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Yazhou (Tim) Xie

Title: 
Assistant Professor
Academic title(s): 

Ph.D., P.Eng.

Yazhou (Tim) Xie
Contact Information
Address: 

Room 491 ENGMD

817 Sherbrooke Street West

Montreal, QC, Canada H3A 0C3

Fax number: 
514-398-7361
Email address: 
tim.xie [at] mcgill.ca
Biography: 

Professor Xie's research interests lie within the broad areas of resilience, infrastructure systems, and natural hazards.  His research goal is to promote hazard resilience and sustainability of infrastructure systems using advanced modeling and smart protection. Research areas include (1) multi-hazard performance and risk assessment of civil structures using high-fidelity simulation; (2) earthquake hazard mitigation using smart materials, devices, designs, and sensing technologies; (3) regional hazard fragility, loss, and resilience assessment of infrastructure networks; and (4) physics-informed machine learning techniques for applications in natural hazards engineering.

Link(s): 
Hazard Mitigation & Infrastructure Resilience Lab
Google Scholar
Degree(s): 
  • Postdoctoral Research Associate, Rice University (2019)
  • Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles (2017)
  • M.S., Tongji University (2011)
  • B.E., Tongji University (2008)
Areas of expertise: 
  • Structural Engineering
  • Earthquake Engineering
Courses: 

CIVE 317. Structural Engineering 1.

Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.

Credits: 3
Offered by: Civil Engineering (Faculty of Engineering)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.

Description

The design process; loads, sources, classifications, load factors, combinations; limit states design; structural systems and foundations; choice of materials; virtual work and energy methods; statical and kinematic indeterminacy; slope deflection method, introduction to matrix methods; analysis of indeterminate systems; force envelopes.
  • (3-2-4)
  • Prerequisites: CIVE 202, CIVE 207 and MECH 289 (formerly MECH 290).

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CIVE 460. Matrix Structural Analysis.

Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.

Credits: 3
Offered by: Civil Engineering (Faculty of Engineering)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.

Description

Computer structural analysis, direct stiffness applied to two and three dimensional frames and trusses, matrix force method, nonlinear problems, buckling of trusses and frames, introduction to finite element analysis.
  • (3-2-4)
  • Prerequisites: CIVE 206 and CIVE 317

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CIVE 603. Structural Dynamics.

Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.

Credits: 4
Offered by: Civil Engineering (Graduate Studies)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.

Description

Dynamic loads on structures; equations of motion of linear single- and multiple-degree-of-freedom systems and of continuous systems; free and forced vibrations; damping in structures; modal superposition and time-history analysis; earthquake effects; provisions of the National Building Code of Canada for seismic analysis.

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CIVE 617. Bridge Engineering.

Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.

Credits: 4
Offered by: Civil Engineering (Graduate Studies)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.

Description

Bridge components, connections, and constraints; girder bridges; arch bridges; cable-stayed and suspension bridges; probabilistic design; design loads; analysis of superstructures; evaluation, repair, and rehabilitation of bridges; coastal bridge vulnerability; seismic design and retrofit of bridges; case studies.

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Research areas: 
Structural Engineering
TISED
Awards, honours, and fellowships: 
  • ​​​​​​  Research Mentor  Grant, Nakatani RIES Fellowship Program, Nakatani Foundation, 2018
  • Dissertation Year Fellowship, UCLA Graduate Division, 2016-2017
  • Martin Rubin Scholarship, UCLA, 2013-2014
  • Outstanding Student and Excellent Graduate Award, Tongji University, 2008-2011
  • Outstanding Student Scholarships, Tongji University, 2005-2008
Selected publications: 

2020

  • Y. Xie, M. Ebad Sichani, J. Padgett, R. DesRoches, The promise of implementing machine learning in earthquake engineering: A state-of-the-art review, Earthquake Spectra, 2020.
  • L. Han, Y. Xie, Y. Gu, W. Yuan, R. DesRoches, Shake table tests of highway bridges installed with unbonded steel mesh reinforced rubber bearings, Engineering Structures, 2020 (206) 110124, 1-15.

2019

  • S. Gur, Y. Xie, R. DesRoches, Seismic fragility analysis of steel building frames installed with superelastic SMA dampers: comparison with yield dampers, Journal of Intelligent Materials Systems and Structures, 2019,30 (18-19) 2670-2687.
  • Y. Xie, R. DesRoches, Sensitivity of seismic demands and fragility estimates of a typical California highway bridge to uncertainties in its soil-structure interaction modeling, Engineering Structures, 2019, (189) 605-617.
  • Y. Xie, J. Zhang, R. DesRoches, J. Padgett, Seismic fragility of single-column highway bridges with rocking column-footing, Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, 2019; 1-22.
  • Y. Xie, Q. Zheng, C.S.W. Yang, W. Zhang, R. DesRoches, J. Padgett, E. Taciroglu, Probabilistic models of abutment backfills for regional seismic assessment of highway bridges in California, Engineering Structures, 2019, (180) 452-467.
  • J. Zhang, Y. Xie, G. Wu, Seismic responses of bridges with rocking column-foundation: a dimensionless regression analysis, Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, 2019; 48: 152-170.

2018

  • Y. Xie, J. Zhang, W. Xi, Effectiveness evaluation and optimal design of nonlinear viscous dampers for inelastic structures under pulse-type ground motions, Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, 2018, 47: 2802-2820.
  • Y. Xie, J. Zhang, Y. Huo, Simplified drift demand prediction of bridges under liquefaction induced lateral spreading, ASCE Journal of Bridge Engineering, 2018, 23(8): 04018053.
  • Y. Xie, J. Zhang, Design and optimization of seismic isolation and damping devices for highway bridges based on probabilistic repair cost ratio, ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering, 2018, 144(8): 04018125.

2017

  • Y. Xie, Y. Huo, J. Zhang, Development and validation of p-y modeling approach for seismic response predictions of highway bridges, Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, 2017, 46(4): 585-604.
  • Y. Xie, J. Zhang, Optimal design of seismic protective devices for highway bridges using performance based methodology and multi-objective genetic optimization, ASCE Journal of Bridge Engineering, 2016, 22(3):04016129.
Areas of interest: 
  • Soil-structure interaction; soil liquefaction
  • Innovative seismic design; smart material and device (shape memory alloy, rocking isolation, base isolator, energy dissipation device)
  • Performance-based earthquake engineering
  • Statistical and machine learning
  • Hybrid simulation; structural control
  • Regional fragility, loss, and resilience assessment
  • Multi-hazard, multi-objective optimization and decision making
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