The Department of Structural and Bridge Engineering could be involved into the Discipline of Civil Engineering at Wuhan University (DCE-WHU) which is committed to building itself as “world renown discipline with Chinese characteristics”, with the aim to serve the increasing areas of infrastructural construction, resource exploitation and environment protection, etc.
There are 78 full-time teachers currently, including 21 professors, 41 associate professors and 16 lectures, among whom there are 1 academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), 2 chief scientists of “National 973 project”, 1 eminent teacher of Wuhan University. DCE-WHU also has 3 prominent teams, i.e., 1 innovation team of the Ministry of Education, 1 innovation group of Hubei Province, 1 national quality resource sharing course teaching team. We have conducted numerous multi-disciplinary researches and projects in Hubei key Laboratory of Geotechnical and Structure Engineering Safety, Key Laboratory of Hydraulic Rock Mechanics of the Ministry of Education, Research Center of Building Structure Inspection and Strengthening of the Ministry of Education, etc. DCE-WHU has undertaken numbers of high-profile projects for both academic researches and social services over past 5 years. For example, more than 10 state-level projects led by our faculties funded by “National 973 Plan”, “National 863 Plan” and National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) to pursue fundamental academic research, 68 projects approved by NSFC and more than 100 province-/ministry-level projects undertaken by us regarding the academic research and engineering & industry service. The total research funding, excluding those from industry, sum up to 80 Million Chinese Yuan. A plenty of iconic results have been achieved include progressive damage and stable control of high and steep slope in complex environment, stability and safety control of surrounding rock in deep underground engineering, high performance composites and structures, etc. Apart from that, we won 6 province-/ministry-level scientific and technological awards, including 2 items of the first prize.
Basing on industries of construction, transportation, mining, hydraulic and water resources, DEC-WHU specializes itself in below research areas:
1. Deformation and stability control of engineering rock mass.
A lot of researches on rheological behavior of soft rock, rock hydraulics, damage fracture of jointed rock mass and underground chamber anchor spray support contributed by some experts in rock mechanics area, e.g., Prof. Z.-Y. Tao, S.-C. Yang, S.-Q. Yang, etc., were highly recognized at home and abroad. In recent years, we have conducted numbers of innovative researches on multi-field and multi-phase coupling theory of rock mass, progressive damage mechanism and deformation control of high and steep slope in large-scale hydropower projects, and the stability and safety control of surrounding rock mass in deep underground engineering, which enjoy distinguished characteristics, get highly compliment among world-wide counterparts and have good effects as well.
2. Complex soil foundation treatment and soil slope reinforcement.
A plenty of researches on building rectification theory and technology, geosynthetics application contributed by some soli mechanics experts, e.g., Prof. G.-D. Feng, Z.-D. Liu, S.-Q. Lu and Z. Wang, etc., were highly recognized world-wide. Through many years’ research and efforts, we have formed our striking features in new theory and technology of soft soil foundation treatment, unsaturated soil properties and soil slope disaster prevention technology, geosynthetics reinforcement and geotextile filter mechanism, new anti-clogging geotextile and electric geosynthetics, etc.
3. High performance composite and structure.
We are innovative and influential at home and abroad in the aspects of mechanical properties and constitutive relationship of high performance composites, combined structure design theory of high-rise building, stability theory of steel structures, general design software of steel structures, wind resistance of high-rise buildings and transmission tower-line systems, etc.
4. Safety evaluation and reinforcement of engineering structures.
We have constantly dedicated to the academic and engineering research including the theory of structural reliability applied in engineering structural design standards, reliability evaluation and reinforcement on existing buildings, etc., which take the lead in China and enjoy typical specialties.
5. Water treatment and water pollution control.
Our typical research in this area include circulating cooling water antibacterial coating, fly ash ceramicist sewage treatment materials, deep processing of biochar and adsorbing materials for drinking water treatment, optimization and risk assessment of urban water supply and drainage system, fire safety technology for subway tunnel, evaluation of building fire performance, etc., which make large effects.
Discipline of Civil Engineering has a long academic history and deep background. We have been in a leading position in solving many key scientific and technological problems of major projects, such as deep resource development, construction of large-scale transportation system in western China, urban underground space development, complex super high-rise building structure, and large span spatial structure, etc. A lot of researches have reached the international advanced level, i.e., stability control of surrounding rock in complex underground engineering, entire life cycle performance evolution and safety control of high and steep slope, urban underground space environment and deformation control, soft foundation treatment, geosynthetic materials, green new reinforcement material and reinforcement technology, etc. We play an important role in the area of sponge city construction, water pollution prevention and control, and fire safety, etc. We have also reached the domestic high level of research in fire safety design of large-scale public buildings and building performance-based fire protection design, design of urban water supply and drainage pipe network, drinking water purification, sewage water treatment and water restoration and utilization, etc.