Professional Documents
Culture Documents
of Civil and
Environmental
Engineering
Shaping a better
built environment
Contents
4 Introduction (Head of Department)
5 About the Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering
5 Vision for civil engineering
6 Department at-a-glance
8 Research highlights
20 Research and academic staff profiles
38 Department Facilities
44 Centre for Doctoral Training in
Sustainable Civil Engineering
46 Collaborate
Introduction
4 | INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION | 5
More durable
Rankings 1st 1st 1st materials with
THE COMPLETE THE GUARDIAN UNIVERSITY THE TIMES/SUNDAY TIMES £5.8M research lab
UNIVERSITY GUIDE 2018 GUIDE 2018 GOOD UNIVERSITY
GUIDE 2018 Improving construction mate-
Civil Engineering Civil Engineering
Civil Engineering rials to make infrastructure
more sustainable and durable
will be the focus of research at
a new Advanced Infrastructure
Materials Laboratory (AIM).
Research In the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF–2014)
The Lab will be the centrepiece
• Imperial achieved the highest score of any institution for
Environment Civil & Construction Engineering research environment.
of a new Imperial Centre for
Infrastructure Materials where
and Impact • Imperial is home to the greatest concentration of researchers will develop a
1st
high-impact research of any major UK university. new generation of construc-
tion materials that are more
durable and robust, able to
withstand ever greater loads,
and more cost effective to
manufacture and maintain.
People 146 The researchers will also train
STAFF the next generation of engi-
neers, via an MSc course in
55 80 41 Infrastructure Materials, which
ACADEMIC RESEARCH PROFESSIONAL, TECHNICAL will start in October 2019.
STAFF STAFF AND OPERATIONAL STAFF
The Imperial Lab is funded by
the Engineering and Physical
Sciences Research Council
881 GENDER
and sit under the ‘umbrella’
STUDENTS of the UK Collaboratorium for
Research in Infrastructure &
39% 61% Cities (UKCRIC). It forms the
● 205 Postgraduate Research major part of a new National
● 307 Postgraduate Taught Centre for Infrastructure
● 369 Undergraduates Female Male Materials.
75+
Industrial
collaborating
STUDENT
NATIONALITIES companies
REPRESENTED
Top
24% 31% 45% Largest and top-ranked
HOME EUROPEAN UNION OVERSEAS Department of
Civil Engineering
within the UK
6 | DEPARTMENT AT-A-GLANCE
02 03
The aim of the CARBOTRAF project was to support traffic QUICK FACTS
operators in real time to adopt optimal intelligent trans-
»» €3.1M EU-funded pro-
port control strategies to mitigate traffic congestion while ject that has made its
reducing CO2 and Black Carbon emissions. The project team way to China through
knowledge transfer.
included 2 academic and 5 industrial partners, and 2 cities
(Glasgow, Graz) as test sites. »» CO2 and Black Carbon
are the first and
The system developed includes off-line and online mod- second major causes
for global warming,
Reduction of Black Carbon ules. The off-line module generates a library of traffic and
BC also causes acute
concentration after implementing the emission simulation results in relation to a variety of traffic health effects.
proposed signal control and route
guidance strategies. Negative values
control strategies, including coordinated signal control and
»» In the EU, 28% of CO2
indicate reduction compared with the variable message sign, for different traffic network scenarios. is from transport,
no-control scenario. The on-line module combines a real-time monitoring of traffic BC exposure is highly
and air pollution with a decision support system, which rec- related to transport.
06
ommends the best control strategy to the operator through
innovative optimization techniques and machine learning.
