Studying the impact of technological change on the resilience of buildings

Project description

Post COVID-19 economic stimulus in Australia relies on fast-tracking building and major infrastructure projects, including housing and office construction in large Australian cities. This investment will continue as Australia seeks to develop, e.g., a stronger renewables sector and its hydrogen economy.

The Indian government too has made a substantial fund available for capital expenditure in 27 states to boost the economic recovery from COVID-19. Growth in Foreign Direct Investment is expected to continue, driving urbanisation and population growth in major cities and increasing demand for housing and office space.

However, in our increasingly advanced society the use of high tech materials and solutions introduces additional fire hazards and unexpected consequences from other hazards into our environment which means that managing interruption and planning for recovery should also be a focus of engineering design. Resilience of buildings is therefore necessary for long-term success of this economic stimulus.

This project explores this issue through the following activities:

1. Carrying out a review of available methodologies and approaches for analysing and evaluating resilience of the built environment to natural hazards.
2. Identifying the potential impact of technological innovation on the latent risk of our built environment.
3. Applying resilience analysis and evaluation methodologies to case studies of buildings which utilise novel materials and systems to study the impact of technological innovation on the resilience of the environment.
4. Making recommendations as to the impact of technological innovation on the resilience of the built environment to natural hazards.

The project will interface with existing activities of the supervisors at IIT Delhi and UQ, for example in the areas of structural engineering, fire safety engineering, energy saving facades and novel structural systems. The case studies and examples to be used will be drawn from these fields.

Outcomes

1. A detailed review of methods for analysing and evaluating resilience and their applicability and utility to modern buildings in the built environment.
2. A study of the impact of current trends in the built environment, on the latent risk to various hazards, in particular e.g. fire; as well as the impact of these changes on the resilience of the built environment.
3. Recommendations about the impact of changes in the use of materials and techniques on the overall level of resilience of our cities.

Essential capabilities

Strong mathematical skills, programming in e.g. matlab or python, good communication skills, ability to work independently.

Desireable capabilities

Experience in a laboratory environment, background in risk engineering or resilience.

Expected qualifications (Course/Degrees etc.)

A good, eligible first degree in safety science, civil engineering, fire safety engineering or structural engineering.