Industry Partner Projects

Illinois Emergency Management Agency Project

This project will develop and refine a comprehensive earthquake loss assessment model for the State of Illinois.  Project funding is provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA). It will include assessments of damage to all private and public buildings, critical facilities, bridges, pipelines, airports and geotechnical structures. Estimates of debris, chemical spills, displaced population, housing needs and business loss will be provided.

MLGW Project

The Mid-America Earthquake Center (MAE Center) conducted a project for Memphis Light Gas and Water (MLGW) to assess earthquake damage to the company’s existing cast-iron piping network, comprising a small proportion of the entire MLGW gas network.  Damage and repair estimates were calculated and visualized using the MAEviz-MLGWgas loss assessment and visualization software system.  MAEviz-MLGWgas  is a customization of MAEviz, the Mid-America Earthquake Center’s software system that integrates spatial information, data, and visual information into an environment for performing seismic loss assessment, analysis, and decision support.  Both MAEviz and MAEviz-MLGWgas  are tools to implement Consequence-Based Risk Management (CRM), a holistic approach to seismic hazard, and other hazard, risk assessment and mitigation. It is a logical and methodical approach to most efficiently use limited resources to minimize loss.
The developed MAEviz-MLGWgas product contained comprehensive information on 13,509 cast-iron pipe segments ingested from the available data. The software employs probabilistic hazard maps and scenario events to define the hazard and utilizes the damage algorithm based on peak ground velocity (PGV). The sensitivity (fragility) of the pipeline segments is defined as a function dependent on pipe diameter. This project demonstrated the potential of MAEviz as a loss assessment tool and an asset management environment for MLGW.

Jacobs Civil Inc. Project

The MAE Center is partnering with Jacobs Civil Inc. on the seismic assessment and retrofit of the Caruthersville, MO I-155 Bridge.  Jacobs Civil Inc. is the main contractor on the project for the Missouri Department of Transportation.  Specifically the Center is responsible for the geotechnical site investigation, seismic hazard reevaluation and inelastic seismic response of the bridge, considering soil-structure interaction.. The integrated structure-foundation-soil system analysis is being undertaken with and without a number of retrofitting and soil remediation schemes. The 59-span 7100-feet bridge was built in the early seventies across the Mississippi River between Missouri and Tennessee. The project site is within the New Madrid seismic region and in the vicinity of the central fault.