Dr. Rifat Bulut

EPSCoR Research Focus: 
Sustainable Water & Energy Infrastructure
Professor
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Oklahoma State University
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Education: 
B.S. | Civil Engineering | Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey | 1993
M.S. | Civil Engineering | Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX | 1996
Ph.D. | Civil Engineering | Texas A&M University, College Station, TX | 2001
Research Interests: 

Dr. Rifat Bulut, professor of geotechnical engineering at Oklahoma State University, is a member of the OK NSF EPSCoR Track-1 RII Award titled Socially Sustainable Solutions for Water, Carbon, and Infrastructure Resilience in Oklahoma. The $20 million research project is a social science-led, multi-disciplinary collaboration among social, physical, biological, engineering, and computational scientists. More than thirty researchers from across the state are working together on the project, which began July 1, 2020.

Dr. Bulut's research supports the project's Focus Area 4: Sustainable Water and Energy Infrastructure (SI). The SI focus area's primary goal is to develop an aggregated resilience model to characterize the influence of diverse stakeholders’ decision-making behavior on the functions of interdependent infrastructure systems. Through the development of this model, the SI focus area will advance understanding of the ways in which Oklahoma’s interdependent water and energy infrastructures interact with severe weather, S2S extremes (pluvial events and droughts), carbon cycle patterns (changing land use and increased frequency and scope of wildfires), and water management/reuse patterns (both surface and subsurface, requiring siting and sizing including increases in storage and pipeline capacities). This understanding will facilitate the development of an array of solution options for enhancing the state's infrastructure resilience that span the project focus areas (weather, water, and carbon/land use), enabling socially sustainable solutions.

Dr. Bulut’s Research Interests

  • Unsaturated soils; expansive soils; effects of climate on roadways, and other infrastructure; thermo-hydro-mechanical coupling in geomaterials; resiliency and sustainability in geotechnical engineering; geosensors; and soil-structure interaction.

Learn more about the OK NSF EPSCoR research project.

Key Publications: 
  • Javid, A.H. and Bulut, R. (2019). Evaluating Equilibrium Matric Suctions Under Pavement System Based on Thornthwaite Moisture Index (TMI). International Airfield and Highway Pavements Conference (T&DI) 2019, Chicago, pp. 511-521. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784482469.051.

  • Al-Dakheeli, H. and Bulut, R. 2019. The Interrelationship between Elastic Deformation and Soil- Water Characteristic Curve of Expansive Soils. ASCE Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering. 145(4):1-12.

  • Al-Dakheeli, H. and Bulut, R. 2019. Interpretation of Desiccation Soil Cracking in the Framework of Unsaturated Soil Mechanics. Geotechnical Engineering Journal of the SEAGS & AGSSEA. 50(1): 74-80. ISSN 0046-5828.
  • Chen, L., Bulut, R., Clarke, C.R., and Nevels, J.B. 2017. Influence of Maximum Water Storage on Thornthwaite Moisture Index. PanAM-UNSAT 2017 International Conference. Dallas, Texas. ASCE Geotechnical Special Publication. No. 302. pp. 319-328.
  • Chen, L. and Bulut, R. 2017. Development and Application of a New Tensile Stress Model for Expansive Soils. Geotechnical and Geological Engineering Journal. 35(3):1067-1077.
  • Soltani, H., Muraleetharan, K.K., Bulut, R., and Zaman, M. 2016. Prediction of Soil Suction Using Measured Climatic Data. Environmental Geotechnics Journal. https://doi.org/10.1680/jenge.15.00064.
  • Nevels, J.B., Clarke, C.R., Chen, L., and Bulut, R. 2016. A Site Assessment of Pavement Cracking in a Drought Environment: A Case History. E35 Web Conf. Vol. 9. E-UNSAT 2016 Conference, Paris, France, p. 5.
  • Yue, E. and Bulut, R. 2014. Evaluation of the Climatic Factors for the Classification of Oklahoma Pavement Regions. Geo-Congress 2014. Atlanta, Georgia. ASCE Geotechnical Special Publication. No. 234:4037-4046.
  • Yue, E. and Bulut, R. 2014. Equilibrium Matric Suctions in Subgrade Soils in Oklahoma Based on Thornthwaite Moisture Index (TMI). Advances in Transportation Geotechnics and Materials for Sustainable Infrastructure, Geo-Shanghai International Conference. Shanghai, China. ASCE Geotechnical Special Publication. No. 250. pp. 17-24.
  • Yue, E., Chen, L., Bulut, R., Cheng, Q. 2013. Climatic Parameter TMI in Subgrade Soils. Proceedings of International Symposium of Climatic Effects on Pavement and and Geotechnical Infrastructure (ISCEPGI), Fairbanks, Alaska, August 4-7, 2013, pp. 109-116.
Curriculum Vitae: