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Evaluation of seismic hazard for the assessment of historical elements at risk: description of input and selection of intensity measures

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Abstract

The assessment of historical elements at risk from earthquake loading presents a number of differences from the seismic evaluation of modern structures, for design or retrofitting purposes, which is covered by existing building codes, and for the development of fragility curves, procedures for which have been extensively developed in the past decade. This article briefly discusses: the hazard framework for historical assets, including a consideration of the appropriate return period to be used for such elements at risk; the intensity measures that could be used to describe earthquake shaking for the analysis of historical assets; and available approaches for their assessment. We then discuss various unique aspects of historical assets that mean the characterisation of earthquake loading must be different from that for modern structures. For example, historical buildings are often composed of heterogeneous materials (e.g., old masonry) and they are sometimes located where strong local site effects occur due to: steep topography (e.g., hilltops), basin effects or foundations built on the remains of previous structures. Standard seismic hazard assessment undertaken for modern structures and the majority of sites is generally not appropriate. Within the PERPETUATE project performance-based assessments, using nonlinear static and dynamic analyses for the evaluation of structural response of historical assets, were undertaken. The steps outlined in this article are important for input to these assessments.

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Notes

  1. This article (and the PERPETUATE project) concerns historical buildings, such as those found in the centres of many towns in Europe, monuments (e.g., statues) and building contents (e.g., art works). In the following we use the general term ‘historical assets’ to mean all these types of elements at risk.

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Acknowledgments

The work presented in this article has been funded by the PERPETUATE (Performance-based approach to earthquake protection of cultural heritage in European and Mediterranean countries) project of the EC-Research Framework Programme FP7. We thank two anonymous reviewers and the guest editors Sergio Lagomarsino and Dina D’Ayala for their comments on a previous version of this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. BRGM, Orléans, France

    John Douglas, Darius M. Seyedi, Thomas Ulrich, Hormoz Modaressi & Evelyne Foerster

  2. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloníki, Greece

    Kyriazis Pitilakis, Dimitris Pitilakis & Anna Karatzetzou

  3. National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    George Gazetas, Evangelia Garini & Marianna Loli

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  1. John Douglas
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  2. Darius M. Seyedi
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  7. Dimitris Pitilakis
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  8. Anna Karatzetzou
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  9. George Gazetas
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  10. Evangelia Garini
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  11. Marianna Loli
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Correspondence to John Douglas.

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Darius M. Seyedi, Hormoz Modaressi and Evelyne Foerster Formerly at: BRGM, Orléans, France.

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Douglas, J., Seyedi, D.M., Ulrich, T. et al. Evaluation of seismic hazard for the assessment of historical elements at risk: description of input and selection of intensity measures. Bull Earthquake Eng 13, 49–65 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10518-014-9606-0

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