Transportation systems are important strategic factors for the development of modern societies. These systems must comply with different restrictions while staying within the sustainable and environmental domains. Vibration induced by traffic is a clear weakness in terms of environmental credentials of transport infrastructures, since it is the main cause of nuisance for inhabitants in the areas nearby these infrastructures. The Mini-Symposium will cover practical and theoretical aspects concerning vibration due to road and railway traffic. Communications about numerical modelling approaches, prediction models, case studies and mitigation techniques are welcome to the proposed symposium. The Mini-Symposium is targeting academic researchers and engineering practitioners to bring together interdisciplinary ideas leading to deeper knowledge about vibration induced by traffic.

The purpose of this mini-symposium is to constitute a forum for the exchange of knowledge concerning latest research developments in the field of Structural Dynamics. Within this context linear or non-linear, elastic or inelastic structural models made from either classic or composite materials (having constant or varying material properties) subjected to general dynamic loading will be discussed and analysed. It is anticipated that the Symposium will promote the dissemination of research results and ideas on Linear or Nonlinear Dynamic Analysis procedures and their applicability to structures. The topics to be covered will include, but not limited to finite element or boundary element methods, energy analysis and computational modal analysis, vibration testing and damping.

In the last few decades significant developments have been made to provide more accurate and reliable design methods for structures, infrastructures and foundations, particularly, when subjected to dynamic (mainly seismic) actions. Numerical methods have played a major role in these advances. Nevertheless, their remarkable potential should be broadened and improved, since geotechnical earthquake engineering hazards are still difficult to mitigate.

This Mini-Symposium will offer an opportunity for the presentation and discussion on several geotechnical issues related to earthquake engineering problems. All those involved with computational, related to earthquake geotechnical engineering are welcome to present their recent experience and research findings. Contributions related to hybrid, analytical as well as experimental methods in the field of soil dynamics are also welcome.

The Mini-Symposium aims to attract academic staff, researchers, post-graduate students and professional engineers dealing with advanced topics, which include but are not limited to: Performance-based design; Liquefaction and other types of major soil failures; Dynamic soilstructure interaction; Codes, standards and safety evaluation; Foundations and Ground Improvement; Retaining structures; Slopes, dams and embankments; Tunnels and lifelines; Wind turbines; Man-made vibrations

The scope of this mini-symposium is to present devices that modify the seismic response of structures by isolating it or dissipating energy. Both anti-seismic devices that comply with EN 15129 and devices that are implemented as fuses and constitute new structural systems will be covered. The mechanical properties of the devices, their possible fields of application, their modeling, the q-factors and case studies are to be presented.

One of the main features of anti-seismic design of buildings is the possibility to control inertial load values depending on the structural concept of the buildings. Seismic (base and roof) isolation has become one of the most effective structural concepts/technologies in protecting structures against destructive earthquakes. However, seismic isolation system itself undergoes a relatively large displacement. One important consideration in the design of the seismic isolation system is this displacement demand. Restriction of displacements requires special attention in implementing seismic isolation.

There are several known methods and approaches in creation of seismic isolation systems. High damping rubber bearings are a simple, economical means of providing isolation. The damping needed to limit the displacement of the structure and to reduce the response at the isolation frequency is incorporated into the rubber compound, and so generally no auxiliary dissipation devices are needed. The other way is the use of lead rubber bearings or combination of different types of low damping rubber bearings, natural rubber bearings, sliding bearings, elastic sliding bearings, friction pendulum systems and many other types with different dampers designed and created to reduce and control the horizontal displacements. Also there are different ways of fixation of isolators, which can be, for example, located by upper and lower recesses provided by annular steel rings bolted to the superstructure and foundation beams and the isolators themselves are not bolted to the structure, or the use of the tapped holes in the end-plates for bolted connections, etc. There could be different approaches, as well, on the installation of rubber bearings like using the clusters of small bearings instead of a single large bearing and so on.

