1 Civil Engineering (Construction)/ Architecture. 2 Civil Engineering (Environmental) 3 Electrical, Computer or Mechanical Engineering

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1 PROJECT SUMMARIES (As provided by ERDC) 2019 SUMMER RESEARCH INTERNSHIP PWS Code Discipline and Level Laboratory Summary 1 Civil (Construction)/ Architecture 2 Civil (Environmental) BS 3 Electrical, Computer or Mechanical MS/ME 4 Computer or Computer Science, PhD Construction Research Laboratory (CERL) Facilities Processes Champaign, Illinois Construction Research Laboratory (CERL) Installations Ecl Processes Champaign, Illinois Construction Research Laboratory (CERL) Installations Environmental Processes Champaign, Illinois Construction Research Laboratory (CERL) Installations Environmental Processes Champaign, Illinois Researchers in the Processes are engaged in studies to evaluate federal agencies process to utilize facility and equipment data collected during design and construction to populate downstream systems use for facility operations and maintenance. This effort supports ERDC missions of developing innovative technologies to solve nation s challenging engineering problems. Research in this area includes evaluation and demonstration of newly developed approaches to populate SMS BUILDER with data included in BIM and/or collected during construction. Tasks on this scope include studying and understanding use of custom database function on the Autodesk Revit Classification Manager Add-Ins Tool. This task involves basic knowledge of classification systems and Autodesk Revit. Another task on this scope is to develop and/or review a Facility Data Workbook (FDW), a specific Microsoft excel format, for facilities included in pilot studies. These tasks might involve travel to installations to verify data accuracy. The Soil and Water Team is engaged in multi-disciplinary research and decision support related to sustainable range and environmental management for risk and impact analysis. This effort sustains the CERL mission of Sustainable Range Lands to support warfighter and training requirements. Research in this area includes developing, characterizing, and modeling training doctrine linkages to maneuver capability and ultimate impact of military vehicles on training lands. The first task of this scope is to utilize remotely sensed data to evaluate maneuver capability in relation to range configuration and other indicators (soil and vegetation resiliency, slope, vehicle dynamic properties, vegetation density, etc.). The task involves analysis of remote data followed by field evaluations that will require travel and handling materials with weights of up to 30 lb. This task will require that experiments be set up and executed by the end of June. The second task will be to process all the experimental and numerical data to develop a model to evaluate the field conditions with training doctrine and physical/dynamic vehicle properties to determine land capability (red/amber/green). The Robotics for Engineer Operations Team is engaged in multi-disciplinary research and decision support related to military engineering. This effort sustains the ERDC mission of support to the combat engineer. Research in this area includes Digital signal processing, sensor data fusion and machine learning, and model simulation. Sample Tasks: Digital signal processing, sensor data fusion, and machine learning: The student will assist in development of methodologies to fuse multi-modal sensor data into a dynamic world view for path planning, navigation, obstacle detection and avoidance for robotic ground vehicles. Agent-based modeling and simulation: Student will assist in the development of an agent-based simulation environment in order to investigate methodologies that will enable the coordination and collaboration of multiple ground vehicle robots performing complex tasks within a controlled environment. The Source Reduction and Resource Resilience (SR3) Team is engaged in multi-disciplinary research and decision support related to installation environmental management, contingency operations, and disaster response. This effort sustains the ERDC mission of sustainability practices on U.S. Army installations. Research in this area encompasses pollution prevention and waste management topic areas. Assist ERDC researchers on a team project focused on the integration of sustainability practices on U.S. Army installations. Duties may include compilation and analysis of data, field characterizations, literature reviews, design sketches, and writing summary documents pertaining to source reduction and resource resiliency measures. Participation in this program will provide students the opportunity to conduct field research from beginning to end and will strengthen their current skill set.

