figures 6–20), when the Vesuvius was selected as
the WG4 pilot study in the meeting of Naples (June 8–
9, 2007). One data-sheet on volcanic hazard has been
Figure 5. T. Rossetto. Tsunami physical modelling. A con-
tribution to calculating tsunami risk (Trieste, January 17–18,
2008).
published (Table 2) in the Malta Proceedings (Malta
2008).
The work was firstly devoted to the study of volcanic
actions, then to the consequences on the built

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 1. Data-sheets on natural disasters (except volcanic).

G. Solari Lessons from catastrophic

events in the evolution
of bridge and wind engineering
T. Stathopoulos, Structural failure and
C.C. Baniatopoulos, prevention during catastrophic
I. Zisis wind events
C. Coelho, T. Rossetto, Waves and Tsunamis
W. Allsop
D. Boisser, J.P. Muzeau Avalanches
V. Sesov , Z. Zusic Landslides, state-of-the-art
J.P. Muzeau Floods
S. Wolinski Extreme snow loading
A. Kozlowski Dust loading on industrial
building roofs
E. Nigro, C. Faella Effects of debris flow on buildings
Figure 8. F. Dobran. Vesuvius 2000: project objectives
(Trieste, January 17–18, 2008).

Figure 6. B. Faggiano. Volcanic eruptions: the phenomenon

and its consequences (Timisoara, October 26–27, 2007). Figure 9. F. Dobran, M. Indirli. Plinian eruption scenario
(Vilnius, April 11–12, 2008).

Figure 7. F. Dobran. Urban habitat constructions around

Vesuvius (Prague, March 30–31, 2006).
environment, involving several experts, in order to cre-
ate an enlarged platform for a free and productive
discussion. Finally, a representative set of the urban
environment around Vesuvius, in terms of exposure,
as been selected for the field investigation:
– a building stock inside Torre del Greco (January
2009), the most populated city in the Vesuvius area
Figure 10. G.F. Panza. Earthquake scenarios for the deter-
mination of the seismic load on the structures surrounding
Vesuvius (Trieste, January 17–18, 2008).
(an important portion of the historic centre, a decen-
tralized residential area, and 15 schools distributed
on the whole city territory);
– 9 monumental buildings (January 2010), located in
Torre del Greco, Ercolano, Portici and San Giorgio

685
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 11. F.M. Mazzolani, B. Faggiano, D. De Gregorio. Figure 14. F.M. Mazzolani, B. Faggiano, D. De Gregorio.
Vesuvius case (Timisoara, October 26–27, 2007; Trieste, Jan- Selection of the pilot buildings (Naples, January 23, 2009;
uary 17–18, 2008; Vilnius, April 11–12, 2008). Actions in Southampton, March 27–28, 2009).
the catastrophic scenarios of a volcanic eruption. Analysis
methodology for the evaluation of the eruption effects on
buildings (Malta Workshop, October 23–25, 2008).

Figure 15. G. Zuccaro. Assessment of the vulnerability of

Figure 12. G. Zuccaro. The activity of the PLINIVS Centre
structures in the surrounding area of Vesuvius in the case of
in Naples (Trieste, January 17–18, 2008; Naples, February
a possible eruption (Naples, January 22–23, 2009). Elabo-
19, 2008; Naples, January 23, 2009).
ration of the investigation data achieved in Torre del Greco
(Southampton, March 27–28, 2009).

Figure 13. M. Indirli. The Vesuvius pilot study (Prague,

March 30–31, 2006); Naples, June 8–9, 2007; Trieste,
January 17–18, 2008; Vilnius, April 11–12, 2008; Malta
Workshop, October 23–25, 2008; Naples, January 23, 2009;
Southampton, March 27–28, 2009; Aveiro, November 27–28, Figure 16. A. Formisano. Vulnerability of existing r.c.
2009). buildings in the Vesuvius area (Naples, January 23, 2009).

686
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 17. F.G. Florio, A. Formisano, R. Landolfo, F.M.
Mazzolani. Vulnerability of a historical masonry building in
the Vesuvius area (Naples, January 23, 2009).
Figure 18. C. Nunziata, G. De Nisco, F. Vaccari, G.F.
Panza. Collection of stratigraphies, definition of shear wave
velocities of the shallower soils and computation of spectral
amplifications (Vilnius, April 11–12, 2008).
Figure 19. C. Nunziata, G. De Nisco, A. Peresan, G.F.
Panza. Definition of structural models and sources at Vesu-
vius, characterization of seismic activity both in terms of
background seismicity and intermediate-term prediction of
moderate size (Vilnius, April 11–12, 2008).
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 20. C. Nunziata. Scenario based seismic hazard
assessment: the example of Napoli (Vilnius, April 11–12,
2008; Southampton, March 27–28, 2009).
Table 2. Data-sheets on volcanic disaster.
C. Dumaisnil, J.C. Thouret, J.P. Muzeau Volcanic hazard
a Cremano, a small sample of an important por-
tion of the Vesuvian cultural-architectural heritage,
represented by the 122 “Golden Mile” Villas.
Special sessions on the Vesuvius study case have
been set up in all the main Action seminars, as the
Prague Workshop (Dobran 2006), Malta Symposium
(Malta 2008) and the Final Conference (Naples 2010),
whose proceedings contain several dedicated papers
(De Gregorio et al. 2010a–d; Florio et al. 2010;
Formisano et al. 2010a-c; Narasimhan et al. 2010;
Nunziata et al. 2010a; Sword-Daniels et al. 2010; Tinti
et al. 2010; Zuccaro et al. 2010a–e).
4 MULTI-HAZARD, VULNERABILITY AND
RISK ASSESSMENT
A great attention has been paid to these topics in WG4
since the beginning of activity (Figures 21–27).
The work took advantage from the activity experi-
enced in other International, European and National
projects and Actions (examples: EXPLORIS 2006;
MAR VASTO 2007; COST TU0601 2007) and sev-
eral scientific articles has been presented (Indirli 2006;
Indirli et al. 2010a; Mazzolani et al. 2009; Romanelli
et al. 2010; Rossetto et al. 2010b; Vamvatsikos et al.
2010).
Furthermore, the WG4 members gave a relevant
contribution to WG2 (earthquake), with presentations
(as shown by Figures 28–32) and articles (Nunziata
et al. 2010b; Indirli et al. 2010b). In particular, some
COST C26-WG4 experts participated to field investi-
gations after the April 6th, 2009 L’Aquila earthquake
(Borg et al. 2010; Kouris et al. 2010).
 Figure 21. M. Indirli. Natural multi-hazard and building
vulnerability in the historical urban habitat: the examples
of San Giuliano di Puglia, Italy, and Valparaiso, Chile
(Delft, November 17–18, 2006; Trieste, January 17–18, 2008;
Naples, 19 May 2008).
Figure 22. M. Indirli. Overview of risk assessment
approach for natural hazards (Prague, March 30–31, 2006).
Figure 23. F. Romanelli. Seismic & tsunami modelling
for scenario based hazard assessment (Southampton, March
27–28, 2009).
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 24. J.P. Carlier, A. Talon, J.P. Muzeau, Flood risk
quantification in urban areas (Aveiro, November 27–28,
2009).
Figure 25. M. Faber. Robust structures (Delft, Novem-
ber 17–18, 2006). Resistance to infrequent loads (Prague,
March 30–31, 2006). Outline of Risk Assessment method-
ology (Timisoara, October 26–27, 2007). Framework for the
management of large scale natural hazards (Trieste, January
17–18, 2008). M. Faber, H. Narasimhan, General method-
ology for risk assessment. Risk assessment for catastrophic
scenarios in urban areas (Southampton, March 27–28, 2009).
Figure 26. A. Talon, J.P. Carlier, J.P. Muzeau, Qualitative
and quantitative risk analysis (Aveiro, November 27–28,
2009).
Figure 27. G. Solari. Lessons from catastrophic events in
the evolution of bridge and wind engineering. Malta, October Figure 30. R. P. Borg, The seismic risk of the buildings in
23–25, 2008. Malta (Malta, October 23–25, 2008).

Figure 31. F. Romanelli. Lessons from the 2008 Sichuan

Figure 28. A.J. Kappos. Seismic vulnerability and risk earthquake about modeling of seismic input (Malta, October
assessment in urban habitats: methodology and case studies 23–25, 2008).
(Southampton, March 27–28, 2009).

Figure 32. M. Indirli, R.P. Borg, L.A. Kouris. Identification

Figure 29. D. Vamvasikos. Current research in Cyprus: of seismic damages and collapse mechanisms in buildings
uncertainties in seismic performance assessment (Southamp- due to 2009 L’Aquila earthquake (Aveiro, November 27–28,
ton, March 27–28, 2009). 2009).

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 5 CONCLUSIONS
The Working Group 4 (“Risk Assessment for Catas-
trophic Scenarios in UrbanAreas”) gave a fundamental
contribution to the COST Action C26 “Urban habi-
tat constructions under catastrophic events” (COST
C26, 2006). In particular, a huge effort has been dedi-
cated to gather information, discuss, study and field
investigate the consequences of a possible eruption
of Vesuvius, in the surrounding built environment. In
fact, this famous volcano (now quiescent), has been
identified as the case study within the WG4. Moreover,
in the framework of the Final Conference (Naples,
September 16–18, 2010), a special session will be ded-
icated to this crucial question and some technical visits
are foreseen in the archaeological area of Pompeii and
Herculaneum.
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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Survey activity for the volcanic vulnerability assessment in the Vesuvian

area: The ‘quick’ methodology and the survey form

F.M. Mazzolani, B. Faggiano, A. Formisano & D. De Gregorio

Department of Structural Engineering, University of Naples ‘Federico II’, Naples, Italy

G. Zuccaro
PLINIVS Centre, Hydrological, Volcanic and Seismic Engineering Centre, University of Naples
‘Federico II’, Naples, Italy

M. Indirli
ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment, Bologna, Italy

R. P. Borg
Faculty for the Built Environment, University of Malta, Malta

ABSTRACT: The Vesuvius Case Study was developed in the framework of the topics foreseen in the activities
of Working Group 4 (‘Risk Assessment for Catastrophic Scenarios in Urban Areas’) of the EU COST Action C26
(‘Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events’). An important activity has been the in situ survey
for the volcanic vulnerability assessment on different construction typologies, such as residential and historical
buildings, school buildings and monumental villas, located in some selected areas exposed to volcanic hazard.
During this activity, the buildings identification has been performed through a visual investigation, supported
by an ad hoc form, related to the building vulnerability to seismic and volcanic actions. The survey form and
the corresponding ‘quick’ methodology for the volcanic vulnerability assessment are presented in this paper.

1 INTRODUCTION crater. Therefore the majority of the pilot study areas

Vesuvius, or more precisely Somma-Vesuvius, is an
explosive volcanic complex, located about 15 km away
from Naples (Italy). Moreover, the area is densely
populated; and a possible Plinian eruption implies dis-
astrous consequence. This situation has induced the
European project COST Action C26 ‘Urban habitat
constructions under catastrophic events’ to introduce
the ‘Vesuvius case’ as a case study within its research
activities, in the program of the Working Group 4
‘Risk Assessment for Catastrophic Scenarios in Urban
Area’. The main purpose to examine the effects on the
constructions, due to a probable Vesuvian eruption.
For the attainment of this aim, first of all, the
research activity is focused on the qualitative and
quantitative definition of the actions produced on the
constructions by an explosive eruption (Mazzolani
et al., 2008; Mazzolani et al., 2009a); and, following
that, on the volcanic vulnerability assessment through
a ‘quick’ methodology (Mazzolani et al., 2009b). In
particular, with respect to the volcanic vulnerability
assessment, typical constructions in the area have been
assessed, through a detailed in situ survey activity,
which was carried out with the contribution of the
PLINVS Centre (Hydrological, Volcanic and Seismic
Engineering Centre, Director prof. Giulio Zuccaro).
One town, Torre del Greco, was selected for the study,
out of the 18 towns, which surround the Vesuvius
of reference in the study, have been selected in Torre
del Greco, which is the most populated city in the
Vesuvius area, with about 90,600 inhabitants. How-
ever in the case of the monumental buildings, different
areas were selected, and these buildings were located in
different Vesuvian cities. The selected zones in Torre
del Greco, indicated in Figure 1, include an impor-
tant portion of the historic centre with 281 buildings,
a decentralized residential area, 4 km away from the
vent, with 20 buildings and 15 schools distributed on
the whole city territory.
The areas and buildings selected are representative
of the Vesuvian urban environment in terms of expo-
sure, comprising both ordinary buildings and strategic
constructions. To complete the cognitive survey of the
Vesuvian area, 9 monumental buildings, located in
Torre del Greco, Ercolano, Portici and San Giorgio
a Cremano city, were also included in the investiga-
tion. These consist of historic Villas, and represent a
small sample of an important portion of the Vesuvian
cultural-architectural heritage, constituted by the 122
Golden Mile Villas (or Vesuvian Villas).
The identification of the construction types has
been performed through a visual examination,
accompanied by the compilation of an ad hoc form,
taking into account the factors which affect the build-
ing vulnerability to volcanic effects. Afterwards, the
collected data was used in the application of the

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 1. Pilot areas in the town of Torre del Greco.
specific ‘quick’ methodology for the assessment of
the volcanic vulnerability, which has been developed
by the PLINIVS Centre within the EXPLORIS Euro-
pean project (acronym of “EXPLOsive eruption RISk
and decision Support for EU populations threatened
by volcanoes”).
2 ‘QUICK’ METHODOLOGY FOR THE
VOLCANIC VULNERABILITY
ASSESSMENT
A volcanic eruption is characterized by a series of sub-
sequent physical phenomena, as volcanic earthquakes,
ash-fall, pyroclastic flows, surges, lahars, landslides,
volcanic missiles and tsunami. Therefore, the damage
impact due to a volcanic eruption depends upon several
disastrous events, different even though tightly con-
nected, each of them contributing in different ways to
the final scenario. The impact on building structures
deriving from the combination of different volcanic
actions has been rarely studied. Extensive statistical
databases on such damage are not available from pre-
vious cases, except some information which could be
derived from recent eruptions around the World, like
the one of Rabaul in Montserrat, and also by interpret-
ing historical reports of volcanic phenomena in the
past.
The ‘quick’ methodology for the volcanic vulnera-
bility assessment and the survey form described in this
paper are proposed within the EXPLORIS European
project (2002–2005). A dynamic model was developed
with reference to the Vesuvius case, with the scope
of simulating the whole eruptive process. Therefore,
an Event Tree framework can be determined, sum-
marizing the potential eruption scenarios for the next
volcanic crisis of Vesuvius and the possible associated
hazards which may develop (Neri et al., 2008).
At the moment, the EXPLORIS project considers
only three volcanic phenomena, earthquakes (EQ),
ash-falls (AF) and pyroclastic flows (PF). The erup-
tive event is studied from the first precursory seismic
event up to the final pyroclastic flow, by evaluating
the damage accumulated on the buildings and the
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
distribution of damage on the territory at each step of
the process. The evaluation of the volcanic impact on
the constructions is very complex and depends on the
possible eruptive scenario, which has been assumed.
The combination of the three volcanic phenomena can
increase the damage on buildings, in comparison with
the effects of each phenomenon acting separately. In
fact, the sequence of events during the eruption causes
a progressive reduction of the resistance properties of
the buildings, in function of the temporal evolution of
the damaging process. Therefore, some basic consider-
ations and simple preliminary assumptions have been
necessary in order to simplify such a complex task,
also considering the great uncertainty in the defini-
tion of the load history derived from different eruptive
scenarios, which can be identified by the Event Tree
sets in the EXPLORIS project.
First; in order to evaluate the possibility of simul-
taneous events, a preliminary distinction is necessary;
they are either continuous (as AF which tends to occur
during all the eruption) or discrete (as EQs which last
for seconds or as PFs each pulse of which can last few
minutes).
Second; the events have a different probability dis-
tribution in space. For impact purposes, AF and EQ
can be assumed to have an almost uniform distribu-
tion in the most-affected zones, so that a large number
of buildings can be contemporary affected. On the
contrary, the PFs are less uniformly distributed in
space; nevertheless, they can be numerous, so that a
considerable number of buildings would be involved.
In addition, some simple assumptions can be made
about the time distributions of the expected events,
based on the assumed eruptive scenario. Hence,
impossible or highly improbable combinations can be
eliminated.
The final impact scenario can be examined by try-
ing to parameterize the cumulative damage which
the structure experiences from the possible sequence
of events. The problem can be treated as a sort of
progressive deterioration of the building’s resistance
characteristics, which is essentially represented by
the damage level. This requires the assumption of
one damage scale as descriptor of the global structural
damage for the different building classes.
The seismic damage scale has been then assumed,
intended to describe also the damage level caused by
the other phenomena (AF and PF). In this regard, the
vulnerability under the action of PF of non struc-
tural elements (NSE), like windows, doors, infill
panels etc., has been taken into account separately,
being compatible with the results obtained by Baxter
et al. (2005a) and Spence et al. (2004). However, the
consequences on the structure of the NSE failure,
fire, roof explosion, casualty etc., have been consid-
ered in terms of seismic equivalent global damage and
they have affected the vulnerability curves evaluation
(Zuccaro et al., 2008).
The total damage suffered by the buildings during
the whole eruptive process is evaluated by using a
computerised model prepared for this purpose. There-
fore the building damage distribution caused by the
sequence of seismic events in the area, by the accu- Table 1. PLINIVS Centre survey form assessing the vol-
mulation of vertical load due to ash-fall out and by the canic vulnerability.
lateral pressure consequent to the pyroclastic flows,
can be simulated. The study area has been subdivided Section Datum
into cells, through the use of a circular grid centred
Identification Progressive number of the block
on the crater which is adopted in the model devel-
Number of the building in the block
oped in the EXPLORIS Project. By using an automatic
General Type
GIS script, the building inventory of the vulnerability
information Destination
classes in the single cell of the mesh is updated by Use
shifting the class according to the damage, which has Exposure
been caused by the previous event, and so on. Condition Age
State of conservation of the structure
3 SURVEY FORM Typology of the finishes
Descriptive Number of storeys
In order to apply the methodology, field investigations characteristics Number of apartments
Basement
based on detailed in situ survey activities in the study
Occupied basement
area were necessary. The aim of the investigations Height of first storey
was to collect the data and parameters influencing the Minimum height
volcanic vulnerability for each construction. For this Maximum height
purpose, the survey form, developed by the PLINIVS Fence
Centre and illustrated in Table 1, has been adopted. It Orientation
is divided into the following sections: Position
Structural Principal typology
1. The IDENTIFICATION section is intended to characteristics Primary vertical structures
locate the building with reference to the geograph- Primary horizontal structures
ical parameters given by Campania region. Geometry of the roofing
2. The GENERAL INFORMATION section refers Structure of the roofing
to the type (ordinary building, warehouse, electri- Thickness of the walls
cal station, etc.), destination (residence, hospital, Thickness of the curtain walls
school, etc.), use (fully used, partially used, not used Typology of the curtain walls
and abandoned) and exposure (ordinary, strategic, Openings Percentage of openings on the façade
exposed to special risk) of the construction. Number of small windows
3. The CONDITION section refers to age and state Number of typical windows
Number of large windows
of conservation of the structure (poor, mediocre,
Material of small windows
good and excellent) and typology of the finishes Material of typical windows
(economic, ordinary, luxury). Material of large windows
4. The DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERISTICS sec- Protection of small windows
tion refers to the number of total storeys starting Protection of typical windows
from the lowest ground level, the number of floors Protection of large windows
above the ground, including the penthouse, the Conditions of the windows
number of residential apartments, the presence of Interventions Type of repairs
occupied or not basement, the height of the first Age of repairs
storey, minimum and maximum heights up to the Regularity Regularity in plan
roof, the presence of barriers with height >2 m, the Regularity along the height
orientation (angle between the longest or the main Distribution of curtain walls in plan
façade and the North) and the position in the block Distribution of curtain walls along the height
Distribution of the structure
(Figure 2).
Arcade (soft floor)
5. The STRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS sec- Squat element
tion refers to the principal typology (reinforced
concrete, masonry, wood, steel and mixed), primary
vertical structures (sack masonry with or with-
out reinforcements, hewn stones masonry, masonry
or tuff blocks, RC frames with weak or resis-
tant cladding, etc.), primary horizontal structures
(timber floor, floor with steel beams, concrete-tile Figure 2. Position in the aggregate: a) isolated, b) internal,
structures, vaults, etc.), geometry of the roofing c) external, d) internal corner.
(plane, single pitched, multi pitched and vaults),
thickness of the walls and the curtain walls and typical and large windows, their material (tim-
typology of the curtain walls (tuff blocks or squared ber, PVC, aluminium or timber-aluminium, light
stones, concrete blocks, etc). steel and steel of security anti-intrusion type), their
6. The OPENINGS section refers to the percentage protection and their conditions (perfect, efficient,
of openings on the façade, the number of small, poor, bad or lack of windows).
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
7. The INTERVENTIONS section refers to the age
and type of repairs (extraordinary maintenance,
upgrading and retrofitting).
8. The REGULARITY section refers to the regularity
and distribution of curtain walls in plan and along
the height, the type of the structure (single or two-
directional frames, single or two-directional walls
and walls with frames), soft floor (pilotis on a part
of the ground floor, totally open ground floor and
intermediate soft storey) and possible presence of
stocky beams or columns.
These parameters define each construction in terms
of geometry, typology and importance and mainly
measure the volcanic vulnerability of the construction
itself. In particular, these parameters can be divided
into two groups.
The first group provides information on the main
vertical and horizontal structures, the regularity in plan
and in elevation, the age and conservation of the con-
struction, the number of storeys. These aspects are
associated with the evaluation of the seismic vulner-
ability of buildings. The second group is specific to
the building behaviour under the effect of an explo-
sive eruption, referring to the roof structure typology,
and the openings. The information on the type of the
roof structure is associated with the collapse due to
ash-fall deposits during an eruption. The information
on openings, including opening shape, the size and
the protection of the openings, is associated with the
pyroclastic flows. This was reported in the case of the
Montserrat eruption (Baxter et al., 2005b)
The form in Table 1 is suitable for the collection
of data related to the volcanic vulnerability assess-
ment of ordinary constructions. However in the case
of the survey activity related to the historic monuments
(Vesuvian Villas), updates to the form were necessary.
These updates were necessary since the monumental
buildings are of great importance and the information
collected must be more detailed. In view of this, the
updates indicated in Table 2, have been proposed, with
reference to the survey form for the cultural heritage
damage in Model B of the DPCM2006. The following
sections are included:
1. The LOCATION section refers to the location of the
building with reference to the site characteristics
(flat land, peak, filling or inclined soil, depression),
the urban context (urban centre, urban periphery,
industrial or commercial area, historical centre), the
surrounding infrastructures (pedestrian or vehicle
access, access for heavy facilities, neighbourhood
parking) and the presence of other risks (landslide,
inundation, industrial or natural threats).
2. The DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERISTICS sec-
tion refers to the checked type of artistic heritage,
as frescoes, mosaics, mouldings, tapestries, altars,
statues,books, prints, paintings on different bases,
furniture, furnishing and archaeological finds.
3. The STRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS sec-
tion refers to the state of general conservation of
vertical and horizontal structures and roofs, the
presence of steel or RC tie beams, internal elements
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 2. Survey form integration for the monumental
building.
Section Datum
Location Site characteristics
Urban context
Infrastructures
Presence of risks
Descriptive Type of artistic heritage
characteristics
Structural State of general conservation of vertical structures
characteristics State of general conservation of horizontal
structures
State of general conservation of roofs
Presence of steel or RC tie
Internal elements
Material and constructive discontinuities
Interventions Type of interventions
Regularity Plan layout
(arcades, lodges, inner courts) and material and
constructive discontinuities.
4. The INTERVENTIONS section identifies the pos-
sible type of structural interventions, like extraordi-
nary maintenance, upgrading, retrofitting, enlarge-
ment or raising.
5. The REGULARITY section indicated the plan
layout, which can be rectangular, extended rectan-
gular, L- shaped, C- shaped or with court yards.
4 VOLCANIC VULNERABILITY
ASSESSMENT
4.1 Vulnerability classes
The information obtained through the survey activity
has been used for the evaluation of the vulnerability of
the constructions with respect to the volcanic actions,
through the ‘quick’ methodology, proposed within the
Exploris project (Esposti Ongaro et al., 2008). In
particular, the aim of the analysis was to analyse repre-
sentative samples. The vulnerability analysis has been
conducted considering two groups of buildings: the
constructions of the residential area (281 independent
structural unities) and the buildings of the residen-
tial area and the schools (54 independent structural
unities).
The methodology applied is based on the assign-
ment of specific vulnerability classes with respect to
each considered exceptional action, in function of the
structural elements typology. In particular, under the
effect of the seism, the classes are four, As , Bs , Cs ,
Ds with vulnerability decreasing respectively, accord-
ing to the combinations of the horizontal and vertical
structures indicated in Table 3.
Under the effect of the ash fall, the classes are
five, Ar , Br , C1r , C2r , D with vulnerability decreasing
respectively, in function of the roof typologies indi-
cated in Table 4.
Table 3. Vulnerability classes under effect of the seism. Table 5. Vulnerability classes under effect of the pyroclastic
flows.
Horizontal structure
Class Description
Poor Poor Medium Medium High
Rigidity Technology Rigidity High Rigidity
Vaults “SAP” floor Vaults Rigidity Reinforced M Ap Weak masonry buildings of 3–4 storeys with
and/or and/or Iron beam Concrete
wooden wooden floor floor
deformable floor
floor floor Weak or strong masonry buildings with more
without ties with ties
than 4 storeys
WEAK As As As As As Bp Medium masonry buildings of 1–2 storeys
MASONRY with deformable floor
Rubble
masonry Strong masonry buildings of 3 or more storeys
neglected with rigid floor
(lavic stone,
nor squared Cp Strong masonry of 1–2 storeys with rigid floor
tuff, etc.)
RC Dp Non aseismic RC b. of more than 6 storeys
Vertical Structure

MEDIUM As As Bs Bs Bs
QUALITY Ep Non aseismic RC buildings of 4–6 storeys
Rubble
masonry Fp Non aseismic RC buildings of 1–3 storeys
maintained
(lavic stone,
nor squared
tuff, etc.) Table 6. Percentage distributions of the vulnerability
GOOD As As Bs Bs Cs
MASONRY classes of the historical centre and the residential area plus
Squared the schools, under effect of the seism (a), ash fall (b) and pyr.
masonry
(lavic stone, flows (c).
tuff, etc.)
FRAMED – Bs – – Ds a) Seism As Bs Cs Ds
STRUCTURES
(RC or
steel)
Historical centre 36 48 16 0
Residential area 2 11 63 24
Table 4. Vulnerability classes under effect of the ash fall. and schools

Class Description b) Ash fall Ar Br C1r C2r Dr

Ar Weak pitched wooden roof Historical centre 1 81 18 0 0

Residential area 2 7 48 43 0
Br Flat standard wooden roof
and schools
RC flat roof- SAP type
Weak steel with little vaults flat roof
c) Pyroclastic flows Ap Bp Cp Dp Ep Fp
C1r Flat RC roof older than 20 years
C2r Flat RC roof younger than 20 years Historical centre 25 65 0 0 1 9
Recent flat RC flat roof Residential area 0 35 0 0 0 65
Dr Recent pitched RC roof and schools
Recent pitched steel roof

construction or RC frame structures of 1–2 storeys

Finally, under the effect of the pyroclastic flows, the with high rigidity RC floor (Cs, Ds, C1r, C2r, Fp).
classes are three for the masonry buildings, Ap , Bp , Cp ,
and three for the RC buildings, Dp , Ep , Fp , with vulner-
4.2 Expected damage
ability decreasing respectively in each group, in func-
tion of the vertical and horizontal structures in Table 5. In this section, the expected damage obtained, is pre-
With reference to the results of the survey activity, sented with reference to the specific adopted scenarios.
the two groups of the examined buildings present the For the historical centre, the considered volcanic
distributions of the vulnerability classes indicated in event is going to develop according to the following
the Tables 6a, b and c with respect the seism, the ash phases. Before the eruption, three discrete seismic
fall and the pyroclastic flows respectively. events (EQ) occur with an intensity of VI–VII–VIII
Under the effect of each considered action, an anal- degree of the European Macro-seismic Scale (EMS
ysis of the results indicates that the buildings located ‘98), respectively; while, during the eruption, contin-
in the historical centre have a higher vulnerability uous ash-falls (AF), whose deposits are increasing in
when compared to those in the residential area and time, are accompanied by one EQ event of moder-
the schools. In fact, in the historical centre in gen- ate intensity (VI EMS) plus continuous low tremors.
eral, masonry buildings are more than 3 storeys high, Approaching the end of the AF phase and immediately
with poor or medium rigidity horizontal structure and afterwards, a series of three PF events occur having
roofs consisting of timber, steel and SAP flat floor (Bs, durations of two minutes each, randomly distributed
Br, Bp). However the buildings in the residential area in time during the last eruption phase. The impact of
and the schools in general consist of good masonry ash-fall is strongly dependent on the wind direction

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 3. Radial sectors with 16 different wind profiles.
Table 7. Historical centre. eruptive damage scenarios.
Sector Actions Lost buildings (no ) Broken windows (no )
8 EQ+AF+PF 11 142
EQ+AF 5 0
9 EQ+AF+PF 50 111
EQ+AF 46 0
10 EQ+AF 188 0 Baxter, P.J., Boyle, R., Cole, P.D., Neri, A., Spence, R. and
during the eruption, so the model considers 16 pos-
sible ‘sectors’ for the direction of the prevalent wind
(Macedonio et al., 2008), as illustrated in Figure 3.
In particular, for the volcanic vulnerability of the
considered pilot areas, according to Civil Protection
Plan Simulation on the Vesuvian area, three impacts
are evaluated, using three different sectors for the wind
direction. They are the sector 10, which can cause more
damage in the study area than other sectors, and the two
sectors 8 and 9, which can cause very little damage.
The whole eruption process has been simulated for
each of these sectors.
The results of impact model simulation are illus-
trated in Table 7. They show that the PF impact seems
most relevant when the ash impact is less important
with wind in sectors 8 and 9.This happens because the
PF action is almost applied to the whole building set.
On the contrary, when the wind direction is in sec-
tor 10, most parts of buildings are considered already
‘lost’ by ash-fall, so the PF action is applied just to few
buildings.
For the group of 54 buildings constituted by the con-
structions of the residential area and the schools, the
assumed exceptional actions are two earthquakes of
VII and VIII degree (EMS ’98) and ash fall with wind
in the direction of the sectors 8, 9 and 10 (Figure 3).
These actions are considered to act independently.
Under the effect of the two earthquakes, the dam-
age levels are indicated in Table 8, with reference
to the EMS’98 (D0 = no damage, D1 = light dam-
age, D2 = moderate damage, D3 = severe damage,
D4 = partial collapse, D5 = total collapse). According
to the low seismic vulnerability of this group of con-
structions, (As, Bs) the expected damage results to be
low (D0-D3). Instead, the ash fall action can lead to
failure of many constructions, especially with the main
direction of the wind in Sector 9, where 53 buildings
out of 54 can collapse (Table 9).
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 8. Residential area and schools. Damage levels under
effect of seisms of VII and VIII degree of the buildings.
Building with damage level Di [n◦ ]
Actions D0 D1 D2 D3 D4 D5
EQ (VII) 28 19 6 1 0 0
EQ (VIII) 23 20 9 2 0 0
Table 9. Residential area and schools. Lost buildings under
effect of AF with main direction in the sectors 8, 9 and 10.
Sector Actions Lost buildings n◦
8 AF 38
9 AF 3
10 AF 53
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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

A framework and guidelines for volcanic risk assessment

H. Narasimhan
ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

R.P. Borg
Faculty for the Built Environment, University of Malta, Malta

F. Cacace & G. Zuccaro

PLINIVS Centre and University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

M.H. Faber
ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

D. De Gregorio, B. Faggiano, A. Formisano & F.M. Mazzolani

University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

M. Indirli
ENEA, Bologna, Italy

ABSTRACT: The risk management of natural hazards is a complex issue often due to very significant poten-
tial consequences and substantial uncertainties. A framework for risk based decision making in the field of
engineering is first described in this paper. This framework is then applied for the risk assessment of volcanic
hazards. Towards this end, aspects related to the modeling of the hazard process due to volcanoes are described.
A system of classification of structures and identification of different building characteristics that could be used
for volcanic vulnerability and risk assessment is then proposed. This is followed by a discussion on the fragility
and vulnerability modeling of structures. Finally, general issues concerning the evaluation of risks and their
treatment and communication are discussed.

1 BACKGROUND the benefit achieved from the decisions, risk may be

Natural hazards such as earthquakes, floods, volca-
noes and tsunamis constitute a significant source of
risk in several regions of the world and are often asso-
ciated with widespread loss of human lives, damage to
the qualities of the environment as well as to property
and infrastructure. It is hence a great challenge for the
engineering profession to provide methods and tools
enhancing decision making for the purpose of efficient
management of natural hazards.
Since our understanding of the aspects involved in
such decision problems is often less than perfect and
that we are only able to model the involved physi-
cal processes as well as human interactions in rather
uncertain terms, the decision problems in engineering
are subject to significant uncertainty. Due to this, it
is not possible to assess the result of decisions and
consequences in certain terms. However, what can
be assessed is the risk associated with the different
decision alternatives. If the concept of risk as the
simple product between probability of occurrence of
an event with consequences and the consequence of
the event is widened to include also the aspects of
related directly to the concept of utility (von Neu-
mann and Morgenstern 1944, Raiffa and Schlaifer
1961) from the economic decision theory. A whole
methodological framework is thus made available for
the consistent identification of optimal decisions. This
framework is considered to comprise the theoretical
basis for risk based decision making.
Based on these principles, a document (JCSS 2008)
describing the framework and principles for risk based
engineering decision making has been recently devel-
oped by the Joint Committee on Structural Safety
(JCSS). In this paper, the main features of this frame-
work are first briefly described. Then, aspects related
to the modeling of the hazard process due to vol-
canoes are discussed. A system of classification of
structures and identification of different building char-
acteristics that could be used for volcanic vulnerability
and risk assessment is then proposed. This is fol-
lowed by a discussion on the fragility and vulnerability
modeling of structures relevant for seismic analysis.
Finally, general issues dealing with the quantification
of risk and their treatment and communication are
covered.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 2 SYSTEM MODELING IN RISK ASSESSMENT
2.1 System identification and representation
In a societal context, risk based decision making needs
to be understood from an intergenerational perspec-
tive. Within each generation decisions have to be made
which will not only affect the concerned generation but
all subsequent generations. At an intra-generational
level, the characteristics of the system consist of the
knowledge about the considered engineered facility
and the surrounding world, the available decision alter-
natives and criteria (preferences) for assessing the util-
ity associated with the different decision alternatives.
A very significant part of risk based decision mak-
ing in practice is concerned about the identification of
the characteristics of the facility and the interrelations
with the surrounding world as well as the identifica-
tion of acceptance criteria, possible consequences and
their probabilities of occurrence. Managing risks is
done by “buying” physical changes of the considered
facility or “buying” knowledge about the facility and
the surrounding world such that the objectives of the
decision making are optimized.
A system representation can be performed in terms
of logically interrelated constituents at various lev-
els of detail or scale in time and space. Constituents
may be physical components, procedural processes
and human activities. The appropriate level of detail
or scale depends on the physical or procedural char-
acteristics or any other logical entity of the considered
problem as well as the spatial and temporal charac-
teristics of consequences. The important issue when a
system model is developed is that it facilitates a risk
assessment and risk ranking of decision alternatives
which is consistent with available knowledge about the
system and which facilitates that risks may be updated
according to knowledge which may be available at
future times.
2.2 Knowledge and uncertainty
Knowledge about the considered decision context is
a main success factor for optimal decision making.
In real world decision making lack of knowledge (or
uncertainty) characterizes the normal situation and
it is thus necessary to be able to represent and deal
with this uncertainty in a consistent manner. The
Bayesian statistics provides a basis for the consis-
tent representation of uncertainty independent of their
source and readily facilitates for the joint consideration
of purely subjectively assessed uncertainties, analyti-
cally assessed uncertainties and evidence as obtained
through observations.
There exist a large number of propositions for
the characterization of different types of uncertain-
ties. It has become standard to differentiate between
uncertainties due to inherent natural variability, model
uncertainties and statistical uncertainties. Whereas the
first mentioned type of uncertainty is often denoted
aleatory (or Type 1) uncertainty, the two latter are
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Figure 1. Generic representation used for the risk assess-
ment of a system.
referred to as epistemic (orType 2) uncertainties. How-
ever, this differentiation is introduced for the purpose
of setting focus on how uncertainty may be reduced,
rather than calling for a differentiated treatment in the
decision analysis.
2.3 System representation
The risk assessment of a given system is facilitated
by considering the generic representation illustrated
in Figure 1. The exposure to the system is represented
as different exposure events acting on the constituents
of the system. The constituents of the system can be
considered as the system’s first defense in regard to
the exposures. The damages of the system caused by
failures of the constituents are considered to be asso-
ciated with direct consequences. Direct consequences
may comprise different attributes of the system such
as monetary losses, loss of lives, damages to the
qualities of the environment or just changed charac-
teristics of the constituents. Based on the combination
of events of constituent failures and the correspond-
ing consequences follow-up consequences may occur.
Follow-up consequences could be caused by e.g. the
sum of monetary losses associated with the constituent
failures and the physical changes of the system as a
whole caused by the combined effect of constituent
failures. The follow-up consequences in systems risk
assessment play a major role, and the modeling of
these should be given great emphasis. It should be
noted that any constituent in a system can be mod-
eled as a system itself. In the context of volcanic risk
assessment, a system could be an urban area exposed
to the effects of a volcano with its constituents being
buildings, structures and lifelines. The buildings and
structures, in turn, could also be systems with struc-
tural members as their constituents. Depending on the
level of detail in the risk assessment, the system def-
inition, the exposure, constituents and consequences
would be different.
2.4 Exposures and hazards
The exposure to a system is defined as all possible
endogenous and exogenous effects with potential con-
sequences for the considered system. A probabilistic
characterization of the exposure to a system requires a
joint probabilistic model for all relevant effects relative
to time and space.
2.5 Consequences
2.5.1 Vulnerability
The vulnerability of a system is related to the direct
consequences caused by the damages of the con-
stituents of a system for a given exposure event. The
damage of the constituents of a system represents the
damage state of the system. In risk terms, the vulnera-
bility of a system is defined through the risk associated
with all possible direct consequences integrated (or
summed up) over all possible exposure events.
2.5.2 Robustness
The robustness of a system is related to the ability
of a considered system to sustain a given damage
state subject to the prevailing exposure conditions and
thereby limit the consequences of exposure events to
the direct consequences. It is of importance to note
that the indirect consequences for a system not only
depend on the damage state, but also the exposure of
the damaged system. When the robustness of a system
is assessed, it is thus necessary to assess the proba-
bility of indirect consequences as an expected value
over all possible damage states and exposure events.
A conditional robustness may be defined through the
robustness conditional on a given exposure and or a
given damage state.
2.6 Large scale indicator based risk modeling
The risk management of large scale natural hazards
requires a systematic and consistent representation and
management of information for a typically complex
system with a large number of constituents or sub-
systems. Such representation must enable a rational
treatment and quantification of the various uncertain-
ties associated with the constituents as well as the
system. The consistent handling of new knowledge
about the system and its constituents as and when
it becomes available and its use in the risk assess-
ment and decision making process is also essential.
Further, the numerous dependencies and linkages that
exist between different constituents of the system need
to be systematically considered. The above require-
ments and considerations necessitate the use of generic
indicator based risk models for the assessment and
management of risks due to natural hazards.
Risk indicators can be understood as any observ-
able or measurable characteristic of the system or its
constituents containing information about the risk. If
the system representation has been performed appro-
priately, risk indicators will in general be available for
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what concerns the exposure to the system, the vulnera-
bility of the system and the robustness of the system. In
a Bayesian framework for risk based decision making
such indicators play an important role.
In the context of volcanic hazards, the exposure can
be related to the triggering factors for the volcanic
eruption, the vulnerability represents the physical pro-
cess of the volcanic eruption and flow, damages to
infrastructure and loss of lives and the robustness is
associated with the follow-up consequences and the
socio-economic or political impact.
The use of Bayesian Probabilistic Networks (BPNs)
has proven to be efficient for such large scale risk
assessment applications (Faber et al. 2007, Bayrak-
tarli et al. 2005, Straub 2005). Generally, the exposures
relating to natural hazards as well as the possible ensu-
ing consequences can be considered to depend strongly
on the specific geographical location of the occurrence
of the event. For this reason, the use of Geographical
Information Systems (GIS) is also important in the
context of natural hazards risk management.
3 MODELING OF THE HAZARD PROCESS
Sections 3, 4 and 5 of this paper discuss the applica-
tion of the framework described in the previous section
for the risk assessment of volcanic hazards. First, in
this section, the modeling of the hazard process for
volcanoes is discussed for two phases – the Plinian
phase (where typically material is ejected in a tall col-
umn, spreads in the atmosphere and falls to earth like
rain) and the Peléan phase (where material flows down
the sides of the volcano as fast-moving avalanches
of gas and dust). Then, the modeling of two other
scenarios – the occurrence of earthquakes and
tsunamis, each together with a volcanic eruption are
considered.
3.1 The Plinian phase
3.1.1 Tephra intensity modeling
Physical phenomenon – The deposits of pyroclastics
(or materials that have been blown into the atmosphere
by volcanic activity) are generically called tephra and
divided in three basic types: air fall, pyroclastic flows
and surges. The air fall deposits are formed by the
accretion of clasts which fall by gravity from the erup-
tive column or which are thrown directly in area from
crater, according to ballistic trajectories. The deposits
of pyroclastic flows and surges are those released by
gas-solid dispersions with high or low concentration
of particles respectively, which move along the surface
under action of gravity. The fall of pyroclasts, from the
eruptive column, can have different speeds depending
on the pyroclasts size, density and launch height, and
the deposit on the ground, happen at various distances
mainly depending on the stratospheric wind pressure.
The pyroclasts are supported in the column until the
upward thrust exceeds the gravity force; after they
fall down accelerating until the force of gravity is not
 counterbalanced by the air friction, when the particles
fall with a constant speed.
Actions on the constructions – The tephra deposits
produce on the constructions a gravitational load qV on
the roofs, even if the pyroclastic flows and the surges,
before transforming into deposits, act through a hori-
zontal pressure qH on the affected structure. The static
load qV can be considered a gravitational distributed
load and can be estimated as follows:
where g is the acceleration due to gravity (9.81 ms −2 ),
h is the deposit thickness (m), ρ is the deposit density
(kgm−3 ). The deposit density depends on the com-
position of pyroclasts, their compactness, the deposit
moisture and the subsequent rains.
3.1.2 Bombs, missiles and impact modeling
Physical phenomenon – The explosive eruptions can
also produce flying fragments of pyroclasts called
bombs and missiles. The largest clasts are exploded
directly from the crater according to pure ballistic
trajectories. On the contrary, the smaller clasts can
be sustained by convection in the eruptive column.
They are then thrown in the atmosphere from the main
flow to fall or be transported along the mountainside
in gravitational currents. The word missile can relate
to flying debris, not involved in the eruption, set in
motion by pyroclastic flows. The movement of a vol-
canic fragment in vacuum with a ballistic trajectory
has been studied and reported in Dobran (2006).
During a Plinian eruption, large clasts follow a pure
ballistic trajectory. The smaller ones are transported
not by the wind, but by another dynamic mechanism
such as the lateral and vertical expansions of the erup-
tion column, which reduces the drag force on the
particulates; such kind of clasts one called sustained
ballistics.
Actions on the constructions – The damage caused
by bombs and missiles depends on the kinetic energy
and the vulnerability of the affected object. A flying
fragment can impact the roofing or the walls of a build-
ing, but, in particular, it can hit the most vulnerable
parts of the building like the openings. A key factor
which governs the vulnerability of buildings is the
resistance of openings, especially the glass panes or
the shutters which can prevent the hot ash from enter-
ing. On the contrary, possible consequent fires and/or
breathing difficulties for people inside can arise.
Several studies have looked at the evaluation of the
speed of bombs and missiles, produced by explosive
volcanic eruption, but the analysis of the effects of
these flying objects buildings is not very much devel-
oped. Spence et al. (2005) have examined the window
failure produced by missiles generated by pyroclas-
tic flows. The probability of impact of flying debris
on windows depends on the flow velocity, the flow
density, the density of potential missiles in the area
surrounding the volcano, as well as the surface and
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
the orientation of windows. Missile impact causes fail-
ure when a fragment has a sufficient kinetic energy to
break the window.
3.1.3 Lava flow, temperature and thickness/height
modeling
Physical phenomenon – A volcano is defined as effu-
sive if the magma is emitted in the form of a lava flow
characterized by gas bubbles dispersed in a continuous
liquid: the Etna volcano in Sicily (Italy), for example,
belongs to this category. The lava flows are made of
totally or partially fused magma emerging on the sur-
face. Lava can form broad flows or immediately get
cold above the volcanic conduit giving rise to domed
structures called lava domes.
Actions on the constructions – The lava flow pro-
duces a lateral horizontal pressure which can cause the
collapse of the affected buildings. The damage is also
caused by the degradation of the materials produced
by high temperatures of the magma. For example,
during the Etna eruption of 2001, the temperature of
lava flow, measured with the infrared radiometer, was
1075◦ C. Generally, the advancing speed of the lava
flows is sufficiently low to allow the evacuation and
the safeguarding of human lives.
3.2 The Pelèan phase
3.2.1 Pyroclastic flow and impact modeling
Physical phenomenon – Pyroclastic flows can be gen-
erated by the collapse of the eruptive column (as during
the eruption of the Soufrière volcano, St. Vincent,
Caribbeans, 7 May 1902), by a directional explosion
for the slipping of a part of the volcano (as during the
eruption of the St. Helens volcano, United States of
America, 18 May 1989) or by a lateral explosion at the
base of a lava dome (as during the eruption of the Pelée
volcano, Martinique, 8 May 1902). They are the most
dangerous events of an explosive eruption. Therefore,
the estimate of the main physical parameters that char-
acterize the dynamics of transportation and deposition
is extremely important. A pyroclastic flow is made of a
mixture of gases, within which solid particles of vari-
ous sizes are dispersed. A multi-phase physical model
for the evolution of pyroclastic flows can be found in
Todesco et al. (2002).
Actions on the constructions – In the structural
analyses, it is possible to schematize the action of
the pyroclastic flows as a uniformly distributed static
pressure (Petrazzuoli and Zuccaro 2004), with temper-
ature ranges between 200 and 350◦ C (Giurioli et al.
2008). In general, the first elements to reach the col-
lapse are the glass windows and the shutters. However,
they can be easily protected by more resistant pan-
els. Nevertheless, the lateral resistance of a building to
pyroclastic flow strongly depends on the design criteria
applied to resist ordinary load conditions: of course, an
earthquake resistant building presents relatively larger
strength and stiffness capabilities.
3.2.2 Lahar flow and impact modeling
Physical phenomenon – After explosive eruptive
events, the thermal change in the proximity of the
volcano often produces rain. Combined with the pyro-
clasts of poor coherence, with the volcanic high slope
of (20–30◦ ) and the distinctive seismicity of the erup-
tive phase, the rain can cause the mobilization of the
volcanic deposits and the consequent formation of
mudslide and lahar. The term lahar indicates any type
of muddy flow containing volcanic material. Lahar
and mudslide are extremely dangerous because of their
high kinetic energy, they being generally characterized
by speed of the order of some tens kilometers per hour
up to above 100 km/h (Carlino 2001). The lahar flows
are influenced by the same mechanisms of transporta-
tion and sedimentation of the non volcanic material
landslides. Indeed, the lahar flows move under gravity
with the influence of the shear stress, concentration of
the flow and slope gradient.
Actions on the constructions – The effects of lahar
flows on the constructions are comparable to those
ones produced by the debris flows. However, the lahar
flows present the additional variable in the form of the
temperature, which causes substantial degradation of
mechanical properties of construction materials. The
temperature of lahars is widely variable. It depends
on the typology and the quantity of the erupted mate-
rials and on the time between the deposit and the
mobilization.
3.3 Description and modeling of other possible
scenarios
3.3.1 Eruption related earthquake
Physical phenomenon – All volcanic eruptions are
accompanied by local seismic activity. While tectonic
earthquakes are generally related to a shear-faulting
mechanism, volcanic earthquakes may involve ten-
sile, isotropic, and/or shear rock fractures, driven
by the percolation of high-temperature fluids/gases
or directly by the magma-ascent mechanism. Earth-
quakes caused by volcanic activity are generally
classified into four categories:
• volcano-tectonic (VT) earthquakes,
• long-period (LP) earthquakes,
• harmonic tremor (T),
• surface events (SEs).
From the point of view of seismic-hazard analysis in
the pre-eruptive phase, only the VT earthquakes need
to be considered. Both SEs and T generally appear
during an eruption, and they have very low ampli-
tudes beforehand. Although LP earthquakes could
be present in the pre-eruptive phase, high-magnitude
events of such a class are rarely observed before an
eruption. Moreover, LP earthquakes involve only low-
frequency signals, and they are not associated with a
well-understood source mechanism.
Actions on the constructions – The intensity of a
volcanic earthquake is a function of the entity of the
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
eruptive event. During the evolution of a volcanic
system from a quiescent state to an eruptive state, a
large number of small- to moderate-sized earthquakes
occur. Thus, the cumulative effects of these numerous
and small magnitude earthquakes can also cause struc-
tural damage from the low-cycle fatigue phenomena.
Therefore, very stiff structures such as masonry build-
ings or low rise reinforced-concrete-frame structures
are expected to be affected during the pre-eruptive
earthquake occurrence.
3.3.2 Tsunami
Physical phenomenon – Tsunami refers to the phe-
nomena of the rogue waves which produce devastating
effects on the coast. It is characterized with an initial
and temporary withdrawal of the waters, or with a flood
which can show like a tide which rapidly comes in,
like a waves trains or like a water wall. A tsunami can
be produced by any cause able to vertically perturb
a sufficiently big column, moving them to its equi-
librium position. So, its origin is not only connected
with a seismic phenomenon, but could also be volcanic
eruptions, explosions, landslides, submarine tectonic
displacements and impact with cosmic objects. The
normal waves are caused by the wind, which pro-
duces the movement of the sea surface only while the
tsunami waves move the whole water column from
seabed to surface. In the context of a volcanic erup-
tion, the anomalous waves leading to a tsunami can be
produced by massive pyroclastic flows which reach the
sea. This happened during the explosive eruption of the
Krakatua volcano in 1883 in the Sunda Straits between
Sumatra and Java that produced a large tsunami killing
more than 30,000 people in the coastal villages of the
Straits.
Actions on the constructions – According to
Palermo et al. (2007), the actions produced by a
tsunami on a construction can be grouped into two
loading combinations: initial impact and post-impact
flow. The initial impact includes surges and debris
impact force components. The surge force is pro-
duced by the impact of the flood waves on the
structures. The debris force is related to impact struc-
tures due to significant debris (such as vehicles,
components of buildings and drift wood) which the
waves can transport. After the initial impact, a pro-
posed second loading combination results, namely
the post-impact flow. During this phase, hydrody-
namic (drag) forces are exerted on structures due
to continuous flow of water around the structure.
In addition, the inundation gives rise to hydrostatic
forces. The hydrostatic forces can occur on both
the exterior and interior of the structure. The latter
depends on the degree of damage sustained during
the initial impact. Further, the structure is subject to
debris from floating objects being transported by the
moving body of water. Therefore, the second phase
of loading includes hydrodynamic and hydrostatic
forces, debris impact forces, and buoyancy forces that
result from the structure being submerged after the
initial impact.
 4 CLASSIFICATION OF STRUCTURES &
STRUCTURAL VULNERABILITY
4.1 Volcanic vulnerability of structures
As discussed in the previous section, a volcanic erup-
tion is characterized by a series of subsequent physical
phenomena, including volcanic earthquakes, ash-fall,
pyroclastic flows, lahars, landslides, volcanic missiles
and tsunami.As a consequence, the damage impact due
to a volcanic eruption depends upon several disastrous
events, different from each other, but tightly connected
to each other. Each event contributes in different ways
to the final scenario. The evaluation of the possible
effects due to a volcanic eruption in an urban area is
therefore very complex. The damage impact scenario
in fact can vary, depending on the type of eruption, and
also depends on the development over time of the dif-
ferent phenomena characterizing it. It is also related to
the location considered and the typological-structural
characteristics of buildings and infrastructures in the
area. Therefore, the classification of structures and
the identification of the different building character-
istics is an important step in the assessment of the
vulnerability of structures to volcanic events.
4.2 The Vesuvius area structural vulnerability
assessment
The assessment of volcanic vulnerability of structures
was considered in the Vesuvius area. The assess-
ment referred to the volcanic vulnerability assessment
methodology proposed within the EXPLORIS Euro-
pean project (EXPLORIS 2006) and developed by
the PLINIVS Centre. It refers to a dynamic model
which simulates the whole eruptive process and refers
to the potential eruption scenarios for the volcanic
activity of Vesuvius and the possible associated haz-
ards which may develop (Neri et al. 2008). The
EXPLORIS project considers three volcanic phenom-
ena; earthquakes (EQ), ash-falls (AF) and pyroclastic
flows (PF).
The assessment included a data collection exercise,
based also on an extensive field investigation activ-
ity conducted during the period 2009–2010 (COST
C26 2009b). The surveys were necessary to collect
information based on various parameters influencing
the volcanic vulnerability for each construction. The
methodology was applied with respect to the Torre
del Greco historic urban centre, the Residential Area,
and the School Buildings. (COST C26 2009b). In
addition, a detailed survey was carried out for vari-
ous historic 19th century villas in the Vesuvius area,
namely the Vesuvian Villas along the Golden Mile. In
this case, additional parameters relating to monuments
and historic cultural heritage were considered.
4.3 Classification of structures and parameters for
vulnerability assessment
In the assessment of the vulnerability of buildings to a
volcanic eruption, various relevant parameters need
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
to be evaluated. The methodology, adopted for the
volcanic vulnerability assessment of the structures,
includes the collection of data, which also requires
field surveys and site investigations. The data col-
lection surveys are necessary in order to build up a
database of information based on the relevant param-
eters influencing the volcanic vulnerability. The data
collected for an area or region based on these parame-
ters is organized and the building vulnerability can be
analyzed. The parameters considered in the Vesuvius
field investigations conducted through COST C26
activity, include the following (COST C26, 2009a):
• the Identification section is intended to locate the
building with reference to the geographical param-
eters of the region;
• the General Information Section refers to the build-
ing type (ordinary building, warehouse, electri-
cal station, etc.), destination (residence, hospital,
school, etc.), use (fully used, partially used, not used
and abandoned) and exposure (ordinary, strategic,
exposed to special risk) of the construction;
• the Condition Section refers to age and state of con-
servation of the structure (poor, mediocre, good and
excellent) and typology of the finishes (economic,
ordinary, luxury);
• the Descriptive Characteristics Section refers to the
number of total storeys starting from the lowest
ground level, the number of floors above the ground,
including the penthouse, the number of residential
apartments, the presence of occupied or not base-
ment, the height of the first storey, minimum and
maximum heights up to the roof, the presence of
barriers with height >2 m, the orientation (angle
between the longest or the main façade and the
North) and the position of the unit in the block;
• the Structural Characteristics Section refers to the
principal typology (reinforced concrete, masonry,
wood, steel and mixed), primary vertical struc-
tures (sack masonry with or without reinforcements,
hewn stones masonry, masonry or tuff blocks, RC
frames with weak or resistant cladding, etc.), pri-
mary horizontal structures (timber floor, floor with
steel beams, concrete-tile structures, vaults, etc.),
geometry of the roofing (plane, single pitched, multi
pitched and vaults), thickness of the walls and the
curtain walls and typology of the curtain walls (tuff
blocks or squared stones, concrete blocks, etc);
• the Openings Section refers to the percentage of
openings on the façade, the number of small, typical
and large windows, their material (timber, PVC, alu-
minium or timber-aluminium, light steel and steel
of security anti-intrusion type), their protection and
their conditions (perfect, efficient, poor, bad or lack
of windows);
• the Interventions Section refers to the age and type
of repairs (extraordinary maintenance, upgrading
and retrofitting);
• the Regularity Section refers to the regularity and
distribution of curtain walls in plan and along the
height, the type of the structure (single or two-
directional frames, single or two-directional walls
 and walls with frames), soft floor (pilotis on a part
of the ground floor, totally open ground floor and
intermediate soft storey) and possible presence of
stocky beams or columns.
These parameters define each building in terms of
geometry, typology and importance and mainly mea-
sure the volcanic vulnerability of the construction
itself. In particular, these parameters can be divided
into main sections. The first section provides informa-
tion on the main vertical and horizontal structures, the
regularity in plan and in elevation, the age and con-
servation of the construction, the number of storeys.
These aspects are associated with the evaluation of the
seismic vulnerability of buildings. The second section
is specific to the building behaviour under the effect of
an explosive eruption, referring to the roof structure
typology, and the openings. The information on the
type of the roof structure is associated with the col-
lapse due to ash-fall deposits during an eruption. The
information on openings, including opening shape, the
size and the protection of the openings, is associated
with the pyroclastic flows. The structural classification
is carried out, with reference to the structural vulner-
ability and the phenomenon/phenomena considered.
5 FRAGLITY AND VULNERABILITY
MODELING OF STRUCTURES
5.1 Seismic vulnerability assessment methodologies
for building aggregates
5.1.1 General principles
The seismic vulnerability analysis has the purpose to
evaluate the consistency of a structure in a certain area
in order to estimate its propensity to undergo a cer-
tain level of damage against an earthquake of a given
intensity. In order to perform such an analysis, there
are several methods having a level of detail which gen-
erally changes with the scale of application. However,
for building belonging to urban aggregates, only few
provisions are found in literature for their vulnerability
assessment. One possible methodology for the struc-
tural analysis of a building aggregate can be carried
out according to the following steps (Avorio and Borri
2001):
• to perform a structural survey appropriate to the
peculiarities of the group of buildings investigated;
• to evaluate the influence of the masonry quality on
the safety check;
• to build a series of charts in order to identify the
foreseeable disruptions.
In the first step, it is important to realize that the
study of the whole building complex is not due to
the simple sum of the vulnerability of single constitu-
tive buildings. The difficulty to have information about
the buildings adjacent to the examined one suggested
to adopt a quick survey method oriented to highlight
the constructive typologies and their mechanical char-
acterization. The result is the implementation of a
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structural survey guide composed of both a base legend
and thematic forms on the different structural types.
In general terms, within such a phase the following
information can be achieved:
• Geometrical survey of urban aggregates, which
serves as basis for the structural analysis;
• Structural reading, which allows obtaining infor-
mation on the different structural elements and the
connections among them;
• Analysis of disruptions, which individuate and
examine the crack pattern visible on the building.
As a second step, the detection of the masonry qua-
lity, even if in a quick manner, is investigated. This is
justified from the fact that many of the observed partial
collapses of buildings were due to the not satisfac-
tory condition of the masonry apparatus. The follow-
ing reference parameters, which are easily achieved,
can influence the behavior of masonry buildings and
therefore have been detected:
• Horizontality of blocks;
• Offset of vertical mortar joints;
• Shape and dimensions of elements;
• Elements located orthogonally to the masonry wall
plane;
• Quality of mortar.
The proposed procedure is based on the compari-
son between the characteristics of the study masonry
walls and a series of categories reported into appropri-
ate charts. This comparison provides a given score (s)
for each parameter of the study masonry. If the wall
apparatus respect the “rules of art”, a score of 2 is
assigned. Instead, the partial presence of each of the
reference parameters listed above gives rise to a score
in the range of 0.5 to 1.5. Finally, the absence of these
parameters provides a score of zero. The sum of dif-
ferent scores, which qualitatively defines the degree of
respect for the “rules of art” for the masonry wall, is
defined as the masonry quality. The range of the pos-
sible achievable scores is comprised between 0 (very
poor quality) and 10 (very high quality). Further, three
different categories about the masonry quality have
been identified, namely category A (8 to 10), category
B (3 to 8) and category C (0 to 3).
Later on, the study of the static behavior of either an
isolated building or a group of buildings within a his-
torical centre is conducted by the analysis of a series
of standard buildings. In this way, the analysis of large
scale portion of buildings is performed quickly, con-
sidering the prerequisites of the study masonry walls.
Finally, once the masonry quality is attributed, the
static analysis by means of comparison charts is per-
formed following two different directions depending
on the masonry type. For category C masonry, the
examination of the static disruptions is not carried out,
since the poor quality of masonry does not allow for
the creation of a valid resistant mechanism. There-
fore, the structure is not eligible from the structural
point of view. For the other two masonry categories
 (A and B), the evaluation of the structural integrity is
made with reference to appropriate comparison charts
by considering different parameters, namely the type
of floors, the vertical and horizontal slenderness of
walls, the presence of pushing roof, the presence of
pushing arches and vaults and the mechanisms involv-
ing either one story or more than one storey masonry
walls. All these cases can be considered both for not
damaged buildings and damaged ones. In the first case,
from the detected boundary conditions and geometry,
the structural safety of walls can be assessed by the
comparison with the conditions reported in the chart.
Instead, for damaged buildings, the chart represents a
guide to detect disruptions only. From the Italian nor-
mative point of view (M. C. 09), no detailed rules on
the global check of urban aggregates are given, but
only some indications about simplified methods to be
performed for this check are provided.
In the case of sufficiently rigid floors, formal ver-
ification at both the Life Safety Limit State and the
Serviceability Limit State of a structural unit belong-
ing to an aggregate is carried out, even for buildings
with more than two levels, through static nonlinear
analysis by both checking separately each building
storey and neglecting the variation of axial force
in the masonry piers due to the effect of seismic
actions.
With the exclusion of structural units placed either
at the corner or at the end of an aggregate, as well
as parts of buildings not restrained along any side
from other structural units (e.g. upper floors of a
building having height greater than the one of all adja-
cent structural units), the analysis can also be done
neglecting torsional effects, assuming that the floors
can only translate in the direction of the seismic action
considered.
If the building floors are flexible, the analysis of
either single walls or systems of coplanar walls of the
building is done; each of them analyzed as independent
structure subjected to both the vertical loads and the
seismic action along the direction parallel to the wall.
In this case the analysis and check of each wall are
made following the references given by the new tech-
nical Italian code (M. D. 08) for new ordinary masonry
buildings.
The lack of study on the behavior of structural units
into urban aggregates, as well as the code deficiencies
on this topic, have suggested to develop a new sim-
plified methodology, reported in the next Section, to
assess the vulnerability of such building complexes in
a global manner.
5.1.2 The proposed seismic assessment form
The proposed procedure is applied on a regional scale
and therefore a speedy procedure for the estimation of
vulnerability based on the compilation of special forms
is indicated as appropriate. The seismic vulnerability
evaluation of historical aggregates arises essentially
from a critical review of the detection form originally
introduced by Benedetti and Petrini (1984), which pro-
posed the estimation of the seismic vulnerability of
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
isolated buildings. In particular, through this type of
analysis, it is possible to classify the building stock of
a given area on a scale of vulnerability. The procedure
consists in assigning one of four vulnerability classes
(A, B, C or D), as defined in order of increasing dan-
ger, to ten parameters representing the geometrical and
mechanical characteristics of the building. A score is
assigned to each class, whereas a weight is correlated
to each parameter of the form, which represents the
influence that the same parameter has on the global
vulnerability of the structure. Finally, the vulnerabil-
ity index is obtained as the sum of all scores related to
the attribution to classes multiplied by the respective
weights.
The original methodology proposed by Benedetti
and Petrini (1984) is, however, inappropriate for build-
ings placed in aggregate, because the procedure does
not take into account the structural interaction between
adjacent buildings. To overcome this limit, Formisano
et al. (2009) have proposed a new form, achieved from
the original one with the insertion of new five parame-
ters indicative of the aggregate condition of buildings,
which may increase or decrease, depending on the
case, the vulnerability of a structural unit inserted
within a block of buildings. These factors, in part
derived from previous studies found in literature are:
• Interaction in height with adjacent buildings;
• Position of the building in the aggregate;
• The presence and number of staggered floors
between the building under investigation and those
adjacent;
• The presence of typological and structural hetero-
geneity among adjacent buildings;
• The difference between the percentage of openings
in the facades of adjacent buildings.
Four vulnerability classes have been assigned to
each of the above parameters. According to the layout
of the original survey form, scores and weights have
been assigned to the introduced classes and param-
eters respectively. In the following, the meaning of
the four vulnerability classes defined for each addi-
tional parameter of the form, as well as the scores and
weights attributed to classes and parameters, respec-
tively, and obtained from the above study, are presented
and discussed into detail.
1) Interaction in height with adjacent buildings
(Figure 2):
• Class A: −20 points. The building is located
between two buildings of equal height.
• Class B: 0 points. The building is located either
between higher buildings or between a building with
major height and a building with the same height.
• Class C: 15 points. The building is located either
between a building with minor height and a building
with the same height or between a higher building
and a lower one.
• Class D: 45 points. The building is adjacent to lower
buildings.
The weight assigned to this parameter is equal to 1.
 Figure 4. Possible positions of staggered floors.
Figure 2. Possible in elevation configurations of a structural
unit inserted into a building aggregate.

Figure 3. Possible plan configurations of a structural unit

inserted into a building aggregate.

2) Position of the building in the aggregate

(Figure 3):
• Class A: −45 points. The building is restrained on
three sides from adjacent buildings. In this case the
nearby buildings operate a confinement function on
the building under question, limiting its possible Figure 5. The new vulnerability assessment form proposed
displacements and deformations. for buildings in aggregate.
• Class B: −25 points. The building is restrained on
two sides from adjacent buildings. Therefore, the
adjacent buildings operate a confinement function
less significant than the previous one.
• Class B: −10 points. The building is adjacent to
• Class C: −15 points. The building occupies a corner
buildings made of the same material but erected
position in the aggregate. In this case the contain-
with a different construction technique (e.g. a sack
ment action is not exercised on two walls of the
tuff blocks building close to a squared tuff blocks
building and is less effective than before.
building).
• Class D: 0 points. The building occupies a leading
• Class C: 0 points. The adjacent buildings are made
position in the aggregate. No containment action is
of different materials which have the same structural
detected and, therefore, the building is more prone
heterogeneity (e.g. a tuff masonry building next to
to suffer displacements and deformations.
a brick masonry building).
To this parameter a weight of 1.5 is assigned. • Class D: 45 points. The building has structural het-
3) Presence of staggered floors between adjacent erogeneity with respect to adjacent buildings (e.g.
buildings (Figure 4): a brick building adjacent to a reinforced concrete
building).
• Class A: 0 points. Total absence of staggered floors.
• Class B: 15 points. Presence of a pair of staggered The assigned weight is equal to 1.2.
floors. 5) Difference between the percentage of openings
• Class C: 25 points. Presence of two pairs of stag- in the facades of adjacent buildings:
gered floors.
• Class A: −20 points. Difference less than 5%.
• Class D: 45 points. Presence of more than two pairs
• Class B: 0 points. Difference between 5% and 10%.
of staggered floors.
• Class C: 25 points. Difference between 10% and
The weight is less than that given to the two previous 20%.
parameters, it being equal to 0.5. • Class D: 45 points. Difference greater than 20%.
4) Typological and structural heterogeneity among
The weight assigned to this parameter is 1.
adjacent buildings:
Based on the above considerations, a new type of
• Class A: −15 points. The building is homoge- form based on fifteen parameters giving rise to a max-
neous with the adjacent buildings from both the imum vulnerability score equal to 515.25 has been
typological and the structural point of view. therefore developed as shown in Figure 5.

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 6 EVALUATION OF RISKS AND THEIR
TREATMENT AND COMMUNICATION
6.1 Quantification of direct and indirect risks
Following the assessment and evaluation of the expo-
sures/hazards, vulnerability and consequences associ-
ated with the system considered for risk assessment,
the ensuing risks then need to be quantified and eval-
uated. For this purpose, the system considered for
the risk assessment is assumed to be exposed to haz-
ardous events (EX ) with probabilistic characterization
p(EXk ), k = 1, nEXP , where nEXP denotes the number of
exposures. It is assumed that there are nCON individ-
ual constituents of the system, each with a discrete
set (can easily be generalized to the continuous case)
of damage states Cij , i = 1, 2..nCON , j = 1, 2..nCi . The
probability of direct consequences cD (Cl ) associated
with the lth of nCSTA possible different state of damage
of all constituents of the facility Cl , conditional on the
exposure event EXk is described by p(Cl |EXk ) and the
associated conditional risk is p(Cl |EX k )cD (Cl ). The
vulnerability of the system is defined as the risk due
to all direct consequences (for all nCON constituents)
and may be assessed through the expected value of
the conditional risk due to direct consequences over
all nEXP possible exposure events and all constituent
damage states nCSTA :
The state of the facility as a system depends on
the state of the constituents. It is assumed that there
is nSSTA possible different system states Sm associ-
ated with indirect consequences cID (Sm , cD (Cl )). The
probability of indirect consequences conditional on a
given state of the constituents Cl , the direct conse-
quences cd (Cl ) and the exposure EXk , is described by
p(Sm |Cl , EXk ). The corresponding conditional risk is
p(Sm |Cl , EXk )cID (Sm , cD (Cl )). The risk due to indirect
consequences is assessed through the expected value
of the indirect consequences in regard to all possible
exposures and constituent states, as:
The robustness of a system is defined as the ability
of a system to limit total consequences to direct conse-
quences. This characteristic may readily be quantified
though the index of robustness IR (Baker et al. 2008):
which allows for a ranking of decisions in regard to
their effect on robustness.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
6.2 Risk treatment
The various possibilities for collecting additional
information in regard to the uncertainties associated
with the understanding of the system performance as
well as for changes the characteristics of the system can
be considered to comprise the total set of options for
risk treatment. The risk treatment options may, in the
context of risk based decision making, be considered
as the available decision alternatives. Risk treatment is
decided upon for the purpose of optimize the expected
utility to be achieved by the decision making. Risk
treatment can be implemented at different levels in the
system representation, namely in regard to the expo-
sure, the vulnerability and the robustness, as shown in
Figure 1.
Considering the risk assessment of a load car-
rying structure, risk treatment by means of knowl-
edge improvement may be performed by collecting
information about the statistical characteristics of the
loading (exposure), the strength characteristics of the
individual components of the structures (vulnerabil-
ity) and by systems reliability of the structural system
(robustness).
Risk treatment through changes of the system char-
acteristics may be achieved by restricting the use of
the structure (exposure), by strengthening the compo-
nents of the structure (vulnerability) and by increasing
the redundancy of the structural system (robustness).
6.3 Risk acceptance and life quality index
In addition to risks due to economic losses, the deci-
sion maker has to take into account also the risks to
individuals as well as potential damages to qualities
of the environment. It is hence useful to differenti-
ate between tangible and intangible risks, i.e. risks
which may easily be expressed in monetary terms and
risks which are not. Intangible values especially con-
cern loss of lives and injuries and also qualities of the
environment.
The Life Quality Index (LQI) is a measure that facil-
itates the development of risk acceptance criteria for
intangible risks (Nathwani et al. 1997). It is based on
demographical indicators that include the incremental
increase in life expectancy through risk reduction, the
corresponding loss of economic resources, measured
through the Gross National Product (GNP) together
with the time used for work, all assessed for a statistical
life in a given society. The underlying idea of the LQI
is to model the preferences of a society quantitatively
as a scalar valued social indicator, comprised by a rela-
tionship between the GDP per capita, the expected life
at birth and the proportion of life spend for earning at
living.
6.4 Risk perception and communication
Different individuals in society perceive risks differ-
ently, depending on their own situation in terms of to
what degree they may be affected by the exposures, to
what degree they are able to influence the risks and
to what degree the risks are voluntary. Generally risks
are perceived more negatively when stake holders feel
more exposed, when they feel they have no influence
and they feel they are exposed to risks involuntary.
Another aspect is related to how adverse events are
perceived by individuals and groups of individuals in
society when and after such events take place. Again,
this depends on the perspective of the affected indi-
viduals and groups of individuals. Furthermore, the
occurrence of adverse events and the way the infor-
mation about such events is made available will affect
the perception of risks in general but also in many
cases trigger actions which have no rational basis and
only adds to the societal consequences of such event.
Due to the effects of the perception of risk, it is gen-
erally observed that different individuals and groups
of individuals have different attitudes in regard to what
risks can be accepted. Risk averse and risk prone atti-
tudes are observed, which simply refers to the effect
that risks are assigned different tastes depending on
these characteristics. Whereas such behavior is a pri-
vate matter for individuals of society, it leads to an
uneven distribution of risks, if exercised in the context
of societal decision making and this is clearly unethical
and not rational.
The perception of risks may be significantly influ-
enced by information about the risks themselves.
Information can and should be used as a targeted
means of reducing potential losses caused by reactions
to events beyond what is rational, seen in the perspec-
tive of normative decision making. Being provided
with transparent information in regard to the nature
of exposures, possible precautionary actions, informa-
tion on how risks are being managed and the societal
consequences of irrational behavior reduces uncer-
tainties associated with the understanding of risks of
individuals. This, in turn, adds to rational behavior and
thereby reduces follow-up consequences.
7 CONCLUSIONS
A framework for risk based decision making in the
field of engineering is first described. This frame-
work is general enough to accommodate for the special
needs of different application areas but at the same
time specific enough to ensure a sufficient degree of
consistency in modeling and theoretical basis. Towards
application of this framework for the risk assessment
of volcanic hazards, aspects related to the modeling of
the hazard process due to volcanoes are then discussed.
A system of classification of structures and identifi-
cation of different building characteristics that could
be used for volcanic vulnerability and risk assessment
is then proposed. This is followed by a discussion on
the fragility and vulnerability modeling of structures
relevant for seismic analysis.
This paper can be hence seen as a preliminary ver-
sion of a guideline document for the assessment and
management of risks due to volcanic hazards. Further
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
work is required, especially in the assessment and eval-
uation of consequences and risk treatment measures
for volcanic hazards.
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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Structural vulnerability assessment under natural hazards: A review

D. Vamvatsikos
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Cyprus, Cyprus

L.A. Kouris, G. Panagopoulos & A.J. Kappos

Department of Civil Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

E. Nigro
D.I.ST., Department of Structural Engineering , University of Naples Federico II, Italy

T. Rossetto & T.O. Lloyd

Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London, UK

T. Stathopoulos
Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, Canada

ABSTRACT: The state of the art is presented in the field of structural vulnerability assessment under earth-
quake, landslide, tsunami and wind hazards. We seek common avenues of research and points of contact among
the existing philosophies used in these four different fields in the context of multi-hazard assessment frameworks.
In essence, this is a step towards the identification of a common underlying structure between different fields
that will allow the future unification of vulnerability methodologies under a single framework.

1 INTRODUCTION follow we will present a review of existing method-

Structural vulnerability and associated methodolo-
gies for its assessment have been identified as a key
research field in structural engineering. Vulnerability
itself can be defined in multiple ways and it can be
evaluated using widely different formats that are typ-
ically inconsistent with each other, especially when
considering different hazards. For example, it can be
defined either deterministically or probabilistically, it
can be based on the concept of one or more limit-
states or performance levels and it can be evaluated
using static or dynamic methods including or ignoring
aleatory randomness and epistemic uncertainty.
Thus, at least for frequent actions from well under-
stood hazards such as wind, fire or snow, there are
several methods to estimate it, some complex and other
simplified, some of which are deeply entrenched in the
professional practice, forming a cornerstone of past,
current and forthcoming design codes and guidelines.
On the other hand, infrequent actions from extreme
natural hazards, such as floods, hurricanes, volcanoes,
avalanches, tsunamis and earthquakes are often less
well understood and researching methodologies for
their assessment is an ongoing project. With the emer-
gence of multi-hazard assessment concepts, it is now
important to collectively discuss such methods, under-
stand their merits and attempt to cast them in a format
that is suitable for integration within a single practical
assessment framework. Therefore, in the sections to
ologies for structural vulnerability assessment under
earthquake, tsunami and wind actions.
2 SEISMIC VULNERABILITY
2.1 General
Seismic vulnerability can be defined as the degree
of loss to a given element at risk (e.g. buildings)
resulting from the occurrence of an earthquake event
(Coburn & Spence, 2002). The reliable estimation of
the economic, as well as human, losses incurred by
an earthquake is a necessity for the development of
seismic risk scenarios which are now widely accepted
as an essential tool for seismic risk management and
for prioritizing the pre-earthquake strengthening of the
built environment (e.g. Bal et al., 2008; Kappos et al.,
2008; Lang & Bachmann 2004; Strasser et al., 2008).
2.2 Classification of the building stock
With regard to the scope of a vulnerability study,
an approach using detailed assessment of individual
buildings or a coarser one utilizing appropriate clas-
sification of building populations may be adopted.
The first one is usually tailored to buildings of great
significance, such as monumental or important (e.g.
hospitals) public buildings, while the latter is more
suitable for risk scenarios in a greater urban area.

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 The vulnerability of monumental masonry build-
ings with unique historical value and a very limited
population in every urban area is commonly estimated
for every single monumental structure since there
are some difficulties beyond the usual ones such as
long history (which involves multiple phases of con-
struction, repairs, alterations etc.), degradation of the
materials, strong limitations in the experimental inves-
tigation of the strength of the materials etc. Methods
involving statistical data with structural damage from
past earthquakes are insufficient in this case. Thus, the
vulnerability is individually estimated using detailed
(Rota et al., 2005) or more simplified (Augusti et
al., 2001; Lagomarsino 2006; Lagomarsino & Podestà
2004a,b; Valluzzi 2007) models.
For the vulnerability assessment of ordinary build-
ing populations several classification methods have
been proposed, taking into account characteristics
that affect their seismic performance, such as the
construction material (i.e. concrete, steel, brick or
stone masonry, etc.), the level of seismic design and
detailing, the building height, the configuration of
infill panels etc. Various sets of building classifi-
cations have been proposed in the literature, as a
result of the different construction practices applied
in each country. An effort to introduce a classifi-
cation scheme that establishes a common basis for
vulnerability studies in Europe has been made within
the framework of the project Risk-UE (Kappos et al.
2006, 2008, Lagomarsino & Giovinazzi 2006), in
a similar fashion that HAZUS (FEMA-NIBS 2003)
classification is currently considered as a reference for
North America.
2.3 Damage definition
The choice of a damage scale for the assessment of
buildings is fundamental to the definition of vulner-
ability functions. From the simple Green-Yellow-Red
characterization to more refined damage state defini-
tions, a wide variety of damage state sets has been
proposed in order to describe damage levels from neg-
ligible damage up to collapse of the structure (ATC-
13; FEMA-NIBS 2003; FEMA 273/356; SEAOC
1995; EMS-98, etc.). Comparisons between several
approaches have been presented by Hill & Rossetto
(2008), along with the proposal of a homogenized
scale for R/C buildings (Rossetto & Elnashai 2003).
Each damage state can be defined in terms of
structural and non-structural damage, as well as in
economic or loss terms such as the ratio of repair
cost to replacement cost (Kappos et al., 2006). Dam-
age state descriptions can be different for various
building classes since damage evolves at varying
rates in structures with different characteristics (i.e.
R/C and masonry buildings). Furthermore, economic
approaches introduce a time and location depen-
dency that can limit the scale application and lead
to erroneous physical damage predictions (Miyakoshi
et al., 1997), especially if used in absolute, instead of
normalised terms.
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2.4 Ground motion characterisation
The choice of a ground motion parameter that repre-
sents the seismic demand is crucial for the vulnera-
bility assessment of buildings. Mercalli-type intensity
based approaches (e.g. ATC-13) can be misleading
since it is a rather subjective quantity, associated with
a great amount of uncertainties, that is also dependant
on the performance of the building stock. Neverthe-
less, the fact that the limited available damage data (see
next section) is usually associated with intensity lev-
els leads to the need of incorporating them into many
vulnerability assessment procedures.
Direct ground motion quantities such as PGA or
PGV can be utilized (Kappos et al., 2006, 2010;
Boatwright et al., 2001) or even spectral quantities like
Sd (HAZUS) or Sa (Singhal & Kiremidjian, 1996) to
account for the frequency content of seismic motion.
An extensive investigation on the correlation of build-
ing performance with recorded ground motion and the
subsequent development of empirical motion-damage
relationships in the form of lognormal fragility curves
has been carried out by King et al. (2005).
2.5 Vulnerability functions
While for individual buildings the capacity curves
(derived from inelastic pushover analyses) seem to
be convenient for the description of their seismic per-
formance, for populations of buildings a probabilistic
approach is usually adopted. The building stock of
an urban area is classified in a limited number of
categories (classes) with, approximately, equal vul-
nerability (see section 2.2). Each class is related to
a cluster of vulnerability (fragility) curves, or equiva-
lently to a damage probability matrix (DPM). Vulner-
ability curves relate, for a predefined damage degree,
the severity of the seismic motion with the probability
that the damage suffered by the structure will exceed
this specific damage degree. Similarly, each term of a
DPM represents the probability that a building class
suffers a certain degree of damage (e.g. light, moder-
ate, severe, collapse), when struck by an earthquake of
a predefined severity level (the macroseismic intensity
is usually utilized herein).
Existing vulnerability curves can be classified
into the four generic groups of empirical, judgmen-
tal, analytical, and hybrid, according to whether the
damage data used in their generation stems mainly
from observed post-earthquake surveys, expert opin-
ion, analytical simulations, or combinations of these
(Rossetto & Elnashai 2003).
2.5.1 Empirical approach
The construction of empirical vulnerability curves (or
the corresponding DPM’s) requires available statisti-
cal damage data reported in post-earthquake surveys
from previous seismic events (Rota et al. 2008; Spence
et al., 2008). The observational source, when avail-
able, is the most realistic as all practical details of
the exposed stock are taken into consideration along-
side soil–structure interaction effects, topography, site,
path and source characteristics (Rossetto & Elnashai
2003).
The most common problem when applying a purely
empirical approach is the unavailability of (sufficient
and reliable) statistical data for several intensities.
By definition, Modified Mercalli Intensities up to
five lead to negligible damage, particularly cost-wise,
therefore gathering of damage data is not feasible,
while, on the other hand, events with intensities greater
than nine are rare, especially in Europe, so there are
not enough data available. This unavailability leads to
a relative abundance of statistical data in the inten-
sity range from 6 to 8 and a lack of data for the other
intensities, making difficult the selection of an appro-
priate cumulative distribution, since the curve fit error
is significant and the curve shape not as expected. The
absence of available data necessitates recourse to other
procedures such as expert judgement (Fäh et al. 2001;
Oliveira 2008). A convenient but sometimes mislead-
ing approach of adopting data from different regions
with similar construction practices should be treated
with caution.A good example of the problems involved
in adopting models from another country is outlined
in the paper by Barbat et al. (1996) who had to adapt
the vulnerability models developed for Italian masonry
buildings to study the ones in Barcelona
2.5.2 Judgement-based and rating methods
The concept of judgement-based methods involves use
of the opinions of expert panels of engineers with
experience in earthquake engineering who are asked
to make estimates of the likely damage distribution
within building populations when subjected to earth-
quakes of different intensities. Although the reliability
of such methods can be questionable due to the sub-
jectivity of each expert engineer, these methods were
used as the predominant source in the United States
for the generation of damage probability matrices and
vulnerability curves (ATC-13).
Rating methods adopt the idea that experienced
engineers fill in special questionnaires, which include
structural characteristics of the buildings that affect
their seismic vulnerability. The final outcome of these
methods is typically a vulnerability index. The mag-
nitude of this index represents the building capacity
against earthquake. Sometimes, for the derivation of
the rating, analytical procedures are also needed, hence
the entire procedure can be classified as hybrid.
A very detailed method for masonry buildings was
developed by the GNDT (1989) (see also Benedetti et
al., 1988; Casciati et al., 1994). The GNDT method
includes the filling of two forms: at level 1 collection,
building by building, of some informative elements;
at level 2 qualitative and quantitative aspects referring
to the configuration, foundation type, material quality
etc. are scored (in four classes) and lead to the vulner-
ability index. Modification of this methodology has
been developed for the application in other types of
masonry buildings (Gent Franch et al., 2008). These
methodologies have been applied for the estimation
of the expected building damage for a deterministic
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hazard in several urban centres (Cole, Xu, & Burton
2008; Grant et al., 2007; Faccioli et al., 1999).
2.5.3 Analytical approach
Analytical vulnerability curves adopt damage distribu-
tions simulated from the analyses of structural models
under increasing earthquake loads. The analytical pro-
cedure followed ranges in complexity from the elastic
analysis of equivalent single-degree-of-freedom sys-
tems (Mosalam et al. 1997) to inelastic pushover
analysis (HAZUS), or non-linear time history anal-
yses, of realistic models of reinforced concrete (R/C)
structures, mostly in 2D (Singhal & Kiremidjian 1997,
Masi 1998, 2006), to reduce the cost of analysis. Sev-
eral analysis-based curves have also been proposed
for the vulnerability assessment of masonry buildings
(Barbat et al. 2008; Borzi et al. 2008; Erberik 2008a,b;
Lang 2002; Lang & Bachmann 2003; Park et al. 2009).
Significant work has recently appeared in codified
documents on the analytical estimation of vulnera-
bility or fragility of buildings and bridges, based on
nonlinear analysis methods. For example, ASCE/SEI
41 (2007) and Eurocode 8 (2004) offer a compre-
hensive methodology based on the static pushover
method. On the other hand, the SAC/ FEMA-350
(2000) guidelines propose the use of nonlinear time-
history analyses, encompassing the use of incremental
dynamic analysis (IDA, Vamvatsikos & Cornell 2002)
for the assessment of seismic demand and capacity.
Purely analytical approaches should, in principle,
be avoided, since they might seriously diverge from
reality, typically (but not consistently) overestimat-
ing the cost of damage (Kappos 2001). Analytical
methods should be supported by experimental results
in order to increase their reliability (Ruiz-García &
Negrete 2009).
2.5.4 Hybrid approach
Hybrid vulnerability curves attempt to compensate
for the scarcity of observational data, subjectivity of
judgemental data and modelling deficiencies of ana-
lytical procedures, by combining data from different
sources.
Kappos and his co-workers have developed over the
previous years a hybrid methodology that combines
statistical data with appropriately processed results
(utilising repair-cost models) from nonlinear dynamic
or static analyses, which permit interpolation and
(under certain conditions) extrapolation of statisti-
cal data to PGAs and/or spectral displacements for
which no data is available (Kappos et al., 1998, 2006,
2010). An extensive set of 54 building classes for R/C
and 4 unreinforced masonry (URM) building classes
has been analysed, representing most of the common
typologies in S. Europe.
All statistical data are from earthquakes that struck
Greece in the past few decades. The analytical part
of the procedure differs with regard to the struc-
tural material, since for URM buildings only pushover
analyses have been utilized, while for R/C build-
ings both incremental inelastic dynamic (for 16 dully
 Figure 1. Fragility curves in terms of PGA for low code,
medium rise, regularly infilled R/C buildings with dual
system.
selected accelerograms) and static analyses have been
tackled. Vulnerability curves are derived in terms of
peak ground acceleration or spectral displacement. A
lognormal distribution was assumed for constructing
fragility curves for each class (common assump-
tion in seismic fragility studies). Median values for
each damage state in the R/C fragility curves were
estimated based on the plot of the damage index
(defined as the ratio of repair cost to replacement
cost) against a function of the earthquake intensity
(PGA) through incremental dynamic analysis, until
collapse. These plots are then corrected using the cor-
responding available statistical data and appropriate
empirical weighting factors based on the reliability of
the statistical data (Kappos & Panagopoulos 2010).
Fig. 1 shows a complete set of fragility curves (for 5
damage states) for old, medium-rise, R/C buildings
with dual (wall+frame) system, without significant
discontinuities in the arrangement of masonry infills.
The hybrid approach for vulnerability assessment
of masonry buildings combines statistical data with
appropriately processed results from nonlinear static
analyses. The statistical data used for masonry build-
ings were from Greek earthquakes, i.e. the Thessa-
loniki 1978 and the Aegion 1995 events, with some
additional data from the Pyrgos 1993 earthquake used
for comparison (Penelis, Kappos & Stylianidis 2003).
Non-linear analysis of masonry buildings is gener-
ally more cumbersome than that of R/C ones. A
simplified equivalent frame model with concentrated
non-linearity at the ends of the structural elements
can be used for the non-linear static analysis of
masonry buildings (Penelis 2006; Borzi, Crowley, &
Pinho 2008). The damage (limit) states can be defined
according to a drift-based damage index (Calvi 1999).
An alternative definition, more suitable when pushover
curves have been derived for the building classes stud-
ied, is to express the damage states as a function of
the yield and the ultimate displacement of each build-
ing (Penelis et al., 2003). However, statistical data
are not available in such terms; as said previously,
in Greece statistics were available in terms of the
economic damage index (ratio of repair to replace-
ment cost). Hence, a correlation between the two sets
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 2. Fragility curves for single-storey stone-masonry
buildings.
of definitions is necessary for applying the hybrid
approach, as proposed in Penelis et al. (2003) and
Kappos (2007).
Fragility curves for URM buildings can be derived
either in terms of PGA (as in Fig. 2) or of Sd ; in the
hybrid procedure these values are inevitably based on
the spectra of the specific ground motions recorded
in the (broader) areas wherein damage statistics are
available. It is noted that the Sd -based procedure is
more sensitive to the type of ‘representative’ spectra
selected for each earthquake intensity.
An earthquake loss scenario for contemporary and
historical buildings in Thessaloniki has been devel-
oped by the AUTh group (Kappos et al. 2007; Kappos,
Panagopoulos & Penelis 2008) using the aforemen-
tioned methodology.
2.6 Epistemic uncertainty
Epistemic uncertainties stem from the incomplete
knowledge of the actual problem and its parameters,
or simply from the, often unavoidable, modelling and
methodology errors. The estimation of the seismic vul-
nerability under the influence of such uncertainties
has been recognized as an important constituent of
the structural design and analysis process, as exem-
plified, at least qualitatively, by the SAC/ FEMA-350
guidelines (FEMA, 2000). Nevertheless, only recently
have we seen actual attempts to quantify this effect
for realistic structural models in a way that is con-
sistent with current performance-based earthquake
engineering frameworks.
Such studies include mainly the work of Dolsek
(2008), Liel et al. (2009) and Vamvatsikos &
Fragiadakis (2010) who propose methods to account
for the uncertainty in modelling parameters and its
effect on the estimated structural fragility using Monte
Carlo techniques on incremental dynamic analysis.
However, such methodologies remain computation-
ally intensive and often difficult to apply for prac-
tical purposes. As a partial remedy, Fragiadakis &
Vamvatsikos (2010) have offered a simplified process
based on the static pushover and the SPO2IDA tool
(Vamvatsikos & Cornell 2005) that manages at least
two orders of magnitude reduction in the processing

Figure 3. 200 realizations of static pushover capacity curves
for a two story masonry building, caused by epistemic
uncertainty (Vamvatsikos & Pantazopoulou 2010).
load at an insignificant loss of accuracy for first-
mode dominated buildings. Finally, on the same track,
Vamvatsikos & Pantazopoulou (2010) have recently
applied such efficient techniques for the simplified
evaluation of the seismic vulnerability of groups of
masonry structures, typical of historical city cores.
Nevertheless, there is still considerable room for
refinement in this area, and future developments will
play a major role in the new generation of seismic
guidelines.
3 VULNERABILITY TO LANDSLIDES AND
FLOWSLIDES
Flowslides and debris flows can be considered as one
of the most dangerous slope movements for their capa-
bility to produce casualties and remarkable economic
damage. Such phenomena are widespread in many
countries and involve different kind of soils, gener-
ally in a loose state, which in the post failure stage
collapse and rapidly reach the toe of the slope; the
initial mobilised mass often increases during its path
downslope either by inducing additional slope failure
and/or by eroding the stable in place soils (Cascini
et al., 2003).
Significant examples of this type of slope move-
ments have occurred in several areas of the world. For
example, those periodically occurring in the Campa-
nia Region (South Italy) triggered by critical rainfall
events. They involve unsaturated pyroclastic soils –
originated by the explosive phases of the Somma-
Vesuvius volcano – which mantle the limestone and
tuffaceous slopes over an area of about 3000 km2 .
In this area, there are more than 200 towns that
frequently suffer from flowslides, as pointed out by
historical data acquired over a period from the 16th
century up to the present (Cascini & Ferlisi, 2003). One
of the worst events occurred on May 5–6, 1998, when
159 casualties and serious damages were recorded in
four towns (Bracigliano, Quindici, Sarno and Siano)
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located at the toe of the Pizzo d’Alvano relief. Dur-
ing the quoted hydrogeological disaster of 1998 in
the Campania Region, numerous flowslides due to
the detachment of the pyroclastic deposits from the
calcareous massif of “Pizzo d’Alvano” impacted the
structures which were located near incisions and
valleys, determining wide-spread damage.
The following paragraphs contain the description
and the assessment models concerning the effects of
the dynamic impact of the flowslide on structures, gen-
erally buildings, with special care taken of structural
resistance and/or vulnerability.
3.1 Damage and collapse mechanisms
The surveys and the analysis of building damage dur-
ing the quoted hydrogeological disaster of 1998 in
the Campania Region, realised immediately after the
event, allow us to better understand the impact of
debris flows on structures and their collapse mecha-
nisms and allow an evaluation of the impact velocity of
the flows on the structures (Faella & Nigro, 2003a,b).
The effects of the debris flow impact are sig-
nificantly different depending on the following
parameters:
– position of the structure with reference to the impact
direction (Figure 4);
– level of kinetic energy of the debris flow, related to
its velocity;
– structural typology (reinforced-concrete or masonry
buildings, structural or non-structural members).
On the basis of the analysis of the structural and non-
structural damages in the buildings impacted by the
debris flows, it is possible to derive the following syn-
thesis (see Faella & Nigro, 2003a), referring to the
main collapse mechanisms (Figures 5–6):
– Reinforced concrete framed buildings:
A) Collapse of the ground floor external walls,
directly impacted by the flows, without signif-
icant damage to the structural parts (columns
and beams);
B) Serious damage or collapse of single structural
elements, generally columns, without collapse
of the whole structure, but with formation of
plastic hinges at the ends and/or in the midspan
of the columns;
C) Serious damage and/or collapse of the struc-
ture, with formation of floor mechanism (plastic
hinges at the top and bottom of the column);
D) Translation of part of the building as a con-
sequence of the collapse of the ground floor
bearing structures.
– Masonry buildings:
E) Serious damage and/or collapse of bearings
walls at ground floor, directly impacted by
flows, without collapse of the overall building;
F) Serious damage and/or collapse of the overall
building.
 Figure 5a,b. R.C. structures: (a) Plastic collapse mechanism
of columns; (b) Failure of corner column.

Figure 4. Position of the structure with reference to the

impact direction of the flowslide.

The described types of damages may be interpreted

by means of appropriate collapse mechanisms in order
to assess the bearing capacity at the ultimate limit state
of elements or of the overall structure and, with further-
more considerations of hydrostatic and hydrodynamic,
also an approximate evaluation of the impact velocity
of the debris flows.

3.2 Vulnerability assessment of structures

subjected to flowslides
The analysis and the interpretation of the structural and
non-structural damages in the buildings impacted by
the debris flows point out some types of collapse mech-
anisms for reinforced concrete and masonry buildings,
described in the previous paragraphs.
The described damage types can be interpreted by Figure 6a,b. (a) Masonry building impacted by debris flows;
means of appropriate collapse mechanisms, which (b) Residual parts of masonry buildings.

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Table 1. Collapse resistant models for assessment of rein-
forced concrete buildings.
allow us to assess the ultimate bearing capacity of
members or of the overall structure. The comparison
between the ultimate bearing capacity and hydrostatic
and hydrodynamic thrusts due to the flow impact on
the structures allows assessment of the impact velocity
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Table 1. Continued
Table 2. Collapse resistant model for assessment of
masonry buildings.
which determines the collapse of the member or the
structure. In the hydrodynamic models the hypothe-
sis of a fluid stream of constant density is assumed,
neglecting the possible presence of mass concentra-
tion (for instance trees, rocks and other transported
material).
InTable 1 andTable 2 the mechanical models related
to the main collapse mechanisms and the analyti-
cal formulations to evaluate the corresponding impact
velocities are summarised with reference to reinforced
concrete and masonry structures, respectively. More
details can be found in Faella & Nigro (2003b).
It is important, to point out the uncertainties in
both of the hydrodynamic and structural models. In
 the hydrodynamic models, the direction of the debris
flow has to be assumed on the basis of the position
of the structure, considering with approximate formu-
lations the influence of the impacted member shape;
moreover, the height of the debris flows is generally
assumed equal to the first floor height on the basis of
the surveys of the real cases. In the structural mod-
els, the approximations refer to the material strength
and the evaluation of the internal forces due to vertical
loads. Nevertheless, the whole approximations do not
invalidate the results of the assessing models, due to
the moderate influence of the different parameters of
uncertainty.
3.3 Application of the models for vulnerability of
structures subjected to flowslides
The models described in the previous paragraph are
now applied to some significant buildings, selected
between those surveyed in the post-event of the quoted
hydrogeological disaster of 1998 in the Campania
Region, with the purpose to assess the debris flow
impact velocity on the basis of the surveyed damages.
In some cases it is possible only to deduce a lower
bound of the velocity, as for instance in the case of
masonry walls destroyed by the debris flow and in the
case of global collapse of the building. In other cases,
instead, the range which contains the probable impact
velocity can be evaluated: this is possible, for instance,
when the debris flow has destroyed the external walls
of a reinforced concrete building without the failure
of the ground-floor columns, or when some impacted
columns have collapsed and others have withstood the
impact due to their greater bearing capacity. (the last
one is the case of Figure 5).
In the application of the interpretative models
described in the previous paragraph it is assumed
that the specific weight of the fluid is equal to
γ = 14.00 kN/m3 (density ρ = 1427.1 kg/m3 ). The
complete results in terms of debris flow impact veloc-
ity are reported in Faella & Nigro (2003b).The analysis
of the results allows some interesting remarks:
– The collapse of masonry buildings impacted by
debris flows occurs in the presence of relatively
low velocities (approximately lower than 5 ÷ 6 m/s);
in some cases, moreover, only hydrostatic thrust is
enough to determine the collapse.
– The collapse of external walls in reinforced con-
crete buildings occur for very low velocities (about
3 m/s).
– Reinforced concrete buildings completely impacted
by debris flows exhibit intermediate values of col-
lapse velocity (about 10 m/s); in this case the
collapse model is interpreted by the two-plastic-
hinges mechanism (see type-C mechanism in
Table 1), related to the formation of storey-failure-
mechanism at the ground floor.
– In the case of reinforced concrete buildings only
partially impacted by debris flow, instead, the fail-
ure of single columns may occur; the corresponding
velocities are greater than the previous cases (within
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the range 15 ÷ 20 m/s), due to the most favourable
three-plastic-hinges failure mechanism (see type-B
mechanism – Table 1).
– Obviously, the obtained results are related to the
examined building types, characterised by two or
three-floors buildings; if the number of floors
increases, the collapse velocity also increases both
for masonry and reinforced concrete buildings: in
the first case, the resistance capacity of the ground-
floor walls increases thanks to the increments of
the acting vertical load and the wall thickness; in
the second case, the geometric dimensions of the
ground floor columns and the corresponding axial
forces increase, determining the increment of the
ultimate bending moments.
Finally, the main topic of this subsection is to inves-
tigate the possible effects of flowslides on the urban
areas exposed to such risks, e.g., the urban areas
around the Vesuvius. With this aim, mechanical mod-
els deduced utilizing also hydrodynamic concepts are
introduced; the models are capable of interpreting the
effects of the landslide impact on structures and the
collapse mechanisms of various types of structures.
The application of these models to building types
representative of the urban areas around the Vesu-
vius allow us to estimate their vulnerability against
the expected landslide events, providing some useful
information concerning the risk mitigation.
4 TSUNAMI VULNERABILITY
Vulnerability analysis is a concept still in it’s infancy
for tsunami hazard assessment. It is fraught with issues
due to scarcity of events, which result in lack of
knowledge on their behaviour in the near and onshore
regions. Due to their rarity, observational damage data
required for the generation of vulnerability curves is
insufficient. Nevertheless, the potential value of such
vulnerability curves has meant several researchers
have tried to derive vulnerability functions based on
particular events using data from damage surveys
(e.g. Peiris 2006, Ruangrassamee et al., 2006 and
Reese et al., 2007). These empirical vulnerability func-
tions are based on few data points and due to the
nature of recent tsunami events encompass only certain
types of non-engineered buildings (generally low-rise
masonry). Koshimura et al. (2009) have attempted
to improve their sample of damage data through the
interpretation of building damage from pre- and post-
tsunami satellite imagery. Although this does produce
a larger sample size, only the damage state of collapse
can really be identified from the satellite imagery.
Also, structure type cannot be discerned from the roof
type and hence all buildings are considered together.
Assets that play a key role in the response to dis-
aster like tsunami are often elements of the transport
infrastructure. A functional road network is essential
for rapid evacuation, the deployment of medical sup-
plies and movement of injured persons. Serviceable
routes for transportation continue to be vital during the
recovery stage for the management of reconstruction.
However, though there are limited studies regarding
vulnerability of structures, even fewer exists for the
assessment of the often critical bridges in transport
infrastructure. Shoji & Moriyama (2007) examined the
vulnerability of bridge structures in Indonesia and Sri
Lanka following the Boxing Day 2004 Indian Ocean
tsunami. 60 data from Sri Lanka and 27 from Indonesia
(collected by the JSCE) were used to derive vulnerabil-
ity curves using inundation height only as the severity
parameter. Differences in vulnerability were found
between the two locations and also between bridge
construction types, though the data was limited in
quantity. Similar studies and damage data collection
for future events would be advantageous to this type
of work.
All existing empirical vulnerability functions for
tsunami adopt inundation depth as the parameter
describing tsunami flow intensity, as this is one of the
only measurable parameters of tsunami onshore flow
that can be obtained in the field following an event (e.g.
through observation of water level marks on the sides
of buildings). Most tsunami design codes, where they
exist (FEMA 2008, Okada et al 2005), predominantly
use inundation heights to derive maximum forces for
design, so this is a reasonable parameter to link to
vulnerability. However, it should be noted that design
formulae for pressures and forces are also dependant
on velocity, so height of water alone may not be the
sole parameter that should be considered. Unfortu-
nately readings of tsunami velocities are almost always
not available. Discrepancies in the determination of
these forces also exist between various design guides
from around the world. Koshimura et al. (2009) adopt
a numerical model to simulate the onshore flow of the
Indian Ocean Tsunami in Banda Aceh. The numeri-
cal model is based on non-linear shallow water wave
equations and the presence of structures is accounted
for as an additional roughness term. This numeri-
cal model is shown to provide reasonable inundation
depths but unrealistic flow velocities. This observa-
tion is common to most commercial numerical models
for onshore flow estimation, with none being able to
account for the complex interaction between the water,
buildings, sediments etc. Hence, the derivation of vul-
nerability functions is hindered significantly by a lack
of appropriate numerical models, and the development
of the latter is hampered by the scarcity of field data
for their calibration and validation. This also causes
a significant problem for the development of meth-
ods for the assessment of individual structures for
tsunami actions.
Codes and guidance is an ongoing area of research.
Where they exist, the prescriptive steps to assessing a
structure in terms of its tsunami vulnerability is not
usually dealt with, rather pointers as to what anal-
ysis is needed are given. Some codes give example
calculations for certain types of force (FEMA 2005),
but significant engineering judgment is required for
all such designs. An issue with the force calculations
present in codes is the data they are based upon. Actual
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measurements from tsunami in the ocean have been
limited to tide gauge data (elevations) which often get
drowned out and are subject alteration of the wave
due to interactions with the continental shelf. Tsunami
buoys and bottom pressure sensors have been deployed
in an attempt to acquire readings in this area for the val-
idation of numerical models.This data while extremely
useful for offshore modeling bears very little corre-
lation with what actually happens in the near shore
region, and inundation zone. Unfortunately there is
no such data recording forces on structures and what
information is available is due to physical scale mod-
els. Wave modeling until recently has been entirely
conducted using piston-type wave generators which
have limited stroke length, so the wave length of the
generated wave is a limiting factor to the generation
of realistic tsunami waves. To address this problem a
novel pneumatic system of wave generation has been
developed (Lloyd et al., 2009, Rossetto et al. 2010). In
2008–9 large-scale tests were carried out in a flume in
HR Wallingford in the UK specifically to look at near
shore and onshore processes. In these experiments,
velocity, pressure and force measurements of waves on
model building structures have been determined and a
better understanding of tsunami forces will be gained
enabling better vulnerability analysis in the future.
Physical modeling undoubtedly still has a large role
in better understanding tsunami and developing better
design codes to deal with them.
5 VULNERABILITY TO STRONG WIND
EVENTS — HURRICANES
Existing studies on the vulnerability of structures to
extreme wind events are generally classified as deal-
ing with (a) damage assessment, (b) field examinations
of wind-structure interaction and (c) hurricane risk
assessment from the insurance perspective. We will
discuss each of these categories in the pages to follow.
5.1 Damage assessment
Research in this area mostly deals with observed dam-
age from extreme wind events. The main objectives
are to correlate building damage intensity to measured
wind speeds and to examine building performance for
those cases where wind speeds were close to building
code values.A good example is the work of Mehta et al.
(1983). Therein, buildings were grouped in various
categories:
– Fully engineered buildings, which performed well,
even for wind speeds above the code-specified
values. Limited damage was observed on roofing
material and façade.
– Pre-engineered buildings suffered from structural
framing damage for wind speeds close to, or over,
the code-suggested values. Weak links (e.g. over-
head door) were identified in such structures and
held responsible for progressive damage.
 – Marginally engineered buildings, which were
affected significantly at all wind speed regimes.
– Non-engineered buildings, which were severely
damaged when wind speed reached the code-
specified values.
Furthermore, wind-induced damage can be classified
to structural (lack of uplift load path, roof sheath-
ing loss at corners and gable end wall loss) and
non-structural (loss of roof shingles and vinyl siding,
vulnerability of soffits, breach through attic vents and
better performance of hip roofs over gable roofs) – see
Van de Lindt et al. (2007). The concept of wind load
path has been also used and discussed by Stathopoulos
et al. (2008).
5.2 Field studies of wind-structure interaction
This category deals with the effect of wind-structure
interaction, which can be very important for groups of
buildings, where the wind force acting on each build-
ing is heavily influenced by the nearby structures that
may be shielding it or channeling the wind. Typical
studies of this type include the following:
– National Bureau of Standards (Marshall 1975)
– Aylesbury Experiment (Eaton & Mayne 1975)
– Texas Tech University Project – WERFL (Levitan
et al. 1990)
– Silsoe Structure – BRE (Robertson & Glass, 1988)
– Southern Shores Project (Caracoglia & Jones 2004)
– Florida Coastal Monitoring Project – FCMP (Datin
et al., 2006)
– Load Paths on Wood Buildings and Engineer-
ing Design of Low-Rise Wood Buildings Projects
(Doudak 2005 and Zisis 2007)
– International Hurricane Research Center and
Florida International University (Leatherman et al.
2007)
– Insurance Research Lab for Better Housing (Bartlett
et al. 2007).
5.3 Hurricane risk assessment
Within the context of insurance and risk modeling,
it has become important to estimate the risk faced by
structures, especially in the catastrophic event of a hur-
ricane. Friedman (1984) has discussed the Risk related
information related to hurricane events in the con-
text of defining risk assessment models to be used for
insurance purposes. Furthermore, he has dealt with the
loss-producing potential of a structure influenced by
various factors, among which is vulnerability, and also
with wind speed-damage models used by insurance
companies
Berz & Smolka (1988) attempted to carry out risk
assessment and rating, which involve not only detailed
weather data but information regarding local design
and construction practices. Khanduri & Morrow
(2002) discussed vulnerability assessment of build-
ings to strong wind events. Their effort was mainly
focused on refining the “general” vulnerability mod-
els by specific and detailed models related to factors
720
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
such as different building types, occupancy, construc-
tion material, height etc. Finally, Stewart (2003) offers
a discussion about building vulnerability models for
hurricane/cyclone events, especially on the effect of
vulnerability variations (e.g. retrofitting, enhancement
of building standards etc) on existing models.
6 CONCLUSIONS
Although we have only briefly touched upon a number
of difficult problems, it appears that there is a common
structure underlying the estimation of seismic, land-
slide, tsunami and wind vulnerability of structures.
There is a significant focus on the use of empiri-
cal data from historical events while there are many
efforts underway to provide powerful analytical tools
to assess vulnerability at various scales, ranging from
a single building up to an entire city. This is espe-
cially true for the more mature fields of seismic and
wind research were abundant data and methodologies
are available. On the other hand, comparative research
efforts in landslide and tsunami modeling are still
under way but on the right path to catch up eventu-
ally. In summary, it seems that the proper groundwork
already exists for preparing a common framework for
vulnerability assessment in all four areas, and it is
expected that future research will lead towards this
promising direction.
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Seismic impact scenarios in the volcanic areas in Campania

G. Zuccaro & F. Cacace

PLINIVS Study Centre, University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

ABSTRACT: The evaluation of the damage scenarios consequent the seismic activity during the unrest phase
preceding a possible volcanic eruption represents an important document for the preparedness action of the Civil
Protection. The goal to pursue is to avoid that in case of imminent eruption the evacuation of the population living
in the proximity of the volcano could be stroked by a damaging earthquake blocking the main roads selected for
the evacuation. The PLINIVS Study Centre of the University of Naples “Federico II” (Centre of competence of
the Italian Civil Protection) has developed a computerized tool to build up the seismic impact in the volcanic
areas around Mont Vesuvio and Campi Flegrei in Campania Region (IT).
The final result of the elaboration is the damage distribution for the buildings and the damage to population
in each cell, it can be represented as damage maps using a G.I.S. tool. Is provided also a sub map identifying the
graph of the roads selected in the evacuation plan and the interruption probability of the road-links along the
escape paths because of an earthquake of expected magnitude.

1 INTRODUCTION Vesuvius is about M = 5.5 and about M = 5 for the

The study of the effects of a volcanic eruption on
urbanized areas, in terms of human and building dam-
ages, represents an important goal for the Department
of Civil Protection, either in “peacetime”, as fun-
damental support to the emergency planning and as
support for emergency management.
During the pre-eruptive alert, in fact, a reliable
estimation of the impact on the territory, although
uncertain, is very helpful to the decision makers in
charge of the emergency management and allows to
set the optimal allocation of available resources in the
area. The success of the people evacuation from the
zones most exposed can drastically reduce the final
number of victims; a great help may be given from
a reliable seismic damage scenario, which provides
guidance on the expected damage to buildings and to
population, that during the unrest phase, when pre-
eruptive earthquakes will occur, will be almost entirely
in the area.
The evacuation, in fact, will be implemented only
later, when the evolution of warning phenomena will
indicate a high probability of imminent eruption.
Moreover an estimation of the damages to build-
ings can provide useful information about the roads’
conditions along the path planned for evacuation.
2 THE SEISMIC IMPACT MODEL
Campi Flegrei caldera. However the expected damage
scenario is not light, because several seismic events of
small magnitude in a short period of time may increase
the effects of the shaking.
The model simulates a seismic sequence and
determines the expected cumulative damage to the
buildings.
The impact model is based on a regular grid over-
lapped on the whole region; the vulnerability distribu-
tion and the inventory of the buildings are derived from
a wide database of damages observed during the events
occurred in Italy in the last 30 years; while data on the
structural typologies have been collected during sev-
eral campaigns of investigation in the volcanic areas in
Campania. The data are grouped and assigned to the ID
(IDentification code) of the single cell (250 × 250 m)
of the grid, this is the minimal unit of reference. All the
results of the model are represented by cell (Fig. 1).
The model allows to choose the epicenter (as a point
or a line) everywhere in the region; the Magnitude
and the epicenter are the required inputs. The final
result of the elaboration is the damage distribution for
the buildings and the casualty in each cell; it can be
represented as damage maps using a G.I.S. tool.
This kind of representation allows to locate more
precisely the most critical areas. The results can also
be represented as the integral of the damage for each
municipality.

2.1 Introduction 2.2 Inventory and vulnerability classes

The unrest phase is characterised by a sequence of The basic information of the model, as the number
seismic events. The Magnitude of these is expected to of buildings, the distribution of seismic vulnerability
be not very strong: the maximum event expected at and the occupants subdivided by building vulnerability

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 1. Detail of the grid (250 × 250 m cells).
class have to be determined and implemented for each
cell.
The estimation of thousands of building vulnera-
bility, implies the assumption of quick methodolo-
gies of vulnerability assessment; however these have
to be enough reliable not to compromise the final
result.
Therefore it has been decided to proceed at dif-
ferent levels and combining different techniques. The
methodology adopted to estimate the seismic vulner-
ability is the “SAVE” first level method (Zuccaro &
Cacace, 2006), which requires a quick survey on site of
typological and structural characteristics of the build-
ing. This technique is based on the correlation between
the typological characteristics and observed damage
due to past earthquakes. Thus, it has been possible to
make a reliable classification of vulnerability for about
42.000 surveyed buildings.
To these data we can add about 50.000 buildings
(about 35.000 in the Vesuvian area and about 14.000
in Campi Flegrei region) which vulnerability class has
been estimated by stereographic aerial observation.
This technique, developed in 1990, provides also sta-
tistical correction of the error on the base of a 10%
sample of the building population randomly chosen.
This technique, known as QAP (Quick Assignment
Procedure), has been already applied in several studies,
showing good reliability of the result.
All these buildings, collected and classified in a
database, although a robust sample, do not certainly
represent the whole building heritage exposed. There-
fore a strategy to extending the results to the entire
region is required.
To this aim, the 2001 ISTAT census database has
been used, developing a technique for estimating the
distribution of vulnerability using appropriate corre-
lations between the census data and the characteristics
of buildings known in homogeneous areas.
At a glance:
1) Identification in the town of the building character-
istics present both in Survey DB and in the ISTAT
DB (age, number of floors, position in the aggre-
gate, type of vertical structure, class population of
the town, etc.).
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
2) Statistical correlation analysis between the charac-
teristics identified and the vulnerability classes of
surveyed buildings.
3) Application of these correlation to ISTAT data and
estimation of vulnerability for each census tract.
4) Check of the vulnerability distributions in the
areas (census tract) of which a good percentage
of surveyed buildings are available. Refining and
calibration.
5) Definition of the building vulnerability distribu-
tions in the areas where surveys are not available.
This is achieved combining ISTAT census data with
the correlations found at previous point 2.
6) Assessment of vulnerability distributions for each
cell of the territorial grid, as a proportion of the
census tract distribution.
As far as the presence of the population in the area is
concerned, the software can take into account the grad-
ual abandon of the population from the area through
a function, defined as input, which decreases the peo-
ple presence in the area inversely proportioned to the
evolution of the eruptive process, at the beginning
due to spontaneous escape, and subsequently to the
evacuation ordered by the Government.
2.3 Modeling the seismic sequence
In order to parameterise the input of the impact model
in pre-eruptive phase, a possible set of input data can
be listed:
EQ1) the duration of the seismic phase from the unrest
instant to to the explosion tT (phase 1);
EQ2) the number of seismic events in tT − to ;
EQ3) the magnitude range of the earthquakes;
EQ4) the probable epicentral locations;
EQ5) the propagation of the seismic shaking by the
region (attenuation law);
The main hazard input (probability of localization
and attenuation law) assumes a linear seismic source
and a new attenuation specifically developed by the
RISSC Centre of the University of Naples “Federico
II” (Convertito & Zollo, 2009).
Seismic source at Vesuvius is adopted as the area
corresponding to the crater, while at Campi Flegrei
the source shown in Figure 3, defines the area with the
higher probability of epicenter localization.
Moreover, considering that the whole involved area
is rather small compared to the physical dimensions of
the fracture, it was decided to consider the epicenter
not punctual, but linear with a size-dependent mag-
nitude. In Figure 2 is shown the segment adopted as
epicenter for two hypothetical events with magnitude
4 and 5.5 respectively.
The model uses the known formula of Gutenberg-
Richter as probabilistic law for the distribution of the
magnitude.
Where M is the magnitude and NM is the number of
events with magnitude greater than M, a and b are
 Table 1. Regression coefficients of eq. (2) relative to CF area.

Sa(T) (m/s2 ) a b c h σ

Sa(T = 0s) −4,163 0,967 −1,572 1 0,181

Sa(T = 0,15s) −3,56 0,904 −1,629 1,25 0,188
Sa(T = 0,3s) −4,303 1,063 −1,511 1 0,194
Sa(T = 1,0s) −6,129 1,317 −1,401 1 0,105

Figure 2. Campi Flegrei: sorgente sismica lineare per eventi

di magnitudo 4 e 5,5 (Convertito & Zollo, 2009).

the parameters that govern the distribution and can be

determined by taking at least two couples of values M,
NM known. For example, you may consider:
• M=3
N3 = nr of events with magnitude ≥3
• M = 5.5
N5.5 = nr of events with magnitude ≥5.5 = 1
(assuming 5.5 as maximum expected magnitude)
In (Convertito & Zollo, 2009) is adopted that the
parameter b may vary during the pre-eruptive phase
with an increasing or decreasing law, the variation
parameters are provided.
The seismic wave attenuation has been calcu-
lated using the classic attenuation law by Sabetta
and Pugliese, in which the parameters are estimated
expressly for Campi Flegrei and for Vesuvius area
(Convertito & Zollo, 2009). In the follow, the table of
coefficients obtained by regression analysis for Campi
Flegrei caldera is reported. Line Sa (T = 0 s) corre-
sponds to the coefficients used to calculate the PGA,
which is the parameter adopted to describe ground
shaking.
PGA is then converted in Intensity using the equation
The inventory of the elements at risk in the area has
been subdivided by the grid’s cells and the distribu-
tion of the single seismic typological classes (As, Bs,
Cs, Ds) is assigned in each cell. The action on these
buildings of the first seismic event of the sequence is
considered. This produces a damage distribution (Fig.
3), according to the EMS scale, that can be evaluated
using the vulnerability functions (DPM).
The damage caused by this event modifies the
capacity of the buildings to resist the subsequent seis-
mic event, therefore the inventory of the buildings
population in the cell changes.
A routine has been developed to estimate the dete-
rioration of the building resistance due to previous
damage and to assign, proportionally to the level of
Figure 3. Damage distribution in each cell.
Figure 4. Processing the buildings affected by a seismic
event sequence.
the damage recorded after the event, a virtual vulner-
ability class that will address the choice of the DPM
to be used for that building when the following event
occurs.
In detail:
– If the building has not been damaged (D0) or has
suffered only light damage (D1) that has not violated
the integrity of the structural elements, it preserves
the vulnerability class it had before the event.
– If the building has suffered damages D2 (light
structural damage), the vulnerability level will be
increased of one class.
– If the building has suffered heavy damages (D3) the
vulnerability level will be increased of two classes.
– If the building has suffered damages D4 (partial
collapse) or D5 (total collapse) it is considered
“lost” and it goes out of the population of build-
ings of the cell in the elaborations of the damage for
the following events.
In the Figure 4, the procedure to take into account
the deterioration of the vulnerability classes is better
clarified.
Two new DPMs need to be used: DPM (A-) and
DPM (A–); these two new vulnerability functions take
into account the resistance deterioration of the most

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 7. Damage progress due to seismic sequence.
Figure 5. Extrapolation of binomial coefficients for virtual
vulnerability classes “A-” and “A–”.

Figure 6. The final DPM binomial coefficients adopted.

vulnerable building class “A”, when this does not col-

lapse after a seismic event, in order to supply the DPM
to be used for the following event.
These two DPMs have been derived by extrapola-
tion of the binomial coefficient for the standard vul-
nerability classes (As, Bs, Cs, Ds) calibrated through
the damage data base of the previous seismic events
in Italy (Zuccaro et al. 2009 , Cherubini et al. 2002)
available at PLINIVS – LUPT Study Centre of the
University of Naples.
In Figure 5 the result of the “step interpolation”
is reported; once the binomial coefficients are deter-
mined, the DPMs “A-” and “A–” (Fig. 6) can be
computed through the equation:
The model keeps the information of the original seis-
mic typological class since this is important to possible
further evaluations of damage, based on the specific
characteristics of the original typology due to others
phenomena.
Therefore the memory of the deterioration of a spe-
cific building affects only the choice of the DPM to
be used for the following seismic event. This proce-
dure is repeated for all the seismic events of damaging
intensities considered in the seismic sequence during
the unrest phase.
3 ROAD LINKS VULNERABILITY
An important feature of the model is the assessment
of the impact on road layouts, with the identification
Figure 8. Link interruption due to partial building collapse.
of paths characterized by an high risk of interruption.
The first earthquakes occurs before the beginning
of the evacuation process from the red zone. Therefore
the impact must be estimated considering the red zone
inhabited. Moreover, and this is the most important
aspect, the seismic damage could affect the success
of the evacuation itself. It has been observed in fact,
also during recent seismic events (L’Aquila 2009), that
roads may be significantly affected because of damage
to buildings (Fig. 6–7).
In the red zone, therefore, possible collapses (also
partial) of buildings placed along the evacuation routes
could cause the interruption of pathways with dire
consequences on the operations of runoff from the site.
It is reasonable to assume that the probability of
interruption of a road is highly correlated to the seis-
mic vulnerability of buildings along it. As example is
reported a detail of the L’Aquila ancient City map,
showing the vulnerability class of several surveyed
buildings and the indication of actually interrupted
roads due to rubbles of collapsed buildings (Fig. 10).

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 9. Link interruption due to total building collapse.
Figure 10. Broken links and building vulnerability.
Considering the road map of the Vesuvius region
and analyzing the seismic buildings vulnerability map
in the eighteen towns of the red zone, it can be found
a high percentage of vulnerable buildings along the
evacuation routes. On the base of the available data
it has been set up a preliminary estimation of the
probability of road fail.
On the road network map of Vesuvius red area has
been identified a number of road sections (links), with
various sizes, between two “nodes”. To each road link
is assigned a unique code.
Buildings placed on both side of the road (at a
maximum distance of 15 m from the road axis) were
grouped along each of the "links" belonging to the
evacuation routes. For each link the vulnerability dis-
tribution of related buildings is estimated (Fig. 11).
Assuming that the link is affected by a given seismic
intensity (I = VII or VIII) the distribution of expected
damage to related buildings has been calculated.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 11. Map detail showing the vulnerability distribution
in each road link.
Figure 12. Probability of road link interruption depending
on the number of collapsed buildings.
The failing probability of the link, given a seismic
intensity, has been estimated according to the expected
number Nc of buildings affected by partial or total
collapse.
The function Pi is plotted in Figure 12.
The results obtained are then reported on a map for
each Municipality in the Vesuvius red zone.
These maps, a detail of which is in Figure 10, show
that many links in the network have high probability of
failing. The point out the need for a better investigation
on buildings located along the escape path, and suggest
to organize a strengthening campaign or to investigate
for alternative escape paths (Fig. 13).
4 CONCLUSIONS
The results of the research represent the last enhance-
ment in the assessment of seismic impact during the
unrest phase. A methodology to evaluate the cumu-
lative damage due to a sequence of events in a short
period of time is outlined.
A first attempt to evaluate the probability of inter-
ruption of road links has been processed, giving
useful support to the emergency planning.The results
 Figure 13. Detail of the map of the failing probability of roads.

are encouraging, however further investigation on
the buildings along the escape path could improve
significantly the scenarios.
REFERENCES
Cherubini, A. Petrazzuoli, S. Zuccaro, G. 2002. Vulnerabilità
Sismica dell’Area Vesuviana. Roma: Giannini Ed.
Convertito, V. Zollo, A. 2009. Assessment of pre- and syn-
crisis seismic hazard at Vesuvio and Campi Flegrei
volcanoes, Campania region southern Italy. Bulletin of
Volcanology (submitted).
DPC 1995. Pianificazione Nazionale d’Emergenza dell’Area
Vesuviana. Roma: Italian Civil Protection Department.
DPC 2001. Aggiunte e varianti alle parti A3, B, C1 e C2 della
Pianificazione Nazionale d’Emergenza dell’Area Vesu-
viana. Proposta di Aggiornamento. Roma: Italian Civil
Protection Department.
DPC 2005. Aggiornamento dei piani di emergenza per il
rischio vulcanico nell’area Vesuviana e Flegrea – Piani
di allontanamento. Roma: Italian Civil Protection Dept.
Zuccaro, G. Cacace, F. 2006. Valutazione speditiva della
Vulnerabilità per gli edifici strategici della Regione
Campania Ingegneria Sismica. no 2/2006.
Zuccaro, G. Cacace, F. 2007. A probabilistic model for the
evaluation of the impact of explosive eruption scenar-
ios at Vesuvius. Proc. of International Symposium on
Recent Advances in Mechanics, Dynamical Systems and
Probability Theory – MDP – 2007.
Zuccaro, G. Cacace, F. Spence, R.J.S. Baxter, P.J. 2008.
Impact of explosive eruption scenarios at Vesuvius: 416–
453. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research,
Volume 178 (Issue 3).
Zuccaro, G. Cacace, F. 2009. Revisione dell’inventario a
scala nazionale delle classi tipologiche di vulnerabilità ed
aggiornamento delle mappe nazionali di rischio sismico.
Bologna: proc. XIII Convegno ANIDIS.

