Arup, a global sustainable development consultancy, and the NHERI SimCenter, an NSF-funded center dedicated to accelerating innovation and technology transfer in natural hazards engineering, have aligned efforts to advance the field of post-earthquake functional recovery simulation with the release of the Resilience-Based Design Initiative (REDi) Seismic Downtime Model. The release is made through PyREDi, an open-source Python package that implements the latest version of Arups REDi Seismic Downtime Model, which is available at Arups GitHub repository. It is also accessible in an updated version of the SimCenters Performance-Based Engineering (PBE) Application, marking a significant contribution to the engineering and disaster resilience communities.
The REDi guidelines were developed by Arup to provide owners, architects, and engineers a framework for resilience-based design for earthquakes, extreme storms, and flooding. This launch provides open access to the official REDi Seismic Downtime Model, allowing practitioners to evaluate the resilience of their building designs, and enabling researchers to better understand and simulate the recovery of buildings and communities after earthquakes. The REDi Seismic Downtime Model can be employed for risk assessment due to its inherent probabilistic nature, making it well-suited for integration into various risk frameworks. By making the model publicly available, the developers foster feedback from the community, and they are committed to provide subsequent updates to ensure that the REDi Seismic Downtime Model continues to represent the state of the art in resilient design and downtime recovery modeling.
"We are thrilled to see these aligned efforts take shape in Arups open-source release of REDi and its integration as the first open-source functional recovery simulation engine in the SimCenter PBE Application," said Adam Zsarnóczay, Associate Director for Research Outreach at SimCenter. "This coordination underscores SimCenters commitment to driving innovation, supporting open science, and bridging research and practice in the realm of engineering simulations and disaster resilience."
"As demand for resilient buildings and communities grows, equitable access to data and collaborative innovation are keys to ensuring that critical simulations are evolving to better meet the needs of researchers and engineers, said Ibbi Almufti, Principal at Arup and lead author of the REDi guidelines. By making the official REDi Seismic Downtime Model and previously unpublished updates open-source, were providing more resources to create safer and more resilient communities while championing the latest in technology and resilient design approaches.
The extended SimCenter PBE Application is available for download through SimCenters website. To facilitate users getting started, an example problem and corresponding documentation are available in the PBE Application. Detailed documentation describing the REDi Seismic Downtime Model methodology can be found on Arups REDi Rating System site.
To access the open-source version of the REDi Seismic Downtime Model, please visit these platforms:
Feedback is welcome from all users. To provide insights or inquiries about this development, please email the SimCenters Dr. Adam Zsarnóczay (adamzs@stanford.edu) and Arups Dr. Stevan Gavrilovic (stevan.gavrilovic@arup.com).
About Arup: Dedicated to sustainable development, Arup is a collective of designers, consultants and experts working globally. Founded to be humane and excellent, we collaborate with our clients and partners using imagination, technology, and rigor to shape a better world.
About SimCenter: The NHERI SimCenter, comprised of researchers and experts in natural hazards, provides researchers and practitioners access to next-generation computational modeling and simulation software tools, user support, and educational materials needed to advance their capability to simulate the impact of natural hazards on structures, lifelines, and communities. The SimCenter is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (1612843 & 2131111).