2 5 Civil MS/ME Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory (CHL) Navigation Harbors, Entrances and Structures The effort sustains ERDC mission by conducting research to quantify the vulnerability of coastal areas to flooding hazards. Storm surge typically represents the most significant source of flooding in the coastal environment. Currently coastal flood hazard assessment is performed through the use of probabilistic storm surge models, such as the Joint Probability Method with Optimal Sampling (JPM-OS) which has become the standard-of-practice for quantifying flooding hazards of hurricane-prone coastal sites. The main objective of the proposed study is to evaluate available techniques for representing the vortex structure of historical tropical cyclones (TCs) in the North Atlantic basin. The vortex is commonly characterized through wind and pressure relationships as profiles and fields. This project consist on the following specific tasks summarized below. Tasks also require the use of MATLAB, development of new software code, and knowledge of probability and statistical concepts. Elaborate a literature review about existing methodologies to develop TC wind and pressure profiles and fields. Develop and review MATLAB and/or Python scripts for wind and pressure profiles and fields. Conduct numerical experiments to evaluate the performance of different TC wind and pressure profile models through comparison with observed and hindcast TC data sets. Assess the estimation of characteristic TC parameters for both forecasting and simulation purposes. Develop a method for the conversion of gradient winds to surface winds. Evaluate various multivariate interpolation and regression techniques to characterize a TC s wind and pressure fields from profiles. 6 Civil / Coastal 7 Civil or Mechanical MS/ME, PHD 8 Civil or Mechanical (Pavement/Geotechnical) Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory (CHL) Navigation Harbors, Entrances and Structures Systems and Materials Systems and Materials Airfield ad Pavements The effort sustains ERDC mission by conducting research to assess the performance of coastal rubble mound structures that are part of the Nation s navigation infrastructure. Coastal structures play a central role within the USACE s mission to provide protection to waterborne transportation systems such as harbors and waterways. The main objective of the work is to develop generalized reliability computation tools for primary failure modes including wave run-up, overtopping, seaside stability, leeside stability, and damage progression for rubble mound structures. This information will improve design guidance and is essential for coastal structures asset management funding prioritization. Specific project tasks include extraction of cross sections from LIDAR data and Digital Elevation Models. Write and edit MATLAB scripts to process wave and water level data, perform statistical analyses, and perform computation of failure modes previously described. Apply scripts at multiple locations. Tasks require proficiency in MATLAB, ArcGIS or QGIS experience, basic knowledge of probability and statistical concepts, and familiarity with the application of coastal and/or hydraulic engineering design concepts in a coastal environment. Changes in the formulations of munitions have affected the military infrastructure as existing manufacturing facilities are used for producing munitions with new materials. The compatibility between solutions containing advanced munitions and the materials used for the construction of process water systems at Army Ammunition Plants must be determined and appropriate materials identified for systems modernization. The GSL/EL Insensitive Munitions team is engaged in multi-disciplinary research and decision support related to materials capability for these Army Ammunition Plants. This effort supports the Warfighter by ensuring that they are supplied with the safest and most effective munitions in order for them to meet their mission objectives safety. This scope is to conduct laboratory and field testing to evaluate the compatibility between IM process waters and water handling materials. Both existing and prospective materials will be systematically challenged with representative process waters. Material investigations will include optical and electron microscopy, X-ray Diffraction analysis and interpretation, and gravimetric analysis. Chromatographic and spectroscopic analysis will be performed in order to determine the effects of these materials on the process water constituents on a chemical level. The task involves field evaluations that will require travel and handling materials with weights of up to 50 pounds. The objective of the Expeditionary Airfield Damage Repair (E-ADR) program is to develop and transition capabilities to rapidly repair damaged airfield pavements to support limited aircraft sortie generation for short duration missions at dynamic base locations. The Airfields and Pavements of ERDC has been tasked to develop, test, and demonstrate an expeditionary crater repair process on asphalt and concrete pavements. One of the capabilities needed to accomplish the E-ADR objective is upheaval removal/excavation of damaged pavement. Larger munitions produce craters that extend through the pavement surface into the foundation layers and can produce significant upheaval of the adjacent pavement surface. Since aircraft gear are sensitive to roughness, it is important that any significant amounts of upheaved pavement be remedied so that the repaired surface meets threshold roughness limits for aircraft operations. The first task of this scope is to conduct full-scale field evaluations of various technologies that have the potential to expeditiously cut out and excavate damaged pavement. The task involves outdoor field evaluations of construction equipment at ERDC in Vicksburg, MS, and at ERDC s test site in Fort Polk, LA. All necessary personal protective equipment (PPE) will be provided. The second task will be to process and document all experimental data to evaluate the different technologies and down-select the best options for meeting the operational mission of E-ADR.

