In the past, facilities considered to be at the end of their useful life were demolished and replaced with new ones that better met the functional requirements of modern society, including new safety standards. Humankind has recently recognised the threats to the environment and to our limited natural resources due to our relentless determination to destroy the old and build anew. With the awareness of these constraints and the emphasis on sustainability, in future the majority of old structures will be retrofitted to extend their service life as long as feasible. In keeping with this new approach, the EU s Construction Products Regulation 305/2011, which is the basis of the Eurocodes, included the sustainable use of resources as an "Essential Requirement" for construction. So, the forthcoming second generation of EN-Eurocodes will cover not only the design of new structures, but the rehabilitation of existing ones as well.
Most of the existing building stock and civil infrastructures are seismically deficient. When the time comes for a decision to prolong their service life with the help of structural and architectural upgrading, seismic retrofitting may be needed. Further, it is often decided to enhance the earthquake resistance of facilities that still meet their functional requirements and fulfil their purpose, if they are not earthquake-safe. In order to decide how badly a structure needs seismic upgrading or to prioritise it in a population of structures, a seismic evaluation is needed, which also serves as a guide for the extent and type of strengthening. Seismic codes do not sufficiently cover the delicate phase of seismic evaluation nor the many potential technical options for seismic upgrading; therefore research is on-going and the state-of-the-art is constantly evolving. All the more so as seismic evaluation and rehabilitation demand considerable expertise, to make best use of the available safety margins in the existing structure, to adapt the engineering capabilities and techniques at hand to the particularities of a project, to minimise disruption of use, etc. Further, as old structures are very diverse in terms of their materials and layout, seismic retrofitting does not lend itself to straightforward codified procedures or cook-book approaches. As such, seismic evaluation and rehabilitation need the best that the current state-of-the-art can offer on all aspects of earthquake engineering. This volume serves this need, as it gathers the most recent research of top seismic experts from around the world on seismic evaluation, retrofitting and closely related subjects."

Performance-based Earthquake Engineering has emerged before the turn of the century as the most important development in the field of Earthquake Engineering during the last three decades. It has since then started penetrating codes and standards on seismic assessment and retrofitting and making headway towards seismic design standards for new structures as well. The US have been a leader in Performance-based Earthquake Engineering, but also Europe is a major contributor. Two Workshops on Performance-based Earthquake Engineering, held in Bled (Slovenia) in 1997 and 2004 are considered as milestones. The ACES Workshop in Corfu (Greece) of July 2009 builds on them, attracting as contributors world-leaders in Performance-based Earthquake Engineering from North America, Europe and the Pacific rim (Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan, China). It covers the entire scope of Performance-based Earthquake Engineering: Ground motions for performance-based earthquake engineering; Methodologies for Performance-based seismic design and retrofitting; Implementation of Performance-based seismic design and retrofitting; and Advanced seismic testing for performance-based earthquake engineering.

Audience: This volume will be of interest to scientists and advanced practitioners in structural earthquake engineering, geotechnical earthquake engineering, engineering seismology, and experimental dynamics.

Recent years have seen enormous advances in the technology of concrete as a material, through which its strength, compactness and ductility can reach levels never dreamed of before. Thanks to these improved material properties, the strength and durability of concrete structures is greatly improved, their weight and dimensions reduced, the scope of concrete as a structural material is widened and - despite the higher material costs - overall economy is possible, with positive impacts on sustainability as well. Similar advances are underway in reinforcing materials, notably high strength steel and fibre-reinforced polymers, and in the way they are combined with concrete into high performance structures. Developments in materials and equipment, as well as new concepts, have lead to innovative construction techniques, reducing cost and construction time and making possible the application of concrete under extreme conditions of construction or environment. All these advances will be highlighted in the book by the top experts in the field of concrete structures, namely those currently active in the field's leading and truly international scientific and technical association: the International Federation of Structural Concrete (fib) www.fib-international.org. Audience: Practicing engineers and firms, academics, researchers and graduate students, will all find the book timely, informative and very interesting.

Nowadays research in earthquake engineering is mainly experimental and in large-scale; advanced computations are integrated with large-scale experiments, to complement them and extend their scope, even by coupling two different but simultaneous tests. Earthquake engineering cannot give answers by testing and qualifying few, small typical components or single large prototypes. Besides, the large diversity of Civil Engineering structures does not allow drawing conclusions from only a few tests; structures are large and their seismic response and performance cannot be meaningfully tested in an ordinary lab or in the field. So, seismic testing facilities should be much larger than in other scientific fields; their staff has to be resourceful, devising intelligent ways to carry out simultaneously different tests and advanced computations. To better serve such a mission European testing facilities and researchers in earthquake engineering have shared their resources and activities in the framework of the European project SERIES, combining their research and jointly developing advanced testing and instrumentation techniques that maximize testing capabilities and increase the value of the tests. This volume presents the first outcomes of the SERIES and its contribution towards Performance-based Earthquake Engineering, i.e., to the most important development in Earthquake Engineering of the past three decades. The concept and the methodologies for performance-based earthquake engineering have now matured. However, they are based mainly on analytical/numerical research; large-scale seismic testing has entered the stage recently. The SERIES Workshop in Ohrid (MK) in Sept. 2010 pooled together the largest European seismic testing facilities, Europe's best experts in experimental earthquake engineering and select experts from the USA, to present recent research achievements and to address future developments. Audience: This volume will be of interest to researchers and advanced practitioners in structural earthquake engineering, geotechnical earthquake engineering, engineering seismology, and experimental dynamics, including seismic qualification.

