Research Areas and Research Achievements of Structural Engineering

Research Area 1: Theory and Practice in the Design of High-performance Flexible Protective Structures

Focusing on the prevention and control of such geological hazards as slope collapse and rockfall along main lines in mountainous areas, the research team has made breakthroughs in key scientific problems on the development of high-performance flexible protective structures, the establishment of high-accuracy nonlinear dynamic calculation theory, the mechanical behaviors of flexible protective structures under impact loads, and the design methods of flexible protective structures, etc. So far, the team has obtained national, ministerial and provincial support with a total research fund of more than 5 million yuan for 15 government-funded projects, including 1 funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China, 2 supported by the National Natural Science Fund, 2 by the doctoral fund of the Ministry of Education, 1 by the fund for major fundamental research project of Sichuan Province, and 2 by the fund for scientific projects of Ministry of Railways of China. The research findings have been published in over 30 papers on authoritative academic periodicals at home and abroad, including nearly 20 SCI/EI journals. The findings have been applauded by domestic and overseas scientific research institutions in Switzerland, Australia, Italy, Spain, and China’s Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Major Innovations:

1. Successfully developed a series of new-type flexible protective shield structures, including high-performance passive flexible protective structures, flexible shed tunnel structures, guided flexible protective structures, separable flexible protective structures, and high-performance mud-rock flow protective structures, etc.;

2. Established the calculation theory of high-accuracy nonlinear impact dynamics for flexible protective structures;

3. Put forward the design theory and methods of flexible protective structures based on energy matching;

4. Developed the artificial rockfall full scale impact testing and inspection table system, which has the maximum test capacity and is the most versatile in the world;

5. Established the methods of testing and measuring the impact force of rockfalls, as well as the evaluation standards for flexible protective shield structures.

a) Passive flexible rockfall protective structure

b) Flexible mud-rock flow protective structure

Research Area 2: Anti-seismic Capacity, Structural Appraisal and Reinforcement of Building Structures

Between 2008 and 2018, the team studying the seismic resistance of building structures joined in the relief work and post-quake surveys of the earthquakes in Wenchuan, Lushan and Jiuzhai Valley in southwest China’s Sichuan Province, Jinghe, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and Nepal. It systematically researched the seismic mechanisms of buildings including reinforced concrete structures, masonry structures and wood frameworks in the quake-stricken areas, and established respective theories on the design of collapse-resistant structures, methods of anti-seismic identification and technologies of seismic reinforcement. The team edited or were involved in the compilation of more than 10 national, industrial and local technical standards and specifications, including theCode for Anti-collapse Design of Building Structures(CECS 392:2014),Technical Standard for Strengthening Existing Timber Structures(under compilation),Technical Specification for Seismic Appraisement and Strengthening of Building in Sichuan Province(DBJ51/T 031-2014),Standard for Urban Planning on Earthquake Resistance and Hazard Prevention of Sichuan Province(DBJ51/T 066-2016),Technical Specification for Post-earthquake Urgent Assessment of Building Safety in Sichuan Province(DBJ51/T 068-2016),Technical Standard for Low-rise Light Wood Buildings in Sichuan Province(DBJ51/T 093-2018). It also developed standards for earthquake resistance and hazard prevention for Sichuan Province, and obtained the second and third prizes of Scientific and Technological Progress of Sichuan, as well as the second prize of this category of Shanghai.

Research Area 3: Structural Wind Engineering

1) Based on the technologies of multiple-fan active control wind tunnels, the research team has studied the unsteady aerodynamic characteristics of structures under longitudinal pulsating wind (Fig. 1), and verified the existence of Greenberg functions (Fig. 2). The research findings were published in a letter on thePhysics of Fluids(2017, 29: 051703), an international monthly scientific journal on fluid dynamics.

2) Based on the three-dimensional unsteady aerodynamics theory, the research team has unveiled the effects of unsteady three-dimensional turbulent flow on structural aerodynamics, acquiring the key data on how to control the assumed accuracy of the pneumatic strip (Fig. 3), putting forth the theory and test methods of measuring the Sears function by direct force , and obtaining the test value of the Sears function in turbulent flow. The research was published in a paper on theJournal of Fluid Mechanics(2018, 847: 768-785), the leading international journal in the field.

Fig. 1 Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Research Area 4: BIM- and AI-based Long-term Performance Diagnosis and Maintenance Specialist System for Building Structures

The Building Information Modeling (BIM) is not only a display of an intelligent 3D model-based process, but a long-term performance diagnosis and maintenance specialist system which is based on building components and artificial intelligence calculation, and bears abundant information monitoring building structures and knowledge on maintenance and repair of building structures. Achievements on innovation:

1) Hadoop-based Big Data Analysis System

The high-efficiency big data analytics platform with functional elasticity was established because of the huge amount of information accumulated during the long-term monitoring of building structures, including data, texts and multimedia files.

2) AI Algorithm Framework

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithm is the core of the research project. To effectively support AI algorithms, the research team created an AI frame/environment, to realize machine learning, deep learning, as well as AI algorithms, in terms of reliability analysis, structural health assessment, decision-making support system, multi-temporal dynamic risk assessment, knowledge mining, and image recognition.

3) IFC Cloud Lightweight Building Structure Performance Diagnosis and Specialist Platform

The core concept of the building structure maintenance management platform is data-driven visual cloud lightweight technology. The research team possesses graphics platform technology with individual intellectual property rights, and has established an IFC-based cloud lightweight building structure performance diagnosis and specialist platform.