3 9 Civil or Mechanical (Pavement/Geotechnical) Systems and Materials Airfield ad Pavements The Expedient Airfield Damage Repair (E-ADR) team has the objective of developing a set of low logistics expeditionary capabilities to execute airfield runway repair enabling recovery operations by re-using damaged pavement materials supplemented with indigenous materials to create a light, lean capability. E-ADR provides an asymmetric advantage that supports our force projection mission by efficiently mitigating damage to allow aircraft sortie generation through a logistically lean approach. This program consists of four main spirals to develop the package of technologies required: (1) damage area cutoff and excavation, (2) backfill, (3) capping, and (4) repair assessment. This SOW will be focused on Spiral 2 (backfill). The first task of this scope is to conduct laboratory and field testing to evaluate different materials and methods that can be used for runway repair backfill. The task involves field evaluations under extreme weather conditions (heat) and around construction equipment. All the necessary personal protective equipment (PPE) will be provided. The second task will be to process and document all the experimental data to evaluate the different technologies and down-select the best options for E-ADR. 10 Civil (Cementitious and Concrete Materials) MS-ME, PHD 11 Civil, Materials Science and, Chemistry, Physics BS (Upper Level) Systems and Materials Concrete Materials Systems and Materials Concrete Materials Modeling, characterization, and modernization of cementitious and concrete based materials is currently a key area of research interest for civil and military engineering. This effort continues the ERDCs focus on materials-by-design and non-traditional cementitious mixtures. Research of this nature includes characterization of composite materials, formulation of materials mixture designs, and experimental evaluation of final properties. Initial tasks will consist of literature review and characterization of constituent materials for composite mixture designs. Focus will be on cementitious materials and composites thereof. Mixture proportioning and creation of physical test specimens will be conducted to evaluate properties of interest. Computational modeling of expected properties will be carried out using multiple newly developed programs utilizing chemical and thermal based reaction models. Model accuracies will be determined by comparing computational properties to measured physical properties. Activities will be documented in a final report. This research supports high performance material development in Military. The research will assist in work in an ongoing 6.1 basic research project. The main tasks are to synthesize and characterize magneto- rheological polymeric materials to support Military basic research. Characterization will focus on using a shear rheometer equipped with a magneto- rheological device to understand changes in flow behavior and stiffening of the material when exposed to an applied external field. The goal of this work is to develop understanding of how tunable material properties can be with and without an applied magnetic field. Materials will range from polymer solutions to elastomers and gels with embedded magnetic particles. 12 Geologist/Materials Science (Experience in Materials Characterization) Systems and Materials Concrete Materials This research supports characterization of material damage initiated by directed energy weapons in support of the ERDC Military basic research program. The research will assist in work in an ongoing 6.1 basic research project. The main task is to support characterization of damage initiated in a variety of geomaterials by directed energy effects (i.e., laser impulses on the material). Tested geomaterials will be provided for characterization using optical and electron microscopy, X-ray computed microtomography, and chemical / mineralogical analysis. The task will analyze the results, identify, and compare damage morphology between the different materials that are tested. 13 Civil or Industrial, Mathematics MS-ME, PHD Systems and Materials Impact and Explosions Effects The student will be working on the Forensic Encyclopedia Project which encompasses several efforts involved with the evaluation of weapon signatures against various armor targets or witness items to provide a better post-attack assessment of the actual threat. Tasks: Data analysis and interpretation Database input and evaluation Analysis of photographs using photogrammetric software tools Assisting with experiment preparation and execution Collection of field data

