Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Mehmet Celebi

Mehmet Çelebi is a Research Civil Engineer with the Earthquake Science Center.

Mehmet Çelebi received his BSc degree in Civil Engineering in 1964 from Middle East Technical University [METU] (Ankara, Turkey), MSc, degree in Civil Engineering in 1965 from Stanford University and PhD degree in Civil/Structural Engineering in 1968 from Mc Gill University (Montreal, Canada). He taught in METU as Assistant and Associate Professor (1969-1977), as tenured Professor in San Francisco State University (1981-84), He also worked in industry as Principal Engineer and Specialist in Engineering Decision Analyses Co (Palo Alto, CA) and Bechtel Power Corporation (San Francisco, CA) between 1977-1981). He joined USGS in 1984 as a research Civil Engineer where he was assigned, championed and led in efforts in seismic structural monitoring of structures and related research. In addition, as a USGS researcher and/or EERI post-earthquake studies team-member, he participated in numerous national and international post-earthquake reconnaissance studies as well as field work. These include but are not limited to: 1985 Valparaiso (Chile), 1985 Michoacan (Mexico), 1987 Whittier-Narrows (CA), 1989 Loma Prieata (CA), 1992 Erzincan Turkey), 1994 Northridge (CA), 1995 Kobe (Japan), 1999 Izmit (Turkey), 2010 Maule (Chile), 2011 Tohoku (Japan), 2016 Cushing (OK) earthquakes and participated in related research and technical reports.

In 2000-2006 period, utilizing GPS units and accelerometers with real-time response measurements, his publications include pioneering studies Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) using threshold drift ratios in establishing occupationabilty of buildings subjected to severe shaking events. Since 2010, Dr. Çelebi has concentrated on analyses of recorded responses of tall buildings during strong and ambient shaking. Such studies has contributed to data bases that establish recommendations for (a) minimum seismic monitoring required for tall buildings, (b) dynamic characteristics such as fundamental structural periods and critical damping percentages, (c) analyses methods to extract building specific characteristics and (d) assessing damage condition of the buildings from recorded data. He has co-edited a recent book on Seismic Structural Health Monitoring and published more than 230 technical papers, books, reports, conference papers.

Science and Products

link
The 55-story tall building in Osaka, Japan, and a map with a red star at the location of the building. (Photo by Mehmet Çelebi)

55-Story Tall Building – Before and After Earthquake Retrofit

Release Date: MARCH 26, 2018 A building in Japan was analyzed before and after a seismic retrofit to make it more resilient to shaking.
By
Natural Hazards, Earthquake Hazards
link

55-Story Tall Building – Before and After Earthquake Retrofit

Release Date: MARCH 26, 2018 A building in Japan was analyzed before and after a seismic retrofit to make it more resilient to shaking.
Learn More
Filter Total Items: 92

Quantifying modeling uncertainty in simplified beam models for building response prediction

The use of simple models for response prediction of building structures is preferred in earthquake engineering for risk evaluations at regional scales, as they make computational studies more feasible. The primary impediment in their gainful use presently is the lack of viable methods for quantifying (and reducing upon) the modeling errors/uncertainties they bear. This study presents a Bayesian ca
By
Natural Hazards, Earthquake Hazards, Earthquake Science Center

Seismic monitoring solutions for buildings

This chapter introduces seismic monitoring of structural systems for buildings and begins with a historical background of this topic in the United States. After providing the historical context, the chapter reviews common seismic instrumentation issues such as utilization of data, code versus extensive instrumentation, free-field instrumentation, record synchronization requirements and more. Recen
By
Natural Hazards, Earthquake Hazards, Earthquake Science Center

Response study of a tall San Diego, California building inferred from the M7.1 July 5, 2019 Ridgecrest, California earthquake motions

The shaking of a new 24-story tall building in San Diego, California, was recorded by its seismic monitoring array during the M7.1 Ridgecrest, California earthquake of July 5, 2019. The building is located ~340 km from the epicenter of the event. The building is a special moment framed (SMF) steel structure with reduced beam sections (RBS) and viscous damper systems (DS). Peak accelerations record
By
Natural Hazards, Earthquake Hazards, Earthquake Science Center

