The influence of the near-fault ground motion on the response of long-span bridges must be considered as a critical factor for seismic design because the response indicates different aspects from existing earthquake characteristics. Also, it is important to note that the safety index for the risk assessment of long-span bridges is determined based on the minimum expected lifecycle cost E(LCC). ...

Researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Spokane Mining Research Division (SMRD) have developed a modeling framework, using commercially available software, for investigating the fracture and ejection of rock into underground mine openings caused by seismic loading and the restraint of this failed rock by the ground support system. The modeling framework...

differences between stress-based and strain-based criteria are investigated in seismic performance evaluation of the arch dams in time domain. a numerical model of the coupled dam-reservoir-foundation system is prepared with the finite element technique. reservoir is modeled using the eulerian approach as a compressible domain, and the foundation rock is assumed to be massless. dynamic equilibr...

Seismic assessment of masonry structures is plagued by both inherent randomness and model uncertainty. The former is referred to as aleatory uncertainty, the latter as epistemic uncertainty because it depends on the knowledge level. Pioneering studies on reinforced concrete buildings have revealed a significant influence of modeling parameters on seismic vulnerability. However, confidence in me...

This paper represents an ex post rethinking of the contribution of artificial intelligence techniques to safety management, based on a long work experience in applying artificial intelligence to several engineering fields, from dam safety to environmental protection, from seismic monitoring to the protection of cultural heritage. The main issue is that developing models for assessing safety is ...

Fault-tree and Event-tree analysis is widely utilized in safety engineering and is almost exclusively relied upon in Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) for nuclear power plants (NPPs). In this approach, Binary Decision Diagram (BDD), which can obtain exact solutions in theory, was introduced as an alternative for a traditional approximation method, namely Minimal Cut Set (MCS) method. Howeve...

Strength, functionality and beauty are the three qualities identifying well-designed architecture. For buildings in earthquake-prone countries such as Japan, emphasis on seismic safety frequently leads to the sacrifice of functionality and beauty. Therefore, it is important to develop new structural technologies that can ensure the seismic performance of a building without hampering the pursuit...

Codes for design and constructions of pressure-vessel provide a number of loading conditions that have to be considered. Pressures are primary loadings that are applied either internally or externally over the surface of the vessels; applied forces act either at local points or throughout the mass of the vessel. Among applied loads, inertial forces due to ground motion can be relevant when indu...

The seismic hazard analysis is concerned with getting an estimate of the strong-motion parameters at a site for the purpose of earthquake resistant design or seismic safety assessment. For generalized applications, seismic hazard analysis can also be used to prepare macro or micro zoning maps of an area by estimating the strong-motion parameters for a closely spaced grid of sites. Two basic met...