UCSD's Structural Engineering Department offers B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees. Our programs and curricula provide education and training through a holistic approach to structural engineering, by emphasizing and building on the commonality in materials, mechanics, and analysis considerations across the disciplines of civil, aerospace, and marine engineering. The program features strong components in laboratory experimentation, basic theory, information technology, and engineering design.
SE Adjunct Professor Looks Into the Past with High-Resolution Digital Scans of Italy's Palazzo Medici
The Palazzo Medici, one of most significant landmarks of the Italian Renaissance, has become a prototype for researchers pursuing high-resolution digital cultural forensics, a field being pioneered by Maurizio Seracini, SE Adjunct Professor and Director of UC San Diego's Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture and Archaeology (CISA3). To read the full story, click here.
SE Students Tour Construction Site of the new Bridge at Lake Hodges
On Saturday, November 8, 2008, approximately 25 students and staff from SE and SDSU’s Department of Civil Engineering participated in a tour of the construction site for the new Bicycle and Pedestrian Bridge at Lake Hodges in Escondido. To read the full story, click here. To see the photo gallery from this event, click here.
SE Celebrates at Groundbreaking for New Structural and Materials Engineering Building
On Friday, October 24, 2008, administrators from the Jacobs School of Engineering, along with the faculty and staff from the departments of Structural Engineering, NanoEngineering and Visual Arts, all gathered on the building site of the new Structural and Materials Building (also referred to as "Engineering Building Unit IV"). The ceremony included artistic interpretations, the reading of an original convocation poem, "The Absence of Field," by Amy Sara Carroll, and the assembly of a winning steel bridge by SE's student organization Society of Civil and Structural Engineers (SCSE). Speakers included Senior Vice Chancellor, Paul Drake and Jacobs School Dean, Frieder Seible. The actual groundbreaking was done by a mechanical "Sun God," created by students from the Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering. The new building will include nearly 170,000 square-feet and is a showcase for sustainable design. The facility's energy conservation measures include dynamic shading devices, hydronic heating, and intelligent controls. Construction of the $63 million state-funded building, the 11th major engineering and technology facility on the UCSD campus, is expected to be complete by 2011. The buildings architects are Miller/Hull Partnership and Safdie Rabines Architects, and the general contractor is the Mortenson Company. To see the photo gallery from this event, click here.
Shake Table Tests of Masonry Infilled RC Frames
A 3-story, 2-bay masonry-infilled, reinforced concrete (RC) frame, designed to represent a 1920 era RC structure constructed in California, is currently under construction at the Englekirk Structural Engineering Center. The structure will be tested to failure this fall. The test program is part of the study conducted by SE Professors Shing and Restrepo, and graduate students, Andreas Stavridis and Yannis Koutromanos, on the assessment and improvement of the seismic performance and retrofit of infilled frames. After the structure is tested to failure, a second frame will be built and retrofitted so that an effective retrofit scheme can be developed.
Click here to see the progress of construction.
To read more about this project, click here.
Read the updates for week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4, week 5, week6.
8/30/2008 - Week 1 Update
In the first week the construction of the concrete frame initiated while the contractors brought all necessary hardware and equipment to the site. Nine cubic yards of concrete were poured to build the foundation beam together with more than 2000 lbs of steel after the construction of the forms. The reinforcement cages of the three first-story columns were also constructed once the flexural and shear steel rebars were instrumented with 108 strain gages.
Click here to view the photo gallery for week 1.
9/6/2008 Week 2 Update
The construction of the RC frame continued during the second week as the two beams and three columns of the first story of the structure were built. These RC members are expected to be severely loaded during the shake table tests and their behavior is crucial for the behavior of the structure. Therefore, 16 gauges were attached on the rebars of each column and beam at critical locations. The wires were carefully run out of the forms at bundles of 8 through holes drilled for this purpose.
Together with the structural members, four RC blocks with a weight of 8 kips each were constructed to simulate the corresponding weight of the floor of the actual building. This mass is necessary to maintain the appropriate vertical stress on the columns and is attached to the frame through specially designed hinges so that it does not alter the seismic behavior of the frame when the latter deforms laterally.
Click here to see pictures obtained during the 2nd week.
