SCEC Award Number 14166 View PDF
Proposal Category Workshop Proposal
Proposal Title Workshop for multiscale source-soil-structure interaction simulations
Investigator(s)
Name Organization
Jacobo Bielak Carnegie Mellon University C.B. Crouse URS Corporation Thomas Jordan University of Southern California
Other Participants Approximately 15 seismologists and engineers will participate in the proposed workshop
SCEC Priorities 6e, 6c, 6a SCEC Groups EEII, GMP, GMSV
Report Due Date 03/01/2015 Date Report Submitted N/A
Project Abstract
 The project objective was to organize a one-day workshop to discuss current issues associated with the simulation of soil-structure interaction (SSI) of complex building and non-building systems during strong earthquakes, and to identify research needs and areas of application in which SCEC research might contribute to addressing those needs. The workshop took place on January 29, 2015 in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California, with 24 invited participants from industry, government, and academia. The workshop was divided into four sessions. Initially, several speakers gave short presentations on the current state-of-practice and needs for SSI effects in different types of infrastructure systems, including building structures, foundations, multi-structure systems, nuclear power plants, and dams and related geotechnical engineering structures. This was followed by a session on methods of analysis for SSI and related software. Third was a presentation on SCEC activities related to engineering applications. The fourth, an entire afternoon, session was devoted to a discussion of needs and desirable actions and developments. Prior to the workshop, the organizers sent to the participants, along with the agenda and list of participants, an overview of the workshop to help shape the presentations and discussions. The overview, agenda, and list of participants are given below. In addition, some of the presentations are available on-line at the SCEC website SCECpedia (http://scec.usc.edu/scecpedia/2015_SCEC_SSI_Workshop).
Intellectual Merit The evaluation of SSI effects during earthquakes is currently conducted, by and large, using variations of methods based on highly simplifying assumptions that were developed originally over fifty years ago. For instance, the current SSI provisions in the ASCE 7-10 standard are based on simplified analytical methods developed in the 1970s. Minor improvements have been made since then, and revisions to the SSI provisions in the forthcoming ASCE 7-16 standard were made in the current code cycle. These revisions, however, are still based on the same simplified equivalent linear model on which the original recommendations were based.

Structural engineers typically use commercial software for dynamic analyses that can model the 3-D geometry and stress-strain characteristics of the structure in great detail, but these software programs model the SSI effects crudely, if at all. Similarly, geotechnical engineers use commercial software that can model the complex constitutive behavior of the soil, but these software programs cannot accommodate complex 3-D structural models. Another potentially important factor is the spatial variability of ground motion and how to model it in complex geologic media; this problem is especially important for elongated structures such as dams and bridges, and for other complex multistructural systems such as nuclear power plants. With the increased attention being paid to the nation’s infrastructure, it is now an appropriate time to bring together seismologists and engineers to (a) assess current practice in SSI and related recent methodologies, and (b) examine unmet needs and potential methodologies for addressing such needs.
Broader Impacts With the increased attention being paid to the nation’s infrastructure, it is now an appropriate time to bring together seismologists and engineers to (a) assess current practice in SSI and related recent methodologies, and (b) examine unmet needs and potential methodologies for addressing such needs.
Exemplary Figure N/A
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