Research

In the risk and reliability area particular attention is directed to the development of fundamental techniques and to their application to structural aspects of bridges, buildings, and other new and existing built infrastructure. Emphasis is placed on predicting service life performance, particularly the effect of deterioration and maintenance on safety, life-cycle costs and remaining service life of structural steel and concrete structures. Recent work on risk-based decision-making includes security risks due to explosive blast loading, housing damage due to cyclones and maintenance of existing infrastructure. Experimental techniques have been developed for corrosion of steel and reinforced concrete specimens in accelerated and natural environments. Many of these projects are funded by the ARC and industry.

In the area of structural masonry there has been a long-standing interest in the behaviour of masonry under a variety of loading conditions from both experimental and theoretical perspectives. Both basic properties of masonry assemblages and the behaviour of masonry structures are of interest, with input being made to Australian Standards. Major areas of research include the serviceability performance (cracking and durability) of masonry, seismic behaviour of unreinforced masonry, lateral load design methods for masonry wall panels, retrofitting of unreinforced masonry using fibre reinforced polymers, fundamental bond studies, and the thermal performance of masonry housing. The group has close links to the brick industry through the clay Brick and Paver Institute who have supported a Chair in this area since 1992.

Research

Research

Centre Research