Matthew Bandelt

Assistant Professor and Associate Chair

  • Newark NJ UNITED STATES
  • 209 Colton
  • John A. Reif, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Professor Bandelt focuses on cement-based composites to improve the behavior, durability and environmental impact of concrete structures.

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Biography

Matthew Bandelt completed his Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University in 2015 where he specialized in the use of innovative construction materials to improve the performance of structural systems. Recent research has focused on cement-based composites which incorporate small polymeric and steel fibers to improve the structural behavior and durability of reinforced concrete structures. He has developed specifications to aid in design of structures using these composites, as well as computational modeling tools to predict their behavior under earthquake loading. He is currently exploring the use of these composites, and other novel construction materials, to improve infrastructure durability against harsh environmental conditions, and to decrease construction times and project delays. Dr. Bandelt is a recipient of the prestigious National Science Foundation Graduation Research Fellowship (NSF-GRF), and has also received awards from the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) and the American Society of Civil Engineers Structural Engineering Institute (ASCE-SEI).

Areas of Expertise

Computational Modeling
Polymeric Fibers
Construction
Reinforced Concrete

Accomplishments

James M. Gere Research Fellowship

2014

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Recipient

2011

ASCE/SEI – Student Structural Design Competition First Place Award

2010

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Education

Stanford University

Ph.D.

Civil Engineering

2015

Villanova University

M.S.

Civil Engineering

2011

Villanova University

B.S.

Civil Engineering

2010

Affiliations

  • Bandelt Research Group
  • Professional Engineer - NJ, PA
  • American Concrete Institute (ACI) Voting Member
  • American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC)
  • American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
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Media Appearances

Bridge construction technique in fatal Florida collapse is widely used in New Jersey

NorthJersey.com  

2018-05-06

“This is becoming an increasingly common method of construction, and there are thousands of bridges across the United States constructed using these methods,” said Matthew Bandelt, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at the New Jersey Institute of Technology...

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Professor on safeguards for building along NJ's coastline

PBS - NJ Spotlight News  tv

2021-06-29

NJIT assistant professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Matthew Bandelt tells Anchor Briana Vannozzi what protections are in place for buildings along New Jersey’s coastline to prevent an event like the partial building collapse in Surfside, Florida from happening here.

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Event Appearances

Predicting UHPC Structural Response at Ultimate Limit State through Numerical Simulation

Second International Interactive Symposium on UHPC  Albany, NY

Fiber-Based Modeling of Reinforced HPFRCC Hinge Zones

11th National Conference on Earthquake Engineering  Los Angeles, CA

Simulation of Reinforced HPFRCC Deformation Capacity under Flexure- and Shear-Dominated Stress States

Computational Modeling of Concrete and Concrete Structures  Bad Hofgastein, Austria

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Research Grants

Advanced Reinforced Concrete Materials for Transportation Infrastructure

New Jersey Department of Transportation

2019-05-01

The objectives of this project are to:
(i) identify novel materials that can be rapidly deployed in New Jersey’s reinforced concrete transportation infrastructure to improve the longevity and reduce the long-term costs of new and existing construction;
(ii) select cost-effective and structurally feasible materials in coordination with NJDOT for evaluation using experimental and computational methods to benchmark constructability, deterioration
behavior across a range of mechanisms, and in-service structural performance among a diverse group of materials;
(iii) compare the economic impacts of different advanced materials across durability mechanisms and structural applications by performing life-cycle cost analyses; and
(iv) develop guidelines and specifications so that the materials can be rapidly deployed across the state in appropriate applications.

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Long-Term Infrastructure Performance (LTIP) Team

Federal Highway Administration

2018
The Long-Term Infrastructure Performance (LTIP) Programs include the Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) Program and the Long-Term Bridge Performance (LTBP) Program. These programs, conducted in collaboration with the State department of transportation infrastructure owners, provide for characterization and monitoring of in-service highway pavement test sections (LTPP) and bridges (LTBP) to assemble the data needed to improve infrastructure design and advance the understanding of highway infrastructure performance necessary to effectively manage transportation assets. The collected data are disseminated to the public through web-based portals. Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA’s) investment in obtaining and disseminating the data is leveraged by both public and private sector research organizations that apply the data to address a variety of infrastructure performance needs of local, State, regional, and national interest.

