Winter 2015 Newsletter

What’s new with the

Winter | 2015

Civil students exemplifying excellence Concrete Canoe and Steel Bridge teams qualify for national competitions, CampBUILD 2015 a HUGE success This year, the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering’s American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Steel Bridge and Concrete Canoe student teams qualified for their respective national competitions.

Concrete Canoe qualified for the national competition in June at Clemson University after placing first at the regional competition. The team placed first in design paper, first in oral presentation, second in display, and third in co-ed sprint paddle allowing the team to take first place overall and earning a place at the national competition.

Steel Bridge: The Texas A&M team qualified for the national competition in May at the University of Missouri-Kansas City after placing third overall at the regional competition in January. The team placed first in the stiffness category and second in lightness. This year marked the 20th consecutive year that the Texas A&M team competed at the national competition.

CampBUILD 2015: With a successful first year behind it, the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University hosted its second group of high school students for CampBUILD, a project-based summer camp full of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) application and collaborative environments. The weeklong camp aimed to equip each student with a newfound knowledge of the diversity of civil engineering, as well as an appreciation for what it is to work as a team pursuing solutions, innovation and creativity. Campers enjoyed seeing the variety of real-life problems that civil engineers aim to solve, particularly when given a chance to participate in their own experiments. The 2014 CampBUILD has also resulted in recruiting some of the campers to the Dwight Look College of Engineering at Texas A&M. Of the 20 rising seniors who attended the 2014 camp, 13 entered Texas A&M this fall as freshmen, with 11 students specifically entering the engineering college.

Study Abroad Italy

Study Abroad Spain

Maiden voyage introduces students to globalization

Tenth anniversary of a very popular engineering trip

Last summer Drs. Ivan Damnjanovic and Luca Quadrifoglio of the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University led the first study abroad Italy trip for the civil engineering department.

Students benefitted from their faculty leaders’ backgrounds, as Quadrifoglio is a native of Trieste and Damnjanovic spent much of his childhood summers in the Istria Peninsula.

Last summer, students from the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University journeyed to Spain, marking the 10th consecutive year the department has been involved in the study abroad trip.The trip was six weeks total, with a week excursion to Toledo. The rest of the time was headquartered in Ciudad Real while taking short exploratory visits around. Students had the option to stay in host homes or a hotel. A typical day involved attending class during the day — where they were able to interact with peers from the University of Castilla-La Mancha, the host institution — and doing homework and exploration during the afternoon and evening. During their stay students had three weekend visits to Barcelona and Malaga in Spain, and Lisbon in Portugal.

“We want students to know you don’t need to speak the language in order to work abroad,” said Damnjanovic. “We see a huge industry need for engineers willing to work abroad. Once they become comfortable with this and see it as an opportunity, they are groomed to be mentors to the new generation of engineers. That’s globalization.”

The number of students traveling with the two faculty members was 20. Students remarked that the smaller group really added something more to the trip. After a month with each other, deep bonds were made between the students, as well as with the faculty.

Read more at http://bit.ly/SAItaly15

During these visits, students are requested to participate in one planned excursion, but get the freedom to explore and experience cities and Spanish life by themselves during the rest of the visit. There is a great deal of flexibility for the students to discover Spain their way, and some of them have even traveled to other countries in Europe, as well as Morocco.

Read more at http://bit.ly/SpainSA15

From the department head

Minsu Cha, assistant professor

Greetings from Dr. Robin Autenrieth Once again the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering ranks among the best programs in the United States due to the quality of our students, excellence of the faculty, and dedication of staff. We welcomed three tenured/tenuretrack faculty in 2015: Professor Shankar Chellam, the Porter Professor, an environmental engineer; Assistant Professor Minsu Cha, a geotechnical engineer; and Assistant Professor Alireza Talebpour, a transportation engineer.

With the ambitious plan to increase undergraduate and graduate enrollment through the 25 by 25 plan, our undergraduate enrollment is now 835, counting sophomores through seniors, with an expected annual graduation rate of 250 students per year. We have hired professors of practice who teach the general capstone design course, and we launched a new course in 2- & 3-D visualization to replace the traditional CAD class being taught by instructional professors, Jeff Otey and Richard Hutchinson. To meet the growing undergraduate population, we renovated the undergraduate advising offices thanks to the guidance of the civil engineering advisory council who helped design a modern welcoming suite that now houses three new academic advisors.

