MULTI-AXIAL FULL-SCALE SUB-STRUCTURED TESTING AND SIMULATION (MUST-SIM) FACILITY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF

Seismic risk assessment is taking a giant leap by virtue of the unprecedented opportunities offered by the George E. Brown Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulations (NEES), comprising state-of-the-art experiment sites networked by the most advanced cyberinfrastructure (NEESgrid) available worldwide. This paper introduces the vision of integrated experimental and computational simulation as articulated by the MUST-SIM team at the University of Illinois. Cases where the distributed simulation vision may be applied to enhance the realism, accuracy and economy of seismic performance assessment are given. The application scenarios presented fully utilize the NEES approach to aid in providing the basis to mitigate the effect of earthquakes on existing infrastructure and furnishing data upon which enhanced design procedures may be derived. The paper closes with the description of the software and hardware components of the MUST-SIM facility and its operational characteristics