
Sotiria StefanidouAristotle University of Thessaloniki | AUTH · Division of Structural Engineering (D.S.E.)
Sotiria Stefanidou
PhD, MSc
About
94
Publications
32,662
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Introduction
Dr. Sotiria Stefanidou is Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Institute of Engineering Seismology & Earthquake Engineering and at Civil Engineering Department, Aristotle Univ. of Thessaloniki (AUTh) in the field of Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering. She received her PhD with Distinction in 2016 in fragility analysis of bridges (AUTh) and holds two MSc degrees in Earthquake Engineering (2007) and Natural disasters & climate change (2019).
Additional affiliations
Education
March 2019 - July 2019
Hellenic Open University
Field of study
- Natural disasters and climate change
Publications
Publications (94)
A new methodology for the development of bridge-specific fragility curves is proposed with a
view to improving the reliability of loss assessment in road networks and prioritizing retrofit
of the bridge stock. The key features of the proposed methodology are the explicit definition
of critical limit state thresholds for individual bridge components...
In seismic assessment of bridges the research focus has recently shifted on the derivation of bridge-specific fragility curves that account for the effect of different geometry, structural system, component and soil properties, on the seismic behaviour. In this context, a new, component-based methodology for the derivation of bridge-specific fragil...
A new deformation-based design method concerning 3D reinforced concrete (R/C) buildings is presented, which involves the use
of advanced analysis tools, i.e. response-history analysis for appropriately scaled input motions, for multiple levels of
earthquake action. The critical issues concerning the inelastic response-history analysis used for the...
This paper introduces a comprehensive framework for reliable damage assessment and decision-making for bridge intervention planning. By utilizing historical data and 3D-UAV photogrammetry, a detailed 3D numerical model is created, incorporating advanced modeling and scenario-based approaches. The methodology is applied to the Polyfytos bridge in Gr...
This paper introduces a novel framework to define limit states for the seismic fragility assessment of circular tunnels in soil. A numerical framework is developed for this purpose, focusing on the response of tunnels subjected to ground seismic shaking in the transverse direction. New limit states are defined based on the ovaling deformation of th...
Ensuring the structural integrity of bridges is crucial for maintaining road safety and minimizing traffic disruptions, as well as avoiding substantial direct and indirect economic losses. This study proposes a methodology for damage identification in R/C bridge systems by utilizing measured vibrational data from both the initial and damaged respon...
The reliable assessment of the seismic risk, at urban, regional and national level, is extremely important for the government and society and contributes to the proper management of the pre-seismic crisis (interventions, strengthening of buildings and infrastructures), during the earthquake and post-earthquake. The seismic risk assessment involves...
Following the devastating Kahramanmaraş earthquake sequence that took place on February 6th, 2023 in Turkyie, a joint reconnaissance mission was organized by the Technical Chamber of Greece (TCG / TEE), in collaboration with National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) and the Hellenic Association for Earthquake Engineering (HAEE / ETAM). This fi...
A large number of existing reinforced concrete (RC) buildings have surpassed their anticipated service life and show signs of degradation due to aging; this degradation is a function of the construction practices adopted in the past as well as environmental conditions. This paper discusses seismic fragility and the risk assessment of RC structures,...
The paper revisits the effects of salient parameters namely ground conditions, thickness, reinforcement and mechanical properties of the liner, and ground-tunnel relative flexibility, on the seismic response and fragility of circular tunnels embedded in clayey deposits, when accounting for the nonlinear response of the liner. For this purpose, a nu...
As urbanization continues to accelerate, the concept of smart buildings has transitioned from a futuristic vision to an integral component of modern cities. These buildings, often seen as the building blocks of smart cities, are increasingly relying on cutting-edge technologies like 5G and cloud computing to reach unprecedented levels of energy eff...
Research Project INFRARES - Newsletter #14 / November 2023
Failures in bridges and tunnels of road network are usually related to the effects of multiple hazards that may act independently during their lifetime. However, the literature concerning the assessment of the risk and resilience of the above assets, usually, focuses on the effects of a single natural hazard, ignoring the fact that these structures...
