Dr. Tutumluer is the Abel Bliss Professor in Engineering, Paul F. Kent Endowed Faculty Scholar, and Director of International and ZJUI Education Programs in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is a trailblazer in the realm of Transportation Geotechnics, where he integrates geotechnical engineering and geomechanical principles into the analysis and design of transportation systems. He has pioneered technologies and advanced analytical methods that have left a significant mark on the design of resilient and sustainable pavement systems, airfields, and railroads. He has spearheaded state-of-the-art laboratory capabilities for subjecting aggregate samples to repeated, triaxial stress conditions. Complementing these experimental capabilities, he has leveraged computational analysis of material response and performance through imaging-based Discrete Element Method (DEM) , which he successfully applied to modeling railroad ballast behavior.
Dr. Tutumluer's research has substantially enhanced our understanding of stress sensitivity and anisotropy's impact on the behavior of unbound layers, which is pivotal in the efficient and cost-effective design of pavement systems and railroad tracks. He has successfully correlated these mechanisms with the physical attributes of aggregate particles (shape, angularity, and texture) and has introduced automated imaging-based techniques to measure and quantify these characteristics and computer vision through artificial intelligence and deep learning techniques for analyzing riprap and aggregate stockpiles in the field. In this regard, his development of machine vision tools for assessing ballast field condition represents a monumental advancement, allowing engineers to evaluate in-situ conditions and take proactive maintenance measures before significant rail degradation occurs.
Additionally, he has devised rutting models for unbound layers, implementing them in the study of full-scale pavement test sections at the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) National Airport Pavement Test Facility (NAPTF). He is currently employing cutting-edge shear wave measurement technology to quantify the stiffness characteristics of unstabilized and geosyntheic stabilized aggregate layers at NAPTF. Dr. Tutumluer has also been at the forefront of developing sustainable unbound layers for pavements using recycled aggregates and aggregate by-products. His contributions to this area include material models, innovative laboratory tests, development of smart sensors, and full-scale testing of diverse pavement sections. His development of machine vision tools for assessing ballast field condition represents a monumental advancement, allowing engineers to evaluate in-situ conditions and take proactive maintenance measures before significant rail degradation occurs.
In recent years, Dr. Tutumluer has delved into the development of advanced pavement structural analysis tools that amalgamate mechanistic analysis and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms. Notably, these advanced developments have been embraced by the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) for pavement design and layer moduli backcalculation. He has been working on a new flexible pavement analysis program, C-FLEX, and its software platform currently under development for the Department of Defense / U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. His outstanding research and leadership have earned him numerous accolades, including the 2020 ASCE T&DI James Laurie Prize and the 2021 ASCE Geo-lnstitute's Carl L. Monismith Lecture Award.
Erol Tutumluer holds a Bachelor of Science degree (Bogazici University 1989), two Master of Science degrees (Duke University 1991, Georgia Tech 1993), and a doctorate (Georgia Tech 1995), all in civil engineering. He has been on the faculty of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign since 1996, where he has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in transportation engineering, pavement analysis and design, transportation soils engineering, soil stabilization, airport facilities design, and transportation infrastructure for smart mobility.
Dr. Tutumluer is a longtime member of ASCE, the Transportation & Development Institute, and the Geo-Institute.