Galym-Galam: Sung-Woo Moon, Assistant Professor at NU SEDS

Sung-Woo Moon is an Assistant Professor at NU SEDS, and working on the research project to evaluate the hazard and risk posed by earthquakes to structures in southern and south-eastern Kazakhstan integrating probabilistic seismic hazard analysis.  Prior to joining Nazarbayev University, Dr. Moon worked at the National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore, as a Postdoctoral research fellow. He has been holding a Professional Engineer (PE) license in Civil Engineering, USA.

Can you please tell us about your educational and professional background?

I earned my BS and MS degrees in Civil Engineering at Hanyang University in Seoul, Korea. I had worked at the department of geotechnical engineering at the Yongma Engineering Cooperation for 4 years instead of military service. I was hired to design infrastructures (e.g., roads, bridges, and embankments) for multiple civil engineering projects. After completing the military service, I obtained Ph.D. degree (2014) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), USA, under the supervision of Prof. Youssef M.A. Hashash, focusing on two research topics such as computational geomechanics and geotechnical earthquake engineering. Before joining NU, I had worked at the National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore, as a Post-doctoral research fellow. I have been holding a Professional Engineer (PE) license in Civil Engineering, USA.

Can you please tell us about your current research project?

My research areas of interest are mainly divided into four geotechnical/geophysical engineering topics as follows: (1) Natural hazard assessment and mitigation; (2) Geotechnical and geophysical site (soil & rock) characterization; (3) Soil improvement/stabilization; (4) By-product application for sustainable development. 

Based on my research interests, I have been joining several research projects as follows:

– Probabilistic seismic hazard assessment (PSHA) with local site effects for existing and new structures in Kazakhstan. The main objective of this research project is to evaluate the hazard and risk posed by earthquakes to structures in southern and south-eastern Kazakhstan integrating probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) with local site effects with structural dynamic analysis through a multi-disciplinary approach.

– Title: Development of the sustainable and innovative soil stabilization/improvement technique via environmentally friendly binders in Kazakhstan. This project is to characterize the geotechnical properties of typical/problematic soils with severe weather conditions in Kazakhstan (e.g., expansive soils with/without sulfate/saline) and propose practical guidelines or design criteria on environmentally friendly binders’ application for sustainable soil stabilization/improvement. 

 – Title: Application of Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) slag for multiple purposes (e.g., railway ballast material) as an industrial project. For example, different types of by-products have been produced in the steel-making process and natural crush stone has been employed for constructing railroads in Kazakhstan. The project is to investigate/evaluate the applicability of BOF slags in railway ballast materials as an alternative to natural crush stone based on the local GOST standard mainly.

What are your key research findings?

There are a couple of key research findings as follows

• In cement technology, the use of calcium sulfoaluminate (CSA) cement has been recently introduced as an alternative to conventional ordinary portland cement (OPC) because of global warming and climate change concerns. The use of CSA cement, which has a much lower carbon footprint than OPC, in geotechnical applications for soil stabilization/improvement was investigated as a first trial. Both CSA cement and other environmentally friendly binders would be able to be applied for typical/problematic soils with severe weather conditions in Kazakhstan
• In Singapore, the methodology to estimate the bedrock depths with geophysical testing such as Multi-channel analysis of surface waves (MASW) and Microtremor measurement (MM) was proposed. Then, the number of boreholes installed for detecting bedrock depth before construction of infrastructures would be optimized, resulting in construction cost saving finally.
• In the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, several destructive earthquakes (e.g., 1911 Chon-Kemin) occurred in Kazakhstan, and a series of earthquakes of smaller magnitude has been recorded frequently. The first study of assessment of seismic hazard and liquefaction potential integrating Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment (PSHA) with the local site effects based on seismic microzonation, with state-of-art structural analysis using nonlinear finite element (FE) models for existing/new-built structures in the Post-Soviet countries has been conducted and the work is in progress. 

Why did you choose to join NU?

There are three reasons to choose to join NU when I applied for the position. First, I’ve heard that NU is the research-oriented university with the name of Provost (Prof. Ilesanmi Adesida) and international strategic partners. So, I was sure that NU has a huge potential to be a leading university for higher education around the world in the near future. Second, the construction industry is rapidly developing in Kazakhstan, and it requires a high level of expertise to determine the proper analyses and measures to ensure that projects proceed safely in civil engineering especially. Third, I have been enjoying a challenging life with a variety of experiences because of Quotes and Saying about “You Only Live Once”.

What are your future plans?

My future plans are to put my effort into (1) contributing to make NU one of the leading universities around the world; (2) educating geotechnical professionals in the Kazakhstan’s construction industry; (3) researching on multi-hazard risk assessment and mitigation of civil infrastructures, collaborating with lots of local Institutes/Construction companies; (4) boosting geotechnical engineering toward a more adequate solution to addressing complex geotechnical problems.