MRes in Civil Engineering Materials

Overview

Research activity within the Civil Engineering Materials field embraces the generic theme of porous construction materials with specific interest in cementitious systems. Within this remit, research includes material response to environmental processes; the interaction between environment, material properties and degradation processes; in-service performance of materials; low-embodied-energy construction materials, and the development of novel micro- and macro- characterisation techniques to study porous building materials such as timber, stone, brick, heritage materials and saturated/unsaturated soils. The research comprises both numerical and experimental studies, the latter including micro-scale examination, full-scale testing and field studies. In the area of cementitious materials, academics are working on a number of ongoing research courses which includes the development of characterisation techniques (broadband dielectric relaxation spectroscopy) and sensor technology to study material properties and performance.