Faculty Directory
Zdeněk P. Bažant

McCormick Institute Professor, Walter P. Murphy Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and (by courtesy) Mechanical Engineering and Material Science and Engineering

Publications

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Contact

2145 Sheridan Road
Tech A135
Evanston, IL 60208-3109

847-491-4025Email Zdeněk Bažant

Website

Personal Profile

Departments

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Materials Science and Engineering

Affiliations

Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Graduate Program

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Education

C.E. ("Civil Engineer"), 1960, Civil Engineering Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic

Ph.D., 1963, Engineering Mechanics Czechoslovak Academy of Science, Prague, Czech Republic

Postgraduate Diploma, 1966, Theoretical Physics, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

Docent (habilitatis), 1967, Concrete Structures, Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic

Registration: Illinois Registered Structural Engineer (S.E.), since 1971


Research Interests

 

My interests lie in new interdisciplinary problems of the mechanics of solids and structures, with applications in structural, mechanical and aeronautical engineering, materials science, geophysics and petroleum engineering. My research group has recently been working on nonlinear fracture mechanics and its computational prediction, size effects and scaling of failure, stability of structures, micromechanics of damage in materials, inelastic constitutive laws, creep and hygrothermal effects in nanoporous materials, their sorption isotherm, fracture poromechanics, chemo-mechanics, failure of fiber composites, hydraulic fracturing of shale, geothermal energy, impact problems, probabilistic mechanics of quasibrittle structures, plasticity and finite strain, with related numerical methods, use of asymptotic matching, assembly and analysis of large databases, recently with limited use of AI.


Our research, which emphasizes mathematical modeling based on experiments, has been focused on concrete, rock, sea ice, braided and woven composites for automobile crashworthiness, hybrid joints for ships, rigid foams, shape memory alloys, dry snow slabs, fracking of gas shale, sequestration of CO2 in deep mafic rocks, probabilistic analysis of quasibrittle failure, especially the tail distribution of strength, probability of static and fatigue lifetimes, failure probability of biomimetic (architected, nacreous) materials and of printed materials, century-range predictions of creep and shrinkage effects in concrete structures, formulation of standards for concrete, ceramics and composites, fiber-polymer composites for aircraft and ships, metallic thin films, reinforced concrete structures and granular materials; and limitation of CO2 emissions from cement production.


Significant Recognition

  • Member NAS, NAE, AAAS , Royal Society of London; National Academies of Austria, Czech Republic, Italy (dei Lincei), India, Spain and Lombardy; Academia Europaea, and Eur. Academy of Science and Art
  • 7 honorary doctorates (TU Prague, TU Karlsruhe, UC Boulder, Milan Poly, INSA, TU Vienna, Ohio State)
  • Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, 1st Class” (from President of Austria)
  • ASME Medal, and ASME Timoshenko, Nadai & Warner Medals
  • ASCE von Karman, Freudenthal, Newmark, Biot, Mindlin and Croes Medals and TY Lin, Huber Prize and Lifetime Achievement Awards
  • SES Prager Medal
  • Honorary Member of ASCE, ASME, ACI and RILEM
  • W.Exner Medal, Austria Gov.-Industry Assoc.; RILEM L’Hermite Medal; Am. Ceramic Soc. Roy Award; Torroja Medal (Spain); Solin, Bazant Sr. & Stodola Medals (Czech Rep., Slovakia); IACMAG Outstanding Contrib. Award; ICOSSAR Award; SEAOI Meritorious Paper Award; Best Engrg. Book of the Year (SAP); Medal of Czech Soc. for Mech.; One of the original Top 100 ISI Highly Cited Scientists in Engrg.; Winner of Mathematical Olympics of Czechoslovakia 1955
  • ASCE Created in 2015 ZP Bazant Medal for Failure and Damage Prevention
  • CSM, Prague, Created ZP Bazant Prize for Engineering Mechanics

Significant Professional Service

  • Past President of Society of Engineering Sciences, Founding President of IA-FraMCoS and of IA-ConCreep
  • Past Editor-in-Chief of ASCE J. of Engineering Mechanics
  • Officer of National Academy of Sciences (NAS), and Chair of several society committees

