10:00 a.m. Pacific Time

Topic: “Seismic Performance of ABC (accelerated bridge construction) Bridge Systems”

Deployment of accelerated bridge construction (ABC) in high seismic zones has faced resistance due to uncertainties on seismic performance of connections between prefabricated bridge elements.  Research on development and evaluation of earthquake-resistant connections appropriate for ABC began to a limited extent over 15 years ago and intensified over the past decade.  By necessity, studies were mostly focused on component connections (known as ABC connections) such as column-footing, column cap beam, and superstructure cap beam linkage.  While the results of these studies identified appropriate details and led to preliminary design guidelines, questions still remained on the holistic seismic performance of bridges incorporating ABC connections.  Several bridge system studies in recent years have provided answers and have led to increased confidence in ABC in high seismic zones.  The presentation discusses a number of the more promising connections and how they were integrated into three, large-scale two-span bridges tested on shake tables of the University of Nevada, Reno.  The results also shed light on the relative performance of different types of ABC connections for concrete girder and steel girder bridges with a variety of column connections.

About the speaker:

Dr. Saiidi is an emeritus professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Director of Center for Advanced Technology in Bridges and Infrastructure at the University of Nevada, Reno.  He is also a distinguished research faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and a principal at Infrastructure Innovation, LLC, Reno, Nevada.  He has published over 500 papers and reports and given over 400 presentations, many as a keynote speaker in over 30 countries.  Professor Saiidi’s research has been funded by the US National Science Foundation, Federal Highway Administration, US Department of Transportation, the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, the California, Nevada, and Washington Departments of Transportation, and industries.  Professor Saiidi’s primary research focus has been on experimental and analytical studies of seismic response of reinforced concrete bridges, seismic retrofit, resiliency with novel materials, seismic response and design of precast bridges, and probabilistic design for seismic damage control.  He has received many awards for his research including the Outstanding Researcher Award, Established Innovator Award, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Distinguished Alumni Award among others.  He is a registered engineer in California and Nevada, and a member of the Mexican National Academy of Engineering.