Ahmed Elgamal - US grants

As part of the department's effort to build an integrated undergraduate earth science education program, this project is developing an environmental engineering geophysics field program. This field program provides students in four different departments at this institution and students at Biosphere 2, in Arizona, with multidisciplinary, inquiry-oriented, field-based geophysical experiences. These experiences address local and regional environmental, engineering, and geological problems. This program and the curricular materials developed in it are being made available to other earth science departments as a model. The university is purchasing two conductivity meters (for shallow and medium depth applications), a magnetometer/gradiometer, a seismic reflection/refraction system, and two generic Windows/Linux field laptops with basic visualization software for in-field data analysis and preliminary processing. This equipment completes the instrumentation pool for the geophysics field classes. *

This award provides funding to the University of California-San Diego under the direction of Dr. Ahmed-W.M Elgamal, for the support of a Combined Research-Curriculum Development project entitled, "Interactive Web-Based Experimental and Computational Learning Environments for Earthquake Engineering Research and Education." This project will integrate state-of-the-art earthquake engineering experimental and computational research into the undergraduate and graduate educational process. The proposed developments will employ Internet web-based technologies to allow for real-time video monitoring, control, and execution of appropriate cutting-edge experimental research efforts in earthquake engineering. Such setups include large shake-table earthquake experiments, centrifuge geomechanics tests, and dynamic tests of actual large buildings. Course modules will be developed to incorporate these unique experiments and associated computational-simulation codes at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Appropriate quantitative instructional measures will be employed to dictate the direction and achieve the most effective educational goals. A multi-disciplinary approach will involve researchers from Earthquake Engineering, and appropriate Internet Networking and Instructional Technology experts. UCSD and Caltech conduct major earthquake experimentaion efforts, and constitutes an optimal environment for development of the proposed education and research objectives. Signicant collaboration opportunities will be facilitated through interaction between earthquake engineering and ongoing Internet-based research at the UCSD San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC). On the national scene, dissemination will be facilitated through the the three US national earthquake centers (PEER, MAE, and MCEER).

This award partially supports the acquisition of a basic instrumentation package and other essential equipment for the University of California San Diego (UCSD) geotechnical centrifuge. In order to accommodate the research and educational capabilities of this centrifuge, the Geomechanics Laboratory at UCSD is being renovated. Upon completion of the proposed work, the centrifuge will be capable of conducting instrumented experiments for both educational and research purposes. Educational applications will receive major attention with intended far-reaching accessibility via the Internet. Undergraduate and graduate UCSD students are already participating in this development phase (http://webshaker.ucsd.edu ). Near-term research objectives include use of an electric-motor actuator system to conduct above-ground cyclic loading tests on shallow and deep foundations. This system will be the backbone of seismic performance-based design research in the broad area of soil-structure interaction. Additional long-term plans include the development of robotics capabilities in order to broaden the variety of educational and research applications. Such robotics applications include in-flight simulation of Cast-In-Drilled-Hole (CIDH) pile construction, as well as other ground/foundation modification/retrofitting techniques

This effort is a collaboration between researchers at University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and Stanford University. The objective is to explore and utilize advanced computational and information technologies to further develop a state-of-the-art nonlinear finite element program (CYCLIC) for earthquake ground response and liquefaction simulation. Calibrated codes for modeling and simulation of earthquake geotechnical phenomena will be combined with advanced computational methodologies to facilitate the simulation of large-scale systems and broaden the scope of practical applications. The proposed work involves three main research elements:

1. Further development of the computational program CYCLIC: This development will introduce parameter sensitivity and optimization options. The capacity of the computational program will be extended from two-dimensional (2D) to 3D simulation. In addition, a transmitting boundary feature will be included.

2. Parallel and distributed computing capability: CYCLIC will be significantly enhanced by incorporating state-of-the-art software paradigm and solver technologies that are designed for parallel and distributed computing environments. Specifically, a multitask Single-Program-Multiple-Data (SPMD) program paradigm will be employed and implemented. Furthermore, parallel sparse matrix solvers will be developed and incorporated into the computational engine to improve performance and extend the simulation capabilities.

