Areas of Specialization
Traffic accident reconstruction, highway and street design, investigation/reconstruction of industrial accidents, analysis of machine and consumer product design defects, structural mechanics, structural dysfunction and failure, soil mechanics and foundation engineering, soil-structure interaction, foundation testing, slope stability analysis, and stability analysis of concrete and earth dams.
Professional Registration
- Professional Engineer - Pennsylvania
Educational Background
- B.S.
- Civil Engineering - 1974
- University of Virginia
- M.E.
- Civil Engineering - 1975
- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
- Ph.D.
- Civil Engineering - 1980
- Michigan State University
Employment History
- 2009 - Present
- President, Romualdi, Davidson & Associates, Inc.
- 1988 - Present
- Romualdi, Davidson & Associates, Inc.
- 1980 - 1988
- GAI Consultants, Inc.
- 1977 - 1980
- Michigan State University
- 1975 - 1977
- GAI Consultants, Inc.
Professional Experience
Conducted over 1800 engineering investigations related to a variety of litigation issues including: reconstruction of construction and industrial accidents, machine design and machine guarding, consumer product design, structural failures or damage, building dysfunction, excavation shoring, slope stability, and building damage due to blast vibrations.
Performed over 700 reconstructions of traffic accidents involving analyses related to: vehicle speed, computer modeling of single- and multi-vehicle collisions, heavy truck accidents, automotive mechanical failures, paint sample analysis photogrammetry and vehicle crashworthiness. Performed over 200 investigations pertaining to highway and traffic engineering issues such as roadway geometry, sight distance, highway and street signing, traffic signal operation, and the design of guiderails, traffic barriers and related structures.
Principal investigator for a research project for the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to develop a design/analysis methodology for direct embedment foundations for electric transmission structures. The project involved the development of spring stiffness coefficients to model soil-structure interaction, incorporation of the model into a computer program, and the performance of 12 full-scale foundation load tests.
Director of foundation investigation and stability analysis of a large concrete hydroelectric dam in western Pennsylvania. Provided recommendations for remedial measures required to stabilize the dam during a postulated Probable Maximum Flood.
Conducted seismic stability analyses for Operating Basis and Maximum Credible Earthquakes for a large concrete gravity dam in Virginia for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Designed remedial measures to stabilize a 100-foot high, 0.8-mile long, failure-prone segment of a rock slope adjacent to Interstate 376 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
Developed course notes and presented three sessions of a short course on slope stability analysis for the Bureau of Dams and Waterways Management and the Bureau of Mining and Reclamation of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources.
Presented a seminar on laterally loaded transmission structure foundations sponsored by the Electric Power Research Institute and attended by utilities from across the nation.
Conducted laboratory research of the compression and tensile strength and rheological properties of sand-ice material. Designed test equipment and instrumentation to conduct appropriate testing. Formulated analytical methodology to determine immediate and time dependent deformation and rupture of sand-ice structure subjected to flexural stresses.
Conducted structural analyses of piping systems to consider thermal, seismic, and static loads for nuclear power plants in Pennsylvania and in Europe for a steel mill in South America.
Additional geotechnical engineering experience includes preparation of a design guide for foundations for electric transmission structures, as well as foundation investigations for and design of earth dams, earth retaining structures, industrial waste disposal facilities and foundations for industrial and commercial buildings.
Honors
- Phi Kappa Phi
Memberships
- American Society of Civil Engineers
- American Society of Transportation Engineers
- National Society of Professional Engineers
- Pennsylvania Society of Professional Engineers
- Society of Automotive Engineers