Dr Zuhal Ozdemir

School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering

Lecturer in Structural Engineering

CIV Zuhal Ozdemir
Profile picture of CIV Zuhal Ozdemir
z.ozdemir@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 5419

Full contact details

Dr Zuhal Ozdemir
School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering
Room F121
Sir Frederick Mappin Building (Broad Lane Building)
Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD
Profile

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

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

Journal articles

Chapters

Conference proceedings papers

  • Khoshkholghi S, Ozdemir Z, Hajirasouliha I & Pilakoutas K (2023) Effect of FRP Strengthening Intervention on the Seismic Fragility of Substandard RC Buildings (pp 915-924) RIS download Bibtex download
  • Gibson H, Akhgar B, Hajirasouliha I, Garcia R, Ozdemir Kilinc Z & Pilakoutas K (2017) A Situational Awareness Framework for Improving Earthquake Response, Recovery and Resilience. 16th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, 9 January 2017 - 13 January 2017. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Garcia R, Hajirasouliha I, Pilakoutas K, Guadagnini M & Ozdemir Kilinc Z (2017) Analysis of substandard RC buildings strengthened with an innovative post-tensioned metal strapping technique. 16WCEE 2017, 9 January 2017 - 13 January 2017. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Ozdemir Z, Lak MA, Coulier P, François S, Lombaert G & Degrande G (2011) Numerical evaluation of the dynamic response of pipelines to vibrations induced by the operation of a pavement breaker. Advances in Environmental Vibration - Proceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Environmental Vibration, ISEV 2011 (pp 808-815) RIS download Bibtex download
  • Ozdemir Z, Lak MA, François S, Coulier P, Lombaert G & Degrande G (2011) A numerical model for the prediction of the response of pipelines due to vibrations induced by the operation of a pavement breaker. Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Structural Dynamics, EURODYN 2011 (pp 928-935) RIS download Bibtex download
  • Tezcan SS, Ozdemir Z, Keceli A & Erkal A (2007) Case studies: A rapid technique to determine allowable bearing pressure. Geotechnical Special Publication(175) (pp 66) RIS download Bibtex download

Website content

  • Garcia Lopez R, Ozdemir Kilinc Z, Hajirasouliha I & Pilakoutas K Website for RCUK-TUBITAK project on "Rapid Earthquake Risk Assessment and Post-Earthquake Disaster Management Framework for Substandard Buildings in Turkey". RIS download Bibtex download
  • Garcia R, Ozdemir Kilinc Z, Hajirasouliha I & Pilakoutas K Website for British Council-TUBITAK project on "Post-earthquake Disaster & Risk Management through a Rapid Response Framework for Industrial Zones in Turkey". RIS download Bibtex download

Preprints

Research group

Concrete Structures 

Blast & Impact

Earthquake Engineering Group

Grants

View all research projects

Professional activities and memberships
  • 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.