Substantial tragic effects result from great earthquakes – damage, deaths, tsunamis. Various groups, including seismologists, seismic engineers, government officials and insurers seek to quantify the effects in order to proceed with their work. The quantification methods employed include seismic intensity scales and damageability matrices particularly. Principal intensity scales employed are: t...

After learning from several devastating earthquakes in China in recent years, stricter design criteria have been introduced in the current Chinese seismic design code. To investigate the reliability of the current seismic design code, seismic fragility analyses were performed for 45 10-story reinforced concrete (RC) frame-shear wall structures designed according to the current Chinese seismic d...

Fragility curves represent the probabilities that structural damages, under various levels of seismic excitation, will exceed the specified damage states by means of earthquake intensity damage relations. Conceptual aspects related to seismic vulnerability, damage and risk evaluation are discussed first, together with a short review of the most widely used possibilities for the seismic evaluati...

A probabilistic seismic hazard assessment in terms of Arias intensity is presented for the city of Tehran. Tehran is the capital and the most populated city of Iran. From economical, political and social points of view, Tehran is the most significant city of Iran. Many destructive earthquakes happened in Iran in the last centuries. Historical references indicate that the old city of Rey and the...

Near field earthquakes have imposed major damage to buildings in the past years. In some cases, the intensity of such damage is too considerable to be disregarded. The most effective way to improve seismic performance of buildings is applying a seismic control technique. The cylindrical friction damper is one of these methods, which has become popular for its desirable performance in the energy...