PEER and NEES are sponsoring a blind prediction contest for two, full-scale, four-story buildings tested simultaneously on the NIED E-Defense shake table in December 2010. The two buildings are similar, with the same height and floor plan; one building utilizes a conventional reinforced concrete (RC) structural system with shear walls and moment frames whereas the other utilizes the same systems constructed with post-tensioned (PT) members. The buildings were subjected to increasing intensity shaking using the JMA-Kobe record until a near-collapse state is reached.
The contest is open to teams from the practicing structural engineering community and the academic and research community (including students). International entries are welcome. The winner from each category: one from researchers and another from practicing engineers, will be recognized and awarded.
The prediction contest will be “blind” and compare analytical response “predictions” with those measured during experimental testing. Each participant should predict failure mode of the primary structural elements and several response quantities. Because the actual loadings will be determined during the course of the testing each participant should use these loadings in the analytical simulations. The closest predictions to the test results will be awarded.
While names and affiliations of all participating teams will be identified, results will be presented anonymously (unlabeled), except for those of the “winning” entries from each contestant category. The winners will be announced and awarded at NEES Annual Meeting to be held in Boston in July 2012. PEER will reimburse a representative of the winning team from each of two award categories allowable travel expenses to attend the either the PEER annual meeting or possibly the NEES/E-Defense annual planning meeting held at NIED, typically in September.
Due date for submitting results of post-test analysis is November 4, 2011.
