Second-order Direct Analysis of structures

Linear analysis and design by the effective length method has been taught in nearly all steel structure design courses in universities and used for decades for practical design for decades, but it suffers deficiencies in many aspects such as uncertainty in effective length factor leading to unreliable check for member buckling, inability to consider global instability such as snap-through buckling, ignorance of change of stiffness when a structure is under loads and so on, simply because structural failure cannot happen in the linear elastic range. 

The new design “Second-order Direct Analysis” researched by the speaker for design of practical structures since early 90 theoretically and conceptually solves these problems and, after several decades of research by the speaker, his co-workers and counterparts, the method is now matured and widely referenced in world advanced design codes, including the GB50017(2016), Eurocode-3(2005), AISC (2016) and HK Steel Code (2011). Further, he and his research team applied the method to design of numerous iconic structures in Hong Kong and the region, including the world largest steel roof archived in Guinness world record constructed in 2019 in MGM Macau, China, the “Cool Moist conservatories” in Singapore awarded for its excellency by HKIE/IStructE in 2013 and others. 

There was no assumption of effective length in his design of these structures and the speaker received numerous research awards by the statutory Hong Kong Institution of Engineers for his research and contributions to the engineering profession as well as research awards by his university and external bodies. This lecture will summaries the path of putting his concept of nonlinear analysis to practical applications and the essence of the design concept. 

The speaker will also give a brief introduction to MSc and PhD Programmes in CEE department, as well as some academic colleagues in his Unit and the focused research areas.