HERA awards highest scoring prize for University of Canterbury students

HERA considers recognition and celebration of top academic achievement of high importance. That being so, we are proud to award a HERA prize to the highest scoring students from the University of Canterbury in their undergraduate research project.

This award recognises final-year engineering students who have completed their research project focused on structural steel in steel structures to a very high calibre, resulting in receiving the highest scoring in ENCN493.

Congratulations to the 2022 winners…

Andre Donald and Toby Simpson! Supervised by Prof. Gregory MacRae, their research topic was: Chevron Buckling Restrained Brace Frame Seismic Behaviour Considering Out-of-Plane Effects.

Their project studied the behaviour of chevron braced frames with buckling restrained braces (BRBs) considering out-of-plane and in-plane frame seismic deformations. The likely axial strength increase due to out-of-plane deformations was considered. For a frame configuration realistic of that used in New Zealand practice, simple analyses indicated that gusset plate yielding occurred under the likely deformations, thereby compromising the ability of the system to behave desirably under further earthquake shaking. By providing significant gusset plate stiffeners, the performance was improved and system yielding outside the core of the BRB was prevented and out-of-plane drifts less than 1.5%.

Congratulations to all other students who completed their final-year research projects. We would also like to express our thanks to the University of Canterbury for giving us the opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the top academic students through HERA’s award.

We wish all the students the best for their next endeavours!