Overview

This online short course will teach you simplified structural assessment approaches for developing seismic fragility functions (also called fragility curves).

Fragility functions are essential components of earthquake risk models.

You'll learn state-of-the-art techniques and tools for developing fragility functions, taking a consistent approach to the inclusion of uncertainty.

The course is aimed at Master's level students with an engineering background. It's also accessible to others professionals (e.g. in insurance) who know something about earthquake fragility assessment and want to learn more.

Course content

The course will cover:

• non-linear static analysis procedures for structural assessment under seismic loading
• the capacity spectrum method of seismic assessment of structures
• fragility analysis using the FRACAS (fragility through capacity spectrum assessment) approach for assessing structures under earthquake time histories
• case-study applications for capacity assessment and fragility analysis of reinforced concrete buildings using FRACAS

You'll also learn how to use the FRACAS software to develop your own fragility functions.

Software

Any structural analysis software can be used to implement the methods covered in this course. However, specific guidance and examples are given in SeismoStruct - which can be downloaded from http://www.seismosoft.com/seismostruct

You'll also learn how to use FRACAS, which presents an efficient approach to simplified structural assessment using real earthquake records. FRACAS is provided as part of the course.

Structure and teaching

The course is self-paced - you can start at any time and there is no time limit on completing the course.

You'll have access to tutorials and examples, as well as training slides and videos to help you learn how to use the software.

It'll take between 10 and 20 hours to complete the course, depending on your experience.

There's no formal assessment.

Who this course is for

The course is aimed at those with a degree in engineering subjects, particularly civil engineering.

However, it's also accessible to other professionals (e.g. in insurance) who know something about earthquake fragility assessment and want to learn more.

You should have some knowledge of structural analysis before taking this course.

Learning outcomes

This course will help you:

• learn about nonlinear static procedures for structural assessment under earthquake loading
• gain knowledge on structural damage assessment
• use the FRACAS software
• be able to generate seismic fragility functions for single structures

Course team

Professor Tiziana Rossetto

Tiziana is Professor in Earthquake Engineering and Director of EPICentre, a multidisciplinary research group that investigates risk to society and infrastructure from earthquakes and other natural hazards. She's an expert in seismic vulnerability and fragility assessment.

Dr Carmine Galasso

Carmine is Senior Lecturer in Catastrophe Risk and Director of the MSc Earthquake Engineering with Disaster Management. He's an expert in engineering seismology and seismic risk assessment.

Stylianos Minas

Stylianos is a Researcher in UCL EPICentre with expertise in structural analysis of reinforced concrete buildings under seismic loading.

Arash Nassirpour

Arash is a Researcher in UCL EPICentre with expertise in structural analysis of steel buildings under seismic loading.

Course information last modified: 30 Nov 2022, 16:00