Pavan

Pavan did his under graduation at IIT-BHU, Varanasi, India and graduated from it in 2010. He then worked as an Assistant Manager for 2 years at Reliance Infrastructure, India in 2 – 4000MW thermal power plants. Later, he moved to USA to complete his MS in Structural Engineering at NC State University. There he was awarded a full departmental research scholarship and worked on various research projects related to FRP, Non-destructive testing of Materials, and Bridge test inspections etc. After completing his Masters in 2014, he moved to Manhattan, New York, to further his career as a structural engineer designing high rise buildings. 99 Hudson in NJ, 15 East 30th street, NY etc. are some of the projects he worked on. He then moved to Auckland, NZ in 2017 to pursue his PhD. He is now a Ph.D. Candidate and QuakeCoRE scholar at the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Auckland. 

In-situ Characterization of New Zealand Bridges.

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Research Title: In-situ Characterization of New Zealand Bridges

Project Summary:
The main objective of this research is to characterize the in-situ behaviour of reinforced concrete bridge components that are typical of New Zealand design. By undertaking a suite of field tests on the Whirokino Trestle during its demolition. Following field testing, I will focus on the development of analytical models for Whirokino Trestle, Henderson Creek Bridge and Thorndon Overbridge in OpenSeesPy to capture the strength and dynamic properties of bridges components and subassemblies, allowing for an assessment of the ability of existing modelling techniques to represent the in-situ characteristics. Using this information, we can analyse different possible failure modes of the bridge as a whole and at an element level. The data obtained during this research program will be used in improving assessment approaches for existing bridges and their potential retrofitting needs in New Zealand, as well as being applicable to older buildings in New Zealand that have similar column designs.