2014-2015 ANNUAL REPORT
North Carolina State University Student Chapter
of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
Report Date: June 26, 2015
This report summarizes the membership and activities conducted by the North Carolina State University Student
Chapter of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute during the 2014-2015 academic year.
MISSION & GOALS
The objective of EERI-NCSU student chapter is to promote the study and practice of earthquake engineering in
the university and the community, to strive to solve national earthquake engineering problems in order to
protect people and property from the effects of earthquakes, to further the professional development of the
students, and to improve inter-disciplinary communication.
MEMBERSHIP
The North Carolina State University Student Chapter had a total of 10 members in 2014-2015.
OFFICERS
The Board consisted of the following members:
Role
Name
EERI Member Number
Email
Student Status
President
Diego Aguirre
15214
daaguirr@ncsu.edu
Graduate student
Vice-President
Emrah Tasdemir
17443
etasdem@ncsu.edu
Graduate student
Treasurer
David Overby
dtoverby@ncsu.edu
Graduate student
Secretary
Ana Gabriela Haro
17442
agharo@ncsu.edu
Graduate student
Secretary
Cuiyan Kong
17550
ckong2@ncsu.edu
Graduate student
Secreatry
Nihar Gogoi
ngogoi@ncsu.edu
Graduate student
* From left to right: Cuiyan Kong, Ana Haro, Diego Aguirre, Emrah Tasdemir, Dr. Mervyn Kowalsky, David Overby, Nihar Gogoi
2014-2015 Annual Report, June 26, 2015
North Carolina State University Student Chapter of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
page 1
FACULTY & INDUSTRYADVISORS
Advisor Type
Name
Affiliation
Email
Faculty
Dr. Mervyn Kowalsky
Professor at NCSU
kowalsky@ncsu.edu
Industry
Dr. Satraijt Das
Practitioner with WSP
sdas100@gmail.com
MEMBERS
A complete list of members is shown below.
Name
EERI Member Number
Email
Student Status
Vivek Samu
vsamu@ncsu.edu
Graduate student
Casey Shanahan
cdshanah@ncsu.edu
Graduate student
Saket Kabra
skabra@ncsu.edu
Graduate student
Long Vo
lhvo@ncsu.edu
Graduate student
Steven Thornton
swthornt@ncsu.edu
Undergraduate student
Carmelina Pappalardo
cgpappal@ncsu.edu
Undergraduate student
Jackson Pitofsky
jfpitofs@ncsu.edu
Undergraduate student
Arjun Jayaprakash
ajayapr@ncsu.edu
Graduate student
Rahul Nagwekar
rdnagwek@ncsu.edu
Graduate student
Heramb Mahajan
hpmahaja@ncsu.edu
Graduate student
Shinyoung Kwung
skwung@ncsu.edu
Graduate student
Harleen Sandhu
hksandhu@ncsu.edu
Graduate student
Mayank Tanwar
mtanwar@ncsu.edu
Graduate student
Sugandha Singh
sugand@ncsu.edu
Graduate student
Payel Chatterjee
pchatte@ncsu.edu
Graduate student
Suhrud Kulkarni
spkulkar@ncsu.edu
Graduate student
Shrikrishnan Madhavan
smadhav3@ncsu.edu
Graduate student
Abhinav Shankar
ashanka3@ncsu.edu
Graduate student
Chaitanya Shetti
ccshetti@ncsu.edu
Graduate student
Tiancong Lin
tliu10@ncsu.edu
Graduate student
Carlos Vega
cfvega@ncsu.edu
Undergraduate student
BUDGET & FINANCIALS
Sponsor Name/Organization
Description
Contact Person
Amount
NCSU – Department of Civil,
Construction, and Environmental
Engineering
Financial support for 5
graduate students to
attend the 2015 EERI
Annual Meeting
Renee Howard
$ 4,000
2014-2015 Annual Report, June 26, 2015
North Carolina State University Student Chapter of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
page 2
CHAPTER ACTIVITIES
REGULAR CHAPTER MEETINGS
Kick-off meeting (November 5, 2014)
This was an informational session for prospective members as the student chapter was not active during
the last 2 years. During the event the EERI-NCSU student chapter president gave an introduction to
earthquake engineering, discussed the objectives of the student chapter, presented the officers, talked
about all the activities the EERI has and also briefly introduced the activities planned for the semester.
