Rehabilitation of heritage monuments provides sustainable development and cultural significance to a region. The most sensitive aspect of the refurbishment of existing buildings lies in the renovation and recovery of structural integrity and public safety. The Handbook of Research on Seismic Assessment and Rehabilitation of Historic Structures evaluates developing contributions in the field of earthquake engineering with regards to the analysis and treatment of structural damage inflicted by seismic activity. This book is a vital reference source for professionals, researchers, students, and engineers active in the field of earthquake engineering who are interested in the emergent developments and research available in the preservation and rehabilitation of heritage buildings following seismic activity.

"This book evaluates developing contributions in the field of earthquake engineering with regards to the analysis and treatment of structural damage inflicted by seismic activity"--

This Preservation Brief provides information on how earthquakes affect historic buildings, how a historic preservation ethic can guide responsible retrofit decisions, and how various methods of seismic rehabilitation can protect human lives and historic structures. The Brief provides a description of the most common vulnerabilities of various building construction types and the seismic strengthening methods most often needed to remedy them. A glossary of technical terms is also provided at the end of the Brief. Undertaking the seismic rehabilitation of a historic building is a process that requires careful planning and execution, and the coordinated work of architects, engineers, code officials, contractors, and agency administrators. Project personnel working together can ensure that the architectural, structural, financial, programmatic, cultural, and social values of historic buildings are preserved, while rendering them safe for continued use.

The present volume contains a total of 23 papers centred on the research area of Seismic Assessment and Rehabilitation of Existing Buildings. This subject also forms the core of Project SfP977231, sponsored by the NATO Science for Peace Office and supported by the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey [ TUBIT AK ]. Most of these papers were presented by the authors at a NATO Science for Peace Workshop held in Izmir on 13 - 14 May, 2003 and reflect a part of their latest work conducted within the general confines of the title of the NATO Project. Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey serves as the hub of Project SfP977231 and coordinates research under the project with universities within Turkey, e. g. Istanbul Technical University and Kocaeli University, and with partner institutions in Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia: A few articles have also been contributed by invited experts, who are all noted researchers in the field. Altogether, the contents of the volume deal with a vast array of problems in Seismic Assessment and Rehabilitation and cover a wide range of possible solutions, techniques and proposals. It is intended to touch upon many of these aspects separately below. Earthquakes constitute possibly the most widely spread and also the most feared of natural hazards. Recent earthquakes within the first six months of 2003, such as the Bingol Earthquake in Turkey and the Algerian earthquake, have caused both loss of life and severe damage to property.

This book assembles, identifies and highlights the most recent developments in Rehabilitation and retrofitting of historical and heritage structures. This is an issue of paramount importance in countries with great built cultural heritage that also suffer from high seismicity, such as the countries of the eastern Mediterranean basin. Heritage structures range from traditional residential constructions to monumental structures, ancient temples, towers, castles, etc. It is generally recognized that these structures present particular difficulties in seismic response calculation through computer simulation due to the complexity of the structural system which is, generally, inhomogeneous, with several contact problems, gaps/joints, nonlinearities and brittleness in material constituents. This book contains selected papers from the ECCOMAS Thematic Conferences on Computational Methods in Structural Dynamics & Earthquake Engineering (COMPDYN) that were held in Corfu, Greece in 2011 and Kos, Greece in 2013. The Conferences brought together the scientific communities of Computational Mechanics, Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering in an effort to facilitate the exchange of ideas in topics of mutual interest and to serve as a platform for establishing links between research groups with complementary activities.