| Summary: |
Safety and sustainability of ageing and degrading infra-structure is a crucial concern, not only in the developed world but also in developing countries. Buildings, the most important component of urban habitat are subjected to degradation and failure due to many natural and man-made factors, including disasters. India and Portugal have distinct similarities in
terms of the prevalently used construction materials and building typologies. Further, earthquake is a common hazard, threatening the built environment, in both the countries, and
has caused destruction in past. A significant proportion of the housing stocks in India and Portugal are the buildings which were constructed prior to the 'modern-code' era and these
buildings offer several deficiencies in their structural design and detailing, mainly either due to lack of enforcement or availability of adequate seismic design provisions at the time of
their construction. Further, in due course of time, these buildings have deteriorated due to the natural process of ageing or inappropriate human interventions and usage. Evaluation
and development of appropriate retrofitting measures to enhance 'safe-life' of this huge stock of existing buildings is one of the current and challenging tasks for the researchers as
well as the policy-makers. Recent decades have witnessed tremendous development in the field of earthquake and structural engineering, including estimation and communication of
risk. In this backdrop, the proposed research work is aimed at developing detailed guidelines, methods, and tools for safe-life assessment of the existing buildings, and appropriate
retrofit techniques to enhance their safety and sustainability. |