Security of essential infrastructure: overhead transmission lines, telecommunication structures and post-critical buildings

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The main goal of the proposed research program is to ensure preservation of the structural and functional security of essential infrastructure in the event of catastrophic climatic or natural events such as high intensity winds, severe ice storms and earthquakes. We define structural security as the ability of a structural system to sustain extreme loading in such a way that if and when structural failure happens, its mechanisms are predictable and controlled to preserve human safety and minimize repair costs and malfunction/outage durations. For interdependent systems and lifelines, security further implies that a failure or malfunction will not propagate in a domino (or cascading) effect. In true performance-based design, structural security is clearly stipulated as a design objective.