Tuesday 23 February 2016

Hola!


Hello and welcome to my blog...

As you're probably aware, this blog is designed to keep you all up to date with my hectic social life and wild adventures! Instagram in text form, if you will. Of course I'll also try to keep everyone informed of my progress with my TRUSS ITN project too! 


So to begin with a short introduction for those who don't know me; my name is JJ Moughty, short for John James, I'm 26 and from Longford, Ireland. I'm a graduate of Civil Engineering from N.U.I. Galway and, subsequently, from Trinity College Dublin where I completed a MSc. in Structural and Geotechnical Engineering. After graduating I found employment in the offshore oil & gas industry with Wood Group Kenny (WGK) in their Galway office where I specialised in the design and analysis of deep water drilling systems for semi-submersible vessels and drillships. 

The majority of projects I competed while with WGK were fatigue analyses of subsea wellheads. This is probably due to the fact that I've always been very interested in structural dynamics and how structures behave. It's an interest I've had ever since I discovered how the one of the World's tallest skyscrapers (Taipei 101see picture below) uses an enormous steel pendulum ball, suspended from the 90th floor, to maintain equilibrium during typhoons and earthquakes.  It achieves this by swaying out of phase to the structure at its natural period of oscillation in order to counteract the external environmental forces. This interest in structural behavior is also probably why I now I find myself relocated in Barcelona as one of the 14 fortunate Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) that make up TRUSS ITN.

Taipei 101 
TRUSS, or Training in Reducing Uncertainty in Structural Safety, is an Innovation Training Network (ITN), funded through European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. My project's title is "Assessment of bridge condition and safety based on measured vibration level", which is ESR10. It is based in Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya under the supervision of Prof. Joan Ramon Casas. The motivation behind ESR 10 is to determine the structural condition of aging bridges as they decline due to a number of degradation processes over time, such as; creep, corrosion and cyclic loading from traffic and environmental effects. Recent figures show that Europe's bridge count is circa one million, and of Europe's half a million rail bridges, 35% are over 100 years old, which justifies the considerable amount of research being conducted in the area at the moment. 


My project is also in collaboration with the Spanish Engineering company COMSA, where I'll be spending some months on secondment in their Barcelona offices. This will increase my exposure to innovative environments in both academia and industry, while also allowing me to learn first hand how projects of this nature are completed in the privet sector.  


That's all for now. I'll be back soon to fill you all in on my progress with ESR10 and life in Barcelona!


Slán go fóill!