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Institution of Structural Engineers Young Researchers' Conference

Institution of Structural Engineers Young Researchers' Conference

Rob second from the left, Corinna centre

Two PhD students in the Structures group Rob Foster and Corinna Datsiou have won prizes at the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) Young Researchers' Conference. This is an annual event that brings together young, forward thinking structural engineering PhD students and researchers, along with industry professionals and academics. 

It is great to celebrate the achievements of our PhD research students

Dr Janet Lees, supervisor to Rob Foster, Shobie Sivanendran and Tahreer Fayyad

A selected shortlist of students and young researchers were invited to make an oral or poster presentation about their PhD research to an audience of peers and industry professionals, and of course be in with a chance to win from a pot of £2000.

There are two competition categories: oral presentations and poster presentations. This year the Department's Structures Research Group had four entrants. From our Concrete and Composite Structures Group, Shobana (Shobie) Sivanendran and Rob Foster presented posters, and Tahreer Fayyad gave an oral presentation. Kyriaki (Corinna) Datsiou from our Glass and Facades Technology group also presented in the oral category.

All of the posters and presentations received very favourable comments from the judges, and all received very positive feedback from industrial representatives as to the relevance and potential impact of the research being carried out. Rob Foster was awarded 1st place in the poster category and Corinna Datsiou was awarded 3rd place in the oral category.

Rob's research focuses on the retrofit strengthening of existing concrete slab-on-beam structures with fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) fabrics. His experimental work has shown that, in at least some cases, existing design approaches do not fully account for the actual behaviour. This research will provide a basis for improvements to existing design guidance. The research is funded by the EPSRC.

Corinna's research investigates the behaviour of cold bent glass. Cold bending is quicker, cheaper and less energy intensive than conventional hot bending, making this a production method of great interest to industry. Corinna's work aims to support the development of design criteria for the use of cold bent glass in building façade design, as well as improving the fundamental understanding of cold bent glass behaviour.

Shobie's research looks at the durability performance of Carbon FRP when used as internal reinforcement for concrete structures. An understanding of the long term durability is critical in order to realise the full potential of FRP reinforcement for future generations of improved concrete structures.

Tahreer's research applies a fracture mechanics approach to investigate the fundamental flexural cracking behaviour of reinforced concrete. This work has a range of direct practical implications including improvements to guidance for minimum reinforcement ratios in order to ensure ductile failure in lightly reinforced concrete flexural elements.

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