Featured Faculty
Amanda (Yu) Bao
College of Engineering Technology
Amanda (Yu) Bao is an Assistant Professor in Civil Engineering Technology in the College of Applied Science and Technology. Her research interests lie in soil-structure interaction, dynamic response of highway bridges during earthquakes and tsunamis, and innovative use of nano-fibers in modern construction materials.
Highway bridges need to remain operational after a disaster to allow for continued evacuation and an effective emergency response, therefore the bridge’s response to extreme loading conditions is critical. Bridge damage caused by tsunamis following earthquakes has received more and more attention due to the recent increase in high magnitude earthquakes. Tsunamis can cause significant scouring of the soil used as backfill in the bridge abutment, leaving the bridge highly susceptible to further damage. Bao's research is focused on 3D finite element modeling of soil-foundation-structure interaction in bridges during earthquakes and tsunamis. The research results fill an existing knowledge gap for soil-structure interaction during earthquake and tsunami, advance understanding of soil-foundation-structure interaction in bridges and provide theoretical support to sustainable design of bridges in seismic zones. Bao and her collaborators are developing dynamic centrifuge modeling tests to validate the numerical simulations as well as to observe phenomena.
In 2013, Bao also collaborated with the researchers from the University of South Carolina to conduct numerical simulation of the transport mechanism in graphene oxide membranes. The research article has been published in the leading journal "Science" in October, 2013. The link to the article: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6154/95.short.
To learn more about Bao’s research work, you can visit: http://baoteachingcet.com.