ASCE has honored Gongkang Fu, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, with the 2020 Alfredo Ang Award on Risk Analysis and Management of Civil Infrastructure for his outstanding contributions on risk analysis and management of bridge infrastructure.
For more than three decades of exceptional contributions on risk analysis and management of bridge infrastructure, Fu’s research has remarkably advanced the safety and reliability of bridge engineering systems; life-cycle performance under uncertainty; the durability and resilience of bridge engineering systems; and the safety and performance of bridges under natural hazards. His major offerings on bridge infrastructure are significant, innovative, visionary and, most importantly, practical. They have been adopted in national codes as well as in national or international practices.
Fu is especially recognized for excellent work on NCHRP Project 12-81, “Evaluation of Fatigue on the Serviceability of Highway Bridges.” It was critical to adoption by AASHTO (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials). This work has thus been practiced since as part of the national specifications “Manual for Bridge Evaluation” (MBE) governing the entire bridge infrastructure of the United States. Fu fully analyzed the risk involved in fatigue evaluation of steel bridges and developed the solution to the problem, using the structural reliability theory. His novel concept of using field inspection as a proof test to address overconservative estimates of negative remaining fatigue life has been adopted in MBE since 2015. It has avoided unnecessary structural retrofitting and associated cost.
The Alfredo Ang Award on Risk Analysis and Management of Civil Infrastructure recognizes outstanding contributions to one or more in the following fields of research: safety and reliability of engineering systems; life-cycle performance under uncertainty; durability and resilience of engineering systems; safety and performance under natural hazards, and related fields.
