Practitioner and Student Interaction 2002
- Kevin Day ST-13 Losses to Air-Rail Networks
Funding was provided for travel to College Station, Texas for graduate student Kevin Day to present the results of his Center research project, to date, to the AREMA Committee on Seismic Design of Railway members. The rail portion of project SE-13 will be finished by the end of summer. Interaction with industry professionals benefits the completion of the research, helps to validate the progress made to date, and offers insight into making the research results more useful to the railway engineering community. The presentation also benefited the industry's understanding of the Mid-America earthquake zone and the possible affects on the railroad network.
- Kevin Day ST-13 Losses to Air-Rail Networks
Funding was provided for travel to Memphis, TN to examine the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) railroad bridge over the Mississippi River. BNSF provided a structural engineer to guide a tour of the bridge and offered insight on the structural aspects of concern given a major Mid-America earthquake. As part of project SE-13, graduate student Kevin Day developed a cost effectiveness model for retrofitting railroad bridges in the Mid-America region. By attending the tour, Kevin was able to discuss the parameters considered in their cost effectiveness model, including retrofit options and the associated costs to retrofit. The tour and discussion also benefited the BNSF railroad in understanding the Mid-America earthquake zone and the possible affects on railroad infrastructure in the region. With this project coming to a close spring 2002, this trip aided in the completion of the research.
- Arzhang Alimoradi GT-8B Site Characterization of Memphis
Funding is provided for travel to John A. Martin & Associates, Inc., Los Angeles, CA. The Encyclopedia of Housing Construction Types in Seismically Prone Areas of the World is currently under development. This is a joint project of the International Association of Earthquake Engineering and Earthquake Engineering Research Institute that introduces different design/construction practices around the world. At this time there is no information submitted to the database from any construction type in the Mid-America region. A form will be developed by Arzhang Alimoradi to be posted on the encyclopedia by the end of this summer.
As a part of project GT-8B, software is developed in the MATLAB environment that does the processing of VSP data to find the Quality Factor for attenuation studies of the shear waves in the Mississippi embayment. The very same tool can be applied to study the variation of seismic waves within a structure for Structural Health Monitoring purposes. The Research and Development Department of John A. Martin & Associates was involved in a post Northridge earthquake study of buildings behavior in Los Angeles area using the data obtained from real structures. The funded student will investigate the capabilities of the MATLAB program for structural health monitoring using the John A. Martin database of building performance during the Northridge earthquake.
- Omer Erby ST-6 Performance of Rehabilitated URM Components
Funding was provided for travel to Memphis, TN to visit with EQE International to discuss the typical physical properties of existing unreinforced masonry buildings.