3. Internet-based interactive web environment: In addition to the current 1D remote execution and visualization capability (http://casagrande.ucsd.edu), extensions to 2D and 3D will be facilitated through parallel computing. Novel useful features will include an extensive library of on-line input earthquake records, and a soil material library with pre-defined calibrated models for sand, silt, and clay soils. User friendliness will be addressed throughout the development process. Advanced Internet-enabled and web browsing technologies will be deployed to allow remote users to view the results in an interactive and dynamic manner. The experience gained in the development of the Internet-enabled simulation environment will be shared with other researchers and may help make many other useful computational programs widely accessible over the Internet for future applications.

Abstract
CMS 0117935
Seible

This award provides funding to the University of California, San Diego to conduct a national earthquake engineering research equipment workshop for the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES). NEES is a project funded under the National Science Foundation (NSF) Major Research Equipment program and has been authorized by Congress for $81.9 million during FY 2000-FY 2004. In February 2001, NSF announced the NEES Earthquake Engineering Research Equipment Portfolio, Phase 1, consisting of eleven awards to ten institutions for $45 million. These eleven awards include new and upgraded shake tables, upgraded centrifuges, an upgraded wave basin for tsunami research, large-scale laboratory experimentation systems, and geotechnical and structural earthquake engineering field equipment. These equipment sites will be part of the NEES collaboratory and serve as national, shared-use earthquake engineering experimental research equipment installations, with teleobservation and teleoperation capabilities, networked together through the high performance Internet. In addition to providing access for telepresence at the NEES equipment sites, the network will use cutting-edge tools to link high performance computational and data storage facilities, including a curated repository for experimental and analytical earthquake engineering and related data. The network will also provide distributed physical and numerical simulation capabilities and resources for visualization of experimental and computed data. Through NEES, the earthquake engineering community will use these advanced experimental capabilities to test and validate more complex and comprehensive analytical and computer numerical models that will improve the seismic design and performance of our Nation's civil and mechanical systems. NSF intends to issue a Phase 2 program solicitation during 2001 to complete the NEES Equipment Portfolio. The purpose of this workshop is to bring the earthquake engineering community together to (a) summarize the NEES Equipment Portfolio, Phase 1, (b) assess other existing earthquake engineering facilities/equipment available in the United States, (c) identify possible missing components of the NEES Equipment Portfolio, Phase 1, and (d) recommend strategies to complete the NEES Equipment Portfolio during Phase 2. The earthquake engineering community can participate in this workshop via input on the web prior to the workshop and/or through attendance at the workshop. A report summarizing the recommendations from this workshop will be posted on the web for broad dissemination.

Novel health monitoring strategies for Highway Bridges and Constructed Facilities are of
primary significance to the vitality of our economy. Using latest enabling technologies, the objectives of health monitoring are to detect and assess the level of damage to the civil infrastructure due to severe loading events (caused by natural loads or man-made events) and/or progressive environmental deterioration. Damage identification is performed based on changes in salient response features of the structure, as measured by deployed sensor arrays. Due to the challenging nature of the technical problems associated with this topic, substantial research efforts during the past thirty years were undertaken by many researchers in many areas related to this broad interdisciplinary topic. The proposed research will build on these developments, and address a number of fundamental and basic research challenges towards a next-generation, versatile, efficient, and practical health monitoring strategy. In such a strategy, data from thousands of sensors will be analyzed with long-term and real-time assessment decisionmaking implications. A flexible and scalable software architecture/framework will be developed to integrate real-time heterogeneous sensor data, database and archiving systems, computer vision, data analysis and interpretation, numerical simulation of complex structural systems, visualization, probabilistic risk analysis, and rational statistical decision making procedures. This development will be undertaken in a concerted and focused comprehensive approach by an inter-disciplinary team of Computer Scientists (CS) and Structural Engineers (SE). It is believed that this inter-disciplinary
approach will synergize the resolution of basic technical challenges and allow development of the
framework for future applications in this field. The new framework will also speed up the discovery of new knowledge related to the progressive or sudden deterioration of civil infrastructure systems and the corresponding damage mechanisms. The planned research activities will not only culminate in the deployment of a robust, field-implementable monitoring system, but it will also advance the research frontiers in several active, cutting-edge research areas involving grid storage (curated databases, filesystems, database systems), knowledge-based data integration and advanced query processing, information extraction (data mining, modeling, analysis and visualization), knowledge extraction (reliability/risk analysis, structural health assessment, physics-based model development), and decision support systems (e.g., emergency response, preventive maintenance, rehabilitation).

