Brad Wham News

CIEST receives $1.1 million NSF grant for multi-hazard infrastructure research

sugl6437 — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 18:31:35 +0000

CIEST receives $1.1 million NSF grant for multi-hazard infrastructure research sugl6437 Wed, 09/16/2026 - 12:31

(a) The existing 400 g-ton, 5.5 m radius centrifuge facility at CU �Ǹ�Թ�; (b) the proposed shake table and environmental chamber assembly with an internal container placed on CU �Ǹ�Թ�'s 400 g-ton centrifuge platform.

CU �Ǹ�Թ�'s Center for Infrastructure, Energy, and Space Testing (CIEST) Lab has received a nearly $1.1 million NSF Major Research Infrastructure grant over three years, led by Professor Shideh Dashti, Assistant Professor Srikanth Madabhushi and Brad Wham, now an assistant professor at University of Nevada Reno, to acquire a state-of-the-art Centrifuge Shaker System for Multi-Hazard Resilience Research and Training.

The new facility will enable researchers to study how soil, rock and infrastructure respond to complex, interacting hazards—including earthquakes, flooding, drought, extreme precipitation and permafrost thaw—helping advance more resilient infrastructure and safer communities.

The facility will be available to CU �Ǹ�Թ� faculty and students, as well as external academic researchers, industry partners, students and researchers, creating new opportunities for interdisciplinary research, hands-on training and collaboration.

Mid-section view of the proposed environmental chamber-shake table.

CU �Ǹ�Թ�'s Center for Infrastructure, Energy, and Space Testing (CIEST) Lab has received a nearly $1.1 million NSF Major Research Infrastructure grant that will enable researchers to study how soil, rock and infrastructure respond to complex, interacting hazards.

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CUE magazine: A big fix

Susan Glairon — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 20:35:32 +0000

CUE magazine: A big fix Susan Glairon Thu, 06/26/2025 - 14:35

In this 2025 edition of CU Engineering (CUE) magazine, CEAE researchers tackle pressing challenges—such as the increasing frequency and severity of hurricanes, wildfires and floods—head-on, developing innovative solutions to repair aging infrastructure and build a more resilient future.

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CU �Ǹ�Թ� establishes worldwide standards for repairing inaccessible, leaking pipelines

Susan Glairon — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 12:17:51 +0000

CU �Ǹ�Թ� establishes worldwide standards for repairing inaccessible, leaking pipelines Susan Glairon Fri, 12/20/2024 - 05:17

Susan Glairon

Millions of miles of aging water, wastewater and natural gas pipelines across the nation are at growing risk of failure, posing significant environmental, safety and financial challenges. Repairing these urban pipelines is often complicated and expensive due to their location beneath buildings and roads, but new repair solutions that significantly cut pipeline repair costs are emerging.

CU �Ǹ�Թ�’s Center for Infrastructure, Energy, and Space Testing (CIEST) is at the forefront, pioneering testing procedures for these innovative solutions.

Led by Assistant Research Professor Brad Wham, CIEST played a key role in establishing a new standard for Internal Replacement Pipe (IRP) testing through the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM).

The work was made possible through a recently completed $7.8 million Department of Energy (ARPA-e) REPAIR project.

This advancement paves the way for industry approval of cutting-edge pipe repair technologies, such as using robots or other methods to install internal replacement pipes that line aging pipelines, reinforcing their walls and extending their service life.

“Getting an ASTM standard to vote is a big deal,” Wham said. “We designed these methods to serve a variety of industries as well as both current and future pipe replacement solutions. We have also developed unique physical testing capabilities that don’t exist anywhere else in the world.”

CU �Ǹ�Թ� led the testing and analysis efforts and served as the primary experimental testing facility for evaluating various pipeline repair methods. CIEST researchers constructed three full-scale testing devices and developed models to predict potential failures in hard-to-reach replacement pipelines. By simulating real-world stresses—such as traffic loads and ground movement—they assessed how well these repair materials would perform over time.

