575 Market Street, Suite 2125 | San Francisco, CA 94105-2870 email: [email protected] | 415-974-5147 www.seaonc.org Structural Engineers Association OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Our mission: To advance the practice of structural engineering, to build community among our members, and to educate the public regarding the structural engineering profession. Our vision: A world in which structural engineers are valued by the public for their contributions to building a safer and stronger community. MARCH 2019 See our History, Mission Statement, and Bylaws for more information. Vol. XXII, No. 3 INSIDE THIS ISSUE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE In the last year or so we have seen a number of high profile failures in President’s Message pp. 1-2 our infrastructure system here in the Bay Area. There was the leaning Upcoming Events pp. 2-5 skyscraper that made national news, the cracked steel beams that shut down a brand new transit center, and the hundreds of buildings that Committee News p. 5 burned down in wildfires. In the month of February alone, there was a major bridge shut down because of crumbling concrete and a major Job Forum pp. 7-15 highway shut down because of a levee breech. I can certainly think of better ways to celebrate National Engineers Week. All of this bad news can be discouraging to civil and structural engineers. After all, we design structures to withstand the forces of nature, not to succumb to them. People in our community depend on us to design safe and durable structures, so when a structure fails the public often reinforces the mindset that engineers are responsible for the failure when they ask us why we think something failed. It is as if the failure was a design flaw that engineers should know about. For example, I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been asked about the bridge collapse last year in Florida. I want us to consider a different mindset when it comes to infrastructure failures, a mindset that is positive rather than negative. Rather than just assume that a failure was the result of faulty engineering, let us focus on determining what really happened. Rather than hide from the public whenever something bad happens, let us publicize the good work that our colleagues are doing to investigate the failures and develop the repairs. Let us respond to complaints about how failures shut down our cities by talking about how hard we are working to get our cities running again. Let us respond to the fears that an earthquake will destroy thousands of buildings in the Bay Area by highlighting the work that we are doing to identify, evaluate and retrofit our communities’ most vulnerable buildings. Whenever I hear about a structure failing, I think of Leslie Robertson, the lead structural ...continued on p. 2 HOW TO GET INVOLVED Become a member: Select the appropriate membership level for you and complete the application Monthly meetings: Meet and mingle with fellow engineers. Register through the link in this month’s newsletter Join a committee: Click here to see a description of each committee, contact the committee chair to ask how you can help, and how to join the committee email list. Make a suggestion: Have an idea and want to help with something that SEAONC is not already pursuing? Email the SEAONC Office. Ad-hoc committees can address specific needs. Become a sponsor: Support SEAONC and showcase your company’s services at the SEAONC events through sponsorship! Posting for Membership In order to view new applicants posting for membership, please visit our website www.seaonc.org. - 1 - Continued from p. 1 engineer for the World Trade Center twin towers. When the towers collapsed on 9/11, Robertson received a lot of criticism for how his design did not prevent the failures. He was accused of not designing enough redundancy in the structure to prevent progressive collapse. His design was too efficient, some said. Robertson himself carried an unresolved anguish. “I was ready to pack my bags, (after the attacks) not because I felt I let anybody down, but simply due to the suffering associated with my work,” he said. In the new movie about his career, Leaning Out, Robertson admits he feared his career was over. “I thought I was really through, through, through, through — forget it!” he recalls in the movie. “Who is going to want this guy whose building got taken down by a simple airplane?” I think about how Robertson’s structural design kept those towers standing for several hours beyond what could have been expected for a structure that was designed to take a hit from the largest plane flying in 1966 rather than 2001. Those extra hours allowed thousands of people to evacuate both buildings. Those people would have lost their lives if those structures had immediately collapsed after impact. I am not suggesting that we gloss over or cover up failures that are the result of faulty engineering. I am instead suggesting that we should not assume that every structural failure is the result of faulty engineering. I am also suggesting that we acknowledge and praise our efforts and those of our colleagues to quickly repair the