The goal of this mini-symposium is to gather together the scientists and engineers who are working in the field of seismic isolation, to share knowledge and new ideas and presentations on the latest accomplishments related to the creation of seismic isolation systems. This will enable the participants to revise existing approaches and to acquire a fresh vision on this extremely important field in earthquake engineering having in mind the final goal of saving human lives.  

The papers to be submitted should have a content that combines numerical simulations of various problems that belong in the field of Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics with experimental verification through laboratory or in-situ measurements. Particular applications may belong to dynamic and earthquake response of structures and components, influences arising from seismic retrofitting as well as earthquake protection measures from various forms of base isolation or energy dissipation of structures and components.

Experience and research developments have led to significant advances in the subject of seismic engineering over the past forty years. In the particular field of seismic design, the development of a new generation of design codes such as the Eurocode 8 is an important milestone. Although this code still promotes the use of classical seismic design approaches deeply imbedded in current practice, e.g. force-based approaches considering the use of behaviour factors (q-factors) and enforcing capacity design principles, Eurocode 8 also encourages the use of more advanced methods of analysis. Although the core of such analysis methods, i.e. nonlinear static and nonlinear dynamic analysis methods, can be seen to be reasonably well established, several developments and studies are still needed from the practical use and design process point of views. Namely, an adequate safety format, similar in scope to the one involving linear analysis methods, is yet to be explicitly addressed in a framework which foresees the use of nonlinear analysis methods. Papers that address this thematic are welcome, namely on the following specific fields: nonlinear dynamic analysis; seismic input; structural safety assessment methodologies; experimental characterization of structural elements under cyclic loadings; case studies.

Dynamics of periodic structures is a research subject being actively explored in modern literature. The goal of this mini-symposium is to provide a forum for researchers in this field to discuss recent advances and challenges in modelling and analysis of performance of periodic structures. Topics to be covered by this mini-symposium include, but are not limited to:

• Wave propagation in infinite periodic structures
• Free and forced vibrations of finite periodic structures
• Effects of spatial versus temporal periodicity
• Nonlinear effects in periodic systems
• Localisation effects in periodic structures
• Wave finite element method and its spin-offs
• Asymptotic methods in analysis of dynamics of periodic systems
• Experimental dynamics of periodic systems
• Applications of periodic structures

Computational methods for wave propagation are essential in many fields of application. In recent years there is an increased interest in advanced computational methods for wave problems which cross the borders of specific applications. Important issues where progress has been made recently include (1) special finite element methods for short waves, (2) multiscale wave phenomena that require special solution techniques to resolve the various scales, (3) high-order absorbing boundary conditions and Perfectly Matched Layers for wave propagation in unbounded domains, (4) high-order methods for dealing with inhomogeneous anisotropic media with fast variation of the material properties, (5) solution of inverse problems based on wave scattering, including time-reversal, (6) highorder stable and robust methods for time integration, and (7) error estimation for wave problems and adaptive schemes based on error estimates. This mini-symposium will address these and other related issues, while concentrating on problems in the time domain (as opposed to the frequency domain) which are believed to pose great challenges in computational mechanics. Presentation of interesting applications for advanced schemes will also be welcome.

The mini-symposium will focus on recent advances in software development for Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics purposes. More specifically, it will encourage contributions that will demonstrate new software applications, web-based engineering tools, frameworks for hybrid simulation and distributed computing, knowledge-based & expert systems, finite element programs, numerical analysis pre- and post- processing front-ends, data and metadata dissemination and management systems, high performance, parallel and cloud computing schemes, applications for mobile devices and tablets as well as GIS-based visualization tools.

Emphasis will be primarily (but not exclusively) given to the application of the above software systems towards the mitigation of seismic risk, the design and assessment of earthquake resistant buildings and bridges, the assessment of special and monumental structures, system identification and structural health monitoring, performance-based engineering, seismic isolation and control of structures, dynamic soil-structure interaction, strong ground motion selection and scaling as well as seismic wave propagation through the soil media.

