Dr Boulent Imam
Senior Lecturer
BSc, MSc (Distinction), PhD
About
Biography
Dr Boulent Imam graduated with an Honours B.Sc. degree from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. He obtained his M.Sc. in Structural Engineering with Distinction from the University of Surrey in 2002. His M.Sc. dissertation was on the probabilistic fracture assessment of the Northridge moment resisting connections and led to the publication of two papers. Dr Imam continued his studies at the same university where he successfully defended his PhD in June 2006. Dr Imam's PhD work focused on the fatigue analysis of riveted railway bridges and was funded by EPSRC and Network Rail. He developed a general methodology for the fatigue assessment of riveted railway bridges, through finite element (FE) analysis, by concentrating on the fatigue behaviour of their primary connections.
Following the completion of his PhD in June 2006, Dr Imam continued his research as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Surrey. He expanded his experience in load modelling by investigating the effect of future load evolution scenarios on the remaining life of riveted railway bridges. Parallel to this study, he also investigated, as a continuation of his PhD work, the application of novel assessment methods for more reliable remaining fatigue life estimation of riveted bridge connections.
In November 2007, Dr Imam was appointed as a Lecturer in Civil Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences in the University of Surrey. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2013. Dr Imam has contributed significantly towards in-depth understanding of the fatigue behaviour of riveted railway bridges and developed methods for more reliable quantification of their remaining fatigue life taking into account historal rail traffic, novel fatigue assessment methods, loading, resistance and modelling uncertainties as well as system effects. Later on, he extended his work on fatigue towards developing fracture mechanics guidelines for the assessment of fatigue crack growth in steel bridge details towards the optimisation of inspection and maintenance planning in steel bridges. Recently, Dr Imam has provided valuable insight towards understanding the potential impacts of climate change on bridges and quantifying the resilience of bridge infrastructure against these impacts by developing a risk-based framework for assessing the reliability of bridges over time by considering long-term material deterioration and bridge scour as well as the consequences of failure of bridges. This is complemented by his research in the area of climate change adaptation and asset management.
University roles and responsibilities
- Programme Leader, MSc Bridge Engineering
- Programme Leader, MSc Infrastructure Engineering and Management
My qualifications
2001
BSc (Hons) Civil Engineering
Middle East Technical University
2002
MSc (Distinction) Structural Engineering
University of Surrey
2006
PhD in Engineering
University of Surrey
2010
Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice
University of Surrey
Previous roles
2006 - 2007
Post-doctoral researcher
University of Surrey
News
ResearchResearch interests
Fatigue and fracture of structural components and systems
Fatigue of metallic bridges
Probabilistic fatigue analysis, probabilistic traffic models and response spectra
Hot-spot and critical distance methods for fatigue assessment
- Fracture mechanics and probabilistic fracture analysis
Risk and reliability assessment of structural systems
Life cycle assessment and whole-life management of assets
Climate change effects on built infrastructure
- Impact of changing environmental conditions on structural deterioration
- Probabilistic assessment of flood risk and scour of bridges
Consequence Modelling
- Modelling of human, economic, environmental, social consequences from structural failures
Research projects
Adapting Scour Risk Management Practices For National Bridge Stocks To A Changing Climate (EngD Project with Network Rail) Infrastructure operators are facing the challenges of managing assets under pressures from reduced budgets, aging infrastructure and increasing travel demand. This happens in the context uncertain climate change prompting the need for ever more robust and flexible decision support tools. One major risk to bridges in both current and future climate conditions is bridge scour- the removal of riverbed material at bridge foundations due to the flow of water. Scour is the foremost cause of bridge failure both in the UK and worldwide.
This project explores climate change impacts on the management of scour risk for national bridge stocks. To do this a selection of methods is compiled to model the chain of processes linking climate change to scour risk at a network level, exploring the role of key uncertainties. The overall objective of the project is to quantify the impact of climate change on the bridge infrastructure through a risk-based framework. Individual objectives are as follows: (I) Development of a novel probabilistic methodology for the estimation of risk of collapse of bridges under changing environmental and load demand conditions. (II) Evaluation of the effect of increased river flooding, arising from climate change, on the scour risk ranking and reliability of bridges. (III) Evaluation of the effects of climate change and increasing live loading on material deterioration and bridge reliability. The proposed work is carried out in collaboration with a mix of organisations: Network Rail, HR Wallingford, TGP and TRL. The objective of Work Package 5 is to create a life cycle assessment tool that can compare different maintenance/replacement strategies for track and infrastructure based on a life cycle evaluation. The evaluation shall quantify direct economic costs, availability (delay costs/user cost/benefit from upgrade etc.) and environmental impact costs. Project partners include Network Rail, UIC, COWI, Mouchel, TWI, University of Minho, Turkish Railways and Lulea Technical University.
