Roberto Nascimbene

Roberto Nascimbene
University School for Advanced Studies - IUSS Pavia

PhD

About

197
Publications
142,692
Reads
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4,389
Citations
Introduction
Roberto Nascimbene is Associate Professor at University School for Advanced Studies (IUSS) in Pavia. He earned his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering at University of Pavia where he has been Adjunct Professor since 2005. Prior to joining IUSS, he was the Head of the Building and Infrastructure Department at Eucentre. Roberto has authored >100 peer-reviewed publications in international journals, magazines and conference proceedings; he co-authored four books.
Additional affiliations
February 2021 - present
University School for Advanced Studies - IUSS Pavia
Position
  • Professor (Associate)
September 1999 - September 2002
University of Pavia
Position
  • PhD Student
Description
  • Ph.D. Theisi on "Sail Modelling for maximal speed optimum design". Keywords: thin shell, locking phenomena, finite element modeling, advanced nonlinear analyses, composite materials.
February 2004 - January 2021
European Centre for Training and Research in Earthquake Engineering
Position
  • Researcher
Education
September 1993 - July 1999
University of Pavia
Field of study
  • Civil and Structural Engineering

Publications

Publications (197)
Article
Full-text available
The paper presents a study dealing with the assessment of the dynamic overpressure induced by earthquakes in flat bottom steel silos. Silos are integral components of industrial plants, as part of a complex network of mechanical and structural components. Ensuring the safety of silos is critical in industrial processes, especially when the action o...
Article
Full-text available
This research investigates the seismic behavior of rigid and flexible cylindrical steel tanks, focusing on tanks with an open top and fully anchored at the base. The primary objective is to evaluate the hydrodynamic pressures exerted by the fluid on the tank walls during seismic excitation. Three widely recognized design approaches—New Zealand NZSE...
Article
Full-text available
This study evaluates the API 650 design procedure for steel storage tanks, incorporating nonlinear dynamic analysis with large deformation effects. Focusing on seismic vulnerability, the case study examines storage tanks proposed for construction in Naples, Italy, assessing their performance under site-specific seismic conditions. A target spectrum...
Article
his study focuses on quantifying the impact of implementing a recently proposed seismic classification procedure for acceleration-sensitive non-structural elements on the seismic economic losses of a three-storey case-study building in Italy. The seismic classification procedure for acceleration-sensitive non-structural elements is based on the per...
Article
Full-text available
Historical seismic events have repeatedly highlighted the susceptibility of above-ground liquid storage steel tanks, underscoring the critical need for their proper design to minimize potential damage due to seismic forces. A significant failure mechanism in these structures, which play essential roles in the extraction and distribution of various...
Article
The seismic design of precast structures hinges on unique characteristics intrinsic to precast technology. Emphasis is placed on lightweight structural elements for efficient on-site assembly and cost reduction. This leads to increased slenderness in beams and columns compared to traditional cast-in-situ constructions, accentuating the role of seco...
Article
In this paper, the performances of two electrical cabinet specimens during shake table tests are described in detail in terms of the observed damage and their measured peak transient responses. The measured responses of the specimens are then used to calibrate simplified numerical models of the two specimens. The calibrated numerical models are use...
Article
Full-text available
The prevalence of elevated reinforced concrete tanks is widespread across Italian water distribution networks, particularly in flat or low-relief areas. Primarily constructed by the late 1970s, these tanks often suffer from outdated hydraulic efficiency, unable to cope with the increasing urban water demands. With rising construction costs, the eco...
Conference Paper
The damage suffered by Italian reinforced concrete precast industrial buildings following recent seismic events highlighted the need for seismic rehabilitation of these structures. In addition to traditional retrofitting techniques, innovative solutions are also available, for instance those employing devices able to dissipate the ingoing seismic e...
Conference Paper
Many reinforced concrete precast industrial buildings built in Italy in the last six decades experienced heavy damage during the seismic sequences that recently struck the Country. These single-storey buildings are typically characterised by the presence of slender cantilever columns and hinged beam-to-column connections, which do lend high flexibi...
Conference Paper
The strong seismic sequences that recently struck Italy caused heavy damage to many reinforced concrete precast industrial structures, producing substantial direct and indirect losses. This marked seismic vulnerability emphasised the need for comprehensive campaigns of assessment and retrofit of single-storey precast facilities. In an attempt to he...
