Projects Awarded from PEER TSRP RFP 20-02 and PEER-Bridge Program

January 29, 2021

PEER has continuing funding from the State of California related to the seismic performance of transportation systems. This funding supports the Transportation Systems Research Program (TSRP), the purpose of which is to lessen the impacts of earthquakes on the transportation systems of California, including highways and bridges, port facilities, high-speed rail,  airports, and other related structures. In September 2020, PEER issued a request for proposals, Solicitation PEER TSRP 20-02 , for one-year projects aligned with the current TSRP research priorities and vision.

In response to Solicitation PEER TSRP 20-02, 34 proposals were received. Each proposal received three independent reviews from the pool of more than two dozen reviewers. Based on the priorities of the pre-set TSRP vision, pre-defined evaluation criteria specified in the RFP, and factors such as the level of engagement with the PEER core institutes, 12 new projects were approved, comprising a total funding of $600,000. The following is a list of the 12 funded projects

The PEER-Bridge Research program is a streamlined framework of the Caltrans bridge research program. A single master contract is established between Caltrans and PEER, and different projects in seven topic areas are executed as Task Orders under the master contract. In 2020, PEER issued two requests for proposals, Solicitation PEER-Bridge 20-02, and Solicitation PEER-Bridge 20-01. Three new projects were funded from PEER-Bridge Program in the last 3 months.

PEER thanks all the PIs who submitted proposals, and also thanks the efforts and detailed feedback from the reviewers.

PEER TSRP Funded Projects:

Title: G1: Liquefaction Evaluation of Gravelly Soils: An Integrated Laboratory Testing and Numerical Modeling Approach

PI: Adda Athanasopoulos-Zekkos, UC Berkeley

Title: G2: Prediction of Seismic Compression of Unsaturated Backfills

PI: John McCartney, UC San Diego

Title: G1: Advancing the Practice of Cyclic Softening Assessments of Silts and Clays

PI: Armin Stuedlein, Oregon State University

Title: M1: Correlation of Ground Motion Duration with Spectral Acceleration and Implications for Expected Bridge Performance

PI: Tracy Becker, UC Berkeley. Co-PI: Jennie Watson-Lamprey

Title: G2: A System-Level Study to Evaluate the Role of Soil Gradation on Seismically Induced Embankment Deformations PI: Jason DeJong, UCD. Co-PIs: Mike Beaty (Beaty Engineering) Thomas Westover (Cornforth Consultants)

Title: M3: Deep Learning Based Surrogate Modeling for Uncertainty Quantification in Soil-Structure Interaction Problems

PI: Elnaz Seylabi, University of Nevada, Reno

Title: M6: Autonomous Drones for Inspection-Driven Exploration of Structures

PI: Raja Sengupta, UC Berkeley. Co-PI: ZhiQiang Chen

Title: T2: Calibration and Verification of OpenSees Models for Simulating the Response through Collapse of Nonplanar RC Walls PI: Laura Lowes, University of Washington

Title: M7: Seismic Performance of Isolated Bridges under Extreme Shaking

PI: Gilberto Mosqueda, UC San Diego

Title: T2: Implementation of Frequency-Dependent Impedance Function in OpenSees

PI: Jian Zhang, UC Los Angeles

Title: S3: A Critical Examination of Material Strain Limits for Performance-based Seismic Design of Modern Pier and Wharf Structures PI: Machel Morrison, UC San Diego. Co-PI: Jose Restrepo

Title: T4: Machine Learning for Analysis and Risk Management of Complex Infrastructure Systems

PI: Jack Baker, Stanford

PEER-Bridge program Funded Projects:

Title: An Updated LRFD-Based Design Procedure for Bridge Decks

PI: Lijuan "Dawn" Cheng, UC Davis. Co-PI: Thomas Murphy

Title: Advanced Guidelines for Stability Design of Slender Reinforced Concrete Bridge Columns

PI: Michael Scott, Oregon State University. Co-PI: Mark Denavit

Title: Statistical Variation of Seismic Damage Index (DI) of California Bridges

PI: Farzin Zareian, UC Irvine. Co-PIs: Norm Abrahamson, Saiid Saiidi