Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Materials

Graduate student pours concrete into base of beam specimen while lab staff use rods and tools to evenly distribute.

Our structural engineering, mechanics and materials researchers continue to enhance community resilliency to earthquake, develop design guidelines for buildings and other structures. Faculty and students are also emerging as leaders in various areas such as wind, fire and materials engineering.  Research in mechanics involves the application of the fundamental principles of solid and fluid mechanics to a variety of emerging engineering problems, using state-of-the-science numerical algorithms and high-performance computing technology. 

Our Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Materials group are also active in bridge engineering. Investigators have developed design guidelines to make bridges safer and more resilient. The contributions of our bridge engineers continue to repair aging infrastructure in the U.S.

Research Centers and Labs

Shake table in Ketter Hall fitted with beam and ready for demonstration.

The Center's research aims to increase the disaster resilience of buildings, bridges and other key infrastructure.. Since 1987, MCEER, formerly the multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCCER) and the National Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (NCEER) has produced over 600 publications that describe the latest research and developments on a wide variety of topics. 

Faculty researchers