Mohanad KhazaaliStudent: Mohanad Khazaali

Project: Damage assessment, Recovery and Resilience of Infrastructure Systems under Natural Disasters

View: Research Poster (PDF) | Presentation (YouTube)

Department: Civil and Environmental Engineering

Advisor: Paolo Bocchini

Abstract

Infrastructure systems are designed to withstand natural hazards and preserve their functionality. In particular, this study focuses on damage assessment, recovery and resilience of telecommunication structures under strong wind. Telecommunication systems are designed to resist strong winds and preserve the functionality of the attached nonstructural components (antennas and microwaves) for the communication service. Steel lattice towers are a widely used type of structures in these systems. This research presents the development of fragility curves for steel lattice towers subjected to strong wind considering uncertainties related to wind loads. The random fluctuations in the wind velocity are simulated as multivariate random processes, tend to have a Gaussian distribution. Fragility curves consider the main component in the evaluation of recovery and resilience of telecommunication systems.

Advanced nonlinear Finite Element Models are built to describe the structural behavior of lattice towers, until their failure. The dynamic response of each component is recorded to identify the demand level, and combined with the capacity to determine the probability of occurrence of each failure mode. Unlike previous research efforts on telecommunication towers, in which only a single failure mode was considered (global collapse), this study focuses on multiple failure modes at the component level and their probability of propagation to global collapse.

This study will enable researchers to evaluate the vulnerability of steel lattice towers under hurricane winds, and it helps to improve the design and reliability of steel lattice towers.

About Mohanad Khazaali

Mohanad Khazaali was born in Al-Dewaniyah city, Iraq in 1989. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Al-Qadissiyah University, Iraq in 2011.

After graduation, Mohanad received a job offer from Al-Maskit Alafkee, a reputed private company in Iraq, which specializes in sewage system pipelines design and implementation. He worked as a supervisor engineer in the company for three years. Then, in 2013, Mohanad received a permanent job in the Ministry of Education as a supervisor engineer to oversee school buildings design and construction.

Mohanad joined Lehigh University in 2015 to pursue his Master degree. He was awarded the prestigious scholarship of the Higher Committee for Education Development in Iraq (HCED) through a competitive process. He successfully received his Master degree in 2017, with an outstanding GPA under the supervision of Dr. Paolo Bocchini.

Mohanad has rejoined Lehigh University in 2018 with a support from Dr. Bocchini to continue his education toward the Ph.D. degree in Structural Engineering. Currently, he is in the fourth year of his Ph.D.