Selected Publications

  • Bažant, Zdeněk P.; Dönmez, A. Abdullah, Extrapolation of Test Data in Time, Size and Risk, International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE) (2022).
  • Le, Jia Liang; Bazant, Zdenek P., Spontaneous Collapse Mechanism of World Trade Center Twin Towers and Progressive Collapse in General, Journal of Structural Engineering (United States) (2022).
  • Bažant, Zdeněk P.; Dönmez, A. Abdullah; Nguyen, Hoang T., Précis of gap test results requiring reappraisal of line crack and phase-field models of fracture mechanics, Engineering Structures (2022).
  • Li, Wenfeng; Frash, Luke P.; Carey, J. William; Welch, Nathan J.; Meng, Meng; Nguyen, Hoang; Viswanathan, Hari S.; Rougier, Esteban; Lei, Zhou; Rahimi-Aghdam, Saeed; Bažant, Zdenek P., Injection Parameters That Promote Branching of Hydraulic Cracks, Geophysical Research Letters 48(12) (2021).
  • Li, Weixin; Qiao, Yao; Fenner, Joel; Warren, Kyle; Salviato, Marco; Bažant, Zdeněk P.; Cusatis, Gianluca, Elastic and fracture behavior of three-dimensional ply-to-ply angle interlock woven composites, Composites Part C: Open Access 4 (2021).
  • Wan-Wendner, Roman; Bolander, John E.; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Introduction, Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering 36(5):525 (2021).
  • Luo, Wen; Le, Jia Liang; Rasoolinejad, Mohammad; Bažant, Zdeně P., Coefficient of variation of shear strength of rc beams and size effect, Journal of Engineering Mechanics 147(2) (2021).
  • Nguyen, Hoang T.; Dönmez, A. Abdullah; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Structural strength scaling law for fracture of plastic-hardening metals and testing of fracture properties, Extreme Mechanics Letters 43 (2021).
  • Nguyen, Hoang T.; Caner, Ferhun C.; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Conversion of explicit microplane model with boundaries to a constitutive subroutine for implicit finite element programs, International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering 122(6):1563-1577 (2021).
  • Dönmez, Abdullah; Rasoolinejad, Mohammad; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Size Effect on FRP External Reinforcement and Retrofit of Concrete Structures, Journal of Composites for Construction 24(5) (2020).
  • Abdullah Dönmez, A.; Carloni, Christian; Cusatis, Gianluca; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Size Effect on Shear Strength of Reinforced Concrete, Journal of Engineering Mechanics 146(10) (2020).
  • Nguyen, Hoang Thai; Pathirage, Madura; Cusatis, Gianluca; Bazant, Zdenek P., Gap Test of Crack-Parallel Stress Effect on Quasibrittle Fracture and Its Consequences, Journal of Applied Mechanics, Transactions ASME 87(7) (2020).
  • Dönmez, Abdullah; Carloni, Christian; Cusatis, Gianluca; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Discussion of the article “On shear in members without stirrups and the application of energy-based methods in light of 30 years of test observations”, Structural Concrete 21(4):1693-1694 (2020).
  • Dönmez, Abdullah; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Correction to, International Journal of Fracture 224(2):251 (2020).
  • Nguyen, Hoang; Pathirage, Madura; Rezaei, Masoud; Issa, Mohsen; Cusatis, Gianluca; Bazant, Zdenek P., New perspective of fracture mechanics inspired by gap test with crack-parallel compression, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 117(25):14015-14020 (2020).
  • Rasoolinejad, Mohammad; Rahimi-Aghdam, Saeed; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Correction to, Materials and Structures/Materiaux et Constructions 53(4) (2020).
  • Dönmez, Abdullah; Carloni, Christian; Cusatis, Gianluca; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Discussion of the article “From experimental evidence to mechanical modeling and design expressions, Structural Concrete 21(4):1688-1689 (2020).
  • Le, Jia Liang; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Failure Probability of Concrete Specimens of Uncertain Mean Strength in Large Database, Journal of Engineering Mechanics 146(6) (2020).
  • Dönmez, Abdullah; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Size effect on branched sideways cracks in orthotropic fiber composites, International Journal of Fracture 222(1-2):155-169 (2020).
