It is estimated that over 1 billion people around the world live in bamboo housing, mainly in developing countries in the tropics and subtropics. Over the past 20 years, increasingly ambitious structures have been built across the world including foot-bridges and schools, with scant guidance from standards and codes.

This PhD research project is framed in the context of developing bamboo standards, for which the first step is deemed to be the development of strength grading procedures. Strength grading is a technique already used in timber engineering that uses non-destructive methods to infer the strength of a piece of wood. Developing these methods requires an investigation into the relationship between the proposed non-destructive tests and the strength properties in question.

Bamboo’s appeal as a structural material includes its remarkable strength, sustainability and low-cost. The techniques or methods that are developed need to be sufficiently reliable to justify their adoption, yet not so costly that makes their adoption unlikely.

Due to the geographical distribution of bamboo for structural applications, travel is likely to be required.

The department of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Building has an established reputation in materials and structures research, offering arguably the largest structures laboratory in the West Midlands and excellent links to industry. The project counts with all the necessary research equipment and materials (including bamboo) and test facilities. The candidate can draw from expertise from the department and beyond, including TRADA (the timber research and development association) and INBAR (international network for bamboo and rattan).

Candidate specifications:

• A minimum of a 2:1 first degree in a relevant discipline/subject area with a minimum 60% mark in the Project element or equivalent with a minimum 60% overall module average.
• Or in the event of a first degree classification of less than 2:1, a Masters Degree in a relevant subject area will be considered as an equivalent. The Masters must have been attained with overall marks at merit level (60%). In addition, the dissertation or equivalent element in the Masters must also have been attained with a mark at merit level (60%).
• The potential to engage in innovative research and to complete the PhD within a three-year period of study
• A minimum of English language proficiency (IELTS overall minimum score of 7.0 with a minimum of 6.5 in each component)