Conference Paper
Bridges are key infrastructure of road networks and their closure due to miss-function or collapse could result in significant economic and societal losses. Many of the existing bridges in Italy, as well as in other European countries, are now older than 50 years and there have been many reports of bridge failures recently. Due to ageing, deteriora...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
In New Zealand (NZ), due to a significant construction boom in the 1980s, many of the larger buildings in the commercial building district of Wellington are of similar vintage and generally of similar concrete construction with precast floors. NZ's extensive use of precast floors in regions of high seismicity is unusual, with in-situ floors more co...
Conference Paper
This paper presents the results of a seismic loss estimation study performed on a school building in Italy. The study focuses on quantifying the effects of applying a recently proposed seismic classification procedure for acceleration-sensitive non-structural elements in Italy, based on qualification shake table testing, to the seismic expected ann...
Article
Full-text available
Non-structural elements play a crucial role in the overall seismic performance of buildings, as has been largely demonstrated in recent earthquakes that have stuck densely populated regions. Therefore, the development of performance-based seismic design and assessment methodologies for non-structural elements is becoming an important research topic...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The improvement of the seismic performance of industrial plants represents a fundamental need to guarantee the environmental and life safety of the area surrounding the plant. The industrial facilities that are working, for example, in the chemical or the petrochemical fields, usually have large steel storage tanks, which recent post-seismic survey...
Conference Paper
Storage tanks are crucial components in industrial facilities and building plants, particularly when it comes to seismic events. The collapse of these tanks can lead to the release of hazardous substances, posing risks to both human safety and the environment. This research paper focuses on assessing the seismic performance of a liquid-storage tank...
Conference Paper
For the seismic rehabilitation of reinforced concrete precast structures, in addition to traditional retrofitting techniques, innovative solutions are being increasingly employed, including those consisting of energy dissipation devices. A case study precast building was herein retrofitted following two different strategies: the former entails rein...
Article
Full-text available
The current investigation delved into the seismic analysis, design intricacies, and assessment of the response of elevated steel containment tanks when supported by concentrically braced frames. The primary focus was placed on comprehending the behavior of the supporting structure, recognizing its heightened vulnerability to damage under horizontal...
Article
The significant role of bridges in transportation networks requires continuous improvement of bridge management strategies, which has been even more exacerbated by the recent bridge collapses world-wide. This study proposes a framework for the prioritization and preliminary risk assessment of exist-ing bridges subjected to seismic and traffic hazar...
Article
Full-text available
The need for affordable housing in developing countries requires the development and use of new structural systems that allow easy, fast, and cheap construction while providing a sufficient seismic performance to protect the life and belongings of the population. In this regard, structural wall systems based on ferrocement have proved to be a feasi...
Article
A prolonged and highly destructive seismic sequence struck Central Italy, spanning from August 24, 2016, to January 2017. This series of earthquakes resulted in widespread structural failures and extensive damage across four regions along the Apennines: Lazio, Umbria, Marche, and Abruzzo. In the context of this study, based on post-earthquake remot...
Article
Full-text available
Addressing the seismic vulnerability of infrastructures is critical, especially for those built before the introduction of the current seismic regulations. One of the primary challenges lies in retrofitting these buildings without interrupting their functionality. In this context, the use of exoskeletons for seismic retrofitting represents an effec...
Article
Following recent earthquakes, precast buildings exhibited a strong seismic vulnerability related to the presence of closure external panels. The aim of this work is to simulate the seismic response of existing single-storey precast buildings in the case of explicit modelling of external panels. The considered case studies are precast buildings repr...
Preprint
Full-text available
Addressing the seismic vulnerability of infrastructures is critical, especially for those built before the introduction of the current seismic regulations. One of the primary challenges lies in retrofitting these buildings without interrupting their functionality. In this context, the use of exoskeletons for seismic retrofitting represents an effec...
Conference Paper
A single-storey reinforced concrete precast building was retrofitted firstly with RC jacketing of columns , and then with two energy dissipation devices, namely a friction rotation damper for beam-to-column connections and a bracing system with dissipative sacrificial elements. Once proved that both the investigated retrofitting solutions allow the...
Article
Full-text available
The assessment of seismic risk for critical and strategic structures like schools and hospitals remains crucial, even in regions with low seismic activity. Presently, operational school buildings in Sri Lanka are primarily designed to handle gravitational loads without considering capacity-based design principles. Consequently, these structures may...
