Anil Agrawal

Based on bridge failure data compiled by the New York State Department of Transportation, collision, both caused by vessels and vehicles, is the second leading cause of bridge failures after hydraulic.  The current AASHTO-LRFD (2012) specification recommends designing a bridge pier vulnerable to vehicular impacts for an equivalent static force of 600 kips (2,670 kN) applied in a horizontal plane at a distance of 5.0 feet above the ground level. This research studies a performance based approach for designing a bridge pier subject to impact by a tractor-semi-trailer weighing up to 80,000 lb based on an extensive experimental and computational investigation.  

Xu, X., (2017). “Performance Based Approach for Loading and Design of Bridge Piers Impacted by Medium Weight Trucks.” Ph.D thesis, City College of New York, City University of New York.
 
Agrawal, A. K., Liu, G. Y., and Alampalli, S. "Effects of truck impacts on bridge piers." Proc., Advanced Materials Research, 2013, Trans Tech Publ, 13-25.

Title: "A Performance Based Approach for Loading Definition of Heavy Vehicle Impact Events"  
Sponsor: Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
Project Duration: 2014-2017
 

• Sherif El-Tawil, Phd, PE, Professor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
• Ran Cao, Graduate Assistant, City College of New York, New York, NY.
• Xiaochen Xu, Graduate Assistant, City College of New York, New York, NY.
• Xi Chen, Graduate Assistant, City College of New York, New York, NY.
• Waider Wong, Sr. Structural Engineer, Federal Highway Administration, McLean, VA

Running simulations of vehicular impact on a normal PC is very time-consuming. With the help of HPC, the computation time for each case is greatly reduced from weeks to one or two days.