This paper discusses the recent advances in the assessment of seismic vulnerability of tunnels, based on a thorough review of the state-of-the-art. Emphasis is placed on the available analytical methodologies for the development of Probabilistic Seismic Demand Models (PSDM), which describe the relationship between the amplitude of seismic hazard an...
The reliable assessment of bridge capacity is necessary in order to ensure the functionality of the roadway network under normal, or emergency operating conditions. Damage due to the interaction with the environment (e.g., corrosion of coastal reinforcement) has been observed in many cases, even in newly built interurban road networks. Therefore, t...
Bridges are in direct interaction with the environment and thus are exposed to various natural hazards such as earthquakes and floods, that may result in severe damage and substantial direct and indirect losses. The multiple hazard events may be subsequent single events (e.g., a flood event followed by an earthquake) or combined multi‐hazard events...
The acquisition of data regarding the performance of buildings and the use of metrics to understand their performance level are critical for efficient building management. Performance indicators are key elements in this process. They shall be clearly defined and provide the means for easily measuring building performance. These performance indicato...
Research Project INFRARES - Newsletter #12 / September 2023
Ensuring the structural integrity of bridges is crucial for maintaining road safety and minimizing traffic disruptions, as well as avoiding substantial direct and indirect economic losses. This study proposes a methodology for damage identification in R/C bridge systems by utilizing measured vibrational data from both the initial and damaged respon...
Research Project INFRARES - Newsletter #11 / July 2023
Due to climate change and the increasing CO2 emissions within the years, the European Union has set up ambitious targets for the decrease of the energy consumption until 2030, promoting funding programs for interventions that increase the energy class of the buildings. In addition, the damage level and the losses after recent earthquake events high...
Underground structures (e.g., tunnels, subway stations, underground parking lots, etc.) are increasingly constructed in seismic-prone areas to facilitate the expanding needs of modern societies. The significant downtimes and the accompanying costs associated with seismically induced damage to underground structures led to an increasing interest of...
Highway transportation networks play a vital role in today's economic and societal life and affect growth and employment. Hence, their undisrupted functionality and their quick recovery even after extreme natural hazard events are critical. To this end, resilience assessment of transportation networks against natural hazards is needed for decision-...
This paper presents an overview of an ongoing project that aims to develop a low-cost system and software platform for real-time identification and evaluation of the damage state of reinforced concrete bridges, with a focus on extreme events such as earthquakes. The project includes the design and manufacturing of a portable, battery-powered, wirel...
As bridge damage poses risks to both road safety and traffic flow, it can result in significant economic losses, both direct and indirect. Therefore, there is a pressing need to create and implement systems capable of evaluating the structural state of bridges. The present study puts forth a methodology that employs measured vibration data from a m...
Research Project INFRARES - Newsletter #10 / May 2023
Bridges, mainly exposed in a multiple hazard environment, are the most vulnerable component of the road network. Damage of critical bridge components (i.e., piers, bearings, and abutments) may result in loss of bridge functionality after a hazard event and, therefore, the rapid decision for the most appropriate retrofit measure is crucial in order...
In the current manuscript, a novel software application for Rapid Damage Assessment of RC buildings subjected to earthquake excitation is presented based on Artificial Neural Networks. The software integrates the use of a novel deep learning methodology for Rapid Damage Assessment into modern software development platforms, while the developed grap...
In the current manuscript, a novel software application for Rapid Damage Assessment of RC buildings subjected to earthquake excitation is presented based on Artificial Neural Networks. The software integrates the use of a novel deep learning methodology for Rapid Damage Assessment into modern software development platforms, while the developed grap...
Research Project INFRARES - Newsletter #9 / March 2023
A component-based seismic fragility analysis method for bridges recently developed by the authors is extended here to include the foundation component. In line with the treatment of other components like the piers or abutments, the foundation system is analysed separately, and its capacity and limit state thresholds are described in terms of the di...