Our discovery room has transformed the lobby of the CE Building, with four interactive touchscreen panels complete with video and sound that take the viewer on a journey to discover the many career opportunities possible for civil engineering majors and the curriculum building blocks needed to become one. Our undergraduates are studying abroad in Spain, Italy, and Taiwan.

Looking ahead in 2016, we anticipate more opportunities to further enhance our students’ educational experience, increase faculty ranks and expand our research activities.

We have ongoing searches for two faculty in structures and another in construction. We are very excited about breaking ground on the new Center for Infrastructure Renewal and seek to hire a director for the facility. This will be a 138,000 square foot building located in Research Park that will house a much larger high bay and mid bay laboratory, laboratories for materials testing, corrosion, smart grid, sensors, autonomous vehicles, and much more.

An accompanying capital campaign is being launched to raise funds to help equip the laboratories.

The strength of this department is built on our past excellence, the future engineering leaders we are educating, and research that helps build a better tomorrow.

It is a privilege for me to serve the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering.

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Cha joins the department after having been a postdoctoral fellow and research assistant professor in the civil and environmental engineering, and the petroleum engineering departments at the Colorado School of Mines. He received his doctorate and master’s degrees in geotechnical engineering from Georgia Tech, master’s degrees in civil and environmental engineering from KAIST, Korea, and bachelor’s degree from Pusan National University, Korea. His research interests lie in the study of fundamental concepts and engineering solutions that address geo-challenges related to energy and sustainability, such as sediment dissolution, reservoir geomechanics, CO2 geostorage, hydrate-bearing sediments, and geothermal energy, and the development of innovative research tools to investigate these areas. He has also had extensive experience in the fabrication/ instrumentation of lab-scale geophysical methods and particulate discrete element modeling.

Shankar Chellam, J. “Deak” Porter ’22 & “Bud” Porter ’51 Professor Chellam joins the department after spending 16 years with the University of Houston. He has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering and chemistry, respectively, from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in India and master’s and doctorate degrees in environmental engineering from Rice University. Chellam has seven years of “real-world” experience as a process engineer with J.K. Synthetics, India and as a research engineer in Montgomery Watson.

His research interests broadly include advanced technologies for water purification and analysis of trace metals in airborne particulate matter.

A recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER award, Chellam has co-authored 91 peer-reviewed papers in archived journals, 10 book chapters, 21 invited presentations in conferences/workshops, 55 invited seminars in leading academic institutions, and 130 conference presentations. Shankar is currently serving as an elected member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors and the North American Membrane Society.

Alireza Talebpour, assistant professor Talebpour received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from Sharif University of Technology in Iran, and his doctorate in civil engineering from Northwestern University. His research interests include investigating the effects of automated and connected vehicles on mobility, safety, environment, and fuel consumption, as well as cybersecurity aspects of operating connected and automated vehicles. He has developed a microscopic traffic simulation tool to model driver behavior along with telecommunications in a connected driving environment with automated and connected vehicles. This tool can be used to investigate the system level impacts of these new transportation technologies.

Winter | 2015

Department research Socolofsky participates in Gulf Integrated Spill Research cruise

Left: Breaking tsunami wave in wave tank; above: Sonar image of surface of sediment bed after the passage of several waves in the wave tank.

Sperm whale circling ROV during GISR exploration cruise, source: Ocean Exploration Trust

Dr. Scott Socolofsky, associate professor, participated in a 13-day research cruise aboard the E/V Nautilus as part of the Gulf Integrated Spill Research (GISR) Consortium, funded by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI).

Our research focuses on the numerical and physical modeling of ocean wave propagation, from generation in deep water to breaking and dissipation along the world’s coastlines. A new direction concerns the study of tsunamis as a feature of the natural oceanographic environment. Rather than concentrating on its undeniable destructive aspects, we focus on the tsunami as it interacts with the natural oceanic and sedimentary environment. Knowledge of these characteristics can help deduce properties of past tsunamis in unrecorded history from their artifacts and add to an extremely scarce database. With the support of NSF, we’ve recently performed a series of laboratory experiments investigating the interaction of tsunamis with ocean swell and bottom sediment. These experiments were conducted at the Tsunami Research Facility at Oregon State University in spring 2013 and summer 2014, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Florida and Virginia Tech.

The vision of the GISR Consortium is to understand and predict the fundamental behavior of petroleum fluids in the ocean environment. The group’s focus on this cruise was to collect new field measurements needed to validate numerical models of oil and gas dissolution and fate in the water column. To accomplish this goal the team used several tools to collect a comprehensive mass balance for hydrocarbon gas from the sea floor to the surface at a natural seep gas field in the Gulf of Mexico.

