Professor James Brownjohn

Professor James Brownjohn (DEng FIMechE FIStructE) joined the University of Exeter as part of the Vibration Engineering Section in 2013.

He is currently part time (40% FTE), until 6/2027.

• Structural health monitoring of civil infrastructure using discrete fixed sensors
• Instrumentation for full-scale structural perfprmance assessment, particularly in inertial and non-contacting technologies.
• Vibration serviceability assessment of extreme low vibration facilities for manufacture and research,
• Sensors for vibration and displacement measurement,
• System identification, particularly of extreme long/tall structures, using forced and ambient vibration testing, with emphasis on recovery of reliable modal mass and damping estimates,
• Human motion capture using inertial measurement units and active or passive camera optical marker tracking,
• Experimental vibration simulation using a motion platform,

• Vibration design and assessment of precision experimental laser and synchrotron facilities,
• Vibration design and assessment of disk drive manufacturing plants,
• Vibration monitoring of telecoms masts, chimneys and tall buildings,
• Modal testing (forced and ambient testing) of floors, stadia, lightouses, bridges,
• Condition assessment of highway bridges,
• Structural health monitoring of long span bridges,
• Footbridge vibration serviceability evaluation and vibration mitigation,
• (as expert witness) Structural damage due to low-level machine-induced vibration and
• Vibration serviceability assessment of medical and pharmaceutical facilities.

His current/previously funded research projects are

STORMLAMP, which investigated the structural condition of and extreme wave loads sustained by offshore rock light houses around the British Isles.

BAYOMALAW, which developed methodology and numerical tools for maximising and quantifying the reliability of modal parameters obtained by ambient vibration tests on extreme civil structures such as super-tall buildings and long span bridges.

VSimulators, a Strategic Equipment Proposal in collaboration with the University of Bath which created a pair of unique simulation facilities to explore the interactions of humans with the built environment in relation to vibration serviceability and healthcare, among many exciting interdisciplinary research areas.

ROSEHIPS a program grant between Exeter, Sheffield, Cambridge and Belfast researching population-based srtructural health monitoring.

Exemplar research papers reflecting the range of research and consulting activities are:

• Understanding and managing identification uncertainty of close modes in operational modal analysis. By: Au, Siu-Ku; Brownjohn, James Mark William; Li, Bin-bin; Raby, Alison MECHANICAL SYSTEMS AND SIGNAL PROCESSING Volume: 147 Pages: 1-23 Published: 15 JAN 2021.
• Experimental modal analysis of British rock lighthouses. By: Brownjohn, James Mark William; Raby, Alison; Bassitt, James; et al. MARINE STRUCTURES Volume: 62 Pages: 1-22 Published: NOV 2018.
• Using inertial measurement units to identify medio-lateral ground reaction forces due to walking and swaying. By: Brownjohn, James Mark William; Chen, Jun; Bocian, Mateusz; et al. JOURNAL OF SOUND AND VIBRATION Volume: 426 Pages: 90-110 Published: JUL 21 2018
• A non-contact vision-based system for multipoint displacement monitoring in a cable-stayed footbridge. By: Xu, Yan; Brownjohn, James; Kong, Dali. STRUCTURAL CONTROL & HEALTH MONITORING Volume: 25 Issue: 5 Published: MAY 2018
• Operational deformations in long-span bridges. By: Brownjohn, James M. W.; Koo, Ki-Young; Scullion, Andrew; et al. STRUCTURE AND INFRASTRUCTURE ENGINEERING Volume: 11 Issue: 4 Special Issue: SI Pages: 556-574 Published: APR 3 2015

Professor Brownjohn is a founding director of Full Scale Dynamics Ltd, a University spin-out company, and of FSD Active Ltd.