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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Structural damage and vulnerability assessment for service life

estimation through MEDEA tool

G. Zuccaro & M.F. Leone

PLINIVS Study Centre, University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

ABSTRACT: The paper illustrates the main objectives in structural damage and vulnerability assessment as a
part of LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) and LCC (Life Cycle Costs) analyses. A proper analysis of vulnerability
factors due to degrade conditions and to construction features of buildings helps to guide the design choices for
refurbishment interventions, introducing assessments on the appropriateness of the retrofit action when the dam-
age or vulnerability level is too high. From this point of view, the introduction of new tools and methodologies is
needed, in order to support the shared evaluation models with specific assessments related to the various building
components. The paper shows the approach used in MEDEA (Manual for Earthquake Damage Evaluation and
safety Assessment) developed by PLINIVS Study Centre, University of Naples “Federico II”, in collaboration
with Italian Civil Protection Department.

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Technology Retrofit and life cycle Thinking

In the last two decades, sustainability has become a
top priority in design and construction, both for new
buildings and retrofit interventions. Only in recent
years, however, issues related to a reliable quantitative
assessment of environmental impacts in the building
process have been the subject of extensive studies,
aimed at identifying, along the entire life cycle, factors
such as material and energy intensity of products and
components, emission of greenhouse gases and other
pollutants.
The aim is to define sustainability assessment tools
that can integrate environmental (Life Cycle Assess-
ment), social (health and welfare) and economic (Life
Cycle Cost) aspects.
The Life Cycle Thinking approach, upon which is
focused the current European environmental policy,
allow to overcome purely “ideological” conception
about sustainability issues, moving towards a more
rigorous scientific approach.
In fact, most of the recent regulations and codes
confirm this direction, like ISO/TS 21931-1:2006
(Sustainability in building construction – Framework
for methods for assessment of environmental per-
formance of construction works), ISO 14040 (Life
Cycle Assessment); Directive EC 91:2002 (EPBD –
Energy Performance of Buildings); the energy per-
formance assessment methods (CEN/TC89, TC156,
TC169, TC228, TC247), the service life assessment
methods (Service Life Estimation of Buildings, ISO
15686-5:2008, ISO TC/59/SC14), the declarations
on products service life (Service Life Declarations,
ISO TC59/SC14) and the regulations upon dangerous
substances (TC351).
Figure 1. Building process and Life Cycle Thinking
approach.
Generally, the assessment tools used within the
LCA analysis identify benchmarks for different tech-
nical options, in order to guide decision making pro-
cess and design choices. At present however, while in
the case of single products and systems evaluations is
it possible to refer to a set of common protocols and
reliable tools, LCA methodologies and procedures for
whole building assessments are not as refined. This
because of the high complexity due to the interaction
of several subsystems (structure, envelope, HVAC sys-
tems, etc.), each with different implications in relation
to environmental impacts in the life cycle.
While in the case of structures, for example, major
impacts occur during production and construction
phases (including all necessary operations from raw
material extraction to manufacturing in factory and
work on construction site), envelope components and
HVAC systems produce the main impact during use

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 Figure 2. Embodied energy of building components along
the service life.
Figure 3. Embodied energy of buildings for a 50 years
service life: initial embodied energy 6,2%; maintenance
embodied energy 8,3%; operating energy 85,5%.
and maintenance phases, mainly due to energy con-
sumption resulting from the thermo physical charac-
teristics of materials and efficiency of installations
(Fig. 2). With reference to the different phases of
the building process, different aspects such as the
choice of materials, the construction typology and the
configuration of technical elements can influence the
environmental performance of the building during its
service life (Fig. 3).
Several studies worldwide have confirmed the risks
arising from a partial approach to the theme of the
LCA analysis of buildings, which could introduce ele-
ments of arbitrariness in the final assessment because
of the excessive simplification of the reference model.
From this point of view, the introduction of new tools
and methodologies is needed, in order to support the
shared LCA models with specific evaluations related
to the various building components. This approach is
especially needed in the case of technological retrofit
interventions, where the opportunities of preservation
of parts of the existing building have to be seriously
taken into account, considering the environmental
implications related to demolition and reconstruction.
Generally, retrofit actions are considered as “inher-
ently” sustainable interventions, as they can limit the
impacts related to the disposal of substantial parts of
the building (starting from the structural elements),
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 4. Comparison of Embodied Energy (GJeq) and
Greenhouse Emissions (KgCO2eq) for different R.C.
construction technologies (Conventional concrete; precast
concrete and UHPC – Ultra High Performance Concrete)
considering a 100 years service life. 1. Pre-production
and production; 2. Transport; 3. Construction; 4. Use and
Maintenance; 5. Disposal and recycling; 6. Avoided products.
while avoiding the consumption of material and energy
resources related to their construction ex-novo. The
benefits of the retrofit measures may however be nulli-
fied by misjudgements about the expected service life
of the building in relation to its structural integrity and
ability to ensure safety and reliability requirements.
To affect this aspect there are considerations about the
degradation of the building components due to obso-
lescence or physical structural damage occurred over
time, as well as assessments regarding the vulnerability
to natural hazards in relation to construction typology
and to expected damage scenarios.
A proper analysis of vulnerability factors due to
degrade conditions and to construction features of
buildings helps to guide the design choices for refur-
bishment interventions, introducing assessments on
the appropriateness of the retrofit action when the
structural damage or vulnerability level is too high.
The proposed evaluation model also includes the
identification of possible mitigation solutions accord-
ing to the damage or vulnerability factors identi-
fied. For each solution it is possible to analyse the
aspects related to expected environmental and eco-
nomic impacts which can then be integrated into the
LCA model. The aim is to favour structural retrofit
technical alternatives based on eco-efficient solu-
tions that minimize the consumption of material and
energy resources in the life cycle, compatible with the
envisaged refurbishment intervention.
1.2 Residual service life estimation and MEDEA
assessment tool
The term “service life”, according to ISO 15686 is
referred to the “period of time after installation dur-
ing which a building or its parts meets or exceeds the
performance requirements”. During this period, build-
ings and infrastructures are able to withstand normal
conditions of use, if properly maintained.
 mechanisms to be activated under seismic excita-
tion. The procedure takes place from simple structural
behaviour models, derived from earthquake obser-
vations, and tested to evaluate the reliability of the
model.
MEDEA provides the basis either for safety check
analyses of the existing buildings or for post-event
structural safety assessment and economic damage
evaluation. Mechanisms analysis, mainly developed
for the post event safety check surveyors training,
allow to trace a simple logic path in order to approach
Figure 5. Service Life and maintenance operations. the evaluation of masonry and R.C. buildings safety
check. The procedure starts from the identification
of the typological vulnerability factors to derive the
The service life of a building depends on many
potential collapse mechanisms and their collapse mul-
factors, such as the design quality, the durability of
tipliers and finally addresses the simplest and cheapest
construction materials and systems components, the
strengthening techniques to reduce the original vul-
incorporated technology, the location and climate, the
nerability. The procedure has been introduced in the
type and intensity of use, and damage caused by human
Guide Lines of the Regione Campania for the profes-
error and natural hazards. These aspects influence the
sionals in charge of the safety check analyses and the
quickness of ageing of a building as well as the amount
buildings strengthening in application of the national
of maintenance and repair required over its life cycle.
mitigation campaign introduced by the Ordinance of
In fact, although the building performances gradually
the Central Government n. 3362/03.
decline because of ageing, its service life can be opti-
The flexible structure of MEDEA allows to define
mized through adequate and timely maintenance and
different uses for the multimedia tool, such as:
repairs (Figure 5).
a) a handbook for an homogeneous categorization
The estimation of Residual Service Life, defined as
of the structural elements in R.C. and masonry build-
“service life remaining at certain period of considera-
ings and of their relevant damage typologies; b) a
tion”, is a relevant issue considering the great number
teaching tool for the training of technicians involved in
of existing buildings showing physical or functional
damage and safety evaluations in the post earthquake
obsolescence (in the EU only residential buildings are
management (using standard, pre-defined assessment
approximately 150 million, 32% of which was built
criteria); c) a supporting tool for more detailed safety
before 1945, 40% between 1945–1975 and remaining
survey forms; d) a guided tool for macro-seismic eval-
28% after 1975).
uation on the field; e) a teaching resource to be used
As stated before, the knowledge of the probable
at different levels in university courses in the field of
residual service life of building elements is a key
seismic engineering or emergency management.
factor to define the opportunity of repair action, as
Finally, with reference to the object of the present
well as need to replace components in order to reduce
paper, MEDEA is proposed as an assessment tool for
energy consumptions or maintenance operations. In
the estimation of Residual Service Life of structural
case of refurbishment interventions, some of the main
elements, to be used in LCA or LCC studies, as well as
issues are the understanding of structural features, the
to evaluate the opportunity of refurbishment actions on
potential remaining useful life of the frame and the
existing buildings. The tool is based on the correlation
opportunities for re-loading the structures with the
between vulnerability factors and damage mechanisms
refurbished components.
(visible or potential), which brings to the definition
This kind of evaluation must take into account the
of a “safety index”, corresponding to the expected
vulnerability factors of the building and the potential
Residual Service Life.
damage due to destructive events, which become cru-
cial factors in order to define the Residual Service Life
of both structural and non-structural elements.
2 MEDEA EVALUATION TOOL
In order to produce an objective damage and vul-
nerability measuring tool, from which it could be
2.1 The evaluation of the structural damage and
possible to derive the most frequent damage typologies
vulnerability through MEDEA
in R.C. and masonry structures as well as a possible
damaging model for quick and guided safety assess- MEDEA tool is addressed to the technicians either
ment, PLINIVS Study Centre, University of Naples involved in vulnerability assessment or employed in
“Federico II”, in collaboration with Civil Protection post event seismic damage evaluation.
Department designed a multimedia handbook called In both cases the univocity of the judgment of the
MEDEA (Manual for Earthquake Damage Evalua- surveyors is very important, either because of the
tion and safety Assessment). The assessment tool is scientific aspects resulting from a standard damage
based on the identification of possible typological measure (useful for the improving of the vulnerability
vulnerability factors of masonry and R.C. buildings, function on one hand, and for a bigger harmonization
which are listed and combined with potential collapse in defining macroseismic fields on the other) or for the

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
social aspects concerning the civil protection deriving
from a fair damage estimation and from a fair static
safety evaluation.
The tool is structured so that the user can have a
gradual knowledge of it. The different sections of the
multimedia didactical tool represent a guided training
path able to create in the users, step by step, a sensibil-
ity either to understand the typological characteristics
of the buildings or to evaluate vulnerability and dam-
age, which are both very important aspects of the final
judgement of safety.
The CD-rom MEDEA has been made with particu-
lar care in designing a very simple and easy interface,
combining at the best the applications contained.
MEDEA is sub-divided into four main sections, fol-
lowing a principle of logical continuity and strictly
connected between them, thanks to functions of
research, query and hypertext links.
The first section concerns a detailed dictionary of
the main terms frequently used in technical and sci-
entific field. The glossary represents a crucial step
to define an unified terminology either for the recip-
rocals comprehension among the technicians or to
improve the homogeneity in the typological element
classification and in the damage measuring.
The second section of the tool is an archive con-
taining a rich anthology of pictures showing different
structural typologies and different levels and types of
damages. The picture archive aims to give an essential
basic knowledge of the observed damages and typolo-
gies in order to improve the capability of interpretation
and judgment that the technicians must have during
the post-event inspections that will be tested then in
the following sections of the tool.
The most important part of MEDEA is the third
section, constituted by a detailed catalogue of the
main damages on structural and non-structural ele-
ments of R.C. and masonry buildings. The multimedia
catalogue represents a further step of fundamental
importance in the training of the technicians involved
in the safety check of the buildings in the post event
phase; in fact it supplies to the user a guided path
among the basic criteria of the structure behaviour in
order to develop interpretation skill on the observed
damages. The damages classification of the buildings
structures is aided by their interpretation as possible
collapse mechanisms. Therefore the catalogue is orga-
nized on the base of logic rules to address at the most
probable mechanism identification. This section is,
therefore, constituted by three sub-sections: Collapse
Mechanisms Abacus; Damages Abacus; Interactive
Training Table.
The final part of MEDEA in constituted by a
training section, in which some damaged buildings,
realized by Quick Time Virtual Reality technology,
are shown. These allow the user to perform train-
ing paths designed for safety analyses compiling the
AeDes Form (safety form) and eventually expressing
evaluations on: the constructive typology (horizontal
and vertical structures) which a vulnerability class
can be associated to; the damage level expressed
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 6. Classification of the Global Mechanisms for
masonry buildings.
both for every single constructive element and for the
whole building; the safety assessment of the building;
the possible provisional interventions to be adopted
(Zuccaro et al. 2001, 2002).
2.2 MEDEA Form: Vulnerability Factors and
Collapse Mechanisms
The MEDEA project originates to facilitate the build-
ings safety check assessment that the technicians were
called to perform in the post event phase. Now is pro-
posed as a Quick Assessment Procedure to identify the
Potential Collapse Mechanisms (PCM) starting from
the evaluation of the Typological Vulnerability Factors
(TVF) and Cracking Path (CP) of the building. This
approach has been developed in the MEDEA Form that
include a list of possible relationship between TVF, CP
and PCM.
The TVFs listed in MEDEA Form have been
selected among those showing the greatest influence
in CP analyses of the damages observed in past seis-
mic events in Italy, (Irpinia ‘80, Abruzzo ‘84, Sicilia
‘90, Umbria-Marche ‘97, Molise ’02, Abruzzo ‘09).
In Figure 6, MEDEA classification of the global
mechanisms for masonry buildings is reported.
The collapse mechanisms are divided into Global
and Local mechanisms. For the evaluation of struc-
tural integrity of the building and the assessment of
expected residual service life, only the global mecha-
nisms are here discussed, although local mechanisms
can affect durability of non-structural elements.
The Global Mechanisms are those mechanisms
involving the structure as a whole and then related
to the evolution of the cracks in a sufficient number of
elements such that a total compromising of the static
and dynamic equilibrium of the structural system is
achieved; these mechanisms have been subdivided as
follows.
The Local mechanisms are related to marginal parts
of the structure; their evolution, even if determines the
collapse of a single element, generally does not involve
the whole structural equilibrium.
The activation of the PCM is strictly related to
structural lacks of the building. In Table 1 a possible
correlation between PCMs and the TVFs, involv-
ing constructive, mechanic and resistance aspects are
reported.
Table 1. Relationship between Typological Vulnerability
Factors and Collapse Mechanisms.
The MEDEA Form used during the damage sur-
vey after the San Giuliano di Puglia event in 2002
(Dolce et al. 2002, 2003), has allowed to collect infor-
mation on the incipient CM observed on the damaged
masonry structures and to put forward an hypothesis
on the global collapse process of the building, achieved
when several CM start and the sequence of which is
strongly correlated to the typological structural char-
acteristic of the building, as well as the intrinsic quality
of the materials used.
The proposed analysis methodology suggests an
useful path for the identification of the vulnerabil-
ity factors present on the structure and responsible
of potential or incipient CMs. This method addresses
toward the identification of the strengthening priority
pursuing, when a complete upgrading of the structure
is not possible, to eliminate at least the main structure
vulnerability factors responsible of PCMs. Further-
more, samples of the collapse multipliers of the most
frequents CMs are provided; these allow to derive
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 7. (a) Overturning – Out of plane mechanisms;
(b) Instability – Out of plane mechanisms.
Table 2. Vulnerability factors for masonry structures.
• Absence of connection between orthogonal walls and/or
tie-beams or stringcourse at different levels
• Presence of stringcourses “in breccia” on masonries with
double facings
• Floors badly connected with the walls
• Masonry of low-quality, reduced resistant area along one
or both directions
• High percentage of openings
• Foundations inadequate to resist the vertical load
increment due to the earthquake
• Different consistencies of the foundation soils, presence
of landslide or liquefaction
• Presence of added buildings with different stiffness and/or
with localized connections
• Variation of the structural system at upper levels
• Presence of a raising and/or a stiff and badly connected
roof structure
• Presence of staggered levels
• Excessive distance between bracing walls
• Pushing structure and/or absence of connection between
the wall and the roof
• Presence of lintels with reduced bending stiffness or with
inadequate support length
• Presence of lowered arches and/or inadequate
support of lintel
• Local reduction of the masonry section (presence of flues,
niches, etc.)
• Local discontinuities (filling of old openings,
bad realization of masonry sewing, etc.)
• Presence of ridge beam of considerable sizes
• Presence of openings in the proximity of the roof ridge
the limit PGA capable to activate the mechanism.
The most frequent collapse mechanisms discussed in
Zuccaro et al. this issue (as vertical instability and over-
turning CMs: types 3, 4 and 5; Fig. 7a,b) have been
studied (see ref. MEDEA for detailed description of
the CMs). In the old masonry buildings the walls are
 Figure 8. Excerpt of potential damages to masonry struc-
tures linked to vulnerability factors.

Figure 9. Excerpt of vulnerability factors for R.C. struc-

tures.
Table 3. Vulnerability factors for R.C. structures.
Table 4. Parametric cost of most common strengthening
• Joints out of building code interventions for R.C and masonry buildings.
• Average distance between columns >6 m
• Average dimension of first floor columns <25 cm Strengthening Cost (€/sm)
• Slender columns
• Squat columns (for the presence of ribbon windows, Application of FRP to 230
staggered floors, cranked beams) R.C. structural elements
• Irregularities in plan distribution (non compact or Application of FRCM to 220
asymmetric plan, presence of strong eccentric stiffening R.C. structural elements
elements, presence of high concentrations of eccentric Application of FRP to R.C. joists 125–150
masses, presence of wide or heavily loaded cantilevers) Application of FRCM to R.C. slabs 100–120
• irregularities in elevation (high variation of floor area, Application of FRCM on infill panels 65–80
high variation of floor level distance, varied overloads at Application of FRCM on masonry walls 65–80
different levels, high stiffness variations in Iron ties insertion on masonry walls 5–7
vertical structure, significant super-elevations, Application of CAM system to 100–120
slender columns with heavy slabs) masonry walls
• Irregularities in infill panels disposition (absence or
reduced presence of infill panels at the first level,
presence of soft planes, columns behind infill panels,
presence of infill panels external to the structural frame,
presence of bow windows) made, in some cases, with two vertical layers with-
• Irregularities in the structural frame (absence of column out sufficient connection in between. Generally the
at the intersection of two beams, presence of mechanism involve the external layer only. However
staggered columns, presence of beams external to sometimes the internal wall interacts with the external
the column line, beams with reduced width compared one speeding the collapse.
to the supporting column, frames in one direction
and no connection beams, prevalence of
thickness beams and weak infill panels, 2.3 Measures to eliminate vulnerability factors
frames with high beams on the perimeter
with weak infill panels and thickness beams) The analysis of the damage surveyed in previous seis-
mic events has shown that some vulnerability factors

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 5. Diffuse vulnerability factors and relevant possible mitigation measures.
Vulnerability Factors
Poor quality of the connections between walls and between
walls and floors
Large distance between walls
Small resistance area in one or two directions (i.e. for high
percentage of openings or small thickness of the walls) and
presence of floors of notable mass
Deformable floors in his own plan with poor connections
Presence of heavy and/or thrusting roof and lack of
connections between orthogonal walls and/or of ties or
ring beams
are very diffused in the building heritage of the his-
toric town centres either in Italy or in other European
countries.
In the following Table 5 the most frequents vulner-
ability factors and the relevant possible interventions
to reduce their negative effects are listed. This kinds
of structural improvements are particularly indicated
when a full seismic upgrading is not possible and a
priority program of strengthening has to be traced.
As stated before, structural retrofit is the first issue
in case of building refurbishment, both in case of ordi-
nary intervention and rehabilitation after a seismic
event. To fully evaluate also environmental impacts
and cost factors in order to implement LCA analysis,
each of the proposed mitigation solutions has to be
put in relation with material and energy consumption
required for its application.
Once identified the possible strengthening mea-
sures according to requirements of safety and reliabil-
ity, environmental and economic parameters become
useful indicators for the choice of design solution.
2.4 Safety index assessment
A procedure to evaluate a Safety Index IA to be asso-
ciated with the surveyed building has been proposed,
based on the analysis of the evolution degree of the
prevalent mechanism recognized in the building.
Of course this index couldn’t be assumed as an auto-
matic judgement for the safety assessment, but it offers
to the operators an interesting parameter for heuristic
evaluations.
The method is based on the analysis of the evolution
level of the collapse mechanism identified (or poten-
tial) as prominent for the building; to this purpose the
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Strengthening
• Improvement of the connections among the walls
through the use of a ring beams at floor levels
Riveting of anchorage between the wall quoins and
between walls and floor.
• Application of composite material bands to hoop the
masonry at floor level, or improvement of the
connections between the walls in the quoins
• Jacketing with electro-welded mesh and “gunite”
• Introduction of new shear masonry walls with a
good embedment to the existing walls
• Jacketing with composite material
• Treatments with epoxy resins
• Increment of the floor stiffness with slabs of light
concrete and electro-welded mesh, cross ties, etc.
with a good connections to the masonry and to the
adjacent fields of floor
• Realization of ring beams with a good embedment
to the masonry
• Realization of ties to eliminate the thrust of the roof
and/or application of composite material bands to
hoop the masonry at level floor.
Figure 10. CM/TVF compatibility matrix for masonry
structures.
surveyor assigns a quotation to the state of progress of
the mechanism: 1 = low, 2 = severe, 3 = very severe,
according to the damages surveyed.
The score assignment for each possible collapse
mechanism is related to the vulnerability factors or
damages identified. A matrix highlights the compat-
ibility between TVFs and CMs in order to help the
surveyor to proper evaluate the existing conditions.
It is possible that the surveyor can detect the pres-
ence of damages or vulnerability factors hard to link
with any mechanism, In this case, these can be consid-
ered in the procedure only if they show a compatibility
between each other and there is uniqueness in the assig-
nation of MEDEA mechanism, with a minimum value
of 1.
The procedure allows to identify the growing of
collapse mechanisms, that can be considered “poten-
tial”, where no visible damage is detected but one or
more vulnerability factors are recognized; at an initial
 Table 6. Importance coefficient for collapse mechanisms of
masonry structures.

Code Mechanism CI

M1 Shear on the wall for in plane actions 0.5

M2 Shear on the wall for in plane action 0.5
localized only in upper parts
M3 Overturning of entire wall 1
M4 Partial overturning of the wall 1
M5 Vertical instability of the wall 1
M6 Bending crack of the wall 1
M7 Shift of horizontal plane 0.5
M8 Foundation failure 0.5
M9 Irregularity between adjacent structures 0.5
M10 Loss of bearing or shift of floor beams 0.5
from support wall
Figure 11. CM/TVF compatibility matrix for R.C. struc- M11 Failure of lintels 0.25
tures. M12 Irregularity of the material, 0.25
local weaknesses, etc.
M13 Overturning of tympanum wall 0.25
M14 Overturning of quoin upper part 0.25
or advanced stage, when structural integrity is com- M15 Overturning of attic supporting walls 0.25
promised by degrade conditions due to age, lack of M16 Rotation of arch or wall abutments 0.25
maintenance or past destructive events.
This allows to define the “prevalent mechanisms”
to which a synthetic value is assigned, corresponding
to the Safety Index IA of the building.
From the elaboration of the Safety Index is then where Ldij = level of severity of j damage in rela-
possible to put in relation the existing conditions of tion to i mechanism, with value variable between
the building to the expected service life remaining 0 and 3; n = total damages number of MEDEA
if no structural rehabilitation measures are provided, abacus; ki = number of damages or vulnerability
identifying at the same time the possible strengthening factors compatible with i mechanism.
interventions needed, to be assumed in LCA and LCC b) Further calibration of the value obtained with (1),
analyses. mediating it with the maximum value between
In order to reduce the risks of personal interpreta- the scores associated with the damages compatible
tions of the surveyor and to provide a more reliable with i-th mechanism, obtaining:
safety analysis, an “importance” coefficient CI is
assigned (Table 6), that is proportional to the potential
for each mechanism to bring to structural collapse.
The aim is also to distinguish local collapse from where Ld max = Max(Ldi ).
global collapse conditions and, in the second case, the c) Definition of Pi index, expressing the level of
damages that can bring more rapidly to the structural activation of i-th mechanism:
failure of the building.
In the case of masonry buildings, for instance, “in
plane” global mechanisms often determine a good where CI = importance coefficient of the mecha-
response of structural elements, while the presence nism proportioned to the potentiality of that mech-
of “out of plane” mechanisms is evidence of a much anism to lead rapidly to the collapse of the structure
more instable equilibrium that can more rapidly evolve (Table 6).
through structural collapse. d) Normalization, after identifying as prevalent mech-
The building Safety Index IA evaluation procedure anism the one associated with the higher Pi index,
is then articulated through the following steps: in relation to the maximum Ldij value (equal to 3),
in order to obtain the Safety Index IA of the building,
a) Definition of the average level of progress asso- comprised between 0 and 1:
ciated to the i-th mechanism with reference to
the observed compatible damage (this operation is
made for each collapse mechanism identified by
the surveyor and eventually for those “automati- where Pimax = Pi index associated with the preva-
cally” interpreted through an expert evaluation of lent mechanism recognized.
“spurious” damages or vulnerability factors: Finally a correlation between the Safety Index range
and the global damage has been investigated, defining
media and deviation standard values. These results,
compared to the real safety judgements collecting on
the fields, have allowed to find a bound value for

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 12. Distribution of the Safety Index in relation with
the global damage levels.
the Safety Index. Therefore a probabilistic correlation,
in terms of percentage of unsafe buildings respect to
the total buildings showing a certain level of global
damage, has been defined, as showed in Figure 12.
Of course, future development of the procedure,
added to a larger amount of data set, will allow to
define a more confident threshold value for the Safety
Index and more refined density probability functions.
This perspective represents an interesting cue to
reach quick safety evaluations to be used in Residual
Service Life estimation within LCA and LCC studies,
as well as to define possible alternatives for refurbish-
ment interventions or mitigation action on buildings
inside seismic risk-prone areas.
2.5 Conclusions
The integration of support tools within LCA and
LCC analysis is required in order to define reliable
environmental and economic evaluations according to
specific design and construction issues. The MEDEA
method outlines a general approach to understand the
structural vulnerability factors and the behaviour of a
building under seismic action. It can be used:
In the post-event phase: as tool to perform on the
basis of the cracking path and of the potential collapse
mechanisms about to be activated the safety check of
the buildings;
In the vulnerability assessments: as tool to identify
vulnerability factors responsible of potential activation
of collapse mechanisms and to evaluate possible inter-
ventions of improvement and upgrading as mitigation
measure to reduce the effects of the vulnerability fac-
tors, in order to parameterise the expected service
life.
MEDEA not only allows to describe the main struc-
tural typologies but provide also an implicit analysis
of the possible “behaviour” of the structure related to
the identification of “structural lacks” and “vulnera-
bility factors” of the building, as well as the potential
collapse mechanisms.
The tool provides a complete set of simplified
numerical models at the limit state of collapse for the
main kinematics mechanisms.This will allow to define
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
the structural vulnerability as the probability to trig-
ger mechanisms and to correlate these to a synthetic
evaluation of vulnerability and its expected service
life.
The future goal of such a procedure is to propose a
damage measure for structural elements with the attri-
bution of a Damage Index for every element based on
the indication suggested in the survey form and in the
iconographic part.
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construction – Sustainability indicators – Framework for
development of indicators for buildings.
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fication, Prooced. International Conference Sustainable
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ing and construction sector, Proceed. 3rd International
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implementation, Zurich, Switzerland, 27–29 August 2007.
Fernandez, J. 2006. Material Architecture, emergent materi-
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di istruzioni per la compilazione della “Scheda di I
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for classes of masonry buildings. In Faccioli, E. Pessina,
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 scenarios for high risk area in the Mediterranean, Roma:
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Braga, F. Dolce, M. Fabrizi, C. Liberatore, D. 1986. Eval-
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D’Ayala, D. Spence, R.J.S. Oliveira, C.S. Papa, F. Zuccaro,
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Buildings In Recent European Earthquakes. Proceed. 9th
World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, 12WCEE,
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On The Seismic Damage In The Recent Earthquakes In
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Zuccaro, G. Papa, F. 1999. Inspection minutes process for
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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Human and structural damage consequent to a Sub-Plinian like eruption at

Mount Vesuvius

G. Zuccaro, F. Cacace & S. Nardone

PLINIVS Study Centre, University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

ABSTRACT: Is reported part of the work developed on volcanic risk assessment within the activities of the
PLINIVS Study Centre of the University of Naples “Federico II” (Centre of competence for the Italian Civil
Protection). One of the goal was to develop tools capable to evaluate a reasonable estimation of the cumulative
damage impact scenario consequent to a volcanic eruption of assigned intensity. A first attempt to the problem
is here presented focusing the complexity of the problem and a possible path to model the numerous aspects
concurring to the final result. A volcanic eruption is here assumed as a sequence of several events of different
hazardous phenomena distributed in time and space. The model, integrated in a Geographic Information System,
taking advantage by specific Event Three and Vulnerability Functions on cumulative damage on the buildings,
develops a tool able to control the progressive impact up to the final impact scenario.

1 INTRODUCTION

A volcanic eruption can be seen as a sequence of sev-

eral events of different hazardous phenomena having
characteristics connected to each other and distributed
in time and space. The model here presented has
been so far calibrated on a specific level of eruptive
intensity: the Sub-Plinian I like. It has been chosen
since this eruptive scenario intensity is the reference
for the Italian Department of the Civil Protection
to prepare the Civil Protection Plan for the Villages
involved in a potential eruption of the Mont Vesuvius
in Campania (IT).
According to the experts during a Sub Plinian I Figure 1. Territorial grid adopted in the model.
eruption three phases can be identified:
– 1st Phase – seismic phase – (EQ);
– 2nd Phase – ash-fall phase – (AF); their vulnerability to various eruptive phenomena. The
– 3rd Phase – pyroclastic flows phase – (PF). information was catalogued in a series of GIS maps.
The details of methods and procedures adopted to build
Therefore to simulate recursively the eruptive pro- the model are described below.
cess chosen the following inputs are required:
– a time-history of each phenomena;
– a compatible spatial distribution of each hazard; 2.2 The territorial grid
– compatible ranges of the values of the parameters The entire region has been discretized through a square
describing the hazard input of each event (EQ, AF, mesh grid of 250 × 250 m, and the cell was taken as
PF) considered. the minimal unit of reference both for the calcula-
tions and for the representation of results (Fig. 1). This
type of representation allows to locate more precisely
2 THE IMPACT MODEL the areas most at risk. The results can nevertheless be
represented as approximated for each Municipality.
2.1 Model construction
To build the model a thorough analysis of the ter-
2.3 Modeling the eruption
ritory is required, identifying the size and spatial
distribution of the structures exposed at risk, the build- The sequence of the events simulated can be built either
ing typologies, their distribution on the territory and on the basis of the studies of past eruptions or on expert

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 evaluations; for example the Sub Plinian I like eruption
could be described by:
– a sequence of seismic events, during the unrest
phase, with an increasing release of energy, up to the
peak of seismic activity that is probably immediately
before the explosion;
– a phase of ash-fall, about 12–18 hours long, during
which there is a growing accumulation of ash on the
roofs. During this phase it is possible that one or two
seismic events occur with smaller intensity than the
peak of the previous phase;
– a final phase, 2–5 hours long, during which in sev-
eral zones some buildings are affected by a lateral
pressure and high temperature due to pyroclastic
flows. In this phase a given number of pulses are
considered.
The modeling of the whole eruptive process and
stresses induced in the territory is a function of
many parameters, which can lead to entirely different
scenarios (see in Zuccaro et al. 2008 for details).
The model here presented has been so far cali-
brated on a specific level of eruptive intensity: the
Sub-Plinian I like.
2.3.1 Earthquake
The parameters of the seismic sequence, such as
magnitude distribution and spread in the area, were
assumed for Campi Flegrei and Vesuvius area. (Con-
vertito & Zollo 2009).
The procedure for earthquake simulation and results
are shown in detail in (Zuccaro et al. 2010)
2.3.2 Ash-Fall
The ash fall on the territory has roughly an elliptical
shape, with load densities decreasing with distance.
Thus the parameters needed to describe the load
distribution of ashes on the ground are:
– The direction of the main axis of the ellipse (main
falling direction).
– The size of ellipse axes.
– The maximum load density (corresponding to the
areas near the crater).
– The density decay law (with distance increase).
The phenomenon has been deeply studied by INGV-
OV Research Unit (Macedonio et al. 2008), which
developed a map of possible ash fall distributions
varying with the direction of prevailing winds. The
elaborations show the load distribution on the ground
for 16 azimuthal sectors (π/8) corresponding to pos-
sible directions of prevailing wind at the time of the
eruption.
To model the phenomenon correctly, it must be
taken into account the most frequent wind directions in
the area, associating to each direction the correspon-
dent probability. Each sector is therefore associated to
the probability that the wind would be exactly in that
direction; the statistic is based on a 10 years database
of meteorological observations (NOA).
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 2. Distribution of the ash-fall on the region: East
sector (PLINIVS elaboration from INGV-OV data).
In Figure 2 the map of ashes distribution with a east
wind direction (having 16.75% probability to occur)
is reported.
By mean of a polynomial regression is determined
the wind probability density function (as a function
of azimuth α), this is used in the model to generate,
randomly, the ash fall direction.
The ash load for each cell is determined by interpo-
lating the load values corresponding to the two known
directions (kπ/8) closer to the chosen one.
The model can also accept as input a given direc-
tion according to meteo forecasts or simple arbitrarily
chosen.
2.3.3 Pyroclastic Flow
The modeling of the territorial distribution of pyroclas-
tic flows is an extremely complex issue and has been
studied in the last 10 years with numerical simulations
(Neri et al. 2008).
At the present time numerical modeling, while pro-
viding valuable information about the extent of the
phenomenon and the expected temperature and pres-
sure values, does not provide a complete picture of all
possible spatial distributions of pyroclastic flows. The
impact model has been then build up in order by few
parameters suitably chosen, whose values are random
variables with distributions derived from numerical
calculations.
The propagation of the flow obtained is extremely
simplified compared to numerical simulation process-
ing, but can still be considered acceptable for the
purposes of the model, considering the unavoidable
approximations that characterize the entire scenario
elaboration.
It is therefore assumed that the flow affects one
or more radial sectors with center in the crater. The
random variables involved are:
– The probability that the flow spreads in a given
azimuthal direction;
– The extent of the area affected by the flow;
– The decay of temperature and pressure as a function
of distance from the crater;
– The duration of each “pulse”.
2.3.4 Lahar
The probability of triggering mudslides depends
mainly on two factors: the land slope and the height of
the ash deposit on it after the eruption. At the present
state the study the model, although is able to deter-
mine the potential distribution of damage in the zones
possibly invaded by the flow, the input data of haz-
ard as: height of the flow, velocity, density, run out,
decay law, etc., are not yet available. Therefore, the
model is at the moment able to identify only the build-
ings “involved” without making any estimation of the
expected damage.
2.4 Inventory of buildings and vulnerability
The elements at risk considered in the analysis are the
building structures and the population in the vesuvian
villages of the Red and Yellow zone of the actual Plan
(Department of Civil Protection, “Piano Nazionale di
Emergenza dell’Area Vesuviana”). The inventory is
derived either from the census data (1991–2001) of the
Italian Institute of Statistic (ISTAT) or from specific
collections of data in the field carried out in the last 20
years of research in the area (Zuccaro 2000, Zuccaro
et al. 2009).
Specific survey forms containing all the informa-
tion required for a complete characterization of the
structures resistance have been prepared.
A Geographic Information System (GIS) of the fac-
tors influencing the building response for EQ, PF and
AF has been set.
2.4.1 Seismic structural vulnerability
The vulnerability scale adopted is the one proposed
proposed by EMS (European Macroseismic Scale)
based on 6 vulnerability classes (A, B, C, D, E, F).
The first 4 classes has taken into account, assuming
negligible in the region the presence of E and F type.
Combining vertical and horizontal structure classi-
fication a first assignment to the vulnerability clas-
sification of the building structure has been done;
then, through an original procedure (SAVE-first level)
that takes into account other constructive character-
istics influencing the seismic response, the final EQ
vulnerability class is assigned (Zuccaro et al 2006).
This procedure has allowed to determine the seis-
mic vulnerability of approximately 45,000 buildings.
Through appropriate correlation between these build-
ings and the ISTAT database (2001 census), for each
cell of the model, the seismic vulnerability classes
distribution has been estimated.
2.4.2 Ash-fall roof vulnerability
The roof vulnerability classification in Table 1 is
based on the roof structural typologies surveyed in
the region where this phenomenon is expected. Infor-
mation regarding 45,000 buildings in the Red zone
have been collected using a specific form. From this
data a relationship between seismic vulnerability and
roof vulnerability class is derived. The application
of this law allows to estimate the roof vulnerability
distribution for the whole set of buildings.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 1. Ash Fall – Roof Structural Classification.
Type Description
Ar Weak pitched wooden roof
Br Flat standard wooden roof
Reinforced concrete flat roof – SAP type
Weak steel and little vaults flat roof
C1r Flat R.C. roof older than 20 years
C2r Flat R.C. younger than 20 years
Recent flat R.C. flat roof
Dr Recent pitched R.C. roof
Recent pitched steel roof
Figure 3. Fragility curves for different roof typologies.
Unlike seismic vulnerability, in the case of the roofs
there is not a large literature concerning robust damage
statistics, so it is possible to assume the results of theo-
retical and experimental study made in the last decade
by PLINIVS research unit (Zuccaro et al. 2008), which
allow to build the fragility curves, according to the load
expected for each of the typological classes identified.
2.5 Pyroclastic flows impact vulnerability
The damage on buildings caused by pyroclastic flows
is a combination of mechanical impact and thermal
stress on the vertical surfaces of buildings.
The breaking of the openings (or infill panels) may
in fact indirectly cause the destruction or heavy dam-
ages to the building even when the lateral pressure
value does not affect the structural stability of the
building.
It should be therefore distinguished the risk of struc-
tural collapse (partial or total) from fire hazard due to
infiltration of the flow in the building.
Three classes of structural vulnerability for
masonry (A, B, C) and three for reinforced concrete
(D, E, F) have been identified. For each of these have
been defined the buildings classification criteria and
the collapse probabilities, as a function of the lateral
pressure of the flow and of the typological character-
istics. The result has been then extended to the entire
building stock through appropriate correlations with
the ISTAT database.
 The probability of openings (or infill panels) break-
ing and of flow infiltration has been then examined.
On the basis of experimental and numerical results
obtained in previous studies (Spence et al 2004), prob-
ability of openings collapse were calculated depend-
ing on the base of their size and type (material,
protection, etc).
This allows to develop a methodology to assign the
building vulnerability to infiltration, which expresses
the probability of damage due to infiltration and fire,
according to the type and percentage of openings.
2.6 Impact scenario simulation
The final impact scenario can be determined by a
parametric analysis of the cumulative damage that
the structure experiences in the possible sequence of
events. The problem can be treated as a progressive
deterioration of the building’s resistance characteris-
tics as represented by the damage level.
Assuming the structures can survive numerous
moderate events when the “elastic threshold” (con-
ventional for masonry buildings) is not exceeded,
and assuming that this corresponds to a damage
level ≤ D3, we can calibrate a model of cumulative
damage due to the sequence of events on the struc-
tures. An ideal elasto-plastic model is assumed with
damage D3 range centred on the elastic limit.
The total damage suffered by the buildings during
the whole eruptive process is evaluated using a com-
puterised model prepared for the purpose. This allows
to simulate the building damage distribution in the area
caused by the sequence of seismic events, by the accu-
mulation of vertical load due to ash-fall and by the
lateral pressure consequent to the pyroclastic flows.
An important characteristic of the model is the capa-
bility to “recalibrate itself” during the event sequence,
updating dynamically the building inventory and the
vulnerability assessment function.
2.7 Human damage
Considering the singularity of the eruptive event, the
assessment of the expected damage for the popula-
tion does not only depend on the violence of different
eruptive phenomena (earthquakes, ash fall, pyroclastic
flows, lahar), but even on the dynamics of popula-
tion movements in both phases, before and during the
event.
A proper emergency management, with an effec-
tive evacuation plan for the areas most exposed, can
drastically reduce the final number of victims.
It should also be considered that, at least during
the pre-eruptive seismic activity, the population will
be almost entirely in the area, because evacuation
will be starting only when the evolution of premon-
itory phenomena indicates the approach of a possible
eruption.
The evacuation, however, concerns only the area
potentially affected by pyroclastic flows, which rep-
resents a small part of total area affected by eruptive
phenomena, while in a vast territory, affected by ash
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
fall or possible lahar is expected that the population
remains in place.
Considering the huge number of people involved,
the simulations show that the potential damage to peo-
ple would be unacceptable even if only a small portion
of the population (up to 1,5%) won’t be evacuated.
The assessment of “casualties” assumes then a
crucial importance in the construction of impact sce-
narios, both in order to provide useful information for
emergency management decisions, a in perspective of
possible mitigation strategies.
The model considers separately the probability of
death or serious injury related to different phenom-
ena, and for each of them associated vulnerabilities
functions are identified.
2.8 Seismic casualties
Assuming as first approximation that the percentage
of seismic casualty is directly proportioned to the pop-
ulation density in the affected area (exposure), the
problem can be at first approached as follows:
Where:
Ki = ratio of injured; Kd = ratio of deaths
NT = number of people in the area
Ni = number of injured; Nd = number of deaths
We assume that the injured are people with severe
physical injuries requiring hospital first aid treatments.
The sum of Ki + Kd represents the total physical
damage to the population; the ratio Ki /Kd , is not
always constant. It has been observed (Wyss et al.
2009) that generally it varies accordingly the quality of
construction of the city, and that this ratio has signifi-
cantly increased in the last 50 years. This is especially
true in the industrialized countries, where nowadays it
is, in average, 2–3 times greater than in the developing
countries.
The possible factors influencing the casualties
occurring after an earthquake are many, the most
significant are:
– Structural damage.
Casualties are strongly correlated with the number
of partially (D4) or totally (D5) collapsed buildings
– Structural typology.
The rate of mortality is higher for framed structures
(especially for R.C. structures) than for masonry
structures, while the probability of injury for framed
structures is slightly higher but still comparable to
that for masonry buildings.
– Geometrical characteristic.
It has been observed that buildings having the same
volume show significant variations of the rate of
injury or deaths which are strongly dependant on
the number of the stories.
– Number of persons present in the building
This number can change depending on the hour of
the day and on the day of the week.
 Table 2. Casualty proportion by damage level and building type.

Damage level
Casualty Vertical Vulnerability
percentage D0 D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 structure class

% Death 0 0 0 0 0.04 0.15 Masonry A or B or C

% Death 0 0 0 0 0.08 0.3 R.C. C or D
% Injure 0 0 0 0 0.14 0.7 Masonry A or B or C
% Injure 0 0 0 0 0.12 0.5 R.C. C or D

Table 3. Revised casualty estimation for occupants of buildings which suffer roof collapse from
ash fall. (Spence et al. 2005).

Deaths Injuries

Class Form Mean Stdev Limits Mean Stdev Limits

Ar beta 0.17 0.034 0,0.33 2*dr 0.068 0, 0.67

Br beta 0.1 0.02 0,0.33 2*dr 0.04 0, 0.67
C1r, C2r beta 0.1 0.02 0,0.33 2*dr 0.04 0, 0.67
Dr beta 0.13 0.026 0,0.33 2*dr 0.052 0, 0.67

– Distribution of the population in different building
typologies
The density of the people in the building (Kb) can
be evaluated by the following ratio:
where:
Nb = number of persons in the building;
V = building volume.
This ratio is not dependant on the density of the
population in the area considered. The number of the
occupants of the building is dependent on the volume,
the typology and the age of the building.
It has to be taken into account that this kind of
estimation is calibrated using residential buildings,
therefore the ratio Kb can vary strongly for build-
ings having different use classes, such as industries,
schools, offices, churches, shopping centers, etc.
An average value of possible presence of the people
during the first earthquake is assumed and set at 65%
of the population. It is also considered that this per-
centage decreases gradually with successive shocks,
for a spontaneous home abandonment by the popula-
tion. Considering the present population, the number
of casualties and victims can be roughly determined
using the values in Table 2.
2.8.1 Casualties from tephra fall
Based on Spence et al 2005, separate rates for death
and serious injury have been adopted for each class of
roof Ar, Br, Cr and Dr, given that the roof collapses.
The proposed values are shown in Table 3.
2.8.2 Casualities from pyroclastic flow
No people would be present in buildings affected by
Pyroclastic Flows, because the whole population of
the area would be carried out in time, nevertheless
this study investigates what will happen to the people
that would remain in the area eluding the evacuation.
According to the pressure and temperature of the flow,
different circumstances may arise.
a) In case of structural failure (walls or frame) as a
result of pyroclastic flow pressure, i.e. damage level
D4 or D5: all occupants are assumed killed.
b) In case of windows failure, due to the combination
of flow temperature and pressure, casualties depend
on the propagation of the hot flow infiltration in
the building, and this is conditioned by the plan
arrangement.
c) If the temperature is so high to cause fire, all the
present people are considered death.
d) In case of pressures which are not high enough to
break windows, infiltration of hot flow materials
into the building will take place through the nor-
mal ventilation routes. The rates of death and injury
then depend on the duration of the pyroclastic flow
pulse, its temperature, and the ventilation rate of
the building.
2.9 Software development
A study model has been developed using Office
Automation application. The need was to obtain a
more effective software than the original prototype
developed in the Exploris EU Project.
A first phase consisted in the analysis and schema-
tization of the application, followed by the supporting
geo-database implementation.
A structured database is now the framework in
background to the model and to the GIS fruition.
In the geo-database developed, the change from the
original radial grid to a rectangular with uniform
square cells of 250 × 250 m produces a great one

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 4. Final impact scenario. Collapsed buildings.
increase in the amount of data to be processed during
the modeling phases. The increased data processing
capacity, assured by a relational DBMS system, allows
to manage all these data and to develop a more robust
model. Software is based on PostgreSQL DBMS with
PostGIS extensions for geographic data management
and geographic calculation in SQL. Based on the
blocks of the existing model in Access a new organized
and more powerful application was developed writing
in procedural SQL (PlPgSQL) all the needed func-
tions for data access and calculation, under the control
of a client application developed with MS Visual Stu-
dio 2008 for the model parameters and simulations
choices. All the modeling results residing in the geo-
database are easily accessible with an integration layer
with systems for geographic data sharing based on the
OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) standard proto-
cols WMS and WMF. So results projected on the cells
of the geographic grid or grouped by municipality are
easily accessible in real time for visualization or other
data processing in GIS applications.
2.10 Results
The model was tested using the most probable scenar-
ios, but it can be used to produce a standard Monte
Carlo Simulation that allows to find the variations in
the output results of scenario by varying the eruption
parameters. Mean and variance of each parameter can
be used as input; the output of the model will be :
– mean and var. of buildings “lost” (D4+D5);
– mean and var. of the roofs collapsed;
– mean and var. of the number of buildings ignited;
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
– mean and var. of the windows failed;
– mean and var. of the homeless;
– mean and var. of the n. of victims;
– mean and var. of the n. of injuries; (once fixed the
decay law for presence of occupants).
The procedure also allows to estimate the maximum
possible value of one specific output variable. This
can be assumed by maximising it along the iterations
through a standard random walk procedure. The results
can be used either in the Civil Protection Planning or
during the Emergency Phase.
REFERENCES
Convertito, V. & Zollo, A. 2009. Assessment of pre- and
syn-crisis seismic hazard at Vesuvio and Campi Flegrei
volcanoes, Campania region southern Italy. Bulletin of
Volcanology (submitted).
Macedonio, G. Costa,A. Folch,A. 2008.Ash fallout scenarios
atVesuvius: numerical simulations and hazard assessment
implications. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal
Research 178 (3): 366–377.
Spence, R.J.S. Zuccaro, G. Petrazzuoli, S. Baxter, P.J. 2004.
Resistance of buildings to pyroclastic flows: analyti-
cal and experimental studies and their application to
Vesuvius. Natural Hazards Review 5 (48): 48–59.
Spence, R. Kelman, I. Baxter, P. Zuccaro, G. & Petrazzuoli,
S. 2005. Residential building and occupant vulnerability
to tephra fall. Natural Hazards and Earth Systems Science
5: 477–494.
Zuccaro, G. Papa, F. Baratta, S. 2000. Aggiornamento delle
mappe a scala nazionale di vulnerabilità sismica delle
strutture edilizie. Rome: CNR-GNDT.
Zuccaro, G. Cacace, F. 2006. Valutazione speditiva della
Vulnerabilità per gli edifici strategici della Regione Cam-
pania, Ingegneria Sismica 2.
Zuccaro, G. Cacace, F. Spence, R.J.S. Baxter, P.J. 2008.
Impact of explosive eruption scenarios at Vesuvius. Jour-
nal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 178 (3):
416–453.
Zuccaro, G. Cacace, F. 2010. Seismic impact scenarios in the
volcanic areas in Campania (submitted).
D.P.C. 1995, Pianificazione Nazionale d’Emergenza dell’Area
Vesuviana. Roma: Italian Civil Protection Department.
D.P.C. 2001,Aggiunte e varianti alle partiA3, B, C1 e C2 della
Pianificazione Nazionale d’Emergenza dell’Area Vesu-
viana. Proposta di Aggiornamento. Roma: Italian Civil
Protection Department.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

MEDEA: A multimedia and didactic handbook for structural damage

and vulnerability assessment – L’Aquila Case Study

G. Zuccaro, F. Cacace & M. Rauci

PLINIVS Study Centre, University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

ABSTRACT: The evaluation of damage due to a seismic event on both masonry and reinforced concrete
buildings is a central problem at different levels within the scientific community. The paper presents MEDEA
(Manual for Earthquake Damage Evaluation and safety Assessment), a self-training multimedia tool for seismic
damage evaluation. The different sections of this didactic tool represent a guided, step-by-step training path,
which allows the users to develop knowledge either to understand the typological characteristics of the buildings
or to evaluate the damage; both of which are very important aspects in the final judgment of safety. The CD-Rom
has been produced with particular care in designing a very simple and easy interface, combining the applications
contained to the best effect. MEDEA is divided into main sections, following a principle of logical continuity.

1 INTRODUCTION MEDEA is therefore mainly addressed to the tech-

The evaluation of the damage due to a seismic event on
masonry or reinforced concrete buildings is a central
problem inside the scientific community and one of the
main factor for a post-event macroseismic assessment.
Researchers attention is mainly focused on the identi-
fication of criteria and methods able to guarantee an
objective evaluation, in order to find out the best cor-
relation between the parameters measuring the seismic
action and the damage.
At present many uncertainties and ambiguities exist
either in the definition of the damage levels to assume
or in the identification of the damage by the opera-
tors working in the survey. Moreover, during the post
event emergency, the technicians always have to take
decisions concerning the real safety of the buildings.
To this aim, it has been realized (Zuccaro et al, 2002)
a dedicated software, MEDEA (Manual for Earth-
quake Damage Evaluation and safety Assessment),
that offers interesting cues for an ‘objective’ evalua-
tion of such damage. According to MEDEA, it could
be possible to derive the most frequent damage typolo-
gies in masonry and reinforced concrete structures
and a possible damaging model for quick and guided
safety assessment. In fact, the damage assessment pro-
tocol is supported by forms where every damage type
is described with notes, iconographic representations
showing different damage levels, and possible links
to their associated collapse mechanisms. This helps to
reduce the level of uncertainty in the assessment of
safety during the survey. It contains a technical glos-
sary, a picture archive and a section describing seismic
damage analyses, which are also linked to compatible
collapse mechanisms. It also contains a section on vir-
tual reality examples of damage surveys and safety
evaluations.
nicians either involved in vulnerability assessment or
employed in post event macroseismic evaluation. In
both cases the uniqueness of the judgment of the sur-
veyors is very important, because of the scientific
aspects resulting from a standard damage measure
(useful for the improving of the vulnerability func-
tion on one hand, and for a bigger harmonization in
defining macroseismic fields on the other) and for the
social aspects concerning the civil protection deriv-
ing from reliable damage estimation and static safety
evaluation.
In addition MEDEA has showed to be an interest-
ing teaching tool for university courses in the field of
seismic engineering or emergency management.
2 MEDEA MULTIMEDIA TOOL
2.1 The logic structure of MEDEA and its gradual
understanding path
The multimedia handbook MEDEA is structured so
that the user can have a gradual understanding way. In
fact, the different sections represent a guided training
path able to create in the users, step by step, a sensibil-
ity either to understand the typological characteristics
of the buildings or to evaluate the damage, which are
both very important aspects of the final judgement of
safety.
The CD-Rom has been made with particular care
in designing a very simple and easy interface, com-
bining the applications contained to the best effect.
MEDEA is divided into main sections, following a
principle of logical continuity. Each section is closely
cross-referenced, thanks to search functions, queries
and hypertext links.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 2.2 The preliminary sections: glossary
and archive
The first section of MEDEA concerns a detailed dic-
tionary of the main terms frequently used in technical
and scientific field. The glossary represents a crucial
step to define an unified terminology either for the
reciprocals comprehension among the technicians or
to improve the homogeneity in the typological element
classification and in the damage measuring. Every
term of the dictionary is associated to some pictures
and graphics, to a descriptive text, and links to other
terms in the glossary. Moreover a search of terms
alphabetically or by category is possible. The terms are
organized into five different categories: a) building
and its structural elements; b) structural seismic dam-
age; c) site equipment in the emergency; d) provisional
interventions; e) environment.
The second section of the tool is an archive con-
taining a rich anthology of pictures showing different
structural typologies and different levels and types of
damages. The picture archive aims to give an essential
basic knowledge of the observed damages and typolo-
gies in order to improve the capability of interpretation
and judgment that the technicians must have during the
post-event inspections that will be tested then in the
following sections of the tool. A set of information is
joined to every picture of the archive; moreover query
either on single information field or on combined ones
are possible. This option allows to select picture sub-
set with specific characteristics, that could result quite
useful, for example, in macroseismic survey.
Figure 1. MEDEA section frame: a) the glossary; b) the
archive.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
2.3 The evaluation of the seismic damage
The most important part of MEDEA is constituted
by a detailed catalogue of the main damages on
structural and no structural elements of masonry
buildings.
The multimedia catalogue represents a further step
of fundamental importance in the training of the tech-
nicians involved in the safety check of the buildings
in the post event phase; in fact it supplies to the user
a guided path among the basic criteria of the structure
behaviour in order to develop interpretation skill on
the observed damages.
The damages classification of the structures of
the masonry buildings is aided by their interpreta-
tion as possible collapse mechanisms. Therefore the
catalogue is organised on the base of logic rules to
address at the most probable mechanism identifica-
tion. This section is, therefore, constituted by three
subsections: Collapse Mechanisms Abacus; Damages
Abacus; Interactive Training Table.
The Collapse Mechanisms Abacus is an accurate
work of synthesis, where the authors try to clas-
sify the main recognisable collapse mechanisms for a
standard structure. These mechanisms are firstly clas-
sified, even for masonry or for reinforced concrete
buildings, as:
• Global mechanisms are those mechanisms involv-
ing the structures as a whole and then related to the
evolution of the cracks in a sufficient number of ele-
ments such that a total compromising of the static
and dynamic equilibrium of the structural system is
achieved.
• Local mechanisms: are concerned to marginal parts
of the structure; their evolution, even if determines
the collapse of a single element, generally does not
involve the whole structural equilibrium.
For masonry structures, the global mechanisms
have been subdivided as follows:
• in plane: these mechanisms occurs when the walls
of the masonry box, excited by in plan actions
in both versus, respond by showing the classical
diagonal X cracks, consequent to the formation
of diagonal compressive beams. This mechanisms
are due to poor tensile strength of the masonry
material;
• out of plane: damage mechanisms that appear
through an out of plane kinematism of one or more
walls of the masonry box that, under seismic actions,
loses his own original toothing connection between
the walls of the facade and the orthogonal ones,
possibly aided by the action of thrusting floors and
roofs;
• other mechanisms: in this category are classified
those mechanisms that couldn’t directly be recog-
nized as in plane or out of plane, nevertheless are
able to involve the building as a whole, generat-
ing the total collapse of the structure (i.e. floor
 and roof beam unthreading, irregularity between
adjacent structures, etc.);
while the local mechanisms have been classified as:
• for localized dislocation: these mechanisms are
those, for example, that arise for arch or archi-
trave failure, or in part of the structure characterized
by different irregularities, often connected to sig-
nificant stiffness variations (i.e. non appropriate
retrofitting such as R.C. intervention in masonry
structure, etc.). The phenomenon generally deter-
mines the crumbling and the expulsion of the
material in the neighbourhood of the involved part;
• for thrusting elements: these mechanisms are deter-
mined by the action of single elements that produce
horizontal thrust on the supporting structures; good
examples are the thrusting elements of a roof or the
vaults, the thrust action of which is not sufficiently
balanced by suitable devices.
On the base of this classification 16 different col-
lapse mechanisms for the masonry structures related
to seismic damages and described by schemes, notes
and photos have been classified. These are shown in
Figure 2(a–b).
For reinforced concrete structures, the global mech-
anisms have been subdivided as follows:
• strong beam – weak column: these mechanisms
occurs in buildings characterized by high strength
beams against columns with appreciable lower
resistance, in terms of their relative ratio compared
to the seismic action demand.This causes the arising
of plastic hinges in the columns (weaker) instead of
the beams (stronger), with the subsequent concen-
tration of inelastic deformation in the pillars. The
mechanisms could involve all or several storeys,
leading to ruinous collapses as “pancake type”.
Figure 2a. Abacus of the global collapse mechanisms for
masonry structures.
Figure 2b. Abacus of the local collapse mechanisms for
masonry structures.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
• weak beam – strong column: these mechanisms
occurs in buildings characterized by low strength
beams against columns with appreciable higher
resistance, in terms of their relative ratio compared
to the seismic action demand. The development
of plastic hinges in the beams (weaker) prevents
from the arising of hinges in the pillars (stronger),
therefore the inelastic deformation gather in the
beams. The mechanisms could occur for bending in
the beams (more ductile), shear in the beams (less
ductile) or iron bars unthreading;
• weak nodes: these mechanisms occur when the
structural frame is characterized by less resistant
nodes compared to the actions transferred by beams
and columns. The mechanism starts with the aris-
ing of diagonal cracks in the junctions up to notable
sliding between beam and column. The collapse of
more junctions causes the frame lability, the loss of
the equilibrium and the subsequent collapse of the
whole structure.
• weak storey: these mechanisms occurs in build-
ings with a storey less strength than the others,
namely with a demand/resistance ratio significantly
different at one level respect to the others. It usually
is due to the lack, at that level, of elements (i.e.
infill panels) able to give more strength against the
horizontal actions. In these cases, seismic energy is
mainly dissipated through the rupture mechanism at
that floor;
• foundation subsidence: these mechanism occurs
when seismic actions involve the foundation level
causing a vertical subsidence effects; in these cases
the structures show one direction diagonal cracks in
the infill panels, tacking out of horizontal alignment
in the beams and cracks at the ends, or increasing
vertical cracks along the height of the building. In
some cases, characterized by high stiffness struc-
tural frame and widespread subsidence extension
causing, the building could show a rigid rotation or
sliding movements
while the local mechanisms have been classified as:
• due to structural elements: in this category are
classified those mechanism caused by structural ele-
ments producing a localized action in a part of the
structure, as the hammering between adjacent build-
ings, the strut action at the column ends by the infill
panels, the floor collapse caused by a large displace-
ments at a junction seat; usually these circumstances
are due to a structural deficiency;
• due to the infill panels or partitions: these mecha-
nisms are similar to the ones occurring to masonry
structures, connected to the poor tensile strength of
the material; they could produce in plane or out of
plane ruptures,
• due to the roof collapse: these mechanisms occurs
for the collapse of weak masonry wall supporting
the roof or for the thrusting effect in sloping roof.
On the base of this classification the collapse mech-
anisms for R.C. structures related to seismic damages
 Figure 3a. Abacus of the global collapse mechanisms for
R.C. structures.

Figure 3b. Abacus of the local collapse mechanisms for

R.C. structures.

and described by schemes, notes and photos have been

classified, as shown in figure 3(a–b).
For R.C. structures, in addition to the previous Figure 4. Logical structure of mechanism abacus for
ones, mechanisms for R.C. walls are classified, taking Masonry and R.C. structures.
into account the differences among different struc-
tural typologies: single walls (solid or with various
openings), double walls, walls/frame.
The kinematics models and the collapse multipliers
of the most frequents CMs are determined through spe-
cific functions. An example of partial wall overturning
for masonry structures is reported below.
In the old masonry buildings the walls, in some
cases are made with two vertical layers without suffi-
cient connection in between.
Generally the mechanism involve the external layer
Figure 5. Mechanism M6 – Partial wall overturning.
only. However sometimes the internal wall interacts
with the external one speeding the collapse.
The example is referred to out of plane mechanisms
of one storey wall, considering either one and two layer Foj Horizontal Component of the arches
wall. thrust or on the vaults at the i th floor
level;
A) One Layer wall Pi Weight of the floor acting on the wall at
the i th floor level on the basis of the
influence area;
Ti Maximum value of the action of a pos-
sible tie at the top of the wall at the i th
B) Two Layers wall
floor level;
N Vertical live loads of the upper floors
acting at the top of the wall, supposed
centred on the centroid of the section;
where: Si Thickness of the wall at the i th floor
i = (1,…i th,.. ,n) number of storeys; level;
Wi Live load of the wall at i th floor; Hi Height of the wall of the macro element
Fvi Vertical Component of the arches thrust at the i th floor with respect to his centre
or on the vaults at the i th floor level; of rotation;

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Figure 6. One layer wall.
Figure 7. Two layers wall.
yai Height of the arches or vaults thrust at
the i th floor with respect to the centre of
rotation;
xai Horizontal distance of the arches or
vaults thrust at the i th floor with respect
to the centre of rotation;
xpi Horizontal distance of the weight of the
i th floor with respect to the centre of
rotation;
yGi Height of the centroid of the wall at i
th floor with respect to the centre of
rotation;
α0 Multiplier of the horizontal forces.
The Damage Abacus provides, for each single ele-
ment (vertical structures, horizontal structures, stairs,
non structural elements), a classification of the main
damages that may be found by an observed survey.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 8. Excerpt of damage abacus for masonry structures
(refer to MEDEA multimedia handbook for the complete
abacus).
Every damage type is described by a specific form
containing notes, iconographic review showing differ-
ent damage levels following a predefined scale. The
basic idea is to create a tool to assist macroseimic
assessment and the surveyors to better compile the
sections of the safety form concerning a synthetic eval-
uation of the damage level for the structural component
analyzed (only for masonry structures, MEDEA pro-
vides 23 different types of vertical structure damage,
13 different types of horizontal structure damage, 7
different types of stair damage, 6 different types of
non structural damage).
Nevertheless, the structure of MEDEA tool allows
to make also different kind of analyses, such the
possibility of defining the expected service life of
building structures, in order to integrate LCA (Life
Cycle Assessment) and LCC (Life Cycle Costs)
studies.
According to this specific point of view, the anal-
ysis of visible damages due to past destructive events
or potential damages due to vulnerability factors iden-
tified (Zuccaro & Leone, 2010, this issue) is linked to
the need of reliable information about the expectation
of life of structural components in case of retrofit or
refurbishment intervention.
MEDEA tool can be used to evaluate the oppor-
tunity of maintenance or strengthening interventions
according to the damage and vulnerability parameters
identified.
Possible correlation between the safety condition
of the building and its expectation of life are deriv-
able either considering standard functions of resistance
decay due to lack of maintenance or by seismic inten-
sity return period and expectation of damages for
specific building classes.
MEDEA can then be used either in the post-event
phase, as tool to perform on the basis of the cracking
path and of the potential collapse mechanisms about to
be activated the safety check of the buildings either in
the vulnerability assessments, as tool to identify vul-
nerability factors responsible of potential activation of
collapse mechanisms and to evaluate possible inter-
ventions of improvement and upgrading as mitigation
 measure to reduce the effects of the vulnerability • the constructive typology (horizontal and verti-
factors, in order to parameterise the expected service cal structures), which a vulnerability class can be
life. associated to;
At last, an hypothesis of possible links to other • the damage level expressed both for every single
damages on the same examined elements or on those constructive element and for the whole building;
elements of the structure, that could be recognized as • the safety assessment of the building;
compatible with respect to a specific collapse mecha- • the possible provisional interventions to be
nism, is given. This aspect seems to be, certainly, the adopted.
most interesting one; in fact, though it doesn’t pretend
to be exhaustive and strictly irrefutable, it gives a lec- Moreover, the tool allows control on the judgement
ture key of the single damage in global terms respect capability achieved by the surveyor.
to the response of the whole structural system. This
is performed through the analysis in diagnostics key
of the whole cracking frame, characterised by different
damages, all compatible with respect to a single mech-
anism. Therefore, the aim is to offer a tool able to drive
the analysis of the structure through a step by step
process of associations among the exiting damages,
in order to recognize them as congruent to a possible
global structural behaviour.
In this direction, the interactive training table, in
this section of MEDEA, seems particularly interest-
ing for damage – mechanism correlation. In this table
all the mechanisms and all vertical and horizontal
damages of the catalogue with their own codes are
listed. The interactive table, for every damage selected
by the user, shows the possible mechanisms congru-
ent to the chosen damage. Therefore, the user could Figure 10. The safety evaluation section, interactive training
table.
choose a mechanism to investigate and then he can
select in multi-choice mode the compatible damage
typologies; the tool allows to verify in progress the
congruence between these damage typologies and
the chosen mechanism.

2.4 The training in safety evaluation

The final part of MEDEA in constituted by a training
section, in which some damaged buildings, realized by
QTVR technology, are shown (figure 10). These exam-
ples allow the user to perform training paths designed
for safety analyses and therefore to express evaluations
on different aspects, such as:

Figure 11. An example of the damage description form and

the interactive training table.

Figure 9. Excerpt of damage abacus for vertical R.C.

structures (refer to MEDEA multimedia handbook for the Figure 12. Frequencies of the observed collapse mecha-
complete abacus). nisms against to the global damage.

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3 AN APPLICATION TO THE ABRUZZO
EARTHQUAKE (APRIL 06, 2009)
3.1 Case study results
On the base of the described approach to the analysis
of seismic damage, a specific survey form (MEDEA
form) has been elaborated to be used in a on field
data collection in the Comune of L’Aquila (Abruzzo
earthquake, April 06, 2009). Through this tool a set of
data on damage and collapse mechanisms have been
collected in order to analyze the exiting correlation, as
showed in Figure 6.
Figure 13. Damage distribution for different type of
mechanism.
Figure 14. MEDEA survey form.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Moreover the MEDEA survey form has allowed
to collect information about the in progress collapse
mechanisms on the damaged structures and finally
to make a hypothesis about the genesis of the total
collapse. This could be reached through the grow-
ing up of different mechanisms, whose sequence is
significantly correlated to the typological-structural
characteristics of the building and to intrinsic material
behaviour.
In order to define a synthetic parameter to be used
in different kind of studies (LCA, LCC, Safety Assess-
ment), a further development of MEDEA tool consists
in the definition of a procedure to evaluate a Safety
Index IA , based on the analysis of the evolution degree
of the prevalent mechanism recognized in the building.
Of course this index couldn’t be assumed as an auto-
matic judgement for the safety assessment, but it offers
to the operators an interesting parameter for heuristic
evaluations.
Furthermore, a correlation between the Safety
Index range and the global damage has been inves-
tigated, defining media and deviation standard values.
These results, compared to the real safety judgements
collecting on the fields, have allowed to found a bound
value for the Safety Index. Therefore a probabilistic
correlation, in terms of percentage of unsafe buildings
respect to the total buildings showing a certain level
of global damage, has been defined.
Future development of the procedure, added to a
larger amount of data set, will allow to define a more
confident threshold value for the Safety Index and
more refined density probability functions.
This perspective represents an interesting cues to
reach quick safety evaluations both on a territory
 stricken by a seismic events, both in “peace time” as
design supporting procedure.
3.2 Conclusions
The paper points out the importance of collecting data
on damage as much detailed and codified as possible,
so that the different approaches to the vulnerabil-
ity assessment proposed by the scientific community
could take advantage from such a kind of unambigu-
ous and homogenised survey. To this aim the authors
propose a complete collection of photos, drawings
and detailed descriptions in order to improve the dam-
age data collection and the understanding of the safety
condition of the buildings in the post event phase. The
importance of an homogeneous understanding of the
terms used, the damages observed and the potential
collapse mechanisms is traced in the paper and a pos-
sible guided path of interpretation is provided. Hence
the multimedia handbook MEDEA for technicians
training is presented; it represents an important step
toward the harmonisation of the post event data cam-
paigns. Moreover MEDEA provides the first attempt
to categorise all possible collapse mechanisms of
a masonry and reinforced concrete structure under
seismic action and associates at each collapse mecha-
nisms considered a set of possible damages compatible
with it.
Of course, the adoption of MEDEA at international
level requires a regionalization of the procedure, since
the difference in building construction techniques and
materials used in different countries.
REFERENCES
Angeletti, P. Bellina, A. Guagenti, E. Moretti, A. Petrini, V.
1988. Comparison between Vulnerability Assessment and
Damage Index, Some Results, Proceed. 9th World Confer-
ence on Earthquake Engineering, 9WCEE, Tokyo-Kyoto.
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Baggio, C. Bernardini, A. Colozza, R. Corazza, L. Della
Bella, M. Di Pasquale, G. Dolce, M. Goretti, A. Martinelli,
A. Orsini, G. Papa, F. Zuccaro, G. 2000. Manuale di
istruzioni per la compilazione della “Scheda di I livello
di rilevamento del danno, pronto intervento ed agibilità
nell’emergenza post-sismica (AeDES)”, Roma: Diparti-
mento della Protezione Civile.
Bernardini, A. Gori, R. Muneratti, E. Paggiarin, C. Parisi, O.
Zuccaro, G. Vulnerability and probability of collapse for
classes of masonry buildings. In Faccioli, E. e Pessina,
V. (ed). 2000. The Catania Project: earthquake damage
scenarios for high risk area in the Mediterranean, Roma:
Esagrafica.
Braga, F. Dolce, M. Fabrizi, C. Liberatore, D. 1986. Eval-
uation of a Conventionally Defined Vulnerability of
Buildings Based on Surveyed Damage Data, Proceed.
10th European Conference on Earthquake Engineering,
Lisbon.
D’Ayala, D. Spence, R.J.S. Oliveira, C.S. Papa, F. Zuccaro,
G. 2000. The Performance Of Strengthened Masonry
Buildings In Recent European Earthquakes. Proceed. 9th
World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, 12WCEE,
Auckland.
Dolce, M. Zuccaro, G. Papa, F. Masi, A. 2002. Remarks
On The Seismic Damage In The Recent Earthquakes In
Europe. Proceed. 12th European Conference on Earth-
quake Engineering, London: Elsevier Science Ltd.
Papa, F., Zuccaro, G. 2004. Un modello di valutazione
dell’agibilità post-sismica attraverso la stima dei mec-
canismi di collasso. Atti dell’XI Congresso Nazionale
“L’ingegneria Sismica in Italia”, Genova.
Zuccaro, G. Papa, F. 1999. Inspection minutes process for
the measurement of the seismic damage. In Bernardini, A.
(ed). Seismic Damage to masonry buildings, Rotterdam:
Balkema.
Zuccaro, G. Papa, F. 2002. Multimedia handbook for seismic
damage evaluation and post event macroseismic assess-
ment, 50th Anniversary of the European Seismological
Commission (ESC): XXVIII General Assembly, Genova.
 Protecting, strengthening and repairing
Fire damaged structures

© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Examination, assessment and repair of RC structure damaged by fire

M. Cvetkovska & Lj. Lazarov

Faculty of Civil Engineering, University “St. Cyril and Methodius”, Skopje, Macedonia

ABSTRACT: In November 2008 a part of the structure of “Refinery–Okta” in Skopje was in fire and the
last three spans were completely burned. According to the damages recorded in situ, it was found out that fire
caused severe damage to the reinforced concrete bearing structure. For realization of the repair project of the
RC structure, nonlinear and transient thermal analysis, nonlinear stress-strain analysis of the frame structure
and experimental determination of the residual concrete strength after action of fire were recommended. Results
obtained by this analysis are presented in this paper. The global repair recommendations are given, also.

1 INTRODUCTION reinforcement, type A III (according to our regula-

Two years ago a part of the structure of “Refinery-
Okta” in Skopje, used for primary processing of crude
oil, was in fire. The burning process was supported
by the crude oil and gasoline. The fire started in the
second span of the open structure, but quickly spread
to the first three spans. Fire duration, according to
the witnesses, was about one hour, but the caused
effect indicates that it lasted longer and that temper-
ature in the fire section was up to 1100◦ C. Fire was
extinguished by using water and foam.
2 EXAMINATION AND ASSESSMENT OF RC
STRUCTURE DAMAGED BY FIRE
2.1 Basic data about the structure
The object was built in 1978 and the technical project
documentation was done by a design bureau from
Moskva, Rusia. The load-bearing structure is classic
skeletal reinforced concrete structure (Figs 1, 4). The
reinforced concrete frames are placed on 6.0 m. Basic
frame elements are:
– columns S1, dimensions 60 × 80 cm,
– beams G1, dimensions 55 × 100 cm,
– crane beams G2, dimensions 35 × 70 cm.
The beams that support the reinforced concrete
full slab (8.0 cm thick), are placed in longitudinal
direction:
– beams B1(at the edge), dimensions 30 × 60 cm,
– beams B2, dimensions 45 × 60 cm,
– beams B3, dimensions 30 × 60 cm.
Special cooling systems are placed on the slab.
Reinforcement details were available from the tech-
nical project documentation. The design value of
concrete compressive strength, for all elements, is
fc = 30 Mpa. All columns and beams have ribbed bar
tion RA 400–500). Stirrups are from mild reinforce-
ment Ø8, type A I (according to our regulation GA
240–360). For the slabs reinforcement type AI and AIII
is used.
Data on the design loads, as well as static and
dynamic calculations, were not available.
2.2 Visual inspection of structure
Based on the data gathered through detailed visual
survey of the bearing structural elements, the follow-
ing characteristic damages of beams and slabs were
recorded: change of concrete color; fissures and cracks
inside the concrete mass; cracks along main reinforce-
ment, crushing of concrete and falling off of concrete
parts along the edges of linear elements up to the
reinforcement. White color of the surface concrete
layers was caused by the chemical reaction between
the water, used for extinguishing the fire, and the
dehydrated carbonate aggregate (Figs 1, 2). This phe-
nomenon is followed by expansion of concrete mass up
to 44% and causes cracks in concrete mass, Bazant &
Kaplan (1996).
Due to the openness of the space and the continuous
supply of oxygen and oil, the flames spread high under
the slab and the columns were exposed to lower tem-
peratures. These elements were not visually damaged,
cracks were not recorded and the concrete color was
rose-red, that indicates temperatures less then 600◦ C.
2.3 Experimental determination of the residual
concrete strength
Temperature over 400◦ C causes reduction of the com-
pressive strength and other mechanical properties of
concrete and this process is irreversible (the strength
of concrete does not recover in the cooling phase).
The mechanical properties of hot welded steel (rein-
forcing bars) decrease as well, but in the cooling phase
they increase again. According to these statements and

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Figure 1. Disposition of the beams in the second span and
change of concrete color due to chemical reaction.
Figure 2. Locations where the concrete specimens were
taken from the beams of the second span and change of
concrete color due to chemical reaction.
for realization of the repair project of the RC struc-
ture, experimental and numerical determination of the
residual concrete strength was recommended. Based
on previous Schmidt hammer testing results, the loca-
tions of the eight concrete specimens, taken only from
lateral side of the RC beams, were defined (Fig. 2).
The concrete specimens were tested at the Test-
ing laboratory of the Faculty of Civil Engineering
in Skopje. Before testing all the specimens were
divided in two slices. The deteriorated (burned)
slices had small height (3–6 cm) and rough surface
(Fig. 3). Resulting average value for the residual con-
crete strength of burned slices was fc,r = 9.24 Mpa,
Cvetkovska & Lazarov (2008). Lower values were
expected for the concrete layers at the bottom of the
beams (directly exposed to the flames) but, because of
the position of the reinforcement, specimens were not
taken from this location. This statement and the testing
results were confirmed by the numerical thermal anal-
ysis of the fired beams. Hammer testing, testing results
of the concrete specimens taken from locations that
were not fired, as well as test results of the unburned
slices, confirmed that the compressive strength of the
carbonate aggregate concrete before the action of fire
was fco = 30 MPa.
2.4 Numerical determination of the residual
concrete strength
Thermal response of the fired structure (Fig. 4) has
been investigated analytically. Element’s geometry,
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 3. Concrete specimens before testing.
support conditions, concrete cover thickness, type of
aggregate, compression strength of concrete, steel
ratio and defined fire scenario were taken into account
while the nonlinear and transient temperature field and
the concrete strength reduction in the cross section of
the elements exposed to fire were determined.
The computer program FIRE, Cvetkovska (2002),
was used to solve this problem and the following
assumptions were made:
– Fire was modeled by a single valued gas temperature
history and in this case ISO 834 fire model was used.
According to data gathered in situ it was assumed
that the maximum fire temperature of 1100◦ C was
reached at the moment t = 1.5hours and after that
the cooling period started. This temperature was
reached only in the zones under the slab, but in the
lower zones it was approximately 50% less than the
maximum one.
– Temperature dependent material properties were
known (recommended in EC2).
– The fire boundary conditions were modelled in
terms of both convective and radiating heat transfer
mechanisms.
– The easy heat penetration, after cracks had appeared,
or some parts of the cross section had crushed, was
neglected.
The results of the nonlinear thermal analysis are pre-
sented by graphs. The isotherms in the cross section
of the beam B2, at moment t = 1.5 hour, are presented
on Figure 5a. The beam was fired only from the bot-
tom and lateral sides but, because the space was open,
on the top of the slab the temperature was proportional
to the temperature under the slab (approximately 25%
of the temperature reached under the slab) and the
beam was heated from both sides, but not with the
same intensity.
The residual concrete strength after cooling period
is presented on Figure 5b. Calculation results indi-
cate that on the side of the fire, in 3–4 cm thick layer,
which is 25–30% of the cross section of the beam,
the strength reduction is significant and the residual
strength of concrete is 10 Mpa in average.These results
correspond well with experimental results obtained by
laboratory testing of specimens taken from the same
RC beam. In the cross section core the strength of
concrete is not reduced.
In the time of construction, the stirrups were not
well tied to the reinforcing bars and almost in all beams
Figure 4. Schematic layout presentation of the fired structure.

Figure 6. Time dependent temperatures in reinforcing bars

of the beam B2 which is exposed to fire from three sides.

Figure 5. a) Isotherms in the cross section of the beam

B2 (t=1.5hours), b) residual concrete strength after cooling
phase.

there were thick concrete layers between the stirrups

and the bars.The bars were placed high in the cross sec-
tion and the concrete cover thickness from the bottom
side was 6–7 cm. This has adverse effect in decreas-
ing the internal lever arm and the bearing capacity of
the beams, but in case of fire it helps the temperature
in reinforcing bars to be lower than in case when the
concrete cover thickness is only 2–3 cm.
The time dependant temperatures of the reinforcing
bars of the beam B2 are presented on Fig. 6.
The beams B3 and the beams G1 (Fig. 1), that are
part of the reinforced concrete frames and supports
beams B2 and B3, were exposed to fire from three
sides, too. Calculation results indicate similar temper-
ature distribution as for the beams B2. In 3–4 cm thick Figure 7. a) Isotherms in the cross section of the beam G2
layer, which is near 20% of the cross section of the (t = 1.5 hours), b) residual concrete strength after cooling
beam G1, the residual concrete strength is 10 Mpa in phase.
average.
The beams G2 that support the crane were exposed the cross section, the concrete strength was less then
to fire from all sides. Symmetrical temperature field 20 Mpa (10 Mpa in average).
in the cross section of the beams was generated The time dependant temperatures in reinforcing
(Fig. 7a, b) and in surface layers, that is near 30% of bars of the beam G2 are presented on Figure 8.

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 3 REPAIR OF REINFORCED CONCRETE
STRUCTURE DAMAGED BY FIRE
3.1 Nonlinear stress-strain analysis of reinforced
concrete structure exposed to fire
Data on the design loads as well as static and dynamic
calculations of the structure were not available from
the project documentation. In the design project for
structure repair some additional calculations for nor-
mal temperatures (without fire action) were con-
ducted. For that purpose the program SAP2000 was
used (Fig. 4b). There was lack of data on the inten-
sity of the dynamic loads of the cooling system placed
on the top of the slab and they were not taken into
account, but the structure was controlled on seismic
loads. The results confirmed that the bearing structure
was well designed and that there was sufficient reserve
for adoption of the dynamic effects of the cooling
system.
Computer program FIRE predicted the response
of the structure exposed to extremely high tempera-
tures during the fire, as well as its response in the
phase of cooling, Cvetkovska (2002). This program
carries out the nonlinear transient heat flow anal-
ysis (modulus FIRE-T) and nonlinear stress-strain
response associated with fire (modulus FIRE-S). The
solution technique used in FIRE is a finite element
Figure 8. Time dependent temperatures of the reinforcing
bars of the beam B2 which is exposed to fire from three sides.
Figure 9. Schematic presentation of the fired structure and discretization of the elements: a) longitudinal beams B2 and B3,
b) main frame R1, c) discretization of the cross section.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
method coupled with time step integration. The pro-
gram accounts for: dimensional changes caused by
temperature differences, changes in mechanical prop-
erties of materials with changes in temperature, degra-
dation of sections by cracking and/or crushing and
acceleration of shrinkage and creep with an increase
of temperature. The used analysis procedure is appli-
cable for planar structures and it does not account for
the effects of large displacements.
Figure 9a presents discretization of beams B2 and
B3 (supported by frames R1), Figure 9b presents
discretization of frame R1 (axial symmetry is used).
Figure 9c presents discretization of the cross sec-
tion of the elements (isoparametric finite elements
with four node are used). Period of 30 hours was ana-
lyzed. The cooling phase was important for defining
the residual bearing capacity of the structure.
The columns S1 (60 × 80 cm) are symmetrically
reinforced with 20φ32 (fy (20◦ C) = 400 Mpa). Before
the action of fire the compressive stress in concrete
core was 1.2 Mpa, that was only 4% of fc (20◦ C), and
the stresses in all reinforcing bars were 64 Mpa, that
was only 16% of fy (20◦ C). Stress redistribution was
caused due to the high temperature difference between
the surface layers and inner layers. This redistribu-
tion was highly emphasized at the moment when the
fire was extreme (t = 1.5 hours), but it didn’t cause
cracking, or crashing of concrete, or yielding of the
reinforcing bars. Only the upper parts of the columns
were exposed to fire with the same intensity as beams
and slabs were, therefore critical stresses occurred
only in the cross sections close to the slabs, but the
extreme values were +363 Mpa, or 90% of fy (T), at the
inside and −250 Mpa, or 63% of fy (T), at the outside
of the column cross section. After the cooling phase
the stresses were back to 30% of yielding strength of
the bars for room temperature. Therefore the repair
of the RC columns was not recommended.
The bottom and lateral sides of the beams B2, B3
and G1 were directly exposed to fire.They became hot-
ter than the top sides and tended to expand more. This
differential heating caused the ends of the elements to
tend to lift from the supports thus increasing the reac-
tions. This action resulted in a redistribution of the
bending moments. The negative moments increased, strength for steel at room temperatures. Therefore the
while the positive moments decreased and tended to repair of the beams G2 was not recommended.
become negative. After time t = 0.5 h, the negative
moments began to decrease again.
The concrete, directly exposed to fire, developed 3.2 Suggested repair of structural elements
large compression stresses due to thermal gradients. damaged by fire
At the ends of the beams fire had the same effect as the The aim of the suggested repair in this project was
uniform load did, therefore the concrete at the bottom to obtain nearly the same strength, stiffness, deforma-
side of the cross section crushed, while concrete at the bility and ductility of the repaired elements and their
top side of the cross section cracked. The effect was cross sections as they were before the fire action.
opposite at the middle of the span. The first step of the suggested repair of beams B2
The thick concrete layers (6–7 cm) on the bottom and B3 (in longitudinal direction) was to eliminate the
side of the beams protected reinforcement from high deteriorated (burned) concrete layers up to the rein-
temperatures, but after some time the bars that were forcement (Fig. 13). For that purpose 3–4 cm thick
close to the fire became hotter then the inside bars
(Figs 6, 8). The increase of negative moments at the
ends of the beams was accommodated, but the redis-
tribution that occurred caused yielding of the hot bars
in the top corners. In the same cross section, the rein-
forcing bars that were on the side of the fire were all
the time in compression by the action of the fire and the
negative bending moment (el.2 on Figs 10, 12). The
yield strength was reduced due to the high temper-
atures, hence the reinforcement started to yield very
soon. Large plastic deformations occurred at the end
of the heating period, so during the cooling phase the
reinforcement changed the sign and residual stresses
in tension occurred. The residual tension stresses were
Figure 11. Time dependent stresses of reinforcement no.3
significant for bottom bars placed at corners of beams of beam B2, for cross section at mid span, as a percentage of
B2 and B3 and their values were up to 90% of the yield- yielding strength at corresponding temperature.
ing strength at room temperature (Fig. 10). Beams G1
were in a better position. The residual tension stresses
were not higher then 50% of the yielding strength at
room temperature (Fig. 12), therefore the repair of the
beams G1 was not recommended.
The stress-strain diagram for the mid span top rein-
forcement (temperatures less then 200◦ C) is as for
room temperatures (Fig. 11).
Crane beams G2 were exposed to fire from all sides,
it caused symmetrical cross section temperature field
(Fig. 7) and temperature induced stresses were lower
than for the other beams. During the cooling period
the stresses in reinforcement changed the sign too, but
the residual stresses were less then 30% of the yielding Figure 12. Time dependent stresses of reinforcing bar no.2
of beam G1, for cross section at support, as a percent of
yielding strength at corresponding temperature.

Figure 10. Time dependent stresses in reinforcement no.2

of beam B2, for cross section at support and mid span, as a Figure 13. Elimination of the deteriorated (burned) con-
percent of yielding strength at corresponding temperature. crete layers up to the main reinforcement.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 14. Repair of the beam B2 at the second spam.
Figure 15. Repair details of beam B2.
layers, from the lateral sides, and 6–7 cm thick layers,
from the bottom side, were removed. Before casting
the opened sections were cleaned with running water.
The yielded reinforcement at the corners of the
beams, with total area of 12 cm2 , was “covered” by
additional reinforcement (4Ø20, RA 400/500), placed
under the existing stirrups (Figs 14, 15). The additional
open stirrups Ø8/20 cm (GA 240/360) were welded to
the existing stirrups. The jacketing with new 3 cm thick
concrete layer was made with sprayed concrete MB 30.
As it was shown before, the only suggested repair
of beams G1 and G2 (RC frames R1) was in replacing
the “burned” concrete layer with new one.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 16. Additional stirrups of beam B2, welded for the
existing one.
The results obtained by the thermal analysis of the
RC slabs and the detailed visual survey in-situ led to a
conclusion that the concrete strength was reduced only
from the bottom side of the slabs where concrete is in
tension and does not contribute in the bearing capacity
of the slabs.The fact that the slab’s span was only 1.5 m,
additionally confirmed that the suggested repair of the
slabs should be in replacing the deteriorated concrete
layers by new one.
REFERENCES
Bazant, Z.P. & Kaplan, M.F. 1996. Concrete at high tem-
perature. Material properties and mathematical models.
London: Longman Group Limited.
Cvetkovska, M. 2002. Nonlinear stress strain behaviour of
RC elements and RC frames exposed to fire. Phd. thesis.
Skopje: University St.Cyril and Methodius.
Cvetkovska, M. & Lazarov, Lj. 2008. Technical documen-
tation for repair project of fired RC structure of Refin-
ery Okta in Skopje, Skopje: University St.Cyril and
Methodius.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Concrete members reinforced with FRP bars in fire situation

E. Nigro, G. Cefarelli, A. Bilotta, G. Manfredi & E. Cosenza

D.I.ST., Department of Structural Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Italy

ABSTRACT: The present paper summarizes the results of a recent experimental study that highlights the
developing of innovative solutions for concrete elements reinforced with FRP bars. In particular good structural
performances at high temperatures are showed by results of some tests on full scale concrete slabs reinforced
with glass fiber (GFRP) bars recently performed by authors. Six slabs, characterized by different concrete covers
and bars anchorage lengths at the end were positioned on a furnace and exposed to fire according to the time-
temperature curve ISO834 provided in UNI EN 1363-1. Four slabs were tested under typical design loads in fire
situation (40% and 60% of the bending moment resistance in normal conditions). Further two slabs were not
loaded during fire exposure in order to evaluate their residual resistance after fire.

1 INTRODUCTION Table 1. FRP-RC slabs – geometrical properties.

Recent progresses in research and technology of Fiber- Longitudinal

Length Width Thickness Cover Lunexp reinforcement fMRd
reinforced polymer (FRP) led to reduce material costs
Slabs [mm] [mm] [mm] [mm] [mm] percentage [%] [Knm]
and increase confidence in the use of polymer for sev-
eral civil engineering applications, as a lot of examples S1 0.55 65
around the world testimony. Nowadays building codes S2 3500 1250 180 32 250
allow FRPs can be used as both strengthening existing S3 0.37 46
structures and reinforcing bars in new concrete struc- S4 0.70 65
tures. Nevertheless FRP-Reinforced Concrete (FRP- S5 4000 1250 180 51 500
S6 0.49 46
RC) employment is limited mainly to applications
where fire resistance is not particularly meaningful.
Experimental results of other researchers (Kodur
et al, 2005; Bisby et al, 2005; Abassi et al., 2006), to fire action. Mechanical properties of the materials
showed that satisfactory fire resistance of FRP–RC are reported in Table 2.
members can be obtained if large concrete covers The slabs S1, S2, S4, S5 and the slabs S3, S6
are used. Nevertheless further investigations seem were designed in order to have the same design resis-
necessary to provide further constructional details tant moment values, MRd,1 ∼ = 65 kNm and MRd,2 ∼ =
improving FRP-RC fire performance. 46 kNm respectively, at normal temperature accord-
Thus six concrete slabs reinforced with GFRP bars ing to CNR-DT203/2006. To avoid forming bar splice
were manufactured and tested in the fire situation in anchorages in the span of the slab, a single GFRP bar
order to evaluate their resistance and deformability by was employed whose length was that the slab minus
varying (a) external loads, (b) concrete cover and (c) 20 mm (i.e. twice the 10 mm of concrete cover at each
bars anchorage length at the end of the concrete mem- end of the slab). Each slab, before casting, was instru-
bers, namely in the zone not directly exposed to fire. mented with thermocouples (insulated k type twisted
The experimental outcomes and the analysis of the cables) and strain gauges in order to evaluate temper-
mechanical behavior of the slabs during the fire tests, atures and strains during the fire tests in the slabs.
are showed in the present paper. The fire tests were carried out about six months
after the concrete casting, by exposing the slabs to
heat in a furnace. Three slabs were placed side by side
2 EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM on the test furnace; the gap between the slabs were
carefully packed with insulation, rock wool, to avoid
The experimental program consisted in two fire tests thermal loss and to allow the beam to deflect freely
on six simply supported concrete slabs reinforced with under load. The span between supports was equal to
GFRP bars. Test matrix and main geometrical charac- 3200 mm. The gap between the slabs and the walls of
teristics of specimens are synthesized in Table 1 and the furnace were carefully packed with insulation, rock
Figure 1; as better discussed below, Lunexp represents wool, to protect the steel supports. Therefore the ends
the length of the ends of each slab not directly exposed of each slab were not directly exposed to fire action

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Figure 1. Slab S5: thermocouples and strain gauges
locations.
for a length equal to about 250 mm and 500 mm for the
slabs S1, S2, S3 and the slabs S4 S5, S6 respectively
(see Figure 2).
The slabs were tested concurrently by exposing
them to heat from below in such a way that the
average temperature of the furnace followed auto-
matically, as closely as possible, the standard time–
temperature curve ISO 834 (EN 1363-1). The furnace
temperature was controlled during tests by taking the
average temperature of eight protected thermocou-
ples located 300 mm below the exposed surface of the
concrete slabs.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 2. Concrete and FRP properties at room temperature.
Parameter Values
Concrete Mean Cubic Compressive Strength 46.45
(37/45) (28 days) [MPa]
Mean Cubic Compressive Strength 55.15
(6 months) [MPa]
GFRP Bars Tensile strength [MPa] 1000
Tensile modulus [GPa] 50
Glass transition temperature [◦ C] 100
Diameter [mm] 12∗
Glass content [%] 70∗
Density [g/cm3 ] 1.9∗
∗
provided by manufacturer
Figure 2. Test set-up.
The load values applied during the fire tests were
evaluated starting from the design resistant moment
values at normal temperature. EN 1991-1-2 suggests,
for analysis in fire situation, that the effects of actions
may be obtained from a structural analysis for normal
temperature design as Ed,fi = ηfi · Ed , where Ed is the
design value of the corresponding force or moment for
normal temperature design, for a fundamental com-
bination of actions (see EN 1990), and ηfi is the
reduction factor for the design load level in the fire
situation. ηfi may be considered mainly dependent on
the ratio between the characteristic values of the prin-
cipal variable load and the permanent action, namely
Qk /Gk , as well as on the combination factors ψfi (see
EN1991-1-2); its value varies between 0.3 and 0.7.
Thus S2, S5 slabs and S3, S6 slabs were loaded
with a predefined service load corresponding to about
the 40% and 60%, respectively, of the ultimate bear-
ing capacity of the slab in normal temperature design.
Such a value was obtained by applying 17.5 kN load
by means of a hydraulic jack placed at two points
at a distance equal to 1.25 m from the support (see
Figure 2).
A calculation procedure developed by authors
(Nigro et al., 2009) and based on the FE solution of
the thermal problem and on the assessment of the
moment-curvature law of the cross-section at high
temperatures, allows the bearing capacity of the FRP
reinforced concrete slabs under fire conditions to be
assessed. Such procedure was implemented to check
that the flexure failure of the slabs comes before the
shear failure, in fire situations. In particular, shear
resistance of slabs in fire situation was assessed by
using the relationships provided by CNR-DT 203/2006
for shear check in normal condition, by reducing the
FRP bars Young modulus by means of the “Average”
behavioral deterioration curve of GFRP bars (Nigro
et al., 2008) in order to take into account the high
temperatures effect. Slabs S1 and S4 were not loaded
during the fire exposure: in order to evaluate their
residual resistance after fire exposure, the load was
applied about 24 hours after the fire test conclusion,
when the temperature in the slab achieved temperature
value equal to about 45◦ . The deflection was measured
at mid-span point of each slab, using displacement
transducers.

Figure 3. Mean temperatures in the bars of slabs S2, S5.

3 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

In order to investigate the mechanical behavior of slabs

during the test, the average between temperature values
recorded during the fire test at the top and bottom of
GFRP bars both at location E (fire exposed zone at
midspan) for S2 slab (cover 32 mm) and locations E
and Mbis (unexposed slab zone, see Figure 1) for slab
S5 (cover 51 mm) are shown and compared in Figure 3.
As expected, the GFRP bars temperature values are
strictly dependent on the concrete cover thickness. The
temperature value recorded at position E of bottom bar
in slab S5, namely TS5,E , after 60 min of fire exposi-
tion (TS5,E,60 = 225◦ C) is lower than those recorded at
the same location of slab S2, namely TS2,E,60 = 380◦ C.
Last value is achieved in slab S5 after further 60 min
(TS5,E,120 = TS2,E,60 = 380◦ C). As discussed in more
detail later, it is also possible observe that the tem-
perature recorded at the unexposed location Mbis (see
Figure 1), related to slab S5, remain significantly low
during the whole test (lower than 50◦ C up to 180 min).
The temperatures recorded at different depths at
position H (near midspan, see Figure 1) are reported
in Figure 4. Curves show clearly that between 130 mm
and 180 mm, the concrete temperatures achieved a
maximum value equal to about 90◦ C, 110◦ C and
140◦ C after 60 min, 120 min and 180 min of fire expo-
sure time, respectively. This behavior is due to the
effect of the thermal mass of concrete and its abil-
ity to absorb more heat for a smaller average increase
in temperature. It confirms that mechanical properties
of compressive concrete can be considered very simi-
lar to those used in normal temperature design, in fire
condition too (Nigro et al., 2009).
The displacements recorded at midspan of S1, S2,
S3 slabs and S4, S5, S6 slabs are plotted versus time in
Figure 5a,b respectively. At fire exposure time equal
to t ≈ 60 min S3 slab, stressed at about 60% of MRd,2 ,
once deflection achieved a value fS3,60 ≈ 70 mm, failed
suddenly. At about 120 minutes of fire exposure S2
slab, stressed at about 40% of MRd,1 , achieved a deflec-
tion value fS2,120 ≈ 90 mm. S2 test ended with load
increasing up to achieving 50% of MRd,1 . Unloaded
Figure 4. Temperatures along concrete depth.
slab S1, at 120 min achieved a deflection fS1,120 ≈
65 mm due to own weight and thermal strains. Its resid-
ual resistance evaluated 24 hours after fire exposure
end was about 55% of MRd,1 . Slabs S5 and S6, stressed
at about 40% of MRd,1 and 60% of MRd,2 , respec-
tively, achieved deflection values fS5,190 ≈ 80 mm and
fS6,190 ≈ 100 mm at fire exposure time equal to t ≈
190 min. Tests ended when loads were increased up to
achieving 85% of MRd,1 and 100% of MRd,2 for S5 and
S6 slabs respectively. Unloaded slab S4, at 190 min
achieved a deflection fS4,190 ≈ 70 mm. Its residual
resistance was about 100% of MRd,1 .
Most meaningful displacements and loads values
recorded during the tests are summarized in Table 3;
Figure 6 show slabs S5 and S6 after failure.
At about 30 min both the standard time–temperature
curve ISO 834 (UNI EN 1363-1) reported in Fig-
ure 3 and time-displacement curves (see Figure 5)
show a significant change of slope suggesting that
the trend displacement curves depends, at first, on the
temperatures.
As well, the analysis of temperatures in the slabs
has showed that during fire tests FRP bars achieved

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 6. Slabs S5 and S6 after failure.

Figure 7. Slab S5 viewed from furnace after test.

Figure 5. Displacements Vs time relationships during the

fire test (constant load).

Table 3. Load and displacement values during tests

Slab Concrete t = 0 t = 60 t = 120 t = 190 failure

Cover F M/MRd w w w M/MRd Figure 8. Longitudinal and transversal reinforcement after
[mm] [kN] [%] [mm] [mm] [mm] [%] failure.

S1 32 0 10% 45 65 – 55% By contrast with reference to the slabs S4, S5 and

S2 17.5 40% 55 85 – 50% S6 (see Figure 5b) between 30 min and 180 min, i.e.
S3 17.5 60% 70 – – – during the phase of test in which external load did
S4 51 0 10% 49 58 70 100% not increase, three time-displacement curves show the
S5 17.5 40% 51 62 80 85% same slope.This suggests that altogether the anchorage
S6 17.5 60% 68 78 100 100% bond did not decrease.
In Figure 7 is shown slab S5 viewed from furnace
after test. Distance between cracks is constant and
the glass transition temperature, Tg , after not much equal to about 20 cm corresponding to the distance
time (about 15 minutes) except at the unexposed zone between the transversal reinforcement bars. Near the
of the slabs. Therefore the resin softening noticeably midspan, through the larger crack (see Figure 8), it
reduced adhesion at the FRP-concrete interface in the was possible examine the GFRP bars: the glass fibers
fire exposed zone of slab once the glass transition of the longitudinal bars were broken and completely
temperature is achieved. Thus the structural response without resin.
depended mainly on the reinforcement anchorage at
the fire unexposed end of the member.
As concern the slabs S1, S2 and S3, in Figure 5a 4 EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON THE
it is possible to observe that the time-displacement ANCHORAGE
curves, between 30 min and 60 min, show an equal
slope. Between 60 min and 120 min the slope of the Further investigations were performed by breaking up
time-displacement curve related to the loaded slab with a pick the ends of the slabs after tests in order to
S2 is larger than those related to the unloaded slab examine the bond behavior of bars at the unexposed
S1. Since external load is constant this difference is zone of slabs in which temperatures did not achieve
probably due to a bond reduction of the anchorage. the glass transition temperature value.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 9. S2 slab lateral face after test.
Figure 10. S1 slab lateral face after investigation.
Figure 11. Positions of GFRP bars pulled-out.
Referring to slabs S1, S2 and S3, the position of the
longitudinal bars in slabs was easily individuated in
correspondence of vertical cracks on the lateral faces
of the slabs, as red lines show in Figure 9. Concrete
picking under such lines allowed the presence of bars
been checked (see Figure 10). The number and the
position of GFRP bars that pulled out due to bond
loss are reported in Figure 11 for the slab S2. Almost
every bar pulled out in correspondence of one end;
the bars that not showed slip signs failed at midspan
due to fibers tensile rupture. As shown in Figure 12,
in some cases external bar covering remained bonded
to concrete and fibers slipped in the slab.
A more extensive investigation, performed by over-
turning slabs and picking the whole ends of slabs in
the fire unexposed zone (see Figure 13), confirmed
results of preliminary investigations and evidenced the
presence of the polymer resin matrix around the glass
fibers, even if the resin appeared partly deteriorated
along the bar anchorage length.
Same extensive investigations were performed on
slabs S4, S5 and S6 after fire tests: also in this cases
it was observed that a part of FRP bars anchorage
undergo the temperature action. Nevertheless a length
of anchorage in the not directly exposed zone of slab,
equal to about 500 mm and larger than 250 mm of
anchorage related to S1, S2 and S3 slabs, allowed bars
pull out been avoided.
Thus slabs S1, S2 and S3 failed when bars pull
out in the anchorage zone apart from the resistance
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 12. External bar covering bonded to concrete and
fibers slipped in the slab.
Figure 13. Slab S2: loss of adhesion of the bars anchorage.
demanded to glass fibers in the fire exposed zone. By
contrast slabs S4, S5 and S6 failed when glass fibers
achieved their tensile strength at about 500◦ C, lower
than tensile strength at normal temperature. Based on
such remarks it is possible to look over again the test
results reported in Table 3 in terms of fire endurance
and resistance. The fire exposure time of S6 slab is
meaningfully higher than S3 slab due to both larger
concrete cover value (51 mm vs. 32 mm) and larger
length of the FRP bars anchorage in the unexposed
zone of the slab (500 mm vs. 250 mm). Larger cover
allowed bars strength decrease to be mitigated and
larger anchorage lengths allowed bars pull out to be
avoided. Furthermore the fire exposure time of S2 slab
is higher than S3 slab, due to a lower stresses in the
bars which requires a lower anchorage length under
fire conditions. Indeed, as previously said, slab S2 is
stressed at about 40% of MRd,1 and slab S3 stressed at
about 60% of MRd,2 .
Finally it is meaningful observe that slab S2 failed
when load increased at about 50% of MRd,1 that is
a percentage lower than slab S3, but the failure was
at 120 min, i.e. when the anchorage had undergo fire
action for further 60 min respect to slab S3.
5 REMARKS AND DISCUSSION
It is well-known that the variability of main thermal
and mechanical properties of the FRP and concrete
materials with the temperature (i.e. thermal conduc-
tivity, specific heat, stiffness and strength) have to be
taken into account in order to simulate the mechani-
cal behavior of GFRP reinforced concrete slabs in fire
situations.
In addition experimental outcomes highlighted that
failure of the concrete slabs can be attained due to
the rupture of the fibers in the middle of the mem-
ber if a continuous reinforcement from side to side
of the concrete element is used and a large zone not
directly exposed to fire is guaranteed (i.e. 500 mm).
In this case the failure is due to very high tempera-
tures (i.e. much higher than Tg ) that particularly affect
the glass fibers strength in the exposed zone while the
anchoring zone allows pull out of bars to be avoided.
Fire endurance depends on the fibers strength at high
temperatures and consequently on the concrete cover
that influence the temperatures in the bars during fire
too. Therefore a numerical simulation can leave out of
consideration modelling of anchorage area not directly
exposed to fire and can mainly be based on the defi-
nition of the mechanical properties of bars at different
temperatures.
Furthermore if the zone not directly exposed to
fire is shorter (i.e. 250 mm) tests showed that fire
endurance of members chiefly depends on to the
slippage of the bars due to a decrease of bond at
the FRP-to-concrete interface that is attained also
at temperatures not particularly high (i.e. about Tg ).
Therefore a numerical simulation has to take account
of the bond behavior of bars embedded in the concrete
versus temperature. For this purpose a bond theoretical
model calibrated in normal condition could be refined
in presence of high temperatures and used to assess
the safety against the pull out of bars.
Note that in both cases (anchorage zone of
500 mm and 250 mm) the construction detail with the
overlap of the bars in the area directly exposed to fire
(namely in the midspan of the member) is not consid-
ered because the temperature attain values so high that
the loss of adhesion and then the failure of structure
would occur in a few time.
Finally referring to the specific case of concrete
slabs, it should be noted that they are generally linked
to concrete beams that protect a portion of slab for
lengths equal to the width of themselves beams (usu-
ally in the range between 250 and 500 mm). More-
over seems remarkable considering the possibility of
anchoring the bottom reinforcement at the end of the
slab by bending the bars up to the top edge of the
slab that is almost not warm when the fire came from
below. In such a way the width of the beam necessary
to protect the end of the slab can be noticeably reduced.
6 CONCLUSIONS
Test results mainly showed that:
– the concrete cover is particularly meaningful for
the protection provided to FRP bars, due to its low
thermal conductivity;
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
– the anchorage length at the end of the members
ensures slab resistance once in the fire exposed zone
of slab the glass transition temperature is achieved
and the resin softening reduces the adhesion at the
FRP-concrete interface.
Moreover some useful design rules may be sug-
gested for the examined types of FRP-RC slabs in
order to attain a good fire endurance:
– usual values of concrete cover (i.e. between 30 and
50 mm) can be adopted;
– the overlap of FRP bars in the zone directly exposed
to fire is not advised; continuous reinforcements
from side to side of the concrete element must be
used;
– an anchorage area for FRP bars at the end of the slab
not directly exposed to fire for a length of 500 mm
avoid pull out of bars and allow failure due to the
rupture of the fibers to be obtained.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The present paper was developed within the Research
Project MIUR-PRIN 2006 (“Effects of high tem-
peratures on the performances of concrete slabs
reinforced with FRP bars or grids”). The authors
appreciate the contributions of COOPSETTE Soc.
Coop – Castelnuovo (RE) and SIREG SpA – Arcore
(Mi). They would also like to thank CSI SpA – Bollate
(MI) laboratory for assistance in carrying out the fire
tests described briefly herein.
REFERENCES
Kodur, V., Bisby, L., Foo, S. 2005. “Thermal Behaviour
of Fire-Exposed Concrete Slabs Reinforced with Fiber-
Reinforced Polymer Bars”. ACI Structural Journal,
Vol. 102.
Bisby L.A., Green, M.F., Kodur, V.K.R., “Response to fire of
concrete structures that incorporate FRP”, Prog. Struct.
Engng. Mater., pp 136–149, 2005.
Abbasi, A., Hogg, P.J. 2006. “Fire testing of concrete beams
with fibre reinforced plastic rebar”. Composites Part A,
Elsevier, Vol. 37, pp. 1142–1150.
CNR-DT203/2006, 2006. “Guide for the design and con-
structions of concrete structures reinforced with Fiber
Reinforced Polymer bar”. Roma, Italy.
EN 1363-1:2001. “Fire resistance tests – General
requirements”.
EN 1991-1-2, 2002. “Eurocode 1. Actions on Structures –
Part 1–2: General Actions – Actions on structures exposed
to fire”.
EN 1992-1-2, 2004. “Eurocode 2. Design of concrete
structures – Part 1–2: General Rules – Structural Fire
Design.
Nigro, E., Manfredi, G., Cosenza, E., Cefarelli, G., Bilotta, A.
2009. “Fire resistance of concrete slabs reinforced with
FRP bars: theoretical models”. Proceedings of 9th Inter-
national Symposium on Fiber Reinforced Polymer Rein-
forcement for Concrete Structures Sydney, Australia
13–15 July 2009.
Weber, A. 2008. “Fire-resistance tests on composite rebars”.
Proceedings of CICE2008, Zurich, Switzerland.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Quick impact of protecting, strengthening and repairing and consequences

of fire damaged structure – Hotel Union, Kosovo

V. Nushi, Sh. Nixha & N. Kabashi

University of Prishtina, Prishtinë, Kosova

ABSTRACT: This paper work aims to contribute to active participation of professional authorities into the
updating process of education, law and standardization when the preparation of a catastrophic risk plan, in
particular fire and safety of buildings. Thus will encourage responsibility of Kosovo Government and society to
look after the catastrophic events in a structured way, while this approach will enhance effectively and efficiently
the level of FP e the buildings, emphasize buildings of cultural heritage of Kosova.

1 OBJECTIVES security precautions must be taken together in order

With regard to life safety and economic losses due
to catastrophic events and direct damages of urban
habitat structures and in order to assist authorities and
experts with the issues of fire safety in heritage build-
ings we decided to set up a working group to prepare
appropriate recommendations.
This paper analyses the consequences of fire
events occurring in heritage buildings, especially those
already within the rehabilitation process with intension
for theirs publication and recommendations to author-
ities. In particular, the paper summarizes the results
and information for an investigation and consequences
of fire hazard at damaged structure – Hotel Union in
Prishtina, Kosovo.
Provided example in the paper requires authorities’
attention, particularly its durability against the vulner-
ability. Therefore the recommendations are essential
for future efforts and approaches for owners, occupiers
and users of many types of buildings, especially histor-
ical buildings towards fire and life safety in buildings,
through several interrelated fire safety systems and
features.
2 INTRODUCTION
A historical building is one that gives us a sense of won-
der and makes us want to know more about the people
and culture that produced it. Hotel Union is one of
them due to its architectural, aesthetic, historic, doc-
umentary, archaeological, economic, social and even
political and spiritual symbolic values.
Morally and psychologically the destruction of any
cultural heritage building by fire is worse than total
loss, for the loss could have been prevented in most
cases. It is therefore desirable to examine first the
cause of fire and then the means of lessening its extent
and effect. It will have to be founded that fire and
to resolve possible contractions in their requirements.
That requires a quick and efficient impact, drawing the
attention to the understanding of the legal and admin-
istrative mechanisms, responsible for managing the
protection, the conservation and the enhancement of
heritage as well as it main features.
Apart to this, the recommendations base on the
researched study case – Hotel Union (ex Hotel
Skenderbeg), suffered premises by fire on 2009, could
assist authorities and experts in various and/or similar
situations faced with the issue of fire safety in general,
effecting to other historic buildings as well.
3 GENERAL INFORMATION
In this paper is presented the study case Hotel Union.
In view of monumentality, method of construction
and its decorative elements, the building is listed
among the most important example of eclectic style, a
mixture of neo-renaissance, neo-baroque and Art Nou-
veau in Kosovo. It is worth to be mentioned that this
architectural style is very rare in Kosovo, therefore
we should safeguard them effectively from catas-
trophic events. Since 1996 the hotel was classified a
cultural-historical monument under State protection.
The building has been built on 1927, by Austrian
architect/engineer Andra Cramer. Layout plan of the
three-story building covers an overall grass area of
650 m2 including the auxiliary facilities on the back.
Bearing structure of the building’s opened L shape,
with two main facades interesting in the middle with
round tower rising above the remaining roof, is com-
posed from three lines of brick masonry walls with
thickness of 50 cm and horizontal floor slabs form tim-
ber beams structure supported by stone masonry strip
foundations.
The roof structure is supported through regular dou-
ble chairs timber structure beard from external and

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Figure 1. Layouts of Hotel Union, a. ground floor and
b. section.
internal walls of thickness 50 cm and 25 cm. Part of
the roof is “mansard type” while the rest is one slope
from the eave to the top of the roof.
Based on the framework of the European Com-
mission/Council of Europe Joint Programme on
the Integrated Rehabilitation Project Plan/Survey
on the Architectural and Archaeological Heritage
(IRPP/SAAH), the Preliminary Technical Assessment
(PTA), adopted by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and
Sports – Kosovo/UNMIK on 31 July 2006, the hotel
“Union” building’s architectonic features have to be
prevented. Due to its functionality, as the building will
change its function and ownership, and of particular
importance to the heritage movement, there can only
be an adaption of the interior space. Also was recom-
mended that the preservation and restoration on this
monument is urgent.
Among early conservation works, such as: 1972 –
reconstruction without any permission or project, the
structure of the monument was seriously damaged.
Various rebuilds and installations were carried out
over the last decades that led to the unsafe state of
the building. Old electrical installations posed a great
risk on fire. The building’s appearance has been threat-
ened by new, surround constructions. Illegal buildings
surrounding the hotel, lack of administration and
legislation on cultural heritage and the question of
770
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 2. The main views of Hotel Union, a. & b. the build-
ing originally was private owned hotel named Skenderbeg
which has been changed after World War II is nationalized
and named Union, c. present time of the building, 2007 (a &
b credited by: I. Ganimula, c. credited by Sh. Nixha).
ownership of the building leaded to a lack of invest-
ment for maintenance. Deficiency of quick impact and
well coordinated process between preparation of the
project for preservation and restoration of the build-
ing with its protecting, strengthening and repairing
phase, drifted the fire and damaged structure of hotel
“Union”.
4 STATUS ANALYSES OF FIRE PROTECTION
With the intention to protect human lives and property
from fire as well as to organize and put into the system
dealing with fire protection and protection of people
and their property the Assembly of Kosovo adopts the
Law of Fire Protection (LFP) on April 2006.
General previsions of law obligate every individ-
ual, owners, respectively users of premises and other
areas of premises, legal persons, public professional
bodies, Public Administration bodies and those of
local administration, of local communities and the fire
departments to undertakes the measures for preventing
fire causes, to act upon it with certain care, obstruct-
ing the possibility of fire spreading, fire discovering
and firefighting, for verification of fire causes, as well
as for giving assistance for recovering consequences
inflicted by fire. Previsions of this law apply also to
premises and areas of premises of special interest, in
case they are not regulated with special law.
The responsible authorities, such as Municipalities,
Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the private enti-
ties should work closely to organizes FP within its
territory, ensure the implementation and the advance-
ment of FP measures, issues FP plans based on fire
risk assessment; to evaluate its compliance with the
new urban plan, with construction changes, construc-
tion intentions and similar; to organizes training for
Figure 3. The pictures taken during the fire and day
after (a. http://onupks.com/blog/?p=1627, b. credited by:
Sh. Nixha).
firefighters; and to issues instruction for the crite-
ria and method for determining the danger of fire.
Basically, adequate determination of organization and
implementation of FP measures, premises, parts of the
premises and areas are raked into four groups of fire
risk, dependent on technological process being devel-
oped in them, type of produced material (reproduced or
stored), type of material’s ingredients in construction
and their importance. According to the ranking stages
(I, II, III and IV) of fire risk category, the owners, users
of premises, parts of premises and areas are obligated
to provide FP plan, to establish FP services, with nec-
essary personnel and means for implementation of FP
measure.
The legal entities or physical persons, those are own-
ers or users of premises, parts of premises and areas are
obligated, each in their field of activity, are responsible
for implementation of FP measures, especially in the
maintenance of means and equipment in proper con-
dition for firefighting, and well the responsibility to
inform workers on fire risks at their working places or
premises.
Besides the fire risk and it prevention, the elimina-
tion of causes which effect in fire spreading or ease
its expansion, the insurance association is obligated to
follow up and analyze fire causers by working closely
with me Ministry.
Overall, FP measures, fire stations and associations,
firefighting, supervision regarding the implementa-
tion of FP measures, education and training, financing
and administrative sanctions are included in the LFP,
but not linked specifically with the conditions and gen-
eral previsions of the law of Cultural Heritage (LCH)
and mutually.
Furthermore, referring to the research work from
international fire and rescue expert consultants review,
recommended by the CTIF (Comite Technique de Pre-
vention et d’Extinction de Feu’, founded in 1900 in
Paris) related to the Inspection and status analyses of
the Fire and Rescue Services (FRS) in Kosova. The
conducted analyses of their research contain the sum-
mary of a detail description and conditions of each
fire and rescue station in Kosovo, including staffing,
training, equipment and working conditions and rec-
ommendations for the future FRS. Compared with
above analysis of LFP, there are vast discrepancies
between the applicable law and the reality in Kosovo.
The executive summary of evaluation accents the
following issues: lack of standardized alerting and
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 4. The building was not professionally protected
after the fire.
incident command procedures; the handing over of
the fire brigades to the municipalities has obviously
failed and resulted in a very uneven state of fire and
rescue brigades all over Kosovo with inadequate fund-
ing; very few fire and rescue brigades conduct regular
trainings; fire fighters are de-motivated, not insured
against accidents at work and underpaid; fifty percent
of all fire and rescue service vehicles have technical
defects which limits their use considerably; etc.
Referring to their vision, the FRS should reach a
standard equal to the standard of the other public safety
providers in Kosovo and be transformed to a central-
ized Kosovo FRS with a centralized structure similar
to the police or customs and correctional service; in
order to be organized in a way that offers the best
opportunities to provide a good and effective service
in the public, to be prepared for incidents and acci-
dents involving hazardous materials and every year
publishes trustworthy statistics from the fire brigades
about the turn-outs, etc.
General findings and recommendations from above
research are relatively recent developments, but not
responding too closely with cultural heritage building
techniques and methods of upgrading the fire resis-
tance at their building elements, respectively at the
cultural heritage premises and other areas of premises.
This is the main issue, discussed further in this research
and basically focused at study case, a cultural heritage
building – Hotel Union, due to the following reasons:
(1) most of construction elements, such as floor, roof,
staircase, doors and windows of the cultural heritage
buildings are from timber, which is weak in fire resis-
tance, (2) absence of fire protection precautions, such
as observation, guarding, signalization, etc., during the
passive stage of intervention, (3) there are lots of valu-
able items and priceless heritage to be protected from
fire in cultural heritage buildings, (4) deficiency of
materials alterations that could affect to existing cul-
tural heritage buildings where necessary to effectively
increase the fire resistance of entire premises.
In general, the Law of Fire Protection and Law of
Cultural Heritage, should be updated in particular the
fire protection and safety standards in heritage build-
ings, due to the fire greatest threat to the fabric and con-
tents for any building and, in the case of cultural her-
itage building, the loss of any authentic value in fire is
irretrievable. It is essential, therefore, to minimize and
likelihood of fire, by early elimination of major risk,
careful management and control over risks that cannot
be eliminated. Fires in cultural heritage building are
not unusual and there is no recently published statistics
and/or database showing that how many of premises
or other areas were lost or damaged as a result of fire.
Also, whiles it is important to preserve the nation’s
Figure 5. The views of the building while the diagnosticate
richness of cultural heritage buildings and artifacts
phase took place in order to prepare the rehabilitation plan.
from both a cultural and economic viewpoint, the life
safety of occupants, visitors and staff must not be
forgotten and should take precedence when consid-
ering fire risk. In this regards, the appropriate future
assignment should remain the approval of series of
documents, prepared and issued by the state author-
ities, in purpose to provide practical guidance to
adopt alternative methods, referred to the require-
ments of the Buildings Codes and Regulations for Fire
Safety, in particular a suitable and sufficient Fire Risk
Assessments.

5 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Fire resistance in cultural heritage building is a very

important issue. It is to protect the life of its occu-
pants, building fabric and its contents. Therefore the
aim of this research is to evaluate the works that
have been done in upgrading fire resistance in cul-
tural heritage buildings. The findings are to suggest
the best technique and method of upgrading fire
protection and its requirements, such as preparation,
prevention and protection of premises and their areas.
Interviews, investigation and observable evidences are
analyzed and synthesized to determine evaluation of
data regarding the need to update the responsibility Figure 6. Increase of building damages within short time,
triangle: owner, law and fire safety authorities. a. Aug 2009 and b. Nov 2009 (credited by: T. Jashari-Kajtazi).

6 OBSERVABLE EVIDENCE even though that rehabilitation process should have

Early warning of possible hazards and taken pre-
caution measure in required time, are critical in any
building but especially in cultural heritage buildings
because of the presence of hidden voids and the mate-
rials used in construction, which will facilitate the fire
spreading rapidly throughout the building.
The interest to this matter and its significance out-
lined the research at one of fire suffered premises, at
one of rare cultural heritage eclectic style in Kosova,
Hotel Union, privately owned premises as ofAug 2006.
As of the 22 Aug 2009 when fire occurred up to date
the building is indetermined, rather to be completely
and/or partially destroyed. The following chronolog-
ical accents could be considered helpful device to
implement suitable measures by authorities and pro-
fessional while faced with the future of building’s
cultural heritage values.
Since the time when the building was defined as a
cultural heritage premises until the privatization pro-
cess, period 1996–2006, the building has been used
been taken accordingly. Partial improvements were
performed, such as floorings, toilets and some of
windows and doors.
After the privatization took place, the owner
received the guidelines for rehabilitation of building
and preparation of its design, prepared by Directorate
for Urban Planning in close cooperation with Institute
for Cultural Heritage, on May 2008. The owner fol-
lowed up and agreed that according to the Guidelines
related with standards and procedures prepared and
awarded permit by authorities to start the implemen-
tation of rehabilitation plane. Almost all preparation
works were settled and the owner started the works
when the fire occurred. Unfortunately, there is no clear
and sharp information about the reason why it hap-
pened, whose responsibility was to install precaution
measure against hazards or possible damages occurred
during the rehabilitation works.
Due to the lack of administrative procedures,
bureaucracy, no clear sharing of the responsibility
between authorities and owner the damage of the

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premises increased rapidly. The process of rehabili-
tation was stopped and there were no laboratory tests
performed. The damaged report issued by professional
team for evaluation of damaged walls determined the
pending situation while the damages on the building
are progressively increased.
Our recommendation for responsible authorities is
to initiate the creation of data base, the state of art
for damages by fire in order to prepare the preventive
measures and to evaluate the possibilities for improve-
ment of regulations for better future and protection of
heritage buildings values.
7 STRUCTURAL DAMAGES, PRECAUTIONS
AND FURTHER ACTIONS
The Cultural Heritage professional commission, after
site assessment and construction observation con-
cluded that during the period of Aug 2009 when
occurred the fire and nowadays, Mar 2010, almost
60% of heritage values are destroyed and damaged.
The damage is due to the fire, less of maintenance,
too much pretermission during the cleaning area of
premise from debris of fired constructive materials,
lack of owner management when required to take and
implement the regulations to initiate the preventive
measures against weather conditions and its impre-
cations to fired premises, the consequences occurred
due to the miss usage of digging machinery and/or
without professional outputs when he started to con-
serve, consolidate and rehabilitate south, west and
north façade, not properly installation of temporary
supported structure prior rehabilitation process, etc.
Since the walls are constructed by using clay as a
construction material, and it’s known that the binder
materials are not fire resistant, their damage under
fire is impossible to be recompacted. The part of the
edges which are not totally destroyed could be lab-
oratory exanimate (their stability and resistance) in
order to prevent and save their position. In this case
could be applied the methods which are using the injec-
tion with fluid mortars and other additives. In general
the reconstruction will enclose the different methods
including the strengthening with FRP – glass fibers
or/and repairing mortars.
After the research, investigation, interviews, obser-
vation and analyzes of Hotel Union data the following
are further actions to be taken in regards to establish
the procedure, management of rehabilitation or/and
reconstruction: to establish cultural heritage profes-
sional commission whose responsibility is to initiate
and monitor closely reconstruction based upon to
awarded rehabilitation project since the damages of the
premises happened into very short period of time; to
prepare the guide with intent to cover as much as pos-
sible the lack of information not only the fire experts
such as fire safety engineers and fire brigades, but,
more importantly, the people directly concerned with
the upkeep and the operation of such buildings; to pre-
pare the guide for using the repairing materials and
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
strengthening materials according to the EN 1504. The
authorities, engineers and architects, nomocracy and
others responsible for such premises should work in
conjunction with national requirements for fire and
safety adequately to national cultural heritage val-
ues, such as historic buildings, ancient monument
and buildings containing priceless items of national
heritage.
8 CONCLUSION
Based on the analysis of the consequences of catas-
trophic fire occurred in the structure on Aug 2009, in
regard to life safety and economic & cultural losses
due to direct damage, and in order to present suitable
recommendations to the authorities, we emphasize as
follow:
• Update the Law on Cultural Heritage (LCH) based
upon to the recommendations given by the working
group for Legal Support, prepared by Dr. John Bold
(Workshop in Pristina, 28–31 July 2003), within
frame of Regional Program for Cultural and Nat-
ural Heritage on Southeast Europe – Kosovo (REF:
art.14 “intimidations by conflicts or catastrophic
hazards”);
• Update LCH by demanding owners, occupancies
or/and users to recover and rebuild the fire dam-
aged cultural heritage building as per recent and
appropriate recorded information;
• Authority’s management should provide and in
every building, including heritage buildings, the fire
audit at regular intervals in order to cover fire pre-
cautions, FP measures, rescue, training, salvage and
disaster control planning;
• Prepare the guidance for regulations relating to the
fire at cultural heritage buildings, such as: fire-
fighting agents, efficiency against classification of
construction elements and its materials;
• Prepare the guide, depending of construction mate-
rial, where could be implemented adequate materi-
als and methods for strengthening and repairing for
long-lived period.
• As fire safety includes preservation of monuments,
fire safety organizations must include all cultural
monuments in the precautionary measures to be
taken.
Our recommendation for responsible authority is to
initiate the creation of data base of state of art of dam-
ages by fire in order to prepare the preventive measures
and to evaluate the possibilities for improvement of
regulations for better future and protection of heritage
buildings values.
REFERENCES
Architectural Documentation of Hotel Union, Kosovo Insti-
tute for Protection of Monuments (KIPM), Prishtinë,
1990.
Feilden, B.M., 1982, Conservation of Historic Buildings.
 N. Fitzsimons & J. Colville, Conservation of Historic Stone
Building and Monuments, 1982.
Principles for the Analyzes, Conservation and Structural
Restoration of Architectural Heritage, ICOMOS Charter,
2003.
Structural Preservation of Historical Buildings in Seismic
Area, A.M.G. El Din Osman, Seminar: Earthquake Pro-
tection in Historical Buildings, Kotor, CHWB, no.1//2006.
774
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Venice Charter, 1964.
OSCE Mission in Kosovo, Status Analysis of the Kosova
Fire and Rescue Services, CTIF Experts: H. Herweg, T.
Forsberg, P. Hofman-Bang, P. Wagner, April 2008.
Republic of Kosovo, Law Fire Protection, no.02/L-41, 2006.
Republic of Kosovo, Law Cultural Heritage, no.02/L-88,
2006.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Analytical evaluation of fire resistance of FRP and hybrid RC

beams – Part II

M.M. Rafi
NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan

A. Nadjai
University of Ulster, Belfast, UK

ABSTRACT: The use of Finite Element Modelling (FEM) in structural analysis and design has become a routine
matter. Therefore it is imperative that these computer codes are tested for the new Fibre Reinforced Polymer
(FRP) materials, in addition to the conventional steel reinforced structures, to measure their effectiveness. This
paper presents the details of a numerical model which is used to analyse carbon FRP (CFRP) and/or steel
Reinforced Concrete (RC) beams at elevated temperatures. Commercial FE software DIANA was used for the
non-linear thermal and structural analysis of these beams. A good agreement between the measured and predicted
temperature progression was found. Methods for estimating temperature dependant properties of the CFRP bars
are proposed and validated against the recorded beam behaviour.

