Research in Timber Structures and Residential Construction

Dr. Bohumil Kasal
Bernard and Henrietta Hankin Chair of Residential Building Construction

Li Hao, Dr. B. Kasal, Tanya Myers, Andrew Adams, Robert Blass
Zhang Yuan, Maral Amini, Brian Wolfgang

Congratulations to Maral Amini , Tanya Myers and Brian Wolfgang.
Maral Amini, a PhD Graduate Student, Tanya Myers (MS), and Brian Wolfgang (MS) are the recipients of the 2008/2009 Glunt Fellowship. The Glunt Fellowships will be awarded during the Hankin Dinner on November 19, 2008. The Glunt Fellowship consists of financial award and a travel award to attend the International Builders Show in Las Vegas in 2009. Please, welcome Robert Blass in the team.

Congratulations to Tanya Myers. Tanya was named the 1st PHRC Fellow in April of 2008.

Graduate Students and Visiting Scientists

Graduate students are the engine of any research group on campus. The students in this group are highly motivated, bright young individuals with clear goals who will, undoubtedly, successfully cope with the challenges of this century.

	Brian Wolfgang, Undergraduate Research Assistant, Glunt Fellow (MS, Architectural Engineering) Brian Wolfgang graduated from Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at PSU (Summa Cum Laude). Brian is working on a PHRC project addressing the issues related to below-grade construction. He will conduct laboratory experiments of imperfectly water proofed basement walls in the Building Envelope Testing Laboratory. Brian will start as a Graduate Research Assistant in the fall of 2008. Brian was awarded the Glunt Fellowship for 2008/2009.
	Robert Blass, Undergraduate Research Assistant (MEng., Civil Engineering) Robert Blass joined the group in May 2008 after graduating from Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at PSU. Robert's project is about the pre- and post-crack behavior of composite-reinforced laminated arches. Robert will start as a Graduate Research Assistant in the fall of 2008.
	Zhang Yuan, China Scholarship Council Fellow Zhang Yuan is a recipient of the China Scholarship Council scholarship. She arrived in May 2008 and is working on number of projects dealing with residential structures in the US and applications of the US systems in Chinese environment. Zhang Yuan studies towards a PhD degree in Industrial Engineering from Tianjin University and an MS and BS degrees in Civil Engineering from Baotou University of Iron and Steel Technology.
	Li Hao, China Scholarship Council Fellow Li Hao is a recipient of the China Scholarship Council scholarship. He arrived in May 2008. He is working with Brian Wolfgang on the basement walls project where he will develop analytical models for steady- and unsteady-state coupled heat and mass transfer through the walls with cavities. Li Hao pursues a PhD degree in Civil Engineering from Inner Mongolia Agricultural University and he holds MS and BS degrees in Civil Engineering from Baotou University of Iron and Steel Technology.
	Maral Amini , Glunt Fellow, Graduate Research Assistant (PhD, Civil Engineering) Maral has a B. S. Degree in Civil Engineering from University of Massachusetts in Amherst and MEng degree in Architectural Engineering from Penn State. She has worked for the Massachusetts Highway Department in Boston prior to joining our program. Maral's research will address the wind effects on residential (low rise) structures. Maral started her appointment in August 2007.
	Tanya Myers, Glunt Fellow, PHRC Fellow, Graduate Research Assistant (MS, Civil Engineering) Tanya graduated in December 2007 from New Jersey Institute of Technology in Civil Engineering. She brings with her several years of experience in residential building industry. Tanya works on the code aspects of lateral resistance of light-frame structures. She joined our group in January 2008.
	Andrew Adams, Graduate Research Assistant (MS, Civil Engineering) Andrew has received the undergraduate degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Penn State in 2007. Andrew is a recipient of the Dean's Scholarship and he studies the internal deformations of beam-to-column moment connections using state-of-the-art real-time radioscopy.

Michael C. Collins, PhD Candidate, Civil Engineering, NCSU

Michael Collins's dissertation addresses the full-scale behavior of light-frame, low-rise buildings subjected to natural-hazard loads. Specific attention is given to modeling of nonlinear, hysteretic behavior of connections, systems and subsystems. Mike has spent a semester at CSIRO, Australia and was an NSF Fellow in Tsukuba, Japan. He is expected to graduate in the summer of 2008.

Dr. Ibrahim Bektas, Visiting Scientist, Turkey

Dr. Bektas is an Associate Professor at the University of Kahramanmaras Sutcu imam in Turkey. He will be working on composite fiber reinforced dynamically loaded moment connections of timber structures located in seismic areas. Dr. Bektas is scheduled to arrive in July of 2008.

