Research


The following is a concise overview of the research that the group is involved with. It is organized by topics, but of course there is a necessary overlap among topics. Credit must be given to the students, visitors, and faculty collaborators who have worked with us and have pushed the field forward.

Fracture Mechanics
Discontinuous Media
Autoadaptive Systems
Analytical and Numerical Models
Soil-Structure Interaction
Tunnels
Problem Soils
Extreme Events
Current Projects

Extreme Events

Immediately following the 12 November 1999 and 1 May 2003 earthquakes in Turkey, a US reconnaissance team composed of researchers and practicing engineers under sponsorship of the US National Science Foundation (NSF) set out to join a Turkish team sponsored by the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) to study the impact of each event. The NSF team was lead by Purdue researchers with close collaboration with faculty and students from University of Notre Dame, the University of Illinois, University of Kansas and engineers from WJE and Associates in California. The TUBITAK team was led by researchers from Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara. The main objectives were to document: (a) the damage to reinforced concrete buildings and (b) the geotechnical and geological aspects of the earthquakes. The teams also surveyed mosques, masonry and non-engineered structures. The group concentrated its efforts in Düzce and Bolu for the 1999 event and in the vicinity of Bingol for the 2003 earthquake.

The structural data recovered included basic building data (damage level, number of stories, framing type, footprint, critical member sizes, location coordinates). The geotechnical data included geological and geotechnical surface maps and soil reconnaissance. In addition to maps of the faults, geological data included detailed information on ground fracturing and deformation.
Downtown Düzce, Turkey, after the 1999 November earthquake
  • Gur, T., Ramirez, J.A., Sozen, M.A., Pay, A.C., Johnson, A.M., Bobet, A., Matamoros, A., Irfanoglu, A., And Akin, L. (2004). Performance of School Buildings in Bingöl during the 1 May 2003 Earthquake. 13th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Vancouver, B.C., Canada. August 1-6, 2004. Paper No. 1450, 15 pp.

  • The Joint Turkey and US Field Reconnaissance Team (2004). The 1 May 2003 Bingol earthquake: Summary of damage Assessment to private and Public Buildings by a Joint Team of Turkey and the USA. 13th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Vancouver, B.C., Canada. August 1-6, 2004. Paper No. 1017, 15pp.

  • Gur, T., Pay, A.C., Ramirez, J.A., Sozen, M.A., Johnson, A.M., rfanoglu, A., and Bobet, A. (2009). Performance of School Buildings in Turkey during the 1999 Düzce and the 2003 Bingöl Earthquakes. Earthquake Spectra, Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 239-256.

  • Blair, D.M., Chappaz, L., Sood, R., Milbury, C., Bobet, A., Melosh, H.J., Howell, K.C. and Freed, A.M. (2015). Determining the Structural Stability of Lunar Lava Tubes. 46th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, March 16-20, The Woodlands, Texas.

  • Blair, D.M., Chappaz, L., Sood, R., Milbury, C., Bobet, A., Melosh, H.J., Howell, K.C. and Freed, A.M. (2015). Modeling the Structural Stability of Lunar Lava Tubes. 2nd International Planetary Caves Conference, October 20-23, Flagstaff, Arizona.

  • Yu, H., Chen, J,. Bobet, A., and Yuan, Y. (2016). Damage observation and assessment of the Longxi tunnel at a faulted zone crossingduring the Wenchuan earthquake. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, Vol. 54, pp. 102-116.

  • Blain, Ch. A., Ramirez, J. A., Bobet, A., Browning, J., Edge, B., Holmes, W., Johnson, D., Robertson, I., Smith, T., Zuo, D. (2017). NHERI: Advancing the Research Infrastructure of the Multi-Hazard Community. Abstract No. NH33C-05 presented at Fall Meeting AGU (American Geophysical Union), New Orleans, LA,11-15 December.

  • Maghareh, A., Gomez, D., Dyke, S. J., Bobet, A., Ramirez, J., Melosh, H. J., Modiriasari, A., and Theinat, A. (2018). Resilience for Permanent Extraterrestrial Habitats. 49th LPSC, Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, The Woodlands, Texas.

  • Dyke, S. J., Bobet, A., Ramirez, J., Melosh, H. J., Gomez, D., Maghareh, A., Modiriasari, A. and Theinat, A. (2018). Resilient Extraterrestrial Habitat Engineering. 49th LPSC, Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, The Woodlands, Texas.

  • Theinat, A., Modiriasari, A., Bobet, A., Melosh, J., Dyke, S., Ramirez, J., Maghareh, A. and Gomez, D. (2018). Geometry and Structural Stability of Lunar Lava Tubes. 2018 AIAA SPACE and Astronautics Forum and Exposition, Orlando, FL. https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/6.2018-5185.

  • Modiriasari, A., Theinat, A., Bobet, A., Melosh, H.J., Dyke, S.J., Ramirez, J., Maghareh, A., Gomez, D. (2018). Size and structural stability assessment of lunar lava tubes. 49th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, The Woodlands, Texas, March-2018.

