As part of its support for the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released NEHRP Seismic Design Technical Brief No.2, Seismic Design of Steel Special Moment Frames: A Guide for Practicing Engineers, NIST GCR 09-917-3.

Technical Brief No. 2 was developed by the NEHRP Consultants Joint Venture, a partnership of the Applied Technology Council (ATC) and the Consortium of Universities for Research in Earthquake Engineering (CUREE), under its five-year indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity research contract with NIST. The document was co-authored by Ronald O. Hamburger, Helmut Krawinkler, James O. Malley, and Scott M. Adan, who developed the document for the NEHRP Consultants Joint Venture. Douglas Foutch, Roberto Leon, and Thomas A. Sabol also contributed to its development.

The technical brief is available for download in electronic format at the NEHRP web site, http://nehrp.gov/pdf/nistgcr9-917-3.pdf, as well as the NEHRP Consultants Joint Venture website, www.nehrp-consultants.org.

In the future, NIST intends to produce one to three Technical Briefs per year that address topics of interest to earthquake professionals, primarily those in the design and construction industries. The Technical Brief concept was originally proposed by a group of nationally recognized earthquake professionals in 2003 in ATC-57, The Missing Piece: Improving Seismic Design and Construction Practices. NIST anticipates producing one on seismic design of reinforced concrete diaphragm analysis and design and another on guidelines for performing nonlinear structural analysis in 2010.

For more information, please contact Jon Heintz, 650-595-1542, jheintz@atcouncil.org.

This technical brief is also available for download in electronic format at the NEHRP web site, http://www.nehrp.gov/pdf/nistgcr9-917-3.pdf

Also available:

NEHRP Seismic Design Technical Brief No.1 - Seismic Design of Reinforced Concrete Special Moment Frames: A Guide for Practicing Engineers

Co-authored by Jack P. Moehle, John D. Hooper, and Chris D. Lubke

NEHRP Seismic Design Technical Brief No. 1 synthesizes model building code requirements and practitioner-recognized techniques to provide concise guidance on the design, specification, and construction of Reinforced Concrete Special Moment Frames. The publication is keyed to the latest seismic design standards for concrete construction. It features a magazine-style layout that is well-illustrated and annotated with sidebars for additional discussion on the issues.

This technical brief is also available for download in electronic format at the NEHRP web site, http://www.nehrp.gov/pdf/nistgcr8-917-1.pdf