Innovative Floor Anchorage System for Low-Damage Seismic-Resistant Building Structures

Synopsis

The economic costs and loss of function associated with recent seismic events has brought about a recognition for the need for low-damage structural systems. This seminar describes the development of a novel low-damage seismic system developed through research in the U.S. The multi-university National Science Foundation (NSF) Natural Hazards Engineering Research (NHERI) Project was led by the University of Arizona, and involved large-scale experiments at the University of California-San Diego (UCSD) shake table and the ATLSS Laboratory at Lehigh University. The project successfully developed a novel low-damage seismic system (and reduced-response wind system) for buildings, termed the Inertial Force-Limiting Anchorage System (IFAS). 
In an IFAS structure, the floors are attached to the walls using deformable connections, thereby transforming a portion of the lateral forces into relative floor motion that can be used to dissipate the earthquake energy. The IFAS system has the potential to lower structural damage due to interstory drift, non-structural damage due to accelerations, and prevent non-ductile or diaphragm failures due to higher mode effects. Further, the system provides design control that limits the dispersion of response across disparate earthquake motions. The deformable connection can be Buckling Restrained Braces (BRBs) or Friction Dampers (FDs). The system employs an assemblage of rubber bearings and polyurethane bumpers to provide stability, impact protection and a measure of self-centering to the wall elements. 

About the speaker

Dr Robert B. Fleischman is a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering & Mechanics at the University of Arizona (UA). He formerly held the Delbert R. Lewis Associate Professorship at UA. Dr. Fleischman received his B.S. from Carnegie-Mellon University and his M.S. and Ph.D. from Lehigh University. Dr. Fleischman has industry experience at Turner Construction (New York, NY), Thornton-Tomasetti/C-B-M (Chicago, IL) and Rutherford & Chekene (San Francisco, CA), and is a member of several national committees. 
Dr. Fleischman’s research area is seismic resistant design of precast/prestressed concrete and steel structures with recent focus on the development of new low-damage seismic-resistant building systems and floor diaphragms and collectors. He has served as Principal Investigator (PI) on over $5M of external funded research, and has 100+ journal publications/conference papers. His research has integrated computational simulation with physical experiments, including over 30 large-scale structural tests and three large-scale shake table tests. The findings of one project, the development of a new design methodology for precast concrete floor diaphragms, has been included in the ASCE 7-16 Load Standards and Part 3 of the 2015 National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) Recommended Provisions for Seismic Design for New Buildings. 
Dr. Fleischman has won several national awards for his research on precast floor systems including the 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Charles Pankow Award for Innovation, the National Science Foundation (NSF) 2014 NEES Outstanding Contributor Award, and the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) 2014 Leslie D. Martin Award of Merit, the 2009 and 2004 Martin P. Korn Awards, the 2006 Charles C. Zollman Award, and 2004 George D. Nasser Award. Dr. Fleischman has led earthquake reconnaissance teams to Haiti and New Zealand, and was named a 2018-19 U.S. Fulbright Global Scholar. Dr. Fleischman has also won departmental teaching awards at the University of Arizona eight times in the past two decades.

In person attendance

The event will held in-person at the Institution of Civil Engineers (see map below). Prior registration is not required. Seats are allocated on a first come, first served basis. We encourage everyone to attend in person if they can. 

Join online

Details will be provided in due course.

Further information

This event is organised by SECED, and chaired by Fabio Freddi (UCL). The event is open to all and is free to attend.