Physics-based assessment of societal risks due to the collapse of mining waste disposal facilities

Lead-PI: Giuseppe Buscarnera, Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Co-PI: Petia Vlahovska, Professor, Department of Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics, and (by courtesy) Mechanical Engineering

This project aims to formulate an innovative conceptual model bridging the pre-failure regime of tailing dams with their post-failure dynamics. By doing so, it will develop physics-based indicators of impending instability to monitor and retrofit waste disposal facilities.  The outcomes of this project can therefore inspire the formulation of the next-generation of risk assessment tools to decommission facilities with intolerable hazard levels, as well as to design early warning systems increasing the resilience of communities and ecosystems to climate-induced geohazards.

ViSER (VIsualizing Suspension Electro-Rheology): a new tool for interrogating microstructure in fast-flowing suspensions

Lead-PI: Jeffrey J Richards, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Co-PI: Michelle Driscoll, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics

In this seed proposal the co-PI’s, Michelle Driscoll and Jeff Richards, seek to develop a new apparatus (ViSER) to image particle-laden, high-velocity flows.  In this seed proposal, the PI’s will focus their efforts on the development of the apparatus and obtaining experimental data from suspensions that are subjected to complex deformation that mimics realistic operating conditions.  By visualizing the particles within the suspension under these conditions, the PI’s seek to bridge a gap in knowledge between predicting performance and measuring material properties in idealized laboratory settings.

Community Vulnerability Index: Examining resilience to overlapping hazards

Lead-PI: Amanda Stathopoulos, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Co-PI: Emőke-Ágnes Horvát, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Studies, and (by courtesy) Department of Computer Science

It is well known that socially vulnerable populations are disproportionately impacted when disasters strike.  Notably, disasters and emergencies occurring in tandem with the COVID-19 crisis generate new challenges for evacuation communication, transportation and logistics.  Our team brings together transportation engineering, social science theories and network analysis to provide a leap forward in our understanding of community resilience to simultaneous crises.

Connecting microscopic reprocessing to macroscopic properties for a circular plastics economy

Lead-PI: Muzhou Wang, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Co-PI: Julia A. Kalow, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry

Co-PI: Jeffrey J. Richards, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Thermosetting plastics represent a $92.4B market, but since these materials are largely landfilled or downcycled at end of use, they impose a >50 megaton environmental burden.  This project will directly observe the recycling process at the unprecedented nanoscale, and correlate this to bulk mechanical properties. By visualizing the motion of individual polymers in real time, we can understand the underlying dynamic mechanisms near the interface between re-forming pieces, and how mechanical properties recover to their original state.

CESR Seed Funding Winners 2020

The Center for Engineering Sustainability and Resilience congratulates its second cohort of seed funding winners.  Read the full summaries for the winning projects below.

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CESR Seed Funding Winners 2019

Read the summaries for CESR's first cohort of seed funding winners here.

READ MORE