Structures Under Extreme Loading Conditions

Exceptional loads on buildings and structures may have different causes, including high-strain dynamic effects due to natural hazards, man-made attacks, and accidents, as well as extreme operational conditions (severe temperature variations, humidity, etc.). All of these aspects can be critical for specific structural typologies and/or materials that are particularly sensitive to external conditions. In this regard, dedicated and refined methods are required for their design, analysis, and maintenance under the expected lifetime. There are major challenges related to the structural typology and material properties with respect to the key features of the imposed design load. Further issues can be derived from the need for risk mitigation or retrofit of existing structures as well as from the optimal and safe design of innovative materials/systems. Finally, in some cases, no appropriate design recommendations are available and, thus, experimental investigations can have a key role within the overall process. In this Special Issue, original research studies, review papers, and experimental and/or numerical investigations are presented for the structural performance assessment of buildings and structures under various extreme conditions that are of interest for design.

Original research on performance of materials under a wide variety of blasts, impacts, severe loading and fireCritical information for protecting buildings and civil infrastructure against human attack, deterioration and natural disastersTest and design data for new types of concrete, steel and FRP materials This technical book is devoted to the empirical and theoretical analysis of how structures and the materials constituting them perform under the extreme conditions of explosions, fire, and impact. Each of the 119 fully refereed presentations is published here for the first time and was selected because of its original contribution to the science and engineering of how materials, bridges, buildings, tunnels and their components, such as beams and pre-stressed parts, respond to potentially destructive forces. Emphasis is placed on translating empirical data to design recommendations for strengthening structures, including strategies for fire and earthquake protection as well as blast mitigation. Technical details are provided on the development and behavior of new resistant materials, including reinforcements, especially for concrete, steel and their composites.

Exceptional loads on buildings and structures may have different causes, including high-strain dynamic effects due to natural hazards, man-made attacks, and accidents, as well as extreme operational conditions (severe temperature variations, humidity, etc.). All of these aspects can be critical for specific structural typologies and/or materials that are particularly sensitive to external conditions. In this regard, dedicated and refined methods are required for their design, analysis, and maintenance under the expected lifetime. There are major challenges related to the structural typology and material properties with respect to the key features of the imposed design load. Further issues can be derived from the need for risk mitigation or retrofit of existing structures as well as from the optimal and safe design of innovative materials/systems. Finally, in some cases, no appropriate design recommendations are available and, thus, experimental investigations can have a key role within the overall process. In this Special Issue, original research studies, review papers, and experimental and/or numerical investigations are presented for the structural performance assessment of buildings and structures under various extreme conditions that are of interest for design.

The effect of combined extreme transient loadings on a structure is not well understood—whether the source is man-made, such as an explosion and fire, or natural, such as an earthquake or extreme wind loading. A critical assessment of current knowledge is timely (with Fukushima-like disasters or terrorist threats). The central issue in all these problems is structural integrity, along with their transient nature, their unexpectedness, and often the uncertainty behind their cause. No single traditional scientific discipline provides complete answers, rather, a number of tools need to be brought together: nonlinear dynamics, probability theory, some understanding of the physical nature of the problem, as well as modeling and computational techniques for representing inelastic behavior mechanisms. Nonlinear Dynamics of Structures Under Extreme Transient Loads covers model building for different engineering structures and provides detailed presentations of extreme loading conditions. A number of illustrations are given quantifying; a plane crash or explosion induced impact loading, the effects of strong earthquake motion, and the impact and long-duration effects of strong stormy winds—along with a relevant framework for using modern computational tools. The book considers the levels of reserve in existing structures, and ways of reducing the negative impact of high-risk situations by employing sounder design procedures.

These papers were presented at the Third International Workshop on the Performance, Protection and Strengthening of Structures under Extreme Loading - Protect2011 - held in Lugano (Switzerland) from August 30th to September 1st, 2011. This event sprang from the cross-border cooperation between two universities, SUPSI and Politecnico di Milano, which have long been engaged in research in these particular areas. Protect2011 is a clear sign that such collaboration offers the opportunity for mutual growth, to the benefit of all. Volume is indexed by Thomson Reuters CPCI-S (WoS). In common with previous Protect workshops, this book contains over 100 peer-reviewed papers, originating from about 30 countries on 5 continents, that collectively provide an excellent snapshot of the state-of-the-art of this field and highlight some remarkable modern developments.

The effect of combined extreme transient loadings on a structure is not well understood—whether the source is man-made, such as an explosion and fire, or natural, such as an earthquake or extreme wind loading. A critical assessment of current knowledge is timely (with Fukushima-like disasters or terrorist threats). The central issue in all these problems is structural integrity, along with their transient nature, their unexpectedness, and often the uncertainty behind their cause. No single traditional scientific discipline provides complete answers, rather, a number of tools need to be brought together: nonlinear dynamics, probability theory, some understanding of the physical nature of the problem, as well as modeling and computational techniques for representing inelastic behavior mechanisms. Nonlinear Dynamics of Structures Under Extreme Transient Loads covers model building for different engineering structures and provides detailed presentations of extreme loading conditions. A number of illustrations are given quantifying; a plane crash or explosion induced impact loading, the effects of strong earthquake motion, and the impact and long-duration effects of strong stormy winds—along with a relevant framework for using modern computational tools. The book considers the levels of reserve in existing structures, and ways of reducing the negative impact of high-risk situations by employing sounder design procedures.