The entire project will be developed around actual Bridge Testbeds in cooperation with the
California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), and Industry Partners. These Testbeds will be
densely instrumented and continuously monitored, and the recorded response databases will be made available for maximum possible use by interested researchers and engineers worldwide. The actual recorded data streams from both laboratory models and bridge testbeds will be a major component for all phases of this research effort. An Internet Portal will integrate all elements and act as a Gateway for the Project.

The proposed 5 year project duration will allow the opportunity for resolving key basic research issues of relevance to Structural Health Monitoring, and collaboration between CS and SE
is simply a necessity. State-of-the-art data acquisition, transmission, and management, involvement of computer vision, refinement of nonlinear system identification and modeling, and practical
implementation constitute the basic research framework. Applications include long-term condition
assessment and emergency response after natural or man-made disasters and acts of terrorism for all
types of large constructed facilities. From a broader perspective, the proposed effort will be a major boost in defining and shaping additional long-term interaction and collaboration opportunities between CS and SE, with wide national and international implications, as well as strongly benefiting from leveraging resources and ongoing monitoring activities.

This research effort aims to study experimentally the effect of earthquake-induced lateral spreading due to liquefaction on pile foundations, both in full size and centrifuge model conditions. Comparable tests of instrumented single piles and pile groups embedded in 1-and 2-layer soil profiles will be conducted in slightly inclined laminar boxes subjected to base shaking at three facilities: 1) The 100g-ton geotechnical centrifuge, laminar box and in-flight shaker at RPI, 2) The 6m high laminar box and 1g shaking table at NIED, Japan (largest laminar box in the world), and 3) the 1.9m high laminar box and 1g shaking table at UCSD (largest laminar box in the US). Taking advantage of the successful experience at RPI in this kind of testing, this research constitutes the first opportunity for direct comparison of results in controlled experimental environments between centrifuge and full sized tests to be conducted at NIED. Additionally, centrifuge and full size NIED results will be used to validate the medium-size experiments to be performed using the UCSD shaking table and laminar box. Advanced data analysis techniques-including system identification and visualizations-will be used to process and compare the results from the three facilities, with engineering interpretations and computer simulations.

Intellectual Merit: The primary technical objective of the proposed study is to conduct a comprehensive investigation of the seismic performance of a series of models of four-span large-scale bridge systems including the soil-structure interaction effects at the footings and the abutments. A strong interdisciplinary team of researchers is formed to lead the effort in the study of the shake table response of bridge models, soil-structure interaction, numerical simulation, innovative materials, and wireless sensors with an overarching effort in education and outreach and utilization of information technology. Two leading international collaborators and representatives from the design profession will be also involved. Through the use of NEESgrid system and its tools, the team members and their students will closely collaborate in his multi-faceted study. Extensive numerical and physical simulation studies are envisioned, with the former using program OpenSees and the latter using the NEES shake table facilities at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the University of Nevada, Reno(UNR). A large-scale abutment will be tested at UCSD and four, large-scale, 4-span bridge models will be tested at UNR. The UCSD studies will provide data that will be used in simulating the abutment input motion in the UNR tests. Two of the bridge models will incorporate conventional design, the third will be supported on fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite piers, and the fourth will incorporate innovative column plastic hinges with minimum permanent damage. The major gap that the proposed study will address is experimental data and calibrated analytical studies of the earthquake performance of bridge systems. Unlike past studies that have generally been on components, the proposed research will include system response in addition to component behavior. Modern wireless sensors will be further developed as a part of this project and used in the shake table studies. The results of the study are expected to facilitate the evaluation of existing and emerging bridge seismic codes, provide information for performance-based seismic design, help understand the system response, determine the effectiveness of FRP piers, evaluate potential of wireless sensors in large-scale testing, and demonstrate the feasibility of innovative serviceable bridge columns after strong earthquakes. New data and metadata models are envisioned to facilitate incorporation of the new information obtained in the project in the data repository planned by the NEES Consortium.

Broader Impact: The broader impact of the proposed project will consist of its strong educational thrust and it overall societal impact. Through the new knowledge generated as a results of this project in multiple forms, the study will (1) directly train post-doctoral fellows, graduate students, and undergraduate students at several universities using the latest state-of-the-art technology in earthquake engineering research and information technology,(2) educate K-12 students, teachers, and the public about bridge earthquake engineering, (3) integrate teaching and research at introductory and advanced college courses, (4) develop teaching modules for high schools, (5) develop an interactive website, (6) improve basic understanding of the societal role of earthquake engineers, and (7) motivate K-12 students to increase the likelihood of all talented students, women, minorities, and others to seriously consider earthquake engineering as a profession. The overall societal impact of the proposed project will be (a)training of skilled earthquake engineers with state-of-the-art NEES equipment to improve the human resource pool, (b) improving public understanding and perception of the critical role of earthquake engineering in the society, (c)generating verified information based on research conducted by a strong team of multidisciplinary researchers from several US and two overseas universities,(d) providing impetus for reliable implementation of performance-based design of new and retrofit of existing bridges in design codes to ensure safe bridges and to reduce economic loss in future strong earthquakes, (e)increasing the awareness of the earthquake engineers about innovative materials and their potential to keep bridges operational even after strong earthquakes, (f)improving global understanding by interaction and international exchange opportunities provided by this project with international collaborators, and (g)providing opportunities for several potential payload projects that could further enhance the growth of a number of high caliber faculty, several of whom are recipients of past NSF Career or other awards.

This award is an outcome of the NSF 07-559 program solicitation, "accelerating Discovery in Science and Engineering through Petascale Simulations and Analysis" competition. The lead institution is Carnegie Mellon University, with subawards to the Universities of California at Berkeley, Davis, and San Diego. This award will develop methodologies, capability, and software for high-fidelity, physics-based petascale simulations of an entire high seismicity urban region, the Greater Los Angeles Basin (GLAB), to assess the engineering impacts of large magnitude earthquakes on buildings, transportation system components, and the underground civil infrastructure. Earthquakes are one of the most severe natural hazards facing the United States. Simulating their effects on the built environment is a unique science driver for petascale high-performance computing (HPC) systems because of the multiple length scales with different physics, large data volumes, and need for highly scalable parallel visualization and data querying. Current three-dimensional earthquake simulations have been limited to linear soil behavior and isolated, individual structures. Advancing beyond current approaches, this project will develop simulation capability that includes the interaction between the soil, foundations, and large inventories of structures; the interaction between structures in densely built areas; and the effect of the structures on the free-field motion; as well as the nonlinear soil behavior and the effect of the pore water pressure in saturated soils leading to liquefaction. Current HPC capability is inadequate for these complex simulations. This project will use emerging petascale systems to perform and integrate (1) ground motion simulation of large sedimentary basins, (2) simulation of the nonlinear behavior of soil, (3) simulation of large inventories of buildings, bridges, and other infrastructure systems, (4) computational databases, and (5) scalable visualization techniques. The project will make new advances in a hierarchical, multi-scale methodology for petascale simulation. Going from a large regional, broadband earthquake simulation to multiple subregions will allow detailed modeling in a highly scalable manner to capture site response and structural response accurately for entire inventories. The Domain Reduction Method will be applied for the first time using ground motion from a regional simulation as input for multiple highly populated subregions. These subregions include models of highly nonlinear soil and detailed models of hundreds of buildings and bridges along with embedded foundations. A new scalable implicit-explicit time integration method will be developed to provide optimal computational performance for the complex earthquake simulations for a subregion. Data analysis and visualization capability will be developed to run on the same parallel processors as the simulation, drastically reducing the need to move data. Using this approach for data-intensive supercomputing, in-situ visualization and a new computational database system will allow unprecedented ability to understand earthquake impacts. The new capability will present information that facilitates understanding and decision-making by drilling down to the detail of interest while maintaining the global context. The GLAB was selected because of the high seismic risk, important public policy need, and the wealth of information that it provides for verification and validation. The annual milestones for the GLAB test bed are calibrated to take early advantage of HPC resources, with scaling of the simulations to take place as petascale systems are brought online. The methodology, applications, and the results of the simulations will be useful for disaster planning and management, since it is the detailed knowledge of how an urban system performs in a large earthquake that is needed for improving disaster preparedness and mitigation. Graduate students working on the project will have the opportunity to create new knowledge through multidisciplinary research in civil engineering, computational engineering, and computer science.