Nowadays research in earthquake engineering is mainly experimental and in large-scale; advanced computations are integrated with large-scale experiments, to complement them and extend their scope, even by coupling two different but simultaneous tests. Earthquake engineering cannot give answers by testing and qualifying few, small typical components or single large prototypes. Besides, the large diversity of Civil Engineering structures does not allow drawing conclusions from only a few tests; structures are large and their seismic response and performance cannot be meaningfully tested in an ordinary lab or in the field. So, seismic testing facilities should be much larger than in other scientific fields; their staff has to be resourceful, devising intelligent ways to carry out simultaneously different tests and advanced computations. To better serve such a mission European testing facilities and researchers in earthquake engineering have shared their resources and activities in the framework of the European project SERIES, combining their research and jointly developing advanced testing and instrumentation techniques that maximize testing capabilities and increase the value of the tests. This volume presents the first outcomes of the SERIES and its contribution towards Performance-based Earthquake Engineering, i.e., to the most important development in Earthquake Engineering of the past three decades. The concept and the methodologies for performance-based earthquake engineering have now matured. However, they are based mainly on analytical/numerical research; large-scale seismic testing has entered the stage recently. The SERIES Workshop in Ohrid (MK) in Sept. 2010 pooled together the largest European seismic testing facilities, Europe's best experts in experimental earthquake engineering and select experts from the USA, to present recent research achievements and to address future developments. Audience: This volume will be of interest to researchers and advanced practitioners in structural earthquake engineering, geotechnical earthquake engineering, engineering seismology, and experimental dynamics, including seismic qualification.

Performance-based Earthquake Engineering has emerged before the turn of the century as the most important development in the field of Earthquake Engineering during the last three decades. It has since then started penetrating codes and standards on seismic assessment and retrofitting and making headway towards seismic design standards for new structures as well. The US have been a leader in Performance-based Earthquake Engineering, but also Europe is a major contributor. Two Workshops on Performance-based Earthquake Engineering, held in Bled (Slovenia) in 1997 and 2004 are considered as milestones. The ACES Workshop in Corfu (Greece) of July 2009 builds on them, attracting as contributors world-leaders in Performance-based Earthquake Engineering from North America, Europe and the Pacific rim (Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan, China). It covers the entire scope of Performance-based Earthquake Engineering: Ground motions for performance-based earthquake engineering; Methodologies for Performance-based seismic design and retrofitting; Implementation of Performance-based seismic design and retrofitting; and Advanced seismic testing for performance-based earthquake engineering. Audience: This volume will be of interest to scientists and advanced practitioners in structural earthquake engineering, geotechnical earthquake engineering, engineering seismology, and experimental dynamics.

Reflecting the historic first European seismic code, this professional book focuses on seismic design, assessment and retrofitting of concrete buildings, with thorough reference to, and application of, EN-Eurocode 8. Following the publication of EN-Eurocode 8 in 2004-05, 30 countries are now introducing this European standard for seismic design, for application in parallel with existing national standards (till March 2010) and exclusively after that. Eurocode 8 is also expected to influence standards in countries outside Europe, or at the least, to be applied there for important facilities. Owing to the increasing awareness of the threat posed by existing buildings substandard and deficient buildings and the lack of national or international standards for assessment and retrofitting, its impact in that field is expected to be major.

Written by the lead person in the development of the EN-Eurocode 8, the present handbook explains the principles and rationale of seismic design according to modern codes and provides thorough guidance for the conceptual seismic design of concrete buildings and their foundations. It examines the experimental behaviour of concrete members under cyclic loading and modelling for design and analysis purposes; it develops the essentials of linear or nonlinear seismic analysis for the purposes of design, assessment and retrofitting (especially using Eurocode 8); and gives detailed guidance for modelling concrete buildings at the member and at the system level. Moreover, readers gain access to overviews of provisions of Eurocode 8, plus an understanding for them on the basis of the simple models of the element behaviour presented in the book.

Also examined are the modern trends in performance- and displacement-based seismic assessment of existing buildings, comparing the relevant provisions of Eurocode 8 with those of new US prestandards, and details of the most common and popular seismic retrofitting techniques for concrete buildings and guidance for retrofitting strategies at the system level. Comprehensive walk-through examples of detailed design elucidate the application of Eurocode 8 to common situations in practical design. Examples and case studies of seismic assessment and retrofitting of a few real buildings are also presented.

From the reviews
"This is a massive book that has no equal in the published literature, as far as the reviewer knows. It is dense and comprehensive and leaves nothing to chance. It is certainly taxing on the reader and the potential user, but without it, use of Eurocode 8 will be that much more difficult. In short, this is a must-read book for researchers and practitioners in Europe, and of use to readers outside of Europe too. This book will remain an indispensable backup to Eurocode 8 and its existing Designers Guide to EN 1998-1 and EN 1998-5 (published in 2005), for many years to come. Congratulations to the author for a very well planned scope and contents, and for a flawless execution of the plan." AMR S. ELNASHAI

"The book is an impressive source of information to understand the response of reinforced concrete buildings under seismic loads with the ultimate goal of presenting and explaining the state of the art of seismic design. Underlying the contents of the book is the in-depth knowledge of the author in this field and in particular his extremely important contribution to the development of the European Design Standard EN 1998 - Eurocode 8: Design of structures for earthquake resistance. However, although Eurocode 8 is at the core of the book, many comparisons are made to other design practices, namely from the US and from Japan, thus enriching the contents and interest of the book." EDUARDO C. CARVALHO"