Former Graduate Students and Visiting Scientists

Norbert Repka, PhD, Research Associate, Slovakia

Dr. Repka graduated from the Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava, Slovakia with PhD in Civil Engineering in May of 2006. His dissertation title was "Towards the Design of Hybrid Systems of Heating and Ventilating in Large Volume Buildings" for which he won the prestigious Werner von Siemens award. He was also selected a "Student of the Year" in Slovakia in 2006. Dr. Repka finished the project dealing with heat and mass transfer through insulated below-ground wall systems and returned to Slovakia in June 2007. He is currently employed as Sustainable Design Specialist with Affilated Engineers, Inc. in Madison, WI.

Joerg Wehsener, Dipl.-Ing., Research Associate, Germany

Joerg Wehsener is a Research Associate at TU Dresden, Germany. Mr. Wehsener spent six months in the fall of 2007 at PSU and studied the composite-fiber reinforced moment connections using advanced digital imaging and real-time radioscopy. The goal of the project is to evaluate the effect of composite reinforcement on joint geometry (end, edge distances and spacing of dowel-type connectors).

Remi Landel, Visiting undergraduate fellow (Joseph Fourier University, Grenoble, France)

Remi spent 2006 Spring semester with our group. He worked on the shear capacities investigation of light-frame (steel and wood) partition walls in residential construction. Remi is back in France finishing his civil engineering degree.

Cyril Fischer , PhD, Visiting Scientist, Czech Republic

Cyril Fischer has doctorate degree in mathematics from Charles University in Prague (Est. 1348), Czech Republic. He spent fall semester of 2005 at PHRC working on stochastic mathematical models of low-rise buildings subjected to random wind loads. Dr. Fischer is a Scientist at the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Prague.

Andreas Heiduschke, Dr.-Ing (Prof. Peer Haller, advisor at TU Dresden, Germany)

Andreas' dissertation "Seismic behavior of moment-resisting timber frames with densified and textile reinforced connections" deals with composite-fiber reinforced connections and frames intended for seismic applications.  The work includes experimental investigation scaled models of connections and frames followed by the full-size tests.   Experimental data are used in the verification of the developed analytical models. The tests that included scaled and full-scale shake table tests were performed in Germany, Czech Republic, Italy and the US. Andreas defended successfully in March of 2006 and he accepted a Research Associate position with TU Dresden where he is working with Prof. Peer Haller who was his advisor at TU Dresden.

Gretchen Lear, MS (NCSU, Raleigh, NC)

Gretchen defended her thesis "Improving the assessment of in situ timber members with the use of nondestructive and semi-destructive testing techniques" in December of 2005. Gretchen was a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow and conducted her experimental work in the Czech Republic as a member of an international team. Gretchen is working for Robert Silman Associates in New York.

Teofisto Saralde, MS (NCSU, Raleigh, NC)

Teo studies the engineering properties of genetically altered wood. Series of genes controlling wood chemical composition was identified and used to control the wood properties. This work will help to identify how these newly discovered genes affect the mechanical properties of wood. Teo defended his thesis in November 2006.

Michael H. Winkel, The University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, CA (Prof. I. Smith and Prof. Y.H, Chui, advisors at UNB)

Michael tested the structural behavior of light-frame wood walls under shear, axial and bending loads. He defended his thesis "Behavior of light-frame walls subject to combined in-plane and out of plane loads" in June 2006.

Undergraduate students and research

Number of undergraduate students participate in the research activities. Their involvement is important and give the students opportunities to deepen their knowledge and spark the interest in graduate study.

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Research Areas

• in-situ evaluation of existing buildings
• light-frame residential structures under wind and earthquake loads
• building envelope performance
• laminated wood frames under dynamic loads
• shear-wall performance

Research Projects

Scholarships

Number of scholarships is available for qualified applicants. The candidates must meet the admission requirements of the Pennsylvania State University, College of Engineering and the pertinent departments (AE or CEE).

J. Roger Glunt Graduate Fellowship in Residential Construction

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Building enclosure testing laboratory (BeTL)
The Building Enclosure Test Laboratory (BeTL), located at CATO Park in State College, is a facility that was developed to conduct performance tests on building enclosure systems and their component parts. Test specimens can include: complete wall or roof assemblies or sub-assemblies, windows, and joints.

Residential Construction Program home page
Undergraduate scholarships in Residential Construction
Housing Certificate program
Residential Construction Research Group (this page)
National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) - Student Chapter
Pennsylvania Housing Research Center
Hankin Distinguished Lecture series
Ongoing Research Projects