Structural walls, which are solid concrete walls commonly used in buildings around stairwells and elevators, are used worldwide because they are economical to construct, efficient to separate spaces, and effective in protecting buildings from strong earthquake ground shaking. Unexpected damage that occurred to structural walls in recent earthquakes, e.g., Chile in 2010 and New Zealand in 2011, as well as damage observed in recent laboratory tests in the United States and Japan, suggest that structural engineers have pushed seismic design limits for structural walls beyond a critical boundary. Despite these observations, engineers are increasingly choosing to use structural walls because, historically, structural wall buildings are less likely to collapse in earthquakes and are more likely to limit heavy damage to building contents. Given recent observations, considerable research on the seismic performance and design of structural walls has been initiated or is planned in the United States and around the world. Many of the research needs identified for structural walls require large-scale laboratory testing to validate and calibrate computational models and to develop and refine seismic design recommendations for building codes. Large-scale testing is expensive; therefore, the ability of any one country to address the breadth of issues that have been identified is limited and progress will be slow.
Given the critical research needs for structural walls and the limited resources available to individual countries, this award will facilitate international research collaborations using both in-person meetings and virtual collaboration tools by creating a virtual international institute for the seismic performance assessment of structural wall systems. Through this institute, researchers from Chile, Japan, New Zealand, and the United States, who have a long history of both informal and formal research collaboration, will share research test plans and test data; develop, improve, calibrate, and validate component and system models used for building design; achieve consensus, where possible, on critical performance issues; prepare joint reports, papers, and design recommendations; and develop collaborative new research directions. Institute results will be disseminated by members participating in meetings, workshops, and code committees, by involving earthquake professionals, by developing and distributing educational materials and project results (e.g., data), and by creating a project web site. Mentoring and training of young researchers (students and faculty) will be enhanced through participation in both face-to-face meetings and virtual collaboration with leading researchers and practitioners from around the world. The broader U.S. and international earthquake engineering research community will benefit from joint publications, access to data, and opportunities for enhanced collaboration (in-person and virtual). This award is designated as a Science Across Virtual Institutes (SAVI) award and is co-funded by NSF's Directorate for Engineering and NSF's Office of Integrative and International Activities.