4 14 Civil BS (Upper Level), MS-ME Systems and Materials Impact and Explosions Effects The student will be working on the Forensic Encyclopedia Project which encompasses several efforts involved with the evaluation of weapon signatures against various armor targets or witness items to provide a better post-attack assessment of the actual threat. Tasks: Data analysis and interpretation Database input and evaluation Analysis of photographs using photogrammetric software tools Assisting with experiment preparation and execution Collection of field data 15 Civil or Geotechnical /Geophysics Structures Geotechnical and Geosciences Student should have a strong background in civil engineering or geology with particular interest in geotechnical engineering and/or geophysics. We are currently engaged in ongoing research and development efforts for geophysical subsurface anomaly detection, internal erosion, and backwards erosion piping and liquefaction. Depending upon timing of ongoing projects, the student may be involved in one or more of the following activities: 1. The first task of this scope is to conduct laboratory testing to evaluate internal erosion and backward erosion piping that result in sand boils. The task involves field sample collection that will require travel and handling geotechnical materials. 2. The second task will be to process all the experimental and numerical data to develop meaningful plots from raw data and contributing written analysis and conclusions to technical reports. Depending on project schedule, additional efforts in the areas of geophysics including shallow seismic, ground penetrating radar, or seismic-acoustic sensing may also be conducted to characterize subsurface anomalies for areas of particular interest. 16 Civil or Hydrology - Hydraulic (Bridge Scouring) MS-ME, PHD 17 Civil (Bridge- Structures) MS-ME Structures Structural Structures Structural The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has requested that every bridge in the nation should be evaluated and analyzed not only for structural capacity but also for the structure-stream interaction since channel erosion near bridges may comprise its stability and eventually produce failure due scour. This is the engineering term used to describe the natural process that involves the removal of sediment from around the bridge s structure such as abutment walls and pier columns and from the bottom and sides of the streambed due to the flow of water. The scope of the project is to perform hydrologic and hydraulic modeling of rivers in order to evaluate the scour condition of the U.S. Army Installation Bridges. Therefore, this research will involve the following activities: Examine historical data of scour obtained from field measurements, Conduct hydrological analysis based on rainfall events at different bridge locations, Estimate the flood flow that is likely to yield the most severe scour, Determine the necessary hydraulic parameters for estimate contraction scour, piers scour and abutments scour such as channel velocity, and flow depths. Perform an assessment for scour at bridges to determine the bridge vulnerability, and Report an analytical assessment for scour vulnerabilities at each case. Basic knowledge of HEC-RAS, HEC-HMS or any other river modeling. The Structural conducts research in support of the Army s Bridge Safety Evaluation Program. This program requires the design, construction, maintenance, repair and inspection of bridges and other infrastructure related to the transportation system. The focus of this research is to validate different steel reinforcement estimation approaches, and how steel reinforcements affect the load rating analysis. Numerical approaches will be evaluated in order to yield acceptable values: Statistical Curve, Steel Inference, and Mechanical Properties Literature. We will use different approaches to obtain the required steel reinforcement for reinforced concrete box culverts (RCBC), and then compare the numerical value with an actual design to see which method is more accurate. This task requires knowledge on statistics, statics and mechanical material properties. The steel reinforcement calculated will be used as input to compute the flexural structural capacity of RCBC. Also, the student will be performing a Load Rating Analysis and will compare the actual Load Rating to determine which methods yield into tolerable estimations. This research may involve the following responsibilities: Estimate steel reinforcements using different numerical approaches. Validate the predictive approaches by numerical correlations Compute the flexural structural member capacity. Model moving loads on finite element software. Perform a load rating analysis of in-service bridges.

