Philip S. Hashimoto, P.E., F.ASCE, a senior principal with Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, has been named a fellow by the ASCE Board of Direction.
Hashimoto has devoted essentially his entire 40-year professional career to ensuring public safety through the seismic assessment of commercial nuclear power plants (NPPs) and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear facilities that were constructed well before the advent of modern seismic design criteria. He has performed seismic evaluations of numerous NPPs in the United States and other countries. In particular, he has been extensively engaged in seismic probabilistic risk assessment of NPPs for earthquakes well beyond their original design basis, starting from the original studies in the late 1970s to the present time.
The objective of seismic probability risk assessment (SPRA) is to provide realistic estimates of seismic-induced damage to NPPs to ensure that the risk to the public is understood. Hashimoto has advanced the state of the art in SPRA by developing and implementing novel methods for seismic evaluation of critical structures, systems, and components. He has also been responsible for seismic evaluations of numerous DOE nuclear facilities in the light of current seismic design criteria, including facilities originally constructed in the 1940s. The results of these studies have been used by DOE to determine whether the facilities are still safe to operate or if upgrades are necessary.
Hashimoto performed research into damping of structures based on collection and analysis of data obtained from buildings and test specimens experiencing dynamic response. The results of this research forms the basis for USNRC Regulatory Guide 1.61, Damping Values for Seismic Design of Nuclear Power Plants. For the Electric Power Research Institute, he collected and analyzed data on the performance of anchored flat-bottom fluid storage tanks that experienced actual earthquakes.