The tests demonstrated that many of the internal replacement pipes effectively sealed holes, cracks and gaps, providing a lasting seal of 50 to 100 years at a cost of less than $1 million per mile—significantly lower than the approximately $10 million per mile it costs to dig up and replace pipes in urban centers.

In addition to a 90 percent drop in cost, the repairs will help reduce methane emissions from natural gas lines, which contribute to climate change, while also decreasing the risk of dangerous explosions from gas leaks. Additionally, they will prevent leaking water lines from wasting significant quantities of treated water and reduce the likelihood of potential contamination from external sources.

Project collaborators on the grant include Cornell University, the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) and the Gas Technologies Institute (GTI). The USQ team used the data collected by CIEST to develop a publicly available app that can be downloaded and allows users to input material specifications, site information and other details to assess performance and design internal replacement pipe technologies.

“It essentially informs IRP developers what material characteristics and/or geometric properties they would need to survive our testing and extend their pipe service life,” Wham said.

50-year extension

Some municipal water lines stay in service for more than 100 years, so adding another 50 to 100 years through pipe lining technology is a significant advancement, allowing utilities to better manage their replacement schedule for aging infrastructure in a cost-effective way, said Dustin Quandt, an engineering project manager with CIEST.

“Fifty years is an important period of time,” Quandt said. “Because these technologies act as a new pipe with improved performance, utilities can fund these projects through capital improvements rather than maintenance budgets.”

Gaining industry confidence

Natural gas and water utilities have historically been reluctant to adopt new technologies, due to strict regulations and high risks in the event of failure, Wham said. To help address these concerns, the project has included representatives from major gas utilities and global experts to guide the development of testing and analysis techniques.

“By operating as a third-party, unbiased group, we are building confidence in the potential of these technologies to come forward,” he said. “We’re also fostering industry competition, which helps reduce costs.”

The center’s advancements in the natural gas sector have attracted the attention of the water industry, which is now considering adopting their proposed testing methods for pressurized water pipes.

Looking ahead

CIEST is examining pipes with bends and assessing the ability of these repair technologies and robots to navigate these additional geometries and hazards. Other future steps include evaluating these repair techniques under extreme conditions such as earthquakes, landslides, hurricanes and wildfires.

“While we made significant progress in the last few years, there’s a lot more work to be done in this growing industry,” he said.

CU �Ǹ�Թ�'s CIEST pioneered testing standards for repairing inaccessible, leaking urban pipelines buried beneath buildings and roads.

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Brad Wham shares key findings from post-earthquake reconnaissance in Turkey

Anonymous — Fri, 05 May 2023 21:11:12 +0000

Brad Wham shares key findings from post-earthquake reconnaissance in Turkey Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 05/05/2023 - 15:11

Susan Glairon

If you watch

Who: Anyone interested in the earthquake and its impacts. The webinar is especially relevant to those in the transportation, energy, water or wastewater sectors.

What: The EERI Kahramanmaraş Earthquakes Lifelines Reconnaissance Webinar focuses on the impact of lifelines and features members of the Lifelines reconnaissance team, including Wham.

Where: Webinar, recorded May 9, 2023.

Brad Wham, assistant research professor in CU �Ǹ�Թ�’s Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, was a member of one of the three Learning From Earthquakes (LFE) reconnaissance teams that traveled to Turkey in March to assess the impacts of the Feb. 6 Kahramanmaraş earthquake. The 7.8- and 7.7-magnitude earthquakes caused massive destruction of property and infrastructure. More than 50,000 people were killed.

Wham’s team focused on “lifelines” — distributed infrastructure that facilitates the functioning of society — including water and wastewater systems, transportation, and energy generation and distribution. During their seven days in the field, the teams traveled more than 3,000 miles in vans and visited 170 sites to document both the infrastructure that performed well and that didn’t perform well.

