Kriging, Polynomial Chaos Expansion, and Low-Rank Approximations in Material Science and Big Data Analytics.

In material science and engineering, the estimation of material properties and their failure modes is associated with physical experiments followed by modeling and optimization. However, proper optimization is challenging and computationally expensive. The main reason is the highly nonlinear behavior of brittle materials such as concrete.

Quantifying Material Uncertainty in Seismic Evaluations of Reinforced Concrete Bridge Column Structures.

In seismic performance evaluations, the force-deformation response of a structure is typically assessed using a deterministic analytical model, and inherent uncertainty is often neglected. For reinforced concrete structures, a source of uncertainty is variability in the mechanical properties of reinforcing steel and concrete (that is, material uncertainty). This paper presents an analytical investigation to quantify the impact of the statistical variability in mechanical properties of ASTM A706 Grade 60, 80, and 100 reinforcing steel and normalweight concrete on the seismic response of reinforced concrete bridge columns.

Living in a Multi-Risk Chaotic Condition: Pandemic, Natural Hazards and Complex Emergencies.

Humans are living in an uncertain world, with daily risks confronting them from various low to high hazard events, and the COVID-19 pandemic has created its own set of unique risks. Not only has it caused a significant number of fatalities, but in combination with other hazard sources, it may pose a considerably higher multi-risk. In this paper, three hazardous events are studied through the lens of a concurring pandemic.

Vibration Anatomy and Damage Detection in Power Transmission Towers with Limited Sensors.

This study presents a technique to identify the vibration characteristics in power transmission towers and to detect the potential structural damages. This method is based on the curvature of the mode shapes coupled with a continuous wavelet transform. The elaborated numerical method is based on signal processing of the output that resulted from ambient vibration.

Mathematical modeling and numerical analysis of thermal distribution in arch dams considering solar radiation effect.

The effect of solar radiation on thermal distribution in thin high arch dams is investigated. The differential equation governing thermal behavior of mass concrete in three-dimensional space is solved applying appropriate boundary conditions. Solar radiation is implemented considering the dam face direction relative to the sun, the slop relative to horizon, the region cloud cover, and the surrounding topography.