Overview
After graduating with a Mechanical Sciences degree from Cambridge University in 1964, I took the Concrete Structures and Technology postgraduate course at Imperial College. This was followed by PhD studies at Imperial College on the subject of skeletal structures. I then spent some seven years as a structural design engineer in a firm of consulting engineers in London, now known as the Pell Frischmann group. In 1976 I came to the University of Exeter as a lecturer in the Department of Engineering Science, which later became part of the present School of Engineering, Computer Science and Mathematics. I took early retirement in 2004, and now continue part time as a Teaching Fellow. My research interests continue with the support of an Emeritus Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust as well as an Honorary University Fellowship.
Research Interests
My main interests lie in the field of structural engineering and computational structural mechanics. In particular I am interested in the development of stress based finite element equilibrium models and their exploitation in the design and assessment of structures. Such models complement the more conventional displacement models and can provide useful bounds on error estimation which is of great significance in the verification and validation of computational models. Equilibrium models are also being used in the context of limit analysis and the possibilities of obtaining safe lower bounds to collapse loads.
I am also interested in exploiting finite element equilibrium models in the identification of safe structural systems in heritage structures such as mediaeval cathedrals and other forms of masonry structure.
Teaching Interests
I am currently involved with teaching structural engineering concepts and practice at various levels, from introducing first year students to civil and mechanical engineering structures in the environment, to second year students in the design, fabrication and testing a model of a bridge girder, to third year students in a course where the behaviour and design of reinforced and prestressed concrete structures is studied, and finally to a Master’s level course on more advanced structural engineering concepts which include computational modelling by finite elements as well as limit analysis.
I also supervise a number of individual student projects in their third year, with special interests in structural engineering topics.
Other Relevant Information
Referee for a number of journals, including:
- The International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering;
- Communications in Numerical Methods in Engineering;
- The Structural Engineer.
Member of the Executive Committee of the Association for Computational Mechanics in Engineering UK;
Current Chairman of the Devon and Cornwall Branch of the Institution of Structural Engineers.
Qualifications : MA(Cantab), DIC, PhD(London), CEng, MIStructE
