PEER Research Project Highlight: "NGL: Next Generation Liquefaction Database Development and Implications for Engineering Models"

August 15, 2018

The impact of a PEER funded research project, “NGL: Next Generation Liquefaction Database Development and Implications for Engineering Models” is highlighted below. The project Principal Investigator (PI) is Jonathan P. Stewart, Professor, University of California, Los Angeles, and Steven L. Kramer, Professor, University of Washington. The research team includes Paolo Zimmaro, Project Scientist, University of California, Los Angeles; Scott J. Brandenberg, Professor and Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion, University of California, Los Angeles; Dongyoup Kwak, Assistant Professor, Hanyang University, John Stamatakos, Director of Special Programs, SWRI, San Antonio, Texas; Thomas Weaver, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Rockville, Maryland; Onder Cetin, Professor, Middle Eastern Technical University, Turkey; Kevin W. Franke, Assistant Professor, BYU; Robb E.S. Moss, Professor, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and Yousef Bozorgnia, Professor, University of California, Los Angeles.

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

Research Impact:

The Next-Generation Liquefaction project has three broad objectives: (1) substantially improve the quality, transparency, and accessibility of case history data related to ground failure; (2) provide a coordinated framework for supporting studies to augment case history data for conditions important for applications but poorly represented in empirical databases; and (3) provide an open, collaborative process for model development in which developer teams have access to common resources and share ideas and results during model development, so as to reduce the potential for mistakes and to mutually benefit from best practices. This approach is motivated in part by the success of the Next-Generation of Attenuation (NGA) models for ground motion prediction, which has followed this approach and has had substantial global buy-in and broad application.

This project is contributing towards the database element of NGL. The project as a whole is anticipated to have substantial impact on the profession, dramatically improving the quality and consistency of models that are available to assess liquefaction susceptibility, triggering, and effects.