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Dr. Annette Harte

Annette.hartenuigalway.ie

Dr. Annette Harte, who is a senior lecturer in the Department of Civil Engineering, is the head of the Timber Engineering Research Group. She is a senior lecturer and a Chartered Engineer with over 20 years teaching experience in Structural Engineering and Finite Element Analysis.

Her research interests include : Structural use of wood products ; Use of fibre reinforcement to enhance the performance of wood products ; Finite element modelling of engineering behaviour ; Composite materials ; Analysis of offshore pipelines.

Dr. Gary Raftery

Gary.rafterynuigalway.ie

Dr. Gary Raftery is currently working as an academic staff memeber in Civil Engineering.

He obtained his B.E (Civil) Degree with first class honours in 2003. He has industrial experience in construction as a site engineer and as a project manager. His Ph.D. specialised in the development of timber as a sustainable material. He has extensive experience in the design of experimental test programmes and he has worked as a technical consultant in this area.  He has considerable nonlinear finite element modelling experience and he has experience with the use of advanced structural composites for civil engineering applications. 

A selection of publications from his research to date include:

Journal Publications:

• Raftery, G., Harte, A. and Rodd, P., Bonding of FRP materials to wood using thin epoxy gluelines, International Journal of Adhesion and Adhesives, 2009; Vol. 29, Issue 5, pp.580-588.

• Raftery, G., Harte, A. and Rodd, P., Bond quality at the FRP wood interface using conventional wood laminating adhesives, International Journal of Adhesion and Adhesives, 2009; Vol. 29, Issue 2, pp.101-110.
  

• Raftery, G., Harte, A. and Rodd, P., Qualification of wood adhesives for structural softwood glulam with large juvenile wood content, Journal of the Institute of Wood Science, July 2008, IWSC, U.K.

Conferences Publications:

• Raftery, G. and Harte, A., 2009, Experimental Testing of FRP Reinforced Glulam, Proceedings of Advanced Composites in Construction (ACIC) Conference 2009, Edinburgh, U.K.

• Raftery, G., Harte, A., and Rodd, P., 2006. Hygrothermal Compliance at FRP-Wood Bonded Interfaces. Proceedings of Advanced Composites in Construction (ACIC) Conference 2007, pp. 261-270, University of Bath, England, U.K.

• Raftery, G., Harte, A., and Rodd, P., 2006. Durability Assessment of Adhesives and Reinforcement at the GFRP-Wood Interface. Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Composites in Civil Engineering (CICE) 2006, pp.271-275, Miami, Florida, U.S.A.

• Raftery, G., Harte, A., and Rodd, P., 2006. Performance Evaluation of Adhesives and Reinforcements in GFRP-Wood Connections. Proceedings of the 9 ^th World Conference on Timber Engineering (WCTE) 2006, Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.

• Raftery, G. and Harte, A.,  November 2-4, 2005, Evaluation of Wood Adhesives for a Glue-laminated Softwood, Proceedings of Wood Adhesives 2005, pp. 115-122, Forest Products Society, San Diego, California, U.S.A.

• Raftery, G and Harte, A., 2004, REPOTIM: The Development of a Hybrid Fibre Reinforced Polymer Timber Beam Using Irish Grown Sitka Spruce, Proceedings of Coford Conference on Forest Research and Development in Ireland, Underpinning Industry Development, Tullamore, Sep 2004.
  

Mr. James Brady, Ph.D. researcher

J.brady1nuigalway.ie  

Mr. James Brady is currently a PhD researcher investigating prestressed fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite reinforcement of glue-laminated (glulam) timber beams. Analytical modelling and experimental testing is being carried out to examine the feasibility of increasing the flexural strength, ductility and stiffness of home-grown Sitka spruce glulam beams by bonding pre-tensioned FRP plates in the tension zone. The research is funded under an Embark Initiative Scholarship from IRCSET.

Mr. Brady obtained a National Diploma in Civil Engineering from G.M.I.T in 2004, where he graduated with a distinction and was awarded the Coffey Construction Ltd. (IRL) prize. He continued his studies at NUI, Galway and graduated with a first class honours in the B.E. (Civil) Degree in 2006 and was subsequently awarded the Tobin Consulting Engineers Research Scholarship.

Publications to date:

• Brady, J.F., & Harte, A.M. 2008. Prestressed FRP flexural strengthening of softwood glue-laminated timber beams. Proceedings of the 10 ^th World Conference on Timber Engineering (WCTE), Miyazaki, Japan, 2 - 5 June 2008.

Mr. Anthony McTigue, Ph.D. researcher

A.mctigue1nuigalway.ie

Mr. Anthony McTigue is currently studying the structural behaviour of oriented strandboard (OSB). He graduated from NUI, Galway in 2004 with a B.E. (first class honours) in Civil Engineering. He worked as a structural engineer in a Galway based engineering consultancy until 2007, when he was awarded the EMBARK initiative scholarship and returned to NUI, Galway as a Ph.D. student.

The aim of his research is to gain a better understanding of the structural behaviour of existing OSB products through experimental testing and numerical modelling. The results will be used to come up with innovative new OSB products with structural properties optimised for specific end use applications.

Mr. Ciaran O Toole, Past M.Eng.Sc. Researcher

Mr. Ciaran O Toole completed his M.Eng.Sc. research in 2006 with the thesis title "An Investigation into the use of Irish Sitka Spruce in Timber I-joists".  He was the holder of an RPS-MCO Sullivan postgraduate scholarship as well as a Fellowship from the University.

Mr. Patrick Coleman

Mr. Patrick Coleman is a postgraduate research student working on the development of innovative jointing systems for timber I-joists.

Technical Support Team

 

Mr. Gerry Hynes, Chief Technical Officer, Dept. of Civil Engineering

Mr. Peter Fahy, Senior Technical Officer, Dept. of Civil Engineering

Ms. Maura McDonagh, Senior Technical Officer, Dept. of Civil Engineering

Mr. Colm Walsh, Senior Technical Officer, Dept. of Civil Engineering