Seminar: Wavelet-based damage detection methods (November 19, 2014)
NC State University Ph.d. student and EERI student chapter president Diego Aguirre presented his topic of
study during his Master of Science studies in the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. Students and
faculty members attended this session which focused on damage detection methods for reinforced
concrete structures.
Seminar: Performance limit states of circular RC bridge columns (January 28, 2015)
Dr. Chad Goodnight, who is a former NC State student, presented this seminar, in which based on the
results of an experimental program of 30 circular RC well-confined bridge columns, he talked about new
strain limits and showed recommended modifications to current design methods.
FRIEDM AN FAMILY VISITING PROFESSIONAL VISIT (April 24, 2015)
As part of the Friedman Family Visiting Professional program, the EERI NC State student chapter was selected to
host Dr. Nathan Gould who is the director and chief of technology for ABS Consulting Advanced Engineering
Division in St. Louis, MO. Dr. Gould is a practicing structural engineer with over 23 years of experience in the
design, construction and rehabilitation of major structures in all regions of the United States.
EERI-NCSU officers gave Dr. Gould a tour to the Constructed Facilities Laboratory (CFL). The objective of this tour
was to show the structural laboratory at NC State University as well as to show the different ongoing research
projects. In the figure below is Dr. Nathan Gould and MS student David Overby explaining his research on high
strength steel for seismic applications.
After the tour to the CFL, EERI officers took Dr. Gould to the different facilities in Centennial campus at NC State
University. Subsequently, officers had lunch with him after which Dr. Gould gave a presentation on
performance based seismic retrofitting. His visit ended with presentations from the officers about their
respective research projects.
2014-2015 Annual Report, June 26, 2015
North Carolina State University Student Chapter of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
page 3
ELECTION & ELECTION RESULTS
An election for officers for the 2015-2016 academic year was held in May 2015. The table below shows the new
officers appointed to the Chapter board who will take office on August 2015.
Role
Name
EERI
Member Number
Email
Student Status
President
Diego Aguirre
15214
daaguirr@ncsu.edu
Graduate student
Vice-President
Emrah Tasdemir
17443
etasdem@ncsu.edu
Graduate student
Treasurer
Christopher Price
cwprice@ncsu.edu
Graduate student
Secretary
Ana Gabriela Haro
17442
agharo@ncsu.edu
Graduate student
Secretary
Cuiyan Kong
17550
ckong2@ncsu.edu
Graduate student
Secretary
David Overby
dtoverby@ncsu.edu
Graduate student
LIST OF ATTACHMENTS
Included at the end of this report are the flyers from the events hosted during the 2014-2015 academic year.
2014-2015 Annual Report, June 26, 2015
North Carolina State University Student Chapter of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
page 4
The EERI is a national,
nonprofit, technical society for
students and professionals of:
Structural Engineering
When: Wed., Nov. 5th
Where: Mann Hall 321
Time: 12:30 PM
Geotechnical Engineering
Earth Science
Social Science
Architecture
Member Benefits:
 EERI competitions: seismic design, poster, paper
 Travel grants to EERI annual meetings
 Online access to Earthquake Spectra Journal
x(t)
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Time [sec]
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: Cyclic (fibers)
Time [sec]
: M.C. Monotonic
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-1
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2
1 2
0.8
0.6
Normalized force, F/Fy
Freq. [Hz]
Freq. [Hz]
Due to the scarce number of data available from
instrumented buildings damaged during an
earthquake, large scale shaking table tests of
civil structures offer an invaluable opportunity
to validate structural health monitoring (SHM)
systems and their applicability to structures
subjected to damaging earthquake loads. Signal
processing techniques, using experimental and
simulated data from detailed non-linear, fiberbased FE models, was employed to validate
wavelet-based model-free methodologies for
damage detection in reinforced concrete (RC)
structures.
