Abstract

Assessing Complex Structures: Faster, Lighter, Higher, Longer, Safer, Cheaper

Over the centuries, exceptional engineers, architects and builders have created structures that elegantly work in harmony with the elements, carrying gravity and wind forces, and that stand as historical landmarks that connect us to past generations.

Changing expectations mean that structures are required to be taller, longer, more irregular, lighter, cheaper and safer. To deliver this, engineers, researchers, analysts and experimentalists require new approaches to innovative structural design and advanced assessment tools.

The 2014 CSIC Lecture will highlight some of the leaps that have been made in testing and analysing critical structural components. Successful projects presented by Professor Spencer illustrate recent advances and innovations, and point towards future challenges and opportunities.

Prof Bill Spencer, Jr. is the Director of the Newmark Structural Engineering Laboratory and the Multi-axial Full-scale Substructure Testing and Simulation (MUST-SIM) facility at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a Fellow of ASCE , the North American Editor in Chief of Smart Structures and Systems, and the past president of the Asia-Pacific Network of Centers for Research in Smart Structures Technology.