Welcome! I am a PhD candidate working under the supervision of Prof. Shane Underwood in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at North Carolina State University.

My primary research is in the field of infrastructure materials and resilience, and my ongoing research centers on employing bottom-up, multiscale mechanistic investigations to explore asphalt concrete and its primary constituent asphalt binder. These investigations involve rheological characterization of asphalt binders, understanding the underlying damage and healing mechanics, and performance evaluation of asphalt concrete for viscoelastic, viscoplastic, and fatigue damage characterization. Additionally, I employ top-down systems studies to uncover needs and knowledge gaps that can be informed by the findings of the bottom-up investigations. These studies include assessment of impact of extreme events such as flooding and heatwaves on pavement structural performance, modeling the impact of climate change on road networks, and developing quantification techniques and metrics to model the existing vulnerabilities at material, pavement, and network scales.

Overall, my work focuses on leveraging the bottom-up fundamental understanding of material behavior and pavement response to understand, inform, and address the needs and knowledge gaps at the top-down systems analysis of the built infrastructure.

 

Areas of interest

 

Modeling and study of infrastructure materials

• Multiscale mechanics and modeling of asphalt materials
• Rheology and chemistry of asphalt binders
• Continuum damage and healing mechanics
• Performance evaluation of infrastructure materials
• Uncertainty quantification and probabilistic characterization

Sustainable infrastructure materials

• Recycled materials such recycled asphalt pavement (RAP), recycled asphalt shingles (RAS), etc.
• Use of recycling agents, additives, softeners, etc.
• Positive reuse of waste materials in road infrastructure

Infrastructure resilience

• Infrastructure resilience modeling
• System dynamics and agent-based modeling
• Impact assessment and adaptation methodologies
• Impact of external factors on pavement performance