The Earthquake Engineering Field Investigation Team (EEFIT) has appointed a group of 7 experts, of which 2 academics and a PhD. student eligible for funding from EPSRC, to conduct a reconnaissance mission to the regions of Chile struck by the Mw8.8 earthquake that occurred on the 27th February 2010, with epicentre 100 miles northwest from the City of Concepcion. The earthquake, the second strongest in the recorded history of Chile, was felt on land as far north as Santiago, where it caused severe damage and collapses, and Ica in Peru', and eastward as far as Sao Paolo, in Brazil. The shock also triggered a tsunami whose waves travelled westward past Hawaii, to Japan and New Zealand. The team will spend approximately 8 to 10 days in the region, surveying structural, infrastructural, geotechnical and seismological evidence and also comparing the Chile event with the recent earthquake in Haiti, which was considerably smaller (Mw7) but resulted in much more death and destruction. This earthquake has raised a number of specific issues which are discussed in greater depth in the following sections. The clearing operation is already underway and this has determined the very short notice with which this proposal is submitted with respect to the departing date. Post mission activities will include analysis of the collected data using high resolution imaging within the Virtual Disaster Viewer (VDV) and other tools specifically developed as part of the project. The findings will be disseminated to both researchers and professional engineers through seminars and publication on lines and in journals. This grant application seeks financial assistance for the three eligible members of the EEFIT group to participate in this mission.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Extending the life of existing infrastructure is one of the main aspects of sustainable construction in current civil engineering projects. Examples include the re-use of foundations in urban re-development projects, or raising the height of existing flood embankments to account for sea-level rise due to climate change. The design requirement in such projects is to quantify how much higher load the foundation soil can take in order to enable the construction of a higher flood embankment or a heavier new structure on existing foundations. In both foundation re-use and raising flood embankments the existing structure will have been in place for a long period of time (several decades) during which the foundation soil has been subjected to evolving anisotropy and to time-related processes of consolidation (dissipation of excess pore water pressures within the soil generated by the applied load) and creep (continued straining of the soil with insignificant change in effective stress). Both consolidation and creep processes cause additional ground movements dependent upon time. The consequence of these ground movements is the reduction in the void ratio which leads to the strength and stiffness increase in the soil with time. It is this enhancement of soil mechanical properties that enables an increase in applied load on existing foundation systems. However, there is currently little guidance on the degree or magnitude of increase in stiffness or strength of the founding soil with respect to the duration of creep or loading. This aspect of the time-dependant framework of soil behaviour is poorly defined, but has significant implications in terms of the sustainability of civil structures. The proposed research is very timely in addressing design needs for sustainable construction and redevelopment of existing infrastructure. It relies on the development of new experimental equipment consisting of an advanced triaxial creep apparatus, and will enable the apparatus to be properly commissioned for the first experiments to be performed. Long term experiments exploring the effect of creep on the strength and stiffness of clay have not been performed before and the lack of experimental data on this topic is hindering the ability of both research and industry to account for or quantify improvements in engineering properties due to creep processes. Project partners, Arup, have a strong interest in supporting and collaborating in research into geotechnical engineering issues and are providing soil samples in addition to settlement records and load estimates from some structures founded on the same soil that have experienced very large and long-term settlement behaviour. This input will provide am active and pertinent focus for the project. The database of experimental behaviour which can be generated by a cell designed to monitor soil sample creep accurately and stably in the long-term will enable constitutive models to be calibrated to aid design using numerical analysis methods. The principal aim of the project is to quantify the improvement to strength and stiffness from periods of creep to gain a better understanding of the effect of time on the evolution of soil behaviour which has been notably absent from previous studies. This is a novel approach in the study of the time dependant behaviour of soil and it is of note that previous studies have been unable to study the effect of significant periods of creep, due to the lack of time and capability for accurate and stable long term measurement of sample volume change. The Imperial College Geotechnics Laboratory are unique in their expertise and facilities to be able to tackle this challenge.

Around one billion people across the globe live in shack settlements. Many of these settlements are at constant risk of lethal fires, due to the use of flammable construction materials and contents, open flame lighting, heating and cooking methods, the close proximity of the shacks, and the lack of effective fire services, amongst other factors. Our project focuses on this problem in South Africa (specifically the Cape Town area) where shack fires are an everyday occurrence leading to death and injuries, displacement, and damage to property, possessions, businesses, and communities. Improving fire safety is extremely difficult in a context where building regulations are largely irrelevant, where residents typically lack available or affordable electricity - forcing them to use candles, stoves or open fires for lighting, heating and cooking - and where socio-legal arrangements discourage the use of more permanent and less flammable construction materials, such as brick. Potential solutions to the problem of informal settlement fires (both in South Africa and elsewhere internationally) must not only be technically sound, but also need to take account of these broader social factors that shape the ways that residents build, maintain, and interact with their built environment. Our research is unique in its inter-disciplinary scope in that we seek to develop a systematic understanding of both the socio-political and technical factors involved in making informal settlements vulnerable to fire. By compiling existing data, undertaking multi-site surveys, carrying out comparative analysis, and conducting modelling experiments this project will develop grounded, effective solutions. Our research will assess the effectiveness and practical feasibility of 'technical fixes' like fire retardant paint, smoke alarms, and heat detectors, as well as developing guidelines that communities can use to re-structure their shack settlements to provide effective fire breaks. Being informed by technical best practice and the socio-political realities of life in shack settlements, our findings will enable residents to take action on fire safety and outline where the myriad of actors interested in such issues can most usefully contribute their time, insight, and resources.

Pedestrians represented roughly 24% of road fatalities and 22% of the seriously injured in the UK in 2015 (Department for Transport, Reported Road Casualties Great Britain: 2015, Annual Report). The most commonly recorded factors were: "in accidents where a pedestrian was killed or injured; pedestrian failed to look properly was reported in 59 per cent of accidents. Failed to judge other person's path or speed was the most typical secondary cause." (DfT, 2015) In this context, the increased use of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) and new urban warning systems that can help monitor and assist pedestrians and their interactions with vehicles has the potential to dramatically reduce road deaths. A major concern, however, is that the AVs and warning systems must be designed to take into account the capabilities and limitations of pedestrians. This project will develop a new pedestrian laboratory to support safe experimental research in a repeatable fashion in which a variety of variables with respect to AV design, warning system design, and intersection configuration can be studied. The experiments can also look at the impacts of a wide range of human factors including age, vision and mobility. The pedestrian laboratory (PEDSIM) will consist of a Virtual Reality (VR) simulator that will allow a participant to experience a variety of urban configurations and interact with new vehicles and urban robots. The pedestrian laboratory will track the participant's performance in a variety of tasks to compare the effectiveness of various designs. What makes the PEDSIM unique in the world is its very high resolution displays combined with its large walkable environment (9 metres by 4 metres) and its integration with driving simulators to test interactions between pedestrians and drivers. As automated and autonomous vehicles get closer to deployment, research into their design and impact has rapidly increased. There are several studies currently funded by the EPSRC that can take immediate advantage of the new research capabilities of the PEDSIM. These include research to evaluate solutions for cooperative interaction of automated vehicles and urban robots with pedestrians and research that will test various lighting conditions and its impact on visibility, trip hazards, and understanding intentions of other pedestrians and vehicles.