damage from failures and to learn from these failures to reduce the likelihood that they will happen again. We are saving lives. We are making the world a better place. UPCOMING EVENTS SEAONC March Monthly Meeting Spring Seminar SE3 Symposium • March 5, 2019 • March 13 & 20, 2019 • May 10, 2019 • Registration & Happy Hour: 5:00 pm • Registration & Dinner: 5:15 pm • Program: 1:00 pm • Program: 6:00 pm • Program: 6:00 pm • Networking: 5:00 pm • HOK, San Francisco, CA • PG&E Auditorium, San Francisco • SPUR SF, San Francisco • Click here to view our Events Calendar and to register. SEAONC March Monthly Meeting: Seismic Design of Steel Building Structures: A Half-Century Perspective Date: Tuesday, March 5, 2019 Registration/Happy Hour: 5:00 pm Program: 6:00 pm Location: HOK 1 Bush Street, Suite 200 San Francisco, CA 94104 Seismic design of steel structures in the United States has made significant advances in the past half century. The development of seismic building codes and the associated research on steel structures can be broadly divided into three eras. Plastic design requirements were “borrowed” for seismic design during the first era that started in the early 1970s, although these requirements were not intended for seismic design. Seismic research including cyclic testing conducted since then together with capacity design concept from concrete research impacted seismic steel codes in the late 1980s. This second era was soon interrupted by the Northridge, California earthquake in 1994. Although this event revealed the vulnerability of welded joints in ductile moment frames, its impact on research, code development, and construction practice of all steel seismic force-resisting system is profound. Significant development during this third era will be presented. To conclude the presentation, recent seismic steel research at UCSD will also be highlighted. Chia-Ming Uang is a professor in the Department of Structural Engineering at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Dr. Uang’s main research interests are in seismic analysis and design of steel structures. He serves on the AISC Committee on Specifications and Seismic Committee. He received the T.R. Higgins Lectureship Award in 2015 and a Special Achievement Award in 2007 from AISC. Dr. Uang also received three research awards from ASCE: Raymond C. Reese Research Prize in 2001 as well as Moisseiff Awards in 2004 and 2014. He is a coauthor of two textbooks: Ductile Design of Steel Structures and Fundamentals of Structural Analysis. - 2 - UPCOMING EVENTS SPRING SEMINAR 2019 FEMA P-2006 - ASCE 41 Design Examples Date: Wednesdays, March 13 & 20, 2019 Registration & Dinner: 5:15 pm Program: 6:00 pm Location: PG&E Auditorium 77 Beale Street San Francisco, CA 94015 Introduction to FEMA P-2006, Example Application Guide for ASCE/SEI 41-13 Seismic Evaluation and Retrofit of Existing Buildings with Additional Commentary for ASCE/SEI 41-17 Registration includes a physical copy of FEMA P-2006 Since its original publication in 2006, ASCE/SEI 41, Seismic Evaluation and Retrofit of Existing Buildings, has become the consensus U.S. national standard for seismic evaluation and retrofitting. However, the methods in ASCE/SEI 41 are different in many ways from those used in the design of new buildings and can be challenging for those unfamiliar with its procedures. To assist users of the standard, the Applied Technology Council, with funding provided by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency and with assistance from SEAOC, published an example application guide for ASCE/SEI 41, referred to as the FEMA P-2006 document. FEMA P-2006 provides helpful guidance on the interpretation and the use of ASCE/SEI 41 through a set of step-by-step illustrated design examples that cover key selected topics. Drawing from FEMA P-2006 material, this seminar will provide an overview of ASCE/SEI 41, including a discussion of its foundational principles, performance objectives, analysis procedures, and acceptance criteria. Following the overview, the seminar will present example applications for steel braced frame, tilt-up concrete, steel moment frame, and concrete shear wall buildings. The target audience for this seminar is both practicing engineers who have limited or no experience with ASCE/SEI 41 and those engineers who have used it in the past but have specific questions. Night 1: Wednesday, March 13th, 2019 • Part 1: Introduction and Overview (Bret Lizundia, Rutherford + Chekene) • Part 2: Performance Objectives, Analysis Procedures, and Acceptance Criteria (Brian McDonald, Exponent) • Part 3: Steel Moment Frame Example (Mark Moore, ZFA Structural Engineers) Night 2: Wednesday, March 20th, 2019 • Part 4: Tier 1 Screening and Tier 2 Deficiency-Based Evaluation and Retrofit with Tilt-Up Concrete Example (Ron LaPlante, California Division of the State Architect) • Part 5: Steel Braced Frame Example (Mike Braund, Degenkolb Engineers) • Part 6: Concrete Shear Wall Example (Bret Lizundia, Rutherford + Chekene) Speaker Biographies Bret Lizundia, Rutherford + Chekene Bret Lizundia is a structural engineer and principal at Rutherford + Chekene in San Francisco.