ABSTRACT Explosions bring a serious risk of damage or collapse when are produced inside buildings or in the close proximity. As the hazard intensity and possible effects are difficult to quantify, the structure should have the capacity to survive with inherent...
Performance-Based
Once upon a Time in Italy: The Tale of the Morandi Bridge
On 14 August 2018 at 11:35 AM, a relevant portion (about 243 m) of the viaduct over the Polcevera river in Genoa collapsed, killing 43 people. The bridge was designed in the early 1960s by Riccardo Morandi, a well-known Italian engineer, and opened to the public in...
Reliability of collapse simulation – Comparing finite and applied element method at different levels
Numerical prediction of progressive collapse of buildings due to extreme loading is still a challenging task. However, increased computational power makes it nowadays possible to analyze not only small-scale connections and mid-size building elements, but also full buildings with considerable height and complexity.
Research & Practice on Progressive Collapse & Robustness of Buildings
Extreme events (i.e. terrorist attacks, vehicle impacts, explosions, etc.) often cause local damage to building structures and pose a serious threat when one or more vertical load-bearing components fail, leading to the progressive collapse of the entire...
Research and Practice on Progressive Collapse and Robustness of Building Structures in the 21st Century
Extreme events (i.e. terrorist attacks, vehicle impacts, explosions, etc.) often cause local damage to building structures and pose a serious threat when one or more vertical load-bearing components fail, leading to the progressive collapse of the entire structure or...
Using the Applied Element Method to simulate the dynamic response of full-scale URM houses tested to collapse or near-collapse conditions
In this work, the Applied Element Method (AEM) is employed to reproduce the dynamic response of three full-scale unreinforced masonry (URM) house specimens tested on a shake-table. Two of the test specimens correspond to a calcium-silicate terraced house typology...
The Applied Element Method and the modelling of both in-plane and out-of-plane response of URM walls
TThe Applied Element Method (AEM) is a relatively recent addition to the discrete elements methods family. Initially conceived to model blast events and concrete structures, its use in the modelling of masonry structures subjected to earthquake actions is steadily...
Evaluation of the Seismic Retrofitting of an Unreinforced Masonry building using Numerical Modeling and Ambient Vibration Measurements
Ambient vibration measurements and 3-D nonlinear time-history numerical modeling are used to assess the retrofitting measures conducted in a 6-story unreinforced masonry building (URM) built in the end of the 19th century in Switzerland. Retrofitting measures were...
Simulation of the Dynamic Response of Steel Moment Frames following Sudden Column Loss. Experimental Calibration of the Numerical Model and Application
Significant research effort has been devoted in recent years to the evaluation of the capacity of steel frame structures to resist progressive collapse after sudden column loss. Due to the complex load-structure interaction and material behaviour, it can be very...