Welcome

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Welcome to the online home of the Fahnestock Research Group within CEE at Illinois.  Led by Prof. Larry Fahnestock, and collaborating with colleagues at Illinois and other universities, the group conducts research broadly related to behavior, design and performance of large-scale structural systems.  We employ laboratory and field testing in conjunction with analytical and numerical models to illuminate critical aspects of behavior that inform advances in system configurations and design methods, ultimately leading to superior performance that contributes to infrastructure resiliency and sustainability.  Research topics span across buildings and bridges, moderate and high seismic design, low and high ductility response, service and extreme load conditions.  Current projects are sponsored by the National Science Foundation, American Institute of Steel Construction and Illinois Center for Transportation.  This site provides a brief overview of the group activities, so please inquire for more details about anything posted here.

Shi Presents at NHERI Computational Symposium

Congratulations to Shitao Shi for presenting a lightning talk, “Innovative Research Workflow for Seismic Design Provisions Development,” at the NHERI Computational Symposium! This talk highlighted a computational framework that Shitao has developed to support his Ph.D. research on seismic stability, which is partially funded by the American Institute of Steel Construction and the National Science Foundation.

Shitao Shi at the NHERI Computational Symposium.

Agarwal Defends Dissertation

Congratulations to Aradhana Agarwal for defending her Ph.D. dissertation! Aradhana’s doctoral research, Seismic Design and Performance of Multitiered Ordinary Concentrically Braced Frames, was supervised by Larry Fahnestock and partially funded by the American Institute of Steel Construction.

Aradhana Agarwal with doctoral committee (Frank Lombardo, Larry Fahnestock and Jim LaFave; Ahmed Elbanna not pictured) after defense.

Shi Passes Prelim

Congratulations to Shitao Shi on passing the Ph.D. preliminary exam!  Shitao’s research on seismic stability design and assessment of buildings is partially funded by the American Institute of Steel Construction and the National Science Foundation.

Shitao Shi presents Ph.D. research proposal.

New ICT Report

An interim report on Illinois Center for Transportation Project R27-225 is now available online:

Schissler, L.R., Ahershinge, S., Ibrahim, A.E., Fahnestock, L.A., LaFave, J.M. and Elbanna, A.E. “Report on Agency Survey and National Bridge Inventory Analysis for Damaged Steel Girders,” University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Research Report No. FHWA-ICT-24-021, Illinois Center for Transportation, November 2024. https://doi.org/10.36501/0197-9191/24-024