 |
Caltrans to fund Berkeley-based research on seismic safety of transportation
 |
CEE professor and PEER director Jack Moehle, here examining the results of a seismic test on a concrete column, is principal investigator of the Caltrans-funded push to upgrade the seismic safety of California’s transportation infrastructure.
PEG SKORPINSKI PHOTO |
In an effort to improve the seismic safety of the state’s highway system, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) has awarded $2.25 million to UC Berkeley’s Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER).
The five-year grant will support multidisciplinary studies that bring together geologists, seismologists, and geotechnical and structural engineers from academia, private industry, and government agencies. Their research will focus on ground motion, soil response during severe ground shaking, and reliability of bridges and highway systems during an earthquake.
“Modern bridge seismic design relies on computer analyses of how the bridge will move during future earthquakes,” says CE professor Jack Moehle, director of PEER and principal investigator of the grant. “A major aim of our study will be to incorporate data and knowledge from recent strong earthquakes to develop improved procedures for selecting ground motion for design studies. The procedures will be applicable to new bridge designs as well as retrofits of existing hazardous construction.”
Moehle pointed out that increasingly sophisticated technology is enabling researchers to better predict how structures will perform in earthquakes. Their studies on transportation systems, the researchers say, will be relevant to designing safer buildings, waterlines, and electrical systems.
The PEER Center is a National Science Foundation earthquake engineering research center supported by federal, state, and private industry funds. In addition to Berkeley, participating universities include Caltech, Stanford, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC San Diego, the University of Southern California, and the University of Washington.
For more information about PEER, go to http://peer.berkeley.edu/.
|
|
FOREFRONT takes you into the
labs, classrooms, and lives of professors, students, and alumni
for an intimate look at the innovative research, teaching, and
campus life that define the College of Engineering at the University
of California, Berkeley.
Published twice a year by the College of Engineering Office of Marketing & Communications. Have a comment about Forefront? E-mail
your letter to the editor. Click here
to learn more about the magazine. |
|
