Sustainable Infrastructure and ManUfacturing Lab (SIMU Lab)

Sustainable Infrastructure and ManUfacturing Lab (SIMU Lab) aims to promote sustainable and resilient infrastructure and manufacturing processes by conducting fundamental and applied research with multidisciplinary knowledge. Our research areas include: 

• Sustainable construction materials and manufacturing
• Multi-functional infrastructure materials
• Infrastructure resilience to natural hazards
• Artificial intelligence application in civil infrastructure

Sponsors

Funded Research Projects:

External

1. PI: U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) - University Transportation Center (UTC), Transportation Infrastructure Precast Innovation Center (TRANS-IPIC), “Multi-objective Optimization of Reinforced Precast Concrete for Improved Performance”, 01/2025 - 12/2025.

2. PI: Indiana Department of Transportation - Joint Transportation Research Program (JTRP), “SPR-4940 Implementing An Advanced Friction Testing Program for Seamless Coverage of INDOT System”, 07/2024 - 06/2025.

3. Co-PI: Indiana Department of Transportation - Joint Transportation Research Program (JTRP), “SPR-4937 Enhanced Traffic Pattern Knowledge Abstraction and Presentation from 511 Database”, PI: Dr. Yaobin Chen, 08/2024 - 11/2025.

4. PI: Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG) Graduate Student Scholars Program, "The Utilization of Great Lakes Dredged Sludge in Cementitious Composites: Investigation and Assessment”, 06/2024 - 06/2025.

5. PI: National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine - Gulf Research Program's Early-Career Research Fellowship - Offshore Energy Safety Track, 01/2024 - 12/2025.

6. PI: American Chemical Society (ACS) - Petroleum Research Fund (PRF) - Doctoral New Investigator (DNI) Grants, "Computational and Experimental Investigation of Rheological Behavior of Oil-Water Multiphase Flow in the Long-Distance Pipe", 01/2024 - 08/2026.

7. PI: U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) - University Transportation Center (UTC), Transportation Infrastructure Precast Innovation Center (TRANS-IPIC), "Data-Driven Smart Composite Reinforcement for Precast Concrete", 01/2024 - 12/2024. 

8. PI: American Concrete Institute (ACI) - Concrete Research Council (CRC), "Rheological Behavior of Fresh Ultra-High-Performance Concrete (UHPC) Enhanced by Nano-additives and Data-Driven Approaches", 08/2023 - 07/2026.
9. PI: Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG) Graduate Student Scholars Program, "Data-Driven Modeling for Hazard-Resilient Infrastructure in Southern Lake Michigan Communities", 03/2023 - 04/2024.
10. PI: Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG) Graduate Student Scholars Program, "Recycling Bottom Sediments from Great Lakes in Sustainable Construction Materials", 03/2023 - 04/2024.
11. PI: National Science Foundation (NSF) I-Corps, "Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Assisted Sustainable Cement Manufacturing Technology", 02/2023 - 07/2024.
12. Co-PI: US Department of Transportation - Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) - Pipeline Safety Research Competitive Academic Agreement Program (CAAP), "All-in-One Multifunctional Cured-In-Place Structural Liner for Rehabilitating of Aging Cast Iron Pipelines", PI: Dr. Ying Huang, 09/2022 - 09/2025.
13. PI: Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG) Faculty Scholars Award, "Improving Infrastructure Flood Resilience of the Southern Lake Michigan Region with Fluid-Structure Interaction Model", 06/2022 - 06/2023.
14. Senior Personnel: Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) - Joint Transportation Research Program (JTRP), “SPR-4646: Advancing INDOT's Friction Test Program for Seamless Coverage of System”, PI: Dr. Yi Jiang, 01/2022 - 12/2023.
15. Co-PI: DOE-NETL-Carbon Capture Program, "Industrial Capture Research Guidance, Carbon Capture Simulation for Industry Impact (CCSI2), EY20 Field Work Proposal", National Energy Technology Laboratory, 04/2020 - 04/2021.

Internal

1. PI: Purdue Polytechnic Holistic Safety and Security (HSS) Research Impact Area Seed Grant, "Improving Community Hazard Resilience through Data-driven Physics-based Crowdsourcing Approach", Purdue University, 05/2023 - 06/2024.
2. PI: Discovery Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Internship (DUIRI) - Institute for a Sustainable Future (ISF), "Life Cycle Assessment of Sustainable Construction Materials", Purdue University, 05/2023 - 08/2023.
3. PI: Discovery Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Internship (DUIRI), "Life Cycle Assessment for Infrastructure Vulnerable to Flood Hazard in the Great Lake Region", Purdue University, 08/2022 - 12/2022.
4. Co-PI: Purdue Polytechnic Holistic Safety and Security (HSS) Research Impact Area Seed Grant, "Crowd-Machine Partnership on Road Infrastructure Quality Recognition and Resilience", PI: Dr. Tianyi Li, Purdue University, 10/2021 - 06/2022.

Ph.D. positions are available at SIMU Lab!

https://polytechnic.purdue.edu/facilities/simulab/job-vacancies