Title: Advanced Topics of Ballasted Track Research
Reporter: Prof. Erol Tutumluer
Time: 3rd June 2016, 2:00pm - 4:00pm
Site: B230 Anzhong Building
Biography:
Dr. Erol Tutumluer is the full professor in faculty of civil and environmental engineering of UIUC. He was granted the chair professor of Changjiang scholars programme by Ministry of Education of China in 2015. He is the Chair of AFP70 “Mineral Aggregates” Committee (2011-present) of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) and also serves on AFS70 and past member of AFD80 and AFP30. He holds the membership of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (Chair of the ISSMGE Technical Committee 202 on Transportation Geotechnics), ASCE (Chair of the ASCE Geo-Institute’s Pavements Committee) and the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association (AREMA) (Committee 1 on “Ballast”). He has the editorships of several international journals as Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editor, Editorial Board Member and Co-editor.
Dr. Tutumluer has research interests in testing and modeling of pavement and railroad track geo-materials, i.e., soils and base/ballast aggregates, size and shape characterization of aggregates using imaging and laser techniques, use of geosynthetics in transportation facilities, modeling of particulate media using discrete and finite element methods, neural network modeling, and mechanistic based pavement and railroad track design. He has conducted major studies on anisotropy and stress dependency of unbound aggregate layers, aggregate shape, texture and angularity affecting pavement behavior and performance, modeling and design of geogrid base reinforced flexible pavements, deformation analyses of full-scale test sections under moving wheels, investigating effects of aggregate type and quality including reclaimed asphalt product used as aggregate cover in working platforms and base layers, pavement base and railroad ballast condition assessment, ballast discrete element modeling and characterization of fouled ballast behavior. Dr. Tutumluer has authored and co-authored over 250 refereed papers. Since 1996, Dr. Tutumluer has served as an investigator on over 65 research projects with grants received from Federal agencies including FHWA, FAA, FRA, US Army Corps of Engineers, NCHRP (served as co-PI on 4-30 and 4-34 projects) and NSF; state agencies including single grants from Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, and North Carolina DOTs and pool-funded research contributions from 5 other state DOTs; and private/industry such as IFAI, ICAR, AAR, BNSF, BASF, Union Pacific Railroad, Caterpillar, Inc. and Tensar International, Inc.