This award is an outcome of the NSF 08-519 program solicitation George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) Research (NEESR) competition and includes the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) (lead institution) and Harvey Mudd College (sub-award). This project will utilize the NEES equipment sites at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). The research outcomes will allow engineers to appropriately and economically account for seismic loading on wind turbines. This will further facilitate expansion of a main source of Green renewable energy, and ensure minimal disruption to the critical resource that wind power provides. The project will be conducted in collaboration with industry representatives in order to further focus the research effort on the most significant practical needs today. Related educational outreach activities will allow undergraduate students to participate in the utilization of the involved NEES world class testing facilities. In addition, the project team will develop related internet dissemination applications for K-12 and undergraduate students. In the United States, the 2006 investment in wind turbines was on the order of $4 billion. This growth shows no sign of slowing with the Department of Energy (DOE) goal of expanding the number of wind turbines fivefold by 2015. A significant portion of this growth is in earthquake prone states. For instance, more than a quarter of the new capacity installed in 2005 and 2006 was in the seismically vulnerable States of California and Washington. New wind turbines are also becoming increasingly taller and heavier, standing vertically in excess of 200 feet (taller than a twenty-story building), and thus increasing the significance of potential earthquake loads. If seismically vulnerable, numerous turbines of a given vintage in a large wind farm may be damaged, leading to substantial economic consequences. In order to address this challenge, the proposed research will utilize NEES facilities to provide the needed experimental data and insights for developing validated rational analysis and design procedures. The NEES equipment operated by UCLA will be used to conduct a comprehensive field investigation to quantify the dynamics of actual operating wind turbines. Experiments using the outdoor UCSD NEES shake table will provide insight into the potential damage modes of wind turbines when subjected to earthquake shaking. Findings from these tests will be used to construct and validate computational models that will further extend the testing results. These models will be used to develop a framework for seismic analysis and design of wind turbines. Intellectual merit in this effort stems from providing the first experimentally validated seismic design procedure for wind turbines worldwide. Data from this project will be made available through the NEES data repository (http://www.nees.org).

This award is an outcome of the NSF 09-524 program solicitation "George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) Research (NEESR)" competition and includes the University of California-San Diego and New Mexico Tech (subaward). This project will utilize the NEES equipment site at the University of California-San Diego. The dynamic response and performance of earth retaining structures has traditionally been measured by testing small physical models, which have yielded valuable information but represent a compromise with respect to field structures. What is needed for a better understanding of the earthquake performance of soil retaining walls is full-scale testing. The objective of the project is to perform a unique experimental investigation of the earthquake performance of full-scale (10 m) reinforced soil retaining walls constructed using realistic materials and methods. Considering that these walls will be several times taller than for any previous research, a key focus of the proposed work will be the influence of wall height on overall system response and distribution of dynamic forces in soil reinforcement. Other focus areas will be dynamic earth pressure on the back of the wall, effects of dynamic loading on load transfer mechanisms between soil and reinforcing elements, and permanent wall deformations after dynamic loading.
The proposed tests will be conducted using the NEES@ UCSD large high performance outdoor shake table (LHPOST). One or more full-scale (10 m) retaining walls will be tested on the LHPOST. These walls will be constructed using realistic soil types, compaction methods, reinforcement, and facing elements. In order to conduct these full-scale tests, a unique large soil confinement box will be designed and constructed. The box will measure 6 m × 12 m × 10 m high and will closely approximate plane-strain test conditions. The rear boundary condition for the box can take three configurations: rigid back boundary, energy absorbing back boundary and a unique stress-controlled/free-displacement back boundary. In addition to retaining walls, the soil confinement box will have many additional future applications including soil levees, unreinforced and reinforced soil slopes, landfill cover systems, and bridge abutments.
The intellectual merit of this project has the potential to transform the way in which reinforced soil retaining walls are designed in earthquake engineering practice. Lessons learned from this testing are expected to lead to more rational seismic design procedures, which in turn are expected to reduce the seismic risk for this important component of our national and global civil infrastructure.
It is expected that, once constructed, the proposed soil confinement box will provide extensive broader impacts to the geotechnical earthquake engineering research and professional communities. At UCSD, this facility will lead to exciting educational experiences for graduate student researchers, undergraduate student research assistants, and students enrolled in UCSD courses, and provide for exciting outreach opportunities to showcase current advanced engineering research to the greater Southern California area. Data from this project will be archived and made available to the public through the NEES data repository. This award is part of the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP).

