Bentley Institute and Rutgers University collaborate on Hurricane Sandy research

Exton, Pa. — Bentley Fellow Dr. Zheng Yi Wu and a team from Rutgers University jointly published a paper, Analysis of Dominant Factors Associated with Hurricane Damages to Residential Structures Using the Rough Set Theory, in the March 29, 2016 issue of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) journal Natural Hazards Review. The research was sponsored by Bentley and jointly conducted with research collaborator Dr. Jie Gong, Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rutgers University; Postdoctoral Research Fellow Bingsheng Liu; and Graduate Research Assistant Xuan Hu.

The research leveraged the data collected from advanced remote sensing technologies, including mobile LiDAR sensors, to collect high-resolution, 3D images of damaged communities. Using Bentley Pointools and MicroStation software, a “reality modeling” representation was then developed to enable rapid assessment of hurricane-related flooding.

One outcome of the research was the determination of the dominant factors that contributed to the failure of residential structures during the hurricane. In the United States, Hurricane Sandy was the second costliest hurricane in U.S. history and affected 24 states, including the entire eastern seaboard from Florida to Maine.

The technical paper can be accessed at ASCE Library (https://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/%28ASCE%29NH.1527-6996.0000218?utm_campaign=Comm-20160708-ASCEnews+Weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&)

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Dr. Zheng Wu said, “Bentley’s reality-modeling-based approach allows rapid and objective evaluation of hurricane damage and, more importantly, yields more extensive data, thereby enabling more strategic approaches to building and rebuilding infrastructure that better ensure resiliency. We gained valuable insights into the specific mechanisms of damage and how best to conduct systematic assessment of damages. In addition to publication by ASCE, our research findings are being published in several other journals, and we have been asked to present our findings in many conference venues and workshops sponsored by state and federal agencies.”

Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rutgers University, Dr. Jie Gong said, “Working together with Dr. Wu at Bentley, I was able to take my initial research concept and turn it into a predictive model on hurricane damage and damage mitigation that has important practical applications for the eastern seaboard of the U.S. and any other part of the world with hurricane events. I am indebted to Dr. Wu’s hydraulics modeling expertise, Bentley’s MicroStation and Pointools modeling and visualization software, and the work of the two talented post-graduate interns who worked on this important project.”

Global Head, Bentley Institute, Vinayak Trivedi said, “Bentley Fellow Dr. Zheng Wu’s project is an excellent example of Bentley Institute’s commitment to advancing the infrastructure professions. Studying the mechanisms of damage of Hurricane Sandy and applying the information learned from this data will help to mitigate both the economic and environmental impact of future hurricanes and create greater infrastructure resiliency.”

Dr. Wu also collaborates frequently with researchers at the School of Municipal Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, in Harbin, China. The June 2016 issue of ASCE’s Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management published a paper detailing the results of joint research entitled, Leakage Zone Identification in Large-Scale Water Distribution Systems Using Multiclass Support Vector Machines. The paper presents a new method for identifying leakage zones of water distribution systems, and can be accessed at https://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0000661.

In other ASCE news, Greg Bentley, CEO, was recently named to the ASCE Industry Leaders Council (ILC). ILC engages senior leaders from industry, academia, government, and non-governmental organizations to prioritize agenda-setting actions for ASCE and the civil engineering profession.

“I am honored to join a distinguished group of industry leaders on the Industry Leaders Council and look forward to working together to identify critical national infrastructure challenges and, more importantly, solutions and strategies that advance America’s infrastructure,” Bentley said.