Principal Investigator: Yan Xiao, Ph.D., PE, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering
Research Assistant: Henry Yun, Graduate Research Assistant;
Karen D. Murillo; John E. Litzinger; Aimee Lopez,
Undergraduate Laboratory Assistants
Funding Agency: NTRMA
In the January 17, 1994 Northridge earthquake, failure of concrete and clay roofing tiles has cast a shadow in the engineering community. Although reconnaissance studies indicated that many factors such as building age, poor workmanship etc. contributed to the failure, the fundamental question of whether tile roofs designed and constructed to the standard of current Uniform Building Codes can sustain the design level earthquake remains unanswered.
A systematic research program is currently being carried out,
to evaluate current design requirements as well as to provide
experimental background and guidelines for further improvement.
The program involves the analysis of earthquake responses of building
with concrete or clay tile roofs, as well as shaking table testing
of small and full scale tile roofing panels.