Peterman Wins Norman Medal from ASCE

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Kara Peterman, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, has won the 2018 Norman Medal, the highest honor granted by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The award is given for a technical paper that “makes a definitive contribution to engineering science.”

Peterman was the lead author on the paper published in the ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering in December 2016, which described research performed while she was a graduate research assistant at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.  The paper is titled “Experimental Seismic Response of a Full-Scale Cold-Formed Steel-Framed Building. I: System-Level Response.”  

Cold-formed steel is the common term for products made by rolling or pressing steel at relatively low temperatures into light and efficient structural components used for load-bearing and non-load bearing construction. Cold-formed steel structural systems are predominantly used in low-to-midrise buildings, and are a popular choice for residential and commercial projects due to the economy of construction and structural efficiency (high strength-to-weight ratio).

Peterman says, “This paper detailed system-level results for a large shake-table testing campaign of two full-scale cold-formed steel buildings. This work was the first to examine how cold-formed steel building structures perform under earthquakes and further demonstrated that existing design specifications are adequate. The buildings ultimately survived severe ground motions with no structural damage and only minor damage to nonstructural components and cladding.”

She added, “The work also demonstrated that the structural components designated to resist seismic forces actually share and distribute these forces across the entire building system, and that behavior can only be characterized by considering the complete building system.”

In addition, the experiments described in this paper were the first tests of a cold-formed steel-framed building.

Richard Palmer, department head, says, “I congratulate Dr. Peterman on the outstanding award. ASCE has been giving it for over 100 years, so that puts her in very, very good company.”