Abstract:
Urbanization and modern lifestyles have caused a gradual shift in the human population from rural to urban areas, where 55% of the world´s population lives in metropolitan areas. Construction of new buildings and other infrastructure artefacts in the limited available urban space is required to accommodate the growth of residential and commercial centres within large cities. While it is common practice to determine the seismic response of buildings as singleton structures in isolation (i.e., a single structure with no neighbouring structures), the high density of buildings entails the possibility of a significant seismic interaction between buildings through the underlying soil. Therefore, the seismic response of closely spaced buildings founded on a shared soil stratum should not be viewed as independent structures for the case of assessing earthquake risk. This phenomenon is better known as Structure-Soil-Structure Interaction (SSSI). It brings substantial technical challenges to the scientific community because of the high system complexity and the considerable uncertainty of future seismic ground motion time series. The importance of SSSI has been highlighted in recent years. The results indicate that the effect of including SSSI in the seismic risk assessment could, in a worst-case scenario, increase the seismic structural responses by over 100[%].
The main objective of this work is to develop an efficient reduced-order mathematical formulation to evaluate the multiple SSSI among a group of buildings of a city under different seismic excitation. So, it provides insight into the key parameters governing the SSSI. This low-order approach defines the problem in terms of a small number of system parameters and degrees of freedom. Therefore, it is computationally simple/efficient enough for an extensive multiple interaction buildings exploration of the problem.
Bio:
Dr Felipe Vicencio: I am a researcher, engineer, and educator currently working as an Assistant Professor of Structural Dynamics at the Universidad San Sebastián. My main research areas are earthquake engineering, seismic response of non-structural components, and Structure-Soil-Structure Interaction (SSSI). I hold a first-class undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering and a first-class Master of Science in Earthquake Engineering at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile. My PhD is in Earthquake Engineering (University of Bristol), supervised by Prof Nicholas A Alexander. I have over 13 publications in international journals and conferences. I teach at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels and have contributed to courses internationally in the UK and Latin America. I am the director of the project “An efficient linear/nonlinear 3D numerical model for the study of Structure-Soil-Structure Interaction (SSSI) and site-city effects under seismic excitation” FONDECYT grant 11230400 (2023/2025). Having practised for more than ten years in large infrastructure projects in Latin America, I am continuously involved in specialised consultancy, including expert advice on seismic-resistant design in highly seismic areas. I also serve on several committees related to Chilean code development and the advancement of engineering practice.
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Time: 14:00 pm