According to international practice, as well as the guidelines of the Greek Earthquake Planning and Protection Organization (www.oasp.gr), the seismic assessment of buildings is done in three successive phases:

a. First-level rapid visual screening
b. Second-level seismic monitoring
c. Third-level detailed structural assessment

The rapid visual screening is a simplified methodology that is usually applied to large sets of buildings and is therefore inherently of limited reliability.

With the secondary pre-seismic control the classification of the buildings, which received a score below a prescribed threshold from the rapid visual screening, is being carried out. In this phase the investigation requires a detailed outline of the geometry and pathology of the building, on-site checks of the construction materials, as well as basic calculations for the quantitative assessment of the structural characteristics and the calculation of the ‘Inspection Priority Index λ’ for each building.

Finally, the third-level assessment focuses separately on every building, for which it was deemed necessary after the classification of the second-level seismic monitoring . It requires the full assessment of the seismic capacity of the building, according to the main principles of earthquake engineering and the specified standards (KAN.EPE. and/or Eurocode 8, Part 3). With this study, it is determined whether the building can withstand a prescribed design earthquake, and whether measures and interventions should be implemented to strengthen its load-bearing capacity, at the local or the global level.

ALFAKAT S.A., combining its expertise and experience with the appropriate monitoring equipment, is able to provide services at all three levels of pre-earthquake structural assessment:

  • Complete building survey with destructive, non-destructive testing and accurate reinforcement scanning.
  • Detailed pre-earthquake structural assessment.
  • Seismic hazard and vulnerability analysis.
  • Design of strengthening interventions, according to Eurocode 8 and the Greek Interventions Code (KAN.EPE.).