Research Project INFRARES - Newsletter #8 / January 2023
Research Project INFRARES - Newsletter #7 / November 2022
The reliable assessment of the expected seismic risk (losses of all
nature), at urban, regional and national level, is extremely important for the State and the society and contributes to the proper management of the pre-earthquake crisis (interventions, strengthening of buildings and infrastructures), during the earthquake, but also
post-seismic....
Research Project INFRARES - Newsletter #6 / July 2022
Reliability of road systems and their critical components exposed to multiple natural hazards is on the frontline of engineering research during the last three decades since potential damage of infrastructure is strongly related to important direct and indirect economic losses. In this context, the research project INFRARES (www.infrares.gr) aims a...
Tunnels and underground structures are constructed at an increasing rate in seismic prone areas to facilitate expanding transportation needs. The importance of these types of structures in modern societies, as well as the significant downtimes associated with seismically induced damage on them, led to an increasing interest of the scientific commun...
Research Project INFRARES - Newsletter #5 / May 2022
Based on past earthquake events, bridges are the most critical and most vulnerable component of road and rail transport systems, while bridge damage is related to substantial direct and indirect losses. For the case of railway bridges, the estimation of seismic fragility is a rather complex and
computationally demanding procedure given the real-ti...
Transportation networks play a vital role in the economic prosperity of modern societies. Recent hazardous events in Greece, for instance, the 2021 Crete earthquake, the 2021 Thessaly earthquakes and floods, and the heavy 2019 rainfall in Crete, have revealed the vulnerability of roadway networks to natural hazards, resulting in severe physical dam...
Technical report with multiple authors (please refer to pdf), edited by Anastasios Sextos, Basil Margaris and Nikolaos Klimis. Coordinated by the Hellenic Association of Earthquake Engineering, the Institute of Engineering Seismology and Earthquake Engineering (ITSAK-EPPO) and Democritus University of Thrace with the collaboration of Aristotle Univ...
Research Project INFRARES - Newsletter #4 / February 2022
Underground structures are being constructed at an increasing rate in seismic prone areas, to facilitate the expanding needs of societies. Considering the vital role of this infrastructure in densely populated urban areas and interurban transportation networks, as well as the significant losses associated with potential seismically induced damage,...
Bridges are the most critical and usually the most vulnerable structural component of a road network exposed to various hazards. Damage due to recent earthquakes worldwide highlighted the substantial direct and indirect financial losses related to partial or total collapse of critical bridge components and pointed to the need for reliable assessmen...
On the morning of Tuesday, November 26, 2019, at 3:54 local time, an MW 6.4 earthquake struck 16 km north of Durrës, a port city on the Adriatic coast and the second largest city in Albania. The epicenter was 33 km northwest of Tirana, the largest city and capital of Albania. Deaths and injuries were concentrated in Durrës and the village of Thuman...
Recent hazardous events in Greece, for instance, the 2021 Thessaly earthquake and floods, as well as the heavy 2019 rainfall in Crete, resulted in severe physical damage and important economic and societal losses, demonstrating the vulnerability of Greek roadway networks to natural hazards. Severe damage on bridges and tunnels of roadway networks i...
Research Project INFRARES - Newsletter #3 / November 2021
Masonry is a composite material consisting of units (brick or stones) and mortar at head and bed joints, characterised by an overall anisotropic behaviour. Various approaches have been proposed for modeling and analysis of masonry, including both detailed and discretised (micro-modeling) and equivalent homogenisation (macro-modeling) techniques. Si...
Newsletter #2 / September 2021
Roadway networks, playing a vital role in the economic prosperity of modern societies. Recent hazardous events in Greece, for instance, the 2021 Thessaly earthquake and floods and the heavy 2019 rainfall in Crete, have demonstrated the vulnerability of roadway networks to natu-ral hazards, resulting in severe physical damage and important economic...
