A Bridge to the Future: The New Tappan Zee by Paul Napoli, Edson Chavez, Rod Kern, Victor Minosa, & Pablo Riera

The current Tappan Zee Bridge is presently 50 years past its design lifespan. Several plans have been attempted to mitigate the deterioration of the structure, but have since become economically unfeasible. The state of New York is now underway constructing a replacement to the current bridge superstructure, which has been fast tracked to completion by federal government. The Cornell University Geotechnical Masters of Engineering students have been tasked with the site characterization and foundation design of the new superstructure. Working in conjuncture with Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers, a prestigious New York metro geo-structural engineering design and consulting firm, the site was characterized such that the resulting data could be used for not only structural design but also practical use in contractor bid packages. Finally, the deep pile foundations of the structure were designed using the resolved data in conjuncture with the principals of soil and foundation mechanics.

Paul Napoli, Edson Chavez, Rod Kern, Victor Minosa, and Pablo Riera are Master of Engineering Students at the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering. Both work under the supervision of Dr. Thomas O’Rourke. For more information please contact Paul at pn229@cornell.edu. 

Thermal Imaging of Subpixel Cracks through Metal Plates by Andrew Loeb

Active thermography has been studied as a non-destructive evaluation technique for structural components, using the well-understood theory of heat conduction to infer the presence, location, and characteristics of flaws in a solid. We here use both theory and simulation to determine optimal ranges of several operational parameters to be used in thermographic evaluation of thin metal plates, such as aircraft skins. We also implement a stochastic approach for characterizing cracks smaller than the imaging resolution.

Andrew Loeb is a PhD candidate at the Cornell Center of Applied Mathematics. He works under the supervision of Dr. Christopher Earls of the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering. For more information please contact Andrew at ael89@cornell.edu.

Updates on AguaClara Project by David Gold & Ali Peters

In January 2015, a group of 30 Cornell engineers traveled to Honduras as part of the AguaClara program. AguaClara is a multidisciplinary program based out of Cornell University, that designs sustainable water treatment systems committed to long-term environmental, social, and economic sustainability. Through the use of gravity-powered, electricity-free technology, these designs are scalable to fit the needs of rural communities in Honduras and currently provide clean water to over 30,000 people. Students’ role in AguaClara primarily focuses on researching new technologies and improving plant design. In Honduras, students had an opportunity to observe the AguaClara plants in action, develop a better understanding of the culture and fundamental challenges that stand in the way of plant construction and conduct field work. Student projects for this trip included testing newly developed foam filtration technology, water quality sampling of household taps in AguaClara communities and development of a new jar test to determine the coagulant dose required for various flow rates.

David Gold and Ali Peters are Master of Engineering Students at the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering. Both work under the supervision of Dr. Monroe Weber-Shirk for the Agua Clara Project in Honduras. For more information please contact David at dfg42@cornell.edu or Ali at aep882@cornell.edu.

Canterbury, New Zealand Earthquake Reconnaissance: Liquefaction, Lateral Spreads, and Lagers by Brad Wham

Brad Wham is a PhD candidate at the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering. He works under the supervision of Dr. Thomas O’Rourke. For more information please contact Brad at bpw37@cornell.edu.

 Consulting for King Solomon: How to decide the child’s mother? by Bingyan Huang

Binyan Huan is a PhD candidate at the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering. He works under the supervision of Dr. Oliver Gao. For more information please contact Bingyan at bh385@cornell.edu.