Peggie (Danrong) Wang

Peggie was born in China but completed her BASc. in Civil Engineering at the University of Waterloo in 2020. She has worked with Metrolinx, GFL Environmental Inc., the City of Toronto, and BA Consulting Group as a co-op student. During her two co-op terms at the City of Toronto, she worked with infrastructure and asset management as well as capital project programming and eventually developed an interest in pavement engineering. Peggie joined CPATT in Fall 2020 as an MASc. student, switching to a PhD. program in Spring 2021.

Peggie’s research focus is the study of geosynthetic-reinforced asphalt pavements under freeze-thaw cycles. As the major impacts of climate change on pavement, frost actions are critical issues that need to be solved. Geosynthetic material has been deemed as a useful material that can be used to mitigate freeze-thaw disturbances to the pavements due to its cost of efficiency, ease of installation, and adaptability to different climatic conditions.

Peggie’s research involves field instrumentation and monitoring to investigate the performances of the trial sections, with geogrid composite installed on the subgrade, and fibreglass geogrid within the asphalt layer. Small-scale laboratory testing will be performed to investigate the performance of the fibreglass geogrid within the asphalt concrete. A coupled thermal-hydraulic-mechanical numerical model was also developed to simulate frost heave and thaw settlement in a geosynthetic-reinforced pavement structure.

• Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, University of Waterloo, 2020 – Present
• B.A.Sc. in Civil Engineering (Honours), Co-op Program, University of Waterloo, 2015 – 2020

Refereed Journal Papers:

• D. Wang, S-L. Wang, S. Tighe, S. Bhat, and S. Yin. “Construction of Geosynthetic–Reinforced Pavements and Evaluation of Their Impacts”. Applied Sciences, 13 (18), 2023.
• S-L. Wang, D. Wang, S. Tighe, S. Bhat, and S. Yin. “Investigation of Rutting Performance in Geogrid-Reinforced Asphalt by Penetration Test”. Materials, 16 (22), 2023.

Refereed Conference Proceedings:

• D. Wang, S-L. Wang, S. Tighe, S. Bhat, and S. Yin. “Monitoring the Performances of a Geosynthetic-Reinforced Pavement During Construction”. The 5th Pan-American Conference on Geosynthetics of GeoAmericas 2024, April 2024. (Accepted)
• D. Wang, H. Liao, R. Aurilio, S. L. Tighe, and S. Yin, “Evaluation of Rutting and Moisture-Susceptibility of Geogrid-Embedded Asphalt by Hamburg Wheel-Track Testing”. The 14th International Society for Asphalt Pavements Conference, June 2024. (Accepted)
• D. Wang, S-L. Wang, S. Tighe, S. Bhat, and S. Yin. “Investigating the Performances of Geosynthetic-Reinforced Pavement During Construction by Field Testing and Laboratory Testing”. The 10th International Conference on Maintenance and Rehabilitation of Pavements, July 2024. (Accepted)
• D. Wang, S. L. Tighe, and S. Yin, “Preliminary Analysis of Permafrost Degradation in Ingraham Trail, Northwest Territories”. Proceedings of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineering Annual Conference 2021, 109–121. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0507-0_11