Sources: Charles Pankow Foundation, McLean, Va.; CP staff
A Charles Pankow Foundation grant will fund “Seismic Precast Concrete Wall and Frame Structures with Short-Grouted Ductile Rebar Connections,” a University of Notre Dame Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences investigation under Yahya Kurama, PhD, PE. Findings could support the development of commercially available connectors holding the potential to simplify precast wall and frame construction.
Read MoreSources: National Concrete Masonry Association, Herndon, Va.; University of California, San Diego, Jacobs School of Engineering
A three-story concrete masonry building recently tested on the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) shake table—an apparatus widely acknowledged for research on specimens’ response to seismic loads—exhibited damage only at very high simulated earthquake magnitudes. The structure was designed and constructed to current building code requirements, and subjected to increasing levels of simulated seismic activity, above both design-level earthquakes and maximum considered events.
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