New Approaches for Evaluating Seismic Performance of Slopes & Earth Dams

The Calgary Geotechnical Society (CyGS) is excited to host Dr. Ellen M. Rathje, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE. from the University of Texas at Austin, for the Canadian Geotechnical Society (CGS) Spring Cross Canada Lecture Tour (CCLT). The CCLT is made possible by the funding support from The Canadian Foundation for Geotechnique.

This presentation will be hosted at the Croatian Canadian Cultural Centre. No virtual option is available for this presentation.

Topic:         New Approaches for Evaluating the Seismic Performance of
                   Slopes & Earth Dams

Speaker:     Dr. Ellen M. Rathje, Ph.D, P.E., F.ASCE
                    University of Texas at Austin

Date:          Thursday, June 13, 2024, 5:30pm - 8:00pm (MST)
          
Details:       IN PERSON EVENT SCHEDULE (all times listed in MST)
                    5:30 to 6:00 pm: Arrival, registration, cash bar and networking
                    6:00 to 6:45 pm: Buffet dinner                    
                    6:45 to 8:00 pm: Presentation and Q&A

Cost:           $50 (Regular) / $20 (Student)

Location:    Croatian Canadian Cultural Centre

*Please note it is a cash bar and there is no on-site ATM*

Bio:

Dr. Ellen M. Rathje is the Janet S. Cockrell Centennial Chair in Engineering in the Fariborz Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin (UT), and a Senior Research Scientist at the UT Bureau of Economic Geology. She is an acknowledged expert in the areas of seismic site response analysis, seismic slope stability, induced seismicity, and field reconnaissance after earthquakes. Dr. Rathje is a founding member and previous Co-Chair of the Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER) Association, and currently the Principal Investigator for the DesignSafe-ci.org cyberinfrastructure that supports research in natural hazards engineering.

She has been honored with the 2022 Peck Lecture Award from the ASCE Geo-Institute, the 2018 William B. Joyner Lecture Award from the Seismological Society of America and the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute and the 2010 Huber Research Prize from the ASCE. She was elected Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2016.

Abstract:

Seismic performance assessments for earth slopes and dams are based on evaluating the permanent displacements induced by earthquake shaking and more recently probabilistic approaches have been proposed to incorporate uncertainties into the analysis. This presentation will describe newly developed predictive models for earthquake-induced slope displacements based on finite element simulations. The models are developed using both classical regression techniques and artificial neural networks (ANN), and models for both the median displacement and its variability are provided. A missing part of most seismic performance assessments for slopes and dams is the translation of a displacement level into a damage state.

This presentation will also outline a seismic fragility framework for earth dams and slopes that is modeled after the approaches used for other types of infrastructure, such as bridges. The framework uses an engineering demand model to predict the permanent displacement as a function of ground motion intensity, and a seismic capacity model to predict the probability of a damage state given the permanent settlement.