SERA Project: (Towards the) Ultimate Earthquake proof Building System: development and testing of integrated low-damage technologies for structural and non-structural elements Earthquake Engineering is facing an extraordinarily challenging era, the ultimate target being set at increasingly higher levels by the demanding expectations of our modern society. Targeting life-safety is arguably not enough for our modern society and communities. A paradigm shift is required towards a damage-control or low-damage design philosophy which should embrace the building system as a whole.
The research project is part of the EU-funded SERA (Seismology and Earthquake Engineering Research Infrastructure Alliance for Europe) project and intends to promote a research effort within the European environment for the wider industry/community uptake of an integrated low-damage building system, including skeleton and non-structural components for the next generation of buildings. The scientific coordinator of the project is Professor Pampanin and its team from Sapienza University of Rome collaborated with a strong international academic-industry group for the development of the research: EUCENTRE/IUSS Pavia, ARUP Amsterdam/Londra, University of Canterbury (New Zealand), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH).
The overall research project comprised analytical/numerical and experimental investigations focusing around the 3D shake table tests of a 1:2 or larger scale super-assembly (two storeys-two bays building system) low-damage building system, comprising structural skeleton (frames in one directions and rocking walls in the other) and non- structural components (facades and partitions). The large-scale shake-table tests (under 3 degrees of freedom input motions, two horizontal and one vertical components) were carried out at the Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil (LNEC) in Lisbon.
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