Computational design and mechanics of structures: form-finding, finite-element analysis and seismic design, with concrete shells as the test case and embodied carbon as a design variable.

The direction

My field is computational design and mechanics of structures: finding efficient forms through form-finding and optimisation, and checking them with finite-element analysis, buckling and seismic design. Embodied carbon is the measure I use to judge the outcome.

Concrete shells are my current test case. They carry load through their shape rather than their thickness, so the link between form, mechanics and material is direct. In the frame I designed for my thesis, the floors hold more than half of the cradle-to-gate carbon of the building, so a lighter floor matters. In a seismic region, though, mass and stiffness decide the earthquake forces, and the design codes add minimum thicknesses, ties and diaphragm checks. I want to know when the material saving of a shell survives all of that, and when it does not.

Three threads

Form and mechanics under seismic loading. ShellBench follows thin-shell floors through the whole design of GB 50010 / GB 50011 reinforced concrete frames, from floor to beams, columns and lateral system, and counts the A1–A3 carbon of the whole building. ShellForm asks the same question of form-found shell roofs: does including seismic loads in form-finding save carbon over thickening a gravity-only shape? So far the answer is mostly no, because buckling and minimum thickness govern, not the earthquake.

Durability as a carbon variable. In pavements, the larger part of the carbon benefit of a better material can come from a longer service life rather than lower production emissions. PaveCarbon carries a laboratory durability gain through a finite-element model to an annualised carbon figure, and the moisture-damage model does the same for moisture exposure over time.

Results that can be checked. Each project is open code with automated tests, benchmarks against closed-form or published solutions, tagged releases and, where the work is a study, a pre-registered analysis plan. My own bachelor thesis is the first validation case, and its errors are logged rather than hidden.

What I want to do next

I am applying for funded MSc and PhD positions starting in September 2027, in computational design and mechanics of structures, including shell structures, earthquake engineering and low-carbon design. The questions I would like to work on next are form-finding and optimisation that treat seismic demand and carbon together, machine-learning surrogates that are honest about their uncertainty, and lightweight structures for extreme environments.