Dr. Yuhong Wang, Associate Professor
    Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
    The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
    Phone No.: 852-2766-4489
    Email: ceyhwang@polyu.edu.hk

    Academic Education: PhD and MSc in civil engineering at University of Kentucky; MEng and BEng in engineering management at Tongji University

    Research Interests: Pavement Materials, Pavement Structures, Pavement Construction and Management

 
Research Highlights:

Although our group is interested in a variety of issues related to highway and airport pavements, our current research mainly focuses on four areas: (1) pavement materials (concrete and asphalt), (2) long-life and smart pavement structures, (3) pavement management optimization, and (4) effects of pavement construction on workers’ health. Examples of our research are shown below.
Title     Prefabricated Pervious Concrete Pavements and Underground Storage Tank
Description     Many cities around the world are facing both water shortage and flooding problems caused by urban development and climate change. The funded research is part of the study entitled Urban Nature Labs (UNaLab), to be implemented by a consortium of 29 partners from 15 countries. The research components responsible by European partners have been funded through the European Commission (EC)’s Horizon 2020 Research Scheme (12,768,931 Euro). This research deals with the components responsible by Hong Kong (HK) partners, funded separately by HK Research Grant Council (RGC).
On this project, we are responsible for two research components in UNaLab: (1) to develop integrated pervious concrete pavement systems and their components as part of the NBS, and (2) to selectively adopt UNaLab natural-based solutions and implement them locally through “living labs”.
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The research components
    

A site for natural-based solutions
Status/Sample Publications     The project is ongoing. No publication yet.
Title     Design Methods for Long-life Pavements
Abstract     Highway pavement is an important component of transportation infrastructures. While providing important services to the society, highway pavement also consumes a large amount of capital investments and creates significant impacts to the environment. Transport sector accounts for nearly 14% of the global GHG emissions, of which approximately 72% is attributed to road construction, rehabilitation, maintenance, service, and usage. We believe that more durable pavements can lead to significant life-cycle cost savings and reductions on transport-related energy use and GHG emissions. Funded by Hong Kong Highways Department, this project developed new strategies and methods for flexible and rigid pavement designs.
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Analysis of the response of concrete pavement under traffic loads
    

Construction of an instrumented highway pavement section
Status/Sample Publications     The project has been completed. Sample publication: Chong, D., Wang, Y., Dai, Z., Chen, X., Wang, D. and Oeser, M., 2018. Multiobjective optimization of asphalt pavement design and maintenance decisions based on sustainability principles and mechanistic-empirical pavement analysis. International Journal of Sustainable Transportation, 12(6), pp.461-472.
Title     Porous Pavements
Abstract     Porous pavement systems offer advantages such as “reducing downstream flooding, limiting surface water pollution, recharging aquifers, and—in certain urban areas—reducing the frequency of combined sewage overflow problems (USGBC 2008).” Although porous pavement systems are beneficial for on-site stormwater management, there are also some technical questions that need to be addressed for their wider applications. This research project is funded by the U.S. Green Building Council. The goals of the project are (1) to improve porous pavement technology by making pavements stronger, more durable, and meet the on-site stormwater management requirements; and (2) developing a comprehensive design and operational guide for the porous pavement systems.
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Construction of a trial site made of pervious concrete
    

A highway section made of porous asphalt with recycled asphalt shingles
Status/Sample Publications     The project has been completed. Sample publication: Wang, Y., Leng, Z. and Wang, G., 2014. Structural contribution of open-graded friction course mixes in mechanistic–empirical pavement design. International Journal of Pavement Engineering, 15(8), pp.731-741.
Title     Instantaneous Monitoring of Concrete Construction Process to Improve Construction Quality and Safety
Abstract     Various non-destructive techniques have been used to detect and monitor the structural conditions of constructed facilities. These techniques are normally used on completed facilities, not on facilities being constructed. Consequently, many hidden quality problems can only be found after construction. The contractors have to waste time and money to correct these problems. Moreover, some hidden flaws may lead to serious construction accidents. If these problems can be caught instantaneously and fixed immediately, time, money, and even people’s life will be saved. This study uses innovative non-destructive techniques to detect and monitor quality and safety in construction, particularly in concrete construction. The project is funded by a competitive research grant the PolyU.
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STFT spectrograms of artificially created concrete specimens with honeycomb in time-frequency domain
    

Conceptual model of high-frequency scatter due to existence of honeycomb in concrete
Status/Sample Publications     The project has been completed. Sample publication: Lai, W.L., Wang, Y.H., Kou, S.C. and Poon, C.S., 2013. Dispersion of ultrasonic guided surface wave by honeycomb in early-aged concrete. NDT & E International, 57, pp.7-16.
Hong Kong PhD Fellowship

We encourage students with evidence of academic excellence, research ability, and good communication skills to apply for full-time PhD study a newly launched Fellowship scheme. The scheme aims to recruit outstanding graduates to Hong Kong, irrespective of country of their origin and ethnic background and provide a 3-year tuition scholarship, a monthly stipend of HK$20,000 (approximately US$2,600) and conference and research related travel allowance of HK$10,000 (approximately US$1,300) per year for awardees for a maximum period of three years. Please visit the University's web-site at http://www.polyu.edu.hk/ro/hkphd-fellowship/ for further details of the scheme. If you are interested in pavement engineering and management, please contact me (ceyhwang@polyu.edu.hk) if you would like to apply for.
Research Assistants/Associates

We are looking for a research assistant / associate or postdoctoral scholar with background in pavement materials. Initial appointment will be for 6 months, but the appointment is renewable subjected to mutual agreement. The applicant is expected to have at least a Master degree.

Our research is mainly funded by the Hong Kong Research Grant Council, National Science Foundation of China, Highways Department of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Innovation Technology Fund, Hong Kong Environmental Conservation Fund.