CEE Seminar: Adventures in Seismic Risk Mitigation

Abstract: The modern era of civilization is marked by immense networks of complicated, interdependent systems and rapidly evolving technologies, including the world of civil infrastructure. Many of these technologies, while born from academia, are implemented and refined in the world of industry. As today’s complex ideas are put into practice, there is an increasing tendency for things to fail under extreme loading such as earthquakes, and an urgent desire to prevent such failures. This talk explores the field of seismic risk mitigation in practice, drawing on projects from structural engineering, including nuclear plant reliability analysis, urban post-earthquake reconnaissance, and insurance investigations related to alleged earthquake damage. Extensions of infrastructure risk assessment and mitigation frameworks outside earthquake engineering are presented and discussed.

Bio: Troy Morgan is principal engineer and director of Exponent’s Buildings & Structures practice. He is a recognized expert in the field of seismic isolation and passive energy dissipation systems, and specializes in performance of structures under extreme loading such as earthquakes, wind, flood and explosions. Morgan has performed extensive research on the numerical simulation and experimental behavior of innovative seismic protective devices and optimization of their use within performance-based engineering frameworks. Prior to joining Exponent, he was an assistant professor at the Center for Urban Earthquake Engineering at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan. Morgan has taught courses at New York University and UC Berkeley. He has also held positions as a postdoctoral researcher at the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center and as a design engineer at Forell/Elsesser Engineers Inc. Morgan received his B.S., M.Eng. and Ph.D. degrees from UC Berkeley.