Osman E. Ozbulut
· Professor Director of Graduate Studies, CEEVerifiedUniversity of Virginia · Civil and Environmental Engineering
Active 2007–2026
About
Osman E. Ozbulut is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Virginia. His research focuses on applying innovative materials, sensing technologies, and interdisciplinary expertise to develop resilient and sustainable civil infrastructure systems. He is particularly interested in the development of innovative structural systems and design strategies to enhance the performance and safety of structures, the application of advanced materials for disaster-resistant design, repair, and retrofit of aging infrastructure, and the development and application of novel structural health monitoring techniques for civil infrastructure systems. Dr. Ozbulut's work aims to formulate innovations in design, materials, and sensing technologies to advance a new generation of resilient infrastructure systems. His research includes the exploration of smart alloys, such as shape memory alloys, for multi-hazard response mitigation, and the development of cement-based additive manufacturing techniques for future architectural structures. He has contributed to advancing sustainable construction through innovations like graphene-enhanced 3D-printable concrete that improves strength and reduces carbon emissions. His interdisciplinary approach and focus on resilient infrastructure are reflected in his leadership roles, research projects, and contributions to the field.
Research topics
- Computer Science
- Materials science
- Composite material
- Biology
- Engineering
- Nanotechnology
- Geology
- Structural engineering
- Forensic engineering
- Mechanical engineering
Selected publications
SSRN Electronic Journal · 2026-01-01
preprintOpen accessEngineering Structures · 2026-02-05 · 1 citations
articleSenior authorCorrespondingConstruction and Building Materials · 2026-03-21
articleSenior authorCorrespondingJournal of Constructional Steel Research · 2026-02-16 · 1 citations
articleSenior authorStructural Control and Health Monitoring · 2026-01-01
articleOpen accessSenior authorCorrespondingSeismic isolation systems with adaptive behavior are critical for ensuring structural resilience across varying earthquake intensities. Variable curvature friction pendulum bearings (VC‐FPBs) offer a promising solution by providing displacement‐dependent stiffness and enhanced energy dissipation. This study investigates the size effect on the seismic performance of VC‐FPBs through experimental testing and finite element simulations. Five VC‐FPB specimens of different scales were subjected to cyclic quasistatic tests to evaluate their force–displacement responses, adaptive stiffness characteristics, and frictional behavior. Results revealed that smaller specimens failed to replicate the full‐scale adaptive stiffness behavior due to geometric limitations, stress distribution differences, and friction pad wear mechanisms. Modified small‐scale specimens with enhanced curvature profiles restored the intended stiffness softening behavior. Numerical models successfully captured the experimental trends, validating the influence of geometric scaling on mechanical performance. These findings highlight the necessity of thoughtful modifications in scaled VC‐FPB models to ensure accurate representation of full‐scale behaviors for seismic isolation applications.
Journal of Cleaner Production · 2026-04-01 · 1 citations
articleSenior authorCorrespondingDigital image correlation–based performance indicators for rutting evaluation of asphalt concrete
Construction and Building Materials · 2026-05-19
articleSenior authorJournal of Building Engineering · 2025-12-04
articleSenior authorASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems Part A Civil Engineering · 2025-05-05 · 4 citations
articleOpen accessMany emerging technologies are gaining attention in the civil engineering industry that claim to be able to aid in how civil infrastructure is constructed, monitored, or operated. At the same time, building and managing civil infrastructure with resilience has become popular with researchers and practitioners in the face of disrupting events. This paper follows Part I of this two-part set of papers. Part I proposes a qualitative workflow for evaluating emerging technologies and recognizing their specific contributions to civil infrastructure system resilience. In this work, we start with a graph-theoretic analysis to analyze the capacity of the proposed workflow as a logic graph. A collection of case studies is then presented across varying technological types to test this workflow and raise the visibility of several leading emerging technologies in the civil engineering industry. Each case study presents (1) an emerging technology, (2) an infrastructure application, (3) a disruption that the infrastructure may face, and (4) an evaluation of how that technology would contribute to resilience. The results of the case studies are examined, and the development of emerging technologies and their suitability for civil infrastructure systems are discussed.
ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems Part A Civil Engineering · 2025-05-05 · 1 citations
articleOpen accessAdopting emerging technologies (ETs) and enhancing civil infrastructure (CI) system resilience is a coupled process spanning technological, organizational, social, and economic dimensions, which concern both CI stakeholders and ET providers. To this end, no unified tool provides a decision-making aid on if and how a promising ET contributes to the resilience of an infrastructure system. This paper presents a decision-making workflow to evaluate an ET’s contribution to CI system resilience, which takes the form of a logic graph with breakdown scenarios. Using this workflow, an evaluator can identify the contribution of an ET and attribute it to one or more of five resilience properties, including resourcefulness, robustness, redundancy, rapidity, and an extended property- responsiveness. One case study of applying this workflow to a community’s water distribution system proves its effectiveness. The analytical capacity evaluation and a comprehensive set of applications of this methodology are presented in Part II of this two-part set of papers.
Recent grants
Frequent coauthors
- 41 shared
Muhammad M. Sherif
University of Alabama at Birmingham
- 39 shared
Devin K. Harris
University of Virginia
- 32 shared
Zhangfan Jiang
- 29 shared
Stefan Hurlebaus
Texas A&M University
- 25 shared
Sherif M. Daghash
- 23 shared
Uğur Kılıç
Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist
- 23 shared
Sasa Cao
Guangzhou University
- 20 shared
Fei Shi
Labs
Resilient and Advanced Infrastructure Laboratory (RAIL)PI
RAIL Research Group is led by Dr. Osman Ozbulut and is composed of students with diverse backgrounds.
Awards & honors
- Advanced Panel Fellow, NSF CMMI’s Game Changer Academy 2022
- International Young Scientist Fellowship, National Natural S…
- Post-doctoral Research Fellowship, Texas Transportation Inst…
- Resume-aware match score
- Save to shortlist
- AI-drafted outreach
See your match with Osman E. Ozbulut
PhdFit ranks faculty by your research interests, methods, and publications — grounded in their actual work, not templates.
- Free to start
- No credit card
- 30-second signup