Have contributed towards the development of a probabilistic fracture mechanics (PFM) methodology for fatigue assessment and inspection & maintenance planning of steel bridge structures. Further work involved development of guidelines for modelling of steel bridges for fatigue assessment and dynamic analysis. Project partners included CTICM, Chalmers University of Technology, Aachen University and Ramboll.
Eurocodes and Design of Plated Structures - KTP Project with PAFA Consulting Engineers Work involved the development of a reliability tool for the design of plated structures according to Eurocodes.
Work involved the development of models for predicting failure consequences for buildings and bridges. Consequences have been categorised into human, economic, environmental and social.
The main objective of the Action is to develop a guideline for the establishment of QC plans in roadway bridges, by integrating the most recent knowledge on performance assessment procedures with the adoption of specific goals. This guideline will focus on bridge maintenance and life-cycle performance at two levels: (i) performance indicators, (ii) performance goals. By developing new approaches to quantify and assess the bridge performance, as well as quality specifications to assure an expected performance level, bridge management strategies will be significantly improved, enhancing asset management of ageing structures in Europe. Enhancement of Risk Based Inspection for Structural Integrity Assessment - Lloyd’s Register Foundation Project The project focuses on risk based inspection and maintenance planning for welded details in fixed offshore steel structures with the objective to improve and augment best practices approaches covering improved modelling of fatigue crack growth, utilisation of structural response monitoring and use of efficient approaches for systems risk informed inspection and maintenance planning. Research collaborations
Investigation into Solar Sail Technology - Surrey Space Centre project funded by Astrium (Co-Investigator)
Providing assistance in the dynamic testing of structural elements of the solar sail for the purposes of investigating their dynamic characteristics.
Indicators of esteem
Keynote lecture – The Future of Ageing Metallic Bridges. 7th International Conference of Bridge Maintenance, Safety and Management. Shanghai, China.
Keynote lecture – The Future Ageing of Metallic Bridges. Bridges 2015 Conference. Manchester, UK
Member of the editorial board for the Infrastructures journal
Research interests
Fatigue and fracture of structural components and systems
Fatigue of metallic bridges
Probabilistic fatigue analysis, probabilistic traffic models and response spectra
Hot-spot and critical distance methods for fatigue assessment
- Fracture mechanics and probabilistic fracture analysis
Risk and reliability assessment of structural systems
Life cycle assessment and whole-life management of assets
Climate change effects on built infrastructure
- Impact of changing environmental conditions on structural deterioration
- Probabilistic assessment of flood risk and scour of bridges
Consequence Modelling
- Modelling of human, economic, environmental, social consequences from structural failures
Research projects
Adapting Scour Risk Management Practices For National Bridge Stocks To A Changing Climate (EngD Project with Network Rail)
Infrastructure operators are facing the challenges of managing assets under pressures from reduced budgets, aging infrastructure and increasing travel demand. This happens in the context uncertain climate change prompting the need for ever more robust and flexible decision support tools. One major risk to bridges in both current and future climate conditions is bridge scour- the removal of riverbed material at bridge foundations due to the flow of water. Scour is the foremost cause of bridge failure both in the UK and worldwide.
This project explores climate change impacts on the management of scour risk for national bridge stocks. To do this a selection of methods is compiled to model the chain of processes linking climate change to scour risk at a network level, exploring the role of key uncertainties.
The overall objective of the project is to quantify the impact of climate change on the bridge infrastructure through a risk-based framework. Individual objectives are as follows: (I) Development of a novel probabilistic methodology for the estimation of risk of collapse of bridges under changing environmental and load demand conditions. (II) Evaluation of the effect of increased river flooding, arising from climate change, on the scour risk ranking and reliability of bridges. (III) Evaluation of the effects of climate change and increasing live loading on material deterioration and bridge reliability. The proposed work is carried out in collaboration with a mix of organisations: Network Rail, HR Wallingford, TGP and TRL.
The objective of Work Package 5 is to create a life cycle assessment tool that can compare different maintenance/replacement strategies for track and infrastructure based on a life cycle evaluation. The evaluation shall quantify direct economic costs, availability (delay costs/user cost/benefit from upgrade etc.) and environmental impact costs. Project partners include Network Rail, UIC, COWI, Mouchel, TWI, University of Minho, Turkish Railways and Lulea Technical University.