  • Nguyen, Hoang; Rahimi-Aghdam, Saeed; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Unsaturated nanoporomechanics, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 117(7):3440-3445 (2020).
  • Rahimi-Aghdam, Saeed; Masoero, Enrico; Rasoolinejad, Mohammad; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Correction to, Materials and Structures/Materiaux et Constructions 53(1) (2020).
  • Li, Cunbao; Bažant, Zdeněk P.; Xie, Heping; Rahimi-Aghdam, Saeed, Anisotropic microplane constitutive model for coupling creep and damage in layered geomaterials such as gas or oil shale, International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences 124 (2019).
  • Chau, Viet T.; Bažant, Zdeněk P.; Su, Yewang, Correction to Growth model for large branched three-dimensional hydraulic crack system in gas or oil shale (Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A (2016) 374 (20150418) 10.1098/rsta.2015.0418), Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 377(2153) (2019).
  • Bazant, Zdenek P, Engineer's digest of e = mc2, Journal of Applied Mechanics, Transactions ASME 86(9) (2019).
  • Bažant, Zdeněk P.; Rasoolinejad, Mohammad; Dönmez, Abdullah; Luo, Wen, Dependence of fracture size effect and projectile penetration on fiber content of FRC, IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering 596(1) (2019).
  • Rasoolinejad, Mohammad; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Size effect of squat shear walls extrapolated by microplane model M7, ACI Structural Journal 116(3):75-84 (2019).
  • Bazant, Zdenek P, A Precis of Fishnet Statistics for Tail Probability of Failure of Materials with Alternating Series and Parallel Links, Physical Mesomechanics 22(1):32-41 (2019).
  • Luo, Wen; Bazant, Zdenek P, Fishnet statistical size effect on strength of materials with nacreous microstructure, Journal of Applied Mechanics, Transactions ASME 86(8) (2019).
  • Carloni, Christian; Cusatis, Gianluca; Salviato, Marco; Le, Jia Liang; Hoover, Christian G.; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Critical comparison of the boundary effect model with cohesive crack model and size effect law, Engineering Fracture Mechanics 215:193-210 (2019).
  • Bažant, Zdeněk P., Design of quasibrittle materials and structures to optimize strength and scaling at probability tail, Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 475(2224) (2019).
  • Dönmez, Abdullah; Bazant, Zdenek P, Critique of critical shear crack theory for fib Model Code articles on shear strength and size effect of reinforced concrete beams, Structural Concrete 20(4):1451-1463 (2019).
  • Rasoolinejad, Mohammad; Rahimi-Aghdam, Saeed; Bazant, Zdenek P, Correction to, Materials and Structures/Materiaux et Constructions 52(2) (2019).
  • Luo, Wen; Chau, Viet T.; Bazant, Zdenek P, Effect of high-rate dynamic comminution on penetration of projectiles of various velocities and impact angles into concrete, International Journal of Fracture 216(2):211-221 (2019).
  • Rasoolinejad, Mohammad; Rahimi-Aghdam, Saeed; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Prediction of autogenous shrinkage in concrete from material composition or strength calibrated by a large database, as update to model B4, Materials and Structures/Materiaux et Constructions 52(2) (2019).
  • Nguyen, Hoang Thai; Rahimi-Aghdam, Saeed; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Sorption isotherm restricted by multilayer hindered adsorption and its relation to nanopore size distribution, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids 127:111-124 (2019).
  • Rahimi-Aghdam, Saeed; Rasoolinejad, Mohammad; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Moisture Diffusion in Unsaturated Self-Desiccating Concrete with Humidity-Dependent Permeability and Nonlinear Sorption Isotherm, Journal of Engineering Mechanics 145(5) (2019).
  • Rahimi-Aghdam, Saeed; Masoero, Enrico; Rasoolinejad, Mohammad; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Century-long expansion of hydrating cement counteracting concrete shrinkage due to humidity drop from selfdesiccation or external drying, Materials and Structures/Materiaux et Constructions 52(1) (2019).
