Dr Shanmuganathan Gunalan

Biography

Broad area of research: Structural Engineering   Main areas of research

• Steel structures
• LSF wall systems
• Fire safety of steel buildings
• Cold-formed steel members

Research Team Dr Gunalan is an active researcher in the areas of fire safety and steel structures. He is part of a productive research team (Smart and Disaster Resilient Steel Buildings) at QUT, which consists of Professor Mahen Mahendran,  Dr Keerthan Poologanathan (VC Research Fellow) and five PhD students (Anthony Deloge Ariyanayagam, Kesawan Sivakumar, Jatheeshan Varathananthan, Manuvidhya Balarupan and Mayooran Sivapathasundaram), who have been working on a variety of research projects in Structural, Fire and Wind Engineering funded by ARC, QUT and industry. This research team has been using the full scale structural, wind and fire testing facilities at QUT’s Banyo Pilot Plant in their experimental investigations of buildings and their components subject to wind and fire actions, and QUT’s High Performance Computing facilities for advanced numerical simulations of the tested building components. Current Projects Fire Design of LSF Wall Systems Gunalan’s research has developed comprehensive experimental and numerical thermal and structural performance data for both the conventional and new load bearing LSF wall systems under standard fire conditions. Finite element analyses were conducted under both steady state and transient state conditions and validated by comparing with experimental test results. The developed finite element models were able to predict the failure times within 5 minutes. Suitable fire design rules and spread sheet based design tools have been developed based on the current design standards to predict the ultimate failure load, failure times and failure temperatures of LSF wall studs. Simplified equations have also been proposed to determine the critical temperatures for varying wall panel configurations and load ratios. The results from his research are useful to both structural and fire engineers and researchers. Most importantly, his research has significantly improved the knowledge and understanding of cold-formed LSF load-bearing walls under standard fire conditions.   Design of Cold-formed Steel Columns at Elevated Temperatures Gunalan’s research also involves detailed numerical studies on local and flexural-torsional buckling behaviour of cold-formed steel compression members at ambient and elevated temperatures. This research also investigates the applicability of the currently available ambient temperature and fire design methods and their accuracy when used in fire designs with appropriately reduced mechanical properties at elevated temperatures.     Awards and Achievements

• Outstanding Higher Degree Research Award, QUT, September, 2009
• Special Award for Academic Excellence, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka 2007
• Building and Structural Engineering Award, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka 2007