Skip to main content

Abbas Mohammed Abubaker

Numerical investigations of spalling in concrete exposed to fire.

Supervisors

Project description

We are carrying out numerical investigations to study the effects of fire on concrete failure. Spalling involves the separation of concrete from structural elements. It occurs in buildings, tunnels, and nuclear power plant vessels. Spalling largely affects durability and load bearing capacity of structures.

Many factors affect concrete spalling. There is no consensus in the scientific community about concrete thermal spalling and the factors that govern it.

This project will study the observed physical phenomena in concrete thermal spalling relating to:
sample geometry

  • heating and rapid cooling rates
  • load and test configurations
  • restraints and boundary conditions

This will help us to understand the different physical behaviours observed in previous tests.

We will propose guidelines for standardising the investigation of spalling under the effects of fire. We will use a coupled hygro-thermo-mechanical finite element-based model.

We will also develop an ABAQUS module. This will simulate different scenarios for tests considering the factors mentioned above.

Publications

Interests

Structural engineering in general

Qualifications

  • MSc in Civil Engineering Structures.

Abbas Abubaker Abbas AbubakerLinkedIn