Structural Engineering
What gives an engineer confidence to project and build something as large and graceful as the Golden Gate Bridge (the creation of late Purdue professor Charles A. Ellis) knowing that it has to withstand the demands of gravity, wind, and earthquakes?
The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California
Why did Gaudi think of the Sagrada Familia “upside-down” before he started building it?
The Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain (inverted model on the left, actual structure on the right)
Who decides how much reinforcing steel goes into a reinforced concrete column supporting 100 floors in a skyscraper? And how do they make that decision?
How far apart can we place the supports of steel girders in our bridges?
If these questions spark your interest, if you would like to test to failure structural models in one of the largest laboratories in the country, then structural engineering is the right career choice for you. Join Purdue’s School Civil Engineering and enroll in structural engineering courses to leave a mark that will benefit and inspire many, and last the test of time as the Golden Gate has.
Spotlights
September 15, 2022
The Lyles School of Civil Engineering at Purdue University invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position at the rank of Assistant or Associate Professor. Applicants who have a strong interest and expertise in the structural engineering area of hardened infrastructure are of particular interest.
September 1, 2022
CE alumnus Ron Klemencic and Professor Amit Varma have worked together to design and test a concrete-filled, composite steel-plate shear wall core system for high-rise construction – dubbed SpeedCore – with the benefit of speeding construction by as much as 43% over a traditional cast-in-place reinforced-concrete core design
August 26, 2022
The 21st Annual Paul Zia Distinguished Lecture, “Design and Construction of the Rainier Square Redevelopment Project,” will be presented on Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. Presenters include Ron Klemencic (BSCE 1985), PE, SE, Hon AIA, chairman and CEO, Magnusson Klemencic Associates and Dr. Amit Varma, Ph.D., Karl H. Kettelhut Professor of Civil Engineering and director of the Bowen Laboratory for Large-Scale Civil Engineering Research.
June 28, 2022
A group of CE grad students advised by Associate Professor Mohammad Jahanshahi placed among the top of team entrants at the 2nd International Competition for Structural Health Monitoring. Tarutal Ghosh Mondal, Abhishek Subedi, Wen Tang, and Rih-Teng Wu placed third in the Project 1 category, while Mondal, Tang and Wu took second place in the Project 2 category.
June 21, 2022
Shirley Dyke, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Civil Engineering, delivered keynote lectures at both the ASCE Engineering Mechanics Conference on June 1st and the 8th World Conference on Structural Control and Monitoring on June 6th.
June 13, 2022
CE graduate student Yu-Ting Huang received the second place award in the best student paper competition by the ASCE Structural Health Monitoring and Control Committee at the ASCE Engineering Mechanics Institute (EMI) Conference 2022.
April 28, 2022
Robert J. Frosch is senior associate dean of the College of Engineering, executive director of strategic initiatives in the Office of the Executive Vice President for Research & Partnerships and professor of civil engineering.
April 27, 2022
With interest rising worldwide in new technologies that are reliable and carbon-free, Purdue and Duke Energy intend to study power produced through Small Modular Reactors, a move that may be unprecedented for a college campus and a potential fit for Purdue's energy needs.
April 19, 2022
Shirley Dyke, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Civil Engineering, has been named the recipient of the 2022 George W. Housner Structural Control & Monitoring Medal, presented by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
April 7, 2022
Mohammad Jahanshahi's research involves developing artificial intelligence algorithms for damage detection on smart structures.
January 18, 2022
The vulnerability of existing civil infrastructure to natural hazards presents one of the greatest risks to life, safety and property that the world faces today. It also impacts the resiliency and sustainability of communities.
December 7, 2021
Can computer modeling and simulation be used to predict and mitigate infrastructure failure? CE‘s Arun Prakash pairs these tools with “digital twins” that constantly update the structure’s condition to detect structural damage and evaluate performance.
December 7, 2021
Via Medium, CE‘s Robert J. Frosch discusses infrastructure failures and the need for regular forensic investigations to help prevent such tragedies as the June 2021 Surfside condominium collapse.
August 26, 2021
Amit H. Varma, Karl H. Kettelhut Professor of Civil Engineering and Director of the Bowen Laboratory of Large-Scale CE Research at Purdue University's Lyles School of Civil Engineering, and his former student Zhichao Lai, Professor at Fuzhou University in China, have received the 2021 Alfred Noble Prize awarded by the American Society of Civil Engineers for their paper, "High Strength Rectangular CFT Members: Database, Modeling, and Design of Short Columns."
June 21, 2021
Julio A. Ramirez, Ph.D., P.E., Dist.M.ASCE, the Karl H. Kettelhut professor in civil engineering at Purdue University, has been honored with inclusion by ASCE in its 2021 class of Distinguished Members for outstanding leadership in worldwide data collection, research, and education to enhance resilience of civil infrastructure and communities against natural hazards.
May 7, 2021
Professor Shirley Dyke is using real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS) to measure what's happening in the physical specimen and feed the data into a computer model, which, in turn, feeds back commands from the numerically modeled part of the structure into actuators that drive a physical specimen.
April 13, 2021
The United States is the largest supplier of nuclear power, but has an aging nuclear infrastructure. Inspection is crucial to keep current with maintenance, catch issues at the earliest stages, and remediate them for safety and performance. Mohammad R. Jahanshahi's research team is applying deep neural networks to improve inspections.
October 28, 2020
AISC has awarded its 2021 T.R. Higgins Lectureship Award to Amit H. Varma, Karl H. Kettelhut Professor of Civil Engineering and Director of the Bowen Laboratory of Large-Scale CE Research at Purdue University's Lyles School of Civil Engineering.
September 29, 2020
With many people stuck inside for months on end, the built environment has played a significant role in the COVID-19 pandemic. With support from a new National Science Foundation EAGER grant, a team of engineers including Karl H. Kettelhut Professor in Civil Engineering and NHERI-NCO Center Director Julio Ramirez will study the ways in which that built environment mitigates or exacerbates the pandemic.
July 21, 2020
Research performed at the Bowen Laboratory on a modular system of tied dual-plate walls field-filled with concrete, dubbed SpeedCore, shows that the Lego-like system's walls do not need costly fire protection, known to slow construction, especially inside elevator hoistways. SpeedCore is the brainchild of CE alumnus Ron Klemencic, chairman and CEO of Magnusson Klemencic Associates.
