2020 Outstanding Student Thesis Awards

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TMS Awards Outstanding Thesis and Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Awards at 2020 Annual Meeting

During the October 12th Awards Program at the The Masonry Society (TMS) Annual Meeting, Dr, John Myers, Chair of TMS’s Research Committee presented the following awards:

  • 2020 Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation: Nader Aly, Concordia University, for “Seismic Performance and Building Height Limits of Ductile Reinforced Concrete Masonry Shear Walls with Boundary Elements” under the direction of Dr. Khaled Galal
  • 2020 Outstanding  Master’s Thesis: Clayton Pettit, University of Alberta, for “Effect of Rotational Base Stiffness on the Behaviour of Loadbearing Masonry Walls” under the direction of Dr. Carlos Cruz-Noguez

During the presentation of the Awards, Dr. Myers noted that Aly’s research improved the understanding of the seismic performance and collapse capacity of ductile Reinforced Concrete Masonry (RCM) shear wall buildings with boundary elements. The main objective is to develop component and system levels, solutions and design recommendations to enhance the overall seismic performance of RCM buildings. His work included six half-scale high-rise RCM shear walls constructed and tested under high constant axial compressive load, along with in-plane fully reversed cyclic loading synchronized with top moment. Then a series of linear and nonlinear, pseudo-static and dynamic time-history analyses were performed to quantify the influence of the studied parameters on the seismic response and collapse capacity. Based on the findings of the numerical simulations, it was suggested to increase the height limits of RCM buildings with ductile shear walls with boundary elements.

Myers also noted that Pettit’s research led to a better understanding of the out-of-plane behaviour of slender masonry walls accounting for the presence of the foundation in a rational manner. His research included a full-scale experimental program in which a total of four identical wall specimens were tested under a combination of out-of-plane and gravity loads as well as numerical modelling of all four wall specimens and of experimental results obtained from similar studies.

The Masonry Society’s (TMS) Student Thesis Awards are presented annually by TMS’s Research Committee to the best doctoral dissertation and master’s thesis on masonry topics. For 2021, Masters theses or reports will be considered that were submitted for degree requirements between May 16, 2020 and June 1, 2021.  Masters reports must be publicly available (referenceable) to be eligible.

For 2021, Ph.D. dissertations that are submitted for degree requirements between June 1, 2019 and May 31st, 2021 are eligible for this award. Ph.D. dissertations previously sent to TMS for award selection and that meet the current Ph.D. completion date requirements, are still eligible and will be automatically considered without the need for resubmittal.

Theses must be submitted to the TMS office no later than June 1st of the award year. Electronic submission of theses in PDF format is strongly encouraged.