The first reconnaissance report — a joint effort by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) and Geotechnical Extreme Event Report (GEER) — became publicly available May 6, the three-month anniversary of the earthquake. The report, which includes a 55-page “short” summary of the lifeline team’s observations, provides guidance to industry stakeholders and the academic community, including identifying follow-up research activities that would be useful to better understand the earthquake’s impact.

What led to your conducting research in Turkey after the earthquake?
I have been fortunate to serve on various teams that have visited areas after earthquakes and other natural hazards. In terms of Turkey, EERI asked me to join the lifelines team to document the successes and challenges and share the lessons learned with the engineering and academic communities.

What parts of Turkey did you visit?
The first half of our operation was based in Adana, in the southern part of Turkey. The second half was based out of Gaziantep. While operating out of those two cities, we visited a large part of the affected region. However, it’s impossible to see everything — it’s a four- to five-hour drive on good roads from the north to the south of the impacted region.

Some of the other cities we visited included Antakya, which experienced significant building collapse; Iskenderun, located along the Mediterranean with severe soil liquefaction damage; and Kahramanmaraş, the earthquake’s namesake.

What was the goal of your research?
The mission was to rapidly document the impacts and identify research questions before information was lost due to repairs and debris removal, which typically happens quickly after major events. The primary objective was to understand the impact of the natural hazard, not only the magnitude of damage to individual components and systems, but also the actions taken by utilities to return basic levels of service, impediments or successes that influenced restoration time and the overall impact on society and community recovery.

It’s also important to identify topics that should be further investigated over various time scales, and help to justify funding those investigations. We hope our work will encourage other teams to continue valuable research activities and improve resilience to natural hazards.

What were some of the key findings?
Our team specifically looked at lifeline systems, including energy, transportation, water and wastewater, universities, schools and other industrial facilities, to try to understand their performance and impact on people. You may be able to go home if your house is standing, but if you don't have water, sewer, power, natural gas or roads/bridges to get you home — each of these systems impact your ability to resume life, operate businesses and resume civilization.

Many lifeline systems that were seismically designed performed well. For instance, the electric power did reasonably well, the collapse of large dams was avoided and power-generation facilities did pretty good overall. Roadways, airports and bridges were damaged in certain areas, but the ones that were designed and built after the 1999 earthquake in Turkey performed relatively well.

However, some of the other systems were not built to the highest standards. For instance, the water distribution systems were significantly damaged, making it difficult to get water to the population. Many wastewater treatment facilities are still inoperable, and if you can’t treat wastewater, it goes into the local waterways. While drinking water systems are pressurized such that leaks can sometimes be identified, it’s difficult to identify where damages and repairs are needed in gravity flow wastewater pipelines. It’s going to be a long recovery process in order to bring back proper sanitation services.

The water treatment plants were generally operable, but due to water pipeline damage and other issues, many residents question whether it’s safe to drink the water.

Did anything surprise you?
Transmission lines that carry water long distances into metropolitan areas are extremely important infrastructure components. In some instances, 9-foot diameter pipelines crossed faults through tunnels and interacted with other underground utilities, like gas transmission lines. Many were damaged during the earthquake due to 4- or 5-m fault offsets, but one of the biggest surprises was the ability of the Turkish utilities to repair these pipelines rapidly despite significant damages.

Turkish utilities were able to get the water supply returned to many cities relatively rapidly, and although the treatment level was questionable, at least water for firefighting and non potable uses became available. It was pretty incredible, especially considering the staffing challenges. One large utility had 2,500 employees. After the Turkey earthquake, the utility struggled to get 200 people to report to work. Everyone was looking for lost family members, trying to figure out if their houses were still there, and protecting their property from looters. Many utility staff perished in the earthquake. Availability of staff was not an issue typically considered and emphasized the importance of establishing rapid mutual support programs with surrounding national and international organizations.

Did any of your findings in Turkey relate to your Marshall Fire research?
Both disasters had similar types of interdependencies where the loss of one service affects others. For example, in Turkey some water pumping and treatment facilities didn’t have backup generators. The lack of electric power and natural gas affected the ability of the water system to provide services, which was also a challenge during the Marshall Fire (in Colorado). Also, some transportation systems were damaged, preventing the delivery of resources and limiting access to critical facilities (e.g., dams) for inspection. During the Marshall Fire, some routes were inaccessible, impeding the ability to respond to the fire.

