PEER Research Project Highlight: “Aftershock Seismic Vulnerability and Time-Dependent Risk Assessment of Bridges”

May 8, 2018

The impact of a PEER funded research project “Aftershock Seismic Vulnerability and Time-Dependent Risk Assessment of Bridges” is highlighted below. The project Principal Investigator is Henry V. Burton, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Englekirk Presidential Endowed Chair in Structural Engineering, UCLA. The Co-Principal Investigator is Jonathan Stewart, Professor and Department Chair, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UCLA. The research team includes Sujith Mangalathu, Postdoctoral Scholar, UCLA and Mehrdad Shokrabadi, PhD Candidate, UCLA.

Download the Research Project Highlight which includes the abstract. (PDF)

Research Impact:

Bridges are an essential part of the transportation system in California and other parts of the United States. This is especially true during the period immediately following a major earthquake when the mobility of emergency responders is highly dependent on a functioning transportation network. As such, decisions regarding the structural integrity and functionality of earthquake-damaged bridges are a critical step in post-event response and recovery. The development of quantitative and comparable measures of aftershock bridge performance will ultimately lead to more informed post-earthquake decisions related to bridge closures, which has direct implications to the functionality and recovery of transportation networks.