Sixth International Conference on Earthquake Resistant Engineering Structures

11 - 13 June 2007
Bologna, Italy

 Overview

The sixth International Conference on Earthquake Resistant Engineering Structures (ERES) took place recently in Bologna, organised by the Wessex Institute of Technology and sponsored by the WIT Press Transactions on the Built Environment.  

The Meeting has been successfully held since its beginning in Thessaloniki (1997), followed by Catania (1999); Malaga (2001); Ancona (2003); and Skiathos (2005). The conferences discussed the state of the art in structures subjected to earthquakes, including the geographical aspects; the behaviour of historical buildings; seismic isolation; retrofitting, base isolation and energy, absorption systems as well as a wide variety of applications and case studies.

 Opening Address

Professor Carlos Brebbia, Director of the Wessex Institute, opened the Conference, welcoming the delegates and explaining the aims of WIT.  He spoke about the range of activities held at the New Forest Campus of WIT and the objective of the Institute to collaborate with partners all over the world.  

The Institute’s activities, Professor Brebbia said, could be summarized as follows: 

• Training at post-graduate level
• Research, usually in collaboration with other partners
• Courses and conferences
• Publishing of papers, journals and specialised books
  

Professor Brebbia referred to the recent efforts of WIT to reach a wide range of colleagues across a variety of fields, including humanities and social and political sciences.  This effort, which resulted in a series of initiatives such as new conferences, publications and research projects is, Professor Brebbia said, essential for the solution of the many problems affecting mankind.  

Recently WIT organised a conference in Patagonia, South America, to highlight the importance of trans-disciplinary activities when dealing with ecological and environmental problems.  This meeting, “The Ravage of the Planet” (see http://www.wessex.ac.uk/conferences/2006/planet06) resulted in a Declaration which stressed the commitment of the scientific community to solving the problems affecting our society.  It success contributed to the launch of several trans-disciplinary journals which will help to bring together groups working on these important problems.  

Finally, Professor Brebbia referred to the success of the e.version of the Transactions of the Wessex Institute Series, where the conference papers are archived. The cross references developed by the eLibrary and more recently the indexation of the papers has resulted in an extremely large number of downloads of abstracts and papers.  This success will ensure that the work presented at WIT conferences is not forgotten.  It does justice to the excellent quality of the contributions to WIT meetings.

 Keynote Address by Professor Michele Maugeri

The Conference was opened by a keynote address given by Professor Michele Maugeri. Michele graduated in Civil Engineering at the Politecnico of Torino and carried out work as a Visiting Researcher at Imperial College for two years.  He is currently Full Professor of Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Catania, where he is Director of the Department of Civil and Geotechnical Engineering; Director of the PhD Course on Geotechnical Engineering and member of the Italian National Committee of the Ministry of Public Works.  He is a member of many international and national committees.  Professor Maugeri has been Chairman or member of the Scientific Committee of many conferences, including some of those organised by WIT.  He is author of more than 300 papers, many in the field of Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering.  

He has published a book with WIT Press entitled “Seismic Protection of Damage: a case study in a Mediterranean Country” (WIT Press, Southampton and Boston, 2005).  Participants to the conference were given a complimentary copy of the book which encompasses a series of topics which could not be included in his conference paper.  

Professor Maugeri explained that seismic protection of damage is a challenge for the third millennium.  In spite of the tremendous work on analytical and experimental studies to reduce seismic risk, many cities in the world are prone to seismic risk and the deaths and losses have increased exponentially in the last century.  

The mid-sized city of Catania in Sicily was chosen to study earthquake damage scenarios.  It was concluded to be a high risk area in the Mediterranean.  The road maps for the evaluation of seismic prevention of damage, Professor Maugeri explained, follows the following points:  

i)        The earthquake –seismic characterisation and seismic action evaluation at the bedrock for the scenario earthquakes;

ii)       The site effects evaluation;

iii)       The vulnerability analysis of physical environment for evaluation of the risk related to cavities, landslides and liquefaction.

iv)      The soil-structure interaction for shallow foundations and retaining walls;

v)       The vulnerability analysis of monuments and reinforced concrete buildings;

vi)      The seismic structural improvements of reinforced concrete buildings;

vii)     The vulnerability analysis of urban roads and infrastructures.

 The road map followed for the seismic prevention of damage in Catania, Professor Maugeri said, could be considered as a pilot project for detailed earthquake scenario analysis and for seismic prevention of damage in many cities, characterized as the city of Catania by severe site amplification phenomena, landslides and buildings not designed to resist earthquakes.  The seismic structural improvement of these buildings must be based on site dependent response spectre, evaluated from the characteristics of the earthquake source.  The seismic structural improvement is needed for the sustainable development of many cities prone to seismic risk.  