Are there lessons from the Turkey earthquake that could be applied to the United States?
The Turkey earthquakes remind us of the importance of lifelines and their role in recovering from a large event. It’s important to learn from well-performing sites as well as damaged ones.

If we were to have a similar magnitude earthquake in the U.S., we hope that our buildings, as well as infrastructure systems, would perform better. That said, Turkey has modern cities with similar infrastructure systems to the U.S., and in many cases newer. Many of the sites we visited were built in the last 20 years and were designed with earthquakes in mind, and that was apparent in their performance in many situations. In the U.S., it's important to recognize that many of our lifeline systems are aging; continual assessment and improvements are vital to regular operation and recovery following natural disasters.

Photo captions:
Top photo: Assistant Research Professor Brad Wham, far right, stands with members of his Lifeline team in front of water transmission pipelines damaged by fault ruptures in Gaziantep, Turkey.
Lower photo: Collapsed power transmission tower in Hatay, Turkey.

CEAE's Brad Wham joined a Learning From Earthquakes team assessing lifeline system damage after Turkey's February 2023 earthquake.

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Brad Wham presents at JWWA/WRF/CTWWA Water System Seismic Conference Program

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Feb 2023 23:23:06 +0000

Brad Wham presents at JWWA/WRF/CTWWA Water System Seismic Conference Program Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 02/06/2023 - 16:23

Assistant Research Professor Brad P. Wham presented at the 12th annual Water System Seismic Conference, hosted by Japan Water Works Association and co-sponsored by the Water Research Foundation (US) & Chinese Taiwan Water Works Association, Jan. 30 - Feb. 1, 2023 in Kumamoto on the island of Kyushu, Japan. His talk, titled “Evaluation of Assessment Procedures for Hazard-Resilient Expansion Joints “ highlighted unique experimental testing performed at CIEST and included lessons learned from reconnaissance missions conducted following the 2016 Kumamoto and 2018 Hokkaido Eastern Iburi earthquakes. Wham also joined water utilities from around the Pacific to witness testing of a 54-inch diameter earthquake-resilient ductile iron expansion joint, conducted by Kubota Corp.

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What is the Center for Infrastructure, Energy, and Space Testing at CU �Ǹ�Թ�?

Anonymous — Tue, 24 Jan 2023 20:36:22 +0000

What is the Center for Infrastructure, Energy, and Space Testing at CU �Ǹ�Թ�? Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/24/2023 - 13:36

Jeff Zehnder

Welcome to the Center for Infrastructure, Energy, and Space Testing (CIEST) at CU �Ǹ�Թ�, an experimental facility offering geotechnical centrifuges, structural dynamics and materials testing and research for business, government, and academic partners.

CIEST is home to a massive array of cutting edge, specialized facilities to conduct small and large scale testing with equipment, testbeds and instrumentation unrivaled in the United States.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlyBN4IJlK8]

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This scientist fled a deadly wildfire, then returned to study how it happened

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 21:58:46 +0000

This scientist fled a deadly wildfire, then returned to study how it happened Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 01/20/2023 - 14:58

In 2021, the devastating Marshall Fire showed wildfire can strike Colorado in almost any place or season. Scientists like Assistant Research Professor Brad Wham now hope to glean lessons from it for communities across the West.

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Researchers in Colorado talk improvements to potentially save homes from wildfires

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 23:35:54 +0000

Researchers in Colorado talk improvements to potentially save homes from wildfires Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 12/29/2022 - 16:35

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Wildfires pose growing threat to drinking water systems

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Oct 2022 22:57:39 +0000

Wildfires pose growing threat to drinking water systems Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 10/03/2022 - 16:57

In this American Society of Civil Engineers article, Assistant Research Professor Brad Wham talks about the steps water utilities can take to protect their infrastructure from wildfires.

