Structural Engineering and Structural Mechanics

• Introduction
• Research
• Faculty
• Facilities and Resources
• Courses
• Qualifying Exam

Program Coordinator
John W. van de Lindt
jwv@engr.colostate.edu
(970) 491-6605

 

Top - A condo roof that came off after 4 hrs of cycling. Bottom - The new spatio-temporal hurricane wind test facility in the Structural Engineering Laboratory will have the ability to reproduce these forces for hours, enabling research that will lead to better designs in the future.

 

Introduction

Structural Engineering deals with the planning, structural design, and construction of buildings, bridges, and other large structures, along with their maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation. Today's structural engineer can choose from many materials, including timber, steel, masonry, concrete, and composites to provide economical and serviceable structures that are strong enough to resist gravity loads as well as dynamic forces from wind and earthquakes.

The Structural Engineering curriculum comprises a group of courses which help the student develop an understanding of the various techniques of analysis and design. Both theoretical and numerical techniques that are of use to the structural engineer are stressed along with the use of computer software. Courses in structural analysis and design form the core of M.S.-level instruction, while the Ph.D. curriculum includes a broad coverage of the field of structural engineering and solid mechanics.

Structural Mechanics is the study of material behavior under loads. It focuses on the determination of stress and strain distributions in solids when materials are used in engineering structures of any kind. Computational solid mechanics makes up the bulk of research conducted in this area, specifically research associated with new methods for the analysis of nonlinear material behavior, adaptive materials, and structural mechanics. An emphasis in Structural Mechanics leads the student into courses which stress the theoretical foundations of solid mechanics. A strong program in computational mechanics is provided. The curriculum includes closely related courses in geotechnical engineering, fluid mechanics, and mechanical engineering. Facilities utilized for structural mechanics include those described for structural engineering and for computational methods.

Graduate studies in Structural Engineering and Structural Mechanics at CSU typically consider topics such as:

• Response of Structures to Natural Hazards
• Transportation Safety Assessment and Improvement
• Reliability and Performance Based Design
• Health Monitoring and Structural Control
• Multiple-Hazard Risk Analysis and Reduction
• Fiber reinforced polymer composite applications
• Transportation Structures

Research

Current research in the area of Sructural Engineering places a heavy emphasis on the design and behavior of structures subject to loading from natural hazards such as high winds, hurricanes, and earthquakes.  Laboratory testing makes use of the new spatio-temporal hurricane wind load test facility which can be linked to wind tunnels, as well as a shake table.   Research efforts also include translating the results of testing into reliability and performance-based design provisions for new design.  Other topics under study include bridges (timber, steel, concrete, long-span), new materials (shape-memory alloys, composites, fly-ash as insulation), analysis techniques, and safety.

Current research in the area of structural mechanics includes two and three-dimensional finite element analysis of metal forming processes, mechanics of large deformation during consolidation of soils, fracture mechanics in concrete, metals and composites, flow analysis of large elastic-plastic deformations, the application of mixture theory to the analysis of composites, mechanics of composite plates and shells, nondestructive evaluation, fracture mechanics, and behavior of smart materials. The research program in mechanics includes joint efforts with the mechanics group within the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Click here for more information about current projects.

Faculty

The following faculty members are part of Colorado State's Structural Engineering and Structural Mechanics Program:

Bogusz Bienkiewicz, Professor
Suren Chen, Assistant Professor
Marvin Criswell, Professor
Richard Gutkowski, Professor
Paul Heyliger, Professor
Erik Thompson, Emeritus Professor
John van de Lindt, Associate Professor

Facilities and Resources

Graduate students in this division have available for their use the computational facilities of the College of Engineering and the University.  In addition, the following laboratories are maintained by this division for instructional and research purposes:

• Structural Engineering Laboratory
• Chester Smith Structures and Materials Laboratory
• Concrete Materials Laboratory
• Wood Utilization Laboratory

The Structural Engineering Laboratory located at the Engineering Research Center is home to a uni-axial earthquake simulator (shake table) driven using 40 gallons of accumulation.  The shake table boasts a 35,000 lb actuator with 180 gpm hydraulic fluid flow and can reproduce some of the largest earthquakes recorded worldwide (e.g. Northridge 1994 M 6.7).  The lab also contains the world’s first spatio-temporal hurricane wind load test facility with seven synchronously controlled dynamic actuators.  The facility is currently being linked to state of the art wind tunnels for real time testing.  The system is driven by the same hydraulic flow used for the earthquake shake table.  The uniqueness of this facility lies not in the actuators, but in the numerical control algorithm that was developed to drive the system.  The algorithm is being developed here at CSU using state of the art linear and nonlinear finite element methods.  Additional resources available at the Structural Engineering Laboratory include a 24 x 100 ft strong-floor equipped with structural hold-downs,  MTS actuators and associated controls, and testing frames constructed for full-scale testing of transmission poles, straight and curved glued-laminated and other beam members, straight and skewed bridges, guardrail systems, and other specimens as needed.