It is envisioned that the Symposium will constitute a forum on the recently developed earthquake-engineering-related software that will facilitate the dissemination of knowledge and promote the interaction and cooperation between the developers and the end-users.

The objective of this symposium is to discuss new advances in numerical methods for linear and non-linear dynamics. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: new implicit and explicit time-integration methods for structural dynamics, wave propagation and impact problems; new space and time discretization methods for dynamical systems; methods with reduced dispersion; filtering spurious oscillations; adaptive methods and space and time error estimators, application of new numerical methods to engineering dynamics problems, and others.

This mini-symposium is dedicated to dynamic problems in design, construction, assessment, maintenance, monitoring and control of renewable energy structures, such as offshore and onshore wind turbines, dams, solar updraft towers, high voltage transmission lines, etc. Contributions are welcome both from academia and industry.

The Minisymposium invites papers on the development and implementation of computational methods for advancing real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS), enabling the response of structural systems to be readily determined under dynamic loading. Hybrid simulation is a method where a structural system is discretized into two domains, the first being an analytical substructure and the second an experimental substructure. The two domains are linked through their common degrees of freedom, with the complete structural system described by the two domains. To obtain accurate and reliable results under dynamic loading, hybrid simulation is performed in real-time to account for load-rate dependency of the system. To achieve accurate results in a real-time hybrid simulation the integration scheme used to integrate the equations of motion must be robust, stable, and of higher order since the time step is limited by the speed of servo-hydraulic control systems (which typically limit the time step to be no smaller than 1/1024 sec.). The analytical substructure must characterize the response of the portion of the structure that is modeled analytically, and include the ability to account for material and geometric nonlinearities. Large-structural systems with complex analytical substructures require fast, converging algorithms for the state determination of the elements of the analytical substructure, enabling stable solutions to the analytical substructure restoring forces. The experimental substructure restoring forces must be measured, with the hydraulic actuators accurately imposing displacements that precisely match the target displacements from the integration algorithm. Computational algorithms based on compensation are needed to avoid delays in the servo-hydraulic actuators from achieving the target displacements at the precise time at which they are to do so.

The advancement of RTHS can enable the experimental evaluation of new forms of structural systems to be assessed, including innovative structural design for increasing the resiliency of modern society. The Minisymposium will provide the unique opportunity for dissemination and discussion on the developments in RTHS that have been achieved through the development and implementation of innovative computational dynamic algorithms, including but not limited to: numerical integration of the equations of motion; state determination within complex nonlinear analytical substructures; kinematic compensation associated to minimize errors between actuator motions and targeted specimen motions; and actuator delay compensation.

This mini-symposium is devoted to focus on recent advances in reduced-order modeling of structural dynamics, multibody dynamics, and coupled-field problems involving fluid, solids, and other multiphysics problems. Another aspect of reduced-order modeling is to extract the computational results from atomistic mechanics simulations to blend seamlessly with traditional continuum mechanics models. Papers dealing with both analytical, computational and experimental methods for the reduced-order modeling are sought.

Structural models, methods of analysis and seismic loads are all important for the estimation of structural performance, yet they all come with an inherent degree of uncertainty. Aleatory or epistemic, it ultimately influences structural demand and capacity estimates, as well as earthquake induced economic losses. Of interest to this session are studies dealing with any facet of this complex process including its modeling, analysis, quantification and propagation of uncertainty from the level of experimental tests and seismic loads to the final structural design or performance assessment. We also welcome opinion papers on the future and the challenges of performance-based methods targeting their eventual adoption in practice.

