Research & Innovation Initiatives

Earthquake Engineering

Rensselaer’s earthquake engineering research program is concerned with seismic analysis and design methodologies that mitigate the negative impact of earthquakes on buildings, bridges, and pipelines (water, sewer, gas, and oil). It also focuses on analytical relationships that support decision-making and advance the state of the art in design codes, a key to future sustainability and durability. In these areas, Rensselaer’s earthquake engineering research is among the best in the world. The Institute has a major geotechnical engineering centrifuge facility and a structural engineering seismic shaking table test facility. The geotechnical centrifuge facility, fourth largest in the U.S. and among the twenty largest in the world, brings significant preeminence to the Institute. Rensselaer was recently selected as one of ten sites that will receive long-term NSF support as part of the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation initiative. Of major import in future research will be model-based simulation (using the centrifuge to extend existing simulation models and create new multiscale models), Web-based teleobservation and teleobservation (especially of a new robotic arm being built in collaboration with faculty from Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering), and wireless sensors, using MEMs and other microelectronic devices (e.g., to unobtrusively instrument experimental specimens).

Structural Engineering

Design and analysis of bridges, buildings, and other large-scale facilities; material selection and specification; structural technology selection; dynamic and static structural modeling and analysis; environmental loads on structures.

Geotechnical Engineering

Behavior of soils and foundations under cyclic and dynamic loads; design methods to accommodate natural and man-made vibrations; geostochastics; soil dynamics, stability of earth slopes, structures, and dams.

Transportation Engineering

This area of research includes design, analysis, maintenance, and operation of transportation systems and facilities; intelligent transportation systems, especially highway networks, goods distribution systems, and transit systems; real-time, multiobjective network management and control, including route guidance and dynamic traffic assignment; signal control systems; network management strategies; multiobjective routing and scheduling; and logistics decision making under uncertainty.

Computational Mechanics

Studies involve the development of automated finite element modeling techniques, adaptive analysis procedures, development of adaptive multiscale solution techniques, qualification and modeling of engineering idealizations for analysis and design, design systems using knowledge-base techniques, prototype systems for applications including discrete crack propagation, forging simulations, multiple-scale modeling of composite materials and electronic packages, and unsteady aerodynamics.

Infrastructure Engineering

Under development are analytical methodologies and software tools for preservation, restoration, and renewal of large distributed systems such as roadways, bridges, pipelines, power distribution networks, and bridge and pavement management systems. Additional studies include remote sensing condition assessment, deterioration modeling and performance prediction, vulnerability assessment, risk analysis, reliability- centered maintenance, and capital investment planning.