Deep geological disposal for nuclear waste

Scientists acoustically and visually mapped the bubble/droplet plume and collected water and gas samples for concentration and biodegradation experiments through the water column at several different times while on-site. More information is available on the Nautilus website.

During the cruise, the group had a rare encounter with a sperm whale that circled their ROV several times.

James Kaihatu, Associate Professor

Marcelo Sanchez, Associate Professor

A geological repository is perhaps the more favored option for the isolation of high-level nuclear waste. The main objective of a geological repository for high level radioactive waste is to safely contain for a very long period of time (generally measured in thousands of years) the highly pollutant waste a in a deep (i.e. >500m) network of tunnels. Very complex Thermo-HydroMechanical and Chemical (THCM) processes are anticipated in the near and far field around the repository. Ongoing research of Dr. Sanchez’s group at Texas A&M University focuses on advancing our current understanding of the main THMC couplings and their mutual interactions associated with the design of geological nuclear waste disposal. These research activities have been mainly funded by the European Commission, European agencies for nuclear waste disposal and Sandia National Laboratories (DOE, US).

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Gao awarded NSF CAREER Award

First woman led as corps commander

Dr. Huilin Gao, assistant professor, has received a 2015 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award for her research in environmental sustainability.

The NSF awards the prestigious CAREER grants to outstanding junior faculty members to help them advance their research and teaching activities.

Gao’s project, “Effects of River Inflows on Coastal Ecosystem Sustainability under Climate Change, Urbanization, and Flow Regulation,” will continue through March 2020.

“I am very excited about receiving this honor and I am grateful for the support from my colleagues, the department and the college,“ said Gao. “In the past several decades, Texas’ population and economic growth have led to dramatic land cover changes from vegetated land and bare land to impervious areas. The direct consequences are amplified urban runoff and degraded water quality. The goal of this interdisciplinary project is to advance the frontiers of knowledge about environmental sustainability and to transform this knowledge into action.”

The research in Gao’s project has three specific objectives. The first is to identify the relationship between inflows and phytoplankton productivity.

The second is to evaluate the impacts of urbanization and climate change on inflows and phytoplankton productivity. The third is to investigate the responses of phytoplankton productivity to flow regulation, both with and without co-occurring climate change and urbanization.

The educational objectives of the project are to teach environmental sustainability to high school students by working with high school teachers and by participating in student events, and to promote undergraduate and graduate environmental sustainability education by integrating education modules into courses and mentoring the students.

Read more at engineering.tamu.edu/civil/news

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For the first time in Texas A&M’s 139-year history, a woman led the university’s legendary Corps of Cadets. Alyssa Marie Michalke of Schulenburg, Texas, commanded the 2,400-plus member unit, the largest of its type in the nation except for the service academies, throughout the 2015-16 school year.

The trail-blazing young woman is a civil engineering major and she previously served as Corps Sergeant Major, the highest rank for any cadet who is not a senior. She was also the first woman to hold that position.

Anderson, AVC for facilities & management Dr. Stuart Anderson, professor and holder of the Zachry Chair in Construction Integration in the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University, was appointed to the position of assistant vice chancellor for facilities and management in the college of engineering.

Since 1990, Anderson has been working with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) under the constructed facilities division as well as a research engineer and program manager. As a professor of civil engineering, with a specialty in construction engineering and management, Anderson is primarily focused on project development, advanced project management and project planning and estimating.

His research includes innovative project delivery and contracting systems, early estimating and cost management, as well as project process improvement through constructability and accelerated construction process strategies and techniques.

Briaud elected technical region director in ASCE Dr. Jean-Louis Briaud, distinguished professor and Buchanan Chair, was recently elected technical region director in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) for 2015-2018.

This recognition coming shortly after being honored with a “University Distinguished Professor” title from Texas A&M. Briaud brings many years of experience to the position, and has innovative visions for the technical branch of ASCE. He wants a more balanced structure that better represents the importance of the institutes, whose publications generate around 40 percent of the budget for ASCE. “It is time to make an effort to concentrate on improving the engineering practice and education.

There needs to be a focus on quality, not quantity; we need to raise the bar and encourage pioneers and think tanks more often,” said Briaud.

“The first time Dick Fosbury, a civil engineering student from Oregon State, used his method in the high jump, many were quick to criticize. That did not stop him from using his intelligence to craft a new approach by studying the position of his center of gravity. When he took the gold at the 1968 Summer Olympics, it was a huge deal. Innovation takes courage, patience, effort and a great deal of time.

