Research studies on the preparation for and mitigation of future earthquakes, an area of increasing importance to many countries around the world, comprise this volume. The selected papers included in this book have been prepared by experts from around the world in the fields of earthquake engineering relevant to the design of structures. As the world's population has concentrated in urban areas resulting in buildings in regions of high seismic vulnerability, we have seen the consequences of natural disasters take an ever higher toll on human existence. Protecting the built environment in earthquake-prone regions involves not only the optimal design and construction of new facilities, but also the upgrading and rehabilitation of existing structures including heritage buildings, which is an important area of research. Major earthquakes and associated effects, such as tsunamis, continue to stress the need to carry out more research and a better understanding of these phenomena is required to design earthquake resistant buildings and to carry out risk assessment and vulnerability studies.

Comprising specially selected papers on the subject of Computational Methods and Experimental Measurements, this book includes research from scientists, researchers and specialists who perform experiments, develop computer codes and carry out measurements on prototypes. Improvements relating to computational methods have generated an ever-increasing expansion of computational simulations that permeate all fields of science and technology. Validating the results of these improvements can be achieved by carrying out committed and accurate experiments, which have undertaken continuous development. Current experimental techniques have become more complex and sophisticated so that they require the intensive use of computers, both for running experiments as well as acquiring and processing the resulting data. This title explores new experimental and computational methods and covers various topics such as: Computer-aided Models; Image Analysis Applications; Noise Filtration of Shockwave Propagation; Finite Element Simulations.