Building damage & repair

News and Updates

NIST Earthquake Engineering Group Members Conduct a Preliminary Earthquake Reconnaissance Mission to Turkey

August 31, 2023

In the early morning hours of February 6, 2023, a M W 7.8 earthquake occurred in Turkey, followed by four additional earthquakes throughout the day with MW of 5

A steel column with a deep web on the left and a steel column with a shallow web on the right.

Proposed Updates to Steel Building Standard Could Enhance Earthquake Resilience

January 7, 2022

Since the mid-1990s, a type of steel column that commonly features slender cross-sectional elements has become more prevalent in buildings along the West Coast

NIST Establishes Expert Team to Investigate the Champlain Towers South Collapse

August 25, 2021

GAITHERSBURG, Md. — The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced today the expert team members who will

Projects and Programs

Building-Level Seismic Performance Assessment

Ongoing

This project focuses on two research tasks promoting enhanced seismic building performance. Research Task 1 investigates the use of low-damage rocking systems

Hierarchical Materials

Ongoing

Nature utilizes a hierarchy of length scales and tiered structure to build lightweight, strong, and tough materials. Engineers look to exploit the advantage of

Publications

Improving Windstorm and Tornado Resilience: Recommendations for One- and Two-Family Residential Structures

February 21, 2023

Author(s)

Brian O'Connor, Karah Osburn, Jennifer Mitchell, Heidi Szabo, Marc Levitan

The purpose of this fact sheet is to provide a brief overview of building envelope considerations and load path improvements to reduce damages to wood framed

Framework for Developing Modeling Parameters of FRP-Retrofitted Reinforced Concrete Shear Walls

September 27, 2022

Author(s)

Jazalyn Dukes, Siamak Sattar

Aging buildings and ever evolving design codes imply the need of implementing retrofit techniques to ensure the safety and functionality buildings under current

Quantifying Material Uncertainty in Seismic Evaluations of Reinforced Concrete Bridge Column Structures

May 1, 2022

Author(s)

Christopher Segura, Siamak Sattar, Mohammadamin Hariri Ardebili

In seismic performance evaluations, the force-deformation response of a structure is typically assessed using a deterministic analytical model, and inherent

Lessons on Return to Function After the 2018 Cook Inlet Earthquake

September 30, 2021

Author(s)

Katherine Johnson, Siamak Sattar, Christopher Segura, Steven McCabe

The magnitude 7.1 Cook Inlet Earthquake of November 2018 greatly affected Anchorage, AK area residents. Although shaking likely did not exceed the hazard level