My research is a development of multi-scale durable textile reinforced concrete for structural applications. The aim of this research is development of novel multi-scale textile reinforced concretes with extreme mechanical and durability properties.

The research is to develop damage information modelling for substandard RC bridges. Numerical simulation to be used implicitly for structural assessment and residual capacity calculation. Automatic data transfer is to be created between the FE and the BIM environments. Develop user-friendly application of retrofitting solutions for practical applications according to NBS BIM Object Standards and BS 8541.

This project aims to propose a BIM-based framework for sustainability in the construction industry and develop a system prototype that implements the proposed framework and serves as a BIM-based tool for testing the applicability of the framework in the case study. 

Blind  bolts  have  been  developed  to  overcome  the  difficulties  when  connecting  open  to hollow  steel  members.  Ongoing research at the University of Nottingham has shown that the Extended Hollo-Bolt (EHB) blind fastener is able to achieve rigid or semi-rigid connection behaviour.  In order to fully characterize the behaviour of the connection, all the possible failure modes of the EHB connection need to be studied.  Substantial research has been carried out on the behaviour of the connection when failure is either produced in the bolt component or the column face component. However,  due to the novelty of the blind fastener, the possible  behaviour  of  the  connection  when  the  components  can interact and produce a combined failure has not been studied yet.  The aim of the project is to investigate the performance of the EHB connection and failure mode when combined failure can occur under a tensile pull-out force. The inclusion of these bolts in design guidance to moment-resisting connections will widen the use of hollow sections as columns in multi-storey steel construction which represent many advantages from structural and architectural points of view.

Data acquisition from different sources for identifying and measuring damage in 3D woven carbon fiber polymer composite structures.

ML for prediction and classification of damage types in 3D woven carbon fiber polymer composite structures.

Development of models for estimation of Remaining Useful Life (RUL) based on identified damage class.

Reinforced concrete is the most globally used construction material worldwide. However, despite their high structural performance. Whilst, in general, the strength and durability of reinforced concrete structures are adequate, these are often subjected to deterioration due to steel corrosion. A possible approach to promote the use of concrete structures has been developed by the use of non-corrosive reinforcement materials by embedding textile reinforcement grids within a fine-grained mortar.

This is a relatively new composite material, commonly known as Textile Reinforced Concrete (TRC). Recently, extensive studies have been conducted to investigate the mechanical behaviour of the textiles either as a strengthening material or embedded into concrete under tension and flexural. However, the behaviour of these composite materials under high velocity impact load has not been investigated. This research aims to investigate the effect of different design parameters on the behaviour of textile reinforced concrete subjected to ballistic impact load 

Compound concrete (CC) is made by mixing fresh concrete with large-sized recycled concrete material that can be obtained from a demolished structure. The inclusion of large-sized recycled concrete in CC reduces the use of cement and natural aggregates by up to 40%. CC is often cast inside of a steel tube to form a compound concrete-filled steel tube (CCFST), which have good mechanical properties. CCFST members can also be demounted and reused in many cases, which is a significant advantage over reinforced concrete structures. This encourages the adoption of a circular economy that will be environmentally beneficial.

The project aims to study the effectiveness of innovative and sustainable mortar-based solutions in strengthening of substandard construction. The proposed research project will generate new knowledge that will be used for the development of practical design guidelines for this category of retrofitting systems.

A summary of my research: With the increase of structural age and the revision of standards, many buildings and bridges have entered the stage that needs to be strengthened and retrofitted. As a new material, mortar-based composite system is gradually welcomed in the field of structural strengthening. The replacement of organic (resin) binders with inorganic (mortar) ones seem to be an efficient solution since all the advantages of the confinement with Fibre Reinforced Polymers (FRPs) are reserved. This project currently working on shear strengthening of deficient RC beams with mortar-based composite jackets under monotonic and fatigue loading.

The majority of the research were on the mechanical behaviour of the lattice structures mainly focused on the microstructures and mechanical properties study on the lattice structures to determine the strength of the manufactured parts. However, due to the lack of physical understanding of the deformation process, failure mechanisms and methodologies for fracture process prediction for the lattice structures has not been established. The objective of the proposed study is to develop methodology to model fracture mechanism process of lattice structures and to generate lattice structures while study crack initiation phenomena through finite element analysis and possibly experimented testing.

Multidisciplinary design optimisation (MDO) is a tool commonly used in aircraft design. The procedure relies on a global FE-model (GFEM), which does not contain a detailed representation of the structure geometry.
At the same time, aircraft structures exhibit at multiple locations features with a non-regular geometry, which require detailed FE-modelling (DFEM). Including them in the multidisciplinary optimisation would result in a prohibitive computational cost, therefore they are ignored.
In order to account for the influence of non-regular parts on the optimisation, at an acceptable computational cost, this research project develops a global-local methodology to extend an MDO procedure for aircraft composite structures.

Hollow steel box sections are today widely used to fabricate composite steel-concrete structures, especially in CFST (concrete-filled steel tubular) columns. Local buckling of the steel tubes is, however, a significant issue that could lead to the failure of a structure. The aim of this study is to deepen the understanding of the effects of lateral pressure and stress gradient on the local buckling mechanism and the bearing capacity of steel tubes. This investigation can provide a reference for the local buckling research of steel-concrete composite structures, and also for the local buckling study of thin-walled structures directly subjected to hydrostatic pressure.  

Biography: Jun Wan is a PhD in Structural Engineering at South China University of Technology. He is also a Registered Constructor of the people's Republic of China. He joined the University of Nottingham as a visiting PhD in Structural Engineering since 1st July 2022. His primary research interests lie in the local buckling performance of steel structures, steel-concrete composite structures and concrete-filled steel tubes. Corresponding journal papers have been published on Thin-Walled Structures and Journal of Constructional Steel Research and so on.