Materials
The increasing demand on structures and civil infrastructure to adapt to our ever-changing environment and social landscape requires new and improved engineered materials and solutions to ensure optimised and sustainable use of our resources.

These environmental and sustainability issues, therefore, drive our research activities in this theme.
Our work aims to develop a fundamental understanding of the mechanical and fracture behaviour of traditional and novel engineering materials to meet today’s and future challenges, and enable their recovery and re-use in order to minimise waste and reduce raw materials consumption. This advanced knowledge is then injected into everyday engineering practice through the formulation, implementation, and experimental validation of advanced design techniques. These cutting-edge structural integrity paradigms are devised to enable the transformative technologies we need to meet current critical challenges in areas such as infrastructure, security, energy, ageing society, clean growth, and mobility.
Our research in this challenging field is further supported by multidisciplinary collaborations, not only with other academic research groups, but also with industry and other relevant stakeholders. This stimulating environment offers a rich, creative forum for the nurturing and training of future researchers.
Disciplines
Our department has been research-led for over 100 years and our academic staff are organised into four overarching disciplines, the main ones being Water Engineering and Structural Engineering and Materials.
Structural Engineering & Materials
Resources, Infrastructure Systems and Built Environments
Current Research
Multi-scale, circular economic potential of non-residential building stock (EPSRC)
FRAMED (EPSRC)
Modelling size-dependent electro-magneto-mechanical coupling (Royal Society)
Structural performance of 3D concrete printed composites (EPSRC)
PoroFrac - A high-fidelity isogeometric simulation methodology for fracture in porous media (CONCAWE)
FRGeo-Crete (Horizon 2020)
GRE.A.TE.R.S. (Horizon 2020)
Previous Research - last 5 years
Biomonitoring (South Staffordshire Water PLC)
Academics Involved
Name | Other Research Themes |
---|---|
de Borst, Prof. René | Infrastructure, Energy & Hazards |
Bowman, Dr Elisabeth | Infrastructure & Hazards |
Burgess, Prof. Ian | Infrastructure, Digital & Hazards |
Clarke, Prof. Sam | Infrastructure & Hazards |
Davison, Prof. Buick | Infrastructure & Hazards |
Densley Tingley, Dr Danielle | Infrastructure, Energy & Digital |
Gilbert, Prof. Matthew | Infrastructure, Digital & Hazards |
Guadagnini, Dr Maurizio | Infrastructure & Hazards |
Hajirasouliha, Prof. Iman | Infrastructure & Hazards |
He, Dr. Linwei | Infrastructure & Digital |
Huang, Dr Shan-Shan | Infrastructure & Hazards |
Nichols, Dr Andy | Infrastructure |
Langdon, Prof. Genevieve | Hazards |
Liew, Dr Andrew | Infrastructure & Digital |
Mayfield, Prof. Martin | Infrastructure, Energy & Digital |
Nematollahi, Dr Behzad | Infrastructure & Hazards |
Ozdemir, Dr Zuhal | Infrastructure & Hazards |
Pilakoutas, Prof. Kypros | Infrastructure & Hazards |
Rigby, Dr Sam | Infrastructure, Digital & Hazards |
Schellart, Dr Alma | Infrastructure & Hazards |
Smith, Prof. Colin | Infrastructure, Digital & Hazards |
Smyl, Dr Danny | Infrastructure, Digital & Hazards |
Stovin, Prof. Virginia | Infrastructure & Hazards |
Thornton, Prof. Steve | Hazards |
Torelli, Dr Giacomo | Infrastructure & Hazards |
Tyas, Prof. Andrew | Infrastructure, Digital & Hazards |
Yun, Dr Xiang | Infrastructure & Digital |