Fluid mechanics for the built environment Efficient, Healthy and Productive
Indoor Environments
Academic lead • PROFESSOR GRAHAM HUGHES We investigate the flows through
buildings that determine our
Our urban landscapes are becoming increasingly complex and populated, pre- indoor environment. For example,
senting broad-ranging challenges regarding the sustainability and resilience a current PhD student project is
of our cities, neighbourhoods and buildings. Understanding of the interaction examining affordable solutions
between air flow, urban form and human activity is crucial in tackling many of to better ventilate the polluting
these challenges, such as indoor and outdoor air quality, urban microclimates smoke from dwellings where open
and wind engineering. fires and solid fuel stoves provide
cooking and heating – a practice
We employ a full suite of numerical simulation techniques, laboratory
used by a third of the worldwide
experiments and field data to inform and develop mathematical models.
population and responsible for
These models are capable of improved predictions to guide government
3–4 million premature deaths
agencies, city planners, developers and architects. We provide leadership
each year.
within the UK Low-Energy Ventilation Network (www.lowenergyventilation.org),
the Urban Fluid Mechanics (www.urbanfluidmechanics.org) and Experimental Inverse Modelling
Flow Diagnostics (fluids.ac.uk/sig/xFD) Special Interest Groups – membership In addition to predictive models,
of which is open and comprises currently of more than 200 researchers and we develop techniques for flow
practitioners. optimisation and inverse model-
ling. These approaches address
Urban air quality and microclimate
problems involving uncertainty in Tunnel boring machines used on the
We develop modelling capability for urban air quality and microclimate, both Crossrail project in London. Imperial
design, such as determining
through very high resolution models for detailed design, and much simpler research explored the effect of new
• boundary conditions that corre- tunnel construction on existing
models that can be used in the Master Planning stage. Current work involves:
tunnels and the ground response.
spond to observations;
• Effect of vegetation on air quality and microclimate
• extreme events and worst-case
• Coupling with state-of-the-art traffic emission models
scenarios;
• Active strategies to mitigate air pollution.
• optimal control strategies for
08
building ventilation;
• flow reconstruction from sur-
face measurements.
Crossrail
Academic lead • DR JAMIE STANDING
QUICK FACTS
The objective for this work is to contribute to
the development of engineered solutions for
»» €4 million EC funded the management of high-level radioactive waste,
project as part of
Horizon 2020 EURATOM. and in particular the implementation of the first-
11
of-the-kind geological repositories. The current
»» 25 academics and
pan-European consensus solution for nuclear
industry partners.
waste disposal involves burial of the nuclear
Improved construction progress monitoring
»» 8 major European waste-filled canisters in galleries and tunnels through augmented reality
national waste manage-
excavated deep in a host geological formation.
ment organisations. Academic lead • PROFESSOR JENNIFER WHYTE
The protection between the canister and the host
formation is a buffer material, usually a highly Based in the Centre for Systems Engineering and Innovation, Ranjith Soman
swelling clay, such as bentonite, that is expected to mechanically evolve is currently undertaking a PhD that is co-funded by Bentley Systems and
over time and seal the repository, thus preventing the long-term leakage of a Skempton scholarship. Building on the team’s track-record of research
radioactive nucleoids into the surrounding ground. on virtual reality and the built environment, it focuses on developing and
implementing a framework to enable bidirectional information flow between
The key drive for the project is to ensure efficient repository safety, thus
the construction site and construction office to aid construction monitoring
contributing to the European Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan to make
and control. This doctoral work will use the potential of augmented reality
low-carbon technologies affordable and competitive. The aim is to verify the
to enable interactive visualisation of data acquired directly from the con- Collaborative visualisation in
performance of the current designs for buffers, backfills, seals and plugs.
struction site and develop next-generation construction progress monitoring augmented reality.
The project comprises 25 academic and industry partners of which 8 are major
practices. An early prototype demonstrates the feasibility of the approach.
European waste management organisations, including the UK’s Radioactive
The next steps of the research are to develop the tool to querying building
Waste Management (RWM) Ltd.
information data across different formats, and combine this with constraint
The primary contribution of the Imperial Geotechnics Group is in the com- logic programming to develop and evaluate the performance of a new
putational modelling of thermo-hydro-mechanical evolution of bentonite approach to look-ahead planning.
buffers with time, using the advanced modelling capabilities of the bespoke
FE software ICFEP (Imperial College Finite Element Program). ICFEP will also
be applied in the modelling of large-scale prototype repository experiments
conducted in Sweden and Spain. The work on the BEACON project builds on
current both experimental and computational research in the Geotechnics
group, funded by RWM Ltd. (UK), AMEC Foster Wheeler (UK) and EPSRC.
