Dr Xiangming Zhou

Academic / Research Career

• Senior Lecturer in Civil Engineering Design, School of Engineering and Design, Brunel University, from August 2011
• Lecturer in Civil Engineering Design, School of Engineering and Design, Brunel University, from October 2008
• Lecturer / Senior Lecturer in Structural Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Greenwich, from January 2007 to September 2008
• Post-Doctoral Fellow, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, from April 2006 to January 2007
• Visiting Scholar and Instructor, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, from January 2005 to March 2006

Education

• Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education, University of Greenwich, March 2009
• Doctor of Philosophy in Civil Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, April 2005
• Master of Engineering in Structural Engineering (2.5 years research degree equivalent to MPhil + MSc), Tongji University, Shanghai, China, July 2000, 2.5-year research degree
• Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China, July 1997

Research Interests

• Testing and modeling of shrinkage and fracture of concrete and other cement-based materials at early ages
• Advanced concrete technology, such as development of cement-based building products using extrusion technology; modeling of extrusion process of cement-based materials
• Rheology testing and modeling of highly concentrated cement-based materials suitable for extrusion
• Low carbon and low energy construction materials such as geopolymer, magnesium cement-based materials etc.
• Utilization of industrial waste such as GGBS, PFA etc. in construction materials
• Earthquake engineering and performance-based multi-hazards mitigation of high-rise building structures
• Testing and modeling of steel-concrete composite structures
• Testing and modeling of concrete segmental girder bridges
• Testing and modeling of fiber-reinforced concrete structures such as fiber-reinforced concrete ground slabs

Current Research

• Engineering and Physical Science Research Council – “A Novel Method for Assessing Cracking Tendency of Concrete at Early Ages,” EP/I031952/1, project value £130,796 (with EPSRC contribution £102,136), PI, 01 Sept 2011 ~ 31 Aug 2013. http://gow.epsrc.ac.uk/NGBOViewGrant.aspx?GrantRef=EP/I031952/1.
• European Commission 7^th Framework Programme - “Nanotechnology Enhanced Extruded Fiber Reinforced Foam Cement Based Environmental Friendly Sandwich Material for Building Applications (FIBCEM),” FP7-NMP-2010-SMALL-4-262954, http://cordis.europa.eu/projects/rcn/101041_en.html, Scientific Manager of the whole project and Work Package Leader. The project value is €3,780,608 (with European Commission contribution €2,747,570). PI of the share of €495,024 (with European Commission contribution €377,836 equivalent to £320,214), 01 Dec 2011 ~ 30 Nov 2014. The project involves 10 partners from 5 EU member state countries http://www.fibcem.com/.
• European Commission LIFE + Environment Policy & Governance, “Utilisation of Recovered Wood and Rubber for Alternative Composite Products (WOODRUB),” LIFE09 ENV/ES/000454, Co-I. The whole project value is €1,838,968 (with European Commission contribution €918,192) with €98,362 (£79,969) allocated to Brunel, 01 Sept 2010 ~ 31 Aug 2013 http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/project/Projects/index.cfm?fuseaction=search.dspPage&n_proj_id=3650.

Previous Research

• UK Royal Academy of Engineering International Travel Grant, PI, project value £900, May 2010.
• Brunel Research Initiative & Enterprise Fund - “A New Method for Investigating Shrinkage Cracking of Hardening Concrete: Experimental and Numerical Modeling”, LBK909(904/2009), PI, project value £15,000, 01 Nov 2009 ~ 30 Oct 2010.
• UK Royal Academy of Engineering International Travel Grant, PI, project value £500, May 2009.

Teaching

• Structural Mechanics
• Introduction to Structural Design
• Steel and Concrete Design
• Communication, Management and Professional Skills
• Sustainable Construction and Computing
• Construction and Sustainability

Awards

• Chinese Ministry of Education Natural Sciences Award (1^st Class) for the research on “Seismic Effects on Building Structures: Theoretical Studies and Applications” (the 9^th winner), 2006.

Publications

Journal Papers

(2012) Chen, HP., Guo, Z. and Zhou, X., Stress singularities of contact problems with a frictional interface in anisotropic bimaterials, Fatigue & Fracture of Engineering Materials & Structures

(2012) Zhou, X., Slater, J., Wavell, S. and Oladiran, O., Effects of PFA and GGBS on early-ages engineering properties of Portland cement systems, Journal of Advanced Concrete Technology 10 (2) : 74- 85 Download publication

(2012) Zhou, X. and Li, Z., Light-weight wood-magnesium oxychloride cement composite building products made by extrusion, Construction and Building Materials 27 (1) : 382- 389

(2011) Zhou, X. and Li, Z., A constitutive model for fiber-reinforced extrudable fresh cementitious paste, Computers and Concrete 8 (4) : 371- 388

(2010) Zhou, X. and Li, G., Shaking table model test of a steel-concrete composite high-rise building, Journal of Earthquake Engineering 14 (4) : 601- 625

(2009) Zhou, X. and Li, Z., Numerical simulation of ram extrusion in short-fiber-reinforced fresh cementitious composites, Journal of Mechanics of Materials and Structures 4 (10) : 1755- 1769

(2009) Zhang, YS., Sun, W., Li, ZJ. and Zhou, X., Geopolymer extruded composites with incorporated fly ash and polyvinyl alcohol short fiber, ACI Materials Journal 106 (1) : 3- 10

(2008) Zhang, Y., Sun, W., Li, Z., Zhou, X., Liu, E. and Chau, C., Impact properties of geopolymer based extrudates incorporated with fly ash and PVA short fiber, Construction and Building Materials 22 (3) : 370- 383

(2007) Zhou, X. and Xu, YL., Multi-hazard performance assessment of a transfer-plate high-rise building, EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING AND ENGINEERING VIBRATION 6 (4) : 371- 382

(2007) Zhou, X. and Li, Z., Numerical Simulations of upsetting process of the fresh fiber-cement paste, JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING MECHANICS-ASCE 133 (11) : 1192- 1199

(2006) ZHOU, X. and Li, ZJ., Upsetting Tests of Fresh Cementitious Composites for Extrusion, JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING MECHANICS-ASCE 132 (2) : 149- 157

(2005) Li, Z., Chau, CK. and Zhou, X., Accelerated Assessment and Fuzzy Evaluation of Concrete Durability, Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering 17 (3) : 257- 263

(2005) ZHOU, X. and Li, Z., Characterization of Rheology of Fresh Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Composites through Ram Extrusion, Materials and Structures 38 (1) : 17- 24

(2005) Zhou, X. and Li, Z., Characterizing rheology of fresh short fiber reinforced cementitious composite through capillary extrusion, Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering 17 (1) : 28- 35

(2005) Li, Z., Zhang, Y. and Zhou, X., Short fiber reinforced geopolymer composites manufactured by extrusion, Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering 17 (6) : 624- 631

(2005) Zhou, X., Mickleborough, N. and Li, Z., Shear strength of joints in precast concrete segmental bridges, ACI Structural Journal 102 (1) : 3- 11

(2004) He, Z., Zhou, X. and Li, Z., New experimental method for studying early-age cracking of cement-based materials, ACI Materials Journal 101 (1) : 50- 56

(2004) Li, Z., Zhou, X. and Shen, B., Fiber-cement extrudates with perlite subjected to high temperatures, Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering ASCE 16 (3) : 221- 229

(2003) Qian, X., Zhou, X., Mu, B. and Li, Z., Fiber Alignment and Property Direction Dependency of FRC Extrudate, Cement and Concrete Research 33 (10) : 1575- 1581