Dr. Dong’s research group at HK PolyU focuses on design, assessment and management of civil infrastructures and marine structures. This is achieved advancing the state-of-the-art in Urban Resilience, Intelligent Maintenance, Life-Cycle and Performance-Based Engineering, Probabilistic Modeling and Simulation, Decision Making, High Performance Computing, etc.
RESEARCH & Project
Resilient and Low-Carbon Engineering Systems under Multiple Hazards
The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction reported that in 2011 natural disasters (e.g., earthquakes, typhoons, floods, and tsunamis) resulted in $366 billion of direct economic losses and 29,782 fatalities worldwide. Dr. Dong’s research group aims to address the research gap with emphasis on bridges and bridge networks in a life-cycle context. The multiple hazards considered include earthquakes, typhoons/hurricanes, mainshock and aftershocks, structural deterioration, traffic load, and flood-induced scour. The applications illustrate that the total hazard loss associated with multiple hazards (e.g., earthquake, typhoons, and flood) during an investigated time interval is different and the contribution of the hazards changes. The risk mitigation strategies and applications of novel materials (e.g., UHPC and ECC) and structural systems (e.g., self-centering) could be determined. |
Coastal Infrastructure Vulnerability and Resilience under Climate Change
According to the National Academies “Impacts of climate change and degradation of natural defenses such as coastal wetlands make the nation more vulnerable.” With increase in the global mean annual temperature associated with climate change, the severity of hazard, storm intensity, raising sea levels, and accelerating coastal erosion are likely to worsen. This research topic focuses on understanding how climate change affects the life-cycle performance of coastal bridges and buildings leading to improved preparedness prior to changing climate and climate-related disasters. The effects of structural deterioration and changing climate on resilience and life-cycle performance of infrastructure systems are investigated, which can aid the development of the next generation of infrastructure. |
Intelligent Life-Cycle Management and AIs for Infrastructure Systems
During their service life, infrastructure systems are exposed to gradual deteriorations (e.g., corrosion, fatigue) and/or sudden hazards (e.g., earthquakes, and floods). These aspects highlight the need to implement optimal management strategies to maintain performance of deteriorating structural systems above acceptable levels while attempting to satisfy budgetary constraints by using deep reinforcement learning. In an attempt to address this issue, Dr. Dong’s group develops risk and sustainability-informed methods, robotics, and computer vision to aid the design, assessment, maintenance, and management of deteriorating systems in a life-cycle context by using intelligent algorithms. Various modules associated with assessment of structural systems, analyses of system and component performance interaction, optimization of management activities, and updating the life-cycle performance based on information from structural health monitoring and/or inspection are integrated to achieve a comprehensive management framework. |
Digital Twin Enabled - Machine Learning, Robotics, and Data Science in Reliability and Maintenance
This research topic is to develop a novel, deeply integrated physics-based data-driven approach to assess and enhance the digital twin enabled resilience of civil infrastructures in a life-cycle context. Dr. Dong’s group would introduce computer vision, robotic, and surrogate models for predicting the structural response and vulnerability, leveraging machine learning techniques used for classification and regression problems. The physics-guided, data-driven and multiscale framework allows for assessment and management of civil infrastructure resilience and identification of optimal investment decisions under uncertainty. The outcome of this research is expected to help key decision-makers for the infrastructure to characterize digital twin enabled performance and functionality under various uncertain future scenarios and identify intelligent operation and maintenance strategies. |
