To understand the seismic damage characteristics of bottom frame-wall buildings and to study their seismic performance, the seismic damage outcomes of  bottom frame-wall structures in Du jiang weir by the Wen chuan earthquake on May 12,2008, China were field observed and studied. The assesment of the seismic damage to the bottom frame-wall masonry in Du jiang weir urban showed that the damage t...

Seismic acquisition footprint generally consists of modulations in recorded amplitudes that are spatially correlated to the surface locations of sources and receivers used in a survey. These amplitude variations obscure the true reflection response of the subsurface. In this study, synthetic seismic data were produced using numerical modelling code written in MATLAB. An “exhaustive” dataset was...

Abstract—This paper presents a numerical investigation on the seismic performance of a benchmark bridge with different optimal isolation systems under near fault ground motion. Usually, very large displacements make seismic isolation an unfeasible solution due to boundary conditions, especially in case of existing bridges or high risk seismic regions. Hence, near-fault ground motions are most l...

Seismic reliability assessment of selected bridge structures code-conforming with respect to the current Italian practice is carried out. Two viaducts, tall and shallow, two highway overpasses, traditional seat-type or integral abutments, are considered. Each structure ideally placed at three reference sites, that is, Milan, Naples L'Aquila, characterised by low, moderate high seismic hazard, r...

This is the first paper in a two-part series that describes a massively parallel code that performs 2D frequency-domain full-waveform inversion of wide-aperture seismic data for imaging complex structures. Full waveform inversion methods, namely quantitative seismic imaging methods based on the resolution of the full wave equation, are computationally expensive. Therefore, designing efficient a...

The 2002 Molise earthquake, which was defined by seismologists as a normal event in the geodynamics of the Italian peninsula but had an international resonance due to the collapse of a primary school, triggered a series of research initiatives in earthquake engineering and significant modifications to building codes in Italy. The modifications were completed at the beginning of 2008 with the re...

We present high-performance simulations of global seismic wave propagation with an unprecedented accuracy of 1.2 s seismic period for a realistic three-dimensional Earth model using the spectral element method on the K computer. Our seismic simulations use a total of 665.2 billion grid points and resolve 1.8 trillion degrees of freedom. To realize these large-scale computations, we optimize a w...

Seismic risk can be reduced by implementing newly developed seismic provisions in design codes. Furthermore, financial protection or enhanced utility and happiness for stakeholders could be gained through the purchase of earthquake insurance. If this is not so, there would be no market for such insurance. However, perceived benefit associated with insurance is not universally shared by stakehol...

For most practical purposes, true topology optimization of a braced frame should be synchronized with its sizing. An integrated layout optimization is formulated here to simultaneously account for both member sizing and bracings’ topology in such a problem. Code-specific seismic design spectrum is applied to unify the earthquake excitation. The problem is solved for minimal structural weight un...