Patrick Bischof

Seismic vulnerability assessment at urban scale for two typical Swiss cities using Risk-UE methodology

This paper contains a seismic assessment at urban scale of the cities of Sion and Martigny in Switzerland. These two cities have been identified for the present research based on their importance regarding size and the characteristics of the building stock for which information was available. Moreover, microzonation investigations are available for both cities. This results in a more accurate characterization of local expected ground shaking, which is expressed through specific response spectra. Sion and Martigny represent, respectively, the capital and second largest city of the canton of Valais. This region is characterized by the highest seismicity within Switzerland. The paper focuses on the assessment using Risk-UE methodology, namely the empirical method LM1 and the mechanical method LM2. The obtained results are compared in order to assess the related accuracy. Firstly, buildings of the two cities were surveyed in order to collect main structural characteristics in a database. Building stock is typical of that region and can be found similar to many other medium-sized Swiss cities. Around half of the buildings are unreinforced masonry buildings, while several others are reinforced concrete buildings with shear walls. Results show the most vulnerable part of the cities regarding earthquake. There are significant differences in global results between LM1 and LM2 methods. The mechanical LM2 method is more pessimistic since it predicts damage grades of about one degree higher than LM1 method. However, the main drawback of the empirical LM1 method is that an a priori determination of an adequate value of the macroseismic intensity is required. Nevertheless, LM2 method may lead to a global overestimation of damage prediction.

The Effects of Hydraulic Properties of Bedrock on the Stability of Slopes

The transient process of rain infiltration in the soil and the effect of geometry and drainage properties of the bedrock on the pore pressure distribution and the stability of a slope are investigated. The simulated slope is a test field in northern Switzerland, where landslide triggering experiments were carried out. From geological point of view, the experimental site is located in the Swiss Molasse basin. The lithological units in the area are composed of horizontally layered and fractured sandstones intersected by marlstone. The stability of the slope is monitored at different stages of the infiltration using the limit equilibrium method of slices. Several cases were compared to study the effect of the fissures in the shallow bedrock on the stability of the slope. The approximate location and size of the fissures in the bedrock were determined by monitoring of spatial and temporal changes of electrical resistivity during rainfall and also geological investigations of the bedrock before and after the failure.

Exploiting the Potential of Digital Fabrication for Sustainable and Economic Concrete Structures

Digital technologies overcome typical constraints of traditional concrete construction processes caused by the high impact of labour costs and bring about many new possibilities to the conceptual design, dimensioning, detailing, and production of concrete structures. While the potential of geometric flexibility is being extensively explored, most digital technologies encounter difficulties in penetrating the market due to lacking compliance with structural integrity requirements. To maximise their impact, it is essential that digital concrete processes (i) integrate reinforcement resisting tensile forces and (ii) address conventional structures with geometric simplicity. This paper discusses the potential of digital concrete fabrication processes to reduce the quantity of reinforcement required in concrete structures. For example, “minimum reinforcement” can be tremendously reduced by (i) tailoring the concrete grade locally to the actual needs and (ii) ensuring small crack spacings and correspondingly reduced crack widths by means of crack initiators. An experimental study shows that the strength reduction in the interfaces between layers from extrusion processes can be quantified with reasonable accuracy, which allows using these weak interfaces as crack initiators. A mechanical model to quantify the corresponding potential for saving “minimum reinforcement” when using 3D printing is presented. It is found that weak interfaces in layer joints with 33% of the concrete tensile strength inside the layer allow reducing up to 80% the minimum reinforcement for a given maximum crack width requirement under imposed deformations.