The purpose of this grant with the regents of the university of california is to develop a novel framework to quantify the impact of climate change on the risk of buildings and bridges prone to…

This Cooperative Agreement award of $274,921 from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) under the Measurement and Engineering Research and Standards (CFDA 11.609) Federal Grant Program is intended to develop a novel framework to quantify the impact of climate change on the risk of buildings and bridges prone to earthquakes and strong windstorms. The key activities include creating a framework with eight modules to assess climate change scenarios, hazard analysis, structural design, corrosion propagation, risk, and life cycle analysis. The proposed framework will then be applied to 12 reinforced concrete structures and 12 bridges under earthquake and wind loading conditions. The expected outcomes include a method to evaluate the adequacy of current durability provisions against climate change, and recommendations to improve design codes and service life prediction for buildings and bridges. This research aims to enhance the safety and functionality of critical infrastructure while minimizing repair costs and downtime after natural hazards.

Activities

The activities will include two major tasks. In the first task, a framework for risk-targeted adaptive design and service life prediction of new and existing structures under climate change impact will be developed. The framework will have eight modules to conduct climate change scenario selection, hazard analysis, archetype design, corrosion propagation analysis, structural, risk, and life cycle assessment. In the second task, the proposed framework will be applied to a set of 12 reinforced concrete structures and 12 bridges under earthquake and wind loading.

Expected outcomes

Results of this research will provide a method to assess the adequacy of current prescriptive durability provisions against various climate change scenarios, and help identifying the optimal combinations of durability requirements (e.g., concrete cover, water to cement ratio, cement content, and other measures) and different environment exposure class to achieve a given service life. The outcome of this research can lead to improving durability requirements in design codes as well as condition assessment and service life prediction provisions.

Intended beneficiaries

Information gathered from this research will inform development of future codes, standards, and guides that account for future loading conditions due to climate change. This will benefit the public by improving the safety and functionality of buildings and bridges while minimizing the repair cost and time after natural hazards.

Subrecipient activities

The recipient does not intend to subaward funds.