Preface

**Section 2 Engineering 183**

**VI** Contents

C. Mullen

Vincenzo Gattulli

**Quay Walls 257** Babak Ebrahimian

Herrera

Chapter 8 **FE Based Vulnerability Assessment of Highway Bridges Exposed to Moderate Seismic Hazard 185**

Chapter 10 **Pushover Analysis of Long Span Bridge Bents 237**

**According to Venezuelan Codes 283**

Vitaly Yurtaev and Reza Shafiei

Chapter 9 **Advanced Applications in the Field of Structural Control and**

Chapter 11 **Numerical Modelling of the Seismic Behaviour of Gravity-Type**

Chapter 12 **Seismic Evaluation of Low Rise RC Framed Building Designed**

**Health Monitoring After the 2009 L'Aquila Earthquake 207**

Juan Carlos Vielma, Alex H. Barbat, Ronald Ugel and Reyes Indira

The mitigation of earthquake-related hazards represents a key role in the modern society. The mitigation of such kind of hazards spans from detailed studies on seismicity, evaluation of site effects, and seismo-induced landslides, tsunamis as well as and the design and analysis of structures to resist such actions. The study of earthquakes ties together science, technology and expertise in infrastructure and engineering in an effort to minimize human and material losses when they inevitably occur. Chapters deal with different topics aiming to mitigate geo-hazards such as: Seismic hazard analysis, Ground investigation for seismic design, Seismic design, as‐ sessment and remediation, Earthquake site response analysis and soil-structure interaction analysis. Chapter one deals with seismic hazard analysis (SHA) which forms the basis of seis‐ mic risk assessment and mitigation, and the earthquake-resistant design process. In particular, it focuses on a nice case of seismic hazard for archeological structures. SHA involves also quan‐ titative estimation of the expected ground shaking, which can be expressed in terms of a ground motion parameter of interest such as peak ground acceleration (PGA) or spectral am‐ plitudes (SA) for different oscillator periods. In this regards, chapters two and three present results related to the use of source scaling relationships in the simulation of a seismic scenario in Mexico, and simulation of near field strong ground motions using hybrid method. The next three chapters face the challenge of ground investigation parameters required for seismic de‐ sign of structures and earthworks include shear-wave velocity usually corresponding to the uppermost 30 m of the foundation materials (Vs30), velocity profile identification, measure to asses seismic site effects using ambient noise recordings. The study of the surface geology is also a key factor in the process of seismic risk mitigation. Surface soil deposits can significantly modify the amplitude and frequency characteristics of earthquake ground motion. Thus dy‐ namic soil-structure interaction (SSI) may need to be taken into account for the earthquakeresistant design of a structure and it represent an interdisciplinary research field which involves both geotechnical and structural engineers. The second section of the book focuses on such topic. The complexity of the analysis is based on the nature of the problem and the risk level of the structure that is being designed.

I would like to express my special thanks to Ms Danijela Durinc and the whole staff of In‐ Tech Open Access Publishing, for their professional assistance and technical support during the entire publishing process that has led to the realization of this book.

> **Sebastiano D'Amico** Research Officer III Physics Department University of Malta Malta

**Section 1**

**Geophysical Techniques**