Predictive modelling of
trabecular and
cortical bone structural
architecture
QUICK FACTS
Academic lead • DR ANDREW PHILLIPS
»» Research made pos-
Predictive modelling of trabecular and sible through funding
from the Royal British
cortical bone structural architecture is a Legion Centre for Blast
transdisciplinary research area. It uses Injury Studies and
a sophisticated range of data recording collaboration with the
Human Performance
and computational modelling techniques. Laboratory at Charing
Movement data is collected from infra-red Cross Hospital.
cameras to pick up the positions of a volun-
»» This work uses
teer carrying out activities of daily living in similar tools to
a defined space. Coupled with ground reac- those employed in
tion force data collected simultaneously, digital design and has
attracted interest from
movement data is used in a dynamics companies interested
model to determine moments in the joints in innovative tech-
of the lower limb (and more recently the niques in structural
optimisation.
spine). An optimisation problem is then
solved using OpenSim musculoskeletal »» A related project is
being carried out
modelling software, to predict muscle
in the EPSRC CDT
forces resulting in joint movements. This in Sustainable Civil
is a complex problem owing to the number Engineering, spon-
sored by Robert Bird
of muscles crossing a joint. The resulting Mapping for predicted mesoscale
Group. trabecular bone structure in the pelvis
muscle forces are used in unique structural
due to the influence of walking (red),
finite element models of the musculoskel-
etal system, with a strain driven adaptation
going up and down stairs (yellow and
orange), and sit-to-stand and stand-to-sit
13
algorithm to derive optimised structures, (green and blue).
The behaviour and design of stainless steel QUICK FACTS The aim of this Innovate-UK funded research is to QUICK FACTS
structures has been investigated at Imperial over »» 4 textbooks and 200+
optimise the design for manufacture and assembly
»» Innovate-UK
the last 15 years. The primary focus of the research papers published (DfMA) of large preassembled components for funded project and
has been to develop an understanding of the covering structural reinforced concrete construction in nuclear and winner of ‘Most
testing, numerical Innovative Project’ at
behaviour of stainless steel as a structural material modelling and the
other large construction projects. The project team
Collaboration Nation
through experimentation and modelling and to development of design includes Laing O’Rourke, Arup, and BRE. event in March 2016.
generate design methods suitable for incorpora- guidance.
tion into international design codes. The work has The project explores the potential of a number »» The use of preassem-
»» 3 million tonnes — bled components
been funded by EPSRC, the European Union and estimated quantity
of construction approaches, comprising of a
in large scale civil
numerous industrial sponsors. of steel procurement range of elemental sizes and jointing techniques, engineering construc-
in UK Government for both sub- and super-structure applications in tion projects has the
infrastructure Pipeline potential to reduce
Based directly on research at Imperial, a range of of Projects by 2020.
nuclear construction.
construction site CO2
improvements have been made to key stainless emissions by 50%,
steel design standards. The research at Imperial A new optimization technique has been devel- water consumption
enables more efficient structural stainless steel designs, bringing about cost oped in order to optimize the manufacturing and by 30% and construc-
deployment of components in modern large scale tion waste by more
savings, more widespread use of the material and a reduction in the use of than 50%.
resources to the benefit of future generations. construction projects. The outputs of this research
have been acknowledged in the plans for the
construction of a new nuclear power plant (Hinkley Point). More specifically,
the scheduling algorithms will facilitate the determination of the optimal size
and dimensions of the prefabricated components to be used in construction.
The overall objective is to reduce the construction period of the entire project,
while maintaining stringent safety standards (with respect to assembly
processes and structural design codes) and keeping costs to a minimum.
15
Airport safety-criticality
Academic lead • DR ARNAB MAJUMDAR
QUICK FACTS Airport surface safety, in particular of the runway Airports can then be categorised
and taxiway, is an issue of growing importance due in terms of airport surface risk.
