American Iron and Steel Institute’s (AISI) Steel Market Development Institute (SMDI) Steel Bridge Task Force and the American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Technical Committee for Structural Steel Design have named Justin Ocel, Ph.D., P.E., as the 2010 recipient of the Robert J. Dexter Memorial Lecture.
The program was instituted in 2005 in memory of Robert J. Dexter, an associate professor of civil engineering at the University of Minnesota, who was an internationally recognized expert on steel fracture and fatigue problems.
The Robert J. Dexter Memorial Lecture program provides an opportunity for an individual early in his/her career in structural engineering to present a lecture on his/her steel bridge activities to the SMDI Steel Bridge Task Force and to participate in its semiannual three-day meeting. The Steel Bridge Task Force is comprised of the United States’ leading steel bridge experts.
Ocel currently works as a research structural engineer for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), managing the R&D program for High-Performance Steel (HPS). He also serves as the principal investigator on the NCHRP (National Cooperative Highway Research Program) Project 12-84, Guidelines for the Load and Resistance Factor Design and Rating of Riveted, Bolted and Welded Gusset-Plate Connections for Steel Bridges.
Ocel’s presentation, delivered to the SMDI Steel Bridge Task Force on Aug. 12 in Washington D.C., was titled “Fatigue Analysis of a Ship-Loading Structure.” The presentation outlined a case study that determined the remaining fatigue life of a complex moveable structure used to load coal into cargo ships.
