Working Groups

Seismic Design, Assessment, and Retrofit of Bridges
Coordinator :
Prof. Andreas J. Kappos
Civil Engineering Dept, City University, Northampton Sq., London EC1V 0HB, UK
email: Andreas.Kappos.1@city.ac.uk

• WEB SITE
• TG11-Activites Report 2007-2010
• TG11-Work Plan for 2010-20147

The idea for setting up a new EAEE task group dealing with seismic aspects of bridge design, assessment, and retrofit, originated following the success of the special session on this topic organised by A. Kappos (Greece), with K. Kawashima (Japan) as co-convenor, at the 13^th ECEE in Geneva (Sep. 2006). This session brought together researchers from all over the world working in the important international group fib TG7.4 (Seismic design and assessment procedures for Bridges) and the ongoing programme ASProGe (Seismic Protection of Bridges) in Greece, along with other groups such as the American one working on Caltrans bridges. The idea of the new group was welcomed by both the newly elected Ex. Committee of the Association and by the people that attended the special session and the conference.

The choice of the TG title is quite topical, since bridges that are the most critical (from the seismic point of view) component of transport systems, are not covered by existing EAEE task groups. It is noted that within the European Union, the motorway network expanded from 39200 km in 1990 to 49200 km in 1999, and the figure keeps increasing at a fast rate. As an example, in Greece the most significant expenditure on road infrastructure is conducted through the Trans-European Network, which accounted for €13.6 billion; a large number of bridges have been constructed in Greece during the last decade, the majority of which was along the 680 km Egnatia Motorway that includes 646 bridges. Meanwhile, assessment of seismic performance of existing bridges, some of which clearly fail to satisfy the requirements of modern codes, has been the focus of substantial research efforts worldwide, particularly during the last few years. As a result of such concerns, programmes for retrofitting seismically deficient bridges have originated in several European countries, notably in Italy, and similar efforts are underway in the US and Japan.

Topics to be covered by the new group include:

• Performance-based design of bridges (concrete and steel bridges).
• Calibration of code procedures for seismic design of bridges – Comparative assessment of European (Eurocode 8 – Part 2) and international (US, Japan, other) standards and design practice for bridges; calibration studies might be analytically and/or experimentally oriented.
• Improved analytical procedures for assessment of seismic performance of bridges, with emphasis on pushover methods accounting for higher mode effects.
• Fragility curves for bridges (methodologies and case studies).
• Application of passive systems (seismic isolation and energy dissipation devices) to existing bridges – development and application of new technologies.
• Seismic retrofit of bridge columns and foundations – Innovative retrofit methods.
• Analytical and experimental investigation of critical bridge components (with a view to improved design or effective retrofit).
• Instrumentation of bridges and structural health monitoring (with emphasis on seismic aspects); assessment of bridges based on instrumentation data.
• Displacement-based and performance-based assessment methods; deterministic and probabilistic approaches.
• Improved procedures for the optimal selection of earthquake loading (also including the effects of spatial variation of ground motion), and analysis of soil – structure interaction effects.

The membership of the new TG is mainly drawn from the European academic and professional groups active in the field, but some distinguished researchers from other countries (not members of the EAEE) are also included either as full members (if they can attend meetings in Europe) or as corresponding members. The membership of the TG has a strong international flavour as (practically) all European countries active in research on seismic assessment, design, and retrofit of bridges are represented, along with some leading academics from the US (with strong links with Europe).

In addition to meetings, the foreseen activities of the TG are (in a non-exclusive way):

• Dissemination of the research results produced by the TG members among them, as well as among the engineering community at large (a key point in this respect would be the launching of a web site with ability to upload and download material from it)
• Organization (every 2-3 years) of a workshop bearing essentially the same title as the TG, with oral presentations, round table discussions and other similar activities; CD ROM proceedings of the workshops will be available at their beginning
• Compilation of state of the art reports on topics falling within the scope of the TG, preferably in the form of special issues of the Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering (the official EAEE journal). Production of design-oriented documents (such as comparison of bridges designed to different code procedures) is also envisaged.
• Promotion of closer relationships and strong international outreach to US programmes on bridges such as that at the PEER Centre and the emerging US-Japan programme on bridge research.