0967023
Zhu

Floating wind turbines are novel renewable energy devices designed to operate in deep waters (>60 m), where most of the offshore wind energy resource is found. These floating turbines are structurally different from other existing offshore systems, and their structural stability in offshore conditions has not been extensively tested.


Intellectual Merit

This interdisciplinary research effort will make use of an experimental facility for earthquake engineering and state-of-the-art computational methods to study the dynamic structural responses of floating wind turbines in ocean waves. Two models, a frequency-domain model and a nonlinear time-domain model, will be developed to study the fluid-structure interaction problem. For simulations of wave-body interaction, the first model uses a linear boundary element model, while the second model applies a fully-nonlinear mixed-Eularian-Lagragian method. Both models include a comprehensive, fully-nonlinear dynamic model of the mooring system and a FEM model of the structural responses. The two-model approach enables the study of both long-term responses of the system (e.g. for fatigue studies) and transient response due to large waves (e.g. rogue waves). The research plan will focus on three areas: long-term structural response in wave fields, wave-structure resonances, and responses to large waves. For the model verification studies, full-scale shake table experiments will be carried out on a 65 kW system, and the recorded structural responses will be compared with model predictions. The models will then be used to predict the performance of a scaled-up 5 MW system.

This research is potentially transformative because it will provide new tools to evaluate the feasibility of current designs for floating wind turbines. This research could also be used to guide the development of future deep-water offshore wind farms.


Broader Impacts

A unique aspect of this work is that it uses earthquake engineering tools, specifically the Large High-Performance Outdoor Shake Table at University of California - San Diego, to study offshore wind energy structures.

In addition to training of undergraduate and graduate students directly involved in the research effort, learning materials based on their research will be incorporated into existing undergraduate and graduate structural and fluids mechanics courses. Other activities include using the Large High-Performance Outdoor Shake Table at University of California at San Diego as a demonstration to reach out to K-12 students from under-represented groups on topics related to renewable energy. Websites for this facility will be updated to include the floating wind turbine.

