Structural Engineering
Best Department in Engineering based on the results of the 2014 Graduate and Professional Student Experience & Satisfaction survey.
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NSF Funds Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site Program in SE
The National Science Foundation awarded Profs. Ken Loh and Michael Todd the establishment of a new
REU Site at UC San Diego (grant no. EEC-1757994). The “Designing for Safety and Safety by Design”
REU program will recruit and train 12 diverse U.S. scholars for eight weeks each summer. The students
will work closely with the PIs and Profs. Alicia Kim, Francesco Lanza di Scalea, Hyonny Kim, and J. S.
Chen to work on topics such as: quantifying potential load conditions, damage mechanics, and
Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Scholarship
Alan Puah (left in photo), an SE senior, recently received a scholarship awarded by Simpson Gumpertz & Heger (SGH) SGH is a major structural engineering consulting firm, and the scholarship was established to celebrated its 60th Anniversary. The award was presented by Glenn R. Bell (right in the photo), Chief Executive Officer, on October 26, 2016.
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Research Projects
The research of our faculty, researchers, and students has provided solutions to some of the most challenging problems in the structural engineering field.
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World Class Faculty
Best Department in Engineering based on the results of the 2014 Graduate and Professional Student Experience & Satisfaction survey.
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Structural Engineering Department
The Department of Structural Engineering offers a unique program spanning across civil, aerospace, and mechanical engineering.
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Did you know?
The Department of Structural Engineering offers a unique program spanning across civil, aerospace, and mechanical engineering.
Learn moreSupporting Structural Engineering Department
The Structural Engineering Department has a mission to provide a comprehensive education and training to engineers by emphasizing and building on the commonality of engineering structures at the levels of materials, mechanics, analysis and design.
Your generous donation and investment will make that vision a reality.
Announcements
SE is currently recruiting for the following position(s). Please click… Learn more
The Department of Structural Engineering at UC San Diego is seeking one… Learn more
There are no positions open currently.
News
Events
Monday, April 30, 2018, 3pm
SME Building, Room 248
Experimental Aeroelastic Models: Design and Wind Tunnel Testing for Correlation with New Theory
SE Distinguished Lecture
Tuesday, February 20, 2018, 10am
SME Building, Room 248
Ground Deformation Effects on Subsurface Pipelines and Infrastructure Systems
SE Distinguished Lecture
Seminars
Awards
Professor Loh and Sumit Gupta awarded with the Institute of Engineering in Medicine (IEM), 10th Anniversary Symposium Best Paper AwardProfessor Ken Loh and student Sumit Gupta have been awarded the "Institute of Engineering in Medicine (IEM), 10th Anniversary Symposium Best Paper Award" for
Professor John McCartney, along with Professor Patrick Fox and previous PhD student Yewei Zheng, awarded 2018 IGS Award from the International Geosynthetics SocietyProfessor John McCartney,
Professor Kenneth Loh awarded 2018 Structural Health Monitoring Person-of-the-Year Award Professor Kenneth Loh has been awarded the 2018 Structural Health Monitoring Person-of-the-Year Award from the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing (
Outstanding Earthquake Spectra Paper Award AnnouncedOn the basis of recommendations made by the Earthquake Spectra Editorial Board, the EERI Board of Directors has selected the paper, “Landmark Data S
Letter From The Chair
John S. McCartney
Professor and Chair
On behalf of the approximately 500 undergraduate students, 200 graduate students, 26 researchers, 33 staff members, and 23 faculty members in the Department of Structural Engineering at the University of California San Diego, welcome! Structural engineering plays a critical role in fulfilling the basic needs of society for safe and sustainable built environments and transportation means, and is an interdisciplinary field that provides exciting opportunities for solving problems at the forefront of research and practice. Learn more
Faculty Spotlight
Hutchinson, TaraProfessor, SE
Earthquake and geotechnical engineering, performance assessment of structural/nonstructural components, and machine l
Qiao, YuProfessor, SE
High-performance infrastructure materials, smart materials and structures, energy-related materials, failure analysis
Shing, BensenProfessor, SE
Earthquake engineering, structural dynamics, inelastic behavior of concrete and masonry structures, bridge structures
Structural Engineering Department at UC San Diego
The Department of Structural Engineering offers a unique program
spanning across civil, aerospace, and mechanical engineering.
Center researchers are world-renowned experts in experimental and computational methods for extreme events research. We leverage this expertise to develop better ways to protect entire built infrastructures, as well as bio-systems, from extreme events such as blasts from terrorist attacks and mining explosions, car crashes, sports collisions, and natural disaster such as landslides. Learn more
The Charles Lee Powell Structural Research Laboratories are the largest and most active full-scale structural testing facilities in the world. With its 50 ft. tall reaction wall and 120 ft. long strong floor, the Structural Systems Laboratory is equipped for full-scale testing of bridges, buildings and aircraft.
One of the world's largest shake tables, the six-degree-of-freedom shake table is used for the dynamic testing of full-scale bearings, isolators, and dampers. Computer-controlled hydraulic actuators that can apply up to 12 million pounds of force during earthquake simulations power SRMD.
In 2005, the Englekirk Structural Engineering Center opened as an expansion of Powell Labs, equipped with the world's first outdoor shake table. It is adjacent to the country's largest Soil Foundation-structure Interaction Facility. UCSD Blast Simulator is the world's first laboratory to simulate the effects of bombs without the use of explosive materials.
