Wind-induced impact and blast effects on built environments in railway corridor

The University of Birmingham is host to the world-leading Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education, a multi-disciplinary group of staff from the Schools of Civil Engineering, Electronic, Electrical & Systems Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Materials & Metallurgy. The Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education brings together a multidisciplinary team from across the University to tackle fundamental railway engineering problems.

Nowadays domestic terrorism risk has been higher than ever. Evidenced by several bombings during the last decade, iconic railway infrastructure systems are critically exposed to threats and as such the attack could potentially appear in many forms. In recent years, explosive devices attempts led in most cases to structural connection damage that led to progressive structural collapse; the latter became major contributor to death and injury for the targeted built environments.Also, many natural hazards such as storm and strong wind often induce risk for wind-bourne debris accelerating towards infrastructure.

Despite the popularity of impact and blast research, the investigation into methods for protecting progressive collapses due to weakened structural connections against such blast effects or impact loading is inadequate. This project will investigate secondary blast loadings (blast initiated from inside a moving train) and impact loading effects on built environments (such as underground stations and platforms) and their effects on structural steel connections using empirical relationships and finite element modelling. The study will later investigate how the secondary blast effect can be reduced by coating materials (such as CFRP, GFRP, and fire resistant paints). The outcome of the numerical simulations will further guide the blast resistant design of structural connections in railway environments.

We are looking for people to conduct research alongside the research fellows, and academics to develop numerical models to investigate how the secondary blast effect on the critical railway infrastructure such as underground stations and platforms. This is a challenging problem with a significant potential for industry application to the first phase of High Speed Two project, which will be built to fast connect London and Birmingham.

Applications are therefore sought from individuals with an interest and experience in numerical modelling of civil, structural problems, and fluid dynamics problems but who also have a potential interest in field test modelling or small-scale laboratory tests (which will provide simplified data sets for the numerical models).

Informal enquires can be sent to Dr Sakdirat Kaewunruen ([Email Address Removed]) and in the first instance should contain a covering letter and a CV.

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