The project "Quantifying the Performance of Retrofit of Cripple Walls and Sill Anchorage in Single-Family Wood-Frame Buildings,” (PEER-CEA Project), coordinated by PEER and sponsored by the CEA, was recently featured in two presentations at the Structural Engineers Association of California (SEAOC)’s Annual convention which was held online on December 2-4, 2020.
Greg Deierlein delivered the convention's opening plenary presentation “NHERI SimCenter: Computational Modeling and Simulation for Natural Hazards Engineering” about NHERI SimCenter tools that support research in natural hazards engineering. His presentation emphasized the relevance of computational modeling and simulation to the profession of structural engineering, and its role in designing for the future: to inform policy and land-use decisions. He presented an illustrative application of the PEER-CEA project that demonstrated how a large number of computations could be executed in a reasonable amount of time with SimCenter’s application tools. The project entailed consideration of building variants that included different configurations and construction materials. Approximately 110,000 non-linear dynamic analyses and millions of FEMA P-58 statistical damage and loss simulations were conducted in a compressed timeframe with high performance computing technology. Refer to the video timestamp starting 23:46. Greg was on the PEER-CEA project leadership team and co-chair of Working Groups 1 (Resources Review), 2 (Index Buildings), 5 (Analytical Modeling), and 6 (Fragility Functions and Loss Assessment).
Brandon Schiller and Kelly Cobeen delivered the presentation "Testing for Multiple Performance Levels: Recent Experiences from the PEER-CEA Project" [search "Schiller" or "Cobeen"]. The session featured the overall objectives of the project and the important role of experimental testing, then focused on the small component testing program conducted at UC San Diego and the large assembly testing program (refer to timestamp starting 26:43) conducted at UC Berkeley. Brandon and Kelly were active in Working Group 4 (Experimental Testing); Brandon worked in the UC San Diego testing program and Kelly led the UC Berkeley testing program.