Speaker: Wassim M. Ghannoum, PhD, PE, F.SEI
Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, UT San Antonio

Dr. Wassim Ghannoum is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). He has authored over 60 papers and reports, and managed research projects with cumulative budgets exceeding $6 million.

Dr. Ghannoum is a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Structural Engineering Institute (SEI). He has received several awards and recognitions for his work on advancing techniques for structural assessment, repair and retrofit of structures, and seismic resilience. His awards includes the ACI Henry L. Kennedy Award, the ACI Delmar L. Bloem Distinguished Service Award, the ACI Wason Medal for Most Meritorious Paper (2021), and the AASHTO Sweet Sixteen Award (2021). He is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Texas.

His research interests include the life-span extension of concrete structures, evaluation and retrofit of existing infrastructure, new materials in concrete construction and repair, extreme loading on structures, and earthquake engineering.

Topic: Bridge Load Testing using Digital Image Correlation Technology – Faster, Cheaper, More Accurate

Presentation

Recent advances in Digital Image Correlation (DIC) technology at the University of Texas at San Antonio are now allowing remote monitoring of bridge deformations, during load testing, at unprecedented resolution. The newly completed Civil Infrastructure Vision (CIV) system can track movement of any point on the surface of a bridge using specialized cameras to accuracy on the order of 1/1,000th inch, even when cameras are 100ft away from the bridge. The CIV system was developed in collaboration with TXDOT and is currently being used to conduct load tests across the state. Advantages of the CIV system over traditional instrumentation include speed of conducting tests (hours rather than days), reduced traffic

disruptions, and enhanced safety to workers and the public. Load tests using the CIV system are delivering more accurate load sharing estimates across bridge members, which are resulting in substantially increased load ratings compared with those obtained using AASHTO load rating procedures. The system, its capabilities, and results from load tests are presented. Bexar Concrete Works teamed up with Modjeski and Masters to redesign the project’s prestress elements and design prestress/precast bent caps.