TG 11 members

• Kappos, Andreas < Andreas.Kappos.1@city.ac.uk > (City University, UK), TG coordinator
• Aydinoglu, Nuray <aydinogn@boun.edu.tr>  (University of Bosphorus, Turkey)
• Crewe, Adam <A.J.Crewe@bristol.ac.uk> (University of Bristol, UK)
• Delgado, Pedro <pdelgado@fe.up.pt> (University of Porto, Portugal)
• Dolce, Mauro < mauro.dolce@unina.it > (University Federico II, Naples, Italy,)
• Fischinger, Matej <mfischin@ikpir.fgg.uni-lj.si> (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia)
• Flesch, Rainer <rainer.flesch@arsenal.ac.at> (Arsenal research, Austria)
• Karakostas, Christos <christos@itsak.gr> (ITSAK, Greece)
• Mylonakis, George < christos@itsak.gr > (University of Patras, Greece)
• Nuti, Camillo <c.nuti@uniroma3.it> (University of Rome III, Italy)
• Pantazopoulou, Stavroula <pantaz@civil.duth.gr> (University of Thrace, Greece)
• Papadimitriou, Costas <costasp@mie.uth.gr> (University of Thessaly, Greece)
• Pinho, Rui <rui.pinho@unipv.it> (EUCENTRE & Rose School, Italy)
• Pinto, Artur <artur.pinto@jrc.it > (JRC, Ispra, Italy)• Saiidi, Mehdi (Saiid) <saiidi@unr.edu> (University of Nevada Reno, USA)
• Uzdin, Alexander <uzdin@mail.ru> (University of Petersburg, Russia)

Corresponding members

• Deodatis, George <deodatis@civil.columbia.edu>  (Columbia University, USA)
• Gazetas, George <gazetas@ath.forthnet.gr> (National Technical University, Greece)
• Karamanos, Spyros <skara@mie.uth.gr> (University of Thessaly, Greece)
• Pecker, Alain <alain.pecker@geodynamique.com> (Geodynamique et Structures, France)
• Stojadinovic, Bozidar <boza@ce.berkeley.edu> (University of California, Berkeley, USA)

Seismic Aspects of Historical Monument Preservations
Coordinator :
Prof. Costas A. Syrmakezis
National Technical University of Athens, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Institute of Structural Analysis & Aseismic Research, Zografou Campus, GR-157 73 Athens, Greece
email: isaarsyr@central.ntua.gr

Seismic Behaviour of Irregular and Complex Structures
Coordinator :
Mario De Stefano, ITALY
Direttore del Dipartimento di Costruzioni e Restauro, Universita degli Studi di Firenze, Piazza Brunelleschi, 6,  50121 Firenze
email: mario.destefano@unifi.it

• Task Group Activities 
• European Workshop on Seismic Behaviour of Asymmetric and Set-Back Structures
• Second European Workshop on the Seismic Behaviour of Asymmetric and Irregular Structures
• Activity Report (1994-1998)
• TG8 “Seismic Behaviour of Irregular and Complex Structures”
• Forthcoming Third Workshop
• Fourth Workshop Circular
• Fourth Workshop Program
• Fourth Workshop Report

Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering
Coordinator :
Kyriazis Pitilakis, GREECE
email: kpitilak@civil.auth.gr

• List of Members
• Minutes of the First Task Group Meeting
• Symposium During ESC XXVth General Assembly
• Minutes of the Second Task Group Meeting
• Minutes of the Third Task Group Meeting
• ESC SCF/WG3 Symposium on “Site Effects And Experimental Data”
• ISSMGE TC4 Satellite Conference on “Lessons Learned from Recent Strong Earthquakes”
• Final Report of the Joint Activities For 1994-1998

 Report 1

Future Directions for Eurocode 8
Coordinators :
Edmund Booth, UK
email: edmund@booth-seismic.co.uk