»» Safety occurrences
on the airport apron to steady growth in air traffic and associated prob- The final model of airport surface
cost the aviation lems from congestion and delays. To address this safety assesses the functional
industry in excess of issue, the Lloyd’s Register Foundation sponsored
$10bn every year.
relationship between accidents
the Transport Risk Management Centre (TMRC) to and incidents and their underlying
»» One accident occurs undertake research to develop a model of airport critical factors to outline effective
per 5,000 movements. surface safety. safety mitigation strategies.
»» Research included
5 airport studies A theoretical model of normal airport surface Recommendations from the
over 20 days, with operations was developed. Subsequently, a global research included development
15 observations and study of the critical factors that underlie airport
43 participants.
of new regulatory frameworks,
surface accidents and incidents (occurrences) was improved design of ground
conducted, and used to develop a new holistic service equipment, improved
taxonomy of causal and contributing factors. The taxonomy incorporates the communication practices on the
viewpoint of all relevant aviation stakeholders (regulators, Air Navigation apron, and improved working Top: Obtaining accurate material
properties from testing stainless steel
Service Providers, airlines, airport operators, ground handling companies, conditions for ground service samples.
Accident Investigation Boards) involved in the subject matter. In a third step, agents. The research has since
Bottom: Additive manufacturing, also
statistical analysis is used to identify the impact of airport characteristics been used for airport apron called 3D printing, allows geometries
(e.g. airfield geometry, level of equipment, operations) on safety occurrences. safety in Los Angeles, New York and forms that are cost prohibitive or
impossible with conventional forming
and JFK airports.
methods. Material and structural testing
is being carried out for the stainless steel
MX3D Bridge.
Professor Cedo Maksimovic Dr Ana Mijic’s research interests Dr Christian Onof’s main area
works in the fields of applied are in developing analytical, of research is in the stochastic
fluid mechanics in urban water numerical and systems models modelling of rainfall and related
systems: storm drainage, urban and using full-scale experiments variables for the purpose of
flooding water supply and inter- to explore how people use and hydrological simulation and
actions of urban water systems manage water, and the role of flood design in a changing cli-
and infrastructure with the envi- cities in defining water security mate, with a particular emphasis
ronment. His recent achievement and sustainable development. upon fine time-scales. Another
stems from the EIT-European The aim of her research is funda- focus of his interest is the inte-
Institute for Innovation and mentally to challenge principles gration of multiple sources of
Technology ‘Blue Green Dream’ of integrated water management rainfall estimation, rain gauge,
project in which an innovative in and for cities by exploring radar and satellite where he has
methodology (BGS-Blue Green relationships between urban worked on the development of
Solutions) has been developed. areas and their hinterlands and methods that are sensitive to
the role of factors exogenous to fine scale singularities in the Building robust environmental
the water system that are playing precipitation field. sensor networks with low-cost
off-the-shelf components.
a crucial role in its management.
