Ali Taheri

Dr. Ali Taheri

orcid

Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

3Years (2024-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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24 May 2024 in Infrastructures
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
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ATAli Taheri
Ali Taheri
John SobanjoJohn Sobanjo
John Sobanjo
The recent rise in the applications of advanced technologies in the sustainable design and construction of transportation infrastructure demands an appropriate medium for their integration and utilization. The relatively new concept of Civil Integrated Management (CIM) is such a medium; it enhances the development of digital twins for infrastructure and also embodies various practices and tools, including the collection, organization, and data-management techniques of digital data for transportation infrastructure projects. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of advanced CIM tools and technologies and categorizes its findings into the following research topics: application of advanced surveying methods (Advanced Surveying); geospatial analysis tools for project planning (Geospatial Analysis); multidimensional virtual design models (nD Modeling); Integrated Geospatial and Building Information Modeling (GeoBIM); and transportation infrastructure maintenance and rehabilitation planning (Asset Management). Despite challenges such as modeling complexity, technology investment, and data security, the integration of GIS, BIM, and artificial intelligence within asset-management systems hold the potential to improve infrastructure’s structural integrity and long-term performance through automated monitoring, analysis, and predictive maintenance during its lifetime.

25 April 2024 in Infrastructures
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
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ATAli Taheri
Ali Taheri
John SobanjoJohn Sobanjo
John Sobanjo
This research utilizes the Long-Term Pavement Performance database, focusing on devel-oping a predictive model for flexible pavement performance in the Southern United States. Analyzing 367 pavement sections, this study investigates crucial factors influencing asphaltic concrete (AC) pavement deterioration, such as structural and material components, air voids, compaction density, temperature at laydown, traffic load, precipitation, and freeze–thaw cycles. The objective of this study is to develop a predictive machine learning model for AC pavement wheel path cracking (WpCrAr) and the age at which cracking initiates (WpCrAr) as performance indicators. This study thoroughly investigated three ensemble machine learning models, including random forest, extremely randomized trees (ETR), and extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost). It was observed that XGBoost, optimized using Bayesian methods, emerged as the most effective among the evaluated models, demonstrating good predictive accuracy, with an R2 of 0.79 for WpCrAr and 0.92 for AgeCrack and mean absolute errors of 1.07 and 0.74, respectively. The most important features influencing crack initiation and progression were identified, including equivalent single axle load (ESAL), pavement age, number of layers, precipitation, and freeze–thaw cycles. This paper also showed the impact of pavement material combinations for base and subgrade layers on the delay of crack initiation.

28 January 2025 in Buildings
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
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ATAli Taheri
Ali Taheri
Nima AzimiNima Azimi
Nima Azimi
Daniel OliveiraDaniel Oliveira
Daniel Oliveira
Joaquim TinocoJoaquim Tinoco
Joaquim Tinoco
PLPaulo B. Lourenço
Paulo B. Lourenço
This paper presents a comprehensive study of the mechanical properties of lime-based mortar in an acidic environment, employing both experimental analysis and machine learning to model techniques. Despite the extensive use of lime-based mortar in construction, particularly for the strengthening of structures as externally bonded materials, its behavior under acidic conditions remains poorly understood in the literature. This study aims to address this gap by investigating the mechanical performance of lime-based mortar under prolonged exposure to acidic environments, laying the groundwork for further research in this critical area. In the experimental phase, a commercial hydraulic lime-based mortar was subjected to varying environmental conditions, including acidic solution immersion with a pH of 3.0, distilled water immersion, and dry storage. Subsequently, the specimens were tested under flexure following exposure durations of 1000, 3000, and 5000 h. In the modeling phase, the extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) algorithm was deployed to predict the mechanical properties of the lime-based mortar by 1000, 3000, and 5000 h of exposure. Using the experimental data, the machine learning models were trained to capture the complex relationships between the stress-displacement curve (as the output) and various environmental and mechanical properties, including density, corrosion, moisture, and exposure duration (as input features). The predictive models demonstrated remarkable accuracy and generalization (using a 4-fold cross-validation approach) capabilities (R2 = 0.984 and RMSE = 0.116, for testing dataset), offering a reliable tool for estimating the mortar’s behavior over extended periods in an acidic environment. The comparative analysis demonstrated that mortar samples exposed to an acidic environment reached peak values at 3000 h of exposure, followed by a decrease in the mechanical properties with prolonged acidic exposure. In contrast, specimens exposed to distilled water and dry conditions exhibited an earlier onset of strength increase, indicating different material responses under varying environmental conditions.

7 December 2025 in Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
Verified
Journal Article
Closed access
ATAli Taheri
Ali Taheri
John SobanjoJohn Sobanjo
John Sobanjo
MEMichael Elwardany
Michael Elwardany
This study investigates the application of physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) to predict pavement deterioration, specifically, cracking in the wheel path in asphalt concrete pavements, leveraging the Federal Highway Administration long-term pavement performance (LTPP) database. PINNs attempt to address the black-box nature of conventional deep learning models by integrating physical rules directly into the model architecture for prediction. The study employs comprehensive pavement data from the LTPP program, focusing on factors such as construction quality, traffic loads, environmental factors, and maintenance-related changes to the structure. Key findings are summarized, including the improved predictive accuracy and generalization capabilities of PINN models. Enforcing an expected positive correlation of pavement age versus cracking also increased prediction accuracy in comparison to conventional artificial neural network (ANN) results. Specifically, the fifth model that applied a positive correlation with ESAL, and a negative correlation with the number of layers, achieved the highest R 2 and the lowest mean absolute error on the testing datasets. The results underscore the importance of incorporating engineering knowledge into pavement performance models, particularly, features such as ESAL, pavement age, layer structure, and precipitation. The incorporation of these domain-specific features in PINN models resulted in more accurate and robust predictions of wheel path cracking for asphalt concrete pavement.