Enhancing the resilience of the built environment is an important challenge in Europe. As far as the seismic hazard is concerned, significant results have been achieved in the last decades. Nonetheless, recent seismic events in Italy as well as in other earthquake-prone regions in Europe and worldwide have highlighted that social, economic and environmental consequences in urban areas hit by earthquakes are still very high. In this perspective, the need of taking into proper account the damage mitigation together with the collapse prevention in seismic engineering has motivated the replacement of the force-based methods with more effective approaches, namely displacement- and energy-based approaches. Despite its widespread application, the current displacement-based approach has several significant weaknesses, such as the inability to reflect cumulative damage and some methodological inconsistencies related to its version implemented within existing building codes. An energy-based approach has been thus explored in the past years to cope with the inherent limitations of the displacement-based approach but, even if the existing studies have shown a great potential, there are still many open issues that prevent its large-scale application.
Hence, this project aims at contributing to the development of a new and comprehensive energy-based framework for the analysis and design of structures under earthquakes, with focus on reinforced concrete buildings. Furthermore, the project is committed to produce positive social impacts through the conversion of scientific and technical results into simplified guidelines intended to support the implementation of the energy-based approach in the next generation of building codes.
The present project will contribute to advance the state of the art in earthquake engineering through the elaboration of novel and code-oriented proposals for an energy-based approach in the seismic analysis and design of RC frames with and without infills. In doing so, this project will also facilitate the establishment of a common understanding in energy-based seismic engineering and will promote the energy-based approach into the next generation of European building codes. Besides these scientific impacts, advances in energy-based intensity parameters, demand and capacity measures can produce short/mid-term social and economic impacts through a better understanding of the seismic risk at different territorial scales. In fact, with access to more comprehensive and accurate frameworks for hazard and vulnerability assessment, policymakers, public and other stakeholders can carry out more effective risk-sensitive planning and investments before an earthquake strikes. This is in line with Priority 1 of the UN Sendai Framework, which points out that policies and practices for disaster risk management should be based on a proper understanding of disaster risk in all its dimensions of vulnerability, capacity, exposure of persons and assets, hazard characteristics and the environment. By virtue of a new energy-based framework for the design of seismically safe structures, the Action can further contribute to produce long-term social, economic and environmental impacts on urban areas. In this case, the expected long-term impacts comprise: i) new and more appropriate methodologies for mitigating the probability of seismic damage, thereby contributing to the reduction of debris, dispersion of hazardous materials and use of construction materials for repairs after an earthquake; ii) improved quality of life due to the consciousness of living in structures designed and/or retrofitted according to technical standards that reflect most recent scientific advances; iii) further insights and tools for lifecycle-based design and assessment of structures. All these social, economic and environmental long-term impacts are in agreement with the UN Sendai Framework, which puts together the investments in disaster risk reduction for resilience and sustainable development (Priorities 2 and 3).