Engineering Research

As climate change continues to increase the frequency and severity of natural disasters, the resilience of power grids has become a critical concern--especially in disaster-prone areas like New Orleans. Ensuring that energy systems can withstand and recover from disruptions is essential for maintaining public safety and economic stability. Thanks to a $500,000 grant from the LSU Institute for Energy Innovation, LSU Engineering researchers have developed The Resilience and Equity in Smart Community-Utility Energy Planning (RESCUE) project that aims to address these challenges by developing innovative community-aware strategies for energy resilience and equitable resource distribution.

This year marks 20 years since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita impacted South Louisiana, forever changing the area's landscape and exposing engineering failures that contributed to the catastrophic flooding. These floodwaters not only caused levees to collapse, but also lifted above-ground storage tanks (ASTs) off of their foundation, causing them to float and collide with other objects, leading to oil leaks and spills. LSU Civil & Environmental Engineering PhD graduate Md Manik Mia researched the performance of ASTs during flood events and came up with improvements to the tanks that would protect them from leakage and, in turn, protect the environment and industry.

LSU Craft & Hawkins Department of Petroleum Engineering Associate Professor Mehdi Zeidouni recently received an LSU Institute for Energy Innovation grant for his research on underground hydrogen storage sites in Louisiana with the help of Southern University PTEC Program Lead Vahid Atashbari.