  • Theinat, A. K., Modiriasari, A., Bobet, A., Melosh, H. J., Dyke, S. J., Ramirez, J., Maghareh, A. and Gomez, D. (2019). Lunar Lava Tubes: Morphology to Structural Stability, Icarus, Vol. 338, Article 113442, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2019.113442.

  • Modiriasari, A., Theinat, A.K., Melosh, H.J., Bobet, A., Dyke, S.J., Ramirez, J., Maghareh, A., and Gomez, D. (2019). Stability of Lunar Lava Tubes as Permanent ExtraTerrestrial Habitats. International Space Development Conference, Back To The Moon To Stay (ISDC2019), Arlington, VA, June 6-9, accepted.

  • Modiriasari, A., Theinat, A.K., Melosh, H.J., Bobet, A. (2019). Stability Analysis of Lunar Lava Tubes for Permanent ExtraTerrestrial Habitation. 53rd US Rock Mechanics / Geomechanics Symposium held in New York, NY, USA, 23-26 June, Paper 19-387, accepted.

  • Theinat, A.K., Modiriasari, A., Bobet, A., Melosh, H.J., Dyke, S.J., Ramirez, J. Choi, J., Maghareh, A. and Gomez, D. (2019). Geology Explorations of Lava Tubes in the National Beds Lava Monuments. Proceedings of the 50th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, The Woodlands, Texas, March 2019.

  • Modiriasari, A., Boener, A., Theinat, A.K., Bobet, A., Melosh, H.J., Dyke, S.J., Ramirez, J., Maghareh, A. and Gomez, D. (2019). Effect of Induced Seismicity of Indirect Meteorite Impacts on the Stability of Lunar Lava Tubes. Proceedings of the 50th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, The Woodlands, Texas, March 2019.

  • Maghareh, A., Lenjani, A., Dyke, S., Marais, K., Bobet, A., Ramirez, J., Whitaker, D., Modiriasari, A. and Theinat, A. (2019). Design Framework for Resilient Extraterrestrial Habitats. Engineering Mechanics Institute Conference 2019, Caltech., CA, June 18-21, 2019. Accepted.

  • Maghareh, A., Lenjani, A., Dyke, S., Marais, K., Whitaker, D., Bobet, A., Ramirez, J., Melosh, H., Modiriasari, A. and Theinat, A. (2019). Resilience-oriented Design of Extraterrestrial Habitat Systems. AIAA Propulsion and Energy Forum and Exposition, 19-22 August, Indianapolis, IN.

  • Tsinidis, G., de Silva, F., Anastasopoulos, I., Bilotta, E., Bobet, A., Hashash, Y., He, Ch., Kampas, G., Knappett, J., Madabhushi, G., Nikitas, N., Pitilakis, K., Silvestri, F., Viggiani, G. and Fuentes, R. (2020). Seismic behaviour of tunnels: from experiments to analysis. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, Vol. 99, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tust.2020.103334.

  • Spencer, D., Howell, K., Alexeenko, A., Bobet, A., Crawford, M., DeLaurentis, D., Dyke, S., Horgan, B., Heutteman, C., Pourpoint, T., Sangid, M. and Hynes, M. (2020). Purdue Engineering Cislunar Initiative. ASCEND Conference, 16-18 November, 2020.

  • Blain, Ch., Bobet, A., Browning, J., Edge, B., Holmes, B., Johnson, D., LaChance, M., Ramirez, J., Robertson, I., Smith, T., Thompson, Ch., Vielma, K., Zehner, D. and Zuo, D. (2020). The Network Coordination Office of NHERI (Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure). Frontiers Built Environment, https://doi.org/10.3389/fbuil.2020.00108.

  • deMoraes, R. and Bobet, A. (2022). The Risks and Challenges of using Earth Rock Mass Classification Systems on the Moon. Ausrock Conference 2022, Melbourne, Australia, 29 Nov-1 Dec. Submitted.

  • Dyke, S.J., Akanshu, S., Mount, E.M., Bobet, A. and Ramirez, J.A. (2024). Establishing Standards for Lunar ISRU Structural Materials. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Journal, Vol. 62, No. 7 (2024), pp. 2414-2423, https://doi.org/10.2514/1.J063816.

  • Mount, E., Hollister, M., McNicol, Ch., Dyke, S., Ramirez, J.A., Sharma, A. and Bobet, A. (2025). Lunar Landing and Launching Pad Design Considerations Using ISRU Materials. Acta Astronautica, submitted.

  • Seifamiri, H., Bobet, A., Malla, R.B. and Maghoul, P. (2025). The Behavior of Sulfur Regolith Concrete Under Micrometeoroid Impacts for Lunar Surface Structures. Acta Astronautica, submitted.

  • Jimenez-Pirajan, J. and Bobet, A. (2025). Seismic-Induced Cracking of Earth dams: Updated Database and Recommendations. Dam Safety 2025 Annual Conference, Cleveland, OH, Association of State Dam Safety Officials. Accepted.