PEER Reports

PEER Reports

Rocking Response of Bridges on Shallow Foundations, PEER Report 2010-101

Jose A. Ugalde
Bruce L. Kutter
Boris Jeremic
2010

The goal of this research is to address concerns about the suitability of using rocking shallow foundations for bridges. The research quantifies how combined moment, and shear, and axial loading affect behavior rocking behavior and illustrates the beneficial energy dissipation and self-centering characteristics that shallow foundations can introduce to the system. Due largely to these self-centering characteristics, rocking foundations appear to be quite resistant to instability as a result of P-∆ effects

Even if design guidelines were made to allow for rocking and the design...

Analysis of Cumulative Absolute Velocity (CAV) and JMA Instrumental Seismic Intensity (I JMA) Using the PEER-NGA Strong Motion Database, PEER Report 2010-102

Kenneth W. Campbell
Yousef Bozorgnia
2010

This report summarizes the results of a study of cumulative absolute velocity (CAV) and Japan Meteorological Agency instrumental seismic intensity (IJMA ) with the objectives of (1) analyzing the relationship between IJMA and the standardized version of CAV (standardized CAV) and our variant of this parameter (CAVS ) that includes the operating basis earthquake (OBE) exceedance criteria proposed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for shutting down a nuclear power plant after an earthquake; (2) developing a ground motion prediction equation (GMPE) for...

Post-Earthquake Traffic Capacity of Modern Bridges in California, PEER Report 2010-103

Vesna Terzic
Bozidar Stojadinovic
2010

Evaluation of the capacity of a bridge to carry self-weight and traffic loads after an earthquake is essential for a safe and timely re-opening of the bridge. In California, modern highway bridges designed using the Caltrans Seismic Design Criteria are expected to maintain at minimum a gravity load carrying capacity during both frequent and extreme seismic events. However, no validated, quantitative guidelines for estimating the remaining load carrying capacity of such bridges after an earthquake event exist today.

In this study, experimental and analytical methods were combined to...

Simulating the Inelastic Seismic Behavior of Steel Braced Frames Including the Effects of Low-Cycle Fatigue, PEER Report 2010-104

Yuli Huang
Stephen A. Mahin
2010

This report describes simulations of the inelastic seismic behavior of steel braced frames, including the effects of low-cycle fatigue. For steel braced frames under complex loading conditions, a wide variety of behavior mechanisms and failure modes may occur for each type of member and connection. Thus, numerical models that assess the initiation and propagation of failure during cyclic loading need to account for multi-axial states of material nonlinearity, local and global buckling and the exhaustion of the ability of the material to deform inelastically caused by low-cycle fatigue....

Structural Engineering Reconnaissance of the April 6, 2009, Abruzzo, Italy, Earthquake, and Lessons Learned, PEER Report 2010-105

M. Selim Günay
Khalid M. Mosalam
2010

In April 2009, a moment magnitude Mw=6.3 earthquake struck the central region of Italy near the city of L’Aquila. While the earthquake was tragic — 305 people killed, 1500 injured, and thousands of buildings destroyed — its aftermath provides lessons for earthquake professionals. Within 10 km of the epicenter, the recorded horizontal peak ground acceleration exceeded 0.35g and the ground shaking had high-frequency content with relatively short duration. The damage indicated strong effects of site conditions, where heavy damage occurred to structures founded on young sediments....

Verification of Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis Computer Programs, PEER Report 2010-106

Patricia Thomas
Ivan Wong
Norman Abrahamson
2010

Probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) has become a fundamental tool in assessing seismic hazards and for estimating seismic design and seismic safety evaluation of ground motions. It is used both on a site-specific basis for important and critical facilities and on a national scale for building codes. This report describes a project to test and verify the numerical approaches and software used in PSHA. The project was sponsored by the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER) Center’s Lifelines Program. A Working Group was organized and members tested their own computer codes...

Performance and Reliability of Exposed Column Base Plate Connections for Steel Moment-Resisting Frames, PEER Report 2010-107

Ady Aviram
Bozidar Stojadinovic
Armen Der Kiureghian
2010

Many steel buildings, especially those with special moment-resisting frames (SMRFs), suffered failures at their column base connections during the 1995 Kobe, Japan, and the 1994 Northridge, and 1989 Loma Prieta, California, earthquakes. These failures prompted a need to investigate the reliability of current column base designs.

A parametric study was carried out on a typical low-rise building in Berkeley, California, featuring a SMRF with column base rotational stiffness varying from pinned to fixed. Pushover and nonlinear time history analyses carried out on the SMRFs indicate...

Probabilistic Tsunami Hazard in California, PEER Report 2010-108

Hong Kie Thio
Paul Somerville
Jascha Polet
2010

Tsunami hazard maps are used to compute the tsunami inundation hazard for California using a hybrid approach of numerical tsunami simulations and probabilistic integration of the hazard. The earthquake sources include large subduction zone sources around the Pacific Rim. Our method uses a two-step process: the first consists of the computation of probabilistic offshore waveheights based on several thousands of scenario calculations that include both epistemic uncertainty through the use of logic trees as well as aleatory variability, by applying a standard deviation (sigma) to the...

Report of the Seventh Joint Planning Meeting of NEES/E-Defense Collaboration on Earthquake Engineering. Held at the E-Defense, Miki, and Shin-Kobe, Japan, September 18-19, 2009, PEER Report 2010-109

Convened by the Hyogo Earthquake Engineering Research Center (NIED), NEES Consortium, Inc.
2010

Following an agreement between the Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and the US National Science Foundation (NSF), the First Planning Meeting for NEES/E-Defense Collaboration on Earthquake Engineering Research was held in 2004. This meeting laid the groundwork for a five-year joint research program related to improving understanding and reducing the seismic vulnerability of bridges and steel buildings. To formalize the collaboration, two Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) were executed, one between NSF and MEXT in September 2005 and one between the...

Modeling and Acceptance Criteria for Seismic Design and Analysis of Tall Buildings, PEER Report 2010-111

2010

In October 2006, the Applied Technology Council (ATC) began work on a contract assisting the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER) in developing guidelines for the seismic design of tall buildings as part of the PEER Tall Buildings Initiative. The purpose of this work was to prepare recommendations for modeling the behavior of tall building structural systems and acceptance values for use in seismic design. Shortly thereafter, ATC secured additional funding on behalf of PEER from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), through the Building Seismic Safety Council (...