We need to encourage this discovery process again,” he said.

Read more at engineering.tamu.edu/civil/news

Faculty Honors, Awards & News • Dr. Tony Cahill, Director of Freshman Engineering • Dr. Gretchen Miller, Montague Scholar • Dr. James Kaihatu, CTE Fellow • Dr. Rabi Mohtar, Ven Te Chow Memorial Lecture • Dr. Huilin Gao, NSF CAREER award • Dr. Jean-Louis Briaud, University Distinguished Professor and ASCE Regional Director • Drs. Jun Zhang and Jim Morgan retired • Dr. Luca Quadrifoglio, Fulbright Scholar Grant • Dr. Francisco Olivera, ASCE Fellow • Dr. Eyad Masad, Appointed Zachry Professor in Design and Construction Integration II • Dr. Kumares Sinha, TIAS Faculty Fellow

Winter | 2015

New professors of practice

Why give?

Les Pittman is currently teaching the general civil engineering capstone course CVEN 400. He has 41 years of professional practice as a consulting civil engineer, 30 of which were in the Austin area. Pittman has broad general civil engineering experience including commercial development, public works, industry, and transportation. He has a passion for hiring and training graduate engineers and watching them blossom. He was a practice advisor to CVEN 400 for several semesters prior to agreeing to teach it. He received his bachelor’s from Texas A&M University in 1974 and his master’s from Colorado State University in 1979. He holds the following licenses: PE (Licensed Professional Engineer), RPLS (Registered Professional Land Surveyor), ENV SP (Envision--Sustainable Professional), LEED AP (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-Accredited Professional) John Barton will devote most of his classroom time to courses focused on leadership development, general civil engineering principles and practices, and emerging transportation system technologies.

He received his bachelor’s in 1986 with honors from Texas A&M, and is also a graduate of the University of Texas LBJ School of Public Administration’s Governor’s Executive Development Program. His involvement in research will be directed toward intelligent transportation technologies such as autonomous and connected vehicles, as well as

Les Pittman

Timothy Chinn

John Barton

public policy issues related to transportation. Barton recently retired from the Texas Department of Transportation after 30 years of service. His career began as a roadway maintenance technician, where he held several different engineering positions across the state, ending as the deputy executive director overseeing all operations of the 12,000 employee agency with an annual budget of $11 billion.

Timothy Chinn has more than 35 years professional engineering and consulting experience in civil, environmental, and municipal engineering. His background includes special expertise in water supply; water treatment; water policy and regulation development, analysis, and compliance. Chinn’s applied research focus is coupling renewable, sustainable water supplies (seawater desalination) with renewable, sustainable power generation (wind, solar and pumped water storage. He continues to be active in the consulting arena and is the global director for AECOM’s Drinking Water Program. Prior to joining AECOM, Chinn was the assistant director for governmental affairs for the American Water Works Association. Chinn is nationally recognized in the drinking water arena and has written extensively and given numerous presentations on water issues.

Kelly’s Corner Each semester, I determine the students eligible for Chi Epsilon, the civil engineering honor society, who need to be in the top third of their class by GPA. Over the past six years, we’ve seen an amazing rise in the GPA needed to be in that top third of the junior class – from 3.19 to 3.40. Since these students have just started civil engineering courses, they are doing better in the tough math and science classes of the first two years, which have not seen overall grade inflation in the same period.

After hearing this, many former students remark, “I guess I wouldn’t make it in the department today.”

Nothing could be further from the truth. What distinguishes our current students from all the other

smart Aggies on campus is their desire to serve others through their work and build lasting value in our society.

That’s exactly what distinguishes our former students in the civil engineering profession. It’s always a pleasure to see Aggie civil engineers so eager to come back to campus and share with and encourage our students in so many ways.

Your gift, regardless of the amount, provides vital support to the students, faculty and campus of Texas A&M. Every gift helps the college raise money and supports the college’s national rankings and goals. Some of the best and brightest high school students can’t afford today’s tuition without scholarships and new construction rarely occurs without the generous support of our donors.

The gifts we receive help determine the future of our department by helping us to encourage and attract the best and brightest students as well as obtain and retain the best faculty. Your generous gift to Texas A&M Engineering helps to ensure continued engineering excellence.

Your gift can enhance: Students - Support Texas A&M engineering students through scholarships and fellowships.

Donors may contribute to existing programs or design a scholarship/fellowship based on their own criteria.

Faculty - Top-notch faculty members attract not only other superb professors but also the best quality students. Invest in the potential of one faculty member and you affect the lives of hundreds of students.

