Annual Report Year 2009 - Civil and Environmental Engineering

PROGRAM AREAS
STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING AND MATERIALS
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Kamal Rojiani’s primary contribution
was in the area of teaching due to an unusually
heavy teaching load. In fall 2008
he taught Theory of Structures, Reinforced
Concrete Design, Computer Applications
for CEE, a small group section of
Intro to CEE, and the SEM graduate seminar.
In spring 2009 he taught Reinforced
Concrete Design, Reliability Methods for
Structures and Mechanics and the SEM
graduate seminar. He also taught Theory
of Structures and Computer Applications
for CEE in the first summer session of
2009.
Rojiani performs several service activities.
He is one of the CEE department
advisors with responsibility for advising
approximately 100 undergraduate students.
He is also a member of the CEE
Curriculum Committee. Rojiani assumed
the role of SEM program area coordinator
in June.
Rojiani’s research interests include
structural safety and reliability, risk analysis,
code calibration, computer applications
in civil and structural engineering,
programming methodologies and software
development. He is currently working on
several books on programming and numerical
applications.
Elisa Sotelino continued her research
on finite element analysis and modeling of
structures and on the development of new
numerical algorithms for high performance
computing.
She is currently collaborating with
Cousins and Roberts-Wollmann and the
Virginia Transportation Research Council
(VTRC) on a multimillion dollar project on
Long-Term Bridge Performance Program
(LTBPP). The team is responsible for
the instrumentation and monitoring of 10
bridges in the eastern part of the United
States. Sotelino is responsible for modeling
and analyzing the bridges selected for
monitoring.
Other current collaborative research
activities with Roberts-Wollman and Cousins
in the bridge area include: the application
of ultra-high performance concrete on
bridge decks and girders, long-term bridge
performance, and investigation the dynamic
behavior of bridges with lightweight
decks. The Federal Highway Administration
(FHWA) and VTRC are the sponsors.
On another current research project,
Sotelino is collaborating with Linbing
Wang of Virginia Tech and Marte Gutierrez
of the Colorado School of Mines on a
“Unified Approach for Multiscale Characterization,
Modeling, and Simulation for
Stone- Based Infrastructure Materials,”
sponsored by the National Science Foundation
(NSF).
Finally, she is leading a research project
on the behavior of structures under fire
loading.
Sotelino continues to perform numerous
service activities on behalf of the CEE department,
Virginia Tech, and professional
organizations. She has served as the
SEM program area coordinator for the last
four years. She has also served as one
of the CEE department representatives in
the university’s faculty senate, a member
of the College of Engineering Diversity
Committee, the faculty senate representative
on the Commission for Equal Opportunity
and Diversity, and a member of the
Provost-chaired Taskforce on Race and
the Institution.
Sotelino continues to be active in the
profession. She is finishing a seven-year
term as associate editor for the ASCE
Journal of Structural Engineering. She is
also a member of the International Advisory
Board for COMPDYN 2009, a thematic
conference sponsored by the European
Community on Computational Methods in
Applied Sciences.
Richard Weyers completed research
on the volume changes of Portland cement
concrete overlay mixtures for VTRC/
VDOT. The project provides shrinkage
limits and a test method for the implementation
of specifications for latex modified
concrete, shrinkage compensating concrete,
ternary pozzolanic concrete, and
latex modified rapid set concrete. Implementation
of results will minimize cracking
in bridge deck overlays and thus increase
service life performance.
Weyers joined the LTBP research team
in the spring. His prime responsibilities are
to evaluate the performance of untreated
and treated bridge decks. He will also assist
Mike Brown of the VTRC in evaluating
decks built with reinforcement other than
black steel and epoxy coated steel including
galvanized, and corrosion resistant
alloyed steels.
In April 2009 a 3-foot-by-3-foot section
of a closure pour in a reinforced concrete
deck on Interstate 81 punched through
the deck. The deck was cast in two sections
in 1992 during a deck replacement
project. The closure pour connected the
two new deck sections. The deck sections
and closure pour were built with epoxycoated
reinforcement. Weyers is assisting
Michael Sprinkel of VTRC in investigating
the cause of the failure. A presentation of
the failure and results to date is planned
for the 2010 TRB meeting in Washington,
D.C.
Carin Roberts-Wollmann focuses her
research on methods for improving bridge
durability and performance, and reducing
bridge construction time.
This year she is collaborating with
Cousins and Sotelino on several bridge
research projects. She and Cousins are in
the third year of a project for the National
Cooperative Highway Research Program
(NCHRP) to investigate the use of High-
Performance/High Strength Lightweight
Concrete for Bridge Girders and Decks.
The final two years of the project have
involved extensive laboratory testing to investigate
development length of prestress
strand, shear strength and horizontal
shear transfer behavior in lightweight girders
and decks.
Cousins, Sotelino and Roberts-Wollmann,
along with Weyers, are investigating
the long-term performance of bridges.
This project is sponsored by the FHA
and will involve extensive field testing of
bridges.
Roberts-Wollmann also has ongoing
projects investigating full-depth precast
deck panels, ultra-high performance concrete
bridge deck panels, stress increases
in unbonded tendons in continuous members,
specialized lifting devices for precast
double-tees, and anchorage zones in
post-tensioned concrete.
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