Civil Engineering Research
Materials, Structures and Geosystems
Civil engineering research at Duke focuses on structures and mechanics inquiry organized around three broad themes.
Areas of research:
Computational Mechanics: research is advancing efficient and precise algorithms to enable rigorous solutions to heretofore intractable problems involving contact, friction, visco-elastic hyper-elasticity, and fluid-structure-soil interaction.
Geomechanical Modeling and Characterization: research is focused on the development of mathematical models incorporating interactions among the chemical, thermal, and mechanical properties of soils and rocks, and on noninvasive techniques for interrogating and characterizing sub-surface properties.
Dynamics and Control: research is focused on solving problems related to nonlinear dynamic behavior of structural systems, in the measurement, modeling, and control of these systems, and in reliability of systems subjected to the extreme loads imparted by hurricanes and earthquakes.