Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of Civil Engineering Structures

Dear Colleagues,

Existing civil engineering structures built more than 50 years ago represent the highest percentage of the built heritage in industrialized countries. Such structures are designed according to obsolete design methodologies, disregarding appropriate seismic principles as well as capacity design and durability issues. Consequently, they are characterized by a significant vulnerability and a high risk associated with relevant social and economic losses.

Increasingly stronger natural, environmental, and seismic hazards are challenging for sustainable existing civil engineering structures. The assessment of their load-carrying capacity is required by national and international standards, with the primary aim of evaluating their residual service life and assessing proper retrofitting intervention. Moreover, in this context, a proper loss assessment estimation is becoming more important every day for adequately managing the limited economic sources allocated by the administration and the Civil Protection Department for risk reduction and the retrofit intervention mitigation planning.

This Special Issue aims to bring together the state-of-the-art research related to the vulnerability, risk, and loss assessment of existing civil engineering structures. It covers characterization, applications, and performance evaluation of a wide range of structures subjected to seismic, environmental, and natural hazards. The scope of this Special Issue includes, but is not limited to, the following topics:

• Seismic performance of masonry and reinforced concrete structures;
• Risk evaluation and loss assessment of existing structures;
• Vulnerability of deteriorated reinforced concrete structures and infrastructures;
• Vulnerability of RC and masonry buildings heritage;
• Large-scale vulnerability and risk assessment;
• Repair and retrofitting of structures with traditional and innovative materials;
• Life-cycle assessment.

Dr. Barbara Ferracuti
Dr. Stefania Imperatore
Dr. Eng. Maria Zucconi
Guest Editors

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• vulnerability
• risk evaluation
• loss assessment
• structural assessment
• retrofit
• durability
• corrosion
• life cycle analysis
• service life modeling