1. About

This open-source research application, which is available at EE-UQ Github page, is released under a 3-Clause BSD license (see Copyright and License). The EE-UQ app can be used to predict the response of a building subjected to earthquake events. The application is focused on quantifying the uncertainties in the predicted response, given that the properties of the buildings and the earthquake events are not known exactly, and both the simulation software and the user makes simplifying assumptions in the numerical modeling of that structure. In this application, the user is required to characterize the uncertainties in the input. The application will, after utilizing the user-selected sampling method, provide information that characterizes the uncertainties in the computed response measures. As the computations to make these determinations can be prohibitively expensive to perform on a user’s local computer, the user has the option to perform the computations remotely on the Frontera supercomputer. Frontera is located at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) and made available to the user through NHERI DesignSafe, the cyberinfrastructure provider for the distributed NSF funded Natural Hazards in Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) facility.

Whether running locally or remotely, the computations are performed, as will be discussed in Technical Manual, in a workflow application. That is, the numerical simulations are performed by several different applications. The EE-UQ app backend software runs these different applications for the user, taking the outputs from some programs and providing them as inputs to others. The design of the EE-UQ app is such that researchers can modify the backend application to utilize their application in the workflow computations. This will ensure researchers are not limited to using the default applications we provide and will be enthused to provide their applications for others to use.

This document covers Version 3.5 of the tool. Users are encouraged to comment on what additional features and capabilities they would like to see in this application. These requests and feedback can be submitted through the Message Board we greatly appreciate any input you have. If there are features you want, chances are many of your colleagues also would benefit from them. Users are encouraged to review Requirements to see what features are planned for this application.