NEEShub

NEES Update: June 2011

Julio Ramirez, Director of NEES Operations, provides the NEES community with an informal update of NEES activities.

NEES Update

June 2011

NEES and MCEER Team UP for Quake Summit 2011 – Joint Annual Meeting, June 9-11, 2011 – Look forward to seeing you there!

On Friday, June 10, 4:00 – 5:00 PM, please plan to attend the session on Business Systems Protocols Training for Site Personnel and NEES Researchers. Important topics on scheduling of research projects at the sites and daily rates for use of the NEES facilities will be discussed.

Quake Summit 2011- Earthquake & Multi-Hazards Resilience starts Thursday June 8 with a student symposium, a seminar on ASCE 7-10, and an opening session presenting findings from the Christchurch, New Zealand and the Tohoku, Japan earthquakes. More information on the program is found at http://www.quakesummit.org/program/

Online registration will close at 8:00 a.m. Monday June 6, 2011. If you are interested in registering after this time, please send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Memorandum of Understanding - NEES and CSRN

The George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) and the Canadian Seismic Research Network (CSRN) signed an International Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to foster collaboration in research activities of mutual interest until 2014. CSRN (http://csrn.mcgill.ca/main.html) involves 26 researchers from 8 Universities across Canada and the research involved covers three major themes:

Hazard assessment - (with 5 projects)
Vulnerability Assessment - (with 6 projects)
Mitigation - (with 5 projects)

The MOU includes experimental research using CSRN and NEES facilities, organizing symposia and workshops, sharing research data, and sharing of cyberinfrastructure tools for remote collaboration, as well as other activities of mutual interest. The full text of the MoU can be found at... https://nees.org/resources/2906/download/MOUCanada.pdf

Performance-Based Seismic Design Methods and Tools for Reinforced Masonry Shear-Wall Structures

2011 NEES Highlights Brochure

Performance-Based Seismic Design Methods and Tools for Reinforced Masonry Shear-Wall Structures

Award NSF Number – Project is funded by NIST

Start Date: 01/01/2010

End Date: 12/31/2012

Award PI/PI Affiliation: Benson Shing, University of California, San Diego

Award co-PI/co-PI Affiliation: Richard, Klingner, University of Texas, Austin

David McLean, Washington State University

NEES Sites at which research occurred: UCSD

The project highlights brochure is posted at http://nees.org/about/neescommunications/neesprojecthighlights and will be distributed at the Quake Summit 2011with your registration package. We’re quite proud of this edition and appreciate all the hard work that you have done at all the equipment sites and the NEEShub.

NEEShub Project Warehouse Data Update

The Project Warehouse on the NEEShub is the centralized data repository for sharing and publishing earthquake engineering research data from experimental and numerical studies. The data in the Project Warehouse are associated with research projects funded by a variety of agencies and include experiments performed at NEES and non-NEES equipment sites. New data are constantly becoming publically available within the Project Warehouse. To keep the community aware of new datasets, NEEScomm will be highlighting projects and experiments that have been recently completed and curated. Three highlighted projects, each of which takes advantage of data viewing within the NEEShub using the tool inDEED, are:

SASW Measurements at Stanford University

NEEShub Project: Pile Pinning Effects on a Bridge Abutment in Laterally Spreading Ground

PI: Ross Boulanger (UC Davis)

Three centrifuge tests were conducted at the University of California at Davis to study pile pinning effects on bridge abutments over liquefied and laterally spreading ground. The tests focused on the comparison of two identical embankments with and without pile restraining forces during liquefaction and lateral spreading. Each test considered a suite of input motions and different pile geometries. Pore pressure, acceleration, and deformation data are available along with bending moment and shear force data for the piles.

NEEShub Project: Performance Based Design of New Masonry

PI(s): Richard Klingner (University of Texas at Austin), W. Mark McGinley (University of Louisville), David McLean (Washington State University), Benson Shing (UC San Diego)

A full-scale reinforced concrete masonry structure with clay masonry veneer was tested at the University of California at San Diego shaking table. A similar wood-frame structure with clay masonry veneer was also tested. Acceleration and displacement data are available for these tests, as well as for a series of component specimens tested on the shaking table. Data from quasi-static testing of similar component specimens at the University of Texas and North Carolina A&T University are also available.

NEEShub Project: SASW Measurements at Stanford University

PI(s): Ivan Wong (URS Corporation), Kenneth H. Stokoe (University of Texas)

Spectral-analysis-of-surface-waves (SASW) surveys were performed to generate shear wave velocity profiles at 15 locations on the Stanford campus using the University of Texas NEES shakers. The unprocessed data, processed dispersion curves, and derived shear wave velocities are available for each test location. Shear wave velocity information for these sites, as well as other sites, is viewable through inDEED within the Shear Wave Velocity Profiles Database.

Information Technology Updates

NEEShub Release 2.5

NEEShub Release 2.5

NEEShub Release 2.5 moved to production as planned on May 26, 2011. This was a broad release containing enhancements to the Project Warehouse, Project Editor, PEN (Project Explorer for NEES), RDV, NEESacademy, the Wish List, Site-wide Search, and My NEEShub. A detailed description of the release can be found here: http://nees.org/announcements/neeshubrelease25

NEEShub Release 3.0

NEEShub Release 3.0, slated for the week of July 18 is close to being fully defined. The focus of this release will be Simulation. The two primary features in the release will be the ability to submit OpenSees jobs to the Open Science Grid (OSG) and a new Simulation Landing page/menu option. The Simulation Landing page will include a repository of public numerical models, a Simulation wiki, and a Simulation discussion board.

NEEShub Boot Camp Sessions at 2011 Quake Summit

Three NEEShub Boot Camp sessions will be offered on June 10 at Quake Summit, the NEES & MCEER Annual Meeting in Buffalo, NY.

Session #1, will provide an Introduction to NEEShub,
Session #2 will cover NEEShub Advanced Topics, and
Session #3 will be an open, unstructured session in which NEEShub experts will be available to answer NEEShub questions or provide NEEShub support either 1-on-1 or in small groups.

You are encouraged to participate in one or more sessions!

Thank you,