Through an international partnership funded by the European Union and which involves the main universities of the Mediterranean countries, from Portugal to Morocco, and Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Egypt and Tunisia, among others, the Institute for Structures Engineering, Territory and Construction participates in a European R&D project in the area of seismic protection of historic built heritage. The project, known as “PROHITECH” stands for “Protecção Sísmica de Edifícios Históricos através de Tecnologias Reversíveis” (Seismic Protection in Historic Buildings through Reversible Technologies) aims at developing sustainable and reversible methodologies for the protection and reinforcement of highly important historic and earthquake-prone buildings.
The project comprises the analysis of seismic risk, the evaluation of traditional reinforcement techniques, the study and development of protection and reinforcement materials and technologies, the elaboration of numeric and experimental studies to validate those technologies. The combination of different materials and technologies shall allow for the optimization the structural behaviour.
Technical documents are drawn up as a result of the research work carried out, which aims at helping different authorities make decisions to protect human lives and reduce economic and cultural costs due to seismic action.
The Portuguese partner in this project is the Instituto Superior Técnico and is led by Professors Luis Calado and Jorge Miguel Proença of the Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture.
Additional informations
Institute for Structures Engineering, Territory and Construction (ICIST)