PEER Reports

PEER Reports

Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Bridge Columns Having Varying Aspect Ratios and Varying Lengths of Confinement, PEER Report 2000-08

Anthony J. Calderone
Dawn E. Lehman
Jack P. Moehle
2000

Experience and research on reinforced concrete bridges indicate that relatively stable response to strong ground motions can be obtained if the system is proportioned and detailed so that the predominant inelastic response is restricted to flexure in the column. In this case, it is important to know the strength of the column so that strengths of adjacent components can be set high enough to avoid inelastic action in those components. Details also are required that will enable the column to sustain the necessary inelastic deformations without disabling loss of resistance. Of interest are...

Structural Engineering Reconnaissance of the August 17, 1999 Earthquake: Kocaeli (Izmit), Turkey, PEER Report 2000-09

Halil Sezen
Kenneth J. Elwood
Andrew S. Whittaker
Khalid M. Mosalam
John W. Wallace
John F. Stanton
2000

In late August and early September 1999, a team of structural engineers representing the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER) Center traveled to Turkey to study damaged and undamaged buildings, bridges, industrial facili- ties, and lifeline infrastructure affected by the August 17, 1999, Izmit earthquake. The PEER reconnaissance team sought to improve the un- derstanding of the performance of the built environment and to identify gaps in a PEER research agenda that is developing knowledge and design tools for performance-based earthquake engineering.

The M w 7.4...

The Second U.S.-Japan Workshop on Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering Methodology for Reinforced Concrete Building Structures, PEER Report 2000-10

Japan Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center U.S. National Science Foundation
2000

Considerable research is under way throughout the world to establish performance-based assessment and design methodology for buildings. Japan and the United States are at the forefront of this research effort, as well as efforts to implement the research results. The U.S.-Japan Cooperative Research in Urban Earthquake Disa ster Mitigation, sponsored in Japan by the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture, and in the U.S. by the National Science Foundation, is funding collaborative research in Japan and the U.S. The Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center in the U.S. has...

Experimental Study of Large Seismic Steel Beam-to-Column Connections, PEER Report 2001-01

Egor P. Popov
Shakhzod M. Takhirov
2001

Two large bolted steel moment-resisting connections were studied by experiments. These connections were single-sided beam-column assemblies that are representative of exterior beam-column connections. They were composed of W36x150 Grade 50 beams and W14x257 Grade 50 columns. T-sections were cut from W40x264 sections of Grade 50 steel. The T-section webs were welded to the beams and prestressed by bolts to the beam flanges in the shop. Final beam-to-column assembly required no additional welding: the T-section flanges were bolted to the column and the column shear tab was bolted to the beam...

Seismic Response Analysis of Highway Overcrossings Including Soil-Structure Interaction, PEER Report 2001-02

Jian Zhang
Nicos Makris
2001

In this report the development and validation of a simple yet dependable method to estimate the seismic response of freeway overcrossings is presented. The proposed method adopts the sub-structure approach to address the issue of soil-foundation-superstructure interaction. The various steps of the method are validated with scarce historic records and are compared with the results obtained by other investigators.

Recognizing that soil-structure interaction affects appreciably the earthquake response of highway overcrossings, Chapter 2 concentrates on the calculation of the kinematic...

A Modal Pushover Analysis Procedure to Estimate Seismic Demands for Buildings: Theory and Preliminary Evaluation, PEER Report 2001-03

Anil K. Chopra
Rakesh K. Goel
2001

The principal objective of this investigation is to develop a pushover analysis procedure based on structural dynamics theory, which retains the conceptual simplicity and computational attractiveness of current proce dures with invariant force dist ribution, but provides superior accuracy in estimating seismic demands on buildings.

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Organizational and Societal Considerations for Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering, PEER Report 2001-04

Peter May
2001

Decisions about seismic performance are the underpinnings of a rigorous approach to performance-based earthquake engineering and should specifically consider the decision variables within the PEER framing equation. This report considers the decision-making process for seismic safety from the perspective of organizations—building owners, investors, and others concerned with single facilities or a collection of facilities—and from the perspective of society.

The dominant mode of seismic performance decision making, “risk and safety as by- products of design,” falls short in not...

Stiffness Analysis of Fiber-Reinforced Elastomeric Isolators, PEER Report 2001-05

Hsiang-Chuan Tsai
James M. Kelly
2001

The reinforcing elements of multi-layer elastomeric isolation bearings, which are normally steel plates, are replaced by a fiber reinforcement. The fiber-reinforced isolator is significantly lighter and could lead to a much less labor-intensive manufacturing process. In contrast to the steel-reinforced islolator, which is assumed to be rigid both in extension and in flexure, the fiber-reinforced isolator is assumed flexible in extension, but completely without flexural rigidity. This report presents theoretical approaches for analyzing the compressive stiffness and bending stiffness of...

Development of an Electrical Substation Equipment Performance Database for Evaluation of Equipment Fragilities, PEER Report 2001-06

Thalia Anagnos
2001

A database has been developed that documents the performance of substation equipment in 12 California earthquakes. The equipment in the database is owned by the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Southern California Edison and the California Department of Water Resources. The majority of data relates to equipment operating at 220/230 kV and 500 kV. The database is organized into an Excel 5.0 spreadsheet with 68 data fields describing earthquake location, ground motion, site location and conditions, equipment characteristics, performance of...

The Rocking Spectrum and the Shortcomings of Design Guidelines, PEER Report 2001-07

Nicos Makris
Dimitrios Konstantinidis
2001

This report is concerned with the superficial similarities and fundamental differences between the oscillatory response of a single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) oscillator (regular pendulum) and the rocking response of a slender rigid block (inverted pendulum). The study examines the distinct characteristics of the rocking spectrum and compares the observed trends with those of the response spectrum. It is shown that the rocking spectrum complements the response spectrum as an indicator of the shaking potential of earthquakes since it reflects kinematic characteristics of the ground motions...