PROFESSOR CHRIS SWAN DR JOSE M. ALSINA DR MARIOS CHRISTOU PROFESSOR GRAHAM DR MAARTEN VAN REEUWIJK
HUGHES
Professor of Hydrodynamics; Lecturer in Fluid Mechanics Lecturer in Fluid Mechanics and Senior Lecturer in Fluid Mechanics
v Head of Fluid Mechanics Section Mathematics Chair in Environmental Fluid Mechanics
j.alsina@imperial.ac.uk m.vanreeuwijk@imperial.ac.uk
c.swan@imperial.ac.uk marios.christou@imperial.ac.uk g.hughes@imperial.ac.uk
Research interests of the Coastal Engineering, sediment Dr Maarten van Reeuwijk’s
section span fluid mechanics for Professor Chris Swan’s principal transport and morphodynamics Dr Marios Christou’s research Professor Graham Hughes’s research interests comprise
the offshore, coastal and built research interests concern the including detailed sediment covers metocean, offshore research covers a broad range of transport processes in fluids,
environments with capabilities description of surface water transport measurements, large and coastal engineering, buoyancy-driven flows, including generally involving wall-bounded
that include numerical waves, particularly extreme wave scale morphodynamics exper- fully nonlinear wave to wave, stratified turbulence and mixing, turbulence and buoyancy
simulation techniques, unique events, and their interaction imentation and the morphody- wave-structure and wave-vessel energetics, convection, plumes effects. Application areas
experimental facilities and with both fixed and floating namics of the swash zone are interactions, infragravity waves and jets, internal gravity waves, include transport processes
analysis of field measurements. structures. Applications of this the main research interests of interacting with coastal struc- stratified exchange flows and in urban areas (urban heat
work concern both deep-water Dr Jose M. Alsina. He is particu- tures and vessels and wave interaction of flow with topog- island, dispersion, microcli-
offshore and shallow-water larly interested in the morphody- and crest height probability raphy. He seeks to understand mate), atmospheric convection,
coastal environments; with namics of very shallow coastal distributions. the physics governing these building ventilation (stratified
research funding provided by the areas such as the inner surf and flows in a wide variety of envi- environments, plumes/jets,
offshore oil and gas industry, the the swash zones. ronmental, engineering and exchange flows), water quality
maritime and shipping indus- geophysical applications. His in distribution systems (mass
tries and the coastal engineering current work examines questions transfer), groundwater flows and
industry. relating to energy efficiency and oceanography.
the built environment, indoor
and outdoor environmental
quality, solar thermal power
generation and ocean mixing.
Geotechnics
DR ANTONIO CARRARO DR RICHARD GHAIL PROFESSOR RICHARD DR JAMES LAWRENCE PROFESSOR CATHERINE PROFESSOR DAVID POTTS
JARDINE O’SULLIVAN
Senior Lecturer in Geotechnics Senior Lecturer in Engineering Geology Senior Lecturer in Geotechnics GCG Professor of Geotechnical
Professor of Geomechanics; Professor in Particulate Soil Mechanics Engineering
antonio.carraro@imperial.ac.uk r.ghail@imperial.ac.uk j.lawrence@imperial.ac.uk
Deputy Head of Department
cath.osullivan@imperial.ac.uk d.potts@imperial.ac.uk
Dr Antonio Carraro’s research Dr Richard Ghail undertakes r.jardine@imperial.ac.uk Dr James Lawrence is currently
focuses on the development research in the areas of; undertaking research focused Professor Catherine O’Sullivan’s Professor David Potts has
and application of advanced intraplate processes and the Professor Richard Jardine’s on Upper Cretaceous Carbonates main research interest is in worked extensively on the devel-
laboratory testing techniques neotectonics of Great Britain, recent research concerns six (Chalk) driven by the needs of particulate soil mechanics. opment of computer methods of
to understand the fundamental The London Basin Forum, Basin main areas: advanced soil the geotechnical and petroleum Her research uses discrete analysis and their application in
mechanical behaviour of geoma- structures and Plate tectonics testing, offshore geotechnics, industry. He is also working element modelling (DEM) as the solution and design of geo-
terials. His research has been on buoyant lithospheres, and pile behaviour, soft ground engi- with stakeholders on a number well as experimental techniques technical problems, including
used in several applications in subcrustal plate tectonics on neering, underwater landslides of projects focused on the safe including micro-computed tunnels, foundations, slopes,
the offshore oil and gas, mining Venus. and geotechnical impact of disposal of radioactive waste. tomography (μCT). She has dams and offshore geotechnics.
and transportation industries as climate change. His current pro- been applying these techniques He is the principal author of
well as in analyses of liquefac- jects include leading the ALPACA to look at fundamental sand the finite element code ICFEP,
tion response and CPT inter- Joint Industry Project with Oxford behaviour, behaviour of reser- which is the bespoke compu-
pretation in transitional soils on offshore wind-turbine founda- voir sandstones, internal erosion tational research facility in the
including sands with fines and tions in Chalk, funded by EPSRC and interpretation of laboratory Geotechnics group and is exten-
carbonate sands subjected to and a consortium from Industry. tests. sively applied in industry.
particle crushing.
