PREFACE We are extremely delighted to write this new preface for the Special Session #15 entitled "Existing and New Structures in Seismic Prone Areas: Advanced Numerical Modelling and Experimentation", organized within the conference ICCMSE 2018, 14th International Conference of Computational Methods in Sciences and Engineering, held in Thessaloniki, Greece, 14-18 March 2018. This Special Session can be considered a successful continuation of four previous classic meetings organized in occasion of ICCMSE conferences, starting from the 2014 edition and ending last year. In the previous meetings, all characterized by an extremely high scientific value of the papers presents and a satisfactory participation of researches from all over the world, focus was given on the most up-to-date research on structures in seismic zone, placing emphasis on -but not limiting to- masonry. In the present year, in order to further strengthen the Special Session, we decided to stress the concept that in seismic prone areas all materials (and not only masonry) require particular attention in the safety assessment of existing buildings and the design of new structures. The main target is to exchange ideas, disseminate works in progress and recent results on modelling, design and experimentation in presence of seismic loads. Whilst the limitation (or better the focus) to masonry was felt as a constraint for some researchers involved in the vulnerability assessment of existing structures or the design of new constructions in seismic prone areas, masonry still remains central in such meetings and therefore for this Special Session, which collected nine papers, all dealing with masonry (following the aforementioned tradition), but also studying rubber, FRP and reinforced concrete.
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