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University Transportation Center (UTC) Region 2

United States Department of Transportation

2018
DOT invests in the future of transportation through its University Transportation Centers (UTC) Program, which awards and administers grants to consortia of colleges and universities across the United States. The UTC Program advances the state-of-the-art in transportation research and technology, and develops the next generation of transportation professionals. The Congressionally-mandated program has been in place since 1987 to help address our nation’s ever-growing need for the safe, efficient and environmentally sound movement of people and goods.

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Articles

Flexural Behavior of a Composite Steel and Precast Concrete Open Web Dissymmetric Framing System

Engineering Structures

Bandelt, MJ, SP Gross, DW Dinehart, JR Yost, and JD Pudeliner

2019
The use of composite construction has been incorporated into the design of steel components for decades, creating efficient and stiffer structures through the combined benefits of structural steel and reinforced concrete. Traditional floor systems develop composite action between vertically aligned elements using shear studs or other mechanical transfer elements. In this paper, the behavior of a composite structural system that combines steel beams, precast hollow core slabs, steel reinforcement, and cementitious grout in a unique geometry to create a shallow, monolithic, and composite floor assembly for use in residential and commercial construction is evaluated. Composite action is developed through a linear strain distribution between horizontally aligned concrete slab and steel beam elements. Experimental results from large-scale assembly testing of the composite system, known as the Girder-Slab System, are presented. The sensitivity of the system to material properties and structural geometry is investigated including effective width, section properties, and flexural strength. Comparisons of flexural section properties and strength are made between experimental performance and predictions using mechanics- and code-based principles.

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Mechanics and failure characteristics of hybrid fiber-reinforced concrete (HyFRC) composites with longitudinal steel reinforcement

Engineering Structures

Nguyen, W, MJ Bandelt, W Trono, SL Billington, and CP Ostertag

2019
While the properties of hybrid fiber-reinforced concrete (HyFRC) have been well-reported in the literature, the behavior of reinforced HyFRC (i.e., HyFRC with embedded steel rebar) is less understood. This paper investigates the mechanics and failure characteristics of reinforced HyFRC under direct tension. Samples with a low longitudinal steel reinforcement ratio were studied to evaluate the feasibility of reducing rebar congestion in structural applications through the use of fiber-reinforced concrete. Although reinforced HyFRC forms multiple cracking sites when loaded, rebar strain and HyFRC crack opening are generally concentrated at a single location under post-yield displacements. The onset of rebar plastic deformation and the exhaustion of fibers’ bridging load capacity are coincident events at a dominant crack. For a cracked reinforced HyFRC section to strengthen, the magnitude of load resistance increase from strain hardening rebar must exceed the magnitude of load resistance decrease from fiber pull-out processes. Comparisons are made with studies reported in the literature to demonstrate how longitudinal reinforcement ratio and fiber type influence cracking behavior and ultimate strain capacity. The research presented herein has far-reaching impacts on the structural design of all types of reinforced fiber-reinforced concrete materials detailed for a ductile response under large displacements.

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Understanding variability in recycled aggregate concrete mechanical properties through numerical simulation and statistical evaluation

Construction and Building Materials

Anuruddha Jayasuriya, Matthew P Adams, Matthew J Bandelt

2018

This paper investigates the effects of adhered mortar content on the mechanical properties of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) systems using two-dimensional finite element analysis of RAC specimens subjected to uniaxial compression. Sensitivity and statistical analyses of RAC systems were conducted to explore how individual material stiffnesses (aggregate, mortar matrix, adhered mortar, new Interfacial Transition Zone (ITZ), and old ITZ) and adhered mortar contents (2, 10, 20 and 50%) influence RAC mechanical performance. In total, 128 simulation results were performed to understand variability in stress development, damage progression, compressive strength, and elastic modulus of RAC systems. Statistical inferences on the effects of variability in material stiffness and adhered mortar content were made based on frequency distributions, probability density functions, Pareto charts, main effects plots, and bivariate contour plots. Numerical results showed that compressive strength and elastic modulus decreased with increasing adhered mortar contents, while the strain corresponding to compressive softening increased with adhered mortar contents. Statistical results showed that compressive strength was most significantly influenced by aggregate stiffness and mortar matrix stiffness. Strain localizations were observed near the aggregate boundaries due to large material stiffness discontinuities in the RAC meso-level structure. RAC elastic modulus and ultimate compressive strain were mainly governed by the stiffness of the mortar matrix. Based on the numerical results, bivariate contour plots were developed to understand how variations in material stiffness and adhered mortar content influence the strength and stiffness of RAC systems.

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