Nonductile Concrete
Some buildings constructed in the western US prior to the implementation of the special details for ductile response (ca late 1970s) may pose a collapse risk under strong earthquake ground shaking. PEER has made major advances in understanding seismic response of older hazardous concrete buildings, leading to engineering criteria for building assessment and retrofit, as well as advanced dynamic simulation capabilities.
PEER and the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) unveiled findings from the PEER program in seminars conducted in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle in January and Februar 2006. The seminar proceedings is available for purchase from EERI. Some of the seminar's PowerPoint and video files are available for downloading.
PEER's research formed a foundation for modeling and acceptance values in ASCE 41. More recently, PEER is working as part of an ad hoc committee to recommend revisions to ASCE 41 based on the results presented in the PEER/EERI seminar. The final report to the ASCE 41 committee is due in December 2006.
The PEER/EERI seminar series also served as the kickoff of the Concrete Coalition Site, which aims to organize a coalition of engineers, building officials, and other interested stakeholders to promote more proactive programs to identify and retrofit collapse-risk concrete buildings.
PEER commences a NEES Grand Challenge Project on Mitigation of Collapse Risk in Vulnerable Concrete Buildings around December 2006. The project coordinates with the Concrete Coalition to advance knowledge about collapse risk of older concrete buildings and to promote active mitigation. More information will be provided when available.
The seismic retrofit program on the UC Berkeley campus is summarized in "Bracing Berkeley - A Guide to Seismic Safety on the UC Berkeley Campus" (pdf file - 21.3 MB).