Seismic Stability Evaluation of Earth Dams: On-Demand

You must log in to register

Speakers: Lelio H. Mejia, PhD, PE, GE, Principal Engineer and Vice President, AECOM; and Richard J. Armstron, PhD, PE, Water Resource Engineer, California Division of Safety of Dams

PDHs: This webinar is eligible for 2 PDH credits.

Earthquakes represent a hazard to dams in many parts of the United States and therefore are of interest to design engineers and dam safety officials. Evaluation of the seismic stability of these dams to future anticipated earthquakes require an understanding of seismic hazards, site exploration methods, soil behavior under seismic loading, and seismic stability analysis techniques. This webinar will cover the fundamentals of these topics to provide design engineers and dam safety officials with basic knowledge to help in the analysis and review of seismic analyses of earth dams.

Topics covered include: examples of seismic performance of embankment dams, selection of applicable evaluation procedures, liquefaction evaluation, cyclic softening evaluation, soil strength, and seismic stability analysis. Key concepts to understand will be presented for each topic with examples to demonstrate the application of these concepts to practice.

Lelio H. Mejia, PhD, PE, GE

Senior Principal

Geosyntec Consultants, Inc.

Dr. Lelio Mejia is a registered civil and geotechnical engineer with more than 35 years of experience in dam engineering, soil liquefaction, earthquake ground motions, soil-structure interaction, and soil improvement. He is a senior principal with Geosyntec Consultants and leads the firm’s Western U.S. dams and levees practice.

Lelio has directed the investigations and seismic stability evaluations of more than 25 large earth dams and has been involved in the design and construction of more than 15 major dam projects worldwide. He has served on multiple prestigious technical review boards and expert panels for U.S. federal and state agencies, water and power utilities, and other owners on various dam projects worldwide. He has led the design and helped manage the construction of several dam projects, including projects with more than $300 million in construction costs.
Lelio currently serves as the chair of the United States Society on Dams Earthquakes Committee and as a vice chairman of the International Commission on Large Dams Committee on Seismic Aspects of Dam Design. He was a member of the National Academies Committee for the State of the Art and Practice in Earthquake Induced Soil Liquefaction Assessment, a secretarial appointee to the Advisory Committee on Structural Safety of Department of Veterans Affairs Facilities, and chair of the Governance Board of the National Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation. Lelio has been a lecturer of geotechnical earthquake engineering and a member of the editorial board for the American Society of Civil Engineers Journal of Geotechnical Engineering and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

Richard J. Armstron, PhD, PE

Water Resource Engineer, California Division of Safety of Dams

Dr. Armstrong is a water resource engineer at the California Division of Safety of Dams. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Manitoba, Canada (2003); Master’s degree in Geomechanics from Stanford University (2005); and Doctoral degree in Geotechnical Engineering from the University of California, Davis (2010). Dr. Armstrong has over 10 years of experience conducting both simplified and complex dynamic analyses of geotechnical structures, including the seismic evaluation of embankment dams, and has published multiple papers on geotechnical earthquake engineering. During his graduate studies, Dr. Armstrong was the recipient of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada award (2003-2007), the Fugro West Graduate Fellowship (2008), and the United States Society of Dams Outstanding Young Professional Paper Award (2010).