Civil Engineering Research
Civil Infrastructure
Civil infrastructure is part of the “built environment” and plays a pivotal role in a nation’s economy, social well-being and quality of life. Unfortunately, much current infrastructure, such as bridges and coastal structures, is ageing and deteriorating. Ensuring its continued high level of safety and serviceability is a matter of increasing challenge to engineers and asset managers alike and demands the use of advanced, risk-based decision-making tools.
The Infrastructure Management Research Group at the University of Greenwich has recently developed such decision-making tools and is specialising in researching corrosion-affected concrete infrastructure, a global problem contributing to the premature failures of these structures. Worldwide, the maintenance cost for corrosion-affected concrete infrastructure is around US$100 billion a year; in the UK it is around £800 million for bridges alone. The Department of Civil Engineering at Greenwich has formed a strong partnership with Atkins to develop cutting-edge research in this field.
Testing Facilities & Methods
The Department of Civil Engineering has a range of standard civil engineering testing facilities, equipment and methods for all disciplines, e.g. materials, structures, hydraulics and geotechniques. It also has two facilities that are unique in Europe: a specialised environmental chamber and a testing rig for full-size ground slabs.
The environmental chamber, which measures 4 x 8 x 3 m, regulates temperature, humidity, saltwater spray, etc. This is ideal for investigating the whole-life behaviour of materials and structures under hazardous conditions (such as a corrosive environment) and the effects of climate change on materials and structural behaviour. Calibration methods for test data under accelerated conditions are also available.
The ground slab testing rig is the largest in Europe. It measures 6 x 12 m and has a loading capacity of 1,000 kN, ideal for investigating the behaviour of full-size ground slabs under realistic loading and service conditions.