A UC Berkeley engineering research team led by Professor Kenichi Soga was recently granted $3 million by the California Energy Commission to enhance the seismic risk assessment of natural gas storage and pipeline infrastructure. Over three years, the team will use remote and embedded sensing technology and advanced data management and analysis techniques to monitor gas infrastructure continuously. These methods will be integrated into OpenSRA, an open-source software tool for monitoring and risk assessment, enabling predictive modeling and data analytics even in uncertain conditions. Effective usage of this tool is expected to increase the safety and resilience of natural gas storage, piping, and infrastructure systems by enabling regulators and owners to focus seismic mitigation efforts on the most vulnerable components.
“The project aims to showcase the practical utility of sensing and monitoring technologies, especially when combined with the open-source seismic risk assessment software tool,” explained Soga. “By leveraging cutting-edge sensing and monitoring capabilities with digital twin analyses, this integrated approach will empower utility owners with an enhanced means to assess risks to their systems.”
Researchers and experts from UC Berkeley Engineering, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Slate Geotechnical Consultants, and the NHERI Computational Modeling and Simulation Center (SimCenter) will conduct the work. Southern California Gas Company and Pacific Gas and Electric Company are cooperating utilities. The Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER) will provide support. Check out the Berkeley Center for Smart Infrastructure website to learn more about the initiative.
Soga was also recently announced as the 63rd Rankine Lecturer by the British Geotechnical Association (BGA). He will deliver the lecture in March 2025 at Imperial College London. The Rankine Lecture is one of the most prestigious lectures in Geotechnics and is a UK-based lecture series. Learn more about the series on the Berkeley Geosystems Engineering website.