1 INTRODUCTION 1976, Khoury et al. 2002, Khoury 2000). Worldwide

The advent of modern computing technology over
the last 20 years has permitted professionals to
attempt to solve very complex engineering problems
using sophisticated techniques. The use of finite ele-
ment modelling (FEM) in the analysis and design of
reinforced concrete (RC) structures is one of these
techniques which is employed as a routine matter
nowadays. The availability of numerous material mod-
els and its ability to capture the non-linear behaviour
of RC has made FEM a very powerful tool in under-
standing the behaviour of a structure and to quantify
its responses in areas such as strain development,
deflection, load carrying capacity, stress distribution,
etc. New non-metallic fibre reinforced polymer (FRP)
materials have been introduced in the construction
industry recently to enhance the durability of conven-
tional RC structures. It is imperative that the com-
puter codes are tested for these materials in addition
to conventional steel reinforced structures to assess
their effectiveness. A comparison of the experimen-
tal results with those obtained from the non-linear
FE analysis (FEA) could become helpful in order to
quantify the solution obtained. This may also help
in increasing the level of confidence among design
engineers.
The study of the behaviour of concrete structures
at elevated temperatures is of great practical impor-
tance and has been a main area of research over the
last 25 years. A significant amount of literature exists
with regard to the behaviour of concrete and steel bars
at elevated temperatures (Anderberg & Thelandersson
1977, Thelandersson 1987, Hertz 2004, Schneider
research has indicated that a decrease in the strength
and modulus of elasticity of steel and concrete takes
place at high temperatures. Consequently, several
models for predicting residual properties of concrete
and steel have been proposed and are readily avail-
able (Eurocode 1996, Harmathy 1993, Nizamuddin &
Bresler 1979, Elligwood & Lin 1991). Similar efforts
are lacking for FRP bars owing to their complex
behaviour at elevated temperatures, which has not yet
been fully understood.
This paper presents details of FE models and com-
pares the analytical and experimental behaviours of
beams tested at elevated temperatures. The beams were
reinforced with the carbon FRP (CFRP) and/or steel
bars (Fig. 1). A model for the prediction of tempera-
ture dependant material properties of the CFRP bars
is suggested and validated against the recorded beam
behaviour. Details of the experimental beam testing
and test results can be found in Rafi & Nadjai (2010).
2 THERMAL TRANSIENT PROBLEM
Fire resistance of building elements is established by
exposing them to heat in a furnace. Temperature inside
the furnace follows a standard time-temperature curve,
which is called the standard fire (Buchanan 2001).This
standard fire is time dependant and makes heat transfer
a transient problem. When an object is heated in an
enclosed environment, such as a furnace, heat flows
to exposed surfaces of the object through convection
and radiation. The transfer of heat inside the body is
then carried out through conduction. The objective of

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Figure 1. Detail of beams and positions of thermocouples.
performing a thermal transient analysis is to calculate
temperature distribution across a body in order to carry
out a thermal stress analysis. The formulation of FE
models for the transient heat transfer and structural
analysis are briefly described in the following.
3 FINITE ELEMENT MODEL
3.1 Transient heat transfer analysis
The finite element formulation is based on the
Galerkin weighted residual method where FE spatial
discritisation yields the first order differential equation
of the form given in Equation 1 below.
where
[k] = element heat conduction/convection matrix
[c] = element heat capacity matrix
{Tn } = element nodal temperatures vector
{F} = element nodal heat input vector and is defined
at the boundary nodes
dot represents the partial differentiation with respect
to time.
The derivation of Equation 1 is available in the text
books (Cook et al. 1989) and can be reviewed by the
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
readers. It is to be noted that the above system of equa-
tions becomes nonlinear when temperature dependant
material properties are described.
In Equation 1, [k] and [c] are known, {F} is a known
function of time and initial temperatures at time, t = 0
are known. This leaves the determination of {T } as a
function of time. The element nodal temperatures are
related with the temperature field T , which is used
to calculate temperature gradients {Tλ } as given in
Equations below.
where
[B] = [∂][L]
[L] = matrix of shape functions
[∂] = differential operator matrix
[k], [c] and {F}, for each element, can be written as
where
ρ = density of material
c = specific heat of material
h = overall coefficient which is obtained by combining
convective and radiation heat transfer coefficients
S = surface area of element
V = volume of element
The contribution of individual elements is summed
up to assemble a global system, which is given by
Equation 4 below.
3.2 Structural analysis
The stiffness of a FE is formulated with the help of
material stiffness matrix [D], which relates stresses
(σ) to strains (ε). With the addition of thermal stresses
the relationship can be written as in Equation 5 below.
where {εT } is the vector of temperature related total
strain
The form of [D] depends on the solution algorithm
of the non-linear analysis. A crack normal secant stiff-
ness approach has been used in this study for the
cracked concrete. The determination of stiffness mod-
uli depends on stress or strain state of material, which
in turn is dependant on the appropriate material mod-
els. A fixed smeared cracking approach has been used
here which employs non-linear softening to deal with
the concrete cracking.

Figure 2. Cracked concrete model.
3.3 Material model
The material properties of both concrete and steel
depend on stress intensity in these materials, which
itself depends on the level of strain. Concrete is consid-
ered as an isotropic material before cracking whereas
the cracked concrete is treated as orthotropic. The
planes of orthotropy of cracked concrete are defined
with the help of principal stress axes which are taken
perpendicular and parallel to the crack.
The stress-strain relation of uncracked concrete is
determined with the help of Equation 6 below.
where
Ec = elastic modulus of concrete
ν = poisson ratio
γ = shear strain
τ = shear stress
3.4 Tensile behaviour
The tensile behaviour of cracked concrete has been
modelled by the non-linear fracture mechanics com-
bined with the crack band method. Thus the model
is based on a smeared cracking approach for the for-
mation and propagation of cracks and takes both the
opening and closing of cracks into account. A smeared
crack model (SCM) has been used in this study.
A non-orthogonal crack formation was incorpo-
rated with the multi-directional fixed crack model, in
order to increase the stability of the total system com-
prising of both concrete and cracks. In case of a 3D
concrete element, three crack directions can initiate at
each integration point. A primary crack forms perpen-
dicular to the direction of major principal stress when
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
concrete tensile strength (fct ) is exceeded as shown in
Figure 2. The formation of secondary crack is con-
trolled by a threshold angle α. A value of α = 60◦ has
been used to allow the formation of non-orthogonal
cracks in an integration point. Similarly, the third crack
can form at 60◦ to the existing two cracks. For the beam
BECS20-1, the orthogonal crack approach (α = 90◦ )
was used with SCM based on some trial and error
calculations. The reduction in shear stiffness in the
cracked zone was modelled by the shear reduction fac-
tor γ. A value of γ = 0.30 was used throughout this
work.
3.5 Tension Stiffening
Tension stiffening represents the contribution of con-
crete between cracks to the rigidity of a member. A
non-linear relaxation of normal stress in the direction
orthogonal to crack is adopted with an exponential
tension softening.
Although a decrease in concrete fracture energy at
elevated temperatures has been found (Brameshuber
and Hilsdorf 1987), data on the relation of fracture
energy with temperature is scarce (de Borst and Peeters
1989). Therefore the fracture energy dependence on
temperature was not considered and a constant value
of Gf = 0.168 N/mm was used.
3.6 Reinforcement behaviour
The elastic-plastic constitutive behaviour of the steel
bars was modelled by the Von Mises yield criterion
with associated flow and isotropic hardening. The ten-
sile test results on the steel bar were used to describe
the plastic behaviour in the post-yielding stage. The
Von Mises yield criterion with associated flow and
isotropic hardening was used to model the CFRP bars.
Temperature dependence of material properties of the
rebars has been included using appropriate constitutive
relations, as discussed in the forthcoming sections.
3.7 Finite element analysis
A 3D solid brick element with 20 nodes, as shown in
Figure 3, was selected for FE discretization of con-
crete. The element has three degrees of freedom at
each node i.e translation in three mutually orthogonal
directions. Two systems of orthogonal axes are used
for each element. The co-ordinates and displacements
of each node are defined in relation to the global co-
ordinate system (X,Y,Z), whereas the shape functions
are expressed with respect to the natural co-ordinates
(ξ, η, ζ).
The non-linear analysis was carried out by incor-
porating the material and element formulation into the
FE program DIANA (TNO 2005). Only one half of the
beam, both in the longitudinal and transverse direc-
tions, was modelled to take an advantage of symmetry
in the geometry and loading conditions. The typical
mesh of a beam is shown in Figure 4.
 Table 1. Properties of concrete.

Ec f ct
Beam (MPa) (MPa)

BESS20-1 30,225 2.93

BECS20-1 33,390 3.26
BEHD20-1 32,709 3.18
BEHD20-2 31,694 2.98

Figure 3. Typical 20 nodes solid brick element.

Figure 5. Experimental and analytical temperatures at

mid-span of beam BEHD20-1.

Figure 4. FE mesh for beams.

Only tension reinforcing bars were included in the

analysis (Fig. 4). These were modelled as bars embed-
ded in the brick elements and a perfect bar-concrete
bond was assumed.

3.8 Material properties Figure 6. Experimental and analytical temperatures at

The thermal and mechanical properties of concrete
and steel are considered as temperature dependant and
the relations suggested by Eurocode 2 part 1-2 (1996)
were mostly employed. These properties included con-
ductivity, capacitance, coefficient of linear thermal
expansion, compressive and tensile strengths and elas-
tic modulus. The details of these can be found in Rafi
(2007). The ambient modulus of elasticity and tensile
strength of concrete on the day of testing is given in
Table 1. The Poisson’s ratio (ν) for concrete is taken as
0.20 and variations in ν with temperature are ignored.
4 DISCUSSION ON ANALYTICAL RESULTS
31 mm from lateral face of beam BEHD20-1.
Figures 5 and 6, respectively, for the beam BEHD20-1
at four intervals. The positions of the thermocouples
can be noted in Figure 1.
It can be seen in Figures 5 and 6 that the correla-
tion between the predicted and measured temperatures
is fairly accurate for all the four time intervals. The
thermal analysis tends to overestimate temperature
at the more distant fibres from the heating surfaces,
where the effects of moisture evaporation were more
pronounced. The simulated temperature distribution,
along the beam length, at 25 min, 50 min and 75 min
is illustrated in Figure 7.

4.1 Temperature distribution 4.2 Beam deflection history

The recorded and predicted temperature distributions 4.2.1 Deflection of single bar type beams
at the mid-span along the vertical line of beam at the A comparison of the measured and predicted mid-span
centre and at 31 mm from the lateral face are traced in deflections for the beam BESS20-1 versus heating

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Figure 7. Simulated temperature distribution in beam
BEHD20-1 (a) 25 min (b) 50 min (c) 75 min.
Figure 8. Analytical and measured deflection of beam.
time is shown in Figure 8. It is noted in Figure 8
that the correlation between the predicted and mea-
sured deflections is reasonably good at all stages of
beam heating. A slight overestimation in the predicted
deflection can be seen between 15 and 65 min of heat-
ing. This is due to the fact that predicted temperatures
of the bar were also slightly higher compared to the
measured temperatures during this time interval. This
caused a higher reduction in the bar modulus and a
consequent loss of the beam stiffness.
Since reliable data on the change in FRP mechanical
properties at elevated temperatures are not available in
the literature an empirical approach was employed in
this study. Figure 9 illustrates changes in the beam
stiffness (K) with heating time. The stiffness is calcu-
lated as load per unit deflection using the data recorded
during the experimental beam testing. It is noted in
Figure 9 that the curve for the beam BECS20-1 con-
sists of three regions. These have been shown as ab, bc
and cd in Figure 9. The slopes of the first two regions
were calculated. Using these slopes and some trial and
error calculations a method of FRP residual stiffness
calculation is suggested in Figure 10 with the help of
factor kf .
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 9. Stiffness reduction of beams.
Figure 10. Reduction factor for the properties of CFRP bars.
Similarly, based on load-displacement relation of
the beam BECS20-1, a method for the calculation of
residual strength of the CFRP bars is also suggested
and is plotted in Figure 10. Figure 8 illustrates the pre-
dicted beam deflection using the constitutive relations
as given in Figure 10. It is noted in Figure 8 that the ini-
tial beam stiffness at t = 0 (ambient temperature was
overestimated, leading to a predicted initial deflection
less than the recorded deflection. However, both the
theoretical and experimental deflections became quite
close to each other with the passage of time during
heating and the agreement between the predicted and
measured deflections is reasonably good close to the
beam failure.
4.2.2 Deflection of hybrid beams
The behaviour of the beam BEHD20-2 was largely
controlled by the steel bars during experimental testing
(Rafi & Nadjai 2010). It is noted in Figure 9 that the ini-
tial stiffness of the beams BESS20-1 and BEHD20-2
is nearly the same. The rate of stiffness reduction of
both beams is also similar in the beginning of the heat-
ing test. Although stiffness degradation became less
in the beam BEHD20-2 later, compared to the beam
BESS20-1, due to the presence of the CFRP bars the
trends of the data appear similar for these beams in
Figure 9.
Rafi & Nadjai (2010) noted that the stiffness degra-
dation in the tested beams at high temperatures was
 Figure 11. Comparison of residual beam stiffness with
BECS20-1.
Figure 12. Analytical and measured deflections of beam
BEHD20-2.
mainly due to the loss of bar stiffness as the compres-
sion concrete was protected from temperature changes.
Figure 11 illustrates the residual stiffness (Kr ) of the
beam BEHD20-2 versus the bar temperature between
100◦ C-430◦ C. The residual stiffness was calculated by
subtracting stiffness of the beam BESS20-1 from the
beam BEHD20-2. This data is compared with the stiff-
ness of the beam BECS20-1 in Figure 11. Although a
small contribution of CFRP bars in the overall stiff-
ness of the beam BEHD20-2 is noted in Figure 11
the data trend appear similar to the beam BECS20-1.
A statistical analysis of both data was carried out and
trend lines are plotted. As can be seen in Figure 11, the
slopes of both data are nearly the same. The standard
deviation of both these data came out to be 0.16. This
clearly indicates that temperature dependant stiffness
properties of the CFRP bars in the beam BEHD20-
2 are similar to the beam BECS20-1. Further, the
CFRP bars maintained similar temperatures in the
beam BECS20-1 and BEHD20-2 at the beam failure
(Rafi & Nadjai 2010). This indicates that tempera-
ture dependent strength properties of the bars are also
similar in these beams. Note that the foregoing com-
parison is only qualitative and by no means provide a
quantitative stiffness measure of the beam. Figure 12
presents a comparison of experimental and theoretical
deflections for the beam BEHD20-2. The constitutive
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 13. Theoretical and measured deflections of beam
BEHD20-1.
properties as suggested in Figure 10 were used for the
CFRP bars. A good co-relation between the two curves
is noted in Figure 12.
It is noted during the experimental beam testing
that the beam BEHD20-1 was the strongest beam. As
a result the CFRP bar temperature at the beam failure
was significantly higher than the beams BECS20-1
and BEHD20-2 (Rafi & Nadjai 2010). A small rate
of change of beam stiffness is also noted in Fig-
ure 9 for this beam. The residual stiffness of the beam
BEHD20-1, after subtracting BESS20-1 beam stiff-
ness, is plotted in Figure 11 which confirms that the
data trends in this case are different than the beam
BECS20-1. Figure 13 illustrates a comparison between
the experimental and analytical beam deflections. The
analytical deflection was based on the rebar properties
as given in Figure 10 and is represented by the legend
‘Proposed’. It is noted in Figure 13 that the beam stiff-
ness is significantly underestimated by the FRP bar
property relations as shown in Figure 10.
Based on the stiffness results of the beam
BEHD20-1 different set of constitutive relations of the
FRP bars were tried. These will be discussed in any
future publication. The results of the analytical beam
deflection using modified property degradation rela-
tions are also plotted in Figure 13. A good co-relation
between the experimental and analytical behaviours is
noted in Figure 13 with the modified relations.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The results of analytical modelling of the concrete
beams at elevated temperatures are reported in this
paper. The beams were reinforced with the steel and/or
CFRP bars. The main findings of the investigation are
listed below.
1) The Eurocode 2 part 1–2 models for thermal and
mechanical properties of concrete and steel were
mostly employed. As a result the temperature pre-
dictions were found comparable with the recorded
temperatures.
2) The smeared crack model satisfactorily simulated
the behaviours of beams at elevated temperatures.
3) The analytical models tried in this research were
able to predict the non-linear deflection of the beam
up to the failure.
4) The suggested constitutive relations for the tem-
perature dependant material properties of the CFRP
bars predicted the beam behaviour fairly accurately.
The results clearly indicate a good prospect of FRP
rods, as an alternate reinforcing material, in the
building structures.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors wish to acknowledge the support provided
for this research by the School of Built Environment
at the University of Ulster.
REFERENCES
Anderberg, Y. & Thelandersson, S. 1977. A constitutive law
for concrete at transient high temperature conditions. ACI
SP-55: 187–205.
Brameshuber, W. & Hilsdorf, H.K. 1987. Development of
srength and dformability of vry yung cncrete. In Frac-
ture Energy of Concrete and Rock; Proc. of SEM-RILEM
intern. Conf. 1987, Houston, TX: 655–667.
Buchanan, H.A. 2001. Structural Design for Fire Safety. John
Wiley & Sons, Ltd – England.
Cook, D.R. Malkus, S.D. & Plesha, E.M. 1989. Concepts and
Applications of Finite Element Analysis. John Wiley &
Sons, Inc – USA.
781
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de Borst. & Peeters, P.P.J.M. 1989. Analysis of concrete
structures under thermal loading. Computer Methods in
Applied Mechanics and Engineering 77: 293–310.
Ellingwood, B. & Lin, T.D. 1991. Flexure and shear behav-
ior of concrete beams during fires. Journal of Structural
Engineering, ASCE 117(2): 440–458.
Eurocode 2. 1996. Design of Concrete Structures, Part1–2:
General rules – structural fire design. Brussels.
Harmathy, T.Z. 1993. Fire Safety Design & Concrete. Long-
man Scientific & Technical – UK.
Hertz, K.D. 2004. Reinforcement data for fire safety design.
Magazine of Concrete Research 56(8): 453–459.
Khoury, G.A. 2000. Effect of fire on concrete and con-
crete structures. Progress in Structural Engineering and
Materials 2: 429–447.
Khoury, G.A. Majorana, C.E. Pesavento, F. & Schrefler,
B.A. 2002. Modelling of heated concrete. Magazine of
Concrete Research 54(2): 77–101.
Nizamuddin, Z. & Bresler, B. 1979. Fire response of rein-
forced concrete slabs. Journal of the Structural Division,
ASCE 105(ST8): 1653–1671.
Rafi, M.M. & Nadjai, A. 2010. Experimental evaluation
of fire resistance of FRP reinforced concrete beams. In
Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events;
Proc. Intern. Conf., Naples, 16–18 September 2010.
Rafi, M.M. 2010. Fire Performance of FRP Reinforced
Concrete Beams: Experimental and Theoretical Studies.
Lambert Academic Publishing.
Schneider, U. 1976. Behaviour of concrete under thermal
steady state and non-steady state conditions. Fire and
Materials 1: 103–115.
Thelandersson, S. 1987. Modelling of combined thermal and
mechanical action in concrete. Journal of Engineering
Mechanics, ASCE 113: 893–906.
TNO Building and Construction Research. 2005. DIANA
finite element analysis. User’s Manual release 9, Delft.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Experimental evaluation of fire resistance of FRP and hybrid RC beams –

Part I

M.M. Rafi
NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan

A. Nadjai
University of Ulster, Belfast, UK

ABSTRACT: The applications of fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) bars are mostly limited to bridges owing to
the lack of understanding of the behaviour and endurance of FRP Reinforced Concrete (RC) under fire exposure
and high heat. This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation on the behaviours of steel, carbon
FRP (CFRP) and hybrid (CFRP-steel) RC beams at elevated temperatures. The beams were tested in a floor
furnace and carried a load of 40% of ambient load capacity. The slip of FRP bars contributed to the beam failure.
The beams failed in flexure which was also the intended failure mode at ambient temperature. The hybrid bar
reinforced beams showed better strength and stiffness properties compared to the FRP reinforced beam.

1 INTRODUCTION behaviour of a representative specimen after expos-

The unrivalled dominance of steel rods in reinforced
concrete (RC) structures has been recently challenged
by the non-metallic fibre reinforced polymer (FRP)
bars. The application of FRP bars is a direct result of
the corrosion of steel, which poses serious problems
to the durability of RC structures. Since the introduc-
tion of fibrous bars, a significant amount of research
has been carried out over the last 25 years in order
to investigate various aspects of the behaviour of FRP
bar reinforced structures. These research efforts have
been recognised by the increasing interest in the use
of fibre bars as a reinforcing material. However the
application of the non-metallic bars are mostly limited
to bridges as the research regarding the fire resistance
of FRP reinforced structures is lacking. Consequently,
the behaviour and endurance of FRP bar reinforced
structures under fire exposure and high heat is not clear
and further research in the area of fire performance of
FRP RC structures is suggested by the International
codes (ACI 2006).
Fire is one of the possible hazards to the building
structures. The need of sufficient research to study
the response of FRP bar reinforced structural elements
at elevated temperatures can hardly be understated to
utilise the non-metallic bars in residential and com-
mercial buildings and similar structures. The provision
of appropriate fire resistance to the buildings is a major
requirement as the structural integrity could be the last
line of defence when all other means and measures
of restraining a fire fail (Kodur 1999). Building con-
trol authorities set out fire resistance requirement of
structural components of a building. The suitability
of a construction is usually judged by observing the
ing it to a specified heating regime in a laboratory
(Malhotra 1969).
The experimentally recorded thermal behaviours of
simply-supported FRP, steel and hybrid (steel-FRP)
bar reinforced beams at elevated temperatures are
reported in this paper. The beams carried their full
service load during the fire tests. The main focus of
the research reported in this paper is to evaluate both
the strength and stiffness characteristics of the tested
beams. The objective of using hybrid reinforcing bars
is to increase specific performance, e.g fire resistance,
stiffness, ductility, energy absorption, etc of FRP RC.
2 TEST SPECIMENS
Typical details of the beams are shown in Figure 1.
The beams were cast in a mould made of plywood.
A 20 mm concrete cover was used all-around the beam.
The compression steel and nominal concrete strength
were kept constant for all the beams. The concrete was
mixed in a rotating mixer and vibrated on a vibrating
table. Intermittent wet curing (twice a day) was carried
out for 10 days and then the beams were transferred to
the conditioning room to allow the concrete to reach
stable moisture conditions. The temperature and rela-
tive humidity were maintained at 21◦ C to 25◦ C and 40
to 60%, respectively, in the conditioning room in accor-
dance with the relevant British Standard (BSI 1999). It
can be noted in Figure 1 that the bars’ arrangement in
the beam BEHD20-2 is not very effective from a dura-
bility view point, as the cover to steel is small which
does not reduce the chances of steel corrosion. How-
ever this beams was included in the testing programme
to compare its behaviour with the other beams.

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 Table 2. Mechanical properties of tension rebars.

Nominal
Ultimate Elastic
Bar Strength* Ultimate Modulus
Type (MPa) Strain* (GPa)

CFRP – 9.5 mm 1676 0.0145 135.9

Steel – 10 mm 530 0.0048 201
∗
parameters corresponding to 0.2% offset yield stress for
steel bar

were hooked at each end. The reinforcement cages

(Fig. 1) were tied with iron wire. Smooth 6 mm diam-
eter closed rectangular stirrups were used to comply
with the criterion of ultimate strength design of FRP
reinforced beams given by ACI code (2002, 2003).

4 INSTRUMENTATION

The beams were instrumented to measure deflection,

temperature and slip of the CFRP rods. The deflection
at the mid-span was monitored using Linear Variable
Differential Transducers (LVDTs). These LVDTs were
placed on the top of the beam on both sides of its lon-
gitudinal centre. Horizontal LVDTs were used at the
ends of the FRP bars to measure their slip (Fig. 1).
Figure 1. Detail of beams and positions of thermocouples. Temperature was measured with the help of thermo-
couples. A computer data acquisition system was used
Table 1. Strength of concrete on the day of test and applied to record continuously load, deflection, temperature
load. and slip. The test continued until the beam failure.

Compressive Applied
Beam Strength (MPa) Load (kN) 5 TEST PROCEDURE
BECS20-1 35.89 30.0
BESS20-1 30.45 15.5
The theoretical ultimate loads of the beams were deter-
BEHD20-1 34.53 32.5 mined with the help of a numerical model which was
BEHD20-2 31.32 27.0 implemented by Rafi (2007). A load of 40% of the
ambient load capacity was applied on the beam. The
amount of the load used for each beam is given in
Table 1. It is noted in Table 1 that the applied load for
3 MATERIALS the CFRP and hybrid RC beams are similar. This is due
to the fact that these were over-reinforced beams and
The average 28-day cylindrical strength of the con- their nominal strengths were dependent on the concrete
crete was 35.45 MPa. The strength on the day of test is strength in compression.
given in Table 1. These were obtained by crushing the The beam was positioned over the half round sup-
cylinders a few hours before the test. ports on the furnace roof frame. The frame was
The FRP bars consisted of 9.5 mm diameter straight 200 mm high and was placed on the furnace top. The
carbon FRP (CFRP) rods. The bars were produced openings in the frame on either side of the beam were
using the pultrusion process. The resin used to bond closed with the RC slabs. These slabs were 200 mm
the fibres was bisphenol epoxy vinyl ester. A textured deep in the outer one half of their width and 50 mm in
surface was provided on the bars through surface treat- the next one half close to the sides of the beam. The
ment in order to increase the bond with the concrete. slabs were insulated at the bottom and on the internal
Properties of the CFRP bars are given in Table 2. faces with the help of 25 mm thick fibre boards expos-
The tension rebars consisted of 10 mm diameter ing around 90 mm of lateral faces on each side of the
high strength deformed bars. The material properties beam soffit to heating (Fig. 2). The length of the beam
of these bars are shown in Table 2. The hanger bars exposed to the heat on all three sides was 1500 mm.The
were of 8 mm diameter high strength deformed steel heating arrangements provided 225 mm long unheated
for all the beams. Both the top and bottom steel bars beam ends on its either side.

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Figure 2. Schematic details of beam in furnace.

The load was applied to the beam at least half an

hour before the start of heating and was kept con- Figure 3. Standard heating and furnace temperature curves.
stant during the entire period of testing. The loading
force was transmitted to the beam through a pump.
The operator controlled load manually, displayed on
the monitor screen, and made adjustments to keep the
load level as constant as possible.
The heating rate inside the furnace was in accor-
dance with ISO834 standard heating curve (1975).
A comparison of the furnace temperature for the beam
BEHD20-1 with the standard curve is shown in Fig-
ure 3. It can be seen in Figure 3 that the furnace
temperature followed the standard curve very accu-
rately. The test was stopped after the load dropped on
the beam and the concrete failed on top. Figure 4. Temperature distribution at mid-span for beam
BEHD20-1.

6 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Table 3. Reinforcement ratio and No. of cracks.

Beam ρb (%) ρ(%) No. of Cracks

6.1 Concrete temperature
The temperature development in the beam BEHD20-1
is illustrated in Figure 4 with the help of data of ther-
mocouples TC1 to TC11. As expected from the testing
arrangements, the temperature in the beam upper part
did not elevate significantly, as this was covered by the
infill slab panels. The thermocouples TC8 and TC9
recorded temperatures less than 150◦ C at an elevation
30 mm below the beam top. No significant temperature
rise was noticed on the top of the beam (thermocouples
TC10 and TC11).
It can be noticed in Figure 4 that the escape of
water vapour at around 100◦ C temporarily halted the
temperature rise and kept it constant for some time.
This effect becomes increasingly pronounced at dis-
tant fibres from the heated surfaces, as can be seen
from the comparison of data of thermocouples TC5-
TC9 in Figure 4. The effects of beam deflection is
evident on thermocouples TC6 and TC7 where tem-
perature after around 60 min of heating increased as
the initially protected part of the beam was exposed to
heat. The maximum concrete temperature re-corded in
this part was 300◦ C after 100 min of heating.
6.2 Modes of failure
The beams BECS20-1, BEHD20-1 and BEHD20-2
were designed over-reinforced using reinforcement
BECS20-1 0.32 0.70 12
BESS20-1 2.16 0.77 6
BEHD20-1 0.30 1.47 13
BEHD20-2 0.30 1.47 12
ratio (ρ) greater than the balanced reinforcement ratio
(ρb ) whereas BESS20-1 beam was under-reinforced
with ρ less than ρb . The balanced and actual rein-
forcement ratios for the beams are shown in Table 3.
The beams developed cracks at the initial load appli-
cation, before the start of the heating test. The number
of cracks before and after the test in each beam is
shown in Table 3 where it is clear that BESS20-1 beam
developed only one half of the cracks than the other
beams.
The thermal behaviour of FRP in fire is depen-
dent on the resin employed in their manufacturing.
Gentry & Hudak (1998) found that degradation in
polymer matrix begins at 300◦ C. Kumahara et al.
(1993) recorded FRP tensile strength reduction of up
to 60% at 400◦ C which can be regarded as substantial
reduction. The temperature development in the FRP
bars for the tested beams is shown in Figure 5. It can
be seen in Figure 5 that the beams were able to sus-
tain the thermo-mechanical environment for a longer
time than the aforementioned temperature of 400◦ C.
This was due to the bar anchorage at the beam ends

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 5. Temperature development at FRP bar.
Figure 6. View of beam BEHD20-1 in furnace after failure.
which were outside the furnace. This indicates that the
critical temperature of FRP bar could be higher when
it is embedded in the concrete and anchored at the
ends. Low CFRP bar temperatures in Figure 5 for the
beam BEHD20-2 are due to the fact that these bars
were placed above the steel bars and were provided
larger concrete cover (Fig. 1). The CFRP rods in the
beams BECS20-1, BEHD20-1 and BEHD20-2 slipped
at 52 min, 74 min and 57 min, respectively. This initi-
ated the beam failure which eventually failed when one
of the cracks in the central region propagated upwards
in the compression zone and crushed the concrete. Fig-
ure 6 shows the beam BEHD20-1 in the furnace after
failure.
Initial cracks in the beam BESS20-1 were relatively
low in height and narrow in width. The steel bars
yielded as a result of large strain development in the
thermal environment. A couple of cracks at each end of
the constant moment zone opened up and propagated
upwards, which reduced the concrete area to resist
compressive stresses and caused its failure on top.
6.3 Deflection behaviour
The beam initial deflection (), which was caused by
the applied load before the start of the heating test, is
shown in Table 4. It can be seen in Table 4 that the
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 4. Deflections and failure times of beams.
Initial Final tFailure Tfailure
Beam (mm) (mm) (min) (◦ C)
BESS20-1 2.48 71.88 80 –
BECS20-1 8.57 25.93 63 575
BEHD20-1 5.89 69.68 108 756
BEHD20-2 4.27 47.22 87 530
Figure 7. Deflection behaviours of beams.
initial deflection of BESS20-1 beam was less than the
other beams. On the other hand the beam BECS20-1
deflected more than the hybrid beams. This is due to
the fact that the stiffness of this beam was less than
the hybrid beams but it carried nearly the same load as
hybrid beams, as explained earlier.
The beam was simply supported at its ends and
was unrestrained both axially and rotationally when
the load was applied to it. The deflection behaviours
of the beams (after the start of the heating test)
are plotted in Figure 7 versus the heating time. The
longitudinal expansion of the beam at elevated temper-
atures was restrained by the cooler parts, which were
protected from heating. The beam thus became later-
ally restrained but rotationally unrestrained during the
heating test. Consequently, any change in length due to
the expansion of the heated part of the beam was also
accommodated in the deflection. Hence the deflection
during heating comprised of deflection owing to the
beam reduced flexural stiffness, bowing owing to the
curvature, which was induced by the thermal gradients,
and the deflection owing to the lateral restraint. Failure
times (tFailure ) of all the beams are provided in Table 4.
As mentioned earlier, the top half of the beam
cross-section was protected from heating and the tem-
perature in this part of the beam cross-section did not
elevate significantly (Fig. 4). As a result, the stiffness
degradation of the beam was mainly due to the loss of
bar stiffness at high temperatures. It can be seen in Fig-
ure 7 that the deflection of BESS20-1 beam increased
linearly during the test and the rate of deflection
became non-linear after 64 min of heating. The tem-
perature of the bar at this time was recorded as 552◦ C.
This non-linear deflection rise continued for around
16 more min before the concrete failed after approx-
imately 80 min of heating (Table 4). This is worth to
be noted that the steel could have around 60% of its
normal strength and stiffness properties left at a tem-
perature of 500◦ C (Saafi 2002). The rapid change in
the deflection after this temperature is an indication of
the effects created by strain due to the restraints at the
ends, which produced early yielding in the steel and the
beam eventually failed at a bar temperature of around
645◦ C when the steel could still have enough strength.
Four different phases of the deflection behaviour of
the beam BECS20-1 are noted in Figure 7. The deflec-
tion of this beam started to increase linearly similar
to the beam BESS20-1 (after the application of heat)
but with a smaller slope. This linear rise continued
until around 14 min and 120◦ C of the bar temperature.
The supplier provided the glass-transition temperature
(Tg ) of the rod as 96◦ C and heat distortion temperature
of the resin as 104◦ C. Tg corresponds to the soften-
ing temperature of a polymer. The rate of deflection
beyond this time was very small until around 50 min.
The bar temperature at this time interval was recorded
as 457◦ C. FRP bars have been found to loose 80 to
90% of bond strength in the temperature range of
200–250◦ C (Katz et al., 1999). It is likely that the
beam behaviour after 120◦ C changed gradually from
a beam to a tied arch, which was anchored by the FRP
tie rod in the cold ends of the beam. The transition of
the deflection curve into non-linear phase beyond this
point (50 min) resulted in significant increase in the
rebar slip, which caused failure of the tied arch action
of the beam.
It can be noticed in Figure 7 that the behaviour of
BEHD20-1 beam is a combination of both beam and
tied arch actions owing to the presence of steel and
FRP rods. The deflection pattern appears similar to
that of BECS20-1 beam for the first 50 min whereas
this is comparable to BESS20-1 beam for the remain-
ing time period. The stiffness of the beam BEHD20-1
was largely controlled by the FRP tied arch action
as long as this action remained effective whereas in
the final phase steel residual stiffness dominated the
behaviour once the CFRP bars slipped excessively and
load transference to them was reduced.
The deflection curve of the beam BEHD20-2
appears similar to the beam BESS20-1 in Figure 7
despite the fact that the former beam was over-
reinforced as compared to the later under-reinforced
beam. The deflection of the beam BEHD20-2 con-
tinued linearly with the same slope until the end of
the test. The tied arch action was found to be less
effective in the beam BEHD20-2. Consequently the
behaviour of this beam was largely controlled by the
steel bars. It can be seen in Figure 7 that both hybrid
beams failed in a ductile fashion and resisted the
heat for a significantly longer time compared to the
beam BECS20-1. However, the fire resistance of the
beam BEHD20-2 was considerably less than the beam
BEHD20-1. Final beam deflection and the CFRP bar
temperatures at the beam failure (TFailure ) are given in
Table 4. It can be noted in Table 4 that the CFRP bar
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in the beams BECS20-1 and BEHD20-2 maintained
similar temperatures at the beam failure whereas the
FRP bar temperature was significantly high in the
beam BEHD20-1 compared to the above-mentioned
beams. It was mentioned in the beginning that the
beam BEHD20-2 was only used for the comparison
with the other beams despite its ineffectiveness from
the durability view point. It is noted in Figure 7 that
this beam did not exhibit better strength or stiffness
characteristics, during heating, compared to the beam
BEHD20-1.
7 CONCLUSIONS
The results of experimental testing of the steel,
CFRP and hybrid (CFRP-steel) bar reinforced con-
crete beams at elevated temperatures are reported in
this paper. The main findings of the investigation are
listed below.
1) Although the bond strength is lost in FRP RC mem-
bers at elevated temperatures due to the softening of
polymer resin failure can be avoided if the bars are
sufficiently anchored at their ends and protected
from temperature influence. Consequently, a nor-
mal RC beam with bond is transformed into a beam
without bond and behaves like a two-hinged tied
arch.
2) Both the hybrid (steel-FRP) and CFRP reinforced
beams were designed over-reinforced to achieve a
compression failure at ambient temperature. These
beams failed due to the crushing of concrete during
elevated temperature tests. Identical steel RC beam
was under-reinforced which failed by steel yield-
ing. Therefore modes of failure of all the tested
beams were the same both at normal and elevated
temperatures.
3) The strength and stiffness characteristics of the
hybrid (steel-CFRP) reinforced beam were better
than FRP RC beam. These beams also showed
higher ductility during elevated temperature testing
compared to the CFRP reinforced beam.
4) The fire resistance of a hybrid RC beam is depen-
dent on the arrangement of steel and FRP bars.
As a logical solution to the corrosion problem of
steel RC structures steel bars can be placed over an
FRP bar layer. This arrangement can considerably
increase the beam fire resistance.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors wish to acknowledge the support provided
for this research by the School of Built Environment at
the University of Ulster and all the laboratory technical
staff members.
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British Standards Institution. (BSI) 1999. Fire Resistance
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ature. In Fiber-Reinforced Plastic for Concrete Structures
(SP-138); Proc. of intern Symp., American Concrete
Institute: 731–742. Farmington Hills, Mich.
Malhotra, H.L. 1969. Fire resistance of structural concrete
beams, Fire Research Note 741. Ministry of Technol-
ogy and Fire Office’s Committee, Joint Fire Research
Organisation.
Rafi, M.M. 2010. Fire Performance of FRP Reinforced
Concrete Beams: Experimental and Theoretical Studies.
Lambert Academic Publishing.
Saafi, M. 2002. Effect of fire on FRP reinforced concrete
members. Composite Structures 58: 11–20.
 Innovative seismic protection technologies
and study cases

© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

A school building construction in steel under seismic events

H.A. Arda Buyuktaskin

Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey

ABSTRACT: Turkey is a country geographically located in a serious earthquake zone of the world, with some
major seismic faults. In the history, it is well known that big earthquakes were formed along the seismic fault
called NorthAnatolian. The particularly destructive one “Golcuk-Izmit Earthquake” occurred on the 17th.August
of 1999, with Ms = 7.8 magnitude according to Richter scale. It caused nearly 20000 life loss and great material
damage. The seismic resistant building emphasized in this paper is constructed in the place of a school which
collapsed after being seriously damaged in this earthquake. The name of the school is given to the honour of
Prof. Tevfik Seno Arda who was the founder of Turkish Constructional Steelwork Association and President of
ECCS between the years 1999 and 2000. It is a safe and light school building as well as aesthetically beautiful
and splendid with a wide functional area.

1 INTRODUCTION 2 ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN

Turkey is a country geographically located in a seri- Tevfik Seno Arda High School was designed as a three
ous earthquake zone of the world, with some major storey steel construction building with plan dimen-
seismic faults. The North Anatolian Fault with 275 km sions of 28.8 m × 36 m, in a high district of the city
length is starting from Bingol-Karliova, after passing of Kocaeli towards Izmit Gulf. The total height of the
through the North Anatolia, it reaches over to Greece building is 10.80 m and the storey height is 3.60 m
traversing the Marmara Sea and the North Aegean (Fig. 1). The school is composed of sixteen class-
Sea. Big earthquakes, which were formed along this rooms of thirty students, four laboratories, a computer
fault line, are mainly emigrating through the west. room, a library, a conference room and an adminis-
This more or less organized emigration of earthquakes trative area which are gathered around an atrium. The
occurring very rarely on Earth was found very attrac- atrium area of 7.20 × 14.40 m2 with a glass covered
tive by many scientists. The particularly destructive roof is designed in the middle of the building. By this
one “Golcuk-Izmit Earthquake” occurred on the 17th. way, whole building can be illuminated both from the
August of 1999, with Ms = 7.8 magnitude according to inner yard and from the façades. It can be said that a
Richter scale at Adapazari, Kocaeli, Golcuk segment clean and spacious appearance which complements the
of North Anatolian Fault. Its duration was approxi- pleasing atmosphere and the comfortable area for the
mately 45–50 seconds. The earthquake affected the students has come into being.This atrium offers also an
entire Marmara region. Being the most populated and agreeable recreation area for the students during wet
industrialized area, life loss and damage was very
important. It caused nearly 20000 life loss and great
material damage in many districts of Istanbul like
Avcilar, Kucukcekmece, Tuzla and cities like Izmit,
Adapazari, Golcuk, Duzce, Bolu (Buyuktaskin et al.,
2000).
The building emphasized is constructed in the place
of a school which could not resist to Golcuk-Izmit
Earthquake of 1999 and collapsed after being seriously
damaged. The new school renamed as “Prof. Dr. Tevfik
Seno Arda High School” constructed in steel is a joint
project of Turkish Steel Association and ECCS. The
name of the school is given to the honour of Prof.
Arda who was the founder of Turkish Constructional
SteelworkAssociation and President of ECCS between
the years 1999 and 2000. Figure 1. A view from the school building.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 4. A view from the construction site.
Figure 2. Plan.

Figure 3. Atrium.

weather (Fig. 2–3). Supporting system of the build-
ing made of steel is shown as architectural element.
An environment friendly and a functional architec-
tural design is created. It is aesthetically beautiful and
splendid with a wide functional area.
3 GENERAL DESCRIPTIONS OF THE
STRUCTURE
The structural system was designed as moment frames
with 7.20 m spans in both directions in line with archi-
tectural request. The frames are connected to IPE 300
floor beams. The floor slabs were designed as com-
posite slabs with 12 cm reinforced concrete connected
to the steel beams.
For the main structure elements (columns and
beams) wide flange profiles such as HEA 320, HEB
240, 320 were selected, and for the secondary beams
IPE profiles were used.
The total weight of the steel structure is 250 tons.
The steel grades used are S275 JR for the profiles and
S235 JR for the plates. For the connection of the beams
and columns, high tension bolts with grade 10.9 were
used.
The foundation design was made according to the
results of soil investigation report conducted for the
Figure 5. Axonometric view.
area. The foundations were calculated as foundations
over a 50 cm concrete matt. The columns are connected
to the foundation with a group of anchor bolts forming
a fixed support to limit horizontal displacements.
The use of steel for the structures, the façade and the
interior, including the composite floors, was particu-
larly important.Trapezoidal galvanized steel sheets are
used for composite floor and the façade. Consideration
was also given to the environment and the functionality
of the building.
4 ERECTION
All the structural elements were manufactured off-site
with bolted connections, allowing controlled and fast
manufacture and assembly (Fig. 4).
5 ENGINEERING ANALYSIS
A three dimensional model has been created in order to
analyze the structure (Fig. 5). The computer program
SAP 2000 has been utilized for the structural analysis.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 6. Students in safety in their new school building.
Shop drawings are prepared using X STEEL computer
program.
Material quality of the steel has been selected as ST
37. Temperature variations, wind and snow loads were
taken according to local climatic conditions.
6 CODES AND NORMS
All the structural calculations of the building were pre-
pared according to “Specifications for Structures to be
built in disaster Areas”. The earthquake zone number 1
was taken into consideration for the calculations.
Euro-fire protection norms and standards were
applied. The fire safety of the school was made accord-
ing to an innovative concept including the possibilities
provided by the results of the last European research
projects and the new version of the Eurocodes 1,
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
3 and 4. The concept is based on fire engineering
analysis. The final result required fire protection only
on the main beams, leaving the secondary beams and
columns in atrium and in corridors in naked steel.
7 IMPLEMENTATION TIME
Structural design process had been started in Septem-
ber 2005 and the construction of the building was
finished in May 2006. The school was ready to wel-
come its students for the new education term starting
in September 2006 (Fig. 6).
8 CONCLUSION
Prof. Arda was always stating that demolishment of
buildings during an earthquake as not a faith, but steel
or composite framed buildings is a lifesaving technol-
ogy in earthquake zones and at least, buildings such
as schools and hospitals, which must certainly resist
to earthquake and continue to offer their services after
such an earthquake, must be made of steel.
REFERENCES
Architecture, Steel Stahl Acier, 2010. Tevfik Seno Arda
High School, ECCS No 91–24 Case Study, Escourbiac,
Graulhet.
Buyuktaskin, H.A., & Arda, T.S. 2000. 17th. Of August 1999-
Izmit (Kocaeli) Earthquake and its Effects on Different
Constructions. Steel Structures of the 2000’s; Proc. intern.
conf., Istanbul, 11–13 September 2000. Istanbul: Istanbul
Technical University.
Steel Constructions Mag. 2009. Tevfik Seno Arda High
School Special Issue, Istanbul: TUCSA.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Seismic protection of high-rise buildings by aluminum shear panels:

A design application

A. Basile, G. Brando & G. De Matteis

Department of Engineering, University “G.d’Annunzio” of Chieti-Pescara, Italy

F.M. Mazzolani
Department of Structural Engineering, University “Federico II” of Naples, Italy

ABSTRACT: A study case of a tall steel building seismically protected by means of both pure aluminum shear
panels and buckling restrained steel braces is presented in the current paper. The proposed solution is based on
the employment of anti-seismic systems able to guarantee a far lateral stiffness of the frames in which they are
installed. Thus lateral vibrations of structures under wind or seismic actions may be significantly reduced. On
the other hand, the peculiarity of the proposed system is that is based on the use of dissipative devices able to
protect by damage, also under severe earthquakes attacks, other structural parts. The main results obtained by
both linear and non linear analyses are discussed in order to put in evidence the effectiveness of the proposed
devices. The final solution is also critically discussed from the architectural point of view. The arrangement of
shear panels is visible both externally and internally, in order to valorize the building architecture.

1 INTRODUCTION

One of the major trends of modern age in urban

organization of large metropolitan areas is the use
of high rise buildings. Vertical form is the center of
a contemporary design philosophy which, highlight-
ing architectural signs, would go to define new urban
criteria for innovative landscapes, parking and green
areas. This concept was exposed in one of the first
exhibitions of urban reorganization of Le Corbusier
(Middleton and Watkin, 1977) in his plan for a “Con-
temporary City for three million inhabitants” (1933,
see figure 1).
This plan was conceived as a group of sixty floor
cruciform skyscrapers placed in large rectangular
spaces, similar to green parks, with large hubs in the
center for transport facilities.
Tall building is the basic part of a urban conception
known as “vertical city”, which could be of strate-
gic importance for future large metropolis. In fact its
symbolic value is very strong considering that a series
of tall buildings could modify definitely skylines and
how cities are organized.
The increasing advanced technologies and the use
of innovative materials allowed, over the years, to
achieve higher and higher heights even maintaining
or accentuating the required transparency and light-
ness (Viswanath et al., 1997). Let the reader think to
the first tall buildings used for the Chicago School
(1883–1893) or to the “Home Insurance Building”
(see figure 2-a), recognized as the first skyscraper
in history, where steel represents the primary struc-
ture and cladding masonry panels are used as non
Figure 1. Contemporary City for three million inhabitants
(Le Corbusier, 1933).
structural part (Zevi, 1961). Further examples are the
“Seagram Building” (see figure 2b) by Ludwig Mies
van der Rohe, or the “London Bridge Tower” (see fig-
ure 2c) by Renzo Piano. For these skyscrapers the all
characteristics of tall buildings of modern times are
explicitly visible as, for instance, the skeleton structure
of steel coated by glass panels so to create a contin-
uum between “interior” and “external environment”
(Wells, 2005).
Tall buildings should meet several essential require-
ments which, sometimes, could be in contrast. They
must be slight, to do not sacrifice the interior space,
rigid to withstand wind forces and dissipative enough
to suitably absorb any possible seismic inputs from the
ground. In order to accomplish these, complementary
systems, to be put in parallel with the common frame
structures and based on the use of innovative devices,

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Figure 2. Significant examples of tall buildings: a) Home
Insurance Building b) Seagram Building and c) London
Bridge Tower.
Figure 3. Effective protection system of tall buildings based
on a) tuned mass damper and b) on dampers to be connected
to the primary structure.
have represented in recent years the most adequate
solution.
Among these devices, those that proved a proper
reliability are for example based on a tuned mass
dampers (see figure 3-a), or on dampers to be con-
nected directly or by braces to the primary structures
(see figure 3-b).
With particular reference to systems based on
dampers, two typologies may usually recognized
(Soong and Dargush, 1997): (i) velocity-activated and
(ii) displacement-activated dampers. The firsts are
based on the viscous features of some material, while,
for the seconds, metals devices are usually employed.
Among metallic dampers, pure aluminum shear
panels have been recently proposed as effective
devices able to protect steel and r.c. frames (De Matteis
et al. 2007a and 2007b ), thanks to both their low yield
strength and high ductility, by storing a great part of
the input energy so to preserve the primary structural
elements by damage. Moreover they are characterized
by a far stiffness, resulting a suitable solution with
particular reference to tall building.
The current paper presents an applicative example
of use of pure aluminum shear panels for protecting
a tall building placed in a typical European seismic
metropolitan area. In particular an existing building
will be re-designed by replacing the current load lat-
eral system with aluminum shear panels. The aim of
this study is to prove the effectiveness of the proposed
796
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 4. a) The Directional Centre of Naples and b) the
building considered as study case (ENEL Towers by Pica
Ciamarra).
devices in terms of both structural and architectural
performance. The proposed devices, in fact, are con-
ceived to be visible and to add architectonic value to
the building.
2 THE CASE STUDY
2.1 Description of the original building
In Italy, almost all the tall buildings present in urban
area are proposed as an isolated event. The most recent
one is the EUR skyscraper by Franco Purini in Castel-
laccio zone in the framing of a directional center.
Nevertheless, the only example of urban cluster of tall
buildings is the Directional Centre (CDN) of Naples
(see figure 4-a), chosen as a location for the selection
of the building taken under consideration in the present
paper as study case (Stenti e Cappiello, 1998).
The site is characterized by a large road at the center
(a green axis) on the sides of which successive squares
of various forms (circular, square, etc.) and dimensions
are obtained by the intersection of orthogonal avenues.
At the entrance of the center there are the twin tow-
ers of Enel (Figure 4-b) designed by Pica Ciamarra
architect which constitute a sort of portal access to the
area. The two buildings are identical to each other and
placed in a mirror image with respect to the axis of the
central avenue so to form with its an angle of about
45 degrees.
They are thirty stories, 106 meters high build-
ings. They are characterized by two lateral reinforced
concrete nuclei, which have both a structural and func-
tional role as stairs, elevators and entrances to the
corridors situated on story are arranged inside of them.
Structures aimed to host offices are suspended to a
steel structure supported by nuclei and connected to
those by means of damping devices.
2.2 Virtual building re-design
Although the above presented buildings are character-
ized by high architectural and structural validity, also
considering the years in which they were built (late
80 s), in order to provide a study case of significant tall
building protected by innovative devices, these have
been virtually re-designed. To this purpose, consisten-
cies of the original buildings have been left unchanged,
Figure 5. Bracing Type Pure Aluminum Shear Panels
arrangement in the studied building.
whereas the external aspect has been varied because of
both the deleting of the lateral nuclei and the possibil-
ity of putting in façade the used innovative devices. In
this manner, the seismic protection systems have been
dealt with as architectonic elements able to determine
the aesthetic connotations of the buildings in which
they are arranged. Obviously, henceforth only one
of the two twin towers will be considered.
The re-designed building is conceived as consisting
of two separate identical frame structures jointed in the
middle. Apart the ground floor, where column height
is 4.50 m, frame structures are characterized by regular
5.00 m depth and 3.5 m height meshes.
Along the longitudinal direction, pure aluminum
shear panels, connected through braces to the primary
structure (De Matteis et al., 2009) have been consid-
ered as lateral load resisting system (see figure 5).
On the contrary, in the transverse direction buckling
restrained braces have been used in order to guarantee
a proper stiffness and, therefore, to limit lateral deflec-
tions without occupying too much spaces. With refer-
ence to figure 6-a, panels (frames 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9 and 10)
and braces (frames 5, 6, 11 and 12) have been arranged
in order to guarantee the same functional potential-
ity of the existing buildings (see figure 6-a). More in
detail, four elevators have been placed in the central
part, whereas stairs have been situated in their origi-
nal position, namely on the corner (see figure 6-b). The
remaining parts of the building have been used in order
to recreate the original spaces employed for offices.
3 STRUCTURAL MODEL AND DESIGN
PROCEDURE
3.1 Modeling procedure
In order to re-design the building, the entire 3-D struc-
ture has been modeled by using the SAP2000 computer
program (Computer and Structure, 2006).
Frame elements, for which a S355 steel grade has
been adopted, have been modeled by using beam
mono-dimensional elements which have been placed
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 6. a) Shear Panels and Buckling Restrained Braces
arrangement in one of the building half part; b) the
re-designed building spaces assignment.
Figure 7. The roof transversal section.
along their central axis. Apart the frames correspond-
ing to the presence of panels and braces, for which
pinned connection have been assumed, elements have
been connected by means of rigid full strength beam-
to-column joint. The same type of behavior has been
assumed also for column base joints.
The inelastic property of the frame elements have
been concentrated at their edges. Plastic hinges repro-
ducing the behavior of the section proposed by codes
(EC3, 2005) in both the elastic and the inelastic field
have been placed on each element for a length equal
to 5% of the total.
Corresponding to each floor, a “diaphragm” con-
straint has been imposed to the points belonging to the
horizontal plane, so to take into account the boundary
action of the r.c. slab (see figure 7).
Buckling restrained braces in the transversal direc-
tions have been modeled by the non linear link
(NNLink) provided by SAP library, assigning to them
a linear behavior characterized by the adopted stiff-
ness and by using a proper Bouc-Wen relationship for
modeling their excursion in the plastic field.
As far as the panel modeling is concerned, modeling
approach proposed in Brando et al. (2009) has been
assumed.
As only compact panels have been assumed for the
proposed study, four non linear links placed along the
diagonals directions of the panels have been used (see
figure 8) and their inelastic behavior has been mod-
eled by using the multi-plastic relationship provided
 Figure 8. Shear Panels modeling.

Figure 9. Seismic elastic spectra for Life Safety (L.S.) and

Serviceability (S.) limit states.
by SAP consistently to a Ramberg-Osgood relation-
ship able to take into account the total shear area,
depending on both thickness and number of stiffness.
Panel-to-structure connections have been modeled
by means of steel bracings characterized by a transver-
sal section able to guarantee no buckling for the
maximum axial force they could undergo.
For determining the acting loads, provisions of the
last Italian Code (2008) have been assumed. Perma-
nent actions have been selected considering the real
weight of both structural and non structural parts (roof-
ing system, cladding wall, etc.). At the same manner,
variable actions have been imposed depending on the
utilization of the area on which they insist. In par-
ticular, a uniformly distributed vertical load equal to
3.00 kN/m2 has been applied on each floor.
Snow load on the roof has been calculated consider-
ing a value of the load on the ground equal to 0.6 kN/m2
and by reducing it by a shape coefficient equal to 0.8.
Both seismic and wind actions have been selected
depending on the zone in which the building is located. Figure 10. Wind Actions on the studied buildings.
The elastic spectra shown in figure 9 have been used
as seismic demands for serviceability and life-safety Obviously, different return period have been con-
limit states. These have been selected with reference sidered for ultimate and serviceability limit state.
to a return period of 75 and 712 years respectively,
considering a class-B soil. When the proposed spec-
3.2 Building structural (re)-design
trum corresponding to the life-safety limit state has
been used for linear analysis purpose, it has been A trial and error design procedure has been applied in
reduced by a q-factor equal to 5. This is a conservative order to fix, columns and beams sizes as well as to
value, but considering that at the moment a value for a establish both the braces area and the shear sections
solution like the one here proposed, made of two differ- of panels. In particular, panels and braces have been
ent dissipative load resisting systems in two different proportioned in order to guarantee the satisfaction of
directions, which nevertheless could have reciprocal the serviceability limit state with regard to the wind
interaction, is not already available, this one seems to force (frequent combination), accordingly to the code
be an appropriate hypothesis. provisions. At the same way, beams and columns sizes
With reference to wind actions, provisions provided have been chosen in order to guarantee for each ele-
by the Italian Standard CNR-DT 207 (2008) have ment a Demand/Capacity ratio closed to 1. As output
been considered. This document is definitely one of of the proposed procedure, shear panels characterized
the most advanced in the world and it has been used by in-plane dimensions of 500 × 500 m, by a thick-
as it is able to take into account the great impact ness of 12 mm and by three stiffeners having a depth
of the building form (by proper aerodynamic coeffi- of 120 mm, able to avoid for the maximum shear strain
cient), on the global structural behavior, as well as the demand any buckling phenomena (compact panels),
aero-elastic phenomena, the building height, length, have been imposed in the longitudinal direction.
slenderness, flexibility, lightness, etc. The wind action On the contrary braces characterized by an axial
has been therefore applied for each principal direction stiffness of 747331 kN/m have been used in the
of the wind considering an equivalent static force and transverse direction. As stated before, final members
distributing itself as described in figure 10. section have been chosen in order to guarantee uniform

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 11. Utilization factors for columns at the end of the
re-design process.

Figure 13. Results of the pushover analysis for horizontal

forces proportional to the masses (a) and proportional to the
first mode shape (b).

Figure 12. 3D view of the project.

utilization factors closed as much as possible to 1. In

figure 11, the above factors are provided for columns.
In order to calculate such factors, the capacity has been
represented by the bucking strength.

3.3 The Architectural value of the proposed

solution
Apart the validity of the proposed solution by a struc-
tural point of view, the above re-design process allowed
to obtain also interesting results from the architec-
tonical point of view. Transparency and lightness,
accompanied by the realization of large windows
where natural light is fruitfully exploited for the envi-
ronmental well-being, have been assured. This has Figure 14. Results of the pushover analysis in terms of
been possible as the structural solution given by brac- deformed shapes and plastic hinges for horizontal force
ing type shear panels put in facade is not invasive. a) proportional to the masses and b) to the first mode shape.
Differently by the case of the existing building, the
sleek and simple volume is not therefore mirrored Moreover, the visible disposition of shear panels in
with colored glass, which make the architectonic enti- façade leads to an interesting variety of textures that
ties mysterious and hermetic. On the contrary, the give peculiarity to the building, introducing an element
one proposed here is a building communicating with that enhances the aesthetic identity building.
“environment” surrounding (see figure 12).
Using shear panels and braces instead of r.c. nuclei
allowed to give transparency to the stair vain, so that 4 EFFECTIVENESS OF PURE ALUMINUM
people who move between the various plans, when they SHEAR PANELS
do not used elevators, are visible from outside, they
enjoying, at the same time, the same urban presence, The most important innovation of the re-designing pro-
in an excited volume overlap and functions, in which cess of the building is represented by the use of pure
the building itself asserts its identity through a subtle aluminum shear panels. In order to prove the effec-
eloquence of colors and materials, which dilutes the tiveness of these devices, some non linear pushover
geometric rigor of architectural mass and signals and, analyses have been implemented in the direction of
at the same time diversity. the frames equipped with panels. On this purpose,

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 15. Cumulated energy.
forces distributed proportionally to masses (see fig-
ure 13-a) and to the first mode shape have been applied
respectively in the two opposites verses.
In figure 14, with reference to a lateral displacement
of 0.80 m, it is possible to observe that the proposed
shear panels allow to guarantee a good dissipative
behavior, characterized by plastic hinges concentrated
on the beam rather than on the columns.
Also, in figure 15, the difference between the cumu-
lated energy dissipated during the loading process is
proposed for the entire structures and for panels only.
Force distribution proportional to the first mode is
taken into account for this purpose. It is possible to
observe that shear panels contribute significantly to
the dissipating of the input energy.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The current paper presented an applicative example
of use of pure aluminum shear panels for protecting a
tall building against exceptional earthquake loading.
Starting from the form of an existing building, it has
been re-designed by replacing the current load lateral
system with aluminum shear panels.
The effectiveness of the proposed devices has been
evaluated in terms of both structural, by assessing the
amount of energy they are able to dissipate, and archi-
tectural performance. The proposed devices, in fact,
are conceived to be visible and to add architectonic
value to the building.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
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Middleton, R., Watkin, D., 1977. Architecture of XIX century.
Electa Ed., Milan
Zevi, B. 1961. Storia dell’architettura moderna, dalle orig-
inial 1950. Einaudi ed. Turin.
Viswanath, H. R., Tolloczko, J. J. A., Clarke, J.N., 1997. Multi-
purpose High-rise Towers and Tall Buildings. Taylor and
Francis, ed. ISBN0 419 23300 8.
Stenti S., Cappiello V., 1998 Napoli Guida. 14 itinerari di
architettura moderna, CLEAN (ed), Naples
Wells, Matthew, 2005, Skyscrapers, London: Laurence King
Publishing Ltd
Soong, T.T. & Dargush, G.F., “Passive Energy Dissipa-
tion Systems in Structural Engineering”, John Wiley &
Sons, Baffins Lane, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 1UD,
England, 1997
De Matteis, G., Mazzolani, F.M., Panico, S., (2007a ), “Exper-
imental tests on pure aluminium stiffened shear panels”.
Engineering Structure DOI:10.1016/j.engstruct.2007.
11.015.
De Matteis, G., Mazzolani, F.M, Panico, S., (2007b ) “Pure
aluminium shear panels as dissipative devices in moment-
resisting steel frames”. Journal of Earthquake Engineer-
ing and Structural Dynamics.; vol. 36, n. 7: pp. 841–859.
De Matteis, G., Brando, G., Panico, S., Mazzolani, F.M.
(2009) Bracing type pure aluminium stiffened shear pan-
els: an experimental study, in International Journal of
Advanced Steel Construction (IJASC), S.L. Chan, W.F.
Chen and R. Zandonini (editors-in-chief), ISSN 1816-
112X, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 106–119
SAP2000 V11 (2006), Analysis Reference Manual, Comput-
ers and Structures, Inc. Berkeley, California, USA.
Eurocode 3 (2005). Design of steel structures – Part 1-1:
General rules and rules for buildings
Wen,Y. K.,Yeh, C.H., (1989). Biaxial andTorsional Response
under random excitation in Struct-Safety, 6, 137–152
Brando, G., De Matteis, G., Mazzolani F.M. (2009). Sim-
plified analytical models of compact pure aluminium
shear panels, in “Behaviour of Steel Structures in Seismic
Areas” (STESSA 2009), F. M. Mazzolani and J. Ricles
editors, Taylor and Francis/Balkema publisher, London,
ISBN-13: 978-0-415-56326-0, pagg 829–834.
D.M. 14-01-2008: NormeTecniche Per le Costruzioni (Italian
Standards)
CNR-DT 207/2008 (2008). Istruzioni per la valutazione delle
azioni e degli effetti del vento sulle costruzioni
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Numerical and experimental evaluation of q factors for RC MRF

strengthened of steel BRB

S. Bordea & D. Dubina

Politehnica University of Timisoara, Timisoara, Romania

ABSTRACT: The research presented in this paper was focused on the evaluation of a reinforced concrete
building designed for gravity loads, retrofitted with Buckling Restrained Braced systems (BRB). Thus, a Perfor-
mance Based Evaluation of the RC frame building was applied before and after retrofitting. The building used
as case study is a historical building built during the first half of 20 century, designed to resist mainly gravity
loads and wind. Nonlinear static and dynamic analyses were performed using the relevant EC8 elastic spectrum
adapted to the soil characteristics of the building location. In order to evaluate the seismic reduction factor q for
retrofitted frame an Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) was performed. To validate the results of IDA a portal
frame was isolated from the building frame, and replicate in a full-scale specimen to be tested with and without
BRBs under monotonic and cyclic loadings.

1 INTRODUCTION 2 PERFORMANCE BASED EVALUATION AND

RETROFIT OF REINFORCED CONCRETE
The reinforced concrete (RC) structures built in seis- BUILDING FRAME
mic zones before 1960’s were designed to resist mainly
gravity loads and wind. The main deficiencies in RC 2.1 Geometry and structural detailing
gravity frames are related to low material quality and
The dimensions of the 3 story building are
detailing leading to reduced local and global ductility
23.4 = 18.4 m, in plane, and 11.95 m height (Fig. 1).
and, finally, to a poor seismic response capacity. At
Common construction materials used in that period
present, when such a type of structures are subjected
were the concrete with characteristic compressive
to structural evaluation according to the actual seis-
strength, fck = 20 N/mm2 , and re-bars with a character-
mic design provisions, one finds out that, in almost all
istic yield strength, fsk = 230 N/mm2 . The detailing of
cases, strengthening is needed.
the reinforcement is also characteristic for the design
The main objective of the study is to validate the
practice of the time, with poor anchorage length of
use of BRB technique, in order to retrofit a RC
the rebars at the external beam-column joint, the use
framing of a building selected as benchmark case
study within RSFR-CT-2007-00050 STEEL RETRO
project. Numerical and experimental investigations
were carried out at P.U. Timisoara, within CEMSIG
Research Centre (http://cemsig.ct.upt.ro) in order to
study and realize this intervention (Bordea, S., 2010).
The case study is represented by a historical build-
ing erected in Toscana, Italy in the first half of the
XXth. The reinforced concrete building, was designed
according to the Italian design code at the time, issued
in 1939, and applied for the design of many rein-
forced concrete buildings from the ’50 to early ’70 in
Italy.
Due to high seismic vulnerability of this building, it
was decided for a global retrofitting by means of steel
Buckling Restrained Brace (BRB) system, considered Figure 1. STEELRETRO study case propsed RC building
to be more efficient than inverted braces (CBF). model – BRB system distribution – RC portal frame location.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 of plane rebars (not ribbed), inclined reinforcement for Table 1. BRB modeling parameters for the final benchmark
shear force resistance and large spaced stirrups (15 cm analysis.
for columns and 25 cm for beams) in potential plastic
zones. BRB properties Parameters Value

Modeling Curve type trilinear

2.2 Structural evaluation Material steel S235
Aria-core c.s. Ac [cm2 ] 1×3
In the first step, the research was focused on the Core Length Lc [m] 1.7
numerical evaluation of the existing reinforced con- Yielding displacement Dy [mm] 1.9
crete building designed for gravity loads only. The Ductility displacement µ 22
existing RC building was verified for ULS conditions. Strain hardening adjustment factor ω 1.9
The seismic load was defined by using the elastic Compression adjustment factor β 1.2
spectrum, with a Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) Acceptance criteria IO 0.5Dt
(modified FEMA356/ASCE41 LS 14Dt
of 0.23 g, γI = 1.0, TB = 0.15 s, TC = 0.5 s, TD = 2.0 s,
for braces in tension) CP 18Dt
S = 1.2. For the original reinforced concrete structure,
a seismic behavior factor q = 1.5 was used. For the
structure retrofitted with BRB system, the seismic
behavior factor q amounted to 4.

2.3 Modeling criteria

The concrete material was considered unconfined and
modeled using nonlinear model of Kent and Park
with no tension. Reinforced concrete members were
modeled with plastic hinges concentrated at the ends
(Bordea, S., 2010).
In order to check the functionality of the BRB
system on a RC building frame a BRB system con-
figuration was proposed (Fig. 1). The BRB system
was applied on the external frames of the RC building
as an inverted V system pinned at the ends. The fol-
lowing steel core cross section resulted, for the BRB
elements: X direction: ground floor = 2 cm × 4 cm;
1st level × 1 cm × 4 cm; 2nd level = 1 cm × 3 cm;
Y direction: ground floor = 2 cm × 3 cm; 1st level =
1 cm × 5 cm; 2nd level = 1 cm × 3 cm.
The inelastic behavior of BRB system was mod-
eled considering the concentrated tri-linear plasticity
curve with strain hardening and strength degrada-
tion of 0.8 from maximum capacity, according to
FEMA356/ASCE-41. The modeling parameters and
the acceptance criteria were based on FEMA 356/
ASCE-41, for steel braces in tension and on pre-
vious experience obtained on BRB element tests
(Dubina et al., 2009). Thus, the following parameters
characterize the BRB system:
2.4 Nonlinear analysis
To prove the efficiency of the BRB system a perfor-
mance based seismic evaluation/design (PBSE/PBSD)
of the RC frame building was performed before and
after retrofitting. On this purpose were applied the
criteria and provisions from FEMA356/ASCE41.
The seismic hazard in terms of horizontal accel-
eration response spectra was defined according to
the Italian standard for the location of the building
(NTC). The acceleration for each performance level
is then obtained by multiplying the PGA with the
conversion coefficients, which are 0.5 for IO, 1.0 for
LS and 1.5 for CP (Immediate Ocupancy = IO, Life
Figure 2. Pushover curves on Y direction.
Safety = LS, Collapse Prevention = CP – according to
FEMA/ASCE). A nonlinear static (pushover) analysis
was performed using EC8 elastic spectrum adapted to
the soil characteristics from the location of the build-
ing, followed by the application of N2 method (EN
1998-1, 2004).
Both nonlinear analyses (pushover and timehis-
tory), were applied on both directions (X and Y)
for all four cases: existing building (MRF), local
retrofitted building (MRF + FRP), global retrofitted
building (MRF + BRB) and both retrofitting tech-
niques (MRF + FRP + BRB). In the case of IDA, the
accelerograms were applied in both directions for
MRF+BRB case.
2.4.1 Nonlinear static analysis (pushover)
Due to the fact that during the pushover analysis
applied on global retrofitted building (MRF + BRB)
in X and Y direction the columns (ground floor and
second floor), together with the beams (over ground
floor and over first floor) form plastic hinges before
BRB elements, a local confinement of these members
was considered using FRP technique (fiber reinforced
polymers – carbon fiber).
During the application of N2 method (EN 1998–1,
2004), three target displacements were determined for
each performance level (IO, LS, CP) in both direc-
tions (X and Y) and for all four building cases (MRF,
MRF + FRP, MRF + BRB and MRF + FRP + BRB)
(Figs 2–3).

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 3. Demand and capacity diagram of the equivalent Figure 4. History of the top displacement on X direction
SDOF system MRF + FRP + BRB – Y direction. for MRF + FRP + BRB, at IO, LS and CP, 1st artificial
accelerogram.
The results of the pushover analysis on Y direc-
Table 2. Values of the partial behavior factor q.
tion are presented in Figure 2, together with the limits
corresponding to the target displacement of each per- X direction Y direction
formance level (IO, LS, CP). It may be seen that the Artificial
initial structure MRF has limited ductility and does not Accelerogram λ1(IO) λu(LS) q λ1(IO) λ1(IO) q
attain the displacement demand for LS level. When the
initial structure is retrofitted with FRP (MRF + FRP), 1 0.3 1.3 4.3 0.4 1.6 4.0
the strength and the stiffness do not change but the duc- 2 0.3 1.2 4.0 0.4 1.6 4.0
tility increases. The FRP has a small effect on pushover 3 0.3 1.3 4.3 0.4 1.6 4.0
curve due to the fact that only the confinement was 4 0.2 1.0 5.0 0.3 1.3 4.3
considered. The structure attains the displacement 5 0.3 1.2 4.0 0.4 1.5 3.8
6 0.2 1.1 5.5 0.4 1.4 3.5
demand for LS but not for CP level. When the global
7 0.3 0.9 3.0 0.4 1.4 3.5
retrofitting is accomplished (e.g. MRF + BRB), the Average X direction 4.3 Y direction 3.9
behavior is much improved. The stiffness and the
strength increase, and the structure attain the LS per-
formance. The structure cannot attain the CP level, Table 3. Material test results.
due to the failure of the concrete structure character-
ized by a limited contribution of the local retrofitting Nominal value Actual (test) value
(MRF + BRB + FRP). Material [N/mm2 ] [N/mm2 ]
The static analysis of the retrofitted frame demon-
strated an improved behavior in terms of strength, Concrete (Rc) 20.5 35.5
stiffness, and a reduction of the target displacement. Beam Rebars (fy) 235 497
Column Rebars (fy) 235 402
Stirrups (fy) 235 290
2.4.2 Nonlinear dynamic analysis (timehistory)
Seven artificial accelerograms were generated to
match the relevant design spectra of Eurocode
8 (PGA = 0.23 g and Tc = 0.5 s). Each artificial 3 EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION
accelerogram was scaled to attain the hazard level of
IO, LS and CP performance levels. For IO, the PGA 3.1 Test specimens
was scaled down by 0.5 and CP was scaled up by a Following the results from the nonlinear static and
factor of 1.5. For LS, the PGA corresponded to the dynamic analysis, a RC portal frame was isolated from
design situation (PGA = 0.23 g) (Fig. 4). the case study building (Fig. 1), on the purpose of
Following the nonlinear dynamic analysis, after a experimental validation of the BRB retrofitting tech-
local FRP confinement and global BRB retrofitting, nique. The experimental program comprised 4 RC
on X direction: the structure pass from the collapse at frames of 3.2 m height and 4.5 m span, 2 RC frames
IO stage to collapse in CP stage, while in Y direction without any retrofitting and 2 retrofitted with BRB,
the building is passing from the collapse at CP stage tested under monotonic and cyclic loads respectively.
to no collapse. All details regarding the concrete and steel rein-
forcement of portal frame are described in Bordea, S.
2.4.3 Incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) 2010. The material tests results, compared with the
In order to obtain the q factor value, IDA was applied nominal value considered in design are summarized
to MRF + BRB frame. The results are presented in in Table 3:
Table 2, and one observes they confirm the value of The BRB steel core plate (Fig. 5), was divided into
seismic reduction factor, q = 4, used in design. three main segments: the end segment (connection),

803
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 5. BRB composition and geometry (unbonding
material – polyethylene foil, 1 mm thick).
Figure 6. RC portal frame and BRB system (MRF + BRB).
the transition segment and the yielding segment. Based
on the experimental results obtained on BRB elements
only (Dubina et al., 2009), polyethylene foil, 1 mm
thick, was used as the unbonding material. This core
was designed for S235, but the tensile tests shown
values approaching S355.
3.2 Testing set-up
The testing set-up, the loading system and the speci-
men installed in testing rig is presented in Figure 6.
Pinned connections have been used between the
BRB elements and the beam and at the base of the
columns. In order to prevent the slip of the connec-
tion between the BRB and the RC beam, high strength
preloaded ties have been used. The effectiveness of
the connecting device has been preliminary checked
by FEM simulation (Bordea, S., 2010).
During tests, the vertical and horizontal displace-
ments of the connection were monitories. Also, the
BRB elements behavior and top displacement of the
RC frames were monitories.
3.3 Loading protocol
Monotonic tests were also conducted on the frame
in order to evaluate the yield point. The results from
monotonic tests are also used as reference values when
comparing to the cyclic tests. Apart from the evalua-
tion of the effectiveness of BRB retrofitting technique,
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 7. Analytical vs. Experimental Results: Pushover
Analysis vs. Monotonic Tests (MRF and MRF + BRB).
Figure 8. The initial RC frame (MRF) vs. the retrofitted
frame (MRF + BRB).
the experimental program also aimed at evaluating the
reduction factor q. The strain rate in the monotonic and
cyclic tests was 5 mm/min, so that the application of
the load was considered quasi-static. The quasi-static
cyclic testing was carried out according to a loading
protocol based on the ECCS Recomandations (1985).
3.4 Monotonic tests
Figure 7, show the force–displacement curves for the
initial and retrofitted frames.The effectiveness of BRB
system is confirmed by the increase of both stiffness
and strength. The ultimate horizontal load increases
from almost 40 kN to 200 kN.
In order to evaluate the yield displacement (Dy )
and the yield force (Fy ), the methodology proposed
by ECCS (1985) was used: Dy = 29 mm and corre-
sponding Fy = 126 KN, were obtained.
3.5 Cyclic tests
The modified ECCS loading protocol was applied in
cyclic tests. This modified procedure is characterized
by a single loading at Dy /4, 2Dy /4, 3Dy /4 and Dy , fol-
lowed by three repetitions of the cycles increased by
0.5 Dy (1.0Dy ,1.5Dy , 2Dy ) (Fig. 8).
 Figure 10. Envelope of the MRF + BRB cyclic test.

Figure 9. Pushover Analysis vs. Monotonic & Cyclic Test.

4 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

Figure 9, shows the push-over curve and the results of

the monotonic and cyclic tests. Numerical results are
close to the results of the cyclic test. The ductility from
the cyclic test is very close to the analytical one.
The failure of the BRB core took place before the
failure of the concrete elements. All the connections
between BRB system and RC frame (BRB to column)
showed a very good behavior and no slippage was
recorded. From a close inspection of BRB and the RC
beam connection, there was no significant evidence of
Figure 11. Evaluation of Dy according to “stiffness”
slippage, (Bordea, 2010). method.

5 EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF Q
FACTOR

Besides the validation tests for BRB system, an impor-

tant objective of the experimental program was the
evaluation of the behavior factor, q, for the BRB
retrofitted RC frame. On this purpose, the stabilized
envelope curve of cyclic force-displacement exper-
imental loops was build using the third cycle of
each displacement step. The evaluation of the refer-
ence yield point was performed for both positive and
negative envelopes. The ultimate displacement (Du )
corresponds to the failure of the BRB in tension; the
amplitude in the ultimate cycle was 86 mm. Taken into
account the effect of slippage in connecting points,
which produces pinching in the diagram (Fig. 10),
Figure 12. Evaluation of Dy according to “ECCS” method.
Du had to be reduced at 71 mm, only.
The equivalent yield displacement, Dy , can be con-
sidered when the elastic stiffness changes the slope as the intersection between the initial stiffness line and
(e.g. stiffness method). In the case of MRF + BRB, the tangent line in the upper part of the envelope, under
the displacement Dy amounts to 11 mm and 20 mm, for a slope of 10% of the initial stiffness (Fig. 12.)
positive and negative envelopes respectively (Fig. 11). Table 4 summarizes the values of the q factor based
The behavior factor q for MRF + BRB, is calculated on the test results. For comparison in the bottom row of
as ratios Du /Dy . Finally, the q value is obtained as aver- the table, the values of the q factor obtained by means
age of these ratios corresponding to both positive and of time history analysis are presented.
negative branches of the cyclic envelopes. One observes the experimental values of q are 4.9
To have a better estimation of the q factor, the if “stiffen” method is applied, and 3.7 for “ECCS”
method of evaluating the yield displacement recom- method. Taking the more conservative one, q = 3.7,
mended by ECCS was also considered (Fig. 12). it confirms rather good the numerical values of 3.9,
According to this method, the yield load Fy is defined based on IDA, obtained forY direction building frame,

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Table 4. The q factor values for the MRF + BRB frame.
MRF + BRB
Positive Envelope
Dy Du
Method [mm] [mm]
Stiffness 11 71
ECCS 16.3 71
Numerical X direction
(mean value) Y direction
of which the test specimen have been extracted. So, the
numerical approach used to obtain q factor could be
applied with a reasonable confidence.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The preliminary numerical results have shown that the
structure is vulnerable and does not meet the seis-
mic requirements. Therefore, it was decided to retrofit
the structure by means of a BRB system. Addition-
ally, a local confinement of the concrete elements
by means of FRP was envisaged. The results have
shown that the initial structure MRF and the ini-
tial structure with local retrofitting MRF+FRP have
a limited ductility. The benefit of local confinement
is reduced. When the global retrofitting is accom-
plished MRF+BRB, the behavior is much improved.
The stiffness and strength increase. The numerical
results proved the possibility of seismical improve-
ment of existing RC building frames designed for
gravity load by retrofitting with BRB systems, but also
the necessity of local retrofitting of RC elements.
After analyzing it by means of nonlinear analysis a
portal frame was isolated from the study case build-
ing. After retrofitting, the ductility of the structure was
very much improved and the failure was caused by the
failure of the steel brace in tension. The workability
of the system with pre-stressed ties was also tested
and showed a very good behavior (Dubina & Bordea
2010). The results recommend the application of this
connecting system for such interventions.
The analysis focused also on the evaluation of the
behavior factor q. The q factor values from experimen-
tal RC frames were evaluated and then compared to
the theoretical values obtained during an Incremental
Dynamic Analysis. There is a good agreement between
the values used for the design and the values based on
the test. The difference between the q factor values
corresponding to the positive and negative branches
of the envelope curves can be explained by the fact
that the negative direction corresponds to the reversed
cycle, after the damages have already occurred in
the positive cycle. There are several factors that may
affect the behavior factor, including the system over-
strength. Therefore, in order to validate these values
of the q factor, parametrical studies on different frame
typologies are necessary. The values of the q factor
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Negative Envelope
Dy Du Average
q [mm] [mm] q q
6.4 20 71 3.5 4.9
4.3 23 71 3.1 3.7
4.3
3.9
between 3 and 4 seem to be reasonable for such types
of retrofitted structures.
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of r.c. frames with hysteretic bracing”, Steel and Compos-
ite Structures, Ed. Y.C. Wang and C.K. Choi, Taylor and
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Seismic isolation of buildings in Italy with double concave curved

surface sliders

M.G. Castellano & S. Infanti

FIP Industriale spa, Italy

ABSTRACT: The application in Italy of Curved Surface Sliders (CSS), and in particular of Double Concave
CSS (DCCSS), started in 2009, immediately after the April 6 L’Aquila earthquake. The biggest application is that
of the CASE Project, i.e. the residential buildings built in L’Aquila by the Civil Defense to host the people left
homeless by the earthquake. In this project the same isolation system was used for different types of structures,
e.g. steel, wood, concrete. Thanks to the use of CSS, the fundamental period of these structures is essentially
the same, whichever the superstructure mass. FIP Industriale supplied almost 2500 DCCSS, manufactured in
less than five months. The characteristics of these isolators, as well as some results of the type tests and factory
production control tests are described in the paper. Other recent applications of DCCSS in Italian buildings are
also listed in the paper.

1 INTRODUCTION units (DCCSS), shown respectively in Figures 1–

Curved Surface Sliders (CSS), also known as fric-
tion pendulum isolators, are manufactured and used in
USA since 1990 (Christopoulos & Filiatrault 2006),
but only recently their production and application
started in Italy. The application of CSS in build-
ings in Italy started in 2009, immediately after the
April 6 L’Aquila earthquake (Mw = 6.3). The most
important application is that of the CASE Project
(Complessi Antisismici Sostenibili Ecocompatibili,
i.e. Anti-Seismic, Sustainable and Environment-
Friendly buildings), i.e. the well-known Civil Defense
project for the construction of residential buildings for
the citizens of L’Aquila whose homes were destroyed
or left unfit to live in by the earthquake (Calvi &
Spaziante 2009). In total there are 185 buildings,
totaling about 4500 apartments, which house over
15,000 people. The isolation system comprises CSS
or Double Concave Curved Surface Sliders (DCCSS),
for a total of 7368 units. FIP Industriale SpA supplied
2472 of said isolation units, of the DCCSS type, man-
ufactured in less than five months. A brief description
follows of this type of isolation units; some test results
are also reported.
The same type of isolators were applied in other
buildings, both in the city or region of L’Aquila and in
areas with much lower seismicity such as Rome. Some
information on these applications is also given in the
following.
2, both in centered position and at their maximum
displaced configuration. CSS has a main concave
sliding surface (at the bottom in Fig. 1) providing
energy dissipation through friction and restoring force
through the curvature and accommodating the hori-
zontal displacement, and a secondary sliding surface
accommodating rotations. DCCSS comprises two fac-
ing primary sliding surfaces with the same radius of
curvature, both contributing to the accommodation
of horizontal displacements. The primary difference
between said variants is the dimension in plan; in
fact, in DCCSS, each of the two sliding surfaces has
dimensions that can deal with a displacement of half
the displacement the structure is designed for; conse-
quently the space in plan required to accommodate the
isolator is considerably reduced. In both variants the
sliding surfaces consist on one side of an appropriate
high-strength thermo-plastic material and on the other
side of mirror-polished stainless steel.
The functional law for both variants can be traced
to the law of the simple pendulum, where the period
of oscillation does not depend upon the mass but on
the length of the pendulum. Analogously, the period of
the structure isolated with these isolation units does not
depend on the mass of the structure itself, but mainly
depends on the radius R of the curved sliding surface
(or the equivalent radius for DCCSS), according to the
formula:

2 CURVED SURFACE SLIDERS

There are two variants of curved surface sliders, which where X is the maximum displacement, g is the accel-
may be simple (CSS) or double concave curved surface eration of gravity and µ is the coefficient of friction.

809
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 1. CSS configuration.
Figure 2. DCCSS configuration.
Figure 3 shows the theoretical bi-linear hysteresis
response of a CSS or DCCSS. The system is near rigid
until the friction force F0 = µ W is overcome, where W
is the weight. Then the force increase is proportional
to displacement, with stiffness K = W/R.
3 ISOLATION SYSTEM FOR THE CASE
PROJECT
The call for tender for the supply of isolation units for
the CASE Project allowed for the option of supplying
CSS (or DCCSS, 40 units for each building) or high
damping elastomeric isolation units combined with
free-sliding pot-bearings (respectively 12 and 28 for
each building) (Calvi & Spaziante 2009), but the pref-
erence for the former solution was implicit. It should
be noted that the independence of the period on mass
(see Eqn. (1)) given by CSS was a great advantage
for a project in which the superstructure could be of
any type (R.C., steel, wood), providing the maximum
limits of the vertical loads were respected.
The technical specifications were different for the
two options, i.e. CSS or combination of elastomeric
isolators and free-sliding bearings, in particular in
terms of displacement, because different values of
equivalent viscous damping were considered for the
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 3. Theoretical force vs. displacement graph of a CSS
or DCCSS.
two systems (respectively 12% and 20%). For CSS, the
technical specifications required a curvature radius of
4 m, maximum displacement of ± 260 mm, maximum
vertical load of 3000 kN, equivalent viscous damp-
ing higher than 20 %. FIP Industriale opted for double
concave curved surface sliders, which are identified
with the code FIP-D 300/520 (4000).
The timing required by the Italian Civil Defense for
the CASE Project was a challenge for all of the sup-
pliers. As far as FIP Industriale was concerned, the
delivery times agreed upon for the first 4 lots, respec-
tively of 600, 800, 400 and 200 base isolation units (for
a total of 2000 units) were respectively of 54, 80, 103
and 110 days from the date of order and were fully
respected. In order to avoid slowing down construc-
tion of the buildings, temporary supports were used in
some cases, which were later replaced with the final
isolation units, after lifting the structure.
4 TESTING
The CASE Project base isolation units were submit-
ted to both type tests and factory production control
tests (also known as qualification and acceptance tests,
respectively), in accordance with norms in force.
The type testing was first performed on two base
isolation units identical to those installed in the
buildings of the CASE Project, at the EUCENTRE
Laboratory of Pavia, Italy, with the supervision and
certification of the University of Pavia.
Further type tests were carried out at the Seismic
Response Modification Device (SRMD) Laboratory
at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD),
USA, on a DCCSS of the same lot of production of
those of the CASE Project, with the main scope of ver-
ifying the behavior of the isolator even when submitted
to a bi-directional dynamic horizontal movement.
Factory production control tests were carried out on
20 % of the isolation units installed, as required by the
Italian Standard (NTC 2008). In particular, quasi-static
tests (those required by the Standard) were performed
on 15% of the isolation units installed and dynamic
tests were performed on 5% of the isolation units.
Dynamic tests were added to quasi-static tests due to
the importance of the Project.
Starting from 2nd October 2009, the Civil Defense
also performed on-site dynamic tests on buildings,
completed or under construction, isolated with FIP
Industriale isolation units, to verify the global behavior
of the base isolation system.
4.1 Type testing at the Eucentre Laboratory
The type tests carried out at the EUCENTRE Lab-
oratory in Pavia, Italy, were performed according
to a particularly demanding and rigorous protocol,
required by the Civil Defense. In fact, the units were
tested according to the instructions provided by both
the Italian Standard for Constructions (NTC 2008)
and the recently approved European Standard on Anti-
seismic Devices EN 15129:2009 (CEN 2009). The
prototypes tested – 2 units – were identical to the ones
utilized in the CASE Project.
According to the instructions provided by the Italian
Standard for Constructions (NTC 2008), DCCSS, like
Flat Surface Sliders, may be considered as belonging
to the family of sliding base isolation units; i.e., there
are not specific testing instructions for CSS. There-
fore, the testing on DCCSS was performed evaluating
the following fundamental parameters:
• determination of the static coefficient of friction
for three values of vertical load, representing the
maximum vertical load under non-seismic design
conditions (3000 kN), the maximum (2850 kN) and
minimum (300 kN) vertical load under seismic
design conditions;
• determination of the dynamic coefficient of friction
for three values of vertical load (see above) and for
three velocity values (design velocity of 260 mm/s
and variations of this value of ± 30%);
• evaluation of the capability to sustain 10 cycles at
the maximum design displacement (260 mm).
It may be observed that the Italian Standard makes
no reference to the necessity of testing the base iso-
lation units for two distinct horizontal directions or
according to a trajectory on the horizontal plane.
According to the European Standard EN 15129:2009,
a sub-clause of which deals with CSS, type tests on
this kind of isolator shall be carried out according to
the specific protocol described in paragraph 8.3.4.1.
Therefore, the relevant testing comprised:
• load bearing capacity test, aimed at verifying the
overload capacity, carried out applying a vertical
load of twice the maximum vertical load under non-
seismic design conditions (6000 kN);
• evaluation of the maximum horizontal force devel-
oped by the isolator under service conditions, i.e.
under a very slow movement (≤ 0.1 mm/s);
• evaluation of the maximum horizontal force devel-
oped by the isolator at maximum non-seismic
movement (peak velocity 5 mm/s, 20 cycles);
• verification of the dynamic behaviour (i.e. force-
displacement curve, and consequent equivalent
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
viscous damping) for three values of vertical load
(300 kN, 2850 kN, 3000 kN, see above) and for three
values of displacement (25, 50 and 100% of the
design seismic displacement), applying 3 cycles per
test;
• verification of the bi-directional dynamic behaviour
at maximum displacement and maximum velocity;
such test should be performed with the simultane-
ous application of a sinusoidal displacement input
waveform in two perpendicular directions, the so
called “clover leaf” path; anyway, if testing equip-
ment is unable to perform the test in such way, the
Standard allows to carry out it after a rotation of 90◦
of the isolator to involve a displacement path per-
pendicular to the one verified with previous tests;
the latter was the test carried out at the Eucentre
laboratory of Pavia, since the equipment does not
permit bi-directional tests.
It may be observed that the European Standard con-
siders verification of the behavior of the base isolation
units for bi-directional movement to be an important
element.
The type testing demonstrated that the DCCSS units
were in conformity with the design parameters of the
CASE Project – radius of curvature and minimum
equivalent viscous damping – under all load condi-
tions. As already noted in previous quasi-static and
dynamic testing, it was demonstrated that the sec-
ondary stiffness of the isolators is substantially equal
to the theoretical value (depending on the vertical
load and radius of curvature). Dynamic coefficient
of friction, which typically decreases with overheat-
ing of the sliding surface and has therefore always
been a subject of particular experimental attention,
always allowed the isolation unit to provide an equiv-
alent viscous damping exceeding 20%, which is the
minimum design value required for this project. The
variations in the equivalent viscous damping induced
by speed in the interval of velocity investigated (182÷
338 mm/s) were demonstrated to be limited to 7% and
therefore never such as to invalidate the minimum
design parameters. The variations in friction coeffi-
cient due to the variations of vertical loads (maximum
3000 kN, minimum 300 kN) always permitted main-
tenance of the minimum equivalent viscous damping
required by the project technical specifications. The
bi-directional tests provided a difference between the
two orthogonal directions of 8.7% on the equivalent
viscous damping and 3.6% on the maximum average
reaction, thereby demonstrating the substantial inde-
pendence of behavior of the isolators relative to the
direction of movement. Upon final inspection per-
formed after disassembly, the base isolation units were
undamaged.
4.2 Bi-directional testing at the University
of California at San Diego
In order to verify the behavior of the DCCSS
even when submitted to a simultaneous bi-directional
dynamic horizontal movement, a device belonging to

Figure 4. Isolation unit being tested at the SRMD Labora-
tory in San Diego (CA, USA).
Figure 5. Typical hysteretic cycle obtained at maximum
load and displacement.
the same lot of production as the CASE Project devices
was submitted to a dynamic testing programme at the
SRMD Laboratory at the University of California at
San Diego (UCSD), USA. The equipment available
at UCSD for dynamic testing of the base isolation
units (see Figure 4) allows testing with the applica-
tion of simultaneous horizontal movements along two
orthogonal axes, of course in addition to the vertical
load. In this manner, the isolation unit being tested may
be subjected to simultaneous sinusoidal movements
along two primary axes (such as the “clover leaf”
path required by the European Standard) as well as a
bi-directional time-history of horizontal displacement
reproducing the effect of an actual earthquake.
The testing protocol called for repetition of all of
the tests already performed at the Eucentre Laboratory
(see above) and additional bi-directional tests. Figure 5
shows a typical dynamic hysteretic cycle of the isola-
tor when subjected to the maximum vertical load and
a sinusoidal movement having an amplitude equal to
the maximum design displacement (260 mm) and fre-
quency such as to reach a peak velocity of 260 mm/s.
Figures 6 and 7 respectively show the bi-directional
“clover leaf ” path of the applied displacement and the
graph representing the diagonal force recorded during
the test versus the diagonal displacement.
After the completion of the “clover leaf” path test,
further bi-directional tests were carried out imposing
actual displacement time-histories. In particular, the
displacement time-histories imposed were obtained
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 6. Clover leaf path of applied displacement in the
bi-directional sinusoidal test.
Figure 7. Horizontal force versus horizontal displacement
in the bi-directional clover leaf test.
Figure 8. Displacement time-history – Axis X.
from the data recorded during the L’Aquila earth-
quake of 6th April 2009, available at the web site
of the Italian National Geophysical and Volcanol-
ogy Institute (INGV, Italian Accelerometric Archive,
20090406_01:32:39); the two orthogonal horizontal
components of the record with highest PGA were
used as input in the time-history modeling of the
substructure of the CASE Project, in order to obtain
the displacement time-histories on top of the steel
columns, i.e. on the isolators. Such displacement time-
histories are characterized by peak displacement of
95 mm and 51 mm, respectively in the two orthogonal
directions; they were applied according to the longi-
tudinal and transversal axis of the testing machine,
respectively, reaching a peak velocity of 432 mm/s.
Figure 8 provide the time-history of the displacement
applied according to the X axis (longitudinal) of the
testing machine; Figure 9 shows the horizontal force
vs. displacement along the X axis.
The time-history tests were repeated twice, vary-
ing the vertical load (2000 kN and 3000 kN), to enable
Figure 9. Horizontal force versus horizontal displacement –
Axis X.

evaluation of the overall behavior of the device in dif-

ferent loading conditions. The graphs in Figures 8-9
refer to the test performed with the maximum vertical
load (V = 3000 kN).
As mentioned above, the maximum movement in
the isolator (95 mm) related to said record of the
L’Aquila earthquake is much less than the maximum
design displacement of the CASE Project (260 mm).
Therefore, with the aim of experimentally simulat-
ing seismic displacements identical to the maximum
design displacement, the same input was scaled in dis-
placement (ratio 260:95 = 2.74), increasing the scale
of time by the same ratio in order to maintain the same
maximum peak in velocity.
All the bi-directional tests described above were
fully satisfactory. Upon final inspection performed
after disassembly, the isolation unit was undamaged.
It is worthy of mention that the above tests were
repeated according to the same testing protocol on a
second base isolation unit identical to the one above,
except for the sliding surfaces, which were charac-
terized by a lower coefficient of friction. Again in
this case the test result was positive and the base iso-
lation units were perfect and undamaged upon final
inspection.
4.3 Factory production control testing
The factory production control testing was per-
formed with both the quasi-static method, as required
by the Italian Standard (Ministerial Decree dated
14/01/2008), and the dynamic method. In particular,
the quasi-static tests were performed on 15% of the
isolation units installed and the dynamic tests were
performed on 5% of the isolation units, thereby reach-
ing a total of 20% of the installed isolation units
being submitted to factory production control test-
ing, as required by the Italian Standard for any type
of anti-seismic devices.
The quasi-static tests were performed at the Testing
Laboratory at FIP Industriale, with the supervision and
certification of the University of Padua. Aim of these
tests, repeated for three different vertical load values,
is the determination of the static coefficient of fric-
tion. Figure 10 shows one of the quasi-static factory
production control tests performed simultaneously on
6 isolation units.
Figure 10. Six isolation units being tested at the FIP
Industriale Laboratory.
Figure 11. A double concave curved surface slider as
installed in the Student Residence in L’Aquila.
5 FURTHER APPLICATIONS
Immediately after the start of the construction of the
buildings of the CASE project in L’Aquila, further
applications of DCCSS in buildings started.
One of said applications is also in L’Aquila, it is
the Student Residence “San Carlo Borromeo” in the
area of Coppito, opened on November 4, 2009, i.e. 7
months after the earthquake. In this building 51 iso-
lators identical to those of the CASE Project were
installed. Figure 11 shows one of said isolators as
installed.
DCCSS were also applied in a residential building
in Castel di Sangro, at about 120 km from L’Aquila. In
particular, 38 isolators were applied, almost identical
to those of the CASE Project. Figure 12 shows one of
said isolators under installation.
Recently, DCCSS were applied in the first base
isolated school in Rome, in the area of Castelverde.
This school has a very irregular structure, as shown in
Figure 13. The seismic isolation system comprises 128
isolators with radius of curvature of 2535 mm, design
displacement of ± 200 mm, and 3 different values of
maximum vertical load (900 kN, 1300 kN, and 2600
kN respectively). The fundamental period results of
2.27 s.

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Figure 12. Installation of a double concave curved surface
slider in a residential building in Castel di Sangro.
Figure 13. FEM model of the Castelverde school in Rome.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The experience gained in testing the DCCSS designed
and produced by FIP Industriale for the Civil Defense
CASE Project led to deeper knowledge of the behavior
of the devices, in particular when subjected to multi-
directional movements.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
The uniquely severe testing programme – in con-
formity with both national and European norms –
performed on full scale devices at the EUCENTRE
Laboratory in Italy and at the Seismic Response
Modification Device Laboratory of the University
of California in San Diego (USA) confirmed the
reliability of this technology.
The double concave curved surface sliders are now
being applied in many other structures in Italy.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors wish to express their sincere gratitude
for the active and fruitful cooperation rendered by
Mr. Gianmario Benzoni of the University of California
in San Diego. Heartfelt thanks to the Engineers of the
structures listed in Chapter 5, i.e. Fortunato Bazzi,
Carlo Bertini, Ettore Bonaguri, Raffaele Landolfo,
Oreste Mammana, for the information provided.
REFERENCES
Calvi, G.M. & Spaziante, V. 2009. 3.1 Reconstruction
between temporary and definitive: the CASE project. Pro-
gettazione sismica. 03 Special Issue L’Aquila, April 6th
2009, 3:32 am: 221–250.
CEN 2009. European Standard EN 15129:2009 Anti-seismic
devices. Bruxelles: CEN.
Christopoulos, C. & Filiatrault, A. 2006. Principles of Pas-
sive Supplemental Damping and Seismic Isolation. Pavia:
IUSS Press.
NTC 2008. Norme Tecniche per le Costruzioni, D.M.
14/01/2008, Gazzetta Ufficiale 04/02/2008, Italia.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Mechanical behavior evaluation of pure aluminum by static

and dynamic tests

G. De Matteis & G. Brando

Department of Engineering, University “G. d’Annunzio” of Chieti-Pescara, Italy

F.M. Mazzolani
Department of Structural Engineering, University “Federico II” of Naples, Italy

ABSTRACT: The paper addresses the heath treated aluminum alloy EN-AW 1050A H24, an almost pure
aluminum, as base material for the manufacturing of innovative passive energy dissipation devices to be arranged
in framed buildings. The employment of such a material is a novelty in the civil engineering field and its properties
need to be thoroughly analyzed. To this purpose, after a detailed description of the performed heath treatment,
the main outcomes of a wide experimental campaign to investigate the material behavior under both monotonic
and cyclic static-dynamic actions are provided. Furthermore, the main outcomes of a research activity aimed at
investigating the influence of welding processes on the material performance are shown. Eventually, a significant
example of passive energy dissipation device made of the proposed material is presented.

1 INTRODUCTION Table 1. Typologies of Passive Energy dissipating systems.

Passive energy dissipation devices (PED) are com-
monly classified in three typologies (see Table 1).
The first concerns dampers which dissipate energy
by the relative displacements of the points of the
structure they connect; the second by relative veloc-
ity of the same points and the third by the structure
motion (Soong and Dargush, 1997; Christopoulos and
Filiatrault, 2006).
Among the displacement-activated systems, metal-
lic dampers, based on yielding of dissipative elements,
are profitably characterized by an high cyclic repeti-
tiveness due to the high ductility and, therefore, by an
appealing dissipative behavior. In addition, a proper
lowering of the yielding level, which may be reached
by activating different resisting mechanisms (bending,
shear, torsion, traction-compression), may increase the
PED device function of protecting. For this reason, in
the last few years a huge effort has been addressed to
the research of innovative materials able to satisfy this
requirement.Among these, the heath treated aluminum
alloy EN-AW 1050A H24, an almost pure aluminum,
has been recently proposed as base material for the
manufacture of dampers. Compared to conventional
steels and aluminum alloys, this type of material is
characterized by a lower conventional yield strength
and also by a large ductility.
The employment of such a material is a novelty
in the civil engineering field and its properties have
been thoroughly analyzed from the experimental point
of view in order to investigate the material behav-
ior under both monotonic and cyclic static-dynamic
actions.
Displacement Velocity Motion
Activated Activated Activated
Metallic Dampers Viscous Fluid Tuned Mass
Friction Dampers Dampers Dampers
Self-Centring Dampers
Viscoelastic Dampers
In the following, the main outcomes of this exper-
imental activity are provided and critically analyzed.
Finally, a brief description of a passive energy dis-
sipation device made of the proposed material is
given.
2 THE INVESTIGATED MATERIAL
2.1 General
The most relevant features of aluminum are the mate-
rial appearance, corrosion resistance, lightness and
ductility. From a mechanical point of view, it is to be
noted that the stress-strain relationship of aluminum,
derived from a tension test, is usually represented by
a continuous curve without sharp yielding. In fact, an
initial linear elastic behavior, characterized by the elas-
tic modulus E, is generally retrieved up to a very low
stress f0.01 , corresponding to a residual stress of 0.01%.
Starting from this point, a non linear behavior arises
up to a stress f0.2 , corresponding to a residual strain
of 0.2%, after which it is conventionally assumed that
the material response is not elastic anymore. Gener-
ally, at this deformation level, the stress-strain curve

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 2. Nominal mechanical features of low yield stress
point materials.

Material f0.2 fu eu E
[N/mm]2 [N/mm]2 % [N/mm]2

Nominal Pure 15–20 40–50 40–50 70000

Aluminium
(AW 1099A)
Almost Pure 30–70 70–100 20–40 70000
Aluminium
(AW 1050A H24)
5xxx Aluminium 75.2 203.6 12 70000
(AW 5154A)
LYS steel 86 254 50 210000
S235 Steel Grade 235 360 25–30 210000

presents a sort of “knee”, from which a hardening por-

tion (characterized by the hardening ratio α) begins.
The ultimate strength fu is defined as the stress value
corresponding to the attainment of the ultimate strain
εu , which is usually taken into account as a measure
of the intrinsic ductility offered by the base material
(Mazzolani, 1995).
In Table 2, the nominal values of the main mechan-
ical features of pure aluminum are identified.
In addition, for the sake of comparison, further
low yield metallic materials, among which the here
presented AW 1050A H24 aluminum alloy, are also
described from the mechanical point of view.
It has to be underlined also that the material
high chemical reactivity does not allow to find it as
a pure metal. For this reason, to obtain a product
characterized by the nominal features of pure alu-
minum is very difficult, as impurities may arise during
manufacturing.
For instance, one of the purest aluminum actually
available in the European market is the alloy EN-
AW 1050A H24. It is characterized by the following
impurities: 0.05%Cu, 0.40%Fe, 0.25%Si, 0.05%Zn,
0.03%Tl, 0.05%Mg and 0.05%Mn. This material was
selected by the authors for the manufacturing of
dampers. It is the object of the study presented in
current paper. Provided that, after a preliminary exper-
imental analysis, it was shown that impurities contents,
as well as the repercussions of possible cold deforma-
tions, induced on the proposed material an increasing
of conventional yield stress f0.2 (around 100 MPa) and
a heavy reduction of ductility (around 5%), a proper
heat treatment was carried out. This is described in the
following sections.
2.2 The proposed heat treatment
Due to impurities, during the cooling phase of the pro-
duction process, crystallographic planes of aluminum
sheeting assume a bended doubled shape characterized
by the fact that atoms are forced in an asymmetric posi-
tion in the basic crystal lattice. This entails an increase
of the internal energy associated to the rising of
Figure 1. Schematization of the phenomena arising in
hardened metals during annealing phases characterized by
growing temperature: change of material microscopic struc-
ture (a), residual stress (b), elastic strength (c) and grain
dimension (d).
macroscopic residual stresses, known as Heyn stresses,
characterized by a random distribution. In addition, the
same effects are also produced by the “transformation
percentage rate”, which strongly depends on the ratio
between the thicknesses of the initial aluminum block
that has to be worked and the one of the final plate
after its submission to manufacture processes.
Generally, a proper annealing may lead to a soften-
ing of the base material, with the annulment of existing
microscopic and macroscopic residual stresses and its
coming back to the primitive plasticity.This was under-
taken on the proposed material provided that, as said
before, it proved to be particularly sensitive, from the
mechanical point of view, to its impurities content.
The proposed annealing produces three different
structural transformations on the crystal lattice: (i) the
crystal recovery, (ii) the re-crystallization and (iii) the
enlargement of the grains. In Figure 1 (Pansieri, 1957),
the effects of these phenomena, which arise in the
heating phases when temperature grows, are schemati-
cally described. It is evident that the diminishing of the
residual stresses, associated to the enlargement of the
grains, provokes a significant lowering of the elastic

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 2. Spatial diagram of the re-crystallization of alu-
minum 99.3 for a short time of annealing.
strength of the base material. The same effect verifies
for the ultimate strength.
Crystal recovery does not influence significantly
the internal structure of the metal, as relievable by
a metallographic analysis at both microscopic and
macroscopic levels, but, on the contrary, it heavily
changes the internal structural equilibrium by acting
on the ties between the grains.
It has been proved that a temperature of 150◦ C is
necessary for the beginning of recovery of a 99.95%
purity metal and that a time of 150 hours become use-
ful for its completion as well. After this time a larger
deformability can be usually detected.
For higher temperature than the ones necessary
for recovery, when the internal crystal lattice is
less stressed and distorted, the re-crystallization phe-
nomenon begins, leading to a process of establishment
and development of new grains. At the end of this pro-
cess, residual stresses are equal to zero and a first
enlargement of the grains, started for intermediate
temperatures, can be detected. The above described
processes are strictly dependent on both duration and
impurity content. The velocity employed for each of
them is exponentially related to the temperature. How-
ever, when a hardened metal is subjected to a very
high temperature, processes of re-crystallization occur
so quickly that they seem to be instantaneous. Gen-
erally, re-crystallization starts when recovery is not
concluded. The two processes are therefore in conti-
nuity each other and it is not necessary that the second
one finishes to initiates the first one.
The effects produced by annealing are usually mea-
sured, beyond the variation of the mechanical features,
also in terms of dimension of the grains. This can
be microscopically revealed in a given unit of sur-
face. In figure 2, the experimental relationship among
the initial hardening, the heating temperature and the
grain average dimension, is qualitatively depicted with
reference to an annealing time of few minutes.
In order to enhance the ductile property and reduce
the yield stress, the studied aluminum alloy EN-AW
1050A H24 was subjected to the above heat treat-
ment process. A large number of specimens was
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 3. Tensile test on the study heat-treated aluminum.
submitted to a cycle of heat treatment characterized
by four phases, each one having a constant tempera-
ture (150◦ C, 230◦ C, 280◦ C and 330◦ C, respectively)
and a duration of four hours.
At the end of each phase, measures of Brinell’s hard-
ness with weight of 312 N and sphere with 2.5 mm of
diameter was carried out. At temperature above 330◦ C
any further beneficial effect was not observed. The
successive tensile tests shown a considerable improve-
ment of ductile properties with a significant reduction
of yielding strength and an increase of the elongation at
rupture as shown in the next paper sections, where the
experimental results obtained under static (monotonic
and cyclic) and dynamic loading are illustrated.
3 MATERIAL TESTING
3.1 Material behavior under static loads
The material behavior under monotonic static loads
was investigated by subjecting dog bone shaped heat
treated specimens to uni-axial tests. The tested spec-
imens, obtained by cutting 5 mm thick plates, were
characterized by a global length of 240 mm, whereas
the tapered part had a length of 100 mm and a width
of 10 mm. In Figure 3 the results of eight of the per-
formed tests are depicted. An initial tangent elastic
modulus of E = 66666 MPa, a proportionality stress
of f0.01 = 7.12 MPa and a conventional yielding stress
f0.2 = 19.12 MPa were measured.
At the same time, for the specimens whose fail-
ure was triggered off corresponding to the specimen
zone within the extremes of the extensometer used to
measure strains, a ductility εu varying in the range of
30–40% was observed. Many other similar tests were
carried out, also on specimens obtained by different
plates of the heat treated aluminum alloy.
On the basis of the mean curve obtained from the
above results, an analytical relationship able to repre-
sent the static-monotonic behavior of the used material
was found. It is provided in De Matteis et al. (2008).
Since the characterization of the cyclic behavior of a
low yield strength material is very important, as the
isotropic hardening component could influence favor-
ably the dissipative effect of any device made of this
type of material with a reinflating of the hysteretic
 Figure 5. Geometry of the tested notched specimens (a),
Figure 4. Buckling inhibited pure aluminum specimen. picture (b) and scheme of the SHTB (c).

cycles, specific tensile-compression cyclic tests on Table 3. Mechanical features of the base material as func-
pure aluminum specimens were also carried out. To tion of strain rate values.
this purpose, the tested specimens were equipped with
a steel “jacket” able to inhibit out-of-plane deforma- strain rate f0.2 fu εu
tions due to buckling phenomena in compression (see [1 · s−1 ] [MPa] [MPa] [%]
figure 4).
The obtained results showed a significant dissipa- 0.0001 16.45 74.80 37.00
tive behavior characterized by full hysteretic cycles, a 0.1 24.00 85.77 36.00
1 32.00 94.90 34.00
substantial iso-resistance for each displacement level,
287 54.11 104.66 32.00
or rather the same tensile-compression values for each 358 65.82 105.76 28.00
displacement demand, and the existence of a isotropic 479 68.51 103.27 26.74
hardening component. 516 71.56 104.04 26.60

3.2 Material behavior under dynamic loads
A correct modeling of the base material should take
into account also the behavior under dynamic loadings,
since, if these are characterized by certain impulsive
features with high frequency contents, they may deter-
mine a drastic variation in the structural response in
terms of both strength and ductility demand, as well
as in terms of structural damage accumulation. On
this purpose, seven axis-symmetric notched specimens
(see Figure 5-a) were tested at different rates, using
a Servo-hydraulic machine, for medium-low velocity
value, and a Split Hopkinson Tension Bar (SHTB) for
high imposed rated.
The test apparatus (see Figure 5-b and 5-c) con-
stituting the used SHTB consists of two half-bars,
nominally the input bar A–B–C and the output bar D–E
(Hopperstad et al., 2003). The specimen were inserted
between these two bars and a pre-loading force N0 was
applied to the left extremity of the input bar, namely in
the point A, while the bar was fixed in the longitudinal
direction with a brittle intermediate piece at point B.
By rupturing the brittle intermediate piece B, a tension
wave is transmitted along the input bar until the bar-
specimen interface where a part of the wave is reflected
in the input bar while the residuary goes across the
specimen, which is loaded to fracture, achieving the
output bar. The strain rate may be changed by varying
the pre-loading force N0 of the loading device and thus
the stored elastic energy.
In Table 3, with respect to the seven tested speci-
mens, the variation of the main mechanical features
of the base material are expressed in relation to the
assumed experimental rates. It is evident that the
conventional yield stress is more sensitive than the
ultimate one to rate changes, the former varying up to
335% whereas the latter having a maximum increase
of 39%.
4 INFLUENCE OF WELDING PROCESS
The adopted heat treated pure aluminum is charac-
terized, at least for low strain rate values, by a very
low conventional yield stress. Thus, possible resid-
ual stresses, for example due to shrinkage processes,
may significantly influence the element performances,
especially when low strain levels occur. It is further-
more interesting to seek for the effects induced by
welding processes on the material features, as vari-
ations of the conventional yield stress f0.2 in the zone
close to the weld seams (HAZ-heat affected zone)
could meaningfully alter there the material response
under an external forces system. For this reason,
a proper characterization of the base material can-
not be considered as exhaustive whether an adequate
recognize of the residual stress state is not performed.
From this point of view, a careful experimental cam-
paign focused on the detection of the stresses due to
welding processes on pure aluminum 5mm thick plates
has been carried out. Four welded plates have been
considered: two of them, named “C1” and “C2”, are
made by a plate which presents a stiffening rib welded
on one of its two face (see Figure 6 a.), whereas the
remaining, named “C3” and “C4”, are plates stiffened
by welded ribs on both their faces (see Figure 6b). For
the first two plates, as well as for the other ones, weld
seams have been differently placed in order to take into
account also the influence of their position.
On each of these bands two points have been fixed
and successively their distances have been measured
by means of a Tensotast, which is demountable strain

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 6. The tested welded specimens: a) Plates with a
single rib and b) plates with ribs placed on the two sides.

Figure 7. Dog bone strips on the tested welded specimens.

gauge with one fixed and one movable point which

engage plugs glued to the plate under test.
After this operation, the strips have been separated
by the specimens through cuts carried out under the
continuous presence of a coolant. The cuts have pro-
voked on each single band an annulment of the residual
stresses, which were present in the specimens, as well a
variation of the distance between the point previously
fixed. The measure of this variation (divided for the
final distance) represents the strain on the band which
was due to the initial stress state.
Once that the stress-strain relationship character-
izing the band is known, is therefore possible to get
the values of the residual stresses on each bands. At
this purpose, tensile tests have been implemented on
Figure 8. Stress-Strain relationship for a) Specimen C1,
b) Specimen C2, c) Specimen C3 and d) Specimen C4.
each cut strip, so to obtain its stress-strain curve and,
therefore, to transform the measured strain in a stress
value. To this purpose, either the basic plate and ribs
have been divided into several bands characterized
by a dog bone shape and substantially by the same
dimensions (see Figure 7).
In Figure 8 the stress-strain curves obtained from
the cut bands are proposed for each coupon. It is

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Figure 9. Variation of the yielding stress in the plate.
Figure 10. Residual stresses in the base plate due to the
welding process.
possible to observe that the variation of the ultimate
stress from one band to the other is contained within
a limited range that, on the other hand, has been con-
sidered as acceptable for not welded specimens (see
figure 3).
Also, the ultimate stress value remain unchanged
with respect to the ultimate stress registered for not
welded specimens for any distance from the central
ribs. On the contrary, some important differences have
been registered for the conventional yielding stress
f0.2 , with particular reference to the zone around the
weld seams (see figure 9). This is due to the harden-
ing effect induced by the shrinkage process. In detail,
corresponding to the zone around the central ribs,
an increase of around 10 MPa (which correspond to
around the 50% of the original yielding stress value).
As it is possible to observe the width of the zone of the
plate in which this has been found (Heat affected zone)
is equal to 30–40 mm of each side of the stiffeners.
Therefore, it is possible to state that in a modeling pro-
cess different material features should be considered
there.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
The above outcome has been also confirmed by the
measuring of the residual stresses that are significant
in this zone (around 30 MPa), they being mitigated
moving far from the central rib. It is to highlight that,
provided that in the HAZ zone the conventional yield-
ing stress is increased, as observed above, the obtained
residual stress belong to the elastic field.
The obtained results put in evidence that both the
weld seam dispositions and the assumption of only
one side of the plate ribbed rather than two, does not
influence significantly the material features.
5 CONCLUSIONS
An innovative material for the manufacturing of pas-
sive energy dissipation systems, namely an almost pure
aluminum, has been investigated in the paper. Its sig-
nificant features have been carefully analyzed on the
basis of some tests carried out with the aim of iden-
tifying its behavior under both monotonic and cyclic
static-dynamic loading.
In addition, the influence of welding process on the
main mechanical features have been experimentally
determined. In particular has been seen how these can
vary within the heath affected zone for which has been
determined a width of 60–80 mm around the welded
stiffener location.
REFERENCES
Christopoulos, C., Filiatrault, A., (2006). “Principles of Pas-
sive Supplemental Damping and Seismic Isolation”. IUSS
Press, Pavia. ISBN 88-7358-037-8.
Soong, T. T., Dargush, G. F., (2007). “Passive Energy Dissi-
pation Systems in Structural Engineering”, Wiley & Sons
ISBN-13: 9780471968214.
De Matteis, G., Panico, S., Mazzolani, F.M. 2006. “Experi-
mental tests on stiffened aluminium shear panels”. Proc.
of XI International Conference on Metal Structures,
Rzeszów, Poland.
De Matteis, G., Brando, G., Panico, S., Mazzolani F.M.,
(2008) “Pure Aluminium, an Innovative Material in Struc-
tural Engineering”, Proceeding of the EUROSTEEL 2008
Conference, ISBN 92-0147-000-90, pp.1885-1890, Graz,
Austria, 03–05 September, 2008.
Mazzolani, F.M., (1995). “Aluminium Alloy Structures”,
E & FN SPON, ISBN 0-273-08653-7, London.
Pansieri, C., 1957. “Manuale di tecnologia delle leghe leggere
da lavorazione plastica”, Ulrico Hoepli editore, Milan,
Italy.
Hopperstad O.S., Børvik T., Langseth M., Labibes K. and
Albertini C., 2003. “On the influence of stress triaxiality
and strain rate on the behaviour of a structural steel. Part I.
Experiments”, European Journal of Mechanics A/Solids
22, 1–13.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Evaluation of re-centring capability of dual frames with removable

dissipative members: Case study for eccentrically braced frames
with bolted links

F. Dinu & D. Dubina

The “Politehnica” University of Timisoara, Romania, Romanian Academy, Centre for Advanced and Fundamental
Technical Sciences, Timisoara, Romania

A. Stratan
The “Politehnica” University of Timisoara, Romania

ABSTRACT: Capacity design principles used in modern seismic design codes are deemed to constrain plastic
deformations to dissipative elements only. It is likely that dissipative frame structures, designed for high energy
dissipation, will experience significant yielding even under moderate seismic events. If the dissipative member
can be replaced after a moderate to strong seismic event, this can reduce the cost of the post-earthquake inter-
vention. However, it is often argued that permanent deformations and residual forces in dissipative members
exist after the earthquake and this could render difficulties in their replacement. The objective of the present
work, which continues the previous research of authors, is to investigate the possibility to replace the dissipative
members within a structure following significant inelastic deformations.