The Symposium will focus on the seismic analysis, assessment and retrofit of bridges, with emphasis on analytical/computational methods that fit well the scope of COMPDYN. In addition it will address issues related to analytical tools for seismic risk management of roadway networks, critical components of which are bridges, tunnels and geotechnical structures such as slopes and retaining walls. Presentations will include, among others, recent work carried out on this topic by members of two groups dealing with this issue, the EAEE Working Group 11 ‘Seismic design, assessment, and retrofit of Bridges’ (http://eaee-tg11.weebly.com), and the research team of the ongoing research programme RETIS-RISK (Real Time Intercity Seismic Risk).

It is aimed that the Symposium will constitute a forum for the exchange of research results and ideas on currently available procedures and their applicability to the seismic assessment of bridges, tunnels and geotechnical structures forming part of roadway systems. Structural and geotechnical engineers working in this field are expected to contribute papers reporting their recent findings, while engineering seismologists can also make valuable contributions regarding the definition of seismic input for such studies. Hence it is believed that the Symposium will provide a valuable contribution to the further development and implementation of methodologies for the seismic assessment of bridges and other critical components of roadway networks and contribute to risk reduction in these networks.

Damages of structures due to earthquake and tsunami show a wide variety of characteristics, depending on the combinations of structures and natures of earthquake and tsunami. Structural materials include woods, concretes, reinforced concretes, steels and so on. There is another classification in structures such as civil constructions, buildings and architectures, chemical, petro-chemical and power plants, in which multi-physics phenomena such as fluid-structure interaction may occur. There are possibilities such that those structures may be attacked by a variety of earthquakes and tsunami in magnitudes and frequency spectra. In order to quantitatively predict such complex damage phenomena and to prevent them, high-performance computing technologies with sophisticated material modeling and analysis algorithms play key roles. In this mini-symposium, focusing on high-performance computing issues in structural mechanics and earthquake / tsunami engineering, we exchange ideas and information to advance computational mechanics for earthquake / tsunami engineering.

The session is intended to collect the state of the art research conducted in the area of heritage structures including not only Finite Element modelling methods, but other emerging techniques such as Descrete Modeling and digital reconstruction of monuments through lazer scanning for the purposes of Assessment of Seismic response. New methods of retrofit, including kinetic procedures through addition of advanced hardware to promote secondary sources of damping, vibration control and isolation are some of the alternative retrofit procedures developed to control vibration amplitudes and damage; seismic assessment and modeling of the response of Monuments retrofitted with reversible, non-invasive interventions of this type are the focus of the modelling aspects in the session.

This Mini-Symposium aims at presenting recent advances in stochastic dynamics with emphasis on applications in the field of earthquake engineering. Currently, performance-based earthquake engineering (PBEE) treats the seismic design problem in a deterministic or a probabilistic manner. The aim of this Mini-Symposium is to present approaches that move beyond the current PBEE framework, using stochastic simulation tools. We invite papers that address the problem of structural seismic risk assessment taking into consideration the stochastic representation of broadband ground motions as well as papers that investigate the response variability and reliability of civil infrastructures with stochastic properties. Papers on enhanced stochastic finite element techniques and on the application of existing methods (e.g. perturbation, equivalent linearization, response surface, probability density evolution) in a PBEE framework are equally welcomed in this Mini-Symposium.

Earthquakes can occur, at every time, and everywhere, with different probabilities. They cannot be prevented, and their effects might be catastrophic. Accordingly, the structural systems, supporting our lives directly or indirectly, need to be designed, adequately, against seismic excitations. Adequate structural designs and behaviours are achievable, mainly after proper structural analyses; and, for proper analyses, implementation of reliable, versatile, and robust, numerical methods are essential. The numerical methods are in general associated with errors, especially considerable, in complicated and/or nonlinear cases; and can be computationally expensive, for dynamic/seismic analyses, of large systems, in lengthy time intervals. Based on these considerations and practical facts, like: 1) neither all approximations, nor all computational costs, are tolerable, 2) for many cases, laboratory tests and even pseudo-dynamic tests cannot help our knowledge about structural behaviours, and 3) nonlinearities and non-classical damping, generally present in dynamic/seismic behaviours, can lead to additional computational costs and inaccuracies, this mini-symposium is dedicated, to the study, of accuracy and computational efficiency, in dynamic/seismic analysis, of structural systems. Papers concentrating on enhancement of accuracies, reduction of computational costs, estimation of computational errors, verification of nonlinear analyses, accuracy-enhancement methods, studying the accuracy or computational costs regarding special analysis methods and/or special structural systems, topics on the validation/verification, considerations in national standards and codes, the related literature review/survey discussions/look on research needs, and other related issues, in the broad range of dynamic/seismic structural analysis, are most welcome to this mini -symposium.

