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    <copyright>Copyright © 2026. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.</copyright>
    <docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs>
    <managingEditor>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</managingEditor>
    <webMaster>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</webMaster>
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      <title>Research in Progress (RIP)</title>
      <url>https://rip.trb.org/Images/PageHeader-wTitle-RIP.jpg</url>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/</link>
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    <item>
      <title>Field Durability survey and Evaluation of Drilled Shafts and ACP Piles</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2536236</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The primary objective of the study is to determine if there are significant safety and durability issues for structural concrete structures that may have demonstrated thermal cracking and/or mattressing defects. Understanding if and/or when undesirable consequences occur will lead to the ability to recommend changes in construction practices or material composition (i.e. concrete mix designs) to increase reliability and longevity of future Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) concrete structures.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 11 Apr 2025 09:34:27 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2536236</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Using Automated Low-Cost Track Monitoring Technologies for Rail Thermal Buckling Prevention</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2445325</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Safety is the principal concern of the railway industry, and track alignment irregularities pose risks to the safe operation of trains. According to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) accident database, "Track alignment irregular (buckled/sun kink)" is the most severe accident cause. include improving rail safety by developing accurate rail neutral temperature (RNT) measurement technology. The proposed research will contribute to further improvement and verification of the machine learning (ML)-RNT predictive tool, which can support nondestructive and non-disrupting RNT measurement without the need for baseline measurement. The proposed long-term data collection system and machine learning models will contribute to stress-sensitive information extraction and a better understanding of wave propagation in rails.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sun, 27 Oct 2024 13:24:40 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2445325</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Enhancing Durability of Stabilized Soils for Resilient Transportation Infrastructure Under Extreme Weather Conditions</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2244381</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Soil stabilization, especially of expansive clays, frost susceptible soils, and weak coastal sands, is critical to civil infrastructure such as embankment, roadways, rail tracks, and foundations. Despite a good body of knowledge regarding the formation and properties of stabilization products, a significant knowledge gap related to the long-term durability of stabilization products still exists. Specifically, long-term degradation due to cyclic moisture-temperature changes and environment induced pH fluctuations presents important challenges. This challenge becomes more evident in the future due to climate extremes such as severe flooding from major storm events, longer heat waves, and unforeseeable freezing-thawing cycles. The current state of the practice is largely limited to general observations and is clearly lacking with regards to accurate understanding and resulting adaptation/mitigation strategies. This knowledge gap is primarily related to the highly environment-dependent multiphysical characteristics and complex multiscale aspects between constituents, properties, microstructure, and processing. The goal of this project is to develop fundamentally sound experimental-forensic methods that can better identify and understand the degradation of stabilized soils. This project is thus directly related to 
National Center for Infrastructure Transformation's (NCIT’s) focus area of “Improving the Durability and Extending the Life of Transportation Infrastructure” and in particular for the NCIT’s topical pillar: Infrastructure Durability & Resilience. This project will vastly impact the current practice by enhance long-term durability of the stabilized soils which will lead to more resilient infrastructure systems.  ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 13 Sep 2023 13:36:17 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2244381</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Hyperspectral Imaging and Analysis for Steel Paint Condition Assessment (SN-9)</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2146897</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This project aims to develop a time-efficient, safe, and reliable technology based on 
hyperspectral imaging to inspect the service condition of anti-corrosion paint/coating on 
steel structural members (e.g., steel girders). Specific objectives are to establish a 
database of paint/coating degradation and develop a supervised machine learning based classification tool for inspection of steel coatings. The objectives will be achieved 
through a holistic literature and market survey, a comprehensive lab-based 
experimental study, and a machine learning modeling. The survey will determine
representative paints and their major degradation mechanisms, which will be used to 
guide experiment design. In the lab, representative paints will be collected, applied on 
steel members, and degraded under accelerative conditions (e.g., enhanced ultraviolet, 
heat, moisture, and temperature/humidity swings). The paints, aged to various extents, 
will be rated qualitatively according to standard methods and characterized 
quantitatively to output their degrees of degradation. Hyperspectral imaging will also be 
used to characterize the aged paints to generate spectral features, which will be 
correlated to the qualitative and quantitative evaluations of the paint conditions. All the 
results will form a database, in which the hyperspectral features will be used as input 
parameters and the paint condition parameters will be used as output parameters to 
train a machine learning-based classifier. The classifier will be validated so to serve as 
an inspection tool for paint condition on steel structural members, as well as to assist in 
decision-making for maintenance protocols]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 07 Apr 2023 19:42:45 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2146897</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis--The Transit IDEA Program. Magnetic Rail Movement Measuring Device (MRMMD)</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2137599</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This project developed a Magnetic Rail Movement Measuring Device (MRMMD) that improves railway safety and maintenance by enabling early detection and timely alerts to mitigate derailments, track damage and costly repairs. Under full dynamic loads, this portable device measures true rail temperature, track bed temperature, ambient temperature, lateral and vertical movements, and superelevation in real-time using specialized sensors. It features a cloud-based data communication system that relays sensor data to a dashboard or smart devices, facilitating real-time warnings and preventive actions. Unlike existing methods, the MRMMD tracks key data points based on actual dynamic loads and temperatures. Magnetically attached to the rail, the MRMMD operates in several modes, including an automatic mode that activates upon train approach to measure and record horizontal rail push, vertical track pumping, superelevation, and rail temperature. The device sends alerts when preset tolerances are reached and allows data to be accessed remotely via Bluetooth and cloud connectivity. Twenty prototypes of the MRMMD were developed and tested successfully with major rail and transit agencies, demonstrating the system's feasibility. 