1 INTRODUCTION attain this objective. The second requirement is related

Conventional design of structures in seismic regions
is based on dissipative structural behavior. It allows
design for seismic forces considerably smaller than the
ones corresponding to an elastic response, by exploit-
ing the capacity of the structure to deform into the
inelastic range.These dissipative members act as “seis-
mic fuses” and are sacrificial member, which after a
strong earthquake need to be repaired or replaced.
Different strategies can be employed in order to
reduce damage to structures under moderate to strong
earthquakes. The most radical solutions are base iso-
lation and various implementations of active and
semi-active structural control. Other strategies rely
on supplemental damping conferred to the structure
through various devices based on viscous, friction, or
yielding dampers. More or less efficient for reduc-
tion of structural damage, all these solution have the
disadvantage of requiring specialized knowledge at
the design stage and during erection, need for care-
ful maintenance and high initial cost. Alternatively,
a conventional design can be employed, but with the
dissipative members connected to the structure using
removable connections, allowing replacement of the
dissipative elements damaged as a result of a moderate
to strong earthquake, and reducing the repair costs. For
a system containing removable dissipative elements
to be efficient, it must fulfill two requirements. The
first one consists in isolating inelastic deformations to
removable elements only. Capacity design rules incor-
porated in modern design codes can be used in order to
to the possibility to replace damaged dissipative ele-
ments that can be difficult to realize if the structure
has experienced large permanent deformations.
The objective of the present work is to investigate
the possibility to replace removable dissipative mem-
bers after an earthquake. Different types of dissipative
members are considered in the study, like links, buck-
ling restrained V braces and steel plate shear walls.
Braced frames are combined with unbraced frames and
form dual system configurations. The moment resist-
ing frames are intended to remain in the elastic range
under the design earthquake in order to provide the
necessary restoring force. A simple design procedure
for evaluation of strength and stiffness of the dual sys-
tems and their components is presented. The procedure
is then applied on a dual frame structure and compared
to the results of numerical analysis.
2 REMOVABLE DISSIPATIVE MEMBERS
There are many possible solutions for structures with
removable dissipative members. Application of this
principle to eccentrically braced frames (EBFs), where
links act as dissipative zones, is presented in Figure 1
(Stratan & Dubina 2004; Dubina et al. 2008). In order
to isolate inelastic deformations in removable dissi-
pative members only, these elements may be realized
using lower yield steel. A similar effect can be obtained
by using high strength steel in non-dissipative ele-
ments. The main advantage over special dissipative

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 Figure 1. The bolted link concept.
Figure 2. Experimental test on removable bolted links: a)
link after testing; b) force-deformation relationship V-γT
of the same specimen; c) tests on full-scale frame with
removable link.
devices is the fact that removable links can be designed
using methods readily available to structural engi-
neers and can be fabricated and erected using standard
procedures.
Two series of experimental tests were done at the
Politehnica University of Timisoara on dual systems
with removable dissipative links. First experimental
program focused on elements (Figs. 2a,b) while the
second program focused on full scale frame structures
(Fig. 2c).
Tests on links showed an important influence of the
connection on the total response of the bolted link,
in terms of stiffness, strength and overall hysteretic
response. Shorter links were found to be suitable for
the bolted solution, as plastic deformations were con-
strained to the link, while the connection response
was almost elastic, allowing for an easy replacement
of the damaged link. At the frame level, the experi-
mental tests showed that the removable link solution
is feasible. Inelastic deformations were constrained
to the removable links alone, all other frame mem-
bers and connections remaining in the elastic range.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 3. Rehabilitated structure.
Figure 4. Experimental test on BRBs.
Additionally, it was possible to replace the damaged
removable links with new elements.
Buckling restrained braced frames (BRBFs) repre-
sent another convenient solution for removable dis-
sipative members. This system can be applied with
success for new buildings but also for seismic upgrad-
ing of existing RC building frames. A study aimed to
evaluate the impact of inverted V buckling restrained
braces on the performance of existing reinforced con-
crete frame structures was carried out at the Politehnica
University of Timisoara, CEMSIG Research Center.
The results of the study are presented in more details
in an accompanying paper (Bordea et al. 2010). Both
numerical and experimental investigations have been
performed. Figure 3 shows the existing reinforced con-
crete frame building selected for the rehabilitation.The
demand on the BRBs was evaluated from the analy-
sis of the structure. Experimental tests on the BRBs
have shown a very good ductility both in tension and
in compression (Fig. 4).
Based on the acceptance criteria evaluated experi-
mentally, the seismic performance of the rehabilitated
Figure 5. Top inter-story drift for the three performance
levels.
Figure 6. General view of the full scale structure a) and
brace to column connection detail b).
structure was evaluated using a performance based
approach. Figure 5 shows history of the top inter-
story drift from the incremental dynamic analysis for
the three performance levels (IO – immediate occu-
pancy, LS – life safety, CP – collapse prevention). The
figure shows for frequent and rare earthquakes (IO and
LS), top permanent drifts are 2.5 and 7.5 mm, respec-
tively. This low deviation from undeformed position
allows an easy intervention to replace the damaged
braces. For very rare earthquakes (corresponding to
CP), the permanent drift is large but the main tar-
get is to avoid structural failure. Figure 6 shows the
full scale frame tested experimentally and a brace to
column connection after the test.
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Figure 7. Steel plate shear wall structure.
Figure 8. Test set-up.
Another system with removable dissipative mem-
bers studied at the Politehnica University of Timisoara,
CEMSIG Research Center was the steel plate shear
wall system SPSW (Figs. 7–9) (Neagu et al. 2010).
Rigid beam to column connections led to lower resid-
ual drifts compared to semi-rigid connections. After
the removal of the damaged panels, the structure
closely recovered the initial, undeformed position.
3 DESIGN CRITERIA FOR DUAL FRAMES
Dual steel frames are obtained by combination of
moment resisting frames (MRFs) and concentrically
braced frames (CBFs) or eccentrically braced frames
(EBFs).There are three requirements for design of dual
frames in EN 1998-1 (2004): (1) a single behavior fac-
tor is used for determining the design seismic action,
(2) seismic forces should be distributed between the
different frames according to their elastic stiffness and
(3) each structural subsystem (MRFs, CBFs, EBFs)
should be designed according to their specific pro-
visions. An additional requirement can be found in
other codes (e.g. AISC 2005, P100-1 2006): the MRFs
should be able of resisting at least 25% of the total
seismic force. According to code rules, the main ben-
efit of dual configuration is the possibility to adopt
larger values of behavior factor (EN 1998-1 2004) in
 comparison with simple braced frames or structural
walls, due to larger redundancy of the dual system.
Several researchers (Akiyama 1999, Iyama &
Kuwamura 1999, Astaneh-Asl 2001) investigated seis-
mic performance of dual systems, consisting of rigid
and flexible subsystems. Akiyama (1999) showed that
“flexible-stiff ” structural types belong to the most effi-
cient earthquake resistant structures. It is believed that
the flexible subsystem will prevent excessive develop-
ment of drifts, while the rigid subsystem will dissipate
seismic energy by plastic deformations. Iyama &
Kuwamura (1999) studied the probabilistic aspect of
dual systems. The dual system was obtained by com-
bining a generic CBF and MRF, with different natural
periods of vibration. The obtained dual structure was
termed “fail-safe”, because it provides an alternative
load path to earthquake loading (MRF) in case of fail-
ure of the primary system (CBF). Analyses on single
degree of freedom systems showed that a dual system
has a higher safety factor than a homogeneous sys-
tem, considering the unknown characteristics of future
earthquakes. It was also showed that the benefits of the
dual system is enhanced when the difference between
the natural periods of the subsystems is large, and when
the ductility of the subsystems is small. Astaneh-Asl
(2001) studied steel shear wall structures, emphasizing
the importance of multiple lines of resistance, naturally
achieved by combining a steel shear wall and a MRF.
A different use of dual frames is the one in which
removable dissipative members are employed in the
rigid subsystem. Provided the flexible subsystem does
not yield, and the inelastic deformations are con-
strained to the removable members alone, the flexible
subsystem would provide the restoring force necessary
to re-centre the structure once the damaged dissipative
members are removed. It would be possible then to
Figure 9. Structure after the damaged panels were
dismantled.
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install new dissipative members, regaining the original
strength of the structure.
Vargas & Bruneau (2006) investigated a design
approach aiming to concentrate damage on remov-
able and easy to repair structural elements (“structural
fuses”), with the main structure designed to remain
elastic or with minor inelastic deformations. A sys-
tematic procedure was proposed to design buildings
with metallic structural fuses. Kiggins & Uang (2006)
showed that even if buckling restrained braced frames
exhibit a favorable energy-dissipating mechanism, the
low post-yield stiffness of the braces leave the system
vulnerable to unfavorable behavioral characteristics
such as large permanent drift. The potential benefit
of using buckling-restrained braces in a dual system
to minimize permanent deformations was investigated
and shown to reduce significantly residual story drifts.
In order to analyze the factors controlling the two
requirements for structures with removable dissipative
elements (isolation of damage and re-centring capa-
bility), it is useful to consider a simple dual system
consisting of two inelastic springs connected in paral-
lel (Fig. 10a). Provided that the flexible subsystem is
not very weak, plastic deformations appear first in the
rigid subsystem. In order to maximize system perfor-
mance, plastic deformations in the flexible subsystem
should be avoided. At the limit, when the yield force
Fyf and yield displacement δyf are attained in the flex-
ible subsystem, the rigid subsystem experiences the
yield force Fyr and the total displacement δyr + δplr
(Fig. 10b). Equating the two displacements:
and considering the relationship between force and
deformation (F = k · δ), it can be shown that:
The notation µD represents the “useful” ductility of
the rigid subsystem, for which the flexible subsystem
still responds in the elastic range. It can be observed
that there are two factors that need to be considered
in order to obtain a ductile dual system with plastic
deformations isolated in the rigid subsystem alone.
The first one is the ratio between the yield strength
of the flexible and rigid subsystems (Fyf /Fyr ), while
the second one is the ratio between the stiffness of the
Figure 10. Simplified model of a generalized dual system.
rigid subsystem and the one of the flexible subsystem
(Kyf /Kyr ). The larger are these two ratios, the larger is
the “useful” ductility µD of the dual system.
Re-centring capability of the dual system is not eas-
ily attainable. Though the dual configuration results
in smaller permanent drifts δpD in comparison with
permanent deformations of the rigid system alone δpr
(Fig. 11a), they are not eliminated completely after
unloading. After unloading of the dual structure, there
is a residual force in the rigid subsystem (Fpr ) equal
to the opposing force in the flexible subsystem (Fpf ),
see Figure 11b. However, permanent deformations can
be eliminated if the rigid subsystem is realized to
be removable. Once removable elements are disman-
tled, stiffness and strength of the system is provided
by the flexible subsystem alone. If the flexible sub-
system is still in the elastic range, it will return the
system to the initial position, implying zero permanent
deformations.
When designing a dual system, the size of struc-
tural members will be governed by the characteristics
of the rigid subsystem, which provides most of the
strength and stiffness to lateral forces. If removable
dissipative members are used, then the characteris-
tics of the flexible subsystem should be chosen such
that it would remain in the elastic range up to dis-
placements corresponding to attainment of ultimate
deformations in the rigid subsystem. This requirement
could be expressed as:
where δur ultimate displacement of the rigid
subsystem.
Thus, the ability of the flexible subsystem of a dual
structure with removable dissipative members in the
rigid subsystem to provide the re-centring capability
depends on:
– the demand of inelastic deformations in the rigid
subsystem δur = δyr + δplr ,
– and
– the yield displacement δyf = Fyf /Kf in the flexible
subsystem.
Figure 11. Permanent deformations in a conventional dual
system (a) and in a dual system with removable dissipative
members (b).
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
The yield displacement in the flexible subsystem
is controlled by both strength and stiffness (δyf =
Fyf /Kf ). Therefore, the code requirement for the flexi-
ble subsystem in dual frames in terms of strength only
may not assure the desired behavior for dual structures
with removable dissipative members.
4 DUAL FRAMES WITH ECCENTRICALLY
BRACED AND MOMENT RESISTING
FRAMES
4.1 Technical aspects
Past numerical and experimental research on remov-
able link assemblies and eccentrically braced frames
with removable links showed that this is a feasible
solution for earthquake resistant construction. How-
ever, there are two criticisms to the removable link
solution. The first one concerns permanent (resid-
ual) deformations of the structure after a damaging
earthquake, which can lead to difficulties in replac-
ing removable elements. The second one is related to
interaction between the removable link and the con-
crete slab, which was not addressed in these studies.
On one hand, the concrete slab can affect the link shear
capacity, as well as the behavior of the link-beam con-
nection. On the other hand, large link deformations can
damage the concrete slab, which violates the principle
that plastic deformations (damage) are constrained to
removable links only.
The first issue can be solved by realizing the struc-
ture as a dual one, by combining eccentrically braced
frames (EBF) with moment-resisting frames (MRF).
The elastic response of the flexible subsystem (MRF)
can provide the re-centring capability to the struc-
ture, once the links damaged during an earthquake are
removed. For this principle to be efficient, the flexible
subsystem should remain in the elastic range. Addi-
tionally, the residual deformations of the link should
allow bolt removal. If these deformations are too large,
it is possible to slowly release the residual stresses
and deformations in the link by removing part of the
link web through flame cutting prior to removing the
bolts, eliminating the shear force resistance. The sec-
ond issue can be addressed in two ways. One possible
solution is to disconnect the removable link from the
concrete slab, through a special arrangement of sec-
ondary beams (Fig. 12), which can be feasible in case
of eccentrically braced frames located at the perimeter
of the building.
Figure 12. Arrangement of secondary beams in order to
disconnect the RC slab from links.
 Figure 14. Basic one-storey MRF component.

Figure 13. Basic one-storey EBF component. lbr is the brace length, while the other notations are
shown in Figure 13.
Another possible solution is to use a conventional The total stiffness of the EBF can be obtained by
reinforced concrete slab, connected or not with shear combining the contribution due to shear of the link
studs to the removable link, and to accept damage to with the one due to axial deformation of braces:
the slab. In this situation, it would be necessary to
repair locally the slab after a damaging earthquake, in
addition to replacing the removable link.
Implementation of the dual structures with remov-
able dissipative members into practice requires avail-
ability of simple procedures suitable for design. Such Once the strength and stiffness of the one-storey
a procedure is discussed in the following for a dual components of a EBF are known, the ultimate displace-
frame obtained by combining EBFs with removable ment of the EBF can be determined as the sum of the
links and MRFs. yield displacement and the plastic displacement. The
latter is controlled by the plastic deformation capa-
city of the link (γpl,u ) and the geometry of the EBF.
4.2 Design procedure
Thus, the ultimate displacement of the EBF can be
The basic design requirement for dual frames with determined as:
removable dissipative members is to prevent yielding
in MRFs up to the attainment of ultimate deformation
capacity in the EBF with removable links, checking
the Equation 3. Simple procedures suitable for design
are required in order to estimate the ultimate displace-
The basic MRF component can be idealized as an
ment in EBFs, as well as displacement at yield in
assembly of a beam and two columns shown in Fig-
the MRFs. Therefore, strength (Fy ) and stiffness (K)
ure 14a, assuming inflexion points at half the storey
need to be known for basic components of the system:
height. From the free-body diagram of the MRF and
an eccentrically braced frame (see Figure 13a) and a
considering the fact that plastic deformations should
moment-resisting frame (Fig. 14).
develop at beam ends, and sketching the free-body dia-
From the free-body diagram of the basic EBF
grams of the beam and the column, the yield strength
(see Fig. 13a) and considering the fact that plastic
of the MRF could be determined as:
deformations should be constrained to the link, and
sketching the free-body diagram of half the basic EBF
(Fig. 13b), the yield strength of the EBF (FEBF
y ) could
be determined as:

where Mpl,b is the beam plastic moment.

Considering the flexural deformations only, the
stiffness of the basic MRF component can be deter-
where Vpl,link is the shear strength of the link. mined as:
The most important components contributing to the
stiffness of an EBF are the link shear deformation and
brace axial deformation. It can be shown that the stiff-
ness to lateral forces of these to components can be
expressed as:

where Ib is the moment of inertia of the beam and Ic

is the moment of inertia of the column.
Once the strength and stiffness of the one-storey
components of a MRF are known, the yield displace-
ment of the MRF can be determined as:

where G is the shear modulus, As is the link shear area,

E is theYoung’s modulus, A is brace cross-section area,

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Figure 15. Structural configuration: a) 3D view; b) plan
view; c) transversal end wall frame.
5 CASE STUDY
5.1 The analyzed structure
A medium rise frame structure was considered in the
study. The building has 3 spans of 6 meters and 5
bays of 6 meters. Building has 3 stories of 3.5 meters
each. In each direction, the main lateral load resist-
ing system is made by two braced frames, located
on the perimeter (Fig. 15a). Additionally, there are 4
moment resisting frames on transversal directions and
10 moment resisting frames on longitudinal direction
(represented with thick lines), to assure the restor-
ing forces after an earthquake (Fig. 15b). All other
beams have pinned ends. The columns are pinned at
the base. The design was carried out according to
EN1993, EN1998 and Romanian seismic design code
P100-1/2006. A 5.0 kN/m2 dead load and 3.0 kN/m2
live load were considered. The building is located
in Bucharest, characterized by the following seismic
parameters: 0.24 g design peak ground acceleration,
soft soil conditions with TC = 1.6 s, a behavior factor
q = 6 and inter-story drift limitation of 0.008 of the
storey height. Columns are made Braces and beams in
the braced frames are made of HEA240 profiles while
links are made of welded H section 230 × 140 × 10 ×
6 mm (Fig. 15c).
In order to concentrate the plastic deformations in
links and keep the MRFs in the elastic range, differ-
ent steel grades were used for members (Dubina et al.
2008).Thus, the beams in moment resisting frames and
the columns are made from HSS steel (grade S460),
while all other members, including braces and links are
made from mild carbon steel (grade S355) (Fig. 15c).
A removable bolted link was used.
5.2 Results
The analysis was performed with SAP2000 computer
program. Inelastic behavior of beams, columns and
braces were modeled with concentrated plastic hinges.
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Figure 16. Contribution to the dual structure: a) EBF
configuration; b) MRF configuration; c) DUA configuration.
The inelastic shear link element model was based
on the Ricles and Popov (1994) proposal, but adapted
to the bilinear envelope curve available in SAP2000.
The stiffness of bolted links was reduced to an equiv-
alent stiffness of 0.25 of the theoretical shear stiffness
of continuous links (Dubina et al. 2008). The ultimate
link deformations at ULS was considered γpl,u = 0.10
rad. In order to assess the structural performance of the
structure, nonlinear static analyses were performed.
Analyses were done on a planar end wall transversal
frame, extracted from the 3D structure, with seismic
mass corresponding to half of the total floor masses,
in order to take into account that, in the 3D structure,
the end wall braced frames carry horizontal seismic
forces from internal frames also. The lateral force pat-
tern, used in the push-over analysis, has a “uniform”
distribution and is proportional to mass, regardless of
elevation (uniform response acceleration). One mater
of interest in case of dual frames is the contribution
of the moment resisting frames to the stiffness and
strength of the entire structure. Therefore, in order
to evaluate the participation of each part, the struc-
ture was analyzed in 3 different situations, which are
(Fig. 16):
– EBF: outer frames are pinned, no contribution to the
lateral resisting system
– MRF: outer frames are rigid, braces are removed
– DUA (EBF + MRF): both braces and moment frame
are active
The analytical procedure involves checking that the
displacement corresponding to ultimate deformation
of the EBF is smaller than the displacement corre-
sponding to first yield in the MRF. Storey pushover
curves for the EBF, MRF and DUA structures are
shown in Figure 17. First plastic hinge in beams is
marked on the curves, together with the attainment of
ultimate rotation in the links.
Table 1 presents a comparison of yield displace-
ments in the MRFs and ultimate displacements in
the EBF for the first storey, where largest demands
are present. Fair agreement can be observed between
analytical and numerical results.

Figure 17. Storey pushover curves for EBF, MRF and DUA
configurations.
Table 1. Comparison of analytical and numerical predic-
tions of storey displacements.
δEBF , mm δMRF , mm δMRF /δEBF
u y y u
Analytical 20.6 82.8 4.0
Numerical 22.6 80.5 3.6
6 CONCLUSIONS
The paper presents the research done at the Politehnica
University of Timisoara on dual structural systems
with removable dissipative members. Dual frames
with removable dissipative members offer two main
advantages over conventional structures. Firstly, they
allow easy repair of the structure by replacing dis-
sipative members damaged during an earthquake.
Secondly, if MRFs are prevented from yielding, they
would provide the restoring forces necessary to elim-
inate residual displacements, providing re-centring
capability to the structure. Dual frames with removable
dissipative members can be obtained by combining
EBFs, SPSWs or BRBFs with MRFs.
An application to eccentrically braced frames with
removable links was discussed in this paper. The basic
design requirement is to prevent yielding in MRFs up
to the attainment of ultimate deformation capacity in
the EBF with removable links. Simple formulas suit-
able for design were proposed in order to check this
requirement for each storey of the structure. A compar-
ison of analytical predictions of displacement demands
to ones obtained from a pushover analysis showed fair
agreement.
Full scale tests, using the pseudo-dynamic testing
method on a one span, three bays and three story struc-
ture is under preparation within a SERIES project
in cooperation with JRC of Ispra, Italy. The struc-
ture is equipped with removable bolted links and it
is expected to obtain the validation of this innovative
approach.
828
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
REFERENCES
AISC 2005. Seismic Provisions for Structural Steel Build-
ings. American Institute of Steel Construction, Inc.
Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Akiyama, H. 1999. Behaviour of connections under seismic
loads. Control of semi-rigid behaviour of civil engineer-
ing structural connections. COST C1 Proceedings of the
international conference, Liege, 17–19 September 1998.
Astaneh-Asl, A. 2001. Seismic Behavior and Design of Steel
Shear Walls, Steel TIPS, USA.
Bordea, S. & Dubina, D. 2010. Numerical and experimen-
tal evaluation of q factors for RC MRF strengthened of
steel BRB. Proc. of International Conference Urban Habi-
tat Constructions Under Catastrophic Events, Cost Action
C26, Naples, 16–18 September 2010 (in print).
Dubina, D. et al. 2008. Dual high-strength steel eccentri-
cally braced frames with removable links. Earthquake
Engineering & Structural Dynamics, Vol. 37, No. 15, p.
1703–1720.
EN1993-1-1 2003. Design of Steel Structures. Part 1-1:
General rules and rules for buildings, CEN - European
Committee for Standardization.
EN 1998-1 2004. Eurocode 8: Design of structures for earth-
quake resistance. Part 1: General rules, seismic actions
and rules for buildings. CEN - European Committee for
Standardization.
Iyama, J. & Kuwamura, H. 1999. Probabilistic advantage
of vibrational redundancy in earthquake-resistant steel
frames. Journal of Constructional Steel Research, 52:
33–46.
Kiggins, S. & Uang, C.-M. 2006. Reducing residual drift
of buckling-restrained braced frames as a dual system.
Engineering Structures, 28 (2006) 1525–1532.
Neagu, C. et al. 2010. Design of steel frames of dissipative
shear walls. In E. Batista, P. Vellasco, L. de Lima (ed),
Proc. of SDSS’Rio 2010 Stability and Ductility of Steel
Structures, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, September 8–10, 2010
(in print).
NEHRP 2003. NEHRP Recommended provisions for new
buildings and other structures (FEMA 450). Part 1:
Provisions and Part 2: Commentary. Building Seismic
Safety Council, National Institute of Building Sciences,
Washington, D.C.
P100-1/2006 2006. Seismic design code – Part 1: Rules for
buildings (in Romanian).
Ricles J.M. & Popov, E.P. 1994. Inelastic link element
for EBF seismic analysis. ASCE, Journal of Structural
Engineering, 1994, Vol. 120, No. 2: 441–463.
Stratan, A. & Dubina, D. 2004. Bolted links for eccentri-
cally braced steel frames. Proc. of the Fifth AISC / ECCS
International Workshop “Connections in Steel Structures
V. Behaviour, Strength & Design”, June 3–5, 2004. Ed.
F.S.K. Bijlaard, A.M. Gresnigt, G.J. van der Vegte. Delft
University of Technology, The Netherlands.
Vargas, R. & Bruneau, M. 2006. Seismic design of multi-
story buildings with metallic structural fuses. Proceedings
of the 8th U.S. National Conference on Earthquake Engi-
neering, April 18–22, 2006, San Francisco, California,
USA. Paper No. 280.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Behaviour model for post-tensioned bolted RC frame – steel brace

connection

A. Dogariu, S. Bordea & D. Dubina

“Politehnica” University of Timisoara, Romania

ABSTRACT: The paper presents the main features of a post-tensioned bolted connection for inserting new
infill steel braces in order to improve reinforced concrete frames behaviour. In order to calibrate the connection,
a finite element model was build. The proposed connection technique was validated through experimental tests,
conducted on the entire RC frame.

1 INTRODUCTION 2 CONNECTION SYSTEM

Many contemporary buildings were build more than 2.1 System description
50 years ago and present a high seismic vulnerability,
As stated above, the proposed connection for this
being designed without a proper consideration of the
study should be useful for inserting new steel bracing
seismic action.
systems, inside weak RC moment resisting frames.
The resistant structure of these buildings is mainly
The connection is realized with post-tension high
masonry or RC frames. In case of RC frames, it is well
strength steel ties, which act like a metallic clamp,
know that 50 years ago many reinforcing details of the
together with the steel plates. The high strength steel
joints and of the plastic zones were unsatisfactory. This
ties introduce a normal pressure, at the interface level
fact was proved during the last important earthquakes.
between RC elements and steel plates. Due to this,
From this reason, it is important to assure a better
frictional forces appear if relative slippage tends to
behaviour of these structures, by appropriate consoli-
occur.
dation measures. One of the most efficient retrofitting
The connection insures the full shear interaction
measures, from the structural and technological point
behaviour through frictional forces that depends on
of view, is based on inserting new steel braces. This
post-tension level introduced in the steel ties. There-
technique improves the global resistance and stiffness
fore, in order to obtain a good behaviour of the
of the structure, but also the ductility. For obtaining
connection, a proper post-tension level must be intro-
the highest level of energy dissipation and capacity
duced. It is desirable to remove completely any relative
improvement, buckling restrained braces (BRB) may
slippage through high post-tension level, in order to
be used. Even if, theoretically, the retrofitting solu-
introduce a high frictional force.
tion seems to be very efficient, a proper connection
There are two limitations of the pre-stress level,
between the RC frame and the new steel elements
i.e. the steel ultimate resistance and the local pres-
is needed. Otherwise, without a full interaction, the
sure on the concrete. Using simple assumptions and
new elements cannot bring their positive effect in the
considering the full prestressed ties, an initial dimen-
global behaviour. Generally, the connection between
sion of steel plates and of the number of steel ties was
the existing RC elements and the new steel elements
determined.
is made by post-installed mechanical or chemical
In order to avoid any plastic deformation in the
anchors. A good behaviour of this type of connection is
connection, 25 mm tick plates, strongly stiffened, have
highly dependent on the quality of the concrete, which
been used. The bending of the plates must be limited,
is generally poor. The failure can be fragile if appears
because a large contact area between steel plates and
in concrete elements.
RC elements is desired. A flexible plate would bend
On another hand, in some cases, the post-installed
and then the contact area would be reduced at RC ele-
anchor technology requires qualified personnel with
ment corners. This behaviour is to be avoided, because
high costs.

829
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 1. Upper connection between RC beam and BRB.
Figure 2. Bottom connection between RC column and BRB.
it would not assure a sufficient area for the frictional
forces and the RC elements would not overhead the
local pressure.
Figure 1 presents the solution of the connections
between the RC beam and the inserted steel braces.
Figure 2 presents the solution of the connections
between the RC column and the inserted steel braces.
S235 steel grade has been used for the steel
plates and steel stiffeners and 10.9 grade for the
post-tensioned M16 ties.
The technology is rather simple and did not require
highly qualified workers or special devices other than
a torch control wrench.
In the same time, the prestress level which basi-
cally insure the grip between the RC elements and
steel braces, also introduces a biaxial state of stress
in the concrete elements, thus improving the material
behaviour by node confinement. In case of failure of
the base plate, the connection will exhibit a ductile fail-
ure. One another important aspect is the possibility to
remove the connection.
2.2 Simplified design
Considering a very stiff steel plate, the maximum force
applied to all bolts, corresponding to a full pretension
level of the ties (Ft = 125 kN per bolt, equivalent to a
torque moment of Ms = 200 Nm), creates a pressure
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 3. RC beam – BRB connection: pressure under the
steel plate due to bolts pre-stressing.
Figure 4. Load transfer and forces on the upper connection.
σpl of approximate 10 MPa (see Figure 3) at the inter-
face with the RC beam, which is smaller than the
compressive strength of the RC beam, i.e. 35 MPa.
Consequently, the friction force (Ff ) between the
steel plate and the concrete element should be
higher than the cumulated horizontal BRB force (see
Figure 4). Using a friction coefficient of 0.45 between
concrete and steel, a maximum shear force of 675 kN
can be considered without any relative slippage.
For the bottom connection, the dimension of the
bolts have been determinated in order to resist the BRB
forces (both vertical and horizontal components) and
the pretension level was established in order to avoid
the slippage of the column (see Figure 5).
In a simplified manner, the connection between the
RC beam and the steel elements can be considered as
fully rigid, without any slippage, until the shear capac-
ity is reached (friction force), and fails in a brittle way,
by loosing completely the capacity after this level.
3 FINITE ELEMENT MODELS
OF CONNECTIONS
3.1 Description of finite element models
For the preliminary verification of the connecting sys-
tems, two numerical models of the both connections
have been build, prior to the experimental tests.
Figure 5. Load transfer and forces on the bottom
connection.
UsingABAQUS software, two detailed models have
been build. Due to the symmetry of the model and to
the load conditions, only half of the specimens have
been made, with respect to the symmetry boundary
conditions (see Figure 6 and Figure 7). 3D deformable
finite elements have been used.
Considering the number of contact zones of the
specimens (between RC frame, steel ties and steel Figure 6. Finite Element Model of the connection between
plates), ABAQUS Explicit product has been preferred. BRB and RC column.
This product has the advantage of an explicit formula-
tion of the equilibrium, which is well-suited to simulate
and to effectively handle severely nonlinear behaviour, The results of the numerical simulations have been
such as contact. This product was build mainly for used only to validate the geometry of the specimens,
dynamic events, but using proper amplitude and mass obtained considering the simplified assumptions.
scaling of the model, quasi-static loading response can
be obtain with very good accuracy and in a shorter
time.
4 EXPERIMENTAL BEHAVIOR OF THE
3.2 Preliminary FE results CONNECTIONS
Appling a full prestress level of the ties, with the help
4.1 Experimental set-up
of the numerical analysis, the interface behaviour has
been checked. The testing set-up includes the entire RC frames
The numerical simulation verified if no relative together with the BRB (see Figure 11).
slippage occurs at the steel-concrete interface (see The connection between RC column and steel BRB
Figure 8), if the connection behaves as a full shear was introduced in a simple manner, using a very stiff
one, if the steel plate do not bend in such way to steel element, in order to simulate a real RC joint (see
introduce pressure on the beam corners and to cause Figure 12).
local damages (see Figure 9). Displacement transducers have been used to deter-
The numerical analysis showed that the global force mine all the relative displacements and rotations that
at which the friction force is exceeded, corresponding can appear in the connections. Four displacement
to the failure of the upper connection, is much higher transducers were used on the bottom of each column,
that the force which can be resisted by the RC frame. to measure the vertical displacement (see Figure 13)
For the bottom connection (with the RC column), the horizontal displacement of the connection and the
the stress level in the ties, bolts and in the concrete load transfer from the connection to the column and
elements was analysed. bottom part (see Figure 14).

831
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 9. Bending of the upper plate (deformation scale
factor of 10).

Figure 7. Finite Element Model of the entire experimental

frame (detail of BRB).

Figure 10. Von Misses stress on the bottom connection

(deformation scale factor of 15).

Figure 8. Relative slippage of the RC beam when the

friction force is exceeded.

Figure 11. Experimental frame.

Two displacement transducers have been placed on
the RC beam for monitoring the slippage of the upper
4.2 Experimental results
connection (see Figure 15).
Monotonic and cyclic tests were considered. A All the connections between BRB system and RC
modified ECCS loading protocol was applied in the frame (BRB to column and BRB to beam) showed
cyclic tests. a very good behaviour and no slippage was recorded.

832
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 12. Experimental connection between RC column
and BRB.
Figure 13. Measurement of the vertical displacement of the
connection between the BRB and the column.
No important slippage between steel plates and
concrete columns was emphasised (see Figure 16).
When the left side BRB failed in tension, the
horizontal displacement recorded at the connection
between BRB and the RC was limited to 5 mm (see
Figure 17).
5 CONCLUSION AND FURTHER
DEVELOPMENT
The connections between the steel braces and the RC
elements performed very well under monotonic and
cyclic loading.
The connection devices used for installing BRB’s
within the frame took benefit from the friction resis-
tant forces induced by the ties pretension and showed
833
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 14. Measurement of the horizontal displacement of
the connection between the BRB and the column.
Figure 15. Measurement devices distribution: Horizontal
on the RC beam.
a very good behaviour. In fact, reduced slippage was
observed, with very small influence on the hysteretic
loops of BRB system. The experimental results rec-
ommend the application of this connecting system for
such interventions. Moreover, in the case of multi-
storey frames, such connecting systems provide also a
beneficial confining effect at the frame joints, enhanc-
ing both strength and ductility of the MRF+BRB
system. The portal frame tested experimentally could
not take such benefit.
This type of connection may be used successfully
for all types of retrofitting techniques for RC moment
resisting frames based on inserting steel bracings.
For a global analysis, both connections can be con-
sidered fully rigid. It is on interest to develop a more

Figure 16. Behaviour of connection between BRB and left
RC column during cyclic test.
Figure 17. Connection between the BRB and the beam
during cyclic test – hysteretic curve.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 18. Connection in case of multi-storey frames.
complex nonlinear model based on calibrated FE mod-
els in agreement with the experimental results. This
model should consider not only the behaviour until the
reach of the bearing capacity, but also the real rigid-
ity of the connections and the post-slippage behaviour.
As a further study, the behaviour of the connections on
dynamic loading conditions should be considered.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The proposed techniques were developed and tested
in the frame of STELRETRO project (RFCS-CT-
2007-00050 Steel Solutions for Seismic Retrofit
and Upgrade of Existing Constructions) at CEM-
SIG Research Center from “Politehnica” University
of Timisoara.
REFERENCES
Bordea, S. 2010. Dual frame systems of buckling restrained
braces – PhD Theses, Editura Politehnica, Timisoara,
ISBN 978-606-554-059-0
ABAQUS Version 6.8 Documentation 2008 © Dassault
Systems Simula
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Base isolation seismic retrofit of a hospital building in Italy:

Design and construction

M. Ferraioli & A.M. Avossa

Department of Civil Engineering, Second University of Naples, Aversa (Caserta), Italy

F. Formato
Avellino, Italy

ABSTRACT: The paper deals on a significant retrofit project currently under construction of an existing
hospital building in Avellino (Italy). The seismic retrofit was realized by connecting the first floor of the three
existing structures and creating one only isolation system composed of high damping rubber bearings and
sliding devices. The base-isolation is achieved by gradually cutting the building from foundation and installing
the isolators at the level of upper edge of the columns. The study allowed the verification of the adequacy of
the isolation system, showing the benefits of the application of the isolation devices, the limitations and the
characteristics of their performance.

1 INTRODUCTION strategic structures for which the return period of the

Most of the existing buildings are vulnerable to earth-
quakes because they are gravity load designed or
are designed with earlier codes to withstand seismic
action of low intensity. Many of these constructions
with low lateral load resisting capacity are located
in high seismic hazard areas and so they represent
a significant hazard to life during earthquakes, espe-
cially because many of them are school or hospital
buildings. Recently, a new interest in the use of the
seismic isolation has been caused by the recent strong
Italian earthquakes (Umbria-Marche, 1997; Molise-
Puglia, 2002; Abruzzo, 2009) and by the editing of
the new Italian Code. In fact, like EC8, the Italian
code contains two chapters devoted to seismic iso-
lation of buildings and bridges respectively, and this
had a great effect in order to promote the general use
of seismic isolation not only for schools, emergency
management centers, hospitals and so on, but also in
the field of the ordinary residential and commercial
buildings. On the other side, the traditional methods
of seismic retrofitting based on the increase of the
capacity of the structure may have problems of con-
vergence. In fact, in general these approaches tend to
increase not only strength and ductility, but also lateral
stiffness. The period shortening of the structure gener-
ally increases the seismic demand except in the case of
low-rise buildings that fail in the constant-acceleration
region of the response spectrum. Increasing the lat-
eral stiffness may be found to be detrimental as the
structure attracted higher seismic demands.
It is worth noting that seismic isolation and energy
dissipation are certainly convenient also from an
economical point of view, especially in the case of
design seismic event should be very long and the
structure will probably suffer many strong earthquakes
during its life time. Seismic isolation appears to be
the most appropriate solution, which allows the seis-
mic behavior of the Hospital Building to comply the
provisions of the Italian code.
The key objective of paper is to present the
retrofitting by base isolation of a hospital building in
Avellino which will ensure cost-effectiveness of the
construction works and high reliability of the structure.
2 ASSESSMENT OF EXISTING BUILDING
2.1 General description
The case study is a 5-storey hospital building com-
posed of 3 framed reinforced concrete moment resist-
ing frame structures (Figures 1, 2) The building is
located in the new hospital campus of Avellino in
Campania (Italy) and was designed after the Irpino-
Lucano earthquake of 1980 according to the old Italian
Code. The construction was never completed, and
only the structural members were realized accord-
ing to the design seismic actions of the old Italian
Code. However, the evolution of seismic codes in
Italy after the recent Italian earthquakes produced a
general increase of the design seismic actions. As a
consequence, the seismic retrofitting of the existing
structures was required.
2.2 Material survey
Both destructive and non-destructive testing meth-
ods were used for the building diagnosis-state. In

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Table 1. Elastic response spectra, in terms of horizontal
acceleration for the Limit State SLO, SLD, SLV, SLC.

Parameter SLO SLD SLV SLC

Probability of excedence PVR 0.81 0.63 0.10 0.05

Return Period TR (years) 120 201 1898 2475
Peak ground acceleration ag /g 0.109 0.139 0.318 0.345
Amplification factor Fo 2.346 2.350 2.470 2.489
Transition Period TC (sec) 0.336 0.350 0.398 0.406

Table 2. Dynamic properties of structure A.

Figure 1. View of the Hospital building in Avellino. Sa/g Sa/g Sa/g Sa/g αX αY
N. Period SLO SLD SLV SLC (%) (%)

1 0.605 0.233 0.308 0.238 0.802 75.99 0.89

2 0.574 0.246 0.324 0.251 0.846 1.69 72.27
3 0.496 0.285 0.375 0.273 0.907 1.31 6.10
4 0.181 0.307 0.392 0.273 0.907 10.63 0.16
5 0.174 0.307 0.392 0.274 0.894 0.27 10.16

Table 3. Dynamic properties of structure B.

Figure 2. Model of the three existing structures (A,B,C). Sa/g Sa/g Sa/g Sa/g αX αY
N. Period SLO SLD SLV SLC (%) (%)
particular, 12 monotonic compressive tests on cylin-
1 0.555 0.254 0.335 0.259 0.874 0.04 76.22
drical specimens, 18 tensile test on steel rebars, 46 2 0.530 0.266 0.351 0.272 0.907 71.16 0.08
ultrasonic tests combined with Schmidt rebound ham- 3 0.467 0.302 0.392 0.273 0.907 5.42 0.07
mer tests, radiographic tests. The compressive strength 4 0.170 0.307 0.392 0.276 0.882 0.00 11.52
was estimated by the combined Sonreb method. The 5 0.165 0.307 0.392 0.278 0.866 10.65 0.00
mean value of the compressive cylindrical strength of
concrete is fcm = 38.5 MPa. The mean value of tensile
strength of steel rebars is fym = 563 MPa. Geological Table 4. Dynamic properties of structure C.
and geotechnical tests were carried out to evaluate the
soil profile and to determine the ground type according Sa/g Sa/g Sa/g Sa/g αX αY
to Eurocode 8 (2003) and Italian Code (2008). In par- N. Period SLO SLD SLV SLC (%) (%)
ticular, the following in-sìtu tests were performed: N.6
soil profile test, N.5 Standard Penetration Tests (SPT) 1 0.512 0.275 0.363 0.273 0.907 14.91 49.49
2 0.506 0.279 0.368 0.273 0.907 61.55 13.41
and N.1 Down-hole Test which determines soil stiff-
3 0.431 0.307 0.392 0.273 0.907 0.19 14.16
ness properties by analyzing direct compression and 4 0.162 0.307 0.392 0.277 0.870 3.22 5.89
shear waves along a borehole down to 30 m. According 5 0.164 0.307 0.392 0.278 0.863 7.26 2.99
to results the soil shall be classified as Type B.

2.3 Structural modeling and seismic hazard
A necessary activity that must precede the seismic
rehabilitation program is the assessment of the seis-
mic vulnerability and identification of the specific
deficiencies of the existing building. The vulnerabil-
ity evaluation, for what concerns in particular seismic
action, performance levels and mechanical properties
of materials, was performed according to new Ital-
ian Seismic Code (2008). Four performance levels
are considered in this code for existing structures:
Operational Limit State (SLO), Damage Limit State
(SLD), Life Safety Limit State (SLV), Collapse Pre-
vention Limit State (SLC). The parameters of the
elastic response spectra are reported in Table 1. In
Tables 2–4 the natural periods, the spectral horizontal
accelerations at the different limit states, and the modal
mass ratios αX and αY are evidenced. The building
is composed of 3 structures with first natural peri-
ods in the range [0.506 s, 0.605 s]. A nonlinear model
based on concentrated plasticity (coupled PMM hinge
model) was implemented in a finite element com-
puter program (SAP2000).A bilinear moment-rotation
curve was considered for the elastic hinges. The yield-
ing, the ultimate bending moment and the ultimate
hinge rotation were characterized according to Italian
Code Provisions.
2.4 Seismic risk assessment
The evaluation of seismic risk for the three struc-
tures of the hospital building was carried out with
pushover analysis. The validity and applicability of
this nonlinear static procedure have been extensively

836
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 3. Capacity spectra – Structures A, B, C. X and Y Directions.
studied in literature. Different Nonlinear Static Proce-
dures (NSPs) based on the Capacity Spectrum Method
(CSM) or on the Coefficient Method (CM) have been
introduced in pre-standards reports and guidelines
(Eurocode 8, ATC-40, Italian Ordinance 3274; Italian
Code 2008, FEMA-440, ATC-55). In this paper, the
structure is pushed statically to a target displacement
at the control node to check for the acceptable struc-
tural performance. Different height-wise distributions
of lateral loads are usually considered. In fact, the shear
forces vs. story drift relationship may be very sensitive
to the applied load pattern. In this paper, according to
the Italian Code, two different distributions of lateral
load are applied:
1) Fundamental Mode Distribution (FMD): the ver-
tical distribution is proportional to the floor masses and
the fundamental mode shape; 2) Uniform Distribution
(UD) the lateral load distribution is proportional to
the floor masses. An accidental eccentricity of 5 per
cent of planar dimensions is considered in the analysis.
The target displacement is determined from the elas-
tic demand response spectrum and the capacity curve
according to the procedure reported inAnnex B of EC8
and in Italian Code. The procedure is based on an ide-
alized elasto-perfectly plastic force-displacement rela-
tionship and on an equivalent linearization. Pushover
analysis (Figure 3) gives the target displacements at the
limit states SLO, SLD and SLV and the values of the
peak ground acceleration (PGAcSLO ; PGAcSLD ; PGAcSLV )
that represents the actual capacity of the structure. The
peak ground acceleration to be attained for a particular
limit state (PGAdSLO ; PGAdSLD ; PGAdSLV ) represents the
seismic demand. Finally, the risk indices are defined
by the following demand/capacity quotients:
In Table 5 are reported the minimum values of peak
ground motion acceleration at which the capacity of
the structure for the different limit states is attained. In
the same table also the minimum value of the risk index
are reported. The results obtained show that many ver-
ifications, both for the damage limit state and for the
life safety limit state, are not satisfied.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 5. Peak ground acceleration and risk index.
c c c
Str. PGASLO PGASLD PGASLV αSLO αSLD αSLV
A 0.087 0.161 0.188 0.820 1.157 0.550
B 0.084 0.149 0.345 0.775 1.068 1.085
C 0.087 0.135 0.190 0.822 0.971 0.598
3 SEISMIC RETROFIT
3.1 Base isolation
The level of protection of the structure and the selec-
tion of the retrofit system are the important decisions in
the design process. The preliminary evaluation of the
existing structures reveals the unsatisfactory seismic
behaviour depending on the insufficient lateral capac-
ity and limited ductility, especially for the structures
A and C. To provide the basis for the design deci-
sions, it is necessary to evaluate the effect of various
retrofit systems on structural performance, to quantify
the upgrade to the seismic performance and to select
a cost effective rehabilitation methodology. The reha-
bilitation strategy must improve the seismic behaviour
of the structures. This objective may be pursued by:
1) increasing the ductility of columns, beams and
joints; 2) reducing the seismic stresses in the existing
frames by providing supplemental vertical-resisting
elements; 3) changing the system to a shear wall sys-
tem by infilling the reinforced concrete frames. Since
spectral displacements generally decrease with natural
frequency, the increase in stiffness was a very popular
approach in the past. However, as stiffness increases
also the strength increases leading to larger mech-
anism forces in non-ductile members, foundations
and connectors. Furthermore, the increase of stiff-
ness may change the nonlinear response and produce a
period shortening that increases the seismic demand.
As a consequence, the strategies based on increase of
capacity may have problems of convergence.
Attempting to make existing building comply with
the current code provisions may be economically
prohibitive. The use of base-isolation is an efficient
solution to reduce the seismic response of the struc-
tures without increasing their global stiffness. The
 Figure 4. Plan view and section view of the Hospital Building in Avellino (Italy).

Table 7. Dynamic properties of isolated structure.

Sa/g Sa/g Sa/g Sa/g αX αY

N. Period ξ SLO SLD SLV SLC (%) (%)

1 3.020 15 0.032 0.044 0.100 0.112 0.00 99.98

2 3.014 15 0.032 0.044 0.100 0.112 99.99 0.00
3 2.265 5 0.056 0.078 0.198 0.214 0.00 0.01
4 0.397 5 0.307 0.392 0.853 0.907 0.00 0.00
5 0.394 5 0.307 0.392 0.853 0.907 0.00 0.00
Figure 5. Plan view of the isolation system. 6 0.355 5 0.307 0.392 0.853 0.907 0.00 0.00

Table 6. Properties of the isolation devices.

Horiz. Vertical Vertical Shape Shape 3.2 Rehabilitation of structural members

Diam. Stiff. Stiff. Load (SLU) Factor Factor
(mm) (kN/mm) (kN/mm) (kN) S1 S2
The basis idea for seismic isolation of the building is
to reduce the seismic forces by a suitable selection
650 0.74 854 6260 17.5 3.50 of the vibration period of the structure. As a con-
800 1.12 1506 13280 19.5 4.33 sequence, only a very limited number of structural
members required strengthening interventions. The
rehabilitation strategy included the increase of strength
decoupling from the horizontal components of the capacity of the columns of the first floor and of some
ground motion is obtained by creating a horizon- beams in elevation (Figures 6,7). Concrete strength-
tal layer with high horizontal flexibility between the ening is realized through jacketing existing columns
superstructure and the foundation. The retrofit is reali- with added confining cover concrete, steel bars and
zed connecting the first floor of the three structures to stirrups and through “beton plaqué” for the beams.
have one only isolation plane. The isolation system is Removal of cover concrete for modification of exist-
composed of 25 High Damping Rubber bearings (16 ing reinforcement details should avoid damage to core
FIP SI-S 800/180 and 9 FIP SI-S 650/180 with design concrete and the bond between existing reinforcement
displacement of 350 mm) and sliding devices.Tables 6, and core concrete.
7 provides the geometrical and mechanical properties In Figure 7 some of the installation phases of seis-
of the devices and the dynamic properties of isolated mic isolation devices are shown. The columns will
structure. be temporarily propped on two hydraulic jacks, the

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 6. Strengthening of structural members.

Figure 7. Strengthening of structural members. Installation of the rubber isolation devices (courtesy of FIP group).

sections of columns will be cut out at this level and

rubber bearings will then be inserted.

4 SEISMIC RESPONSE OF ISOLATED

HOSPITAL BUILDING

The base-isolated hospital building was modeled with

a Fiber PMM hinge model implemented in SAP 2000
computer program (Fig. 8).
The Fiber PMM hinge model is a multi-axial spring
model that is used for reproducing the behaviour
of flexural and axial deformation of column ele-
ment and for representing the interaction among bi-
directional bending moments and axial load. A set of
10 accelerograms typical of strong ground motions Figure 8. Structural model of the isolated structure.
recorded in soil sites type B were used in the analyses
(Figure 9, Table 8). The earthquakes were scaled to time-histories for the earthquake ground motion in
the peak ground acceleration for the Collapse Limit Y Direction that give the maximum responses are
State PGASLC = 0.36 g. In Figures 10, 11, 12 the reported. In particular, both Linear Dynamic Analysis
top-floor acceleration, displacement and drift ratio (LDA) and Non linear Dynamic Analysis (NDA) are

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 12. Drift Ratio time-history (storey 1–2) – Y
Direction.

Figure 9. Response spectra of the earthquake ground 0.0829% that is only 16.6% of limit value of inter-
motions and comparison with SLC elastic response spectra. storey drift for buildings having non-structural ele-
ments of brittle materials (drift 0.5% for the Damage
Table 8. Parameters of the earthquake ground motions. Limit State).

N. Input Date Dir. tR (s) IA

5 CONCLUSIONS
181X Boshroyeh 16.09.78 EW 34.96 3.40
293X Rionero in Vulture 23.11.80 EW 83.92 8.50 The paper deals on a significant retrofit project cur-
302Y Lauria 23.11.80 NS 19.58 2.36 rently under construction of an existing hospital build-
335Y Korinthos 25.02.81 NS 28.62 2.00 ing in Avellino (Italy). At first, preliminary assessment
353Y Balikesir 05.07.83 NS 9.17 2.28
477X Tehran 20.06.90 EW 9.91 1.72
of the seismic vulnerability and identification of the
477Y Tehran 20.06.90 NS 9.91 2.36 specific deficiencies of the existing building was car-
480Y Tonekabun 20.06.90 NS 5.44 4.06 ried out. The seismic risk assessment evidenced some
499Y Akhalkalaki 29.04.91 NS 47.09 4.56 deficiencies especially for the Operationally Limit
536X Tercan 13.03.92 EW 21.87 2.89 State and for the Life Safety Limit State. The seis-
mic isolation with rubber isolation bearings and sliding
devices proved to be effective in reducing the seismic
forces and in limiting the rehabilitation interventions
required for the structural members. Finally, the seis-
mic performance of the isolated structure was carried
out using non linear dynamic analysis. The results
obtained showed the effectiveness of isolation system
to guarantee the limitation of acceleration and inter-
storey drift and so to ensure that hospital facilities
would remain operational after very strong earthquake
ground motions.
Figure 10. Top-floor acceleration time-history.

REFERENCES
Italian Code. 2008. D.M. 14.01.08. G.U. No.9 – 04.02.08.
CEN. 2003. Eurocode 8. Design of structures for earthquake
resistance. European Committee for Standardization.
Kelly, T. E. 2001. Base Isolation of Structures: Design Guide-
lines, Holmes Consulting Group Ltd., Wellington, New
Zealand.
Malangone, P. & Ferraioli, M. 1998. A modal procedure for
seismic analysis of non-linear base-isolated multistorey
Figure 11. First-floor displacement time-history. structures, Earthquake Engng. Struct. Dyn. 27, 397–412.
Skinner, R.I. & Robinson, W.H. & McVerry, G.H. 1993. An
carried out. The results evidenced the great reduction Introduction to Seismic Isolation, John Wiley & Sons Ltd,
of the acceleration response produced by seismic isola- Chichester, West Sussex, UK.
tion. Furthermore, a great reduction of the interstorey
drift also for the Collapse Limit State is observed.
In particular, the maximum interstorey drift ratio is

840
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Base isolation seismic retrofit of a hospital building in Italy: Performance

under earthquake strong ground motions

M. Ferraioli, R. Costanzo & A. Lavino

Department of Civil Engineering, Second University of Naples, Aversa (Caserta), Italy

ABSTRACT: The objective of this study is to evaluate the seismic performance of a base-isolated hospital
building during earthquake strong ground motions. The case study is an existing RC building built in 80’s in
the new hospital campus of Avellino and actually subjected to rehabilitation of structural members and seismic
retrofit using base isolation. A nonlinear analytical model of the hospital building is developed and applied for the
seismic performance assessment of the structure. As an alternative to direct integration, the non linear dynamic
analysis is carried out with the Fast Nonlinear Analysis Method. Finally, both the possibility of poundings and
inelastic torsional effects during strong ground motions were investigated.

1 INTRODUCTION the New Italian Code. As a consequence, if the seismic

The paper reports on the results of the dynamic analysis
carried out on an existing hospital building currently
under retrofit construction in Avellino (Italy). The
original building is composed of three RC 5-story
framed structures designed and constructed in 80’s and
actually retrofitted using seismic isolation devices. In
particular, the isolation system was composed of high
damping rubber bearings (HDRB) and sliding devices.
The possibility of poundings during strong ground
motions was avoided by connecting the three RC struc-
tures at the first floor level. As a consequence, the
slenderness of the isolated building in plan is higher
than 4, and the building is categorized as being irreg-
ular in plan. For this reason the mechanical properties
of the isolation bearings were designed to give ade-
quate torsional resistance and stiffness in order to limit
the development of accidental torsional effects which
tend to stress the different structural elements in a non-
uniform way. In this case, a more accurate analysis
of the building’s inelastic seismic response may be
required. For the analysis of seismic isolated buildings
with an expected inelastic behaviour of the superstruc-
ture, two analysis methods are generally acceptable
today by the Code Provisions: the nonlinear response
history analysis (RHA); the non-linear Static Analy-
sis (Pushover). In particular, FEMA 356 accepts the
use of pushover in the analysis of base-isolated build-
ings. New U.S. building design Codes mainly use the
pushover method as a tool to check existing buildings,
while both Eurocode 8 and New Italian Code (2008)
does not mention non-linear static procedures for the
design of base-isolated buildings.
On the other side, the high damping rubber bearings
used for the seismic retrofit of the hospital building
of Avellino may be modeled with an equivalent lin-
ear viscoelastic model according to the provisions of
isolation is effective in reducing the seismic forces and
in avoiding the yielding of the superstructure, inelastic
behaviour may be neglected and Linear DynamicAnal-
ysis (LDA) may be used for the seismic performance
assessment.
2 CASE STUDY: RETROFIT OF A HOSPITAL
BUILDING IN AVELLINO (ITALY)
2.1 General description
The case study is a 5-storey hospital building com-
posed of 3 framed reinforced concrete moment resist-
ing frame structures (Figure 1). The building is located
in the new hospital campus of Avellino in Campa-
nia (Italy) and was designed after the Irpinia-Lucania
earthquake of 1980. The construction was never com-
pleted, and only the structural members were realized
according to the design seismic actions of the Old Ital-
ian Code. However, the evolution of seismic codes in
Italy after the recent Italian earthquakes produced a
general increase of the design seismic actions. The
retrofit design of the existing structure was reali-
zed reducing the seismic demand by base isolation.
In particular, one only isolation plane was realized
connecting the first floor of the three structures.
The decoupling from the horizontal components of
the ground motion is obtained by creating a horizon-
tal layer with high horizontal flexibility between the
superstructure and the foundation. In particular, this
layer is created gradually cutting the columns situated
in the underground floor, and installing the isolators at
the level of upper edge of these columns. The isolation
system is composed of 25 High Damping Rubber bear-
ings (16 FIP SI-S 800/180 and 9 FIP SI-S 650/180 with
design displacement of 350 mm) and sliding devices
FIP vasoflon. Table 1 provides the geometrical and

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 1. View of the Hospital building in Avellino – Vertical section – Structural Model – Plan view of the isolation plane.

Table 1. Properties of the isolation devices. alternative to direct integration, the non linear dynamic
analysis is carried out with the FNA method (Fast
Horiz. Vertical Vertical Shape Shape Nonlinear Analysis). The computational speed of FNA
Diam. Stiff. Stiff. Load (SLU) Factor Factor method is very high if compared with the traditional
(mm) (kN/mm) (kN/mm) (kN) S1 S2
method of nonlinear analysis in which the complete
equilibrium equations are formed and solved at each
650 0.74 854 6260 17.5 3.50
800 1.12 1506 13280 19.5 4.33 increment of load. The equations of motion of non-
linear base-isolated multi-storey structures subjected
to earthquake ground motion may be written in the
form:
Table 2. Dynamic properties of isolated structure.

Sa/g Sa/g Sa/g Sa/g αX αY

N. Period ξ SLO SLD SLV SLC (%) (%)
where M , C, and K are the mass, damping and stiffness
matrices, respectively; u(t) is the displacement vector;
1 3.020 15 0.032 0.044 0.100 0.112 0.00 99.98
2 3.014 15 0.032 0.044 0.100 0.112 99.99 0.00
R(s,t) is the vector of imposed dynamic loading which
3 2.265 5 0.056 0.078 0.198 0.214 0.00 0.01 is a function of space and time; Rnl (t) is the vector of
4 0.397 5 0.307 0.392 0.853 0.907 0.00 0.00 non linear contribution computed by iteration at each
5 0.394 5 0.307 0.392 0.853 0.907 0.00 0.00 step of integration. In the case of base isolated struc-
6 0.355 5 0.307 0.392 0.853 0.907 0.00 0.00 tures it is necessary to add effective elastic elements at
the location of the nonlinear elements to avoid model
instability. The equations of motion become:
mechanical properties of the devices used for the seis-
mic retrofit. In Table 2 the natural periods and the
modal mass ratios αX and αY of the isolated structure
are reported. Furthermore, the design spectral accel- where K e is the effective stiffness of arbitrary value.
erations at the different limit states (Operational Limit Therefore, the dynamic equilibrium equations for the
State – SLO, Damage Limit State – SLD, Life Safety nonlinear model may be written as follows:
Limit State – SLV, Collapse Prevention Limit State –
SLC) are shown.

where K̄ is the total elastic stiffness matrix, and R̄(s, t)

3 FAST NON LINEAR DYNAMIC ANALYSIS
The isolated structure has very a limited number
of points in which nonlinear behavior takes place
when subjected to seismic loading. In this case, as an
is the effective external load vector which must be
evaluated with an iterative procedure.
As an alternative to direct integration, the formally
linearized system of Equation 1 may be solved by the
transformation based on the Ritz vectors. In fact, it was

842
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
demonstrated that dynamic analyses based on a unique
set of Ritz vectors give more accurate results than the
use of the same number of exact mode shapes. The rea-
son is that the Ritz vectors are generated by taking into
account the spatial distribution of the dynamic load-
ing, whereas the traditional exact mode shapes neglect
this information.
The vector of nodal displacement u(t) can be
approximated by a linear combination of r indepen-
dent Ritz vectors (with r much less than the number n
of degrees of freedom of the system) as follows:
where X i are the linearly independent basis vector and
Yi (t) are unknown parameters obtained by solving the
following reduced system of equations:
In Equation 5, M ∗ = X T MX , C ∗ = X T CX and
∗
K = X T K X are the mass, damping and stiffness
matrices which are reduced in size (r x r), while main-
taining a good accuracy for the response quantities of
∗
interest. R (s, t) = X T ·R(s, t) is effective external load
vector transformed in the Ritz base vectors.
The lack of generality of Rayleigh-Ritz method is
due to the difficulties in choosing appropriate global
functions that will ensure a high degree of accuracy
of FNA. Wilson (1985) developed a simple numerical
algorithm to automatically generate a special class of
Ritz vectors that produced results of better accuracy
than the traditional eigenvector approach. The Ritz
vectors are generated taking into account the spatial
distribution r(s) of the dynamic loading given by the
following decomposition:
In particular, the first Ritz vector is the displacement
vector obtained from a static analysis using the spatial
distribution r(s) of the effective external load vec-
tor as input. The other vectors are generated from a
recurrence relationship in which the mass matrix is
multiplied by the last Ritz vector and the resulting
vector is then used as the load for a static solution.
The set of N orthogonal Load Dependent Ritz
vectors satisfies the following equations:
where I is a unit matrix and 2 is a diagonal matrix
in which the diagonal terms are defined as ω2 . As a
consequence, Equation 5 may be written as follows:
The assumption that the damping matrix can be diag-
onalized (Classical Damping) finally gives the modal
equation:
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
where the modal load R̄∗i (s, t) is a function of all other
modal responses. Therefore, the modal equations must
be integrated simultaneously and iteration is necessary
to solve all modal equations.
4 NON LINEAR SEISMIC RESPONSE OF BASE
ISOLATED BUILDING
4.1 Non linear modeling
The framed 5-storey base-isolated hospital building
was modeled with a Fiber PMM hinge model imple-
mented in SAP 2000 computer program (2010). The
Fiber PMM hinge model is a multi-axial spring model
that is used for reproducing the behaviour of flexural
and axial deformation of column element and for rep-
resenting the interaction among bi-directional bending
moments and axial load. The Fiber PMM hinge model
is more natural than the Coupled PMM hinge model
since it automatically accounts for interaction, chang-
ing moment-rotation curve, and plastic axial strain.
However, it is more computationally expensive. The
length of plastic hinge was calculated with the Italian
Code formula (2008). The beam-column joint is rep-
resented as a rigid zone having horizontal dimensions
equal to the column cross-sectional dimensions and
vertical dimension equal to the beam depth. A fiber
element uniaxial model for confined concrete is used.
Each fiber of the cross section is modeled with the non-
linear stress-strain relationship of the material it was
made: confined concrete for the core, unconfined con-
crete for the cover, and steel for the longitudinal bars.
Steel was modeled with an elastic-plastic-hardening
relationship. The confined concrete was modeled with
stress-strain relationships incorporating the relevant
parameters of confinement (section geometry, con-
crete strength, type and arrangement of transverse
reinforcement, its volumetric ratio, spacing and yield
strength). The hysteretic restoring force of the isolation
device is approximated by the following expressions
(Figures 2,3):
where the dimensionless hysteretic displacement z(t)
satisfies the following differential equation:
In Equations 10,11 α is the post to pre yielding stiffness
ratio, Fy and Dy are the yielding force and displace-
ment, η is a parameter governing the transition from
elastic to plastic response, θ and γ/β = ψ control the
loading and unloading phases. The hysteresis curves
of the isolation devices model under quasi-static cyclic
load are reported in Figures 2,3.
 Table 3. Parameters of the earthquake ground motions.

N. Input Date Dir. tR (s) IA

181X Boshroyeh 16.09.78 EW 34.96 3.40

293X Rionero in 23.11.80 EW 83.92 8.50
Vulture
302Y Lauria 23.11.80 NS 19.58 2.36
335Y Korinthos 25.02.81 NS 28.62 2.00
353Y Balikesir 05.07.83 NS 9.17 2.28
477X Tehran 20.06.90 EW 9.91 1.72
M477Y Tehran 20.06.90 NS 9.91 2.36
480Y Tonekabun 20.06.90 NS 35.44 4.06
499Y Akhalkalaki 29.04.91 NS 47.09 4.56
Figure 2. Hysteresis curve. Isolation device FIP SI-S 536X Tercan 13.03.92 EW 21.87 2.89
650/180.

Figure 3. Hysteresis curve. Isolation device FIP SI-S

800/180.
Figure 4. Frequency Response spectra.

4.2 Direct integration and Fast Non linear

Dynamic Analysis
The effectiveness of Fast Non linear Dynamic Anal-
ysis (FNA) was evaluated by comparison with direct
integration of the equations of motion. At this aim, a
set of 10 accelerograms recorded in soil sites type B
were selected to be consistent with elastic response
spectrum for the Collapse Limit State (SLC). In par-
ticular, the consistence with the spectral acceleration
corresponding to the fundamental period of the iso-
lated building was controlled. The earthquakes were Figure 5. Top-floor acceleration time-history –Y Direction.
scaled to the peak ground acceleration for the Collapse
Limit State PGASLC = 0.36 g (Table 3). In Figure 4 the
frequency response spectra of the earthquake ground
motions compared to the natural frequency of the
isolated structure are shown.
In Figures 5,6 the top-floor acceleration and dis-
placement time-histories for the Lauria earthquake
ground motion in Y-Direction are reported. In particu-
lar, the results from Fast Non linear Dynamic Analysis
(FNA) are compared to nonlinear response history
analysis (RHA) and to linear dynamic analysis (LDA)
carried out with an equivalent viscoelastic model for
the isolation devices. The results evidenced a good Figure 6. Top-floor displacement time-history – Y
Direction.
correlation between FNA and RHA, while LDA may
give very different responses. In Figure 7 the compar-
ison of drift profiles envelope obtained from FNA and is 0.0829%, that is only 16.6% of limit value (0.5% for
LDA for the Collapse Limit State is shown. The results the SLD). Furthermore, LDA may underestimate the
obtained evidenced a great reduction of the interstorey drift ratio (maximum error around 40%) if compared
drift. In particular, the maximum interstorey drift ratio to FNA.

844
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 8. Pattern of peak lateral displacements along the
Y-direction – Fast non linear dynamic analysis.

Figure 7. Comparison of drift profiles envelope.

4.3 Torsional seismic response for in-plan

irregular superstructures
The design of the base-isolation system is controlled
by the earthquake-induced deformations of the isola-
tors, which are affected by asymmetry of the building
plan due to torsion. In order to deal with torsional Figure 9. Pattern of peak lateral displacements along the
effects modern codes have placed restrictions on the Y-direction – Linear dynamic analysis.
design of buildings with irregular layouts. Further-
more, to account for the additional deformation due to
torsion, they generally includes an amplification factor
in the equation for design displacement. As an alterna-
tive, some codes such as the New Italian Code (2008)
introduced the so-called accidental design eccentricity
to be used to displace the mass in every floor also
in the case of fully symmetric buildings. However,
isolation systems are strongly non-linear. Further-
more, the effectiveness of torsionally coupled base
isolation is less than that of the corresponding symmet-
ric system, especially for reducing the superstructure
displacement perpendicular to the direction of eccen- Figure 10. Pattern of Root Mean Square error between
tricity. Effectiveness of base isolation is reduced for Linear Dynamic Analysis and Fast Non linear Dynamic
higher eccentricity of the superstructure. However, the Analysis.
eccentricity of the superstructure does not have any
significant influence on base displacements. On the is the isolation system eccentricity between the cen-
contrary, the eccentricity of the center of mass on the ter of stiffness of the isolation system and the center
isolation plane may increase the lateral displacement of mass of the structure. In order to deal with tor-
of the isolation devices. Although the magnitude of sional effects, an accidental eccentricity is used to
shear and torque generated in an elastomeric isolated displace the mass in every floor. In particular, the
structure is less than that of the fixed-base structure, in centre of mass CM is shifted creating an eccentric-
general the torsional amplifications cannot be ignored. ity e/L =+ 0.05 and e/L =− 0.05. In Figures 8,9 the
In particular, torsion leads to significantly increased envelope of the patterns of peak lateral displacements
isolator deformations especially if large rotations and along the Y-direction are reported. In particular, Fig-
large lateral deformations at the center of mass occur ure 8 is referred to FNA while Figure 9 is referred
at or very near the same time during the earthquake. to LDA. Finally, in Figure 10 the pattern of the error
The objective of this investigation is to estimate the between FNA and LDA and the Root Mean Square
inelastic torsional response of the building. At this Error Percentage (RMSEP) is reported.
aim, the Fast non linear dynamic analysis was used
since this method proved to give accurate and efficient
approximations to the solutions obtained with RHA
4.4 Poundings of superstructures
in the case of structures with concentrated plasticity
such a base isolated structures. The main source of Past earthquakes have revealed detrimental effects of
torsionally motions in elastomeric isolated structures pounding on the seismic performance of buildings,

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 11. Pattern of peak relative X-displacement in
seismic joint between structures A and B. Earthquake in
X-Direction.
Figure 12. Pattern of peak relative X-displacement in
seismic joint between structure B and C. Earthquake in
X-Direction.
Figure 13. Pattern of peak relative X-displacement in
seismic joint between structure A and B. Earthquake in
Y-Direction.
ranging from light local damage to more severe struc-
tural failure. The case study is composed of three
different structures which are connected only at the
first floor to realize one only isolation plane, but are
separated by seismic joints in elevation. This paper
investigates, through numerical simulations, the pos-
sibility of poundings between superstructure due to the
irregularity in plan. At this aim, the disposition of live
loads is selected to maximize the torsional effects both
in X and Y directions. In Figures 11–14 the patterns of
peak relative X-displacement in seismic joint between
structures A and B (Figures 11,13) and between struc-
tures B and C (Figure 12,14) are reported. The analyses
are carried out with Fast non linear dynamic analy-
sis in X-direction (Figures 11,12) and in Y-direction
(Figures 13,14).
The maximum relative displacement (2.32 mm) is
very low if compared to the gap between the adjacent
superstructures (3 cm).
846
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 14. Pattern of peak relative X-displacement in
seismic joint between structure B and C. Earthquake in
Y-Direction.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The seismic performance assessment of an irregular
in-plane hospital building retrofitted using base isola-
tion devices under earthquake strong ground motions
is presented. The Fast non linear dynamic analysis
proved to give accurate and efficient approximations
to the solutions obtained with direct integration of
the equations of motion. On the contrary, the linear
dynamic analysis generally overestimates the inelastic
torsional response of the building, with a very high
error percentage.
Finally, the possibility of poundings between super-
structures due to the irregularity in plan may be
neglected, also in the presence of very short seismic
joint gap, since the peak interstorey drifts for isolated
structure is very low.
REFERENCES
Cardone, D. & Palermo, G. & Dolce, M. 2009. Direct
Displacement-Based Design of Buildings with Dif-
ferent Seismic Isolation Systems. Journal of Earth.
Engin.14:163–191.
Leger, P. & Wilson, E. L. & Clough, R.W. 1986. The Use
of Load Dependent Vectors for Dynamic and Earthquake
Analyses. Report UCB/EERC-86/04. Berkeley University.
Malangone, P. & Ferraioli, M. 1998. A modal procedure for
seismic analysis of non-linear base-isolated multistorey
structures, Earthquake Engng. Struct. Dyn. 27: 397–412.
Kelly, T. E. 2001. Base Isolation of Structures: Design
Guidelines. Holmes Consulting Group Ltd. New Zealand.
Skinner, R. I. & Robinson, W.H. & McVerry, G.H. 1993. An
Introduction to Seismic Isolation. John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Chichester. West Sussex. UK.
Tena-Colunga, A. & Gomez-Soberon L. 2002. Torsional
response of base-isolated structures due to asymme-
tries in the superstructure. Engineering Structures. 24:
1587–1599.
Ryan K.L. & Chopra, A.K. 2004. Estimation of seismic
demands on isolators in asymmetric buildings using non-
linear analysis, Earth. Engng Struct. Dyn. 33:395–418
Wilson, E.L., 1985. A new method of dynamic analysis for
linear and nonlinear systems. Finite Elements in Analysis
and Design. 21–23.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Numerical investigation of old RC frames strengthened against

earthquakes by high dissipation steel link elements

K.A. Georgiadi-Stefanidi & E. Mistakidis

Laboratory of Structural Analysis and Design, Department of Civil Engineering,
University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece

ABSTRACT: The use of dissipative steel link elements for the seismic strengthening of existing reinforced
concrete (R/C) frames, which have been designed according to older regulations, can provide additional strength
and stiffness but mainly, high energy dissipation capacity. The aim of this work is the numerical investigation
of the effectiveness of these dissipative steel elements, as well as the understanding of the overall behaviour of
the strengthened reinforced concrete frames. The numerical models are based on tests executed in the Aristotle
University of Thessaloniki and presented in the previous paper of the same volume. All the specimens were
designed following the regulations and construction practice of the period before 1980. The first specimen
is a typical one bay, single storey R/C frame, while the two other specimens are identical to the first one,
but strengthened by two different types of dissipative steel elements. The aforementioned concrete frames are
accurately simulated numerically and the results are compared with the respective experimental ones.

1 INTRODUCTION tool for the solution of many engineering problems,

A significant number of existing reinforced concrete
buildings with pilotis (soft floor) in Greece and other
countries are relatively old. These structures have been
designed and built according to a previous genera-
tion of codes. On the other hand, modern seismic
design codes have incorporated the knowledge gained
by recent research results and by studying the per-
formance of structures in earthquakes that happened
during the last 30 years. Therefore, it is possible that
this specific category of buildings lack sufficient lon-
gitudinal and transverse reinforcement. Moreover, the
structural materials may be of low quality or may
exhibit degradation of their mechanical properties due
to environmental factors or aging. Therefore, these
structures may present weaknesses as far as ductility,
strength and stiffness are concerned. Strengthening of
this type of structural members is essential for avoid-
ing damages and loss of life from earthquakes and
it can provide a solution against the aforementioned
deficiencies.
The use of dissipative steel link elements for the
seismic strengthening of existing RC frames, can pro-
vide additional strength and stiffness but mainly, high
energy dissipation capacity. The aim of this work is the
numerical investigation of the effectiveness of these
dissipative steel elements, as well as the understand-
ing of the overall behaviour of the strengthened RC
frames.
The simulation with the finite element method has
become, in recent years, a really useful and powerful
which allows the reduction of the required number
of experiments (Abdollahi 1996). However, for the
complete investigation of the response of any struc-
tural system, experimental testing is essential, as every
numerical model should be based on and verified
by reliable test results. Therefore, experimental and
numerical analyses can complement each other in the
investigation of a particular phenomenon (Nethercot
2002, Queiroz et al. 2006, Rabczuk et al. 2004, Wang
et al. 2008, Maheri & Ghaffarzadeh 2008).
The numerical models presented in this work are
based on the tests executed in the Aristotle Uni-
versity of Thessaloniki, which are presented in the
paper ‘Experimental investigation of old R/C frames
strengthened against earthquakes by high dissipation
steel link elements’ by Karalis et al., included in the
same volume.
The first specimen studied is a typical one bay,
single storey RC frame (F1), while the two other spec-
imens are identical to the first one, but strengthened
by two different types of dissipative steel elements
(F2, F3). The aforementioned concrete frames are sim-
ulated numerically, taking into consideration all the
critical nonlinearities such as the cracking of concrete,
the yielding of the steel reinforcement and the yielding
of the dissipative steel element. The numerical results
are then compared with the respective experimental
ones. After the verification of the simulation models
according to the experimental results, it will be pos-
sible to perform reliable “numerical tests” in order to
investigate the effects of several parameters.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 1. The two-dimensional model of the strengthened
RC frame and detail of the steel link element.

2 TYPES OF RC FRAMES STUDIED

2.1 Geometry and configurations

The geometric characteristics of the typical one bay,
single storey RC frame are shown in (Karalis et al, Figure 2. Stress-strain relationships considered in this work
2010: Fig. 1). It is built with the purpose of simulat- for a) concrete and b) all the steel elements of the model.
ing a prototype with a scale of 1:3. The frames were
constructed following the standards of older regula-
tions. Smooth steel rebars and low strength concrete
were used. The stirrups are sparsely spaced and, in
general, the detailing level does not meet the modern
requirements. The geometric characteristics of the two
strengthened RC frames under study are identical to
the bare RC frame. Two different types of dissipative
steel link elements are used for the strengthening. The
different geometries of these two link elements are pre-
sented in (Karalis et al, 2010: Fig. 3). The first steel
element is actually a rectangular plate having cross sec-
tion height d = 70 mm, thickness t = 6 mm and length
l = 100 mm. The second one has a symmetrical I cross-
section with total section height d = 60 mm, flange
width b = 30 mm, flange and web thickness t = 6 mm,
and length l = 100 mm. These steel link elements are Figure 3. Comparison of the numerical and experimental
connected to the frame through two steel braces of results of the F1 bare frame.
high stiffness and strength so that they can be consid-
ered as rigid during the loading procedure, as shown in
(Karalis et al., 2010: Fig. 2). Due to this configuration
2.2 Materials
and the specific way that the bracing system is con-
nected to the concrete columns, the plastic hinges that For the RC frames, a low strength concrete was used
are normally formed at the lower part of the columns, with a compressive strength of 16 MPa and a tensile
appear in this specific case at the upper part of the strength of 2.1 MPa. The steel rebars for the longitudi-
connection with the bracing system. For comparison nal reinforcement had a yield stress of 450 Mpa and an
reasons, the bare frame studied in this work is equipped ultimate stress of 540 MPa. The transverse reinforce-
with the two steel braces, although they are actually ment had a yield stress of 265 MPa and an ultimate
inactive. Therefore, the presence of the bracing sys- stress of 390 MPa. Moreover, the yield stress of the
tem induces the formation of the plastic hinges at the steel link elements was equal to 300 MPa and the
same location in all the studied specimens. ultimate stress equal to 375 MPa.

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3 NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF A 3D
PROBLEM THROUGH AN EFFICIENT
2D MODEL
The numerical simulation of the tested frames pre-
sented a lot of difficulties due to the complexity of the
system and the existence of various nonlinear phenom-
ena, such as cracking in the concrete and plastification
of the steel link elements. Moreover, several simula-
tion problems appeared while trying to formulate the
numerical models, which had to be solved efficiently.
Another source of numerical instability is connected to
the load application procedure as it will be explained
later.
3.1 Geometric and material properties
Generally, a three-dimensional model is expected to
be more realistic and reliable due to the nature of its
finite elements. However, it has the important dis-
advantage of its high computational cost. Therefore,
simpler two-dimensional models were formulated in
this paper, that were able to capture, in a rather accu-
rate manner, the overall behaviour of the problem at
hand (Georgiadi-Stefanidi et al. 2008). The simula-
tion model of the RC frame consists of various finite
element meshes, its components, which overlap, actu-
ally connected in the same nodes. For the numerical
models of the strengthened RC frames an additional
finite element mesh representing the link element is
connected to the F.E. mesh of the R/C frame. Two
types of finite elements are used, plane-stress and truss
elements. The plane-stress elements are used for the
simulation of the concrete and the steel link elements,
while the truss elements are used for the simulation
of the longitudinal and transverse reinforcement. The
numerical model of the type F3 strengthened frame
after the discretization is shown in Figure 1, together
with a detail of the discretized link element. For the
two-dimensional model, the properties of the problem
in the third direction (perpendicular to the modeling
plane), are taken into account by assigning different
thickness values to the respective finite elements.
More specifically, the elements representing the
concrete of the beam and columns were assigned a
thickness equal to the width of the member’s cross-
section, i.e. 100 mm and 150 mm for the beam and the
columns, respectively. These elements are equipped
with the stress-strain relationship depicted in Fig-
ure 2a, which exhibits an elastoplastic behaviour for
compressive loading and a cracking behaviour for ten-
sile loading.The slope of tensile strength after cracking
is modeled through a softening branch having a slope
ks = 108 MPa. The elasticity modulus for these ele-
ments is taken equal to 28.4 GPa and the Poisson’s
ratio ν = 0.16.
The finite elements representing the longitudinal
and transverse steel reinforcement bars are two-node,
constant cross-section truss elements, connected in the
same grid of nodes on which the plane-stress elements
are connected.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
The cross-sectional area of these elements was taken
equal to the total area of the corresponding longitudi-
nal and transverse reinforcing bars. The steel rebars
were assumed to behave elastoplastically with harden-
ing. A modulus of elasticity of 200 GPa and a Poisson’s
ratio ν = 0.20 were given. The stress-strain diagram for
the rebars is given in Figure 2b.
The dissipative steel elements are simulated through
a much denser mesh of plane-stress finite elements.
The dense discretization of the link elements was nec-
essary in order to simulate accurately their behaviour
which is dominant during the loading procedure. The
two F.E. meshes, the one corresponding to the R/C
frame and the one corresponding to the link element,
are connected through kinematical relationships, in
order to account for the fact that their nodes, in general,
do not coincide in their common boundary. For the case
of the first link with the rectangular cross-section, the
finite elements are assigned a thickness of 6 mm and
for the case of the second link with the I cross-section,
the elements representing its web are assigned a thick-
ness of 6 mm and those representing the flanges are
assigned a thickness of 30 mm. These elements are
equipped with the stress-strain relationship presented
in Figure 2b, which exhibits elastoplastic behaviour
with hardening. The elasticity modulus for these ele-
ments is taken equal to 210 GPa and the Poisson’s ratio
ν = 0.30.
Undoubtedly, cracking that occurs in the concrete
posed a serious obstacle in the numerical analysis.
Regions with two-dimensional elements tended to
detach from the finite element mesh because of the
excessive cracking strains, causing numerical insta-
bility and convergence failure of the Newton-Raphson
iterative numerical procedure. In order to handle this
phenomenon, another layer of finite elements, same
in nature to those representing concrete, was added
to the mesh. These “stabilizing” elements have very
low stiffness and strength, so that their influence on
the obtained results is negligible and are connected at
exactly the same position with the previous layer of
elements so that they have common nodes and thus,
common displacements.
3.2 Boundary conditions-applied load procedure
All the specimens (F1,F2,F3) were tested under cyclic
loading. The simulation of the load application pro-
cedure introduced several difficulties, which required
a special numerical treatment. In general, it was not
possible to apply the load directly to a nodal point
of the finite element mesh, because nonlinear prop-
erties of the concrete caused the elements adjacent
to this node to deform significantly. This, in turn,
caused premature terminations of the solution algo-
rithm. More specifically, when the applied load caused
a compressive stress zone in the neighboring area of
the load application node, stress concentrations and
non-realistic stress fields occurred, creating excessive
plastification in the concrete. On the other hand, during
load reversal, the applied load produced a tensile stress
zone in the applied load region. Even for moderate
load values, rather high stress concentration appeared
locally, near the node to which the load was applied
and thus, non-realistic conditions for cracking were
created, destroying the neighboring elements and lead-
ing to premature termination of the numerical process.
Therefore for the application of the cyclic load, a sys-
tem of two plates, one on the left and one on the right
side of the frame was adopted. Between the plates
and the specimen, unilateral contact conditions were
assumed. The two plates were connected by kinemati-
cal constraints in order to achieve the load application
in both directions and so that only compressive forces
are transmitted through the respective contact surfaces
Figure 4. Comparison of the P − δ envelope results obtained
of the specimen. This adopted loading procedure in the by the experiment and the analysis of the F1 bare frame.
analysis led to rather realistic stress and strain fields
in the load application area. Moreover, clamped sup-
ports were assumed at the positions where the steel
rigid braces are connected to the frame and to the steel
link elements.

3.3 Numerical solution procedure

The solution to the described problem was obtained
by using the software code MSC-MARC. A Newton-
Raphson iterative procedure was applied to handle
the nonlinearities of the problem. The cyclic load was
applied in the form of an induced displacement δ and
the resulting force at the points of the incrementally
applied displacement was monitored. A relative con-
vergence criterion was adopted based on the residual Figure 5. Experimental and numerical results for the dissi-
forces and the relative force tolerance was set to 0.01. pated energy in the bare frame (specimen F1).

4 RESULTS and a stable behaviour is achieved. Also, the numerical

Before displaying the results obtained by numerical
analysis, it should first be mentioned that, in general,
it was not possible to simulate the performed experi-
ments beyond a displacement of about 12 mm. The
reason for the above was the significant cracking that
occurred for displacements larger than 12 mm, which
had as a result numerical instabilities that were lead-
ing to termination of the applied Newton-Raphson
incremental-iterative procedure. For the same reason,
only one cycle for each displacement level was numer-
ically simulated instead of the two similar cycles that
were applied in the experiments. Therefore, the dia-
grams that are presented in this paper are not exactly
the same as the corresponding diagrams given in
(Karalis et al., 2010).
The comparison of the numerical and experimen-
tal P − δ curves of the bare frame (specimen F1) is
presented in Figure 3. It can be seen that there exist dif-
ferences between numerical and experimental results
for smaller values of the displacement δ. For higher val-
ues of δ there is a good agreement between the results,
concerning the load carrying capacity. The differences
between the results in the early cycles is attributed
mainly to the appearance of the initial cracks which
are later stabilized when the plastic hinges are formed
model cannot approximate adequately the unloading
branch of the P − δ diagram, leading to narrower hys-
teresis loops. It seems that the smeared crack approach
used here, cannot simulate in a very realistic and accu-
rate way the closure of cracks and the behaviour of the
specimen during the loading reversal procedure.
Figure 4 gives the comparison of the P − δ
envelopes obtained by the experimental and analyti-
cal results of the bare frame. In this diagram, positive
only values are given for each applied displacement
level, corresponding to the mean of the absolute val-
ues corresponding to the positive and negative cycles
respectively. The figure depicts clearly the discrepan-
cies that appear in the first load cycles. However, the
results for the higher cycles are rather close.
Figure 5 presents the energy dissipated in each load
cycle. As far as the nonlinear phenomena are limited,
the comparison between experimental and numerical
results is quite good. However, as nonlinearities spread
all over the R/C frame, quite big differences appear.
These differences are attributed to the inherent defi-
ciency of the numerical algorithm to represent in an
effective way the unloading phase (i.e. the closure of
the cracks which happens under load reversal). On
the other hand, the overall behaviour of the frames
strengthened by the steel link elements, F2 and F3, is

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 6. Comparison of the numerical and experimental Figure 8. Comparison of the P − δ envelope results obtained
results of the F2 strengthened frame. by the experiment and the analysis of the F2 strengthened
frame.

Figure 7. Comparison of the numerical and experimental Figure 9. Comparison of the P − δ envelope results obtained
results of the F3 strengthened frame. by the experiment and the analysis of the F3 strengthened
frame.

significantly improved after the immediate activation

of the link elements.
Figures 6 and 7 show the load-displacement curves
for the F2 and F3 strengthened frames respectively,
obtained by the two-dimensional numerical model
together with the experimental results. It can be con-
cluded that there is a good agreement between the
numerical and experimental results.
The same conclusions are drawn comparing the cor-
responding envelopes of the P − δ curves (Figs 8, 9).
It is noticed that despite the small differences in the
obtained values, the numerical model is able to predict
the resulting forces within an accuracy of about 10%,
which can be considered as acceptable taking into
account the highly nonlinear nature of the considered Figure 10. Experimental and numerical results for the
problem. dissipated energy in the F2 type strengthened frame.
Figures 10 and 11 give the energy dissipated in
each loading cycle for the cases of the F2 and F3 and homogenous behaviour of the steel link and it’s
specimens respectively. Here, the differences in the stable elastoplastic deformation.
dissipated energies, as they are calculated by the Finally, Figure 12 shows the plastic strain fields
obtained experimental and numerical results are even of the two link elements for a displacement of about
smaller. 10 mm. It is noticed that the behaviour of the steel
In general, the good agreement between numerical plate is mainly of shear type (the plastic strains are
and experimental results has its nature to the fact that uniformly spread all over the steel plate). On the other
in the case of the strengthened frames the behaviour hand, the behaviour of the I type steel link is of bend-
of the steel link element is dominant. In this case the ing type (the shear strains are developed mainly in the
numerical model can simulate accurately the isotropic flanges). These strain fields are compatible with the

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 11. Experimental and numerical results for the
dissipated energy in the F3 type strengthened frame.
Figure 12. Plastic strains of the a) F2 steel link element and
b) F3 steel link element for a displacement of 10 mm.
failure type of the link elements that was noticed in
the corresponding experimental models (Karalis et al,
2010: Figs 10, 12). In the first case the failure is of
shear type, with a curved, almost horizontal failure
surface. In the second case the failure of the link ele-
ment is localized at the flanges, while the web does
not suffer significant damage.
5 CONCLUSIONS
After comparing the behaviour of the three specimens
under study, it is evident that the steel link elements
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
can provide the frame with significant stiffness and
strength. The load carrying capacity was three and four
times higher for the F2 and F3 specimens respectively,
as resulted from both the experiment and the analy-
sis, while the energy absorption capacity was more
than ten times higher for the cases of the strengthened
frames. On the other hand, the comparison between
experimental and numerical results is satisfactory,
given the complexity of the problem.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors acknowledge with thanks the financial
support for this study by the Greek Earthquake Plan-
ning and Protection Organization.
REFERENCES
Abdollahi, A. 1996. Numerical strategies in the application
of the FEM to RC structures. Computers and Structures
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Georgiadi-Stefanidi, K.A., Mistakidis, E.S. & Perdikaris, P.C.
2008. Thin fibre-reinforced concrete jackets for improv-
ing the seismic responce of reinforced concrete members:
experimental and numerical results. In F. Mazzolani et al.
(ed.), Urban habitat constructions under catastrophic
events, University of Malta: 217–222.
Karalis, A.A., Stylianidis, K.C. & Salonikios, T.N. 2010.
Experimental investigation of old R/C frames strength-
ened against earthquakes by high dissipation steel link
elements, in Mazzolani F.M. et al. (eds.) (2010). “Urban
Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events”. Pro-
ceedings of the Final Conference in Naples, 16–18
September.
Maheri, M.R. & Ghaffarzadeh, H. 2008. Connection over-
strength in steel-braced RC frames. Engineering Struc-
tures 30(7): 1938–1948.
Nethercot, D.A. 2002. The importance of combining experi-
mental and numerical study in advancing structural engi-
neering understanding. Journal of Constructional Steel
Research 58(10): 1283–1296.
Queiroz, F.D., Vellasco, P.C.G.S. & Nethercot, D.A. 2007.
Finite element modelling of composite beams with full
and partial shear connection. Journal of Constructional
Steel Research 63(4): 505–521.
Rabczuk, T., Akkermann, J. & Eibl, J. 2005. A numerical
model for reinforced concrete structures. International
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Wang, C.Y., Ho, H.Y., Wang, R.Z. & Huang, H.H. 2008.
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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Seismic vulnerability reduction of existing masonry buildings. Modelling of

retrofitting techniques

Antonio Gesualdo
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Strutturale, Università di Napoli Federico II, Napoli

Michela Monaco
Dipartimento di Cultura del Progetto, S.U.N. Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli, Italia

ABSTRACT: In many seismically active regions of the world there are large numbers of masonry buildings.
Most of these buildings have not been designed for seismic loads. Recent earthquakes have shown that many
such buildings are seismically vulnerable and should be considered for retrofitting. Different conventional and
unconventional retrofitting techniques are available to increase the strength and/or ductility of unreinforced
masonry walls. This paper reviews and discusses seismic retrofitting of masonry walls with emphasis on the
conventional techniques. Retrofitting procedures are discussed with regard to a case study: a stone masonry
building in Irpinia region, damaged by the 1980 earthquake. The interventions are evaluated by means of finite
elements with a macroelement model obtained by means of an homogenization technique. Linear and nonlinear
procedures are compared, and peculiarities of each procedure are shown.

1 INTRODUCTION behaviour of both URM and reinforcement (.ElGawady

Masonry structures are prone to extensive damage fol-
lowed by failure and collapse when subjected to loads
resulting from wind, earthquake and other natural or
man-made events. Recent earthquakes and terrorist
acts have clearly demonstrated that the development
of effective and affordable strategies for the analysis
and strengthening of masonry is urgently needed.
Many older masonry structures currently in use
were in fact designed and constructed with little or
no consideration of these aggressive factors. In addi-
tion, recent changes in seismic requirements have left
many URM buildings in need of strengthening. In
many cases, these natural effects were not considered
in ancient time (Domède et al., 2008).
Very few masonry buildings have been built in
modern times, and knowledge of the related design
methods is no longer part of a civil engineer’s training
(Rai, 2005 and 2008). Despite a growing need for reha-
bilitation and conservation of these structures, under-
standing of their behavior has been declining in the
first decades of last century, and the available methods
for assessing them are of questionable reliability.
In recent times the strong need of rehabilitation,
together with the development of numerical tools, has
improved knowledge about assessment methods for
masonry buildings (Hom & Poland, 2003, Allen &
Rainer, 1996). As a response to the challenges offered
by the assessment of URM, several intervention meth-
ods have been proposed (Arya, 2006). Nevertheless the
first step toward a complete assessment of an inter-
vention method is the understanding of constitutive
et al., 2004; Macabuag, J., 2010; Smith & Redman,
2009.). One of the reliable tools developed in the last
years are the homogenization techniques.
The development of these techniques in the field of
composite materials has induced a similar approach in
the field of masonry structure, in which the masonry
material is the result of two different elements,
spacely arranged in different geometries (Zucchini &
Lourenço, 2002).
Since it is a key point in the bulk behaviour
of masonry, careful attention must be posed on the
behaviour of block-masonry interface (Luccioni &
Rougier, 2010) and in the spatial arrangement of the
blocks. Differently from fiber reinforced materials, in
whic a periodic structure can be often recognized, non
periodic structures are in fact difficult to homogenize
(Cluni & Gusella, 2004).
Based on classical homogenization methods
(Lekhnitskii, 1963; Nemat-Nasser, 1993), this paper
presents an analysis of a stone masonry building
performed before and after the reinforcement with
grout injections. The basic cell of the omogenized
medium is a non-standard one, with stone elements
irregularly arranged in the RVE. Elementary load
cases were developed in order to obtain the conti-
tutive bulk parameters of the homogenized medium
(Pietruszczak & Mroz, 2000; Pietruszczak & Ushak-
saraei, 2003).
A numerical finite element analysis was per-
formed on this existing building taking into account
the bulk parameters derived in the homogenization
procedure.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 The case study is a stone masonry building with
simple and irregular shape in Irpinia region, severely
damaged by the 1980 earthquake.

2 THE STRUCTURAL MODEL

2.1 Homogenization
It is well known that the mechanical characteristics
of masonry should be detected in order to define the
constitutive laws of the material for the mathematical Figure 1. Discretized stone units (a), and mortar matrix (b).
models assumptions.
Nevertheless all the parameters defining these char- Table 1. Values of mechanical parameters.
acteristics cannot be measured on site.The only param-
Elasticity Poisson Friction
eters that can be measured at the moment on site are Material modulus coeffficient coefficient
the modulus of elasticity, the Poisson ratio in the direc-
tion parallel to the bed joints, the value of the stress Stone 6,000 MPa 0.23 0.60
at onset of cracking on the external face of a wall. Mortar 25,000 MPa 0.20
A masonry wall has in fact different properties along
different axes according to the units texture and the
directions and geometry of the mortar joints.
To evaluate the different properties according the
directions, an homogenization procedure has been per-
formed to describe masonry as a composite behaviour
in terms of macro or average properties so that it can
be assumed to be an homogeneous material. The first
problem to solve was the choice of RVE, i.e. the min-
imum material to evaluate the macro-parameters of
masonry.
In the case of periodic structure of masonry it is
in general a simple problem to consider the basic cell
as RVE. In Southern Italy irregular stone masonry is
widely diffused, so that basic cells are not simple to rec-
ognize. In this paper an iterative method, based on test
windows, was taken into account (Gesualdo & Nun- Figure 2. Discretized masonry block.
ziante, 2005) considering a linear elastic behaviour for
both mortar and stone units. A 3D model was built for
2.2 Numerical analysis
the RVE, performig linear and non linear analyses and
considering two different types of bonding between The results of the analysis performed by means of the
the mortar and the stone unit: ANSYS program on the masonry block are shown in
the following. Different load conditions were analyzed
a) perfect bonding;
in order to obtain the compliance tensor for the homog-
in this case a bulk linear elastic behaviour for
enized medium. The stiffness tensor was obtained as
masonry was obtained as a result.
the inverse matrix of the compliance one. As a syntesis
b) unperfect bonding
of the results, the stiffness tensor for the homogenized
in this case an unilateral frictional contact with Mohr- medium is given in the two analyzed cases, with or
Coulomb constitutive law between mortar and stone without frictional contact.
unit was taken into account. A nonlinear elastic bulk The stiffness tensor in the elastic case without fric-
behaviour was obtained for masonry. tional contact is reported in Tables 2 and 3. As it can
In Figure 1 the discretized model of the basic cell be seen, the stiffness matrix of the material modelled
is shown: it is a 110 × 150 × 60 cm block in which 20 without frictional contact corresponds, as expected, to
irregular stone units are embedded in a mortar matrix. that of an orthotropic material: the symmetry of the
The spatial distribution of the stones is irregular too. matrix is preserved. In this case, in fact, the exis-
A finite element analysis was performed on the tence of an elastic potential can be demonstrated.
block, in order to evaluate the mechanical bulk prop- Table 2 refers to the constitutive model of the block
erties to be employed in the numerical analysis of without interventions, while Table 3 reports the same
the entire building. Both the constituents were consid- data in case of grout interventions Different is the case
ered isotropic elastic (Cowin, 1985). Their mechanical in which frictional contact is taken into account: an
properties are reported in Table 1. unsymmetric constitutive matrix is the results of the
A picture of the discretized basic cell is represented dissipative behaviour due to the unilateral frictional
in Figure 2. contact. In this case, in fact, the dissipation cannot

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 2. Stiffness elastic tensor. Table 5. Stiffness elastic tensor.

No frictional contact Frictional contact

No interventions (*E-3) Grout injections (*E-3)

109.28 18.26 17.90 0 0 0 141.42 88.50 85.06 55.06 13.90 −90.51

18.26 68.12 13.21 0 0 0 57.87 88.42 55.05 27.61 22.47 −42.73
17.90 13.21 54.92 0 0 0 44.15 42.74 66.42 16.32 10.52 −49.91
0 0 0 20.45 0 0 −1.09 −1.01 −2.07 5.66 −0.05 1.86
0 0 0 0 19.38 0 0.35 0.52 0.37 0.21 6.53 −0.15
0 0 0 0 0 14.88 −0.04 0.10 −0.01 0.12 0.47 6.98

Table 3. Siffness elastic tensor. Table 6. Mechanical parameters (no frictional contact).

No frictional contact No interventions Grout injections

Grout injections (*E-3)
Ex 109,280.72 180,430.00
180.43 22.56 22.13 0 0 0 Ey 68,120.59 105,840.36
22.56 105.84 15.14 0 0 0 Ez 54,920.56 88.750.02
22.13 15.14 88.75 0 0 0 νyx 0.21 0.18
0 0 0 38.02 0 0 νxy 0.13 0.11
0 0 0 0 27.80 0 νzx 0.27 0.22
0 0 0 0 0 25.70 νxz 0.14 0.11
νzy 0.19 0.14
νyz 0.16 0.12
Gxy 20,455.70 38,027.36
Gyz 19,386.82 27,822.81
Table 4. Stiffness elastic tensor.
Gzx 14,886.07 25,741.92
Frictional contact
No interventions (*E-3)

76.72 171.46 93.67 25.25 89.83 −48.54 Table 7. Mechanical parameters (frictional contact).
58.78 57.02 61.88 22.16 47.71 −48.91
24.78 57.83 38.75 14.23 34.64 −1.81 No interventions Grout injections
−1.28 −2.08 −1.46 8.49 −10.91 1.81
0.53 0.73 0.50 0.20 6.17 −0.53 Ex 74,539.91 140,679.96
−0.11 0.02 −0.12 0.10 0.58 7.11 Ey 50,915.59 87,537.57
Ez 36,297.67 66,954.00
νyx 0.41 0.39
νxy 0.47 0.43
νzx 0.41 0.39
assure the existence of an elastic potential function νxz 0.46 0.43
for the material behaviour, which gives as a result a νzy 0.42 0.38
symmetric constitutive matrix. νyz 0.44 0.40
The above symmetry cannot be observed in fact in Gxy 8,001.96 12,040.19
the case of frictional contact. In Tables 4 and 5 the stiff- Gyz 6,613.28 12,774.61
Gzx 6,974.87 13,873.44
ness tensor in the case of frictional contact is shown.
In this case too Table 4 refers to the constitutive
model of the block without interventions, while Table
5 reports the same data in case of grout interventions. The expected overall increase of stiffness in the
As it can be seen, the homogenized material shows homogenized medium with grout injections with
more deformability in the case of frictional contact. respect to that without interventions is confirmed.
This can be explained with the possibility of rela-
tive displacement between mortar and stones, due to 2.3 Structural analysis
chosen model of friction, which involves unilateral
contact. A stone masonry building in Irpinia (a seismic region
To complete the set of data obtained by the homoge- of Southern Italy) was chosen as a case study.
nized procedure performed, the elastic bulk parameters It was built in 1930, with a planar L shape, and
in the two case analyzed are reported in the following sort of regularity in the z-direction, being x and y the
Tables 6 and 7. directions of the two external walls of the building
In the two cases examined the elastic modulus (Figure 3) and z the vertical one. The stiffness in the
increase is significant, while a less significant decrease y-direction is higher to that in the x-direction as it can
can be observed in the Poisson coefficients be seen in figure 4.

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 Figure 5. Discretized model of the building.
Figure 3. Picture of the building and reference axes.

Figure 6. Total displacements for earthquake x-loading (no

interventions, orthotropic behaviour).

Figure 4. L-shape of the building.

The masonry walls were modelled with the bulk

properties examined above, while floors and roofs
were considered as plate elements with high in-plane
stiffness.
The homogenized properties evaluated in the previ-
ous section have been considered as the properties of
masonry walls of the building.
The numerical analysis was performed by means
of the numerical code ANSYS, with tethraedral four-
node solid elements. Figure 7. Displacement x-direction for earthquake
In the following a discussion about the diplacements x-loading (no interventions, orthotropic behaviour).
results is provided, in order to assess the reliability of
the method proposed.
Figure 6 presents the distribution of displacements be seen, the displacement evaluated at the top of the
for an earthquake loading along x-direction in the case building is about 40 cm, better represented in Figure 7.
of orthotropic behaviour. The constitutive model with- If the seismic loading is directed along the y-
out frictional contact was taken into account. As it can direction, the maximum displacement at the top of the

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 8. Displacement y-direction for earthquake
y-loading (no interventions, orthotropic behaviour).
Figure 9. Displacements x-direction for earthquake
x-loading (with grout injections, orthotropic behaviour).
Figure 10. Displacements y-direction for earthquake
y-loading (with grout injections, orthotropic behaviour).
building is about 50% of the previous, as expected
according to the building geometry (Figure 8).
The reduction of the displacement amount due to the
contribute of grout injections in the case of orthotropic
behaviour is represented in figures 9 and 10.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
As it can be seen, there is a similarity of complessive
behaviour of the structure, with incresed stiffness due
to the injections.
It has been impossible to perform the analysis taking
into account the frictional contact because of the lim-
ited possibilities of the finite element analysis code.
Commercial codes are in fact developed to perform
numerical analyses taking into account orthotropic
constitutive behaviour, which involves stiffness matrix
with several null elements. The analysis performed
and shown above involve orthotropic behaviour with
a stiffness matrix in which the non-zero terms are
derived from the stiffness matrix developed in the case
of frictional contact.
The future of this study will involve the develop-
ment of a numerical code with numerical ductility in
the field of constitutive behaviour.
3 FINAL REMARKS
A procedure for the determination of bulk constitu-
tive behaviour of irregular stone masonry by means of
an homogenization procedure has been presented. The
homogenization procedure are performed with and
without frictional contact. The obtained homogenized
finite elements have modellized an ancient building.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The contribution of Second University of Naples is
gratefully acknowledged.
REFERENCES
Allen, D.E., Rainer, J.H. 1996. Guidelines for the seismic
evaluation of existing buildings. International Journal of
Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences and Geomechanics
Abstracts, vol. 33, n. 2: 91A–91A(1).
Arya, A.S., 2006. Guidelines for repair, restoration, con-
dition assessmentand seismic strengthening of masonry
buildings. Draft Second Revision of IS 13935.
Domède, N., Pons, G., Sellier, A., Fritih,Y. 2008. Mechanical
behaviour of ancient masonry. Materials and Structures,
(2009) 42: 123–133.
ElGawady, M., Lestuzzi, P., Badoux, M. 2004. A review of
conventional seismic retrofitting techniques for URM.
13th International Brick and Block Masonry Conference,
Amsterdam.
Hom, D.B. & Poland, C.D. 2003. Seismic evaluation of exist-
ing buildings. ASCE, vol. 31–03, American Society of
Civil Engineers, USA.*
Luccioni, B. & Rougier, V.C. 2010. Shear behaviour of brick–
mortar interface in CFRP retrofitted or repaired masonry.
International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, vol. 52,
issue 4, April 2010: 602–611.*
Macabuag, J., 2010. Dissemination of seismic retrofitting
techniques to rural communities. EWB-UK National
Research Conference 2010 ‘From Small Steps to Giant
Leaps...putting research into practice’ Hosted by The
Royal Academy of Engineering, 19th February 2010.
 Rai, D.C. 2005. Seismic evaluation and strengthening of
existing buildings. IITK-GSDMA Guidelines for seismic
evaluation and strengthening of buildings, Kanpur.
Rai, D.C. 2008. A generalized method for seismic evalua-
tion of existing buildings. Current Science, vol. 94, no. 3:
363–370.
Smith, A. & Redman, T. 2009. A Critical Review of
Retrofitting Methods for Unreinforced Masonry Struc-
tures. EWB-UK Research Conference 2009 Hosted by The
Royal Academy of Engineering, University of Bristol.
Cluni F., Gusella V. 2004. Homogenization of non-periodic
masonry structures, I.J.S.S.,41.
Zucchini A., Lourenco P.B. 2002. A micro-mechanical model
for the homogenization of masonry, I.J.S.S., 39.
Nemat-Nasser S. 1993, Micromechanics: overall properties
of heterogeneous materials, North-Holland.
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Lekhnitskii S.G. 1963. Theory of elasticity of an anisotropic
elastic body, Julius J. Brandstatter, San Francisco, 1963.
Pietruszczak S., Mroz Z. 2000. Formulation of anisotropic
failure criteria incorporating a microstructure tensor,
Computers & Geotechnics, 26.
Pietruszczak S., Ushaksaraei R. 2003. Description of inelas-
tic behaviour of structural masonry, I.J.S.S., 40.
Cowin S. C. 1985. The relationship between the elasticity
tensor and the fabric tensor, Mech. Mat., 4.
Gesualdo, A., Nunziante, L. (2005) Omogeneizzazione
di murature storiche, Atti XVII Congresso Nazionale
AIMETA Associazione di Meccanica Teorica ed Appli-
cata, Firenze, ISBN: 88-8453-313-9.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Seismic retrofitting techniques for masonry arch bridges

Antonio Gesualdo
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Strutturale, Università di Napoli Federico II, Napoli

Michela Monaco & Maria Teresa Savino

Dipartimento di Cultura del Progetto, S.U.N. Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli, Italia

ABSTRACT: Masory arch bridges are an important part of both Italian cultural heritage and transportation
network. Many of them have been built since the Roma age, and several of these bridges remain in service,
despite having been subjected for centuries to a heavy regime of environmental conditions and loadings.Very
few masonry arch bridges have been built in modern times, and knowledge of the related design methods is no
longer part of a civil engineer’s training. In the meantime, because of their fundamental role, it is frequently
necessary to strengthen existing bridge or part of them. Recent advances in retrofit technology have extended the
application of advanced rehabilitation, retrofitting, stregthnening and field monitoring technologies to ageing
infrastructures, expecially in the case of structures in seismic areas. This paper deals with the reliability of these
interventions, considering that several of these interventions, made in recent years, have shown their limits.
Old masonry structures require specific approach: strengthening techniques must not be influenced by the load
bearing capacity only, since historic structures contribute to a sustainable future

1 INTRODUCTION updating algorithm (Ng & Fairfield, 2004) and inte-

Many masonry arch bridges were constructed hun-
dreds of years ago and several of these bridges remain
in service, despite having been subjected for centuries
to a heavy regime of environmental conditions and
loadings (Pelà et al., 2009). Very few masonry arch
bridges have been built in modern times, and knowl-
edge of the related design methods is no longer part of
a civil engineer’s training. In the meantime, because
of their fundamental role, it is frequently necessary to
strengthen existing bridge or part of them so that they
can continue to remain in service. A masonry bridge
is a structure in which the arch vault is a part of a com-
plex set of interacting elements elements (Cavicchi &
Gambarotta, 2007). Nevertheless the attention of the
structural engineers is focused mainly on the masonry
arch, expecially in the cases in which a reinforcement
is taken into account. A distinction between “limit
analysis” and “stress analysis” must be made in the
examination of the structural response of a stregthened
arch. The first one aims to assess the collapse load of
the arch, using plastic theorems to determine an upper
bound ultimate load, in a framework named “mecha-
nism method” and mainly due to Heyman (1966 and
1969). In the following years several authors have
improved the classical method, taking into account
the influence of the masonry bridge structural ele-
ments: lateral pressure, arch-fill interaction, strong
backing, spandrel walls (Crisfield & Packham, 1988;
Ochsendorf, 2006). Modification of the mechanism
method by including a deflection-dependent pressure
gration with Monte Carlo simulation (Ng & Fairfield,
2002) have been recently proposed In the framework of
the mechanism method, modern theories involving non
convex analysis have been employed to understand the
beahviour of a masonry arch, even in the case of FRP
reinforcement (Drosopoulos et al., 2006 and 2007).
The second approach aims to determine the dis-
placements and the stresses under a given level and
pattern of loads or tractions. Conventional finite ele-
ment analysis (Brencich & Sabia, 2007, Frunzio et al.,
2001) and numerical methods developed “on purpose
have been recently proposed (Elmalich & Rabinovitch,
2009)
In the last years in fact several methods of strength-
ening masonry arch bridges have been developed
(Sumon, 1999 and 2005). Such methods include the
installation of stainless steel reinforcing bars in the
near-surface zones of the masonry and the use of FRP
in the extrados curve of the arch.The use of nearsurface
reinforcement in masonry arch bridges can enhance
the load carrying capacity, delay the formation of
cracks and hinges and, at the same time, minimise
any disruption to the bridge users (Chen et al., 2007).
Triantafillou and Fardis (1997) in the last decades
developed the first formulation of a model for the eval-
uation of the ultimate strength of strengthened fiber
reinforced polymers (FRP) masonry sections under
combined compressive and bending stresses, and in the
following years several papers evaluated the capacity
of masonry arches reinforced with FRP (Triantafil-
lou, 2001; Meier, 2000; Marfia et al., 2008). The use

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 of externally bonded composite materials and mainly
FRP strips for the strengthening task is in fact advan-
tageous in terms of superior mechanical properties,
low mass, minimal dimensions, ease of installation,
geometrical versatility, and improved durability.
Recently several laboratory tests performed on
reinforced arches have been performed, together
with numerical analyses (Cancelliere et al., 2010;
Elmalich & Rabinovitch, 2009, Brencich & Sabia,
2007). It has been shown that while for unreinforced
arches the collapse is not dependent on the tensile
strength (often considered equal to zero in the great
part of the calculations), for arches strengthened with
FRP materials, the limited compressive strength of
the masonry plays a fundamental role in their struc-
tural response. Different mechanisms characterize in
fact the collapse behavior of brick masonry arches
and vaults strengthened with FRP, depending on the
extension and location of the strengthened portions
of the arch and on the loading pattern (Foraboschi,
2004). The formation of hinges may be in fact either
altered (i.e. hinges form at different locations than in
the unstrengthened arch) or completely prevented (De
Lorenzis, 2007).
This paper presents an application of the plasticity
theorems in order to modify and extend the four-
hinge mechanism analysis developed for unreinforced
masonry arch bridges to accommodate the effect of
FRP reinforcement on the extrados of a masonry arch.
2 THE LIMIT ANALYSIS FOR MASONRY
ARCHES
The theory of plasticity, developed during the second
half of last century, is a fundamental tool in struc-
tural analysis of r.c. and steel structures, and recently
is being successfully applied to the analysis of masonry
structures. There are two basic theorems of plasticity
and two important corollaries by means of which an
algorithm can be developed for the identification both
of the collapse load and of the collapse kinematisms
and the damage area of arch. For the sake of clarity
this theorems are outlined in the following
2.1 Kinematic Theorem (Upper Bound Theorem)
The statement of the kinematic theorem in an applica-
ble form is: the kinematically admissible loads – both
corresponding to the trial admissible kinematism for
the structure – are greater than or at least equal to the
true collapse load corresponding to the true failure
kinematisms.
It follows that the load factor associated to any kine-
matically admissible solution is an upper bound of the
only one load factor for plastic collapse of the struc-
ture. The optimizing procedure for determining the
true collapse load, in the kinematic point of view, can
be performed choosing the lowest value in the set of
the kinematically admissible loads obtained from all
possible cases of collapse mechanisms for the struc-
ture. The method derived from this theorem is based
on the balance of external work and internal work for
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a particular collapse mechanism. It is usually referred
to as the mechanism method. The principles of the so-
called “mechanism method” developed by Heyman
(1966 and 1969) are based on the assumption that a
masonry arch ultimately fails by forming at least four
hinges. The method in the classical formulation states
that the line of thrust – the line through the resultants
of the compressive stresses in successive cross sec-
tions of the arch – approaches the exterior curve or
boundary (extrados) or the interior curve or boundary
(intrados) of the arch at the potential hinge positions
as the applied load increases. At the point of collapse,
the line of thrust touches the extrados or intrados at
points in enough sections to turn the arch into a mech-
anism. The method proposed by Heyman provides a
means of calculating the safety factor in terms of the
ratio of the actual depth of the arch to the theoretical
minimum depth necessary to contain the line of thrust.
The following assumptions are made:
• Stone has no tensile strength;
• Sliding of one stone upon another cannot occur;
• The compressive strength of stone is effectively
infinite;
• The surrounding fill only acts as a dead vertical
weight on the arch.
Since the moments are zero at these points, equilib-
rium principles can be applied to calculate the applied
load that will cause the arch to collapse according to
the general principles of limit design.
2.2 Static Theorem (Lower Bound Theorem)
The statement of the static theorem in an applicable
form is: the statically admissible loads – both cor-
responding to the trial admissible generalized stress
state for the structure i.e. satisfying both the conditions
of static equilibrium and the yield state in any struc-
tural section – are less than or at least equal to the true
collapse corresponding to the true failure stress state.
It follows that the load factor as for any statically
admissible solution is a lower bound of the only one
load factor for plastic collapse of the structure.
By this theorem arises the optimizing procedure for
determining the true collapse load, in the static point
of view, selecting the upper value in the set of the
statically admissible loads obtained from all possible
cases of yield conditions in the state of equilibrium.
In other words, the static theorem of limit anal-
ysis requires maximization of the load factor while
satisfying the equilibrium and yield conditions.
3 THE PROPOSED MODEL
An application of the above theorem is developed in the
following to evaluate the collapse load for a masonry
arch reinforced with FRP. The following hypotheses
are taken into account:
– The value of the collapse load is independent on the
load history;
– Absence of

Figure 1. The case study.
Figure 2. Characteristic sections.
– Small displacements;
– High ductility of the structure;
– Ideal plasticity;
– Associate flow law.
– Null tensile strength
The case study is Pont Saint Martin, a Roman stone
masonry arch bridge in Northern Italy (Figure 1).
In the masonry arch 33 significant sections have
been examined, as shown in figure 2.
Stone masonry has been considered a no-tension
material withYoung modulus E = 4000 MPa and com-
pressive strength fc = 10,00 MPa.
The M-N domain was evaluated with reference to
a stripe of the masonry vault corresponding to a rect-
angular section with 1m basis. The real thickness of
0.9 m was taken into account. In Figure 3 both plastic
and elastic M-N domains are reported, while in figure 4
a linerization of the plastic domain is shown.
A linearization of the domain was taken into account
in order to perform linear programming (1). A picture
of the linearized domain is reported in figure 4.
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Figure 3. Elastic (dashed line) and plastic (continuous line)
M-N domains for unreinforced arch.
Figure 4. Linearized plastic domain M-N for unreinforced
arch.
The analysis was developed taking into account two
different load conditions, as represented in Figures 5
and 6. The first one takes into account only the self
weight and the dead loads of the arch, while the sec-
ond one takes into account the lateral pressure due to
horizontal actions. The plastic load multiplier in the
static method was determined as the solution of a con-
strained extremum problem by means of the symplex
method of the linear programming. The same approach
can be useful in the non linear case, so that appli-
cations involving nonlinear plastic domain M-N are
developing.
The maximum load multiplier satisfying both the
equilibrium conditions and the plastic compatibility
equations for every load condition are:
Load condition 1: s = 3.29244
Load condition 2: s = 2.7746
According to the static theorem stated above, the
load multiplier is the minimum observed in the two
load cases examined:
The application of the kinematic theorem in order
to evaluate a kinematic load multiplier was determined
with reference to the collapse mechanisms for both the
load conditions analyzed.
 Figure 5. Load condition 1.
Figure 6. Load condition 2.
Figure 7. Collapse mechanism for Load condition 1.
Both the collapse mechanisms were derived with
reference to the static theorem and are reported in
Figures 7 and 8.
An alternative formulation of the kinematic theorem
states that the total dissipation work has a minimum for
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 8. Collapse mechanism for Load condition 2.
the load multiplier corresponding to the real collapse
mechanism, so that, in general:
having indicated with superscript 0 the dissipation
work due to the generic collapse mechanism.
The kinematic load multiplier is determined as
the ratio of internal and external dissipation, so that,
with reference to the first of the two load conditions
examined, it is:
The above load multiplier corresponds to load
condition 1 and the collapse mechanism in figure 7.
while for load condition 2 and the collapse mechanism
in figure 8 the load multiplier is:
In this last case the static and the kinematic theo-
rem gives as a result the same value of the collapse
multiplier.
The same approach was carried out in the case of
the reinforcement with composite FRP on the extrados

Figure 9. Plastic (continuous line) M-N domain for rein-
forced masonry arch.
of the arch bridge. The plastic domain M-N is given
by the following relations:
where the first and the third equations represent the
upper boundary and the second the lower one of the
plastic domain M-N; b, h, σot and σoc the geometrical
and the material parameters of the masonry arch and
bF , sF and σoF the geometrical and the tensile strength
of the FRP layer.
The picture of the resulting M-N domain is repre-
sented in figure 9. As it is expected, the presence of
the reinforcement enlarges the domain in the tensile
area. In this case the elastic domain is not represented
in the picture.
The first analyses performed by means of nonlinear
constrained optimization have shown in the reinforced
case an increment of the load multiplier of about 30%.
4 FINAL REMARKS
The results on the collapse of a stone masonry arch
bridge are shown. The analysis is based on a lin-
earization of the plastic domain and performed by
solving a problem of linear programming. The solu-
tion is obtained by means of the lower bound theorem
of the limit analysis. The upper bound theorem assure
the validity of the results. Future developments of this
analysis involves the modelling the yield domain M-N
in the nonlinear case. The solution in this case is the
result of a nonlinear constrained optimization proce-
dure in order to obtain both the collapse load and the
failure mechanism.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The contribution of Second University of Naples is
gratefully acknowledged.
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tispan Masonry Arch Bridges. I: Simplified Approach,
Journal of Bridge Engineering ASCE vol. 582–590
Brencich, A., Sabia, D. 2007. Tanaro Bridge: dynamic tests
on a couple of spans. J. Bridge Engrg. Vol. 12, n. 5,
662–665.
Cancelliere, I., Imbimbo, M., Sacco, E. 2010. Experimen-
tal tests and numerical modeling of reinforced masonry
arches, Engineering Structures, vol. 32, 776–792.
Cavicchi, A., Gambarotta, L. 2005 Collapse analysis of
masonry bridges taking into account arch-fill interaction,
Engineering Structures, vol. 29, 3002–3014
Chen, Y., Ashour, A.F., Garrity, S.W. 2007. Modified four-
hinge mechanism analysis for masonry arches strength-
ened with near-surface reinforcement, Engineering Struc-
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Crisfield, M.A., Packham, A.J. 1988. A mechanism program
for computing the strength of masonry arch bridges,TRRL
Research Report n. 124, Crowthorne, U.K.
Drosopoulos G.A., Stavroulakis G.E., Massalas C.V. 2006
Limit analysis of a single span masonry bridge with unilat-
eral frictional contact interfaces, Engineering Structures
vol. 28, 1864–1873
Drosopoulos G.A., Stavroulakis G.E., Massalas C.V. 2007.
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contact models and limit analysis, Composites, Part B
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521–533
Foraboschi, P. 2004. Strengthening of masonry arches with
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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Experimental investigations on steel shear walls as seismic retrofit

measure for existing rc-buildings

M. Gündel, D. Schmitt & B. Hoffmeister

Institute for steel structures, RWTH Aachen University, Germany

ABSTRACT: Within a collaborative research project founded by the European Commission steel solutions for
seismic upgrading and retrofitting were analyzed. In this paper design, preparation and test results of cyclic tests
on steel shear walls are presented. The test program comprised of one pure RC-frame as reference test, two pure
steel shear walls and one RC-frame retrofitted by a steel shear wall. The plates of the shear wall with thickness
of 4 mm and 1 mm were either welded or fixed by powder actuated fasteners at the boundary elements.

1 INTRODUCTION reinforced concrete buildings dated 1939. So the struc-

1.1 Outline of the project
The design and construction of buildings according
current standards assure an appropriate safety against
seismic hazards. However, the majority of existing
buildings is in need of seismic retrofit, as the orig-
inal design was not optimized with respect to the
required safety level, poor construction quality, modi-
fications of buildings during their life time or increase
in requirements of seismic design. For this purpose,
retrofit measures in steel provide economic solutions
due to their high capacity, excellent ductility and
low mass.
In the collaborative research project STEEL-
RETRO founded by RFCS, steel solutions for seismic
retrofit of existing buildings are analyzed analytically
and experimentally to furnish design and construc-
tion methodologies as well as tools for dimensioning
and cost estimation. Within this project three types
of retrofitting or upgrading of vertical systems were
investigated by different partners: buckling restraint
braces (Politechnic University of Timisoara), flag-
shaped hysteretic devices (University of Pisa) and steel
shear walls (RWTH Aachen University). Especially,
steel shear walls (SSW) have shown a good seismic
performance in several current research projects and
in buildings subjected to earthquakes. However, the
knowledge about design and detailing of SSW’s as
retrofit measure is rather low. In this paper the exper-
imental investigations on steel shear walls at RWTH
Aachen University are presented.
1.2 Description of the benchmark building
The investigations of different retrofit measures for
vertical systems were performed on the same bench-
mark building by each partner. The benchmark build-
ing is a 3-storey reinforced concrete building designed
according to the Italian standard for reinforced and not
ture is typical for many houses built in the ’50 to early
70’ of the XX century in Italy. (Braconi et al., 2009)
The resistance to lateral actions is provided in
both directions by moment resistance of the con-
crete frames. In comparison to current RC-structures
the concrete strength (fck = 20 N/mm2 ) and the
yield strength (fyk = 230 N/mm2 ) is low. Furthermore,
the detailing does not fulfill structural requirements
according to current standards (e.g. stirrup spacing).
The structure showed considerable lower capacity
and ductility in push-over analysis than necessary
for the required seismic loading according to current
standards. In X-direction a favorable full plastic mech-
anism with plastic hinges at column bases and in the
beams formed. However, due to the bad detailing the
rotation capacity and therefore the ductility capacity of
the building was very limited. InY-direction the failure
mechanism was an unfavorable weak-storey failure of
the ground floor.
2 DESIGN OF SPECIMENS
2.1 RC-frame
To obtain comparable results, all partners tested the
same type of frame present within the RC-benchmark
building in full-scaled tests, which were retrofitted
either by buckling restraint braces, by flag-shaped hys-
teretic devices or by steel shear walls. The RC-frame
under investigation was originally located at the third
floor in Y-direction. Dimension, reinforcement and
concrete strength was similar to the original bench-
mark building (Fig. 1). However, as a steel grade with
fyk = 230 N/mm2 is not available in Germany, BSt500
(fyk = 500 N/mm2 ) was used and the diameter of the
reinforcement was adjusted to obtain the same tensile
resistance as in the benchmark building. Furthermore,
the detailing of the reinforcement in the corners had
to be modified to obtain a sufficient anchoring, as

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 1. Dimensions and sections of tested RC-frame.
Figure 2. Connections between steel shear wall and
RC-frame.
the tested frame – which is originally part of a whole
building – was isolated from the surrounding structure.
2.2 Connection between SSW and RC-frame
Crucial points of retrofitting existing buildings by
steel shear walls are the position and detailing of the
retrofitting measure connection to the RC-frame. On
the one hand the connection has to be able to transfer
the forces to the retrofitting sub-structure – consider-
ing also expected overstrength of the steel shear wall –
and on the other hand the existing structure has to be
able to bear these additional forces. Three types of
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 3. Steel shear wall without (top) and with stiffener
(bottom).
connection were investigated analytically by a simple
strip model: (a) only horizontal forces were transferred
to the RC-beam, (b) horizontal and vertical forces
were transferred to the RC-beam and (c) an additional
steel beam was used to transfer the horizontal and
vertical forces directly to the RC-columns (Fig. 2).
The advantages and disadvantages are summarized
hereafter:
a) Horizontal connection:
− high vertical reaction forces at the base of shear
the wall
+ no shear forces introduced into RC-beam
b) Horizontal and vertical connection:
+ lower vertical reaction forces in the shear wall
− high shear forces introduced into RC-beam
c) Transfer beam:
+ lower vertical reaction forces in the shear wall
+ no shear forces introduced into RC-beam
While the type of connection had a significant influ-
ence on the internal forces of the RC-frame, the
load deformation behavior was nearly the same in all
configurations.
2.3 Design of SSW boundary elements
The load bearing behavior of steel shear walls con-
sists of the behavior of the steel shear panel and the
surrounding boundary elements (beams and columns),
see Figure 3.
The boundary elements can be connected hinged or
rigid to each other. In frames with rigid connections
plastic hinges with sufficient rotation capacity should
be developed in the beams and premature shear fail-
ure has to be prevented. This needs a minimum beam
length as for short spans shear failure is dominant.
Steel shear walls with moderate capacity has a rather
short beam length; therefore hinged connections were
used in this test program.
The steel shear panel acts as dissipative element
and undergoes strong plastic deformations, while the
boundary elements should remain elastic. The internal
forces of the boundary elements arise partly from the
global loading behavior and partly from the reaction
forces of the internal steel shear panel. As the storey
height is fixed, steel shear walls with a short length
have a small length-to-height-ratio, which leads to high
bending moments in the columns (Fig. 3). This can be
optimized, if an additional stiffener at mid-span is used
to achieve a two-span-girder. This reduces stresses and
prevents unfavorable plastic hinges in the columns.
Furthermore, the angle of the tension zone in the shear
panel is optimized to 45◦ – as the length-to-height-
ratio is about 1 – and the stiffness of the shear wall is
increased (Astaneh-Asl, 2001).

2.4 Design of SSW shear panel

The capacity of steel shear walls is mainly governed
by their length as well as thickness and yield strength
of the shear panel. For retrofitting of existing build-
ings steel shear walls with thin panels and low yield
strength provide the best solution, as their strength and
therefore connection forces to the existing structure
are limited. Two types of shear panels were investi-
gated in the tests: (i) hot rolled plates with a thickness
of 4 mm in S235 (fyk = 235 N/mm2 ), which were
welded at the boundary elements and (ii) sheets with
a thickness of 1 mm in DX51D (fuk = 270 N/mm2 ),
which were fixed by powder actuated fasteners to the
boundary elements.
It is expected, that powder actuated fasteners pro-
vide advantages for the erection of steel shear walls
for retrofitting, as no site welds are needed. To reduce
the number of fasteners pre-tests were carried out,
where the sheet is crimped to double its thickness Figure 4. Load-deformation curves of shear panel connec-
and increase the hole bearing capacity. The test results tions in tension tests.
show, that the bearing capacity per connector can
nearly be doubled and the ductility increased (Fig. 4).
made of HEB300 in S355, while a HEB200-section
was used as stiffener. Two U300-sections were used as
3 EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS transfer-beam to the RC-frame.

3.1 Test program

The test program on steel shear walls comprised one
test on a pure RC-frame as reference test, two tests
on pure steel shear walls and one test on a steel shear
wall as retrofit measure of a RC-frame (Fig. 5). The
first pure steel shear wall test was carried out with a
shear panel in S235 (t = 4 mm) welded to the bound-
ary elements. In the second one a shear panel in
DX51D (t = 1 mm) was used, which was fixed by pow-
der actuated fasteners. The boundary elements were
3.2 Loading and measurements
The cyclic loading was applied displacement con-
trolled to the RC-beam as contact pressure in accor-
dance with the ECCS-procedure (ECCS, 1986) (see
Fig. 6). Besides jack force and jack displacement,
the rotation at the column bases and horizontal dis-
placements of the steel shear wall were measured.
Furthermore, strain gauges were applied on the steel
panel and the boundary elements.

