PEER has published Report No. 2025/05: "Open-source Seismic Risk Assessment (OpenSRA) Software Development." The report was authored by Barry Zheng, Micaela Largent (Slate Geotechnical Consultants); Jennie Watson-Lamprey (CODA SEISMIC).
This report is one of a series of reports documenting the methods and findings of a multi-year, multi-disciplinary project conducted by the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER) with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), and funded by the California Energy Commission (CEC). The overall project is titled “Performance-based Earthquake Engineering Assessment Tool for Natural Gas Storage and Pipeline Systems” henceforth referred to as the “OpenSRA Project.”
Access the report and 2 page summary. Access the full listing of PEER reports.
Abstract
The overall goal of the OpenSRA Project is to create an open-source research-based seismic risk assessment tool for natural gas infrastructure that can be used by utility stakeholders to better understand state-wide risks, prioritize mitigation, plan new gas infrastructure, and help focus post-earthquake repair work.
The project team includes researchers from LBNL, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, University of Nevada Reno, the NHERI SimCenter at UC Berkeley, and Slate Geotechnical Consultants and its subcontractors Lettis Consultants International (LCI) and Thomas O’Rourke. Focused research to advance the seismic risk assessment tool was conducted by Task Groups, each addressing a particular area of study and expertise, and collaborating with the other Task Groups.
This report focuses on the implementation of models into OpenSRA and the overall development of the software. OpenSRA calculates the seismic risk of natural gas infrastructure by calculating the seismic demands (fault displacement, ground shaking, and ground displacement) and the component fragility (buried pipelines, wells and caprocks, and well-trees and pressure vessels).