Seyed Sasan Khedmatgozar Dolati, doctoral candidate in Civil Engineering in the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, and Construction Management (CECM) won the PEER (Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center) 2021 RC Column Blind Prediction Contest, organized by the University of California, Berkeley.
The reinforced concrete column was subjected to a history of lateral deformation simulating earthquake excitation. The experimental test of the concrete column was conducted in 2020. The test column is representative of design practice for reinforced concrete buildings designed prior to the 1990s intended to resist gravity (vertical) loads.
Participation required the prediction of several quantities including strength, stiffness, deformation capacity, and behavior mode during a pseudo-static cyclic loading test. Prediction is made particularly difficult due to the multiple sources of nonlinearity in the response of the columns to cyclic loading. Seyed’s predictions of column response and behavior yielded the highest score in the student category. PEER received predictions from a total of 116 entrants from around the world, further highlighting Seyed’s extraordinary achievement.
Seyed is mentored by his faculty advisor, Dr. Wassim Ghannoum.
The column used in the experimental test.