Research objectives

This proposal paves the way for a transformation in structural design to establish material utilisation and lifecycle design as key drivers. We will undertake feasibility level studies as a filtering process to aid decision making and identify areas to fruitfully focus on in future research. We will employ our industrial partners as a key part of these feasibility studies to achieve our research objectives (RO) through desk studies, simulations and surveys:

• RO1.    Establish the feasibility of introducing upper limits on the effect-resistance gap;
• RO2.    Understand how structural behaviour and geometry can be exploited to save energy;
• RO3.    Understand feasible construction protocols that could enable minimal energy structures;
• RO4.    Evaluate the unintended consequences of each feasibility study.

We will meet these objectives through four work packages, described here.