Infrastructure – Faculty of Engineering

Infrastructure

Sustainable and properly planned infrastructure improves our transportation networks, roads, community buildings, water and waste water supplies and access to power.

Related research centres

MITL conducts world-class, multidisciplinary, cross-sectoral, collaborative research in transportation and logistics to:

  • Accelerate the identification, mobilization and adoption of knowledge and innovation;
  • Identify and address pressing regional and national challenges in transportation and logistics including those of vulnerable populations;
  • Educate the next generation of thought leaders in transportation and logistics;
  • Foster long-term strategic partnerships between the academic, public and private sectors, and;
  • Contribute to the international transportation and logistics research agenda.

MARC is one of the world’s leading academic research programs in transportation electrification and smart mobility focused on pioneering sustainable energy-efficient solutions from advanced electric motors, power electronics, energy management systems and controls to electrified powertrains, electric vehicles and autonomous systems.

The Centre for the Effective Design of Structures is focused on the following four research areas: Masonry materials, Design and Construction; Earthquake Engineering; Investigation and Remediation of Structures; and Enhanced Use of New and Under-utilized Materials. The Centre partners with private and public sectors in the research and development of cost-effective construction products and techniques through sponsored and collaborative research.

Directors

Dr. Wael El-Dakhakhni

Professor, Department of Civil Engineering

Dr. Michael Tait

Professor, Department of Civil Engineering

The interface institute is focused on integrating research on multi-hazard, interdependence and system-level risk to address societal grand challenges with respect to different natural, built and cyber infrastructure systems. The institute is a multi-disciplinary platform for knowledge mobilization across the tri-council agencies and has members from across the university who specialize in studying different forms of hazards, component and system vulnerabilities, as well as system interdependencies and risk evaluation.

Director

Dr. Wael El-Dakhakhni

Professor, Department of Civil Engineering

The Applied Dynamics Lab (ADL) is the centre for large-scale structural engineering and experimental research at McMaster.

The lab is designed with a cellular box foundation and a strong, reinforced main-floor that provides 300 square meters of workspace with additional lab and office space available on other levels. The special design features make the lab a particularly suitable facility for large scale structural experimental research.

Clear head room of over 12 m beneath a 10-tonne overhead crane permit full scale and scaled-models testings of structures or structural components. The main loading system is a 1460 kN static/1000 kN dynamic MTS servo-controlled hydraulic system equipped with a range of actuator capacities and load cells. This system is also used to power horizontal and vertical shake tables for seismic engineering studies. In addition to a selection of hydraulic jacks and computer-controlled data acquisition equipment, 2 fixed in-plane test machines with 250 kN and 550 kN capacities are available.

Undergraduate courses include labs located in the ADL focusing on asphalt, surveying, concrete design, beams and columns, re-enforced concrete, stress and strain in structures.

Current research is conducted on topics such as: earthquake damage prevention and remediation, repair/remediation of cracked concrete, blast resistance of surface and waterborne structures, blast/shock simulation, non-traditional concrete and masonry, re-enforcement, wind/storm loading of structures, tuned mass damper and environmental/water remediation.

Internally, McMaster institute for Energy Studies (MIES) provides a forum for cooperation and interdisciplinary interactions between McMaster faculty members in the energy area and acts as a point of contact at McMaster for energy-related opportunities and to communicate them to the McMaster community. It encourages and fosters an interdisciplinary systems approach to the solution of energy problems in order to establish a credible capability for the assessment and evaluation of energy systems, thus providing authoritative advice to governments and industry.

Director

Dr. Dave Novog

Professor and NSERC Industrial Research Chair, Department of Engineering Physics

Dr. James S. Cotton

Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering

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