CEE Seminar: Optimal Design of Seismic Protection for Highway Bridges Based on Probabilistic Repair Cost Ratio

Abstract: Seismic protective devices, such as isolation and energy dissipation devices, have demonstrated great promise for seismic hazard mitigation of highway bridges. Their application requires an effective design procedure that is able to consider uncertainties in ground motions, nonlinearities in structures and protective devices, a wide range of mechanical parameters for isolation devices and system level responses. This presentation will summarize the research developments to facilitate the performance-based design and optimization of seismic protective devices. Through fragility functions and the system-level probabilistic repair cost ratio, a performance-based framework is developed to achieve the optimal design of protective devices for bridges. 

Bio: Jian Zhang received her doctorate in civil engineering from UC Berkeley. Before joining UCLA in July 2005, she worked as an assistant professor at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign from 2003-2005. Her research interests are earthquake engineering, structural dynamics and mechanics, with an emphasis on the modeling, analysis and protection of structural systems under extreme loads.