Working Group Meeting
February 24, 2015 (Tuesday) 4:00-6:00 PM Working Group Meeting“Structural Engineering Perspectives on Seismic Design in the Region”
The EERI Chapter Working Group is meant to provide technical discussions and dissemination of information related to the seismic hazard in the Northeast. The purpose, initially, will be to review regional topics with the goal of commenting on regional concerns. It is hoped that any consensus recommendations from this ongoing working group can be incorporated into the national discussion. Please join us if you have an interest in this topic.
LeMessurier Consultants Meeting Room
1380 Soldiers Field Road
Boston, MA 02135
Directions at http://www.lemessurier.com/directions
Chapter Meeting
February 24, 2015 (Tuesday) 4:00-6:00 PM Working Group Meeting“Structural Engineering Perspectives on Seismic Design in the Region”
The EERI Chapter Working Group is meant to provide technical discussions and dissemination of information related to the seismic hazard in the Northeast. The purpose, initially, will be to review regional topics with the goal of commenting on regional concerns. It is hoped that any consensus recommendations from this ongoing working group can be incorporated into the national discussion. Please join us if you have an interest in this topic.
LeMessurier Consultants Meeting Room
1380 Soldiers Field Road
Boston, MA 02135
Directions at http://www.lemessurier.com/directions
October 8, 2014 (Wednesday)
Lecture Meeting (flyer at LecturePoster10_08_14)6:00-8:00PM
Simpson, Gumpertz and Heger Seminar Room 41 Seyon Street Building 1, Suite 500 Waltham, MA 02453M Directions at http://www.sgh.com/boston%20directionsF.pdfSpeaker: Harold Magistrale, Lead Research Scientist, FM Global
“Earthquake Risk Maps at FM Global”
FM Global insures commercial and industrial properties around the world and so requires a uniform worldwide assessment of earthquake risk for underwriting and engineering servicing decisions. We construct earthquake risk maps that show the return times of earthquake ground motions that can cause slight damage to URM low-rise buildings or slight-to-moderate damage to non-ductile concrete moment frame high-rise buildings. The steps to construct the risk maps are, first, perform a PSHA for a uniform soil, second, assign NEHRP site response categories and apply the NEHRP amplification factors, and third, compare the ground motions to the damage thresholds. The PSHA is performed on the OpenQuake software of the Global Earthquake Model. Site response categories are determined from the topographic slope method. The FM Global earthquake risk maps are different from building code maps in that the former account for soil conditions and show return times of spectral accelerations that initiate damage to weak buildings, whereas the latter present a ground motion parameter for a fixed return time without correcting for soil conditions.
August 18, 2014
4:00-6:00PM Working Group Meeting“Soil Effects on Ground Motions – Part II”
The EERI Chapter Working Group is meant to provide technical discussions and dissemination of information related to the seismic hazard in the Northeast. The purpose, initially, will be to review regional topics with the goal of commenting on regional concerns. It is hoped that any consensus recommendations from this ongoing working group can be incorporated into the national discussion. Please join us if you have an interest in this topic.Tufts University Medford Campus
School of Engineering
200 College Avenue
208 Anderson Hall
Parking available at Dowling Hall Garage, 419 Boston Ave.
June 26, 2014 (Thursday evening)
Lecture Meeting 6:00– 8:00 PM GEI Consultants Seminar Room 400 Unicorn Park Drive, Woburn MA 01801 Directions at http://www.geiconsultants.com/locationsLecture Title: “Geotechnical-Earthquake Engineering Building Code Provisions and Impacts on Design” by Ehsan Kianirad, Ph.D. Haley and Aldrich
ABSTRACT: Seismic considerations of building codes have a significant impact on the design of structures. This presentation will shed light on important concepts and parameters that play a major role in seismic code provisions for buildings including the seismic hazard level, Maximum Considered Earthquake (MCE), site effects from soil and rock conditions, spectral acceleration coefficients, and seismic design category. Earthquake motions are represented by spectral acceleration coefficients provided in seismic hazard maps for the MCE. At a particular site, these motions are subject to site effects depending on soil and rock conditions. The spectral acceleration coefficients are combined with the site class to determine the design accelerations. Alternatively, site specific response analysis could be performed to obtain a design response spectrum for a particular site. Consequently, seismic design category (SDC) is determined from the design response spectrum and the structure’s desired level of performance. Applicable building design requirements are expressed as a function of the SDC in the building codes. A background on these issues will be provided, the process for determining the relevant parameters will be explained, and impacts on building designs will be discussed including regional considerations. Case histories will be used to illustrate key points.