Have contributed towards the development of a probabilistic fracture mechanics (PFM) methodology for fatigue assessment and inspection & maintenance planning of steel bridge structures. Further work involved development of guidelines for modelling of steel bridges for fatigue assessment and dynamic analysis. Project partners included CTICM, Chalmers University of Technology, Aachen University and Ramboll.
Eurocodes and Design of Plated Structures - KTP Project with PAFA Consulting Engineers
Work involved the development of a reliability tool for the design of plated structures according to Eurocodes.
Work involved the development of models for predicting failure consequences for buildings and bridges. Consequences have been categorised into human, economic, environmental and social.
The main objective of the Action is to develop a guideline for the establishment of QC plans in roadway bridges, by integrating the most recent knowledge on performance assessment procedures with the adoption of specific goals. This guideline will focus on bridge maintenance and life-cycle performance at two levels: (i) performance indicators, (ii) performance goals. By developing new approaches to quantify and assess the bridge performance, as well as quality specifications to assure an expected performance level, bridge management strategies will be significantly improved, enhancing asset management of ageing structures in Europe.
Enhancement of Risk Based Inspection for Structural Integrity Assessment - Lloyd’s Register Foundation Project
The project focuses on risk based inspection and maintenance planning for welded details in fixed offshore steel structures with the objective to improve and augment best practices approaches covering improved modelling of fatigue crack growth, utilisation of structural response monitoring and use of efficient approaches for systems risk informed inspection and maintenance planning.
Research collaborations
Investigation into Solar Sail Technology - Surrey Space Centre project funded by Astrium (Co-Investigator)
Providing assistance in the dynamic testing of structural elements of the solar sail for the purposes of investigating their dynamic characteristics.
Indicators of esteem
Keynote lecture – The Future of Ageing Metallic Bridges. 7th International Conference of Bridge Maintenance, Safety and Management. Shanghai, China.
Keynote lecture – The Future Ageing of Metallic Bridges. Bridges 2015 Conference. Manchester, UK
Member of the editorial board for the Infrastructures journal
Supervision
Postgraduate research supervision
- Bridge Scour under the Effects of Climate Change
- Novel Fatigue Analysis of Riveted Connections Through the Theory of Critical Distances
- Effects of Climate Change on Buckling Resistance of Metallic Plates
- Dynamic Effects on Fatigue Assessment of Metallic Truss Railway Bridges
- Debris Accumulation Risks on River Bridges
- Fatigue Analysis of Cable Anchorages on multi-span Cable - Stayed Bridges
- Structural Response of Cable-Stayed Bridges to Cable Loss
Teaching
ENG1077: Integrated Design 1
ENG2102: Structural Design (Steel Design)
ENGM029: Bridge Management
ENGM265: Sustainability & Infrastructure
ENGM266: Infrastructure Asset Management
Publications
Journal
- Dikanski H., Imam B., Hagen-Zanker A. (2018). Effects of uncertain stock data on the assessment of climate change risks: A case study of bridge scour in the UK. Structural Safety, 71: 1-12
- Imam B., Salter P.A. (2017). Historical load effects on fatigue of metallic railway bridges. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Journal – Bridge Engineering, 171(1): 49-62.
- Dikanksi H., Hagen-Zanker A., Imam B., Avery K. (2017). Climate change impacts on railway structures: bridge scour. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Journal – Engineering Sustainability, 170(5): 237-248.
- Kallias A.N., Imam B., Chryssanthopoulos M.K. (2016). Performance profiles of metallic bridges subject to coating degradation and atmospheric corrosion. Structure and Infrastructure Engineering, 13(4): 440-453. Special Issue on Bridge Design, Assessment and Monitoring.
- Kallias A.N., Imam B. (2015). Probabilistic Assessment of Local Scour in Bridge Piers under Changing Environmental Conditions. Structure and Infrastructure Engineering, 12(9): 1228- 1241.
- Verkinderen E., Imam B. (2015). A simplified dynamic model for mast design of H-Darrieus vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs). Engineering Structures, 100, 564-576.
- Kumar P., Imam B. (2013). Footprints of air pollution and changing environment on the sustainability of built infrastructure. Science of the Total Environment, 444 (0), 85-101.
- Imam B.M., Collins J. (2013). Assessment of flat deck metallic plates - Yield line and membrane analyses. Journal of Constructional Steel Research, 82, 131-141.