9/13/2008 Week 3 Update
This week the second story members were constructed. The main difference between the first and second story detailing was the lap splice introduced at the bottom of the second story columns. The reinforcement was spliced for a length equal to 30 bar diameters according to the construction practice in the 1920’s era. Similarly, following the same design practice, no shear reinforcement was used in the beams, while minimal shear reinforcement was placed in the columns. The amount of gauges in the section of the structure was reduced as less damage is anticipated in this story compared to the 1st story. However, to monitor the transfer of force in the lap splice region, the external reinforcing bars of the two exterior columns were gauged at 4 locations along their length.
The first unexpected problem occurred this week, when the concrete was delivered late but the mix was excessively watered. Consequently, the slump tests repeatedly yielded values deviating 3 to 4 inches from the specified value. Therefore, the concrete quality of the first two trucks was considered inappropriate and another set of trucks were delivered.
Click here here to see pictures obtained during the 3rd week.
9/20/2008 Week 4 Update
The construction of the RC frame was completed this week reaching a total height of 24 ft. The third story columns and roof beam were constructed together with four slabs which account for the gravity loads imposed by the roof of the prototype building. The differences introduced to the RC members that were cast this week, included the reduction of the steel reinforcement ratio for the columns to 1% which is the minimum steel ratio considered in the 1920 era and is lower than the 2% and 1.5% that was used for the first and second story respectively. Moreover the concrete slabs simulating the roof weight are only 4.5 kips each to reflect the lower mass located at the roof of a structure.
No strain-gauges were placed on the reinforcing bars of this story since so serious damage is anticipated at this level.
The material testing was also initiated this week. Two to four 14 in long samples of each bar diameter were tested in tension so that the properties of the reinforcing bars are obtained.
The construction of the RC frame was completed this week reaching a total height of 24 ft. The third story columns and roof beam were constructed together with four slabs which account for the gravity loads imposed by the roof of the prototype building. The differences introduced to the RC members that were cast this week, included the reduction of the steel reinforcement ratio for the columns to 1% which is the minimum steel ratio considered in the 1920 era and is lower than the 2% and 1.5% that was used for the first and second story respectively. Moreover the concrete slabs simulating the roof weight are only 4.5 kips each to reflect the lower mass located at the roof of a structure.
No strain-gauges were placed on the reinforcing bars of this story since so serious damage is anticipated at this level.
The material testing was also initiated this week. Two to four 14 in long samples of each bar diameter were tested in tension so that the properties of the reinforcing bars are obtained.
Click here to see pictures obtained during the 4th week.
9/27/2008 Week 5 Update
The fifth week started with the stripping of the forms and removal of all false work. This was allowed only after two cylinders of the latest concrete batch used were tested to ensure that a minimum required strength was reached. The foundation beam was post-tensioned to the shake table with 22 rods providing a total normal force of 3000 kips. The structure temporarily supported with 4 by 4 in pieces of wood to assist in transferring the vertical loads. For the lateral support of the structure, two steel towers weighing 20 kips each were placed at its two sides to prevent the out of plane motion. The clearance between the towers and the structure on the first and second floor ranges from 1/2 to 1 in to allow the relative movement along the loading direction during the shake table tests.
This week the construction of the masonry panels started and by the end of the week three of the six panels were already built. The masonry configuration selected for the infill panels includes a solid panel and a panel with a window at each floor. The window is offset with respect to the center of the panel to represent a more realistic scenario and also present a more challenging case for the analytical and modeling schemes.
Click here to see pictures obtained during the 5th week.
10/04/2008 Week 6 Update
The construction of the specimen was completed this week. All six masonry panels were built as more than 5000 brick units were laid by 3 professional masons. During the panel construction, around one hundred samples of masonry prisms, triplets, mortar cylinders and cubes were constructed so that compressive, shear, bond wrench and split cylinder tests can be conducted to measure the material properties. After the construction was completed, the scaffolding was removed and temporary hand rails were placed along the edges of the slab to provide some security while the structure is being instrumented. The instrumentation phase is expected to take place with the assistance of undergraduate students and is expected to last four weeks. During this time, the structure will cure and more all the accelerometer and displacement transducers will be mounted on the structure and connected to the data acquisition system. At the end of the week, the concrete frame was painted white so that the cracks become more visible during the testing phase. One side of the masonry wall will be also painted before the testing phase initiates, but after the mortar dries. The material testing also continued and concrete cylinders were tested 28 days after each pour.