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 Figure 5. Test program on steel shear walls.
Figure 6. Loading-history of Test 1 according to (ECCS,
1986).
3.3 Test 1: pure RC-frame
The first test was performed on the pure RC-frame.The
initial stiffness was significant lower than the values
obtained from analytical calculations. As expected, the
maximum horizontal load was only 13 kN in ten-
sion as well as compression (Fig. 7). No significant
reduction of the resistance could be observed until
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 7. Test 1 – pure RC-frame: test set-up (top), failure
mode (middle) and load-deformation curve (bottom).
+/−144 mm and therefore the deformation capacity
was remarkable higher than indicated in (FEMA356,
2000). However, considerable degradation could be
observed in cycles with the same amplitude. The gov-
erning failure mode was yielding of the reinforcement
and degradation of the concrete at the column head
due to cracking.
3.4 Test 2: pure SSW – welded shear panel
In the second test a pure steel shear wall with a welded
shear panel in S235 was tested (Fig. 8). First buckles
could be observed at 30 mm displacement. The maxi-
mum load of 825 kN was reached at a displacement
of 76 mm. Afterwards the hysteresis kept stable until

Figure 8. Test 2 – pure SSW with welded shear panel: test
set-up (top), failure mode (middle) and load-deformation
curve (bottom).
a deformation of +/−100 mm. The reduction of the
resistance occurred due to propagating rupture of the
shear panel next to the horizontal welds, which led to
a significant degradation in each cycle.
3.5 Test 3: pure SSW – shear panel fixed by
fasteners
The third test was similar to the previous one, but a
thin sheet in DX51D (t = 1 mm) was used as shear
panel, which was fixed by powder actuated fasteners
to the boundary elements (Fig. 9). Based on the results
of the pre-test series 4 the distance of the fasteners
was selected to 33 mm and the sheet was crimped to
increase the hole bearing capacity. In opposite to the
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 9. Test 3 – pure SSW with shear panel fixed
byh fasteners: test set-up (top), failure mode (middle) and
load-deformation curve (bottom).
previous SSW test the panel buckled elastically very
early. The maximum load of 206 kN occurred at a dis-
placement of 36 mm. The hysteresis kept stable until
56 mm where the bearing stress of the fasteners was
exceeded. Finally, a significant reduction of the resis-
tance caused by net section failure of the sheet between
the fasteners could be observed. This crack has grown
with each cycle until the sheet was disconnected from
the horizontal boundary elements.
3.6 Test 4: SSW connected to RC-frame
Finally a RC-frame retrofitted by a SSW with the same
parameters as in Test 2 was tested (Fig. 10). The load
deformation behavior in this test was similar to the cor-
responding Test 2. The first plastic buckling occurred

Figure 10. Test 4 – SSW at RC-frame: test set-up (top) and
load-deformation curve (bottom).
at a displacement of 28 mm. The maximum load of
857 kN was measured at a displacement of 84 mm.
Afterwards, the capacity of the SSW decreased due to
a crack along the horizontal boundary elements next
to the welds.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
4 CONCLUSIONS
Within the research project STEELRETRO a test
series on steel shear walls as retrofit measure has been
performed. The test program included cyclic tests on
a RC-frame as reference test, tests on pure steel shear
walls and one test, where a RC-frame is retrofitted
by a steel shear wall. Two types of shear panels were
investigated in the SSW’s: hot rolled plates welded on
the boundary elements and thin sheets fixed by pow-
der actuated fasteners. Preliminary evaluations of the
test results show for both configurations a favorable
behavior in terms of stiffness, strength and ductility.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The research project STEELRETRO is founded by
the Research Found for Coal and Steel (RFCS). Fur-
thermore, Hilti AG, Liechtenstein has supported the
test series with powder actuated fasteners. Both are
gratefully acknowledged.
REFERENCES
Astaneh-Asl, A. 2001. Seismic Behavior and Design of Steel
Shear Walls, Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering, University of California, Berkeley
Braconi, A. et al. 2009. RFSR-CT-2007-00050 (STEEL-
RETRO): Technical report 3
ECCS 1986. Recommended Testing Procedure for Assessing
the Behaviour of Structural Steel Elements under Cyclic
Loads, Technical working group 1.3
FEMA 356 2000. Pre-Standard and commentary for the
seismic rehabilitation of buildings
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Optimizing the organization of infill walls in order to improve

the earthquake response

D. Güney, A.O. Kuruşcu & M. Vatan

Faculty of Architecture, Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey

ABSTRACT: The contribution of infill walls in the earthquake resistant building design generally is not taken
into account. Although the infill walls are considered as non-structural elements and are ignored in the analysis
these elements tend to interact with the frame in case of lateral load effect. The aim of this paper is to indicate the
contribution of infill walls in the earthquake resistant building design. First bare structure is analyzed the four
different types of configuration of infill walls are analyzed as numerical models. Consequently, according to the
analysis results of structural configurations, the behavior of the structure subjected to the earthquake loading is
evaluated.

1 INTRODUCTION and mortar is not enough for characterization of the

Masonry infills in the reinforced concrete frame build-
ings generally are used as aesthetical or non-structural
elements and their contribution of infill walls in the
earthquake resistant design is ignored. However infill
walls have significant importance in the behavior of
framed buildings subjected to the lateral loads such
earthquake.
The contribution of masonry infills to the global
capacity of the structure constitutes the structural
strength to the 80% and stiffness to the 85%. The main
reason of their beneficial behavior is that the amount of
increase in earthquake inertia force appears to be rel-
atively small, comparatively with the increase in the
strength of masonry infills (Lee, Woo, 2002).
Widely used masonry infill elements in the rein-
forced concrete frame building design are adobe
blocks, hallow bricks, solid bricks, clay bricks, aerated
concrete blocks, briquette blocks etc.
Although there is no general acceptance of the con-
tribution of infill walls in the earthquake resistant
design many researches point out that negative effects
are often associated with irregularities in the distribu-
tion of infills in plan and/or in the evaluation. The main
problem in the design process is mostly that masonry
infills have as-built properties and it is almost impos-
sible to take into account reliably (Fardis, Bousias,
Franchioni, Panagiotakos, 1999).
Due to the design and methodological complexity
incorporation of infill walls in the numerical analysis
as structural elements is not common. Nevertheless,
infill walls increase lateral stiffness and minimize P-
effect (Saneinnejad, Hobbs, 1995).
The main problem of analyzing the infill frame
reinforced concrete buildings is that mostly it is impos-
sible to estimate reliably as built properties in the
design procedure. Standardization of masonry units
inelastic cyclic behavior of masonry infills (Fardis,
Bousias, Franchioni, Panagiotakos, 1999).
This study focuses on the contribution of infill
masonry walls in the dynamic response of the struc-
tures subjected to the lateral loads. The aim of this
paper is to investigate the effect of infill walls to the
overall behavior of the structure by setting on the infill
walls in different direction and position in the same
building plan. Five different configurations of struc-
tural plan with and without infill walls are analyzed
and the results are compared.
The earthquake response of the structure is variable
depending on the position, location and configuration
of the infill walls.
2 DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS OF THE
STRUCTURAL MODELS
In this study five storey reinforced concrete frame
building with 3,00 m storey height is analyzed by
FEM software (CSI, SAP2000). The material proper-
ties used in the numeric model are; C28 concrete and
S420 steel. Young modulus of concrete is 24855 MPa.
The floor area of the building is 784 m2 . Dimensions
of the structural elements are: columns 0,40 × 0,40 m
and beams 0,25 × 0,60 m. Reinforced shear walls are
located at the center of the structural plan both in X
and Y directions. Dimensions of the shear walls are;
2,80 × 0,25 m in X direction and 4,00 × 0,25 m in Y
direction. Figure 1 shows architectural plan of the ana-
lyzed structure in this study. This plan typology is
widely used as dwellings in Turkey.
Hollow clay bricks with 0,19 × 0,19 × 0,135 m
dimensions are used as infill walls that are commonly
used in Turkey. Horizontal and vertical joint of clay
bricks is made by 1 cm thickness mortar. In the numeric

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Figure 1. The architectural floor plan drawing of analyzed
structure.
model it is assumed that the model is fixed to the
ground.
The thickness of the infill walls in the facades is
taken as 0,20 m and interior infill walls are taken as
0,10 m.
2.1 Design principles of numerical analysis
in the study
Non-linear structural analysis approach is using for
determining the earthquake response of the structural
system with different configuration of infilled walls.
SAP 2000, structural analysis software is used for
analyzing.
In this study non-linear structural analysis approach
is used for determining the earthquake response of the
building. Non-linear dynamic time history is done by
using earthquake records of 1940El Centro, California
(N-S) ground motions. Five different configurations
of structural models with and without infill walls are
analyzed and results are compared.
The dynamic response of the system to base acceler-
ation agx(t) in the x-direction, agy(t) in the y-direction
are described in the Equation 1.
In this paper, proportional damping is considered
where the damping matrix is a linear combination of
the mass and stiffness matrices are described in the
Equation 2. α and β are proportionality constants. ωi
and ωj are taken as first and second mode frequencies
as shown in the Equation 3,4.
872
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 2. The N-S component of El Centro earthquake
(1940).
The numeric model principle in this study is three
dimensional walls – frame system as beams, columns
and shear walls. The calculation of masses and load
distribution is made according to the principles of
Turkish Standards of design loads and 1997, 2007
Earthquake Resistant Building Design Code.
Time history analysis has not been common in tradi-
tional building design. In this study dynamic analyses
are performed by time-history approach. According to
this concept the structural models are analyzed by real
earthquake acceleration data and t = 0,02 s.
The Turkish Earthquake Resistant Building Design
Code (1997) advises using time history analysis
approach in order to get more realistic results. Fig-
ure 2 shows El Centro N-S earthquake record which
has ground acceleration data.
El Centro earthquake was in May 1940 in Impe-
rial Valley (USA) and the Richter magnitude of the
earthquake was recorded as 7.1. The epicenter of
the earthquake was 70 km from the ground and max
acceleration was 0,341 m/s2 .
The connection of columns and foundation is
assumed as an infinitely rigid foundation restrained
for all degree of freedom. All joints at a floor level are
constrained to move as a planar diaphragm in order to
prevent in-plane membrane deformations.
Table 1 shows the area of structural elements both
in X and Y directions.
The proposed analytical model assumes that the
contribution of the masonry infill walls which can be
seen in Figure 3(a), to the response of the infilled frame
can be modeled by “replacing the panel” by a system
of two diagonal masonry in compression struts shown
in Figure 3(b) (Madan, Reinhorn, 1997). The combi-
nation of both diagonal struts provides a lateral load
resisting mechanism for the opposite lateral directions
of loading.
For practical purposes, the elasticity modulus of the
infill wall can be taken as 500 fckd . fckd is character-
istic shear strength which is taken about 2000 kN/m2
(Guney, D., Boduroglu, H., 2006).
2.2 Analyses of structural models
All structural plan configurations are defined by the
FEM software. All structural elements, materials,
sections, locations etc. for each configurations are
described as a first step of the FEM analysis. After
this step, El Centro N-S acceleration record (for 0.02
time interval) is applied to structure as dynamic load.
Table 1. Structural configuration charecteristics.

Without
infill CONF.1 CONF.2 CONF.3 CONF.4

A.Column 6,72 6,72 6,72 6,72 6,72

(x,y) (m2 )
B.Shearwall 2,80 2,80 2,80 2,80 2,80
(x) (m2 )
C.Shearwall 2,00 2,00 2,00 2,00 2,00
(y) (m2 )
D.Infillwall 0,00 14,10 10,50 10,50 10,50
(x) (m2 )
E.Infillwall 0,00 12,66 8,66 12,66 6,32
(y) (m2 )
F.Total Area 9,52 9,52 9,52 9,52 9,52
of Structural
Elements
(x) (m2 ) Figure 5. Structural model with infill walls (the first con-
G. Total Area 8,72 8,72 8,72 8,72 8,72 figuration).
of Structural
Elements
(y) (m2 )
F/D 0,00 0,68 0,91 0,91 0,91
G/E 0,00 1,45 0,99 1,45 0,72

Figure 6. First mode shape of the structural model without

infill walls.

Figure 3. Equivalent Strut Model for Masonry Infill Walls

in Frame Structures: (a) Masonry Infill Frame Geometry,
(b) Masonry Infill Walls and Strut.
Figure 4. Structural model without infill walls.
The first structural configuration without infill
walls is shown in Figure 4.
The structural model is analyzed by FEM soft-
ware in time history domain under defined earthquake
excitation.The first mode shape of the structural model
is shown in Figure 5. The first period of the model is
0.4394 s.
After this analysis, explained in detail above the
same steps are performed for the structural system with
infill walls. The first period of the model (first struc-
tural configuration with infill walls) is 0.3607 s. The
first mode shape of the structural model is shown in
Figure 6.
The time history comparison of two configurations
(with and without infill walls config.1) in x and y
directions are given in Figure 7 and Figure 8. As shown
in the figures, infill walls decrease the displacement
of the structure in both directions.
Four structural plan configurations with infill walls
are designed and then analyzed under earthquake load-
ing in order to see effects of infill walls to the response
of the structure. The analysis results of the struc-
tural configurations (periods, displacements, infill
wall parameters) are given in Table 2.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 7. Comparison of displacement history in
x-direction between two configurations (without and Figure 10. Comparison of displacement history in
wit infill walls, conf.1). y-direction between two configurations (without and with
infill walls, conf.2).

Figure 8. Comparison of displacement history in

y-direction between two configurations (without and
with infill walls, conf.1).
Figure 11. Comparison of displacement history in
Table 2. Analysis result of structural configurations. x-direction between two configurations (without and wit
infill walls, conf.3).
Without
infill CONF.1 CONF.2 CONF.3 CONF.4

T1(s) 0,44 0,36 0,37 0,36 0,36

T2(s) 0,40 0,34 0,35 0,35 0,35
T3(s) 0,31 0,28 0,29 0,28 0,29
T4(s) 0,14 0,12 0,12 0,12 0,12
T5(s) 0,10 0,10 0,10 0,10 0,10
Ux-max 0,170 0,117 0,122 0,123 0,121
(cm)
Uy-max 0,091 0,072 0,075 0,072 0,082
(cm)
F/D 0,00 0,68 0,91 0,91 0,91
G/E 0,00 1,45 0,99 1,45 0,72
Figure 12. Comparison of displacement history in
y-direction between two configurations (without and with
infill walls, conf.3).

The time history comparison of two configurations

(with and without infill walls config.2, 3, 4) in x and
y directions are given in Figure 9, 10, 11, 12, 13,
14. As shown in the figures, infill walls decrease the
displacement of the structure in both directions.

3 CONCLUSIONS

As shown in the analysis of structural models, infill

walls directly effects displacement response of the
Figure 9. Comparison of displacement history in structure under the earthquake excitation. Generally,
x-direction between two configurations (without and wit during the design stage, infill walls are not taken into
infill walls, conf.2). account. However, analysis results show bare frame

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Figure 13. Comparison of displacement history in
x-direction between two configurations (without and wit
infill walls, conf.4).
Figure 14. Comparison of displacement history in
y-direction between two configurations (without and wit
infill walls, conf.4).
structures displacement response is much higher than
structure with infill walls. Depending on location of
infill walls can cause increase in lateral stiffness of
structure, then this decrease displacement response
of structure. So that it is necessary to take into account
these infill walls during structural analysis case. In
addition to this result, the configuration of infill walls
also can amplify of attenuate displacement of the struc-
ture. The optimization of the location of infill walls not
only technical problem but also economical problem.
That’s why the ratio between total area of structural
elements and infill walls is one of the most important
parameter. In this study the best result is taken for 0.68.
If the structural model cases increases, it is possible to
get better and more realistic results.
875
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
REFERENCES
ENV 1998-1-3, 1994. Eurocode 8-Design Provisions for
Earthquake Resistance of Structures-Part 1–3: General
Rules-Specific Rules for Various Materials and Elements,
Bruselles.
CSI, SAP2000 V-14. Integrated finite element analysis and
design of structures basic analysis reference manual;
Berkeley, California (USA), Computers and Structures
Inc.
Diaz-Molina, I., 1988. DynamicTorsional Behavior of Inelas-
tic Systems, MSc. Report; Department of Civil Engineer-
ing, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh.
Fardis, M., Bousias, N., Franchioni, G., Panagiotakos, B.,
1999. Seismic Response and Design of RC Structures with
Plan-Eccentric Masonry Infills. Earthquake Engineering
and Structural Dynamics, Vol. 28, 173–191.
Guney, D., Boduroglu, H., 2006. Deprem etkisi altındaki
simetrik ve asimetrik yapıların, lineer olmayan tepkilerine
dolgu duvarlarının katkısı. İTÜ Dergisi/d Mühendislik,
Cilt:5, Sayı:3, Kısım:2, 165–174.
Korkmaz K. A., Demir F., Sivri, M., 2007. Earthquake
assessment of R/C structures with masonry infill walls.
International Journal of Science and Technology, vol.2,
no.2, pp.155–164.
Lee, H. S., Woo, S. W., 2002. Effect of masonry infills on
seismic performance of a 3 storey RC frame with non-
seismic detailing, Earthquake Engineering and Structural
Dynamics 31: 353–378.
Madan, A., Reinhorn, A. M., 1997. Modelling of Masonary
Infill Panels for Structural Analysis. Journal of Structural
Engineering (ASCE), Vol:123, 1295–1302.
Rutenberg, A., Shoet, G., Eisenberger, M., 1989. Inelastic
Seismic Response of Code Designed Asymmetric Struc-
tures. Publ. 303, Faculty of Civil Engineering. Technion-
Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa.
Saneinnejad, A., Hobbs, B. 1995. Inealstic Design of Infilled
Frames, Journal of Structural Engineering pp: 634–650.
Tsai, M., Huang T., 2010. Effect of Interior Brick-infill Par-
titions on the Progressive Collapse Potential of a RC
Building: Linear Static Analysis Results. International
Journal of Applied Science, Engineering and Technology
6:1
Turkish Earthquake Resistant Design Building Code 1997,
2007.
TS-498 – Design Loads for Buildings, 1997. Turkish Standard
Institute.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Experimental investigation of old R/C frames strengthened against

earthquakes by high dissipation steel link elements

A.A. Karalis & K.C. Stylianidis

Laboratory of R/C and Masonry Structures, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

T.N. Salonikios
Institute of Engineering Seismology and Earthquake Engineering, Thessaloniki, Greece

ABSTRACT: The use of steel bracing elements for the strengthening of old reinforced concrete (R/C) frames
is a scientifically validated method. These R/C frames were usually designed according to older codes and were
constructed with substandard details. The efficiency of the strengthening technique is related to the appropriate
design of the steel elements. Brittle types of failure, especially at the connections between steel and concrete
elements, can be avoided by appropriate design of the local details. The use of steel bracings can provide
significant increase to load carrying and deformation capacity of the strengthened R/C frames. In the present
work results are presented from the pilot test of three specimens. The first specimen was a typical one bay, single
storey RC frame. The other two were identical to the first one, strengthened by two different types of steel bracing
elements. The concrete frames were constructed according to older code provisions by the use of smooth steel
bars, low strength concrete, sparsely spaced stirrups and substandard details. The strengthening scheme aimed
to the increase of both strength and deformation capacity of the original R/C frame. The inelastic deformations
are purposely concentrated to a short steel link element connecting the steel bracing to the R/C frame. The scope
of the experimental program is to record the overall behaviour of the specimens and to detect the weaknesses of
this strengthening scheme, in order to improve its efficiency.

1 INTRODUCTION at purposely used elastoplastic energy dampers. Test

The strengthening of existing old buildings is a well
documented current necessity in seismic prone areas,
especially in the case that their load resisting system
consists of poorly designed pure R/C moment frames
with pilotis (soft ground floor). Thus, it is reasonable
to consider that these buildings should be strengthened
in priority (among others) by government authorities
and the owners. In the present experimental work, the
effectiveness of a strengthening technique using a cer-
tain type of steel bracings is investigated. From the
tests useful conclusions are drawn on the use of this
methodology for the strengthening of old R/C moment
frames against seismic actions and also on the develop-
ment of a methodology for the selection and the design
of the suitable, in each case, intervention scheme.
2 STATE OF THE ART REVIEW
The bracing of pure R/C moment frames by steel ele-
ments was investigated by many researchers during
the last 15 years. In 1997 and 2003 Maheri et al. and
in 2006 Ghaffarzadeh et al. investigated experimen-
tally the use of steel bracing in concrete frames. A
steel truss for the strengthening of R/C frames was
tested by Kunisue et al. (2000). Failure was observed
results show that the strength and the energy dissipa-
tion capacity can be significantly improved by the use
of these dampers. A calculation method was also sug-
gested for the estimation of the strength increase in
strengthened R/C frames and satisfactory approxima-
tion between experimental and analytical results was
observed. In tests performed by Perera et al. (2004)
the strengthening of masonry infilled R/C frames
was examined. In some frames the masonry was
replaced by a system of two steel braces and significant
improvement of the energy dissipation was observed.
In an experimental work by Ishii et al. (2004), R/C
frames were tested and various types of failure in
R/C structural elements were observed. Frames were
strengthened by the same system of two steel braces.
Differences at the hysteresis loops were recorded for
each type of specimen. The optimum response was
observed in specimens with flexural failure at the
columns. In R/C frames that were strengthened by
the use the two steel braces, considerable increase of
strength and energy dissipation capacity was observed.
In that case significant damage occurred at the ends of
the top R/C beam. Tests on two full scale, 4 storey R/C
frames were reported by Pinto et al. (2006). For the
frame without any strengthening interventions, high
vulnerability to seismic loads was observed. It was
found that through the use of steel braces, the seismic

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
response of the strengthened frame and the energy dis-
sipation capacity are significantly improved. A full
scale 3D two storey R/C frame was tested byAntonucci
et al. (2006). Viscous dampers were used at the con-
nection point of the top of the bracing system to the
middle of the R/C beam. It was found that viscous
dampers can dissipate up to 95% of the induced seis-
mic energy. The storey drift was also significantly
reduced. Three tests were performed by D’Aniello
(2006) on an existing R/C building that was strength-
ened against seismic actions by the use of the same
system of two steel braces. From the tests it was
resulted that shear elements can be easily connected
at the concrete and the steel elements and can also
be easily replaced after an important seismic event.
A simplified simulation method was used and a sat- Figure 1. Geometry and reinforcement arrangement of the
isfactory approximation resulted between analytical specimens.
and experimental results. Mistakidis et al. (2007) sug-
gested the seismic retrofitting of existing concrete
structures through low yield metallic shear panels.
The most important characteristic of this technique is
the improvement of the energy dissipation capacity
of the retrofitted structures.
From the literature review it is concluded that
the use of a system of two steel braces with a pur-
posely designed steel link element at the top with
shear and/or flexural type of failure, could increase the
shear strength and the energy dissipation capacity of
existing R/C frames under seismic actions. The main
characteristic that should be placed under study and
seems to be the crucial point for such systems is the
deformation capacity of the link element. The study
presented herein is a part of an experimental program
that involves 14 specimens and gives the results after Figure 2. Specimens F2 and F3 strengthened by steel
the test of the first three specimens. bracing system and a steel link element at the top.

3 DESCRIPTION OF THE TESTS

3.1 Specimens
The tests were carried out at the Laboratory of Con-
crete and Masonry Structures at the Aristotle Univer-
sity of Thessaloniki. In this work results are given
from the tests of three specimens that were constructed
in 1:3 scale. The specimens represent a single storey
one bay frame rigidly based on a strong foundation.
The three R/C specimens are identical to each other.
The geometry and the reinforcement arrangement
of the specimens are shown in Fig. 1.
Although specimen F1 is a bare reference frame, the
bracing system was placed as in the other two spec-
imens, but without the link element. This layout was
selected in order to ensure the same geometrical con-
ditions for all the specimens concerning the free height
of the columns. In the other two specimens the brac-
ing system was connected at the middle of the top
beam by a steel link element that was different for
each specimen (Figs. 2, 3).
As shown in Fig. 2, the bracing system is composed
by two steel elements that are connected to each other
at their top. At this point there is a steel plate on which
Figure 3. Shear – flexural steel link elements for specimens
F2 and F3.
the shear – flexural link element shown in Fig. 3 is
welded. The top of the link element is connected to
the midpoint of the beam through a steel U shaped
collar which surrounds the beam. The collar element
is connected to the top beam by six bolts from side
to side of the beam. The diagonal elements of the
bracing system were connected at their bottom with
the column base and the base beam of the specimens
by external bolts. The elements of the bracing sys-
tem, the collar and the connections to the beams and
the columns were not considered as parameters under
investigation in the present study. Therefore they were
overdesigned in order to avoid local failures at these
elements. Consequently, the inelastic deformations of

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
the strengthened specimens are expected to be con-
centrated mainly at the link element. This type of
link elements are expected to significantly increase
the strength and stiffness of the strengthened frame,
but the most important advantage of these systems is
the drastic reduction of the strength demand of the
strengthened R/C elements against seismic actions due
to their high energy dissipation capacity.
The percentage and the layout of the reinforcement,
the steel and concrete quality and the type of reinforce-
ment bars (smooth) were selected in order to simulate
R/C frames that were constructed according to older
codes using past construction techniques. The smooth
steel bars for the longitudinal reinforcement had a
yield to ultimate strength ratio fy /fu = 450/540 MPa
(it was not possible to find lower strength smooth
reinforcement bars 6 mm in diameter) and for stir-
rups fy /fu = 265/390 MPa. Low strength concrete was
also used with fck = 16 MPa. The reinforcement was
arranged according to older code provisions without
dense spacing at the critical areas of possible hinge
regions at the ends of the concrete structural elements.
The anchorage length of the steel bars was also small
contrary to modern code provisions.
The steel link elements had a yield to ultimate
strength fy /fu = 300/375 MPa and geometrical dimen-
sions shown in Fig. 3. The following two types of
shear – flexural elements were used: Figure 4. Test setup.
• Rectangular shaped cross section (specimen F2)
• I shaped cross section (specimen F3) is composed of 12 levels of displacement for the
strengthened specimens F2 and F3 and of 16 lev-
3.2 Experimental test setup els of displacement for the bare frame F1. For each
displacement level, two full cycles were imposed.
For the tests, the facilities of the Laboratory of Con-
The specimens were instrumented by the use of
crete and Masonry Structures, Aristotle University of
seven LVDTs.The layout of these instruments is shown
Thessaloniki, were used (Fig. 4). The reaction frame
in Fig. 5. LVDTs 1, 5, 2, 6 were used for the measure-
consists of steel beams and columns connected to each
ment of the shortening and the elongation of the outer
other by prestressed bolts. One double acting actuator
fibers at the ends of the left column. LVDT 8 was
is connected at the top beam of the specimens applying
used for the measurement of the top horizontal dis-
horizontal displacement reversals. Another actuator
placement of the specimen and was compared with the
can be also connected to the system to apply vertical
measurements of the internal LVDT of the horizontal
axial loads on the columns through a top steel beam in
actuator. LVDTs 4 and 7 were used for the measure-
a load control mode. This option was not activated in
ment of the net horizontal displacement at the top and
the present study.
bottom ends of the steel link element. Some differ-
The reaction frame is connected to the strong floor
ences between instruments 8 and 4 occurred because
of the laboratory by the use of steel stoppers in
the top collar of the shear – flexural element could not
combination with vertical prestressed anchored bolts.
be completely restraint at the midpoint of the top beam
The test specimens were also connected to the floor
of the specimen. The measurements of the external
by the same technique. It is worth mentioning that
LVDTs together with the measurements of the inter-
during the tests no slip was recorded between the spec-
nal LVDT and load shell of the horizontal actuator
imens and the laboratory floor. The horizontal actuator
were recorded through the digital controller. In the
was connected to the top of the specimens by a system
present work, only a small part of the experimental
of two stiff steel plates at the vertical outer sides of
measurements and the postprocessed data are given
the beam – column joints, connected to each other by
due to limited available space.
four long bolts. In order to provide rotational degree
at the connection points, beyond the 3D rotational
hinges of the actuator at the ends of its length, two
4 TEST RESULTS
more rotational hinges were provided between the steel
plates and the two top beam – column joints of each
4.1 Reference specimen F1
specimen.
The horizontal loads were imposed in a dis- At early stages, during the first imposed cyclic dis-
placement control mode. The displacement history placements, horizontal or inclined cracks appeared,

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 5. LVDT arrangement on the specimens.
Figure 7. Load – displacement (P − δ) curves of the
frame F1.

Figure 8. Load – displacement (P − δ) curves of the

frame F2.
Figure 6. Plastic hinge at the bottom of the column.

initially at the base and later at the top of the columns.

The cracks at the base of the columns were formed
just over the connection point of the bracing system
to the columns (Fig. 6). Under high level of imposed
displacements, plastic hinges were formed at the ends
of the columns of the specimens. Although no specific
measures were taken, such as local confinement, the
strength of the specimen was slightly increased even
for drifts close to 3% (Fig. 7). For higher levels of the
imposed inelastic deformation, the strength degrada-
tion was very low. This response is attributed to the
prevailing flexural type of failure that was observed
and measured during the tests. Taking into account
the poor detailing of the specimen, although pinching
is evident during unloading, the load – displacement
hysteresis loops are rather rich, characteristic of the Figure 9. Cracking at the middle of the beam.
relatively high energy dissipation capacity of the sys-
tem. During the second cycles at each displacement is three times higher than that of the reference speci-
level, only a small reduction of the strength and the men F1, the hysteresis loops are very rich, no pinching
dissipation capacity is observed. is traced. The failure mode of the R/C frame is the
same as in F1, since plastic hinges are formed again
at the top and the bottom of the columns. The mid-
4.2 Strengthened specimens F2 and F3
point of the beam suffers some local cracking, but the
The steel link elements significantly increased stiff- cracking is not significant enough to alter the failure
ness, strength and the energy dissipation capacity of mode (Fig. 9). When the drift reaches about 1.2%, the
the strengthened specimens F2 and F3, especially at steel link element reveals a failure of a rather shear
the level of small imposed displacements. type, with a side to side horizontal crack at the top
Specimen F2 presents an excellent behaviour up to and the bottom ends (Fig. 10). After the complete
a drift of 1.2% (Fig. 8). The load carrying capacity detachment of the link element, the overall behaviour,

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 10. Failure mode of the link element of specimen F2.
Figure 11. Load – displacement (P − δ) curves of the
frame F3.
Figure 12. Failure mode of the link element of specimen F3.
concerning strength and energy dissipation capacity,
drops to the behaviour of the reference specimen. It
is worth mentioning that no signs of unfavorable phe-
nomena, such as considerable drop of strength during
imposed reversals and pinching, are traced.
Specimen F3 reveals an even better behaviour com-
pared to F2. Failure occurs at a drift of 1.8% (Fig. 11).
The load carrying capacity is almost four times higher
than that of the reference specimen F1, the hysteresis
loops are also very rich, again no pinching is traced. At
that level of drift the steel link element reveals a rather
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 13. Comparison of load – displacement (P − δ)
envelopes (first cycles only).
Figure 14. Comparison of energy dissipation –
displacement (E − δ) envelopes (first cycles only).
bending type of failure (Fig. 12). For a small amount
of further displacements, the link element, although
practically inactive, is not completely detached from
the plates, still offering some strength and energy dis-
sipation capacity before the full detachment occurs.
Again, no unfavorable phenomena are evident.
The failure modes, especially the role of the steel
links, together with an analytical effort to model the
experimental behaviour of the above specimens is pre-
sented by Georgiadi-Stefanidi and Mistakidis 2010 in
the present volume.
4.3 Comparisons between specimens
For the comparison of the overall behaviour of the
specimens, two diagrams are presented in Figs. 13
and 14. In Fig. 13, the loads are calculated as the
mean of the absolute values of the positive and nega-
tive load carrying capacity at each displacement level.
It is apparent that the strengthened specimens F2 and
F3 are stiffer and stronger, about three and almost
four times respectively in comparison to the refer-
ence specimen F1. The specimen F3 appears to behave
better than the specimen F2 since it reveals higher
strength and deformation capacity. In Fig. 14 it is evi-
dent that, at the displacement levels where the links
are active, the strengthened specimens can dissipate
 energy about ten times than that of the reference spec-
imen. Again, specimen F3 seems to behave better than
the specimen F2.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The main conclusions from the observed and the
recorded response of the strengthened specimens are
the following:
The use of steel link elements for the improvement
of the seismic response of existing buildings is a low
cost, low technology level and fully reversible method.
In the case of open ground floors, the local appli-
cation of the technique practically causes no inconve-
nience for the users of the building.
Under excessive seismic conditions the damage of
the bracing system is expected to concentrate to the
steel links only, which can easily be replaced.
Steel link elements can increase considerably the
stiffness and the strength but they mainly increase the
energy dissipation capacity.
By a thorough selection of the geometrical dimen-
sions, the shape and the material quality of the steel
link elements, the unfavorable early local failure at the
middle of the top beam of an existing R/C frame can
be prevented. There is a need for careful design of the
connection of the steel link element to the R/C top
beam.
As it is already mentioned, analytical research to
simulate the experiments has already started and the
results are encouraging.
Further experimental research effort is under way
to improve the advantages of steel link elements for
the strengthening of existing R/C frames.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The work presented here is part of a broader program
partially sponsored by the Greek Earthquake Planning
and Protection Organization, the contribution of which
is gratefully acknowledged.
REFERENCES
Antonucci, R., Balducci, F., Bartera, F., Castellano, M. &
Chaudat, T. 2006. Shaking table test on rc frame braced
with fluid viscus dampers. 1st European Conference on
Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (1st ECEES),
Switzerland, 3–8 Semptember 2006. paper#650.
882
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
D’Aniello, M. 2006. Seismic upgrading of rc structure by
steel eccentric bracing (an experimental and numerical
study). Pollack Periodica, An International Journal for
Engineering and Information Sciences. 1(2):17–32.
Georgiadi-Stefanidi, K.A. & Mistakidis, E.S. 2010. Numer-
ical investigation of old RC frames strengthened against
earthquakes by high dissipation steel link elements. Cost
Action C26 International Conference “Urban Habitat
Constructions under Catastrophic Events”, Napoli 2010.
Ghaffarzadeh, H. & Maheri, M.R. 2006. Mechanical com-
pression release device in steel bracing system for
retrofitting RC frames. Earthquake engineering and engi-
neering vibration, 5(1): 151–158.
Ishii, T., Mukai, T., Kitamura, H., Shimizu, T., Fujisawa, K. &
Ishida, Y. 2004. Seismic retrofit for existing r/c building
using energy dissipative braces. 13th World Conference
on Earthquake Engineering (13th WCEE), Canada, 1–6
August 2004. paper#1209.
Kunisue, A., Koshika, N., Kurokawa, Y., Suzuki, N., Agami,
J. & Sakamoto, M. 2000. Retrofitting method of exist-
ing reinforced concrete buildings using elasto-plastic steel
dampers. 12th World Conference of Earthquake Engineer-
ing (12th WCEE), N. Zealand, 30 January – 4 February
2000. paper#648.
Maheri, M.R. & Sahebi, A. 1997. Use of steel bracing in re-
inforced concrete frames. Engineering Structures, 19(12):
1018–1024.
Maheri, M.R., Kousari, R. & Razazan, M. 2003. Pushover
tests on steel X-braced and knee-braced RC frames.
Engineering Structures, 25(13): 1697–1705.
Mistakidis, E.S., De Matteis, G. & Formisano, A. 2007.
Low yield metal shear panels as an alternative for the
seismic upgrading of concrete structures. Advances in
Engineering Software 38(8–9): 626–636.
Perera, R., Gomez, S. & Alarcon, E. 2004. Experimental
and analytical study of masonry infill reinforced concrete
frames retrofitted with steel braces. Journal of structural
engineering, ASCE 130(12): 2032–2039.
Pinto, A. & Taucer, F. 2006. Assessment and retrofit of full-
scale models of existing rc frames. Wasti, S.T., Ozcebe,
G., (eds.),Advances in Earthquake Engineering for Urban
Risk Reduction, Springer Netherland, 353–367.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Application of base isolation techniques for seismic protection

of structures-study cases

L. Krstevska, Lj. Tashkov, M. Garevski & V. Shendova

Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology – IZIIS, University Ss. Cyril and Methodius,
Skopje, Republic of Macedonia

ABSTRACT: This paper deals with two base isolation techniques for seismic protection of different type
of structures: monuments, liquid storage tanks, buildings, etc. The effectiveness of these techniques has been
investigated experimentally on reduced scale models in laboratory conditions at the Dynamic Testing Laboratory
of the Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology in Skopje. The first technique is related
to base isolation by rubber bearings. Such type of isolation is applied on a liquid storage tank model, a church
model and a school building. The second technique is related to base isolation by ALSC sliding system. This
technique was applied on a liquid storage tank model as well as on a church model.

1 INTRODUCTION many variations of types of rubber and sliding contact

By definition, base isolation of structures assumes sep-
aration of the main structure from its foundation with
intention of reducing the transmission of the vibration
from the ground to the structure. This technique, as an
idea, has a very long history. However, its application
in practice is still not frequent enough. The experience
from the past earthquakes clearly shows that any of
the applied base isolation techniques is more effective
than the classical design approach. This type of non
conventional construction became particularly popu-
lar in the world after the catastrophic earthquakes in
Los Angeles (1985) and Kobe (1995). During both
earthquakes, base isolated structures showed perfect
behavior. The structures and equipment in the base iso-
lated structures didn’t suffer any damage. Moreover,
similar structures classically constructed (with a fixed
base), located very near to base isolated structures,
suffered heavy damage. Because of the high level of
safety, this technique is applied on vital structures such
as: crises centers, public buildings, hospitals, schools
etc. This technique could be applied on new as well as
old structures.
The effectiveness of base isolation varies for dif-
ferent base isolation solutions. The cost of the base
isolation solutions also varies in the widely range.
The designers should therefore perform a special cost-
effective study for an optimum solution considering
several factors such as: importance of the structure,
safety requirements, seismic conditions on the con-
struction site, maintenance requirement of the base
isolation system, direct cost of the system, total cost
reduction of the isolated structure, etc.
The main types of base isolation systems, which are
more frequently used today, are the rubber base isola-
tion and sliding-friction base isolation systems with
surface. The effectiveness of the applied base isolation
systems is checked trough shake table tests on mod-
els in laboratory conditions as well as trough full scale
tests by ambient and forced vibration methods. Empir-
ical checking is also possible in case of moderate or
strong earthquake during the serviceability period of
the base isolated structure.
The application of base isolation system in Mace-
donia is very seldom. It is interesting that the first and
last base isolated building was constructed a few years
after the catastrophic Skopje earthquake of 1963. More
details will be given in the next chapter.
For the last 20 years, several projects related to base
isolation have been realized at the Dynamic Testing
Laboratory of the Institute of Earthquake Engineer-
ing and Engineering Seismology in Skopje, such as:
shake table test of a model of a church base isolated
by laminated rubber bearings with steel dampers and
stopper elements; replacement of the old natural rub-
ber elements of the Pestalozzi school in Skopje by
high strength rubber bearings with carbon fiber mesh;
model of a liquid storage tank and model of a church,
base isolated by an ALSC floating- sliding system.
Some details on these projects will be presented in the
next chapters of the paper.
2 CASE STUDY NO. 1: EXPERIMENTAL
INVESTIGATIONS OF THE BASE ISOLATED
MODEL OF SENT NIKITA CHURCH TO A
REDUCED SCALE 1/2.75
2.1 Design of the base isolation model
To develop appropriate approaches to repair and
strengthening of Byzantine churches, in general, and

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 particularly churches located in Macedonia, research
projects on seismic strengthening, conservation and
restoration, including seismic isolation of Byzantine
churches in the Republic of Macedonia were real-
ized in the period 1990–2000. The development of
a methodology for application of seismic isolation
in Byzantine churches represented by an imposing
number of historic monuments located in the Balkan
and the Mediterranean region, was the main objec-
tive of the research project “Earthquake Protection of
Byzantine Churches Using Seismic Isolation”. Taking
into account the specific characteristics of the struc-
tures and the investigations that had previously been
performed for the needs of application of this method-
ology, performance of analytical and experimental
investigations with defined criteria and conditions for
application was necessary.
In the process of design of seismic isolation for
protection of cultural historic monuments, variant
solutions of different systems and isolation methods
were analyzed, with a particular attention focused on
the model to be tested and application in existing
structures. In addition to the methods and ways of
seismic isolation by use of modern technologies, par-
ticular emphasis was put on possible isolation by use of
natural materials. Based on the results from the analyti-
cal investigations performed by use of corresponding
models of dynamic response of structures whereat data
from literature and performed experimental investiga-
tions were used as input characteristics of the isolation
systems, it can be concluded that the isolation systems
with natural material (gravel, sand and alike) offer
limited possibilities considering their physical charac-
teristics (friction), whereas the application of a modern
equipment offers the possibility for controlled behav-
ior of structures depending on their characteristics and
the characteristics of the equipment.
The objective of the project was not to develop
a new isolation system for historic monuments but
choose one from the corresponding existing systems
and apply it, focusing on the specific behavior of the
structures and buildings pertaining to historic monu-
ments. The Sent Nikita church (Fig. 1) was considered
Figure 1. St. Nikita church near Skopje considered as a
prototype structure.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
as a prototype structure and a model in scale 1/2 was
designed and build.
Taking into account the previously acquired knowl-
edge, the practice and the main assumptions from the
aspect of analytical and experimental behavior of the
system on one hand, as well as the specific criteria and
requirements regarding protection of historic monu-
ments on the other hand, the new, specially developed
system, or better to say, concept of isolation within
the framework of the investigation project was the so
called “laminated rubber bearing with steel dampers
and stopper elements”, (Fig. 2).
For such a selected isolation system, detailed
analytical investigations were performed for different
levels of input acceleration and different earthquake
records. Designed and constructed for the optimal
system of a total of 8 isolators was a steel structure
for connection of the isolators with the church model
structure and the seismic shaking table (Fig. 2).
For increasing the damping capacity of the rubber
bearings, steel stoppers were used (Fig. 3).
2.2 Test results
The model was subjected to the same series of dynamic
tests as the previously tested original and strengthened
model. However, due to the base energy dissipation
characteristics of the base isolated model, the tests
were also continued at higher intensities. An analysis
of the results obtained from the test is given in Table 1.
Figure 2. Laminated rubber bearings for seismic isolation.
Figure 3. Seismic isolator with steel stopper.
 Table 2 shows the comparison among the experi- model strengthened by use of “ties and injection”,
mentally obtained results for all the three models, i.e. pointed to a decrease of input acceleration in the
the previously tested original, non retrofitted model, model structure for 50–60%.
the model strengthened by use of “ties and injection” • It was evident that the output displacement and the
and the base isolated model. acceleration along the height of the base isolated
From the comparison of the experimental results the model were considerably smaller than these for the
following can be concluded: strengthened model.
• There was also a significant difference in the ampli-
• The results from the tests on the base isolated model,
fication of the dynamic response of the dome
compared with the results from the previously tested
structure, which was negligible in the case of base
isolated model.
• The failure mechanism of the base isolated model
was completely different from that of the previous
models. In all tests with input acceleration up to
0.60g, the base isolated model behaves as a rigid
body without any visible cracks. When the cracks
were formed they were with a pattern similar to
those of the original model.
• The base isolated model did not suffer dam-
age under low and moderate earthquake intensi-
ties and the damages under maximum expected
accelerations with a return period of 1000 years,
(amax = 0.54 g) were minimal and absolutely allow-
able and repairable.
• Finally, to conceive the efficiency of the applied
seismic isolation system, the model was tested under
earthquake intensity greater than the expected one,
Figure 4. Model of the church with rubber bearings on the (El Centro, amax = 0.63 g). Under this intensity, the
shake table at IZIIS. monument was evidently stable and safe, with the
exception of some minor damage.
Table 1. Results obtained for the model under different
intensities of the El Centro earthquake.
3 CASE STUDY NO 2: DEVELOPMENT OF
Base of the Top of the LOW-COST RUBBER BEARINGS FOR
Input Foundation tambour dome
SEISMIC SAFETY OF STRUCTURES IN
Acc Disp Acc Disp Acc Disp Acc Disp MACEDONIA AND BALKAN
(g) (mm) (g) (mm) (g) (mm) (g) (mm)
3.1 Objective and scopes
0.17 9.0 0.06 11.0 0.07 15.0 0.10 12.0
0.30 18.0 0.09 23.0 0.10 30.0 0.14 35.0 The project was realized within the frame of the NATO
0.41 27.0 0.13 32.0 0.14 45.0 0.16 40.0 SFP program, by cooperation of several institutions:
0.49 33.0 0.21 44.0 0.23 69.0 0.31 65.0
0.54 36.0 0.26 48.0 0.35 77.0 0.68 73.0
– Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Engineer-
0.63 42.0 0.30 63.0 0.42 94.0 0.82 0.97 ing Seismology, Univ. “Ss Cyril and Methodius”,
Skopje, Macedonia

Table 2. Comparison among the experimental results obtained for the three models.

Output acceleration (in g) for the church models

original strengthened base isolated
Input
Earth-Quake acc (g) level 1 level 2 level 1 level 2 level 1 level 2

El Centro 0.17 0.29 0.55 0.20 0.47 0.07 0.10

El Centro 0.30 – – 0.65 1.10 0.10 0.14
El Centro 0.49 – – 0.91 1.59 0.23 0.31
El Centro 0.54 – – 0.77 1.41 0.35 0.68
El Centro 0.63 – – – – 0.42 0.82
Petrovac 0.19 0.39 0.76 0.27 0.48 0.09 0.15
Petrovac 0.40 – – 0.77 1.36 0.15 0.28
Breginj 0.17 0.22 0.52 0.30 0.55 0.07 0.10
Breginj 0.28 – – 0.20 0.40 0.10 0.16
Breginj 0.38 – – 0.34 0.79 0.14 0.23

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 6. The new light-weight rubber isolators with carbon
fiber sheets under testing conditions.
Figure 5. Testing machine for rubber bearings.

– University of California at Berkeley, California,

USA
– Mak-Oz, Kavadarci, R. Macedonia
– Civil Engineering Faculty, University of Tirana,
R. Albania
– “ALGA” Spa, Milano, Italy
The main objectives of the project were:
– Development of low-cost, light-weight rubber iso-
lators with carbon fiber sheets that can be used for
housing, schools and other public buildings in the
Balkan region;
– Development and testing of isolators to be supple-
mented by at least one demonstration project;
– Trial production of bearings using the new technol- Figure 7. Pestaloci school in Skopje.
ogy;
– Static and dynamic tests to verify the mechanical
characteristics of the trial bearings including limit
states;
– Selection of a structure to be base-isolated.

3.2 Performed activities

In the first phase of the project, development and
testing of isolators was performed. First of all, trial
bearings were produced and tested at the Dynamic
Testing Laboratory on a big testing machine specially
designed for that purpose (Fig. 5).
The isolators were tested under normal force of Figure 8. Old natural rubber isolators at Pestaloci school.
2500 kN to lateral deformation of 20 cm (Fig. 6). The
shape of the isolator was cylindrical, with a diameter characterized by damping of 7–9%, unless the old
of 45 cm. ones, whose damping was much lower.
The next step of the project was application of the
new product in a selected structure. For this purpose,
the old rubber bearings of the Pestalozzi school in
4 CASE STUDY NO 3: BASE ISOLATION OF
Skopje (Fig. 7) were replaced (Fig. 9). These natural
STRUCTURES BY FLOATING-SLIDING
rubber bearings were installed by the Swiss experts
SYSTEM ALSC
in 1968. In the course of 50 years of existence,
the bearings suffered deformations and minor cracks
4.1 The concept of ALSC base isolation system
(Fig. 8).
The new bearings are three times smaller than the The “Almost Lifted Structure Concept” represents a
old ones, but with 5 times bigger bearing capacity specific solution belonging to the group of “sliding
(2500 kN). The total mass of the school of 22.000 kN concepts”. The upper structure slides over a smooth
was supported by 54 bearings. The new bearings are surface under low pressure. Under horizontal load

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 9. Replacement of old rubber bearings with new
ones. Figure 11. Seismic base isolation by “ALSC” floating-
sliding system, model of reservoir, 1/3.

Figure 10. Centering springs.

effect, the structure slides along the foundation base.

By controlling the pressure of the liquid, which is
located in the empty space under the sliding base, the Figure 12. Seismic base isolation by “ALSC” floating-
friction force and the sliding of the structure are con- sliding system, model of church, 1/3.5.
trolled as well. The friction force at the contact surface
is defined by the following equation:

(for L = G; N becomes 0 and Fr = 0 i.e. floating state)

Fr = friction force;
µ = friction coefficient at the contact surface;
N = active compressive force;
L = uplifting force produced by the liquid;
G = weight of the principal structure;
p = liquid pressure;
S = contact surface between the sliding and the
fixed plate
The horizontal displacement of the structure as well
the designed frequency is controlled by horizontal
springs. The centering springs keep the structure in
centered position always when sliding starts (Fig. 10).
The models of reservoir and church, consisting of
basin, sliding foundation, lateral springs and super-
structure, are shown on Fig. 11 (model of reservoir)
and Fig. 12 (model of church).
The dimensions of the centering springs as well as
the amount of the lifting pressure under the sliding
Figure 13. System for automatic control of the liquid
pressure.
foundation plate depend on the main dynamic charac-
teristics of the structure, its weight, rigidity, designed
vibration period, available space for lateral relative
displacement between the sliding base and the fixed
base, etc.
4.2 System for automatic control of liquid pressure
The automatic system for activation of the working
pressure under the sliding plate and keeping it con-
stant as long as needed, plays an important role in
the effectiveness of the ALSC base-isolation system.
Some details of the automatic system for control of
liquid pressure are shown in Fig. 13.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 14. comparative presentation of performance of the
model of reservoir isolated by ALSC system and fixed base
model. Figure 15. Response of the church model base-isolated by
ALSC floating-sliding system.

4.3 Test results

4.3.1 Test results for the model of reservoir
The shake-table test on the model of a reservoir was
performed in the Laboratory of the Institute for Earth-
quake Engineering and Engineering Seismology in
Skopje in the years 2003 and 2004. Three series of
tests were conducted for different types of dynamic
excitations produced by shaking table. The general
impression was that the base-isolated model behaves
very stable under different earthquake and harmonic
excitations in both horizontal and vertical direction.
The amplification of base motion at the top was les
than one (0.2–0.32), which means that the input motion
was attenuated 3-5 times. On the other hand, the fixed Figure 16. Response of the church model fixed to the base.
base model behaved very unfavorable, by damage to
the fixing anchors at the base and production of large
amplification at the top of the model (2.0–5.0). The damage to the walls on the intensity of earthquake
comparative presentation of the performance of the 0.45 g–0.70 g. (Fig. 16).
model of the reservoir isolated by ALSC system and
fixed base model is given on Fig. 14.
5 CONCLUSIONS
4.3.2 Test results for the model of church
The presented techniques of base isolation show effec-
The shake-table test on the church model was per-
tive reduction of seismic energy transmission from the
formed in the Laboratory of the Institute for Earth-
foundation to the structure in all three case studies.
quake Engineering and Engineering Seismology in
Based on the performed analytical and experimen-
Skopje in the year 2008. The main objective of the
tal investigations, the following conclusions can be
testing was to investigate experimentally the effec-
drawn:
tiveness of the proposed reversible technology: base
isolation of historical monuments by ALSC floating- – The base isolation with rubber isolators applied to
sliding system. The testing was performed in two main the model of the church shows that it can effec-
phases: phase 1-testing of the base-isolated model with tively protect the structure from severe damage and
the ALSC floating-sliding system and phase 2-testing should be used in all the cases in which intervention
of the original fixed-base model. The base-isolated in the foundation is possible and allowed.
model was tested by 5 different levels of input acceler- – The high strength rubber isolators with carbon
ation: 0.45 g, 0,8 g, 1.2 g and 1.45 g. Uniform sliding fiber sheets applied to the school building sig-
of all parts of the structure was recorded (sliding plate, nificantly increased the isolation characteristics,
walls and tambour).The maximum response acceler- allowing the designed lateral displacement, pre-
ation of the sliding plate in all the cases was about venting the vertical deformation and increasing the
0.2–0.3 g (Fig. 15). This level of acceleration didn’t damping characteristics.
produce any cracks in the model, except an increased – The ALSC floating-sliding base isolation system
relative sliding displacement between the basin and applied to the model of a reservoir and model of
the sliding plate. On the other hand, the behavior of the church shows very effective reduction of energy
the fixed base church model was very unfavorable, transmission during seismic action. The constant
producing damage collapse of the dome and heavy uplifting pressure keeps the structure in a floating

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 position, allowing an easy sliding with very small
friction. The test results show that the effective-
ness of this isolation system is even better than in
the case of standard rubber base isolation solution
and should be promoted in the practice in the near
future.
REFERENCES
Taskov L., Krstevska L., “Comparison Between Fixed Base
and Seismic Base Isolated Liquid Storage Tank by ALSC
System”, EE-21C-International Conference on Earth-
quake Engineering, 27.08–01.09 2005, Skopje-Ohrid.
889
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Tashkov Lj., Krstevska L., Gramatikov K., Mazzolani F.,
“Shake-Table Test of Model of St. Nicholas Church in Re
duced Scale 1/3.5”, Proceedings, Protection of Historical
Buildings, Conference Prohitech 09, Rome, Italy, 2009,
Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN978-0-415-55803-
7, Vol 2, pp 1691–1697.
Garevski M., Georgiev I. Development of low-cost rubber
bearings for seismic safety of structures in Macedonia
and Balkan, NATO Project – SfP Project 978028.
Sendova V. Methodology for Repair and Strengthening of
Historical Monuments Damaged due to Man-Made and
Natural Disasters, Institute of Earthquake Engineering
and Engineering Seismology – IZIIS, University “SS.
Cyril and Methodius”, Skopje.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Using newly developed visco-elastic damper for building seismic design

Brian Lim & Haining Shen

VSL Intrafor Group, Hong Kong

ABSTRACT: Other than traditional design concept and material, more and more researchers and engineers
seek for seismic control devices or so-called dampers to improve the structural behavior during seismic events.
Seismic control devices including viscous damper, steel damper and visco-elastic damper etc. have been applied
in building structures in countries located in seismic regions such as Japan, New Zealand, USA and China for
several years already but progressive developments on material quality, analysis method and design specifications
are still ongoing.
In this paper, the dynamic characteristics of a newly developed visco-elastic damper with greatly improved
damping performance compared to the conventional material will be shown. The visco-elastic damper explained
here could absorb and dissipate vibration energy under super minute deformation such as wind induced vibra-
tion which occurs in a daily basis and also huge earthquake vibration which comes once every 50 years or
more. The equivalent damping coefficient Heq when giving only 0.05 mm deformation in case of static fre-
quency 0.1 Hz shows the wonderful value of 0.15. Temperature dependency which had been the conventional
weak point of visco-elastic damper, has also improved significantly with Heq(−10 degree C/20 degrees C) = 1.21
and Heq(40 degrees C/20 degrees C) = 0.90. Moreover, with Heq(0.1Hz/3.0Hz) = 0.94, the conventional weak points
that damping performance strongly depended on velocity and has little effect for long-period type earth-
quake have been improved. Since the secular degradation after 60-years equivalent aging test is as minor as
Heq(60 years after/initial value) > 0.90, the long-term durability is also proved. In the last part, a comparative case study
is included to show the improvements of overall structural behavior by using this newly developed visco-elastic
damper under seismic vibration.

1 INTRODUCTION could be easy. However, especially under high tem-

Unlike other material based dampers, since visco-
elastic damper has the spring element in addition
to the damping element, it has the function which
restores the object structure to the original position
after deformation. Moreover, visco-elastic damper has
been broadly used for many years due to small sec-
ular degradation of material and the character of no
need to replace after an earthquake or long time use
of repetition. However, the conventional visco-elastic
damper has many characters in common with a vis-
cous damper such as frequency-dependent, especially
at low frequency region, and the value of shear mod-
ulus G is so small and the damping characteristic at
high temperature region is not comparatively good.
Therefore, since the design corresponds to the entire
environment, the worst conditions usually need to be
considered on design. As a result, the required cross-
section area of visco-elastic damper becomes large
and affects economical efficiency including the attach-
ment time. Thus, above mentioned characters were
fetters to market the visco-elastic material as dumping
component.
On the other hand, since the only viscous dampers
such as oil damper can give the damping element
purely to an object structure, the handling on design
perature environment, the damping force becomes
remarkably small because the temperature depen-
dency is large. Moreover, due to strong dependency
on frequency, although it is comparatively effective
for the continentally earthquake which the high fre-
quency components are dominant, the damping effect
becomes feeble in case of a skyscraper where the
natural period is relatively large and when the input
earthquake wave which long-period components are
still dominant like the case of the oceanic earth-
quake. Moreover, on structure, since it has mechanical
clearance, it does not function to minute deformation
and furthermore the periodical maintenance works are
definitely necessary including the oil leaking check-
ing and some aging problem also happens by the
long term use.
Conventionally, most general damping device as
the earthquake-proof safety of the high-rise build-
ing was low yield steel. Low yield steel damper has
advantage in size and cost and also temperature and
frequency dependability are better compared with the
conventional damper. However, at the time of the small
earthquake or typhoon which occur small deforma-
tion frequently, since the low yield loss has the limit
of accumulation plasticity modification, it must be
designed under the condition that the deformation may

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
change only within the limit of elastic modification.
That is, it is said that low yield steel is almost no use for
small vibration. Moreover, since the replacement will
be required when accumulation plasticity deformation
is exceeded, the maintenance after small earthquake is
basically indispensable. Furthermore, since yield load
becomes larger every cycle so the input load must
exceed previous yield load every time. As a result,
the design of the circumferential component must be
carefully considered.
In this paper the various basic dynamic characteris-
tics of newly developed visco-elastic dampers using
the high hardness rubber as the energy absorptive
element will be clarified experimentally. Next, it is
shown that the limit of accumulation plasticity modi-
fication does not actually exist in this dumping device.
And finally the damping capability which can absorb
from the small disturbance such as small earthquake
and wind-induced vibration to the oscillation of huge
earthquake will be shown.
That is, the improved points on the temperature and
frequency dependency which had been the weak point
Figure 1. Outline of one-axis two-surface shearing test
of the conventional visco-elastic dumping device will machine.
be explained by clarifying the dynamics characteris-
tic data of this damper showing the basis which can
respond to a broad vibration in high temperature and
long cycle vibration. And finally the experimental data
in a minute deformation region of this damper will be
shown to prove its effectiveness in small earthquake
not only the great earthquake which occurs rarely even
with high generating frequency.

2 EXPERIMENTAL METHOD

The outline of one-axis two-surface shearing test

machine used for the unit damper performance is
shown in Fig. 1. The standard visco-elastic damper unit Figure 2. Visco-elastic damper Unit.
which used high hardness rubber is shown in Fig. 2. A
visco-elastic object and two sheets of steel flange are Table 1. Geometric conditions of the tested damper unit.
firmly unified by vulcanized adhesion. In case that it
destroys by shear breaking examination, the quality Test Sample Thickness (d) Width or Diameter (B)
control is made so that visco-elastic material always
carries out material destruction. ϕ25–d5 5 mm 25 mm
Regarding an experiment, two damper units con-
100–d20 20 mm 100 mm
sisting of the same shape is tested as a set each time
200–d20 20 mm 200 mm
and the measured force value is divided to half to get
300–d20 20 mm 300 mm

300–d30 30 mm 300 mm
a unit damper value. As for each damper unit, cross-

300–d60 60 mm 300 mm
sectional shape consisting of square and single rubber
layer is used in the experiment. However, practically,
it will change to rectangle shape or laminated rubber
structure according to required design damping force. As a result, it was verified that this damper has the
During the experiment, the distance between flanges is predetermined hysteresis characteristics value by the
kept constant. The hysteresis characteristics values are performance evaluation test using the various shapes
obtained from measured shear forces and horizontal of test model. As the items of the test, basic char-
displacement by sinusoidal oscillation using an actua- acteristic, deformation capability, strain dependency,
tor. The geometric conditions of the tested damper unit repetition dependency, temperature dependency, fre-
are shown in Table 1. Regarding the experiment condi- quency dependency and secular degradation by heat
tions, the temperature: −10 degrees to 40 degrees, the aging were examined.
response region: Frequency: 0.05 Hz to 3.0 Hz, Strain Regarding the experimental set-up of the system
ratio: 300% or less in order to meet the actual con- unit, this visco-elastic damper with the same shape put
ditions in which the damper is practically installed. into the steel plate has sufficient rigidity for the system

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 5. Hysteresis loop.

Figure 3. Experiment sample of wall type.

Figure 4. Experiment sample of brace type.

Figure 6. Definition for the hysteresis characteristic value.

of a wall and brace type dampers respectively as shown
in Figs. 3 and 4. In the experiment, it was confirmed
that the dynamic characteristics is proportional to the
number of the visco-elastic damper.
3 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND
DISCUSSION
3.1 Dynamic characteristics of basic condition
3.1.1 Experiment result
The basic hysteresis characteristics is obtained from
the relations between shear forces and shear displace-
ment as shown in Fig. 5 by four(4) cycle repetition
examination given the shear displacement of the posi-
tive/negative direction equal to visco-elastic thickness.
The hysteresis loop shows abbreviation parallelogram
and the first cycle shows relatively large shear forces
though, the trajectory after the second cycle is becom-
ing almost same. As for hysteresis loop data for
evaluation, one cycle from the maximum shear dis-
placement point of third cycle is chosen which the
dynamic performance becomes quasi-steady status.
Very high rigidity is shown in the minute modifi-
cation domain like low yield steel, however, unlike
steel which has only pure elastic component in this
region, the visco-elastic damper has large damping
component as mentioned later. Regarding frequency
and temperature condition, as long as there is no spe-
cial description, frequency is 0.1Hz of sign wave and
temperature is 20 degrees hereafter.
3.1.2 The definition about the hysteresis
characteristic value
The definition for the hysteresis characteristic value of
this damper is illustrated in Fig. 6. Especially impor-
tant parameters, equivalent shear modulus Geq and
equivalent damping coefficient Heq, are defined by
Eqs.1 and 3 respectively. Geq is coefficient which
is not concerned with the shapes of the visco-elastic
body but shows the characteristic of material. The
equivalent stiffness Keq obtained from the maximum
displacement and the maximum load is divided by
S/d (the cross-section area/the thickness of visco-
elastic object). Equivalent-damping coefficient means
the damping forces transposing the nonlinear recover-
ing character of the visco-elastic body to the equivalent
liner recovering and damping forces.
where S: sectional area of visco-elastic body, d:
thickness of body, Pmax: maximum forces of hystere-
sis loop, Pmin: minimum forces of hysteresis loop,
Xmax: maximum displacement of hysteresis loop,

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 7. Deformation capability characteristic Figure 8. Hysteresis loops of super minute deformation
(
300 mm–d20 mm). region (φ25 mm–d5 mm, Frequency = 0.25 Hz).

Xmin: minimum displacement of hysteresis loop, W :

absorption energy (the area of hysteresis loop) [major
sampling points are 1000 or more.] and W : absorp-
tion energy (the area which is surrounded by the line
perpendicularly taken down from the intersection of
Xmax and Pmax, Keq and the X-axis.)

3.2 Deformation capability

In the deformation capability examination, shear
deformation was given to the damper at the constant
velocity of 5.0 mm/sec. The design target value of
the deformation capability characteristic was 400% or
more of thickness d of the visco-elastic body. Then
it was confirmed that there is no fall (negative slope)
of shear forces in 400% or less of shear strain. Fig. 7
shows the deformation capability characteristic in the
case of
300 mm and d20 mm. In this examination,
the test discontinued at the position where shear strain
exceeded 400% due to the capability of the examina-
tion facilities. However the shear forces are presumed
to be still on the way of right slope and have suffi-
cient capability. With regard to shear forces, after the
minute deformation region showed very high stiffness,
it changed gently to approximate 200%. In the region
of 200% or more, hardening phenomenon occurred
with the increase of shear strain. As a result, shear
forces increased rapidly.
Figure 9. Relation between shear strain ratio and Geq, Heq
3.3 Strain dependency (φ25 mm–d5 mm, Frequency = 0.25 Hz).
In strain dependency examination, four cycles of dis-
placement with both positive/negative direction equiv- as large as 12 N/mm2 . As a result, the large absorption
alent to ±0.5%–±300% of thickness d of visco-elastic energy could be obtained. The relation between shear
damper was input into an examination body and cal- strain ratio and Geq, Heq are shown in Fig. 9 (a) and (b)
culated a hysteresis characteristic value using the respectively. Although Geq decreases rapidly with the
hysteresis loop of third cycle respectively. increase of shear strain in a relative small amplitude
domain, in the domain of 10% or more, it decreases
3.3.1 Super minute deformation region gradually. On the other hand, although Heq shows a
In the examination of super minute deformation peak value at ±12.5% of shear strain with the increase
region, the strain ratio was measured at ±0.5% to of shear strain, the region where the shear strain ratio
±100% using the examination sample with 25 mm is relatively large shows almost constant values.
diameter and 5mm thickness. The piled up hystere-
sis loops of the minute deformation region in the 3.3.2 Relatively large deformation region
frequency of 0.25Hz are displayed on Fig.8. Heq of Regarding the examination of relatively large defor-
±0.5% of strain ratio is as large as 0.25, and Geq is mation region, we gave 50 to 300% of strain ratio

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 10. Hysteresis loop of relatively large deformation
region (
300 mm–d20 mm, Frequency = 0.1 Hz).
Figure 11. Hysteresis loop in each temperature
(
100 mm–d20 mm, Frequency = 0.1 Hz).
of thickness d of the visco-elastic body to the exam-
ination sample. Frequency is 0.1 Hz sign wave and
temperature is 20 degrees.
300 mm and d20 mm case
is shown in Fig. 10 as an example of superposition
of the hysteresis loop in each distortion. In Geq val-
ues, the difference by shape is hardly observed, rather
the values are almost same with the increase of strain
ratio. The influence by the form difference also hardly
appeared in Heq. The value of Heq increased with the
increase of strain ratio rapidly at first and then it grad-
ually increased until 200% of strain ratio showing a
peak value at 200% and then decreased gently after
200% of strain ratio.
3.4 Temperature dependency
Temperature dependency was measured for every 10
degrees in the range of −10 degrees to 40 degrees.
Measured frequency is 0.1 Hz (sign wave), the exam-
ination sample is
100 mm and d20 mm. Superpo-
sition of the hysteresis loop of third cycle in each
temperature is shown in Fig. 11. Although the area of
a hysteresis loop becomes smaller with the increase
of temperature, the area large enough is presented
also in 40 degrees. The temperature dependency of
Geq and Heq is shown in Fig. 12 (a) and (b) respec-
tively. Here it was approved that the newly developed
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 12. Relation between temperature and Geq, Heq
(
100 mm-d20 mm, Frequency = 0.1 Hz).
damper has greatly improved compared to the conven-
tional visco-elastic material in terms of the tempera-
ture dependency of Geq, and temperature dependency
especially on Heq.
3.5 Frequency dependency
Frequency dependency was examined in the range
from the frequency of 0.1 Hz to 3.0 Hz under 20
degrees of temperature with the test sample of

100 mm and d20 mm. The directions of posi-
tive/negative displacement equivalent to ±25% of
visco-elastic damper thickness were given to the pre-
determined number of cycles. As a result, the differ-
ence was hardly found between both loops in spite
of very different frequency conditions. Then the fre-
quency dependency of Geq and Heq is shown in Fig. 13
(a) and (b) to confirm that both dynamics characteris-
tic values showed the almost constant value at broad
frequency region.
3.6 Repetition dependency
3.6.1 Repetition fatigue examination for minute
deformation region
The result of the repetition fatigue examination
focused on the minute deformation region is shown in
Fig. 16. Temperature condition was 20 degrees and the
size of the examination body used for the experiment
is collectively shown. The plot in the figure shows the
points of fracture happened and the plot with an arrow

Figure 13. Relation between frequency and Geq, Heq
(
100 mm–d20 mm).
Figure 14. Result of the repetition fatigue examination for
minute deformation region.
mark in right side means that it did not fracture even
after giving deformation to the regulated cycles. And
the repetition test which resulted in fracture decreased
when shear strain is at ±25% or less. Even after
exceeding 2 million times, the fracture phenomenon
was not confirmed until reaching 10 million times.
3.6.2 Relatively large deformation region
Using the test sample (
100 mm–
300mm and
d20 mm–d60 mm), the repetition examination in rel-
atively large deformation region were carried out with
40 cycle repetition by inputting 100% and 200% strain
rates and calculated the hysteresis characteristic value
using the hysteresis loop of 3 cycle, 10 cycle, 20 cycle,
30 cycle and 40 cycle. In addition, input frequency was
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 15. Hysteresis loop of 40 cycle repetition
(
300 mm–d20 mm, Frequency = 0.1 Hz).
0.1 Hz sign wave and temperature was 20 degrees. As
the result example, the piled up hysteresis loops in

300 mm and d20 mm are shown in Fig. 15. As for the
inclination of a loop, i.e., equivalent stiffness, reduc-
tion advanced slightly by every cycle and loop area
became smaller. When the deformation was compar-
atively large, both characteristic values of Heq and
Geq decreased with the increase of the cycle number
but when the ratio of reduction became smaller when
repetition time increased.
3.7 Secular degradation
The positive/negative direction displacement equiva-
lent to 100% of the thickness d of visco-elastic sample
was given repeatedly and hysteresis characteristic
value was calculated using the hysteresis loop of third
cycle under Frequency of 0.1 Hz sign wave and tem-
perature of 20 degrees with.
100 mm and d20 mm
sample. The relation of the temperature and time that
are obtained from the Arrhenius Law is expressed with
Eqs.5. 24 hours aging at 80 degrees corresponds to 8.9
years at 20 degrees from Eqs.5. The hysteresis loops
from the initial value to 60-year equivalent aging are
collectively shown in Fig. 16. Though some dynam-
ics characteristic values will change largely in first ten
years, they will be almost stable after then.
where t20: Aging time at 20 degrees, ts: Aging time in
arbitrary temperature, T 20: 20 degrees, Ts: arbitrary
temperature, Ea: Activation energy (=27.9 kcal/mol),
R: Gas constant (=2.0 cal/mol · deg)
4 MODELING OF THE HYSTERESIS
CHARACTERISTIC
The approximation equations of the hysteresis char-
acteristic value of this visco-elastic damper were
obtained based on the performance evaluation test
results and the analysis model was made by the approx-
imation equations as shown in Eqs. 6 and 7. The
performance of the damper can be modeled by the
Figure 16. Hysteresis loops of secular degradation
(
100 mm–d20 mm, Frequency = 0.1 Hz). Figure 18. Comparison between experiment result and
modified H-D model.

Figure 17. Relation between shear strain ratio and

Geq, Heq.

popular modified bi-linear model and modified H-D Figure 19. Typical floor plan and analysis model.
model (Y. Takenaka et al. 2001). In this paper, we
show the example of application to modified H-D modified H-D model are shown and both loops show
model which can approximate the hysteresis loop more good agreement.
accurate. Geq and Heq which were obtained by exper-
iments are shown in Fig. 17 (a) and (b) respectively.
The approximation curves used for modeling are also
shown in the figures. The experiment values obtained
from the various shaped samples shown by the plots where γ: strain ratio.
show good agreement with the approximation curve.
The experiment results performed using the real
sized wall type (
100 mm, d10 mm × 40 pieces) and 5 CASE STUDY WITH DAMPED OUTRIGGER
the brace type (
300 mm, d30 × 16 piece) dampers SYSTEM
for buildings is shown in Fig. 22 (a) and (b). Test
frequency for the wall type and the brace type are A 56-storey, reinforced concrete building with verti-
0.1 Hz and 0.05 Hz respectively. The superposed hys- cal height of 270 meters was studied. In this building
teresis loop obtained from experiment and modeled by structure, two floors are equipped with outriggers for

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 21. Damper movements during vibration.

Table 2. Summary of improvements with damped outrigger

Figure 20. Damper locations in outrigger floor. design.

Damped
Items Original Outrigger Reduction
lateral stability. Please refer to Fig. 19 for the struc-
tural layout. The building is designed to resist Seismic Member
Intensity 8 (0.2 g) of the Chinese General Building Size (mm)
Code. Column 2300 × 2300 2100 × 2100 −16.6%
Outriggers are common method of stiffening and Perimeter 1200 × 800 1200 × 700 −12.5%
strengthening tall buildings which works by connect- Beams
ing the inner core to the outer perimeter columns. This Drift Ratio
design is very effective and favored by most struc- X 1/547 1/610 −10.3%
tural engineers. The damped outrigger works by the Y 1/488 1/579 −15.7%
Roof Disp.
insertion of dampers between the outriggers and the
(mm)
external columns. With this arrangement, there is a X 287 257 −10.5%
small increase in structural stiffness of the building Y 373 323 −13.4%
but a significant increase in damping. There are many Roof Acc.
variations on this design concept, but the principles (m/s2)
lies in adding and connecting structural members with X 1.214 0.971 −20.1%
components primarily to develop damping, rather than Y 1.478 1.156 −21.8%
primarily to develop additional stiffness.
For a high-rise building, the seismic force and res-
onant wind loadings are significant compared with of the original model were changed to cantilever out-
static loads. By adding dampers between outriggers rigger walls while visco-elastic dampers connect the
and external columns, the dynamic responses of the internal outrigger walls to the perimeter columns. All
building is reduced dramatically, along with the lat- the loading inputs, and intrinsic damping ratio are
eral accelerations (which can cause discomfort and same as original assumptions and then the building
panic to the occupants), drift ratios of each floor and was analyzed and redesigned based on reduced design
the design wind forces as well. In order to improve seismic force. The results were tabulated in Table 2.
building performance under vibration and save struc- The analysis result shows with damped outrigger
tural cost, based on original analysis model, the newly system, the damping of whole structure has been
developed visco-elastic dampers were properly added increased by 1.7% which provides better control of
into outrigger floors. The internal outrigger trusses dynamic response during earthquake. In addition,

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
by adding supplementary damping from visco-elastic
damper, the consequences of uncertainty about intrin-
sic damping are reduced. Based on the recommenda-
tions by CTBUH on the seismic design of high-rise
buildings, the measured damping ratio of first trans-
lational mode for buildings with similar height is only
around 1.0%.
Furthermore, with reduced design base shear force
and overturning moment of seismic, the main struc-
tural member size could be proper reduced while the
drift ratio and roof displacement of the building has
been still improved in both directions, which now sat-
isfies the allowable drift ratio of 1/550 of the China
General Building code. Please note that the original
model does not satisfy this requirement.
On top of this, it is also worth mentioning that
damped outrigger system brings minimum impact on
the traditional design of high–rise building and reduces
the cost on structural members and foundations works.
Besides, the improvement on usable floor area and
serviceability under seismic events are also achieved.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The stable and superior performance of the newly
developed visco-elastic damper are proved by series
tests for varies loading conditions. The temperature
and the response frequency domains of the exami-
nation could be said very fair considering where this
visco-elastic damper will be installed practically and
we can show clearly that this damper has the speci-
fied hysteresis characteristic values to be effective
for not only a big earthquake but also wind. That is,
it is effective whether it is minute vibration or long
cycle vibration. The effectiveness in broad frequency
region is also confirmed. As a result, amenity for living
has been improved. Regarding the aging examination
equivalent to sixty (60) years, the hysteresis charac-
teristic value shows that the increase in Geq is just
less than 15% and the reduction in Heq is less than
10%. Moreover, it was turned out that its durability is
equal to two (2) million repetition times or more at less
than ± 25% of strain ratio.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
It also shows that the hysteresis characteristic of this
visco-elastic damper can be modeled by popular mod-
ified bi-linear model and modified H-D model and
the values obtained from experiments of an actual size
scale and model values which were show good agree-
ment. Finally, with proper design and selection on the
formation and location of dampers in a given struc-
tural system, a cost-effective solution can be achieved
and the serviceability of the building could be also
improved compared with traditional design.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research was a part of joint research with Kyoto
University. Cooperation was received from many
employees of SRI Group and our gratitude goes to
every person, especially Dr. Tatsuji Matsumoto and
Mr.Tatsuya Maruyama.
Several helpful discussions with Professor Izuru
Takewaki and Associated Professor Masaaki Tsuji,
Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University are
also gratefully acknowledged.
REFERENCES
K. Yamada, K.Yoshikawa and Y.Takenaka (2001). “Modified
H-D Model: A New Smooth Curve Type Hysteresis Model
of Laminated Rubber Bearing for Base Isolation ,” AIJ J.
Technol. Des. No.14, 87–92, Dec, 2001.
M. Tsuji, I. Takewaki, T. Matsumoto and T. Tani (2006), “Hab-
itability Upgrade of Buildings by Visco-elastic Damper
Using High-hardness Rubber,” Summaries of Technical
Papers of Annual Meeting, AIJ,B-2, 801–802.
T. Matsumoto (1999), “Development of High-damping
Damper for Cable-stayed Bridges,” Proceeding of Interna-
tional Seminar on Numerical Analysis in Solid and Fluid
Dynamics in 1999., 71(6), 2039–2070.
B. Lim and T. Matsumoto (2006), “Characteristics of Super
High Damping Visco-Elastic Damper for Earthquake and
Wind-Induced Vibration”, 4th International Conference
on Earthquake Engineering, No. 305, Oct. 2006.
“Recommendations for the Seismic Design of High-rise
Buildings”, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
2008.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Application of smart strategies against severe dynamic actions

A. Mandara, F. Ramundo & G. Spina

Department of Civil Engineering, Second University of Naples, Italy

ABSTRACT: The research described in this paper on the application of active and semi-active structural control
in the protection of structures against severe dynamic actions aims at demonstrating the effectiveness of these
techniques and also the importance of the use of smart devices. These special devices need a robust control law
which should permit to exploit all their innovative performance characteristics. In the paper a study concerning
a comparison among different control approaches is presented: the cases of mass damping system and coupled
structures are analyzed. Also, some hints for device design are given. In the examined models a wide simulation
analysis has shown the achievement of a very satisfying performance. The research results demonstrate that
semi-active control based on smart devices and a proper algorithm offer the reliability of purely passive systems,
keeping however both capabilities and flexibility of fully active systems.

1 INTRODUCTION

The use of structural control systems for seismic pro-

tection of structures represents a relative new area of
research that is growing rapidly. The dynamic response
control techniques in structural engineering have been
applied in the last decades to preserve both comfort
and structural integrity of important buildings, such
as towers, hospitals and financial headquarters. Inno-
vative intervention techniques based on the use of
special devices, able to dissipate a share of the input
seismic energy, have been demonstrated to be effec-
tive and also compatible with the preservation of the
features of historical constructions (Spina 2006). A
recent, natural evolution of these techniques involves
the use of smart materials, which can be used to create
controllable devices, whose performances are much
more suitable to the aim of a reduction of the seismic
response (Rodellar 1993, Kobori 1998).
A structure with smart elements can modify its
Figure 1. Logical schemes of control arrangements: a) open
behaviour during dynamic loading. Materials used
loop, b) open loop control with feedforward, c) closed loop
in smart structures have interesting and unusual with feedback, d) closed loop with feedforward + feedback.
properties, which can be profitably exploited for
creating special devices. Electrostrictive materials,
magnetostrictive materials, shape memory alloys, A control system can be classified depending on
magneto/electrorheological fluids, polymer gels and the controller scheme as illustrated in Figure 1. Open
piezoelectric materials, for example, all can be used to loop and closed loop strategies can be distinguished
design and develop structures that can be called smart. (Soong & Constantinou 1994).
However, the materials themselves are not smart, this In the open loop, the controller manipulates the
term referring to the exploitation of mechanical prop- input with the purpose of driving the output to the set-
erties able to fulfil design requirements better than point, but no use is made of the result. As there is no
through a conventional structural design. possibility to compensate for errors in the input/output
A fundamental role in a smart control system is model, this control is effective as long as the exter-
played by the controller, representing the arrangement nal perturbation is tuned with predicted values and a
designed to manipulate the input so that the system correct model of the structure is available. The imple-
output can reach a prescribed value according to some mentation of a feedforward permits to compensate
desired performance (Meirovitch 1986). errors in the input estimation, increasing the accuracy

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 in the response prediction.The closed loop control uses
the system response as feedback information, with the
consequent possibility of compensating effects influ-
encing the response in a negative way. A closed loop
strategy with combined feeback and feedforward is the
most effective way to control a structural system.
Structural passive control can be classified as a
controllerless open loop control, whereas smart con-
trol (active and semi-active) typically relies on closed
loop control. Compared with passive systems there
are some significant advantages with smart systems:
enhanced effectiveness in motion control, relative
insensitivity to site conditions and ground motion, Figure 2. Representation of the On-Off control law.
applicability to multi-hazard mitigation situations,
selectivity of control objectives. algorithm. By substituting the general form of the con-
Generally smart structural control systems can be trol force vector into the dynamic equilibrium equation
classified in: frequency dependent systems, which pro- one may obtain:
duce a change in natural frequencies of the controlled
structure and operate in resonance with the structure
or not; frequency independent systems, which doesn’t
modify the natural frequency of the existing structure,
but operate an increase of damping (semi-active sys-
tems) or introduce an external force of control (active Observing the new equation of the active controlled
systems). structure, it can be seen that the effect of the feedback
is to modify the structural parameters (stiffness and
2 THEORETICAL BASIS damping) so that it can respond more favourably to
the external excitation. On the contrary, the effect of
The aim of structural control is to give a “sense of the feedforward is a modification (reduction or total
balance” to the structure, so as to give it the capabil- elimination) of the excitation.
ity to self-regulate instantaneously its properties as a
function of the structural response. Motion data are
taken from a sensor network, analysed in real time by 2.2 Control algorithms
a computer and elaborated in such a way to activate Many control methodologies, both linear and non lin-
external devices (active control) or just to modify the ear, have been proposed in literature to define the most
mechanical properties of these (semi-active control) appropriate approach to the seismic control of civil
(Spencer 2001). structures. The considerations reported below pertain
to On-Off and the Optimal Control algorithms. They
2.1 Structural control general approach are referred to the equation of the system motion (1)
The response control concept can be easily understood expressed in the state-space as:
referring to the dynamic equilibrium equation of a
generic n-DOF structural system subjected to external
excitations and control forces:
On-Off control is based on activation criteria: a
dead zone function of some parameters of system
in which M , C and K are the n × n mass, viscous state (displacement or velocity) is defined (Eq. 5), it
and stiffness matrices of the system, respectively, x(t) assumes a predetermined constant value or zero value
is the n-dimensional displacement vector, fe (t) is the as a function of the measured response of the structure
r-dimensional external excitation vector and fc (t) is (Fig. 2). The vector of the control forces has zero or
the m-dimensional control force vector. Le and Lc are constant components and by substituting Equation (6)
the n × m and n × r matrices that define the locations into Equation (4) of the controlled structure in the
of the excitation and control force vector, respectively. state-space it assumes the form of Equations (7):
In the more general feedforward-feedback configura-
tion, the applied control force fc is normally a linear
function of structure displacements and velocities as
well as of external forces. In a general form, it is
given by:

where Kc , Cc and Ec are the control gain matrices, Optimal Control is based on a performance criteria:
the choice of which depends on the assumed control the Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) is a simple and

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
effective way to design a control law able to reach the
highest performance at the lowest cost by limiting the
control force.
The Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) perfor-
mance index is:

Where Q and R are the time invariant weights of

state and of control force, respectively, u(t) is a linear
function of the state and the gain matrix K depends on
the solution of the algebraic Riccati equation:

Figure 3. Scheme of the dynamic system considered in the

numerical analysis for MD system.

Table 1. Dynamic parameters of the dynamic model con-

By substituting the second of Equations (9) into sidered in the analysis for MD system.
equation (4), the state equation of the optimal con-
trolled system becomes: Principal Mass ratio Vibration Link device
Mass M1 (M2 /M1 ) period threshold

50 t 5% 0,45 s 5 kN

3 STRUCTURAL IMPLEMENTATIONS
An analysis has been made of an MD-based control
3.1 The mass damping system system as shown in Figure 3, where a simplified model
A possible implementation of structural control in of the controlled structure has been represented in
buildings is within the strategy of mass damping (MD) the form of a SDOF system, whose natural frequency
(Spencer at al. 1998). Structural control systems based vibration is tuned with the first mode frequency of
on mass dampers demonstrated their effectiveness in the real structure, evaluated according to its relevant
application on flexible structures, such as towers and dynamic parameters (Table 1). When a either active or
long span bridges, especially for the reduction of wind semi-active control strategy is applied, the equations of
induced vibrations. MD system represents a simple motion for the structure fitted with the control system
and effective solution for the control of seismically are:
induced vibrations, applicable when it is possible to
couple the main structure with an auxiliary mass, so
as to make such a mass floating respect to the rest of the
construction. The system can be also obtained by dis-
connecting a part of the construction itself. Since the
energy dissipated by MD does not depend on the rela- In the state space equations of motion become:
tive motion of internal parts of the structure, the system
can be relatively easily implemented on existing struc-
tures, too, including historical buildings (Mazzolani &
Mandara 2002).
The seismic response of many structural systems –
including also constructions belonging to the architec- where the matrices that define the system are the
tural heritage like long-bay, box-like masonry building following:
and masonry towers – can be approximately described
by means of simplified mechanical models (Man-
dara et al. 2007a). Under this assumption, the refer-
ence model is represented by the equivalent dynamic
scheme of Figure 3, where the mass of the top is
connected to the main structure by equivalent links
arranged in parallel, corresponding to a spring, a vis-
cous damper and a smart device. In the case of active
control, an actuator is considered instead of the smart
device present in case of semi-active control (Mandara
et al. 2006a,b, 2008a).

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Table 2. Dynamic parameters of the dynamic model con-
sidered in the analysis for CS system.

Principal Mass ratio Stiffness ratio Link device

Mass M1 (M2 /M1 ) (K2 /K1 ) threshold

500 t 2,5% 1,5% 200 kN

In the state space the equations of motion take the

form:
Figure 4. Scheme of the dynamic system considered in the
analysis for CS system.

3.2 The coupled structures system

Framed structures not designed against horizontal where the matrices that define the system are the
seismic forces have been found extremely vulnera- following:
ble to seismic action, in terms of both strength and
deformability (Mandara et al. 2007b). Structural con-
trol systems based on dynamic coupled structures
demonstrated their effectiveness in the reduction of
seismic induced vibrations and can be relatively eas-
ily implemented and installed on existing structures.
This is also the case for smart technologies such as
those relying on either active or semi-active systems
(Mandara et al. 2008b).
The upgrading interventions on relatively
deformable framed structures often involve the use
of bracing or core systems aimed at reducing the lat-
eral floor displacements. An evolution of this kind
of traditional intervention consists of adding energy
dissipation devices in the bracing elements or in the
connection of braces to the existing structure. The
use of such devices as a link between the structure
and the bracing elements gives way to a coupled sys-
tem acting due to the relative displacement between
the two connected parts of the structure, with con-
sequent large energy dissipation. This system can be
also implemented by means of smart devices, like
magnetorheological dampers or actuators. When the
dynamic response of the existing structure can be well
described by referring to the first vibration mode, a In case of active control, the link between the cou-
simple mechanical model representing the coupled pled systems is created by an actuator, whose perfor-
system can be used for the study of the problem. The mance is governed by a control algorithm. An optimal
basic dynamic scheme of Figure 4 represents the ref- control strategy, based on the Linear Quadratic Regu-
erence model, where M1 , K1 and C1 are the mass, the lator (LQR) performance criteria, is considered to this
lateral stiffness and damping coefficient of the existing purpose to govern the control law (Meirovitch 1986).
structure, respectively. Likewise, M2 − K2 (Kd ) − C2 In the case of semi-active system, instead, the link is
(Cd ) are the same dynamic parameters for the braces based on a magnetorheological damper (MRD) and the
(for the link), whereas fd represents the controllable control strategy is defined by a relationship between
part of the force acting in the device. These two SDOF the relative structural motion (i.e. the velocity) and the
systems are coupled through either passive dampers or control force.
more complex smart devices.
An active and semi-active response control strat- 4 APPLICATION
egy based on coupled structures (CS) has been studied
assuming the parameters of Table 2. The system is 4.1 Device design
governed by the following equations of motion:
A number of experimental studies have been con-
ducted to evaluate the effectiveness of MR dampers
for vibration reduction under wind and earthquakes
(Dyke et al. 1998, Harrigan et al. 2004, Mandara
et al. 2009a,b). Results indicate that the MR damper is

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Table 3. Percentage reduction of the peak values of the
dynamic response under different seismic inputs (for P.G.A.
0.35-0.25-0.15 g) of the MD controlled system with reference
to the not-controlled case.

Semi-active Semi-active
Passive Control Clipped Active
Control ON-OFF Optimal Control
Seismic
input 0.15/0.25/ 0.15/0.25/ 0.15/0.25/ 0.15/0.25/
PGA (g) 0.35 0.35 0.35 0.35

Bevagna 36/30/16 41/40/38 48/48/47 56/56/56

Colfiorito 35/31/24 41/41/38 35/42/42 69/69/69
Calitri 38/34/27 44/43/41 44/44/45 57/57/71
El Centro 28/23/12 37/36/35 41/42/42 64/64/64
Gubbio 16/14/12 30/28/24 30/30/31 37/37/37
M.S. Severino 26/21/16 29/27/23 39/39/39 63/63/63
Taiwan 25/ 25/14 24/23/20 21/22/20 49/49/49
Thessaloniki 23/18/ 9 33/30/25 40/40/38 63/63/63

5) Simulation – It is the necessary virtual test for the

Figure 5. Details of the MR device designed and engineered
at the Second University of Naples.
quite effective for a wide class of applications. Before
starting the design of a control system a complete
study of the structure is necessary to obtain a reliable
model in all working conditions. The typical steps of
a design process of a structural control system can be
summarized as follow:
1) System analysis – In this step a qualitative analy-
sis of the system is made, with the aim to define
the input and output, the controllable variables and
the control objective. On this basis the necessary
accuracy level of the system model can be defined.
2) Model definition – A mathematical model of the
system is defined according to the mechanical
laws which describe its behaviour. In this step a
fundamental role is entrusted to the mechanical
knowledge of the structure and to the selection of
the equations that better suit the real behaviour of
the controlled structure.
3) Parameter identification – The identification of
parameters that characterize the mathematical
model (e.g. mass, natural frequencies, damping)
is necessary to obtain a numerical model for the
structural analysis. A validation of the model is
made by comparison between the measured out-
put of real system and the calculated output of the
model under the same input.
4) Controller design – Since a reliable model of the
structural system is available, the design of the con-
troller is possible based on the choice of the feed-
back scheme as well as on the definition of the
control algorithm.
numerical validation of the controller. It is conve-
nient that an accurate model of the structure is used
to this purpose.
6) Implementation and experimental tests – This
step represents the experimental validation of the
designed control system on a real or reduced scale
model. Figure 5 shows the MR device designed and
tested at the Second University of Naples.
4.2 Results of simulation analysis
The evaluation of the proposed control strategies effec-
tiveness has been assessed carrying out a set of
non-linear dynamic analyses of the systems shown
in Figures 3–4 by means of the MatLab-Simulink
toolbox, considering a series of seismic input record-
ings scaled at different values of PGA. For the sake
of comparison, the systems have been considered in
the not-controlled configuration as well as in passive,
semi-active and active controlled configurations as
described before. The benefit of structural control is
evident observing the global reduction of the structural
response, shown in Tables 3–4. This aspect is strictly
related to a lower elastic strain energy transmitted to
the system, which is a fundamental aspect from the
safeguard point of view.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Smart control strategy represents an effective solution
for the reduction of severe dynamic actions effects.The
system turns to be applicable in different ways to both
new and existing buildings, whenever it is possible to
add to or disconnect a mass from the main structure
or couple together structures with different dynamic
characteristics. The mass damping approach can be
also applied to many categories of historical and mon-
umental buildings. In the examined case a relatively
wide simulation analysis has shown that a very satis-
fying performance can be achieved by means of this
technique. In particular, the effectiveness of the system

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Table 4. Percentage difference in the peak values of the dynamic response under different
seismic inputs (for P.G.A. 0,35–0,25-0,15 g) of the coupled structure with reference to the
not-controlled case.

Rigid Passive Smart Active

Seismic link link link link
input
PGA (g) 0.15/0.25/0.35 0.15/0.25/0.35 0.15/0.25/0.35 0.15/0.25/0.35

Bevagna +53/+53/+53 −6/−18/−23 −23/−25/−25 −65/−65/−65

Colfiorito −25/−25/−25 −22/−30/−35 −41/−43/−44 −82/−82/−82
Calitri −36/−36/−36 −41/−46/−47 −49/−49/−50 −84/−84/−84
El Centro −58/−58/−58 −58/−58/−58 −36/−36/−36 −39/−39/−39
Gubbio −60/−60/−60 −64/−65/−64 −65/−65/−64 −88/−88/−88
M.S.Severino +102/+102/+102 −1/−18/−25 −34/−35/−36 −72/−72/−72
Taiwan −22/−22/−22 −38/−40/−41 −42/−44/−44 −80/−80/−80
Thessaloniki −3/−3/− 3 −16/−16/−18 −27/−29/−31 −77/−77/−77

can be maximized by means of active or semi-active
devices implemented in the floating roof. The coupling
of structures with different dynamic behaviour linked
by smart devices has put into evidence the beneficial
effect of such technique.
These systems exploit the capacity of smart devices
based on magnetorheological fluids, in the case of
semi-active control. The definition of an appropri-
ate control algorithm for this kind of special devices
has been dealt with. The presented structural con-
trol system produces a significant reducing effect
on the elastic strain energy transmitted by the exter-
nal perturbation to the structure, which is itself an
important target in the protection perspective. More-
over, smart systems have also demonstrated significant
advantages in comparison with passive ones: enhanced
effectiveness in dynamic control, relative insensitiv-
ity to site conditions and ground motion, significant
increase of the capacity of the structural system to
dissipate seismic input energy without undergoing
structural damage.
Eventually, the research outcome points out that
semi-active control, based on smart devices and a
proper algorithm, offers the reliability of purely pas-
sive systems, keeping however both capabilities and
flexibility of fully active systems.
REFERENCES
Dyke, S.J., Spencer, B.F. Jr., Sain, M.K. & Carlson, J.D.
1998. An experimental study of MR dampers for seismic
protection. Smart Structures and Materials (7): 693–703.
Harrigan G., Pinelli J.P., Gutierrez H., 2004. Controlling
seismic vibrations with magnetorheological tuned mass
dampers. Proceedings of the Third European Conference
on Structural Control. Vienna.
Kobori T., 1998. Mission and perspective towards future
structural control research. Proceedings of the 2nd World
Conference on Structural Control, 1, pp. 25–34. Kyoto,
Japan.
Mandara, A., Durante, A., Spina, G., Ameduri, S. & Concilio,
A. 2006a. Seismic protection of civil historical struc-
tures by MR dampers. Proceedings of the SPIE’s 13th
Annual International Symposium on Smart Structures and
Materials. San Diego, CA, USA.
Mandara, A., Durante, A., Ramundo, F. & Spina, G. 2006b.
Smart technologies for seismic protection of historical
structures. Proceedings of the First European Conference
on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology. Geneva,
Switzerland.
Mandara, A., Durante, A., Ramundo, F. & Spina, G. 2007.
Control of the seismic response of historical buildings by
mass damping systems. Proceedings of the XII National
Conference of ANIDIS. Pisa, Italy,
Mandara, A., Ramundo, F. & Spina, G. 2008a. On the effec-
tiveness of smart technologies in the seismic protection
of existing buildings. Part I: Masonry structures. Pro-
ceedings of the MERCEA’08 International Conference.
Messina and R. Calabria, Italy.
Mandara, A., Ramundo, F. & Spina, G. 2008b. On the
effectiveness of smart technologies in the seismic pro-
tection of existing buildings. Part II: Reinforced concrete
structures. Proceedings of the MERCEA’08 International
Conference. Messina and R. Calabria, Italy.
Mandara, A., Ramundo, F. & Spina, G. 2009a. Application of
smart control systems for the seismic protection of exist-
ing buildings. Proceedings of PROHITECH 09. Rome,
Italy.
Mandara, A., Ramundo, F. & Spina, G. 2009b. Influence
of control algorithm in smart systems for the seismic
up-grading of existing buildings. Proceedings of PRO-
HITECH 09. Rome, Italy.
Mazzolani F.M., Mandara A., 2002. Seismic protection of
historical constructions by means of passive control tech-
niques. Proceedings of 12th European Conference on
Earthquake Engineering. London.
Meirovitch, L. 1986. Elements of Vibration Analysis. New
York: McGraw Hill.
Rodellar J., 1993. Active Control, Lecture CISM Course. Pas-
sive and Active Vibration Control in Civil Engineering.
Udine, Italy.
Soong, T.T. & Constantinou, M.C. 1994. Passive and Active
Structural Vibration Control in Civil Engineering. New
York: Springer.
Spencer B.F. Jr., Dyke S.J., Deoskar H.S., 1998. Bench-
mark Problems in Structural Control: Part 1-Active Mass
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Spencer B.F. Jr., 2001. Advanced in semi-active control of
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Second University of Naples.

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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Strength of solid and hollow-core FRP-confined concrete members:

A novel model

R. Modarelli
CETMA Consortium, Brindisi, Italy

ABSTRACT: Past studies demonstrated the structural efficiency of FRP-confinement for reinforced concrete
(RC) columns to increase their strength and ductility in axial compression. Numerical and analytical models were
developed to predict the stress-strain behavior of FRP confined concrete and recommendations were provided to
practitioners for design of FRP-retrofitted RC columns. Scientific studies related to FRP-confinement of hollow-
core RC columns are very limited at the moment. This clashes with the thousands of applications all over the
world in which bridge piers are designed as hollow-core columns to maximize the structural efficiency in terms
of strength/mass and stiffness/mass ratios. In previous works the author carried out a large experimental program
on both solid and hollow-core concrete prisms and cylinders. In this framework several specimens were tested
under uniaxial compression to study the influence of various experimental parameters on the effectiveness of FRP
jackets applied to concrete columns subjected to uniaxial compression loading. In this work, on the basis of the
experimental results obtained, an analytical model has been developed and calibrated for predicting the confined
ultimate strength of both solid and hollow-core FRP-confined concrete members. The performance of the model
has been then compared with that of the most known models, previously developed for FRP confinement of
concrete element, on a wide set of experimental data available in literature obtaining good results.

1 EXPERIMENTAL WORK Table 1. Mechanical properties of FRP sheets and epoxy

resin.
1.1 Samples and test set-up
Young Tensile Ultimate
The experimental program consisted of 124 spec- Thickness modulus strength strain
imens, including 85 FRP-wrapped specimens and mm GPa MPa %
39 plain concrete specimens. In order to investigate
the influence of the concrete strength two concrete CFRP 0.165 221 3070 1.40
mixtures were produced. The utilized water/cement, GFRP 0.23 85 1960 2.28
Epoxy — 1.97 25 1.54
sand/cement, gravel/cement ratios were 0.7, 3.8, 2.4
respectively for mixture 1, and 0.5, 2.5, 1.7 for mix-
ture 2. The coarse aggregate was made up of crushed
stone, with a maximum size of 9 mm. The average displacement. In both cases electrical strain gauges
compressive strengths of the two concrete mixtures were placed in the hoop direction to measure the FRP
were 28 MPa and 38 MPa respectively. The concrete circumferential strain.
specimens were wrapped with unidirectional CFRP
and GFRP sheets with fibers aligned at 90◦ with
1.2 Results and analysis
respect to the principal axis of the specimen. The
experimental properties of the FRP composites and The ultimate failure of FRP-wrapped specimens was
of the epoxy resin are reported in Table 1. The FRP sudden, caused by tensile failure of fibers reinforce-
sheets were applied using a manual wet lay-up process; ment and as expected, in prismatic columns the rupture
a minimum of 3 samples for each specimen was pre- of the FRP sheets occurred in the corner area.
pared. For small-scale specimens (300 mm high) the Table 2 summarizes the specimens involved in
load was applied by a 3000-kN compression machine the experimental program, while Table 3 reports the
and measured by means of a pressure transducer. Two average experimental results.
strain-gage based linear displacement sensors were The specimen designation can be interpreted as fol-
used to monitor the relative displacement between the lows: the first letter represents the FRP material (“C”
extreme faces of the specimen. for CFRP and “G” for GFRP, with “N” signifying
Specimens higher than 300 mm were loaded using absence of FRP confinement), followed by the speci-
a manual pump, the applied force was measured men geometry “C” or “P” (cylinder or prism). The
using a 2000 kN capacity load cell, while two dis- corner radius was 10 mm for the specimens of the
placement sensors were used to measure the axial series CP1 and 25 for the others prismatic elements.

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Table 2. Geometrical and mechanical properties of the Table 3. Experimental results.
tested specimens.
Specimens: Cylinders
Specimens: Cylinders
Compressive Axial Hoop
Nominal Hollow Concrete Label strength (MPa) strain (%) strain (%) fcc /fc εcc /εc
dimensions dimensions Confining strength Number of
Label mm mm material MPa FRP plies NC1 28,35 0,49 0,17 – –
CC1 55,25 2,20 1,53 1,95 4,50
NC1 300 × 150 – None 28 0 GC1 53,27 1,90 4,98 1,88 3,88
CC1 300 × 150 – CFRP 1 NC2 24,03 0,38 0,05 –
GC1 300 × 150 – GFRP 1
CC2 45,15 2,25 1,22 1,88 5,90
NC2 300 × 150 50 None 0
CC3 50,79 2,55 0,65 2,11 6,68
CC2 300 × 150 50 CFRP 1
CC4 80,02 3,09 0,73 3,33 8,07
CC3 300 × 150 50 CFRP 2
NC5 38,24 0,63 0,39 – –
CC4 300 × 150 50 CFRP 3
CC5 62,73 1,49 1,32 1,64 2,38
NC5 300 × 150 – None 38 0 NC6 35,05 0,47 0,40 – –
CC5 300 × 150 – CFRP 1
CC6 47,87 1,53 1,23 1,37 3,29
NC6 300 × 150 50 None 28 0 CC7 59,19 1,71 0,77 1,69 3,67
CC6 300 × 150 50 CFRP 1 NC8 11,37 0,49 0,34 – –
CC7 300 × 150 50 CFRP 2 CC8 26,59 1,58 0,28 2,34 3,23
NC8 500 × 250 150 None 0 CC9 34,11 1,65 0,22 3,00 3,36
CC8 500 × 250 150 CFRP 1 CC10 35,99 2,24 0,18 3,16 4,57
CC9 500 × 250 150 CFRP 2
NC11 13,91 0,62 0,84 – –
CC10 500 × 250 150 CFRP 3
CC11 31,89 1,22 0,48 2,29 1,98
NC11 500 × 250 150 None 38 0 CC12 39,02 1,50 0,15 2,81 2,44
CC11 500 × 250 150 CFRP 1
CC12 500 × 250 150 CFRP 2 Specimens: Prisms

Specimens: Prisms
Compressive Axial Hoop
Label strength (MPa) strain (%) strain (%) fcc /fc εcc /εc
Height
(mm) × base’s Hollow core Concrete Number
NP1 25,04 0,63 0,67 – –
dimensions dimensions Confining strength of FRP
Label mm × mm mm material MPa FRP plies
CP1 31,99 3,57 1,23 1,28 5,67
NP2 21,43 0,56 0,84 – –
CP2 36,18 1,83 1,40 1,69 3,25
NP1 300 × 150 × 150 – None 28 0
CP1 300 × 150 × 150 – CFRP 2 CP3 42,06 3,11 1,48 1,96 5,52
NP2 300 × 150 × 150 – None 0 NP4 16,90 0,46 1,34 – –
CP2 300 × 150 × 150 – CFRP 1 CP4 39,38 2,40 0,87 2,33 5,16
CP3 300 × 150 × 150 – CFRP 2 NP5 27,37 0,46 0,68 – –
NP4 300 × 150 × 150 50 None 0 CP5 48,46 2,24 0,92 1,77 4,91
CP4 300 × 150 × 150 50 CFRP 2 NP6 17,58 0,88 0,45 – –
NP5 300 × 150 × 150 50 None 38 0 CP6 30,25 2,36 1,56 1,72 2,69
CP5 300 × 150 × 150 50 CFRP 2 CP7 34,11 3,26 1,45 1,94 3,72
CP8a 38,49 4,81 0,81 2,19 5,48
NP6 400 × 200 × 150 – None 28 0
CP8b 53,56 4,96 1,62 3,05 5,66
CP6 400 × 200 × 150 – CFRP 1
CP9 32,24 2,90 1,58 1,83 3,31
CP7 400 × 200 × 150 – CFRP 2
NP10 22,89 1,07 0,29 – –
CP8a 400 × 200 × 150 – IBRID-1 3
CP8b 400 × 200 × 150 – IBRID-2 5 CP10 21,83 1,92 0,84 0,95 1,79
CP9 400 × 200 × 150 – GFRP 2 CP11 29,93 2,69 0,52 1,31 2,50
NP10 400 × 200 × 150 100 × 50 None 0 CP12 34,24 3,57 1,01 1,50 3,32
CP10 400 × 200 × 150 100 × 50 CFRP 1 CP13 36,30 4,09 0,54 1,59 3,81
CP11 400 × 200 × 150 100 × 50 CFRP 2 CP14 23,34 3,05 0,73 1,02 2,85
CP12 400 × 200 × 150 100 × 50 IBRID-1 3 NP15 13,36 0,38 0,07 – –
CP13 400 × 200 × 150 100 × 50 IBRID-2 5 CP15 22,76 1,17 0,08 1,70 3,11
CP14 400 × 200 × 150 100 × 50 GFRP 2 CP16 24,22 1,98 0,05 1,81 5,27
NP15 600 × 300 × 150 200 × 50 None 0
CP15 600 × 300 × 150 200 × 50 CFRP 1
CP16 600 × 300 × 150 200 × 50 CFRP 2 different amount according to the number of FRP lay-
ers, concrete properties and cross-section geometry.
Representative stress-strain curves for each series of
The increase in terms of compressive strength FRP-wrapped specimens, grouped together according
(fcc /fc ) and ductility (εcc /εc ), intended as capacity to the cross section shape, are reported in Figure 1 for
in terms of ultimate axial displacement, are shown concrete cylinders and in Figure 2 for concrete prisms.
in the same table. For all the FRP wrapped speci- In a previous work of the author (Modarelli et al.
mens an improvement of the mechanical properties 2005), the effects of all the parameters considered in
was registered with respect to plain concrete, in the experimental study have been analyzed in detail.

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Figure 1. Stress-strain curves for circular sections.

Here only the most important remarks for both hollow

and solid columns are summarized in the following:
• the improvement in strength and ductility decreases
passing from circular to square and to rectangular
sections;
• the confinement effectiveness decreases with the
increase of concrete strength; Figure 2. Stress-strain curves for rectangular sections.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 • higher amount of FRP sheets is not able to modify Table 4. Comparison of the analytical model and the
the slope of the last branch of the stress-strain curve, experimental results.
except in the case of little hollow-core dimensions;
• the corner radius of prismatic columns has a heavy Circular sections
influence in terms of both ultimate strength and
fcc exp fcc theo E
displacement; it is always recommended to avoid
Specimen Type MPa MPa %
corners without rounded surface since the confined
region decreases dramatically, with high stress- CC1 Full 55.25 54.44 1
concentration in the FRP close to the corner. GC1 Full 53.27 52.92 1
CC2 Hollow 45.15 47.06 4
CC3 Hollow 50.79 56.12 10
2 PROPOSED ANALYTICAL MODEL AND CC4 Hollow 80.02 63.07 21
COMPARISON WITH EXPERIMENTAL CC5 Full 62.73 64.09 2
RESULTS CC6 Hollow 47.87 55.64 16
CC7 Hollow 59.19 64.70 9
On the basis of the experimental results obtained, an CC8 Hollow 26.59 28.52 7
CC9 Hollow 34.11 32.81 4
analytical model was developed and calibrated for CC10 Hollow 35.99 36.10 0
predicting the ultimate strength of both solid and CC11 Hollow 31.89 34.67 9
hollow-core FRP-confined concrete members. CC12 Hollow 39.02 38.95 0
The axial behaviour of confined concrete was pri-
marily researched by Richart et al. 1928 and the follow- Rectangular section.
ing well known relation was proposed for expressing
the increase in the compressive strength based on their fcc exp fcc theo E
test results: Specimen Type MPa MPa %

CP1 Full 31.99 41.99 3

where fcc is the compressive strength of confined con- CP2 Full 36.18 40.20 4
crete, fc is the compressive strength of unconfined CP3 Full 42.06 47.56 2
CP4 Hollow 39.38 44.41 7
concrete, fl is the effective lateral confining stress, and CP5 Hollow 48.46 56.23 6
k1 is an experimental constant. In literature, there are CP6 Full 30.25 36.51 15
several important models for the description of the CP7 Full 34.11 41.58 10
FRP-confined concrete. The majority of such mod- CP9 Hollow 32.24 30.45 20
els have focused on the analytical representation of CP10 Hollow 21.83 31.78 33
the behavior of concrete specimens with circular cross CP11 Hollow 29.93 36.85 4
section, deriving from the classical approach proposed CP14 Hollow 30.93 35.75 32
by Richart and suggesting this kind of expressions: CP15 Hollow 22.76 26.20 5
CP16 Hollow 24.22 28.77 1

In (1) fl is the ultimate effective confining pressure

In this study a novel model deriving from the Richart calculated as:
one is presented:

Here ρju, Ej and εju are, respectively, the volumet-

In the proposed model a hollow core factor k
is introduced to take into account the hollow core
presence, which had not been taken into account in
previous models. In detail this factor is equal to:
– for circular elements:
ric ratio, the elastic modulus and the effective failure
strain of the FRP reinforcement, while ke is a confine-
ment effectiveness coefficient, introduced to take into
account the effects of column shape, equal to:
– for circular sections

– for rectangular sections

– for rectangular elements:

where D is the diameter and  is the hollow core

where rc is corners radius.
diameter for circular sections; while b and d are the
section’s dimensions and b0 and d0 are the hollow In the following tables the comparison of the analytical
core dimensions for rectangular sections. model and the experimental results is shown.

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Table 5. Analytical models evaluated.
The average error of the proposed model was about
7% and 11% for circular and rectangular sections
respectively.
2.1 Comparison with models available in literature
A comparative study between the experimental results
of 296 concrete specimens (De Lorenzis L., &
Tepfers R. 2003, Lam L. & Teng J. G 2003, Turgay T.
et al. 2008) and the predictions of five analytical
models and the proposed approach for FRP-confined
concrete is performed. The first model is the one
adopted by the Italian code CNR DT 200/2004,
while the others are generally considered the most
accurate models actually available in literature
(De Lorenzis L., & Tepfers R. 2003) for predicting the
strength of FRP confined concrete. The expressions
provided by these models are reported in Table 5.
The characteristics of the specimens and a com-
parison between measured and predicted compressive
strength values are reported in a previous work of the
author (Modarelli, 2009).
For each model the corresponding absolute error is
calculated as:
The accuracy of the models has been then quan-
titatively evaluated computing the average absolute
percent error as follows:
As shown in Table 6, the average absolute error
for the proposed model is 15.11% representing the
smallest value among the evaluated models.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 6. Average absolute percent error of the evaluated
models.
Spoelstra Lam
CNR DT Samaan Saafi and and
Model Proposed 200/2004 et al. et al. Monti Teng
Eav [%] 15.11 22.45 15.13 16.21 17.72 18.13
Figure 3. Comparison of the analytical models.
3 CONCLUSIONS
In this work several specimens were tested under
uniaxial compression to study the influence of vari-
ous experimental parameters on the effectiveness of
FRP jackets applied to concrete columns subjected to
uniaxial compression loading.
An analytical model was developed and calibrated
for predicting the ultimate strength of both solid and
hollow-core FRP-confined concrete members. Later
the performance of the proposed model was compared
with that of the most known models, previously devel-
oped for FRP confinement of concrete elements, on
a wide set of experimental data available in literature,
producing good results.
REFERENCES
De Lorenzis L., Tepfers R. 2003. Comparative Study of Mod-
els on Confinement of Concrete Cylinders with Fiber-
Reinforced Polymer Composites. Journal of Composites
for Construction, 7(3), 219–237.
Lam L., Teng J. G. 2003. Design-Oriented Stress-Strain
Model for FRP-Confined Concrete in Rectangular
Columns, Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites,
22(13), 1149–1186.
Modarelli R. 2009. A novel model for ultimate strength of
solid and hollow-core FRP-confined concrete members,
ACIC09, Edinburgh, UK.
Modarelli R., Micelli F. and Manni O. 2005. FRP-
CONFINEMENT OF HOLLOW CONCRETE CYLIN-
DERS AND PRISMS, FRPRCS-7, Kansas City, USA.
Richart, F.E., Brandtzaeg, A. and Brown, R.L. 1928. A study
of the failure of concrete under combined compressive
stresses, Engineering Experiment Station Bulletin No.
185, University of Illinois, Urbana.
Turgay T., Köksal H.O., Polat Z. and Karakoc C. 2008. Stress–
strain model for concrete confined with CFRP jackets,
J Mater Design.
Istruzioni per la Progettazione, l’Esecuzione ed il Controllo di
Interventi di Consolidamento Statico mediante l’utilizzo
di Compositi Fibrorinforzati, CNR DT 200/2004.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Conservation and emergency: The façade of Saint Eusanio Martyr church

collapsed after the Abruzzo earthquake

M. Praticò, E. Di Fede & G. Mascarella

Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria, P.A.U. Department, Reggio Calabria, Italy

ABSTRACT: This report is the synthesis of an experience carried out by the PAU Department of Reggio
Calabria, during the Abruzzo emergency after the 6th April 2009 L’Aquila’ earthquake. Through this paper we
would like underline the risks and the opportunities for cultural heritage under dynamic condition, in seismic
zone, in relationship to the damage and the emergency service surveyed. The back-story around the safety
measures used for Saint Eusanio Martyr façade and the complex intervention of recovery (cataloguing and
maintenance of the part collapsed after the seismic event), are two sides of the same coin: the coin of the good
conservative practice. In the following text we will show like it’s really possible to apply this simply concepts
in emergency case. Nevertheless, dialogue and collaboration between free worker and authority is the necessary
condition because all this is possible.

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 The 6th April 2009 L’Aquila’ earthquake the

emergency
After one month and half from the L’Aquila earth-
quake, in date 16th May, we carried out the first
survey in Saint Eusanio a Forconense village (IX
MCS). During it, we investigated and certificated the
cultural heritage of this area, with particular atten-
tion to Casentino hamlet (VII MCS). Through the
cultural goods analyzed the Saint Eusanio Martyr’s
church immediately looked like urgent of recovering
intervention.

1.2 Saint Eusanio Martyr’s church:

main features
The church was built up in medieval period with a
first plane datable to 1180; nowadays, concerning to
this phase it’s possible to observe the wonderful crypt
that it’s the only evidence of this epoch.
At present, the church shows in it’s plane a Latin
cross shape composed by two isles and one nave, with
three apses and a big façade built up in L’Aquila style.
This final work is the result of many phases of devel-
opment due mainly to frequent past seismic events
(1298 – 1461 – 1703 – 1915). These last damage
it in different parts and in different ways a long the
time; therefore it’s possible survey a changing in for-
mal relationships and constructive techniques too. All
interventions are easily distinguishable, in particular
after the 70’s restoration.
Figure 1. Saint Eusanio Martyr’s Church, Facade picture
after the 6th April earthquake.
2 THE SAINT EUSANIO’ CHURCH FAÇADE
2.1 The aim
The 6th April seismic’ activities caused many damages
to the church; but here we expound the façade’s dam-
age only and something about the apses restoration at
the end.
2.2 The damage
The left part of the façade was damage; it firstly
went into translation and then it turned over out of

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Figure 2. Facade damage scheme.
plain towards the external side. The left angle partially
turned over too; consequently, several cracks and small
masonry’ subsidence appeared around it, in particular,
under the partial collapsed window and in the lower
of the cantonal a buckling ellipse came out. Over the
rose window, all façade’s central part fell down; this
phenomena was duo to the development of two asym-
metrical hinges. These last came out according to ties
locations, one on the left side in the lower part and
another one on the right one at the top near the rose
window. All this caused the turnover of three big parts
from the façade centre (Rondelet Treatise , III tome).
At the end, the seismic vibrations and its torsion effect
interested the bell tower.
2.3 The collapse
The majority of the elements fallen from the upper part
of the façade fell down in front of it in the outside area;
instead a little bit of them fell down in the inner inside
crashing the old organ.
The masses of fallen materials was produced by
masonry structures in elevation and decorative ele-
ments of the a trabeated system. Masonry was realized
in three different walls composed by two stonework
settled on the outside and a separate inner part.
The total wide reaches 97 cm. After one month,
all materials were moved by bulldozer in free area
close to the church, in front of Caciolla building.
These safety measures were putted into action by the
firefighters.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 3. Safety measures – Photos: props on the left, props
on the right.
Figure 4. Inspection, laser scanner 3D survey, masonry no
sticking mapping and thermography.
2.4 Safety measures
Three props were realized – two on the left cantonal
and one in the other one on the opposite side. Following
they were increase twofold.
2.5 Preliminary analysis and consideration
From the 27th May the first deepen survey’s cam-
paign started. After it, PAU Department of Reggio
Calabria began rubble excavation. Numerous checks,
remarks, compares, survey, notes, no destructive inves-
tigations and 3d mapping characterized this analysis
work devoted to understand damage’s mechanisms and
to find potential solutions.
3 FROM A HEAP OF “RUINS”
Professors, graduates and doctors of the Department
of Reggio Calabria with the collaboration of restor-
ers, other architects and many VVF teams of Piemonte
and Toscana – involved in making safe – volunteers
of Lazio Civil Defence, and some citizens of Saint
Eusanio Forconese, were concerned in the recovery of
the collapsed façade. The whole operation was carried
out in the period 3rd–6th July, in a virtuous and volun-
tary collaboration among teams involved in different
works.

Figure 5. Facade elements scheme. Individuazione sulle
foto delle sottocategorie. Area collaped and rubble divided
in categories localization on the photos.
Figure 6. Building site 1ˆ PHASE. Materials CI closing
Cornice (elements in concrete inserted after the restoration
work of the 70’s) and all rubble in concrete; L full bricks and
part of it; MIIm grouting with stone backfill: stone in small
size; MIIg grouting with stone backfill: stone in big size.
3.1 The building site
It was organised in front of Caciolla Palace; the place
where the collapse stuff was stored, easily accessible
from the town hall. In the organization of the building
site, we can recognize different consecutive phases,
according to the kind of working carried out. In this
area, the operations of excavation and extraction of
elements (1ˆ Phase) and the recomposition of parts
necessary to complete the cataloguing operations (2ˆ
Phase) were carried out. All the elements were kept
within the public school. The whole work was per-
formed in the period 3rd–6th July on average by 4
people (2 from PAU Department and 2 from vvf or PC
or citizens for about 24 days.)
3.2 Projecting the recovery
The whole area of the façade collapse presented a
noticeable lack, an interruption of the architectural
style of the church. In order to depict the original aspect
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 7. Building site 2ˆ PHASE – COMPOSITION IN
BACK – outline of the elements’ distribution.
Figure 8. RI – RII – RIII Composition in back of the rose
window; MI – facade stones line up in layers (in relationship
with their height); CII closed arches full or partial, CI all
original cornice parts, no original too and CIII corbels.
of the church, it was found the photographic documen-
tation preceding the earthquake, together with plans
and reliefs. Therefore, it was possible to predict the
lacking elements, subdivided in 3 categories: 1. the
rose window, 2. the cornice, 3. the façade masonry.
The relief gave us the graphic base for our valuations
and verifications, in order to obtain a reliable repre-
sentation of the collapse perimeter and to quantify the
area and the volume of materials: 1. Rose window (RI –
RII – RIII – RIV) 4,94 m2 and 1,77 m3 ; 2. Façade (MI
stonework of façade – MIII stonework of façade’s inner
side – MII grouting with stone backfill: stone in differ-
ent size, full bricks and part of it, lime mortar) 10,94 m2
and 10,79 m3 ; 3. Cornice (CI cornice – CII small arch –
CII corbel) 7,0081 m2 and 6,72 m3 .
3.3 Documentation and cataloguing
Each element was cleaned from powders and mor-
tar and it was documented by a survey; moreover,
 Table 1. Recovering elements list.

N◦
CODE elements Description

Trabeated elemnts
CI 17 Moulding
C II 12 Closed arches suspended
C III 12 Bas-relief corbel
Rose window
RI 31 Bas-relief, acanthus leaves decoration
R II 29 Bas-relief moulding on both sides with floral decoration
R III 12 Cornice “a gola diritta” ornamented by high-relief flowers
R IV 2 Inner ring nut positioned on the top to close the internal facade
Masonry
MI 156 Facade stones with different cutting techniques and sizes
M II NQ Inerts, mortar, bricks and stones different in granulometry
M III QE Back-façade stones, big in sizes with sticking plaster
AX 1 Facade window doorpost in stone
AY 1 Facade window doorpost in stone

each element face was catalogued by a photographic

sequence with metric indication. As a result, a com-
plete report was realized about each element.

3.4 Remark
The façade stones distinguished by MI initials are
voussoirs, therefore, the assembly modality was eas-
ier. In fact, there are many differences among them,
in particular the surface colour and the shape in
relationship to their position inside the arch or in
connection with the facade, in springer or abutment.
Moreover they can be distinguished about their cutting
techniques.
The ring nut stone RIII of the rose window were
recognized thanks the metallic structure which closed
the rose window.This steel construction was connected
to the stones through cramp irons therefore it’s possible
recognize the holes and the oxidation’s spot on the
masonry elements.
Another important information can be obtained
according to the picture impressed on the surface.
In the second ring nut stones its possible survey and Figure 9. The steel structure used to recognize and find the
numbering that was useful for their setting. ring nut stones sequence RIII; the inscription realized on the
All these extended and complicated analysis were lateral side of the ring nut stones RII useful for work setting;
conducted minutely; at the end 273 stones were recov- back-side of some stones block of the facade, element rich in
ered from the rubble some of them broken but all decoration; memorial tablet useful for its inscription that tell
elements identifiable and in good conditions. the recovering story. Fragments box.
Some stones fallen inside the church were not yet
recovered, other fell down after the building site clos-
ing. Now all materials are preserved inside the Sint’
3.5 The façade recovering project
Eusanio Forconense school.
Part of this materials cannot be used another The masonry could be rebuild improving their struc-
time. Moreover, the masonry structure can be rebuilt tural characteristic. This improvement can be obtained
but during their setting they must be built follow- setting header in wall cross section with good mor-
ing not only their structural engineering but the tar. This last must be produced by little-size stone
rule of art too, in order to adjust their constructive and lime mortar with good cement and cohesive
errors. characteristic.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 10. Transfer and preservation of the facade elements.
Figure 11. Example assembly of the elements CII e CIII.
Other intervention on the façade are concerned to
the assembly of the masonry element fell down during
the earthquake.
4 CONCLUSIONS AND HORIZONS
According to our opinion, the work carried out for the
church of Saint Eusanio Martyr is an important sci-
entific and professional experience, and we believe it
could be an example of good practice in case of disas-
trous seismic events. In order to guarantee a future to it,
it is necessary to keep documental archives of cultural
goods’ images and plans. It is necessary to amelio-
rate the operative mechanism – in case of emergency –
overloaded with responsibilities and bureaucracies, by
creating groups of volunteers and scholars special-
ized in the recovery of the collapse ruins of cultural
goods, guaranteeing experimented methodologies and
coordination.
In the particular case of churches and church goods,
the relation among MiBAC, superintendence, local
administrations and all the operators (of universities
and Civil Defence and Firemen), should be facili-
tated by a protocol, able to give indications, times and
directives.
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Figure 12. 3D relief of the Church apses, photos of the
collapsed elements’ conditions in the month of June.
We have to notice that the Church of Saint Eusanio
Martyr was damaged in the apsidal part, with the col-
lapse of the two right apses and a serious damage in the
third one. Road conditions, adjacent buildings’ dan-
gerousness, the lack of suitable means, poor decisional
capacities prevented from intervening in the same way
for the recovery of masonry stonework. It was not pos-
sible to carry out the making safe, and they remained
just “ruins” left to the mercy of visitors and grave
robbers.
This experience is based on traditional modalities
of intervention for catastrophic events, threatening the
existence of a cultural good. From one side, there
is a scientific method guaranteed by the university
institution (PAU – RC); from the other, there are vol-
untary human resources of young people working
to improve their knowledge. Other examples are the
cases of Firenze flood, Venzone Cathedral, paintings
in fresco of San Francesco d’Assisi. These experi-
ences can inspire people that will work in the future
recovery of cultural goods, raising serious reflections
on the investment of suitable resources and means.
In this way, they will not be extraordinary isolated
enterprises.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

An indigenous model of seismic retrofit of stone masonry structures

M.M. Rafi, S.H. Lodi & S.F.A. Rafeeqi

NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan

ABSTRACT: Unreinforced masonry (URM) structures are commonly constructed in different parts of
Pakistan. A large number of these buildings consist of schools which are mostly low-rise perimeter bearing
wall structures with wooden trusses and corrugated GI sheeting roofs. The bearing walls consist of rubble solid
stone masonry units. These school buildings represent typical construction with indigenous factors such as local
construction practices, traditions, custom, social values, etc. These URM structures are perhaps the most vul-
nerable structural type of the existing building stock owing to a lack of resistance against lateral seismic forces.
Following the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, the Government of Pakistan and other non-governmental organisations
have realised the importance of safety of school buildings. This paper presents the details of an indigenous
retrofitting scheme which was employed on a case-study school building in Abbottabad-Pakistan keeping the
fabric of aforementioned factors intact. The scheme is based on the basic concepts of strengthening weak areas
and links of a structure. A 3-D finite element modelling of the building has been carried out. The performances
of the original and retrofitted models were studied using El-Centro ground accelerations. The performance of
the retrofitted model was found to be satisfactory and the retrofitting scheme was subsequently implemented on
the case-study school building.