Dr Jamie Standing’s main Dr David Taborda’s research has Dr Katerina Tsiampousi specialises
current research areas cover focussed mainly on energy geo- in unsaturated soil mechanics
soil-structure interaction technics and numerical modelling conducting numerical and exper-
problems, tunnelling and deep of soil response to improve the imental research in the area of
excavations, piling, full-scale prediction of the behaviour of unsaturated soils, with applica-
field monitoring, unsaturated geotechnical structures. His work tions on energy geotechnics and
soil mechanics, laboratory soil is divided between the simulation on environmental geotechnics.
element testing and small- of laterally-loaded offshore foun- Her interest in energy geotech-
scale model testing. He has led dations and the development of nics includes geological disposal
three major research projects new numerical and experimental of nuclear waste and ground
involving tunnelling and field methods to explore the use of source heating/cooling (GSHC)
monitoring in collaboration the ground as a means to store systems. Her work on environ-
with the Jubilee Line Extension thermal energy. This technology mental geotechnics focuses on the
Project, Channel Tunnel Rail Link uses geotechnical structures such effect of climate on natural and
and Crossrail. as pile foundations and retaining man-made slopes (e.g. highway,
walls as heat exchangers, railway and flood embankments,
providing renewable low-carbon and cut slopes), and on Soil-Plant-
heating and cooling. Atmosphere Interaction (SPAI).
DR LUKE LOUCA DR LORENZO MACORINI DR CHRISTIAN MALAGA PROFESSOR DAVID A DR ANDREW PHILLIPS DR SUNDAY POPO-OLA
CHUQUITAYPE NETHERCOT
Reader in Engineering Structures Senior Lecturer in Structural Senior Lecturer in Structural Senior Research and Teaching Fellow
Engineering Lecturer in Structures Senior Research Investigator, Emeritus Biomechanics
l.a.louca@imperial.ac.uk s.popoola@imperial.ac.uk
Professor of Civil Engineering
l.macorini@imperial.ac.uk c.malaga@imperial.ac.uk andrew.phillips@imperial.ac.uk
Dr Luke Louca’s principal d.nethercot@imperial.ac.uk Dr Sunday Popo-Ola’s research
research interests lie in the Dr Lorenzo Macorini undertakes Dr Malaga Chuquitaype has Dr Andrew Phillips specialises work spans across concrete
area of behaviour and design of research in the areas of compu- research interests spanning the Professor David Nethercot has in structural biomechanics and structures, steel structures and
structures subjected to explo- tational structural mechanics, areas of earthquake engineering, been particularly interested in particular the development environmental engineering.
sions. Much of this has focussed earthquake engineering, histor- structural timber engineering, in the influence of connection of combined musculoskeletal Dr Popo-Ola specialises in cold-
on steel structures for offshore ical masonry structures and steel performance-based design and behaviour on the overall per- and finite element modelling formed steel, modular construc-
applications but is currently and steel-concrete composite assessment under extreme formance of frame structures, approaches. His most recent tion and over/re-cladding of
actively engaged in both civil structures. loads, applied dynamics, and where he has been responsible work investigates the applica- building and affordable housing.
and defence applications using the development and imple- for major programmes of com- tion of optimisation strategies
both traditional construction mentation of passive and active bined experimental and numer- in structural engineering and
materials and fibre reinforced damping systems. ical work that underpin design skeletal biomechanics. He has
composite structures. treatments in British, European a developing interest in bio
and other national standards. inspired structures and the
His current research interests design of structural forms based
include progressive collapse of on multiple environmental
structures and light gauge and factors.
stainless steel construction.