Article
Full-text available
Monitoring of non-structural elements is not usually implemented, despite the seismic vulnerability of these components and the significant cost associated with their replacement in case of damage. By exploiting the limited cost of commercial sensors, accelerometers were installed in an existing building to compare accelerations applied to non-stru...
Article
Seismic rehabilitation is crucial to extend the nominal service life and help reduce the seismic losses of reinforced concrete precast industrial buildings. Along with traditional retrofitting techniques, the latest decades are witnessing a growing use of innovative solutions, the latter including devices that can dissipate the ingoing seismic ener...
Article
Full-text available
Building Information Modelling is receiving increasing attention as an emerging technology for enhancing the life‐cycle performance of facilities. The cooperation between all professionals involved in the construction chain allows to reproduce digital twins of the structures including information related to different disciplines, such as structural...
Preprint
Full-text available
The seismic design of precast structures is significantly impacted by the inherent characteristics of precast technology. One primary concern is to deliver structural elements that are as lightweight as possible to streamline on-site assembly and cost reduction. Consequently, the slenderness of beams and columns is considerably greater compared to...
Preprint
Full-text available
The full text of this preprint has been withdrawn, as it was submitted in error. Therefore, the authors do not wish this work to be cited as a reference. Questions should be directed to the corresponding author.
Article
Full-text available
The paper presents a study on the evaluation of seismic fragility of cylindrical ground- supported steel silos intended for storing solid material. Silos are a key facility in industrial processes. For example, cylindrical steel silos constitute the main structural component for several industrial activities, such as the ones aimed at the productio...
Article
Full-text available
Seismic behavior analysis of the long-span cable-stayed bridge is a complex process involving different uncertainties. This paper performs a sensitivity analysis of cable-stayed bridges using the finite element method on Midas/Civil. They include different types of ground motions scaled to different peak ground acceleration (PGA) levels, the effect...
Article
This paper presents a general seismic classification procedure for acceleration‐sensitive non‐structural elements (NSEs) based on seismic qualification shake table testing and provides an application example for electrical cabinets in Italy. The proposed seismic classification procedure requires the definition of a set of required response spectra...
Article
Full-text available
There are many applications in buildings in which precast pre-stressed hollow-core (HC) slabs are subjected to shear, torsion, or combined shear and torsion. Nonetheless, extruded HC units contain no transverse reinforcement, being inherently vulnerable to brittle failure modes due to shear and torsional actions. In previous work by the authors, a...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Seismic retrofitting strategies encompassing the use of dissipation devices can effectively yield a performance enhancement and an extension of the nominal service life of reinforced concrete precast industrial buildings. This work investigates the behaviour of two energy dissipation devices designed for retrofit of precast buildings, namely a fric...
Poster
The European "Floods Directive" requires European River district authorities to create flood damage and risk maps, but the process of assessing flood damage is complex and lacks established methods. Flood risk assessment also requires an understanding of how industrial equipment is vulnerable to flood events and the potential for toxic releases in...
Conference Paper
The important role of bridges in transportation network resiliency has made the management of the existing bridge stock an essential task. In order to implement and prioritize the activities to secure the proper performance of large numbers of existing bridges, it is necessary to go through a complex process of condition assessment and decision-mak...
Chapter
In recent earthquakes, besides the sloshing of the content and the failure of piping systems, among the most common damages suffered by traditional fixed-base steel tanks, there is the uplift, in worse cases the overturning, and the “elephant-foot-buckling” of perimeter walls. Over possible solutions, base-isolation of tanks through sliding isolato...
Article
An adequate seismic protection of steel storage tanks of industrial, chemical and petrochemical plants is essential since potential consequences of failures, besides the economic losses, can be catastrophic for the environment and for people living nearby. Among the most common damages suffered by steel tanks in recent earthquakes, there are the el...
Book
Full-text available
A detailed view on the effects of seismic activity on tank structures As the use of above-ground and underground storage tanks (ASTs and USTs) continues to grow-with approximately 545,000 in the USA alone-the greatest threat to ASTs and USTs is earthquakes, causing the contamination of groundwater, a vital source of drinking water throughout the wo...
Article
Full-text available
Even if precast pre-stressed hollow-core (PPHC) slabs are usually designed as simply supported elements, continuity with the supporting beam may exist when constructed together with a reinforced concrete topping and continuity reinforcing bars. During an earthquake (and possibly other lateral load), this continuity may result in bending moments bei...
