News

BERKELEY, CA, May 2, 2007 — NEES-GC researchers have received a 2007 SEAONC Award of Merit for their work in developing revisions for the new ASCE/SEI 41 standard on seismic rehabilitation of buildings.

• - Read the project summary (Word document - 36 KB)
• - View the presentation (PowerPoint document - 5.1 MB)

BERKELEY, CA, December 8, 2006—The Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER) has been awarded a five-year, $3.6 million NEES Grand Challenge grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study the collapse potential of older nonductile concrete buildings during earthquakes. These buildings are pervasive throughout the U.S. and other countries, and are considered a high risk. The project will fully utilize the George E. Brown Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES).

Nonductile concrete buildings were a prevalent construction type in highly seismic zones of the U.S. prior to enforcement of codes for ductile concrete in the mid-1970s, and are widespread in many countries. In California, alone, it is estimated there are 40,000 of these buildings, including residential, commercial and critical service facilities. The poor seismic performance of nonductile concrete buildings was evident in recent earthquakes including Northridge (1994); Kobe, Japan (1995); Chi Chi, Taiwan (1999); Kocaeli, Duzce, and Bingol, Turkey (1999, 1999, 2003); Sumatra (2005); and Pakistan (2005).

For this project, PEER will study the vulnerability and toughening of nonductile concrete infrastructure against earthquake effects. Specifically, PEER's research will develop procedures to identify the truly dangerous buildings from among the large building population, thereby turning an intractable problem into one that can be addressed with available resources. Mitigation strategies developed here also can inform strategies to mitigate for other natural and manmade hazards such as hurricanes and explosions.

"Existing vulnerable buildings are the number one seismic safety problem in the world, and nonductile reinforced concrete buildings are a noteworthy percentage of these that have yet to be addressed in a systematic way," said Jack Moehle, PEER's director. "This project will tackle this issue in a comprehensive way, leading to solutions that can save thousands of lives."

According to Joy Pauschke, Program Director of NEES at NSF, "We have learned the lesson over and over again in past earthquakes in the U.S. and abroad – many of our nation's older concrete buildings, where many of us live and work, are not safe during an earthquake. This project will use the NSF-funded NEES laboratories around the U.S. to provide building owners, occupants, and public officials with solutions to make these buildings safer."

In order to improve understanding of earthquakes and their effects, the National Science Foundation created the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES), managed by NEES Consortium, Inc. in Davis, CA, under NSF award number CMMI-0402490. NEES is a shared network of fifteen experimental facilities, collaborative tools, a centralized data repository, and earthquake simulation software, all linked by the ultra high-speed Internet2 connections of NEESgrid. The University of California, Berkeley, is one of the NEES laboratories in this consortium. Altogether, these resources provide the means for collaboration and discovery in the form of more advanced research based on experimentation and computational simulations of the ways buildings, bridges, utility systems, coastal regions, and geomaterials perform during seismic events.

The PEER project team will include these institutions and their respective departments: University of California (UC) at Berkeley–Architecture Dept. and Civil Engineering Dept., UC Irvine–Civil Engineering Dept., UC Los Angeles–Civil Engineering Dept., San Jose State University–Civil Engineering Dept., University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez–Civil Engineering Dept., University of Kansas at Lawrence–Civil Engineering Dept., University of Washington–Political Science Dept., Purdue University—Civil Engineering Dept., University of Southern California–School of Policy, Planning and Development.

The project team is partnering with the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) to form the Concrete Coalition, an alliance of concerned engineers, planners, policy experts, and other stakeholders who will work with the project team to develop and implement effective mitigation strategies.

The research will consist of four areas: 1) Exposure—An inventory of older-type concrete buildings will be developed for one urban region to serve as a testbed for regional loss studies.; 2) Component and System Performance—Laboratory and field experiments will be conducted on concrete components and soil-foundation-structure systems to improve understanding of conditions that lead to collapse; 3) Building and Regional Simulation—Computer models and simulations will be developed and used to study regional distribution of building collapses in a major earthquake; and 4) Mitigation Strategies–Effective mitigation strategies will be developed to promote action for risk reduction.

Expected outcomes of PEER's study include improved inventory, data and models for components and subsystems, single building simulation capabilities, improved fragilities/regional simulations, public policy, improved engineering assessment and retrofit tools, increased diversity in earthquake engineering, and active rehabilitation of truly vulnerable buildings nationwide initiated through public policy and professional encouragement.

The Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER) develops, validates and disseminates performance-based seismic design technologies for buildings and infrastructure to meet the diverse economic and safety needs of owners and society. PEER is supported by funds from the U.S. National Science Foundation, the State of California, participating universities, private industry and business partners. It is administered under the National Science Foundation's Engineering Research Centers Program.

Contact Information:

Susan Tubbesing, Executive Director

510 451 0905     skt@eeri.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 17, 2006

OAKLAND, CA, April 17, 2006 — The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) is sponsoring a major collaborative effort to address the high earthquake risk posed by older concrete buildings in the western US. The effort will help engineers quickly distinguish truly dangerous, collapse-prone buildings within the large inventory of these buildings, retrofit the truly bad buildings, and avoid future casualties. The newly proposed Concrete Coalition would unite structural engineers, building officials, public policy interests, building owners, and managers in a long-term effort to meet the challenge.

According to Craig Comartin, President of EERI and a structural engineer, “Older concrete design procedures used prior to the 1970’s could result in brittle buildings that snap like a pencil when hit by an earthquake. Modern code provisions ensure that buildings have ductility – a property that allows them to distort like a coat hanger without breaking.” As a result, modern concrete buildings are safer against collapse than the older non-ductile ones by a factor of twenty or more. Recent estimates of the potential effects of a repeat of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake indicate that the worst of the older buildings – including apartment houses, offices, schools, and hospitals – would be the greatest source of casualties.

The initiative grows out of planning sessions conducted recently in Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The meetings were held in conjunction with a technical seminar sponsored by EERI and the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER), a consortium of universities working together to further improve earthquake design procedures.

Jack Moehle, Director of PEER and a University of California Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, says that significant recent advancements will help find the worst buildings. “There is no question that the new performance-based earthquake engineering procedures are the best framework for addressing the problem” he says.

Beyond these technical engineering issues, the Concrete Coalition intends to address related social and economic impacts. William Petak, Professor Emeritus at the University of Southern California and an expert in earthquake related public policy, notes that “The solution to the nonductile concrete building problem will require significant capital investment. This means that carefully planned programs to assist building owners and entire communities will be necessary to make the transition to safety a smooth process.”

According to Comartin, the group plans to share information on the vulnerability and inventory of buildings, as well as encourage funding for further research on innovative analysis and retrofit solutions. They will also coordinate a public outreach program to inform communities about the problem and solutions. Organization and communications will rely heavily on existing membership associations and institutions with a common interest in earthquake safety. Comartin adds that “Most importantly, the Concrete Coalition will help all stakeholders speak with a common voice to address all aspects of the problem”. The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute is an Oakland-based nonprofit with over 2500 academic and professional members throughout the world with a common interest in reducing the effects of earthquakes on society. EERI is a convener of the upcoming 100th Anniversary Earthquake Conference in San Francisco.

Additional contacts:

Craig Comartin    ccomartin@comartin.net

Jack Moehle          moehle@berkeley.edu

William Petak        petak@usc.edu