1 INTRODUCTION etc. School buildings can be used as temporary shelters

Children are future generation and a nation’s success
and prosperity are dependent on them. Therefore, it is
of utmost importance that the children are provided
the best possible education. The beginning of achiev-
ing this goal starts from schools. The knowledge and
information which is transferred to the children is car-
ried to the society. As a result, schools play a vital role
in the socio-economic development of a country.
School buildings also play a significant role in the
relief operations during a disaster, be it natural or
manmade. These disasters include hurricane, earth-
quakes, tsunamis, cyclones, floods, wars, civil strife,
in the aftermath of such events (Inel et al. 2008).
All nations of the world put great emphasis on
children’s education. This is reflected by the fact that
one of the targets of the United Nations Millennium
Development Goals is to provide primary education
to all children by 2015. The school going children
spend a significant part of the day in these school
buildings (UN/DESA 2009). Therefore it is essential
that school buildings are made safe to protect lives
of both the children and their teachers. Unfortunately
school buildings have suffered damages at dispropor-
tionate levels during the past earthquakes all over the
world (UN/DESA 2009). Table 1 provides statistics of

Table 1. Earthquake damage statistics for schools.

Children RC Building
Location Year Magnitude Fatalities Damage

Sichuan, China 2008 7.9 7,000 –

Spitak, Armenia 1988 6.9 6,000 917
Chi-Chi, Taiwan 1999 7.6 – 723
Gujrat, India 2001 7.7 1,002* 1,884
Kashmir, Pakistan 2005 7.6 19,000 8,000
Bingol, Turkey 2003 6.4 100 3
Boumerdes, Algeria 2003 6.8 – 564
Molise, Italy 2002 5.6 28** –
Kocaeli, Turkey 1999 7.4 – 43
Cariaco, Venezuela 1997 6.9 32** 4

* including 31 teachers
** including 1 teacher

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 damages to schools and resulting life loss for some
of the earthquakes worldwide. These data have been
taken from (EERI 2006, UN/DESA 2009, Milutinovic
and Massué 2004, Bendimerad 2004, Dolce 2004, Jain
2004,Yüzügüllü et al. 2004, Rangel 1999, Balassanian
et al. 1995, Agarwal et al. 2002, Soong et al. 2000,
NDMD 2004). Recent efforts worldwide have been
focused towards making school buildings safe and
resistance to earthquakes. For example, countries such
as India, Turkey, Nepal, Ecuador and countries of
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Devel-
opment (OECD) are working with GeoHazards Inter-
national on different projects related to a reduction in
earthquake risks for schools (GeoHazards 2009).
Pakistan lies in a seismically active region. The
devastations made first by the Quetta earthquake of
magnitude 7.5 (which killed as many as 25,000 peo-
ple in 1935) and recently by the Kashmir earthquake of
magnitude 7.6 (which killed 73,000 people in 2005) Figure 1. Plan of case-study school.
can never be forgotten by the Pakistani nation. It is
noted in Table 1 that 19,000 children were killed dur-
ing the Kashmir earthquake as a result of collapse
of school buildings (EERI 2006). This probably shall
remain as the highest death toll in recent climate of
advanced state of understanding. Following the Kash-
mir earthquake, there has been recognition by the
Government of Pakistan and other non-governmental
organisations of an urgent need of safety of school
buildings; not only for life safety of future generation
but also owing to the vital role these schools play in
the relief operation in post-disaster situations.
Non-engineered construction is very common in
different parts of Pakistan. Most of them are unre- Figure 2. View of the case-study school building before
inforced masonry (URM) structures. Predominantly retrofitting.
the walls of these structures are made of either stone,
brick or block masonry which mostly lack resisting
mechanism for the lateral forces which are generated took upon the challenge of seismically retrofitting
during a seismic activity. Since Pakistan geographi- one of these school buildings as a case study, keep-
cally lies in a seismically active region, as mentioned ing the fabric of aforementioned factors intact. This
above, such structures become the most vulnerable paper presents the related details of this indigenous
stock of building during an earthquake and pose seri- retrofitting scheme. The method derives its strength
ous threat to human lives. Assessment of seismic from the basic concepts of strengthening weak areas
vulnerability of these URM school buildings, there- and links of a structure.A 3-D finite element modelling
fore, becomes essential to ensure safety of children of the building has been carried out using commercial
and associated human resources. software SAP 2000. The original and retrofitted mod-
There were growing concerns among various sec- els were subjected to ground shakings using El-Centro
tions of the society that a large number of URM ground accelerations. The satisfactory performance of
schools may have to be demolished as these were the retrofitted model allowed its implementation on the
declared dangerous by some of the government agen- case-study school building which is now functioning
cies after the 2005 Kashmir earthquake. As building normally.
new structures would have been rather an uphill task,
there were apprehensions among people that the exer-
cise of building new schools would never be taken up 2 DESCRIPTION OF SCHOOL AND
and would, therefore, cause tremendous education loss STRUCTURAL FEATURES
for the local population apart from obvious economic
losses. The authors visited eight school buildings in As mentioned in the foregoing section, the case-study
2008 in Abbottabad (a city 58 km northwards from the school is situated in the seismically active Abbot-
capital, Islamabad). The schools in this region repre- tabad region. The global coordinates of this school
sent typical construction with indigenous factors such as measured by GPS are N 34.16428◦ E 073.26137◦ .
as local construction practices, traditions, custom, The school consists of 4 classrooms which have been
social values, etc. Subsequent to this visit the authors divided into 3 blocks. A plan of the school building

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 3. Typical details of wall construction.
is shown in Figure 1. A view of the building before
retrofitting is presented in Figure 2.
The school has been built using a design template
which is the same for most of the schools in the
area. The structural system of the building consists
of load bearing walls which have been constructed
using double leaf random rubble stone masonry with
a cavity in the middle. The cavity is filled with rubble
stones blended with mortar. This mortar infill provides
a connection between the inner and the outer layers
of stonework. Typical details of the wall construction
in the area are shown in Figure 3. These walls pro-
vide a strong structural system to resist gravity loads.
The roof consists of timber trusses and corrugated
metal sheets. Since these trusses do not have any lat-
eral restraint against their movement these act as rigid
bodies during earthquake shaking and fail to provide
diaphragm action. This system inherently lacks resis-
tance to lateral loads as the walls are not connected
together at their ends and act as free standing walls.
Consequently, walls have only shear mode of fail-
ure with no flexure. As noted in Figures 1 and 2, the
columns stand alone with no bracing either at roof level
or at plinth level leaving them to behave independently
of the other parts of the building.
3 FEATURES OF RETROFIT DESIGN
The following innovative features were provided in
the seismic retrofitting design in order to increase the
seismic capacity of the case-study school building.
1. Increased out-of-plane bending resistance of
walls: Lateral load resistance of individual masonry
walls have been increased against out-of-plane
bending by providing both horizontal as well as
vertical metal strips (50 × 6 mm). These strips have
been provided on both the internal and external
faces of the walls and well connected with each
other using 12 mm diameter pins.
2. Stronger lateral resisting system: All the four
walls have also been connected together at their
junctions using steel angles (75 × 75 × 3 mm) from
inside as well as outside to form a close box action
and providing stronger lateral load resisting system.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 4. Idealization of mortar joints.
3. Strengthening of weak areas: Weak areas within
the walls such as openings for doors and windows
were additionally strengthened using metal strips
around the openings from both inside and outside.
4. Tying individual and isolated members: Individ-
ual and isolated members, such as stone masonry
columns, were tied together by tie beams both at
plinth and lintel levels.
5. Increased stiffness: The stiffness of the system has
further been increased by casting a Slab-on-Grade
well connected to the wall and applying Ferroce-
ment plaster (1:4 cement:sand plaster overlain on
G.I. Expanded metal lathe of 18 Swg) on the walls
both internally and externally.
4 NON-LINEAR TIME HISTORY ANALYSIS
A mathematical model of the school was constructed
using the commercial Finite Element Modelling
(FEM) software SAP2000 (2008). A brick-by-brick
modelling approach was employed and the stone
masonry blocks were modelled as three dimensional
linear solid brick elements which were connected to
each other by the nonlinear spring elements represent-
ing the mortar joints (Fig. 4). Only a single room was
modelled in view of the computation time required to
analyse the structure. Roof trusses were excluded in
the model. As a result, no diaphragm action was con-
sidered. A view of the mathematical model is shown
in Figure 5.
Since the material properties of the stone masonry
blocks are not a significant parameter being much
stronger and stiffer compared to the mortar, only lin-
ear properties were used in the computations. These
properties were represented by the elastic modulus
(E = 50 GPa) and density (γ = 23 MPa). The non-
linear properties of mortar were defined using exist-
ing constitutive models. The non-linear compressive
behaviour of mortar (Fig. 6) in the direction of princi-
pal compressive strain was defined using the Popovics

Figure 5. View of mathematical model of school.
Figure 6. Mortar behaviour in compression and tension.
(1973) compression curve. A linear relaxation of nor-
mal stress in the direction orthogonal to the crack
is adopted with a linear tension-softening diagram
(Fig. 6).
Compressive strength of mortar (fc ) was taken as
15 MPa whereas the tensile strength was considered as
0.1fc (Tasuji et al. 1979). The elastic modulus in com-
pression was determined to be 21,507 MPa (Popovics
1973). Shear strength of the mortar has been taken
as 0.15fc which was determined using failure surface
defined by Tasuji et al. (1979). A linear stress-strain
relation was employed to model the shear behaviour of
the mortar and its post peak behaviour was modelled
as a brittle material (Fig. 7).
Geometric nonlinearities were considered in the
analysis with the help of Total Lagrangian approach.
These refer to those nonlinearities that arise due
to the changing geometry of a structure owing to its
deflection. The system of nonlinear equations was
solved by an increamental-iterative procedure. The
Regular Newton-Raphson method was used for the
iteration scheme. It sets up and updates tangential stiff-
ness matrix before each iterative step. The size of each
time step was specified explicitly and was kept small
(t = 0.005 sec) to obtain rapid convergence even in
highly non-linear state. A line search algorithm was
also used in order to increase the rate of convergence
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 7. Mortar behaviour in shear.
Figure 8. Normalised deflection of original and retrofitted
structure.
and to stabilize convergence behaviour. The numbers
of iterations in each step were kept as 10 for the
analysis. A tolerance of 5 × 10−2 on the displacement
norm was defined as convergence criterion at all time
steps.
The mathematical model was subjected to ground
shakings which were simulated using El-Centro
ground accelerations. The out-of-plane (lateral)
deflections of the long wall of building (Fig. 5) were
determined and are plotted in Figure 8. The deflec-
tions in Figure 8 have been normalised by using ratio
of /top ; where top is the deflection at the top wall
level of the original structure.
A retrofitted model was also analysed using the
aforementioned FE Analysis (FEA) method. This
retrofitted model was based on the retrofitting design
as described in section 3 above. However Ferrocement
plaster was not included in the retro-fitted model. A
view of the long and shorts walls of the retrofitted
model are shown in Figures 9 and 10, respectively.
The long wall also shows the jacketing scheme around
the openings.
The results of the long wall normalised deflection
in the retrofitted building are illustrated in Figure 8.
It can be seen in Figure 8 that the deflection at the
top of retrofitted wall is 58% less as compared to the
original structure. Although the deflection of the struc-
ture after applying Ferrocement was not measured it
is clear that this will further reduce deflection. The
Figure 9. View of short wall; (a) computer model; (b) actual construction.
Figure 10. View of long wall; (a) computer model; (b) actual construction.
retrofitting scheme was vetted and approved by the
National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)
before its implementation. Figures 9(b) and 10(b) show
actual construction phases of the retrofitted building.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The damages to school buildings during past earth-
quakes have demonstrated their vulnerability to earth-
quakes. Details of an indigenous seismic retrofitting
scheme for a URM school building are presented
in this paper. The school is situated in Abbottabad-
Pakistan. A non-linear FEM of both the existing and
retrofitted buildings was carried out and the struc-
tures were analysed using the time history analysis.
This analysis employed El-Centro ground acceler-
ations data. Important conclusions drawn from the
presented study are listed as under.
1) The retrofitting scheme which was based on the
basic concepts of strengthening weak areas and
links of the structure showed significant improve-
ment in load resistance in terms of stiffness and
strength.
2) The retrofitting scheme was easily understood by
the local construction workers and applied easily
through top supervision only.
3) The school which is now regularly functioning has
immensely boosted the moral of the community.
The local people are now confident to apply the
scheme to other schools in the community and can
confidently oppose demolition of their schools.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
4) The authors have applied for a patent of their
retrofitting scheme.
REFERENCES
Agarwal, P. Thakkar, S.K. & Dubey, R.N. 2002. Seismic per-
formance of reinforced concrete buildings during Bhuj
earthquake of January 26, 2001. ISET Journal of Earth-
quake Technology 39(3): 195–217.
Balassanian, S.Y. Arakellian, A.R. Nazaretian, S.N. Avanes-
sian, A.S. Martirossian, A.H. Igoumnov, V.A. Melk-
oumian, M.G. Manoukian, A.V. & Tovmassian, A. K.
1995. Retrospective analysis of the Spitak earthquake.
Annali Di Geofisica XXXVIII(3-4): 345–372.
Bendimerad, F. 2004. Earthquake vulnerability of school
buildings in Algeria. Ad Hoc Expert’s Group Meeting on
Earthquake Safety in School, OECD, Paris.
Dolce, M. 2004. Seismic safety of Italian schools. Ad Hoc
Expert’s Group Meeting on Earthquake Safety in Schools,
OECD, Paris.
Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI). 2006.
The Kashmir earthquake of October 8, 2005: Impacts
in Pakistan, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
Special Earthquake Report, EERI Newsletter, 2006.
Geohazard International. 2009. Advocacy: Preparedness:
Prevention: Mitigation, available at: http://www.geohaz.org/
Inel, M. Bilgin, H. & Ozmen, H.B. 2008. Seismic capac-
ity evaluation of school buildings in Turkey. Strucutres &
Buildings 161: 147–159.
Jain, S.K. 2004. Implementing school seismic safety pro-
grammes in developing countries, Ad Hoc Expert’s Group
Meeting on Earthquake Safety in Schools, OECD, Paris.
Milutinovic, Z. & Massué, J.P. 2004. School ID card: A
key prerequisite for effective mitigation and emergency
 response, Ad Hoc Expert’s Group Meeting on Earthquake
Safety in Schools, OECD, Paris.
National Management Disaster Division (NDMD). 2004.
School Safety – A handbook for Administrator, Educa-
tion Officers, Emergency Officials, School Principals &
Teachers.
Popovics, S. 1973. A numerical approach to the com-
plete stress-strain curve of concrete. Cement of Concrete
Research 3: 583–599.
Rangel, A. 1999. Terremoto de Cariaco, Venezuela, Julio
1997, Crónicas de Desastres No. 6, Organización
Panamericana de la Salud (OPS), Quito, Ecuador, avail-
able at: http://www.paho.org/
SAP 2000 Non-linear. 1995. Static and dynamic analysis of
structures. Computers and Structures Inc. 2008.
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Soong, T. T. Yao, G. & Lin, C. 2000. Damage to Critical
Facilities Following the 921 Chi-Chi, Taiwan Earth-
quake. MCEER/NCREE Reconnaissance Report 2000,
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strain relationship for concrete. Magazine of Concrete
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Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN/DESA)
(2009). Reducing vulnerability of school children to
earthquakes- A project of School Earthquake Safety
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Yüzügüllü, Ö. Barbarosoglu, G. & Erdik, M. 2004. Seismic
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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

INERD software: A new design tool to improve the robustness of RCMRF

under earthquake loading

R. Zanon, M. Sommavilla, F. Labory & L.-G. Cajot

ArcelorMittal R&D, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg

A. Plumier & H. Degée

ArGEnCo Department, Liège University, Belgium

K. Weynand & R. Oerder

Feldmann + Weynand GmbH, Aachen, Germany

ABSTRACT: The INERD (INnovations Earthquakes Resistant Design) concept is an additional constructive
system independent of analysis and design that can be applied to reinforced concrete frame structures. The pro-
posed idea is to use encased steel sections as ductile fuses able to dissipate cyclically the energy of the earthquake
in the lower storey of buildings. A recent European research has demonstrated analytically and experimentally
that this concept is an efficient way to provide significant robustness to the structure. In order to take advantage
of these benefits in the daily construction practice, a new software tool has been developed. The aim is that
Engineers would first follow the usual reinforced concrete procedures in designing the moment resisting frame
and then use the software to define the required encased steel “safety-belt” to achieve the adequate safety and
robustness level by adding the most appropriate embedded light steel profile in the columns of the first-storey.

1 UNCERTAINTIES IN SEISMIC BEHAVIOR

OF REINFORCED CONCRETE MOMENT
RESISTING FRAME

1.1 Earthquake design

Design in earthquake areas has to face uncertainties
of different origins. More particularly, reinforced con-
crete moment resisting frames (RCMRF) may face
the following problems despite having been designed
according to EC2 & EC8. The latest European major
earthquake has confirmed this uncomfortable situa-
tion (Landolfo 2009).

1.2 Irregular stiffness distribution on the

building height
Generally, MRF structures are analyzed as bare rein-
forced concrete frames. But their actual behavior is
often modified by the presence of infill walls which
have an unfavorable influence on the effects in mem-
bers and on the global response of the structure.
The most frequent failure mode of reinforced con-
crete moment frame buildings is a so-called ‘soft
storey’ mechanism in which failure takes place in the
bottom storey.
This soft-storey mechanism may be initiated either
by openings in the bottom storey for providing free
space for offices, shops or lobby, or because of the par-
ticular vulnerability of the infill walls of ground floors
due to higher shear deformation demand (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Soft-storey mechanism on RC building after
L’Aquila earthquake, 6th April 2009 (Landolfo 2009).
Bending moments and deformation of the columns
are thus higher in this weakened first storey than at
upper levels, where masonry infill walls are present
and less vulnerable. Bending moments combined with
compression and shear can then result in the failure
of the columns of the first storey, inducing an antic-
ipated collapse of the building. Moreover, reaction
of the compression struts created in the infill walls
when these latter are locking the deformation of the
moment resisting frame can also induce a significantly

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 increased shear in columns and lead to another type of
local failure.
In reference to such a situation, it should also be
mentioned that Eurocode 8 §5.9 (1) sets forward the
problem and the obligation to take mitigation mea-
sures in frames with in-fills: “Because of the particular
vulnerability of the infill walls of ground floors, a seis-
mically induced irregularity is to be expected there and
appropriate measures should be taken…”.
Mitigation of those problems is actually mitigation
of situations which can also exist in the life of a build-
ing due to changes of internal spaces either at the
project or construction stage, or even later in the usage Figure 2. Inerd concept.
phase. These are common situations which are often
out of control for the designer.

1.3 Seismic vertical component

According to seismic design codes, it is allowed in
most cases to neglect the vertical component of earth-
quakes for both the analysis and design. The actual
axial force in columns is therefore approximated.
As a matter of example, for Eurocode 8 – type 2
earthquakes, the peak vertical acceleration should be
taken as 0.9 times the horizontal acceleration. In an
area characterized by a Peak Ground Acceleration
ag = 0.4 g, this means that gravity is either reduced
or increased by 0.4 g × 0.9 = 0.36 g (i.e. 36 %).
Columns are designed to resist bending coupled to
axial force, but it is obvious that an approximation of
36 % on the axial force can have significant conse-
quences on the actual bending resistance of reinforced
concrete columns due to the shape of M-N interaction
curves for reinforced concrete elements. This approx-
imation can be sufficient to move the location of the
weak sections of the moment frame from the beams,
where they are expected, to the columns.
1.4 Material quality
Another problem with reinforced concrete structures
is related to the quality of the material. This quality
requires a serious and continuous control to be effi-
cient and there is often a certain level of uncertainty on
this parameter. In particular, if the concrete strength is
less than required for a column or higher than expected
for a beam, an anticipated local failure is likely to occur
in the column and can initiate a subsequent chain of
failures.
Robustness in earthquake conditions is thus needed
even for moment resisting frames designed according
to codes.
2 TECHNICAL BACKGROUND
2.1 Inerd concept
The INERD concept for concrete frames consists in
placing a steel profile inside the reinforced concrete
column at the first storey of the building (see Figure 2).
This profile is not considered for the structural design,
Figure 3. Cyclic Moment-Rotation curves showing the
improved performances of the composite section in compari-
son to the original reinforced concrete column (Bursi et al.,
2004).
which is carried out as usual for RC structures, and is
assumed to act as a safety belt activated only in case of
deficiencies of the concrete under earthquake action.
A recent European research (Plumier et al., 2006)
has demonstrated analytically and experimentally that
this concept is an efficient way to provide significant
robustness to the structure. Indeed the resistance of the
locally composite column is higher than the pure rein-
forced concrete resistance considered for the design.
Moreover, this resistance is less sensitive to uncertain-
ties on the actual normal force in the column, due to
the shape of the M-N interaction curve of the steel pro-
file, and less sensitive to uncertainties on the material
properties, since steel profiles are industrial products
with high quality control. Thus the INERD concept
limits significantly the risk of occurrence of soft-
storey mechanisms, even in the unfavorable conditions
described in section 1.
Moreover, even if a soft-storey mechanism occurs,
the steel profile exhibits a high rotation capacity. It can
therefore substitute the possibly deficient reinforced
concrete section when concrete is fully cracked or
when longitudinal reinforcements have buckled under
seismic cycles providing thus improved ductility to
the structure. The soft-storey mechanism is then less
brittle than what can be observed for pure reinforced
concrete frames.
Figure 3 shows an experimental example of how
much the INERD concept can improve the resistance
and the ductility and energy dissipation of a given RC
column subjected to constant compression and cyclic
bending.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Finally it can be stated that even a profile with
limited size brings improvement to the sectional
behavior, without modifying significantly the global
behavior of the structure. This justifies that the build-
ing may remain globally designed as a reinforced
concrete frame.
2.2 Design criteria
Four criteria are proposed to define the appropriate
steel profile to be encased (Degée et al. 2008):
– The steel section alone should be able to resist
the design axial force of the seismic loading case.
This means that, just after an earthquake, the build-
ing is still standing even if concrete is completely
destroyed at the location of the plastic hinges;
– The steel section alone should be able to com-
pensate for the deficient concrete section under
bending moment and shear corresponding to the
seismic loading;
– The steel sections should not modify significantly
the local bending stiffness EI of the columns, in
order to keep the stiffness as close as possible to the
one of the original reinforced concrete columns, as
any increase in stiffness would mean an increase
in the seismic forces, which is not desirable. More-
over, any important change in the stiffness would
result in a change of the natural period of the struc-
ture and thus in the value of the seismic action with
respect to what has been considered for design;
– Modification of the properties of the column should
be of the same order of magnitude for both load-
ing directions, i.e. for bending of columns around
strong and weak axis, in order to avoid non homo-
geneous modifications of the structural properties.
In the following paragraphs these criteria are
explained with more details.
2.3 Criterion 1
The steel section alone should at least be able to sustain
the design axial force corresponding to the gravity load
used in the seismic loading combination:
The value of the design axial force NEd is the compres-
sion force in a 1st storey column due to the non seismic
actions participating in the seismic load combination
and should be defined by the designer. NRd is the axial
resistance of the steel profile:
with Ap = cross-section area, fyk.p = characteristic
yield strength, γM = safety factor for seismic actions.
Note that when the concrete resistance is rather high,
it may be interesting to consider comparatively high
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
values of the yield stress for the steel profile (such as
S460M), rather than increase its cross-section area.
If higher value of action forces would be considered
(for instance maximum design compression load in the
columns), the necessary steel profile would become
bigger and either it may be too large to be placed inside
the shear reinforcements or, even if possible to place
it, it would induce a risk of brittle failure due to lon-
gitudinal shear or local compression. Further, there is
no need to guarantee that the building should be able
to sustain the maximum design compression just after
the earthquake.
It is also worth noting that the yield stress of the
steel profile is normally greater than its nominal value
fyk,p . According to the over strength factor proposed
by Eurocode 8 for design purpose, the safety margin
is in average about 1.25.
2.4 Criterion 2
The steel section alone should be able to substitute the
deficient concrete section:
where q is the behavior factor considered in the design
of the reinforced concrete structure. The reason for
reducing the design requirement on the INERD pro-
file in the case of a DCL (Ductility Class low) or DCM
(Ductility Class Medium) in respect to the DCH (Duc-
tility Class High) reinforced concrete design (i.e. of
qconcrete is smaller than 3.6) is that, once concrete is
crushed, the resisting steel section alone is contribut-
ing in the plastic hinge. The behavior is thus closer to
the one of a steel moment resisting frame for which a
behavior factor q equal to 3.6 can be reasonably consid-
ered. The software considers the following definitions
for the behavior factor q:
The limit value of 3.6 used for the transition between
DCM and DCH structures is defined from Eurocode
8. For the bending resistance and the shear resistance
of the members the usual values from the Eurocodes
are considered:
where MRd.p is the design value of the resistant bending
moment of steel profile, Wpl.p is the plastic section
modulus (only class 1 and 2 cross-sections are allowed
to be used as INERD profile) and γM is the safety factor
for seismic actions. The design value of the resistant
bending moment of concrete My,Rd,c,ref is estimated
 with an fiber model of the cross section considering
an ultimate compressive strain of concrete εcu equal
to 0.35%.

where Vrd.p is the design value of the shear resistance

of the steel profile around the strong axis and weak axis
respectively, Avz.p is the web area, b and tf are the outer
dimensions of the flange and γM is the safety factor for
seismic actions. The design shear resistance of the con-
crete section Vz.Rd.c.ref is computed according to the
Eurocode 2 procedure (EN1992-1-1 §6.2.3). Detailed
explanation can be found also in Degée et al. (2009).

2.5 Criterion 3
The steel sections should not modify much the stiffness
EI of the single RC columns (maximum modification
in the range of 30%) in order not to change the dis-
tribution of stiffness between the composite and the
originally designed RC structure.
The difference between concrete (EIc ) and compos-
ite stiffness (EIcomp ) should be such that:
Figure 4. In the scope of the INERD project 38 full scale
tests were made: 10 reinforced concrete columns, 14 with
reinforced concrete columns with embedded short steel pro-
file (short anchoring) and 14 reinforced concrete columns
with embedded long steel profile (long anchoring) (Plumier
et al., 2006).

around the 2 main axes. The following ratio should

remain in a restricted range:

The determination of the reinforced concrete stiffness

and the composite stiffness is based on Eurocode 4
[EN 1994-1-1: 2004 §6.7.3.4(2)] and Eurocode 8 [EN
1998-1: 2004 §7.7.2(4)]:

where MRd.comp is the moment resistance of the com-

where Es , Ep and Ecm are respectively the modulus of
elasticity for steel rebars, steel profile, and concrete; Is ,
Ip and Ic denote the second moment of area of respec-
tively the rebars, the steel section and the concrete.
The limitation to 30% for the variation of first storey
columns stiffness limits the modification of the distri-
bution of stiffness (and thus of internal forces) between
the actual structure and the pure RC structure consid-
ered for design and limits as well the change in terms
of period of vibration of the building. With the limit
of 30% used in the software, it can be shown that the
resulting variation on the period is about 1 to 3% for
usual buildings.
2.6 Criterion 4
posite section and MRd.c is the moment resistance of
the reinforced concrete section.
The moment resistances of concrete section are esti-
mated with an elementary fiber model and an ultimate
compressive strain in the concrete εcu equal to 0.35%.
The moment resistances of composite section are given
by the sum of the concrete moment resistance defined
as above, but with a hole at the location of the profile,
and of the steel profile moment resistance correspond-
ing to a curvature equal to the curvature of the concrete
section at the ultimate limit state.
The limitation to the given range has been fixed
arbitrarily but is considered as a reasonable limit for
avoiding non homogeneous modification of the frame
properties.
3 ADDITIONAL CHECKS AND
CONSTRUCTION DETAILS

The increase of resistance of the composite section In order to make consistent the application of the
referred to the resistance of the pure concrete section INERD solution to the building concept, several addi-
should stay in a similar range as regards bending tional verifications have to be checked in order to

928
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 5. Examples of cross-section with different trans-
verse reinforcements.
ensure the correct behavior of the structure. In particu-
lar, the anchorage of the steel profile plays a major role
which was outlined during the experimental test cam-
paign (Ferrario, 2004). Different detailed verifications
and solutions for the various practical cases (profile
anchored in the upper structure, in the underground
structure, in foundation) have been experimented and
justified theoretically.
The influence and the mutual interaction with the
infill masonry walls are taken into account by means
of a “struts and ties” model.
Another important point is the detailing of the
reinforcement – in particular the transverse reinforce-
ments such as stirrups and hooks, which have to be
compatible with the embedded steel profile. Several
possibilities have been studied compliant with the
Eurocode 8 requirements.
For the details of all these verifications and the pos-
sible solutions reference can be made to the technical
documents accompanying the software (Degée et al.,
2009).
4 INERD SOFTWARE
Often the research encounters the problem to find
direct application in the daily practice due to the addi-
tional work charges and unusual design procedure
that innovative solutions may require from structural
designers. In order to bypass this problem and take
advantage of the benefits of these new technologies,
ArcelorMittal has developed in partnership with the
University of Liege, Belgium and the engineering
office Feldmann + Weynand GmbH, Aachen, Ger-
many (all previous partners of the European Inerd
project) an informatics tool for practitioners to assist
them in the application of the INERD solution. This
software can be downloaded free of charge under
www.arcelormittal.com/sections.
The software is conceived with a user-friendly
graphic interface and allows an interactive overview
on the design procedure. The detailed output reports
all the verifications explained in chapter 2 and the rel-
evant results in analytical and graphical format. The
aim is that engineers would follow the usual procedure
in designing a moment resisting frame in reinforced
concrete, using afterwards this “safety-belt” tool to
achieve an adequate safety and robustness level by
929
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 6. Graphical interface of the software.
adding an embedded light steel profile in the columns
of the first-storey.
5 CONCLUSIONS AND OUTLOOK
The INERD concept and software have been conceived
with the intent to help engineers involved in seis-
mic design in order to provide the reinforced concrete
structures with the necessary amount of ductility in
those critical zones usually strongly affected by the
occurrence of seismic events, and this with enough
safety margins. The general recommendation is to
reinforce some strategic points of the building, as
the column of the 1st storey, allowing in this man-
ner to save the structure from a global collapse due to
localized brittle type of failures.
The hope of the authors is that this software can be
a small brick to build safer housing for the people of
tomorrow.
REFERENCES
EN 1992-1-1; Eurocode 2: Design of concrete structures,
Part 1-1: General rules and rules for buildings (2004)
CEN European Committee for standardization.
EN 1994-1-1; Eurocode 4: Design of composite steel and
concrete structures, Part 1-1: General rules and rules
for buildings (2004) CEN European Committee for
standardization.
EN 1998-1; Eurocode 8: Design of structures for earthquake
resistance, Part 1: General rules, seismic actions and
rules for buildings,(2004) CEN European Committee for
standardization.
Bursi O., Ferrario F, Sommavilla M. The INERD Project –
Detailed report (2004) University of Trento.
Ferrario F. Analysis and Modelling of the Seismic Behav-
ior of High Ductility Steel-Concrete Composite Structures
(2004) PhD Thesis – University of Trento.
Plumier A., Doneux C., Castiglioni C., Brescianini J.,
Crespi A., Dell’Anna S., Lazzarotto L., Calado L.,
Ferreira J., Feligioni S., Bursi O., Ferrario F.,
Sommavilla M., Vayas I., Thanopoulos P., Demarco T.,
Two innovations for earthquake-resistant design: the
 INERD project, Final report (2006) – Science Research
Development – EUR 22044 EN.
Degée H., Haremza C., Plumier A. INERD – INnovations
for Earthquake-Resistant Design – Avoiding soft-storey
mechanisms in reinforced concrete frames by using locally
composite columns (2008) Research report – University
of Liege.
930
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Degée H., Haremza C., Plumier A. ArcelorMittal INERD,
Innovation for Earthquake resistant design – Reference
documents 1…7 (2009) Software background documents –
University of Liege.
Landolfo, R. Acciaio e Sisma (2009) Costruzioni Metalliche
No 6, pag. 53–69.
 Protection of structures against impact and explosion

© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Behaviour of high performance fibre reinforced cementitious

composites under high dynamic loading and fire for safe tunnels

E. Cadoni
University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland, Lugano, Switzerland

A. Caverzan & M. di Prisco

Politecnico di Milano – Polo Regionale di Lecco, Lecco, Italy

ABSTRACT: In this paper the results of an experimental study on the behaviour of High Performance Fibre
Reinforced Cementitious Composites under static and dynamic tension loading are described. This material has
been developed for new segment tunnel resisting to fire and explosion. Results have shown the influence on
its mechanical behaviour in tension of high temperature and strain rate. The dynamic strength increases with
high temperature exposure, and toughness is progressively reduced. A change in the failure mechanism has been
observed in dynamic tests by increasing the exposure temperature.

1 INTRODUCTION propagation in both radial and longitudinal directions.

In the last years explosions, impact and fires are
becoming safety issues, very important for social and
scientific community. In fact, even if these loading
conditions can be considered as exceptional events
the designer cannot ignore these scenarios for a large
number of social sensitive structures as high rise build-
ings, pipelines, bridges, offshore platforms, secondary
shells for nuclear plants and tunnels. In particular for
the tunnels resting in soft soil, their design is cur-
rently based on semi-empirical formulations which
lead to approximate solutions of soil-structure interac-
tion problems in both the transversal and longitudinal
plane of the tunnel and rarely take into account stresses
induced by dig. Soil-structure interaction is consid-
ered only through the introduction of springs in radial
or/and orthogonal position with respect to the longitu-
dinal axis of the tunnel and by suitably calculating
their stiffness on the basis of the ground mechan-
ical characteristics. Moreover, the dig advancing in
soft ground can sometimes arise significant displace-
ments which induce structural damage in the buildings
placed at the ground level. The static load condi-
tion described above, however, differs greatly from
the tensional state caused by exceptional loads like
impact, blast and fire. Moreover, in urban areas, rest-
ing on soft soil, these severe conditions can lead to
the partial collapse of the lining, causing significant
settlements, which are extremely dangerous for build-
ing at the ground level (Fig. 1) and larger than the
mentioned above displacements, caused by the tun-
nel excavation process. Fire and blast actions involve
a careful study of the soil-structure interaction: the
former in static conditions, while the latter in high-
speed dynamic conditions, characterized by a wave
It is worth noting that fire and blast are exceptional
loads never taken into account in tunnel design; thus
structural reliability is often evaluated apart from these
exceptional events. To increase the safety of the lining,
and reduce the occurrence of catastrophic structural
collapse, an effort in introducing these aspects in
the design process appears necessary. To investigate
the effects of exceptional loads and suggest a feasi-
ble design solution for tunnel construction, a project
named ACCIDENT, acronym of Advance Cementi-
tious Composites In DEsign and coNstruction of safe
Tunnel, was started in early 2009. The main aim of
this project is the design of prefabricated tunnel seg-
ments characterized by a multilayer structure, to use
with a Tunnel Boring Machine. ACCIDENT is a spe-
cial cooperation between Italy and Switzerland funded
by INTERREG and supported by the European Com-
mission and the Swiss Confederation. The two project
leaders are the Politecnico di Milano – Polo Regionale
di Lecco (Lecco – Italy) and the University of Applied
Sciences of Southern Switzerland (Lugano – Switzer-
land). Nine industrial and institutional partners are
also involved in the research project. The project is
addressed to develop new classes of fibre reinforced
structural materials, which will be used by the indus-
trial partners to manufacture new products for tunnel
segments. This will allow to reduce the risk and the
global damage in case of accidents when fire and blast
occur. In fact, the research is aimed at reducing the per-
manent damages and the partial collapses that could
eventually obstruct the first aid and the fire brigade
intervention. In particular, the project was focused
to investigate the problem at three different levels:
the material level, the meso-structural level and the
macro-structural level.

933
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 1. Partial collapse of the lining.
1.1 Material, meso- and macro structural levels
As mentioned above the project is divided into three
different levels and these levels are interacting. In
fact, a proper material model is needed in order to
define suitable multi-layer profile for the prefabricated
tunnel segment, moreover the definition of the seg-
ment casting procedure in the macro-structural level
is needful for the material characterization of the fibre
reinforced material adopted in this project. As a mat-
ter of fact, the casting procedure can highly influence
the fibre orientation for the high performance cementi-
tious composites in the fresh state and consequently the
material response in the hardened state. At the material
level new types of cementitious composites reinforced
by randomly distributed fibres (Reinhardt and Naa-
man, 2007, Cadoni et al., 2008, di Prisco et al., 2009)
and/or textile, are developed and characterized both
in the static and the dynamic fields considering fire
and blast conditions, and their interaction (Colombo
et al., 2010a). The behaviour of concrete at high tem-
peratures is a fundamental issue in the design of
tunnel linings. A wide experimental investigation was
carried out on HPFRC (High Performance Fibre Rein-
forced Concrete) at high temperatures (Caverzan et al.,
2009a). Different matrix materials (i.e. mortar), as
well as fibre types (e.g. glass, polypropylene, and tex-
tile) and their content, were investigated. The dynamic
characterization of the different materials was per-
formed by using a Modified Hopkinson Bar (MHB).
From these experimental campaigns a proper consti-
tutive model could be defined by taking into account
thermal damage and strain rate effects (Caverzan et al.,
2009c, Caverzan, 2010). At the meso-structural level
a slab, interacting with soil, thermally damaged and
subjected to a plane shock wave will be tested. These
tests will be carried out by means of a new type of
shock tube developed at the Department of Struc-
tural Engineering – Politecnico di Milano to carry out
tests on slabs. The shock tube is designed as a double
diaphragm shock tube; it is composed of a stainless
steel tube with two chambers separated by means of a
buffer section limited by two diaphragms (Colombo
et al., 2010b). Two gases at different pressures are
stored in the chambers, when the pressure difference
reaches a fixed threshold, the diaphragms fail and a
934
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
shock wave propagates from the high pressure cham-
ber to that at lower pressure, striking the slab specimen
located at the end of the tube. Besides the conven-
tional design, two main modifications were added.
This new shock tube is, in fact, characterized by a sec-
tion placed behind the slab specimen, designed to be
filled with soil to allow for the investigation of the soil-
structure interaction under impulsive waves. Finally,
in order to study the effects of high temperatures on
the wave propagation and soil-structure interaction a
furnace is exploited to create a temperature gradient
along the specimen such as in fire condition. Finally,
at the macro-structural level, two different test types,
fire and blasting tests, are planned. Cylindrical plain
concrete tubes (diameter = 1 m; thickness = 0.08 m;
length = 25 m), embedded in a soil at a depth of 2.30
meters, will be tested at the training campus of the
Lombardia Fire-brigade in Bovisio Masciago (Milan).
Two different fire tests will be carried out: the first,
aimed at representing a reduced fire load, thus without
collapse of the structure section. On the other hand, to
investigate the global collapse mechanism of the soil-
structure system due to the degradation of the concrete
mechanical properties, typical fire accidents will be
simulated. The main aim of these tests is the reliability
evaluation of the numerical modelling predictions. The
explosion tests will be performed with different quan-
tities of explosive in order to investigate the behaviour
of an embedded concrete tube and its interaction with
the soil: this research step will allow to understand
the behaviour of the soil-structure interaction system
under internal explosions of different intensity.
2 MATERIALS
2.1 Mix design
The material investigated was a High Performance
Fibre Reinforced Cementitious Composite (HPFRCC)
and its mix design is listed in Table 1. The sand used
can be defined as quartz sand mixed and was sieved up
to 2 mm. Steel fibres were high carbon straight fibres,
13 mm long with a 0.16 mm diameter (aspect ratio lf /df
equal to 80); their content was equal to 100 kg/m3 . It
is important to observe that the fibre content (about
1.2% by volume) is lower than the content usually
adopted for Ultra High Performance Concrete (i.e. 2%,
see Fehling et al. Eds., 2008) or Slurry Infiltred Fiber
CONcrete (i.e. 6% see Naaman, 2004). Moreover, a
thermal curing process or other particular treatments
are usually adopted to cast UHPFRC and SIFCON
materials which implies a higher production cost with
respect to the material used in this research. Manu-
facturing process was composed by more phases. First
of all a 30 mm thick slab 1.6 m × 0.60 m in plane was
cast. The casting was carried out by applying a uni-
directional flow in order to guarantee a certain fibre
orientation. Twelve prismatic samples, 40 mm wide
and 600 mm long, were sawed from the slab taking the
larger side of beams parallel to the casting flow direc-
tion. Three specimens were tested in bending at room
Table 1. Mix design.
Constituent Dosage [kg/m3 ]
Cement Type I 52.5 600
Slag 500
Water 200
Super Plasticizer 33 l/m3
Sand 0–2 mm 983
Fibre (lf = 13 mm; df = 0.16 mm) 100
Figure 2. Thermal cycles.
temperature (Caverzan 2009b). Nine beam specimens,
with the same geometry, were used to investigate
the degradation of post-cracking residual strengths in
bending after exposure to high temperatures. From the
bent specimens, several small cylinders, objects of the
present work, were cored in the direction of tensile
stresses to be tested in uniaxial tension at different
loading rates.
2.2 Thermal damage
The thermal treatment of the samples was carried out
in an electric furnace by performing thermal cycles up
to different maximum temperatures. Three maximum
temperatures thresholds (200, 400 and 600◦ C) were
reached. A heating rate equal to 50◦ C/h was imposed
up to the maximum thresholds; then, in order to
assure a homogeneous temperature distribution within
the sample volume, two hours of stabilization were
imposed.The temperature was after reduced with a rate
of 25◦ C/h down to 100◦ C and then a cooling process
at room temperature was carried out (Fig. 2)
3 EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP
3.1 Quasi-static tests
In order to characterize the material behaviour in the
static field, several uniaxial tension tests were car-
ried out on notched cylinders with 20 mm diameter,
and 20 mm height (notch depth = 1.5 mm), glued to
the press platens by means of an epoxy resin. The
tests were carried out by means of close-loop electro-
mechanical press INSTRON 5867, in the laboratory
935
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
of Politecnico di Milano – Polo Regionale di Lecco.
The press has a maximum loading capacity equal to
30 kN.Two aluminium cylinders connected to the press
by a knuckled joint were used as press platens. In
both cylinders a 5 mm deep cylindrical cavity with a
22 mm diameter was made in order to increase the
glued sample surface. Stroke was considered as feed-
back parameter during the tests. The displacement rate
imposed during the tests was equal to 5 × 10−5 mm/s
up to 1.5 mm and it was progressively increased up to
10−3 mm/s. For each temperature (room conditions,
200◦ C, 400◦ C and 600◦ C) three samples were tested.
3.2 Dynamic tests
The dynamic behaviour of HPFRCC has been ana-
lyzed by means of a JRC-Modified Hopkinson Bar
(JRC-MHB) (Cadoni et al. 2009a/b). This JRC-MHB
is installed in the DynaMat laboratory of the University
of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI)
of Lugano (Fig. 3).
The system consists of two circular aluminium bars
(input and output bars), having a diameter of 20 mm
and a length respectively of 3 m and 6 m, to which the
HPFRCC test specimen is glued using an epoxy resin.
The input bar is connected with a pretension bar used
as pulse generator. In this way, HPFRCC specimens
with same diameter of 20 mm are tested; each bar is
instrumented with semiconductor strain gauges: mea-
surements of the incident, reflected and transmitted
pulses acting on the cross section of the specimen are
obtained.
A test with the JRC-MHB is performed as follows:
• first a hydraulic actuator, of maximum loading
capacity of 1 MN, is pulling the pretension manag-
ing high strength steel bar having a length of 6 m and
a diameter of 12 mm; the pretension stored in this
bar is resisted by the blocking device (see Fig. 3).
• second operation is the rupture of the fragile bolt
in the blocking device which gives rise to a ten-
sile mechanical pulse of 2.4 ms duration with linear
loading rate during the rise time, propagating along
the input and output bars bringing to fracture the
plain concrete specimen.
The strain gauge stations on the input bar measure
the incident pulses εI and the reflected pulses εR . The
strain gauge stations on the output bar measure the
pulses εT transmitted through the specimen.
By the measure of the reflected and transmitted
pulse the stress, the strain, and the strain-rate history
were obtained using the following formulation:
 Figure 5. Stress vs. COD: detail of the peak zone.

Figure 3. Experimental set-up for the dynamic testing. Table 2. Peak strengths and crack opening displacements.

Thermally σpeak (std) CODpeak (std) Gf ,av (std)

exposed at [MPa] [mm] [kJ/m2 ]

20◦ C 8.62 (0.97) 0.20 (0.04) 19.51 (1.58)

200◦ C 10.52 (1.06) 0.23 (0.05) 12.93 (1.70)
400◦ C 10.04 (2.03) 0.11 (0.04) 5.92 (2.57)
600◦ C 5.89 (0.21) 0.10 (0.03) 0.99 (0.10)

Table 3. Dynamic tension test results.

Thermally ft,av (std) CODu,av (std) Gf ,av (std)

exposed at [MPa] [mm] [kJ/m2 ]

Figure 4. Stress vs. COD: average curves. 20◦ C 22.56 (2.3) 0.031 (0.007) 30.26 (4.91)
200◦ C 26.08 (1.0) 0.026 (0.008) 9.90 (4.21)
where: E0 is the elastic modulus of the bars; A0 their 400◦ C 25.28 (3.9) 0.033 (0.020) 1.87 (0.91)
cross-sectional area; A is the specimen cross section 600◦ C 32.49 (1.5) 0.018 (0.008) 1.11 (0.36)
area; L is the specimen length; C0 is the sound velocity
of the bar material.
In some cases the test curves were stopped due to the
4 RESULTS sudden drop induced by fibres failure and/or loss of
press control. In these cases, the energy measured up
4.1 Static results to such limited values was computed, that corresponds
to a vertical jump assumption. Moreover, the energy
The results of tensile tests are shown in Figure 4 and for absorbed was always computed up to a crack opening
the whole temperature investigated (20, 200, 400 and displacement equal to 5 mm, if the tests were not yet
600◦ C) in terms of average nominal stress (σN ) versus finished, a vertical cut-off was applied. Gf represents
crack opening displacement (COD). On the other hand, the fracture energy computed as the subtended area
Figure 5 shows a detail of the peak zones in order in the stress – COD plane. Gf is computed according
to highlight the first linear elastic and the post peak to Equation (5) and the average values are listed in
behaviour, close to the peak. In these cases the nominal Table 2.
stress is defined as follows:

Where P is the applied load and A0 is the area of the

net cross section.
Peak strengths and the corresponding crack open-
ing displacements are listed in Table 2. On the basis
of presented results, the total energy absorbed by the
specimen during the test up to the reaching of a negligi-
ble stress transmitted by fibres (Gf ) can be computed.
4.2 Dynamic results
The results of the dynamic tests are summarized in
Table 3.
In Figure 6 the stress versus COD curves of the
HPFRCC specimens tested with the same high strain
rate are shown. A detail of the peak zones are plotted

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 6. Dynamic stress vs. COD: average curves.

Figure 8. Fracture surface after dynamic tests: a) reference

Figure 7. Dynamic stress vs. COD: detail of the peak zone. specimen cured at 20◦ C; b) specimen exposed at 600◦ C.

in Figure 7 to highlight the first linear elastic branch

and post peak behaviour close to the peak. It can be
observed as the behaviour changes as a function of the
exposure to high temperature.As in a static tests, speci-
mens cured at room condition show a post-peak stress
plateau up to a COD of 0.4 mm. The constant stress
plateau decreases with temperature growth. At 600◦ C
the behaviour is significantly changed, by becoming
softening in the post-peak region.
Analyzing the data listed in Table 3 two facts can put
in evidence: at this strain rate the peak increases with
the exposure to high temperature as well as the post-
peak strength decreases till to disappear for higher
Figure 9. Comparison between the dynamic and static
temperatures. fracture energy in function of exposure temperature.
By observing the fracture surface of the specimen
it is evident as the failure type has changed (Figure 8).
dynamic Gf becomes weakly lower than static starting
In the Figure 8a the fracture surface of the reference
from 200◦ C and they are comparable at 600◦ C. This is
specimen cured at room temperature is shown. The
strongly dependent on the capacity of the HPFRCC to
observable hole in the specimen demonstrates the fibre
dissipate energy in the post-peak region. In fact, due
pullout process occurrence while in Figure 8b where
to the change in failure mechanism the material sub-
the fracture surface of the specimen exposed to 600◦ C
jected to high temperature and high strain rate became
is illustrated, all the fibres are broken.
extremely brittle.
This means that, during the high temperature expo-
sure, fibres became more brittle due to thermal
damage. 5 CONCLUDING REMARKS
Analyzing the values of the fracture energy (Gf ) it is
possible to observe as the static Gf trend is linear while High temperature exposure influences both static and
the dynamic one is exponential (see Figure 9). The dynamic material behaviour.The results experimentally

937
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 obtained in uniaxial tension allow us to evidence the
following remarks:
– at low strain rates, the material is strain hardening
at room temperature; high temperature exposure up
to 400◦ C does not decrease the peak strength; the
homogeneous ductility before the localization in
a single crack and the post-peak fracture energy
progressively decrease; at 600◦ C an abrupt decay
of the peak strength can be highlighted;
– at high strain rate, the dynamic peak strength is
increased by high temperature exposure, passing
from about 2.5 times the static one up to 400◦ C to
more than 5 at 600◦ C at a high strain rate. On the
contrary, the toughness is progressively reduced;
– the use of notched specimens could have sig-
nificantly affected the ductility of the tests for
both high and low strain rates. New tests on un-
notched specimens made of the same material are
in progress.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Authors are grateful to Matteo Dotta, and Daniele
Forni of the SUPSI-University of Applied Sciences
of Southern Switzerland, Matteo Colombo and Giulio
Zani of the Politecnico di Milano for their precious
collaboration in the execution of the laboratory tests.
The research was financially supported by European
INTERREG IT/CH 2006–2013 project ACCIDENT
ID 7629770.
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Reinhardt, H.W. & Naaman, A.E., Eds. 2007, High
Performance Fiber Reinforced Cement Composi-tes
(HPFRCC5), PRO 53, Rilem publication S.A.R.L.
di Prisco, M., Plizzari, G.A., Vandewalle, L., 2009. Fibre rein-
forced concrete: new design perspectives, Materials and
Structures Journal, 1261–1281.
Cadoni, E., Caverzan, A., and di Prisco, M. 2008. Dynamic
behaviour of hpfr cementitious composites. In Fehling,
938
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Schmidt, and Stürwald, (eds). Ultra High Performance
Concrete: Proc. of the 2nd Inter. Sym. on Ultra-High per-
formance Concrete, n. 10 in Structural Materials and
Engineering Series, pages 743–750, Kassel University
Press, Kassel, Germany.
Cadoni, E., Meda, A. and Plizzari, G.A. 2009. Tensile
behavior of FRC under high strain-rate, Materials and
Structures, 42(9), 1283–1294.
Cadoni, E., Solomos, G. and Albertini, C. 2009b. Mechanical
characterization of concrete in tension and compres-
sion at high strain-rate using a modified Hopkinson bar,
Magazine of Concrete Research, 61(3), 221–230.
Caverzan, A., Colombo, M., di Prisco, M., and Lapolla, S.
2009a. On high temperature behaviour of hpfrc thin plates.
In Proc. of the 4th Int. Conf. on Construction Materials
(CONMAT 2009), Nagoya, Japan
Caverzan, A., Colombo, M., and di Prisco, M. 2009b. High
performance steel fibre reinforced concrete: Residual
behaviour at high temperature. Proc. of the 2nd workshop
on Performance, Protection and Strengthening of Struc-
tures under Extreme Loading (PROTECT2009), Hayama,
Japan.
Caverzan, A., Cadoni, E., and di Prisco, M. 2009c. Behaviour
of advanced cementitious composites under dynamic
loading and fire. proc. of Int. Workshop on Structures
Response to Impact and Blast, 15–17 November 2009.
Haifa, Israel.
Caverzan, A. 2010. High Strain-Rate Uniaxial Tensile Con-
stitutive Behaviour in Fibre Reinforced Cementitious
Composites. PhD thesis, Politecnico di Milano.
Colombo, M., di Prisco M., and Felicetti R, 2010a. Mechan-
ical properties of steel fibre reinforced concrete exposed
at high temperatures, Materials and Structures, 43(4),
475–491.
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tube facility for tunnel safety, submitted to Experimental
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mance Concrete: Proc. of the 2nd Int. Sym. on Ultra-High
performance Concrete, n. 10 in Structural Materials
and Engineering Series, Kassel University Press, Kassel,
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Naaman, A. 2004. Evaluation of steel fibres for application
in structural concrete. In di Prisco, M., Felicetti, R., and
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289–300, Varenna, Italy.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Elastic Systems for Dynamic Retrofitting (ESDR) of structures

Paolo Casadei
FIDIA S.r.l., Milano, Italy

Emo Agneloni
TEC.INN. S.r.l., Head Quarters, San Mariano, Perugia, Italy

ABSTRACT: Recent world events have showed that performance of buildings to blast loads is an ever increasing
issue. Many older buildings contain Un-Reinforced Masonry (URM) infill walls. Due to their low flexural
capacity and their brittle mode of failure, these walls have a low resistance to out-of-plane loads, including a
blast load. As a result, an effort has been undertaken to examine retrofit methods that are feasible to enhance
their out-of-plane resistance. The use of externally bonded Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) laminates has been
proven, by several research studies around the world, to increase the out-of-plane load capacity and improve both
in static and dynamic tests the performance of URM infill walls. One draw back of FRP is their lack of ductility
at ultimate state. It is for this reason that new strengthening solutions are investigated in order to provide the
necessary strength coupled with sufficient ductility. The present study has investigated the performance of a
package that couples together the high strength of FRP systems with the ductility of a polyurea resin that can
elongate up to 400%. The new strengthening system allows different layers of FRP and polyurea to: 1) provide
the necessary strength to the infill wall subjected to out-of-plane forces, 2) provide a ballistic layer to catch
flying debris, 3) guarantee sufficient deformations of the strengthened walls (as a car-airbag), dissipating energy
without completely collapsing. Results from both static and field blast tests on 8 2 × 2 meter brick walls, will
show the effect of different strengthening solutions to out-of-plane loads.

1 INTRODUCTION

Recent events throughout the world have drawn atten-

tion to the vulnerability and sustainability of buildings
and infrastructure to acts of terrorism. Any damage to
it would and has had drastic effects on our culture.
Attacks may cause a variety of results ranging from
minor building damage to complete structural fail-
ure and considerable loss of life. Numerous attacks
have been directed toward embassies, and suicide car
bombers have been used to target populated areas. In
the cases where complete structural failure is not an
issue, the dangers of flying debris have resulted in loss
of life or injury to numerous civilians (see Figure 1).
Primary structural support in most buildings is
provided by regularly spaced, reinforced concrete
columns, connecting rigid concrete and steel floor sec-
tions. The interior and exterior walls are typically not
load bearing and are usually made of hollow concrete
blocks or clay bricks. Since there is no reinforcement
within these walls, they have little resistance to out-
of-plane loads such as a blast loads (significant instant
overpressure) and dynamic forces in general that can
be generated by earthquakes and winds.
Several retrofitting techniques have been investi-
gated and adopted in the past to address such issues.
These include the addition of framing elements to
reduce the loads on the walls or surface treatments such
Figure 1. Examples of terrorist attacks consequences on
civil buildings.
as steel stud partition, steel plating, internal concrete
skin (i.e. shotcreting), and many others, to increase
the strength and ductility of the walls[1] . Such retrofits
often add significant mass to the structure and are time
consuming, costly to carry out, and adversely affect the
aesthetics of the upgraded area and in many cases the
building as a whole. When such technique modifies the
mass of the structure, it would increase the dynamic-
induced inertia forces and may require strengthening
of the footing as well leading to a more invasive and
costly operation.
The above disadvantages and the need of more
cost-efficient applications, have recently led engineers

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 to the idea of using lightweight/high-strength, fiber-
reinforced polymer FRP composites as strengthening
materials, externally bonded to the surface of the mate-
rial by manual lay-up. FRP materials have already
massively entered the market of the retrofitting and
strengthening industry, thanks to their high strength,
durability, light weight and ease of installation char-
acteristics as demonstrated worldwide by the recently
published design guidelines in the US and in Europe
(ACI[2] , CNR[3] , UK[4] ). Their only draw back is their
lack of ductility at ultimate state. It is for this reason
that new strengthening solutions are investigated in
order to provide the necessary strength, proper of FRP
strengthening, coupled with sufficient ductility.
The present study has investigated the performance
of a package that couples together the high strength Figure 2. A typical pressure-time curve for an explosive
of FRP systems with the ductility of polyurea resin blast wave.
that can elongate up to 400%. The new strengthening
system allows different layers of FRP and polyurea
to: 1) provide the necessary strength to the infill wall
subjected to out-of-plane forces, 2) provide a ballis-
tic layer to catch flying debris, 3) guarantee sufficient
deformations of the strengthened walls, dissipating
energy without completely collapsing. Results quasi-
static tests on 10 2 × 2 meter brick (clay and concrete)
walls, will show the effect of different strengthening
solutions to out-of-plane loads.

2 BLAST LOADING

A bomb burst is a very rapid release of stored energy

characterized by an audible blast. A major part of the Figure 3. A typical site scene in a terrorist attack situation.
energy is transmitted via shock wave through the sur-
rounding air at a supersonic velocity. The explosive In particular the parameter that is mostly significa-
blast wave has an instantaneous rise, a rapid decay, tive is the initial peak of overpressure P0 defined by
and relatively short duration. A typical pressure-time Kinney and Graham[8] :
history for a charge burst wave is shown in Figure
2. As shown in the figure, the overpressure reaches
atmosphere pressure and then falls below it in a short
time.
An empirical quasi-exponential form can be used
to describe a free-air explosion wave of the positive
phase of a spherical chemical charge[8]
Where: Pa is the atmospheric pressure, taken as
0.101 MPa; Z is the scaled distance

Where:
P(t) is the instantaneous overpressure at time t;
Where:
P0 = (Pm − Pa) is the maximum or peak overpres-
W is the charge weight in kilograms (equivalent
sure observed when t is zero, Pa is atmosphere
mass of TNT); d is the standoff distance in meters.
pressure;
In Figure 3 is reported a typical “terrorist site scene”
Pm is the peak pressure when t is zero;
with the center of burst, consisting in a truck, posi-
e is the base of natural logarithms;
tioned at the stand-off distance from the building to
α is the decay factor;
attack.
td is the positive pressure duration.
Combining equations (3) with (2) it is possible to
Since the positive phase of an explosion causes most determine the initial peak of overpressure that insists
of the damage for heavy structures[8] the blast load on the building that we are analyzing. The equations
parameters are defined in this project in reference to reported are valid only when we are dealing with what
the positive phase. is called “air blast”, that means that the center of a

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 Table 1. Reference values to evaluate blast effects (*).

Damage levels to structures and people

Blast Scenario Peak overpressure (bar)

High Lethality 0,6 (0.3)

Start of lethality 0,14
Irreversible Damage 0,07
Reversible damage 0,03
Damage to the 0,3
Structure/Domino Effect

(*) “Decreto Ministeriale 20 Ottobre 1998”, “Criteria of anal-

Figure 4. Air blast vs contact charges. ysis and evaluation of safety provisions for deposits of liquids
easily inflammable and/or toxic”, in Italian.

Table 2. Reference values to evaluate blast effects (*).

Damage levels to structures and people

Blast Scenario Peak overpressure (bar)

Observance of the stand-off 0,6 (0.3)

Figure 5. Incident overpressure as a function of stand-off
distance and explosive net weight.
spherical charge is at least 2–3 times its diameter away
from the target surface (see Figure 4)
In all these equations, the charge is supposed to be
spherical. Because equation (3) relates the stand-off
distance with the charge weight, indirectly also relates
the diameter of the spherical charge (that can be easily
computed knowing the density of the material used
and its weight) with the stand-off distance. It is for
these reasons that for values of Z less than 1–1.5 we
cannot consider anymore the blast as an “air blast” bur
rather a “contact charge” that needs to be dealt in a
different way. It must be said though that for the type
of problems we are dealing with, in most cases we are
facing an “air-blast” situation as described in Figure 4.
In Figure 5 is reported a plot of how the instant
peak overpressure varies as a function of the stand-
off distance and the weight of explosive blown. To
make it easier reading the plot, it is also reported a
drawing of what type of vehicle could carry a cer-
tain amount of explosive. These information, provided
by the U.S. AIR Force “Installation Force Protec-
tion Guide”, are reported in US customary units
(1 ft = 0,30 m; 1 lbs = 0,45 kg; 1 psi = 0,069 bar).
Available international guidelines provide values of
incident overpressures considered to be lethal or very
destructive. reports the value indicated by the Italian
law regarding risk analysis of inflammable and toxic
liquid deposits.
distance (95% of chance that
no serious damage occurs)
Inhabitable houses 0,14
(partial demolition)
Inhabitable houses 0,07
(partial roof demolition)
Inhabitable houses 0,03
(50% demolition of
masonry structures)
Inhabitable houses (almost 0,3
complete demolition
of houses)
(*) LEES, “Loss Prevention in the process industries”, Lees
F.P. 1980.
Table 2 reports instead an American guide line, sim-
ilar to the previous one but dealing mainly with the
processes industries in general.
In both reported tables, the values of peak overpres-
sure (in bar) are clearly very low if compared with the
overpressure that could be generated by van loaded
with TNT and placed anywhere away from the tar-
geted building. Figure 5 clearly shows that a van loaded
with roughly 500 kg (1000 lbs) and placed at 300 mt
(500 ft) away from the target, can easily generate an
overpressure of 0.07 bars (1 psi) that according to both
guidelines reported, causes irreversible damages and
inhabitable houses.
Because many existing critical buildings in our
cities, such as embassies, police stations, hospitals,
military facilities do not have the possibility of guar-
anteeing large stand-off distances, the values of over-
pressure that could be easily generated by van loaded
with explosives, are extremely dangerous and need to
be addressed.
Retrofitting and strengthening to provide blast mit-
igation becomes consequently a high priority for own-
ers of public and private critical structures, that can be
potentially subjected to terrorist attacks.

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Figure 6. Strengthening masonry walls with FRP sheets
installed by manual lay-up.
Figure 7. Devastating consequences of a blast on a masonry
panel built with voided clay bricks and strengthened with a
grid of unidirectional AFRP sheets.
3 INNOVATIVE BLAST RETROFITTING
SYSTEM BASED ON POLYUREA RESIN
Blast retrofitting with FRP composite materials is
a recent innovative solution of the construction
industry[6][7] . FRPs guarantee increase in strength
thanks to their linear elastic up to failure ultimate
strength (i.e. up to ten times the one of conven-
tional structural steel) and energy absorption thanks
to improved ultimate deformations with respect to
unreinforced masonry (URM). There are though sev-
eral drawbacks in such type of application that have
induced researchers to investigate alternative and even
more efficient solutions. Firstly FRP, as commonly
used in this type of applications, need a handlay-
up application, which means that fibers need to be
impregnated by hand in the field using mostly epoxy
resins (using a roll just like for wall-paper applica-
tion) that at the same time impregnate and bond the
composite on the substrate (previously sand blasted
to secure a better bond); in such type of application
generally FRP create a grid that does not cover the
entire wall surface, with consequent difficulty to catch
all flying debris (see Figure 6 and Figure 7). It is for
the aforementioned reasons that research institutions
and private companies have started investigating new
strengthening solutions and systems that couple the
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high strength proper of composite materials with the
required ductility to absorb large deformations and the
capacity of catching flying debris.
It is in this research environment that TEC.INN.
S.r.l[9] , with over 20 years experience in the retrofitting
of concrete and masonry structures construction
industry, using innovative materials, has investigated a
new strengthening system that couples the use of FRP
with a material that is well known in the civil indus-
try but never before used for this type of purposes:
“polyurea”, a polyurethane resin with an incredible
toughness and deformability.
3.1 What is polyurea[10]
A polyurea coating/elastomer is a resin derived from
the reaction product of an isocyanate component
and a resin blend component. The isocyanate can be
monomer, polymer, or any variant reaction of iso-
cyanates, quasi-prepolymer or a prepolymer. The resin
blend must be made up of amine-terminated polymer
resins, and/or amine-terminated chain extenders. The
resin blend may also contain additives, or non-primary
components. These additives may contain hydroxyls,
such as pre-dispersed pigments in a polyol carrier.
Normally, the resin blend will not contain a catalyst.
Polyurea is truly a remarkable coatings, linings and
joint sealant technology. It is being used successfully
for so many different applications today. Polyurea coat-
ings and linings are more commonly applied over
concrete and steel for corrosion protection and abra-
sion resistance. They also have tremendous advantages
over conventional materials for joint fill and caulk
applications due to their fast set nature, high elongation
and durability/abrasion characteristics. Polyurea can
be molded and shaped by spraying it into molds. Simi-
larly, polyurea is also used as hard coat protective shell
over expanded polystyrene (EPS) for architectural
molded fascia applications.
Polyurea advantages and benefits:
• Weather tolerant: cures at −25◦ F to >300◦ F even
in high humidity;
• Excellent resistance to thermal shock;
• Flexible: bridges cracks;
• Waterproof, seamless and resilient;
• Unlimited mil thickness in one application;
• Spray, hand mix and caulk grade materials;
• Excellent bond strengths to properly prepared sub-
strates;
• Resistant to various solvents, caustics and mild
acids;
• Low permeability, excellent sustainability;
• No VOC’s and little to no odor;
• Some systems are potable approved;
TEC.INN. S.r.l. has characterized[11] the mechani-
cal properties of polyurea used and installed for retrofit
purposes in the testing campaign later on presented and
discussed.
In Table 3 are reported the experimental results
obtained from the aforementioned testing campaign.

Figure 8. Examples of polyurea applications for different
purposes.
Figure 9. Mechanical characterization of polyurea.
3.2 Elastic Systems for Dynamic Retrofitting:
E.S.D.R.® [13]
By combining FRP and polyurea, TEC.INN. S.r.l. has
patented[13] a retrofitting system that is called: Elastic
Systems for Dynamic Retrofitting. The E.S.D.R.®
system is a modular strengthening package, consisting
of 3 layers realized with different stacking of materials,
that can be tailored for any scenario depending on the
level of blast mitigation that needs to be achieved for
the building, with the possibility that not all of the three
layers needs to be applied in all cases and for any type
of structure and blast scenario.
The new innovative strengthening systems consists
of the following layers (see also Figure 10):
• 1st “Strengthening” layer – 1–2 mm thick – reali-
zed with the FRP technology, to improve the flexural
(out of plane) strength of the infill masonry walls;
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 3. Mechanical properties of polyurea.
Properties Value
Ultimate Tensile Strength, ffu [MPa] 15
Ultimate Rupture Strain εfu [%] ≥375
Tensile Modulus of Elasticity E, [MPa] ≤4,3
Figure 10. The E.S.D.R.® stacking sequence.
• 2nd “Dissipative” layer – variable thickness –
consists in overlapping multiple layers formed by
different fiber grids impregnated by polyurea, with
one or more ballistic layers in between. The choice
of the number of layers (polyurea-gridpolyurea)
and of the number of ballistic layers depends upon
the design constrains fixed by the needed level of
protection;
• 3rd “Elastic” layer – 10 mm average thickness –
formed by a thick external layer of polyurea, prop-
erly anchored to the main bearing frame by means
of advanced composite bars, in order to improve the
ductility of the infill masonry wall and to guaran-
tee a sort of “catching net” for any type of debris
that may have passed through the other layers. Such
layer may slide over the previous ones, thanks to a
chemical debonding layer properly installed, possi-
bly reaching its deformation performances (up to
400%) and consequently non only enhancing the
dissipative performances of the system but also
performing similarly to a car air-bag.
In Figure 11 it is shown a sketch of how the system
has been designed to work:
• Phase 1: A blast occurs and the retrofitted walls
receives the impact blast load as a uniform load-
ing over its entire area; immediately the wall cracks
due to its low bending strength and the FRP starts
working;
• Phase 2: The FRP breaks and there is a decrease in
load carrying capacity in front of large deformations
allowed by the dissipative layer;
• Phase 3: The dissipative layer may also break and at
this point only the last layer made by solely polyurea
acts as a large air-bag for the structure, protecting
its occupants from flying debris.
 Figure 11. How does the E.S.D.R.® system works.

4 EXPERIMENTAL CAMPAIGN

To validate the E.S.D.R.® system two experimental

campaigns have been conducted. The first one has
been performed in the laboratory under quasi-static
loads, the second one in the field, blasting explosive
charges with different weights of charge and stand-off
distances.

4.1 Static laboratories tests

This testing campaign aimed to investigate the perfor-
mance of full scale infill masonry walls subjected to
quasi-static out of plane loads simulating both seismic
as well as blast loading.

4.1.1 Test matrix

Five masonry walls 2 mt × 2 mt, built with clay bricks
120 mm thick, have been tested, under quasi static
loading configurations, with different strengthening
lay-out, namely:
Figure 12. Installing the E.S.D.R.® system and details of a
• P0: strengthened with AFRP sheets only complete specimen.
• P1: strengthened with a very thick (20mm) polyurea
layer
• P2: strengthened with aramid grid impregnated with specimen of the test matrix to provide an idea of the
thin (2 + 2 mm) layer of polyurea + an additional stacking sequence followed.
thick (10 mm) external layer of polyurea
• P3: strengthened with AFRP sheets + aramid
4.1.2 Test set-up
grid impregnated with thin (2 + 2 mm) layer of
In Figure 13 is reported the testing rig. It consists
polyurea + an additional thick external layer of
of a steel frame where the masonry wall is simply
polyurea (10 mm)
supported with no fixing device. A round still plate,
• P4: strengthened with AFRP sheets + 2 layers of
600 mm diameter, provides the patch load over the wall
aramid grid impregnated with thin (2 + 2 mm) layer
surface. Two hydraulic jacks provide the necessary
of polyurea + an additional thick external layer of
quasi-static load, by reacting against the same steel
polyurea (10 mm). The last layer has been anchored
frame, in a close loop reaction system. Strain-gauges
using AFRP connectors glued with epoxy resin to
and laser devices for monitoring strains and deforma-
the masonry bricks into predrilled holes.
tions have been placed over the wall, to monitor the
In Figure 12 is reported the most significative stages most significative deformations. A load cell measures
of the installation sequence and one representative the applied load.

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Figure 13. The testing set-up configuration used for all 5
masonry walls.
Figure 14. Failure mode of specimen P0.
Figure 15. Failure mode of specimen P1.
Figure 16. Failure mode of specimen P2.
4.1.3 Test results
In the figures 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 are reported the test
results for all five masonry walls tested under different
strengthening configurations
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 17. Failure mode of specimen P3.
Figure 18. Failure mode of specimen P4.
4.2 Blast tests
This testing campaign aimed to investigate the perfor-
mance of full scale masonry walls (three made with
half solid concrete bocks and two with clay bricks)
subjected to real blast loads.
4.2.1 Test matrix
Five masonry walls 2 mt × 2 mt of two different types
of bricks (clay and concrete) have been tested under
different strengthening configurations and under dif-
ferent blast loads, by varying the weight of charge and
stand-off distance, namely:
• PS0: (wall of clay bricks) strengthened with ARFP
sheets + 4 layers of aramid grid impregnated with
thin (2 + 2 mm) layer of polyurea + an additional
thick external layer of polyurea (10 mm). The last
layer has been anchored using AFRP connectors
glued to the masonry bricks into predrilled holes;
• PS1: (wall of hollow clay blocks) strengthened with
ARFP sheets + 2 layers of aramid grid impregnated
with thin (2 + 2 mm) layer of polyurea + an addi-
tional thick external layer of polyurea (15 mm). The
last layer has been anchored using AFRP connectors
glued to the masonry bricks into predrilled holes;
• PS2: identical to PS1;
• PS3: (wall of hollow clay blocks) strengthened with
AFRP sheets only;
• PS4: (wall of clay bricks) strengthened with ARFP
sheets + 3 layers of aramid grid impregnated with
thin (2 + 2 mm) layer of polyurea + an additional
thick external layer of polyurea (10 mm). The last
layer has been anchored using AFRP connectors
glued to the masonry bricks into predrilled holes.
The explosive used in all tests was “Eurogelatina 1”:
it is a blasting cap sensitive gelatinous explosive that
does not contain any nitroaromatic compound (TNT).
• Density 1.45 g/cm2
• Energy of detonation 4.70 MJ/kg
 Figure 21. Failure mode of specimen PS0.
Figure 19. Set up of masonry walls in the blast room.

Figure 22. Failure mode of specimen PS1.

Figure 20. Blast test series on specimen PS4.

The explosive was modeled to be as much spherical

as possible and positioned at a predetermined distance
(R) from the center of the charge to the masonry panel.

4.2.2 Test set-up

All five masonry panels have been tested under the
same boundary conditions, simply supported on all
four sides laying over four jerseys (see Figure 19). Figure 23. Failure mode of specimen PS2.
The spherical charge was placed over the center of
each panel, varying in weight and stand-off distance.
The blast room consisted in an open sky closed space
4 mt × 6 mt, surrounded by 300 mm thick, 4 mt high
reinforced concrete walls, contrasted outside by an
embankment.
While the first 4 specimens have not been moni-
tored, specimen PS4 has been instrumented using four
pressure-transducers two placed on both side of the
masonry walls, and two in different locations over the
perimeter concrete walls of the blast room, and using
a displacement transducer placed in the center of the Figure 24. Failure mode of specimen PS3.
wall.
In addition for specimen PS4 two different blast panel failed for that very blast load, and no more burst
series tests have been done as indicated in Figure 20. were done.
This two series allowed to exactly determining the Apart from specimen PS3 that was completely
pressure in all the positions over the wall and cali- destroyed by the blast, all other specimens well
brating the model for charges very close to the target responded to all blast loads.
surface, where the air blast model is not predicting In all specimens the bricks failed and were
very well the overpressure. completely destroyed but the E.S.D.R® system
well responded without reaching in any case fail-
4.2.3 Test results ure/rupture. In specimen PS4 where the displacement
In the following figures are reported the test results transducers where installed in the center of the speci-
for all five masonry walls tested under different men, a deformation of 100 mm was monitored in the
strengthening configurations and different blast loads center of the panel, with a complete elastic return to
and stand-off distances. For each specimen it is also its initial position, even if the bricks were completely
reported a table indicating the series of blast tests con- destroyed.
ducted on each panel with details of weight of charge Of particular significance is the table reported
and stand-off distance and also damage level. Where in Figure 25 where are reported and compared the
there is only one blast test reported it means that the experimental pressure values recorded and the ones

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Figure 25. Failure mode of specimen PS4.
computed following the theoretical model by Kinney
et al[8] . The green and red values are the one obtained
by linear regression of the data obtained experimen-
tally. It must be noted that the minimum pressure
experimentally recorded was around 12 bars and this
value, according to the guidelines reported in Table 1
and Table 2, is already 100 times bigger than the values
that cause extreme lethality and building collapse.
It is then clear from these test results that, even if
the E.S.D.R.® system behaved extremely well, when
strengthening a structure from a terrorist threat not
only the infill walls need to be retrofitted, but also the
entire structure. When indeed a connection between
the E.S.D.R.® and the surrounding reinforced concrete
frame is established as shown in Figure 12, the uni-
form loads applied from the overpressure to the surface
are immediately transferred to the frame, transforming
in a increase of shear and moment forces. Conse-
quently it is fundamental to proceed with an adequate
strengthening of also the remaining structural frame
accordingly to the level of blast mitigation needed.
Such strengthening can be easily done using conven-
tional FRP strengthening solutions. Such approach
is known as “balanced design” and shall be always
pursued in this type of retrofits.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The following conclusions are drawn from the exper-
imental results about the E.S.D.R.® system:
• It can be used for the protection and defense of any
type of structures (recent buildings, infrastructures
and historical-monumental buildings) from either
damages caused by blast terrorist attacks or also
from an accidental explosion inside chemical plants
or gun powder deposits, to civilians and buildings
positioned in the surroundings. The main objective
is to enhance the performance of existing “critical”
structures against blast events, reducing the risks of
the occupants that live and work inside them.
• With an average thickness of 2–3 cm depending
upon the required performance, guarantees the fol-
lowing combined physical-mechanical properties:
◦ Increase of strength to out-of-plane loads of infill
masonry walls;
◦ Energy dissipation;
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
◦ Large deformations and be able of catching debris
of masonry or any other kind of materials from
killing the occupants inside the building.
◦ Ballistic response.
• It is a modular system, which needs to be properly
designed to achieve the necessary level of required
blast mitigation, based upon the characteristics of
the structure and the predicted blast load generated
by terrorist attacks or blast of chemical plants or gun
powder deposits in the proximities.
• It is a rapid strengthening system, that can be
installed without compromising the working activ-
ities inside the structure and does not modify the
dimensional, functional, living condition of the
structure in need.
• The cost/benefit ratio is incomparable with the
more traditional blast mitigation techniques. The
strengthening system can be easily removed if better
solutions are sought and found in future years.
• When blast mitigation is performed over a critical
structure using the E.S.D.R.® balanced design shall
always be pursued in order to assure the requested
safety level against blast loads.
• Current studies are ongoing to develop an analyti-
cal approach to study mathematically via FEM non
linear analysis the design and response of struc-
tures retrofitted with the ESDR and subjected to
blast load. Initial results will be presented at the
conference.
REFERENCES
[1] Ward, S.P., (2004) “Retrofitting Existing Masonry
Buildings to Resist Explosions” Journal of Perfor-
mance of Construction Facilities (ASCE), May 2004,
Vol. 18, Number 2.
[2] ACI 440.2R-02, 2002: “Guide for the Design and
Construction of Externally Bonded FRP Systems for
Strengthening Concrete Structures,” Published by the
American Concrete Institute, Farmington Hills, MI,
pp. 45
[3] CNR-DT 200/2004, 2004: “Istruzioni per la Pro-
gettazione, l’Esecuzione e il Controllo di Interventi
di Consolidamento Statico mediante l’utilizzo di
Compositi Fibrorinforzati” Published by Consiglio
Nazionale delle Ricerche, Roma, pp. 164 (also avail-
able in english).
[4] The Concrete Society, Technical Report No. 55, 2004:
“Design Guidance for strengthening concrete struc-
tures using fibre composite materials (Second Edi-
tion)” The Concrete Society, 102 pp.
[5] FIB Bulletin 14, 2001: “Design and use of externally
bonded fibre reinforced polymer reinforcement (FRP
EBR) for reinforced concrete structures”, by ‘EBR’
working party of FIB TG 9.3, July 2001, 138 pp.
[6] El-Domiaty, K.A., Myers, J.J., Belarbi, A. (2002).
“Blast Resistance of Un-Reinforced Masonry Walls
Retrofitted with Fiber Reinforced Polymers” Center
for Infrastructure Engineering Studies Report 02-28,
University of Missouri – Rolla, Rolla, MO.
[7] Carney, P., and Myers, J.J., (2003) “Out-of-Plane Static
and Blast Resistance of Unreinforced Masonry Wall
 Connections Strengthened with Fiber Reinforced Poly-
mers” Center for Infrastructure Engineering Studies
Report 03-46, University of Missouri – Rolla, Rolla,
MO.
[8] Kinney, G.F. and Graham, K.J., “Explosive Shocks in
Air”, Springer-Verlag New York Inc. 1985.
[9] TEC.INN. S.r.l., “Innovative Technologies” San
Mariano-Perugia, Italy, www.tecinn.com.
[10] “What is polyurea”, from www.polyurea.com, Polyurea
Coatings and Linings Portal.
948
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
[11] La Rana, A., (2005) “Indagine sperimentale prelim-
inare sulle potenzialità della polyurea per la messa in
sicurezza delle tamponature” Undergraduate Disserta-
tion, University of Naples – Federico II, Naples, Italy,
pp.172, in Italian.
[12] SGM S.r.l., Certified Laboratories, San Mariano-
Perugia, Italy, www.sgmlaboratorio.com.
[13] “Elastic Systems for Dynamic Retrofitting
(E.S.D.R.® )”, patented RM/2005/A000066.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Numerical study of functionally-graded cementitious panels

subjected to small projectile impact

S.T. Quek, V.W.J. Lin & S.C. Lee

Department of Civil Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore

M. Maalej
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Sharjah, UAE

ABSTRACT: This paper presents a numerical study of a Functionally-Graded (FG) cementitious panel sub-
jected to high-velocity small-projectile impact with striking velocity ranging from 300 m/s to 600 m/s. This FG
panel comprised three different materials, namely PE-fibrous ferrocement, calcium bauxite aggregate concrete
and conventional mortar, layered at different sections to improve the target impact resistance, depending on the
properties of the material needed at various stages of the projectile penetration. Good agreements in both pro-
jectile penetration depths and average inner crater diameters were observed between the numerical simulations
and experimental results. Using the calibrated model, an optimization study of the FG panel (through varying
target thickness) to prevent perforation of the projectile with striking velocity of 600 m/s was then illustrated.
An overall target thickness of 60 mm would be adequate in preventing projectile perforation.

1 INTRODUCTION bauxite aggregates with sufficient hardness to enhance

Recent increased intensity in terrorists’events have led
many researchers to carry out studies to develop better
and more economical protective structures for military
applications, Government facilities as well as civilian
installations. Until the last two decades, conventional
reinforced concrete (RC) has been widely used in pro-
tective structures applications. With the advancement
of concrete technology, concrete with higher com-
pressive strength, tensile strength, fracture energy and
ductility has been developed, opening up new dimen-
sions for improving performance of RC protective
structures. These enhanced cementitious composites
have shown to be effective in reducing fragmentations,
spalling and scabbing at the target surfaces, as well
as penetration depth when subjected to high-velocity
projectile impact (Zhang et al. 2005, Maalej et al.
2005).
Besides enhancing the target’s material properties,
performance of these protective structures can also
be improved by noting the properties of the mate-
rial needed at various stages of the projectile impact
and penetration, and to layer the section with mate-
rials of appropriate properties. The concept of such
functionally-graded (FG) cementitious panels against
high-velocity projectile impact is a recent develop-
ment and has been experimentally tested by Quek et al.
(2010). These FG panels comprise top and bottom
outer layers of polyethylene (PE)-fibrous ferroce-
ment to mitigate fragmentation, spalling and scabbing.
Underlying the top layer is a thin layer of calcined
penetration resistance. The remaining gap between
this layer and the bottom outer layer is filled with
conventional mortar to provide inertia and resistance.
These FG panels were subjected to 13.35 mm diam-
eter ogive-nose projectile impact fired at velocities
ranging from 300 m/s to 600 m/s. Excellent impact
resistance with smaller penetration depth and crater
diameter compared to conventional mortar targets
were observed.
The aim of this study is to develop a three-
dimensional finite element (FE) model using the com-
mercial package, LS-DYNA, to simulate the responses
of the FG panels subjected to high-velocity small-
projectile impact. The FE model results were com-
pared with the experimental data obtained by Quek
et al. (2010) for verification purposes. Using the cali-
brated FE model, an optimization study was performed
to determine the minimum thickness of the FG panel
required to prevent perforation of an ogive-nose pro-
jectile with 600 m/s striking velocity as an illustration
of economy in design.
2 FINITE ELEMENT MODEL
Based on the FG panels experimentally test by Quek
et al. (2010), the FE model target comprises three
different cementitious composites, namely PE-fibrous
ferrocement, calcium bauxite concrete and mortar lay-
ered at different sections of the target as shown in
Figure 1.

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Figure 1. FE model of functionally-graded (FG) panel.
2.1 Material models
All the cementitious composites were modelled using
material 72 release III (MAT72–Concrete Damage
Material Model) in LS-DYNA. The PE-fibrous ferro-
cement was modelled as two separate components con-
sisting of steel wire mesh reinforcements embedded
within a PE-fiber reinforced cementitious composite
(FRCC) matrix. The steel wire mesh reinforcement
was modelled using material model 3 (MAT3–Plastic
Kinematic) in LS-DYNA. Lastly, the ogive-nose pro-
jectile was modelled as a rigid material using material
model 20 (MAT20–Rigid Material Model) in LS-
DYNA, in view of its small deformation compared
to the FG-panels for computational efficiency.
2.2 Material erosion algorithm
To simulate the cratering process of the target by the
projectile upon impact, it is necessary to introduce
a material erosion algorithm to capture the removal
of failed elements as the projectile penetrated into
the target. As MAT72 is not incorporated with such
erosion algorithm, MAT_ADD_EROSION was uti-
lized for the removal of failed elements in the FE
model. This MAT_ADD_EROSION option in LS-
DYNA is currently applicable for two-dimensional
and three-dimensional solid elements with one point
integration.
In this study, two erosion criteria, namely maximum
and minimum principal strains, were used for remov-
ing the ‘failed’ elements from the FE model. These
failure criteria were determined through a trial and
error approach in which one series of the experimen-
tal data were used to match the local damages induced
by the projectile impact in the FE model. The fail-
ure values obtained were then adopted for all the FE
simulations and they are summarized in Table 1.
2.3 Strain rate effects
It is well-known that many materials behave dif-
ferently under short-duration rapid loading such as
high-velocity projectile impact compared to quasi-
static loading. Under impact loading, large amount of
energy is suddenly transferred to the target, causing
the target material to undergo continuously varying
strength, stiffness, energy-absorption and dissipation
properties (Lee, 2006). This phenomenon, which can
be somewhat characterized by the strain-rate, causes
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 1. Summary of Erosion Criteria Failure Values.
Compressive Strain Tensile Strain
Material % %
PE-FRCC −70 20
C. Bauxite Concrete −70 16
Mortar −70 11
the materials to experience strength enhancement and
can be quantified through the Dynamic Increase Fac-
tor (DIF), defined as the ratio of dynamic to static
ultimate strength.
To accurately simulate the responses of the FG pan-
els subjected to the projectile impact, strain-rate effects
were also incorporated into the FE model. The “load
curve” option in MAT72 release III was used to capture
the materials’ strain-rate effect, in which the abscissa
values of the “load curve” represent the strain-rates
while the ordinate values represent the DIF values. The
strain-rate effect of the steel wire mesh reinforcement
was incorporated into the FE Model using the Cowper
and Symonds model built in MAT3.
The dynamic behavior of PE-FRCC (tensile) and
steel wire mesh were modelled based on the exper-
imental data obtained by Lin (2008), while those of
PE-FRCC (compressive), concrete and mortar were
modelled based on the DIF-strain-rate relationships
proposed by CEB model (1993) and Malvar and Ross
(1998).
2.4 Numerical simulation
Similar to the experimental study conducted by Quek
et al. (2010), three different configurations of four-
layer FG-panel, namely, FGP-1:1:7:1, FGP-2:1:6:1and
FGP-1:2:6:1, were numerically simulated. The set of
numbers following the acronym “FGP” corresponded
to the ratio of the thickness of each layer to the overall
thickness of the panel. For example, for FGP-1:2:6:1
with an overall thickness of 100 mm, the first num-
ber “1” implies that the thickness of the first layer is
10 mm, while the thicknesses of the remaining layers
are 20 mm, 60 mm and 10 mm, respectively. As the
panel layers were cast one on top of the other before
setting, perfect interfacial bonding between layers was
assumed for simplicity.
In view of symmetry and computational efficiency,
only one quarter of the panel with the projectile impact
was modelled as shown in Figure 1. As in the experi-
ment, the specimen was modelled as simply-supported
along one side using the BOUNDARY_SPC option to
restrict the specimen movement.
The panel and projectile were modelled as eight
nodes solid elements using one-point integration
with Flanagan-Belytschko stiffness hourglass control,
while the steel wire mesh reinforcements were mod-
elled as two nodes truss element. Each solid element
had dimensions of 2.5 × 2.5 × 2.5 mm while that of the
steel wire mesh reinforcements had length of 2.5 mm.
These mesh sizes were selected based on a mesh
convergence study.
 It is worth to mention here that when using consti-
tutive equations with strain softening in FE analysis, it
is expected that the strains tend to localize randomly
with mesh size refinement leading to non-convergence
in the numerical results (Bažant, 1976). In LS-DYNA,
this mesh size sensitivity can be reduce through the
use of the MAT_NONLOCAL option, which is based
on the concept of non-localization by Pijaudier-Cabot
& Bažant (1987), that averages the rate of increase of
damage in a particular element with its neighboring
elements whose centroid lie within a specific radial
distance.
The impact velocity of the projectile was mod-
elled by prescribing an initial velocity for the
projectile through using the INITIAL_VELOCITY
_RIGID_BODY option in LS-DYNA. Similar to the
experimental tests, impact velocities of the pro-
jectile were varied between 300 m/s and 600 m/s
for all specimen configurations. Lastly, the contact
between the projectile and target was modelled using
CONTACT_ERODING_ SURFACE_TO_SURFACE
option in LS-DYNA to allow removal of failed ele-
ments in contact with the penetrating projectile.
3 SIMULATION RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The numerical results obtained from FE analysis were
verified with experimental data by comparing the local
damages in terms of penetration depth, average inner
and outer crater diameters at the target impact surface.
3.1 Penetration depth
The penetration depth of the projectile was measured
from the maximum displacement of the projectile tip in
the FE model upon entering the target. The plots of the
maximum penetration depth versus projectile impact
velocity for all FG panel configurations are shown in
Figure 2. Good agreements between the FE predicted
penetration depth and experimental test results were
observed.
3.2 Average inner crater diameter
The average inner crater diameters of the FG-
cementitious panel were determined by averaging
the orthogonal and diagonal distances of the crater
(defined as the region where an opening was formed
at the target impact face in the numerical model) cen-
tered at the projectile point of entry of the quarter
panel, multiplied by two for the full panel. Figure 3
shows the average inner crater diameter versus projec-
tile impact velocity for all FG panel configurations.
Reasonably good agreements between the FE aver-
age inner crater diameters and experimental test results
were also observed.
3.3 Average outer crater diameter
Besides the average inner crater diameter presented
in most of the projectile impact studies, an additional
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
damage criterion identified as the average outer crater
diameter was used to assess the target impact damage
(Quek et al., 2010). This average outer crater diame-
ter is defined as the average diameter of the bulged
boundary on the impact surface due to the membrane
action of the PE-fibrous ferrocement layer. This bulge
could be caused by delamination of the PE-fibrous fer-
rocement layer from the tough concrete layer and/or
displacement of material beneath the impact face.
The average outer crater diameter was taken as the
average of the orthogonal and diagonal distances of
the bulge region (relative to the original target sur-
face) centered at the projectile point of entry of the
quarter panel, multiplied by two for the full panel.
Figure 4 shows the average outer crater diameter
versus projectile impact velocity for all FG-panel
configurations.
The FE model consistently under-estimated the
average outer crater diameters of all FG-configurations
for the range of impact velocities investigated. This
may be due, firstly, to the fact that delamination was
not incorporated in the model and secondly to the
simplistic smeared material model used to describe
the cement paste and calcined bauxite aggregates. The
latter resulted in the removal of concrete material ele-
ment once it violated the erosion criterion, whereas in
the actual experiment, the calcined bauxite aggregates
were not fully eroded but displaced sideways to cause
the bulge at the impact face. As the projectile velocity
increases, more aggregates are displaced sideways to
cause the bulge at the impact face leading to larger
differences between the numerical and experimental
results observed in Figure 4.
Nevertheless, the FE model is capable of estimat-
ing the maximum penetration depth and average inner
crater diameter of the FG-cementitious panel (which
are the more important damage parameters defined
in most penetration studies) with reasonably good
accuracy.
4 OPTIMIZATION STUDY
Using the calibrated FE model, an optimization study
of the FG panel was conducted to determine the
minimum overall thickness of the FG panel to pre-
vent perforation of a 13.35 mm diameter ogive-nose
projectile impact fired at striking velocity of 600 m/s.
From both the experimental and numerical studies,
FGP-1:2:6:1 specimens demonstrated the best per-
formance against projectile penetration. As such, the
thicknesses of the PE-fibrous ferrocement protective
layers at both the impact and distal faces were fixed
at 10 mm while that of the calcined bauxite aggregate
concrete layer were fixed at 20 mm in the optimization
of the target’s overall thickness. The thickness of the
mortar core was varied from 10 mm to 60 mm (cor-
responding to the target overall thickness of 50 mm
to 100 mm respectively) at 10 mm intervals. These
FG panels were subjected to projectile impact with
striking velocity of 600 m/s. Figure 5 shows the target
 Figure 2. Penetration depth versus projectile impact velocity.

Figure 3. Inner crater diameter versus projectile impact velocity.

Figure 4. Outer crater diameter versus projectile impact velocity.

Figure 5. Inner crater diameter versus projectile impact velocity.

damage at the end of the numerical simulations (ter- As observed in Figures 5 and 6, the impact damage
minated at t = 600µs). The numerical values, in terms on the FG panels with overall thickness greater than
of penetration depth and average inner crater diameter 80 mm were similar. The penetrations of the projectile
are shown in Figure 6. were deeper and more severe damage on the mortar

952
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 6. (a) Penetration depth (b) Average inner crater diameter versus FG-cementitious panel overall thickness.
Figure 7. (a) 60 mm (b) 50 mm thick FG panel damage at t = 600 µs.
core was observed for panels thinner than 80 mm. At
an overall target thickness of 60mm, the penetration
depth was observed to be 60.81 mm (which is greater
than the target thickness). This is only possible when
the material of the layer at the distal face is ductile,
facilitating membrane action to further dissipate the
projectile’s remaining energy. Full perforation of the
target was observed when the target thickness was
reduced to 50 mm.
The above observations indicate that a minimum
overall target thickness of 80 mm would be required to
prevent or minimize damage to the mortar core when
subjected to projectile impact of 600 m/s. Depend-
ing on the design requirement, if the objective of this
FG-cementitious panel is only to prevent perforation,
a minimum overall target thickness of 60 mm would
suffice.
However, when the thickness of the mortar core
becomes too thin, it may be more economical to
construct a PE-fibrous ferrocement sandwich panel
infilled with calcined bauxite aggregate concrete.
Using 10 mm thick PE-fibrous ferrocement protective
layers, two additional numerical simulations of 50 mm
and 60 mm thick (having 30 mm and 40 mm of cal-
cined bauxite concrete infill respectively) PE-fibrous
ferrocement sandwich panel subjected to 600 m/s pro-
jectile impact were performed. Figure 7 shows the
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
target damage at the end of the numerical simula-
tions (t = 600 µs). The sandwich panel with overall
thickness of 60 mm was able to prevent perforation of
the projectile. The penetration depth was 52.71 mm.
For the 50 mm thick PE-fibrous ferrocement sand-
wich panel, the velocity of the projectile was 94 m/s
at ejection, which is approximately the same as the
92 m/s observed for the FG panel. Thus, the penetra-
tion resistance in the rear crater may not be sensitive
to the material unconfined compressive strength as
illustrated by Hanchak et al. (1992).
5 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
In this study, a finite element model of the FG panel
subjected to high-velocity small ogive-nose projec-
tile was successfully developed using the commercial
LS-DYNA FE package. By incorporating the material
strain-rate effects and using the erosion algorithm, the
penetration depths and average crater diameters of the
FG panels subjected to projectile impact with impact
velocities ranging from 300 m/s to 600 m/s were simu-
lated. The numerical predictions were then compared
vis-à-vis experimental impact test results in which
reasonably good agreement were observed in the pen-
etration depths and average inner crater diameters, but
 not in the average outer crater diameters. It seems that
the application of a smeared material model for cal-
cined bauxite aggregate concrete was unable to capture
the average outer crater diameter of the FG panel as
it resulted in the removal of tough concrete material
element once it violated the erosion criteria. Never-
theless, in most projectile penetration studies, only the
penetration depth and inner crater diameter are defined
as the parameter of interests and thus, the FE model
may be adequate for design purpose.
Using the calibrated FE model, an optimization
study on overall thickness of the FG panels to prevent
perforation of an ogive-nose projectile with strik-
ing velocity of 600 m/s was performed. It was found
that an overall target thickness of 80 mm is suffi-
cient to prevent or minimize damage to the mortar
core layer, while a minimum overall target thickness
of 60 mm would be adequate to prevent perforation
when the target is subjected to projectile impact at
600 m/s. Such optimization study can serve as a valu-
able tool to arrive at more economical protective
structural design and minimize the need for conducting
expensive experimental tests.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to acknowledge the Defence
Science and Technology Agency of Singapore
(DSTA), through the Centre for Protective Technol-
ogy, National University of Singapore, for supporting
this research work under the project grant (R-379-000-
014-232).
REFERENCES
Bažant, Z.P. 1976. Instability Ductility and Size Effect in
Strain-Softening Concrete. ASCE Engineering Mechanics
Division 102(2): 331–344.
954
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
CEB, Comité Euro-International du Béton. 1993. CEB Model
Code 1990. Trowbridge, Wiltshire, UK: Redwood Books.
Hanchak, S.J., Forrestal, M.J., Young, E.R. & Ehrgott, J.Q.
1992. Perforation of Concrete Slabs with 48MPa (7ksi)
and 140MPa (20ksi) Unconfined Compressive Strengths.
International Journal of Impact Engineering 12(1): 1–7.
Lee, S.C. 2006. Finite Element Modeling of Hybrid Fiber
ECC Targets Subjected to Impact and Blast. Ph.D. Thesis,
Department of Civil Engineering, National University of
Singapore.
Lin, V.W.J. 2008. Functionally-Graded Cementitious Panel
for High-Velocity Small Projectile. M.Eng. Thesis,
Department of Civil Engineering, National University of
Singapore.
Maalej, M., Quek, S.T. & Zhang, J. 2005. Behavior of Hybrid-
Fiber Engineered Cementitious Composites Subjected to
Dynamic Tensile Loading and Projectile Impact. ASCE
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering 17(2): 143–152.
Malvar, L.J. & Ross, C.A. 1998. Review of Strain-Rate
Effects for Concrete in Tension. ACI Material Journal
95(6): 735–739.
Pijaudier-Cabot, G. & Bažant, Z.P. 1987. Nonlocal Dam-
age Theory. ASCE Journal of Engineering Mechanics
113(10): 1512–1533.
Quek, S.T., Lin, V.W.J. & Maalej, M. 2010. Development
of Functionally-Graded Cementitious Panel against High-
Velocity Small Projectile Impact. International Journal of
Impact Engineering: Article in press.
Zhang, M.H., Shim, V.P.W., Lu, G. & Chew, C.W. 2005. Resis-
tance of High-Strength Concrete to Projectile Impact.
International Journal of Impact Engineering 31(7):
825–841.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Identification of geometrical design criteria for reducing the

vulnerability of urban area configurations to blast effects

C. Pérez Jiménez, M. Minguez Fica & J. De la Quintana

Labein Tecnalia-saix, Bilbao, Spain

ABSTRACT: Evolution of characteristic parameters of blast waves (pressure, impact, positive and negative
phase) strongly depends on the scenario where explosion occurs. Blast loads on the building target as well as
effects on the urban layout are a function of the building geometry as well as the presence of other buildings in
the vicinity. Blast loads on buildings can either be reduced or enhanced due to its own geometry configuration or
by the influence of nearby buildings. Effects on the urban layout, which have great importance on human safety,
are also influenced by those parameters. This study shows the importance of taking into account the behaviour
of different building geometries, orientation as well as the influence of adjacent geometries and relative position
when planning an urban area against blast effects. Maps of human damage will be obtained in different scenarios.

1 INTRODUCTION

Historical records indicate that the majority of ter-

rorist incidents have occurred in an urban environ-
ment in presence of nearby buildings forming the
street geometries (New York’s Twin Towers on 11th
September 2001, the 11th March 2004 terrorist attack
in Madrid. . .).
An explosion in an urban area affects not only the
constructive systems of the buildings but also their
occupants and those in the streets. The effects and
consequences depend on a great way on the explosive
charge but also on the urban planning and building
geometries (P.D. Smith, 2001). In order to make them
less vulnerable, it is necessary to identify and analyse
the geometrical parameters that determine the vulner-
ability of urban area configuration to blast effect. In
order to solve that, it has been studied the influence
of some geometrical parameters of rectangular urban
layout (street width, building height), (T.A Rose, 2002;
Fotis Rigas, 2005). Thus, in this paper it is intended
to go deeper in the present knowledge and analyse
the behavior of different geometrical configuration
of single buildings as well as different urban layout
against blast actions by means of validated numerical
methods.
Evaluation of the human damage in urban layout
scenarios will be presented by means of maps of
damage based on probabilistic methods.
2 SCENARIOS ANALYSED
The number of possible urban area configuration
is limitless. The whole range of possible building
geometries and urban layout is not considered in
Figure 1. (a) Schematic single buildings: rectangular and
cylindrical (b) schematic rectangular urban layout.
this paper and the following set of scenarios is
investigated:
– Single buildings: the objective is to determine how
the geometry of two common typologies of building
(rectangular, RB, and cylindrical, CB) submitted
to a blast explosion is affected and affects the
nearby regions due to the reflection of the shock
wave. Dimensions of the scenarios are shown in
Figure 1-(a) where the height of both buildings, H,
is assumed to be 24 m. The width, a, and long, b,
of the rectangular building is 20 m as well as the
diameter, D, of the cylindrical one. A 100 kg and
1000 kg TNT charges, are chosen for each building
typology. The distance between the charge and the
centre of analysed building is 25 m, given a scaled
distance of 5.4 y 2.5 m/kg1/3 , respectively.
– Rectangular urban layout: the objective is to
determine the influence of different typologies of
buildings, position and orientation placed on a rect-
angular layout. Maps of human damage at 1 m
above the ground are analysed. Dimensions of the

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 reference urban layout are shown in Figure 1-(b).
The height of both buildings, H, is assumed to be
24 m. Both longitudinal, WL , and transversal, WT ,
street widths are 10 m. A spherical 1000 kg TNT
charge is placed in the middle of the longitudinal
street at 1 m above the ground and 10 m far from
the building wall.
3 NUMERICAL SIMULATION
3.1 Material model
In all simulations, buildings are assumed to be rigid;
air and high explosive (TNT) are modelled by an Euler
processor with equations of state being ideal gas and
Jones–Wilkins–Lee (JWL), respectively (Autodyn,
2009).
3.2 Single building and rectangular urban layout
simulations
Each simulation has been divided in three stages:
in the first stage, the initial detonation and prop-
agation of the spherical blast wave is modelled in
1D, using 100 × 10 mm cells. Then, in the second
stage the results from the 1D analysis are remapped
to a 2D simulation, using approximately 150,000 x
100 mm cells. Finally, the results obtained from the
2D simulation are remapped to a 3D simulation;
using approximately 1,040,000 × 500 mm cells and
800,000 × 500 mm cells for single building and urban
layout simulations, respectively.
The 3D numerical models were extended suffi-
ciently far in each direction to ensure that the presence
of the boundaries did not affect the results at the mea-
suring locations. Blast parameters were measured over
the front and rear part of the rectangular and cylindri-
cal building at three different planes above the ground
(1 m, 10 m and 20 m).
4 PROBIT EQUATION FOR HUMAN DAMAGE
For evaluating the damage suffered by the popula-
tion submitted to the effects of urban blast, PROBIT
equation, Y, are used. The type of damage analysed in
this paper includes eardrum rupture, Y1 , and death for
whole body impact, Y2 . Table 1 represents the selected
Table 1. PROBIT equations for different human damage to
caused by explosions.
Type of damage PROBIT equation
Eardrum rupture Y1 = −15.6 + 1.93ln(ps )
Death for whole Y2 = 5 − 2.44ln((7.38 × 103 /ps ) +
Body impact + (1.3 × 109 /(ps × i)
where ps is the maximum peak overpressure, kPa; i is the
maximum peak impulse, Pa × s.
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
PROBIT equation found in literature (Fernando Diaz,
2007).
5 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
5.1 Single building simulation
In the following figures, the maximum peak pressure
percentage with respect to a scenario in which no
building is considered, WB, is represented for the rect-
angular and cylindrical building scenario. Both 100 kg
and 1000 kg TNT charge are represented.
The following results have been found:
– The presence of buildings creates an enhancing
pressure region and shadowing pressure region
in the front and rear part, respectively. Thus, the
enhancing region in the RB is found on the front
wall while the shadowing one is obtained in the
lateral and rear walls. For CB scenario, the enhanc-
ing region reaches both front wall and a part of the
lateral walls.
– RB scenario acts as a barrier stopping great quantity
of the shock wave energy. Thus, higher values of
maximum peak reflected pressure are obtained in
the front wall and greater shadowing effects in the
rest of the environment.
– CB scenario deflects the shock wave around the
building reducing the shock wave energy absorp-
tion. Lower maximum peak reflected pressure val-
ues are obtained and consequently lower shadowing
effects in the rest of the environment.
– The enhancing region, in both scenarios, increases
with height. However, the maximum reflected pres-
sure value reduces. This effect is represented in
Figure 3.
(1)
(2)
Figure 2. (a) Rectangular building scenario; (b) Cylindrical
building scenario.
956
 Thus, Figure 3 represents the distance from the
front wall that is influenced by the reflected wave as
well as the maximum peak pressure in this point. The
mentioned tendency of maximum peak pressure and
influenced region with height is appreciated.
For concise purposes, pressure–time curve for a
point placed at the front and the rear part of the rect-
angular and cylindrical building for both 100 kg and
1000 kg TNT charge is represented in Figure 4.
It can be observed how the arrival time of the shock
wave to the rear part of the building is influenced by the
building geometry. Thus, faster shock wave is obtained
for the WB scenario, followed by the CB scenario and
finally the RB scenario. The reason of that is found
in the shock wave energy absorption of each building
configuration which becomes faint the front wave in
terms of speed, pressure and impact. Table 2 shows the
arrival time of the shock wave to a point at the rear part
of the building for the 1000 kg TNT explosion charges.
Figure 3. Pressure and influenced distance as a function of
the building height. Data taken in central plane of the front
wall of RB scenario (100 kg TNT charge scenario).
Figure 4. Pressure-time curve at different height (1 m, 10 m,
20 m); (a) front part and (b) rear part of the building.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
On the other hand, the influence on the rear part
of the shock wave travelling above the roof results
in a train of waves, see Figure 4-(b). Points closer
to the roof are powerfully and faster influenced. This
effect is not really appreciated, Figure 4-(a), for weak
explosions.
5.2 Rectangular urban layout
5.2.1 Reference scenario
In the following figure, the p-d curves of the longitu-
dinal (LL , CL , Lr ) and transversal (AT , BT , CT ) lines
of the reference urban layout scenario are represented.
The i-d curves of the previously defined lines of
the reference urban layout scenario are represented in
Figure 6.
Analysing the reference scenario, the following
results are obtained. Thus, for the longitudinal lines:
– The global tendency of maximum peak pressure
and impulse is to decrease with distance.
Table 2. Arrival time, ms, of the shock wave at a point of
the rear part at z = 20 m and 5 m from the wall.
WB CB RB
100 kg TNT explosion 69 86 101
1000 kg TNT explosion 98 110 120
Figure 5. Pressure-distance curves for different lines and
planes of the reference urban layout scenario. 1000 kg TNT
explosion.

Figure 6. Impulse-distance curves for different lines and
planes of the reference urban layout scenario. 1000 kg TNT
charge.
Figure 7. Rectangular urban layout scenarios; (a)–(b) lower
and upper rotated rectangular building scenario, respec-
tively; (c)–(d) lower and upper cylindrical building scenario,
respectively.
– Higher maximum peak pressure and impulse values
are found at heights closer to the ground.
– Both central and lateral lines experience a rise
in the maximum peak pressure due to the known
“channelling effect” provoked by the reflection of
the shock waves in the building walls (T.A. Rose,
2002). This effect can also be seen in i-d curves,
where the decay of the maximum peak impulse is
attenuated.
For the transversal lines:
– Similar tendencies for the maximum peak pressure
in transversal lines BT and CT are obtained even at
different heights.
– Transversal line AT at heights 1 m and 10 m expe-
riences a rise in the maximum peak pressure due
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 8. Perceptual maximum peak pressure differences
with the reference rectangular urban layout scenario.
to influence of the reflection process from the
opposite building wall.
– Transversal line AT at height 20 m experiences a
continuous rise due to the reflection process as well
as for the influence of the shock wave coming from
the roof of the building.
– Higher pressure ranges are found in the line CT
where the shock wave incises directly.
5.2.2 Influence on the building orientation and
geometry
In this section, the influence on the maximum peak
pressure and impulse of a rectangular urban layout is
analysed taking into account the fact of having:
– A rectangular building rotated 45◦ located in first
and second line of the urban layout; see Figure 7-(a)
& (b).
– A cylindrical building located in first and second
line of the urban layout; see Figure 7-(c) & (d).
Dimension of the cylindrical building is similar to
the one analysed in section 5.1. However, in order to
respect the longitudinal and transversal street width,
the rectangular building side is reduced by a 21/2 factor.
In next figures, the perceptual differences of max-
imum peak pressures and impulse between the ref-
erence urban layout scenario and those mentioned in
Figure 7 are shown at height z = 1 m.
Positive numbers represent higher values in the
analysed scenario than in the reference scenario.
Analysing the results for the building in the upper
part:
– No differences in the maximum peak pressure
and impulse are appreciated in the lower part of
the urban layout when cylindrical or the rotated
rectangular building is placed in the upper part.
– Only an attenuation effect with respect to the
reference scenario is found in these scenarios.
 Figure 10. Human damage in reference urban layout sce-
nario; (a) eardrum rupture and (b) death by whole body
impact.

Figure 9. Relative maximum peak impulse differences with

the reference rectangular urban layout scenario.

– Higher attenuation effect is found in the rotated

rectangular building scenario. This is due to
reflected wave created by each building.
For buildings in the lower part:
– Both attenuation and enhancing effects, with
respect to the reference scenario are found. Enhanc-
ing effects appear in the transversal street, while
attenuation effects appear in the rest of the urban
layout.
– Higher enhancing effect is found in the transversal
street due to the direct impact of the initial shock
wave with the reference rectangular building.
– The enhancing effect region created by the cylindri-
cal building is wider than for the rotated rectangular
building. It is observed how this region reaches the
longitudinal lines while for the other scenario it
remains in the transversal lines.

5.2.3 Maps of human damage

In order to have a vision of the catastrophic results
obtained in these urban layout configurations, the
following human damages are considered: eardrum
rupture and death to whole body impact are consid-
ered. Thus, taking into account the PROBIT equation,
Table 1, the following maps of human damage is
obtained.
Figure 10 represents the eardrum rupture damage
and the death for whole body impact for the reference
urban layout scenario. Figure 11 shows the eardrum
rupture damage and the death for whole body impact
for the analysed urban layout scenarios. Numbers
indicate the probabilistic damage, %.
It can be appreciated that for distances close to the
explosive charge, the percentage of eardrum rupture is
over 90% and it is slightly affected by the influence of
building geometry or orientation. The incident shock
wave has enough energy to provoke this human dam-
age and the amplified energy of the reflected wave has
not really influence.
Figure 11. Human damage in analysed urban layout sce-
nario; (a) eardrum rupture and (b) death by whole body
impact.
For the scenarios where the building is placed on
the upper part, it can be observed how in transversal
line (AT , BT and CT ) lower eardrum rupture damage is
obtained with respect to the reference scenario, except
for further points where the opposite effect is found.
For buildings placed on the lower part, an enhancing
level of damage in transversal lines is obtained due to
the energy absorption of these building configuration
and orientation.
It can be observed how the death for whole body
impact only affects regions next to the explosive

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 charge. Thus, for the scenarios where buildings are
placed on the upper part, no difference between them
and the reference case are observed.
For the analysed buildings placed on the lower part,
slight variations of human damage are found between
them. However, comparison with reference scenario
indicates that the behaviour of the rotated rectangular
building and cylindrical scenario create more safety
urban layout.
6 CONCLUSIONS
A rectangular and cylindrical building with the
assumption of being placed on an isolated open space
has been analysed as well as the behavior of those
buildings placed in a rectangular urban layout with the
rectangular one rotated 45◦ is analysed.
Regarding the single building behavior, results indi-
cate that the shock wave experiences a deflection in
the cylindrical building and a barrier effect in the
rectangular one. These effects results in higher val-
ues of maximum peak reflected pressure in the front
wall and greater shadowing effects in the rest of the
environment for the RB than in CB.
Regarding the urban layout, results show that cylin-
drical and rotated rectangular building placed on the
lower part of the urban layout affects in a negative way
to the building behind it. In the rest of the streets and
buildings, an attenuate effect occurs (with respect to
the reference scenario) due to the not existence of the
channeling effect.
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If the analysed buildings are placed on the upper
part, no differences are found in the effect provoked
by the reference scenario. An attenuate zone occurs
near these analysed buildings.
The presented results clearly indicate the impor-
tance of considering the influence of having differ-
ent building geometries for designing, planning or
assessing vulnerable regions in urban environment.
REFERENCES
Fernando Díaz Alonso et al. Consequence analysis to deter-
mine the damage to humans from vapour cloud explo-
sions using characteristic curves. Journal of Harzadous
Materials (2007).
Fotis Rigas, Spyros Sklavounos.. Experimentally validated
3-D simulation of shock waves generated by dense
explosives in confined complex geometries. Journal of
Harzadous Materials (2005).
T.A. Rose and P.D. Smith. Influence of the principal geomet-
rical parameters of straight city streets on positive and
negative phase blast wave impulses. Int J Impact Eng 27
(2002), pp. 359–376
P.D. Smith, G.P. Whalen and L.J. Feng et al., Blast loading on
buildings from explosions in city streets, Proc Inst Civil
Eng.-Struct Build 146, (2001) (1) pp. 47–55
AUTODYN user’s manual-version 12. Century Dynamics
Inc.; 2009.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Effectiveness of seismic strengthening of monuments for their blast

resistance

V. Sendova, G. Jekic & L. Tashkov

Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology – IZIIS, University Ss. Cyril and Methodius,
Skopje, Republic of Macedonia

ABSTRACT: The St. Athanasius Church in Leshok was destroyed as a result of a bomb attack on 21 August,
2001. One year later, the European Agency for Reconstruction and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of
Macedonia decided to begin with the restoration of the church. The Institute of Earthquake Engineering and
Engineering Seismology, IZIIS, Skopje prepared the Main Project for the reconstruction of the church. The
project for restoration consisted of repair and strengthening of the damaged part of the church narthex and
complete reconstruction and seismic strengthening of the ruined part of the church, in compliance with the
adopted concept for seismic safety. This paper deals with the effectiveness of the adopted concept for seismic
strengthening of the restored church regarding its blast resistance. The analysis of blast resistance consisted of
re-enactment of the event that led to the destruction and simulation of possible scenarios of blast effect upon the
church, with different quantities of explosive charge acting from three different locations.

1 INTRODUCTION

The St. Athanasius church is a part of the monastery

complex “St. Mother of God”, situated near the village
of Leshok, 8 km north-east from Tetovo, in Repub-
lic of Macedonia. The complex is 700 years old and
since 1957 it has been under the Law on Protection of
Cultural Monuments.
From structural aspect, the church represents a
three-conched structure with an elongated narthex on
the west side and bell towers. The walls are constructed
of stone masonry in lime mortar. The vaults, the tam-
bours and the domes are constructed of brick masonry.
It was an active, spiritual temple of the Macedonian
Orthodox Church.
The church was exposed to strong detonation from
a bomb attack on 21 August, 2001, during the armed Figure 1. Remains of the St Athanasius church after the
conflict in the Republic of Macedonia. As a result of detonation.
the attack, it was almost completely destroyed. The
blast demolished the naos, while the entrance part
of the narthex and the two bell towers were heavily 2 RESTORATION OF THE ST. ATHANASIUS
damaged, (Fig. 1). CHURCH
In June, 2002, the European Agency for Recon-
struction and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic In accordance with the legislative regulations of the
of Macedonia took an initiative for reconstruction and Republic of Macedonia, the monuments are catego-
restoration of the church to its authentic shape. The rized as structures of extraordinary importance, for
architectural and archeological investigations were which it is necessary to evaluate their existing seismic
entrusted to the National Conservation Center, while stability in the process of their protection, and, if nec-
the Main Project on the restoration was elaborated by essary, take measures for their conservation, restora-
IZIIS, Skopje. tion, repair and seismic strengthening. Such repair

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Figure 2. St. Athanasius church after the reconstruction.
Figure 3. Positive Phase Airblast for Hemispherical TNT
Detonation on the Surface at Sea Level. (U.S. Departments
of the Army, Navy and Air Force 1990).
and strengthening should enable an economically jus-
tified and technically consistent seismic protection
through providing of the necessary bearing capacity
and deformability for an acceptable level of damage
in case of future earthquakes.
From structural aspects, there have been two
approaches taken in the attempt to renovate and recon-
struct the structure of St. Athanasius church again.
Based on the performed detailed analysis of the struc-
ture, two solutions have been prepared: (i) a solution
for repair and strengthening of the existing damaged
part of the monastic church and (ii) a solution for
seismic strengthening of the demolished part of the
church to be reconstructed, (Figs. 2, 3). It was gener-
ally concluded that such designed repair and seismic
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strengthening of the St. Athanasius church satisfied
the prescribed requirements and criteria for such type
of historic structures. In fact, although damaged by a
blast, the church of St. Athanasius was strengthened in
accordance with the regulations providing resistance
to future earthquakes.
3 ANALYSIS OF BLAST RESISTANCE OF
RECONSTRUCTED CHURCH OF ST.
ATHANASIUS
3.1 Introductory notes
Depending on the location of an explosion and the
area of the exposed surface, an explosion can be
classified as:
– local explosion
– distant explosion
This classification has been made considering that
the simplified methods for blast loading allow assum-
ing of full scaled reflected pressure, acting on the
directly exposed surface if the angle of incidence α
is smaller than 450 .
The term “local explosion” means that the blast
wave acts under an angle of incidence greater than 450
in some parts of the exposed surface. It requires zon-
ing of the surface, depending on the angle of incidence
and distance of a particular zone from the explosion
center.
Distant explosion presupposes sufficient distance
from the explosion center so that the exposed surface
can be considered as a single zone of the blast influ-
ence, all under full scaled reflected pressure, since the
blast wave acts under an angle of incidence smaller
then 450 in any part of the exposed surface.
The blast wave parameters in the analysis are
obtained using the graph for hemispherical TNT det-
onation on the surface at sea level, (Fig. 3). All the
parameters are given as function of the scaled distance
Z = R/W1/3 where R is the distance from the explosion
in ft and W is the mass of TNT in lb.
3.2 Methods of analysis
In the technical regulations of the Republic of Mace-
donia and those of many other countries, there is no
article that treats protection of structures of cultural
and historical heritage against explosions. However, it
is useful to have knowledge of how the applied concept
of restoration and seismic strengthening of structures
of monuments is effective in increasing their resistance
to explosions. For that purpose, an analysis of the blast
resistance of the restored church was performed for the
purpose of estimating the effectiveness of the adopted
concept for seismic strengthening of monuments in
improving their blast resistance.
The analysis consisted of:
– An attempt to re-enact the event that led to destruc-
tion of the church in 2001;
– obtaining the stress states at critical points of the
church, simulating scenarios of local explosion
Figure 4. SAP2000 3-D model of the St Athanasius church.

Figure 5. SAP20000 3-D model of the strengthening ele-

with quantity of explosive equivalent to 10, 15 and ments.
20 kg TNT, at specific location of the explosion
center;
– obtaining the stress states at critical points of the
church, simulating scenarios of distant explosion
with quantity of explosive equivalent to 50, 75 and
100 kg TNT.
The analyses of the blast effects have been
performed for both states of the church (non-
strengthened – former state and strengthened – current
state) for the purpose of making comparison, using the
finite element method in SAP2000 computer package.
The bearing walls have been modeled by SOLID three-
dimensional finite elements. The vaults and the domes
have been modeled by SHELL elements. The steel Figure 6. Location of the explosion.
strengthening elements have been modeled by 3D-
FRAME elements. The RC jackets have been modeled bottle, 1 liter in volume); the type of used explosives
by SHELL elements, (Figs. 4, 5). is still unknown;
The experimentally obtained values of ultimate – The collapse mechanism can be assumed, consider-
stresses of the used lime mortar have been considered ing the location of the debris of the collapsed part
in the analysis (σc = 1300 kPa, ft = 130 kPa). of the church.
According to the documentation from the scene
3.2.1 Re-enacting the occurred explosion and
immediately after the blast, the material from the
defining the collapse mechanism
collapsed part of the church wasn’t blown over the
The details about the event that caused the destruction
immediate surroundings, but concentrated at the point
of St. Athanasius church remain unknown. However,
where the structure existed, (Fig. 1), which confirms
based on the documentation from the scene immedi-
the assumption that it suffered collapse due to inability
ately after the blast, several key assumptions have been
to withstand its own weight.
adopted:
The location of the debris indicates that the destruc-
– The location of the explosion can be assumed, con- tion of the structure was not due to the intensity of the
sidering the extent of the destruction of the ground overpressure caused by the blast wave, but was a result
immediately after the explosion and the debris found of local stability loss (Fig. 7) resulting in progressive
(the blast resulted in appearance of a hole in the collapse of the entire facility in a few seconds.
ground of about 1.2 m in diameter, Fig. 6); The local loss of bearing material led to redistri-
– The quantity of used explosives can be assumed, bution of the stresses from the self weight load into
taking into account the presence of unexploded con- other parts of the bearing wall, exceeding their ulti-
tainer in which the explosive was placed (plastic mate stresses, causing further collapse and further

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Figure 7. Removing elements with stress over ft .
Figure 8. Collapse of the church.
unfavorable distribution of stresses. This chain reac-
tion resulted in progressive collapse of the structure of
the church (Fig. 8).
3.2.2 Analysis of blast resistance of St. Athanasius
church from effects of near explosion
The present analysis considers simulation of explosion
of 10, 15 and 20 kg TNT from 6 m distance from the
explosion center, (Fig. 9). Depending on the distance
from the center of the explosion and the angle of inci-
dence (α) of the blast wave, zoning of the front wall
has been made.
Each zone has different magnitude of reflected pres-
sure with different duration. The side wall is a special
zone, loaded according to the principles adopted for
loading the side walls.
The load functions are time dependent, with dura-
tion of 1.0 second, divided into 10,000 time steps.
In order to simplify the process of loading the front
wall, the side wall and the roof, a referent time func-
tion of loading has been adopted for every considered
quantity of explosive. The referent time function is
the time function of the most exposed zone – the one
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 9. Location of the simulated near explosion.
Figure 10. Referent loading function for explosion of 10 kg
TNT, 15 kg TNT and 20 kg TNT, respectively, at R = 6 m.
with an angle of incidence between 00 and 450 and dis-
tance from the explosion center R = 6 m. The reflected
pressure on each zone separately, in the calculation
of loads, has been scaled with reduction coefficient
“k”, which is defined as to allow for loading the
corresponding zone with the reference time function,
thereby to meet the real impulse which acts on that
zone, (Fig. 10).
Analyses in SAP2000 and comparisons of results
have been carried out to determine the effect of seismic
strengthening on linear force-displacement relation-
ship of the masonry, as a major structural component of
the structure. The effects of strengthening on the stress
state of the non-strengthened church (former state) and
the strengthened church (current state) are significant.
The stress magnitudes of the critical joint of the north-
east column are shown in the graph (Fig. 11) for both
states.
From the relationship shown, it can be concluded
that strain S33 is proportionate to the quantity of explo-
sives used - the difference in the S33 strain is greater for
larger quantities of explosives. The W-S33 relationship
is not linear, but has an exponential form.
3.2.3 Analysis of blast resistance of St. Athanasius
church from effects of distant explosion
The present analysis considers simulation of explosion
of 50, 75 and 100 kg TNT from 20 m and 30 m distance
from the explosion center, (Fig. 12).
The analyzed distances and the area of the front
wall allow assuming that the whole front wall can be
considered as a single zone under full scaled reflected
pressure, since the blast wave acts with an angle of
Figure 11. Comparison of the stress magnitudes in a critical
joint for near explosion (R = 6 m).

Figure 13. Referent loading function for explosion of 50 kg

TNT, 75 kg TNT and 100 kg TNT, respectively, at R = 20 m
and R = 30 m.

Figure 12. Location of the simulated distant explosion.