Article
Full-text available
The structural safety of the infrastructure stock is an important issue in modern seismic performance assessments. Following recent seismic events, reports have highlighted the increased vulnerability of physical infrastructural assets, particularly for many bridges across the Italian road and motorway network. Italy possesses one of the most compl...
Chapter
Non-structural elements such as electrical cabinets play a key role in determining the seismic performance of buildings. Seismic qualification shake table testing of non-structural elements is a relatively simple way to evaluate their expected seismic performance. This paper presents a shake table testing campaign performed on several electrical ca...
Conference Paper
The damage observed during recent earthquakes pointed out the need for the seismic design of non-structural elements to mitigate the seismic risk at which buildings are prone and to guaranty the immediate occupancy after low to moderate seismic events. Non-structural elements installed without seismic detailing often experienced damage at low seism...
Conference Paper
The major seismic vulnerabilities in precast industrial buildings observed in the recent past earthquakes consist in the overturning and the collapse of closure external panels. The aim of this work is to assess the seismic vulnerability of existing single-storey precast buildings, designed in accordance with past Italian code provisions and with i...
Conference Paper
Nonstructural elements present a high seismic vulnerability due to their susceptibility to exhibit damage under low seismic intensities. Even though a supporting structure remains unaffected by seismic actions, nonstructural damage can generate large economic losses, loss of functionality, and loss of operability. Similar to structural systems, non...
Article
Full-text available
Italian reinforced concrete precast industrial buildings featuring frictional beam-to-column connections suffered from severe losses following recent earthquakes. Despite the relevance of this topic, the current literature includes only few works investigating the seismic behaviour of these buildings, the influence of vertical records on their mode...
Conference Paper
Damage to non-structural elements during earthquake ground motions can determine the seismic performance of a building in terms of building functionality, economic losses and life safety. Seismic qualification through shake table testing is a comprehensive and simple way of determining the causes of seismic damage to non-structural elements, such a...
Article
Full-text available
Typically, the columns of the prefabricated reinforced concrete (RC) industrial buildings and warehouses with large clear storey heights are very slender, with aspect ratios (shear span to width) larger than 10. In addition to supporting the gravity loads, the columns also provide strength, stiffness, dissipation and displacement capacity of the pr...
Article
Full-text available
Nonstructural elements (NEs) are generally defined as elements typically housed within buildings/facilities that are not part of the structural system. Nonstructural elements are often classified as architectural elements, mechanical/electrical/hydraulic systems, and building contents. Nonstructural elements are often associated with critical seism...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
A large part of the Italian existing building portfolio was not designed according to seismic code provisions. This study deals with the seismic vulnerability assessment and retrofit of an existing RC school building located in Lecce, in southern Italy. Two retrofit solutions have been investigated. In the first retrofit scheme the critical structu...
Conference Paper
The seismic performance of nonstructural elements has become a key component of the resilience capacity of modern society. Even if a building does not suffer considerable structural damage during a seismic event, its nonstructural elements can compromise the Recent earthquakes have demonstrated the susceptibility of suspended nonstructural elements...
Conference Paper
The seismic performance of a building is not only determined by the performance of its structural elements but also by the performance of its non-structural elements. A building cannot achieve a continuous functionality performance objective if all its non-structural elements are out of operation after an earthquake. Likewise, a building cannot ach...
Conference Paper
The major earthquakes that occurred worldwide in the last decades highlighted the seismic vulnerability of industrial structures and their components. Beyond the need to avoid human losses, the damages experienced by industrial facilities, both in terms of structural, non-structural and plant elements, significantly affected the economy of such are...
Article
Full-text available
The shell structures are commonly used in many civil and industrial and long-span logistic applications. In this research we simply start by applying a degenerated finite element continuum approach. Then we propose a new alternative formulation by splitting the shear energy into two main components, the first one exactly integrated, whereas the sec...
Article
A detailed nonlinear finite element (FE) modelling approach is proposed to represent the behavior of precast pre-stressed hollow-core (PPHC) slabs under vertical loading until shear failure. Comparisons of the numerical predictions with experimental results show that the proposed model is capable of capturing the shear failure mechanism and related...
