This new technology will be sophisticated and practical. Using an external modular steel frame as a façade, the project will provide a simplified seismic design procedure for the external steel frame.

The aim is to overcome problems related to low concrete strength, poor reinforcement details, and vulnerable RC columns.

The state-of-the-art review in seismic retrofit of existing reinforced-concrete (RC) buildings indicates that a technology that is non-disruptive and easy to implement, achieves simultaneous control of drifts and accelerations, and overcomes major issues related to low concrete strength, poor reinforcement details, and vulnerable RC columns, has never been described in the literature or in seismic design codes (e.g. Eurocode 8). The ambitious main objective against the background of the state-of-the-art of the project is to develop such a retrofit technology. In particular, the project will develop a non-disruptive retrofit scheme using an external, modular, steel frame as a facade close and in parallel connected to frames of the existing RC building.

The external steel frame will have chevron braces to support energy dissipation devices, and, connectors to achieve horizontal coupling with the existing RC building. Strategically, the energy dissipation devices will be visco-plastic dampers, i.e. novel devices that will offer visco-elastic damping output under low-to-moderate earthquake intensities and friction damping output with a predefined limit on their peak force under high seismic intensities.

The project will develop sophisticated yet practical structural details and a simplified seismic design procedure for the external steel frame. All these will be achieved through a carefully planned integrated experimental and numerical research program involving constitutive modelling, nonlinear finite element analysis, and shaking table tests. The proposed retrofit scheme constitutes a solid contribution to earthquake engineering that is expected to raise major international scientific and industrial interest.

Start date: 10 April 2022 - End date: 30 September 2024

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101024951.