From an engineering perspective, EPICentre staff use analytical, numerical, experimental, observational, expert elicitation and advanced statistical approaches to develop the knowledge and tools necessary for the assessment and strengthening of buildings and infrastructure under natural hazards. This is a particular strength of EPICentre and research is moving away from traditional engineering resistance analysis towards seeking solutions for the mitigation of functionality loss for improved societal resilience. Research in this area has to date concentrated on the hazards of earthquakes, tsunami, floods, wind and fire, with approaches being developed and applied for assessing individual structures, populations of buildings, lifeline components and networks.
From a more social science perspective, significant work has been undertaken by EPICentre to investigate social and physical metrics of resilience, and on the interplay between different stakeholders and infrastructure systems in the face of natural hazards.
Epicentre Projects in this field:
- Seismic Design and Fragility Assessment of Retrofitted Structures: Influence of Aftershocks and Uncertainty Quantification
- Urbanwaves
- Challenging RISK - Seismic Retrofit of RC structures
- Analyzing the Reduced Seismic Risk after Strengthening
- Consequences of long-term volcanic activity for crucial social infrastructure systems
- Seismic Performance of Existing Tall Buildings and Strategies for Increased Resilience
- Deformation Capacity of RC Elements
- Seismic Analysis & Vulnerability Assessment of Mid-Rise Masonry Infilled Steel Frame Structures