Article
As part of the ReCast research programme, research has been undertaken to develop a finite element (FE) modelling approach for precast pre-stressed hollow-core (PPHC) floors. This paper summarises the modelling criteria that is considered key to analysing the behavior of PPHC floors. Comparisons of the numerical predictions with experimental result...
Article
Old precast buildings are often characterized by poor detailing that may hamper the structural performance, particularly in the case of earthquakes. This is essentially related to: (i) a limited past knowledge of seismic design and behaviour, also reflected in past building codes; (ii) the evolution of seismic zonation of the Italian territory. The...
Article
This paper focuses on a novel finite element formulation which can predict the bending moment-shear force-axial force interaction of reinforced concrete frames and walls, and validate it against 170 experiments available in literature. This distributed plasticity element is established on force-based finite element method, where the relationship be...
Article
The cyclic response of a column to foundation connection system, based on the mechanical connection between steel shoes embedded into the column base and protruding steel bolts anchored into the foundation, is experimentally and numerically examined in this paper. The hysteretic behaviour and the global collapse mechanism of the connections are stu...
Conference Paper
Nowadays, the structural robustness is one of the most important challenges in structural engineering. During last years, several studies have been carried out to develop design strategies for mitigation of progressive col-lapse risk through the achievement of sufficient robustness levels. However, most of the research has focused on cast-in-situ c...
Article
Liquid storage tanks are widely used in the industry and can contain not only harmless substances but also various ones that can be explosive and toxic or pollutant, thus implying that both the structure and the content must remain safe and operational under different types of loading. The same applies to any tank-connected plant system/item. Yet,...
Article
Full-text available
This research evaluates the influence of different modelling assumptions on the global and local seismic risk assessment of code-conforming precast reinforced concrete buildings, specifically single-story industrial buildings. In particular the modelling of the system mass, the overhead crane, the beam-to-column and roof-to-beam connections and the...
Article
Full-text available
Robustness of reinforced concrete (RC) structures is an ongoing challenging research topic in the engineering community. During an extreme event, the loss of vertical load-bearing elements can activate large-deformation resisting mechanisms such as membrane and catenary actions in beams and floor slabs of cast-in-situ RC buildings to resist gravity...
Article
Robustness is a key factor in the safety of structures and structural components or sub-assemblies against progressive or disproportionate collapse, the latter term being classically used to indicate a significant disproportion in size between the initial and final damage configurations. Particularly for a steel moment-resisting frame (MRF), the co...
Article
Recent earthquakes have demonstrated that reinforced concrete (RC) frames, which form a beam‐sway mechanism, sustain damage to beams and floors that can be particularly difficult and costly to repair. This paper proposes a new structural system, which combines RC frames with precast concrete spreader‐walls. The spreader‐walls are fixed to frames wi...
Conference Paper
The damage observed during past earthquakes repeatedly showed the vulnerability of non-structural elements and their importance in the functionality of critical facilities, such as hospitals. Performance-based seismic design (PBSD) implies the harmonization of performances between structural and non-structural elements. To this aim, performance par...
Conference Paper
Recent earthquakes have highlighted some issues with the seismic performance of relatively modern reinforced concrete buildings. In particular, the early use of Precast Pre-stressed Hollow-Core (PPHC) floors saw the use of support connections that are susceptible to undesirable failure modes when subjected to earthquake-induced deformations. In the...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Liquid storage tanks are widely used in the industry and can contain not only harmless substances, but also various ones that can be explosive and toxic or pollutant. For this reason, engineers must ensure that both the structure and the content remain safe and operational in different types of loading. The importance of the latter became more prom...
Article
Steel storage pallet racks are structures composed of cold-formed members designed to store goods. Despite worldwide usage, their dynamic behaviour is still not well known. The goal of this research is to propose a methodology for the seismic vulnerability assessment of steel racks, in terms of fragility curves. The latter are retrieved by means of...
Article
Full-text available
In recent years, important benefits for the seismic design of precast reinforced concrete wall structures have been obtained from the use of jointed wall-to-foundation connections, where gap openings are permitted, thus resulting in a rocking motion. The lumped rotation at the wall base protects the panels from damage, while gravity loads and unbou...
Article
Full-text available
The seismic performance of suspended piping systems can significantly compromise the functionality of critical facilities due to the incorporation of inadequate seismic design based on prescriptive empirical regulations and guidelines. The performance-based seismic design (PBSD) of non-structural elements requires the evaluation of performance para...