Thin-Walled Structures, Ben Schafer, JHU, Cold-Formed Steel, CUFSM, Elastic Buckling, Direct Strength Method

Lauren Thompson, Matt Sisinni, Mo Alkaysi, Andrew Faulkner (2011), Mark Beytas (2010), Hannah Blum (2010), Maggie Wildnauer (2009), Linda Wan (2009), Ying Guan (2008), Mario Fasano (2007), Eric Deuser (2007), Allison Reilly (2005), Liakos Ariston (2004), Sam Phillips (2004), Tim Ruth (2004), Andrew Myer (2004), Brent Bass (2004)

High School RA's alumni:

Ryan Carter (Bal Poly 2010), Kristine Carter (Bal Poly 2008), Dawneshia Sanders (Bal Poly 2007), Alexander Pei (Montgomery-Blair 2006), Michael Manness, Jr. (Bal Poly - 2004).

Bio-corner: Bio and Thin-walled Structures

Thin-walled structures often occur in biological applications, from the meso-scale of bone structure down to the nano-scale of cell cytoskeleton networks. The large range of active research at Johns Hokpins in "nano" and particularly "bio" applications affords a variety of interesting collaborations. See Professor Schafer's vitae for research on the stability of bones and cytoskeleton networks. Learn more about bio related institutes that Professor Schafer is affiliated:

INBT: Institute for Nano Bio Technology

IMMBI: Inst. for Multiscale Modeling in Biological Interactions

For students interested in working in these cross-disciplinary areas Professor Schafer is affiliated with NBMed, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Graduate Training Program at Hopkins. Current Hopkins students as well as prospective students may apply. Students should have significant strength and interest in computational modeling

What are Thin-Walled Structures?

Scopus RSS Feed of Recent Papers

News from the Group

Advances in Cold-Formed Steel

(October 2011)

ECCS Steel Construction Review Article First Page

We have recently completed a review article for ECCS Steel Construction that provides a summary of recent advances in the application, analysis, and design of cold-formed steel. This one article brings the engineer or researcher up to speed on the latest in cold-formed steel structures. Take a peek here.

CUFSM 4 Standalone Released

(October 2011)

We have released the new standalone version of CUFSM (version 4.04) now available online for free download. CUFSM 4.04 provides a sweeping expansion to the capabilities of our popular finite strip program - now the local, distortional, and global buckling loads of thin-walled members can be explored for general end boundary conditions. This expansion allows for much more difficult problems to be explored providing new insights for researchers and engineers. For more on CUFSM 4 go here, for more on FSM research go here.

The Best Offense is a Good Defense

(August 2011)

This summer three students from the group have succesfully defended their Ph.D.'s! Congratulations to Luiz Vieira, Zhanjie Li, and Vahid Zeinoddini. Each of these students has left an incredible legacy for the rest of the group and provided important improvements for thin-walled, particularly cold-formed steel, structures. Turn back to this page for more updates on their efforts.

See us at upcoming conferences

(April 2011)

The late spring/summer conference season is about to get underway and the Thin-walled Structures Group has papers at a number of upcoming conferences that we hope to see some of you at: The Annual Structural Stability Research Council Conference held in conjunction with NASCC in Pittsburgh May 10-13, the ASCE Engineering Mechanics Institute Conference in Boston June 2-4, the NEES Annual Meeting in Buffalo June 9-11.. AISC meetings in late June, AISI meetings in July, and Eurosteel at the end of the summer. Hope to see you there!

Help Beta test CUFSM 4

(September 2010)

We have just completed the first public version of CUFSM 4, now availabe in matlab version only for beta testing. CUFSM 4.03 provides a sweeping expansion to the capabilities of our popular finite strip program - now the local, distortional, and global buckling loads of thin-walled members can be explored for general end boundary conditions. This expansion allows for much more difficult problems to be explored providing new insights for researchers and engineers. Currently we are beta testing the version and plan on releasing a compiled standalone version later this Fall. For more on CUFSM 4 go here, for more on FSM research go here.

AISI COS and COFS meetings

(July 2010)

The July AISI COS and COFS meetings included a significant amount of work from our research team. Graduate Student Yared Shifferaw's ballot on DSM inelastic bending reserve was approved for the next edition of the Spec. Former student Cris Moen's research on DSM for members with holes was approved by the subcommittee and now goes to the main committee. Recent research on CFS sheathed walls by graduate student Luiz Vieira was discussed at length and received accolades - impact for the Spec. is forthcoming. Recent work by new graduate student Alireza Novajan on web crippling and undergraduate Hannah Blum on bracing was also well received. Additional research on CFS earthquake engineering, and a variety of other topics were also lead by the Thin-walled Structures team.

the group and friends, SSRC Conf., May 2010

(group members are making the universal sign of the CFS lipped channel)

SSRC Conference in Orlando

(May 2010)

The 2010 Annual Stability Council of the Structural Stability Research Council (SSRC) recently completed. Graduate Student Mina Seif presented on DSM extensions for hot-rolled steel. Graduate Student Yared Shifferaw presented recent work on beam-columns and on sheathed CFS walls. Graduate Student Luiz Vieira presented on sheathed CFS walls. Graduate student Zhanjie Li presented on the latest developments with the Finite Strip Method. Former student and now Asst. Prof. Cris Moen presented on DSM methods for members with holes and DSM for members in shear (Moen's research page). and Prof. Schafer stepped in for former student now Asst. Prof. Cheng Yu for his research on CFS shear walls (Cheng was unable to attend due to the birth of his new baby - congrats Cheng!). In addition the annual meeting of the SSRC was organized by Professor Schafer and complete reports have been posted on the SSRC website.

<past news stories>

Other Links of Interest

° American Iron and Steel Institute

° Cold-Formed Steel Engineers Institute

° Center for Cold-Formed Steel Structures (UMR)

° Virginia Tech (Cris Moen) Research Group

° University of Sydney Research Group

° McGill University Research Group

° University of Waterloo Research Group

last updated 11.11.2011 - Ben Schafer, schafer@jhu.edu

since 19 Oct. 2006