A paper written by Safwan Al-Subaihawi, James M. Ricles, Spencer Quiel, Thomas Marullo, and Malik Faisal Nissar, all affiliated with Advanced Technology for Large Structural Systems (ATLSS) engineering research center and the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure Experimental Facility (NHERI EF) on Lehigh University’s Mountaintop Campus, was recently recognized as the 2025 Top Viewed Article in Earthquake Engineering & Structural Dynamics, published by Wiley. The paper, titled “Real-time Hybrid Simulation of Structural Systems with Soil-Foundation Interaction Effects Using Neural Networks,” appears as an open-access article in the collection “Large-scale testing of earthquake-resistant structures: Accomplishments and future challenges.” This achievement reflects the impactful, ground-breaking research being conducted at the open-access NHERI Lehigh Experimental Facility (EF), whose operations are supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Ricles says, “Our research advances multi-physics real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS) techniques for civil infrastructure, particularly in mitigating the impacts of natural hazards.” The article includes significant insights into soil-structure interaction effects, demonstrated through RTHS involving a tall 40-story building equipped with an advanced damping system. To overcome the barrier of the large computational effort required to model soil-foundation-structure interaction (SFSI) effects in real-time using the conventional finite element approach, an AI-based neural network (NN) model is combined with the explicit Modified KR-alpha dissipative integration algorithm, explicit-based nonlinear analytical substructure, and rate-dependent experimental substructure to create a framework for conducting multi-physics RTHS with SFSI effects. The article is available at this link via the Wiley Online Library.
The NHERI Lehigh EF is located within the Advanced Technology for Large Structural Systems (ATLSS) Engineering Research Center at Lehigh University (Civil and Environmental Engineering, Lehigh University, P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science at Lehigh University, Institute for Cyber Physical Infrastructure & Energy (I-CPIE), NHERI DesignSafe). The experimental studies described in the paper were supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in addition to the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alliance (PITA) under the auspices of the I-CPIE. The nonlinear fluid viscous dampers used in the research were provided by Taylor Devices, Inc.