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Content archived on 2024-05-07

Towards European integration in seismic design and upgrading of building structures

Objective


Foreseen Results

Successful accomplishment of these tasks will, we believe, enhance the cohesion of the earthquake engineering community in an enlarged Europe and safeguard highly qualified human resources.
Major earthquakes have occurred in a number of EU and CCE countries during the last 30 years, causing many casualties, substantial disturbance to the economy, and much physical damage to buildings, infrastructure and the environment. In all these countries a standard form of construction for houses, apartment blocks and public buildings, such as hospitals and administrative centers, is the reinforced concrete frame stiffened by infilled panels. It is not surprising, therefore, that research attention has recently been focused in this area, progress being made in the CCE countries on analytical approaches particularly concerning non-linear behavior, made possible by fast computers, and in experimental techniques making use of sophisticated facilities newly acquired by the EU partners of this proposal. The aim of the proposal is now to bring these two aspects of the problem together in one coordinated programme. We believe it to be a particularly appropriate activity, since research on the behavior of infilled frames in earthquakes requires the development of skills and knowledge across a broad spectrum of science and engineering, including such fields as electronic instrumentation, control engineering, signal processing, non-linear material behavior, software engineering and finite element methods. It is therefore perfectly in line with the "stabilization of the RTD potential" aspect of the Inco-Copernicus programme.

Eurocode 8 for construction in seismic zones, potentially pan-European in its applicability, has already prompted research on infilled frames, which has served to highlight the over-conservative nature of the existing provisions, together with the importance of dealing properly with irregularity of infills in elevation, as opposed to plan. This present CCE/NIS proposal will address these current research issues, listed as follows :

To improve the current understanding of the non-linear seismic response of reinforced concrete structures including irregularities in the distribution of the infills
To develop and validate suitable numerical models capable of simulating with sufficient accuracy the non-linear seismic response of such structures
To assist in the development and validation of strengthening and repair techniques for damaged and vulnerable structures
To transfer the research results into practical design recommendations

Topic(s)

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Call for proposal

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Funding Scheme

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CSC - Cost-sharing contracts

Coordinator

UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL
EU contribution
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Address
University Walk, Queen's Building
BS8 1TR BRISTOL, CLIFTON
United Kingdom

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Total cost

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Participants (6)

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