Earthquake simulation shows off

the potential for safer bridges

PEER shake-table demonstration subjects 30-foot span to

Loma Prieta, Northridge, Kobe and Chile temblors

By Carol Ness, NewsCenter | 27 May 2010

http://tek-tips.nethawk.net/a/gdfdze

With a series of computer-controlled earthquakes, simulating some of the most devastating in recent memory, Berkeley engineers Wednesday showed off new technology designed to keep bridges not just from collapsing in a catastrophic temblor but open to traffic.

A 30-foot scale-model bridge, set up on the shake table (earthquake simulator) at the Richmond Field Station, was the star of the show, put on by Berkeley’s Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER).

In a series of simulated quakes, which ranged from moderate to severe, the bridge trembled, shook and rocked violently— but the deck stayed intact and settled back on its supports after each event.

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Gulf oil spill

ENGINEERING

 http://tek-tips.nethawk.net/a/uv3mt7

Robert Bea
Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Home office: (925) 631-1587
E-mail: bea@ce.berkeley.edu
Media relations contact: Sarah Yang, (510) 643-7741, scyang@berkeley.edu
Note: Bea is on sabbatical until January 2011, but he will respond to messages as soon as he can.

Expertise: Bea was a National Academy of Engineering Expert Reviewer on the Department of Interior’s May 27 report on additional safety measures needed to reduce the risk of failures from offshore oil and gas activities. In 2002, Bea and Prof. Karlene Roberts, director of the Center for Catastrophic Risk Management at UC Berkeley, authored a report for BP identifying organizational challenges within the company after a series of acquisitions.

Bea has more than 50 years of experience in engineering and management of design, construction, maintenance, operation, and decommissioning of engineered systems, including offshore platforms, pipelines and floating facilities. Before coming to UC Berkeley, he worked as a consultant with Sohio and BP on the topic of risk assessment and management of offshore oil and gas operations. He also worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Shell Oil, Shell Development, and Royal Dutch Shell companies in a variety of engineering, construction, operations, and research assignments around the world.

Can California fix the Delta before disaster strikes?

By Sarah Yang, Media Relations | 20 April 2010

http://tek-tips.nethawk.net/a/cz0u0p

BERKELEY —When visiting Sherman Island in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, it is easy to forget the region’s ever-present threat of catastrophic floods and instead revel in the West Coast’s largest estuary, which supports farmers, anglers, and more than 700 native species of plants and animals, including some that are endangered.

"You drive out there and you see that cows are grazing, birds are chirping; but it’s deceptive," said Robert Bea, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. "As you start to dig in, you find out how incredibly complex and vulnerable we’ve made this place."

At least 220 government agencies have jurisdiction in the Delta, which is home to half a million residents in 25 villages, towns and cities, including Sacramento, Stockton and Pittsburg. The region is under continual threat from floods, prevented only by a vast — and fragile — network of earthen levees.

Sherman Island, said Bea, is an example of a critical chokepoint in the Delta for the tangled networks of highways, railroads, and electrical, gas and telecommunication lines that serve as lifelines for the San Francisco Bay Area and large swaths of the state. The Delta also serves as the hub for aqueducts that channel drinking water for two-thirds of the state’s population — more than 23 million people — and irrigation water for 3 million acres of agriculture responsible for half the nation’s fruits and vegetables and one-quarter of its dairy products.