Dr Samir Dirar BSc (Hons), MPhil (Cantab), PhD (Cantab), PCAP, FHEA

Department of Civil Engineering
Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Structural Engineering
Programme Director, MSc in Structural Engineering

Contact details

Telephone: +44 (0) 121 414 4385
Fax: +44 (0) 121 414 3675
Email: s.m.o.h.dirar@bham.ac.uk

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Address: School of Civil Engineering
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Samir is leading structural concrete research at the School of Engineering, University of Birmingham. His research focuses on resilience and sustainability of existing and new infrastructure assets. His research interests range from fundamental material behaviour to overall system response. Specific topics include strengthening and repair of existing structures, low impact concrete, nonlinear finite element modelling and structural health monitoring. Moreover, Samir is actively contributing to other areas of Structural Engineering research including, but not limited to, steel and aluminium structures.

Samir works closely with leading research groups in the UK and beyond. He has led and/or successfully delivered research projects funded by EPSRC, Horizon 2020, the UK construction industry, the British Council and overseas funders.

Qualifications

Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice, University of Birmingham, 2017
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, 2016
PhD in Engineering, University of Cambridge, 2010
MPhil in Engineering, University of Cambridge, 2005
BSc (Hons) in Civil Engineering, University of Khartoum, 2002

Teaching

Samir has taught a variety of Civil and Structural Engineering modules at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Postgraduate supervision

Samir Dirar’s research interests include the following:

Strengthening and repair of existing structures with advanced composite materials
Non-linear finite element analysis of reinforced concrete structures
Structural health monitoring
Dr Dirar supervises doctoral research in these areas, as well as in the development of design guidelines for strengthening reinforced concrete structures.

Other activities

Conference Chair, 9^th International Conference on Advanced Composites in Construction (ACIC 2019)
Guest Editor, Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Engineering and Computational Mechanics (Vol. 171, Issue 2 and Vol. 171, Issue 4)
Member of American Concrete Institute (ACI) Committee 440-0F - FRP-Repair-Strengthening
Member of fib Action Group 8 Non-linear Finite Element Modelling
Member of ASTM International Committee D30 on Composite Materials
Member of the Scientific Committee, 25^th UKACM Conference on Computational Mechanics

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Tziavos, N, Hemida, H, Dirar, S, Papaelias, M, Metje, N & Baniotopoulos, C 2020, 'Structural health monitoring of grouted connections for offshore wind turbines by means of acoustic emission: an experimental study', Renewable Energy, vol. 147, no. 3, pp. 130-140. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2019.08.114

Faizi, K, Faramarzi, A, Dirar, S & Chapman, D 2019, 'Investigating the monotonic behaviour of hybrid tripod suction bucket foundations for offshore wind towers in sand', Applied Ocean Research, vol. 89, pp. 176-187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apor.2019.05.018

Bock, M, Theofanous, M, Dirar, S & Raybone, P 2019, 'Assessment of web crippling design provisions for application to proprietary soldier beams', Structures, vol. 20, pp. 147-156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.istruc.2019.03.011

Elflah, M, Theofanous, M, Dirar, S & Yuan, H 2019, 'Structural behaviour of stainless steel beam-to-tubular column joints', Engineering Structures, vol. 184, pp. 158-175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2019.01.073

Rahman, R, Dirar, S, Jemaa, Y, Theofanous, M & Elshafie, M 2018, 'Experimental behavior and design of reinforced concrete exterior beam-column joints strengthened with embedded bars', Journal of Composites for Construction, vol. 22, no. 6. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CC.1943-5614.0000883

Alqahtani, F, Ghataora, G, Dirar, S, Khan, MI & Zafar, I 2018, 'Experimental study to investigate the engineering and durability performance of concrete using synthetic aggregates', Construction and Building Materials, vol. 173, pp. 350-358. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.04.018

Elflah, M, Theofanous, M & Dirar, S 2018, 'Behaviour of stainless steel beam-to-column joints-Part 2: numerical modelling and parametric study', Journal of Constructional Steel Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcsr.2018.04.017

Gkantou, M, Kokosis, G, Theofanous, M & Dirar, S 2018, 'Plastic design of stainless steel continuous beams', Journal of Constructional Steel Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcsr.2018.03.025

Elflah, M, Theofanous, M, Dirar, S & Yuan, H 2018, 'Behaviour of stainless steel beam-to-column joints - Part 1: Experimental investigation', Journal of Constructional Steel Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcsr.2018.02.040

Alqahtani, F, Ghataora, G, Khan, MI & Dirar, S 2017, 'Novel lightweight concrete containing manufactured plastic aggregate', Construction and Building Materials, vol. 148, pp. 386-397. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2017.05.011

Butler, LJ, Xu, J, He, P, Gibbons, N, Dirar, S, Middleton, C & Elshafie, M 2017, 'Robust fibre-optic sensor arrays for monitoring early-age performance of mass-produced concrete sleepers', Structural Health Monitoring. https://doi.org/10.1177/1475921717714615

Caro, M, Jemaa, Y, Dirar, S & Quinn, A 2017, 'Bond performance of Deep Embedment FRP bars epoxy-bonded into concrete', Engineering Structures.

Alqahtani, F, Khan, MI, Ghataora, G & Dirar, S 2017, 'Production of Recycled Plastic Aggregates and its Utilization in Concrete', Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, vol. 29, no. 4, 04016248. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)MT.1943-5533.0001765

Conference contribution

Faizi, K, Faramarzi, A, Dirar, S & Chapman, D 2018, Finite element modelling of the performance of hybrid foundation systems for offshore wind turbines. in Energy Geotechnics . 217729 edn, Springer Series in Geomechanics and Geoengineering, Springer, pp. 495-501, International Symposium on Energy Geotechnics, SEG 2018, Lausanne, Switzerland, 25/09/18. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99670-7_61

Editorial

Faramarzi, A & Dirar, S 2019, 'Editorial', Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers: Engineering and Computational Mechanics, vol. 171, no. 4, pp. 145-146. https://doi.org/10.1680/jencm.2018.171.4.145

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