The workshop on “Seismic Design Methodologies for the Next Generation of Codes,” held in Bled, Slovenia, in 1997, initiated considerable progress worldwide to establish basic concepts and methods for performance-based earthquake engineering. An increasing acceptance of PBEE concepts by practicing engineers, together with extensive research, has led to implementation in the design and upgrade of buildings, bridges, and other man-made structures.
Encouraged by the success of the 1997 workshop, we decided to organize an international forum aimed at continuing dialog on the implementation worldwide of new ideas. The International Workshop on Performance-Based Seismic Design — Concepts and Implementation, was held in Bled, June 28 – July 1, 2004.
Much of the past research in performance-based earthquake engineering has focused on rigorous approaches to performance assessment and on metrics for communicating performance (in probabilistic terms) to stakeholders. In the design process (design of new structures and upgrading of existing ones), the challenge is to create a system that will deliver desired performance in a cost-effective way. The objective of the international workshop was to assess the states of knowledge and practice related to this challenge so that progress in research and implementation in engineering practice can be accelerated, w ith a common foundation established on which to base the various approaches advocated in different countries.
At the workshop, 45 invited participants and 12 observers from 14 countries addressed the following topics: loss estimation, fragility and vulnerability, and impact on risk management; implementation in engineering practice; performance-based design concepts; and integration of experimental and analytical simulations.
Forty-three papers, which were submitted before the workshop and posted on the workshop website, were presented during the first two days of the workshop. The last two days were devoted to discussions organized in the form of working group sessions, and a final plenary session. The workshop provided a valuable forum for the exchange of research results and ideas on issues important for advancement of performance-based earthquake engineering methodologies.
These proceedings contain the work shop resolutions, conclusions, and recommendations, as well as a compendium of the invited papers. The proceedings are intended to assess the state of the art and state of the practice in performance- based seismic design, to define future directions for the development of performance- based earthquake engineering, and to identify important research needs.
We are deeply indebted to the author s who accepted the invitation to attend the workshop, wrote original and thoughtful papers, presented them at the workshop, chaired the sessions, and participated in the lively discussions. The invaluable help of the advisory committee consisting of Professors Jack P. Moehle (chair), Gregory G. viii Deierlein, Michael N. Fardis, and Toshimi Kabeyasawa is greatly appreciated. We gratefully acknowledge the important contributions of Professor Matej Fischinger in all aspects of the workshop organization. We are also much indebted to Dr. Matjaž Dolšek and Dr. Tomo Cerovšek for preparing and maintaining the workshop website. Dr. Janez Reflak led a team of local organizers consisting of faculty members and the staff, and of post-doctorate and Ph.D. students of the Institute of Structural Engineering, Earthquake Engineering and Construction IT, Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, University of Ljubljana. Their dedicated work resulted in the excellent organization of the workshop. We express our appreciation to the PEER leadership and the PEER publication coordinator Janine Hannel, who made these proceedings available to interested readers in a timely manner, and to Parshaw Vaziri for the cover design.
We gratefully acknowledge the following sponsoring organizations: Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER) Center; Ministry of Education, Science and Sport of Slovenia; the University of Ljubljana; the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts; and IBE, Ljubljana.
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