Civil and Environmental Engineering REU

Each summer, the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Duke University hosts undergraduate students from around the country in our research laboratories. These students work with a faculty member and their research group to tackle an innovative research project. Students admitted to the program receive a competitive award that provides a monthly research stipend.

When to Apply

Applications are closed for 2013. Please check back in 2014.

Eligibility

All applicants must be United States citizens or permanent residents. The program is designed for student who are juniors during the internship period, but exceptional sophomores will also be considered. Students do not have to be majoring in civil and environmental engineering.

Dates

Selected students should expect to hear of their acceptance to the program by April 1, 2013. This is an 8 week REU program from May 26,2013 until July 27, 2013.

Research Opportunities for 2013

The following projects are available for the coming summer.  Interested students are encouraged to apply. Questions about any of the projects or the REU program in general should be directed to Ruby Nell Carpenter (ruby [dot] carpenter [at] duke [dot] edu). To be considered for any project, students must apply online through the link above.

Advisor: Professor John Dolbow
Civil & Environmental Engineering
jdolbow@duke.edu
(919) 660-5202

1. Lipid Nanodomains

This project will concern computational studies of the growth of small lipid domains on biomembranes. These small domains, referred to as rafts, are viewed to be important to a wide range of cellular processes. The project will focus on computational models of the growth of these domains and examine their stability on giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs), which are model systems for cells. The project includes a collaboration with experimentalists working at Washington University in St. Louis.

2. Computational Studies of Fragmentation

This project concerns the study of large-scale fragmentation using computer simulation based on the finite-element method. The student researcher will be trained in running a research code on the 128-cpu cluster FastBreak. The study will involve conducting simulations of high-speed impact and looking at statistical measures of fragment distributions, to understand the role between material properties, flaw distributions, strain rates, and fragment size. Opportunities for small-scale experiments on glass and computer-graphics visualization are also possible in this project.

3. Fundamental Studies of Wave-Energy Conversion Systems

This project will involve the use of emerging finite-element technologies to simulate the response of model wave-energy conversion systems. The undergraduate researcher will be tasked with developing simple models of conversion-systems and simulating their response to breaking waves, using coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian methods. Simulations will be performed on the 128-cpu cluster FastBreak that is located in Pratt, and the Fellow will be tasked with validating the simulation results against small-scale experiments in Pratt's wave tank.

Advisor: Professor Helen Hsu-Kim
Civil & Environmental Engineering
hsukim@duke.edu
(919) 660-5109

1. Environmental Fate of Trace Metal Contaminants Derived from Energy Production

The production of energy from fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum results in the generation of solid wastes and process water that are enriched in toxic metals. The disposal practices for these wastes often do not fully consider environmental processes that can lead to the mobilization of contaminants and deterioration of nearby water resources. For example, coal combustion by-products such as fly ash and flue gas desulfurization wastes are typically disposed in unlined holding ponds and landfills. These disposal sites are susceptible to failures or leakage, and the leaching of toxic metals is not adequately predicted by existing risk assessment protocols. Undergraduate student research opportunities are available in the Hsu-Kim group to study the fate of trace element contaminants such as mercury, arsenic, and selenium in the context of waste disposal practices for the fossil energy sector. The research aims to characterize these toxins associated with waste such as coal ash and petroleum processing sludge. The student researcher will also perform experiments that simulate disposal scenarios as a means to identify biogeochemical processes causing the release or transformation of pollutant metals. 

Advisor: Guglielmo Scovazzi
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Guglielmo.scovazzi@duke.edu
(919) 660-5075

1.  Advanced Fluid/Structure Interaction Computations Using The Variational Multiscale FEM

The PI (Guglielmo Scovazzi) proposes the development with a summer student of computational Finite Element Methods (FEMs) for rapid design and analysis, based on the Variational Multiscale (VMS) method. Part of the project will be in collaboration with scientists at Sandia National Laboratories, a leadership DOE laboratory situated in Albuquerque New Mexico. The primary target of this research is computational solid dynamics, with some extensions to fluid/structure interaction problems. This work aims at developing new advanced finite element methods, which rely on linear tetrahedral approximations and are, for this reason, of very simple implementation and fully compatible with automatic mesh generation/refinement strategies. The student will be expected to first gain familiarity with a C++ computer program ATHENA-VMS (developed by the PI and collaborators) and then to study the performance of a number of approaches to fast and accurate computations, with applications to impacted and plasticized materials. In a second stage of the project the summer student will develop with the PI a number of new approaches within the VMS computational paradigm, using the experience gained in the first part of the project. Skills on mechanics and computation are recommended. Depending on the quality of the research outcomes, journal publication may be considered.

2. Variational Multiscale Computational Methods for Porous Media Flow Applications

The PI (Guglielmo Scovazzi) proposes the development with a summer student of computational Finite Element Methods (FEMs) for the modeling and simulation of subsurface flows (porous media transport). The project involves the analysis and testing of existing Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) algorithms and, in a second stage, the preliminary exploration of new ideas in the context of multi scale discontinuous Galerkin methods. The student will learn initially by reading a number of papers on the subject and having regular technical meetings with the PI. In the second stage of the project by developing with the PI new computational algorithms aimed at reducing the computational cost of standard DG formulation. Sound skills in numerical methods and the related mathematics will be required in this phase. Later on, some of the most promising algorithms will be implemented in simple MATLAB functions, to start a preliminary testing campaign. This work, if successful, may lead to journal publication.

Advisor: Ana Barros
Civil & Environmental Engineering
ana.barros@duke.edu

1. Summer Storms in the Great Smoky Mountains

The selected students will participate in training at Duke University to calibrate rain gauges, run a tethersonde balloon, and use a high-speed camera. The students will work along with two Ph.D. students in running a number of intense field observation campaigns to collect data characterizing the dynamical evolution of the vertical structure of summer storms, including microphysical characteristics in the Southern Appalachians. This project requires a significant amount of physical activity. Students will stay for several weeks at Purchase Knob Research Station.