Based on past earthquake events, bridges are the most critical and usually the most vulnerable components of road and rail transport systems, while bridge damage is related to substantial direct and indirect losses. In view of this, the need for direct and reliable assessment of bridge vulnerability has emerged, and several methodologies have been...
Based on past earthquake events, bridges are the most critical and usually the most vulnerable component of road and rail transport systems, while bridge damage is related to substantial direct and indirect losses. For the case of railway bridges, the estimation of seismic fragility is a rather complex and computationally demanding procedure due to...
Newsletter #1 / June 2021
Bridge damage due to earthquakes and the subsequent direct and indirect losses lead to the incorporation of seismic design and retrofitting into recent design codes worldwide. Therefore, several retrofit schemes were introduced for the enhancement of the seismic performance concerning both the superstructure and substructure. The aim of the present...
The ductility factor in terms of R/C cross-sections’ curvatures (μ1/r or μφ) possesses a significant role in the framework of the Greek code for structural intervention (KAN.EPE.). This factor is used for the classification of the verification methods in either those which are expressed in terms of forces or deformations, for the calculation of the...
Technical report of the Hellenic Association for Earthquake Engineering on the structural and geotechnical aspects of the 26/11/2019 Albania earthquake
Seismic risk assessment at city scale has always been a useful tool for pre-earthquake planning, investment management and for retrofit prioritisation at the aftermath of a seismic event. Many methodologies are available for hazard analysis and seismic vulnerability estimation based on fragility curves available in literature. However, due to the d...
Due to soil -structure-interaction (SSI), the seismic lateral structural deformations may be substantially different from the ones traditionally calculated from the fixed-base structure on free-field approach. Additionally, the actual displacements of foundations considering soil compliance are of practical interest in some applications. In the pre...
Η φέρουσα τοιχοποιία είναι σύνθετο υλικό, που αποτελείται από λίθους (τούβλα) και κονίαμα σε οριζόντιους και κατακόρυφους αρμούς. Η προσομοίωση κτιρίων από φέρουσα τοιχοποιία είναι μία σύνθετη και πολύ απαιτητική διαδικασία και μπορεί να υλοποιηθεί με ισοδύναμα ραβδωτά στοιχεία, μακροστοιχεία ή επιφανειακά πεπερασμένα στοιχεία, ενώ διάφοροι νόμοι υ...
The scope of this research paper is to describe the mathematical formulation and develop a holistic and consistent methodology for dynamic analysis of coupled high-speed train-railway bridges. In the frame of the methodology proposed herein, appropriate numerical (discretization) schemes are introduced based on a suitable weak form relation dully t...
Boundary conditions play an important role in the response of bridges to different actions, particularly dynamic loads. Gap closure at end joints, resulting in activation of the abutment-backfill-embankment system, considerably affects the dynamic characteristics and, hence, the seismic response of the bridge. In particular, consideration of abutme...
The new PPC Powerstation in Ptolemaida, Northern Greece, includes an asymmetric steel boiler house which comprises of an eccentrically braced central core combined with perimeter concentrically braced platforms, designed according to EC3 and EC8. The design by MHPSE provided for a 3D analysis of a condensed model, while the use of substructuring wa...
The most common types of bridge decks are prestressed box girders and prestressed/precast I-beams for monolithic and simply supported bridges, respectively. The usual deck modeling approach for dynamic analysis is to form a spine of linear beam-column elements with lumped nodal masses, using uncracked stiffness for the prestressed deck. According t...
A number of analytical methodologies have been developed over the last three decades for the seismic assessment of bridges and the derivation of fragility curves for ‘typical’ bridges. Only very recently, the research focus has shifted on the derivation of bridge-specific fragility curves, recognising that seismic assessment is affected by differen...
During the last decades, numerous research studies recognize the complex seismic behavior of bridges when soil–structure interaction (SSI) is accounted for, proposing the consideration of SSI in the estimation of bridge fragility. Furthermore, bridge damage due to recent earthquakes worldwide and the relevant direct and indirect losses, highlight t...