  • Rahimi-Aghdam, Saeed; Chau, Viet Tuan; Lee, Hyunjin; Nguyen, Hoang; Li, Weixin; Karra, Satish; Rougier, Esteban; Viswanathan, Hari; Srinivasan, Gowri; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Branching of hydraulic cracks enabling permeability of gas or oil shale with closed natural fractures, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 116(5):1532-1537 (2019).
  • Rahimi-Aghdam, Saeed; Bažant, Zdenek P.; Cusatis, Gianluca, Extended microprestress-solidification theory for long-term creep with diffusion size effect in concrete at variable environment, Journal of Engineering Mechanics 145(2) (2019).
  • Bazant, Zdenek P; Jirásek, Milan, Creep and hygrothermal effects in concrete structures, (2018).
  • Sinko, Robert; Bažant, Zdeněk P.; Keten, Sinan, A nanoscale perspective on the effects of transverse microprestress on drying creep of nanoporous solids, Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 474(2209) (2018).
  • Li, Cunbao; Chau, Viet T.; Xie, Heping; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Recent advances in mechanics of fracking and new results on 2D simulation of crack branching in anisotropic gas or oil shale, Acta Mechanica 229(2):975-992 (2018).
  • Bazant, Zdenek P; Jirásek, Milan, Numerical analysis of creep problems, Springer Verlag:141-175 (2018).
  • Bazant, Zdenek P; Jirásek, Milan, Solidification theory for aging effect on stiffness and basic creep, Springer Verlag:409-453 (2018).
  • Bazant, Zdenek P; Jirásek, Milan, Introduction, Springer Verlag:3-8 (2018).
  • Bazant, Zdenek P; Jirásek, Milan, Paradigms of application, phenomena affecting creep deformations, and comparisons to measurements on structures, Springer Verlag:205-268 (2018).
  • Bazant, Zdenek P; Jirásek, Milan, Fundamentals of linear viscoelasticity, Springer Verlag:9-28 (2018).
  • Nguyen, Hoang; Rahimi-Aghdam, Saeed; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Time lag in measuring pore humidity in concrete by a gage in finite cavity, Materials and Structures/Materiaux et Constructions 51(1) (2018).
  • Bazant, Zdenek P; Jirásek, Milan, Moisture transport in concrete, Springer Verlag:271-408 (2018).
  • Bazant, Zdenek P; Jirásek, Milan, Structural effects of creep and age-adjusted effective modulus method, Springer Verlag:63-140 (2018).
  • Bažant, Zdeněk P.; Jirásek, Milan, Preface, Solid Mechanics and its Applications 225:xi-xiii (2018).
  • Bazant, Zdenek P; Jirásek, Milan, Temperature effect on water diffusion, hydration rate, creep and shrinkage, Springer Verlag:607-686 (2018).
  • Bazant, Zdenek P; Jirásek, Milan, Effect of cracking and fracture mechanics aspects of creep and shrinkage analysis, Springer Verlag:555-606 (2018).
  • Bazant, Zdenek P; Jirásek, Milan, Physical and statistical justifications of models B3 and B4 and comparisons to other models, Springer Verlag:499-554 (2018).
  • Bazant, Zdenek P; Jirásek, Milan, Microprestress-solidification theory and creep at variable humidity and temperature, Springer Verlag:455-498 (2018).
  • Bazant, Zdenek P; Jirásek, Milan, Uncertainty due to parameter randomness via sampling of deterministic solutions, Springer Verlag:177-204 (2018).
  • Bazant, Zdenek P; Jirásek, Milan, Basic properties of concrete creep, shrinkage, and drying, Springer Verlag:29-62 (2018).
  • Luo, Wen; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Fishnet model for failure probability tail of nacre-like imbricated lamellar materials, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 114(49):12900-12905 (2017).
  • Luo, Wen; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Fishnet statistics for probabilistic strength and scaling of nacreous imbricated lamellar materials, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids 109:264-287 (2017).
  • Frosch, Robert J; Yu, Qiang; Cusatis, Gianluca; Bazant, Zdenek P, A Unified Approach to Shear Design, Concrete International 39(9):47-52 (2017).
  • Bažant, Zdeněk P.; Chau, Viet T.; Rahimi-Aghdam, Saeed, Three-Phase Cracked Porous Medium, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE):1-8 (2017).
  • Chau, Viet T.; Li, Cunbao; Rahimi-Aghdam, Saeed; Bažant, Zdenek P., The Enigma of Large-Scale Permeability of Gas Shale, Journal of Applied Mechanics, Transactions ASME 84(6) (2017).
