Dr. Salih Kocak

• Position: Associate Professor
• Department: Mechanical Engineering
• Office Location: Building 70, Room 125
• skocak@uwf.edu
• Campus: 850.474.3479
• Curriculum Vitae (CV)

Biography

Dr. Salih Kocak is an Associate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of West Florida. Dr. Kocak has 15+ years of expertise and experience in the educational and public sector, working as an academician, consultant, project engineer, construction project manager, and management supervisor in a range of mid to large-size projects in Europe, Asia, Middle East, and United States, with focus on highways, bridges, geotechnical and public facilities. He received his M. Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from Michigan State University (MSU) following his B.Sc. in Civil Engineering at Middle East Technical University (METU).

Dr. Kocak has been involved in designing, managing, supervising, providing technical assistance, performing long-term cost-benefit analysis, and QA/QC supervision of various European Union, Turkiye, Qatar, and U.S. government-funded multimillion-dollar projects. Cluj-Napoca autostrada construction project, Odtu, Bilkent, and Beytepe bridge design projects, Black Sea Region divided highway project, Doha potable water pipeline project, Montana I-15 and Maryland Warm Mix Asphalt projects, New Hampshire High RAP project, MDOT I-75 modernization project were some of the projects that Dr. Kocak was involved in.

His field experience covers a wide range of areas within Civil Engineering & Construction Management disciplines including geotechnical and pavement designs, site coordination and supervision of various teams, solving site-specific problems, applying job and worker safety systems including traffic diversion and signalization, preparing progressive payments, scheduling the work and worker load effectively, resource allocation, applying project specified Q/C and Q/A procedures. He has extensive knowledge of construction materials, transportation systems, and destructive and non-destructive Civil Engineering material testing such as asphalt, concrete, steel, soil, aggregates, and timber.

His research interests cover the development, design, and characterization of engineering materials, additive manufacturing, spatiotemporal big data analysis, and modification of construction materials. He patented a novel construction material produced from household recyclable materials with researchers from NASA Kennedy Space Center. His research examines the relationship between material characteristics of flexible paving materials and highway noise. Moreover, he investigated the interaction between recycled tire rubber, elastomeric polymers, and high amounts of reclaimed asphalt pavements. Kocak’s work has been published in prestigious peer-reviewed journals such as TRB Transportation Research Record, Road Materials & Pavement Design, Construction & Building Materials, ASCE Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, Construction Materials, Sustainability, Results in Materials, and Development in Build Environments.

Dr. Kocak’s computer skills include engineering and construction management-related technology such as AASHTOWare Pavement M-E Design, KenPave, DNPS86, MATLAB, S-Steel, SAP2000, GeoSlope, Slope/W, Seep/W, Quake/W, gINT, AllPile, Apile, Lpile, Settle3D, SPSS, WaterCAD, AutoCAD, Revit, Navisworks, Procore, Primavera P6-EPPM, & many others.

Degrees & Institutions

Dr. Kocak holds a bachelor’s degree (B.Sc.) in Civil Engineering from Middle East Technical University (METU). Dr. Kocak earned his master’s (M.Sc.) and doctorate (Ph.D.) degrees in Civil & Environmental Engineering with Geotechnical and Pavement Engineering specialization from Michigan State University, where he was the recipient of the Mc Cowan endowed and Dean’s Office graduate fellowships, as well as Chi-Epsilon Honor Society Excellence in Diversity and MSU College of Engineering Best Teaching Assistant awards.

Special Interests

• Material modification and rheological characterization
• Analytical and numerical modeling
• Extraterrestrial construction materials and methods
• Additive manufacturing in construction
• Sustainable & resilient construction materials
• Pavement design, analysis, and modeling
• Destructive and non-destructive material evaluation techniques
• Statistical techniques in modeling material performance
• Spatio-temporal clustering analysis
• Waste management techniques