When: Wed., Nov. 19th
Where: Mann Hall 321
Time: 12:30 PM
0.4
0.2
0
-0.2
-0.4
-0.6
-0.8
-1
-6
-4
-2
0
2
Displacement ductility, 
4
6
Bridge columns are designed as ductile
elements which form plastic hinges to dissipate
energy in a seismic event. To satisfy the aims of
performance based design, levels of damage
which interrupt the serviceability of the
structure or require more invasive repair
techniques must be related to engineering
criteria. An experimental program was devised
to assess the performance of thirty circular
well-confined bridge columns. A key feature of
the experiments is the high fidelity strain data
obtained using an optical 3D position
measurement system.
The goal of the experimental program was to
investigate the impact of load history and other
design variables on the relationship between
strain and displacement, performance strain
limits, and the spread of plasticity. As a result,
new
performance
strain
limits
and
modifications to the current plastic hinge
method are recommended for new design.
When: Wed., Jan 28th
Where: Mann Hall 304
Time: 12:20 PM
Ea
arthqua
ake Eng
gineerin
ng
Reesearch Institu
ute
Frieedman Fam
mily Visitin
ng Professio
onals Proggram
Seminar Announceement
Speaker
Nathan
N
C. Gould
d, D.Sc.,, P.E., S..E.
Chief of Tecchnology, Advanced
d Engineerring
ABS
A Con
nsulting
g
Friday, A
April 24, 2015
1:00P M – 2:00P
PM
Monteith E
Engineerinng Researcch Center ( MRC)
Au ditorium
Centennial
C
Campus – 2410 Cam
mpus Shor e Drive
A
Abstract
This presentaation will hig
ghlight the seismic
s
mitiggation progrram that waas undertakeen by Anheu
user‐Busch
Co
ompanies at their Los An
ngeles and St. Louis Breweries. Detaills of the seism
mic retrofit o
of key buildin
ngs will be
the
impleme
exxamined as well
w as the co
onsideration
ns that led to
entation of th
he overall seeismic prograam for the
Breweries.
The seismic retrofit
r
of th
he Anheuser‐Busch faciliities was com
mpleted prio
or to the ad
doption of th
he current
Performance Based
B
Design
n criteria forr seismic retrrofit which a re detailed in
n the new ASSCE Standard
d, “Seismic
Evvaluation and Retrofit off Existing Buildings” (ASCE 41‐13). Pootential changes in the seeismic retrofi
fit strategy
fo
or the Breweries if the current seismicc PBD criteriia were utilizzed will also be discussed
d.
B
Biography
y
Dr. Nathan Gould is the Chief
C
of Technology for the ABS Co nsulting Advvanced Engineering Diviision, also
seerves as the General Man
nager of the St.
S Louis officce of ABS Co nsulting. He is a practicin
ng structuraal engineer
w
with over 23 years of exp
perience in the design, construction
n and rehabiilitation of m
major structu
ures in all
reegions of the United Statees. Dr. Gould is active in the
t utilizatio n of perform
mance based sseismic desiggn criteria
an
nd methodollogy for the design
d
of new
w buildings, and
a the retroofit of existin
ng structures.
Dr. Gould is the author of numerouss technical papers
p
inclu
uding articlees on Performance Baseed Seismic
Design, Progressive Collap
pse of Structu
ures, Managiing Extreme Wind Lossess, and Terrorrism risk. Hee currently
seerves on sev
veral technical committeees and organ
nizations rel ated to seism
mic analysis and design, including
th
he NEHRP Ad
dvisory Com
mmittee on Earthquake Hazards
H
redu
uction. He haas been a meember of sevveral post‐
eaarthquake reeconnaissancce groups, in
ncluding teaams that inv estigated daamage follow
wing the 201
10 Haitian
an
nd 2011 Christchurch events. Dr. Gou
uld is a licenssed Professioonal and Stru
uctural Engin
neer in several states.