PhD Studentship: Seismic Resilience Assessment of Masonry-Infilled RC Structures

Reinforced concrete (RC) frames infilled with masonry panels are very common construction in many countries situated in seismic regions. Usually classified as non-structural elements, the influence of their strength and stiffness are neglected. However, unlike most non-structural components, masonry infills can develop strong interaction with the bounding frames under seismic loads and therefore this approach can lead to substantial inaccuracy in predicting the actual seismic response of framed structures in terms of lateral stiffness, strength and ductility.  

This PhD project will pave the way to the development of a novel modelling technique to simulate the nonlinear behaviour of masonry infilled RC frames for seismic resilience assessment of school buildings.  

In this project, you will be working together with a postdoctoral researcher through an EPSRC-funded project ‘SAFER: Seismic Safety and Resilience of Schools in Nepal’. This collaborative project is led by University of Southampton and University of Bristol from the UK, and involves a number of overseas universities and industry partners and aims to develop innovative solutions for earthquake risk reduction and seismic resilience of school building structures in developing countries.  

There is a very strong collaboration and interaction with other researchers at the University of Bristol and leading researchers in the USA.  

 

Candidate requirements:

We are looking for outstanding quality and exceptionally motivated candidates. Applicants should hold or expect to obtain a 1st class or high 2:1 Honours degree or equivalent in a relevant subject area from a prime UK university, or equivalent from a prime EU university. Candidates with MSc in Advanced Structural/Earthquake Engineering are given priority. The project is primarily experimental testing. However, some programming skill in MATLAB is required. Some knowledge of nonlinear finite element analysis using OpenSees, and/or Abaqus is desirable but not essential.  

 

If you wish to discuss any details of the project informally, please contact Dr Mehdi Kashani, Infrastructure Research Group, Email: Mehdi.Kashani@soton.ac.uk, Tel: +44 (0) 023 8059 8873.