S19 Fire Resistance of Structures Subsequent to Seismically Induced Damage

Description:
With increasing urbanisation and industrialisation, earthquakes represent ever greater risk to life, livelihoods and to the sustainability of growth and development in the world's most densely populated regions. In built-up areas, especially major cities with tall buildings and extensive gas mains, this risk is compounded by post earthquake fires. The consequences of the fires can be more severe than the original seismic event (e.g. San Francisco 1906, Great Kanto 1923, Kobe 1995) as the fighting of fires may become impossible (given over-stretched emergency responders and damaged water mains).

Currently there are no centres working towards addressing the compound risk posed by earthquakes and fire acting in sequence. This special session in 14wcee will provide a common platform to engineers working either in earthquakes or fires and sow the seeds of a new collaborative research community in this area. Therefore papers are invited with emphasis in either earthquakes or fires, based on the expertise of the author(s); however a part of the paper must be devoted to addressing the “compound” risk. For example, in seismically active zones structural details and connections are designed to be ductile so that despite damage, structural continuity is not ruptured during deformation cycles to avoid the initiation of progressive collapse. Is this design philosophy adequate if the structure is exposed to a fire after the earthquake? There are many other questions that contributors could address using theoretical, computational or experimental methodologies, such as:

• behaviour of seismically damaged materials at high temperatures
• connection behaviour in fire after earthquake damage
• response of structural assemblies subjected to post earthquake fires
• compound earthquake and fire hazard analysis
• innovative design of structures for earthquake and fire resistance
• retrofit and repair of damaged structures to resist earthquakes and fire
• response of repaired structures to earthquake and fire
• emergency management of post earthquake situations involving fires
• any other appropriate topic conforming to the aims of the special session

Convener:
Asif S Usmani
Professor,
School of Engineering and Electronics
The University of Edinburgh
The Kings Buildings, Edinburgh EH9 3JL, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)131 6505789
Fax: +44 (0)131 6506781
E-mail: asif.usmani@ed.ac.uk

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Early Registration:
May 31, 2008

Paper Submission:
August 15, 2008 (Beijing Time)