The California Earthquake Authority (CEA) has just awarded a $3.4 million, 3.5-year research contract to the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER). The research project, “Quantifying the Performance of Retrofit of Cripple Walls and Sill Anchorage in Single Family Wood-frame Buildings,” will evaluate the seismic performance of residential homes. The project will directly contribute to the improvement of seismic resiliency of California’s housing stock. This multi-year project will be conducted by a team of academic and practicing experts with unique and nationally recognized expertise in seismic design, analysis, testing, and earthquake risk modeling. The team includes researchers from UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC San Diego, and Stanford University, as well as experienced practicing engineers in California.

“The project will include comprehensive experimental and simulation studies to investigate the potential of damage to retrofitted and un-retrofitted residential homes in California,” said Professor Yousef Bozorgnia, Principal Investigator of the project. “The results and findings of the project will quantify the benefits of seismic upgrade for earthquake insurance in California,” said Professor Steve Mahin, an earthquake engineering expert at UC Berkeley. “I commend the dedication of the research team and congratulate them on this important research project,” said Professor Khalid Mosalam, Director of PEER.

For more information about the project, contact PEER at peer_center@berkeley.edu or Professor Bozorgnia at yousef@berkeley.edu.

The California Earthquake Authority (CEA) is one of the world’s largest providers of residential earthquake insurance. CEA encourages California homeowners and renters to reduce their risk of earthquake damage and loss through education, mitigation, and insurance policies that help repair and rebuild damaged homes, and replace valuables and personal belongings. CEA research is focused on learning how to reduce damage caused by earthquakes. For more information go to www.earthquakeauthority.com.

PEER is a consortium of ten of the nation’s leading research universities with the mission to develop, validate, and disseminate performance-based seismic design technologies for buildings and infrastructure to meet the diverse economic and safety needs of owners and society. PEER institutions and engineering practitioners with whom they partner form the preeminent model of collaboration between research and practice. For more information go to peer.berkeley.edu.