Summary
Date & Time
1st December 2025
09:00-16:00 GMT
Location
Online
On Demand Until
Until 8th December
Price
£250+VAT
About the course
Fatigue and fracture are among the most pressing concerns in structural engineering, where even small cracks can compromise safety, reliability, and service life. For engineers working on bridges and other critical infrastructure, the ability to predict crack growth and assess fatigue performance is essential for making informed design choices and maintenance decisions.
This course is designed to provide hands‑on insight into fracture mechanics and advanced finite element analysis, focusing on practical methods such as fatigue crack propagation assessment, hot‑spot stress evaluation, and the theory of critical distances. By working through real examples—including welded and riveted connections—participants will gain the tools needed to apply these techniques directly to design, inspection, and maintenance planning, ensuring structures remain safe and cost‑effective throughout their lifecycle.
Agenda
1. Introduction to fracture mechanics analysis for fatigue cracks
* Analysis of fatigue crack propagation in bridge details
* The application of fracture mechanics for maintenance planning
2. Advanced Finite Element Analysis for Fatigue Design and Assessment
* Recommendations for finite element modelling
* Application of the hot-spot (HS) method
* Theory of critical distances (TCD) for stress concentrations
* Examples for welded and riveted connections
Presenters
Dr Boulent Imam is an Associate Professor (Reader) at the School of Sustainability, Civil and Environmental Engineering in the University of Surrey and Programme Director for the MSc Programmes in Bridge Engineering and Infrastructure Engineering and Management.
His main area of expertise is the whole-life performance assessment of bridges. He has extensively researched in the area of fatigue of bridges with collaborations with national and European infrastructure owners and managers, such as Network Rail, Highways England, TWI. His research has contributed towards in-depth understanding of the fatigue behaviour of riveted railway bridges and developed methods for more reliable quantification of their remaining fatigue life including detailed historical rail traffic models, novel numerical fatigue assessment methods, probabilistic modelling and reliability assessment. Dr Imam’s work on fatigue also encompasses the development of 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’s research has expanded towards assessing the potential impacts of climate change on bridge deterioration and quantifying the resilience of bridge infrastructure against extreme events, including bridge scour and flooding. He has served as a member of prestigious international committees (IABSE, IABMAS) and within the editorial board of high-profile journals. He has delivered Keynote lectures and has participated in scientific committees of major international conferences.
Format
The format of this event will be a webinar using "Zoom Webinars".
There will be opportunity to interact with the lecturer throughout the session, both though allocated Q&A sessions, or leaving text based questions throughout the presentation which the lecturer will be able to answer at convenient opportunities.
Registration
If you would like to register and pay now, please click the button below "Register Now". If you would prefer an invoice (for VAT exemptions/ purchase order requirement etc...) please click the button "send me an invoice" and complete the registration form, and our admin team will be in touch.
Price
The cost of registering for this webinar will be £250+VAT.
Group rates are available on all our courses. If you would like to discuss what group discounts we have available you can reach us at info@etsols.com.