Infrastructure maintenance and rehabilitation is a rapidly growing field in many parts of the world, where countries are struggling to maintain functional roads, bridges, dams, and other types of structures. An ASCE report in 2017 painted a bleak picture for the state of US infrastructure, where it gave a very low overall grade of D+ and estimated that approximately US$ 4.5 trillion additional funding is needed by 2025 to bring the rating to an adequate B grade. Dr. Jawdhari has studied the effectiveness of several emerging retrofit techniques, namely:

• Ultra-high Performance Concrete (UHPC) overlay reinforced by CFRP rebars.

• Fiber reinforced Cementitious Mortar (FRCM).

• Near Surface Mounted (NSM) FRP.

Of the 604,485 bridges in the United States, approximately 21% are culverts having a span of 6 m (20 ft) or greater. The load rating of typical bridges presents numerous challenges. Developing load ratings for non-typical structures, such as buried arch-shaped culverts is more complex because of the culverts’ unique geometric configuration and their interaction with soil media. This project proposes an alternative analytical method for load rating in-service arch culverts that overcomes the limitations of the widely used elastic frame concept while being straightforward to implement. The proposed analytical method uses two-dimensional finite element models of the arch structure and surrounding soil media. It was found that for arch culverts with fills exceeding 2.43 m (8 ft.), the controlling actions are bending moments at the crown and haunch. For culverts with fills greater than 3.05 m (10 ft.), live load effects become negligible. A revised rating formula is proposed for culverts with this characteristic.

Concrete sandwich panels (CSPs) have been used in the construction industry for decades, typically for building envelopes. They are commonly composed of outer and inner wythes made of reinforced or prestressed concrete with rigid insulation sandwiched between the wythes to provide maximum CSPs offer many advantages such as good structural performance, excellent thermal insulation, quality control, speed of construction, versatility, and appealing finishes. The following are several of Dr. Jawdhari completed projects on CSPs:

• Experimental study on CSPs with a new shear connector using glass-fiber-reinforced polymer channel section.

• Finite element analysis and parametric study on CSPs with embedded glass-fiber-reinforced polymer channel as shear connector.

• Thermal bowing of thin CSPs containing UHPC wythes.

• Parametric Studies and Design Equations for Thermal Bowing and Composite Degree of CSPs.

• Finite element analysis of thin UHPC CSPs under structural loads.

Stay-in-place (SIP) forms offer many advantages over conventional formwork, for example becoming a permanent component for the member after concrete hardens, thus eliminating the risk of damaging concrete while removing formwork. They can reduce construction time, complexity, and accidents; and labor costs, and could potentially replace or reduce the required shear and flexural reinforcement. Due to their desirable properties of high strength, lightweight, and corrosion resistance, FRP composites have become widely used as SIP (SIP FRP) permeant forms and reinforcement in bridge decks, concrete girders and columns, in poles and piles. The following are several of Dr. Jawdhari completed projects on SIP FRP:

• A new concrete beam concept utilizing side side FRP plates as SIP form and structural Reinforcement.

• Design equation for concrete-filled FRP tubes in flexure including damage effects.

• Stress-strain curve for angle-Ply FRP tubes in tension considering concrete filling effects.

• Developing confinement models for concrete columns with FRP or FRCM reinforcements.

Wind turbine technology is one of the cleanest and most renewable energy sources, prevailing over other conventional sources, in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption and social impacts. However, modern wind turbines suffer from some energy losses, fatigue, and generate some noise, as a result of the geometrical and operational requirements. Inspired by nature’s actions, PowerCone, developed by Biome Renewables, is a retrofit device designed to enhance the turbine’s performance and increase its annual energy production by 10-13%. Experimental testing is required in order to gain confidence of the device’s performance, validate numerical models, evaluate any design or manufacturing faults, and boost its marketability. This work documents the cyclic bending test performed on a full-scale PowerCone blade in November 2019. Support and loading setups were custom designed and built to simulate accurate boundary conditions as in field installation. The cyclic test consisted of loading and unloading for several load levels, incrementally, up to a maximum force of 30 kN. The load was distributed over four transverse lines within the blade’s tip section. The blade was instrumented at different locations with deflection and strain measuring devices.

Monorail train guideways perform dual function as a superstructure and guiding track for train vehicles and allow for ease of installation and shorter construction times, compared to other rail-style transportation. Deterioration of reinforced concrete (RC) guideways, particularly that caused by corrosion of steel reinforcement, can reduce the operational efficiency of the monorail train, service live of the support system, and investment profits. In this study, a field testing is conducted on two full-scale guideway reinforced concrete (RC) beams, one reinforced entirely by glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) and the other by conventional steel, under 450 passes of two-car monorail train at various speeds and vehicle loads. The two beams were part of 1.86 km test track travelled by the train for 4.5 months. The study’s objective is to evaluate GFRP bars as a sustainable reinforcement for transit infrastructure, particularly for monorail trains. Dr. Jawdhari is a co-author of a journal paper related to the study, published in ASCE J. of Bridge Engineering.

Dr. Jawdhari conducted numerous studies related to computational mechanics and finite element (FE) analysis, using different commercial software, such as ANSYS, ABAQUS, and LS DYNA. The models he developed (or assisted in developing) included very challenging and diverse problems, namely nonlinear behavior of conventional and ultra-high performance concrete; contact problems, bond-slip and debonding of FRP composites; confinement of concrete columns; impact loading and strain rate effects; fatigue and cyclic loading; bridge structures; heat transfer analysis; and coupled-field (multi-physics) models of two or more separate physics problems, such as thermal-structural or soil-structural. The following are snap captures of some of the interesting features in the developed FE models: