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Current Students
Name: Ae-young Lee
Undergrad: OSU, '03 BS Civil Engineering
Hometown: Keizer, OR
Graduate Study: A few years ago concern was raised over the wide diagonal cracks observed in a number of Oregon's bridges constructed in the 1950's, many located on heavily trafficked corridors. As part of the subsequent investigation, nine full-scale beams underwent cyclic loading representing 50 years of use to examine the role of fatigue at service loads. I took part in instrumenting stirrups with strain gages both before and during cycling, monitoring the beams as they cycled, and various other tasks in the laboratory. The gathered data will be compared to the results of existing software to determine if stirrup stress range, a value controlled by codes, can be predicted for beams at service loads.
Name: Dan Howell
Undergrad: University of Delaware, Bachelor of Civil Engineering
Hometown: Wilmington, Delaware
Work Experience: After completing my Master's Degree from the University of Delaware in 2001, I worked at Whitman, Requardt, and Associates LLP in Baltimore Maryland. The company is involved with building, wastewater, and highway design. Their bridge group consisted of roughly 20 team members. My work consisted of bridge inspection, design, and rating.
Graduate Study: I am working on a comparison of development length for square and round deformed steel rebar of equal areas based on data presented by researchers from 1913-1965. The data is compared to the current ACI development length and will shed light into rating older structures throughout the United States that utilize square bars for reinforcement.
Future Work: After this project, I will begin work on a statistical analysis using Monte Carlo simulations for concrete beam design based on varying several parameters.
Name: Jordan Pelphrey
Undergrad: Oregon State University, BS Civil Engineering
Hometown: Eugene, OR
Graduate Study: My research project is titled "Oregon Truck Load Modeling". Weigh stations located along I-5, I-84, Highway 97, and Highway 58 collect data for vehicles passing these sites. The data collected includes vehicle speed, gross vehicle weight (GVW), individual axle weights, vehicle lengths, and axle spacing. This data will be used to better characterize the load response on Oregon's bridges. Currently, the AASHTO bridge code uses a load model based on just a few weeks of vehicle data from the Detroit, Michigan area and is not a good representitation of the loading found in Oregon. A report will be presented to the Oregon Department of Transportation explaining the results.
Name: Thomas Schumacher
Undergrad: Burgdorf School of Engineering, Switzerland, BS Civil Engineering (undergrad project in bridge design)
Hometown: Bern, Switzerland
Work Experience:
1991 - 1995: Professional Training in Civil Engineering Draftsmanship
August 1995: Federal Diploma as Civil Engineering Draftsman
1995 - 1996: Concrete Finisher for a Contracting Company in Ueberstorf, Switzerland
2000 - 2004: Structural Engineer for the Consulting Office of Mr. A. Gerber in Zweisimmen, Switzerland
Graduate Study: Acoustic Emission Testing of Reinforced Concrete Bridges
Acoustic Emission (AE) is a non-destructive testing method. The basic concept is that occurrences of friction or fracture of material within a rigid body cause elastic waves which can be recorded by sensors on the surface of the structure. By analyzing these ‘sounds’, final conclusions can be made about the ‘health’ or ‘structural integrity’ of a structure. One interesting aspect of current research for concrete structures concerns damage assessment of in-service structures. Concrete structures have long been regarded as maintenance-free. Recent accidents with aging structures have drawn attention and shown the importance of observing reinforced concrete structures.
The tasks for Summer and Fall 2005 include the following:
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Assembling of Test Setup (Steel Frame with 400 kips Hydraulic Cylinder)
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Casting of 4 Full Scale Specimens (Inverted T-Girders, Length 26 ft, Height 4 ft with Different Reinforcement Detailing)
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Testing of Specimens with Varying Loads
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Post Analysis of Recorded Data
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Development of Field Application Methodology (Field Test Manual)
No past students currently listed.
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