Welcome to Dr. Ming Xiao’s research team at Penn State.
Dr. Xiao’s research involves understanding the performances of the built environment under service conditions and extreme events. In 2014, he received an FHWA grant (as PI) to evaluate the in-service behavior of bridge supports using engineered fills. He was also leading a PennDOT project (as PI) from 2014 to 2016 to evaluate the migration of fine soils into the aggregate layer beneath pavement slabs due to sustained traffic load; this project concerns the maintenance of the existing highway system. In 2016, he was awarded a research contract as PI by the Office of Surface Mining of DoI to conduct field investigation and stability analysis of coal slurry impoundments under long-term and seismic loading conditions. Dr. Xiao’s research interests in the performance, failure mechanisms, and remediation of civil infrastructure under extreme events (such as earthquakes and hurricanes) are exemplified by several ongoing research projects. He designed and constructed a Seismic Shake Table Facility in the Civil Infrastructure Testing and Evaluation Lab (CITEL). The shake table is 10 ft by 10 ft in dimensions with a 20-ton payload capacity. He also designed and built a laminar shear box on the shake table in order to conduct geotechnical earthquake model testing. Dr. Xiao is insterested in understanding the seismic performances of levee systems and lifelines under earthquake-induced soil liquefaction; collaborating with faculty in structural and hydraulics fields, Dr. Xiao aims to evaluate elevated and retrofitted coastal residential buildings under combined hurricane wind and surge flood effects.
Another research area since Xiao’s doctoral study is flow and particle transport in porous media; this subject has wide applications in various fields. For example, he was engaged in a NASA project on multi-phase flow in porous media under microgravity during his postdoc study with the ultimate goal of growing plants as a food supply in long space missions. In civil engineering, the application of this subject involves seepage and erosion in levees and dams. In 2012, he received an NSF grant as single PI to investigate how soil erosion is initiated under various permeating fluids. Through this grant his research team developed a robust experimental setup and methodology for particle mobilization and erosion progress, such setup allowed him to secure another NSF grant (as co-PI) to study the behavior of shale under natural gas extraction and CO2 sequestration, through the collaboration with College of Earth and Mineral Science. He has served as the Chair of ASCE G-I technical committee on Geotechnics of Soil Erosion since 2011. Dr. Xiao will chair the 10th International Conference on Scour and Erosion in 2020 in Washington, D.C.
Current and Previous External Research Grants
Federal Funding:
- PI of OSM funding “Field Investigation and Stability Analysis of Coal Slurry Impoundments.” Funded by Office of Surface Mining Reclamation & Enforcement (OSM), Department of Interior. Project duration: 10/01/2016 to 09/30/2018. Total federal funding: $200,000; industrial and university match funding: $99,110. Total project funding: $299,110. Co-PIs: Dr. Shimin Liu and Dr. Jamal Rostami.
- Co-PI of Rail Safety IDEA project “Development of Ballast Real Time Information System (BRIS) Based on ‘SmartRock’.” Funded by TRB Rail Safety IDEA program, expected project duration 01/01/2017 to 12/31/2017, total funding: $100,000. PI: Dr. Hai Huang, co-PI: Dr. Erol Tutumluer.
- Co-PI of NSF funding “Characterization and Modeling of Multimechanistic Flow Behaviors from Nano- to Macro-scale in Shale Matrix.” Funded by CBET Fluid Dynamics program (CBET 1438398), 07/01/2014 to 06/30/2017, total funding: $330,000. PI: Dr. Shimin Liu, co-PI: Dr. Derek Elsworth.
- PI of FHWA project “Service Limit State Design and Analysis of Engineered Fills for Bridge Support.” Funded by Federal Highway Administration (Contract DTFH61-14-C-00012), 04/23/2014 – 04/22/2017, total funding $249,782. Co-PIs: Drs. Tong Qiu, Prasenjit Basu.
- Single PI of NSF funding “Mobilization of Sand Particles and Erosion Progression Under Various Permeating Fluids”, funded by NSF CMMI Geomechanics and Geomaterials Program (CMMI 1200081), 09/01/2012 – 08/31/2015, total funding $195,735.
- Co-PI of project “Flow and Distribution of Fluid Phases Through Porous Plant Growth Media in Microgravity,” funded by NASA Johnson Space Center, Oct 2002 – Mar 2005, total funding $299,369.
State Funding:
- PI of PennDOT project “Evaluation of Geotextile Separation to Prevent Migration of Subgrade Fines into Subbase,” funded by Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, 11/01/2014 – 06/30/2016, total funding: $221,948. Co-PIs: Drs. Shelley Stoffels, Tong Qiu.
- Co-PI of PennDOT project “Evaluation of Hydraulic Plate Compactor,” funded by Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, 08/26/2014 – 11/26/2014, total funding: $111,930. PI: Dr. Tong Qiu.
- Single PI of CalRecycle project “Large-Scale Testing of Shear Strength of Tire Derived Aggregates (TDA) and Pullout Strength of Geosynthetics in TDA”, funded by California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle), 01/01/2013 – 04/30/2013, total funding $17,778.
- PI of Caltrans project “Seismic Responses of MSE Walls Using Accelerated Alternative Backfill Materials with Recycled Tire Shreds and Lightweight Expanded Aggregates”, funded by California Department of Transportation, May 2012 – Jun 2013, total funding $38,700.
- Co-PI of project “Engineering Applications of KLA Compost Materials,” funded by Kansas Livestock Association (KLA), Nov 2004 – Oct 2005, total funding $57,311.
Industrial Funding:
- Single PI of project “Seismic Analyses of Slurry Walls”, funded by Magnus Pacific Corporation (Roseville, CA), July 2010 – June 2011, total funding $25,000.
- Single PI of project “Mechanisms and Prevention of Slurry-Induced Piping Progression”, funded by Magnus Pacific Corporation (Roseville, CA), July 2009 – June 2010, total funding $25,883,
International Funding:
- PI of project “Aggregate-structure interaction mechanisms and stability analysis of reinforced tire-derived aggregate bridge abutments,” funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, 01/01/2014 – 12/31/2017, total funding ¥800,000 Chinese Yuan (grant No. 51379115), with international collaboration of Shandong University, China.