Figure 14. Comparison of the stress magnitudes in a critical
joint for distant explosion (R1 = 20 m, R2 = 30 m).
incidence smaller then 450 on any node of the wall. Table 1. Critical quantity of TNT explosive for the north-
The whole front wall is under the same magnitude of east column.
reflected pressure with the same duration. Just like in
the scenario of near explosion, the load functions are Non-strengthened Strengthened
time dependent with duration of 1.0 second, divided
R (m) 20 m 30 m 20 m 30 m
into 10,000 time steps. In order to simplify the pro-
cess of loading the front wall, side wall and roof, a Wcr (kg TNT) 80 160 100 310
referent time function of loading has been adopted for
each considered quantity of explosive at any distance,
separately. The referent time function is the time func-
column are shown in the graph (Fig. 14) for both states
tion of the front. The reflected pressure on the side
and all the scenarios included in the analysis.
walls and roof in the calculation of loads is scaled by
In Table 1, the critical quantities of TNT explosive
reduction coefficient “k”, which is defined as to allow
for R = 20 m and R = 30 m are presented.
for loading the corresponding surface with the referent
It was found that the effectiveness of the strength-
time function, thereby to meet the real impulse, which
ening of the structure was more pronounced in the case
acts on that surface, (Fig. 13).
of a higher value of reflected pressure impulse, as the
In order to obtain the critical quantity of explosive,
main parameter of blast loading effect of explosion.
an additional scenario with 350 kg TNT acting from
To get a clear insight into the stress state of the whole
distance R=30m has been analyzed.
structure in both cases of explosion (near and distant),
Analyses in SAP2000 and comparisons of results
it is necessary to make the same comparative analysis
have been carried out to determine the effect of seismic
of all the model joints.
strengthening on linear force-displacement relation-
ship. The effects of strengthening are significant on
the stress state of the non-strengthened church (for- 4 CONCLUSIONS
mer state) and the strengthened church (current state)
just like in the scenarios with near explosions. The The applied seismic strengthening of cultural and his-
stress magnitudes of the critical joint of the north-east torical monuments has a limited influence on the

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 resistance of the structures against blast effects. The
influence of strengthening depends on the concept of
strengthening, the exposure of the frontal surface to
explosion, the site of initiation of the explosion and
the quantity of the explosives used.
The blast effect depends on the quantity of explo-
sives used and the distance from the site of initiation to
the endangered structure. The analysis performed led
to the conclusion that the effectiveness of the seismic
strengthening of the structure was more expressed in
the case of higher energy value of the blast wave.
The effectiveness of strengthening for blast resis-
tance of the structure can be determined only for a
previously defined scenario (known place of initiation
of the explosion, known type of explosives and known
quantity of the explosive charge).
In order to improve the concept of rehabilitation
and seismic strengthening of structures at high risk of
exposure to explosions and buildings of special inter-
est or facilities at risk pertaining to secondary hazard,
further analysis of possible scenarios is recommended,
using the approach for blast loading treated in this
paper.
REFERENCES
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) 1999. Struc-
tural Design for Physical Security. State of the Practice.
Structural Engineering Institute (SEI)
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Jekic G. 2010. Effectiveness of Seismic Strengthening of Mon-
uments for their Blast Resistance. Master Thesis. Institute
of Earhquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology.
University Ss. Cyril and Methodius. Skopje
Naumoski N. & Balazic J. 2004. Protection of Buildings from
Blast Effects. A State of the Art Report, Architectural
and Engineering Recourses Directorate, Architectural
and Engineering Services, Real Property Branch, Pub-
lic Works and Government Services Canada. Gatineau,
Quebec, Canada
Remenikov A. M. A Review of Methods for Predicting
Bomb Blast Effects on Buildings. Journal of Battlefield
Technology. 2003, 6(3) 5–10. Argos Press Pty Ltd
Sendova V. Methodology for Repair and Strengthening of
Historical Monuments Damaged due to Man-Made and
Natural Disasters, Institute of Earthquake Engineering
and Engineering Seismology – IZIIS, University “SS.
Cyril and Methodius”, Skopje
Sendova V. 2002. Main Project on the Reconstruction, Seis-
mic Strengthening and Repair of the Structure of the
Monastic Church of St.Athanasius. Report IZIIS 2002–29.
Skopje
Smith P.D. 2007. State of the art in Europe and activity devel-
oped within WG3 Impact and Explosion. Proc. of the
International Symposium within the COST C26 "Urban
Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events: 274–
280. Prague.
 Strategy and guidelines for damage prevention

© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Toward definition of the art’s rules for the recovering of historical centre
after a seismic event

V. Ceradini, M. Praticò & P. Terenzi

Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria, P.A.U. Department, Reggio Calabria, Italy

ABSTRACT: This report is the attempt to clarify the relationship between historic architectures and seismic
event, theorizing good practices for professional to connect them before, during and later. the historical buildings
require a correct recover, therefore, about this some preliminary matters must be considered: 1. The earthquake
is only a phase of the long life of construction, in some cases already happened; 2. It check the structures,
eliminating all that is weak, technological wrong, dangerous, therefore everything that remained is a sure base
from rebuilt; 3. It doesn’t destroy the historical architecture but it gets off it, so all it takes is reassembling it,
recovering the collapsed materials and choose the right setting of them according to masonry mechanic behaviour
improvement; 4. It creates in the historical centers an unusual scenery, that can confuse who due operate without
the correct skill: the initial operations needs to put in safety heritage, could be more harmful and destructive
than the disastrous event.

1 INTRODUCTION The last seismic events demonstrated as in restora-

1.1 L’Aquila’ earthquake
If we look at the 2009’ L’Aquila seismic activities,
according to the long architectonical and environ-
mental story of these historical centre; we cannot
considering it like something already happened in the
past. Therefore a new phase of the life started for them.
Watching this remark from a different point of view,
the 6th April can be considered as the date of historical
centre ending, duo to our incapability.
The masonry structures are always recoverable
and improvable, because masonry structural elements
mixed together are assembled (stones, elevation walls,
vaults, wooden beam) and mutually connected through
monolateral and frictional support
These mechanical characteristic leave us free to
disassemble and assemble all parts and each single
element.
Study, analysis and understanding of damage’s
mechanisms happened give us the necessary technical
solutions to avoid them for the next time.
In the rich Italian seismic and post-seismic his-
tory this last is the experimental road followed: from
Pirro Ligorio in Ferrara in the 1570, to Valadier and
Pietro Ferrari in the 1784–76, Rimini o in Valnerina.
(Ceradini, 2009).
The right ties positions, the connection, the con-
nection between walls and what have you necessary
must be introduced in the end of give to these struc-
tures the necessary monolateral device. This thought
can sprout only from a attempt evaluation of the dam-
ages and masonry materials fallen surveyed reusing
them in recovering work.
tion work, disregard the direct scientific method can
conduct workers to philosophy no good for a masonry
structure. Therefore, often, in this field, workers bor-
row from other constructive techniques the structural
model for masonry building.
Often, these restoration are not qualified for this
structures that turn out to be dangerous for their safety.
It’s enough remember the cases of Saint Francesco
from Assisi’ church and Saint Maria in Paganica’
church, L’Aquila.
The scrupulous lecture of real seismic experimen-
tation, it’s something essential; in fact without it, it’s
very difficult get a suitable typology of intervention
fit to masonry structure considered.
Same reasoning can be accomplish to building,
historical center and/or part of it that nowadays, after
a catastrophic seismic event result in good condition.
Consequently, they give us the intervention guide-
lines useful to repair damaged constructions.
From this point of view, restoration work for an
historical centre damage from an earthquake is already
wrote on the walls. The real problem consist only in a
right reading of it.
As a result, the guidelines in conservation must
carry out from real example of architecture, following
local rules of art characteristic of that land. All this
must be done thinking in advance on the next seismic
event.
We think about L’Aquila’s post-seism activates with
fear and persuasion that it will be the worst of Italian
story, in this last two century. This opinion spread from
a real absence in debate and participation and from
an politic chooses’ evaluation, opposite to the positive
Friulane and Umbro-marchigiane experiences.

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Figure 1. Saint Eusanio Forconense panoramic view after
earthquake.
Instead, we observed a lot of similarities with Irpinia
catastrophic experience, where anthropic action was
added to seismic damages. However, L’Aquila it’s not
Avellino, it is a city more important from the historical
point of view.
After one year the rubble must be recuperate or
moved yet, in L’Aquila city and its land; both situa-
tion look like trouble. We believe that this situation
spread from a wrong philosophy, because the rubble
were thought like a cost instead a resource.
2 THE SAINT’EUSANIO FORCONESE
VILLAGE
Saint Eusanio Forconense village, is a little village
located 14 Km from the L’Aquila, it was damage until
IX macroseismic degree; luckily, it had no victims,
thanks citizens quickness (n.250).
The activities conducted in four months in Saint’
Eusanio’ tent city, leave us free to carry out a on-going
actions, it was aimed to conservation of the cultural
heritage and typological one.
Thanks an agree between PAU department of the
Reggio Calabria’s University and Saint Eusanio Forco-
nense common was possible assemble dates and notes
in relationship to theories and results, comparing aims
and tools directly without interferer on different layers.
This experience is a critic check conducted later
then this experience analyzing mode and times follow-
ing by us and other, allowing us to realize an working
model that we hope be useful in progress for all.
2.1 Considerations on the scenery of observed
damage on the building
The scenery of observed damage, shown a lot of col-
lapses and lacks on the building, the suburb makes
unrecognizable to the eyes of its inhabitants, and the
rubbles prevent an easy and sure access the streets and
the houses. This produces confusion and dismay.
Each professional that work in an after seismic event
suburb must perceive the scenery of damage like “the
actual state of fact” of that suburb, and from that, they
must take start analysis and reflections, technical eval-
uations and ideas, that will bring to select the most
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proper interventions.To Sant’Eusanio after the seismic
event:
1. The damages and the collapses areas of building
are primarily due to mechanisms of collapse out
of the plan of the masonries.
2. Where there were the steel ties have worked well
except in the case of deterioration of the headings
or for the failure of localized low-quality pieces
of masonry.
3. The masonry is often poor for equipment in
spite of material of good quality and opportune
dimensions.
4. The quantitative loss of building structures is
altogether of about 2%.
5. The loss of the coverage concerns 5% around of
the constructions.
6. No damage was detected in the vaulted cellars.
7. As already shown in phase of forecast of the
sceneries of damage (Giuffrè 1993) the construc-
tions that have suffered less damages have been
those to two levels and in landlocked position. The
collapses have happened for construction located
in heading or angle positions in the block, and
with rising of the third level.
8. The ruinous collapses, that have involved adjoin-
ing cells, have happened especially in presence of
raisings of a third level, often realized in the first
half of the XX century or following tampering
with intrusive elements in reinforced concrete.
9. The damages are directly proportional to the
degree of abandonment: before the seismic event
the quantity of residential building continuously
used and inhabited habitually it was of 51%, those
with irregular use 19%, while 30% were resulting
completely abandoned.
10. Houses and constructions restored recently have
few damages.
3 PROPOSED METHODOLOGY AND
CONSIDERATIONS
We evaluate this specific scenery positive and full of
important indications of project, which to start a par-
ticipated and responsible reconstruction work that has
as objectives the conservation and the safety of the
patrimony.
We will divide the different actions of the interven-
tions in phases so that to make it more understandable
and evaluable, accompanying it with useful tools of
reading which risks, sketches and photos, keywords,
perspectives, proposals and useful critical considera-
tions for all useful to transform a possible model for
action.
3.1 PHASE 1. Keywords: To enter, to know, to put
in safety and to protect
Risk 1. The rubbles present in the roads and inside
the damaged houses or collapsed don’t facilitate the
recognition of it. This happens to whom has not got-
ten used to read the architecture for that that is, in its
historical evolution, and not as it appears at that time
contingent.
Perspective. The dramatic scenery where the suburb
appears is it to consider a point of departure for the
rational approach and operational recovery.
Considerations. Not secondary it is to knowingly
recognize to witness a situation that so many others,
before us, have already lived and overcome. Our fear
remains to lose the comparison with the generations
that have preceded us. The belief that our technical
and moral abilities are so inferior to those of who has
preceded us it pushes us to stay immovable, to bury
the rubbles to try to make to pass the wrong message
that the earthquake has destroyed a city: other per- Figure 2. Scheme of the emptying of the roads and the pro-
sons responsible serve: our actual incapability often jecting (staircases and balconies) elements, of the move of
accompanied by fool cupidity. the materials, of the assemblage of the prop.
Proposal. It is therefore priority to take conscience
of the simplicity of the problem and to finally enter
action among the rubbles, seeing them as resources,
the houses damaged as waiting for to be taken care of,
perhaps with technical skill but surely also with love.
Risk 2. Setting previously the objective of accessi-
bility and absolute safety for the whole center it is not
realizable all together, therefore it produces immobil-
ity Perspective. The accessibility and the safety sense
in to operate in the historical center must be won meter
by meter and day after day. And necessary a progres-
sive plan of accessibility that defines the rules and that
is very flexible to be allowed changes in progress of
work.
Proposal: The priority goes therefore date to the
damaged or easier areas to be reached, focusing on
those that have great and small open spaces neces-
sary to handle of the means, the provisional storage
of things and rubble or the shelter in case of emer-
gency. According to the height of the buildings and
the width and length of the road you can be decided
Figure 3. Scheme of the damage caused by water on the
with what means to complete the operations of han- damaged structure; scheme of the increase of weights and
dling of the collapsed materials, privileging as far as pushes in relationship to the collapsed (dry and wet) material.
possible the move done to hand, the emptying of the Scheme of scaffoldings in pipes and joints and prop for the
balconies, the progressive shoring of the fronts on road, mass in safety.
the removal checked of the precarious parts and the
protection of the building crests and the cells, with
provisional coverages guaranteeing the flow of the already to the first meter we realize there that the
meteoric waters and reflux. rubbles hinder the walk.
You proceeds therefore for public routes, releasing Perspective. Must move the rubbles the documen-
increasingly long stretches, keeping in mind that the tation is absolutely to this point necessary and must
interventions of recovery one will happen for blocks also proceed it of equal footstep with the operations of
or aggregate building, and that also these interventions removing. The photos digital systems and laser scan-
must be valued, defining some priorities, that mainly ner 3D survey method, favor the safety in the job,
refer to the conditions of the built one, to the quantity but they must be in partnership to the competence
of people that can return home, as well as accessibility. of whom observes, to individuate the elements of the
problem to turn into resources. The documentation is
also fundamental for the following phases of mass in
safety, planning of the interventions, planning of the
3.2 PHASE 2. Keywords: Documents and programs restauration, site organization of the yard.
props and action on the rubble Risk 4. The buttresses are considered necessary but
also and above all enough and provisional. A recur-
Risk 3. Accessibility and safety must be conquered rent error is the oversized props owed to inexperience
meter by meter. It is the technique of tortoise. But of the technicians but also about an evaluation costs

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Figure 4. Scheme of the removal of the dangerous parts,
realization of the shoe crests, the blocked of the open-
ings. Realization of the provisional coverage and control of
waterborne and the water nets.
mistake. Consideration. Perhaps for this reason the cal-
culations and the numerical evaluation of the weights
and the actions agents are not brought on the prop
themselves. Each oversized prop besides costing more,
cause additional costs in phase of reconversion of the
prop in scaffolding for the restauration site, and in
general in a deceleration of all the operations. Every
lost day increases the physical damage to the unpro-
tected housebuilding, then the loss of unique cultural
property and enormous social costs.
Perspective. The prop must guarantee the use of the
public routes under safety conditions for people and
vehicles. It will be therefore necessary to plan specific
remedies for each case, identifying opportune heights
and widths, and alongside the shore where necessary,
rims, valances, nets and slams, or eventually build-
ing real pylons and bridges. Evaluating the necessary
demolitions in order to avoid processes that may prove
unnecessary and expensive.
Proposal. Prop and dismantlement’s of parts of
masonry must be planned with foresight already think-
ing about the project of restoration. The technicians
must have experience in the planning of the restora-
tion and in the complex organization of the yard. Land
use, spacing and allowances must be select with every
caution and the more possible it discussed with all
the operators. The desirable characteristics of the prop
can be so reassumed: reversibility, substitutability and
integrability.
At the same time, attention will be set so that the
realization of the prop allows the accessibility the sin-
gle building, even if declared fit for use, or totally
destroyed, with the purpose to allow the interventions
of restoration, reparation or the maintenances of pub-
lic or private interest or the clearances of material or
the recovery of objects inside the houses.
Besides the prop it is necessary to protect the
houses that have lost the roof with provisional cover-
age to avoid that the meteoric waters, cold, sun, wind
increases the damage and the danger of further col-
lapses. This involves the inside access to the cells and
often the inside handling of the rubbles. Risk 5. If it
commonly looks him at the different phases in way
single and separate what is called “maceria” it appears
as a problem and a cost.
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Perspective. If the vision of the problem is global
to the whole one of the process of historical regener-
ation of the urban aggregate, the rubble becomes one
of the most important resources for recovery. Not only
because material ready, already available on the place
for further use through the relocation to the correct
place in the masonry from which it originates, how
much as precious scientific and experimental docu-
mentation of the intrinsic defects of the building that
we will have then to restore, and source of knowledge
technical constructive otherwise not observable.
Consideration. Some of the collapsed materials
won’t be recoverable and must directly be digests to
dump as the conglomerates or treated with special
attention as in the asbestos case and its derivatives,
waterproofing, insulation material.
3.3 PHASE 3 Keywords: Survey and design, plan,
coordinate
The earling phases have had as object the routes that
delimit the aggregate – the voids –, instead this phase
has for object the aggregate isolated by the routes –
the constructions.
Risk 6. This is the most ordinary phase that the
technicians have accustomed to face, extraordinariness
consists in the ability to adequately read the reality of
departure, which has to do.
Perspective. In this context the survey drawing is
a dynamic document of a dynamic building damaged
condition,
Evolving, that must understand more phases: the
state before the earthquake, the state immediately
after of that, the possible following damages caused
by aftershocks and environmental degradation, the
removal of parts, the realization of the shoring’s, the
provisional coverage etc.
Consideration. This documentation of analysis is
therefore an integral part of the evolutionary history of
the single construction in the block building, that must
be investigated in their whole, and from the origins of
settlement until you possible becoming post-seismic
event. Again, the seismic damage is “positive” in how
much it puts in evidence that historical-aggregative
trials that, not appropriate, they subtracted value to the
aggregate – mistaken changes or incongruous remelt-
ings – and that realized in critical (often short-term)
moments, characterized by low inputs or unsustainable
population growth increases, have not been checked at
run time and restored to health subsequently even.
Proposal. The project of restoration owes to cure
these anomalous conditions, underlined by the seis-
mic event, increasing the historical and economic
value of the property, and naturally its safety, with
suitable and coherent technical and cultural choices
with its history. Compared to “normal” conditions the
project of restoration of the architecture affected by
the earthquake will need a great elaborate definition
of the entire document often considered secondary,
what the chrono-program and the program of main-
tenance. Both are suggested really from the historical

Figure 5. Scheme of analysis of the in damages survey and
detection of the existing important elements for stability of
structural behavior of building. Photos of the damages to the
bock on via dell ‘Arco Liberatore andVia del Forno, and photo
served as the VVFs to April 2009. Survey of damaged after 2
months. Scheme of the mechanisms of damage baited by the
seismic event. Project of restoration designed in according to
the owners.
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Figure 6. Extract of the brochure to sensitize the citizens to
the recovery of the rubbles realized for the public event of
February 28 th 2010 to the Aquila.
reconstruction of the built one. The chrono-programs
it is fundamental both for the coordination of the
operations and workmanships, and to guarantee the
accessibility and the handling of means and materials,
in relationship to neighboring yards.
Risk 7. The long operational stasis has pro-
duced the irresponsibility of the population and the
local administrators towards the public and private
good.
Consideration. Another symptom of perceived cul-
tural retreat is taking place in this reconstruction,
compared to that of Friuli or Umbria-Marche one,
is the deposing of participation and local initiative.
this situation precludes the use of such systems inter-
vention like “autocostruzione” o “autorestauro” this
involves wastes of economic and human resources.
Proposal. The definite interventions for blocks o
“aggregate” they allow to reestablish a sure and homo-
geneous structural condition for the whole aggregate,
and founds him upon the evaluation of the mecha-
nisms of damage baited by the seismic event appraised
in operation of the changes and of the stratifications
that the single structure have had during the time
inside the block. Appraising raisings and interven-
tions, openings and accesses, recognizing the original
structural condition and the modified one, tracking
the walls of thorn down, of loom and the hori-
zons, the presence and the operation of the seismic
tools of safety present considering as a whole the
constructive sequence of all the parts, it will agree
possible with the owners to define the new con-
figurations of the blocks, also eventually giving up
unused volumes or reestablishing previous structural
conditions.
3.4 PHASE 4. Keywords: maintenance and
memory
Considerations and proposals. The quality of the
choices made during the reconstruction could serve to
 few if not accompanied by a necessary care of the con-
structions from privacies and institutions. If there are
still inconsiderate owners and reckless abuse healed
building, regulations for the constructions in seismic
zone that resolve tout-court all the problems at the
same way regardless of the understanding of the struc-
tures, if the administration not will verify and watch
over on the abandoned or unused real estate patrimony,
and finally if the designers won’t furnish the owners
of plans of maintenance to follow the development of
their own house, we won’t be ready however to meet
the next seismic event.
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REFERENCES
Giuffrè, A., 1988, Monumenti e terremoti: aspetti statici del
restauro, Roma, Multigrafica.
Giuffrè, A. 1991, letture sulla meccanica delle murature
storiche, Roma, kappa.
Giuffrè, A. (a cura di), 1993, Sicurezza e conservazione dei
centri storici: il caso Ortigia, Roma-Bari, Laterza.
Valtieri, S. (A cura di) 2008, 28 dicembre 1908. La grande
ricostruzione dopo il terremoto del 1908 nell’area dello
stretto, Roma, Clear.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Experimental evaluation of q factor for dual steel frames

with dissipative shear walls

F. Dinu & D. Dubina

The “Politehnica” University of Timisoara, Romania
Romanian Academy, Centre for Advanced and Fundamental Technical Sciences, Timisoara, Romania

C. Neagu
The “Politehnica” University, Timisoara, Romania

ABSTRACT: The paper summarizes the results of the experimental work carried out on two stories frame
models of dissipative shear walls on the aim to obtain an experimentally calibrated seismic behavior factor, q.
Different types of beam-to-column joints are considered. The experimental investigation is accompanied by a
numerical simulation program in order to extend the conclusions of the study to real multi-storey frames.

1 INTRODUCTION and gives some preliminary indications regarding the

Steel plate shear walls SPSW are used for more
than three decades as lateral force resisting systems.
Numerous research programs and also seismic experi-
ences have confirmed their effectiveness. A major role
on their development can be attributed to the introduc-
tion of design rules in the code provisions, e.g. AISC
(2005). In Europe, the application of SPSW system
is limited, partly due to the lack of design provisions
in the seismic code EN 1998-1, particularly there are
no recommendations for behavior factor q and over-
strength factor for capacity design , respectively.
Design practice requires simple models and conven-
tional analysis software that are available and relatively
simple to use. One of the models used to represent the
behavior of SPSW is the strip model, developed by
Thorburn et al. (1983). Thus, in order to model the steel
shear walls, the steel plates are replaced by a series of
truss members – strips, parallel to tension fields. A
minimum of ten strips per panel are required to ade-
quately represent the tension field action developed in
the plate.
In order to address the issues presented above with
regards to the performances of SPSW systems, a para-
metric study on different structural configurations was
performed, on the aim to evaluate the demands in
terms of strength and ductility. Acceptance criteria
and performance parameters (eg. behavior factor q)
were taken according to AISC 2005. Based on these
results, an experimental program on steel plate shear
wall systems has been developed at the Steel Struc-
tures Laboratory from the Politehnica University of
Timisoara. The test results shown very good agreement
with the parameters and acceptance criteria used in
design. The paper summarizes the experimental results
selection of the behavior factor q.
2 EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM
2.1 Analysis and design of steel plate
shear wall structure
Previous studies of the authors focused on the com-
parative analysis of the seismic performances of con-
ventional systems (i.e. centric and eccentric braced
systems) and new systems using Buckling Restrained
Braces and dissipative Steel Plate Shear Walls. Struc-
tures were investigated using pushover analysis. In
order to compare the seismic performance of the struc-
tural systems, two parameters were assessed: story
drift and plastic deformations in dissipative mem-
bers. Dual systems of SPSW have shown they are
very effective both in terms of stiffness and ducti-
lity. Therefore, post-elastic behavior of SPSW systems
confirmed the behavior factor q proposed in AISC
2005, which is similar to that used for special moment
resisting frames or eccentrically braced frames.
Based on the results of the numerical investiga-
tions, a test program was developed. In order to
test realistic structural configurations, test specimens
were extracted from a 6 story steel frame building
(Fig. 1). The 6 story structure was designed according
to EN1993-1-1 (2005), EN1998-1 (2004) and P100-
1 (2006). The steel materials were S235 grade for
infill panels and S355 grade for frame members. A
4 kN/m2 dead load on the typical floor and 3.5 kN/m2
for the roof were considered, while the live load
amounted 2.0 kN/m2 . Structure is located in a high
seismic area, which is characterized by a design peak

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Figure 1. Six story model used for extracting the test
specimens: a) current floor plan; b) transversal frame.
Figure 2. Half-scale model.
ground acceleration of 0.24g at a returning period of
100 years and soft soil conditions, with Tc = 1.6 sec.
For serviceability check, acceleration amounts 0.12g
and allowable inter-story drift is 0.008 of the storey
height. EN1998-1 does not provide any recommenda-
tions regarding the q factor for SPSW systems. In the
absence of the provisions in EN1998-1, AISC 2005
provisions were taken as guidance. According to the
later code, the behavior factor q for SPSW is similar to
that of high dissipative moment resisting frames. Con-
cluding, the design was based on a q factor equal to 6.
Two-story specimens were extracted from the struc-
ture. Due to the limitations in testing capacity, the
specimens were half-scale representative of the actual
building (Fig. 2).
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2.2 Analysis and design of half scale models
In order to evaluate the contribution of the frame to
the strength and stiffness of the structure, two types
of beam-to-column connection were used. The first
one is a flush end plate bolted connection and the
second one is an extended end plate bolted connec-
tion. According to EN1993-1-8 (2005) classification,
the flush end plate connection is semi-rigid and weak
partial strength (Mj,Rd = 0.4Mb,Rd ) (further refereed as
semi-rigid) and the extended end plate connection is
rigid and strong partial strength, with a capacity almost
equal to that of the connected beam (Mj,Rd = 0.9Mb,Rd )
(further refereed as rigid). The infill panels were bolt
connected to the boundary members using fish plates.
The connection was designed to develop expected
shear strength of the steel panels. To reduce the number
of bolts, an edge plate was welded to the infill panels to
increase the bearing resistance. In order to evaluate the
behavior and the characteristic parameters, like yield
strength and yield displacements, ultimate capacity
and dissipation capacity, nonlinear pushover analyses
were conducted on the models. The shear walls were
modeled by 10 inclined pin-ended strips, oriented at
angle α, where α is given by the equation (Driver et al.
1997):
where t is the thickness of the infill plate, Ac and Ab
are the cross-sectional areas of the column and beam,
respectively, h is the story height and L is the span.
Beams and columns were modelled with plastic
hinges located at both ends. Pushover analysis has
shown the ultimate capacity of structure with rigid
beam-to-column connections is 10% above that of the
structure with semi-rigid connections, while the stiff-
ness is not much improved. Based on the results of
the nonlinear analysis, a total of 5 specimens were
designed and fabricated, see Table 1. The frames
measured 3500 mm high and 4200 mm wide between
member centerlines (Fig. 3). Extended end plate bolted
connections (rigid connections) and flush end plate
bolted connections (semi-rigid connections) are shown
in Figure 4. Table 2 and Table 3 show the measured
average values of yield stress fy , tensile strength fu and
elongation at rupture Au . It can be observed that there
are important differences between nominal and actual
material characteristics. The material overstrength is
larger for hot rolled sections than for plates. Thus, for
hot rolled sections the maximum yield strength scat-
tering amounts 105 N/mm2 , while for plates amounts
80 N/mm2 .
All specimens were tested monotonically and cycli-
cally using modified ECCS procedure. In the original
procedure, a monotonic test is done first, in order to
evaluate the force-displacement curve that is used to
evaluate the yield displacement. Yield displacement
Table 1. Characteristics of the specimens. Table 3. Mechanical properties of flat steel (panels).

Infil Actual
Plate Steel fy fu Au steel
Spec. mm Column Beam Connection Load Element grade Thickness N/mm2 N/mm2 % grade

SR-M-T2 2 HEB240 HEA180 Semirigid Monotonic Plate S235 2 305 429 24 S275
SR-C-T2 2 HEB240 HEA180 Semirigid Cyclic Plate S235 3 313 413 25 S275
R-M-T2 2 HEB240 HEA180 Rigid Monotonic
R-C-T2 2 HEB240 HEA180 Rigid Cyclic
SR-C-T3 3 HEB240 HEA180 Semirigid Cyclic

Figure 3. Test set-up.

Figure 5. Modified ECCS cyclic loading protocol: a) load-

ing protocol; b) Yield displacement Dy and yield force Fy.

by groups of 3 cycles of amplitudes multiple of 2Dy

Figure 4. Beam-to-column connections: a) rigid connec-
tion; b) semi-rigid connection.
Table 2. Mechanical properties of rolled profiles.
(3 × 2Dy , 3 × 4Ddy , 3 × 6Dy , …). Based on experi-
mental results, the evaluation of yield displacement
was adjusted to take into account the specific behav-
ior of SPSW. Thus, the slope of initial stiffness was
corrected and amounted 20% of the initial stiffness
(Fig. 5).

Actual 2.3 Experimental results

Steel fy fu Au steel
Section grade Element N/mm2 N/mm2 % grade 2.3.1 Monotonic results
The first test was done on the semi-rigid structure with
HEB240 S355 Flange 457 609 40 S460 2 mm panels SR-M-T2. The loading scheme twisted
Web 458 609 31 the top beam and also the left hand side column. Due to
HEB180 S355 Flange 360 515 44 S355 safety reasons, the test was stopped before reaching the
Web 408 540 40 failure of the specimen. An attempt was made to cor-
HEA180 S355 Flange 419 558 32 S420 rect the problem but the frame structure was affected
and therefore the test was ceased. For the R-M-T2, the
out-of-plane restraint was improved and there were
no impediments to conclude the test. The specimen
Dy and yield force Fy are obtained by intersecting exhibited desirable and stable behavior, as shown in
the initial stiffness αy and a tangent at the curve Figure 6.
F − D with a slope of 10% of the initial stiffness. Some local fractures were initiated at the corners
Yield displacement Dy is then used to calibrate the of the panels at interstory drifts of approximately 2%.
cyclic loading history. This contains four elastic cycles The beam-to-column connections presented no dam-
(±0.25Dy , ±0.5Dy , ±0.75Dy and ± 1.0Dy), followed ages before plastic deformations took place in panels.

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Figure 6. Damage to the specimen R-M-T2.
Figure 7. Comparison of experimental results for rigid spec-
imen with 2 mm thick panel and numerical results using the
strip model.
Local plastic deformations started to initiate at the
beam flange in compression for drifts larger than 2%.
The test was stopped at a top displacement of 240mm
as force started to drop. The plastic rotation for the
maximum capacity amounted 0.03rad. Results of the
monotonic test were compared with the results of the
pushover test. The strip model used in the pushover
test did not describe accurately the behavior of the
specimens. When the strip area was reduced by 10%,
the accuracy of the model was very much improved
(Fig. 7). This reduction of the panel area conservatively
reduces the strength and stiffness of the structure.
The model permits the evaluation of the initial
stiffness and ultimate capacity of the SPSW struc-
ture. Figure 8 shows the force-displacement curves
for different types of connections, ranging from full
strength and rigid (denoted as rigid) to nominally
pinned connections (denoted as pinned). It may be
seen the structure can gain almost 26% in strength
when pinned connections are replaced by rigid con-
nections. The same variation has little impact on the
initial stiffness of the structure.
2.3.2 Cyclic test
All specimens exhibited stable behavior up to cycles of
4% interstory drift. Very little pinching were recorded
in the hysteresis loops for large drifts and semi-rigid
978
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 8. Influence of beam-to-column connection proper-
ties on the strength and stiffness of the SPSW structure.
specimens, only. Panels yield at approximately 0.006
of the story height for semi-rigid specimens and 0.008
of the story height for rigid specimen. Some local frac-
tures were initiated at the corners of the panels at drifts
of approximately 2%. Local plastic deformations were
observed at the beam flange in compression for rigid
connections. Bolted connections between infill panels
and the fish plates shown small slippages but no plas-
tic deformations either in plates or bolts. This enabled
a very easy dismantling of the steel panels after the
test. Associated with a small residual drift (for rigid
structure), this can assure an easy intervention after a
moderate earthquake to replace the damaged panels.
Figure 9 plots the hysteresis of rigid and semi-
rigid specimens and Figure 10 plots the envelopes
of the hysteresis (results from each third cycle were
considered). Contribution of rigid connections on the
ultimate capacity of the specimens is larger than in
the monotonic tests. As the initial stiffness is mainly
attributed to the panels, differences between rigid and
semi-rigid specimens in terms of stiffness are not as
important as differences in terms of strength (Fig. 7).
An important objective of the experimental pro-
gram was the evaluation of the behavior factor q. The
q factor can be expressed as a product of the ductil-
ity factor, qµ , that accounts for the ductility of the
structure and the overstrength factor, qs , that accounts
for the reserve in strength of the structure. The over-
strength may vary significantly and is affected by the
contribution of gravity loads, material overstrength,
structural redundancy, etc. Therefore, in order to cal-
ibrate the behavior factor q, it is more important to
focus on the ductility component, which can be taken
equal to the displacement ductility factor µ. The dis-
placement ductility factor qµ is therefore defined as
the ratio of the ultimate displacement Du and the yield
displacement Dy . The parameter Du corresponds to a
reduction of the load carrying capacity of 10% com-
pared to the maximum one. The yield displacement Dy
can be considered the one corresponding to the modifi-
cation of the elastic stiffness. Based on the observation
of the hysteresis curves, the ultimate displacements Du
for SR-C-T2 and SR-C-T3 were corrected to take into
account the slippage during the load reversal.
Table 4 presents the qµ factor values for the spec-
imens. Comparing these values, it may be seen the
 Table 4. q factor values for rigid and semi-rigid specimens.

Dy Du
Structure mm mm qu q∗u

R-C-T2 32 157 4.9 4.9

SR-C-T2 23 148 (114) 6.4 4.9
SR-C-T3 23 150 (120) 6.5 5.2
Average value 5.9 5.0

* correction due to slippage at the load reversal

Figure 11. General view and details of the R-C-T2 specimen

after the cyclic test.

Figure 9. Hysteresis curves: a) R-C-T2 specimen;
b) SR-C-T2 specimen; c) SR-C-T3 specimen.
specimens have similar ductility factors qµ , with val-
ues ranging between 4.9 and 5.2. As mention before,
overstrength factor qs depends on many factors but
for a structural system it can be conservatively eval-
uated and prescribed in codes. For example, NBCC
(2005) indicates for ductile steel plate shear walls
overstrength factor qs equal to 1.6. These values show
SPSW structures have a good ductility and can provide
q factors similar to those corresponding to other dis-
sipative structure, like for example Eccentric Braced
Frames, when the overstrength of the link is estimated
at 1.5.

3 CONCLUSIONS

The paper investigated the performances of the dual

SPSW structures. Due to the limitations of the test-
ing capacity, the models were half-scaled. A total
Figure 10. Envelope curves of the hysteresis. of 5 specimens were designed and fabricated, which

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 included specimens with semi-rigid and rigid con-
nections. Specimens were tested monotonically and
cyclically. The results of the experimental tests have
confirmed the conclusions of the previous numerical
studies developed by the authors, on the performances
of dual SPSW structures. The strip model was used for
the preliminary analysis of the models. Based on the
experimental results, this model was modified by cor-
recting the area of the strips by a factor of 0.9. Rigid
connections increased the yield resistance and the ulti-
mate capacity of the structures. The gain in terms of
initial stiffness when pinned or semi-rigid connections
are replaced by rigid connection is reduced. Behavior
factor q amounts in average 5, considering the con-
tribution of the ductility, only. These values indicate
SPSW structures exhibit a dissipative behavior, sim-
ilar to other high dissipative structures, e.g. moment
resisting frames or eccentrically braced frames. How-
ever, further numerical parametrical investigations
are needed to calibrate and generalize the values of
behavior factors q to be used in design.
REFERENCES
AISC 341-05 2005. Seismic provisions for structural steel
buildings. American Institute for Steel Construction.
Dinu, F., Dubina, D. and Neagu, C. 2009. A compar-
ative analysis of performances of high strength steel
dual frames of buckling restrained braces vs. dissipative
shear walls. Proc. of International Conference STESSA
980
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
2009: Behaviour of Steel Structures in Seismic Areas,
Philadelphia, 16–20 aug. 2009, CRC Press 2009, Ed.
F.M. Mazzolani, J.M. Ricles, R. Sause, ISBN: 978-0-415-
56326-0.
Driver, R. G., Kulak, G. L., Kennedy, D. J. L. and Elwi,
A. E. 1997. Seismic behavior of steel plate shear walls.
Structural Engineering, rep. no. 215, Dept. of Civil Engi-
neering, Univ. of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
ECCS 1985. Recommended Testing Procedures for Assess-
ing the Behaviour of Structural Elements under Cyclic
Loads. European Convention for Constructional Steel-
work. Technical Committee 1, TWG 1.3–Seismic Design,
No.45.
EN1993-1-1 2005. Design of Steel Structures. Part 1–1:
General rules and rules for buildings. CEN, Brussels.
EN1993-1-8 2005. Design of Steel Structures. Part 1–8:
Design of joints, CEN, Brussels.
EN 1998-1 2004. Design provisions for earthquake resistance
of structures: General rules – Seismic actions and general
requirements for structures, CEN, EN1998-1-1.
NBCC 2005. National Building Code of Canada. Institute for
Research in Construction, National Research Council of
Canada, Ottawa, Ont.
Newmark, N.M. and Hall, W.J. 1982. Earthquake spectra
and design. Earthquake Engineering Research Institute,
California.
P100-1 2006. Cod de proiectare seismicã P100: Partea I,
P100-1/2006: Prevederi de proiectare pentru clãdiri (in
Romanian).
Thorburn, L. J., Kulak, G. L. and Montgomery, C. J. 1983.
Analysis of steel plate shear walls. Structural Engineering
Rep. No. 107, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Alberta,
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Structural identification from environmental vibration testing

of an asymmetric-plan hospital building in Italy

M. Ferraioli
Department of Civil Engineering, Second University of Naples, Aversa (Caserta), Italy

D. Abruzzese, L. Miccoli & A. Vari

Department of Civil Engineering, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy

G. Di Lauro
Aires Ingegneria, Caserta, Italy

ABSTRACT: The structural identification from environmental vibration testing of a hospital building in Avez-
zano (Abruzzo – Italy) was presented. The comparison of the results enables to verify and calibrate numerical
predictions on the base of data obtained from modal testing. The response of the structure in the time domain
was recorded by highly sensitive sensor network, integrated by a data acquisition system. The identification was
performed using techniques of modal extraction in the frequency domain (frequency domain decomposition).
During the calibration process of the numerical model the values initially adopted were successively corrected
in order to identify a reliable structural model to be used to have an accurate seismic vulnerability assessment
of the hospital building.

1 INTRODUCTION experimental analysis and subsequent modeling of the

Most of the existing RC buildings are vulnerable to
earthquakes because they are gravity load designed or
are designed with earlier codes to withstand seismic
action of low intensity. Many of these constructions
with low lateral load resisting capacity are located
in high seismic hazard areas. Some of them play a
role in civil protection, and so their functionality is
essential during and immediately after an earthquake.
However, as an effect of the increase of the seis-
mic design actions, the resistance of these structures
has become inadequate even when designed accord-
ing to old seismic codes, with the consequence that
unpredictable damage or failure results when sub-
jected to loads below the new code-prescribed levels.
As a consequence, the seismic vulnerability assess-
ment of these buildings is a very actual topic. In this
context, the calibration of the mechanical parameters
and the definition of reliable models and methods for
structural analysis are noteworthy topics. In particular,
effective procedures for the identification of the struc-
tural parameters from static and dynamic testing are
required. In particular, the dynamic test may be very
useful for the identification of mechanical properties,
the soil restraints and, consequently, for the calibra-
tion of advanced numerical finite element models. In
this context, the knowledge of dynamic properties,
together with site seismicity and stratigraphy, is the
starting point for an accurate estimation of seismic
safety of these structures. The paper is dedicated to the
hospital building of Avezzano near L’Aquila (Abruzzo,
Italy). In particular, the methodology defined to reach
the goal consisted of: 1) defining a fem model of the
hospital building; 2) defining localization and direc-
tion of the measurement points from modal analysis
of the fem model; 3) identifying the mode shapes
and frequencies, using the environmental vibration;
4) calibrating a refined numerical model.
2 DESCRIPTION OF THE HOSPITAL
BUILDING
The hospital is composed of RC wall-frame build-
ings designed and constructed in 70’s. The building
is composed of different structures separated by seis-
mic joints (Figures 1,2). The study is carried out
on an irregular T” plan shape building (A structure)
designed for earthquake action of Italian old seismic
code (N.1684 November 25th, 1962).
Both destructive and non-destructive testing meth-
ods were used for the building diagnosis-state. In
particular, 53 monotonic compressive tests on cylin-
drical specimens, 24 tensile tests on steel rebars, ultra-
sonic tests, 40 carbonation depth measurement test,
163 Schmidt rebound hammer tests, 180 radiographic
tests. The compressive strength was finally estimated
by the combined Sonreb method. The mean value of
the compressive strength of concrete on cylindrical

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Figure 1. Aerial view of t\e Hospital of Avezzano (Italy).
Figure 2. Plan view of the Hospital of Avezzano (Italy).
specimens is fcm = 234 daN/cm2 ; the mean value of
tensile strength of steel rebars is fym = 4026 daN/cm2 .
2.1 Material and soil stratigraphy
Geological and geotechnical tests were carried out
to evaluate the soil profile and to determine the
ground type according to Eurocode 8 (2003) and
new Italian Code (2008). In particular, the follow-
ing in-sìtu tests were performed: N.1 soil profile test,
N.3 Standard Penetration Tests (SPT) and N.1 Down-
hole Test which determines soil stiffness properties
by analyzing direct compression and shear waves
along a borehole down to about 30 m. The results
obtained give the following classification: ground
type C, that is 180 < VS,30 < 360 and 15 < NSPT < 50).
The building is erected on a flat ground. As a
consequence, the topographic amplification factor
is ST = 1.00.
3 ENVIRONMENTAL VIBRATION TEST
The forced vibrations applied, for instance, by a
mechanical vibrodyne, are not suitable to be used
on full functional hospital structures, because even
small vibration can not be tolerated in such condi-
tions. On the contrary, measurement of environmental
vibrations may be carried out without direct excitation
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 1. Soil profile under the hospital building of
Avezzano.
Thickness Depth
No. Layer m m
1 Organic soil 1.50 0.00
2 Sand gravel soil and pebbles 13.50 1.50
3 Clay 2.00 15.0
4 Silt with clay 5.00 17.0
5 Silt with gravel 8.00 22.0
Figure 3. Equipments used for environmental vibration test.
on the building using the natural noise and vibration
such as wind and traffic loads. An experimental study
was developed to evaluate the dynamic behavior of
the structure and the dynamic interaction between the
natural frequencies of the building and the excitation
forces.
The in-situ experimental tests were performed
applying the environmental vibration testing method.
This method is a relatively simple, and requires equip-
ment easy to be transported and such a test can be
conducted even if the structure is in use. This aspect is
essential especially in the case of strategic structures
(emergency management centers, hospitals and so on)
whose function can not be interrupted. This technique
allowed, after a careful choice of the positioning of
the sensors, to get natural frequencies and vibration
modes from the direct measurement.
The response of the structure in time domain
was recorded by highly sensitive sensors, accom-
modated with a data acquisition system. The instru-
mentation used included (Figure 3): N.16 PCB
piezoelectric accelerometers (Piezotronics model
393B04); N.1 data acquisition board (National
Instruments DAQCard-16XE50); connector block for
Figure 4. Location of the sensors, at different floors, during environmental vibration test.

interfacing I/O (input/output) signals to plug-in data Table 2. Location of equipments in vibration.
acquisition (DAQ) devices. The accelerometers were
appropriately calibrated following the manufacturers’ Height
suggested procedures. The environmental vibration No. Accel. Dir. Condit. m Floor Column
testing under wind and traffic vibration was monitored
in July 2008. A preliminary model was developed for 1 A x C1 4.11 1 1x
2 B y C1 4.11 1 1y
selecting the location of the devices during vibration
3 C x C2 7.73 2 1x
testing. The location of the accelerometers and the con- 4 D x C2 7.73 2 1y
ditioners is shown in Figure 4 and Table 2. In Table 2 5 E y C2 11.35 3 1y
the list of the sensors is shown, as well as the vertical 6 F y C3 4.11 1 3y
“columns” (No. 4) where the mode shapes have been 7 G y C3 4.11 2 3y
calculated. 8 H y C3 11.35 3 3y
The spectral analysis of the recorded signals may 9 I y C4 4.11 1 2y
give the natural frequencies and the corresponding 10 L y C4 7.73 2 2y
mode shape. Usually, the signal recorded with this 11 M y C4 14.97 4 2y
12 N y C5 14.97 1 1y
technique is very low as well as the signal-to-noise
13 O x C5 18.57 5 1x
ratio. This means that the recorded signal must be 14 P y C5 18.57 5 1y
amplified and processed, and the frequencies negli- 15 Q y C6 14.97 4 3y
gible be filtered (local and partial vibration and phe- 16 R y C6 18.57 5 3y
nomenon of the signal transferring with frequencies in
the range 0.50–20 Hz).
The data acquisition was realized in Labview 8.0 low-pass filter. The experimental and theoretical pro-
with sampling frequency of 100 Hz. The Fast Fourier cedure starts from an assumption that the exciting
Transform (FFT) was used to determine the frequency forces are a stationary stochastic process with a
spectrum of the signal processed through a 30 Hz relatively flat frequency spectrum.

983
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 5. Power spectral density of the accelerometer response.

The identification was performed using techniques Table 3. Natural frequencies from the test “on site”.
of modal extraction in the frequency domain (fre-
quency domain decomposition). These techniques Frequency Period
allow the assessment of natural frequencies, modal Description Hz sec.
damping and mode shapes. The Fast Fourier Transform
1◦ Flexural Y – Torsional 2.53 0.40
(FFT) was used to determine the frequency spectrum
Torsional 3.54 0.28
of the signal processed through a 30 Hz low-pass filter. 1◦ Flexural X 3.67 0.27
An often more useful alternative is the power spec- 2◦ Flexural Y – Torsional 7.95 0.22
tral density (PSD), which describes how the power 2◦ Flexural X 9.06 0.11
of the signal is distributed with frequency. In Figure
5 the resonant frequencies are identified and located
at the evident peaks PSD spectrum. In Table 3 the fre- verification of the adequacy of the model and for its
quencies and periods obtained with this method are calibration. At first, a preliminary model was devel-
reported. oped for selecting the location of the sensors during
vibration testing. In particular, a detailed numerical
model of wall-frame building was implemented in
4 STRUCTURAL IDENTIFICATION SAP 2000 computer program. During the calibration
process of the numerical model the values initially
The comparison of data (structural modes obtained adopted were successively corrected in order to iden-
by testing) with the analytical model allows for a tify a reliable structural model to be used to have an

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 6. Calibrated mode shapes.

Table 4. Natural frequencies obtained from the refined from the calibrated model are compared with the fre-
numerical model and from the test “on site”. quencies derived from the environmental vibration
test. A good correlation is found especially for 1st
Frequencies Frequencies
from test from model Variation
and 2nd flexural Y-torsional mode shape and for 1st
Description Hz Hz % flexural X mode shape. Finally, in Figure 7 the com-
parison between experimental and numerical mode
1◦ Flexural Y – 2.53 2.59 −2.27 shapes in terms of displacement pattern is carried out.
Torsional The results are referred to the locations COL 1X and
Torsional 3.54 2.87 22.53 COL 2Y of the sensors (Figure 4) that are close to the
1◦ Flexural X 3.67 3.52 4.41 center of stiffness of the building. A very good agree-
2◦ Flexural Y – 7.95 8.19 3.02 ment between experimental and numerical patterns is
Torsional observed. However, it must be noticed that this results
2◦ Flexural X 9.06 11.10 22.2
is obtained only for the sensors that are close to the cen-
ter of stiffness of the building (COL 1X and COL 2Y).
On the contrary, for the other accelerometers the tor-
sional effects and the higher modes contribution makes
accurate seismic vulnerability assessment of the hos-
more difficult to extract the peaks from the PSD func-
pital building. In particular in the refined model the
tion because there are a great number of very close
following aspects are considered: 1) non-structural
peaks. Furthermore, in this case the lateral displace-
performance of infill panels modeled as the well-
ment pattern of the mode shapes from numerical model
known equivalent diagonal strut model (cross sec-
is very sensitive to the value of frequency, and it may be
tion 40 × 60; Young’s modulus E = 5350 daN/cm2 ); 2)
strongly different from the experimental displacement
modeling of the floors as orthotropic shells rather than
pattern.
constraints diaphragms; 3) calibration of the Young’s
modulus of concrete; 4) introduction of the stiffening
RC members that are present at the first, third and sixth
floor; 5) calibration of live loads; 6) use of rigid end 5 CONCLUSIONS
offsets to model the fact that the ends of a member are
not considered to be part of the flexible portion. The paper introduces the structural identification from
In Figure 6 the mode shapes of the fem model are environmental vibration testing of an emblematic case
shown. In Table 4 the natural frequencies obtained study: the hospital building of Avezzano in Italy.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 7. Displacement pattern for experimental and numerical mode shapes.
The irregular T” plan shape of the building makes
the modal identification from environmental vibra-
tion test very sensitive to the location in plan of the
accelerometers. In particular, a very good agreement
of experimental and numerical modal proprieties was
found for the sensors located very to the center of mass
of the building. On the contrary, the frequency decom-
position may be ineffective for the signals recorded
very far from the center of stiffness, especially on the
flexible side of the asymmetric in-plane building. In
this case, the torsional effects and the higher modes
contribution generally produce a great number of very
close peaks.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to thanks Mr. G. Laezza, Mr. P.
Crisci (P.E.) and the rest of professional team belong-
ing to Studio KR & Associati, Lenzi Consultant and
Aires Ingegneria. Many thanks also to ASL (Hospitals
complex) No.1 of Avezzano-Sulmona represented by
Mr. F. Dalla Montà (P.E.) for the support during the
structural monitoring activities.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
REFERENCES
Abruzzese, D. & Ferraioli, M. & Mandara, A. & Miccoli, L. &
Vari, A. & Froncillo, S. 2009. Dynamic investigations
on medieval masonry towers: vibration measurement and
structural identification, In F.M. Mazzolani (eds), Proc.
International Conference Prohitech. Roma.
Bonzi, A. & Pizzigalli, E. & Eusebio, M. & Ravasio, F. 1997.
Dynamics test and monitoring of the Leaning Tower of
Pisa. Methodology and results. ISMES. Italy.
De Sortis, A. & Antonacci, E. & Vestroni, F. 2005. Dynamic
identification of a masonry building using forced vibra-
tion tests. Engineering Structures 27, 155–165.
Júlio, E. & Rebelo, C. & Costa, D. 2008. Structural assess-
ment of the tower of the University of Coimbra by modal
identification. Engineering Structures 30: 3468–3477.
Krstevska, L. & Tashkov, L. 2006. Ambient vibration testing
of historical monuments. First European Conf. on Earth.
Eng.and Seismology. Geneva. Switzerland.
Zhou, Y. & Yi, W.J. 2008, Ambient vibration measurement
and earthquake resistant behavior analysis on a tower tall
building with enlarged base. 14th World Conference on
Earthquake Engineering. Beijing. China.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Urban earthquake loss assessment by ELER

U. Hancilar∗ , C. Tuzun, C. Yenidogan & M. Erdik

Department of Earthquake Engineering, Kandilli Observatory & Earthquake Research Institute (KOERI),
Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey

ABSTRACT: Rapid loss estimation after potentially damaging earthquakes is critical for effective emergency
response and public information. A methodology and software package, Earthquake Loss Estimation Routine-
ELER, for rapid estimation of earthquake shaking and losses throughout the Euro-Mediterranean region (Erdik
et al. 2008, 2010a, Hancilar et al. 2009, Sesetyan et al. 2009) was developed under the Joint Research Activity-3
(JRA3) of the EC FP6 Project entitled “Network of Research Infrastructures for European Seismology-NERIES
(www.neries-eu.org)”. Recently, a new version (v2.0) of ELER software has been released. The multi-level
methodology developed is capable of incorporating regional variability and sources of uncertainty stemming
from ground motion predictions, fault finiteness, site modifications, inventory of physical and social elements
subjected to earthquake hazard and the associated vulnerability relationships. Although primarily intended for
almost real-time estimation of earthquake shaking and losses, the routine is also equally capable of incorporating
scenario based earthquake loss assessments. This paper introduces the urban earthquake loss assessment module,
Level 2 module, of ELER software. Spectral capacity based loss assessment methodology and its vital ingredients
are presented.

1 INTRODUCTION

Earthquake shaking and loss information is ultimately

intended for dissemination in a timely manner to
related agencies for the planning and coordination
of the post-earthquake emergency response. Earth-
quake losses might be assessed in regional and/or in
urban scale. Regional estimates of damage to built-
environment and assessment of human losses can be
achieved using region-specific theoretical/empirical
vulnerability relationships in connection with regional
inventories of physical and social elements exposed
to risk. In urban scale, more detailed inventories of
elements at risk are required in order to use with ana- Figure 1. Main screen of ELER’s graphical user interface.
lytical vulnerability relationships for the estimation
of earthquake losses. Grid based (geo-coded) inven-
a major earthquake in the Euro-Mediterranean region.
tories of building stock and demographic data are
The software package coded in MATLAB environ-
needed for urban earthquake loss assessment. The data
ment comprises of a Hazard module and three loss
should include construction year, occupational type,
estimation modules: Level 0, Level 1 and Level 2.
construction material type and number of floors for
Main screen of ELER’s graphical user interface are
each building class as well as the number of people
presented in Figure 1.
residing at each geo-cell. Comprehensive evaluation
Hazard module basically produces earthquake
of methodologies for rapid earthquake loss assessment
shake maps using a similar procedure of USGS Shake
as well as information about currently operating near-
Map (Wald et al. 2005) in terms of selected ground
real-time global and local loss estimation tools can be
motion parameters such as peak ground acceleration
found in Erdik et al. (2010b).
(PGA), peak ground velocity (PGV), spectral accel-
ELER software incorporates both regional- and
eration (Sa ), through region specific ground motion
urban-scale almost real-time estimation of losses after
prediction equations (GMPE). For site specific anal-
ysis, Hazard module utilizes shear wave propagation
∗ velocity (Vs−30 ) distributions obtained from regional
Now at: European Laboratory for Structural Assessment
(ELSA), Institute for the Protection and Security of the geology (QTM maps) and slope based Vs−30 maps.
Citizen (IPSC), European Commission–JRC, Ispra, Italy Following the estimation of the spatial distribution of

987
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 selected ground motion parameters, earthquake losses
(damage, casualty and economic) can be estimated at
different levels of sophistication, namely Level 0, 1 and
2, based on the availability of building inventory and
demographic data (Demircioglu et al. 2009). Detailed
information on Hazard, Level 0 and Level 1 modules
are presented in the companion paper by Sesetyan et al.
Level 2 module of the ELER software (similar
to HAZUS, 1999 and HAZUS-MH, 2003) essen-
tially aims at assessing the earthquake risk (building
damage, consequential human casualties and macro
economic loss quantifiers) in urban areas. Spectral
capacity based vulnerability assessment methodol-
ogy is utilized for building damage estimations. The
world-wide known methods can be chosen for the
analysis: Capacity Spectrum Method (ATC-40 1996),
Modified Acceleration-Displacement Response Spec-
trum Method (FEMA 440 2005), Reduction Factor
Method (Fajfar 2000), Coefficient Method (ASCE
41-06 2006). The inventory data for the elements at
risk consist of grid (geo-cell) based urban building
and demographic inventories For building grouping
the European building taxonomy developed within
the EC FP5 RISK-UE project (Lagomarsino & Giov-
inazzi 2006) and model building types of HAZUS-MH
(2003) are used. The software database not only
includes building capacity and analytical fragility
parameters for both building taxonomies but also the
user has the capability of defining custom capacity and
fragility curves by Building Database Creator- BDC.
Once having calculated the damaged buildings by one
of the above mentioned methods, casualties are esti-
mated based on the number of buildings in different
damage states and the casualty rates for each building
type and damage level
The present paper dwells on spectral capacity based
earthquake loss assessment methodology. Compre-
hensive information on the capacity spectrum based
building damage estimation methodology is provided
in Section 2. Assessment of casualties is covered in
Section 3.
2 SPECTRAL CAPACITY BASED
VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT
Vulnerability is defined as the degree of loss to a
given element at risk, or a set of such elements, result-
ing from the occurrence of a hazard. Vulnerability
functions (or fragility curves) of an element at risk rep-
resent the probability that its response to earthquake
excitation exceeds its various performance limit states
based on physical and socio-economic considerations.
For a population of buildings exposed to earthquake
hazard, the vulnerability relationships relate the prob-
ability of exceedence of multiple damage limit states
(or being in certain damage states) to given measures
of the ground motion severity The generic procedures
used for the development of earthquake vulnerabil-
ities can be grouped as empirical (or observational)
and analytical (or predicted). Combination of both
988
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
empirical and analytical estimates might be considered
as expert judgment (Erdik et al., 2010b). Analytical
(or predicted) vulnerability refers to the assessment
of expected performance of buildings based on cal-
culation and building characteristics. The analytical
method is applicable essentially to engineered build-
ings, where its earthquake performance can be analyt-
ically estimated. An analytical method or estimating
seismic vulnerability that uses nonlinear pseudo-static
structural analysis is described by Kircher et al. (1997)
where the lateral force versus lateral displacement
curve of building structure, idealized as an equivalent
nonlinear, single degree of freedom (SDOF) system,
is obtained. This curve is transformed to the spectral
displacement-spectral acceleration space to obtain the
so-called capacity spectrum Building capacity spectra
vary between different buildings, reflecting structural
types, local construction practices, and building code
regulations.
The so-called Capacity Spectrum Method (ATC-40
1996 and HAZUS 1999) developed for the analytical
assessment of the structural vulnerabilities evaluates
the seismic performance of structures (represented by
equivalent single-degree-of-freedom, SDOF, models)
by comparing their structural capacity and the seis-
mic demand curves drawn in spectral acceleration (Sa )
versus spectral displacement (Sd ) coordinates (hence
the terminology: capacity spectrum and demand spec-
trum). The key to this method is the reduction of
5%-damped elastic response spectra of the ground
motion (in Sa -Sd or the so-called ADRS format) to
take into account the inelastic behavior of the structure
under consideration. The performance of the building
structure to earthquake ground shaking is then iden-
tified by the so-called “performance point” located at
the intersection of the capacity spectrum of the equiv-
alent non-linear single-degree-of-freedom system and
the earthquake demand spectrum. After estimation of
the performance point the damage is estimated through
the use of fragility curves. Fragility curves calculate
the probability of being equal or exceeding a damage
state assuming log-normal distribution of damage.
A schematic description of the methodology is
provided in Figure 2. The inelastic acceleration-
displacement spectrum for the ground motion (seismic
demand spectrum) superimposed with the capacity of a
building (capacity spectrum) and the fragility relation-
ship. The probability distributions, drawn over both the
capacity and demand curves, indicate the associated
Figure 2. Spectral capacity based vulnerability and damage
assessment methodology.
uncertainty and randomness of performance. The
intersection of these spectra gives the expected level
of performance (performance point). As it can be seen
from Figure 2 there is a substantial uncertainty of the
location of the performance point and the fragility
curves should be able to characterize this probabilistic
nature of the problem.
The capacity spectrum method is an approximate
heuristic method which essentially assumes that a
complex nonlinear multi-degree-of-freedom system
such as a multi-storey building undergoing severe plas-
tic deformations during an earthquake can be modeled
as an equivalent single degree of freedom system with
an appropriate level of inelasticity. The advantage of
the method is its simplicity that is no time history
analyses is needed to be performed.
The main ingredients of the spectral capacity based
loss assessment methodology can be summarized as
follow:
• Earthquake demand representation: Demand Spec-
trum
• Structural system representation: Building Capacity
Spectrum
• Structural response assessment: Performance Point
• Representation of the damage probability: Fragility
Curves
2.1 Representation of earthquake demand
Following the estimation of the spatial distribution
of selected ground motion parameters, peak ground
acceleration (PGA), peak ground velocity (PGV),
spectral acceleration (Sa ), by Hazard module, earth-
quake demand is represented by 5%-damped elastic
response spectrum. ELER provides two options for
the construction of response spectral shape:
1. EuroCode 8 (EC8) Spectrum
2. International Building Code (IBC 2006) Spectrum
2.1.1 EuroCode 8 (EC8) elastic acceleration
spectrum
EC8 suggests two types of elastic acceleration
response spectra for horizontal components of the
ground motion: Type 1 and Type 2. The shape of the
elastic response spectrum is taken the same for the
two levels of seismic action. If the earthquakes that
contribute most to the seismic hazard defined for the
site for the purpose of probabilistic hazard assessment
has a surface-wave magnitude, Ms , not greater than
5.5, it is recommended that the Type 2 spectrum is
adopted. Type 1 spectrum is used for the earthquakes
with magnitude greater than 5.5.
The shape of horizontal elastic response spectrum
is defined by ag design ground acceleration on type
A ground, TB , TC, , the periods that limit the constant
spectral acceleration region, TD , the period that define
the beginning of the constant displacement range of
the spectrum, S, soil factor and η , damping correction
factor. The values of TB , TC , TD and S for each ground
type and type (shape) of spectrum to be used as well as
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
the damping corrections for different levels of damp-
ing are given by EC8 and are already implemented in
ELER.
2.1.2 International Building Code (IBC 2006)
elastic acceleration spectrum
IBC 2006 provides a general horizontal elastic accel-
eration response spectrum defined by SS , S1 , spectral
accelerations at short periods and 1-sec period, respec-
tively, SDS , SD1 , short period and 1-sec period design
response spectral accelerations adjusted for the spec-
ified site class and damping value, T0 , TS , corner
periods of the constant spectral acceleration region
given by T0 = 0.2TS and TS = SD1 /SDS and TL , long-
period transition period. It is a regional-dependent
parameter and it is assumed that TL = 5 s in ELER.
The recommended values for the site and damping
corrections are given in IBC 2006 and NEHRP 2003
Provisions. They are already implemented in ELER.
2.1.3 Seismic demand spectrum
For utilization in capacity spectrum based vulnerabi-
lity analysis, the elastic 5%-damped response spec-
trum (in spectral acceleration versus period format,
Sae , T) is converted into the spectral acceleration
(Sae ) versus spectral displacement (Sde ), the so-called
ADRS (acceleration-displacement response spectrum)
format, through the use of the following transforma-
tion:
Figure 3 illustrates standardized spectrum shape
plotted in ADRS format.
2.2 Representation of building capacity
A building capacity curve is the plot of the building’s
lateral load resistance as a function of a characteristic
lateral displacement and quantifies the inelastic struc-
tural capacity of the structure. Capacity spectrum can
be approximated from a “pushover” analysis in which
monotonically increasing lateral loads are applied to
the structure and the characteristic deformations (usu-
ally roof level displacement) are plotted against the
lateral load. The capacity spectrum based vulnerabil-
ity analysis requires the pushover curve of the MDOF
Figure 3. Standardized spectrum plotted in ADRS format
(TA , TC and TD show the characteristic periods. Saes and Sae1
respectively indicate the short period and 1s period spectral
(elastic) accelerations).
 Figure 4. Typical structural capacity spectrum and its sim-
plified bilinear form (solid curve).
system, quantified by the base shear (V) and the top
floor displacement (D), be converted to the capacity
spectrum of the equivalent single-degree-of-freedom
(SDOF) system quantified by the spectral accelera-
tion (Sa ) and spectral displacement (Sd ) for direct
comparison with the associated demand spectrum.
For each building type the capacity spectrum has an
initial linear section where the slope depends on the
typical natural frequency of vibration of the building
class, and rises to a plateau level of spectral accel-
eration at which the maximum attainable resistance
to static lateral force has been reached. As an exam-
ple, Figure 4. As it can be seen the capacity spectrum
is controlled by the points of design, yield and ulti-
mate capacities. These points can be correlated with
the damage limit states.
For the building taxonomies, RISK-UE (2005)
building typologies and model building types of
HAZUS (1999), the capacity curve parameters as
described above are provided in the ELER database.
The user has also the capability of defining custom
capacity curves by Building Database Creator- BDC.
2.3 Calculation of performance point
The analytical vulnerability procedure, commonly
called the capacity spectrum method, essentially
involves comparison of the capacity of a structure,
represented by capacity spectrum, with the seismic
demand represented by an acceleration–displacement
response spectrum (ADRS). The “performance point”
of a model building type is obtained from the intersec-
tion of capacity spectrum and demand spectrum.
Nonlinear static procedures are widely used pro-
cedures to estimate the performance point (target
displacement). The three of commonly used (code-
based) procedures are: the Capacity Spectrum Method
specified in ATC-40 (1996), its recently modified
and improved version Modified Acceleration-
Displacement Response Spectrum Method (FEMA-
440 2005) and the Coefficient Method originally
incorporated in FEMA-356 (2000).
The Capacity Spectrum Method is a form of equiv-
alent linearization that uses empirically derived rela-
tionships for the effective period and damping to
estimate the response of an equivalent linear SDOF
model. The Modified Acceleration-Displacement
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 5. Example graphical solutions for the calculation
of performance point.
Response Spectrum Method basically differs from
the Capacity Spectrum Method in the reduction of
the elastic demand curve. The basic assumption of the
equivalent linearization is that the maximum displace-
ment of a nonlinear SDOF system can be estimated
from the maximum displacement of a linear elastic
SDOF system that has a period and a damping ratio
that are larger than those of the initial values for the
nonlinear system. The elastic SDOF system that is
used to estimate the maximum inelastic displacement
of the nonlinear system is usually referred to as the
equivalent or substitute system. Similarly, the period
of vibration and damping ratio of the elastic system are
commonly referred to as equivalent period and equiva-
lent damping ratio, respectively. The equivalent period
is computed from the initial period of vibration of the
nonlinear system and from the maximum displacement
ductility ratio, µ. On the other hand, the equivalent
damping ratio is computed as a function of damp-
ing ratio in the nonlinear system and the displacement
ductility ratio.
The Coefficient Method is essentially a spectral
displacement modification procedure in which sev-
eral empirically derived factors are used to modify the
response of a linearly-elastic equivalent SDOF model
of the building structure.
Another nonlinear static procedure is the so-called
“N2” method (Fajfar 2000) in which the inelastic
demand spectra is obtained from standardized (code-
based) elastic design spectra using ductility factor
based reduction factors. The “N2” method (herein
called the Reduction Factor Method) has been imple-
mented in the so-called “Mechanical-Based Method”
of vulnerability analysis (Lagomarsino & Giovinazzi
2006) in the RISK-UE (2001-2004) project. Example
graphical solutions for the calculation of performance
point by each method are presented in Figure 5.
All four of these methodologies require develop-
ment of a pushover curve (capacity spectrum for the
equivalent SDOF system) to provide the relationship
between the base shear and lateral displacement of a
control node (usually located at roof level). They dif-
fer mainly in the computation of the demand spectrum
and the performance point. The user can choose one of
the methods for the calculation of performance point
by Level 2 module.
2.4 Fragility curves and calculation of damage
probability
To estimate the performance of a group of buildings
of a particular class under given ground shaking, the
spectral response of the building at the performance
point for the standard building of that class, as defined
above, is used in conjunction with a set of fragility
curves for that class, which estimate the probability
of any particular building exceeding each of the dam-
age states after shaking at any given spectral response
level.
The fragility curves represent the probability-based
relation between the expected response and the per-
formance limits in terms of the cumulative density
function of the probability of exceeding of specific
damage limit states for a given peak value of a seis-
mic demand. If structural capacity and seismic demand
are random variables that roughly conform to either
a normal or log-normal distribution then, following
the central limit theorem, it can be shown that the
composite performance outcome will be log-normally
distributed. Therefore, the probabilistic distribution is
expressed in the form of a so-called fragility curve
given by a log-normal cumulative probability density
function.
The analytical expression of each fragility curve
is based on the assumption that earthquake damage
distribution can be represented by the cumulative stan-
dard lognormal distribution function, , (HAZUS
1999 and Kircher et al. 1997). The horizontal axis rep-
resents the spectral displacement demand and vertical
axis refers to the cumulative probability of structural
damage reaching or exceeding the threshold of a given
damage state.
The conditional probability of damage being in or
exceeding a particular damage state k (or Dk ) for a
given spectral displacement level (performance point,
Sdp ) is given by the following relationship:
where  is the standard normal (Gaussian) com-
plementary cumulative function, Sdp is the inelastic
spectral displacement demand (performance point),
S̄d,k is the median spectral displacement at which the
structure reaches the threshold of the damage state
(k) and βk is the standard deviation of the natural
logarithm of the Sd,k .
The spectral displacement, Sd,k , that defines the
threshold of a particular damage state (k) is assumed
to be given by:
where S̄d,k is the median value and εk is the log-normal
variable with a unit median value and a normali-
zed composite log-normal standard deviation βk , that
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 6. Example fragility curves for four damage levels.
incorporates aspects of uncertainty and randomness
for both capacity and demand.
The application of the spectral capacity based vul-
nerability assessment requires the provision of S̄d,k
and βk values for different model building types and
the damage states are needed for the assessment of
damage predictions to buildings, casualties and socio-
economic losses due to structural damage. Slight,
Moderate, Extensive and Complete damage states for
each building model types of HAZUS (1999) as well
as for the European building taxonomy are adopted in
Level 2 module.
For the building taxonomies, i.e. model building
types of HAZUS and RISK-UE building typologies,
the fragility curve parameters as described above are
provided in the ELER database. The user has also
the capability of defining custom fragility curves by
Building Database Creator- BDC.
3 CASUALTY ASSESSMENT
The casualty estimation is based on HAZUS99
and HAZUS-MH (2003) methodologies. Grid based
demographic data defining the number of people resid-
ing in each geo-cell should be provided. The output
consists of a casualty breakdown by injury severity
level, defined by a four level injury severity scale
(Durkin et al. 1991, Coburn 1992, Cheu 1994).
The HAZUS casualty rates were obtained by revis-
ing those suggested in ATC-13 (1985) using limited
post-earthquake fatality data. The casualty model itself
in fact is based on the models suggested by Coburn
and Spence (1992), Murakami (1992) and Shiono
et al. (1991). However, unlike other approaches, the
methodology is in event-tree format and thus is capable
of taking into account non-collapse related casual-
ties. To estimate the casualties from structural damage,
the model combines a variety of inputs from other
HAZUS modules including the probability of being
in the damage state and the relationship between the
general occupancy classes and the model building type
with specific casualty inputs provided for each damage
state (D1-slight, D2 moderate, D3 Extensive, D4 Com-
plete, D5 complete with collapse structural damage)
in combination with occupancy data and time event.
 Casualties for any given building type, building dam-
age level and injury severity level can be calculated by
the following equation:
Kij = Population per Building * Number of
Damaged Building in damage state j* Casualty Rate
for severity level i and damage state j (4)
4 CONCLUSIONS
Potential impact of large earthquakes on urban soci-
eties can be reduced by timely and correct action
after a disastrous earthquake. Urban earthquake loss
assessment module of Earthquake Loss Estimation
Routine-ELER software, which essentially aims at near
real-time assessment of the earthquake risk (building
damage, consequential human casualties and macro
economic loss quantifiers) in urban areas, is pre-
sented. The ultimate goal is the rapid estimation of
losses for effective emergency response and public
information after potentially damaging earthquakes.
Although primarily intended for almost real-time esti-
mation of earthquake shaking and losses, the routine is
also equally capable of incorporating scenario based
earthquake loss assessments and can be utilized for
related Monte-Carlo type simulations and earthquake
insurance applications.
REFERENCES
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ATC 40 1996. Seismic evaluation and retrofit of concrete
buildings, Applied Technology Council, Redwood City,
California.
Demircioglu, M. B., Erdik, M., Hancilar, U., Sesetyan, K.,
Tuzun, C., Yenidogan, Zulfikar, A.C. 2009. Technical
Manual - Earthquake Loss Estimation Routine ELER-
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Erdik, M., Cagnan, Z., Zulfikar, C., Sesetyan, K., Demir-
cioglu, M. B., Durukal, E., Kariptas, C. 2008. Develop-
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ence on Earthquake Engineering, Beijing, China.
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Erdik, M., Sesetyan, K., Demircioglu, M. B, Hancilar, U.,
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Zulfikar, C. 2010b (in press). Rapid Earthquake Loss
Assessment After Damaging Earthquakes, Soil Dynamics
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Resistance, Draft No. 6, European Committee for Stan-
dardization, Brussels.
Fajfar P. 2000. A non linear analysis method for performance-
based seismic design, Earthquake Spectra, 16, 3,
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FEMA 1999. HAZUS99 user and technical manuals. Fed-
eral Emergency ManagementAgency Report, Washington
D.C., USA.
FEMA 2003. HAZUS-MH Technical Manual, Federal Emer-
gency Management Agency, Washington, DC, U.S.A
FEMA 440 2005. Improvement of nonlinear static seis-
mic analysis procedures. Federal Emergency Manage-
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Hancilar, U., Tuzun, C., Yenidogan, C., Zulfikar, C., Durukal,
Erdik, M. 2009. Urban Earthquake Shaking and Loss
Assessment, European Geosciences Union (EGU) Gen-
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Council, USA.
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Development of building damage functions for earthquake
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Engineering, Vol.4, pp. 415–443.
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Durukal, E., Erdik, M. 2009. Regional Earthquake Shak-
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Tall buildings under long predominant period ground motions:

Analysis vs. Romanian code provisions

M. Iancovici
Technical University of Civil Engineering of Bucharest, Romania

B. Ştefãnescu
Technical University of Civil Engineering of Bucharest, Romania
National Center for Seismic Risk Reduction, Romania

ABSTRACT: In the last years, the increasing number of tall buildings- built in dense urban and historical areas
in Bucharest, drew the attention on the seismic analysis and design framework applicable to these particular
structures. While the reinforced concrete Carlton Building (14 stories) collapsed during the November 10, 1940
earthquake (Mw = 7.6) and about 32 medium-rise buildings were destroyed by the March 4th 1977 earthquake
(Mw = 7.4) in Bucharest, there is no any evidence how highly flexible structures will perform on medium-soft
soil conditions in the Bucharest-city under Vrancea source-induced strong ground motions.
The current seismic design procedure in the Romanian standard (EC 8 format) is little to no applicable to tall
buildings. Full analysis procedures in the time-domain are not yet available in a standardized manner.
This approach may lead to inappropriate performance and highly exposed to seismic risk structures.
The objective of the paper is to analyze the seismic loads distribution and standard response parameters,
obtained by two approaches: (i) actual code provisions and (ii) time-history analysis using compatible artificial
ground motion accelerograms database.
A large number of parametric studies on 60 story models are performed. The results are emphasizing the
limitations of the current approach and the availability of time-history “exact” approach, thanks to large hardware
and software capabilities.

1 INTRODUCTION

In the last years, the increasing number of tall buildings

built in dense urban and historical areas in Bucharest,
drew the attention on the seismic analysis and design
framework applicable to these particular structures.
In the modern era, the reinforced concrete Carlton
Building (14 stories) collapsed during the November
10, 1940 earthquake (Mw = 7.6) and about 32
medium-rise buildings were destroyed by the March
4th 1977 earthquake (Mw = 7.4) in Bucharest. Figure 1. Innovative proposals of highly irregular shapes
The standard seismic analysis procedure – based and complex structural layouts.
on equivalent static loads using the response spectrum
method approach and inelastic response reduction
factors, is little to no applicable to tall buildings. Very little guidance is offered in the Romanian
It may not accurately grasp important features of design code for selecting/scaling/generating appropri-
both – ground motion and structure: the ground motion ate time-series of ground acceleration. Real records
amplitude, frequency content and duration characteris- are mostly used by practitioners for behavior checking
tics, directionality, the mass and stiffness distribution, purposes rather than for analysis and design.
damping distribution, material and geometric nonlin- A large variety of shapes and complex structural
earities, the soil-structure interaction and site effects, layouts are nowadays proposed (Gavrilescu, 2009;
the effect of incorporated energy dissipation devices fig. 1).
etc. This approach may lead to inappropriate per- Consequently, the structural designers have to think
formance, cost non-effective and highly exposed to technical and cost-effective solutions in order to
seismic risk structures. fulfill the complex architectural needs, the owner

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 demands and provide appropriate structural robustness
to multi-hazard sources: wind, earthquake, impact,
explosions etc.
The analysis methods applicable to complex struc-
tures have been considerably improved. Thanks to
modern measurement techniques and experimental
investigation tools, important steps were made toward
accurate modeling of loads and structural proper-
ties and on the enhancements of robust numerical
procedures as well.
In the structural dynamics, in the wind engineer-
ing field, the concept of database-assisted design
was initially developed for low-rise buildings (Whalen
et al., 2000). Later, this approach was extended to tall
buildings (Simiu et al., 2003). This concept can be
successfully applied for seismic applications and can
provide a higher accuracy in estimating the structural
demand (Iancovici et al., 2009) and hence, generate
safer and higher cost-effective structures.
The objective of our paper is to evaluate the limi-
tations of the current analysis procedure. We compare
the results obtained by the design response spectrum
approach with those obtained by a large number of
time-history analyses using databases of compatible
time-series of ground acceleration. We also discuss
the applicability of time-domain approach for seismic
performance evaluation.
2 PERFORMANCE-BASED SEISMIC DESIGN
OF TALL BUILDINGS
The seismic performance concept (SEAOC, 1995)
consists of tuning the structural and the earthquake
ground motion properties in order to obtain an accurate
behavior prediction associated to certain pre-defined
limit states (e.g. Serviceability, Reparability, Life
Safety), making use of vulnerability and risk analyses.
For tall buildings seismic design, various proposals
were made for setting-up appropriate ground motion
characteristics (usually the PGA associated to a mean
return interval- MRI /probability of exceedance in t
years) and associated standard structural performance
parameters (usually expressed in terms of drift ratios).
For instance Los Angeles Tall Buildings Structural
Design Council (LATBSDC, 2008) suggests the fol-
lowing performance levels to be taken into account
when tall buildings are to be designed: Level 1 –
building remains operational (elastic behavior) for
frequent ground motions (MRI = 43 yr.), and
Level 2 – very low probability of collapse in the case
of maximum credible earthquake (MRI = 2475 yr.) –
as defined by ASCE 7-05.
For the Level 1 ground motion, the analysis format
should be dynamic tri-dimensional (linear or nonlin-
ear) as for the Level 2- tri-dimensional full nonlinear
dynamic analysis.
The basic approach used by practitioners for seismic
loads evaluation and the induced effects is the response
spectrum method. The major advantage is the simplic-
ity of use and fairly good accuracy for a large class of
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
common structural types. Demand values are obtained
by standard structural analysis software, using com-
mon statistical maxima combination rules (e.g. 30%,
SRSS, CQC, CQC3).
The time-history response analysis accounts for
the ground motion characteristics and structural prop-
erties and provides the full range of instantaneous
and peaks of response parameters (loads, displace-
ments, velocities, accelerations, internal forces, ener-
gies) that allow higher accuracy results and use of
comprehensive probabilistic analysis tools.
While in the case of response spectrum method
approach, demand seismic loads are obtained account-
ing for importance factor, ground motion and struc-
tural dynamic and inelastic properties in conjunction
with the mean return interval of an earthquake ground
motion, in the case of time-history approach, the selec-
tion of appropriate ground motion time-series is a
sensitive and complex issue-especially for the case of
“significant motions” – from the structural viewpoint.
In the Romanian seismic design code P100-1/2006
(EC 8 format), a single level of structural performance
is explicitly stated. This addresses to the ultimate limit
state (life safety) and the prescribed peak ground accel-
eration is associated to 100 yr. MRI. A serviceability
limit state is used for initial structural conformation
checking purposes (MRI = 30 yr.).
The standard code provisions intend to generate a
uniform design for a large class of common structures.
This would not necessarily produce risk-consistent
structures and the associated cost effectiveness is many
times of secondary importance.
When tall, complex buildings are to be designed, the
serviceability level becomes much more important and
the safety level – a major issue. Thus, a refinement of
seismic excitation characterization for various perfor-
mance levels is necessary based on a large amount of
available data.
2.1 The input ground motion for response
analysis
The alternate approach to standard response spectrum
analysis is to use appropriate site-dependant ground
motion accelerograms. These can be obtained by var-
ious existing techniques: (i) recorded accelerograms;
(ii) simulated accelerograms at various ground lev-
els based on the bedrock records and soil profile;
(iii) methods based on source properties, using semi-
empirical Green’s function (Irikura, 1983) and theoret-
ical simulation of fault process or using the attenuation
relationships of ground motion parameters; (iv) sim-
ulated ground acceleration at free field, compati-
ble with a prescribed time-history anvelope, Fourier
amplitude spectrum/power spectrum and (v) artifi-
cial accelerograms compatible with an acceleration
response spectrum/design spectrum (Gasparini et. al,
1976; Vanmarcke et. al, 1976). The use of one or
another technique may raise various questions. For
instance, the realistic character of time-series com-
patible with a design spectrum covering a wide range
Figure 2. Control PSD functions of the simulated ground
motion accelerograms.

Table 1. Statistics of ground motion accelerograms param-

eters (PGA = 0.24 g)
Figure 3. 60 story model and typical floor plan.
PGA, m/s/s PGV, m/s PGD,m Tp , s ε

Tc = 0.7 s 3 TIME-DOMAIN VS. STANDARD ANALYSIS

Mean 2.354 0.389 0.819 0.760 0.934 APPROACH
σ 0.000 0.064 0.392 0.112 0.003
CoV 0.000 0.164 0.479 0.148 0.003 Seismic loads and induced effects are obtained by
Tc = 1.6 s two approaches: (i) the spectral approach based on
Mean 2.354 0.513 1.191 1.024 0.959 elastic design acceleration response spectrum and use
σ 0.000 0.085 0.628 0.128 0.002 of SRSS superposition rule and (ii) the time-domain
CoV 0.000 0.165 0.527 0.125 0.002 “exact” approach, using a large number of compatible
accelerograms. We compare the structural response
parameters using both approaches, as well as we
study the sensitivity of time-history response to soil
conditions. Finally, the analyses are focused on the
of natural periods with constant spectral accelerations structural element.
(e.g. from 0.16 s to 1.6 s, corresponding to the soft soil
conditions case in P100/2006 Romanian code) can be
seriously questionable. 3.1 Numerical example 1
The instrumental period- starting just after the 1977 A generic 60 story model is considered, consisting of
Vrancea earthquake, provides a very limited number a central core and outer gravity frames (fig. 3). The
of significant records. However essential information plan dimensions are Lx = 36 m, Ly = 36 m and the total
from past events can be used for generating credible, height of 210 m, having 3 DOF/floor.
realistic synthetic motions. When the performance for- For the sake of comparison, the model is assumed
mat is the analysis goal, then ‘pointy” approaches in to behave linearly-elastic so that the results are not to
estimating the ground motion properties are to be used. be affected by various nonlinear effects. A Rayleigh
Using the procedure proposed by Gasparini et al. damping model is used and the damping ratio for the
(1976), for the purposes of our study we generated a first two translational vibration modes is assumed as
large number (40 series for each case) of 1% damping 1%. The distribution of stiffness in elevation is linear.
ratio design spectrum compatible accelerograms with The first natural periods in the x- and y-direction
similar frequency content and duration characteristics are 6.5 sec. Since the model is plan-symmetric, the
as the possible real ones, corresponding to various soil set of accelerograms corresponding to PGA of 0.24g
conditions and hazard level.The control power spectral and soft soil conditions (Tc = 1.6 s) was applied in the
density functions are shown in the fig. 2. x-direction only. This hazard level would probably cor-
One can observe that the signal’s power and the fre- respond to the “operational level” in the future version
quency bandwidth indicator ε (Kramer, 1996) are very of the code, applicable to tall buildings. The results are
sensitive both to PGA and Tc . However the stability of shown in the figs. 4 and 5.
ground motion parameters for a certain case is good The mean seismic loads distribution is underesti-
while the peak ground displacement is more sensitive mated up to 60%-for the base stories and overestimated
(table 1, for 0.24 g case only). up to 33%- for the middle stories. The mean drift ratios
In the response analysis the influences of various are severely overestimated as well as in the case of
error types are to be taken into account: numerical mean story shears and bending moments- up to 65%
errors from the time series generation process, errors in the lower stories (fig. 5).
from the spectral shape approximation and errors from The statistics of time-history analyses is presented
the integration of differential equations of motion. in the table 2.

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Figure 4. Story seismic loads and story drift ratios,
x-direction.
Figure 5. Story shears and bending moments, x-direction.
Table 2. The variability of peak response parameters from
time-history analyses.
Parameter CoVmax Story
Story seismic load 0.357 54
Drift ratio 0.556 21
Story shear force 0.766 60
Story bending moment 0.703 60
One can observe that the story seismic loads have
the smallest variability among other parameters.
The ground condition has considerable influence
on the story seismic loads distribution as a well as on
the displacement demand. In the fig. 6 are plotted the
mean values of peak story seismic loads and response
parameters corresponding to PGA of 0.24 g and stiff
soil (Tc = 0.7 s) compared to those corresponding to
same peak ground acceleration but soft soil conditions
(Tc = 1.6 s).
The story internal forces (shears and bending
moments) are little influenced by the ground condition.
3.2 Numerical example 2
For detailed information about induced effects (axial,
shears, bending moments, drift ratios etc.) for indi-
vidual structural elements (columns, girders, braces
etc.) a full steel structure model is used. It consists
of braces- macro X on 8 stories, placed on the exte-
rior frames on both main directions to resist lateral
forces and inner frames to resist gravity loads. The
cross-sections of columns and braces are boxes and
the beams are built-up I-shapes.
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Figure 6. Mean of peak story seismic loads, drift ratios and
internal forces, x-direction.
Figure 7. 60 story building full model.
The structure was pre-designed for a hazard level
of 0.36 g (MRI = 475 yr. for Bucharest) and soft soil
conditions (Tc = 1.6 s). This would probably corre-
spond to the “life safety” performance level in the
future version of the code, applicable to tall buildings.
The columns are treated as non-dissipative mem-
bers, so they were sized to resist loads generated by an
amplified seismic load that takes into account the esti-
mated plastic reserve in the potentially plastic zones
and the steel over-strength in these zones, according
to EN 1998-1 and Romanian seismic design code.
A number of 15 synthetic accelerograms compatible
with the corresponding design elastic response spec-
trum were applied in the x-direction. In the figure 8 are
plotted (i) the elastic acceleration design spectrum and
the mean of acceleration response spectra (on left side)
and (ii) the elastic displacements design spectrum and
displacements spectra (on right side).
Bending moments at the columns base on the same
vertical (fig. 7) in the x-direction were computed and
the results corresponding to 5 time-series and the ratios
of mean of maxima from time-history analysis (for all
15 series) to response spectrum approach are plotted
in the fig. 9.
The results are showing a severe underestimate by
response spectrum approach and a large variability
of ratios as well. The maximum value of the mean
ratio is 2.45 and the minimum value is 0.99. While

Figure 8. Design and response acceleration (mean) and
displacements spectra (15 accelerograms).
Figure 9. Base bending moments in the analyzed columns
and time-history to spectrum ratios.
the stability in the seismic excitation characteristics
is good, the time-history response variability is high
(CoV max = 1.62, CoV min = 1.14), the mean ratio of
base bending moments in the columns is 1.98.
4 STRUCTURAL PERFORMANCE
EVALUATION IN THE TIME-DOMAIN
APPROACH
A large database of appropriate ground motion
accelerograms corresponding to different perfor-
mance levels allows the use of stochastic tools for high
reliability design.
The influence of ground motion directivity can
be straightforward accounted for, by an incremental
directional procedure (Iancovici et al., 2009). Any
number from those 6 ground acceleration components
can be incorporated.
If the response parameters are normally distributed,
then the number of crossings with positive slope over
a threshold limit can be computed (Rice, 1969):
where y is the response parameter, u the threshold limit,
Sy (w) is the spectral density of the response y. λ0 and
λ2 are the 0th and the 2nd order moments about the
mean.
If internal forces are the interest response param-
eters, the demand to capacity ratio would control de
structural design through the design interaction for-
mulae for steel structures given in Eurocode 3 and
LRFD (Simiu et al., 2008). If the response parame-
ters would be for instance the drift ratios (threshold
limit states are given e.g. Eurocode 8, section 4.4.3.2)
then the displacement- based design format can be
directly addressed for various performance levels. A
large amount of data regarding structural capacity
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can be obtained by efficient Monte Carlo simulation
technique.
This format would conceptually serve for rational
decision on the structural performance and related
cost-effectiveness criteria.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Due to its inherent limitations the response spectrum
method approach is little applicable to tall buildings
analysis and design, even for the level 1 analysis. Our
results are showing that the current approach gives
non-uniform demand values of the seismic loads and
induced effects (internal story forces and drift ratios)
when compared to the time-history analysis “exact”
approach. The seismic loads and drift ratios are largely
influenced by the ground conditions (on the mean)
while the internal forces are less influenced.
The time-domain approach gives the full range of
advantages and is the most appropriate tool in the
performance-based analysis and design format. The
use of large number of ground motion accelerograms
obtained preferably by various “pointy” techniques-
accounting for local ground motion features will
permit to analyze and design structures based on reli-
ability principles, by fully taking into account the
ground motion and the structural properties, their vari-
ability as well as accounting for uncertainties and
numerical errors.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors are grateful to the Romanian National
Research Council (CNCSIS) for funding this research
under the Grant IDEI 814.
Special thanks to Dr. Emil Simiu from the National
Institute of Standards andTechnology (NIST) – US, for
the fruitful guidance and discussions on tall buildings
analysis and design to wind.
REFERENCES
Abrahamson, N.A. (2006). Selecting and scaling accelero-
grams for dynamic analysis, First European Conference
on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology ECEES 2006,
September 3-8, Geneva, Switzerland
Gasparini, D.A., Vanmarcke, E.H. (1976). Simulated Earth-
quake Motions Compatible With Prescribed Response
Spectra, Department of Civil Engineering, Research
Report R76-4, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Iancovici, M., Gavrilescu, C. 2009, Database-assisted anal-
ysis of tall buildings subjected to Vrancea earthquakes,
ICOSSAR 2009 International Conference of Struc-
tural Reliability, Osaka, Japan, ISBN 978-0-415-47557
(on CD)
Kramer, S., L. (1996). Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering,
Prentice Hall, Inc., NJ
Simiu, E., Gabbai, R.D., Fritz, W.P. (2008).Wind-induced tall
building response: a time-domain approach. Wind and
Structures (11), 427–440.
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), ASCE 7-05:
 Minimum design loads for buildings and other structures,
Reston, VA, 2005
EN1998-1:2004 Eurocode 8: Design of structures for earth
quake resistance: Part 1 General Rules, Seismic Actions
and Rules for Buildings, European Committee for Stan-
dardization
Los Angeles Tall Buildings Structural Design Council
(LATBSDC, 2008). An alternative procedure for seismic
analysis and design of tall buildings located in the Los
998
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Angeles region, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban
Habitat (CTBUH), Consensus Document, Los Angeles,
CA, 2008
Manual of steel construction, 2001: load and resistance
factor design. 3rd Edition, American Institute of Steel
Construction (AISC), Chicago, IL, 2001.
Structural Engineers Association of North California P100-1
(2006). Code for seismic design of buildings, The Ministry
of Construction, Romania
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Multi-hazard maps for the Valparaiso area (Chile)

M. Indirli, C. Puglisi & A. Screpanti

ENEA (Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development),
Bologna & Rome, Italy

F. Romanelli
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy

ABSTRACT: In the framework of the Project “MAR VASTO” (Risk Management in Valparaíso, managed by
ENEA with participation of Italian/Chilean partners, and support of local Institutions) multi-hazard maps for
the whole area of Valparaiso (Chile) have been developed and stored in a Geographic Information System (GIS)
platform. The GIS database lies upon a detailed DEM (Digital Elevation Model), built at ENEA elaborating
satellite and aerial photos, and reorganizes the cartography provided by the Valparaiso Municipality. Because the
latter has been found often not accurate, a field survey using DGPS (Differential Global Positioning System) has
been carried out, to verify the GIS archive from the topographic point of view. The GIS database also received the
data regarding architectonic/urban planning and structural vulnerability studies on a pilot building stock located
in the Cerro Cordillera, a city district partially located in the UNESCO zone. The GIS platform organized in a
clear and user-friendly system a huge amount of data, crossing information of general interest with hazard maps
and the building inventory for the target sector.

1 THE PROJECT “MAR VASTO”
“MAR VASTO” (MAR VASTO 2007), funded by
BID/IADB, has been coordinated by ENEA (Italian
National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and
Sustainable Economic Environment), with the partic-
ipation of several partners (Italy: Ferrara and Padua
University; Abdus Salam International Centre for The-
oretical Physics/Trieste University; Chile: Technical
University Federico Santa Maria of Valparaíso; Chile
University of Santiago) and support of local stake-
holders. Being Valparaíso included since 2003 in the
UNESCO Word Heritage List of protected sites, the
project main goals have been the following: to collect
and elaborate existing information, with a satisfying
evaluation of main hazards; to develop a GIS (Geo-
graphic Information System) digital archive, user-
friendly and easy to be implemented, including hazard
maps and scenarios; to provide a vulnerability analysis
for three historical churches and for a building stock
in the Cerro Cordillera (partially inside the UNESCO
sector); to suggest guidelines for future urban planning
and strengthening interventions (Indirli 2009).
sometimes struck by disasters and always in danger.
The city morphology can be roughly divided into two
main sectors: flat harbour area and hill quarters. Large
neoclassic masonry buildings, some previous colo-
nial style constructions (still standing structures spared
by earthquakes and following fires) and more recent
architectures take place in the commercial district,
with straight streets, highways and rail tracks parallel
to the coast. A wide area is occupied by port facilities
up to the waterfront. Otherwise, the steep forty nine
hills (cerros), cut by ravines (quebradas) and climbed
by narrow and snaky lanes, are deeply filled by small
and squat houses, typically made by wooden frames,
adobe panels and covered by zinc tinplate (calam-
ina). In addition to those pervading clustered homes,
notable historical buildings are present (Figs. 1–7); this
fact makes Valparaíso a city “with and without archi-
tects”. Certainly, the city is subjected to various natural
hazards (seismic events, but also tsunamis, land-
slides, etc.) and anthropic calamities (mainly wild and

2 A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF VALPARAISO

Valparaíso represents a distinctive case of growth,

inside a remarkable landscape, of an important Pacific
Ocean seaport, declined after the Panama Canal open-
ing. Thus, Valparaíso tells the never-ending story of
a tight interaction between society and environment,
stratifying different urban and architectonic layers, Figure 1. Valparaíso: origin and present situation.

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Figure 2. Growth of Valparaíso on reclaimed lands.
Figure 3. Valparaíso: the flat area and the harbor.
Figure 4. Valparaíso: buildings in the flat area.
Figure 5. Valparaiso: the hills quarters.
Figure 6. Valparaíso: buildings in the hills.
human-induced fires). These features make Valparaíso
a paradigmatic study case about hazard mitigation, and
risk factors must be very well evaluated during the
restoration phases to be planned in the future.
Several old cable cars (ascensores) ascend the slope
(Fig. 8). The historic district (Barrio Puerto, pro-
tected by UNESCO) lies in the Southern part (red
line, Fig. 9). Furthermore, the Valparaíso Municipality
declared protected area all the city portion within the
hills amphitheatre (green line, Fig. 9).
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Figure 7. Valparaíso: a city “with and without architects”.
Figure 8. Examples of Valparaíso cable cars.
Figure 9. Valparaíso: hazards and safeguarded areas.
3 THE GIS DATABASE
3.1 General information
A GIS database is a very helpful tool, able to inte-
grate different types of information in an unique
platform. Therefore, it is possible to conceive a large
scale system (central geo-database), in which alphanu-
meric, geographic (vector or raster) and narrative
(text documents, historical information, etc.) data
can be stored, queried and crossed. Various actors
(public administrations, professionals, Universities,
research centers, etc.) could access and reference this
core database and, through operational procedures,
implement and/or modify the information. The tool
could be also based on WebGIS technology for the
dissemination, at various levels, of the stored data.
The organization of the GIS database started in Italy
at the beginning of June 2007, after the first mission
in Valparaiso (May 2007), and continued for all the
project duration, elaborating materials purchased both
in Chile and Italy (GIS database 2008).
3.2 The construction of DEM
It has been indispensable to build at ENEA a detailed
DEM (Fig. 10) of the Valparaiso area, by generat-
ing ortho-photos from the very helpful aerial pho-
tos provided by SHOA (Servicio Hidrografico y
Figure 10. The DEM (Digital Elevation Model).

Figure 12. Aerial map.

Figure 11. Organization of the GIS database for Valparaíso. Figure 13. Pattern of points of the DGPS survey.

Oceanografico de la Armada de Chile). In fact, the

DEM achieved at Valparaiso (source: MINVU, Min-
isterio de Vivienda y Urbanismo) was not complete,
because it covered only a portion of the municipal area,
excluding the oriental sector of the city).

3.3 GIS basic cartographic layers

All the cartographic layers (examples in Fig. 11) of
the digital cartography are ESRI Shapefiles (source:
MINVU); except the cadastral Block Subdivision
Layer, they don’t cover all the Valparaiso.

3.4 Aerial map Figure 14. Geo-referencing of historic maps.

The file (source: MINVU) was originally only geo-
referred, but not ortho-rectified. A simple ortho-
rectification, based on the DGPS survey points (see
section 3.5), was carried out at ENEA by using simple
algorithms (Fig. 12).
3.5 Historic maps
TheValparaiso historical maps (very useful to compare
the different steps of the urban development during the
time) have been purchased from several sources and
then geo-referenced in the GIS database. (Fig. 14, GIS
database 2008).
4 HAZARD MAPS
4.1 Earthquake
Chile is one of the most earthquake-prone country
in the world, struck by the most powerful seismic
event ever recorded (1960 Valdivia earthquake and
tsunami). Valparaíso was hit by other major earth-
quakes (Table 1). The 1906 event was the most destruc-
tive; the damages (classified using 1906 pictures) were
concentrated mostly in the “El Almendral” neighbor-
hood of Valparaíso (Fig. 15a); microzonation studies
(in order to identify local soils effects), new evaluation

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Table 1. Strong earthquakes striking Valparaíso.

Date

Year Month Day Location M

1647 05 13 Santiago, Chile 8.50

1730 07 08 Valparaíso, Chile 8.75
1822 11 19 Illapel and Chiloé, Chile 8.50
1906 08 17 Valparaíso, Chile 8.20
1965 03 28 Near Santiago, Chile 7.10
1971 07 09 Valparaíso Region, Chile 7.50
1985 03 03 Offshore Valparaíso, Chile 7.80

Figure 16. Example of grid map for earthquake scenarios.

Table 3. Tsunami scenarios for Valparaíso.

M Occurrence Period

7.0 scenario event frequent ≈ 70–80 years moderate/

strong
7.5 scenario event occasional ≈ 120–140 years strong
7.8 1985 event sporadic (∗ ) ≈ 200–250 years very strong
8.3 1906 event rare (∗ ) ≈ 500 years disastrous
8.5 scenario event exceptional ≈ 1000 years catastrophic

(∗ ) From SHOA source models and simulations.

recordings, and then extended to other scenar-

ios, obtaining synthetic time-histories (Displacement,
Velocity and Accelerations) for the two horizontal
ground motion components (N-S e E-W) and a dense
grid for the Valparaíso urban area, storing different 96
maps (an example in Fig. 16) in the GIS database.
Figure 15. The Valparaíso 1906 earthquake. A check of the work is going on, taking into account
the investigation results of the Italian Mission in Chile
Table 2. Earthquakes scenarios for Valparaíso. after the last February 27, 2010 seismic event (Italian
Mission 2010). Seismic hazard can be considered very
M Occurrence Period high in the Valparaíso urban area, not only in the flat
zone along the coast (local amplification effects due to
7.5 scenario event occasional ≈ 120–140 years strong soft soil), but also in the hills, for geologic/topographic
7.8 1985 event sporadic ≈ 200–250 years very strong configuration and structural vulnerability. Of course,
8.3 1906 event rare ≈ 500 years disastrous secondary effects should also be foreseen (tsunami,
8.5 scenario event exceptional ≈ 1000 years catastrophic landslide, fire, etc).

of earthquake intensities, isoseismal maps in the dam-
aged area have been provided by Chilean partners, also
identifying three 1906 centennial surviving buildings
(Fig. 15b, Astroza 2007, Saragoni 2007, Sturm 2008).
Specific studies on seismic hazard have been car-
ried out. It is worth noting that the neo-deterministic
approach has been followed in the “MAR VASTO”
project, in order to evaluate the seismic input in the
Valparaiso area for certain earthquake scenarios (in
general), and in some specific sections, in particular
(Indirli et al. 2010). Four scenarios, taking into account
two fault rupture typologies (unilateral and bilat-
eral), have been considered for the urban Valparaiso
area (Table 2). The neo-deterministic model has been
firstly checked on the 1985 seismic event available
4.2 Tsunami
Sea inundations happened several times in the past.
Starting from source models and simulations (1906
and 1985) studied by SHOA, a dataset of tsunami sig-
nals (including tsunamigenic parametric studies) has
been computed, using analytical techniques, for differ-
ent scenario earthquakes (see Table 3) to complement
the assessment of the tsunami hazard at Valparaiso
(Indirli et al. 2010).
Then, inundation maps have been implemented
(Fig. 17) thanks to a relationship between the sea wave
maximum height and the amplification, in comparison
with the reference earthquake events (1906 and 1985).
All theValparaiso coastal line close to the harbour must
be considered at risk of flooding.

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Figure 17. Tsunami inundation map.
Figure 18. Landslide susceptibility maps.
4.3 Landslide
Slope, landslide inventory, and susceptibility maps
(Fig. 18) have been provided through in-field cam-
paign, reconstruction of past landslide events from
historic archives, pluviometric analysis and digi-
tal/analogical aerial photos elaboration. Landslide
hazard is very high in all the Valparaíso amphitheatre.
The upstream hill side is characterized mainly by mud-
debris flow events, triggering a couple of times in the
year, concentrated in the summer season. The intensity
of those phenomena can vary widely, but the presence
of densely populated urban settlements in ravine beds,
escarpment sides and valley heads (often artificially
terraced) makes the associated risk very high. The
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Figure 19. Fire hazard map for Valparaíso.
coastal flat is reached by moved materials only when
the event is intense or when several activated areas
merge and flow together in the same bed. Fall events
are punctual and characterized by local effects, but
often destructive, at the basis of the sub-vertical sides.
Certainly, seismic ground shaking as starting point of
landslide phenomena should be carefully investigated
(Landslide hazard 2008).
4.4 Fire
Fires certainly are the most frequent and dangerous
Valparaíso disasters. Information has been provided by
Firemen Corp and Valparaiso Municipality, with par-
ticular regard to the Calle Serrano tragedy. In fact, on
February 3rd, 2007 a violent explosion due to a gas leak
killed four people, destroyed some heritage buildings
and damaged others in Calle Serrano, in the core of
the UNESCO zone. Despite the good expertise of local
Firemen, fires occur in the urban area (due to bad main-
tenance of electric systems and gas pipelines, building
materials, lack of education and vandalism), but also in
the surroundings forests and bushes (mainly human-
made events). The risk is worsened by usual windy
weather, narrow and tortuous hill roads, presence of
wooden houses and sometimes insufficient water pres-
sure in the hydrants. Moreover, important monuments
were burned during the 1906 earthquake, but also dam-
aged by recent fires (as the Church of “San Francisco
del Barón” in 1983). Fig. 19 shows the hazard map,
marking the most Valparaíso fire-prone locations. The
work has been verified by a couple of recent fire
events: they occurred exactly in one of the most prone
areas identified in the GIS database (Fire hazard 2008).
5 THE CERRO CORDILLERA INVESTIGATION
Geo-referred hazard maps must interact with land
and building inventory, in which urban planning is
linked to the surrounding environmental and social
context. Cerro Cordillera is an historically “virgin”,
socially complicated and poor sector, partially inside
the UNESCO area, delimited by Calle Serrano (plan
side), the San Agustin cable car upper station (hill
side), and by the two opposite ravines of San Francisco

Figure 20. Investigation in the Cerro Cordillera.
and San Agustin (Fig. 20). The architectonic/urban
planning investigation interested 230 constructions, 4
public areas and 50 road network stretches. The infor-
mation (Fig. 19a1 -a3 ) has been picked up through in
situ surveys (by using an investigation form specifi-
cally studied for Valparaíso), and then stored in the
GIS. Different indexes properly overlapped (for exam-
ple, high architectonic quality and bad conditions, Fig.
19a4 ), enabled to identify rehabilitation priorities. On
the basis of the above work, earthquake vulnerabil-
ity investigation interested 70 structures (Fig. 19b),
when exhaustive cadastral data were available (plans,
prospects, sections, construction details, geotechnical
features, etc.), excluding informal and illegal houses.
A special form has been elaborated for Valparaíso,
upon Italian established procedures (GNDT 1999).
Almost one half of the analyzed units showed a high
vulnerability index IV (Cerro Cordillera 2008).
6 CONCLUSIONS
“MAR VASTO” showed the effectiveness of GIS
databases to study historic centers, important for their
patrimonial value, prone to natural/anthropic disasters.
At The methodology has been enough defined in case
of earthquake (hazard mapping, building inventory,
architectonic/urban planning, structural vulnerability,
intervention proposals). Further standardization in
data storing and application of different vulnerability
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
functions for a larger set of building typologies should
be necessary. Furthermore, the identification of a
global risk factor for a given area (or a building) needs
deeper analyses to carry out in the future: the investi-
gation shall be deepened, taking advantage of further
studies, as the activity foreseen by the ongoing EU C26
Action (COST 2006), in which the Vesuvius eruption
is the study case.
REFERENCES
Astroza Inostroza M.I., 2007. A re-interpretation of the Val-
paraíso 1906 earthquake intensities/Reinterpretación de
las intensidades del terremoto de 1906. Proc. VI Con-
greso Chileno de Geotécnia, Valparaíso, Chile, 28–30
November 2007.
Cerro Cordillera, 2008. Cerro Cordillera Pilot project, http://
www.marvasto.bologna.enea.it. MAR VASTO Project
Technical Report.
COST, 2006. COST, European COoperation in the field of
Scientific and Technical research, Transport and Urban
Development, COST Action C26: “Urban Habitat Con-
structions Under Catastrophic Events”. 2006–2010.
DGPS survey, 2008. DGPS survey in the city of
Valparaiso, http://www.marvasto.bologna.enea.it. MAR
VASTO Project Technical Report.
Fire hazard, 2008. Fire hazard in the city of Valparaiso,
http://www.marvasto.bologna.enea.it. MAR VASTO
Project Technical Report.
GIS database, 2008. A GIS database for the city of
Valparaiso, http://www.marvasto.bologna.enea.it. MAR
VASTO Project Technical Report.
GNDT, 1999. Second Level vulnerability form for masonry
buildings/Scheda di vulnerabilità di 2◦ livello per edifici
in muratura, 1999.
Indirli M., 2009. The organization of a GIS database on nat-
ural hazards and structural vulnerability for the historic
center of San Giuliano di Puglia (Italy) and the City of Val-
paraiso (Chile). In International Journal of Architectural
Heritage, accepted paper, publication in progress, 2009.
Indirli M., Razafindrakoto H., Romanelli F., Puglisi C., Lan-
zoni L., Milani E., Munari M., Apablaza S. 2010. Hazard
evaluation in Valparaiso: the MAR VASTO Project. Pure
and Applied Geophysics, 2010, in press.
Italian Mission, 2010. Italian Mission in Chile after the
February 27, 2010 earthquake. Investigation Report. In
progress, 2010.
Landslide hazard, 2008. Geomorphological hazard in the
city of Valparaiso, http://www.marvasto.bologna.enea.it.
MAR VASTO Project Technical Report.
MARVASTO, 2007. Risk Management inValparaíso/Manejo
de Riesgos en Valparaíso, Servicios Técnicos (acronym
MAR VASTO), funded by BID/IDB (Banco Inter-
Americano de Desarrollo/Inter-American Development
Bank). Project ATN/II-9816-CH, BID/IDB-ENEA Con-
tract PRM.7.035.00-C, March 2007–October 2008,
www.marvasto.bologna.enea.it.
Saragoni Huerta R.G., 2007. The 1906 Valparaíso earth-
quake/El terremoto de Valparaiso de 1906. Proc. VI
Congreso Chileno de Geotécnia, Valparaíso, Chile, 28–30
November 2007.
Sturm Moreira T.W., 2008. Valparaíso: its historic heritage
and earthquakes/Valparaíso: su patrimonio histórico y los
sismos”, MSc. Thesis, University of Chile, Faculty of
Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Department of Civil
Engineering, Santiago de Chile, April 2008.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Consequences on the urban environment in Greece related to the resent

intense earthquake activity

G.C. Manos
Director of the Laboratory of Strength of Materials and Structures, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece

M. Demosthenous
Acting Director of the Institute of Engineering Seismology and Earthquake Engineering, Thessaloniki, Greece

ABSTRACT: Experiences from earthquake disasters in Greece, during the last thirty years, links the severity of
destruction not with the intensity of the seismic event but rather with the urbanization of the affected region and
with the vulnerability of the building stock. Considerable damage was produced to both old masonry structures
as well as to multistory reinforced concrete (R/C) structures. The most remarkable case of extensive damage was
for the Athens 1999 earthquake. A brief list of the most important seismological parameters are given together
with the recorded ground motion data and a summary of the induced damage. Through these observations the
focus is on the following issues: a) Classification of structural damage and their underlying causes with measures
to contain damage b) Upgrading the seismic code c) Plans for earthquake preparedness. d) The enrichment of
the strong motion data base.

1 INTRODUCTION not sustain any significant structural damage although

During the last thirty years various parts of Greece
have been subjected to a number of damaging earth-
quakes ranging from Ms = 5.2 to Ms = 7.2 on the
Richter scale (Table 1 and Papazachos 1990). Some
of these earthquakes, not necessarily the most intense,
occurred near urban areas and thus subjected various
types of structures to significant earthquake forces
leading to damage. In this sense the most destructive
earthquakes are the Thesaloniki 1978, Kalamata 1986,
Pyrgos 1993, Kozani and Egio 1995, and Athens 1999.
For some of these earthquakes, ground motion acceler-
ation recordings were obtained at distances relatively
close to the area of intense shaking, thus provid-
ing valuable information for correlating the observed
damage with this ground motion recording and its
characteristics. There has been a conscious effort to
base the improvement of the seismic protection on
measured parameters of the seismic input. Moreover,
following the most damaging of these earthquakes,
studies were initiated that led to the revision of the pro-
visions of the Greek Seismic Code. The most impor-
tant of these revisions took place in 1984 and 1992.
Despite criticism among engineering professionals
these seismic code revisions contribute significantly to
the improvement of the seismic protection as demon-
strated by the observations during the most recent,
Athens 1999, earthquake where all of the severely
damaged and collapsed structures were built prior to
1981. On the contrary, structures that were designed
and built according to the provisions of the 1992
New Greek Seismic Code, albeit less numerous, did
they were also located at the epicentral area close to
heavily damaged or collapsed structures.
2 MOST IMPORTANT DAMAGE
2.1 The Thessaloniki Earthquake of 20th June 1978
– The epicentral area of numerous villages with unre-
inforced masonry structures was devastated. This
damage was amplified by the surface appearance of
ground faulting combined with large deformations
of soil layers.
– An 8-story R/C apartment building collapsed. The
death toll in the city was mainly due to this col-
lapse. Factors contributing to the collapse were the
badly designed structural system, the non-ductile
nature of its R.C. members, the poor foundation on
the ancient remains of the Hippodrome, the ampli-
fication of the strong motion for this part of the
city, the flexible ground floor (soft story). The detri-
mental influence of a soft story at ground floor was
not recognized at the time and it continued as an
architectural feature (used either as a shop or as a
garage) for many buildings and for many years to
come. The current seismic code (1992) addressed
this problem.
– Several hospitals were in need of varying degrees of
urgent repair. Thus repair techniques, successfully
tried and tested elsewhere, were urgently put into
practice here both for these hospitals as well as for
many state-owned buildings. Many schools were
also damaged; in this case temporary structures,

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Table 1. Recent significant Greek earthquakes the already damaged structures to strong ground
motions 15 days after the main shock. Damaged
Epicen. structural members, mostly in the “soft” ground
Distance Magn. floor, were repaired employing R.C. jacketing tech-
Earthquake (km) Time (Ms) Remarks
niques.
– Long delays were experienced for projects involv-
Thessaloniki 27.5 20/6/78 6.4 48 Deaths
2% Buildings Destroyed
ing the repair and strengthening of old-type unre-
26% Buildings Damaged inforced masonry structures, which were not being
Magnesia ** 9/7/80 6.5 13% Buildings Destroyed yet declared as cultural heritage. Their heavy dam-
26% Buildings Damaged age and the prospect of their demolition arouse a
Alkyonides 20 24/2/81 6.7 20 Deaths very strong interest for their preservation.
Athens 1% Buildings destroyed – The most demanding projects were those of the
1981 9% Buildings Damaged cultural heritage monumental structures, mainly
Lesbos ** 19/12/81 7.2 10% Buildings Destroyed churches. For a small number of them, external
65% Buildings Damaged
or internal jacketing was permissible. Such a case
Cephalonia 20 17/1/83 7.0 15% Buildings Destroyed
50% Buildings Damaged
was the cathedral church of Thessaloniki (Agios
Kalamata 7 13/9/86 6.2 20 Deaths Grigorios Palamas). For the old Byzantine churches
20% Buildings Destroyed such “drastic” intervention, with irreversible repair
52% Buildings Damaged and strengthening solutions, was deemed unaccept-
Killini 16 16/10/88 6.0 6% Buildings Destroyed able.The intervention-repair effort for most of these
20% Buildings Damaged cases took a long time and for some of them it still
Griva 31 21/12/90 5.9 1 Death goes on, almost thirty years later.
3% Buildings Destroyed
18% Buildings Damaged
Pyrgos 5 26/3/93 5.2 1 Death 2.2 The Kalamata Earthquake, 13th September,
20% Buildings Destroyed 1986
23% Buildings Damaged
Patras 5 14/7/93 5.4 4% buildings Destroyed The following is a brief presentation of some important
5% buildings Damaged observations from this earthquake. It is believed that
Kozani 20 13/5/97 6.6 More than 50% of houses these are also the most important factors explaining
destroyed or damaged in the fact that this event of a magnitude considerable
the epicentral area. smaller than the Thessaloniki (1978) or Athens (1981)
In Kozani earthquakes caused such substantial damage to this
10% buildings damaged
city (20% of its buildings destroyed and 62% of its
Egio 14.5 15/6/95 6.1 26 deaths
15% Buildings Destroyed
buildings damaged):
20% Buildings Damaged – Very high spectral accelerations were obtained from
Athens 16.0 07/09/99 5.9 140 deaths the processing of the recorded motion reaching a
1999 10% of buildings
peak of over 1.2 g for 5% damping ratio in the
destroyed at
epicentral region
period range of 0.25 to .40 seconds, in which the
(Population 5% fundamental frequencies of most of the 4 to 6
of Athens) story buildings in the city are contained (see Table
2). For such high values of spectral accelerations,
exceeding by far any seismic-design provisions,
what saved this city from a total catastrophe was
assembled in-situ quickly in new locations, served the short duration of the strong phase of the ground
as schools in two months time for the new school motion (2.5 seconds). From the comparison of the
term. The construction of new permanent school dominant frequency range for the strong motion of
buildings or the repair and strengthening of the old both the main event and the strong aftershock, it was
damaged ones took much longer (from two to six argued that significant influences were exerted by
years). the local soil conditions (alluvia deposits).
– Large industrial facilities, located in the surround- – Three multi-story apartment R/C buildings col-
ing area of Thessaloniki, including petrochemical lapsed killing 20 people. In many buildings the
plants, steel works, wheat and tobacco processing “soft” and usually weak ground floor was heavily
factories etc., did not sustain any distinct major fail- damaged, the story immediately above had exten-
ure, and they soon reported operational, although sive damage on its masonry infills, while the upper
repair and strengthening works were needed for stories were essentially intact.
some of them (A series of short columns were – The absence of shear walls in many buildings
heavily in one tobacco processing plant). as well as the fact that in most of the buildings
– The temporary shoring of damaged structures was one could not identify a well defined lateral load
applied with success in many cases and proved resisting system, is worth noting; in this sense the
effective, as no other major collapse occurred, “non-structural” masonry infills served as a first
despite the fact that a strong aftershock subjected line of defense providing the primary stiffness. This

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 fact was recognized by the current seismic code
(1992), with provisions that require a full check
on the mechanism of forming plastic hinges when
the building structure is not employing, as dictated
by its provisions, a substantial number of shear
walls.
– The shear type of failure was the common pattern of
damage in many ground floor columns, indicating
shortcomings in the design provisions of the time
that did not require checks to ensure flexural ductile
behavior. This fact has also been addressed by the
current (1992) seismic code design provisions.
– Lifelines, industrial facilities, bridges and other
civil engineering works survived this earthquake
virtually unaffected.At the city harbor the dock wall
was separated from the infill and gaps up to 10cm
wide were formed; in addition, a silo had its wheat
unloading machinery dislodged from its supports.
– Very old as well as newly constructed churches of
unreinforced masonry suffered very heavily. Inter-
esting modes of failure could also be observed in
monumental tombs at the cemetery.
– Experiences gained from previous earthquakes in
Thessaloniki 1978 and Athens 1981 on immedi-
ate post-earthquake relief and structure inspection,
shoring, repair and strengthening was successfully
applied here. Moreover, this earthquake gave a very
significant incentive for the revision of the seis-
mic code as well as for research on earthquake
engineering topics with practical consequences.
2.3 The Pyrgos Earthquake of March 26th, 1993
– Heavy damage of non-engineered masonry includ-
ing stone, adobe and brick masonry was observed.
In some of these old masonry buildings, one may
observe steel ties either incorporated into these
structures since their construction or installed after-
wards for repair and strengthening purposes. This
type of buildings with steel ties behaved quite well.
– Low rise R/C structures, built after the introduc-
tion of the seismic provisions of the building code,
sustained relatively less severe damage than the
old masonry houses apart from certain cases with
design and construction flaws.
– The newly built structures in Pyrgos are typical
in type and construction of the ones built all over
Greece and include mainly multistory apartment
structures (4 to 6 stories high) using reinforced con-
crete slabs, beams, columns, and shear walls with
masonry infills for the apartment partitions. These
structures have strong masonry infills on all the
stories as well as on the ground floor apart from
the side of the building adjacent to the main street,
which in the ground floor has metal and glass dis-
plays as the ground floor space is used for shops. No
serious structural damage was observed for these
buildings apart from separation of the masonry
infills from the surrounding R/C frame or cracking
of these infills and spalling of the layer of mortar
covering their surface.
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– Another class of structure that exhibited a particular
type of damage was that of newly designed and con-
structed (5–6 stories high) R/C multistory buildings
with masonry infills at all floors apart from the
ground floor, that is left without any masonry infills
so that it can be used as a car park (soft story). A
limited number of these structures developed shear
type failure damage at the R/C columns or shear
walls at the ground floor. This type of structural
vulnerability has been documented by observations
and subsequent studies during the Thessaloniki,
Alkyonides and Kalamata earthquakes. The dam-
aged columns and shear walls, mostly by shear-type
failure were very quickly contained by steel encas-
ing, in order to prevent the shear failure to develop
to total collapse. This effort was very successful in
maintaining the structural integrity of all the heav-
ily damaged structures, without the occurrence of
any collapse, despite the sequence of aftershocks.
– There were some small industrial facilities in the
area that although did not exhibit structural dam-
age their production was affected by the falling of
free standing objects or disruption of the opera-
tion of their equipment. Considerable financial loss
from damaged pottery was observed in an indus-
trial establishment located in the epicentral area.
The lifelines in the city of Pyrgos reported to be
operational during the aftermath of the quake. The
circuit breakers of a substation of the Electric Power
Corporation of Greece sustained damage. The rich
agricultural area surrounding the city of Pyrgos
operates a water distribution system for irrigation
with canals, water tanks, small reservoirs and pump
houses that utilize the water supplied by the river
that springs from the mountainous area of Central
Peloponnesus. Structural damage was observed to
two of the buildings out of many that house the
pumping stations for this water distribution system.
The observed damage of structures designed to resist
earthquakes may be attributed to the following:
– Soft story mechanism at the ground floor due to the
absence of the infills.
– Poor shear strength design of the vertical R/C
elements especially of the shear walls.
– Torsional response from various types of eccentric-
ities.
– Shear failure of short columns
– Amplification of the ground motion due to the
soil conditions in conjunction with the dynamic
properties of these structures (Fundamental period
0.3 Hz–0.5 Hz). However, an obvious relation
between damage and local soil conditions was not
evident. It was observed that similar structures sit-
uated close to each other, did not suffer the same
degree of damage. This was also observed in other
strong local earthquakes in Greece.
– Social Response: This earthquake sequence by
itself, that lasted over a month, as well as predic-
tions made by certain sources for further strong
earthquake activity, have disrupted the life of the
 inhabitants for almost three months before and after
the “main event”. The aid in medical supplies,
tents and temporary lodgings and food supplies
that became available shortly after the main event
as well as the organizational and technical assis-
tance that was provided by various governmental
agencies as well as academic and professional insti-
tutions, helped to relieve the people’s anxiety and to
slowly bring back the normal pace of life in the area.
2.4 The Kozani Earthquake of 13th May, 1995
This event affected a region which belongs, according
to the seismological studies before this earthquake,
to the less seismically active area of Greece. Conse-
quently, it was classified with the lowest probability
of being subjected to strong ground motions (seismic
zone I) in the old as well as in the recently revised
(1992) seismic code of Greece (see reference 1).
Despite the severity of this ground motion there was
no human loss due to the fact that this earthquake
occurred at noon on a Saturday with the schools and
the churches closed and the people being out of their
houses.A small fore-shock prior to the main event gave
sufficient warning to the people so that the main shock
found them outdoors.
The following are the main observations from this
earthquake:
– A very heavy toll was again paid by the old unre-
inforced masonry structures that were located in
numerous villages in the epicentral region. These
structures have been totally demolished and are
replaced by contemporary low-rise reinforced con-
crete structures, designed according to the provi-
sions of the current seismic code for forcing levels
provided for Zone I. Although these villages were
not so densely populated, they were numerous; thus
the cost of reconstruction, partly shared by the cen-
tral government budget, was quite considerable,
especially as this was the less seismically active
region of Greece.
– Bearing in mind the seismological considerations
mentioned before, certain sources went from one
extreme to the other, by proposing relocation for
a considerable number of villages to other “safer”
areas, a policy that was only applied to a hand-full
of cases for villages in the most seismically active
zone of Greece (Cephalonia). These proposals to
the Ministry of the Environment and Puplic Works
came from sources based on geological data with-
out properly considering engineering principles
and experiences from earthquake engineering and
design of structures. More sober thoughts finally
prevailed, and only in extreme cases, such as build-
ings on slopes with loose alluvia were prohibited;
all the other places were given the green light for
reconstruction.
– An interesting failure was sustained in the fill of the
south abutment of this bridge crossing the artificial
lake at its South-West corner. This was the location
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
where the seismic-fault rupture was initiated and
must have experienced very strong ground motions.
This bridge includes a number of free supported
spans on multiple column supports founded at the
bottom of this lake by pile foundation. The per-
formance of this part was satisfactory without any
damage. However, the gravel fill of the south abut-
ments exhibited a spectacular failure that disrupted
the road connection for at least two weeks.
– The epicentral area is crossed by numerous steel
towers transporting electricity from the coal-
mining region of Kozani, where the power gener-
ation stations are located, to the big city centers
in the South of Greece (including Athens). More-
over, there is a dam and a hydro-electric power
station at a distance of 25 km from the epicenter.
The whole system performed satisfactorily without
any disruption. There is also an asbestos mining
and processing plant quite close to the epicentral
region. It includes a large steel multi-story structure
where the main processing takes place. Whereas
some low-cost and inadequately designed auxiliary
facilities for the storage of the final product were
damaged, there were only slight signs of the initi-
ation of buckling in the bracing system of the tall
steel structure at the ground level.An old monastery
at a very close distance from this processing plant,
having unreinforced masonry structures was heav-
ily damaged. Close to the same area are plants for
mining and processing stone marble. These sus-
tained considerable loss by the fall of their final
products at their storage facilities.
– Despite the high level of earthquake forces, by
far exceeding both the old as well as the current
seismic code provisions, the structural damage of
the majority of the multi-story building structures
designed to resist earthquakes according to these
codes, which were located at the two city centers
of the region closest to the epicenter (Kozani and
Grevena) fortunately sustained structural damage
of only moderate severity without any collapse.
This must be attributed to the geological forma-
tion of the region that may have attenuated, to a
larger degree, the strong ground motion over the
distance, which for the two cities was larger than in
the case of Kalamata and Pyrgos, presented before
in this paper. The design and construction of build-
ing structures was similar to that in other regions
of Greece; consequently, the damage that devel-
oped was of a similar nature to the one previously
presented, namely shear type of failure in shear-
walls and columns, “soft” story damage, and heavy
damage in short columns.
– Finally, damage was sustained by relatively newer
churches, built with reinforced concrete elements,
incorporating contemporary construction prac-
tices. Apart from the specific churches mentioned,
numerous other relatively old churches, mostly
built with stone masonry, were also heavily dam-
aged. These later churches span a period of over
800 years.
Table 2. Peak Values of the Recorded Ground Strong
Motions and Their Spectral Values.

