Dr. Noel Flores is a Senior Staff Consultant with Engineering Systems Inc. (ESi). His background includes structural engineering and the mechanics of structures under impact. He has provided structural engineering services for residential structures, expeditionary military structures, and large-scale heavy civil projects in water resource infrastructure. Dr. Flores has conducted failure analysis of reinforced concrete, steel, and timber including mass timber. Additionally, Dr. Flores has utilized experimental methods, and finite element analysis and other numerical methods to simulate impulsive, blast-like loads. His research background includes the design and implementation of experiments including custom test fixture fabrication, optical and physical instrumentation, and data acquisition.
In his Ph.D. research, Dr. Flores developed a testing system and methodology to study the effects of high rate, impulsive loading on cross-laminated timber (CLT) with realistic boundary. In-situ residual capacity testing and failure analysis was performed to aid in damage characterization. He also implemented innovative uses of instrumentation including the development of a new method, the Direct Force Method, and the use of digital image correlation (DIC) to improve damage characterization in CLT.
Prior to joining ESi, Dr. Flores performed structural analysis, design, inspections, and repairs for several spillway structures and large-scale tunnels including the Rondout West Branch Tunnel Bypass and City Tunnel No. 3. for the South Florida Water Management District and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection.
Dr. Flores is fluent in Spanish.
Areas of Expertise
Professional Associations
Publications
- Design of an Impulsive Center-Point Testing System with Realistic Boundary Conditions, 6th International Conference on Protective Structures, July 2023
- Experimental Methods for Understanding the Performance of Impulsively Loaded Cross-Laminate Timber Panels, Ph.D. Dissertation, Georgia Institute of Technology, October 2022
- Behavior and Damage Characterization of Impulsively Loaded Cross-Laminated Timber Panels, Applied Sciences 12, December 2022
- Towards an SDOF Model for Predicting Blast Performance of Cross-Laminated Timber, Structures Under Shock and Impact 2018 Conference Proceedings, January 2018