Preserving Egypt's Cultural Heritage from Earthquake Damage through Vibrating Barriers (ViBa)

埃及的历史遗迹和纪念碑是世界上最重要的遗迹之一，保护这些遗产至关重要。1992年开罗地震发生后，数百座古迹遭到严重破坏，这暴露了埃及遗产在地震灾害面前的脆弱性。重新开放一些被破坏的遗址需要12年多的时间和巨额投资。不幸的是，目前关于加强和减轻遗产建筑地震风险的知识集中在侵入性解决方案上，这些解决方案需要改变历史结构，并随之改变其本质。此外，这些前兆工作并没有集中在埃及纪念碑和该地区地震活动的具体情况下。因此，埃及的文化资产受到地震灾害的威胁。本研究旨在将地震工程的创新概念应用于整个遗址的控制，而不需要对古建筑进行改造。这个想法是在地面（完全在受保护的结构之外）引入一个振动屏障（ViBa），它能够与土壤和地震相互作用，以减轻整个场地的地震风险。该项目结合了埃及和英国学术团队的专业知识，以应用这一新颖的想法。开罗大学的研究小组将利用边界元素实现一种先进的数值技术，用ViBa解决土壤-结构相互作用问题。这个屏障将由布莱顿大学的团队设计，并在实验模型中进行测试，他们是ViBa的原始开发者。最后，伦敦城市大学团队在非线性动力分析方面的专业知识将应用于大型有限元模型中的ViBa研究现场，该模型考虑了埃及特定的地震、岩土和结构条件。这个项目的成功开发将产生新的和基本的知识来控制带有保护屏障的结构，最终保护埃及的遗产和这些遗址中人们的生活。它还将导致设计指南的发展，这将有助于工程从业人员和行业应用项目成果。

The historical sites and monuments in Egypt are among the most important in the world and conserving this heritage is crucial. The large damage observed in hundreds of monuments after the Cairo Earthquake in 1992 unveiled the fragility of the Egyptian heritage asset to seismic hazards. More than 12 years and a huge investment were needed to reopen some of the damaged sites. Unfortunately, the current knowledge on the strengthening and mitigation of the seismic risk in heritage buildings is focused on invasive solutions that require the alteration of the historical structure and, with it, the modification of its essence. In addition, these precursor works are not focused on the specific case of the Egyptian monuments and the seismic activity in the region. As a result, the cultural asset of Egypt is threatened by the seismic hazard.This research aims to apply an innovative concept in earthquake engineering to the control of whole heritage sites without the need for alteration in the ancient structures. The idea is to introduce a vibrating barrier (ViBa) in the ground (completely external to the protected structures) that is able to interact with the soil and the earthquake in order to mitigate the seismic risk in the entire site. The project combines the expertise of academic teams in Egypt and UK towards the application of this novel idea. The team at Cairo University will implement an advanced numerical technique with Boundary Elements to solve the soil-structure interaction problem with ViBa. This barrier will be designed and tested experimentally in scaled models by the team at the University of Brighton, the original developers of the ViBa. Finally, the expertise of the team at City, University of London, in nonlinear dynamic analyses will be applied to the study of the site with the ViBa in large Finite Element models that consider the particular seismic, geotechnical and structural conditions in Egypt. The successful development of this project will result in the generation of new and fundamental knowledge on the control of structures with protection barriers, ultimately preserving the Egyptian heritage and the lives of the persons in these sites. It will also result in the development of design guidelines that will facilitate the application of the project outcomes by engineering practitioners and industry.