- Imam B.M., Chryssanthopoulos M.K. (2012). Causes and consequences of metallic bridge failures. Structural Engineering International, 22(1): 93-98.
- Imam B., Rafiq I., Kumar P. (2011). Improving student learning in engineering discipline using student- and lecturer-led assessment approaching. European Journal of Higher Education, 1(2-3): 233-248.
- Imam B.M., Chryssanthopoulos M.K, Frangopol D.M. (2012). Fatigue system reliability analysis of riveted railway bridge connections. Structure and Infrastructure Engineering, 8 (10): 967-984.
- Kaliyaperumal G., Imam B., Righiniotis T.D. (2011). Advanced dynamic finite element analysis of a skew steel railway bridge. Engineering Structures, 33 (1): 181-190.
- Imam B.M., Righiniotis T.D. (2010). Fatigue evaluation of riveted railway bridges through global and local analysis. Journal of Constructional Steel Research, 66 (11): 1411-1421.
- Kumar P., Rafiq I., Imam B. (2010). Negotiation on the assessment of research articles with academic reviewers: application of peer-review approach of teaching. Higher Education, 62 (3): 315-332.
- Righiniotis T.D., Imam B.M., Chryssanthopoulos M.K. (2008). Fatigue analysis of riveted railway bridge connections using the theory of critical distances. Engineering Structures, 30 (10): 2707-2715.
- Imam B.M., Righiniotis T.D., Chryssanthopoulos M.K. (2008). Probabilistic fatigue evaluation of riveted railway bridges. Journal of Bridge Engineering (ASCE), 13 (3): 237-244.
- Imam B.M., Righiniotis T.D., Chryssanthopoulos M.K. (2007). Numerical modelling of riveted railway bridge connections for fatigue evaluation. Engineering Structures, 29 (11): 3071-3081.
- Imam B., Righiniotis T.D., Chryssanthopoulos M.K. and Bell B. (2006). Analytical fatigue assessment of a typical riveted UK rail bridge. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Journal – Bridge Engineering, 159 (3): 105-116.
- Imam B., Righiniotis T.D. and Chryssanthopoulos M.K. (2005). Fatigue assessment of riveted railway bridges. International Journal of Steel Structures, 5 (5): 485-494.
- Righiniotis T.D. and Imam B. (2004). Fracture reliability of a typical Northridge steel moment resisting connection. Engineering Structures, 26 (3): 381-390.
Conference
- Ekuje F.T., Imam B. (2018). Modelling Uncertainty for Scour Assessment of Bridge Piers. IABSE Conference 2018 – Engineering the Past, to Meet the Needs of the Future, Copenhagen, Denmark.
- Kallias A., Imam B. (2017). The impact of climate change on bridge scour reliability. 12th International Conference on Structural Safety and Reliability (ICOSSAR 2017), Vienna, Austria.
- Dikanski H., Imam B., Hagen-Zanker A., Avery K. (2016). Bridge scour risk in a changing climate: a sensitivity analysis. 8th International Conference on Bridge Maintenance, Safety and Management (IABMAS’16), Foz do Iguacu, Brazil.
- Fom B.F., Imam B., Chryssanthopoulos M.K. (2015). Long term deterioration effects on buckling strength of metallic bridge girders. 2nd International Conference on Performance-based and Life-cycle Structural Engineering, Brisbane, Australia.
- Chryssanthopoulos M.K, Imam B. (2014). The future of ageing metallic bridges. 7th International Conference on Bridge Maintenance, Safety and Management (IABMAS’14), Shanghai, China.
- Imam B., Yahya N. (2014). Dynamic amplification factors for existing truss bridges for the purposes of fatigue assessment. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Structural Dynamics (EURODYN 2014), Porto, Portugal.
- Lee H.Y, Imam B., Chryssanthopoulos M.K., Murphy R.J. (2014). A Combined Economic and Environmental Performance Framework for Railway Infrastructure Maintenance. Proceedings of the ICE Asset Management Conference, London, UK.
- Lee H.Y., Imam B., Sadhukhan J., Chryssanthopoulos M.K. (2014). Evaluating Environmental Impacts of an Old Metallic Railway Bridge using LCA. Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Railway Technology: Research, Development and Maintenance, Corsica.
- Kallias A.N., Imam B. (2013). Effect of Climate Change on the Deterioration of Steel Bridges. Proceedings of the IABSE Conference on Assessment, Upgrading and Refurbishment of Infrastructures, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
- Kallias A.N., Imam B.M. (2012). Risk assessment of existing bridges under the influence of changing environmental conditions. In: 1st International Conference on Performance-based and Life-cycle Structural Engineering, Hong Kong, China.
