ASCE has honored Jumari Robinson, Ph.D., A.M.ASCE; Adrian Brugger, Ph.D., EIT, A.M.ASCE; Matthew Sloane; and Raimondo Betti, Ph.D., M.ASCE, with the 2024 Norman Medal for the paper “Experimental-Numerical Determination of the Effective Bulk Thermal Conductivity of Suspension Bridge Main Cables,” Journal of Bridge Engineering, October 2022.
This study derives the first empirically driven estimation of the effective bulk thermal conductivity of suspension bridge main cables using the data collected from thermal experimentation on a full-scale mock-up of the main cable panel (approximately 10,000 wires, 52 cm diameter, 6 m long) and gradient-based optimization of a representative finite-element model. Results show that the effective thermal conductivity of suspension bridge main cables is more than an order of magnitude smaller in the radial direction than in the axial direction and that the effective radial conductivity is an order of magnitude smaller than previous theoretical estimates have predicted. The judges liked this paper because it presented the results and validated them through a full-scale mock-up.
At the time of publication, Robinson was a Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University; Brugger was adjunct assistant professor at Columbia; Sloane was a mechanical engineer at U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command in Summit, NJ; and Betti was Columbia University professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics.
The Norman Medal is bestowed upon the author or authors of a paper that is judged worthy of special commendation for its merit as a contribution to engineering science.
