James M. Kelly

Professor Emeritus

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James M. Kelly is presently Professor in the Graduate School at the University of California at Berkeley. In recent years he has been primarily concerned with seismic response of structures and new methods of seismic-resistant design. He has carried out numerous large-scale experimental studies of isolation systems, structures with energy-absorbing devices, and structures with piping systems on the large shaking table at the Earthquake Engineering Research Center (EERC) of U.C. Berkeley. He has recently been involved in the development of energy-absorbing devices for the seismic protection of tall structures for which base isolation is not feasible. The energy-absorbing devices explored in this test program have included frictional devices and devices using high-damping viscoelastic materials and shape-memory alloys. Professor Kelly has been the leading proponent in the United States of using multilayer elastomeric bearings for seismic protection of buildings, and through the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) he has been instrumental in developing low-cost seismic isolation systems for the protection of housing and other structures in earthquake-prone developing countries.

He was the first in the U.S. to start teaching university-level courses on seismic isolation and energy dissipation beginning with a graduate course at UC Berkeley in1991. He conducted many short-courses and seminars on isolation and energy dissipation worldwide. He has been a consultant to: International seismic isolation projects in Chile, China, Indonesia, Italy, Korea, and Greece; International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); EPRI on seismic performance of equipment and piping systems in power plants; General Electric Co. on seismic isolation of liquid metal fast breeder nuclear power plants; Argonne National Laboratory on seismic isolation for nuclear facilities.

His work, which formed the basis for significant advances worldwide in the analysis and design of isolation and energy dissipation systems, is the foundation for many of the base isolation design codes used today, including UBC, IBC, and CBC. Base isolation has been used for seismic retrofit of major buildings in the U.S. including important historic structures such as the city halls of Salt Lake City; Oakland, CA; San Francisco; Los Angeles; and the Hearst Memorial Mining Building, Berkeley, CA, on which he was a consultant. Dr. Kelly’s pioneering efforts have established seismic isolation and energy dissipation as important methods for earthquake protection. Various forms have been used in more than 1000 major structures worldwide.  Professor Kelly, well recognized as an outstanding teacher and lecturer, has directed over thirty doctoral students in their Ph.D. thesis research who have gone on to become noted practitioners, university professors and researchers worldwide. Many Fulbright Visiting Scholars have come to Berkeley to work with him. His students and visitors (and their students), have spread worldwide his creative and innovative work on seismic protection of structures. Dr. Kelly has published over 375 papers over the course of his career.

Education

Ph.D. - Civil Engineering, Stanford University, 1962
S.M. - Engineering, Brown University, 1959
B.Sc.(First Class Honors) - Civil Engineering, University of Glasgow, 1956

Dr. Kelly has been an influential educator, researcher and consultant in a wide range of engineering mechanics, structural engineering and earthquake engineering. He did pioneering work in dislocation mechanics, dynamic plasticity, impact and wave propagation. He developed the first energy-dissipating devices in 1971 to be used in earthquake resistant structures. Since then he has led the way in experimental investigations of elastomeric seismic isolation bearings by conducting many pioneering studies of seismically isolated structures and structures with energy dissipators. In testing hundreds of bearings he achieved numerous advances, including the application of high-damping rubber for seismic isolation bearings - used in the first U.S. isolated building and in more than 100 structures around the world and the understanding of the dynamic and ultimate behavior of elastomeric seismic isolation at large deformation.

Dr. Kelly led the development of the field of seismic supplemental damping, or energy dissipation. He was responsible for the first U.S. shake table investigations of the response of structures containing energy dissipators, and has conducted component and system-level experimental and analytical research on many concepts, including yielding steel, friction, viscoelastic, viscous, shapememory alloy and elecffo-rheological systems. He was instrumental in several of the early U.S. energy dissipation applications, consulted on the implementation of viscous dampers for the suspended spans of the Golden Gate Bridge, and for the first major U.S. building damper project, the Santa Clara County Civic Center Building that was retrofit with viscoelastic dampers following the Loma Prieta earthquake. He worked to develop seismic isolation for low-cost housing in developing countries as a consultant to the United Nations (UNIDO), and has consulted on projects in Armenia, Chile, China, India, and Indonesia, where isolation has been used for residential complex construction. He initiated seminal investigations on the seismic behavior of secondary systems that led to his development of methods for protection of equipment from seismic damage by the use ofjoint passive and active isolation strategies.

He was the first in the U.S. to start teaching university-level courses on seismic isolation and energy dissipation. He has been a consultant to: International seismic isolation projects in Chile, China, Indonesia, Italy, Korea, and Greece; Intemational Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); EPRI on seismic performance of equipment and piping systems in power plants; General Electric Co. on seismic isolation of liquid metal fast breeder nuclear power plants; Argonne National Laboratory on seismic isolation for nuclear facilities. He conducted short-courses and seminars on isolation and energy dissipation worldwide.

His work, which formed the basis for significant advances worldwide in the analysis and design of isolation and energy dissipation systems, is the foundation for many of the base isolation design codes used today, including UBC, IBC, and CBC. Base isolation has been used for seismic retrofit of major buildings in the U.S. including important historic sffuctures such as the city halls of Salt Lake City; Oakland, CA; San Francisco; Los Angeles; and the Hearst Memorial Mining Building, Berkeley, CA, on which he was a consultant. Dr. Kelly's pioneering efforts have established seismic isolation and energy dissipation as important methods for earthquake protection. Various forms have been used in more than 1000 major structures worldwide. Professor Kelly, well recognized as an outstanding teacher and lecturer, has directed over thirty doctoral students in their Ph.D. thesis research who have gone on to become noted practitioners, university professorsa nd researchersw orldwide. Many Fulbright Visiting Scholars have come to Berkeley to work with him. His students and visitors (and their students), have spread worldwide his creative and innovative work on seismic protection of structures.

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