Ground Spectral Spectral Greek

Accel. Lon. Tran. Seismic
Long. Peak (g) Peak (g) Ambrazeys Code
Trans. at at Rock 2000
Earthquake Vert. (g) T (sec) T (sec) PGA (g) PGA (g)
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
Figure 1. Typical damage of soft story.
Thessaloniki 0.143 0.486 0.557 (Ms = 6.4) Zone II
1978 0.154 at .3sec at 0.44 (r = 27.5 km) 0.16
0.136 0.096
Kalamata 0.240 0.771 at 1.245 (Ms = 6.2) Zone II
1986 0.273 0.33sec at 0.32 (r = 7 km) 0.24
0.182 0.272
Pyrgos 0.147 0.579 at 0.770 at (Ms = 5.2) Zone II
1993 0.445 0.12sec 0.30 (r = 5 km) 0.24
0.125 0.186
Kozani 0.210 0.741 at 0.511 at (Ms = 6.6) Zone I
1995 0.150 0.19sec 0.21 (r = 20 km) 0.16
Figure 2. Steel encasement of the damaged columns.
0.080 0.146
Athens 0.290 0.800 at 1.310 at (Ms = 5.9) Zone I the epicentral area. This must be attributed mainly to
1999 0.350 0.10 sec. 0.22 sec. (r = 10 km) 0.16 the proximity of this relatively medium intensity earth-
(KEDE) 0.190 0.171
quake to the densely populated Athens Metropolitan
area with approximately four million inhabitants. This
was also the case 22 years ago, for the Thessaloniki
3 THE STRONG MOTION DATA BASE earthquake of 1978. The following are the main obser-
vations for this earthquake and the conclusive remarks
Table 2 lists the peak values of the recorded strong from the impact of the resent earthquake activity in
ground motions of the aforementioned earthquake Greece.
events. Most of these ground motion information was
obtained by the strong motion network of accelero-
graphs, which is deployed all over Greece and is 4.1 The process for upgrading the seismic design
operated by the Institute of Engineering Seismol- – One of the main conclusions from the damage
ogy and Earthquake Engineering (ITSAK) based in observations for this earthquake as well as for the
Thessaloniki. This network includes also instruments rest of the presented strong earthquake sequences,
dedicated to record the seismic response of special is the fact that all of the severely damaged or col-
structures, such as important bridges and other infras- lapsed structures, were designed and built prior to
tructures. In column 2 of Table 2, the peak values of 1984 (figure 1), when the first revision of the Greek
the recorded horizontal and vertical acceleration are Seismic Code, first published in 1959, took place.
listed and in columns 3 and 4 the corresponding peak Moreover, structures that were designed and built
spectral values for the horizontal acceleration plus the according to the provisions of the second drastic
relevant dominant period value. In column 5 values of revision of the seismic code, that resulted in the
the parameters (Magnitude Ms and Source Distance r), currently valid 1992 New Greek Seismic Code, did
used in deriving peak acceleration and spectral predic- not sustain significant structural damage although
tion according to the approach proposed by Abrazeys these structures were also located at the epicentral
et al. (1996) are listed together with the resulting hori- area close to heavily damaged or collapsed build-
zontal peak acceleration value. Finally, in column 6 the ings. Main causes of damage for multy-story R/C
design peak ground acceleration assigned to the loca- structures in all presented cases arises from soft-
tion, where the strong motion was recorded, is listed story mechanisms and short columns. These well
together with the corresponding seismic zone assigned known weaknesses are very successfully addressed
by the same code. There are currently three seismic by the new seismic code. It is very important to
zones with I being the least and III the most severe. contain such damage as soon as possible in order to
prevent collapse. Figure 2 depicts the steel encase-
ment of the damaged columns of the “soft story”
4 THE 1999 ATHENS EARTHQUAKE AND of figure 1.
CONCLUSIVE REMARKS – There is a special category of building structures
that their cause of damage lies on the fact that they
The consequences of this event (September 9th, 1999, have been extended or altered without any seismic
a Ms = 5.9 ) were severe, including 143 deaths and design provisions being followed. This is particu-
serious structural damage or collapse of numerous larly valid for facilities housing small industries.
contemporary R/C multi-story buildings, located near The damage in these cases is very heavy (figure 3).

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 3. Collapse of an industrial building.
Figure 4. Partial collapse of a longitudinal wall.
– The effect of strong earthquake activity on cultural
heritage masonry structures can lead to modes of
response accompanied by fractures as well as large
displacements and very little remaining strength,
leading sometimes to unstable structural forma-
tions and partial or total collapse. The demands
posed by the earthquake loads on the structural
elements and their connections cannot be with-
stood, resulting in some type of fracture that, when
it propagates, may lead to large deformations and
instability in the structural system (figure 4). There
is a necessity for efficient and acceptable engi-
neering solutions for decreasing the earthquake
vulnerability level for these type of structures.
4.2 Plans for earthquake preparedness
During the last thirty years the continuous earthquake
activity and the corresponding damage resulted in an
effort to upgrade the earthquake preparedness. This
can be seen as a preparedness that results in pre-
event actions or in preparedness that aims at post-event
actions. In Greece there is a preparedness plan that
spans from the central government and branches to the
various levels of prefecture or municipal authorities.
The following can be listed as the main weaknesses of
this plan.
a1. It is designed for all types of natural disasters (e.g.
fires, floods, snowfalls as well as earthquakes).
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
a2. It lacks funds and competent personnel.
a3. The plan very rarely is put to a trial test for its
effectiveness prior to an actual event.
a4. The plan must be upgraded to make use of all
resent technological achievements as well as from
resent international experience.
Recently a momentum has been initiated to check
the vulnerability of various structures to earthquake
loads. In order for such an effort to be effective, it
means that apart from identifying structures with rel-
atively high earthquake vulnerability level it should
be followed by repair and strengthening interventions
that will lower as a result this earthquake vulnerability
to acceptable levels. The main difficulties here stem
from the following:
– The legal process in the cases of multy-ownership
buildings. In Greece this covers the majority of con-
temporary housing construction in the main cities,
affecting more than 80% of the total population.
– The lack of funds. To address this difficulty there is
a necessity for repair and strengthening engineering
solutions that improve the current cost-effect ratio.
In order to confront with the above difficulties a
priority list has been gaining social acceptance. This
means that structures of social importance such as
schools, hospitals etc. should be given priority in this
upgrading effort. However, the resent economic crisis
has deemed funds even for structures in the priority list
very difficult to attain. In the long term earthquake pre-
paredness effort the specialized education and training
of earthquake engineers should be mentioned. During
the last decade almost all Greek Technical Universi-
ties have introduced special postgraduate courses in
Earthquake Engineering Design. At the same time new
laboratory facilities have been installed dedicated to
earthquake engineering education and research. Fur-
thermore, training courses for practicing engineers
have been running on a regular bases aiming to trans-
fer recent technological and design development in
the field of earthquake engineering. The Department
of Civil Engineering of Aristotle University of Thes-
saloniki is running such a post-graduate Earthquake
Engineering Design course for the last ten years with
almost 200 graduates.
REFERENCES
Ambrazeys, N.N. et al. 1996, “Prediction of Horizontal
Response Spectra in Europe” Int. J. of Earth. Engin. and
Struct. Dyn., pp. 371–400, Vol. 25, No. 4.
Manos, G.C, 1993, “Discussion of Earthquake Load Issues
of the New 1992 Greek Seismic Code”, Proc. Int. Post-
SMIRT Conf. Capri, Itraly, pp. 111–127.
Papazachos, B.C. 1990, “Seismicity of the Aegean and the
Surrounding Area”, Tectonophisics, 178, 287–308.
Paz. M., 1994, International Handbook of Earthquake Engi-
neering: “Codes, Programs and Examples”, Chapter 17
Greece, Chapman and Hall, ISBN 0-412-98211-0, 1994.
Provisions of Greek Seismic Code 2000 , OASP, Athens,
December 1999.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Earthquake disaster mitigation through experimental and analytical studies

on southern Mexican adobe houses located in urban areas

R.A. Matus, E.R. Guinto & S.S. Tizapa

Civil Engineering Department, Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero, Guerrero, México

J.L. Corona
Bachellors College, Xaltianguis, Guerrero, México

ABSTRACT: In this paper, a recent experimental and numerical research work conducted on urban adobe
houses located on the influence area of the Mexican Guerrero Gap is presented. Accelerographic instrumentation
of this kind of structures as well as statistical studies on the architectural and geometric characteristics were
performed. In order to know the adobe wall failure behavior, numerical three-dimensional FEM models based
on solid volumetric element subjected to dynamic loading were also proposed. Experimental instrumentation
and numerical results were fully compared each other in order to improve the analytical model parameters. In
this way, the adjusted numerical model has been used for both, modeling the adobe walls failure and to propose
new suitable and economic retrofitting techniques in order to strength actual weak adobe structures.

1 ADOBE HOUSES IN MEXICO

Adobe bricks are one of the oldest materials for house

construction and they are also one of the most common
construction techniques all over in the world: Adobe
houses and buildings are very common in most of
the zones with a high propensity to earthquake dis-
asters, principally in poor countries of Latin America,
Africa, Asia, the Middle-East and the southern zones
of Europe.
Mexican adobe bricks are usually formed with a
mixture of 20% of clay and 80% of sand. Later, adobe
pieces are cast into molding wood boxes and dried to
the sunlight during 25 to 30 days. In order to avoid
brick cracking, natural fibers are added to the mix-
ture, as well as farm mammal excrements. Adobe walls
are usually built on masonry stone foundations. Later,
dried adobe bricks are positioned on the foundations to
build up the walls. Adobe mortar is usually used to join
the adobe pieces. Adobe brick is both, an inexpensive
and an easily handling construction material. Thus,
adobe structures are usually self-built as the traditional
building techniques are very simple. Unfortunately,
qualified workers are not involved into the design
and building process. Adobe houses are built by local
masonry workers, and very often by self-proprietors.
Architectural distribution of spaces in an adobe house
is closely related to the agronomical productions.
Technical studies in Mexico on adobe houses were
performed early in the sixties of the last century. Meli
et al (1978) found that adobe houses are character-
ized principally by a low adobe wall’s density, their
high non reinforced wall height and length properties,
and also by their low in-plane movement restrictions
Figure 1. FEM model for an adobe house and first vibration
mode. Figure taken from Meli (1978).
given by the roof system to the top of the adobe walls.
These conditions induce principally important flexu-
ral coplanar forces on this kind of walls. They also
have found that first modal period of vibration is
directly related with the flexural vibration of the longer
walls. In this way, vibration can induces critical flexu-
ral moments at the top of the corner’s walls, and then
cracking starts progressively down towards the cor-
ner’s base, in a way that front walls begin to vibrate like
a cantilever. Wall overturning may then occur when
wall’s cracking height is high enough that resulting
solicitation is greater than the wall resistance. This is
the principal type of failure produced by earthquakes
(figure 1). Significant results of a comprehensive ana-
lytical study found that natural period of vibration
for common one-floor adobe house is approximately
0.09 seg.
A physic scaled model of an adobe house instru-
mented and tested on a shaking table at the National
University of Mexico obtained slightly lower values
(0.079 sec). On the basis of recent earthquake experi-
ences, it was established that adobe house structures
may be first cracked up a VI MSK seismic inten-
sity. Strong cracking and partial collapse may occur
up VII MSK seismic intensity; while that general

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
collapse may occur up VIII MSK scale intensity. In
order to mitigate these effects Meli et al (1978) pro-
posed several retrofitting techniques for adobe walls.
By the way, several international research works have
been performed in South America, principally in
Peru. Experimental and analytical works developed by
Zegarra (2001) are remarkable principally by their rig-
orous and important technologic products. For exam-
ple, the Regional Seismological Center for South
America and the Pontificia Universidad Católica del
Perú (PUCP) have produced several research works on
adobe structures, as well as adobe self-construction
handbooks (PUCP, 1997). In the last four decades,
these works have allowed a better understanding of
the adobe structures behavior and to define their critic
zones that must be invariably reinforced. However,
research advances achieved in Mexico on theses top-
ics are quite limited and they had not received the
importance they deserve indeed (Salgado, 2002). In
effect, Meli and Bazán research works on the struc-
tural behavior of adobe houses have not been continued
and only sporadic and isolated research work has
been developed. Anyway, it doesn’t exist an effec-
tive program in Mexico to define new economical
retrofitting techniques for improving the structural
performance of adobe structures. In the case of exper-
imental work on accelerographic instrumentation, non
bibliographic references can be found, as this kind of
studies designed to identify the dominant periods of
vibration are only performed on office, multistoried
and hospital buildings.
In this work, a research protocol is established in
order to know these dynamical characteristics by the
means of an accelerographic instrumentation of the
adobe houses. This study aims to diminish the seismic
risk and vulnerability of the adobe structures. In order
to avoid this failure mechanism and wall cracking,
adobe walls must be correctly linked. This study also
aims to propose an analytical study of the mechanical
performance for retrofitting techniques.
2 CASE OF STUDY: GUERRERO STATE
Guerrero Mexican state is located in the southern
region of Mexico, in the tropical zone between the 16◦
18 and 18◦ 48 North latitude and between 98◦ 03 and
102◦ 12 West longitude. Guerrero does have a territo-
rial extension of 63,794 square kilometers. Guerrero is
divided into 7 regions: Acapulco, Centro, Norte, Tierra
Caliente, Costa Chica, Costa Grande and Montaña.
43% of the Guerrero population lives in adobe houses
and 85% of its municipalities are in a high seismic risk
zone. The associated seismic hazard is directly related
to the Guerrero’s seismic gap the long of the coastal
pacific band. This gap is formed from Petatlán in the
northwest until the limits with the Oaxaca State in the
southeast. Zúñiga et al. (1993) established that this gap
is divided into three sections: The Guerrero Central
section (GC) localized approximately between 100◦ to
101.2◦W, The Acapulco-San Marcos section (ASM),
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
between 99◦ to 100◦W, as well as the Ometepec section
(OM), between 98◦ y 99◦W. This zone is considered
a gap as the last strong earthquake occurred since 30
years ago (McCann, 1979). Accordingly to the his-
torical date, from these three sections, the part of the
ASM section, localized at the southeastern of the Aca-
pulco City, has a surface of at least 100 km of length
that doesn’t have released their cumulated energy.
Accordingly with Gómez et al. (2007), the earthquake
interval in this segment is scarcely unknown due to
the lack of data in the localization and extension of
the rupture zone for the last strong earthquake events
registered in this zone. However, several researchers
have considered a 50 years period for strong earth-
quakes on the basis of the 1907 and 1957 earth-
quakes (Nishenko and Singh, 1987; González-Ruiz
and McNally, 1988). Accordingly with García Acosta
and Suárez (1996), strong structural damage was pro-
duced during the 1820, 1874, 1894, 1899, 1902, 1907
and 1957 Guerrero earthquakes on adobe houses.
In order to know both, the geometrical and struc-
tural dynamic characteristics of the Guerrero’s adobe
houses, a comprehensively study was carried out. This
work included a statistical study designed to charac-
teristics in standardized EERI formats, the resulting
data was obtained interviewing the adobe house res-
idents as well as the means of an accelerographic
instrumentation of the adobe houses.
Houses were chosen by the means of a random
statistical sampling as well as by the kind of soil
surrounding their foundation. In order to register
the natural vibration of the adobe houses, both a
Kinemetrics© K2 recorder and an Episensor© were
employed. Urban cities were first chosen considering
populations up 10,000 inhabitants, then from the map
of the selected city, adobe houses designed to be instru-
mented were chosen with a random sampling process.
Later, at least three adobe houses, separated up 60
meters each other, were instrumented. Beside this, nine
ground points surrounding these adobe houses were
also instrumented in order to know the ground natural
period of vibration (P). These ground points should
form an imaginary wired rectangular or squared mesh
and the instrumented adobe houses should be on its
interior zone. In order to identify the ground period, the
sensor was positioned on ground points (P). In order to
identify the adobe house dominant periods, the sensor
was positioned at its geometrical center (P2), at the
center of the transversal wood beam bearing the roof;
at the top at the middle of the longitudinal adobe wall
(P3) and at one of the adobe wall corners, just on the
top of the longitudinal adobe wall (P4).
Accelerographic data was processed convert-
ing binary data into ASCII format through the
kinemetrics© KW2ASC program. Later, DEGTRA
A4 program from the Institute of Engineering
(UNAM) was employed in order to display accelero-
graphic adjusted data and to calculate the Fourier
specter. Sloped accelerographic recordings were
adjusted using special band filters. In order to obtain
the Fourier response spectra average, the original
 Table 1. Semi-empirical transfer functions employed.

Period Transfer functions

At ground (P1) P1 (L, T)/P1 (v)

At the geometrical center and at the
middle of the longitudinal
adobe wall (P2 and P3)
Figure 2. Geometrical dimensions of a representative adobe At the corner of the longitudinal
house and localization of its instrumented points. and at the centre of the transversal
adobe wall (P4 and P5)
P2 (L, T)/ P1 (L, T) ,
P3 (L, T)/ P2 (L, T)
P4 (L, T)/ P2 (L, T) ,
P5 (L, T)/ P2 (L, T)

accelerographic data (3 minute’s length) was divided L: Longitudinal Fourier specter, T: Transversal Fourier
into 10 recordings with a length of 30 seconds each specter
one. Later, the Fourier specters were calculated and
finally the average was obtained. This procedure was
also applied into the instrumented adobe houses as
well as for the ground points.

2.1 Nakamura technique application

After obtaining the Fourier specters, spectral ratios or
transfer functions were calculated. In order to obtain-
ing this special functions, Nakamura technique was
applied, which doesn’t employ a reference accelero-
graphic station, but an horizontal spectral component
respect to the vertical one. This ratio allows obtaining
the natural period of ground, but that of the instru- Figure 3. Semi-empirical transfer function for an adobe
mented structure too. In this way, fundamental periods house.
can be empirically estimated. Nakamura technique is
only an approximation of the dynamic characteristics Table 2. Frequencies for a representative adobe house.
of the studied structures (Lermo y Chavéz-García,
1993). In despite of this, this technique has been Test type Direction Frequency (Hz)
successfully employed with low and big real earth-
At ground (P1) Longitudinal 6.81
quakes. In this way, the modified transfer function of
Transversal 6.73
Nakamura can be written as follows: At the geometrical Longitudinal 8.81
center (P2) Transversal 7.95
At the middle of the Longitudinal 4.22
longitudinal wall (P3) Transversal 4.19
At the corner of the Longitudinal 18.40
where SM = Nakamura modified transfer function; longitudinal wall (P4) Transversal 17.57
SHS = Fourier specter of amplitudes for the hori- Transversal 13.84
zontal ground superficial shaking component, and At the centre of the Longitudinal 16.91
SVS = Fourier specter of amplitudes at the superficial transversal wall (P5) Transversal 8.66
zone. In order to define the approximate value of the
period of vibration at the geometrical centre of a struc-
ture, Fourier specters were divided by those obtained Table 3. Amplitude, and frequencies for ground points.
at ground, both for the same direction. Table 1 shows a
brief resume of the calculated transfer functions on the Point Direction Amplitude Frequency (Hz)
basis of different spectral ratios and figure 3 shows an
example of one of the obtained semi-empirical transfer P1 X 2.112 6.12
functions. Accordingly to Meli (1978), approximated Y 2.013 6.17
average periods for adobe houses are between 0.07 and P2 X 1.8756 7.98
Y 1.6578 7.95
0.12 sec.
Table 2 shows a brief resume of the structure vibra-
tion periods. Average period value was up de 0.12 sec.
Anyway, average value periods for specimen resulted 3 ANALYTICAL MODELS FOR ADOBE
up 0.25 sec at the longitudinal wall due principally HOUSES
to the high flexibility shown at this zone. Table 3
shows a brief resume of the obtained periods for In this work SAP200 was employed to develop a
points at ground. Average period was defined to be numerical study of adobe houses. An urban adobe
Ts = 0.153 sec. house from Acapulco was taken as a representative

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Figure 4. Analytical model for an adobe house with and
without wall damage (5 mm thick cracking at the corners).
of this region, one with the most seismic hazard level
in Guerrero State. In the model formulation the shape
of the adobe house as well as its architectural dimen-
sions were taken into account. The final model has
adobe walls with a thickness of 30 cm. In-plant dimen-
sions for the adobe houses were 10.5 m and 5.70 m,
and a total height of 2.4 and 3.30 m was used to rep-
resent respectively the longitudinal and transversal
adobe walls. Special three-dimensional solid elements
were employed for modeling walls of the adobe house.
Solids elements of 30 × 30 × 30 cm were employed in
longitudinal and transversal adobe walls. Every solid
element has six quadrilateral surfaces, thus interpola-
tions can be made on every one of its eight nodes. Shell
elements of 210 × 10 × 30 cm were employed to simu-
late the wood beam used on the upper zone of the door
and window openings. An uniform loading by each
meter length: 102.2 kg/m was applied on the upper
zone of walls. There are not recent research works
about the adobe young modulus evaluation. However,
in bibliographic references have been reported val-
ues between 2500 a 5000 kg/cm2 (Meli, 1978). An
adobe young modulus of 5000 kg/cm2 and an adobe
volumetric weight of 1.5 T/m3 were considered. It was
considered that the roofing system can restrict, in a
partial way, the top transversal movement of the adobe
wall, principally at the top of the longitudinal and the
transversal walls, as at these places important friction
forces can be developed between the wood beams and
the top of the adobe walls where they are fixed.
3.1 Unreinforced models
Two models were defined: Case A: When the adobe
house doesn’t present damage, and Case B: When
the adobe house presents cracking at the corners of
walls. Figure 4a shows a three-dimensional model for
case A. Figure 4b shows case B where wall damage
was considered. Such damage was characterized by
a 5 mm separation at the corner of the longitudinal
and transversal walls. This small separation aims to
simulate vertical cracking after a strong earthquake.
As shown in figure 4, openings for both doors and
Windows were considered. Top triangular shape of
transverse walls was also considered.
Table 4 shows the first three vibration periods for
model A. These values were higher compared with
those proposed by Meli (1978) but also with those
obtained in the present accelerographic instrumenta-
tion, which were only 0.12 sec.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Table 4. Vibration periods for a non-damaged model.
Mode Period (sec) Frequency (Hz)
1 0.2575 3.88
2 0.2474 4.04
3 0.2417 4.13
Table 5. Vibration periods for a non-damaged adjusted
model.
Mode Period (sec) Frequency (Hz)
1 0.1250 7.99
2 0.1235 8.09
3 0.1226 8.15
Figure 5. First vibration mode for a model without damage
and with springs.
In order to adjust these vibration periods, spring
elements positioned at the top of the walls at every 60
cm were employed to simulate movement restrictions
given by the roofing system. In this way, perpendicular
movement restrictions introduced by the wood beams
were simulated. Stiffness for these springs was sug-
gested, by means of trial tests, to be 90 kg/mm for the
case of the longitudinal walls, and 230 kg/mm for the
top of the transverse walls. This stiffness difference is
produced by the fact that wood beam at the top of the
transverse wall has a greater contact surface with the
adobe material. Table 5 shows the adjusted vibration
periods for models where springs were employed. As
it is shown in table 5, model with springs can reduce
vibration periods of walls from 0.2575 to 0.125 sec.
For these reasons, this model is more accurate.
Figure 5 shows the fundamental period of vibration
for the adjusted model. As shown in this figure, adobe
walls can develop coplanar flexural moments. This
phenomenon produces high stress concentration at the
wall intersections. Figure 6 shows the shear stresses
S12 generated into the model under the critic load com-
bination. Stresses at the top zone of adobe walls are
higher than those developed on the first model with
values up to 1.2 kg/cm2 .
Experimental research has shown that the average
maximal shear stresses on adobe material are approxi-
mately 1.2 kg/cm2 . Maximum allowed displacement
for this kind of adobe walls was fixed at 0.36 cm.
Maximum displacements of 0.6 cm for this model was
produced at the top of the longitudinal wall under
Figure 6. Stress concentration for a non-damaged model.
Table 6. Vibration periods for a damaged model.
Mode Period (sec) Frequency (Hz)
1 0.3911 2.55
2 0.3911 2.55
3 0.2807 3.56
Figure 7. First vibration mode on a damaged model.
a 100y seismic loading; while a maximum transver-
sal displacement of 0.25 cm was at a 100x seismic
loading. In this way, the longitudinal wall presented
non-admissible displacements under maximal loading
(0.6 cm >> 0.36 cm).
For case B, the vibration period was 0.39 sec with-
out considering springs, as it is shown in table 6. This
value corresponds to the damage stage (as cracking is
fully developed at the corner intersection of perpen-
dicular walls) and when the four adobe walls are just
like independent cantilever beams.
Figure 7 shows a three-dimensional structure’s
model with a separated adobe walls. At the first mode
of vibration transverse walls can undergo high flexu-
ral moments with free vibration and consequently they
have big coplanar displacements. 100x seismic loading
produces a maximal displacement of 5.36 cm at the top
of the transversal adobe wall. Spring as well as special
links elements can reduce the structural response and
similar periods to those obtained in the non-damaged
model with springs can be achieved.
This joint element was employed in order to simu-
late the weak link at the corner between longitudinal
and transversal adobe walls (figure 8).
Table 7 shows vibration periods of the damaged
model using link elements.
Links were used each 30 cm at every one of the
corner nodes. Accordingly with the local construction
code, seismic loading produces a lateral displacement
up to 0.495 cm. This value is non-admissible and the
proposed method would be no longer effective. In this
way, tests shown that it could be applied only a 20%
of the total load (100x) in order to obtain permissible
displacements.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 8. Link elements employed to join perpendicular
separated adobe walls.
Table 7. Damaged model using springs and link elements.
Mode Period (sec) Frequency (Hz)
1 0.1262 7.91
2 0.1250 7.99
3 0.1240 8.05
Figure 9. Damaged adobe with reinforcing welded mesh.
3.2 Reinforced model with welded mesh
This last model was a reinforced one with welded wire
meshes at the four corners of the adobe house. Rein-
forcing was applied at both the external and internal
top sides of the adobe walls. This reinforcing mesh was
defined using steel frame elements, with a diameter
of 5.7 mm and fy = 5000 kg/cm2 (Fu = 5700 kg/cm2 ).
Mesh size was 10 × 10 cm. In this way, a commercial
welded mesh designed 66 × 44 was modeled. Fig-
ure 9 shows the three-dimensional model with the
reinforcing meshes. The reinforcing mesh sizes were
90 × 150 cm and 90 × 120 cm for external and internal
meshes respectively. Furthermore, in order to obtain
a confining effect on the adobe wall both, external
and internal meshes were linked with frame elements
separated at 60 cm. A total of nine uniformly sepa-
rated linking elements were employed in this model.
Table 8 shows the vibration modes for the reinforced
model with meshes. Welded meshes allow the adobe
walls to be strongly joined. Consequently, they also
allow diminishing the vibration first mode from 0.39
to 0.23 sec. This represents a period diminution of
40%. Maximal displacements for transversal adobe
wall can be diminished using welded meshes as numer-
ical model shown a lateral displacement of 2.28 cm
against 0.6 cm for the damaged model, both under
a 30% of the total seismic load. Structural behav-
ior advantages that can be obtained with the welded
meshes include the adobe corner integrity, avoiding
its degradation and the possibility of walls collapse.
Table 8. Damaged model, with springs and reinforcing
welded meshes.
Mode Period (sec) Frequency (Hz)
1 0.2312 4.32
2 0.2310 4.32
3 0.1240 8.05
Table 9. Maximal forces developed by the welded mesh.
Maximal
Seismic load Maximal axial shearing
combination load* (kg) force** (kg)
Wm + 100% X + 30% Y 1087.92 283.92
Wm + 100% Y + 30% Y 597.39 147.97
*Maximal tensile strength: 1156.05 kg
**Maximal shear strength: 464.42 kg
Analysis of mesh wires shown that they have a max-
imal loading of 1156.05 kg as well as a maximum
shearing force of 462.42 kg. Maximal tensile loading
and the shearing force produced at the critical wire
under a 100x seismic loading.
Comparing these forces with the maximal resis-
tances it can be concluded that even under the maximal
loads, the welded mesh can appropriately stand such
a high seismic loading. Table 9 shows the maximal
developed forces at wires of the welded meshes under
different seismic combinations.
As it is shown in this table, welded meshes can resist
high loading combinations suggested by the local con-
struction code. However, the suggested adobe house
model is still extremely simplified. Principal objec-
tives aim to implement this kind of retrofitting and to
limit adobe wall corner degradation as well as wall col-
lapse. Additional experimental and numerical research
studies are required in order to improve the actual
model. In order to make more accurate analysis, non-
linear material characteristics as well as time-history
strong earthquakes analysis must be also considered.
4 CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, partial results of a research study
that aims s to define appropriated and economical
retrofitting procedures for Mexican adobe houses were
presented. Guerrero adobe houses have vibration peri-
ods between 0.07 to 0.12 sec. Non damaged adobe
houses present a stiffer behavior and short vibra-
tions periods up to 0.07 sec. Adobe houses presenting
vibration periods up to 0.12 sec show always high dete-
rioration and damage levels, such as vertical cracking
principally at the intersection of perpendicular walls,
or at the corners of openings for doors or windows.
Cases with thickness diminution at the inferior zone
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
of the adobe walls presented high vibration periods
up to 0.1 sec. Adobe houses show a higher level of
vulnerability principally due as lately in the last 30
years, wall thickness is even slender. Early ones had
greater wall thickness up to 60 cm. Current wall thick-
ness is only up to 30 cm. High deterioration level was
also observed in most of the adobe houses. The eco-
nomic situation of Guerrero and Mexico since several
decades have already limited the adobe house mainte-
nance and conservation; now is very common to find
several adobe houses with adobe portion losses at its
inferior external zone. This situation is getting even
worst as wall thickness reductions up to 30% were
detected. In these cases, stability of walls could be
inappropriate. For all these reasons, is very urgent to
implement a retrofitting program for adobe houses
in Guerrero. The analytical study performed in this
preliminary research work allows knowing the per-
formance of the proposed retrofitting techniques. The
suggested analytical method using welded meshes can
be improved taking into account the external mortar
layers. More research work must be performed in order
to obtain more representative models as well as an
effective representation of the involved phenomena.
REFERENCES
Anderson, J. R. 1995. The Copala, Guerrero, México Earth-
quake of September 14, 1995 (Mw = 7.4): A preliminary
report. Seis. Res. Letters, 66, 6, 11–39.
Gómez-Bernal, A., Juárez, H., Gama, A. 2007. Amplifi-
cación sísmica en Chilpancingo, Guerrero. Reporte de
Investigación, UAM. México.
González-Ruiz, J.R., McNally, K.C. 1988. Stress accumu-
lation and release since 1882 in Ometepec, Guerrero,
Mexico: Implications for Failure Mechanisms and Risk
Assessments of a Seismic Gap. J. Geophis. Res. 93,
6297–6317
Meli, R., Hernández, O. 1978. Refuerzo de vivienda de
adobe en zonas sísmicas. Conferencia Centroamericana
de Ingeniería Sísmica, Vol. 2, San Salvador, El Salvador.
McCann, W. R., Nishenko, S. P., Sykes, L.R. Krause, J. 1979.
Seismic gaps and plate tectonics: seismic potential for
major boundaries, Pageoph 117, 1082–1147.
McNally, K.C., Minster, J.B. 1981. Non uniform seismic slip
rates along Middle America Trench, J. Geophys. Res. 86,
4949–4959.
Nishenko, S.P., Singh, S.K. 1987. The Acapulco-Ometepec,
México, earthquakes of 1907-1982: Evidence for a
variable recurrence history, Bull. Seism. Soc. Am., 77,
1358–1367.
Zegarra, L., Quiun, D., San Bartolomé, A., Giesecke, A.
1997. Reforzamiento de viviendas de adobe existentes.
1ra. Parte: Ensayos sísmicos de muros U y Reforzamiento
de viviendas de adobe existentes. 2da. Parte: Ensayos
sísmicos de módulos. XI Congreso Nacional de Ingeniería
Civil. Trujillo, Perú.
Zúñiga, F.R., Gutiérrez, C., Nava, E., Lermo, J.,
Rodríguez, M., Coyoli, R. 1993. Aftershocks of the San
Marcos Earthquake of April 25, 1989 (Ms = 6.9) and
some implications for the Acapulco-San Marcos, México,
seismic potential, Pageoph, vol. 140, No. 2. pp 287–300.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

A comparative structural, architectural and cost-based analysis of seismic

design principles applied in reinforced concrete residential buildings in
Turkey

C. Ozmen
Cankaya University, Ankara, Turkey

ABSTRACT: This study demonstrates that it is possible to design earthquake resistant reinforced concrete res-
idential structures without significant compromises in the spatial quality and economic viability of the building.
The study addresses architects, structural engineers and private entrepreneurs who are the important players in
the Turkish construction industry. In structural analyses, a set of four parametric mathematical models are used
to demonstrate the effects of increased column cross-sections and use of shear-walls on the seismic performance
of reinforced concrete structures. Architectural analyses are carried-out through three case-studies selected from
the earthquake affected city of Bolu in Turkey. Cost-based analyses demonstrated that it is possible to design
earthquake resistant reinforced concrete residential buildings with a 4–6% increase in the building cost and an
economically acceptable 10% decrease in profits.

1 INTRODUCTION making position of entrepreneurs, enables them to have

This study demonstrates that it is possible to design
earthquake resistant reinforced concrete (R/C) resi-
dential structures without significant compromises in
the spatial quality and economic viability of the build-
ing. This study addresses the professionals working for
the small-scale private construction enterprises which,
according to the survey of Turkish Statistical Institute
(TSI), are responsible for the design and construction
of almost 90% of all buildings in Turkey. The same sur-
vey also states that more than 51% of these buildings
have R/C structural system, Ozmen (2008).
In Turkey, the design and construction process of
R/C buildings is for the most part governed by the
decisions of architects, structural engineers and pri-
vate entrepreneurs. Concerned with functional, spatial
and aesthetic factors, architects have a tendency to
overlook or completely ignore seismic design require-
ments, which they consider to be exclusively within
the engineers’ sphere of responsibility. Engineers,
on the other hand, emphasize the strict application
of the Turkish Earthquake Code which brings them
in frequent disagreements with the architects, Ozmen
(2008). In reality, the responsibility of earthquake
resistant building design is shared equally by archi-
tects and engineers. As a result, besides, the objective
of obtaining scientific results, another aim of this study
is to bring engineers, architects together on a much
needed common ground.
In Turkish building industry, the most influential
people in the design and construction process are the
private entrepreneurs. They provide the capital and
their main objective is to obtain the maximum profit
from their building venture. The financial decision
the final saying on both architectural and engineering
issues. These decisions often emphasize the commer-
cial aspect of architectural design and are sometimes
made at the expense of structural safety. Therefore, it
is critical to convince the entrepreneurs that construct-
ing their buildings in an earthquake resistant manner
does not bring economically unacceptable additional
costs, Ozmen (2008).
The complexities of structural, architectural and
cost-based analyses in this study are kept at a level
which is intelligible by all of the above mentioned pro-
fessional parties. The structural analyses emphasize
the understanding of structural behavior during seis-
mic events rather than obtaining case-specific figures.
Architectural analyses offer a comparison in terms of
basic spatial and planimetric arrangements and cost-
based analyses give approximated but realistic figures
about the financial toll of building earthquake resistant
R/C structural systems.
2 STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS
2.1 Structural analysis methodology
The structural analysis consists of 4 mathematical
models representing a R/C structure similar in size to a
typical apartment block that can be encountered in any
Turkish city. (Fig. 1) The aim of using parametric mod-
els is to isolate the structural effects of various criteria
such as the directionality of columns, the variation of
cross-sectional dimensions, and the use of shear-walls.
In idealized models, the above mentioned parameters
can be altered one at a time and the subsequent effect of

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 1. Parametric Mathematical Models. (Model 1:
upper left corner, Model 2: upper right corner, Model 3: lower
left corner, Model 4: lower right corner). Y-direction: vertical
with respect to page, X-direction: horizontal with respect to
page.
the alteration on the structural system can be observed
clearly.
The parametric models are based on a 6 storey R/C
structure similar in size to an apartment block having
2 residential units on one floor. The plan has 5 bays
with 3 m span in Y-direction and 3 bays of 4 m, 3 m
and 4 m spans in X-direction. These spans are chosen
to represent the typical spans of a residential build-
ing. Floor consist of R/C slabs of 0,12 m in thickness,
except the bay in the center which is left void to rep-
resent the effect of the vertical shafts and stairs in the
building. Floor heights are taken as 3 m except for
the bottom floors where they are taken as 4 m to rep-
resent the typical use of these floors as commercial
establishments. The building is assumed to be in the
First Degree Earthquake Zone according to Turkish
Earthquake Code 2007.
Every model is evaluated according to three com-
parison criteria: natural periods (T), maximum dis-
placements (max) and column capacities. In terms
of T, the periods of the first three critical modes
of the buildings are measured. The first aim is to
demonstrate that the proposed improvements reduce
T thus taking them out of the undesired interval where
T > 0,7 sec and placing them into the safer inter-
val where T < 0,5 sec In T > 0,7 sec interval failures
are sudden and brittle whereas in T < 0,5 sec inter-
val failures are ductile and slow, Atimtay (2000). The
second aim is to check whether the critical first or
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
second modes of the building are dominated by torsion
movement, which is critical for R/C structures.
In this type of structural system  max typically
occurs at the top floor of the buildings. Therefore,
for each model the displacement of one of the cor-
ner points of the top floor slabs (lower right corner
points of floor slabs shown in Fig. 1) is measured for
each direction. This is to see whether the proposed
structural alterations are successful in decreasing the
amount of max and reducing the formation of sec-
ond order moments which create additional stresses on
the structure.
A safe way of measuring the capacity of R/C
columns is to use the Axial Force/Bending Moment
(N/M) Diagram. In this type of structural system the
maximum N/M combination typically occurs at the
bottom floor of the building, Unay (2002). Therefore,
for each model, one critically placed column (lower
right corner columns shown in Fig. 1) is analyzed in
terms of its N/M capacity. This column is selected
among the corner columns with the smallest cross-
sections therefore most vulnerable to earthquakes.
Although some models contain shear-walls, these are
assumed to have enough resistance to any load combi-
nation and were not included in the comparative study.
In the earthquake resistance of R/C structures one
of the ways of ensuring the system’s stability is to make
the columns stronger than the beams therefore ensure
the formation of plastic deformations at the extremities
of beams and not the columns. This analytical study is
not concerned with the beams but ensure that their
cross-sections are always designed weaker than the
columns. In order to establish a basis for comparison
between models, the columns are designed using C25
class concrete and having the minimum required steel
ratio of 1% according toTurkish Standards Institution’s
TS-500 standard.
2.2 Results of the structural analysis
A set of 4 parametric mathematical models were
tested during this analytical study. The results were
evaluated according to three criteria including the
natural period, maximum displacements and axial
force/bending moment capacity of columns. Follow-
ing conclusions were reached based on the results
obtained from the structural analyses:
Distributing the directionality of columns evenly
in both earthquake directions improves the seismic
behavior of the structural system. (Table. 1) A com-
parison between Model 1 & Model 2 reveals that
the value of T is distributed more evenly among the
first three critical modes of the structure and torsion
movement is avoided in the first two modes but both
structures are dangerously close toT > 0,7 sec interval.
Increasing the cross-sections of columns significantly
improves the seismic behavior of the structure. The
first three modes of Model 3 are within the desired
T < 0,5 sec interval. However the margin of safety is
not enough. The use of shear-walls, evenly distributed
in both earthquake directions, is the best way to ensure
earthquake safety. The first three modes of Model 4
Table 1. T values of the parametric models for the first 3
critical modes.

Model Mode Dominant movement Period

1 Mode 1 Lateral Displacement (X-dir) 0,84 sec

Mode 2 Torsion 0,57 sec
Mode 3 Lateral Displacement (Y-dir) 0,54 sec
2 Mode 1 Lateral Displacement (X-dir) 0,68 sec
Mode 2 Lateral Displacement (Y-dir) 0,65 sec
Mode 3 Torsion 0,56 sec
3 Mode 1 Lateral Displacement (X-dir) 0,51 sec
Mode 2 Lateral Displacement (Y-dir) 0,46 sec
Mode 3 Torsion 0,40 sec
4 Mode 1 Lateral Displacement (X-dir) 0,40 sec
Mode 2 Lateral Displacement (Y-dir) 0,38 sec
Mode 3 Torsion 0,36 sec

Table 2. max values for the top floor corner points of the
parametric models.

Earthquake max in X-dir max in Y-dir

Model Direction (m) (m) Figure 2. N/M Diagrams (in X-dir) for the bottom floor,
lower right corner columns of the parametric models. (Model
1 X-dir 0,096 0,000009 1:upper left corner, Model 2: upper right corner, Model 3:
Y-dir 0,000008 0,058 lower left corner, Model 4: lower right corner).
2 X-dir 0,081 0,056
Y-dir 0,000008 0,071
3 X-dir 0,053 0,000011 conclusion that can be drawn from the observations is
Y-dir 0,000008 0,048 that increasing the column cross-sections and the addi-
4 X-dir 0,041 0,000016 tion of shear-walls play a critical role in the improve-
Y-dir 0,0000016 0,038 ment of the seismic behavior of R/C structures.

are safely within the T < 0,5 sec interval and torsion is
avoided in the first two modes.
The observation of parametric models revealed that
structural ameliorations such as the even distribu-
tion of columns, increasing column cross-sections
and introduction of shear-walls significantly decreases
max values (Table 2). A comparison between
Model 1 and Model 4 demonstrate that there is a 58%
decrease in max values in X-dir and a 35% decrease
in max values in Y-dir. The decrease in max val-
ues is a critical factor in the prevention of second order
moments which – according to studies conducted after
1999 Adapazari & Duzce earthquakes – played a major
role in the destruction of R/C structures in Turkey,
Akan (2008).
The N/M capacities of lower floor columns are crit-
ical in the prevention of total collapses during earth-
quakes. The N/M diagrams of lower floor columns for
X-dir in Model 1 and Model 2 indicate that these struc-
tural elements receive much higher load combinations
than they can safely carry and are prone to failure
during an earthquake. (Fig. 2) The N/M diagram of
Model 3 demonstrates that with the increase in cross-
sections, the column is within the safety zone defined
by the N/M curve; however the N/M combination of
the column is dangerously close.An unanticipated load
effect may cause failure of the structural element. In
the N/M diagram of Model 4 it is observed that the
column is clearly within the desired zone with enough
margin of safety for the unforeseen load effects. The
3 ARCHITECTURAL ANALYSIS
3.1 Architectural analysis methodology
The architectural analysis consists of 3 case studies
chosen among the projects of buildings collapsed in
1999 earthquakes in the city of Bolu. A comparative
evaluation is conducted between the original state of
the projects and their modified, earthquake resistant
versions in order to understand the impact of seismi-
cally resistant design principles on the architectural
configurations of the buildings.
The city of Bolu is chosen due to its location on
the North Anatolian Fault and its destructive seismic
history. In the last century, the town was hit twice,
in 1944 and 1999, with catastrophic earthquakes, the
latter causing a casualty toll of 48 deaths and 354
wounded. The surveys conducted after the 1999 earth-
quake revealed that 2.399 residential buildings were
heavily damaged and many more have suffered various
levels of destruction, Ozmen (2008).
R/C residential blocks can be in various sizes rang-
ing from very small buildings with single residential
units per storey to large-scale mass-housing blocks
having several residential units at the same floor. A
survey conducted in several Turkish cities in Anatolia
has demonstrated that the majority of the R/C resi-
dential buildings in these cities is within 5 to 8 storey
range and has 2 to 4 residential units on one floor,Toker
(2004). Since this study is concerned with the building

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practices of small scale construction enterprises, it is
appropriate to limit the scope of the architectural study
within the above mentioned size and scale interval. As
a result Case Study 1 (Fig. 3) is an apartment block hav-
ing 2 residential units per storey, Case Study 2 (Fig. 4)
has 3 residential units per storey and Case study 3
(Fig. 5) has 4 residential units per storey. All projects
have 6 storeys in total.
The structural analyses in the previous section have
proven the validity of the structural design principles
for R/C structures similar in size to an apartment block
having 2 residential units in one floor. Since there is
no significant difference in scale between buildings
with 2 units per floor and buildings with 3 or 4 units
per floor, it is safe to assume that the same structural
design principles would also be valid for these types
of apartment blocks too.
It has been previously mentioned that in small-scale
building enterprises architectural decisions are mostly
made keeping in mind the commercial value of the
residential units. In the Turkish building market, resi-
dential units are evaluated by planimetric parameters
such as the net floor area, the size, number of the rooms
and their access-to-view of as well as the convenience
of service spaces. Figure 3. Case Study 1 (Original architectural plan: upper
The aim of this study is not to bring a critical left corner, Original structural plan: upper right corner, Mod-
ified architectural plan: lower left corner, Modified structural
approach to residential building design in Turkey but to plan: lower right corner). Unit-A left zone of each floor plan,
demonstrate that equivalent design parameters can be Unit-B right zone of each floor plan.
achieved in a seismically resistant manner. Therefore
architectural modifications and the subsequent evalu- Table 3. Planimetric Comparison Table for Case Study 1.
ations are realized according to the following param-
eters: the variations in the net floor area of individual Original Modified
residential units must be within ± 10%; the number of
rooms must remain the same; the access-to-view of Area Area
the rooms must remain the same; there shouldn’t be (m2 ) View (m2 ) View
any significant losses in the available service spaces.
The architectural modifications are realized staying as Unit A
loyal as possible to the original design of the building’s Living Room 35 Front/Side 35 Front/Side
architect and also the constraints of the building site. Room1 16 Side 15 Side
Room2 12 Side 12 Side
Room3 12 Side/Rear 11+8 Side/Rear
Services 35 33
3.2 Results of the architectural analysis Total 110 114
Case Study 1 is an apartment block with 2 residen- Unit B
tial units per storey (Fig. 3). Structural irregularity is Living Room 37 Front/Side 31 Front/Side
caused by the effort to create over-sized living-rooms Room1 17 Side 15 Side
probably due to marketing reasons. The lack of shear- Room2 14 Rear 12 Side
walls, discontinuity of structural axes and insufficient Room3 12 Side/Rear 11+8 Side/Rear
column cross-sections are the most apparent seismic Services 34 33
design deficiencies. The subsequent asymmetry also Total 114 110
disturbs the arrangement of rooms and service spaces.
The building is redesigned with an emphasis on
structural symmetry. The building now has a regu- rooms are equivalent. There are no significant changes
lar structural system with continuous structural axes, in the areas of service spaces.
enough shear-walls and column cross-sections. An Case Study 2 is an apartment block with 3 residen-
acceptable compromise is made in the size of the tial units per storey (Fig. 4). Similar with Case Study 1,
living-room of Unit-B. Staircases are redesigned in a the lack of shear-walls, discontinuity of structural
more compact manner. Thanks to these revisions archi- axes and insufficient column cross-sections are the
tectural symmetry is provided with a better arrange- most apparent seismic design deficiencies. The effort
ment of rooms and service spaces. The variations in the to configure the structural skeleton according to the
areas of the net floor plans are within acceptable lim- spatial requirements of each room creates structural
its (Table. 3). The size, number and access-to-view of irregularity.

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 Table 4. Planimetric Comparison Table for Case Study 2.

Original Modified

Area Area
(m2 ) View (m2 ) View

Unit A
Living Room 33 Side/Rear 25 Side/Rear
Room1 16 Side 16 Side
Room2 12 Side 12 Side
Room3 15 Rear 18 Rear
Services 44 42
Total 120 113
Unit B
Living Room 27 Side/Rear 33 Side/Rear
Room1 16 Side 11 Side
Room2 11 Side 15 Side
Room3 13 Side 12 Side
Services 35 38
Total 102 109
Unit C
Living Room 30 Front/Side 26 Front/Side
Room1 15 Side 15 Side
Room2 17 Front/Side 21 Front/Side
Room3 11 Front 12 Front
Figure 4. Case Study 2 (Original architectural plan: upper Services 33 34
left corner, Original structural plan: upper right corner, Mod- Total 106 108
ified architectural plan: lower left corner, Modified structural
plan: lower right corner). Unit-A lower left zone, Unit-B lower
right zone, Unit-C upper zone in each floor plan.

The building is redesigned with an emphasis

on structural regularity. Instead of configuring the
structural skeleton according to the spatial require-
ments of each room, a compromise is reached between
spatial requirements, structural regularity and the
shape of the building site.The building now has contin-
uous structural axes, enough shear-walls and column
cross-sections. The variations in the areas of the net
floor plans are within acceptable limits (Table. 4). The
size, number and access-to-view of rooms are equiv-
alent. There are no significant changes in the areas of
available service spaces.
Case Study 3 is an apartment block with 4 residen-
tial units per storey (Fig. 5). Like the previous cases,
due to the spatial configuration of the residential units,
the structural system is an irregular mesh with sev-
eral seismic design faults. Most prominent of these
are once again the lack of shear-walls, discontinuity of
structural axes and insufficient column cross-sections.
The building is redesigned with a regular structural Figure 5. Case Study 3 (Original architectural plan: upper
system. Similar with Case Study 2 a compromise is left corner, Original structural plan: upper right corner, Mod-
reached between spatial requirements and structural ified architectural plan: lower left corner, Modified structural
regularity. Thanks to the continuous structural axes, plan: lower right corner). Unit-A lower left zone, Unit-B lower
shear-walls and column cross-sections, the irregularity right zone, Unit-C upper left zone, Unit-D upper right zone
caused by the shape of the site is within tolerable limits. in each floor plan.
The variations in the areas of the net floor plans are also
within acceptable limits (Table 5). The size, number 4 COST BASED ANALYSIS
and access-to-view of rooms are equivalent. There are
no significant changes in the areas of available service In Turkey, the structural system of R/C apartment
spaces. blocks constitutes approximately 30% of the total

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Table 5. Planimetric Comparison Table for Case Study 3. Table 6. Cost/Profit Comparison Table for the Original (O)
and Modified (M) versions of Case-Studies. All values are in
Original Modified Euros (EUR). (Cost values ×1000).

Area Area Non-

(m2 ) View (m2 ) View Struct. Struct.
Sys. Sys. Total Market Profit
Unit A Cost Cost Cost % Price Margin %
Living Room 27 Side/Rear 30 Side/Rear
Room1 11 Side 14 Side 1 O 95 220 315 540 71%
Room2 16 Side 19 Side M 110 330 +5% 64% −10%
Room3 13 Rear 14 Rear 2 O 140 325 465 810 74%
Services 29 27 M 160 485 +4% 67% −10%
Total 96 104
3 O 165 385 550 1.080 95%
Unit B M 200 585 +6% 85% −10%
Living Room 22 Side/Rear 23 Side/Rear
Room1 12 Side 12 Side
Room2 14 Side 16 Side 5 CONCLUDING REMARKS
Room3 14 Rear 14 Rear
Services 30 33
Total 92 98 During the catastrophic 1999 earthquakes, 34.275 res-
idential buildings were destroyed in Kocaeli killing
Unit C 10.000 people, 16.666 residential buildings collapsed
Living Room 29 Front/Side 25 Front/Side in Duzce costing the lives of 1.000 people and 2.399
Room1 11 Side 12 Side residential buildings were destroyed in Bolu with
Room2 15 Side 16 Side
Room3 14 Front 16 Front
severe human losses Ozmen (2008). Unfortunately
Services 31 35 these numbers had very little effect on the way build-
Total 100 104 ings are constructed in Turkey over the last decade.
Now, waiting for the next catastrophe –perhaps the
Unit D Great Istanbul Earthquake – the duty falls upon every-
Living Room 31 Front/Side 24 Front/Side one to assist those who practice in the field of
Room1 11 Side 14 Side
Room2 15 Side 14 Side
construction.
Room3 15 Front 16 Front Any endeavor to improve the seismic performance
Services 31 28 of R/C residential buildings in Turkey has to be
Total 103 96 structurally strong, architecturally marketable and also
relatively inexpensive. In this study it is demonstrated
that it is possible to achieve all of the above mentioned
goals within the practices of the Turkish building
building cost Ozmen & Unay (2007). In this study, industry. The author hopes that this study will be
it is assumed that the change in the cost of the a contribution to the efforts to create a safer built
non-structural systems before and after the proposed environment for its inhabitants.
modifications is negligible. The cost-based analysis
of the 3 Case-Studies has revealed that the increase of REFERENCES
the total cost of the buildings due to the architectural
and structural modifications is between 4% and 6% Ozmen, C. 2008. A Comparative Structural and Architec-
(Table 6). tural Analysis of Earthquake Resistant Design Principles
Currently, the price of a brand new residential unit in Applied in Reinforced Concrete Residential Buildings in
Turkey. Unpublished doctoral thesis, Ankara.
a R/C apartment block in Bolu is around 45.000 Euros. Atimtay, E. 2000. Aciklamalar ve Orneklerle Afet Bol-
The market prices of the 3 Case-Studies are calculated gelerindeYapilacakYapilar HakkindaYonetmelik (in Turk-
by the multiplication of this number by the number of ish). Ankara, Bizim Buro Press.
individual residential units in each Case-Study. It is Unay, A. 2002. Tarihi Yapilarin Deprem Dayanimi (in Turk-
calculated that earthquake resistant building construc- ish). Ankara, METU Press.
tion will result in profit losses in the region of 10% for Akan, A. E. 2008, A Comparative Study on Earthquake Resis-
the investors. tance of Reinforced Concrete and Masonry Residential
On the other hand, in Turkey, the profit margins Buildings in Small-Scale Cities of Turkey. Unpublished
of the private entrepreneurs are very high for this doctoral thesis, Ankara.
Toker, S. 2004, Devolving an Innovative Architectural and
type of building (Table 6). Additionally, possessing Structural Solution for Seismic Strengthening of Rein-
earthquake resistant design features increases the mar- forced Concrete Residential Buildings. Unpublished doc-
ketability of the building especially in earthquake toral thesis, Ankara.
regions such as Bolu. Therefore, it is concluded that Ozmen, C. & Unay, A. I. 2007, Commonly Encountered
the above mentioned profit losses are acceptable fig- Seismic Design Faults due to the Architectural Design of
ures for private entrepreneurs in terms of economic Residential Units in Turkey, Building and Environment,
feasibility. Volume 42, Issue 3, 1406–1416

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 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Comparison of damage assessment methodologies for different natural

hazards

T. Rossetto
Department of Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering, University College London, UK

A.J. Kappos & L.A. Kouris

Department of Civil Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

M. Indirli
ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, Italy

R.P. Borg
Department of Building & Civil Engineering, University of Malta, Malta

T.O. Lloyd & V. Sword-Daniels

Department of Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering, University College London, UK

ABSTRACT: Following a natural disaster engineers undertake structural assessments for many different pur-
poses; for example for the assessment of structural safety, quantification of the severity of the event effects or
for insurance loss calculation. These purposes are common irrespective of the hazard that may have caused the
structural damage. This paper presents a critical review and comparison of existing methods for the post-event
damage assessment of structures under different natural hazards. It aims to discover whether it may be possible
in the future to develop a common assessment methodology that is hazard-independent, or if fundamental differ-
ences exist in the effects of the hazards that preclude a common approach. The natural hazards investigated are
earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. The investigation is complicated by the fact that these hazards
have different levels of development in terms of structural assessment methods and universal acceptance of these
methods.

1 INTRODUCTION plans by mapping the spatial distribution of earth-

Structural damage assessments are an integral and
essential part of the recovery process from a natu-
ral disaster, and occur independently of the nature of
the hazard causing the disaster. Immediately after the
event engineers must assess all buildings within the
affected area to assess damage, safety, and usability,
to identify buildings requiring emergency strength-
ening (e.g. to avoid collapse during aftershocks or
further volcanic ash fall), to provide reliable data to
the authorities, and to plan further relief and rehabil-
itation measures. A systematic collection of damage
data reduces the time required to complete the work,
ensures that no valuable information is lost, and leads
to a realistic assessment of building capacity. This
first stage of structural assessment is often carried out
through rapid screening. In the next phase, structures
deemed unsafe are assessed in more detail to determine
the extent of required repair or need for demolition.
In addition to their use for recovery, structural
damage assessments often provide data for future
research studies on the revision of existing urban
quake effects, the re-evaluation of existing codes and
practices, and the development of vulnerability models
for pre-earthquake assessments. The methodology to
be adopted for the structural assessment must there-
fore strike a balance between the need for a rapid
and efficient procedure, and the need for detailed data
collection for future studies.
This paper looks at published guidance and past
studies on structural assessment methods post-disaster
for earthquakes, tsunami and volcanic eruptions. This
review is followed by a discussion that looks to identify
whether a standard damage assessment methodology
may be developed in the future that is hazard type
independent.
2 EARTHQUAKE DAMAGE ASSESSMENT
Several methods for post-earthquake inspection and
rapid assessment of buildings have been developed
in a number of countries. Among these, proce-
dures used in Japan (JBDPA’90-91), USA (ATC 20,

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ATC20-2), New Zealand (NZNSEE ’98), the Balkans Table 1. Criteria for assigning degree of damage (DD).
(UNDP/UNIDO, Greece) and Italy (Protezione Civile
2010a,b,c, MEDEA, 2005, GNDT_INGV, 2010a,b) DD Damage state of structural member
deserve particular attention (Kappos 2003).
I Visible but narrow cracks on surface of concrete
(crack width w < 0.2 mm)
2.1 Japanese method (JBDPA ‘90 = 91) II Visible cracks on surface of concrete
(0.2 mm < w < 1.0 mm)
2.1.1 Overview of the method
III Local spalling of cover concrete, major
Emergency inspectors check the following: (i) outline cracks (1 mm < w < 2 mm)
(description) of the building, (ii) maximum settlement
IV Full spalling and crushing of concrete,
and maximum inclination of the building, (iii) damage
exposed reinforcing bars
to structural members, and (iv) risk of overturning or
falling objects. There is a standard form for data col- V buckling of bars, crushing of concrete core, visible
vertical deformation of column/wall
lection and each item inspected is ranked (according to
damage degree) as “A” (low), “B” (moderate) or “C”
(high).

2.1.2 Evaluation of ‘risk level’
In the Japanese method there is a classification of
three levels of risk: The “DANGER” level includes
buildings with ≥ 2“C”-items, or ≥ 3 “B”-items result-
ing in settlement, leaning, or member damage. The
“CAUTION” level contains buildings with ≥ 2“B”-
items (resulting in settlement, leaning, or member
damage), and the “SAFETY” level includes all other
buildings.
There is also an identical classification (Dan-
ger, Caution and Safety) for the risk of falling or
overturning objects (i.e. “DANGER” level: building
with ≥ 2“C”-items, or ≥ 3 “B”-items, and so on).
2.1.3 Emergency treatment
Entrance to buildings is restricted according to the
level of risk. The entrance to buildings ranked DAN-
GER (damage, inclination etc.) is prohibited. The
entrance to buildings ranked DANGER – falling
objects is prohibited, if objects are placed around
the entrance. The entrance to buildings ranked CAU-
TION (re. damage, inclination etc.) is allowed ‘with
care’. The entrance to buildings ranked SAFETY (re.
damage, inclination etc.) is unrestricted. Emergency
repairs shall be carried out according to the pertinent
“Guidelines for Restoration Techniques”. Entrance
conditions can be changed following an emergency
repair or restoration.
2.1.4 Damage classification and design
of interventions
There is an independent guideline, referring to a pro-
cedure applied a few days after the earthquake when
inspectors check the maximum settlement of the build-
ing, the maximum tilt of the building and the degree
of damage to structural members. There is a standard
form for data collection. The investigation may be con-
fined to the most damaged story but objects tending
to fall must be checked.
The classification based on the settlement (s)
detects small (s < 0.2 m), moderate (0.2 < s < 1.0 m)
and severe (s > 1.0 m) damage. The classification
according to the inclination angle (θ) is ‘small’
(θ < 0.01 rad), ‘moderate’ (0.01 < θ < 0.03), ‘severe’
(0.03 < θ < 0.06), or ‘overturned’ (θ > 0.06 rad). The
classification based on the degree of damage to
structural members (global damage ratio D) divides
buildings with slight (D < 5), small (5 < D < 10),
moderate (10 < D < 50), or severe (D > 50) damage
or collapse (D5 = 50). The global damage ratio is
defined as the sum of the structural member damage
ratios i.e. D =  Di , where i = 1 to 5, refers to the
degree of damage. In this equation D1 = 10n1 /N ≤ 5,
D2 = 26n1 /N ≤ 13,. . ., D5 = 1000n5 /7N ≤ 50; ni is
equal to the number of columns (or total length of
walls) with degree of damage I (as determined from
Table 1), and N is the total number of columns (or
total length of walls). This check may be confined to
the most damaged storey. The final classification may
be based on the most critical result between settlement,
leaning, and damage of members.
The design of interventions (demolition, repair or
strengthening) depends on the seismic intensity and
the damage state.
2.2 U.S. method (ATC 20, ATC20-2)
2.2.1 Overview of the method
In ATC-20 there are three different procedures (Fig. 1):
the rapid evaluation, the detailed evaluation and the
engineering evaluation. Rapid Evaluation lasts 10–
20 min per building and is the 1st level of evaluation
focused on quickly identifying apparently safe and
obviously unsafe buildings. The Detailed Evaluation
has a duration of 1 to 4 hours per structure, is the 2nd
level of evaluation and requires thorough visual exam-
ination of both building (interior and exterior) and site.
These two methods result in the rating of buildings as
safe, potentially dangerous, and unsafe. The Engineer-
ing Evaluation (1–7 days) is carried out by a consultant
hired by the owner (and/or the insurance company).
2.2.2 Evaluation of risk level
The Rapid Evaluation method is performed by assess-
ing 6 screening criteria:
i building (partially) collapsed; moved off founda-
tion.
ii building or storey significantly leaning.

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Figure 1. ATC-20 flowchart for normal building safety
evaluation and posting.
iii obvious severe damage to primary members; severe
racking of walls, or similar signs of distress.
iv parapet, chimney, etc. falling hazard present.
v ground failure (large movement, or fissures, etc.).
vi other hazards (toxic spill, broken glass, fallen
power).
For item (iv) and possibly (vi) ‘AREA UNSAFE’
(rather than ‘UNSAFE’) is recommended. If the sit-
uation is doubtful, inspectors are suggested to post
‘LIMITED ENTRY’ and request a Detailed Evalua-
tion. Inspectors are generally prompted to look for
readily observable, gross kinds of structural distress
and hazardous geotechnical conditions.
The Detailed Evaluation method is primarily used
to determine the safety of buildings posted “Limited
Entry” during Rapid Evaluation, and is intended to
provide reasonable assurance that a building, albeit
damaged, is safe enough for use. It is also used for
essential facilities, when they have been damaged dur-
ing the earthquake. The procedure includes six steps,
the first being the survey of the building from the
outside. Next, the site is examined for geotechnical
hazards and then the structural system is examined
internally. In the fourth step the assessment focuses
on non-structural hazards and on other hazards (spills,
leaks etc.). In the last step the inspector completes
a checklist and assigns the building to a damage
category. Specific instructions are given to identify
damage in each building type.
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2.3 New Zealand method (NZNSEE ’98)
This method is generally similar to the ATC-20, the
forms being practically the same. The model for Build-
ing Safety Evaluation Response Plan is included in the
Guidelines. Key roles are foreseen for a Building Eval-
uation Manager (BEM), Building Evaluation Officers,
an Administration Officer (AO), and three Inspectors
(2 ‘technical’+ 1 ‘with communication skills’).
2.4 Methods used in the Balkans
(UNIDO, Greece)
2.4.1 Overview of the method
This method focuses on emergency inspection, but
uses a rather detailed form (which is meant to be partly
filled before the earthquake). Clear instructions (to
be provided during intensive short seminars) must be
given to inspectors, for them to successfully apply the
method.
The classification of buildings by posting (tagging)
is performed with three colours, mainly based on the
integrity of the structural system:
A green tag is associated with buildings that show
no indication of reduction in their structural capacity
(against vertical and lateral loads).
A yellow tag is assigned to buildings that have a
moderately reduced lateral load capacity, but show no
reduction vertical load capacity.
Finally, buildings are posted with red tags when both
vertical and lateral load capacity are seriously reduced.
2.4.2 Evaluation of risk level and emergency
treatment
The evaluation of risk, the emergency treatment
and the damage state are classified according to the
tag of the building, as summarised in Table 2. The
damage inspection form adopted by UNIDO/UNDP
(1985) is detailed and comprehensive, but since it is
rather demanding and difficult to use in an emergency
situation, simplified versions of this form have been
used in Greece and other Balkan countries over the last
two decades. It is worth noting that in these countries
two levels of inspection and assessment have been used
in recent years, the second one being more detailed
than the first, but focussing only on buildings with
significant damage.
2.5 Italian methods (methods by Protezione
Civile, MEDEA and GNDT)
In Italy the evaluation of earthquake damage in ordi-
nary buildings is carried out by public officers with a
specific investigation form (Protezione Civile 2010a).
The evaluation is carried out using a matrix which
assigns a level of risk (from high risk to low risk)
according to damage observed in structural elements,
non-structural elements and foundations and to the
danger posed by neighbouring structures.The outcome
is expressed on a scale from A to F, where: A means
“fit for use”, B “fit for use with prompt interventions”,
C “partially fit for use”, D “not fit for use, necessity
Table 2. Damage and usability classification according to UNIDO/UNDP.
Usability
Tag colour classification Damage state
Green Usable 1 = no damage
2 = slight
Yellow Temporarily 3 = moderate
unusable 4 = significant
Red Unusable 5 = severe
6 = partial
or total collapse
of a deeper analysis”, E “not fit for use” and F “not fit
for use, due to risk from neighbouring structures”. An
alternative method for damage evaluation is presented
by the MEDEA method (MEDEA 2005; Borg et al.
2010), which can be used for ordinary reinforced con-
crete and masonry buildings. Other commonly used
important tools are the forms to evaluate the seis-
mic structural vulnerability of reinforced concrete and
masonry buildings proposed by the Gruppo Nazionale
Difesa Terremoti (GNDT), (GNDT-INGV 2010a and
2010b).
Cultural heritage buildings (Linee Guida 2006)
can be studied by decomposing the entire structure
into architectural portions (named “macro-elements”)
characterized by an autonomous structural behaviour
with respect to the construction as a whole. In fact, in
historic complexes, effective connections between ver-
tical walls and floors are often scarce or absent, driving
to specific mechanisms (local damage and/or partial
collapse) caused by loss of equilibrium of masonry
portions under out-of-plane actions. The earthquake
damage and structural vulnerability of churches is
checked by filling a specific survey form (Protezione
Civile 2010b), in which local failure/collapse mech-
anisms are identified. A similar approach is used
for monumental buildings (“palazzi”, see Protezione
Civile 2010c).
3 TSUNAMI DAMAGE ASSESSMENT
In the case of tsunami, very few guidance documents
have been developed for use in post-event damage
assessments. The Intergovernmental Oceanographic
Commission, IOC (of UNESCO, 1998) has published
a post tsunami field guide developed from existing
earthquake and tsunami field guides and more recent
tsunami surveys (Farreras, 2000). While concentrat-
ing on collecting scientific data such as tidal levels,
run-up elevations and bathymetric data, it indicates
that structural damage should be collected where pos-
sible, noting the possible cause of the damage and
distinguishing tsunami damage from earthquake dam-
age in a near source event. The guidance for building
damage assessment is brief and recommends rough
(non-specialized) classification of damage, estimating
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Damage description
Negligible structural damage and light nonstructural damage;
hairline cracks in structural members.
Small to large cracks in R/C members; spalling of cover concrete;
detachment and partial collapse of partition walls . . . .
Large number of crushed structural members and connections;
buckling of reinforcement; dislocations of members and
the building etc.
the nature and category of the damage and its apparent
cause.
Several approaches exist for identifying tsunami
intensity (e.g. Ambraseys 1962 and Papadopoulos and
Imamura 2001). However, these methods do not pro-
vide techniques for identifying structural damage.
Most of the literature presenting rapid field inves-
tigations largely bases their damage assessments on
earthquake assessment methodologies directly. Rig-
orous, multi-stage building assessments using forms
such as those of ATC-20 have not been carried out, or
at least have not been published. Instead, the damage
scales in EMS-98 are the most commonly used (e.g.
in Miura et al., 2006). A few studies have attempted to
modify earthquake damage assessment methods and
scales to take into account damage relating to fast-
flowing water, such as foundation failure due to scour
or floating debris impact damage. A modified ver-
sion of the EMS-98 damage scales for use in tsunami
damage assessment in Thailand and Sri Lanka fol-
lowing the Indian Ocean Tsunami was proposed by
Rossetto et al. (2007) and EEFIT (2006). In these
studies damage attributed to different building types
was also adopted to assign Intensity values to the
surveyed locations, using a modified version of the
Tsunami Intensity scale of Papadopoulos and Imamura
(2001). An example of the damage scale descriptions
for masonry buildings proposed by EEFIT (2006) is
shown in Table 3.
Taking into account damage to different structural
types allows the intensity values to be compared in
countries with different building stocks, to obtain
a comparative intensity for tsunami impact assess-
ment. The results of these surveys do not provide
sufficient information however to improve knowl-
edge on the structural response of buildings under
tsunami loading and therefore are not useful for the re-
evaluation of codes of practice, assessment of existing
structures etc.
4 VOLCANIC DAMAGE ASSESSMENT
The assessment of volcanic risk, in particular in
densely populated regions, is certainly a huge topic
quite studied among the scientific community. In
1026
Table 3. Tsunami damage scale descriptions for masonry
structures typical of Sri Lanka proposed by EEFIT (2006).
Damage
state Damage description for structure
None No visible structural damage to the
(DM0) structure observed
Light Damage limited to chipping of plaster on
(DM1) walls, minor cracking visible. Damage
to windows, doors. Damage is minor and
repairable. Immediate occupancy
Moderate Out-of-plane failure or collapse
(DM2) of parts of or whole sections of masonry
wall panels without compromising structural
integrity. Masonry wall can be
repaired or rebuilt to restore
integrity. Most parts of the structure
intact with some parts suffering
heavy damage. Scouring at corners
of the structures leaving foundations
partly exposed but repairable by
backfilling. Cracks caused by undermined
foundations are clearly visible on walls
but not critical. Unsuitable for immediate
occupancy but suitable after repair
Heavy Out-of-plane failure or collapse of
(DM3) masonry wall panels beyond repair,
structural integrity compromised. Most
parts of the structure suffered collapse.
Excessive foundation settlement and tilting
beyond repair. Collapse of wall sections due
to scouring and damage non-repairable.
Structure requires demolition since
unsuitable for occupancy
Collapse Complete structural damage or
(DM4) collapse, foundations and floor slabs
visible and exposed, collapse of large
sections of foundations and structures
due to heavy scouring
addition to geology/vulcanology studies and the devel-
opment of mathematical models and simulation codes,
Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote
Sensing (RS) are also widely used to combine volcanic
hazard maps with inventory databases (asset maps)
to determine hazard, vulnerability, exposure and risk.
An example is given by the EU EXPLORIS project,
devoted to the needs related to volcanic risk assessment
and mitigation (EXPLORIS 2006).
Despite a large international effort, few studies can
be found where structural damage assessments are
reported, and there is no official guidance as to how to
perform rapid damage assessments.
Spence et al. (1996), Blong (2003) and Spence
et al. (2005) have carried out damage assessments
on buildings, using a damage scale based on the
MSK earthquake intensity scale for buildings and
by applying earthquake engineering principles and
survey techniques. Spence et al. (1996) developed a
6-point damage scale for use in assessing the dam-
age from Mount Pinatubo, to summarise the damage
1027
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
and to provide damage distribution data. Blong (2003)
carried out a damage assessment for Rabaul, Papua
New Guninea, and used the same damage scale to
quantify the impacts. The study noted that additional
volcanic hazards should be included in such assess-
ments, including: mudfills, lahars and the secondary
impact of corrosion. Spence et al. (2005) again used the
6-point damage scale to classify the damage from vol-
canic ashfall. The study generated vulnerability curves
for European buildings based on empirical and analyt-
ical data. The data was gathered from the area around
Vesuvius and from other areas in Europe.
As for the case of tsunami damage assessment using
EMS-98, these surveys provide little information on
the building characteristics, type, age and condition,
and many surveys do not provide adequate detail for
the purpose of understanding building vulnerability to
volcanic ashfall or indeed other volcanic hazards.
The EU Network Project COST Action C26 “Urban
Habitat Constructions Under Catastrophic Events”
(COST 2006) undertook an assessment of buildings in
Naples, in order to classify the building typology and
to predict the possible modes of failure when impacted
by volcanic hazards. The C26 preliminary activity is
reported in several publications (Dobran, 2007, Florio
et al., 2009, Mazzolani et al., 2009a and 2009b).
The complete results of the Vesuvius field inves-
tigation are reported in De Gregorio et al. (2010a–c).
The latter study involved two field surveys undertaken
during 2009 and 2010, to identify structural typologies
in the area around Vesuvius, and record their char-
acteristics. The surveys and subsequent vulnerability
analyses were carried out as a collaboration between
various universities and institutes across Europe. The
surveys were carried out for different building types in
the historic centre of Torre del Greco, the residential
area of Torre del Greco, the Schools, and the Vesuvian
Golden Mile Villas.
The detailed surveys recorded information includ-
ing: regularity of building in plan and height, the
number and height of storeys, number and size of open-
ings, frescos, mouldings, number of statues and pieces
of original furniture. Data was also collected on con-
struction materials, construction methods, building
age, existing strengthening or improvement, general
state of repair, site morphology and the existence of
cornices, lintels, stringcourses, tie-beams, connection
of walls to roof and of floors to walls (where seen).
In addition the failure mechanisms were classified
using the MEDEA form (MEDEA 2005) and vulnera-
bility was assessed to the three hazards of: earthquake,
pyroclastic flow and ash fall.
The results showed the prevalence of buildings
designed to resist ordinary vertical loads, which
showed insufficient safety against the volcanic actions.
The adopted survey approach should be optimised
for others to use successfully and unambiguously,
with the aim of increasing the quantity of acceptable
field-based surveys that can then be added to the col-
lective database. This will improve understanding of
vulnerability to volcanic hazards.
 5 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
The reviewed literature on post-event structural
damage assessment methodologies for earthquakes,
tsunami and volcanic hazards demonstrates a clear
difference in the development of these procedures for
the different hazards. Many procedures and guidelines
have been published in the case of earthquake damage
assessment, whilst little or no guidance exists for the
other two cases. Where this guidance exists it is based
on earthquake engineering principles and in very few
cases is modified to account for particular structural
vulnerabilities to the specific hazards. It is thought
that this is mainly due to the fact that the engineers
involved in the damage assessments even for tsunami
and volcanic hazards are from earthquake engineer-
ing backgrounds and have adopted these procedure
in the absence of any alternative. The latter seems to
stem from a general lack of study of the impacts of
these hazards from an engineering perspective (e.g.
see Rossetto et al., 2010).
The question of whether a standard structural dam-
age assessment method can be developed to assess
structural safety for all three natural hazards remains
unresolved from the analysis of the literature. The
fact that earthquake engineering methods (with little
modification) have been deemed adequate for assess-
ing impact intensity is encouraging. However, further
research is required that specifically compares dam-
age mechanisms in different hazard events in order to
determine the suitability of standard forms for rapid
and detailed evaluation (as in ATC-20). Currently
sufficiently detailed data from field surveys is not
available in the case of tsunami and volcanic events.
Hence, this will be a task for future research.
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Impact of the L’Aquila 2009 earthquake on the small village of Poggio

Picenze: Damage assessment and reconstruction planning

V. Sepe & E. Spacone

Department of Engineering, University “G. D’Annunzio”, Pescara, Italy

C. Verazzo
Department of Scienze, Storia dell’Architettura, Restauro e Rappresentazione (DSSAR), University “G.
D’Annunzio”, Pescara, Italy

ABSTRACT: This paper presents the early results of the work carried out by a group of researchers in support of
the reconstruction efforts in the municipality of Poggio Picenze (near L’Aquila), where the April 6, 2009 L’Aquila
earthquake severely damaged the historical center. The research group is interdisciplinary and includes structural
engineers, architectural designers, city planners, architectural conservation experts, geologists and industrial
designers. The main objectives of the proposed activities are to define reference guidelines for the conservation,
rehabilitation, and safety enhancement of the built environment of the historical center of Poggio Picenze. These
guidelines are the results of consultations with the regional reconstruction authorities, that supervise the post-
emergency activities in the L’Aquila region. Together with the local authorities, the reconstruction scenarios
consider the gradual old town reopening within a more general scheme of social and economic revitalization
of the town and the surrounding areas. The following pages present the results of the first year of work, that
was basically spent gathering information regarding the town before the earthquake and the damage assessment,
primarily in the historical center.

1 INTRODUCTION Poggio Picenze, a village of the Abruzzi Apen-

In May 2009 the Abruzzi Regional Administration
(Regione Abruzzo), the Colleges of Architecture and
Geology of the University of Chieti-Pescara, the
College of Engineering of the University of L’Aquila
subscribed a memorandum of understanding aimed at
starting a cooperation for the reconstruction of the
area hit by the L’Aquila earthquake (6th April 2009).
The memorandum involved six Municipalities near
L’Aquila: Barete, Caporciano, Castelli, Goriano Sicoli,
Poggio Picenze, Rocca di Mezzo. Several activities
are promoted by the memorandum, mainly: theoretical
and experimental research to support the reconstruc-
tion process, interdisciplinary workshops for students,
codes of practice for the sustainable development of
the different villages and the surrounding areas. The
present papers reports on the activities carried out in
Poggio Picenze.
The work done so far testifies that the university
system can play a significant role in the reconstruction
process, even in its early development, when possi-
ble reconstruction scenarios and different short-term
actions have to be weighted with respect to mean and
long-time effects. Due to the inherent complexity of
the problem, a strongly interdisciplinary approach was
used, with the contribution of city planners, struc-
tural engineers, cultural heritage experts, architects,
industrial designers, geologists.
nine with about one thousand residents, is at 760
meters above see level. It is built on a South fac-
ing slope overlooking the impressive landscape of the
L’Aquila valley, bounded to the North by the National
Park of Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga and to
the South by the Regional Park Velino-Sirente. The
mainshock of April 6th 2009 severely impacted the
historical village centre, with seven casualties, while
the surrounding, new construction belt made mostly
of reinforced concrete structures, suffered minor or
no damage. Significant damage was also registered in
the town Churches (among them the Church of Saint
Felice) and in some older public buildings such as the
kindergarten and the elementary school, built between
the two World Wars.
2 THE APRIL 6, 2009 L’AQUILA EARTHQUAKE
2.1 Earthquake characteristics
The seismic event of April 6th 2009 confirms the high
seismicity of the Abruzzi region, one of the highest of
the Italian territory.
The Italian seismic catalogue of strong events
contains several earthquakes with magnitude M > 6
with epicentre in the Abruzzi Apennine area (1315,
1349,1461,1703,1915), responsible for extensive

1031
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 1. Fault plane of the Paganica faults, extrapolated
from satellite data (from Preliminary report INGV-
EMERGEO, 2009).
damage scenarios up to the 10th degree on the MCS
scale.
On April 6th 2009, 03:32:39 Italian hour, a strong
earthquake of Richter (or local) Magnitude Ml = 5.8
and a Moment magnitude Mw = 6.3 struck the area
around L’Aquila, causing strong damages also to
Poggio Picenze, where the peak ground acceleration
(PGA) was estimated in about 0.2 g on bedrock. In
a couple of instances, registrations show horizontal
PGAs around 0,6 g.
The source of this earthquake is the Paganica fault,
about 30 km long and oriented in the NW-SE direction,
with a fault plane inclined of about 50◦ toward SW
(Fig. 1).
Past quake reconnaissance work shows the
strongest damage in the NW-SE direction, according
to the orientation of the seismogenic structure, with
a relevant propagation toward SE and effects corre-
sponding to the 9th degree in the MCS scale. For
Poggio Picenze, the quake was estimated at 8.5 on the
MCS scale.
2.2 Seismic microzonation
The Italian Civil Protection Department (DPC), in
view of the reconstruction of the damaged areas,
has completed the seismic microzonation of the most
severely damaged areas around L’Aquila.
The microzonation resulted in thematic maps devel-
oped from old and new data. The region is divided
in small zones (microzones) homogeneous from the
seismic viewpoint (Fig. 2–3).
The maps of the Poggio Picenze area report detailed
information on the classification of the territory and
on the rough data used for statistical elaboration,
including: location of on-site experimental investiga-
tions performed before and after the April 6th 2009
earthquake, boundaries of the significant lithologi-
cal units, data gathered on the physical characteristics
of the rocks, inactive tectonic elements (faults, folds,
thrusts), geomorphology (geolithological map and
sections).
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
In the map (Fig. 3) the microzones are classi-
fied according to three categories: stable zones, stable
zones subject to local amplification effects, potentially
unstable zones. In conclusion, the old (and central) part
of Poggio Picenze can show significant local amplifi-
cation effects due to the local geology; further seismic
amplification is also possible due to topographical
effects.
2.3 Results of damage reconnaissance
After the mainshock (April 6th 2009), an extensive
campaign of speedy survey took place in order to
access the damage suffered by private and public struc-
tures. Structures were classified based on the damage
level (from grade A, corresponding to no damage,
to grade E, corresponding to extensive damage or
collapse).
The results of this survey, carried out by hundreds
of volunteers (civil engineers, architects, geologists)
coordinated by the DPC, were reported on the map of
the central part of Poggio Picenze (Fig. 4). The red
areas clearly show that the two oldest cores of the
village are almost completely inhabitable and for this
reason they have been closed off.
Outside the historical centre, most of isolated build-
ings, typically built with reinforced concrete (r.c.),
have shown little or no significant damage. On the
other hand, some of the old masonry buildings outside
the centre of Poggio Picenze, such as the Church of S.
Felice Martire, or even relatively new r.c. buildings (as
the elementary school and the kindergarten) suffered
significant damage too.
2.4 Characteristics of the built environment
The historical centre of Poggio Picenze consists of two
distinct cores; one develops around the ruins of the so
called “castle”, with streets that follow topographic
contour lines. The other core develops along the main
axis of the ancient Roman Street “Claudia Nova”, with
transversal and parallel streets arranged as a sort of
comb.
The dwellings are characterised by very simple
construction, aimed at satisfying primary needs. The
building criteria and typologies mainly depend on
the locally available natural materials, such as stones
and wood. These materials are widely found in the
historical centre.
Studies carried out on these buildings have shown
that the main characters of the old town are those
of a building (and cultural) heritage that uses basic
traditional models with a very wide variety of mod-
ifications, according to the original needs of the
inhabitants and the changes during the decades.
It is for instance easy to recognize buildings that
were initially conceived as stables or warehouse for
tools or agricultural products, more recently trans-
formed into dwellings.
For each structural element, basic materials and
their physical and mechanical properties have been
Figure 2. Microzonation map of the Poggio Picenze area (level 1) (Dipartimento della Protezione Civile, DPC).

Figure 3. Microzonation map of the Poggio Picenze area (level 3) (Dipartimento della Protezione Civile, DPC).

Figure 4. Close-up of the results of the past-earthquake damage survey in Poggio Picenze.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 5–7. Clockwise: corner toppling; vertical “bending”
of a wall in via Ricci; partial toppling of an external wall.
studied and surveyed, together with typical craft-
manship and construction practices. Degradation and
damage scenarios due not only to the seismic event,
but also to the lack of maintenance and use were also
recorded.
The study of the traditional building technologies
for masonry structures allowed to recognize, in the
most seriously damaged cases, the absence of the box
behaviour today required for masonry buildings, as
a consequence of the lack of connections between
orthogonal walls, between walls and floor slabs or
between walls and roof system.
Without a box behaviour, the seismic vulnerability
mainly depends on out-of-plane collapse mechanisms
of the resisting macroelements – e.g. masonry exter-
nal walls or parts of them – rather than on the in-plane
excessive stress on the masonry (e.g. Speranza, 2003).
In this case, the vulnerability is evaluated using data
mainly related to the geometric configuration of the
building macroelements, by means of the so called
kinematic approach to the limit analysis of equilib-
rium. The approach basically consists of analysing all
the possible collapse mechanisms of macroelements
and then individuating, by means of limit conditions
for each mechanism, the smallest multiplier of refer-
ence horizontal forces that activate the out-of-plane
mechanisms.
The following figures show some of the collapse
(or damage) mechanisms observed in Poggio Picenze:
corner toppling (fig. 5)
vertical “bending” of a wall (fig. 6)
partial toppling of an external wall (fig. 7)
The position of the building with respect to the
neighbouring structures can be very relevant to the
collapse mechanism; as a consequence, the structural
behavior (namely, the analysis of the possible collapse
mechanisms) has to be evaluated considering the entire
building aggregate (or simply aggregate, in the follow-
ing), that can be defined as the structural assembly of
dwellings structurally detached from other structures
or aggregates.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 8. Temporary strengthening of the Church of San
Felice Martire.
This approach, that considers building aggregates
rather than single apartments or units, is used in stud-
ies and plans for seismic risk mitigation of historical
areas. Different, independent building aggregates con-
nected through paths, roads, squares, etc. form the so
called minimal urban structure [Fabietti, 1999], i.e.
the smallest area that can be identified for the purpose
of assessing and reducing the seismic risk of the entire
historical centre. Much of the work done in Poggio
Picenze rotates around this issue.
2.5 Damage to the strategic buildings and the
lifelines
The Church of San Felice Martire (Fig. 8), built around
the first half of the 15th century, was rebuilt and
enlarged after the 1762 earthquake, with the same floor
plan consisting of three naves separated by columns.
The facade in rubble stone was erected in 1924, after
the 1915 earthquake. The strengthening works of the
bell tower, on the left side of the facade, date back to
the same years.
The observed damage typologies include: toppling
of the main façade (made of white limestone) and the
consequent damage to several decorative elements;
the expulsion of stones along the West side of the
church; the breaking of the East side of the transept
as a consequence of pounding.
The inner part of the church, decorated according
to the baroque style, shows many deep cracks in cor-
respondence of the barrel vault of the apse and the
rubble stone walls of the side naves. Collapses were
also observed in the dome and in the vaults of the
main and of the lateral naves.
Toppling was also observed of some of the walls of
the bell tower, with expulsion of stones.
The San Giuliano church (Fig. 9) was built at the
beginning of the 15th century over the ruins of a small
hospital closed in 1447. The facade, ending at the top
with a horizontal crowning, shows pilasters made of

Figure 9. Church of S. Giuliano: main facade.
Figure 10. Visitazione Church temporary strengthening
detail.
local stones; the inner part consists of a single nave,
with wooden ceiling and roof.
The structural survey has shown superficial and
deep cracks, while no toppling or collapse was
reported, except for damage due to pounding between
the main beams and the facade.
Built between the 15th and the 16th century, the
Visitazione church (Fig. 10) shows a Romanic style
facade. Although no significant damage was observed
after the mainshock, the building showed cracks of
increasing length during the period of frequent after-
shocks and was thus temporarily restrained.
From the historical and monumental point of view,
Palazzo Galeota (named after the Galeota family that
has owned it for generations) is a massive building
worth mentioning. It shows diffused damage both
in the walls and in the roof, and has been heavily
buttressed.
Some more recent public buildings should also be
mentioned for their relevant social, administrative and
strategic role. Among them, significant damage was
observed in the masonry elementary school building,
erected in the 1920’s, and in the multi-use room of the
old kindergarten, a structure under restoration and now
damaged in several structural masonry walls and with
a collapsed floor.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
3 ACTIONS
3.1 First actions
In the weeks immediately following the earthquake,
a camp was set up by the Civil Protection Depart-
ment to host the families left homeless by the quake.
The historical center was completely closed (and
remains closed to date), while those buildings (out-
side the historical center) that represent a danger to
the nearby structures were temporarily strengthened
(Fig. 11). New kindergarten and elementary schools
were donated to the town and are now open. Both
structures are made of x-lam timber walls, erected on
a concrete slab.
New temporary, timber buildings (MAPs) were
completed in different areas surrounding the histor-
ical center. Those families initially hosted in the camp
tents moved into these temporary buildings in the past
months. The camp was closed before the beginning of
the cold mountain winter. The role of these “tempo-
rary” buildings is pivotal in the town new layout and
any planning must consider for how man years these
dwellings will be used.
3.2 Planning for the future reconstruction
While the town awaits the guidelines that will regulate
the long reconstruction process, the local administra-
tion and the academic group working with it have
started planning the future activities. More specifi-
cally, the following items are judged central to the
future of Poggio Picenze:
• rebuilding and reopening the old town, with possible
changes in building destination (for example from
private dwellings to economic activities);
• giving new life to old traditions and opening of new
businesses;
• driving the rebirth of the town as part of a terri-
torial plan that exploits the attractiveness of the
surroundings, the current infrastructure, the exist-
ing economic activities and the relation between the
different small towns and the main urban center,
L’Aquila.
The first concrete step toward reconstruction, is
the identification of the historical center perimeter,
as required by the reconstruction agency (or, in Ital-
ian, Struttura di Missione). This perimeter intends
to clearly indicate the historical center where spe-
cial rules need to be applied in order to assure a
reconstruciton that respects the local building tradi-
tions and the pre-existing volumes. The next step will
consist of identifying the building aggregates, previ-
ously defined as a group of dwellings belonging to
different owners but connected from a structural stand-
point. Strengthening and/or rebuilding must consider
entire building aggregates. The rebuilding process will
also consider the interaction between different build-
ing aggregates (considering roads, paths, squares, etc.)
that leads to the definition of the minimal urban
structure.

Figure 11. Old, damaged, elementary school.
In other words, when dealing with historical cen-
ters, the structures cannot be seen as isolated, but
the seismic risk must be considered at the urban
level as well. Indeed, there are several examples in
L’Aquila and its surroundings of historical centers that
were closed because of danger to roads due to few
unstable-collapsing buildings.
In view of the reconstruction of the town cen-
tre of Poggio Picenze, it was planned to create
a so-called “reconstruction desk” (“sportello della
ricostruzione”, in Italian) acting as a support to
the Municipality. More specifically, its scope is to
assist the technical staff of the local administra-
tion in the evaluation and validation of the complex
dossiers prepared by the local technicians (architects,
civil engineers, geologists,…) for the strengthening,
retrofitting or reconstruction of buildings damaged by
the earthquake.
In more general terms the desk, together with the
supports from the faculty involved in the initiative, is
expected to monitor the whole reconstruction process
and to guarantee coherence of the design choices made
for different building aggregates.
4 A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE
The work performed to date by the interdisciplinary
research group has gathered a large amount of data and
has produced significant results both from the practical
and the teaching point of view.
A number of students of the two universities
involved in the project are using Poggio Picenze as
a real field application for different classes, mainly
in structural engineering, city planning, history and
restoration, urban design. The first year results, partly
published in Baldassarri et al. (2010), include a sur-
vey of the structural damages suffered by the buildings
and the infrastructures, a large photographic survey of
the town, and different hypotheses for the sustainable
reconstruction and requalification.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
From the practical viewpoint, the research group
supported the Municipality in the individuation of
the boundary line (perimeter) encircling the town
historical center, where the reconstruction cannot be
performed at the scale of the single building or aggre-
gate but, according to a recent Government Decree,
has to be planned within a global approach.
This should guarantee a uniform quality and
effectiveness of the strengthening and reconstruction
actions from a structural, architectonic and town-
planning point of view. At the same time, preserving
the cultural and material identity of the place, or at least
of its historical center, through this global approach,
should allow a riqualification of the village from the
touristic point of view, not unlike other small towns of
the Abruzzi region, known worldwide for its natural
beauties and mountain traditions.
Only the first steps have been taken in this direction,
and additional, long lasting efforts are required – and
indeed already planned – to complete the task.
Hopefully, this will change the disastrous earth-
quake of April 6th 2009 in a opportunity for making
the Poggio Picenze territory safer. The future of this
village could also become a good practice example for
other small, historical towns in seismic areas.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to acknowledge the contribu-
tions of the students and of their colleagues involved
in the project. They are all gratefully thanked for their
work and mostly for their natural attitude to imagine a
new and safer life for an area so deeply wounded.
REFERENCES
Baldassarri E., Continenza R., Cremonini I., Fabietti V.,
Pozzi C., Rovigatti P., Sepe V., Spacone E., Tosone A.,
Varagnoli V., Verazzo C., Poggio Picenze Interlab. Uni-
versità abruzzesi per il terremoto, Roma, Aracne, 2010
(in Italian).
Cremonini I., Rischio sismico e pianificazione nei centri
storici, Firenze, Alinea, 1993 (in Italian).
Fabietti V., Vulnerabilità e trasformazione dello spazio
urbano, Firenze, Alinea, 1999 (in Italian).
Giuffrè A. (a cura di), Sicurezza e conservazione nei centri
storici in zona sismica. Il caso di Ortigia, Bari, Laterza,
1993(in Italian).
Le Linee Guida per la ricostruzione, in “Noi Abruzzo”, anno
I, n. 1, 23 March 2010 (in Italian).
Speranza E., An integrated method for the assessment of the
seismic vulnerabilità of historic buildings, PhD Disserta-
tion, University of Bath, UK, 2003.
Varagnoli C, Serafini L., Verazzo C., Earthquake resistant
solutions of the traditional yard in Abruzzo, in AA.VV.,
Hazards and Modern Heritage (Leros, 22–24 aprile 2009),
Leros, 2009, pp. 281–292.
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Regional earthquake shaking and loss assessment

K. Sesetyan, M.B. Demircioglu, C. Zulfikar, Y. Kamer & M. Erdik

Bogazici University, Department of Earthquake Engineering, Istanbul, Turkey

ABSTRACT: The Joint Research Activity 3 of EC FP6 NERIES Project has developed a methodology and
software, ELER© – Earthquake Loss Estimation Routine, for rapid estimation of earthquake shaking and losses
throughout the Euro-Mediterranean region. Recently, a new version (v2.0) of the software has been released.
The multi-level methodology developed together with researchers from Imperial College, NORSAR and ETH-
Zurich is capable of incorporating regional variability and sources of uncertainty stemming from ground motion
predictions, fault finiteness, site modifications, inventory of physical and social elements and the associated
vulnerability relationships. Loss estimation (damage, casualty and economic) is performed at different levels
of sophistication (Level 0, 1 and 2) that are commensurate with the availability of inventory of human built
environment (Loss Mapping). This paper elaborates on ground motion estimation and Level 0 and Level 1 loss
estimation methodologies used in ELER© , also presenting examples from the validation studies conducted.

1 INTRODUCTION 2 EARTHQUAKE LOSSMAP METHODOLOGY

The reduction of casualties in urban areas immedi-
ately following an earthquake can be improved if
the location and severity of damages can be rapidly
assessed by the information from Rapid Response
Systems. Emergency management centers of both pub-
lic and private sector with functions in the immediate
post-earthquake period (i.e. SAR, fire and emer-
gency medical deployments) can allocate and pri-
oritize resources to minimize the loss of life. The
emergency response capabilities can be significantly
improved to reduce casualties and facilitate evacua-
tions by permitting rapid and effective deployment
of emergency operations. The rapid response data
should possibly be linked with incident command and
standard emergency management systems to increase
effectiveness.
The Joint Research Activity 3 (JRA3) of the EU
Project NERIES (http://www.neries-eu.org) aims at
establishing rapid estimation of earthquake damages,
casualties, shelters and food requirements throughout
the Euro-Med Region. Within the scope of this activ-
ity, a rapid loss estimation tool (ELER Software) is
developed with researchers from Bogazici University-
Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Insti-
tute (KOERI), Imperial College (IC), NORSAR and
Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC).
The European rapid loss estimation tool will enable
effective emergency response and public information.
The present paper summarizes the methodologies used
in shake-map and Level 0 and Level 1 loss-map assess-
ment modules of ELER© and application examples
and comparisons with observed damage data. Level
2 module is presented in the companion paper by
Hancilar et al.
FOR EURO-MED REGION
The methodology developed for near real time esti-
mation of losses after a major earthquake in the Euro-
Mediterranean region consists of the following general
steps:
1. For a given earthquake magnitude and epicenter
information, estimation of the spatial distribution of
selected ground motion intensity measures through
region specific ground motion prediction equations
with appropriate site response modifications.
2. If available, incorporation of empirical strong
ground motion data with appropriate bias adjust-
ment of theoretical estimations.
3. Estimation of the building damage and human
casualty at different levels of sophistication that
are commensurate with the availability of building
inventory.
This methodology is used for the development of
the MATLAB based ELER (Earthquake Loss Estima-
tion Routine) software (Erdik et al., 2008; Demircioglu
et al., 2009). ELER provides for the estimation of
losses in three levels of analysis, as illustrated in
Figure 1.
Earthquake Loss Assessment module uses ground
motion and intensity information from Earthquake
Hazard Assessment module, demography and build-
ing inventory. This module includes three levels of
analysis (Level 0, Level 1 and Level 2) for estimation
of building damages and casualties. Level 0 analysis
estimates casualties based on magnitude and inten-
sity information. Level 1 analysis estimates casualties
and building damages based on intensity informa-
tion, whereas Level 2 analysis estimates casualties and

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK

Figure 1. Multi-level analysis methodology of ELER.
building damages based on ground motion and spectral
parameters, the sophistication level of inventory data
being the critical point in the choice of the analysis
level.
2.1 Assessment of ground motion (shake-map)
Hazard module basically produces earthquake shake
maps using a similar procedure of USGS Shake Map
(Wald et al. 2005) in terms of selected ground motion
parameters such as peak ground acceleration (PGA),
peak ground velocity (PGV), spectral acceleration
(Sa ), through region specific ground motion prediction
equations (GMPE). For site specific analysis, Haz-
ard module utilizes shear wave propagation velocity
(Vs-30 ) distributions obtained from regional geology
(QTM maps) and slope based Vs-30 maps. User defined
Vs-30 can also be used in the computations. Assessment
of ground motion is based on event parameters defined
by the user. The minimum data required for the anal-
ysis are the magnitude and the epicentral location of
the event. Additional data that can be defined by the
user are the rupture parameters or a fault database and
accelerometric data.
The following step by step procedure is used in the
estimation of ground motions:
1. Depending on the earthquake epicenter coordi-
nation input, the extent of the Shake-Map area
drawn.
2. The phantom stations with a user-defined uni-
form spaced grid are created within the Shake-Map
extent.
3. Using the generic empirical ground motion predic-
tion models, the ground motion parameters for each
phantom station on the bedrock level are calculated.
Interpolation between phantom stations is achieved
with a finer grid of nodes In the case of GMPEs
taking Vs-30 (e.g. Next Generation Attenuation –
NGA models), the ground motion parameters are
estimated on the ground surface.
4. If there are ground motion recordings available at
the site, the obtained parameters are transferred
from surface to the bedrock level, and a bias cor-
rection is applied to the estimated ground motion
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
parameters on bedrock level. In the case of NGA
models, the bias correction is applied on the ground
surface.
5. The estimated ground motion parameters on
bedrock level are transferred to the surface level
taking into account local site conditions with
default gridded Vs30 values (Allen & Wald, 2007)
for Euro-Med region or any other site information
if available.
In addition to the ground motion parameters PGA,
PGV, Sa and Sd , ground shaking intensity is also esti-
mated through the regression relationships between
MMI and PGA-PGV (Wald et al., 1999), and regional
intensity predictions models (e.g. Sesetyan et al., 2005
for Turkey).
2.2 Loss-maps: Level 0 assessment
The Level 0 analysis of ELER software consists of
non building specified approaches developed human
causality estimates for geographical area or for pop-
ulation density correlating with the size of the earth-
quake (magnitude or intensity). Empirical models rely
directly on the fatality rates of exposed population
as functions of earthquake intensity, regional vulner-
ability level, regional growth rate and time of the
day. Regional vulnerability levels can be assigned on
the basis of the level of economic development, gen-
eral building types and building occupancy rates with
various degrees of refinement and resolution. The
number of people exposed to various levels of earth-
quake ground motion intensities can be assessed
through the use of the Gridded global ambient popula-
tion database prepared by Oak Ridge National Labora-
tory (http://www.ornl.gov/sci/landscan/landscan2005/
index.html). Samardjieva & Badal (2002), RGELFE
(1992) and Vacareanu et al. (2004) empirical
approaches are used in this level to estimate the total
number of casualties and the associated geographic
distribution.
2.3 Building inventory
A building inventory is a catalog of the buildings and
facilities in each class of the assumed classification
system. In ELER structure, the building inventory
should be associated with geographical coordinates in
order to perform a loss estimation study resulting from
the ground motion generated by a specific earthquake,
or obtained from a hazard study.
The sophistication and completeness level of the
building inventory is also a function of the regional
scale and determines the level of analysis that will be
used in loss estimation. Level 1 and Level 2 analyses of
ELER deal with building damage estimations and two
levels of building inventory definition are envisaged
within Level 1 analysis. The crudest level of building
inventory corresponds to an approximated European
database of the number of buildings and their geo-
graphic distribution and aims at a rough estimation of
building damages in country scale in Europe. For a
more rigorous loss estimation, the user should provide Table 1. Computed Vulnerability indices for different
a grid based database of the actual number of buildings building typologies.
corresponding to the EMS98 (or European) building
taxonomies. Building Typologies Building type Vo

2.4 Loss-maps: Level 1 assessment Masonry M1 Rubble stone 0.873

M2 Adobe 0.84
The Level 1 loss estimation engine of ELER is based M3 Simple stone 0.74
on macroseismic damage estimation tools and aims at M4 Massive stone 0.616
the assessment of both the building damage and the M5 U Masonry (old bricks) 0.74
casualties. The intensity based empirical vulnerabil- M6 U Masonry – r.c. floors 0.616
M7 Reinforced/confined 0.451
ity relationships of Logomarsino & Giovinazzi (2006)
masonry
and casualty vulnerability models mainly based on Reinforced RC1 Frame in r.c. (without ERD) 0.644
Coburn & Spence (2002) approach are utilized. To Concrete RC2 Frame in r.c. (moderate ERD) 0.484
quantify the physical damage to buildings, the EMS- RC3 Frame in r.c. (high ERD) 0.324
98 damage grades have been considered, describing RC4 Shear walls (without ERD) 0.544
the observed damage for structural and non structural RC5 Shear walls (moderate ERD) 0.384
components. Five damage grades are identified: D1 RC6 Shear walls (high ERD) 0.224
slight, D2 moderate, D3 heavy, D4 very heavy, D5 Steel S Steel structures 0.324
destruction. The vulnerability of a building class is Timber W Timber structures 0.447
measured in terms of a vulnerability index V and of a
ductility index Q, both evaluated taking into account
the building typology and its constructive features.
The correlation between the seismic input and the
expected damage, as a function of the assessed vulner-
ability, is expressed in terms of vulnerability curves
described by a closed analytical function:

where µD is the mean damage value of the expected

discrete damage distribution, I is the seismic input
provided in terms of a macroseimic intensity, and V
and Q are the vulnerability and the ductility indexes
obtained for different building types. The vulnerability
indexes (V ) obtained for different building typolo-
gies are given in Table 1. The associated vulnerability
curves for building typologies can be drawn as a func-
tion of the mean vulnerability index values V provided
in Table 1 and of the ductility index, Q = 2.3.
The economic losses emanating from building dam-
ages can also be estimated through a parameter (DI)
defined as the ratio between repair and reconstruc-
tion costs of a structure, which will be included as an
economic loss estimation tool in the next version of
ELER.
For the estimation of casualties from building dam-
ages, the model proposed by Coburn & Spence (2002)
is used. The model calculates the estimated number
of fatalities and injuries as a function of the number
of buildings in damage state D5, and the associated
population distribution.
3 VALIDATION WITH TURKISH
EARTHQUAKE DATA
Figure 2. Observed intensity distribution of the 1992
Erzincan earthquake.
North Anatolian Fault (NAF). The earthquake caused
653 deaths together with severe damage to more than
4,000 buildings. The observed intensity distribution of
the earthquake is given in Figure 2.
For the 1992 Erzincan earthquake a total of 1,037
and 3,832 buildings are estimated to be in damage
states D5 and D4 respectively. The damage studies of
the earthquake report that 3,304 residential and 852
commercial buildings were in damage states of very
heavy damage and collapse, showing a good agree-
ment of the estimations with the observed values. The
estimated intensity distribution covers a larger area
than the observed intensity maps (Fig. 3). The result-
ing building damages are however very well estimated
(Fig. 4). This may be associated with the low rate of
occupancy in the regions away from the city center
where the damage is concentrated.

3.1 1992 M6.8 Erzincan Earthquake 3.2 1999 M7.4 Kocaeli Earthquake
The 1992 March 13 Erzincan earthquake (Ms = 6.8) The 17 August 1999 M7.4 Kocaeli earthquake
affected the Erzincan Basin on the eastern part of the which occurred in a densely populated and highly

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Figure 6. The estimated intensity distribution of the 1999
Kocaeli Earthquake (Sesetyan et al., 2005).

Table 2. Casualty estimation for Level 0.

Figure 3. Computed intensity distribution of the 1992
Erzincan earthquake obtained from Sesetyan et al. (2005). Intensity Population Model 1 Model 2 Model 3

VI 1,0471,677 366 110 –

VII 2,063,938 1,205 294 –
VIII 754,819 3,666 871 –
IX 1,894,400 11436 30,980 –
TOTAL 15,184,834 16672 32,255 5359

Figure 4. Distribution of EMS98 Damage State D4 build-

ings obtained from Lagomarsino & Giovinnazi (2006)
method.

Figure 7. The estimated distribution of casualties for the

1999 Kocaeli Earthquake from Level 0 assessments.

Table 3. Casualty estimation for Level 1.

KOERI, Coburn &

2002 Spence, 2002 RISK-EU

Total Buildings – 1,455,500 1,455,500

Total Dwellings – 5,962,924 5,962,924
Fatalities 19,927 11,943 23,546
Seriously 79,709 – –
Injured

Figure 5. The observed intensity distribution of the 1999

Kocaeli Earthquake.
industrialized area was one of the most destructive
earthquakes in Turkish history. In total 17,000 people
were killed, 40,000 people were injured. The observed
and estimated intensity distributions of Kocaeli event
are presented in Figures 5 and 6.
Considering the Samardjieva & Badal (2002),
RGELFE (1992) and Vacareanu (2004) models, the
result of the estimated casualty for Level 0 of ELER
software is presented in Table 2. The geographic distri-
bution of the estimated casualties is given in Figure 7.
The building damage distribution for EMS-98 D4 and
D5 damage states obtained from Level 1 loss assess-
ment using the Lagomarsino & Giovinazzi (2006)
method is presented in Figure 8. For the estimation
of casualties, three models are used. The casualty
estimations for each model are presented in Table 3.

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 8. Building damage distribution for D4+D5.

Figure 9. Turkish earthquake casualty data overlain with

Table 4. Fatalities for Turkish earthquakes obtained from
the Vacaeranu et al. (2004) empirical model.
Level 0 Assessments

Estimated damage and casualties, at regional scale. As the den-

Population sity of instrumentation, quality of building inventory
Density Estimated Actual and population databases vary throughout the region of
Event M per km2 Casualties Casualties interest, a multi level analysis methodology is incorpo-
rated. Differently from Level 2, intensity is used as the
1939 Erzincan 7.8 >200 41,495 32,700
ground motion parameter in both Level 0 and Level 1
1942 Erbaa 7.1 100–200 1,982 3,000
1943 Ladik 7.3 100–200 2,825 4,000 analyses. The ultimate goal of the development of this
1944 Gerede 7.6 100–200 4,808 5,000 tool is the rapid estimation of losses and the associ-
1953 Yenice 7.2 50–100 828 1,103 ated geographic distributions for effective emergency
1966 Varto 6.8 100–200 1,086 2,520 response and public information after potentially dam-
1970 Gediz 7.1 50–100 682 1,100 aging earthquakes. The validation studies conducted
1971 Bingol 6.8 100–200 1,086 995 throughout the development phase show a good agree-
1975 Lice 6.6 >200 1,786 2,370 ment between the estimated and observed damage
1983 6.7 100–200 879 1,342 distributions.
Erzurum
1999 7.6 >200 16,672 17,118
Kocaeli
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

For the development of the ELER methodology

3.3 Level 0 assessments
The Samardjieva & Badal (2002) method was tested
for Turkish earthquakes and satisfactory results were
obtained. Table 4 summarizes the results obtained
from this method for Turkish earthquakes. It can be
observed from Table 4 that we have used somewhat
higher population density values to obtain estimated
casualties close to the actual ones. This would imply
higher casualties from moderate size Turkish earth-
quakes than those calculated from the model. The main
reason for that could be the low quality construction
practice common especially in Eastern Anatolia. The
casualty data provided in Table 4 is also plotted on the
Vacareanu et al. (2004) model as given in Figure 9.
This figure also shows that most of the Turkish earth-
quakes lie between the median and upper bound curves
of the model, suggesting high population and/or high
vulnerability.
and software, the following individuals and institu-
tions have contributed. This contribution is gratefully
acknowledged.
NERIES Project – JRA3 Workgroup:
Julian J. Bommer, Peter J.Stafford, Fleur O. Strasser,
Imperial College, London, UK
Hilmar Bungum, Dominik H. Lang, Conrad D.
Lindholm, NORSAR, Kjeller, Norway
Remy Bossu, European-Mediterranean Seismolo-
gical Centre, EMSC, Arpajon, France
Furthermore we are also thankful for the support of
following individuals:
David Wald, US Geological Survey, USGS, Denver,
Colorado, USA
Xavier Goula, Janira Irizarry, Antoni Roca, Institut
Geologic de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
Alberto Michelini, Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica
e Vulcanologia, INGV, Italy.

4 CONCLUSIONS
Level 0 and Level 1 loss assessment modules of Earth-
quake Loss Estimation Routine-ELER software, aim
at near real-time assessment of the earthquake gen-
erated probable damage, both in terms of building
REFERENCES
Coburn, A. and Spence R. 2002. Earthquake Protection
(Second Edition), John Wiley and Sons Ltd., Chichester,
England.
Demircioglu, M. B., Erdik, M., Hancilar, U., Sesetyan, K.,
Tuzun, C., Yenidogan, Zulfikar, A.C. 2009. Technical

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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
 Manual – Earthquake Loss Estimation Routine ELER-
v2.0, Bogazici University, Department of Earthquake
Engineering, Istanbul.
Erdik, M., Cagnan, Z., Zulfikar, C., Sesetyan, K.,
Demircioglu, M. B., Durukal, E., Kariptas, C. 2008a.
Development of Rapid Earthquake Loss Assessment
Methodologies for Euro-Med Region, Proc. of 14th World
Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Beijing, China.
Erdik, M., Cagnan, Z., Demircioglu, M. B, Durukal, E.,
Hancilar, U., Harmandar, E., Sesetyan, K., Tuzun, C.,
Yenidogan, C., Zulfikar, A. C. 2008b. Deliverable 3 (D3),
Report on Development of ELER (Earthquake Loss Esti-
mation Routine) Methodology: Vulnerability Relation-
ships (http://www.neries-eu.org/main.php/JRA3_D3_v2.
pdf?fileitem=9502731).
KOERI (Department of Earthquake Engineering). 2002.
Earthquake Risk Assessment for Istanbul Metropoli-
tan Area, Report prepared for American Red Cross
and Turkish Red Crescent, Bogazici Univeristy, Istanbul,
Turkey.
Lagomarsino, S., and Giovinazzi, S., 2006. Macroseismic
and mechanical models for the vulnerability and damage
assessment of current buildings, Bulletin of Earthquake
Engineering, Vol. 4, pp. 415–443.
RISK-UE 2004. The European Risk-UE Project (2001–
2004): An Advanced Approach to Earthquake Risk
Scenarios, www.risk-ue.net.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
RGELFE (Research Group for Estimating Losses from
Fututre Earthquakes) 1992. Estimating Losses form
Earthquakes in China in the Forthcoming 50 years, State
Seismological Bureau, Seismological Press, Beijing.
Samardjieva, E. and J. Badal, 2002. Estimation of the
expected number of casualties caused by strong earth-
quakes. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America,
92 (6), pp. 2310–2322, Aug 2002.
Sesetyan K., Durukal E., Demircioglu, M.B. and Erdik M.
2005. A Revised Intensity Attenuation Relationships for
Turkey, EGU.
Vacareanu R., Lungu D., Arion C., Aldea A. 2004. WP7
Report: Seismic Risk Scenarios. Risk-UE Project. An
advanced approach to earthquake risk scenarios with
applications http://www.risk-ue.net.
Wald, D. J., V. Quitoriano, T. H. Heaton, H. Kanamori 1999b.
Relationship between Peak Ground Acceleration, Peak
Ground Velocity, and Modified Mercalli Intensity for
Earthquakes in California, Earthquake Spectra, Vol. 15,
No. 3, 557–564
Wald, D. J., Worden, B. C., Quitoriano, V., Pankow, K. 2005.
ShakeMap Manual: technical manual, users guide, and
software guide, United States Geological Survey (USGS).
 Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events (Proceedings) – Mazzolani (Ed).
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-60685-1

Avalanche risk assessment in populated areas

A. Talon & J.P. Muzeau

LaMI – Polytech’Clermont-Ferrand (CUST), Blaise Pascal University, Clermont-Ferrand, France

J.P. Carlier
Laboratoire de Mécanique de Lille (LML), University of Lille 1, France

ABSTRACT: Each year, avalanches cause very numerous economical, sociological and environmental impacts;
then, it’s of main interest to develop efficient risk mitigation actions. This mitigation efficiency depends on the
accurate knowledge of the studied system. Different scales of risk analysis may be considered; the study scale
will determinate the studied consequences, the associated responsibilities and the action possibilities. These
scales are studied in the second part of the paper. The third part presents the components to consider in a system
analysis (starting point of a risk analysis) at two study scales: massif scale and slope scale. The fourth part
shows the risk scenarios ensued from the system analysis for the both study scales. The fifth part details the
different methods that allow avalanche hazard to be quantified. The quantification of the consequences of the
risk scenarios is presented in the sixth part. The last part will focus on the techniques that allow mitigating risks
(reduce the consequences or decrease the occurrence probabilities of avalanches) associated to avalanches.

1 INTRODUCTION time if it is expected to know the damage risk of a

Each year, avalanches cause very important econo-
mical, sociological and environmental impacts; then,
it is of main interest to develop efficient risk miti-
gation actions. This mitigation efficiency depends on
the accurate knowledge of the studied system. Differ-
ent scales of risk analysis may be considered (§ 2);
the study scale will determinate the studied conse-
quences, the associated responsibilities and the action
possibilities.
The risk is the combination of hazard occurrence
and issue damages. In the avalanche risk context, haz-
ard is the avalanche itself and issues can be persons,
structures, infrastructures, communications, environ-
ment and economy.
A risk analysis compounds five phases:
a. Definition of the avalanche risk analysis scale (§ 3)
b. Leading of system analysis (§ 4)
c. Identification of risk scenarios (§ 5)
d. Quantification of avalanche hazard (§ 6)
e. Quantification of avalanche consequences (§ 7)
f. Proposition of mitigation techniques regarding the
quantified risk scenarios and the possible actions
(§ 8)
2 SCALE OF AVALANCHE RISK ANALYSIS
The definition of risk analysis scale is very important
as it conditions the risk analysis result and the effi-
ciency of the study process. Indeed, a risk analysis at
the mountain scale will generate an important loss of
resort building regarding a potential avalanche hazard
that may progress in a particular slope; in this case, the
risk analysis should be made at the slope scale.
To simplify, it is possible to relate the object and the
scales of this kind of studies:
– at the mountain scale: global environmental
impacts,
– at the massif scale: local environmental impacts,
– at the slope scale: economical and sociological
impacts on persons, structures, infrastructures,
communications, etc.
– at the snowy coat: behavioural knowledge of the
avalanche departure, flow and deposit.
Considering a risk analysis at the civil engineering
point of view, the scales of main interests are the slope
scale and the snowy coat scale.
3 SYSTEM ANALYSIS
The goal of the system analysis is to understand and
to analytically model the behaviour of a case study in
terms of elements that constitute this case study and
the functions ensured by these elements.
The three sub-phases of a system analysis are:
a) to define the system limits and granularity,
b) to lead a structural analysis,
c) to provide a functional analysis.
The definition of system limits aims at focusing
the risk analysis on a spatially and temporally limited

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 domain. The granularity definition goal is to take into
account the efficient scale of description of the study:
not too fine in order to avoid a too long study and
not too global in order to avoid missing relevant risk
scenarios. For instance, it is possible to study the snowy
coat breaking (due to snow overload) during a snowfall
episode.
Figure 1. Example of a scenario of skier death.
The structural analysis aims at describing the ele-
ments composing a case study. For example, at the
massif scale, a mountain may be decomposed into 4 RISK SCENARIOS
workable massifs and into unworkable massifs.
At the slope scale, a slope may be composed of: Risk scenarios are basically the chains of events
starting from an avalanche departure that lead to
– an accumulation basin, catastrophic damages on issues: persons, structures,
– a gorge, infrastructures, communications networks, etc.
– a cone dejection, Beginning with the system analysis several methods
– fauna and flora, are available to build risk scenarios:
– skiers, – Fault Tree Method for avalanche feedback that
– ski lifts, provides explanation of causes combinations that
– station personal, generate damages (Villemeur, 1988),
– habitants, – Event Tree Method for foreseeing consequences
– communication network, generated by an avalanche event (Zwingelstein, 95),
– buildings, – Failure Mode and Effects Analysis for describing
– emergency equipment. precisely avalanche phenomenon and their chaining
The functional analysis objective is to describe (Faucher, 2004),
in terms of functions the behaviour of the elements – …
defined during the structural analysis. For instance, A simplified example of a risk scenario that leads
considering the previous massif scale, the function to the death of a skier is presented in the following
of workable massifs needs “to be sure for humans” figure.
and “to be profitable” and the function of unwork- When all the risk scenarios are identified for a
able massif needs “not to make damage on workable considered case study, the next phases are the quan-
massifs”. tification of those scenarios:
Considering a slope scale, the main functions are:
(1) quantification of the occurrence of the departure
– For skiable slopes: event, of the avalanche,
(2) quantification of the consequences when the
• to carry out the snowy coat,
avalanche has occurred.
• to be secure,
• to have a good quality,
• to be supervised,
•
5 QUANTIFICATION OF AVALANCHE
to be groomed each day,
•
HAZARD
to have enough snow.
– For non skiable slopes: Most of the studies carried in the domain of quantifi-
cation of avalanches aim at collecting knowledge on
• to carry out the snowy coat, the snowy coat all over the massif and the slopes in
• to be secure, order to efficiently foresee the breaking phenomenon
– For buildings: of this snowy coat that provides avalanche departure.
Three research axes in the domain of avalanche hazard
• to resist, quantification are presented here:
• to shelter persons.
– modelling of spatial snow deposit and flow,
– For persons: – measuring of snowy coat properties,
• to be informed, – investigation of occurred avalanche.
• to be secure,
• to be responsible. 5.1 Modelling of spatial snow deposit and flow
– For infrastructures: This kind of study is leaded at the massif scale.
• to resist, This section presents three software that can be used
• to transport flows (persons, fluids, etc.). to characterize the snowy coat at massif scale: the
SAFRAN software (Durand et al., 1993), the CRO-
The system analysis is the essential starting point CUS software (Brun et al., 1992) and the MEPRA
of efficient risk scenario identification. software (Giraud, 1991).

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Figure 2. Example of penetromeric profile, stratigraphic
profile and Pandalp device (Burlet, 2002).
The SAFRAN software provides a situation analy-
sis by:
– calculation of meteorological parameters on the
massif,
– calculation versus altitude, slope and exposition,
– description of a situation at a given moment.
The CROCUS software allows realizing simulation
of the snowy coat evolution by:
– realizing calculations with physical bases,
– integrating modifications undergone by each
stratum:
• shape and size of grains,
• density,
• humidity,
• ...
The MEPRA software provides foresee-aid by:
– estimating the stability of the snowy coat,
– defining the nature of avalanche risk by altitude
stratum and by intensity level.
5.2 Measuring of snowy coat properties
These research tasks are performed at the snowy coat
scale.
A set of tests and a measuring device have been
developed in the context of a partnership between
the Blaise Pascal University of Clermont-Ferrand and
the Sol Solution company in order to characterize
snowy coat properties: cohesion, unit weight and point
resistance.
Figure 2 represents survey results (penetrometric
profile and stratigraphic profile) and the developed
measuring device (Pandalp) that allows the evaluation
of point résistance versus depth. Those results provide
punctual but very useful information.
5.3 Investigation of occurred avalanches
The avalanche investigation begins at the end of the
XIXe century in the French Savoie region, through a
permanent investigation on avalanches (EPA).
Following an avalanche that killed 39 teenagers at
Val d’Isère (February 10, 1970), an inventory map of
all avalanche sites has been made on a decision of
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Figure 3. National map of EPA system (Avalanche, 2008).
Minister Council: the location map of avalanche phe-
nomenon (CLPA). The EPA and CLPA are based on
the investigation of avalanche sites and the collection
of evidences.
The EPA is a chronicle of avalanche events on
selected sites.
The number of sites for which EPA is realized
is limited. Often easily observable, those sites have
been originally chosen versus the damages generated
in forests. Nowadays, the sites are chosen for the
human issues and the scientific knowledge in time
of avalanches. 4200 EPA sites are available; there are
referenced on EPA observation maps.
Ground officers of the O.N.F. (Forest National
Office) note the characteristics of event in their
avalanche notebook for each avalanche event: date,
snow cover, departure altitude, stopping altitude,
avalanche type... All that information is reported
on an avalanche advice. This one is sent to the
CEMAGREF institute who implements them into a
database. More than 70 000 events are available on the
www.avalanches.fr website.
Figure 3 represents the national map of the EPA dis-
posal, where the green points represent the site under
observation or already observed.
The location map of avalanche phenomenon
(CLPA) is an informative document drawn at a
1/25000 scale which describes the maximal ampli-
tudes of avalanche phenomenon occurred in the past
and observed with precision and certainty. The CLPA

Figure 4. Example of CPLA (Avalanche, 2008).
Figure 5. Repartition of the average number of fatal acci-
dents and the number of deaths by avalanche type – Period
from October 2007 to September 2008 (Avalanche, 2008).
essentially indicates the avalanche influence that is to
say the maximal extension of known events. The CLPA
is upgraded each year. Every ten years, a summary
investigation of detailed upgrading is lead.
6 QUANTIFICATION OF AVALANCHE
CONSEQUENCES
The quantification of avalanche consequences is gen-
erally based on statistics of the avalanche events that
generated damages. Figure 5 presents an example of
statistics performed by the French ANENA organi-
sation and Figure 6 shows another statistics example
provided by the Swiss SLF institute.
7 MITIGATION TECHNIQUES
When risk scenarios are identified, quantified (depar-
ture occurrence and consequences effects) and clas-
sified by order of importance, it becomes possible to
reduce the risk probability (prevention action) or the
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 6. Repartition of avalanches accidents by slope
downgrade (SLF, 2008).
Figure 7. Mutual protection by building grouping.
Figure 8. Principle of non-increasing the risk for the neigh-
bourhood.
Figure 9. Principle of prevision of an avalanche outlet.
risk gravity (protection action) in order to put a snowy
slope into secure conditions.
Two categories of construction disposals are avail-
able to protect buildings against avalanche risk: overall
disposals and specific disposals for each construction.
The build principles that correspond to overall
disposals are:
– building grouping (Figure 7),
– orientation and shape of buildings,
– non-increasing of the risk for the neighbourhood
(Figure 8),
– prevision of an avalanche outlet (Figure 9).
The building principles that correspond to specific
disposals for each construction are:
– foresee an access and an entrance on the non-
exposed facades,
Figure 10. Catex (Givry et al., 2004).
Figure 11. Cazex (Givry et al., 2004).
– design facades without hold-in corner when there
are facing the avalanche-prone slopes,
– no storage of polluting or dangerous product in
poorly resistant constructions,
– foresee an appropriate distribution of the places:
the more vulnerable places have to be localized
upstream in the avalanche direction.
Mainly four types of devices that allow preventive
start of avalanches are available:
– The Catex, which is a cable rotating supported by
towers that allows to place the explosive above
snowy coat (Figure 10),
– The Gazex, which is a gas burst (mix of propane
and oxygen) (Figure 11),
– The “Avalancheur”, which is a pneumatic bowler of
explosive arrows (Figure 12),
– The “Alvalhex balloon”, which is a device that can
generate the departure of an avalanche by explo-
sion, above the snowy coat, of a balloon blown up
with a mix of hydrogen and oxygen. This explosion
generates a spherical blast wave (Figure 13).
The protection works are classified into two main
categories, depending on their location in the departure
zone (active protection) or in the flow or deposit zones
(passive protection). In both cases, these actions can be
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Figure 12. “Avalancheur” (Givry et al., 2004).
Figure 13. Avalhex balloon (Givry et al., 2004).
provided permanently (without human intervention) or
temporarily (with decision taken).
The main works of permanent active protection
are: reforestation on seat, wind barrier, snow barrier,
buzzard roof, wind transfer, tire racks, wicker racks,
and fillets.
The main works of permanent active protection are:
galleries, stems, deflectors, stopping dike, stakes, and
road detector of avalanche.
The major part of temporary protections consists
in the application of several rules to the population in
order to prevent a direct exposure to the avalanche risk:
traffic restrictions and regulation. This may be done in
order to proceed to an evacuation, or on the contrary
to maintain people in a safe location until the end of
the critical period.
The information is coordinated and spread at two
levels: the one of the department (vigilance map of de
Météo France) and the one of the ski resort (hoarding,
yellow and black flags).
8 CONCLUSIONS
The avalanche risk analysis may be described in several
main phases:
(1) definition of the study scale and limits,
(2) determination of the constitutive elements and their
function,
(3) identification of the risk scenarios,
(4) quantification of those scenarios in terms of occur-
rence and consequences,
(5) proposing of mitigation actions.
Mitigation actions will be all the more efficient than
the risk analysis is well lead.
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