Campbell Middleton: Research

Campbell Middleton leads the Bridge Research Group which aims to improve our understanding of the behaviour of concrete bridges under load and to develop new analysis techniques for assessing the strength and reliability of these structures.

An ongoing program of bridge model testing in the laboratory is aimed at validating our theoretical methods. These tests have included a series of half-scale beam-and-slab bridge tests funded by EPSRC and the Highways Agency and 20 scale models of concrete bridges. This research has already resulted in the development of a generalised collapse analysis method which has been incorporated into a computer program which has been released through the University’s technology transfer company, Cambridge Enterprise, to the wider engineering profession.

Other research has aimed to:

• develop a new non-destructive method for the detection of corrosion using electromagnetic sensors in collaboration with industry
• develop improved measures of bridge safety
• model corrosion mechanisms in reinforced concrete
• determine the validity of yield-line analysis when used to analyse voided-slab bridges.

Recently research has been conducted into using wireless sensors for structural health monitoring, an a new lower-bound plastic analysis technoque.

For more information, see the Bridge Research Group.