It will comprise presentations and a concluding round-table discussion. The presentations on the state-of-the-art and latest developments will be given by one speaker from Europe and one from China for each of the following topics:

• Lessons learnt from recent earthquakes, including disaster management
• Large research infrastructures: advances in experimental techniques, data sharing, remote access, efficient joint use of complementary infrastructures
• Risk assessment of critical infrastructures and the built environment
• Codes of practice for the future: design for resilience, existing structures, cultural heritage, etc.
• Experience from EU-China collaboration

The evolution of standard methods and procedures for the seismic design of structures is currently being implemented into a 2nd generation of Eurocode 8, which is of the utmost importance for the construction industry within earthquake-prone countries in Europe and worldwide. This thorough revision of the present European standards aims at developing the performance-based design concepts in current practice for new and existing structures and to improve the seismic action definition, site classification, analysis methods, assessment procedures, and the overall design, detailing and retrofit of buildings and bridges with commonly used building materials. Ease of use for the code user is also a major subject of concern. This special session will be composed of a number of invited talks, delivered by the individuals more deeply involved in the development of the 2nd generation of Eurocode 8, followed by a panel discussion with experts from CEN/TC250/SC8 on the seismic design and assessment of structures and bridges. Afterwards, these will interact with the general public in an open discussion on the choices adopted for the development of EC8.

Even high safety standards in the earthquake-resistant design of buildings cannot completely avoid fatalities and widespread damage particularly in strong events with ground motion much stronger than design ground motion. However, classical codes such as Eurocode 8 do not relate the design level to residual risk: does the residual risk become sufficiently small if ordinary structures are designed for return period of 500 to 1000 years? International Building Code (IBC-2012) has specified a collapse risk limit as a target in design, which also allows inferring fatality rates in code-compliant buildings. This enables comparisons with other perils our society is facing (e.g. road traffic accidents, airplane accidents, crime, diseases, etc.). However, as a large amount of fatalities and widespread damage can occur in an earthquake, the average annual individual fatality risk is not a sufficient measure and must be supplemented by societal loss measures that are the equivalent to PML curves for financial losses in the insurance industry. The session invites contributions to methodologies allowing to study the adequacy of current seismic safety levels, comparisons with other perils, and ways to address and control the residual risk.

The focus of the special session is on non-conventional materials and systems utilized in concrete bridge columns and piers, rather than more typical cast-in-place solutions. For example, some recent developments have utilized high- and ultra-high performance concrete, shape memory alloys, high-strength steel, and various types and forms of reinforced polymers in the design of bridge columns strengthening of deficient columns. The systems include, i.a., hollow core and sandwich columns, precast and/or prestressed segmental columns with energy dissipating joints, special plastic hinge designs, precast substructure connections, and a variety of passive systems located on the piers. The special session will serve as a forum for sharing experimental, analytical, and numerical studies on these innovative materials and systems, as well as case studies of such systems being deployed in bridge construction around the world.

Performance-based Earthquake Engineering (PBEE) is an engineering paradigm wherein structures and non-structural components are designed to meet specific performance measures of importance to stakeholders, in contrast to traditional design, which meets prescriptive code provisions. To achieve this goal, advances are required in many fields, including hazard assessment, modeling, analysis, testing and uncertainty quantification. Still, when it comes to practice, several questions arise. In essence, we all have our models, methods and case-studies where things work as planned. But what happens in reality, when we try to apply our findings in an imperfect world? At the steep costs PBEE methods incur, how feasible is their use in practice and can they ever become a part of the seismic code?

The unforeseen high structural repair, downtime, and replacement costs incurred by recent seismic events in various countries (Haiti 2010, Christchurch 2011, Nepal 2015, Italy, 2016) dictate the need for achieving affordable (i.e., cost-effective) high-performance (i.e., minimum damage or damage-free) engineering structures. This need fuelled new recent interest in structural control applications that utilize viscous, regenerative, and inertial energy dissipation devices, following on from pertinent developments in mechanical (automotive/locomotive) engineering, as well as in the field of energy harvesting from large amplitude vibrations. One such example is the emergence of damping devices that leverage coupling the inerter, a two terminal device that develops a resisting force proportional to the relative acceleration of its terminals, with traditional vibration control solutions, such as the tuned-inerter-damper and the tuned-mass-damper-inerter. This setting creates the premise for this special session which aims to bring together researchers working on applications of inertial, viscous and regenerative damping devices as well as on the risk-based assessment of their performance.

SS14. Recent advances in earthquake protection technologies
(organized by H. Sucuoğlu, M. Calvi)

Seismic performance expectations from building structures are increasing. It is not possible to achieve a high seismic performance from buildings that are designed and constructed with conventional procedures after a strong earthquake. New technologies are required for achieving continued building services. Seismic isolation is the only technology adopted to practice so far. New technologies for seismic protection, basically capable of disipating seismic energy without structural damage are required in seismic countries.

Despite the recent development in the characterization of seismic hazard, collection of exposure data and derivation of complex vulnerability models, a significant rise in the human and economic losses due to earthquakes has been observed. The Global Earthquake Model (GEM) is a collaborative effort that aims to provide organizations and individuals with models, datasets and state-of-the-art tools for transparent assessment of earthquake hazard and risk, which can support the development of risk reduction strategies. This special session presents the recent developments in the GEM tools, datasets and models, as well as several examples of how these resources are being used worldwide to assess earthquake hazard, vulnerability and risk. In particular, the status of the development of the Global Earthquake Risk Model (expected to be finalized by the end of 2018) will be presented, with a special focus on the earthquake risk assessment of European countries.

This Special Session deals with the development and application of software for the risk analysis of buildings, bridges, lifelines, critical infrastructure, etc., which are exposed to seismic and other natural hazards, and of the resulting economic and social losses, including shelter needs. Development and applications for multi-hazard assessment are encouraged as well as the ones that assess the relationship and interaction between hazards that occur simultaneously or the interaction between elements at risk. Open source software for seismic risk analysis was a precursor to similar developments for many different risks; therefore, the session, in addition to considering different natural hazards (such as hurricanes, tsunami, fires, landslides and floods, etc.), might consider extensions to the topics of climate change, man-made and technological risks, among others. Papers promoting resilience and sustainability are encouraged. The session aims to bring together researchers, software developers, practicioners and stakeholders (e.g. civil protection, insurance industry, lifeline owners etc.), who deal with loss estimation and risk management during natural calamities. During the session, recent advances in available software for risk analysis and loss estimation will be presented, and limitations and future needs will be discussed.