This is the Performance Based Engineering (PBE) Application.

The PBE Application (PBE App) is an open-source software (https://github.com/NHERI-SimCenterPBE) that provides researchers a tool to assess the performance of a building in an earthquake scenario. The application focuses on quantifying building performance through decision variables. Given that the properties of the buildings and the earthquake events are not known exactly, and that the simulation software and the user make simplifying assumptions in the numerical modeling of the structure, the estimate response of the structure already exhibits significant variability. Such response can be estimated using our EE-UQ Application (https://simcenter.designsafe-ci.org/ research-tools/ee-uq-application/). The PBE App builds on the EE-UQ App and uses its response estimates to assess the damage to building components and the consequences of such damage.

The user can characterize the simulation model, and the damage and loss model of the structure, and the seismic hazard model in the PBE App. All models are interconnected by an uncertainty quantification framework that allows the user to define a flexible stochastic model for the problem. Given the stochastic model, the application first performs nonlinear response history simulations to get the Engineering Demand Parameters (EDPs) that describe structural response . Then those EDPs are used to assess the Damage Measures (DM) and Decision Variables (DV) that characterize structural performance.

Depending on the type of structural system, the fidelity of the numerical model and the number of EDP samples required, the response history simulations can be computationally prohibitively expensive. To overcome this impediment, the user has the option to perform the response simulations on the Stampede2 supercomputer. Stampede2 is located at the Texas Advanced Computing Center and made available to the user through NHERI DesignSafe-CI, the cyberinfrastructure provider for the distributed NSF funded Natural Hazards in Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) facility.

The computations are performed in a workflow application. That is, the numerical simulations are actually performed by a sequence of different applications. The PBE backend software runs these various applications for the user, taking the outputs from some programs and providing them as inputs to others. The design of the PBE App is such that researchers are able to modify the backend application to utilize their own application in the workflow computations. This will ensure researchers are not limited to using the default applications we provide and will be enthused to provide their own applications for others to use.

Researchers are encouraged to comment on what additional features and applications they would like to see in the PBE App. If you want a feature, chances are many of your colleagues would also benefit from it. Additional requests should be posted at the SimCenter forum .

Acknowledgment

This work is based on material supported by the National Science Foundation under grant 1612843