Funded Research Project
Principle Investigator:
Co-Investigator/Co-Principle Investigator:
- Intelligent Building Assets Retrofit for Safety and Low-Carbon Optimisation, Funded Research Institute for Smart Energy
- Human-Machine Collaborative Asset Inspection Through Mixed Reality, Funded by Faculty of Construction and Environment, HK PolyU
- Resilience of High-Density Urban Systems, The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, HK PolyU
- Structural Performance and Multivariate Fragility of Low-Lying Coastal Bridges during Storm Events, Funded by HK RGC-GRF, 2022-2025 (on-going)
- Artificial Intelligence-Enhanced Climate-Resilient Infrastructure – Climate Resilient Development, Funded by Research Institute for Sustainability Urban Development (RISUD) - PolyU, 2021-2024 (on-going)
- Performance and Resilience-Informed Analysis and Design of Bridge in a Life-Cycle Context, Funded by National Science Foundation of China, 2021-2024 (on-going)
- Life-Cycle Management and Health Monitoring of Long-Span Bridges under Fatigue through the Coupling of SHM Data, Decision Theory, and Value of Information, Funded by HK RGC-GRF, 2020-2023
- Towards Climate-Resilient Reinforced Concrete Infrastructures Under Multiple Climate Change Related Hazards, Funded by France/Hong Kong Joint Research Scheme, 2019-2021
- Seismic Performance and Resilience of Steel Buildings by Using High Strength Steel, Funded by Hong Kong Branch of National Engineering Research Center for Steel Construction, 2019-2021
- Robust Adaptation of Coastal Bridge Decks under Typhoon-Induced Forces and Sea Level Rise, Funded by HK RGC-ECS, 2019-2021
- Vulnerability Analysis and Risk Assessment of RC Girder Bridges under Seismic Hazard in a Life-Cycle Context, Funded by National Science Foundation of China, 2019-2021
- Structural Health Monitoring and Performance Assessment of Stonecutters Bridge under Strong Winds, Funded by HK PolyU, 2018-2021 (completed)
- Performance-Based Design and Assessment of Buildings under Multiple Hazards, Funded by HK PolyU, 2017-2019 (completed)
- Coastal Bridge Design, Assessment, and Management Considering Sea Level Rising and Changing Climate, Funded by HK PolyU, 2017-2020 (completed)
- Reliability and Risk-Informed Life-Cycle Framework for Maintenance and Monitoring of High-Speed Rail Systems, Funded by Hong Kong Branch of National Rail Transit Electrification and Automation Engineering Technology Research Center, 2017-2018 (completed)
Co-Investigator/Co-Principle Investigator:
- Life-Cycle Serviceability and Safety Assessment for Offshore Wind Turbine Structures: A Digital Twin-Based Structural Health Monitoring Approach, Funded by Hong Kong PolyU, 2021-2023 (on-going)
- Condition Assessment and Intelligent Maintenance Technology and Equipment of Cross-Sea Cluster Facilities (跨海集群设施服役状态评估及智能维养技术与装备), National key research and development plan of the Ministry of Science and Technology - 科技部国家重点研发计划, Project No. 2019YFB1600702, 2020-2022 (on-going)
- Intelligent Sensing Cloud System for Remote Online Monitoring of Major Cross-Sea Cluster (基于无线传感网络的重大跨海交通集群工程安全远程在线监测智能感知云系统), Guangdong Province Key Field R&D Program - 广东省重点领域研发计划, Project No. 2019B111106001, 2020-2022 (on-going)
- Observation and Research Base of Transport Industry of Structural Safety of Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (粵港澳大灣區港珠澳大橋工程安全交通運輸行業野外科學觀測研究基地), Ministry of Science and Technology - 科技部国家野外科学观测研究站, 2019 – 2025 (on-going)
- Sustainable Marine Infrastructure Enabled by the Innovative Use of Seawater Sea-Sand Concrete and Fibre-Reinforced Polymer Composites, Funded by RGC Theme-based Projects, 2018-2023 (on-going)
- High-Performance Materials and Structural Elements for Sustainable Floating Structures, Funded by HK PolyU Research Institute of Sustainable Urban Development (RISUD), 2017-2020 (completed)
- FRP-reinforced Seawater Sea-sand Concrete Structures for Sustainable Marine Infrastructure, Funded by HK PolyU Research Institute of Sustainable Urban Development (RISUD), 2016-2019 (completed)