Richard Wiebe joined the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Washington in 2014 after working at the Air Force Research Laboratory where he investigated the nonlinear dynamics of aerospace structures. Prior to this, Richard received his Ph.D. from Duke University in December 2012, his Master's at the University of Waterloo in 2009, and his Bachelor's in 2007 from Lakehead University, all in Civil Engineering. His research is focused on characterizing and exploiting nonlinear structural behaviors to improve the performance of aerospace, civil, and mechanical structures. He is especially interested in working at the boundaries between these disciplines. Applications of his research range from structural dynamics and life-cycle of hypersonic aircraft structures, passive-adaptive structural response of composite marine hydrokinetic turbine blades, and base-isolation of buildings using walls with tailored rocking interfaces.
Many novel lateral force resisting systems have been developed to improve the seismic performance and resilience of structures. One promising approach is the use post-tensioned rocking walls as lateral load resisting systems. Despite the many benefits of rocking systems (e.g. small residual drift and simplified repairs after extreme events), several additional opportunities for improved performance remain. This talk will focus on the concept of curved-base rocking walls, a redesign over traditional rectangular profile walls, and will explore the potential benefits of this simple geometric modification. It will introduce the governing equations and use them to characterize the ways in which the system behavior can be tailored. Both analytical, and computational results will be discussed. The talk will also provide context through a brief overview of non-smooth (such as rocking systems) and smooth nonlinear dynamics.