Publications associées à Correlation between sonic pulse velocity and flat-jack tests for the estimation of the elastic properties of unreinforced brick masonry: Case studies from Croatia

Seismic Testing of Adjacent Interacting Masonry Structures – Analysis of a Blind Prediction

Masonry aggregates, which emerged as layouts of cities and villages became denser, make up historical centres all over the world. In these aggregates, neighbouring structures may share structural walls that are joined at the interfaces by mortar or interlo ...

Springer2024

Numerical Modeling of FRP-Strengthened Masonry Structures Using Equivalent Frame Models

Katrin Beyer, Francesco Vanin, Ivana Bozulic

The present study focuses on enhancing the seismic resistance of existing masonry structures. To that aim, the use of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) strengthening serves to improve structural behaviour by attaching FRP strips to the masonry walls. Despite ...

Springer2024

Experimental Investigation on Size-Effect of Rubble Stone Masonry Walls Under In-Plane Horizontal Loading: Overview and Preliminary Results

Katrin Beyer, Savvas Saloustros

Rubble stone masonry is a common construction typology of historical city centres and vernacular architecture. While past earthquakes have shown that it is one of the most vulnerable masonry construction typologies, there are few experimental campaigns giv ...

2024

Shear and steel-fibre reinforcement for the punching resistance of flat slabs at internal and edge columns

Diego Hernández Fraile

Reinforced concrete flat slabs consist of a continuous, thin concrete plate that rests on a grid of columns. The supporting surface of the columns is very small compared to the floor plan dimensions, leading to concentrations of shear forces near the colum ...

EPFL2024

Frictional weakening leads to unconventional singularities during dynamic rupture propagation

Marie Estelle Solange Violay, François Xavier Thibault Passelègue, Federica Paglialunga, Mathias Alexandre David Lebihain

Earthquakes i.e. frictional ruptures, are commonly described by singular solutions of shear crack motions. These solutions assume a square root singularity order around the rupture tip and a constant shear stress value behind it, implying scale-independent ...

2024

Contributions to rebar-to-concrete interaction and its structural implications for design and monitoring applications

Enrique Corres Sojo

Bond between reinforcing bars and concrete has been the focus of extensive research over the last century. This is well-justified as the functioning of reinforced concrete intimately depends on the interaction between rebar and concrete, as for example cra ...

EPFL2024

Reusability assessment of reinforced concrete components prior to deconstruction from obsolete buildings

Maléna Bastien Masse, Julie Rachel Devènes, Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet

A large part of building demolitions is motivated by purely socio-economic reasons. Hence, about-to-be-demolished structures, commonly made of reinforced concrete, very often present no or little degradation. When adaptive reuse of the entire building is n ...

2024

Lessons learned from a prediction and postdiction of a shake table test on an unreinforced masonry aggregate

Katrin Beyer, Igor Tomic

Historical centers of Europe and Croatia are often formed by unreinforced masonry building aggregates that developed as the layout of the city or village was densified. In these aggregates, adjacent buildings can share structural walls with an older and a ...

2023

Proposed Panel Zone Model for Beam-To-Column Joints in Steel Moment Resisting Frames

Dimitrios Lignos, Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed Elkady, Andronikos Skiadopoulos

In capacity designed steel moment resisting frames (MRFs), beam-to-column joints (i.e., panel zones) are designed to remain elastic. To potentially exploit the beneficial aspects of the stable panel zone hysteretic response in shear, a robust panel zone mo ...

2023

Solids that are also liquids: elastic tensors of superionic materials

Nicola Marzari, Giuliana Materzanini, Tommaso Chiarotti

Superionics are fascinating materials displaying both solid- and liquid-like characteristics: as solids, they respond elastically to shear stress; as liquids, they display fast-ion diffusion at normal conditions. In addition to such scientific interest, su ...

NATURE PORTFOLIO2023

Equivalent Frame Models for FRP-Strengthened Masonry Buildings

Fibre-reinforced polymers (FRP) strengthening can be applied to decrease the seismic vulnerability of existing masonry buildings, both with regard to in-plane and out-of-plane failure mechanisms. Experimentally, the impact of strengthening solutions has be ...

Proceedings of the 2nd Croatian Conference on Earthquake Eng2023

Seismic Testing of Adjacent Interacting Masonry Structures

Katrin Beyer, Andrea Penna, Igor Tomic

Masonry buildings form building aggregates around the world in historical centers, which developed as the layout of the city or village densified. In these aggregates, adjacent buildings can share structural walls, connected at the interfaces by interlocki ...

2023

FIB-Fabrication of Resonating Cantilevers to Explore Symmetry-Breaking in Quantum Materials

Amelia Emily-Kay Estry

Scientific progress and technological advancements on novel materials are often deterred by limitations on size and quality of samples. Materials with electronic phenomena attractive for applications, and presenting many open scientific questions, are ofte ...

EPFL2023

Towards instability-free welded moment connections

Dimitrios Lignos, Andronikos Skiadopoulos

In capacity-designed steel moment resisting frames (MRFs), inelastic deformations are mostly concentrated in the steel beams and the column fixed ends of the first story, while the participation of the panel zones in energy dissipation is limited. In such ...

2023

Subaltern housing policies: Accommodating migrant workers in wealthy Geneva

Luca Giovanni Pattaroni, Maxime Carl Felder

In the wealthy and orderly city of Geneva, Switzerland, accommodation centres built in haste between the 1950s and the 1980s to house seasonal guestworkers from southern Europe are still standing and still inhabited. Today's residents are precarious worker ...

2023

Seismic response of historical masonry buildings and aggregates - large-scale experimental testing and macro-element modelling

Igor Tomic

The seismic analysis of existing unreinforced masonry buildings is a challenging task, troubled by different sources of material and modelling uncertainties. The historical heritage value of a building can further complicate the assessment and design of re ...

EPFL2022

Deep Q-learning agent for building earthquake resisting wall

Katrin Beyer, Qianqing Wang, Ketson Roberto Maximiano Dos Santos

The construction of dry-joint brick masonry that is subject to seismic loading can be modelled as a strategy problem wherein bricks must be laid to form a load resisting structure. To learn how to mount bricks while considering relevant engineering criteri ...

2022

Latest findings on the behaviour factor q for the seismic design of URM buildings

Katrin Beyer

Recent earthquakes as the 2012 Emilia earthquake sequence showed that recently built unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings behaved much better than expected and sustained, despite the maximum PGA values ranged between 0.20-0.30 g, either minor damage or str ...

SPRINGER2022

Characterization of shear deformations in reinforced concrete members without shear reinforcement

Aurelio Muttoni, Miguel Fernández Ruiz, Raffaele Cantone, Andri Setiawan

The load-carrying capacity of many reinforced concrete structures is governed by shear failures, occurring before reaching the flexural capacity of the member. For redundant systems, such as slabs subjected to concentrated loads, local shear failures (typi ...

2022

Numerical simulations of retrofitting interventions on timber floors in unreinforced masonry

Katrin Beyer, Igor Tomic, Ivana Bozulic

Unreinforced masonry buildings with flexible timber floors are amongst the most vulnerable building typologies for seismic loading. Though flexible diaphragms play a role in the seismic behaviour of unreinforced masonry buildings, the impact of the connect ...

2022