About Induced Seismicity And The Built Environment
To date, our group has investigated multiple aspects on induced earthquakes and their impact on infrastructure. Aspects of this completed research include how much the seismic hazard has increased, how the observed earthquakes events compare to the increased hazard predictions, and how induced ground motions differ from natural ground motion. We are also working to construct a database of observed damage to structures from induced earthquakes. Current research is focused on investigating how damage accumulates in light wood frame residential homes from multiple induced earthquakes occurring in a short time period. Future research aims to investigate what minimum magnitude of induced earthquakes is needed to cause nonstructural and structural damage.
Who we are:
Abbie Liel, PI, Associate Professor, Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering
Bridger Baird, BS/MS Student, Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering
Robert Chase, Ph.D. Student, Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering
Taojun Liu, Former Postdoc, Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering
Contact Information
Email: abbie.liel@colorado.edu
Office Phone: 303-492-1050
Website: http://abbieliel.com
Associate Professor Abbie Liel, PH.D, P.E.
Abbie is an Associate Professor of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She earned undergraduate degrees in Civil Engineering, and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy, at Princeton University. She started her graduate studies in the United Kingdom on a Marshall Scholarship, where she received a M.Sc. in Civil Engineering and a M.Sc. in Building and Urban Design and Development. Abbie did her Ph.D. at Stanford University, under the guidance of Professor Gregory Deierlein, focusing on collapse risk of older non-ductile concrete frame structures. At CU, Abbie has worked on problems related to performance of concrete buildings, snow loads on structures, and flood damage in the 2013 Boulder, CO floods. She recently received the Shah Family Innovation Prize from the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute. She is the PI for this project, and the lead on the engineering assessments of damage from induced events.
Taojun Liu, PH.D.
Taojun Liu is currently a Pipeline Risk Engineer working at TransCanada Pipelines Ltd. He received his PH.D. from the University of Western Ontario. From September 2015 until February 2017, Taojun worked as a Research Associate at the University of Colorado in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering and also worked on the United States Geological Survey Hazards and Mapping Team as a NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow.
Robert Chase, PH.D. Candidate
Robert Chase is currently a PH.D. Candidate at the University of Colorado Boulder researching ground motions from induced earthquakes and how they impact infrastructure. Robert also received his M.S. in Civil Engineering at CU and his B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of New Hampshire.
Bridger Baird
Bridger is a B.S./M.S. student at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is currently gathering data on damage from induced earthquakes and is beginning to start new research investigating how damage seen from induced earthquakes is correlated to earthquake characteristics.
Products:
Journal Articles
White, Isabel, Taojun Liu~, Nicolas Luco and Abbie B. Liel. “Considerations in comparing the USGS induced-one-year seismicity models with “Did You Feel It?” and instrumental data”, Seismological Research Letters, 89(1), 127 – 137, 2017. Available here: https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/ssa/srl/article/89/1/127/523094/considerations-in-comparing-the-u-s-geological
Chase, Robert and Abbie B. Liel. “Fragility of Brittle Structures in Induced Earthquakes”, Under Review.
Liu, Taojun, Nicolas Luco, and Abbie B. Liel. “Increases in Life-Safety Risks from Induced Earthquakes in the Central United States”, Under Review.
Conference Papers
Chase, Robert and Abbie B. Liel. “Potential for Damage to Brittle Structures in Induced Earthquakes”, 16th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, January 2017.
Liu, Taojun, Nicolas Luco, Abbie B. Liel, and Susan Hoover. “Building collapse and life endangerment risks from induced seismicity in the United States”, 16th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, January 2017.
Liu, Taojun, Nicolas Luco, Abbie B. Liel and Sanaz Rezaeian, “Stochastic Ground Motion Simulations for Assessment of Regional Losses from Induced Earthquakes” ICOSSAR, Vienna, August 2017.
Other talks and presentations
White, Isabel, Taojun Liu, Nicolas Luco and Abbie B. Liel , “Comparison between the 2016 USGS induced- seismicity hazard one-year forecast and the 2016 “Did You Feel It?” data archive” Seismological Society of America Annual Meeting, Denver, 2017.
Poster presentation by Isabel White at SCEC annual meeting. Comparisons between the 2016 USGS induced- seismicity hazard model and “Did You Feel It?” data Isabel White, Taojun Liu, Nicolas Luco, Abbie Liel
Conference Paper
Chase R, Liel A, Luco N. Damage Accumulation for a Two-Story Wood Frame Building in Sequences of Induced Earthquakes. Proceedings of the 11th National Conference in Earthquake Engineering, Los Angeles, CA. 2018.
(This last conference paper will be available soon).
Upcoming Events
Abbie is giving a short presentation at the 2018 Oklahoma Seismicity Workshop on “Potential for Damage and Damage Accumulation in Structures from Induced Earthquakes,” February 2018.
Rob Chase is presenting his work at the 2018 Structures Congress in Fort Worth, Texas. The title of his talk is “Damage Accumulation in Sequences of Induced Earthquakes”. April, 2018. Rob will also be presenting his work on damage accumulation at the 11th National Conference in Earthquake Engineering in June, 2018.