About_Wu
Research interests focus on the general area of risk
analysis, uncertainty modelling of Earth Systems Engineering. A
cross-disciplinary endeavour aims to build an interface between the
theoretical basic research, application oriented developments and
numerical implementations. In the area of basic research, the focus
is on the development of advanced stochastic computational methods
for stochastic differential equation, reliability analysis and risk
management. The developed procedures have been applied in different
areas in civil engineering as well as in coastal engineering
(embankment, dam, foundation). The numerical implementations have
been resulted in the development of several software packages (such
as
GeoRiskR, and
SADSS) for
uncertainty quantification.
Who he is
Xingzheng was
born in
Liangshan County,
ShanDong
province of China (which is in the east
of China between Beijing and
Shanghai) in 1972. In 1990 he finished his high school at Liangshan
No.1 high school. In the same year, he entered the
ShanDong University of
Technology (Now named ShanDong University) in Jinan. After four
years, he received his B.S. in Civil Engineering in 1994 rewarded as
top graduate, then pursued his M.S. degree in the same university on
Solid Mechanics following a recommendation by the Academic
Committee. The title of his master thesis is 'Study of Geosynthetic
Reinforced Soil Embankment' [Abstract].
In 2001, he finished his Ph.D degree from the
Dalian University of
Technology, Dalian
(a coastal city in Northeast). The title of his thesis is
'Constitutive Models of Coarse-grained Soils with Static and Dynamic
Loading and Their Applications in High Concrete Faced-slab Rockfill
Dam' [Abstract]. During his study, he worked as a
research assistant for the National Science Foundation project of
China and the 9th Five-Years Plan Project. In these projects, he was
active on constitutive model and numerical approach in 3-D finite
element analyses of a Rockfill Dam(CFRDSDB3).
At the beginning
of 2001, he started working towards
a
new research field in the
probabilistic optimization design and risk assessment of flood
defences at
China Institute of Water Resources and
Hydropower Research (IWHR), (Research Center of flood and
drought disaster reduction of Chinese Ministry of Water Resources in Beijing).
The funding supported by the sub-theme of the WORLD BANK and
the
Youth
Acceleration Fund of National Electric Power Corporation project, he
and his colleagues developed the Software system
for safety
evaluation with multi-criteria on flood defences (SADSS, the
description and evaluation version of the Software system [Introduction;Theory;UserManual]. In the meantime, he acted as a
research secondment, funded by a cooperation programme between
the Directorate-General Rijkswaterstaat (RWS) of the Ministry of
Transport, Public Works and Water Management in the Netherlands
(Delft), and his Research Center, stayed in Delft for three months.
The comparison of the probabilistic modelling and their application
on dike failure mechanisms for safety evaluation between the
Netherlands and China was carried out [Report].
From July of 2004, he begins to pursue his international career as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Dundee. The 1st project involved by him is Physical and Mathematical Modelling of Soft Cliff Erosion and Coastal Erosion Risk Assessment, from the Leverhulme Trust. A process-based deterministic numerical model to predict coastal Cliff-Beach erosion due to wave actions was developed. The components (including slope stability, mass movement, beach erosion process) are ulitilised in a typical cliff-beach cross section and profile updating can be displayed on the screen in real time and some meaningful results were gained [Introduction].
The
2nd project at the
University of Dundee,
supported by EPSRC and cooperated with university of Plymouth, A
Risk-based Framework for Predicting Long-term Beach Evolution. A
newly long-term shoreline evolution model based on stochastic
differential equation (SDE) was presented. The proposed model is
able to account for the effects of uncertainties in breaking wave
parameters and the initial shoreline position and provides an
efficient means of predicting the complete stochastic
characteristics of shoreline evolution without requiring a Monte
Carlo sampling, validation against the historical and measured data
at Christchurch Bay is completed [Introduction].
The
3rd
project
at the
University of Dundee
"New geotechnical approaches to soil biological processes", which
was sponsored by UK Joint Research Council (MRC/EPSRC/BBSRC)
Discipline Hopper scheme. The specific contribution of
two-dimensional particle image velocimetry (PIV) to characterize
penetration resistance of penetrometer, pressure meter deformation,
root growth and earthworm burrow processes in compacted sandy and
clayey soils was explored. Building linkage between geotechnical
engineering installing and biological behaviour was attempted, it
provides a basis for advancing the design of civil engineering in
soils.
In June of 2009, he moved to the
Newcastle University, UK. The
4th
project who involved "Incorporating beach morphological
changes to flood risk assessments attributed to climate change in a
regional perspective" was sponsored by
Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research Phase II
(Coastal). A direct Monte Carlo sampling method is developed to
capture a wide range of inundation map and damages under all sorts of
loading conditions, sea level rising, wave height and breached beach
level, with overtopping and breaching failure mode.
The
5th
project at the
Newcastle University "A
foresight future evolution implications of flood risk assessment by
integrating near-shore beach morphological behaviour" was supported
by an EPSRC Platform grant: Earth systems engineering: Systems
engineering for sustainable adaptation to global change (Uncertainty
analysis). Joint extremes of beach morphological changes are built
to further analyze the potential expected annual damages in the
impacted zone due to breaching events.
A PPT file to
outline
these
studies (till 2011) can be downloaded in a pdf format.
He always
believes that he came
into the world and will be ended up with in the
research to handle with the uncertainty system in engineering by
numerical models. It can be a miracle though hope is frail. During
his research life, there might be pain, frustrations and loneliness,
but after such experiences, hope and joy and happiness will emerge
and long with the whole life.
.......(to be
continued)