5 18 Civil (Bridge- Structures) MS-ME Structures Structural Mechanics ERDC s Bridge Safety Team supports the Installation Management Command s (IMCOM) Army Trans- portation Infrastructure Inspection Program (ATIIP) with the management and execution of the Army s bridge inspection program. This supports ERDC mission by providing technical expertise in multiple disciplines applied to bridges with the purpose of facilitating mission readiness and mobilization of the nation s troops while maintaining public safety. The first task of this scope is to perform the load rating of a series of bridges to develop a data base with variables of interest. This requires collecting as- built drawings of the superstructure of concrete bridges from multiple sources, performance of the load rating calculations by hand, programming of the load rating using Python, and recording the data of each bridge. The second task will be to compare the load ratings performed to a previously developed statistical model. The third task will be to develop a statistical model using the data from the load ratings collected and compare its performance to the previously developed model. 19 Physics, Mathematics 20 Civil (Structures) 21 Civil or Mechanical MS-ME Structures Survivability Structures Survivability Structures Survivability The Survivability Team is engaged in multi-disciplinary research and decision support related to providing research and applications of unconventional countermeasures to enhance the protection of military assets and personnel. This effort sustains the ERDC mission of Unconventional Countermeasures for Force Protection. Research in this area includes developing, characterizing, modeling, and testing various materials for protection against detection in the electromagnetic spectrum. The first task of this scope is to familiarize with the objectives of Coatings Research for Signature Management (CRSM) phase 2. The task involves field evaluations that will handling materials with weights of up to 50 lb. The second task will be to process and analyze all the experimental and numerical data. An understanding of the data will allow the team to determine the behavior of the materials tested in the first task under diverse conditions. These results would be used to develop a technical report on the project in task 1. The Survivability mission includes research and development of protective structures for military applications. This not only involves design and analysis of new protective structures but also the assessment of existing protective structures or designs to specific threats. Experimentation and high performance computing are used to facilitate understanding of the physics that dictate a successful protective scheme. Tasks will involve postprocessing of experimental data, gathering information pertinent for input to computational models, creating or modifying the computational models, and running and post-processing the models on ERDC s high performance computing system. Computational results will be organized and assessed for identification of significant trends and insight into the underlying physics, and comparisons will be made with experimental data to identify model problems and improve the modeling results. The Survivability is engaged in research for Modeling Failure of Urban Materials. This effort sustains the ERDC mission by pursuing the development and demonstration of Force Protection solutions to enable the soldier in the Urban Environment. Research in this area includes developing, characterizing, modeling, and testing of urban materials for protection against air blast, fragmentation, and penetration. The primary task of this scope is to perform computational modeling and process all ensuing data to validate against a material s experimental response to blast and ballistic threats. The task might require travel and handling materials with weights of up to 50 lb. Simulations need to be set up, executed, and optimized by the end of July.

6 22 Civil or Mechanical MS-ME 23 Computer Science and 24 Computer Science and BS 25 Civil, Mechanical or Computer, Computer Science Structures Survivability and and and The Survivability has as a mission the development and demonstration of force protection solutions to enable the soldier in the urban environment. This effort sustains the ERDC mission by increasing the knowledge of ballistic and fragmentation resistance of common urban and protective materials. Research in this area includes the development, characterization, modeling, and testing of urban materials for protection against air blast, fragmentation, and penetration of conventional weaponry. The primary task of this scope is to conduct laboratory and field testing to characterize the material response against fragmentation and small arms threats. The task involves field evaluations that will require travel and handling materials with weights of up to 50 lb. This task will require that experiments be set up and executed by the end of June. The second task focuses in the analysis of the data which will be utilized for the generation of an empirical formula. The empirical formula will allow the quick calculation of residual velocities and depth of penetration as a function of striking velocity. The Data Analytics Team is leveraging HPC resources to support large-scale data science. Data science capabilities on the HPC systems will enable insights and patterns to be extracted from large quantities of data that would be difficult or impossible to accomplish with traditional computational methods. As such, this capability can be leveraged to support multiple ERDC business and mission areas. The first task is to establish a complete HPCbased data architecture that will support large-scale data analytics. This task involves evaluating a variety of data formats and database content for efficient storage of large scale data. The second task is exploring distributed frameworks that can be used to quickly access and query the data. An ITL Team is engaged in direct military reimbursable program with Joint Trauma Analysis and Prevention of Injury in Combat (JTAPIC). We are developing a system to enhance the collaborative environment which will lead to improved responses to Request for Information (RFI s). Development includes but is not limited to: main website, RFI Tracking System, Product Library, Home Screen, User Roles, Shared Calendar, Meeting Requests, and Database. Sample tasks are as follows: (a) Participates in JTAPIC research and software development team meetings; (b) Uses knowledge of computer science in the application of mathematical principles to assist engineers and scientists in the development of advanced computational tools and scripts; (c) Uses experience and proficiency in C#, C++, Python, JavaScript programming languages, and SQL for development of the JTAPIC System. A multi-disciplinary team from the is actively involved in the development of strong, tough, light-weight, and energy dissipative bio-inspired structural system. This team involves members with expertise in mathematics, computational science, computational and experimental failure mechanics, bio-characterization, fish biology etc. This research effort supports the ERDC mission by developing a transdisciplinary investigative approach that couples science, engineering, innovative in-vivo strain measurements, computational mechanics, 3D printing to examine different architectures, and advanced mathematical algorithms to obtain fundamental knowledge on how nature optimized the skeletal structure, which appears to exhibit mechanical strength/resilience, and hydrodynamic efficiency. Application of computational mechanics (Finite Element Analysis) to acquire fundamental insights into failure mechanisms of high performance, light weight, structured composites by investigating structural and material properties of the paddlefish rostrum. Assist with the development and implementation of scripts for preprocessing finite element analysis models and post processing large datasets produced from the finite element analysis.