Click here to see pictures obtained during the 6th week.
Structural Engineers and Computer Scientists Hope to Integrate Disciplines to 'Revolutionize Building Construction'
Despite the breathtaking evolution of computer science over the past 30 years, structural engineering — hindered by a reluctance to adapt to digital innovations — has remained relatively unchanged as a discipline. With this in mind, a group of UC San Diego engineers and computer scientists (including SE faculty), together with their counterparts at Germany's Bauhaus University of Weimar, are hoping to completely reform the way buildings are constructed by integrating the two fields and bringing data visualization and online collaboration to the forefront of structural design. To read the full story, click here.
SE Hires Four New Faculty in 2008
The Department of SE announces its newest faculty (effective July 1, 2008 ): Yuri Bazilevs from the University of Texas at Austin, David J. Benson, who transferred to SE from MAE, Maurizio Seracini, Director of CISA3, and Yael (Lelli) Van Den Einde, who comes to us from NEESit. To read more, click here.
SE Researchers Could Help U.S. Military Thwart Explosive Threats
Structural Engineering's Professor Francesco Lanza di Scalea and grad student Arun Manohar use an infrared camera to detect possible anomalous objects in boxes and cigarette cartons, which are used to camouflage terrorist bombs. To read the full story, click here.
SE Professor and Graduate Student Receive Award for Outreach Event
Professor P. Benson Shing and graduate student Andreas Stavridis were recently awarded the "Most Effective Outreach and Training Activity of 2008" at the Network of Earthquake Engineering Simulations (NEES) Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon. They were selected for integrating NEES into the California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science (COSMOS) program. A video, made by Stavridis, which compares their National Science Foundation (NSF) research with the work done by COSMOS students, can be viewed by clicking here. Congratulations, Professor Shing and Andreas!
SE Graduates 18 M.S./Ph.D. Students at Sunday’s Commencement
The families and friends of SE’s Class of 2008 graduate students braved the heat and sun to attend the June 22 commencement exercises held on RIMAC Field. This commencement was one of nine separate graduation ceremonies held between June 21 and 23 on the UC San Diego campus. Over 6,000 students and 40,000 parents and extended family and friends took part in all of the various events. To read about other 2008 Graduation events, click here. To view photos from the Office of Graduates Studies 2008 Commencement, click here.
Click here to see the list of graduates.
The Class of 2008 included: M.S. Degrees
Chad Closs
Eric Kjolsing
Tomohiro Kobayashi
Bryan Lin
Jeffrey Macmaster
Ian Prowell
Kaushik Punyamurtula
Christopher Sebilia
Ph.D. Degrees
Ivan Bartoli
Azadeh Bozorgzadeh
Stefano Coccia
Quan Gu
Xianfei He
Babak Moaveni
James Newell
Prishati Raychowdhury
Janet Wolfson
How to Shake 1 Million Pounds of Concrete (updated 9/5/08)
SE researchers have concluded three months of rigorous earthquake simulation tests on a half-scale three-story structure, and will now begin sifting through their results so they can be used in the future designs of buildings (parking garages, college dormitories, hotels, stadiums, prisons, and increasingly, office buildings) across the nation. Researchers produced a series of earthquake jolts as powerful as magnitude 8.0 on a structure resembling a parking garage. The 1 million-pound precast concrete test structure had the largest footprint of any structure ever tested on a shake table in the United States. To read the full story and view videos of the testing, click here. To view photos of the event, click here.
Click here to see the videos of a test representative of a Design Basis Earthquake scenario in Seattle WA.
Time lapsed construction video
North spandrel view
US News and World Report™ Ups Jacobs School of Engineering in National Rankings
UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering was ranked 11th among the nation’s 191 engineering schools, up from 13th place last year. The Department of Structural Engineering, ranked 16th in the specialty of civil engineering. To read the full story, click here.
11/12/08 - 11/20/08; 
12/5/08 - 
