PEER Research Project Highlight: "Stochastic Simulator-Based Uncertainty Quantification for Seismic Responses of Bridges"

September 19, 2023

The impact of a PEER funded research project "Stochastic Simulator-Based Uncertainty Quantification for Seismic Responses of Bridges" is highlighted below. The project Principal Investigator (PI) is Ziqi Wang, UC Berkeley. The Co-Principal Investigator is Marco Broccardo, University of Trento.

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

Research Impact

This proposed research is instrumental in complementing current approaches of seismic risk analysis of bridges. Stochastic simulators are an emerging topic in the field of UQ and have many applications in engineering. In earthquake engineering, stochastic simulator-based UQ is still in its early stages, but it has significant potential as it provides the missing link for the efficient use of stochastic ground motion models. Moreover, this study will prioritize the analysis of real bridges, with the aim of providing practical and efficient computational tools for forward UQ and sensitivity analysis that can benefit the community of bridge engineers. The integration and comparison of the proposed approach with ground motion selection-based seismic risk analysis approaches will provide new insights into the influence of aleatory uncertainties from ground motions. Finally, although the application of this proposal focuses on bridges, the methodology can be applied to other critical structure/infrastructure systems such as high-rises, water supply, and oil and gas pipelines.

Research Image

Figure 1. Framework of the proposed approach