The 8th International Conference on System Reliability and Safety
Sicily, Italy - November 20-22, 2024

Alba Sofi, University “Mediterranea” of Reggio Calabria, Italy

 

Alba Sofi is currently an Associate Professor of Mechanics of Solids and Structures at the University “Mediterranea” of Reggio Calabria (Italy). In 2017, she got the National Scientific Qualification as a Full Professor of Mechanics of Solids and Structures.
Prof. Sofi received her Ph.D degree in Structural Engineering from the University of Palermo (Italy). She was a Visiting Professor at Xidian University (2019, 2021) and Guangzhou University (2018) in China. She held Visiting Fellow positions at Oxford University (2016-2019) and the University of New South Wales in Australia (Aug-Nov 2017). In 2004, she was appointed as a Visiting Scholar at Rice University (USA).
She serves as the Managing Editor of the ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems. She is a member of several Editorial Boards including the International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics, Advances in Engineering Software, and the Journal of Infrastructure Preservation and Resilience.
Prof. Sofi received the Editor’s Award for the Best Paper published in 2020 in the ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part B: Mechanical Engineering. She was an Early Career Keynote speaker at ICOSSAR 2021-2022 and a Session Keynote speaker at UNCECOMP 2023 and ICSRS 2023.
She chaired the 9th International Workshop on Reliable Engineering Computing (REC 2021) and has served on the scientific committees of many international conferences. She is a member both of the American Society of Civil Engineers (M.ASCE) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (M.ASME) as well as of the Committee on Probability and Statistics in the Physical Sciences of the Bernoulli Society. She serves as the 2nd vice-Chair of the ASME Safety Engineering & Risk Analysis Division (SERAD).
Prof. Sofi’s primary research interests focus on: stochastic dynamics; probabilistic and non-probabilistic approaches for uncertainty quantification with specific expertise in interval analysis; fractional calculus; bridge-vehicle dynamic interaction; cable dynamics; and non-local elasticity theory. She has published over 100 technical papers in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. She has been involved in several research projects supported by the Italian Ministry of University and Research.
Prof. Sofi’s primary research interests focus on: stochastic dynamics; probabilistic and non-probabilistic approaches for uncertainty quantification with specific expertise in interval analysis; computational mechanics; bridge-vehicle dynamic interaction; cable dynamics; and non-local elasticity theory. She has published over 100 technical papers in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. She has been involved in several research projects supported by the Italian Ministry of University and Research.

Speech Title: Recent Advances in Reliability Analysis of Structures Subjected to Imprecise Seismic Excitation

Abstract: The well-established stochastic models of environmental excitations, such as earthquakes or wind loads, are also affected by epistemic uncertainties due to the complexity of the underlying natural phenomena, measurement errors, limited or missing data, etc. The imprecise stochastic process model is able to incorporate both random and epistemic uncertainties.
Relying on a recent study [1], this lecture presents a novel framework for assessing the performance of combined primary-secondary structures subjected to imprecise seismic excitation. Ground motion acceleration is modelled as a zero-mean stationary Gaussian random process, characterized by an imprecise Power Spectral Density function [2] depending on three interval parameters [3] whose bounds can be estimated by analyzing a set of recorded accelerograms. The predominant circular frequency of the imprecise seismic excitation may vary, even for the same soil category, affecting the complex dynamic behaviour of combined structures and the vibration control capacity of secondary substructures.
The dynamic analysis of combined primary-secondary structures subjected to imprecise seismic excitation involves the challenging propagation of hybrid uncertainty i.e., interval and random, which is usually performed by solving a time-consuming double-loop problem. Assuming the variance of the selected response process as a performance indicator, a criterion is proposed to avoid the time-consuming double loop. Based on this criterion, approximate estimates of the bounds of the interval reliability function and failure probability are obtained by interval extension of the classical first-passage theory [4]. Numerical results concerning a six-storey shear-type frame connected to two independent subsystems, subjected to imprecise ground motion acceleration, are presented.
The proposed framework enables efficient investigation of the influence of both epistemic uncertainties in the loading model and the interaction effects between the subsystems on the seismic performance of combined primary-secondary structures.