Our Projects

A real-time hybrid fire simulation algorithm is developed and tested to capture the expected behaviour of a steel column within a structural frame, considering the slow thermal expansion of the stiff steel column at early stages of fire, followed by a dynamic failure when it buckles.

Recent studies have shown that the seismic load case can substantially increase the overnight capital cost (OCC) of safety-class equipment in advanced nuclear power plants.

Furnace tests were conducted on large-scale loaded and restrained reinforced concrete tunnel slabs to evaluate the level of fire damage.

This experimental program focuses at development, implementation, and validation of a novel control design strategy, based on impedance matching, for executing real-time hybrid simulations

An experimental program using a 6 degree-of-freedom earthquake simulator at the University at Buffalo was executed to generate data for supporting validation of numerical models for seismic fluid-structure interaction analyses of conventionally supported and base-isolated advanced reactor vessels.

Seismic design, qualification, and risk assessment of liquid-filled advanced nuclear reactors will rely on verified and validated numerical models for seismic fluid-structure interaction (FSI) analysis.

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.