Earthquake early warning for estimating floor shaking levels of tall buildings

This article investigates methods to improve earthquake early warning (EEW) predictions of shaking levels for residents of tall buildings. In the current U.S. Geological Survey ShakeAlert EEW system, regions far from an epicenter will not receive alerts due to low predicted ground‐shaking intensities. However, residents of tall buildings in those areas may still experience significant shaking due
By
Natural Hazards, Earthquake Hazards, Earthquake Science Center

Response of an asymmetrical five-story building in Fairbanks, Alaska during the November 30, 2018 M7.1 Anchorage, Alaska earthquake

A recently constructed, five-story, asymmetrical steel building on the campus of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks was equipped with a strong-motion array that recorded the M7.1 Anchorage earthquake of November 30, 2018 at an epicentral distance of 408 km. The largest recorded peak accelerations at the basement and top of the building are 0.021g and 0.071g, respectively. The steel building is de
By
Natural Hazards, Earthquake Hazards, Earthquake Science Center

Response study of a 51-story-tall Los Angeles, California building inferred from motions of the Mw7.1 July 5, 2019 Ridgecrest, California earthquake

A 51-story building in downtown Los Angeles that is equipped with a seismic monitoring accelerometric array recorded the Mw7.1 Ridgecrest, California earthquake of July 5, 2019. The building is a dual-core reinforced-concrete shear-wall and perimeter-column structure with ~ 80% of floors constructed as post-tensioned flat slabs, which makes it a trending design. Using system identification methods
By
Natural Hazards, Earthquake Hazards, Earthquake Science Center

S2HM must be real-time or not?

Seismic structural health monitoring (S2HM) has advanced significantly in the last three decades. However, currently there is no consensus on the need for real-time processing of data acquired during an earthquake. Numerous applications exist whereby S2HM-equipped systems record valuable seismic response data. A delayed use of the seismic data prohibits timely discovery of hidden damages in a stru
By
Natural Hazards, Earthquake Hazards, Earthquake Science Center

Seismic response of a typical shear-wall dominated high-rise condominium building during the January 7, 2020 Mw6.4 Indios, Puerto Rico earthquake

Seismic response records were retrieved from the monitored 21-story (53.26-m-tall) typical Puerto Rican reinforced-concrete shear-wall dominated El Castillo Building in Mayaguez, 50 km from the mainshock epicenter of the January 7, 2020, Mw6.4 offshore Indios, Puerto Rico earthquake. The shear-wall-to-floor areas of the building are 0.97 and 3.49 in the longitudinal and transverse directions, resp
By
Natural Hazards, Earthquake Hazards, Earthquake Science Center

Response of the tallest California building during the Mw7.1 July 5, 2019 Ridgecrest, California earthquake

The 73-story Wilshire Grand in downtown Los Angeles is the recently constructed tallest building in California. It is designed in conformance with performance-based design procedures. The lateral load resisting system of the building is designed with concrete core shear walls, three outriggers with buckling restrained braces (BRBs) located along the height and two three-story truss-belt structural
By
Natural Hazards, Earthquake Hazards, Earthquake Science Center

Response study of the tallest California building inferred from the Mw7.1 Ridgecrest, California earthquake of 5 July 2019 and ambient motions

The newly constructed tallest building in California, the 73-story Wilshire Grand in Los Angeles, California, is designed in conformance with performance-based design procedures. The building is designed with concrete core–shear walls, three outriggers with buckling restrained braces (BRBs) located along the height, and two three-story truss-belt structural systems. The building is equipped with a
By
Natural Hazards, Earthquake Hazards, Earthquake Science Center

Significant seismic behavior features of two tall buildings inferred from response records

In this paper, recent studies of recorded responses of behavior and performances of two instrumented tall buildings subjected to long-period motions from events that originate at far distances (e.g. 100-800km) are presented. Significant results indicate that (a) computed average drift ratios are substantial (~0.5%), and (b) there is permanent shift of fundamental frequencies for a tall building wh
By
Natural Hazards, Earthquake Hazards, Earthquake Science Center

Joint system-input identification of bridge structures

This paper presents a novel framework for system identification of bridge structures using recorded earthquake data. Bridge structures are prone to spatial variability of ground motions because they extend over relatively long distances. So, input motion measurement is a challenging task, especially for long bridges with multiple piers. Moreover, direct measurement of the bridge Foundation Input M
By
Natural Hazards, Earthquake Hazards, Earthquake Science Center

Science and Products