Our Projects

There is a growing interest in using coupled composite plate shear walls/ concrete-filled (CPSW/CF) for high-rise building construction, particularly to optimize the design for wind and/or seismic load combinations.  This test series investigated the inelastic cyclic response of C-Shaped and T-Shaped walls typically used in core-wall structures.

A three dimensional seismic isolation system was developed and experimentally validated for high-voltage electric power transformers of weight in the range of 300 to 800kip.  Although the validation concentrated on electrical transformers, the system is currently (2019) under construction in a hospital in California.

A novel configuration for damping devices with the main advantage of preserving open space within the frame of installation was developed and tested. The acquired test data were used for validating analytical and computational models.

Research was conducted on concrete filled steel sandwich panel walls (CFSSP-Walls) in order to investigate the ductility and seismic performance of this structural system under in-plane flexure. 

Buckling Restrained Braces application to provide more resilient bridges have been subjected to cyclic displacement histories representative of yearly thermal demands and of earthquake excitations.  One of SEESL’s shake-table was used to apply displacement histories.

A full-scale, two-story, light-frame wood townhouse building, designed according to modern US engineered seismic design requirements, was tested on two tri-axial shake tables operating in unison, as part of the testing program defined for the NEESWood Project.

As part of an analytical and experimental study on a proposed self-centering steel plate shear wall (SC-SPSW) system, the behavior of SC-SPSWs was developed investigated using one-third scaled single-bay three-story frames subjected to quasi-static cyclic and dynamic shake-table testing.

The main goal in this project was to study the behavior of Concrete-Filled Double-Skin Tube (CFDST) columns subjected to fire following earthquake scenarios. For this purpose, the behavior of CFDST columns with various degrees of simulated seismic damage was examined under the standard ASTM E119 (ASTM 2012) fire, using both experimental and numerical approaches.

Towards the goal of protecting acceleration-sensitive equipment, isolated floor systems were subjected to earthquake excitations as well as story level horizontal excitations from representative floors in buildings having been retrofitted using structural fuses.

A novel damage-resistant system that combines accelerated bridge construction (ABC) with seismic resilience and is suitable for applications in seismic areas.