Assessment and Retrofitting of Existing Infrastructure – Second Edition

Dear Colleagues,

The advancement of modern economies is directly linked to the state of the supporting infrastructure. Generally, the more developed and efficient the existing infrastructure, the higher the national gross domestic product (GDP) and the better the living standards and prosperity of the nation. On the contrary, the more insufficient the existing infrastructure, the lower the national GDP and the worse the living standards of its population. This is extremely important as economies worldwide are recovering after the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, when natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes strike, reliable infrastructure is necessary for the prompt delivery of emergency supplies and medical care.

Unfortunately, several countries worldwide face an unprecedented and challenging deficiency when it comes to their infrastructure inventory. For instance, many tunnels, bridges, and roads have reached the end of their life cycle and are in desperate need of repair. In addition, the performance of various structures under different recent natural loads has emphasized the necessity for focusing attention on upgrading and retrofitting existing infrastructure to enhance its resilience. Therefore, retrofitting and rehabilitation of the existing infrastructure is currently considered one of the most important topics in civil engineering. Hence, this Special Issue aims to present a collection of timely and high-quality papers on the assessment and retrofitting of existing infrastructure to gain further insights into the crucial issue of infrastructure resilience and the use of novel methods and techniques in the rehabilitation of civil infrastructure.

Specific topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Assessment of existing infrastructure, including their mechanical behaviour and physical properties
• Novel retrofitting methods and techniques
• Seismic performance of retrofitted infrastructure
• Laboratory-scale tests involving retrofitted structures
• Full-scale tests involving retrofitted structures
• Analysis and design of retrofitted structures
• Soil–structure interaction of retrofitted structures

Prospective authors are encouraged to send an abstract by 15 September 2021, to the Guest Editor (email: [email protected]). The authors of selected abstracts will be contacted by the Guest Editor and invited to prepare a full paper. All full papers will go through the standard review process to determine their suitability for publication. 

Prof. Dr. Hany El Naggar
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• infrastructure
• structural assessment
• retrofitting
• seismic performance
• soil–structure interaction

• Seismic Safety Assessment and Strengthening of Existing Constructions in Buildings (14 articles)