7 26 Computer Science and 27 Computer Science/ Computer 28 Computer Science/ Computer or Mechanical MS-ME, PHD and and and Members of the are involved with supporting the use of High Performance Computing resources as platforms for machine learning applications. Machine learning algorithms are able to extract information from large quantities of data that would be difficult or impossible to accomplish with traditional computational methods. As such, HPC-enabled machine learning is a capability that supports multiple ERDC business and mission areas. Research in this area involves identifying and adapting specific machine learning implementations for HPC, removing barriers for the use of such algorithms, and working with teams to adapt or implement the algorithms for specific projects. There are currently application case studies for this initiative from the Engineered Resilient Systems, Military, Water Resources, and Geospatial Research and missions. The first task is to determine a reproducible process for machine learning applications involving data integration and automated labeling of data for machine learning. This task involves evaluating the quality of rules for integrating data sources and assessing the overall methodology for labeling events within integrated data sets. The second task is to implement one or more analytics algorithm and demonstrate their use as part of the data integration and labeling workflow. Members of the are involved with supporting the use of High Performance Computing resources as platforms for machine learning applications. Machine learning algorithms are able to extract information from large quantities of data that would be difficult or impossible to accomplish with traditional computational methods. As such, HPC-enabled machine learning is a capability that supports multiple ERDC business and mission areas. Research in this area involves identifying and adapting specific machine learning implementations for HPC, removing barriers for the use of such algorithms, and working with teams to adapt or implement the algorithms for specific projects. There are currently application case studies for this initiative from the Engineered Resilient Systems, Military, Water Resources, and Geospatial Research and missions. The first task is to determine a reproducible process for machine learning applications involving natural language processing (NLP). This task involves evaluating the quality of the text being processed and determining the preprocessing steps necessary for data cleansing and tokenizing. The second task is to develop one or more NLP models and demonstrate their use as part of a machine learning classification algorithm. The Engineered Resilient Systems program in ERDC - ITL intends to provide robust, flexible and accurate platforms for developing the next generation of technology and intelligence for the U.S. Army. ERS supports the Army and DoD by providing intelligence via HPC computational and analytical tools in areas such as aerospace and data analytics. AI and Machine Learning (ML) capabilities using HPC systems are currently supporting many tasks and helping solve many challenging problems for the Army and DoD to improve the nation s security. The Machine Learning Informed Physics program currently under ERS intends to explore and develop machine learning models in the field of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). An HPC computational platform for training deep neural networks on CFD datasets has been developed in order to develop models that provide data driven solutions. The main task is to expand the CFD database using numerical codes such as NASA FUN3D and other solvers. Expanding the CFD database including labeling and documenting the process appropriately is the main task to be done. HPC account is required, therefore a security check needs to be done on time. Proficiency using the command line in a linux environment in addition to knowledge in the field of CFD is needed.

8 29 Civil (Geotechnical) Geoscience One of ERDC missions is to provide support to the ERDC Dam Safety Program. The main focus of this research is to optimize time and effort using a database that will help extract information from past dam inspection files (word, excel, etc.). Another task will be to assist in the field surveying team with data collection and analysis/post processing using AutoCAD and/or Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Depending upon timing of ongoing projects, other tasks may involve one or more of the following activities: Database Design: API service to interact with data, User Interface to Search and View and Export the data. Civil engineering and surveying techniques Geographical Information Systems and remote sensing. Support DamWatch needs for future dam inspections To perform this task the student need to have knowledge on data base design, preferable Python and experience in web services, AutoCAD and GIS software knowledge will be an asset.