Structural mechanics and materials

Sustainable buildings

Our research focus relates to the all-encompassing design, environmental impact and cost consideration associated with producing ‘sustainable structures and materials’.

Australia has a continually evolving infrastructure (buildings and bridges). The country also has a number of aging structures susceptible to dynamic effects that needs to be monitored, especially if they have suffered some loss in structural integrity over time. Considering the events of the last decade and the effect on structures under blast loading and fire, it is now paramount to assess traditional design and construction methods, and incorporate other considerations to ensure a sustainable and durable structure.

Our research focus fits extremely well with the National Research Priorities of the Australian Research Council (ARC) under an environmentally sustainable Australia and safeguarding Australia priorities. Research is conducted into the design and analysis of structures that includes consideration of the effects of dynamic loading, blasting and fire.

Our group continues to investigate alternative aspects of designing and assessing structures using up-to-date research including dynamic analysis techniques, simulated blasting techniques and fire modelling.

We also undertake structural health monitoring to assess structures that are already in-service. Structural Mechanics is a strong stream in the Civil, Architectural and Mechanical Engineering programs taught by our research members. Related units include solid mechanics, structural design, stress analysis and structural dynamics.

Research themes

Structural health monitoring

Dynamic behaviour of concrete structural elements
Measuring dynamic behaviour of structures that have been affected in some way by sustained use
Structural damage detection in timber bridges using response signals
Non-Destructive assessment of timber bridge characteristics

Fire performance of structures and members

Fire in a concrete structure

Using alternative materials such as polymer fibres or geo-polymer concrete to resist fires within concrete elements
Hybrid Testing Facility for Structures under Extreme Loads
Improvement of spalling resistance and performance of slender reinforced concrete walls subjected to fire

Behaviour of high performance materials

Structural behaviour of polymer fibre reinforced concrete
Design implications on structures when utilising high strength concrete
Behaviour of structures constructed from composite materials

Sustainable buildings and materials

Recycled materials

Usability of recycled materials for sustainable building products and to enhance their structural properties
Assessing the environmental impact of structures: carbon footprint or embodied energy
Environmentally efficient and sustainable design methodology for concrete residential and office buildings
Converting waste brown coal fly ash into sustainable building materials.

Teaching pedagogies

Assessing individual learning in team based pedagogies
Improving modeling and simulation capability of engineering students in three dimension space problems

Research collaboration

The group's research is aligned with the Centre for Environmental Safety and Risk Engineering research on the spread of smoke and fire in buildings, fire extinguishment and the way structures respond to fire. Our collaborative projects on fire in structures, and on aspects of sustainable buildings have been mutually beneficial.

The group also has collaborative links with:

Our researchers

Our research group currently consists of 5 academic staff members and 6 PhD students:

Name	Phone and email address	Research interests
Staff
Assoc Prof Sam Fragomeni Leader	+61 3 9919 5212 sam.fragomeni@vu.edu.au	High performance concrete, design and serviceability of concrete elements, fire performance of structural elements and sustainable building design.
Dr Maurice Guerrieri Deputy Leader	+61 3 9919 8041 maurice.guerrieri@vu.edu.au	Performance of structures in fire, particularly the effect and study of concrete spalling, a phenomenon where concrete can explode under a fire load. Investigating alternative green concretes and finite element modeling.
Dr Danh Tran	+61 3 9919 4941 danh.tran@vu.edu.au	Optimisation, Structural Damage Detection and Crack Propagation.
Dr Srikanth Venkatesan	+61 3 9919 5235 srikanth.venkatesan@vu.edu.au	Earthquake Engineering, Structural health monitoring and Non-Destructive testing techniques; Developed ground motion models for intra-plate seismic regions; Chemical methods of Non-Destructive testing to timber bridges based on Thermogravimetry analysis.
Dr Zora Vrcelj	+61 3 9919 4459 zora.vrcelj@vu.edu.au	Structural Stability: Composite Steel-Concrete Structures: Steel Structures Advanced Composites: Creep and Shrinkage Biomimetics: Innovations in Engineering Education

Name	Thesis title
PhD Students
Conrad D'Cruz (PhD)	Factors contributing to workplace injury and fatalities in the construction industry.
Fadillawaty Saleh (PhD)	Structural damage detection in reinforced concrete beams under dynamics vibration.
Indunil R.K.G Galhena Appuhamilage (PhD)	Effects of blast loading on structural concrete panel systems.
Janaka Prasanna Wepitiya Gamage (PhD)	Soil-structure interaction effect on seismic response analysis- for bridges with deep foundation
Mohammed Ali D Al Huthali (PhD)	The role of multiliteracies in problem-based learning as a pedagogy in engineering contexts: a sociocultural perspective.
Yaseen Unnisa (PdD)	Structural Health Monitoring of Infrastructures by Non-destructive structural damage detection, localisation and prediction.

Research facilities

Structures Laboratory

Located at the Footscray Park Campus, this facility includes:

Large and small universal testing machines for the static and dynamic testing of elements.
Concrete mixing and testing facility

Fire test facilities

Offers research and testing opportunities for applications in fire safety engineering. Provided by The Centre for Environmental Safety and Risk Engineering, the facilities include:

Four storey building scale model

Fire test furnaces
Cone calorimeter
3MW calorimeter and ISO room
Large fire test facilities
Four storey building scale model
Large burn hall on the Country Fire Authority site at Fiskville

Recent publications

Members of this emerging research area continue to publish their work in a broad range of scholarly journals and in proceedings of international learned conferences. Our recent publications are available.