Zhenyu Eric Yao

BEng. in Civil Engineering (2006) - Tsinghua University, Beijing, P.R. China
Postgraduate Research Student
Centre for Advanced Structural Engineering



School of Civil Engineering, Room 360
Phone: +61 2 9351 4393
Fax: +61 2 9351 3343
Email: z.yao@civil.usyd.edu.au

About Eric

Zhenyu Eric Yao is from Guizhou Province of China. He has a B. Eng in Civil Engineering (Sep 2002-July 2006) from Tsinghua University, Beijing, P.R. China. He was a research assistant in wind engineering (Sep 2006-Jan 2008) at Tongji University, Shanghai, P.R. China

He enrolled here in Feb 2008 as a Postgraduate Research Student towards the degree of Master of Philosophy, having been awarded a University of Sydney International Scholarship (USydIS).

Research project - Analysis and Design of Perforated Thin-walled Steel Strutures

Supervisor: Prof Kim Rasmussen

Perforated thin-walled structures are widely used in industrial and civil areas, which are quite complex for calculation and design due to their non-homogenous mechanical properties, high values of slenderness and the great variety of cross section types. The limitations of existing design guidelines urge us to develop a more general, accurate, efficient and easy tool to calculate and design this kind of structures.
The proposed research aims to develop a rational design method based on the Direct Strength Method (DSM) applicable to a wide range of thin-walled steel sections with perforations. It would involve further analytical investigations of the Isoparametric Spline Finite Strip Method for Nonlinear Inelastic Analysis, the development of the DSM for sections with perforations, and possibly some experiments.

Numerical analysis of perforated sections

Test of sections without and with perforation