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Engineers deploy drones to survey Marshall Fire, gather lessons for future disasters

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 16:09:41 +0000

Engineers deploy drones to survey Marshall Fire, gather lessons for future disasters Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 02/14/2022 - 09:09

The drone whirs to life on a driveway in the Spanish Hills neighborhood of �Ǹ�Թ� County. Its four spinning motors lift it to nearly 200 feet above the ground. Below, the cul-de-sac comes into view, revealing the stone chimneys and blackened foundations that dot the hillside—what remains of many of the houses in this neighborhood after flames swept through on Dec. 30 and into the morning of Dec. 31 during what would become known as the Marshall Fire.

Brad Wham trudges through the snow to join about a dozen other researchers who have gathered to watch the flight this morning. They’re wearing hard hats and neon safety vests. As an engineer at CU �Ǹ�Թ�, Wham studies how water pipelines and other “lifelines” can maintain their functionality during natural hazards, such as earthquakes and wildfires. He also lives in Louisville, Colorado, and had to evacuate his own home on that same day.

“I’ve deployed to Japan and New Zealand to study disasters very shortly after they occurred,” said Wham, an assistant research professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering (CEAE). “It has been a different experience to have them happen in my hometown.”

The Marshall Fire, which spread throughout much of �Ǹ�Թ� County including the towns of Superior and Louisville, became the most destructive fire in Colorado’s history. More than 1,000 homes were lost, and approximately 6,000 acres burned. One person remains missing while another was confirmed dead.

In coordination with local officials, Wham and his colleagues from Oregon State and Purdue universities have been surveying the damage since first-responders extinguished the flames. The effort is part an initiative funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) called Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER), which deploys researchers to disaster sites around the world. The team hopes to better understand the disaster from a uniquely engineering perspective: Why did some houses burn, for example, while neighboring homes survived? How did critical services like water, gas and electricity hold up during one of the worst disasters in �Ǹ�Թ� County’s history?

Time is of the essence. Soon, bulldozers and excavators will crawl through the impacted areas to begin the slow process of rebuilding—and much of that information will be gone forever.

“I think that what we’re doing here is going to be beneficial in the future, especially with other communities that are going to have fires,” said Jessica Ramos, a senior at CU �Ǹ�Թ� who’s working on Wham’s research team.

The Marshall Fire swept through this cul-de-sac in the Spanish Hills neighborhood. (Credit: Casey Cass/CU �Ǹ�Թ�)

Heat map

More information

For CU �Ǹ�Թ� community members experiencing physical, financial or emotional impacts of the Marshall Fire, CU �Ǹ�Թ� fire resources are available.

Fire resources

CONVERGE is hosting a series of virtual forums to discuss research on the Marshall Fire. Tune in for the next forum on Thursday, Feb. 17 from 2-3:00 p.m. Mountain Time.

Join the forum

Erica Fischer, a structural engineering professor at Oregon State University who leads the GEER team along with Wham, joined the researchers in Spanish Hills on this windy morning in January.

In many ways, the neighborhood shows why people have flocked to �Ǹ�Թ� County in recent decades. Its rolling hills offer a startling view of the CU �Ǹ�Թ� campus and the Flatirons beyond. But, Fischer notes, wildfires have been an inescapable part of these kinds of beautiful landscapes since long before humans settled here—and, as the climate warms in Colorado, they’re likely to grow worse.

“I would love to have this view,” she says, standing on a snowy hillside. “This is incredible, but beautiful scenery is created out of disaster. That’s how mountains are formed. That’s how lush forests are created. Understanding that is important.”

She and her colleagues are hoping to help people to live more safely within this dynamic environment.

They’re taking a multi-pronged approach to the research. They’ve utilized laser sensors to create 3D models of homes and retaining structures burned in the fire. They’ve also deployed flying vehicles like the quadcopter drones—on loan from the NSF-funded RAPID facility at the University of Washington.

