Dr Zuhal Ozdemir
School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering
Lecturer in Structural Engineering


+44 114 222 5419
Full contact details
School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering
Room F121
Sir Frederick Mappin Building (Broad Lane Building)
Mappin Street
ºù«Ӱҵ
S1 3JD
- Profile
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My work helps to protect structures and their inhabitants in the event of an earthquake, by ensuring construction regulations take into consideration the seismic response of buildings, and the correct mitigation measures are in place.
Dr Zuhal Ozdemir
Dr Zuhal Ozdemir obtained her PhD in 2010 from Kandilli Observatory (Turkey) and the University of Lille (France).
She then joined the Structural Mechanics Division of Katholieke Universiteit Leuven as a postdoctoral researcher. She joined our Department as a research associate, before becoming a Lecturer in 2012.
Over the past ten years she has worked on interdisciplinary research projects dealing with the dynamics of structures and materials.
Her main expertise is in earthquake engineering, nonlinear FEA (Finite Element Analysis), structural dynamics, high strain rate testing of materials and the static and dynamic behaviour of cellular solids.
- Research interests
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One area of Zuhal’s research focuses on the assessment of the dynamic response of materials and structures under earthquake and impact loads using numerical methods.
She closely works with the members of our Blast Engineering Research group to conduct dynamic tests on materials to characterise their response under high amplitude and short duration loading conditions, and then she models the response numerically to validate experimental results.
She devises analytical solutions to develop simple design methodologies for materials when subjected to high dynamic loads. This work is applied in earthquake and impact engineering; in earthquake events, buildings can be subject to seismic pounding, which can cause serious damage to the structures and pose danger to inhabitants.
Zuhal numerically models this kind of impact response so that building regulations can be written to define the distances between structures, and mitigation techniques can be suggested.
Zuhal also researches the behaviour of irregular structures with complex geometries in plan and elevation. Irregular structures like L or T-shaped buildings have more damage potential than the regular, symmetrical ones, so Zuhal’s work helps to suggest building code recommendations about the influence of irregularities on the seismic response of buildings, and what kind of mitigation guidelines should be implemented.
- Publications
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Journal articles
Chapters
Conference proceedings papers
Website content
Preprints
- Research group
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Concrete Structures
Blast & Impact
Earthquake Engineering Group
- Grants
- Professional activities and memberships
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- Eiffel excellence scholarship of the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs 2008 - 2009.
- Co-investigator of two Newton Fund projects
- PhD opportunities
If you're interested in a PhD project, please contact Zuhal at the above email. Current PhD opportunities in the department can be viewed here.