Dr G Vasdravellis
No more applications being accepted
Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
About the Project
Based on recent catastrophic collapse incidents of buildings due to fire events, fire-induced progressive collapse is becoming an important issue that current design methods cannot solve. This project will develop a novel steel beam-column joint for increased resilience against fire-induced progressive collapse in steel buildings. The joint makes use of structural details that are added to industry-standard connections to increase their robustness under fire condition and tie force demands due to loss of one or more columns during a fire event. The new structural details do not interfere with the design of the joint to gravity or wind loads, so they add minimum cost and complexity to the design of a structure. The project involves an integrated experimental-numerical research approach. Tests will be conducted at material and component level at the UoE to assess the behaviour of the proposed structural details at high temperatures. Dynamic tests will be conducted at material and component level at the HWU to assess the behaviour of the devices to high strain rate loading. Advanced numerical models will be built and calibrated to the experimental results. Parametric analyses using the calibrated numerical models will result in the proposal of reliable design rules for the proposed joint. Finally, the behaviour of multi-storey buildings subject to fire and loss of one or more bearing elements and using the proposed structural details will be assessed numerically.
Funding Notes
Scholarships will cover tuition fees and provide an annual stipend of approximately £14,700 for the 36 month duration of the project.
To be eligible, applicants should have a first-class honours degree in a relevant subject or a 2.1 honours degree plus Masters (or equivalent). Scholarships will be awarded by competitive merit, taking into account the academic ability of the applicant.