Earthquake engineering analyses are often performed using shallow, crustal earthquake motions (e.g., 1940 El Centro). However, large areas of the world are subject to subduction zone earthquake motions (e.g., the Pacific Northwest). A subduction zone earthquake motion is characterized by its long duration (e.g., strong shaking lasts for more than...
This dissertation presents the results of a research effort conducted to better understand the seismic performance and analysis of pile-supported wharves. Given the limited number of well-documented field case histories, the seismic performance of pile-supported wharves has been poorly quantified, and the analysis methods commonly employed in engineering practice have...
Recently, the concept of performance based design has become popular for many types of structures, including port facilities under seismic loading. For the case of pile-supported wharves, the level of performance is generally estimated using the displacement capacity of the structure. Therefore, understanding soil-pile interaction is one of the most...
Students in undergraduate engineering programs typically do not synthesize content learned from disparate course work until the end of their final terms of college. As an example, in undergraduate civil engineering programs, transportation engineering concepts (e.g., geometric alignment, asphalt design procedures) and geotechnical engineering concepts (e.g., shear strength of soils,...
The characteristics of the free surface in an orifice driven by a periodic forcing function have been studied both theoretically and experimentally. In the theoretical study, two wall boundary condition cases were examined: 1) the radial velocity at the wall of the orifice is zero; and 2) the axial velocity...
Fluid-structure interaction (FSI) is a very interesting and challenging multi-disciplinary field involving interaction of a movable or deformable structure with an internal or surrounding fluid flow. FSI has several practical engineering applications such as the determination of the hydrodynamic forces on a structure or the dynamics of motion of bodies...
A numerical model for the simulation of fully-coupled fluid-structure
interaction is developed in this study. In modeling the fluid, the Reynolds
Averaged Navier-Stokes equations are solved for an incompressible viscous
fluid field and a k-ε model is employed for turbulence computations.
Hydrodynamic forces obtained by the integration of the fluid...
This study presents a methodology for power take off (PTO) forecasting for an array of heave wave energy converters (WECs). Based on spectral data obtained directly from the National Data Buoy Center, representative realistic sea states are generated at the location of the WECs, and by using two wave-structure interaction...
As part of a research program to study the transitional region of N=88
isotones, ¹⁵²Tb was produced by the reaction ¹⁵¹Eu(α,3n)¹⁵²Tb in the 88" cyclotron
located at LBNL. Gamma-ray spectroscopy of the radiation emitted from excited
¹⁵²Gd following the β⁺ decay of ¹⁵²Tb has been performed using an array of...
Commonly proposed ocean wave energy converters (OWEC) use inefficient and maintenance demanding intermediate hydraulic and pneumatic systems. We propose a novel rotary direct-drive OWEC that eliminates these intermediate stages. The new device employs a contactless force transmission system (CFTS) comprising a “piston” and a “cylinder” and a ball screw to...