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International Journal of Pavement Research and Technology 11 (2018) 113
In Honor of Professor James S. Lai
This special issue (SI) is dedicated to Dr. James S. Lai,
Professor Emeritus, at Georgia Institute of Technology.
To honor the long-standing achievements of Professor
Lai, the James Lai Symposium on Pavement Mechanics
and Materials was organized during the American Society
of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) Engineering Mechanics Insti-
tute’s Annual Conference, in June 16–19, 2015 at Stanford
University.
Among numerous contributions Dr. Lai has made in his
career, I would like to cite the following few that have had
the most significant impacts on the community of pave-
ment engineering:
1. The classic book ‘‘Creep and Relaxation of Nonlinear
Viscoelastic Materials” was based on Dr. Lai’s Ph.D.
dissertation work at Brown University. It has significant
impact on developing models for asphalt concrete, and
characterization methods.
2. The Georgia Loaded Wheel Tester (Later, Asphalt
Pavement Analyzer) invented by Dr. Lai has been
widely used by paving industries, agencies and research
institutions for characterization of asphalt mixtures and
quality control of paving projects.
3. At the late stage of his career before his retirement, Dr.
Lai developed a Computerized Pavement Condition
Evaluation System (COPACES) and a Pavement Man-
agement System (PMS) for Georgia DOT. This system
has been fully implemented by Georgia DOT.
4. In the eighties, Dr. Lai served as the advisor for rehabil-
itating the entire 400 km of Taiwan’s First N-S Freeway
and as the principal consultant designing and monitor-
ing the construction of the concrete pavements for the
Taiwan Northern Second Freeway.
5. During the nineties Dr. Lai also served as a consultant for
the construction of the very first several highways in China.
6. During a 10-year period in the nineties and 2000s, Dr.
Lai developed a training program jointly with Georgia
DOT to train the Chinese highway professionals.
7. Dr. Lai was invited as a national guest by the Chinese
President Jintao Hu to attend the 2009 National Day
Celebration Ceremony.
Peer review under responsibility of Chinese Society of Pavement
Engineering.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijprt.2018.01.005
1996-6814/ Ó 2018 Chinese Society of Pavement Engineering. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
www.elsevier.com/locate/IJPRT
This symposium was organized by Dr. Zhanping You,
Michigan Technological University, Dr. Yong-Rak Kim,
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Dr. Linbing Wang,
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Topics
presented at the symposium included (a) discrete and finite
element modeling of the response of pavement materials;
(b) performance models of flexible and rigid pavements;
(c) modeling of vehicle-pavement interactions; (d) constitu-
tive modeling and experimental characterization of pave-
ment materials (asphalt binder, aggregates, asphalt mixes,
cementitious materials and Portland cement concrete,
unstabilized and stabilized bases, and subgrade soils); (e)
numerical response analysis of pavements under static
and dynamic wheel loading and climatic conditions; (f)
experimental measurements and modeling of permanent
deformation, fatigue cracking, low temperature cracking
and moisture damage in pavement layers; (g) microstruc-
ture characterization and micromechanics of asphalt con-
crete and cementitious materials and Portland cement
concrete; and (h) artificial intelligence techniques and
application for forward and backcalculation. The then
ASCE president Mr. Bob Stevens and the EMI director
Dr. Amar Chaker attended the first session of the sympo-
sium and expressed their thanks to Dr. Lai for his contribu-
tions to the engineering mechanics community.
Eleven (11) papers are published in the SI, including
selected quality papers form the symposium and some
papers contributed from Professor Lai’s former students.
These papers covered most topics as outlined in (a) to (h)
previously. It also included most recent developments on
sensing and energy harvesting. The papers have gone
through the regular, rigorous review process of IJPRT.
As Dr. Lai’s former Ph.D. student and the founding
chair of the pavement mechanics committee, I would like
to express my sincere appreciations to all who have
supported this special symposium and the publication of
the special issue. Special thanks also go to Dr. Chung
Wu, Editor-in-Chief of IJPRT, for supporting and manag-
ing the editing of this special issue.
Linbing Wang
Virginia Tech, USA
E-mail address: wangl@vt.edu
Available online 2 February 2018