OUR PEOPLE
Academic Credentials
- Ph.D., Civil Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, 2021
- M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, 2020
- M.S., Civil Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, 2020
- M.S., Civil Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, 2016
- B.S., Civil Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, 2014
Academic Appointments
- Postdoctoral Fellow at Ralph O’Connor Sustainable Energy Institute at Johns Hopkins University, 2022-2023
Dr. Astrid W Fischer specializes in seismic response of buildings, numerical modeling, and collapse simulation of wind turbine towers. Her work has focused on the seismic design of steel deck diaphragms which resulted in updated design recommendations in AISI S310 and ASCE 7-22. Her work included advanced numerical modeling and failure analysis of multi-layered spiral-welded wind turbine towers. Dr. Fischer's areas of expertise include earthquake engineering, structural dynamics, structural stability, cold-formed steel design, topology optimization, finite element methods and analysis, and nonlinear structural analysis.
Prior to joining Ä¢¹½tv, Dr. Fischer was a postdoctoral fellow and graduate research assistant at Johns Hopkins University, where she earned her doctorate in Civil Engineering. During her postdoctoral work, she led research efforts on advanced modeling of multi-layered spiral-welded wind turbine towers using Abaqus software. She addressed the challenge of modeling the bond between the layers of the tower, conducted buckling analysis, and performed full material and geometric nonlinear analysis, incorporating eigen mode and spiral-weld imperfections. In her doctoral dissertation, Dr. Fischer conducted an extensive parametric study using OpenSEES, examining the impact of wall and diaphragm stiffness and strength on the seismic response of buildings. She also utilized topology optimization to enhance diaphragm designs and investigated the improved design's non-linear response and behavior past yield in comparison to traditional diaphragms.
Dr. Fischer has consulted on projects related to assessing causes of damage and investigating construction defects and code compliance issues of buildings and structures.