- Imam B.M., Kaliyaperumal G. (2012). Fatigue assessment of a railway bridge detail using dynamic analysis and probabilistic fracture mechanics. In: 6th International Conference on Bridge Maintenance, Safety and Management (IABMAS’12), Lake Maggiore, Italy.
- Vallascas M., Frieze P.A., Imam B. (2012). Reliability tool for stiffened plates to Eurocode 3. In: 6th International ASRANet conference for Integrating Structural Analysis, Risk and Reliability, Croydon, UK.
- Kaliyaperumal G., Imam B., Righiniotis T., Chryssanthopoulos M. (2011). Dynamic FE analysis of a continuous steel railway bridge and comparisons with field measurements. In: 12th International Conference on Metal Structures (ICMS), Wroclaw, Poland.
- Chryssanthopoulos M.K., Janssens V., Imam B. (2011). Modelling of failure consequences for robustness evaluation. In: IABSE-IASS 2011 Symposium, London, UK.
- Vallascas M., Frieze P.A., Imam B. (2011). Impact of Eurocode 3 to the design of stiffened plated structures in the UK. In: 6th European Conference on Steel and Composite Structures (EUROSTEEL 2011), Budapest, Hungary.
- Imam B.M., Chryssanthopoulos M.K. (2010). A review of metallic bridge failure statistics. In: 5th International Conference on Bridge Maintenance, Safety and Management (IABMAS’10), Philadelphia, USA.
- Imam B.M., Chryssanthopoulos M.K., Frangopol D.M. (2009). System effects on the fatigue reliability of deteriorating riveted railway bridges. In: 10th International Conference on Structural Safety and Reliability (ICOSSAR 2009), Osaka, Japan.
- Imam B.M., Chryssanthopoulos M.K. (2008). Failure statistics for metallic bridges. In: 2nd Working Group Meeting, COST Action TU0601: Robustness of Structures, Timisoara, Romania.
- Imam B.M., Righiniotis T.D. (2008). Fatigue evaluation of riveted bridge connections using the theory of critical distances. In: 6th National Conference on Metal Structures, Ioannina, Greece.
- Imam B.M., Righiniotis T.D., Chryssanthopoulos M.K. (2008). Global-local finite element analysis of riveted railway bridge connections for fatigue evaluation. In: 4th International Conference on Bridge Maintenance, Safety and Management (IABMAS’08), Seoul, Korea.
- Imam B.M., Righiniotis T.D., Chryssanthopoulos M.K. (2007). Probabilistic fatigue load spectra for riveted railway bridges. In: 10th International Conference on Applications of Statistics and Probability in Civil Engineering (ICASP10).
- Imam B., Righiniotis T.D., Chryssanthopoulos M.K. (2006). Fatigue reliability of riveted railway bridges. In: 2nd International Symposium on Bridge & Infrastructure Research in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland.
- Imam B., Righiniotis T.D., Chryssanthopoulos M.K. (2006). Fatigue reliability of riveted connections in railway bridges. In: 3rd ASRANet International Colloquium – ASRANet 2006, Glasgow, UK.
- Imam B., Righiniotis T.D., Chryssanthopoulos M.K. (2006). Fatigue crack initiation in riveted railway bridge connections. In: 1st International Conference on Fatigue and Fracture in the Infrastructure, Bridges and Structures of the 21st Century, Philadelphia, USA. (Student award recipient).
- Imam B., Righiniotis T.D., Chryssanthopoulos M.K. and Bell B. (2006). Probabilistic fatigue life estimates for riveted railway bridges. In: 3rd International Conference on Bridge Maintenance, Safety and Management (IABMAS’06), Porto, Portugal.
- Righiniotis T.D., Imam B. (2005). Effect of fracture on the reliability of a moment resisting frame under earthquake loading. In: 9th International Conference on Structural Safety and Reliability (ICOSSAR 05), Rome, Italy.
- Imam B., Righiniotis T.D., Chryssanthopoulos M.K. (2004). Remaining fatigue life estimates for riveted railway bridges. Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Bridge Management, Guildford, Surrey, UK.
- Imam B., Righiniotis T.D., Chryssanthopoulos M.K. (2004). Connection fixity effects on stress histories in riveted rail bridges. In: 2nd International Conference on Bridge Maintenance, Safety and Management (IABMAS’04), Kyoto, Japan.