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Buildings & Construction

Structural engineering

News and Updates

Projects and Programs

Building-Level Seismic Performance Assessment

Ongoing
Objective: To better understand the seismic performance of buildings designed in areas of medium-to-high seismicity and to identify ways to create enhanced performance through low-damage approaches, improved code provisions, and improved analysis procedures. What is the Problem? Despite progress
Picture for Hardness and Coating Thickness Standardization and Measurements Project Including Equipment and Standards Organizations

Hardness Standardization and Measurements

Ongoing
DESCRIPTION Purpose: Provide measurement traceability for the Knoop, Rockwell, and Vickers hardness scales and for coating thickness measurements that are based on magnetic methods. Goals: Harmonization of hardness and coating thickness testing protocols, in pursuit of reduction of measurement

Seismic Response of Reinforced Concrete Walls

Ongoing
Objective: The project includes two critical tasks identified in Performance Based Seismic Engineering (PBSE): (1) use of simplified reinforced concrete wall models in high-fidelity nonlinear dynamic analysis that have no robust experimental data validation - to be solved by thorough experimental

Extreme Winds: Hazard Characterization and Structural Design Project

Ongoing
Objective - To develop next-generation methods and tools to better characterize extreme wind hazards and associated loads, and response of structures to extreme winds, thus enabling performance-based standards for designing structures that resist extreme winds. What is the new technical idea? The

Publications