Mohammad Alembagheri

Candidature:

PhD Candidature

Thesis Title:

Robustness of Corner-Supported Modular Steel Buildings

Project summary:

Modular steel building (MSB) offers efficient and sustainable form of construction that is increasingly growing all across the world. Although research efforts have been made, studies about general and macro behaviour of MSBs in extreme conditions, such as gravity-induced progressive collapse, are limited and deserve more attention. This Project aims to study the stability and robustness of modular steel buildings against progressive collapse scenarios. For this purpose, an experimental testing program has been planned to be conducted to study the dynamic progressive collapse response and stability of modular steel frames. Numerical models are then developed, calibrated and verified against experimental tests and analytical calculations. Through different steps of this research, the following problems will be investigated: the overall structural stability and robustness of designed MSBs; the load redistribution patterns in MSBs under progressive collapse scenarios; collapse capacity and possible gravity induced collapse mechanisms; the current design recommendations and their possible modification; the effects of inter-module connection properties in the structural stability; the influence of different layouts of module assemblies in their total response; different damage scenarios; contribution of loss scenarios’ removal time; and the effects of MSBs height and configuration on their robustness.

Research Project Supervisor/s:

Dr. Pejman Sharafi (Principal Supervisor), Professor Zhong Tao (Co-supervisor)