Professor Maugeri concluded by pointing out that the work has developed methodology aspects and innovative models related to deterministic evaluation of seismic action, site effect evaluation; and vulnerability of physical environment evaluation – landslide, cavities – vulnerability and strengthening of test buildings, vulnerability of road systems, lifeline system and urban building aggregates.  

At the end of the talk, Carlos Brebbia thanked Professor Maugeri for his excellent presentation and awarded him the Wessex Institute Medal to Eminent Scientists. This is a special award that started in 1985 and has since been given to outstanding scientists who are also persons of integrity.

 Conference Topics

The conference programme comprised many excellent papers, grouped under the following topics:  

• Earthquake resistant design
• Bridges
• Passive protection devices and seismic isolation
• Self-centering systems
• Site effects and geotechnical aspects
• Seismic behaviour and vulnerability
• Lifelines
• Monitoring and testing
• Retrofitting
• Structural dynamics

 Invited Presentations

The following invited presentations, in addition to the keynote address by Professor Maugeri, were delivered:  

• “Aspects of testing a large-scale two-span bridge model on multiple shake tables”, by M Saiidi, University of Nevada, USA
• “Seismic risk assessment of the Ignalina NPP refuelling machine”, by G Dundulis, Lithuanian Energy Institute
• “Seismic reliability and cost evaluation for a hospital lifeline network system”, by K Fuchida, Yatsushiro College of Technology, Japan
• “Three-dimensional seismic damage simulation of wooden houses using a rigid body-spring method”, by K Kawakami, Saimata University, Japan
• “Controlling nonlinear vibrations in steel structures using an evolutionary gain formulation to optimally satisfy performance objectives”, by T Attard, California State University, USA
• “Dynamic analysis of plates stiffened by parallel beams”, by E J Sapountzakis, National Technical University of Athens, Greece
• “Towards a European code for seismic assessment and strengthening of existing buildings”, by S Dritsos, University of Patras, Greece
• “3-D reproduction analyses for actual earthquake behaviours of existing dams”, by Y Ariga, Electric Power Development Company, Japan
• “The 2006 Yogyakarta earthquake – a preliminary study of deaths” by J M Nichols, Texas A&M University, USA
• “Dynamics in the practice of structural design: the problems of implementation”, by O Sircovich Saar, O. Sircovich Saar Ltd, Israel

 ISAC Meeting

The meeting of the International Scientific Advisory Committee (ISAC) of the Conference took place during the first evening to discuss ways in which ERES can be improved. A series of suggestions were addressed regarding new topics, although the general feeling was that the current list was most appropriate.  A few new names were suggested for the Committee and, finally, possible locations were discussed.  Professor Brebbia will ask WIT’s Conference Division to investigate some of these possible venues and decide the date and location of the 2009 conference.

 Conference Dinner

The Conference Dinner took place in the best restaurant in town called I Caracci, in honour of the two brothers who were famous partners from Bologna.  The restaurant is located in one of the rooms of an old Palazzo, originally owned by the Bishop of Bologna and now an internationally renowned hotel.  Pier Paolo Strona, a long-time friend of WIT, played a few pieces on the piano for the participants, who were then given a CD containing some of the pieces he played while visiting WIT.  This was followed by an excellent dinner consisting of several traditional Bolognese dishes and excellent wines from the French and Bolognese hills.  At the end of the banquet, Professor Brebbia expressed his appreciation to all the participants and gave them a copy of his new book “ Patagonia, a forgotten land.  From Magellan to Peron”, which is becoming very popular, perhaps because of the current interest in that remote and largely unspoilt part of the world. 

 Publication of Papers

The Proceedings of Earthquake Resistant Engineering Structures VI, 528pp (ISBN: 1-84564-078-1) are available in hard back from WIT Press priced at £175/US$345/€262.50. Orders can be placed by telephone: +44 (0) 238 029 3223, fax: +44 (0) 238 029 2853, e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or via the WIT Press web site at www.witpress.com.  

Papers from the conference will also be hosted online at the WIT eLibrary as volume 93 of WIT Transactions on the Built Environment (ISSN: 1743-3509). For more details visit the WIT eLibrary at www.witpress.com.  

Patagonia a forgotten land – from Magellan to Peron, by C.A. Brebbia,  384 pp (ISBN 978-1-84564-061-3) is available in hard back from WIT Press, priced at £33/US$59/€49.50.  Orders can be placed as above.