DR ANA M RUIZ-TERAN DR ADAM JAN SADOWSKI DR PETER STAFFORD PROFESSOR DAVID FISK PROFESSOR JENNIFER WHYTE
Senior Lecturer in Bridge Engineering Lecturer in Structural Engineering Reader in Engineering Seismology & Emeritus Professor Laing O’Rourke / RAEng Chair in
Earthquake Engineering Systems Integration; Director of the
a.ruiz-teran@imperial.ac.uk a.sadowski@imperial.ac.uk d.fisk@imperial.ac.uk Centre for Systems Engineering and
p.stafford@imperial.ac.uk Innovation
Dr Ana M Ruiz-Teran’s research Dr Adam Jan Sadowski conducts Research interests include: Professor Fisk’s research
is focussed on the area of Bridge research in areas including the Dr Peter Stafford’s principal systems integration, digital interests include systems
j.whyte@imperial.ac.uk
Engineering. Her main research theoretical and computational areas of investigation and transformation, innovation, approaches to optimising the Professor Jennifer Whyte’s
interests are related to the simulation of the strength and expertise relate to the fields of production systems (design and outturn performance of buildings research addresses the growing
structural response and design stability of complex metal shell engineering seismology and manufacturing), infrastructure and other complex mechanical complexity of infrastructure sys-
criteria of innovative bridge structures, for which he employs earthquake engineering. He interdependencies, and electrical systems, under- tems. The ambition is to rethink
types (such as under-deck and methods from shell theory, finite also maintains active research infrastructure life-cycles, standing the onset of unsustain- infrastructure systems engi-
combined cable-stayed bridges, element analysis, applied math- interests in applications of resilience and project- able development and how this neering, with a particular focus
curved and spatial arch-bridges, ematics and solid mechanics. probabilistic methods to engi- operation interactions; might be best included in risk on systems integration in
and cable-supported bridges), neering applications (structural systems engineering assessments particularly civil infrastructure. Research
the accidental breakage of reliability theory), and applied principles, approaches and for large complex systems projects seek to develop
stay cables, and the dynamic structural dynamics. methods enabling work across such as cities. next-generation tools and
response of slender road engineering disciplines.
approaches for systems integra-
bridges, footbridges and railway tion, to provide decision-sup-
bridges (currently in collabora- port tools, where infrastructure
tion with Laing O’Rourke) under projects are organizationally
traffic loading. complex and deliver physical
assets (and digital asset infor-
mation) as interventions into
wider infrastructure systems.
PROFESSOR DAN GRAHAM DR KE HAN DR ARNAB MAJUMDAR PROFESSOR JOHN POLAK DR ARUNA SIVAKUMAR DR MARC STETTLER
Professor of Statistical Modelling Lecturer in Transport Operations and Reader in Transport Risk Management Professor of Transport Demand Senior Lecturer in Travel Behaviour and Lecturer in Transport and the
Logistics Demand Environment
d.j.graham@imperial.ac.uk a.majumdar@imperial.ac.uk j.polak@imperial.ac.uk
k.han@imperial.ac.uk a.sivakumar@imperial.ac.uk m.stettler@imperial.ac.uk
Professor Dan Graham is Director Dr Arnab Majumdar is Director Professor John Polak is the
of the Statistical Modelling and Dr Han’s research focuses on of the LRF Transport Risk Director of the Urban Systems Dr Aruna Sivakumar’s research Dr Marc Stettler is Director of
Economics Research group, and transport modelling and manage- Management Centre (TRMC) in Laboratory at Imperial and a interests include econometric the Transport & Environment
Research Director of the Railway ment, sustainable transport, air the Centre for Transport Studies. Director of the ESRC London models of demand, travel Laboratory within the Centre for
and Transport Strategy Centre traffic management, and urban big His recent research has focused Interdisciplinary Doctoral behaviour and the role of Transport Studies at Imperial
within the Centre for Transport data. His work aims at improving on the human and social factors Training Partnership. Professor ICTs, integrated urban system College. His research aims to
Studies. His research involves the level of service of multi-modal associated with safety and Polak has published extensively models, and transport policy. quantify and reduce environ-
the development and applica- transport in cities by reducing con- risk in transport, especially for on a number of aspects of travel Dr Sivakumar is PI on the mental impacts from transport
