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.
New Research Report
A new research report, which partially documents a multi-year research project that included bridge field monitoring and numerical simulations of live load and thermal effects, is now published online. This work is funded by the Illinois Center for Transportation. Sunny Zhou and Ricardo Dorado, the Ph.D. students on the project, are recognized for their essential roles executing this complex campaign! Volumes II and III will be published in the next few months.
2026 NASCC Registration Open
2026 Illinois Structural Engineering Conference
Registration is now open for the 2026 Illinois Structural Engineering Conference, which will be held Thursday, April 9, 2026 at the I Hotel and Illinois Conference Center in Champaign, IL.
https://structures.cee.illinois.edu/illinois-structural-engineering-conference
Fahnestock Delivers Dexter Lecture
Last month Larry Fahnestock delivered a Dexter Memorial Lecture, part of the Warren Distinguished Lecture Series, in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering at the University of Minnesota. The Dexter Memorial Lecture is held to honor the legacy of Prof. Robert Dexter (1956-2004). Robert is remembered for his technical expertise and contributions in steel fatigue and fracture, and for his humility, kindness, generosity and encouragement that touched so many people.
New Undergraduate Researchers
Welcome to Eve Kim and Camila Marden, who have been selected for the CEE-sponsored Research Experience for Undergraduates program during the Fall 2025 semester! Eve has joined the project “Estimation of the Load Rating of Existing Highway Bridges Based on Bridge Weigh-In-Motion Data” led by PI Prof. Alipour and Co-PI Prof. Fahnestock, and Camila has joined the project “Strength and Serviceability of Damaged Steel Girders” led by PI Prof. Fahnestock and Co-PIs Prof. LaFave and Prof. Elbanna.
New Paper on Bridge Strikes
Congratulations to Limo Schissler on leading the publication of a new journal paper:
This paper documents a portion of Illinois Center for Transportation (ICT) project R27-225 (“Strength and Serviceability of Damaged Steel Girders”).
Fahnestock Selected as Academic Leadership Fellow
Dorado at NYC Bridge Conference
Congratulations to Ricardo Dorado for presenting a portion of his doctoral research – “Field-data-driven assessment of an in-service skewed integral abutment bridge assisted by deep learning” – at the 2025 New York City Bridge Conference! The accompanying paper is published in the journal Bridge Structures as part of a special collection associated with the conference. Ricardo’s research is part of the project “Evaluation of Spatial and Temporal Load Distribution in Steel Bridge Superstructure,” which is funded by the Illinois Center for Transportation.
AISC Student Travel Grants
New Paper on E-Defense Testing
A new open-access data paper is now available on full-scale building tests conducted at the E-Defense shake table in Miki, Japan.
Qie, Y., Astudillo, B., Duncan, J., Tao, Z., Okazaki, T., Fahnestock, L., Sause, R. Ricles, J., Simpson, B., Kurata, M., Kawamata, Y. and Hattori, K. “Data Paper: E-Defense shake-table tests on a steel moment-resisting frame supplemented with spines and force-limiting connections,” Japan Architectural Review. https://doi.org/10.1002/2475-8876.70036
This data paper corresponds to the open-access data set published in the NSF NHERI DesignSafe-CI repository.
Fahnestock, L., Y. Qie, B. Astudillo, J. Duncan, Z. Tao, T. Okazaki, R. Sause, J. Ricles, B. Simpson, M. Kurata, Y. Kawamata, K. Hattori. 2025. “E-Defense shake-table test data,” in Collaborative Research: Frame-Spine System with Force-Limiting Connections for Low-Damage Seismic Resilient Buildings. DesignSafe-CI. https://doi.org/10.17603/ds2-e159-v458