If you’ve been to Christchurch in the past five years, the chances are you’ve seen some form of diagonal steel bracing in one or more of the city’s buildings.
The reinforcements are called Buckling Restraint Braces (BRBs) and they’re now used in approximately 80% of new builds in the city.
These braces are the main focus of PhD scholarship student and HERA Structural Engineer Audsley Jones’ research project into the earthquake resilience of steel structures. Where this work has been supported by both ourselves, BRANZ and the University of Canterbury funding through the Safe Building Scholarship. The Quake Centre is also providing support during the final year of the project, which is set to wrap up in February 2017.
Associate Professor Greg MacRae, who is one of the supervisors of Audsley’s PhD, sees her combined academic and industry backgrounds as standing her in good stead to undertake the research.
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