Research Highlights
Seismic Design And Modeling Of "Deep" Steel Columns
Professor Chia-Ming Uang
Steel special moment frame is widely used for multistory building construction in high seismic regions due to its excellent ductility capacity and architectural versatility.
Hydraulic/high Pressure Nitrogen Based Blast Simulator
Professor Gilbert A. Hegemier
The UC San Diego blast simulator characterizes the response of civilian and military components and systems to terrorist explosive attack and high impact scenarios.
Multiscale Simulation Of Red Blood Cells In Circulation
Professor Qiang Zhu
Since the size of red blood cells is comparable to those of micro-vessels and capillaries, in microcirculation blood cannot be treated as continuum uid.
Mechanical Response Of Confined Pentamode Lattices For Potential Use As Novel Seismic Isolation And Impact Protection Devices
Dr. Gianmario Benzoni with University of Salerno
The ability of pentamode lattices to have both very soft and very stiff deformation modes suggests they are potentially suitable for use as seismic isolators.
Seismic Isolation Of Nuclear Power Plants
Professor Gilberto Mosqueda
Seismic isolation has been proven as an e ective strategy to protect critical facilities including Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) from the damaging e ects of horizontal earthquake ground shaking.
Modeling The Nano-mechanics Of Single-cell Structures
Professor Robert J. Asaro
The cell wall of S. cerevisae serves to protect the cell from thermal, oxidative and mechanical stresses and it is the target for anti-fungal drugs in pathogenic strains.
Soil-Structure Interaction and Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering
Professor Ahmed Elgamal
Three-dimensional (3D) nonlinear nite element simulations are becoming increasingly feasible for geotechnical applications. OpenSeesPL, created by J. Lu, A. Elgamal, and Z.
Stress Wave Mitigation In Porous Materials
Professor Yu Qiao
Stress wave mitigation in porous materials, such as silica monoliths and PTFE foams, are investigated.
High-speed Inspection of Railtracks by Passive Extraction of Acoustic Transfer Functions from Wheel-generated Dynamic Excitations
Professor Francesco Lanza Di Scalea
Internal defects in rails cause a number of train accidents worldwide, including derailments.
Mean-strain Methodology
Professor Petr Krysl
Methodology for stabilizing mean-strain hexahedron and tetrahedron finite elements for applications to anisotropic deformation in the infinitesimal- and finite-strain was described in several paper
Meshfree Method For Extreme Events Modeling
Professor J. S. Chen
The complex multi-scale failure modes, damage evolution, and fragmentation resulting from high velocity contact- impact processes in solids and structures pose considerable di culties in simulation
Fluid—Structure Interaction Modeling Of Wind Turbines At Full Scale
Professor Yuri Bazilevs
A fully coupled uid–structure interaction (FSI) simulation methodology for wind turbines was developed in order to address a variety of engineering questions related to their aerodynamic and struct
Sensing Subsurface Structural Damage using Noncontact Tomography
Kenneth J. Loh, Sumit Gupta, Gaochen Fan, and Sashank Shivakumar
Aerospace, civil, marine, and even biological structures and components are susceptible to damage that often initiate beneath the surface, which make them difficult to detect by conventional visual
Optimal Damage Detection And Prognosis Via Ultrasonic Scattering
Professor Michael Todd
Ultrasonic guided wave interrogation using piezoelectric arrays and full- eld laser ultrasonic inspection has evolved into a very active research area.
Seismic Response of Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil Bridge Abutments
Associate Professor
Geosynthetic reinforced soil (GRS) bridge abutments are widely used in transportation infrastructure, and provide many advantages over traditional pile-supported bridge abutments, including lower c
M2DO: Multiscale and Multiphysics Design Optimization Considering Manufacturability
Professor H. Alicia Kim and Dr. Hayoung Chung
With the development of Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology, an architected material (a material with designed internal architecture, e.g.
Center For Extreme Events Research
Structural Engineering R.Asaro, Associate Director Y. Bazilevs, Director J.S. Chen, Associate Director G. Hegemier
Center researchers are world-renowned experts in experimental and computational methods, design optimization, sensor technology and multifunctional materials for extreme events.
DroneLab Participates in Earthquake Test on UC San Diego Shake Table
Professor Falko Kuester, Professor Tara Hutchingson, Professor Joel Conte
If the prospect of a mega-earthquake has you quaking — fear not, because UC San Diego engineers are making sure our world will withstand the rumble.
Hail Ice Impact onto Composite Aircraft Structures
Professor Hyonny Kim
Impact damage to laminated composite aircraft structures, when subjected to in-flight impact by hailstones, can be extensive internally while exhibiting low external visual detectability.
Seismic Collapse Potential of Reinforced Masonry Buildings
Professor Benson Shing
Buildings designed according to current codes in the US are expected to have a low probability of collapse in an extreme seismic event.
Spatial Visualization Training Using Touchscreen Technology
Professor Lelli Van Den Einde
A Spatial Visualization Trainer (SVT) App was developed for an iPad to enable students to freehand sketch isometrics and orthographic projections.
Earthquake Engineering Curriculum For K-12
Professor Lelli Van Den Einde
Current Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) calls for introducing engineering design principles as early as Pre-K.