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Emily Kunkel on Green Hydrogen & Energy Transition in USA TodayApril 28, 2026
Emily Kunkel discusses green hydrogen’s potential to support cleaner energy, industrial decarbonization and long-duration energy storage in USA Today’s “Hy-Powered.”
Insight
Sensitivity Analysis on Design ParametersJune 06, 2016
Performance based fire engineering has recently been the focus of several studies due to its well-known benefits and the short-comings of the traditional prescriptive design methods. However, the method is not often used extensively because of the large number of parameters and decisions involved in the process. This study presents a framework to conduct a number of sensitivity analyses to help the engineer determine which of several parameters used in a performance based design can affect the outcome significantly.
Insight
Weighty Matters: An Overview of In-Situ Load TestingApril 01, 2016
In-situ load testing is a powerful tool to assess the performance of structures with respect to their ability to carry code-prescribed loads. The practice dates back to the late 1800s and has been used to verify the load rating of structures, as well as the expected performance of structures in retrofit, repair, and strengthening applications.
Insight
Resistance and Failure Behavior of Ductile Concrete-Filled Double-Skin Tube ColumnsNovember 15, 2015
Fire following an earthquake has been a major cause of damage in a number of historic seismic events. Considering the amount of damage and statistics showing a high probability for the occurrence of post-earthquake ignitions, there is a need to study the effects of seismic damage on the fire resistance of structures. This research studies the resistance and failure behavior of Concrete Filled Double-Skin Tube (CFDST) columns with both experimental and numerical methods.
Insight
Investigation of Sprayed Fire-Resistive Material and In Situ Bond FailureNovember 15, 2015
This paper reviews several case studies of spray fire-resistive materials (SFRMs) and provides lessons learned over the course of the forensic investigations. ASTM E736-00 Standard Test Method for Cohesion/Adhesion of Sprayed Fire-Resistive Materials Applied to Structural Members (ASTM 2006) is used to determine the bond strength of newly cured SFRM. The International Building Code (IBC) 2015 (ICC 2014) specifies minimum acceptable bond strengths. The validity of those bond strengths as applied to in-service SFRM is considered.
Insight
Investigation of Fragment Impact and Blast Shock Wave on Window BreakageNovember 15, 2015
A natural gas explosion in East Harlem, NY destroyed two buildings and caused breakage of windows on a building across the street from the explosion. The equivalent TNT charge of the explosion is estimated and used to develop an explosion-fragment model (EFM) of the explosion event. The EFM is employed to investigate the potentiality of the window breakage as being caused by fragment impact or by the blast shock wave itself.
Insight
Forensic Investigation in the Age of the Internet of ThingsSeptember 03, 2014
Time is of the essence during the data acquisition phase of a forensic structural investigation; the preservation of post-failure site conditions may be limited and access to the site may be restricted. The acquisition of accurate and timely information from the field is a vital component of every forensic structural investigation and often occurs during limited time frames. Laser scanners and vibration sensors are becoming ubiquitous on construction sites.
Insight
Damage Detection Using Large-Scale Covariance MatrixMarch 08, 2014
Statistical pattern recognition based structural damage detection is often developed exploiting the methods of outlier analysis. In this context, damage occurrence is assessed by analyzing whether a set of features extracted from the response of the system under unknown conditions departs from the population of features extracted from the response of the healthy system. The metric dominantly used for this purpose is the Mahalanobis Squared Distance (MSD). Evaluation of MSD of a point from a population requires the use of the inverse of the population’s covariance matrix.
Insight
Consequence-Based Robustness Assessment of A Steel Truss BridgeMay 01, 2013
Aim of this paper is to apply to a steel truss bridge a methodology that takes into account the consequences of extreme loads on structures, focusing on the influence that the loss of primary elements has on the structural load bearing capacity. In this context, the topic of structural robustness, intended as the capacity of a structure to withstand damages without suffering disproportionate response to the triggering causes while maintaining an assigned level of performance, becomes relevant.