tion of statistical methods for gestion, delay and health impact. aviation and railways. He leads demand modelling, network EPSRC funded ‘Airport Capacity using a range of emissions
transport analysis and model- His ongoing projects include simu- the team at the TRMC covering performance estimation, Consequences Leverage Aviation measurement and modelling
ling, causal inference, analysis lations of UK national rail network a broad spectrum of research network control and traffic Integrated Modelling’ (ACCLAIM) tools. Examples of recent
of networks and spatial data, and Shanghai metro system, adap- assessing human and social fac- management and intelligent project, and is a member of research projects include evalu-
and performance benchmarking tive traffic signal control system tors in risk safety of safety crit- transport systems. He serves several international scien- ating real-world vehicle emis-
of infrastructure systems. in Glasgow, and big data enabled ical systems, including human as a member of the Mayor of tific committees such as the sions and evaluating economic
urban transport planning in behaviour during evacuation London’s Smart London Board, Transportation Research Board and environmental benefits of
Beijing and Shanghai. He is Chief from emergencies. and on the Strategic Roads (TRB) Committee on Travel Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems
Scientist of Cloud Guizhou Big Reform Expert Group for the UK Behaviour and Values. (KERS) for road freight.
Data (english.gzdata.com.cn). Department for Transport.
Research Facilities:
The Lab is particularly well equipped in terms of
sample preservation and preparation capability
including: A walk-in freezer & fridge for cold
storage; sample drying, concentrating, grinding
and digestion. Samples in all media (air, water or
solids) can be analysed enabling all aspects of
the research activities to be supported (from water
quality through to resource/materials efficiency).
Uniquely, the lab owns a Waters Synapt (Ultra High
The Roger Perry Laboratory Pressure Liquid Chromatography-Ion Mobility-Time
utilises state-of-the-art of Flight Mass Spectrometer) used for high resolu-
advanced analytical tion analysis of organic compounds in water.
equipment to enable a
fundamental understanding
of how elements and
Other equipment includes:
compounds behave in the Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry;
built and natural environment. Inductively Coupled Plasma – Optical Emission
The ICP-OES (above) is being
used to accurately determine,
Spectrometry; Fourier Transform Infrared
simultaneously, the concentra- Spectrometry; Differential Scanning Calorimetry-
tions of 30 elements in Thermogravimetric Analysis; Total Organic Carbon
samples of soils collected
from contaminated sites.
analysis; Ultra Violet & Visible Spectrometry;
Atomic Absorption Spectrometry; Polymerase Chain
Reaction Analysis; Zeta Potential; Surface area
analysis; Ion Chromatography; Bomb Calorimetry.
www.imperial.ac.uk/environmental-and-water-resource-
engineering
Development of excellent analytical
skills for postgraduate students Enquiries • Dr Geoff Fowler g.fowler@imperial.ac.uk
form an important part of the EWRE
laboratory postgraduate education.
Environmental Engineering MSc
students undertake over 50 hours of
intensive laboratory training prior
to starting their 4 month research
dissertation.
Combining interdisciplinary skills and EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT)
industry-linked research experience to contribute in Sustainable Civil Engineering
The EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Sustainable Civil
to the delivery of multi-faceted complex
Engineering, launched in 2014, provides a different type of
civil engineering projects. doctoral training experience. CDTs aim to train future experts for
industry and research, retaining the depth, rigour and focus of
a conventional PhD while providing a broad training experience
through a taught component, the Grand Challenge Project and
cohort based activities.
44 | CENTRE FOR DOCTORAL TRAINING IN SUSTAINABLE CIVIL ENGINEERING CENTRE FOR DOCTORAL TRAINING IN SUSTAINABLE CIVIL ENGINEERING | 45
Collaborate
We are redefining what a university can do to meet the needs of
our partners and capitalise on innovation. Working with companies,
large and small, we value collaborative research that brings together
complex real-world challenges, academic curiosity and rigorous research.
46 COLLABORATE | 47
www.imperial.ac.uk/civil-engineering | @ImperialCiveng