Department - An endowed discretionary gift that allows the dean or department head to choose how best to use your gift is especially valuable and can help shape the future of your college.

Facilities - To accommodate our growth and continue to attract the best and brightest students and faculty, construction and maintenance of our facilities is critical. Construction began on the Engineering Education Complex in spring 2015.

Ways to give The civil engineering development team can help you tailor a gift that fulfills your long-term charitable and financial goals.

Jay Roberts Senior Director of Development jay-roberts@tamu.edu

One of the greatest strengths of this department is the deep engagement of our stakeholders, leading by example, to create an environment that doesn’t just teach classes – it nurtures professionals in service to society.

Kelly Brumbelow Associate Professor & Assistant Department Head for Undergraduate Programs

Jack Falks Director of Development j-falks@tamu.edu

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Quadrifoglio awarded Byrd of graduate Fulbright Scholar grant services awarded meritous service award Dr. Luca Quadrifoglio,

associate professor in the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University, was recently awarded the 2015-16 Fulbright U.S. Scholar grant. In order to receive the grant, Quadrifoglio had to develop a very intensive proposal. The aim of this award is to promote a better knowledge of the south of Italy and promote knowledge exchange and research in south-related issues at universities in the south of Italy.

Quadrifoglio received his undergraduate degree at Politecnico di Milano in 1996. He then moved to the United States to work toward becoming an academic professional, after obtaining his master’s and Ph.D. at the University of Southern California.

His research focuses on the design, optimization and operations of demand responsive services such as transit feeders, paratransit services and ride-sharing service, as well as the logistics within port container terminals. He recently was appointed the graduate coordinator and advisor for the transportation division within the civil engineering department.

“This award for teaching and research is a wonderful opportunity for scholars like me to give back and to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of southern Italy at the University of Cagliari,” he said.

His six months at University of Cagliari began in January, where he is delivering a graduate student course specializing in transportation engineering and conducting research to improve local transit services.

2016 Events • • • •

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Advisory Council meeting 4/8 Camp BUILD 7/24-7/29, 7/31-8/5 Survey Camp 5/16-5/27 Department Tailgate 11/12

Laura Byrd, program assistant in the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering graduate office, was awarded the President’s Meritorious Service Award.

Byrd is a well-known face around the department. She came to Texas A&M University in 2010 and began working in civil engineering in 2011. An “army brat” born in Japan, Byrd relates to the somewhat transplanted feeling one can experience with higher education.

She prides herself on knowing and maintaining a relationship with the students from check-in on day one through graduation.

“They are not just a number to me. I like when they drop by for a piece of candy and tell me bits of their lives outside of school,” said Byrd. “This award is most humbling because I was nominated by students. I love my job and I love helping and interacting with each student or any other person that asks me for assistance.”

When the graduate students arrive on campus, their first stop is the graduate office. Waiting for them is a bowl of candy and support as they prepare to settle into the department.

“In the two years that I have been a graduate student in the civil engineering department, it has been the graduate student services office that has given me the most support and most defined my experience working with administration,” said Juliana Cammarata, civil engineering graduate student. “Ms. Laura Byrd has resolved every issue I have come to her with swiftly and effectively, even when they were outside of her purview.”

“We have close to 400 graduate students in the department and Laura knows each and every one of them,” said Dr. Yunlong Zhang, associate professor and assistant department head for graduate programs in civil engineering. “She is resourceful, knows or can quickly find the solution to problems, and is always ready to help.”

Read more at engineering.tamu.edu/civil/news

Doucet appointed chair of civil engineering advisory council John Doucet ’81 was appointed chair of the advisory council for the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University, while David Zachry ’85 will serve as co-chair.

Doucet graduated from Texas A&M with a bachelor’s in civil engineering, and spent the early years of his career managing complex public and private projects with large engineering consulting firms in Texas and California. He developed a vision for creating an engineering firm that placed an emphasis on collaboration, creativity and community among employees and clients.

In 1992, Doucet founded Doucet & Associates. Over the years, he has drawn top talent to the company and built an impressive client list. As president and CEO, Doucet is responsible for all civil engineering engagements and overall direction of the firm. He is a registered professional engineer in Texas, California, Louisiana, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts, and is LEED AP certified.

“I know the quality of the Texas A&M engineering program and continuously look for opportunities to work alongside and hire fellow Aggies,” said Doucet.

