N E W S L E T T E R

“Systemic seismic vulnerability and risk

analysis for buildings, lifeline networks

and infrastructures safety gain” Issue 3, February 2012

> > http://www.syner-g.eu/

SYNER-G is a European Collaborative Research Project

focusing on the systemic seismic vulnerability and risk

analysis of buildings, lifelines and infrastructures. The

research consortium relies on the active participation of

twelve partners from Europe, one from USA and one from

Japan. The consortium includes a partner from the industry

(VCE) and one from the insurance (Willis) area.

Project Workflow

SYNER-G is designed with eight work packages:

WP5. SYSTEMIC VULNERABILITY & LOSSES

WP1. Coordination Project Management

Executive Committee

Seismic Hazard

Scenarios

WP3. PHYSICAL

VULNERABILITY & LOSSES

Fragility functions

for elements and systems

WP4. SOCIO ECONOMIC

VULNERABILITY & LOSSES

for elements and systems

Buildings &

aggregates

Utility

systems

Transportation

infrastructures

Critical

facilities

Interdependencies between systems

WP6. APPLICATION & VALIDATION

Urban scale

Thessaloniki city

Vienna city

Utility-Transportation

Pipeline network

Motorway in Italy

Electric network in Italy

Harbor of Thessaloniki

Critical facilities

Hospital facility

in Italy

WP8. GUIDELINES -

DISSEMINATION

WP7. SOFTWARE

TOOLS

WP2. GENERAL METHODOLOGY

Information about the progress of WPs 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 is

given in the following.

The SYNER-G consortium:

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (coordinator) Vienna Consulting Engineers Bureau de Recherches Geologiques et Minieres Joint Research Centre (European Commission)

Norwegian Geotechnical Institute

University of Pavia

University of Roma “La Sapienza”

Middle East Technical University AMRA, University of Naples Federico II University of Karlsruhe University of Patras

Willis Group Holdings Mid-America Earthquake Center, University of Illinois Kobe University

Recent News

• A special session for SYNER-G will be

organized during the 15th World

Conference on Earthquake Engineering

@ Lisbon, Portugal, 24-28 Sept. 2012

• Deliverables are available online: www.syner-g.eu

• SYNER-G has been presented:

at GEM Annual Outreach Meeting

@ Beijing, People's Republic of China,

6-9 June 2011

at the Symposium: Building safer &

resilient societies against mega

disasters, organized by Kobe University

Centre @ Brussels, Belgium, 19

September 2011

at the 4th Japan-Greece Workshop on

Seismic Design of Foundations and

Innovations in Seismic Protection

@ Kobe, Japan, 6-7 October 2011

General Assembly Meetings

Meetings held in 2011:

• Mid-term Meeting

@ Oslo on 28-29 April 2011

• WP5 Workshop

@ Orleans on 2 November 2011

• 2nd Annual meeting

@ Orleans on 3-4 November 2011

N E W S L E T T E R

“Systemic seismic vulnerability and risk

analysis for buildings, lifeline networks

and infrastructures safety gain” Issue 3, February 2012

WP2: Development of a methodology to evaluate systemic vulnerability

• A general methodological framework to

assess vulnerability at a system level

considering interdependencies between

elements at risk (physical and non-

physical), belonging to different systems

and between different systems as a whole,

at city and regional scale, has been defined.

• The treatment of uncertainties has been

considered in the general methodology, in

particular: on the seismic activity of the

seismo-genetic sources/faults, on the local

seismic intensities at the sites for any given

scenario, on the physical damageability of

the components of the Infrastructure, on the

functional consequences at component

and/or system level of the physical damage

at the component level, on the socio-

economic consequences of physical damage,

and on the epistemic uncertainty in all the

above models.

• The main indicators to assess performance

at component, system and infrastructure

level have been defined.

The network of random variables modelling uncertainty in the

regional seismic vulnerability assessment problem

• An object-oriented model of the

Infrastructure describing the relations

between all systems and components (inter-

and intra-dependencies) within the

taxonomy has been developed.

• The developed model is described through

class diagrams of different hierarchical levels

describing the methods, the attributes of

components/networks/infrastructures, the

inter/intra dependencies etc.

• An overview of the available data sources

and methods for collecting data, i.e. census

and owner/operator data, ground surveys

and remote sensing techniques, on the

typical European elements at risk within

systems have been provided and templates

in spreadsheet format for collecting,

archiving and processing the data have been

produced. Example studies for the

compilation of inventories in Thessaloniki

and Vienna, as well as a proxy building

inventory for Europe have been presented.

Class diagram for the Water

and Electric Power network classes

N E W S L E T T E R

“Systemic seismic vulnerability and risk

analysis for buildings, lifeline networks

and infrastructures safety gain” Issue 3, February 2012

WP3: Fragility functions of elements at risk

• Fragility curves have been proposed for all the systems’ elements based on the taxonomy/typology of

the WP2 framework.

