Project Brief: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

NIST Measurement Science and Engineering Research Grants

DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF PERFORMANCE-BASED EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING (PBEE) COMPLIANT STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS

Develop four types of structural systems, at various levels of complexity, that are inherently compliant with the principles of Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering (PBEE), which involves designing structures with a quantified expectation of good performance under earthquake conditions; produce design procedures for the systems as well as techniques and tools that engineers can use to show if the designed systems are indeed PBEE compliant.

RECIPIENT: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA

• Project duration: 3 Years
• Total NIST Funding: $580,493

There has been a tremendous amount of effort over the past 15 years to solidify the concepts of PBEE, which involves designing structures with knowledge of how they will perform under earthquake conditions. However, nearly all the research in this area has been based on assumptions of expected performance, and has not included evaluation of structures' actual performance during ground motions. The goal of this project is to develop a variety of new structural systems that inherently satisfy the goals of PBEE. These systems will have negligible damage in frequent earthquakes, acceptable damage in moderate earthquakes, and a low probability of collapse during the rare, design basis earthquakes. This behavior can be validated by traditional linear static and dynamic analysis approaches. The researchers will develop four types of PBEE compliant systems, of various complexities, and will produce design procedures for the systems and evaluation techniques and tools that engineers can use to show if designed systems are indeed PBEE compliant. Where applicable, this information will be documented in a format that is suitable for use in building codes.

Public contact (for project information):

Lynn A. Nystrom, 540-231-4371
TANSY [at] vt.edu (TANSY[at]vt[dot]edu)

Robyn.R.Flaherty [at] us.ul.com

rferrier [at] jhu.edu

NIST Program Office Contact:

Jason Boehm, 301-975-8678Jason.boehm [at] nist.gov (
Jason[dot]boehm[at]nist[dot]gov)