May 7, 2014
Noon-2:00PM Working Group Meeting“Soil Effects on Ground Motions”
The EERI Chapter Working Group is meant to provide technical discussions and dissemination of information related to the seismic hazard in the Northeast. The purpose, initially, will be to review regional topics with the goal of commenting on regional concerns. It is hoped that any consensus recommendations from this ongoing working group can be incorporated into the national discussion. Please join us if you have an interest in this topic.Tufts University Medford Campus
School of Engineering
200 College Avenue
Anderson Hall
Parking available at Dowling Hall Garage, 419 Boston Ave.
April 3, 2014 (Thursday evening)
Lecture Meeting 6:30– 8:00 PM, Haley & Aldrich 465 Medford Street Directions at Directions to HA Boston printableLecture Title: “Basis for Maximum Considered Earthquake Ground Motions in New England” by Nicolas Luco, Ph.D. of the United States Geological Survey (USGS)
ABSTRACT: The presentation will summarize the USGS computation of hazard curves for New England and explain the calculation of risk-targeted ground motions. A comparison will be made between Risk-Targeted Maximum Considered Earthquake (MCER) values in New England to their uniform-hazard Maximum Considered Earthquake (MCE) counterparts. Furthermore, the reasons for any changes in the New England region ground motion maps in the various editions of the IBC will be discussed. The MCER ground motion maps in the 2012 and 2015 editions of the International Building Code and MCE ground motion maps in previous editions are all based on the computations of the USGS National Seismic Hazard Mapping Project. For the MCE ground motions, the Building Seismic Safety Council interpolated the hazard curves at an exceedance probability that corresponds to 2% probability in 50 years. The interpolated ground motions are known as “uniform-hazard” ground motions, since the exceedance probability is geographically uniform. In contrast, for the MCER ground motions, all of the points on the computed hazard curves were used to develop maps that target a 1%-in-50-years collapse probability for new buildings. Since collapse probability is synonymous with collapse risk, the resulting ground motions are referred to as “risk-targeted.”
February 26, 2014 (Wednesday evening) Business Meeting and Lecture 6:30– 8:30 PM, 315 Shillman Hall Northeastern University http://www.northeastern.edu/campusmap
EERI New England Regional Chapter Meeting Agenda 2_26_14
Lecture Title: “Potential Changes to Design Requirements for Earthquake Resistance and Its Impact on Design Practice in New England” by Dominic Kelly: Principal at Simpson Gumpertz & Heger
ABSTRACT: The Provisions Update Committee of the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) is developing several proposals for change to seismic design provisions to be used in the U.S. These proposals are in various stages of development, but all have the potential to lead to changes to the seismic design provisions of ASCE/SEI 7 Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures. This talk will describe several of the proposals that are being considered with a focus on those changes that likely will impact design practice in New England. These proposals include creation of design provisions that are applicable only to seismic design category (SDC) B buildings, revisions to the Simplified Seismic Design Procedure in ASCE/SEI 7, improved estimations of diaphragm force levels and ductility, a design approach applicable to buildings dominated by the response of a roof diaphragm, strength design for foundations, revised soil site factors, revised seismicity maps, and revisions to seismic design category criteria.
January 6, 2014
Working Group Meeting Noon-2:00PM
“Seismic Hazard in New England”
Brown Bag Lunch
An EERI Chapter Working Group will be forming to provide technical discussions and dissemination of information related to the seismic hazard and ground motion mapping in the Northeast. The purpose, initially, will be to review the USGS mapping and methodology that is being considered for implementation with the goal of commenting on regional concerns. It is hoped that any consensus recommendations from this working group can be incorporated into the national discussion. Please join us if you have an interest in this topic.
Tufts University Medford Campus
School of Engineering
200 College Avenue
Anderson Hall – Room 216
Parking available at Dowling Hall Garage, 419 Boston Ave.