Victor E. Saouma
Dept. of Civil Engineering
University of Colorado, Boulder

Note

For a full disclosure CV, you may download my full resume, otheriwi the rest of this page is an

Current Position

Professor, Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, University of Colorado in Boulder.

Director and Principal Investigator of the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES), NSF Center on Fast Hybrid Test at the University of Colorado, Boulder

Research Interests

  1. Earthquake Engineering
    1. Non linear transient analysis of concrete dams.
    2. Fast Hybrid Testing.
  2. Fracture mechanics
    1. Fracture of concrete, rocks, ceramics, and polymers.
    2. Fractal analysis
  3. Concrete and reinforced concrete deterioration
    1. Alkali-Aggregate Reactions.
    2. Chloride Diffusion
  4. Nonlinear finite element simulation of reinforced concrete

Education

Cornell University, Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, September 1980 (A. Ingraffea Advisor).
Cornell University, M.E. in Civil Engineering, January 1977.
American University of Beirut, B.E. in Civil Engineering, June 1975.
Lycée Chateaubriand, Rome, Baccalaureat Francais, Série Scientifique, 1971

Teaching

As many Professors, I found most text-books inadequate, boring, and often superficial. As such I wrote over the years my own set of lecture notes:
  1. Structural Engineering, Analysis and Design.
  2. Structural Concepts and Systems for Architects.
  3. Mechanics of Reinforced Concrete.
  4. Computer Literacy for Undergraduates.
  5. Finite Element Analysis of Frames.
  6. Finite Element Analysis.
  7. Advanced Mechanics of Materials.
  8. Fracture mechanics.

Appointments

  1. Visiting Professor, Universite de Toulouse, one month 2009.
  2. Visiting Professor, Politecnico of Catalunya, one month 2007.
  3. Professeur Associé, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan, Cachan, France, one month 2007.
  4. Visiting Professor, Politecnico of Milan, Department of Structural Engineering, 2003-2004.
  5. Visiting Professor, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Lausanne), Material Science Department, 1997-1998.
  6. Professor, Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder CO, 1995 - Present.
  7. Professeur Associé, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan, Cachan, France, one month 1994.
  8. Professeur Associé, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan, Cachan, France, one month 1992.
  9. Professeur Invité, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, January-June 1990.
  10. Associate Professor, Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder CO, June 1988 - 1995.
  11. Assistant Professor, Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder CO, Jan. 1984 - May 1988.
  12. Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, Sept. 1981-Dec. 1983.
  13. Research Associate, Department of Civil Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J., Oct. 1980 - Aug. 1981.

Research

  1. Non linear transient analysis of concrete dams: Over the past seven years, my research has been funded by the Tokyo Electric Power Service Company (TEPSCO). Within the framework of this project, we seek to develop a State of the Art finite element program (Merlin) for the 3D nonlinear, transient, multiple-CPU, analysis of concrete dams. Centrifuge tests for validations were also performed both in Boulder and Tokyo. OpenGL based pre and post processors are also being developed. (Kumo and Spider). Prior to this project, I was funded for 5 years by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to examine the applicability of fracture mechanics to concrete dams. Much of this researchon dam safety is summarized in http://www.dam-analysis.com.
  2. Fast Hybrid Testing: Aside from directing and managing the CU-NEES site, I am particularly interested in maximizing the size of the numerical model which can be simulated with fast hybrid testing (development of Mercury through parallel computers, and taking advantage of innovative hardware such as FPGPA)
    Currently testing a reinforced concrete frame previously tested on a shake table. Another component is to explore the applicability of FHT to aerospace vehicle testing.
  3. Fracture of concrete: Over the years, I have conducted numerous innovative and large scale tests to examine the fracture properties of concrete. These include: large wedge splitting tests (1.5x1.5 m and 7.5 cm MSA); Static and Dynamic fracture properties; Static and dynamic fluid pressure inside cracks; Fatigue crack propagation; Fracture of joints subjected to both static and cyclic loads. In practically all cases tests were first performed, a theoretical model was then developed, and finally a finite element code (MERLIN) was then modified to implement the model and test it.
  4. Fracture of rocks: Tested soft rock (Tuffo), and planning to apply those test results to the analysis of cave stability in Naples (with Prof. Viggiani/Grenoble).
  5. Fracture of Ceramics: (with Prof. Sbaizero) performed numerical simulations of ceramic fractures by applying concrete nonlinear models
  6. Fracture of Polymers: With Mr. Tussiwand, we are performing fracture tests of solid rocket propellants, and then assessing the safety of a burning missile in the presence of a crack.
  7. Fractal analysis: Performed some early tests to determine the fractal dimension of cracked concrete, extended the size effect law to account for fractal cracks.
  8. Alkali-Aggregate Reactions: Developed a constitutive model for concrete undergoing AAR. Implemented the model in MERLIN and then performed 3D analyses of both dams and massive reinforced concrete strucutres.
  9. Chloride Diffusion: Developed a fully coupled nonlinear model (finite difference) for the coupled diffusion of chloride and carbonation in concrete. Applied this model to subsequently determine the extent of corrosion and cracking in the concrete.
  10. Nonlinear finite element simulation of reinforced concrete: This is an extension of my work in dams. Having the appropriate computational tools (MERLIN), I have performed the nonlinear analysis of a portion of a nuclear reactor containment vessel, and performed a number of simulations (with Prof. Al-Mahaidi and Spacone) for the fracturing of FRP.

Computer Programs

Developed, supervised development of the following computer programs:
  1. Finite Element Analysis MERLIN, User's manual, and Theory manual.
  2. Optimized Computational Environement for Real Time Hybrid Simulation MERCURYFinite Element Mesh Generator KumoNoSu.
  3. Finite Element post-processor, Spider.
  4. Modeling of concrete deterioration, CDAP.
  5. Simulation of silica aggregate reaction (at the macro-level), SIMSAR.
  6. Generation of Finite Element mesh for heterogeneous material, PARSIFAL.

Coordinates

Phone: +1 303 492-1622
e-mail: saouma at colorado.edu
Mailing Address: 428 UCB; University of Colorado; Boulder, CO, 80309-0428

Personal

Personal Information