The Sustainable and Resilient Steel Structures (SRSS) research group aims to achieve better understanding and assessment of the behaviour of steel structures in both conventional and extreme conditions, offering innovative solutions for the creation of sustainable and resilient infrastructure in the UK and abroad by means of steel structures.

Dr Merih Kucukler is an Associate Professor in Civil Engineering at the University of Warwick. Dr Kucukler’s research has led to novel structural steel design methods that have been incorporated into British and European structural steel ambient temperature and fire design standards such as BS EN 1993-1-2, BS EN 1993-1-4 and BS EN 1993-1-14. As the Principal Investigator, Dr Kucukler is currently leading the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) research project EP/V034405/1 Behaviour and Design of Stainless Steel Structures in Fire, which has been supported by major industrial stakeholders and led to new, innovative fire design methods for stainless steel structures which had not existed in the literature.

Advanced analysis based design of steel structures

Owing to the current wide-availability of computational resources to structural engineers, advanced finite element analysis where all the factors detrimentally influencing structural behaviour are accounted for can be utilised for the analysis and design of steel structures. Despite this, in practice, structural engineers still generally use conventional hand-calculation based design methods for the design of steel structures which lead to less efficient designs and a limited level of understanding of the overall behaviour of steel structures relative to those that can be achieved using structural steel design based on advanced finite element analysis. The current wide use of conventional hand-calculation based structural steel design methods could be ascribed to the familiarity of structural engineers with such methods and the lack of detailed rules for the application of the advanced finite element analysis in the design of steel structures in existing structural steel design standards.

The SRSS research group aims to develop novel structural steel design methods based on advanced finite element analysis of steel structures. The developed design methods are applicable for the analysis and design of steel structures under both standard and extreme conditions such as fire incidents, leading to considerably sustainable and resilient designs for steel structures and furnishing significantly improved understanding of the overall behaviour of steel structures to structural engineers.

Fire behaviour and design of steel structures

Steel structures can lose significant portions of their material strengths and stiffnesses in fire, leading to catastrophic situations and their collapse. Thus, fire behaviour and design of steel structures is of pivotal importance to achieve resilient infrastructure in the UK and abroad. The SRSS Research Group has a particular interest and expertise on the fire behaviour and design of steel structures. They have developed a number of novel structural steel fire design methods that have been incorporated into the British and European structural steel fire design standard BS EN 1993-1-2. Dr Kucukler is currently leading an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) research project EP/V034405/1 Behaviour and design of stainless steel structures, which has brought about significant contributions for better understanding and assessment of the behaviour of stainless steel structures in fire. The novel structural steel fire design methods developed in the project is capable of exploiting better structural performance of stainless steel structures in fire relative to conventional carbon steel structures, resulting from the higher material strength and stiffness retention of stainless steel at elevated temperatures in comparison to conventional carbon steel.

Machine-learning based design models for steel structures

Machine learning has been becoming increasingly applicable in the structural engineering field for the solutions of variety of problems. Machine-learning based structural steel design models that can be trained using structural performance data obtained from physical experiments and advanced nonlinear finite element simulations can furnish quite accurate predictions of the behaviour of steel structures in complex conditions, providing very efficient design solutions. For such machine-learning based structural design models to be accurate, the sampling has to be carried out very carefully with the use of very high number of fundamental structural performance data. Dr Kucukler and the SRSS Group has a particular expertise in creating very large amounts of fundamental structural performance data for steel structures using automated advanced finite element modelling tools. Building upon this expertise, the SRSS Research Group has recently initiated a research effort for the establishment of machine-learning based structural steel design models for a variety of complex design problems, aiming to provide tools to structural engineers in industry to accurately analyse the behaviour of steel structures in complex conditions whereby structural engineers can come up with sustainable and efficient design solutions for complex problems.

Future PhD Students

Dr Kucukler and the SRSS Research Group are always enthusiastic to work with motivated PhD students who wish to carry out impactful research. There are PhD scholarship opportunities available for UK-based and international candidates. If you wish to join the SRSS Research Group as a PhD student, please contact Dr Kucukler via email, including your CV.

Future Postdoctoral Research Fellows and Fellow Academics

If you are a recent PhD graduate who wish to work with Dr Kucukler as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Warwick, there are funding opportunities. Please contact Dr Kucukler via email including your CV for further information.

Dr Kucukler is also always interested to hear from fellow academics who wish to collaborate with him. If you are a fellow academic and interested in carrying out collaborative research with Dr Kucukler, please do not hesitate to contact him as he will be very happy to discuss potential collaboration opportunities with you.

Industrial Partners and Collaborators

Dr Kucukler and the SRSS Research Group has collaborated with major industrial stakeholders, which has resulted in impactful results that have found applications in industry. If you are an industrial stakeholder and have a problem in steel structures related-areas or require consultancy, please get in touch. The SRSS Research Group would be happy to share their expertise and collaborate with you.