Email: cscai@Lsu.edu, Tel: 225-578-8898.

Abstract:

Vehicles are major loads for bridges and their interaction with bridges is a major concern for bridge serviceability and safety. This presentation will highlight some work that is related to the vehicle and bridge interaction and has been carried out by the speakers research group. A framework of simulating vehicle-bridge-wind interaction will be first introduced, and its applications to analyze bridge and vehicle response under wind actions is followed. The effect of road roughness on impact factor and their applications for existing bridge performance assessment will be discussed. Vehicle wheel loads and parameters identification based on vehicle-bridge interaction will also be discussed. Finally, bridge dynamic vibrations of FRP deck bridges are compared with traditional bridge deck systems in order to understand the dynamic performance of FRP bridge decks.

Biography:

Dr. Steve Cai is currently a Professor and Edwin B. and Norma S. McNeil Distinguished Professor at Louisiana State University. He had his Ph.D. in 1993 from University of Maryland and is a registered professional engineer since 1995. He worked three years (1993-1996) at Michael Baker Jr. Inc. as a project engineer and four years (1996-2000) at Florida Department of Transportation as a senior engineer. He joined Kansas State University in 2000 and then Louisiana State University in 2001. Dr. Cai have served as PI and co-PI for more than 30 federal, state, international, and university funded projects. He has published over 200 technical papers in journals and conference proceedings and delivered over 100 presentations. His research interests include bridge aerodynamics, vehicle-bridge-wind interaction, bridge static and dynamic performance evaluation and new material applications. He has recently received a few national and campus-wide awards, including the Best Paper Award, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Earth and Space Conference, Long Beach, 2008, CA, and co-authored a journal paper for the Journal of Bridge Engineering with prestigious Collingwood Prizefrom ASCE, 2009. He has been identified, both in 2008 and 2009, as one of the top 100 Rainmakers at LSU, and elected to be Fellow of ASCE in 2010.

Dr. Cai has also contributed significantly to professional service. He is serving as the coordinator of Structures Group for the department. He holds a number of highly respected positions, such as the Secretary/Treasurer of the American Association for Wind Engineering, Associate Editor of the Journal of Bridge Engineering (ASCE), Associate Editor of the Journal of Engineering Mechanics (start in Oct. 1, 2010) and board members of another two journals, chair of Experimental Analysis and Instrumentation Committee (ASCE), and serves as member of numerous national and international committees. Dr. Cai also served the Engineering Project Selection Board, East Baton Rouge ParishLouisiana.