Bruneau recognized by ASCE with 2017 Moisseiff Award

UB professor, Michel Bruneau, provides design guidelines for self-centering steel plate shear wall systems as co-author of award-winning paper.

by Peter Murphy

Published April 3, 2017 This content is archived.

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“It is very rewarding to learn that our long history of excellent research in earthquake engineering, both in the department and through MCEER, is being recognized by this award. ”
Joseph Atkinson, professor and chair
Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering

Michel Bruneau, a professor in UB’s Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, was honored along with his co-authors with the 2017 Moisseiff Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

The prize recognizes an important paper published in a print issue of an ASCE journal dealing with the field of structural design, including applied mechanics and theoretical analysis, or constructive improvement of engineering structures such as bridges and frames of any structural material.

The team received the award for their paper: “Full-Scale Pseudodynamic Testing of Self-Centering Steel Plate Shear Walls,” published in the Journal of Structural Engineering in January 2016.

According to ASCE, the authors “make an outstanding contribution to the development of a new structural system that is safe and effective, and which provides advantages over current systems that are in common use.”

Co-authors include Daniel Dowden, PE, SE of Michigan Technological University (PhD 2014), Patricia M. Clayton, of the University of Texas at Austin, Chao-Hsien Li of the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering, Jeffrey W. Berman (PhD 2006, BS 2000) and Laura N. Lowes, both from the University of Washington, and Keh-Chyuan Tsai of National Taiwan University.

The paper is the culmination of research this team has carried out for years on self-centering steel plate shear wall systems (SC-SPSW) for high seismic zones. Self-centering systems offer great advantages in enhancing structural resilience by enabling reuse of the system after significant earthquakes. The research is comprehensive and includes unique large-scale experiments that highlight the advantages of this structural system. Through this work, the authors bridge research to practice by providing design recommendations for this system.

“It is very rewarding to learn that our long history of excellent research in earthquake engineering, both in the department and through MCEER, is being recognized by this award,” said Joseph Atkinson, professor and chair of the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering.

The ASCE established the award in 1947 as a memorial to recognize the accomplishments of Leon S. Moisseiff, who was a notable contributor to the science and art of structural design.

Bruneau joined UB in 1998. His research includes the evaluation and retrofit of existing steel bridges and buildings subjected to large destructive forces up to collapse, as well as the development of new design concepts capable of providing satisfactory seismic resistance, blast resistance, or both simultaneously as multi-hazard resistant concepts. Bruneau is also an accomplished novelist having written three novels: Shaken Allegiances, The Emancipating Death of a Boring Engineer, and in September 2016, My Author is Dead.

Bruneau received his PhD in structural engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 1987.