Seismic Performance Improvement and Energy Optimization for Structures

Dear Colleagues,

The latest seismic events have once again highlighted the extreme fragility of real estate assets, and, in particular, of historic centers which often contain an invaluable cultural heritage. The dramatic nature of events gave further impetus to the already considerable efforts of the scientific world in carrying out the numerous ongoing initiatives at a scientific, technical, and regulatory level.

The problem of protecting the built environment in earthquake-prone regions involves not only an optimal design and construction of new facilities, but also the upgrading and rehabilitation of existing structures, including heritage buildings. The type of highly specialized retrofitting employed to protect built heritage is an important area of research.

Today, in fact, the preservation of civil structures and, especially, architectural heritage represents a considerable concern in many countries, especially due to the decay and to the risk associated to natural extreme actions, such as earthquakes. An evaluation supported by nondestructive methods and techniques is especially important to safely survey and report on the structural health of ancient buildings and architectural heritage. Heavy interventions can be avoided if a rigorous preventive structural health assessment is enforced in structures that have often suffered many changes in time. With this aim, the Special Issue focuses on the use of:

• Nondestructive methods based on sensor technology, data processing techniques, and analysis methods to get an extensive knowledge of the structural health and the operative conditions of buildings and structures;
• Choice of the optimal type of intervention for improving the performance of the structure in a seismic area, thus leading to the most appropriate control strategy and refurbishment provision, including innovative protection technologies, as effective solutions to respond to the constantly increasing performance requirements in structural design and rehabilitation.

At the same time, the Issue invites papers on new and challenging research perspectives related to the improvement of the energy efficiency capacity of structures, very important today to reduce the energy costs of a building.

The objective of this Special Issue is to provide readers with the latest research and application achievements in the field, including emerging aspects in analytical and finite element modeling, design, testing, and practical implementation studies.

We encourage and invite authors to submit original research articles as well as review papers.

Multidisciplinary papers are especially encouraged. Potential topics include but are not limited to:

- Seismic hazard and seismic risk;

- Structural control;

- Techniques for the forecast of seismic excitation;

- Vulnerability of historical and contemporaneous structures;

- Retrofit systems and techniques;

- Evaluation of existing damage in structures;

- Evolutive stage of cracks and injuries in building;

- In situ monitoring of existing structures;

- Dynamic identification of existing structures;

- Assessment, repair, and strengthening of structures;

- Advanced on-site field testing of structures and infrastructures;

- Advanced laboratory tests of structural and nonstructural components and systems, contents and

equipment;

- Eco-efficiency techniques for structures;

- Devices to improve the eco-efficiency of buildings.

Prof. Dr. Dora Foti
Dr. Ramon Gonzalez-Drigo
Dr. Michela Lerna
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Infrastructures is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• vulnerability
• seismic hazard
• eco-efficiency techniques
• monitoring
• NDT
• dynamic identification
• structural testing
• mitigation
• seismic protection
• rehabilitation