Rensselaer’s Center for Earthquake Engineering Simulation provided vital information to the Army Corps of Engineers to rebuild the levees after Hurricane Katrina.

Research by a Rensselaer team helped the Army Corps of Engineers rebuild safer levees in flood-damaged sections of New Orleans. As a result, Associate Professor Tarek Abdoun received the Commander’s Award for Public Service with an accompanying medal, one of the highest awards given by the Army to civilians, and other team members received commendations or medals of appreciation.

Abdoun, Professor Thomas Zimmie, and Professor Ricardo Dobry led the project, which was commissioned and funded by the Corps. Dobry is director of Rensselaer’s Center for Earthquake Engineering Simulation, Abdoun is associate director, and Zimmie is a center member. The research team visited New Orleans and then built small-scale models of typical levee sections at several locations. The group used Rensselaer’s 150 g-ton centrifuge to test the models under conditions and flood loads experienced during Hurricane Katrina.

The tests showed that the levees failed because of the clay soil on which they were built. In some areas, the wall in the middle of the earthen structure started to move before the water even reached the top. The information gained was used to include improvements in the rebuilt system.

One of a handful of centers across the country funded by the National Science Foundation, the earthquake center models both man-made and natural hazards. “We continue to have a focus on earthquakes,” said Dobry, “but a lot of what we do addresses extreme events.”