  • Dönmez, Abdullah; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Size effect on punching strength of reinforced concrete slabs with and without shear reinforcement, ACI Structural Journal 114(4):875-886 (2017).
  • Li, Cunbao; Caner, Ferhun C.; Chau, Viet T.; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Spherocylindrical microplane constitutive model for shale and other anisotropic rocks, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids 103:155-178 (2017).
  • Le, Jia Liang; Bazant, Zdenek P, Mechanics-based mathematical studies proving spontaneity of post-impact WTC towers collapse, Europhysics News 48(1):18-23 (2017).
  • Rahimi-Aghdam, Saeed; Bažant, Zdeněk P.; Caner, Ferhun C., Diffusion-controlled and creep-mitigated asr damage via microplane model. II, Journal of Engineering Mechanics 143(2) (2017).
  • Yu, Qiang; Le, Jia Liang; Hubler, Mija H.; Wendner, Roman; Cusatis, Gianluca; Bazant, Zdenek P, Comparison of main models for size effect on shear strength of reinforced and prestressed concrete beams, Structural Concrete 17(5):778-789 (2016).
  • Rahimi-Aghdam, Saeed; Bažant, Zdeněk P.; Abdolhosseini Qomi, M. J., Cement hydration from hours to centuries controlled by diffusion through barrier shells of C-S-H, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids 99:211-224 (2017).
  • Kirane, Kedar; Singh, Konjengbam Darunkumar; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Size effect in torsional strength of plain and reinforced concrete, ACI Structural Journal 113(6):1253-1262 (2016).
  • Salviato, Marco; Chau, Viet T.; Li, Weixin; Bažant, Zdeněk P.; Cusatis, Gianluca, Direct testing of gradual postpeak softening of fracture specimens of fiber composites stabilized by enhanced grip stiffness and mass, Journal of Applied Mechanics, Transactions ASME 83(11) (2016).
  • Salviato, Marco; Kirane, Kedar; Esna Ashari, Shiva; Bažant, Zdeněk P.; Cusatis, Gianluca, Experimental and numerical investigation of intra-laminar energy dissipation and size effect in two-dimensional textile composites, Composites Science and Technology 135:67-75 (2016).
  • Chau, Viet T.; Bažant, Zdeněk P.; Su, Yewang, Growth model for large branched three-dimensional hydraulic crack system in gas or oil shale, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 374(2078) (2016).
  • Le, Jia Liang; Bazant, Zdenek P., Mechanics of Collapse of WTC Towers Clarified by Recent Column Buckling Tests of Korol and Sivakumaran, International Journal of Structural Stability and Dynamics 17(9) (2016).
  • Sinko, Robert; Vandamme, Matthieu; Bažant, Zdeněk P.; Keten, Sinan, Transient effects of drying creep in nanoporous solids, Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 472(2191) (2016).
  • Kirane, Kedar; Salviato, Marco; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Microplane triad model for simple and accurate prediction of orthotropic elastic constants of woven fabric composites, Journal of Composite Materials 50(9):1247-1260 (2016).
  • Vandamme, Matthieu; Bažant, Zdeněk P.; Keten, Sinan, Creep of lubricated layered nano-porous solids and application to cementitious materials, Journal of Nanomechanics and Micromechanics 5(4) (2015).
  • Kirane, Kedar; Salviato, Marco; Bazant, Zdenek P, Microplane-Triad Model for Elastic and Fracturing Behavior of Woven Composites, Journal of Applied Mechanics, Transactions ASME 83(4) (2016).
  • Dönmez, Abdullah; Bazant, Zdenek P, Shape factors for concrete shrinkage and drying creep in model B4 refined by nonlinear diffusion analysis, Materials and Structures/Materiaux et Constructions 49(11):4779-4784 (2016).
  • Kirane, Kedar; Su, Yewang; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Strain-rate-dependent microplane model for high-rate comminution of concrete under impact based on kinetic energy release theory, Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 471(2182) (2015).
  • Wendner, Roman; Vorel, Jan; Smith, Jovanca; Hoover, Christian G.; Bažant, Zdeněk P.; Cusatis, Gianluca, Characterization of concrete failure behavior, Materials and Structures/Materiaux et Constructions 48(11):3603-3626 (2015).
  • Kirane, Kedar; Bažant, Zdeněk P., Size effect in Paris law and fatigue lifetimes for quasibrittle materials, International Journal of Fatigue 83:209-220 (2016).