The Chester Smith Structures and Materials Laboratory and Concrete Laboratory on the main campus contain a wide range of testing equipment, including a 100-kip MTS closed-loop testing machine. The Wood Utilization Laboratory has been home to a wide array of research in wood engineering and includes a 50-kip Instron machine, a full-scale tension machine, and modem data acquisition equipment. Large-scale experimental work in structural engineering also includes field testing of bridges.

While studying computational mechanics, students have access to outstanding computer facilities. Housed directly in the civil and environmental engineering wing of the Engineering Building are two computer laboratories which give students access to a wide variety of microcomputers ranging from state-of-the-art PCs to computationally powerful workstations. Computers in these laboratories are part of the local area network in the College of Engineering.

Courses

Three degrees are available within this division:

	Degree	Course Credits	Project Credits	Thesis Credits	Total Credits
	M.S. (Plan A)	24		6	30
	M.S. (Plan B)	30	2		32
	Ph.D.	30*		12	42

  *Credits beyond the M.S. degree.

Students entering this division are expected to have a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from an accredited undergraduate program. Students can be admitted without this prerequisite, but under such circumstances additional background courses will have to be taken that will not count as part of the credits shown in the above table.

The Master of Science (Plan A) degree requires a research thesis and is designed primarily for students who plan to continue their studies toward a Ph.D. degree.  The M.S. (Plan B) degree requires a professional-related independent study rather than a thesis and is intended for students who plan to enter design/analysis careers after completing their M.S. program of study.  The Ph.D. degree is for students who are seeking a career at an university or research laboratory.

The following courses are offered by this division:

	CIVE 560	Advanced Mechanics of Materials
	CIVE 562	Fundamentals of Vibrations
	CIVE 564	Analysis of Continua
	CIVE 566	Intermediate Structural Analysis
	CIVE 567	Advanced Concrete Design
	CIVE 569	Intermediate Design of Wood Structures
	CIVE 580	Theory and Applications of Structural Reliability
	CIVE 662	Foundations of Solid Mechanics
	CIVE 665	Finite Element Method
	CIVE 667	Advanced Structural Analysis
	CIVE 669	Advanced Design of Metal Structures
	CIVE 766	Plate, Shell, and Bridge Structures
	CIVE 767	Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering

Specific programs of study center on a combination of courses from the above list, supplemented by other courses generally in mathematics, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, and chemical engineering.

PhD Qualifying Exam

Civil and Environmental Engineering Department policy:

The Graduate Bulletin of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering states that new students enrolled in the Ph.D. program, with or without an M.S. degree, must take the qualifying examination no later than the end of their second semester at Colorado State University.

The Ph.D. Qualifying Exam is only for students already enrolled in the Ph.D. graduate program at Colorado State University; it is not an examination involved with determining if an applicant is qualified for admission.     For students entering the graduate program first at the Ph.D. level, this examination is scheduled no earlier than the end of the student’s first semester at Colorado State University.    Students continuing from the M.S. program into the Ph.D. program may choose to take the qualifying examination earlier than the end of their first semester at the Ph.D. level.  

Structural Engineering and Structural Mechanics division policy:

• The qualifying examination is given twice a year near the beginning of the fall and spring semesters.
• The examination consists of four 3-hour written exams and one 2-hour oral exam.
• The four written examinations are over topics selected by the candidate from a list provided by this division (see below).
• The oral exams are given approximately a week after the written exams and are conducted by the faculty of this division over the same topics as the candidate selected for the written exam.
• Regardless of the student's research interests and course work specialization, there is only one qualifying examination. That is, after completion of the qualifying examination, candidates are admitted or denied admission to this division Ph.D. program, not to a particular area within the division.
• Candidates must fill out a registration form to indicate their intent to take the exam and to specify the topics over which they wish to be examined.

Qualifying Examination Topics and Review Sheets

• Reinforced Concrete Design [ps pdf]
• Design of Timber Structures [ps pdf]
• Elasticity and Solid Mechanics [ps pdf]
• Finite Element Method [ps pdf]
• Steel Design [ps pdf]
• Strength of Materials [ps pdf]
• Structural Analysis [ps pdf]
• Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering
• Structural Reliability