Keynote Speaker - Bahman Ghiassi

KEYNOTE - MAY 31, 2023

Bahman Ghiassi

University of Birmingham, United Kingdom

The application of textile-reinforced mortar (TRM) and textile-reinforced concrete (TRC) composites to the repair of existing structures or to the development of new thin structural elements has received growing recent attention. These composites are made of lightweight, non-metallic continuous yarns (in the form of fabric or mesh made of glass, basalt, carbon, etc. fibres) embedded in an inorganic matrix. This combination, when properly designed, leads to high mechanical properties, tension stiffening response and distributed cracking under tensile loads. The application of non-metallic reinforcement in the development of these composites allows the reduction of the concrete cover without affecting its durability, making these composites very interesting for lightweight repair or construction applications. With the concerns over the sustainability of constructions, the main ingredients of these composites can also be replaced with low-carbon alternatives an area that we have been highly focused on during the past few years. This lecture presents an overview of the recent developments and advances in this field and on the use of these innovative composites for low-carbon repair of existing structures or for the development of future ones.

Dr Bahman Ghiassi is an Associate Professor of Sustainable Infrastructure Materials, a Chartered Engineer (MIStructE, CEng), and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) in the School of Engineering at the University of Birmingham. He is also the Materials theme lead of the National Buried Infrastructure Facility (NBIF), a £21.7m one of its kind facility for research, education and training in buried infrastructure-ground interaction and is a part of the UK Collaboratorium for Research on Infrastructure and Cities (UKCRIC). Dr Ghiassi research centres around sustainable repair and construction materials with the main focus on innovative processing, manufacturing, measurement or modelling techniques. In 2019, he was awarded the RILEM Gustavo Colonetti medal for his “outstanding scientific contribution to the field of construction materials and structures”. He is the author of more than 170 peer-reviewed scientific articles in reputable journals and international conferences. He serves as associate editor in a number of scientific journals including Nature Scientific Reports, Innovative Infrastructure Solutions and ICE Journal of Construction Materials and is an active member of several international scientific committees including RILEM Technical Committee 290-IMC (Durability of inorganic matrix composites used for strengthening of masonry structures) and RILEM Technical Committee 292-MCC (Mechanical Characterization and Structural design of Textile Reinforced Concrete).