Dr Terry Bennett

Dr Terry Bennett
 Position Senior Lecturer
 Org Unit Civil Engineering
 Email terry.bennett@adelaide.edu.au
 Telephone 831 36122
 Location Floor/Room 2 ,  Engineering North ,   North Terrace

  • Biography/ Background

    Terry studied the modelling of soil-structure interaction for his PhD, with particular emphasis on how to avoid spurious reflections encountered on the boundary of numerical models which can render the results of analyses as meaningless.
    Following his studies Terry joined TNO Bouw in the Netherlands where he worked on the development and maintenance of the general purpose finite element code DIANA. He then worked a postdoctoral researcher at Delft University of Technology in the faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences.

    Terry had a brief stint in industry working for a multi-national consultancy firm as a numerical modelling specialist. With a diverse workload ranging from the dynamic response of foundation system using ABAQUS to the analysis and design of an irrigation system using EPANET linked to ARCGiS.

    He returned to academia as a postdoctoral researcher at Cardiff University in the School of Engineering. Terry worked on advanced constitutive models for cementitous composite materials, with consideration for aggregate interlocking in shear and experiemental tests for validating of numerical models. This was followed by the development of a meshless numerical technique for modelling the damage of solids and structures.

    Terry returned to the University of Sheffield in 2006, and was appointed as a RCUK Research fellow in 2007 and as a lecturer in 2012. During this time Terry worked on higher-order continua, high strain rate response of materials and deformation of porous media. Terry was postgraduate tutor for the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering and in 2012 was appointed as Deputy Faculty Director of Research and Innovation, with a portfolio for overseeing the development and progress of the faculty's (~700) postgraduate research students and (~400) postdoctoral researchers.

    In September 2013 moved to Adelaide to take up the appointment of Senior Lecturer in the School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering.

  • Qualifications

    MEng (Civil & Structural Engineering), University of Sheffield, 1996

    PhD, University of Sheffield, 2002. Thesis entitled Finite element-based non-linear dynamic soil-structure interaction.

    PGCiLT (Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching), University of Sheffield, 2013

  • Teaching Interests

    Terry's teaching interests lie in the field of mechanics, from the fundamentals of statics and strength of materials through to the formulation and application of finite element simulation techniques. The sensible application of numerical techniques to engineering problems is a particular area of interest, so that computer programmes are not used as black boxes or where a simple hand calculation would be more appropriate.

    Terry received a postgraduate certificate in learning and teaching (PGCiLT) from the University of Sheffield in 2013. He is particularly keen to ensure that the active learning component of constructive alignment is well facilitated. His educational hero is Ken Stroud who wrote the text book “Engineering Mathematics”, based on programmed learning techniques and who has successfully saved many an engineer’s career before it has barely began in 1st Year, 1st semester. Terry has recently began using this philosophy in developing e-Assessment courseware to facilitate the feedback loop between instructors and learners which has been supported by the University's "e-Assessment by design" initiative..

  • Research Interests

    Terry’s research interests are in the broad field of computational mechanics with particular emphasis on material degradation and response of materials / structures to dynamic loading. Terry’s work has focused upon the modelling of the propagation of waves through heterogeneous media using non-local continua to represent the underlying micro-structure of materials. The high strain rate response of materials and modelling of blast waves has become an ever increasing focus of his work.

    Terry also has an interest in the transport of fluids in porous media and it's effects upon the solid skeleton. This includes the application to the modelling of CO2 storage and wave propagation in fluid filled porous media.

    An overview of Terry's publications can be seen on the his Google Scholar profile.

  • Research Funding

    2012

    • FP7 (security) - ENCOUNTER, Explosive Neutralisation and mitigation Countermeasures for IEDs in Urban/civil Environments.
    • DSTL / Blastech Ltd - CoBL: Characteristics of Blast Loading.

    2011

    • UoS Cross-cutting Directors of Research (energy theme) scholarship networks, DeepCarbon.
    • EPSRC - Simulation of the effects of buried IEDs.

    2010

    • Leverhulme Trust, modelling wave dispersion in heterogeneous materials.

    2009

    • EPSRC/DSTL CASE studentship, modelling of cardboard honeycomb energy dissipating materials.

    2007

    • RCUK Research Fellowship.

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Entry last updated: Thursday, 12 Jan 2023

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