EPICentre's Online Course - Simplified Structural Assessment for Seismic Fragility Analysis

EPICentre offers a free fully online course aiming to teach simplified structural assessment approaches for the development of fragility function for various natural hazard. The main focus of the course is on earthquake events, however the process can be applied to other natural disasters, such as tsunami, flood, hurricane, typhoon and cyclones.

Fragility functions are essential components of any risk assessments and are developed and used by researchers, civil and structural engineering consultants and insurers.

Users will learn state-of-the-art techniques and tools for developing fragility functions, taking a consistent approach to the inclusion of uncertainty.

The course is aimed at master’s level students with an engineering background. It's also accessible to other professionals (e.g. in insurance) who know something about earthquake fragility assessment and want to learn more.

The course is free and accessible to everyone.

Structure & Teaching

The course is self-paced, you can start at any time and there is no time limit on completing the course.

You will have access to tutorials and examples, as well as training slides and video clips to help you learn how to use the software.

It will take between 10 and 20 hours to complete the course, depending on your experience.

There is no formal assessment.

Learning Outcomes

This course will help you:

• Learn about nonlinear static procedures for structural assessment under earthquake loading
• Gain knowledge on structural damage assessment
• Use the FRACAS software
• Be able to generate seismic fragility functions for single structures

Who this course is for

The course is aimed at those with a degree in engineering subjects, particularly civil, structural and earthquake engineering.

However, it is also accessible to other professionals, such as insurance, who know something about fragility assessment and want to learn more.

You should have some knowledge of structural analysis before taking this course.

Software

Any structural analysis software can be used to implement the methods covered in this course. However, specific guidance and examples are given in SeismoStruct developed by SeismoSoft.

You'll also learn how to use FRACAS, which presents an efficient approach to simplified structural assessment using real earthquake records. FRACAS software is provided as part of the course.

Course Access

The course is free and accessible to everyone, through UCL eXtend Platform.

1. Visit eXtend and click on "Login" option.
2. Create a new account
3. Accept all Terms & Conditions 
4. Fill in your information and create your account
5. You will be directed to Course Overview in My eXtend
6. Visit Simplified Structural Assessment for Seismic Fragility Analysis and click on “SELECT”.
7. The course should now appear in your My eXtend page.

Access to UCL eXtend

Access the Course on UCL eXtend

The course is developped as part of the MSc Earthquake Engineering with Disaster Management at UCL Department of Civil, Environmental & geomatic Engineering.

Developing Team

• Prof Tiziana Rossetto
• Dr Carmine Galasso
• Dr Arash Nassirpour
• Dr Stelious Minas

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Links

• EPICentre
• EPICentre Courses
• EPICentre 360 Library
• MSc Earthquake Engineering with Disaster Management
• UCL Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering