Discussions between Englekirk and USC led to the conclusion that one of the most effective technology transfer vehicles is to conduct a graduate level course on the understanding of how reinforced concrete behaves and how it can be designed to withstand earthquakes. This course content is more specific than the general and fundamental treatments of reinforced concrete design and it requires these fundamental subjects as prerequisites. It is also different than the practitioner's reliance on the code requirements which often make no mention of performance behavior of the structural system. The course is directed to practicing engineers, and it utilizes the research information that has been developed at USC and by other institutions. The Syllabus of this course is given below. Lecture notes arising from this course disseminated for reference by those attending the course as well as others in the profession.

The class given during the 1993-1994 academic year was attended by 12 students all of whom were enthusiastic about the material presented. Six students were from practice; the others were graduate USC students. It is planned to offer the source again next academic year. A late-afternoon period will be selected to offer practicing engineers a more convenient time to attend the course.

In Addition, Professor Agbabian will continue his activities in technology transfer with emphasis on the use of high-strength concrete in building applications in Southern California and other seismically active regions. He will also continue to develop implementation procedures for the use of the study results on high strength concrete in building codes and procedures through interactions with relevant building officials and practicing structural engineers.

By way of background for this technology transfer activities, we cite here the communication targets:

Building Code Development
Professional Organizations
Interaction with researchers in other research centers
Publication of papers and reports

Publication of Papers and Reports

There are already important contributions that are available in the report that can be written up as papers for publication. Several papers and reports were prepared. Presentations were made at the ACI convention. Please click HERE to see details of some publications.

Here is a partial list of publications supported in part by the C4 project:

Technical Papers

M.S. Agbabian, E.M. Higazy, A.M. Abdel-Ghaffar and A.S. Elnashai,

"Effect of Axial Column Load on the Shear Performance of RC Beam-to-Column Connections", presented at the ACI spring convention, Vancouver, British Columbia, March-April, 1993.

M.S. Agbabian, E.M. Higazy, A.M. Abdel-Ghaffar and A.S. Elnashai,

"Experimental Observations on the Seismic Shear Performance of RC Beam-to-Column Connections Subjected to Varying Axial Column Force", Journal of `Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics', Vol 23 No.8, August 1994, pp.859-877.

M.S. Agbabian, E.M. Higazy and A.S. Elnashai, "Experimental Seismic Response

Characteristics of Marginal Strength Concrete Beam-Column Connections", Accepted for Presentation and Publication at the International Concrete Conference in Odense, Denmark, June 1994.

E.M. Higazy and M.S. Agbabian, "Seismic Performance of Marginal High Strength

Reinforced Beam-Column Connections Subjected to Reduced Column Compression", accepted for publication in ASCE 95-96.

S.F. Masri, M.S. Agbabian, A.M. Abdel-Ghaffar, E.M. Higazy, R.O. Claus, and

M.J. de Vries, (1993), "An Experimental Study of Embedded Fiber-Optic Strain Gauges in Concrete Structures," Published to ASCE/Engineering Mechanics Journal, Vol. 120 No.8, August 1994, pp.1694-1717.

R.O. Claus, M.J. de Vries, S.F. Masri and E.M. Higazy, (1993), "Application of

Embedded Optical Fiber Sensors to Monitoring of Fatigue Loading of Reinforced Concrete Cross-Beams," Presented at OFS-9 Conference on Optical Fiber Sensors, 4-6 May 1993, Florence, Italy.

S.F. Masri and R.O. Claus, (1993), "Developments in Actuators and Sensors for

Structural Response Under Seismic and Dynamic Loads," Presented at the U.S.-Japan Seminar on Experimental Methods in Earthquake Engineering, Ilikai Hotel, Honolulu, Hawaii, 28 June - 1 July. (Submitted for publication in Earthquake Spectrum).

S.F. Masri and A.G. Chassiakos, (1992), "Some Issues in the Identification of

Structural Systems through the Use of Neural Networks," Proceedings of the International Workshop on Safety Evaluation Based on Identification Approaches Related to Time Variant and Nonlinear Structures, Lambrecht, Germany, 6-9 September 1992.

S.F. Masri, A.G. Chassiakos and T.K. Caughey, (1992), "Identification of

Nonlinear Dynamic Systems Using Neural Networks," ASME Journal of Applied Mechanics, Vol 60, March 1993, pp 123-133.

J.C. Anderson, V.V. Bertero and E. Miranda, "Seismic Response Analysis of the

Pacific Park Plaza Building," Proceedings, Second Conference on Tall Buildings in Seismic Regions, Los Angeles, CA, May, 1991.

E. Miranda, J.C. Anderson and V.V. Bertero, "Seismic Response of a Thirty-Story

Building During the Loma Prieta Earthquake," Proceedings, Second Conference on Tall Buildings in Seismic Regions, Los Angeles, CA, May, 1991.

J.C. Anderson, E. Miranda, V.V. Bertero and Kajima Research Team, "Evaluation

of the Seismic performance of a Thirty-Story RC Building," UCB/EERC-91/16, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, CA July, 1991, 254 pp.

V.V. Bertero, E. Miranda and J.C. Anderson, "Evaluation of Seismic Response of

Two RC Buildings," Proceedings, Tenth Structures Congress, ASCE, April, 1992.

J.C. Anderson, V.V. Bertero and E. Miranda, "Seismic Design Criteria and

Measured Response," Proceedings, Tenth Structures Congress, ASCE, April, 1992.

J.C. Anderson and M.S. Agbabian, "Seismic Analysis of a 16 Story Building in

Armenia," Proceedings, Tenth World Conference on Earthquake Engineering Madrid, Spain, July, 1992.

Technical Reports

J.C. Anderson and W. Chen, "A Seismic Redesign of the Thirty Story S-K

Building," Report No. CE 93-05, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, March, 1993, 126 pp.

J.C. Anderson and V.V. Bertero, "Lesson Learned from Instrumented Building

Response," Proceedings, 1993 National Earthquake Conference, Memphis, May, 1993.

J.C. Anderson and M.S. Agbabian, "Seismic Analysis of Two Lift Slab Buildings in

Armenia," Report No. 93-06, Dept. of Civil Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, April, 1993, 83 pp.

J.C. Anderson and W. Chen, "Design and Behavior of Two High Rise RC Building

Systems for Earthquakes," Report No. 93-07, Dept. of Civil Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, June, 1993, 191 pp.

C.W. Synolakis, R.M. Leahy and Z. Zhou, Multiresolution 3-D Internal

Displacements Estimation from 3-D Computer Tomographic Images, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Southern California, Report No. CE93-05, June 1993.

R.L. Nigbor, Structural Health Monitoring Using Distributed Sensors, A Report on

Research Supported in Part by the National Science Foundation and The Carpenters/Contractors Co-operation Committee Inc., Report No. M92213, June 1993.

S.F. Masri and A.G. Chassiakos, Some Issues in the Identification of Structural

Systems through the use of Neural Networks, A Report on Research Supported in Part by the National Science Foundation and The Carpenters/Contractors Co-operation Committee Inc., Report No. M9205, June 1993.

S.F. Masri, M.S. Agbabian, A.M. Abdel-Ghaffar, E. Higazy, R.O. Claus and M.J.

de Vries, An Experimental Study of Embedded Fiber-Optic Strain Gauges in Concrete Structures, A Report on Research Supported in Part by the National Science Foundation and The Carpenters/Contractors Co-ope4ration Committee Inc., Report No. M9213, June 1993.

S.F. Masri, A.G. Chassiakos and T.K. Caughey, Identification of Nonlinear

Dynamic Systems Using Neural Networks: Part I - Formulation; Part II - Application, A Report on Research Supported in Part by the National Science Foundation and The Carpenters/Contractors Co-operation Committee Inc., Report No. M930a, June 1993.

E.M. Higazy, A.M. Abdel-Ghaffar and A.S. Elnashai, "Seismic Performance of

Interior Beam-Column Subassemblages in Multistory RC Structures", USC-Report, June 1993.

The USC research team is publishing reports and technical papers in which research accomplishments are being highlighted. These reports will inform the interested academic and practicing professionals about accomplishments, unresolved issues, and plans for the further research. The principal recipients of these progress reports will be the expanded membership of the Advisory Committee, other research teams at universities and institutes, and chairmen of ASCE, ACI, SEAOC and EERI committees.

REMARKS

Technology Transfer is an ongoing process. It is an essential role for the research engineer. Typically, the university research engineer publishes his/her work in technical journals with the expectation that his work will find interested readers. Technology transfer by the practicing profession takes a different approach. This is done primarily in technical committees which spend thousands of person hours deliberating on the implications of accepting or rejecting procedure, a criterion, or a design and analysis guideline. This demarcation line between university researcher and practicing professional is often crossed by both academic and practicing professionals. It is the crossing of this demarcation line that activates an exchange that provides a distinct benefit for safe and economical design of reinforced concrete structures.

It is USC's goal to provide technology transfer as an on going effort in parallel with the research that is undertaken under the C4 grant. Technology transfer through reports, publications, presentations at conferences, and interaction with professional committees will be timed to disseminate the results of the research in a timely manner as various phases of the research program are completed.

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