Abstract
The aim of this paper is twofold: (a) to briefly describe the damage caused to historical, residential and industrial buildings by the May 2012 seismic events in the Emilia Romagna region of Italy; and (b) to summarize novel repair and rehabilitation technologies that can be available to practitioners to fix damaged structures or to upgrade undamaged ones. Field inspections after the Emilia Romagna earthquakes showed that seismic vulnerability in that region was primarily due to the lack of seismic detailing in modern buildings, and the presence of heavy nonstructural masses in historical buildings. The novel retrofit technologies discussed in this paper are based on the use of non-conventional or relatively recent material systems where the reinforcement is in the form of continuous or chopped fibers.
Highlights
Strong earthquakes around the world have recently demonstrated the need for structural retrofitting in the case of developed countries with a large cultural heritage built inventory not designed to withstand seismic actions
The area affected by the 20–29 May 2012, earthquakes is located in the Emilian river Po valley, between Modena and Ferrara, and is characterized by unconsolidated soil layers which can induce local amplifications of earthquake ground motion
The 2012 Emilia Romagna earthquakes confirmed the influence of masonry infills on the seismic response of reinforced concrete (RC) framed buildings
Summary
Strong earthquakes around the world have recently demonstrated the need for structural retrofitting in the case of developed countries with a large cultural heritage built inventory not designed to withstand seismic actions. When seismic energy is released by a fault, adjacent faults are triggered, and interact each other, causing an earthquake swarm that includes a number of mainshocks, each followed by hundreds of aftershocks with lower magnitudes. In these conditions, it is difficult to achieve safety protection operations and temporary retrofit interventions. The description gives room for the presentation of retrofitting techniques that could be implemented to reduce seismic fragility of existing structures and to quickly recover an acceptable functionality level in Emilia Romagna, one of the most important industrial regions of Italy
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