• A fragility curve archive has been produced, which will provide the basis for all calculations within the

software tool. The fragility manager produces the fragility curves in the correct form and the software

platform can directly take this output and use it. In case of buildings and bridges focus is given in

compiling, harmonizing and archiving (in a query-able database) all the existing fragility functions.

SYNER-G fragility function manager tool for bridges

WP4: Socio-economic vulnerability and losses

• Social indicators for individual

health impacts and for health

care impacts were identified

based on literature research, and

tested using available European

statistical data.

• Eight Principal Components at

city level and eight Principal

Components at sub-city district

level were defined based on the

European Urban Audit indicators

in the period 2003-2006. These

components will be applied to the

socio-economic impact

assessment framework in the

emergency shelter and health

care facilities sectors.

Multi-criteria Framework for Health Impact Analysis

N E W S L E T T E R

“Systemic seismic vulnerability and risk

analysis for buildings, lifeline networks

and infrastructures safety gain” Issue 3, February 2012

• The benchmarking of socio-economic indicators

has been completed based on empirical data

that were provided by the Italian Civil

Protection for L’Aquila event. Three different

levels of analysis are considered: i) correlation

of building usability states with building

damage states, ii) relationship between

building damage and socio-economic impacts,

iii) validation of SYNER-G “shelter model”

Number of public shelters and the population housed

per Mixed Operations Center (COM) in L’Aquila

Left: Damage level based on number of storeys, Right: Usability results based on number of storeys for zone 3 of

L’Aquila benchmarking study

WP5: Systemic vulnerability specification

• Performance(s) (physical vulnerability,

serviceability/ functionality) definition at the

components, systems and system of systems

levels has been performed (in terms of

appropriate performance measures) and linked

with WP4.

• The analysis of the electric power system is

carried out at the capacitive level, computing the

powers and voltages in the network, both in the

undamaged or reference condition and in the

damaged one. Analysis of short-circuit propagation is also performed.

• Systemic vulnerability analysis and loss

assessment of gas and oil networks and water

and waste-water systems is performed based on

connectivity and flow analysis taking into

consideration direct/ physical dependencies

between at least two systems. Software

implementation and structure of classes and sub-

classes are defined.

+ -

Autotransformer line

Bars

Bars-connecting lineLow voltage side High voltage side

Bus # 2Bus # 1

Line without transformer

Layout of a typical transformation/distribution

substation

N E W S L E T T E R

“Systemic seismic vulnerability and risk

analysis for buildings, lifeline networks

and infrastructures safety gain” Issue 3, February 2012

WP6: Validation studies

• City of Thessaloniki (road network,

water system, buildings, socio-

economic impact).

• City of Vienna (buildings, networks,

socio-economic impact).

• Road Network in Italy (connectivity

study, travel time under “free flow”

condition, interaction with health care

system).

Road network in Calabria, Southern-Italy

• Electric Power Network in Italy

(capacitive study of Sicily network).

• Gas Network in L’ Aquila (pipelines

and M/R stations, connectivity,

performance).

• Harbour of Thessaloniki (cranes,

quaywalls/wharfs, electric power

network).

• Health-Care Facility in Italy (Hospital

of Lamezia Terme in Calabria,

Southern-Italy).

Division of Thessaloniki into 20 Sub-City-Districts

Division of Vienna into 9 Sub-City-Districts

Electric power network of Sicily

Electrical Power

Normal Building Power

MV/LV Transformer UPS EPG

Emergencygenerator

LinksTransmission

lines

NodesDistribution

stations

Sub-fault trees of Hospital equipment

N E W S L E T T E R

“Systemic seismic vulnerability and risk

analysis for buildings, lifeline networks

and infrastructures safety gain” Issue 3, February 2012

WP7: Prototype software

• The MAEViz platform has been

customized for European

conditions. The new software

represents a stand-alone

European tool consisting of

input, computation and output

modules which have been tested

and implemented.

• The fragility manager was

implemented in the software

platform. The formats of the

manager and the platform were

also harmonized.

Workbench Layout of the SYNER-G software

• A proof-of-concept software has

been developed and applied to

the analysis of the seismic

vulnerability of a hypotethical

Infrastructure, consisting of a

subset of the whole SYNER-G

taxonomy. The software includes

modules for the seismic hazard,

vulnerability and network

analysis which can be executed

through the aforementioned

SYNER-G platform.

Fragility Curves Import

SYNER-G is supported by EC/DG Research (Grant agreement no: 244061)

Project Coordinator: Prof. Kyriazis Pitilakis � Aristotle University of Thessaloniki � kpitilak@civil.auth.gr

Project Officer: Dr Denis Peter � European Commission, Research Directorate-General � denis.peter@ec.europa.eu

Three technical workshops are planned to be held at Thessaloniki, Vienna and Ispra (final).

The dates will be announced soon.