Background
Tatheer Zahra is a Lecturer in Structural Engineering at Queensland University of Technology with a vision to promote innovative engineering materials in construction. Masonry and Auxetic materials are her two main research interest areas.
Tatheer has six years of research experience in structural masonry. She has been investigating the performance of interlocking mortarless masonry under various loading conditions in comparison to the conventional mortared masonry. Her experimental and numerical studies have shown that this masonry type has potential as an environmentally friendly construction materials with less wastage and quicker construction time. She is a member of Standards Australia BD-004-19 Committee to outline the design guidelines for this type of masonry. Her research is not limited to mortarless masonry and she is also assessing the response of reinforced masonry under various loadings. She was part of the research team to investigate the behaviour of reinforced masonry under compression that resulted in a major change in the design guidelines of reinforced masonry in the Australian Masonry Standards (AS3700). She also developed new genre auxetic materials and mortar based auxetic composites to provide protection and enhance the performance of masonry and concrete structures under impact and various other load conditions.
She teaches civil engineering materials and design of concrete and masonry structures to the undergraduates at QUT. She also has four years of professional experience in the areas of prestressed concrete design, steel suspension bridges and concrete building design.
Research achievements
Published 25 scholarly publications, including book chapter, journal and conference papers.
Received $95,000 from research assistance and industry partners to assess the serviceability of 100+ years old masonry arch bridges, mortarless masonry testing, mix design of coral concrete and auxetic composites development.
Supervising two doctoral candidates.
Research areas: Within the broad field of structural engineering research, Tatheer has focused on the following areas:
- Mortarless masonry behaviour subject to various loading
- Assessment of ancient masonry arch bridges
- Reinforced masonry and concrete shear walls
- Auxetic materials and composites and their application to masonry
Her research entails experimental tests, field investigations, computer modelling and simulations.
This information has been contributed by Dr Tatheer Zahra.