“I am honored to continue on the advisory council to ensure the next generation continues to receive the highest level of educational training and resources possible. Many of the top engineering firms throughout Texas were started by fellow Aggies. I want to do my part to ensure we continue graduating top talent and high achievers.”

The council works with the department head to strengthen the depth and breadth of existing degree program specialty areas, foster constructive interactions with leading civil engineering practitioners, participate in the ABET accreditation process and serve as a resource to the department’s faculty and students.

Read more at engineering.tamu.edu/civil/news

Winter | 2015

Cementing societal and technological growth through research

A society’s socio-economic status depends on the quality of its infrastructure. All of those highways, buildings, and power supplies are structures enabling the technological growth of our society. We all utilize this infrastructure, and we all pay for this infrastructure. If we are paying for this, we want it to last. Beyond lasting, we want it to not require lane closures and detours that cause us to sit in bumperto-bumper traffic, wasting time and money.

His research is a combined experimental and modeling approach rooted in fundamental sciences and aimed at improving concrete infrastructure in the United States and around the world. It involves new material development, novel experiments to measure important properties related to durability and resiliency, and advanced models to uncover mechanisms and predict performance of concrete in real structures.

The majority of this infrastructure is concrete – something we use so much of that it is impossible to substitute another material class for it. There are simply not enough elements in the Earth’s crust to satisfy our demands for infrastructure. While concrete is the most used material in the world after water, what ensures its performance is the key ingredient – the cement paste holding it together.

It is this key ingredient that can be improved upon to extend the life of the concrete, saving billions of dollars in maintenance and construction.

“Viscoelastic materials are like the Tempur-Pedic mattress,” said Grasley. “Those materials have a couple of very important characteristics. One is the ‘elastic’ part of that term. It’s reversible, recoverable, and goes back to the way it is supposed to do that.

The ‘visco’ part of that term means it comes back slowly. If you leave a column sitting on a concrete surface, gradually you will see that surface sink under the weight over time. If you can tailor those properties, you can reduce the stress on your concrete, meaning less repair is necessary.”

Research on cement longevity is underway in the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University. Dr. Zachary Grasley, associate professor and Peter C. Forster Faculty Fellow I, recently had his paper on the subject published, and recognized as an outstanding paper for 2015, in Materials and Structures.

Materials with tailored viscoelastic properties can better absorb an impact or force. Moving forward, if concrete is designed with specific viscoelastic properties, it may delay or even prevent damage from taking place, thereby saving a great deal of money on repair and maintenance.

“Making concrete more durable and resilient has enormous societal impacts,” said Grasley. “It will lessen the pressure on finite natural resources needed to meet our growing demand for concrete infrastructure. The models we create help us to understand how and why concrete deforms the way that it does, which gives us insight into how to better engineer its performance.”

The new materials, experiments and models Grasley’s group is developing will ultimately have wideranging applications. They may one day be used for 3-D printing of structures or structural elements or rapid repairs of infrastructure. The experiments could be used for quality control or quality assurance to help improve concrete durability in pavements and bridges. The models may one day be integrated into a design and analysis tool that allows optimized

simultaneous structure and material designs.

From a materials development perspective, Grasley is currently working on developing rapid hardening concrete intrinsically reinforced with carbon nanofibers. The goal would be a crackresistant concrete that gains strength fast enough to be utilized in minutes rather than days. He has developed a novel, rapid test for measuring concrete permeability, which quantifies how easily water or other liquids can flow through concrete, which is actually porous like a sponge. With respect to modeling, he has worked on advanced material models that couple the evolution of the material structure, which changes as cement chemically reacts with water, with material response to the environment and external loading. His is the first research group to develop a method to adequately disperse high-volume fractions of carbon nanofibers in a cementitious matrix. His research has led to the discovery of new mechanisms of creep — gradual deformation that occurs under constant load — and drying shrinkage.

Grasley’s research makes an impact outside his own field of study. Because his research is based on fundamental science rather than empiricism, the models and experiments he has devised have far reaching applications outside of civil engineering.

His work with a former Ph.D. student led to the creation of a novel quantification method on how well dispersed nanoparticles are within a composite material. This method is so general that it may be adopted to quantify how well crops are dispersed in a field, or how well dispersed stars are in the sky, the potential applications are limitless. It is impossible to predict where such research might ultimately be utilized.

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Zachry Department of Civil Engineering 201 CVLB 3136 TAMU College Station, TX 77843-3136

In This Issue: • Student excellence • Study abroad updates • Faculty honors & news

• 2016 events • Department news • New faculty

• New professors of practice • Research updates • Ways to give