Earthquake risk reduction

News and Updates

NIST Earthquake Engineering Group Members Conduct a Preliminary Earthquake Reconnaissance Mission to Turkey

August 31, 2023

In the early morning hours of February 6, 2023, a M W 7.8 earthquake occurred in Turkey, followed by four additional earthquakes throughout the day with MW of 5

Building that has been destroyed by a tornado

NIST, NSF Award More Than $7.6 Million to Support Disaster Resilience Research

May 4, 2022

The agencies are funding 20 projects to be conducted across 24 institutions through the Disaster Resilience Research Grant (DRRG) program, which they manage

A steel column with a deep web on the left and a steel column with a shallow web on the right.

Proposed Updates to Steel Building Standard Could Enhance Earthquake Resilience

January 7, 2022

Since the mid-1990s, a type of steel column that commonly features slender cross-sectional elements has become more prevalent in buildings along the West Coast

Projects and Programs

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

Collapse Performance Modeling of Ordinary Reinforced Concrete Columns under Combined Axial and Seismic Loading

Ongoing

Objective - The objective of this study is to improve the simulation and prediction of the shear and axial load-deformation response of ordinary reinforced concrete columns in the context of PBSE. This study will be conducted at (1) the element-level, where a new shear and axial load failure model

Seismic Performance of Steel Buildings in the Central and Eastern United States

Completed

Objective - This project will assess the seismic performance of structural steel SFRSs in buildings located in regions of moderate seismicity in the CEUS. The design of these building systems is commonly governed by wind demands. Two synergetic activities will be undertaken in this project: (1)

Advancing the Seismic Implementation of High Strength Reinforcement Bars in Reinforced Concrete Structural Wall Systems

Completed

Objective - To conduct a series of tests on wall and coupling beam components reinforced with Grade 60 A706 reinforcement and high-strength Grade 100 reinforcement. Cyclic tests will be conducted on isolated walls and on coupling beams. Individual walls are often joined together by coupling beams

Publications

Utilization of stochastic ground motion simulations for scenario-based performance assessment of geo-structures

November 30, 2024

Author(s)

Mohammadamin Hariri Ardebili, Sanaz Rezaeian

A Technical Framework to Map Functional Recovery Performance Objectives to Prescriptive Seismic Design Provisions for Buildings

September 19, 2024

Author(s)

Dustin Cook, Siamak Sattar

Designing buildings for improved functional recovery represents a major shift in the current design paradigm. Given the novelty of the functional recovery

Assessing Structural Performance Using Energy

June 30, 2024

Author(s)

Kevin K F Wong

Buildings in seismic regions are designed to sustain significant damage during major earthquakes with collapse. Traditional linear design procedures use a force

Functional Recovery of Lifeline Infrastructure System Services

June 30, 2024

Author(s)

Craig Davis, Andrew Herseth, Katherine Johnson, Ayse Hortacsu

Services provided by lifeline infrastructure systems are critical to the recovery of social functions after an earthquake. Lifeline infrastructure includes