Background
Preparatory work for drafting the forthcoming major revisions to Eurocode 8 began some time ago, with the formal establishment of CEN Project Teams to carry the process forward expected to take place early in 2014. It will take at least six years before an agreed version of the standard is ready to be ratified; however, the broad outlines and scope of the work are already defined in the proposals that CEN has submitted to the European Commission. Moreover, recognising the need and desire by practising engineers for stability in code provisions, there is a general desire by CEN to limit the extent of revisions to the Eurocode suite at this time. However, EC8 is in many ways a special case among the Eurocodes, because the underlying practice of earthquake engineering is evolving much more rapidly and radically than is the case for practice applying to the other Eurocodes.

It is therefore likely that the adopted version of EC8 which results from the evolution process in around 2020 will fall some way short of both the state of the art and state of practice in earthquake engineering at that time. There is a need to look beyond the forthcoming evolution process to define a direction for EC8 which includes a longer timescale than the current enquiry period, and which is not limited by the current CEN proposals. The task of the proposed working group would be to set out the broad characteristics of EC8 for the year 2025. The working group would comprise a small group of academic engineers and design practitioners, drawn from both high and low seismicity regions of Europe. A similar review was carried out by Californian earthquake engineers in 1995, to produce the Vision 2000 report (SEAOC, 1995) which successfully set out a path for radical revisions to the US seismic codes of the 21st century.

The issues involved are discussed further by Booth& Lubkowski (2012) and Booth (2013), which will be attached.

Terms of reference
1) Review state of practice and state of art methods in the design of new seismic resistant buildings currently employed by European engineers, and identify the ways in which EC8 currently does not address these methods.
2) Set out a long term vision for EC8 for the year 2025.
3) In the light of the CEN proposals for the current evolution process, propose the changes toward achieving the long term vision which would be feasible within the current process.
4) Recommend changes to EC8 to take place during the subsequent evolution period, in order to achieve the long term vision more fully.
5) Prepare notes on additional aspects to consider for the seismic resistant design of non-building structures (bridges, towers & chimneys, pipelines, tanks, silos)
6) Prepare notes on additional aspects to consider for the seismic retrofit of buildings (but not bridges??).
7) Deliver the report on the Working Group’s findings and recommendations to the EAEE executive committee, with a copy to CEN sub-committee TC250/SC8.
Method of working and timescales
1) The terms of reference and membership of the Working Group should be finalised by the end of 2013, with its first meeting to take place in January 2014.
2) The Working Group will have one physical meeting immediately before the EAEE Istanbul conference in ?September 2014, to consider a draft of its final report.
3) Other meetings will take place by video conference.
4) The Working Group requests the opportunity to present its draft findings to an open session at the Istanbul conference.
5) The final version of its report will be delivered to the EAEE executive committee by the end of 2014, in time for the first meeting of that committee after the Istanbul conference.

Membership
The following people have agreed to serve on the Working Group.
Michael Fardis (fardis@upatras.gr)
Peter Fajfar (peter.fajfar@ikpir.fgg.uni-lj.si)
Alain Pecker (Alain.pecker@geodynamique.com)
Timothy Sullivan (timsul05@unipv.it)
Damian Grant (damian.grant@arup.com)
Hervé Degée (H.Degee@ulg.ac.be)
Katrin Bayer (Katrin.Bayer@epfl.ch)
Helen Crowley (helen.crowley@eucentre.it)
Edmund Booth (edmund@booth-seismic.co.uk)
The Working Group may wish to invite others to join it.

References
Booth E. and Lubkowski Z.A. (2012). Creating a vision for the future of Eurocode 8. Paper 3501, 15th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Lisbon, September 2012.

Booth E (2013). Future development of the European seismic code, Eurocode 8. Structural Engineering and Mechanics Conference (SEMC) Cape Town.

SEAOC (1995). Vision 2000 Report: Performance-based Seismic Engineering of Buildings. Structural Engineers Association of California, Sacramento, CA, USA