Publications

Recent Peer-Reviewed Journal & Conference Articles

• Kocak, S. (2024) “Cost-Effective Use of Reclaimed Asphalt Mixtures with Various Rubber Modification Technologies for Pavement Maintenance Applications.” ASCE Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering.
• Kocak, S. (2024) “Combined Use of High RAP Asphalt with Rubber and Polymer Modifications for Pavement Maintenance Applications.” ASCE International Airfield and Highway Pavements Conference Proceedings.
• Kocak, S., Waqar, H. (2023) Characterization and Performance Comparison of Cold and 100% Recycled Hot Patching Material. Construction and Building Materials.
• Kocak, S., Kutay, ME. (2023). Use of Multiple Stress Creep Recovery, Linear Amplitude Sweep, and Continuous Performance Grade Tests to Characterize Crumb Rubber Modified Asphalt Binders. ASCE International Airfield and Highway Pavements Conference Proceedings.
• Kocak, S., Grant, A. (2023) “Enhancing the Mechanical Properties of Polymer-Stabilized Rammed Earth Construction.” Construction Materials Journal.
• Kocak, S. (2023) “Rheological Characterization of Ground Tire Rubber Modified Asphalt Binders with Parallel Plate and Concentric Cylinder Geometries.” Sustainability.
• Kocak, S., Korkmaz, K, Boztas, E. (2023) “Impact of Polymer Coating on the Flexural Strength of Fiber Reinforced Concrete Beams.” Journal of Building Material Science.
• Grant, A., Regez, B., Kocak, S., Huber, J., Mooers, A. (2021) Anisotropic Properties of 3-D Printed Poly Lactic Acid (PLA) and Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) Plastics, Results in Materials.
• Kocak, S., Kutay, ME. (2021) Effect of Devulcanized Rubber Modification on the Performance Grade, Fatigue Cracking Resistance and Rutting Resistance of Asphalt Binders. ASCE Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering.
• Amin, R.W., Sevil, H.E., Kocak, S., Francis III, G., Church, J., Hoover, P. (2021) Spatial Analysis of the Malicious Uniform Resource Locators (URLs): 2016 Dataset Case Study. Journal of Information.
• Amin, R.W., Kocak, S., Sevil, H.E., Peterson, P.G., Hamilton, J.T., Rivera, B., Barraco, T. (2020) A Spatio-Temporal Cluster Analysis of Structurally Deficient Bridges in the Contiguous U.S.A. Developments in Built Environments.
• Kocak, S., Kutay, ME. (2020). Fatigue Performance Assessment of Recycled Tire Rubber Modified Asphalt Mixtures Using Viscoelastic Continuum Damage Analysis and AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design. Construction and Building Materials.
• Korkmaz, A, Kocak, S., Boztas, E. (2019). Effects of Elastic Modulus on Behavior of Polymer Coated Fiber Modified Short Concrete Beams. American Journal of Construction and Building Materials.

Selected Professional Presentations

• Kocak, S. (2024). “Combined Use of High RAP Asphalt with Rubber and Polymer Modifications for Pavement Maintenance Applications.” ASCE International Airfield and Highway Pavements Conference Proceedings. Presented at the International Airfield and Highway Pavements Conference, Atlanta, GA, June 15-18, 2024.
• Kocak, S. (2023) “Use of Multiple Stress Creep Recovery, Linear Amplitude Sweep, and Continuous Performance Grade Tests to Characterize Ground Tire Rubber Modified Asphalt Binders.” Presented at International Airfield and Highway Pavements Conference, Austin, TX, June 14-17, 2023.
• Kocak, S. (2023) “Employing Mechanistic–Empirical Based Analysis for Assessing Rutting Performance Thresholds Using Balanced Mix Design Tests.” Presented at International Airfield and Highway Pavements Conference, Austin, TX, June 14-17, 2023.
• Kocak, S. (2023) “Exploiting Artificial Intelligence for Modeling of Influencing Parameters on Tire–Pavement Interaction Sound Pressure Level.” Presented at International Airfield and Highway Pavements Conference, Austin, TX, June 14-17, 2023.
• Kocak, S. (2022) “Going off the Rails” Presented at the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security (NCS4) Research Seminar Series.
• Kocak, S. (2020) “Performance Assessment of Recycled Tire Rubber Modified Asphalt Mixtures Using Viscoelastic Continuum Damage Analysis and AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design.” Presented at 99th Annual Transportation Research Board Conference, Washington, D.C. January 12-16, 2020.
• Kocak, S. (2019) “Effect of Devulcanized Rubber Modification on the Performance Grade, Fatigue Cracking Resistance and Rutting Resistance of Asphalt Binders”. Presented at International Airfield and Highway Pavements Conference, Chicago, IL, July 21-24, 2019.
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Keywords: material characterization, engineering materials, extraterrestrial construction materials & methods, asphalt pavement modification, sound generation & propagation, crumb rubber, de-vulcanized rubber, elastomeric polymers, highway materials, flexible and rigid pavements, sustainable construction, rammed soil, non-destructive and destructive material testing, numerical modeling, spatiotemporal clustering, engineering economy