Sustainability is increasingly becoming a major concern in construction and development of the built infrastructure. Systematic inclusion of environmental impacts and life-cycle costs as metrics in performance-based engineering frameworks is a primary objective of this research. In order to develop the quantitative integrated elements of such a framework, attention is placed on ground improvement (stabilization) in seismic regions, as a representative geotechnical engineering area of major economic and environmental consequences. Researchers with complementary expertise from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the University of Central Florida (UCF) are collaborating on this effort. The study will develop and implement for use an extended performance-based framework for ground improvement that incorporates economic impacts and carbon footprint metrics; advance the computational modeling capabilities related to the seismic performance of improved ground through calibration and verification using data from case histories and model testing; and report the probabilistic sustainability results in terms of risk/expense and carbon equivalent outcomes, suitable for decision-making considerations. In conducting this research, available data on the studied ground improvement techniques will be coalesced and analyzed. An existing soil constitutive model will be extended to more accurately capture post-liquefaction reconsolidation settlement behavior, based on a better understanding of the volumetric strain distribution and settlement patterns of the improved ground (including the influence of foundation loading on post-liquefaction settlement). The open source platform OpenSees will be employed for conducting the underlying Finite Element (FE) computations. A rigorous probabilistic performance-based engineering framework that integrally includes sustainability considerations will be developed and numerically implemented for ground improvement analysis and design. Building information modeling (BIM) techniques will be used to integrate geotechnical data, carbon-footprint, and spatial settlement scenarios with post-earthquake repair and sustainability metrics. Direct input from practitioners will guide all phases, with the overall goal of advancing the state-of-the-art and state-of-practice in ground improvement analysis and design. On this basis, different ground improvement options will be evaluated, towards the decision-support process. Finally, analysis and design tools based on this extended PBEE sustainability framework will be developed for efficient practical implementation.

In parallel with the research tasks, a primary effort is made to maximize the impacts on education, outreach, and industry interaction. A small industry advisory board will provide guidance on the research program, and create field and office summer undergraduate student internship opportunities. Instructional seminars will be offered to practicing engineers on the background and use of the tools to be developed in this study.

This project supports a cooperative research project by Dr Ahmed Elgamal, University of California-San Diego in collaboration with Dr. Khaled El-Zahaby, Chairman, Housing and Building national Research Center (HBRC) in Cairo, Egypt. They will performe a Seismic Risk Assessment of Wind Turbine Towers in the Zafarana Wind Farm in Egypt. The Zafarana wind farm in 2012 was generating a capacity of 517MW, making it one of the largest onshore wind farms in the world. It is located in an active seismic zone along the west side of the Gulf of Suez. An extension of the wind farm southward is under consideration for construction in the near future. Seismic risk assessment is needed to assess the structural integrity of wind towers under expected seismic hazard events in this location, and this risk assessment procedure is likely to be valuable whenever wind turbines are located in a potentially active seismic region. The project objective is to pursue interdisciplinary studies to define seismic risk and seismic loads via a range of seismic analyses that are coupled with measured structural values in the field. The ultimate goal is to define and improve seismic design of wind turbine structures.

Wind turbines are unique structures. They are tall, slender and flexible and susceptible to dynamic loads. In addition, they are operating/moving structures as compared to buildings or bridges which are stationary. As alternative energy sources such as wind become more important globally, we will continue to have more wind turbine structures; therefore, pursuing research for these structures is important and broadly relevant. This international project combines a team of scientists, engineers, students and researchers from two countries. The diverse expertise of the two teams is a strength of the research effort and the cultural exchange between them is an important broader impact of this project. The research will be integrated into several facets of the structural and geotechnical engineering programs at the participating institutes. Results of this study will be of relevance to similar projects in the Middle East, as well as in other seismically active regions worldwide. Graduate and undergraduate students from the US and from Egypt will participate in the research, which ranges from numerical modeling of structure and soil structure interaction of wind turbine towers to the practical aspects of conducting a field investigation and instrumentation, thus providing a well-rounded education for the participants. In this regard, students from STEM under-represented communities will be actively recruited. Additionally, the international/intercultural collaborative aspects of the proposed research will provide a unique experience for those involved.

The proposed seismological studies, geo technical studies for loads, dynamic field measurements, and structural seismic analyses of existing wind towers will greatly enhance the associated design recommendations and provide strong intellectual merit for this project. The actual estimated site loads can be applied to the new towers that will be located in the same zone. The new wind turbine ambient vibration datasets to be acquired at Zafarana will constitute a basis for calibration of analysis tools for studies elsewhere. This data will be professionally archived and made available for use by interested researchers and practitioners worldwide. Valuable recommendations will be deduced for provisions in design codes based on realistic data and detailed structural assessments of the wind turbines.

This project is funded through the US-Egypt Joint Science and Technology Fund Program. Support for the U.S. side of these cooperative projects is provided to the National Science Foundation by the U.S. Department of State. The Egyptian Government provides support for the Egyptian side of the collaboration.