This kind of interdisciplinary reconnaissance related to a wildfire has never been done before by GEER,” said Shideh Dashti, an associate professor in CEAE who leads an interdisciplinary research effort at CU �Ǹ�Թ� called Resilient Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity. “The solutions we come up with need to be holistic.”

As one part of that fast-moving effort, the group is working to recreate a heat map of the path the fire took through towns like Superior and Louisville.

Fischer explained that as concrete heats up, it changes color, turning pinker the warmer it becomes. Students from Oregon and CU �Ǹ�Թ� are inspecting the foundations of homes in the region, using custom-made color swatches to try to estimate how hot the flames got—giving them a better sense of what happened inside those homes as they burned.

Members of the GEER team watch a drone take off from the Spanish Hills neighborhood. (Credit: Casey Cass/CU �Ǹ�Թ�)

Team members survey damage from the Marshall Fire. (Credit: Casey Cass/CU �Ǹ�Թ�)

The team plans to publish its initial findings through a publicly-available report in March.

Ultimately, the researchers hope to bring together lessons learned from the Marshall Fire for other communities across the West. Fischer noted that recommendations like the International Wildland-Urban Interface Code and the National Fire Protection Agency's FireWise Program have long laid out how homeowners can safeguard homes from wildfires. Building a gravel skirt around your house, for example, can help to buffer it from flames. But many of those recommendations are expensive to put into place, she said, and no one knows which ones give you the biggest bang for your buck.

“In 2018, there was a big hailstorm in �Ǹ�Թ� County. A lot of people replaced their roofs. Did certain roofing materials help more than others? Did some siding materials help more than others?” Fischer said. “If homeowners have one dollar for rebuilding, where should they put it?”

Urgent response

Wham understands the urgency of the effort. At 2 p.m. on Dec. 30, he packed a bag and left his house in Louisville as flames licked the ground just a couple hundred yards away. His house made it through the night, but many others nearby didn’t.

“The fire destroyed structures all around us, to the north, the west, the south,” he said from Spanish Hills, a mile and a half from his home. “But the response is the same as if it were in another community. We want to help in any way that we can. We want to support the local institutions that are making decisions to get people back to their homes and recover from this as safely and as efficiently as possible.”

As part of that, Wham and his colleagues are also striving to understand how humans responded to this unprecedented disaster. The team has interviewed emergency management personnel and other local leaders to learn more about the decisions they made during and after the fire—how did residents evacuate neighborhoods, and how did cities and the county prioritize restoring vital services? In Louisville, for example, the local water treatment plant lost power, natural gas and communication services during the fire, severely limiting its capacity to get water to firefighters. Local officials trucked in natural gas from the surrounding area to restore the facility’s critical water pressure demands.

Lori Peek is a sociologist who directs the Natural Hazards Center at CU �Ǹ�Թ� and an associated NSF-funded effort called CONVERGE, which coordinates research on natural disasters. She has a lot of experience collecting perishable data in the immediate aftermath of events from 9/11 to Hurricane Katrina and the 2010 BP oil spill.

“One of the keys to doing ethical disaster research is making sure that work is grounded in the local cultural context,” Peek said. “This team multi-disciplinary team of engineers had those deep ties and has the opportunity to do grounded research that makes a scientific contribution but is also immediately useful to local leaders.”

Wham, for his part, has already taken one big lesson away from the Marshall Fire.

“People from all over the state and even from outside the state came in to fight the fires and help restore water service and power systems,” he said. “Those are really important relationships and connections that support the recovery process.”

He hopes that same wider community will help residents of the impacted neighborhoods as they begin the slow process of rebuilding their homes and their lives.

Other participants in the GEER study include CU �Ǹ�Թ� professors Abbie Liel and Amy Javernick-Will of CEAE and Andrew Whelton of Purdue. Students Nicolas Berty, Jacob Klingaman and Hailey-Rae Rose of CU �Ǹ�Թ� and Amy Metz and Dae Kun Kang of Oregon State are also aiding the effort.

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