Annual Report Year 2009 - Civil and Environmental Engineering

PROGRAM AREAS
STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING AND MATERIALS
Continued from page 33
Roberts-Wollmann continues to teach
undergraduate and graduate classes in
reinforced and prestressed concrete, and
remains active in advising the ASCE Concrete
Canoe team and Concrete for Kids
committee, as well as the PCI Big Beam
Competition Team.
She continues in her role as the secretary
of the Prestressed Concrete Committee
of the American Concrete Institute
(ACI) and was recently appointed the
chair of the TRB Committee AFF30 – Concrete
Bridges.
She also continues to serve on other
technical and board appointed committees
of ACI, TRB and the Precast/Prestressed
Concrete Institute (PCI).
William Wright joined the SEM faculty
in January after a 20-year career with
the FHA. He has a strong background in
experimental structural research, having
served as director of the FHWA Structures
Laboratory in McLean, Va., for most of his
career.
Wright is a nationally recognized expert
in steel bridge structures, particularly in
the specialty areas of fatigue and fracture.
He is actively involved in the work of the
AASHTO Steel Bridge Subcommittee as
well as other TRB, ASCE, and AISC committees
involving structural steel.
While at the FHWA, Wright led a major
experimental study to evaluate behavior
of horizontally curved steel girder bridges,
resulting in a major re-write of the AASH-
TO LRFD Steel Bridge Design Specifications.
This project culminated in a major
laboratory test of a full-scale, curved
girder bridge.
Wright has performed numerous other
experimental studies involving fatigue,
fracture, and behavior of steel bridge
structures, and led the highly successful
program to develop high performance
steels to improve bridge construction.
During the spring semester, Wright
taught a new version of the Topics in
Bridge Engineering course focused on
steel bridge design.
In the fall he is teaching Topics in Structural
Steel Design and Introduction to Civil
Engineering.
Wright has a keen interest in forensic
engineering and was part of the NTSB
forensic team that investigated the catastrophic
collapse of the I-35W truss bridge
in Minneapolis.
While still with the FHWA, he initiated
a major experimental project to developed
refined procedures to evaluate the
connection gusset plates in other truss
bridges that are still in service. Wright is
currently continuing work on this project
and the hope is to develop design and
bridge rating procedures that prevent unnecessary
retrofit work on truss bridges
while still ensuring bridge safety.
He currently is advising one M.S. student
working on this project and plans
to engage other students as the project
progresses.
Over his career, Wright has been
involved in a number of forensic investigations
involving fatigue and fracture
cracking of steel bridges, including the
near-collapse of the I-89 bridge over the
Milwaukee River.
Wright plans to continue to perform
forensic work with a special emphasis on
bridge problems in Virginia.
Knocke continued from page 13
the systems he put in place, the excellent
team he assembled, and his skillful
advocacy on behalf of all in the CEE
department.”
Outsiders also recognized Knocke’s
achievements. In 2008, the American
Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Virginia
section, awarded him the 2008 Virginia
Outstanding Civil Engineer Award.
According to the ASCE announcement,
Knocke was presented with the award
for his 29 years of research focusing
on the physical and chemical treatment
of water and wastewater, chemistry of
aquatic systems, sludge treatment and
disposal, and hazardous waste assessment
and treatment. ASCE also cited
Knocke’s contributions to an improved
environment and quality of life for all
Virginia residents.
And alumni such as John DeBell,
a former member of the CEE Advisory
Board and former alumni head of the Virginia
Tech Foundation Board, recognized
Knocke for “always being interested in
alumni input on the key issues facing the
department and the profession.”
Leaving his position as department head
to return to the environmental and water
resources program area of CEE, Knocke
took a well-deserved sabbatical with the
intent to restart his research program. External
research funding quadrupled under
Knocke’s leadership, placing the department
among the top three on the Virginia
Tech campus.
Knocke leaves the prestigious CEE department
headship in the capable hands of
Sam Easterling. He inherits a department
that now has a total of six Outstanding
Faculty Awards from SCHEV and 15 NSF
Faculty Early Career Development (CA-
REER) awards, a unique number within
Virginia universities.
His former administrative assistant,
Sheila Collins, described Knocke as a
“fair man” who “always had the utmost
respect for all members of the department,
whether they be faculty, staff or
students. No matter the tough decisions
he had to make day after day as department
head, he always did what he
thought was best for the department as
a whole.”
Knocke may now have more time for
one of his favorite pastimes, golf, which
he plays both locally and with alumni
around the state. Mitchell is one of his
partners and he laughingly said that
Knocke told him one of his new goals is
to ‘teach Jim how to hit properly out of
a sand trap. I wish him every success in
that endeavor!”
36 | VIA REPORT | 2009