Profile

Currently Langzi Chang is a PhD student at Structural Mechanics, Department of 3Md. He focuses on the out-of-plane behaviour of unreinforced masonry walls.
Before coming to TUD, he got his bachelor and master degree of structural engineering at Harbin Institute of Technology, China.  

Research

Investigations for earthquakes worldwide during recent years have shown that the out-of-plane failure is one of the most predominant failure mechanisms of unreinforced masonry walls (URM walls). This failure may cause threats to both human lives and properties. A recent example is relatively severe damage caused by induced earthquake in Groningen to civil masonry houses. Though some experiments have been conducted to test mechanical properties of URM walls subjected to lateral loads, the assessment for wall behaviour is far from completion.

The aim of this research is to understand the failure mechanisms of URM walls subjected to out-of-plane loads and develop a system of mechanical models which can be used in further nonlinear finite element analysis and practical assessment.