I am currently a Ph.D. candidate researching polyester-rope suspended footbridges. The goal of this work is to combine numerical optimization and physical testing to identify new design methodologies and forms for this bridge type. Previously, I received a B.S. from Cornell University (2006) and an M.S.E. from Princeton (2008). My Master’s thesis, advised by Professor David P. Billington, presented Jack Christiansen’s design ideas for thin concrete shells and examined the influence of these ideas on the cost, structural behavior, and aesthetics of his completed structures. In 2008 I was awarded a Skidmore Owings and Merrill (SOM) Structural Engineering Travel Fellowship to study European physical modeling and testing laboratories and the structures that emerged from those facilities. The objective of this research was to identify potential roles for physical models as complements to computational models in design and education. From 2008 until 2011, I worked as a staff engineer at Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, Inc. designing glass and metal enclosures in addition to serving as a preceptor and guest lecturer in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton.
Book Chapters
Segal, E. M. and Billington, D. P. (2011). Chapter 7, Section 7.1 “Concrete Shell Roofs,” Fifty Years of Progress for Shell and Spatial Structures; In Celebration of the 50th Anniversary Jubilee of the IASS (1959-2009), International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures, eds. Mungan, I and Abel, J. F.
Billington, D. P., and Segal, E. M. (2011). Chapter 2, “The Decade 1960-1969: The First Ten Years of the IASS,” Fifty Years of Progress for Shell and Spatial Structures; In Celebration of the 50th Anniversary Jubilee of the IASS (1959-2009), International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures, eds. Mungan, I and Abel, J. F.
Segal, E. M., Garlock, M. E., and Billington, D. P. (2008). Chapter 12, “Bacardí Rum Factory,” Félix Candela: Engineer, Builder, and Structural Artist, Princeton, NJ.
Journal Publications
Segal, E. M., Rhode-Barbarigos, L., Adriaenssens, S., and Filomeno Coelho, R. D. “Multiobjective Optimization of Polyester-Rope and Steel-Rope Footbridges,” Engineering Structures. [submitted]
Segal, E. M. and Adriaenssens, S. (2013). “Norfolk Scope Arena: A US Dome with a Unique Configuration of Interior Ribs and Buttresses,” Journal of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures, Vol. 54, n. 176 and 177, pp. 189-198.
Conference Publications
Segal, E. M., Rhode-Barbarigos, L., Adriaenssens, S. and Zoli, T. P. “Pedestrian Excitation of a Polyester-Rope Suspended Footbridge in Ait Bayoud, Morocco,” abstract accepted for IABSE Conference Nara 2015; Elegance in Structures Symposium, Nara, Japan.
Segal, E., Rhode-Barbarigos, L., Adriaenssens, S. and Zoli, T. “Design and Development of Polyester-Rope Suspended Footbridges,” abstract accepted for SEI Structures Congress 2015, Portland, OR.
Segal, E. M., Rhode-Barbarigos, L., Filomeno Coelho, R. D., and Adriaenssens, S. (2014). “An Automated Robust Design Methodology for Suspended Structures,” IASS 2014 Symposium, Brasília, Brazil, Sept. 15-19.
Segal, E. M. and Adriaenssens, S. (2013). “Norfolk Scope Arena: A US Dome with a Unique Configuration of Interior Ribs and Buttresses,” IASS 2013 Symposium, Wroclaw, Poland, Sept. 23-27.
Segal, E. M., Adriaenssens, S., Zoli, T. P., and Flory, J. F. (2013). “Polyester Rope, an Alternative to Steel Cable for Pedestrian Suspended Bridges,” SEI Structures Congress 2013, Pittsburgh, PA, May 2-4.
Draper, P., Segal, E., and O’Connor, A. (2011). “Site and Sight: Examining the Forms of Hudson River Bridges,” 6th New York City Bridge Conference, New York, New York, July 25-26.
Draper, P., Segal, E. M., and Sicurelli, R. (2010). “Introductory Structural Engineering Education through Computational and Physical Model Building,” ASEE 2010 Conference, Louisville, Kentucky, June 20-23.
Segal, E. M. (2009). “The Thin Concrete Shells of Jack Christiansen,” IASS 2009 Symposium, Valencia, Spain, Sept. 28-Oct. 2.
Segal, E. M., Garlock, M. E., and Billington, D. P. (2008). “A Comparative Analysis of the Bacardí Rum Factory and the Lambert-St. Louis Airport Terminal,” IASS 2008 Symposium, Acapulco, Mexico, Oct. 27-31.
Polyester-rope suspended footbridge (Ait Bayoud, Morocco, 2013) during multiple pedestrian excitation test
