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School of Engineering

 



See also : Civil and Environmental Engineering Discipline home page

Civil and Environmental Engineering Research

The discipline of Civil and Environmental Engineering at JCU fosters research that is pertinent to the tropical environment, along with strong fundamental research. Major research interests that have been derived from local regional issues include: wind engineering directed at the effects of high wind on structures; coastal engineering concerned with the prediction of storm surges and wave prediction; environmental fluid mechanics; tropical rainforest infrastructure; geotechnical investigations of mine stability; and systems engineering.

The discipline is closely associated with two national cooperative research centres; the CRC for Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area and the CRC for Tropical Rainforest Ecology and Management, both of which are clearly focused on the needs of the region.

The School has excellent research laboratories in the following areas: wind engineering; concrete, geomechanics, fluid mechanics and hydraulics; materials testing and structural laboratories; and an analytical environmental laboratory.

Key areas of research and consultancy include:

 Researcher/Consultant
  • Ocean and coastal engineering including simulation of tropical storm surge; wave prediction in coral reef areas; and pontoon dynamics in the Great Barrier Reef.
    Marine Modelling Unit
 Dr John Luick
  • Geomechanics including slope stability in tropical environments; strengths and compressibility of clays; and geotechnical characterisation minefields
 A/Prof Nagaratnam Sivakugan
Prof John Patterson
Dr. Veeriah Jegatheesan
  • Structural engineering including strength of concrete-filled steel tubular beams and columns; non-destructive characterisation of flaws in composite structures; and soil-pile/structure interaction.
 Dr Karu Karunasena
Dr John Ginger
Prof Lal Wadhwa

 

Further information:

Civil & Environmental Engineering

A/Prof Nagaratnam Sivakugan

James Cook University
Townsville
Queensland 4811
Australia
Telephone: (61 7) 4781 4431
Facsimile: (61 7) 4781 6788
Email: Siva.Sivakugan@jcu.edu.au