The Final Report is available here.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 13 Mar 2023 16:27:23 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2137599</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Fracture Resistance of Cold Bent Steel</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2100877</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This study will determine the degradation of impact properties from steel that has been cold bent.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 18 Jan 2023 11:17:26 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2100877</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The Feasibility of Promoting Local Rail Vibrations Using Electromechanical Impedance Method</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1890169</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The mission of this project is to serve the rail industry by improving infrastructure safety and reliability with minimized risks of internal rail defects and rail thermal buckling. The team will develop an electromechanical impedance (EMI) measurement system to promote local rail vibrations, which were recently found to be promising tools for both rail structural integrity inspection and RNT estimation.

The local rail vibrations are the vibrational modes that are easy to promote, highly localized, and immune from boundary conditions. The fundamental mechanism of this phenomenon is deeply rooted from guided wave propagation in rails. Previously, local rail vibrations were promoted by impulse excitation, such as impactor and pulse laser, which lack a control flexibility on input energy and frequency. The team proposes to investigate the usage of EMI method for a consistent local rail vibration promotion, and successfully conducted preliminary numerical simulation to prove its feasibility. The proposed mission will be accomplished by developing an innovative capability of consistent excitation and detection of local rail vibrations, and advancing the state-of-the-art of rail defect detection rail neutral temperature (RNT) measurement.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 04 Nov 2021 14:50:12 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1890169</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Identification and Characterization of Insect Cellulolytic Systems for Plant Biomass Degradation</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1368086</link>
      <description><![CDATA[No summary provided.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 08 Sep 2015 10:06:52 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1368086</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Identification of Insect Digestive Enzymes for Biomass Degredation</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1368084</link>
      <description><![CDATA[No summary provided.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 08 Sep 2015 10:01:56 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1368084</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Use of Shallow Anchors and Anchored Mesh System for Cut Slope Protection in Ice-Rich Soils</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1307048</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The overall objective of this research is to investigate the performance of shallow anchors in frozen soils and develop an anchored wire mesh system which can be used to solve the problems associated with the exposed ice-rich permafrost cut slopes. The system will be safe, environmentally acceptable, cost-effective, and requires little maintenance in the long term. The specific goals of the project are as follows: (1) Investigate the rate of thermal degradation of ice-rich permafrost cut slopes. (2) Investigate load transfer characteristics of a shallow anchors during freeze-thaw cycles. (3) Investigate the local and global stability of the slope protection systems. (4) Investigate performances of different anchored systems for ice-rich permafrost cut slopes exposed during construction and investigate the optimum design for ice-rich permafrost cut slopes. (5) Investigate methods to construct ice-rich permafrost cut slopes with an anchored slope protection system. The results will be used to develop design and construction guidance for anchored slope protection systems for a variety of field conditions in Alaska.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 24 Apr 2014 01:01:09 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1307048</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Towards Sustainable Pavements: Engineered Agricultural Waste for Alleviation of Thermal Cracking, Phase 1</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1231932</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Cold winter temperatures that are typical for the Kansas' continental climate are likely to produce detrimental shrinkage cracking of pavements. Thermally induced contraction of pavements is restrained either by the friction of the sub-grade and/or by the reinforcing steel. The pavement cracks if the restraint produces sufficiently large tensile stresses. The cracks are usually parallel to each other and they appear at a regular spacing, thus exhibiting a particular length scale. They form across the entire width of pavements, thus negatively affecting the ride quality. In addition, cracks also facilitate infiltration of water into sub-grade soils, which causes a rapid deterioration of the pavement structure. Frequent and costly repairs of cracked pavements necessitate the engineering solution, which will increase the resilience of pavements while bringing along a number of sustainability benefits.  Kansas is strategically located in the midst of Great Plains, one of the largest wheat growing regions in the world. The abundant wheat straw has traditionally been burned off the fields or tilled back into the soil in preparation for the next planting season. These disposal methods contribute to air pollution and global warming. Ron Madl, director of the Kansas State University Wheat Research Center described the benefits of the straw removal as follows: "Straw removal increases soil temperature in spring, improves soil drying rate, is helpful to low-till or no-till farming, decreases combine operating costs and diminishes the risk of disease and insect transfer into the next season".  The use of renewable materials such as wheat straw to reinforce pavements is likely to bring a number of multiple sustainability benefits including: 1) economic, 2) environmental, and 3) social benefits. Economic benefits are due to a decreased maintenance costs. Environmental benefits are due to the use of benign renewable materials, decreased pollution and decreased global warming that are otherwise caused by frequent repairs of thermal cracks and non-sustainable agricultural practices. Social benefits are in that the proposed beneficial use of wheat straw provides additional income to farmers that will be pumped back into the economy. In addition, significantly decreased maintenance operations lessen traffic disruptions, thus providing better connectivity to rural population. Overall, the engineering use of agricultural waste is likely to give a boost to the rural economy.  To this end, and in the spirit of the theme of the KS-UTC: "Sustainability and Safety of Rural Transportation Systems and Infrastructure", we propose to conduct an investigation about he feasibility of use of wheat straw for alleviation of thermal cracking of pavements.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Jan 2013 14:28:49 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1231932</guid>
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