Biography

Dr. Ken Elwood serves as the MBIE Chair in Earthquake Engineering and Director of the newest Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE), QuakeCoRE: Centre for Earthquake Resilience.

Ken joined the University of Auckland in July 2014 after 11 years as a faculty member at the University of British Columbia, Canada. Ken was drawn to New Zealand to pursue the numerous opportunities for research and implementation in earthquake risk reduction. He is actively involved in research related to the seismic response of existing concrete and masonry buildings.

Ken received his PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 2002, M.S. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1995, and BASc from the University of British Columbia in 1993.

Ken is a member of several national and international code committees including the seismic provisions of the American Concrete Instititute Building Code (ACI 318). He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) and Chair of the EERI Learning from Earthquakes program.

Research Interests

Seismic assessment of existing concrete and masonry buildings, performance-based seismic design, seismic retrofit, nonlinear structural analysis, shake table testing, earthquake disaster resilience.

Publications

• K. J. Elwood, Baradaran-Shoraka, M., and Yang, T. Y., “Collapse probability of existing concrete buildings: the evolution of seismic rehabilitation”, in Performance Based Seismic Engineering – Vision for an Earthquake Resilient Society, Springer, In Press.
• B. R. Robazza, Yang, T. Y., Brzev, S., Elwood, K. J., Anderson, D. L., and McEwen, W., “Response of slender reinforced masonry shear walls with flanged boundary elements under in-plane lateral loading: An experimental study”, Engineering Structures, vol. 190, pp. 389 – 409, 2019.
• M. Baradaran-Shoraka and Elwood, K. J., “Mechanical Model for Non-Ductile Reinforced Concrete Columns”, Journal of Earthquake Engineering, 2013.
• K. J. Elwood, “Performance of Concrete Buildings in the 22 February 2011 Christchurch Earthquake and Implications for Canadian Codes”, Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, 2013.
• M. Baradaran-Shoraka, Yang, T. Y., and Elwood, K. J., “Seismic Loss Estimation of Non-Ductile Reinforced Concrete Buildings”, Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, vol. 42, no. 2, pp. 297-310, 2013.
• S. Yavari, Lin, S. – H., Elwood, K. J., Wu, C. – L., Hwang, S. – J., and Moehle, J. P., “Shaking Table Tests on reinforced Concrete Frames without Seismic Detailing”, ACI Structural Journal, 2013.
• B. Westenenk, de la Llera, J., Besa, J. J., Junemann, R., Moehle, J., Luders, C., Inaudi, J. A., Elwood, K. J., and Hwang, S. – J., “Response of Reinforced Concrete Buildings in Concepcion during the Maule Earthquake”, Earthquake Spectra, vol. 28, no. S1, pp. S257-S280, 2012.
• H. Sezen, Hookam, C., Elwood, K. J., Moore, M., and Bartlett, M., “Core Testing Requirements for Seismic Evaluation of Existing Reinforced Concrete Structures”, Concrete International, 2011.
• W. Y. Kam, Pampanin, S., and Elwood, K. J., “Seismic Performance of Reinforced Concrete Buildings in the 22 February Christchurch Earthquake”, Bulletin of the New Zealand Society of Earthquake Engineering, vol. 44, no. 4, 2011.
• D. Mitchell, Paultre, P., Tinawi, R., Saatcioglu, M., Tremblay, R., Elwood, K. J., Adams, J., and DeVall, R. H., “Evolution of Seismic Design Provisions in the National Building Code of Canada”, Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, vol. 37, no. 9, 2010.
• S. Yavari, Chang, S., and Elwood, K. J., “Modeling Post-Earthquake Functionality of Regional Health Care Facilities”, Earthquake Spectra, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 869-892, 2010.
• K. J. Elwood, Maffei, J., Riederer, K., and Telleen, K., “Improving column confinement: Part 2 – A new confinement provision of ACI 318”, Concrete International, 2009.
• L. Zhu, Elwood, K. J., and Haukaas, T., “Classification and seismic safety evaluation of existing reinforced concrete columns”, ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering, vol. 133, no. 9, pp. 1316-1330, 2007.
• S. D. Koduru, Haukaas, T., and Elwood, K. J., “Probabilistic evaluation of global seismic capacity of degrading structures”, Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, vol. 36, pp. 2043-2058, 2007.
• L. Zhu, Elwood, K. J., Haukaas, T., and Gardoni, P., “Application of a probabilistic drift capacity model for shear-critical columns, deformation capacity and shear strength of reinforced concrete members under cyclic loading”, ACI Special Publication (SP-236), 2006.