Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering Main Contacts: Tiziana Rossetto (TR), Paul Greening (PG), Philippe Duffour (PD) When subjected to unsteady forces (eg wind gusts, earthquakes), structures behave very differently to the way they respond to static loadings. Our department has a number of academics working on this area at different levels. One strand (TR) focuses on Earthquake Engineering Research, looking primarily at methods for evaluating the performance of structures under seismic loading, focusing on improving methods for structural damage (and economic loss) estimation and for performance evaluation of populations of poorly designed structures (see also Epicentre). Expertise is also being developed on Damping Devices to mitigate the effects of earthquakes and wind (PD). In collaboration with the geotechnics group (Dr Ferreira), the group (PD& TR) is currently working on the dynamics soil-structure interaction in particular on the possibility of strengthening the dynamic bearing capacity of soils using geotextiles. Another strand (PG) centres on the rapidly expanding area of Structural Health Monitoring. He is investigating how data from dense arrays of low-cost wireless transducers can collectively produce useful information. This involves working on range of fronts from the technical challenges of data handling and processing through to questions about how new information might inform the design and subsequent management of structures. Nonlinear Mechanics Main Contact: Gert Van Der Heijden A well established group is interested in the nonlinear mechanics of slender elastic structures undergoing large deformations, both 1D (rods, strings) and 2D (strips, ribbons) and with a focus on discovering and understanding new phenomena. Aspects I'm interested in are: buckling and post-buckling behaviour, static and dynamic stability, localisation, bifurcation, constrained deformation (self-contact and surface contact), discontinuities (kinks), whirling, transport, multi-strand structures, boundary layers, topological properties such as link and writhe.