The objective is to bring together specialists, on accuracy and efficiency of dynamic/seismic structural analysis, from all over the world, and, at the conclusion, besides responses to some specific questions concerns and ambiguities, brief overviews on the literature the current challenges and the research needs can be addressed, as the achievements of the mini-symposium. Finally, the organizer cordially hopes that, the attendees, in this mini-symposium, can leave COMPDYN 2015, and the beautiful Crete Island, with plans, for collaborations, and nice and unforgettable scientific/social memories.

This mini-symposium is focused on the new developments in dynamics of aerospace, civil, mechanical, structural, wind systems, earthquake and transport engineering, and dynamics of biomechanical and material sciences. The proposed mini-symposium welcomes papers dealing with traditional dynamics as well as emerging multi-physics of both analytical and experimental nature, addressing dynamic stability of deterministic/stochastic, Hamiltonian/non-Hamiltonian and holonomic/non-holonomic, self-excitation, auto-parametric systems under deterministic/random excitations, wave propagation, solitons and waves in stochastic continuum, and waves in dispersive, heterogeneous and multi-layered medium. Especially welcome are papers on recent and ongoing research and papers of multi-disciplinary and multi-scale nature.

The goal of this mini-symposium is to provide a forum for researchers in this field to discuss recent advances and challenges in modeling and vulnerability assessment of masonry structures.   

The areas of coverage of this mini-symposium include, but are not limited to the following:

Numerical Models for the Seismic Assessment of Historic Structures
Seismic vulnerability of historic & monumental structures
Constitutive Rules for Masonry Materials
Modeling masonry arches shape
Monitoring and assessing structural damage in historic buildings
Performance-based assessment of historic buildings using nonlinear pushover analysis
Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis of historic monuments

Protection of cultural heritage in earthquake-prone regions is an issue of substantial importance since damage often constitutes an irreparable loss. The mini-symposium intends to cover several aspects regarding the seismic response of monuments and historical structures including advances in: condition assessment, surveying, damage detection, measurement of mechanical properties, computational and experimental methods, failure criteria, monitoring, soil-structure interaction, base-isolation, assess of the impact of geotechnical parameters, regional seismicity issues, intervention techniques, etc.

Recent work on these issues will be presented, among others, by members of the research team of the ongoing research programme: “Seismic Protection of Monuments and Historical Structures” (SEISMO) which is co-financed by Greece and the European Union within the context of the Operational Programme - Education and Lifelong Learning, NSRF 2007-2013.

This Mini-Symposium focusses on the issues of vibration serviceability that arise for the progressively lighter and slender civil structures prone to human-induced vibrations. To increase the accuracy of the predicted dynamic response of these civil structures under crowd-induced loading, this Mini-Symposium aims to constitute a forum for the exchange of knowledge concerning the latest developments in the fundamental characterization of human excitation, including human-structure interaction.

The topics to be covered will include numerical modelling approaches, case studies, field observations, mitigation techniques and comfort criteria. This symposium especially encourages contributions involving experimental methods to provide the necessary physical basis and verification for analytical and computational approaches. The Mini-Symposium is targeting academic researchers and engineering practitioners to bring together interdisciplinary ideas leading to the development of engineering solutions.