Dr Shashank Gupta, Faculty of Science and Engineering

Dr Shashank Gupta is a senior lecturer in the School of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Wolverhampton.

He is a Chartered Member of Institution of Structural Engineers (UK) and obtained his PhD in Structural Engineering from K.U. Leuven (Belgium) in 2008. He worked in Industry for several years after his PhD where he provided consultancy to various sectors including to the onshore civil and offshore oil and gas industry. At the university, he is engaged in teaching modules related to structural design and analysis. His principal research interests are in the areas of structural dynamics and vibrations covering both theoretical and experimental aspects. His interest also lies in improving structural resilience and designing structures subject to extreme loads such as blast, earthquake and fire.

Analysis and design of low cost shape memory alloys (SMAs) in improving resilience of civil engineering structures.

Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) is one type of smart material having unique properties of (i) ‘Shape Memory Effect’, by which the material is able to attain its memorized shape when heated beyond a certain transformation temperature and (ii) ‘super-elasticity’ i.e., ability to undergo large recoverable strains. These properties can be used to enhance the performance of civil engineering structures.

The use of SMA in civil engineering applications to date has been limited because the most common variant Nitinol, constructed from nickel-titanium, is prohibitively expensive. Recent developments of iron (Fe) based SMAs indicate that these could be a viable alternative as they are cheaper whilst maintaining similar properties.

The aim of the research is to develop methodologies for designing resilient civil structures using Fe-based SMA. The focus of research would be towards applications in retrofitting and rehabilitation of reinforced concrete structures to improve their performance when subject to extreme dynamic loads such as earthquake and impact. The research will be based on both an experimental programme and numerical simulation.