Shanshan Cheng

Academic profile

Dr Shanshan Cheng

Lecturer in Civil Engineering
School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics (Faculty of Science and Engineering)

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The Global Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. Shanshan's work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

Goal 04: SDG 4 - Quality EducationGoal 07: SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean EnergyGoal 09: SDG 9 - Industry, Innovation, and InfrastructureGoal 17: SDG 17 - Partnerships for the Goals

About Shanshan

My current research mainly focuses on the low carbon construction materials, particularly the application to offshore floating platforms. I am currently the PI for a Royal Society funded project "Fatigue failure mechanics of carbon-fibre textile reinforced concrete (CTRC) in the marine environment", to test the flexural fatigue behaviour of CTRC beams under seawater. I’m a Co-I (WP5 lead) of an EU funded project “Light-Weight High Performance Concrete for Modular Floating Structures – LITEFLOATCON”, to develop innovative light-weight high performance concrete and investigate its application on multi-purpose modular floating structures for marine space utilisation, where my responsibility is to lead the numerical simulation of coupled fluid-structure interaction of large floating concrete modular systems and investigate effects of various connectors on the overall structural performance of the modular system. I’m also a Co-I for EPSRC funded project “FlexWave – flexible responsive systems in wave energy (EP/V040367/1)”, where I’m responsible for finite element analysis of the flexible wave energy converters under wave loading.

I was the coordinator for an EU funded project “Tailor-made recycled aggregate concrete - TRAC” which aimed to promote the use of recycled aggregates in civil infrastructure. I was also the PI for an EPSRC funded Supergen ORE ECR award “Offshore floating foundations using self-sensing carbon fibre textile reinforced concretes”, to test the dual-functional properties of using carbon-fibre textiles as both reinforcement and sensor in concrete structures, and PI for a University of Plymouth Sustainable Earth Institute funded project “Use of tungsten tailing waste as replacement for cement” to investigate the feasibility of using tungsten tailings in making low carbon concrete materials.

Research Grants:

  • Fatigue failure mechanism of marine concrete structures using multi-scale numerical modelling – FAMCON, Horizon Europe MSCA European Fellowship, €276k, 2025-2027 (Principal Supervisor)
  • Coupled Fluid-Structure Interaction of Large Floating Concrete Modular Systems, University of Plymouth funded PhD studentship, £52k, 2024-2027 (1st Supervisor)
  • Light-weight High Performance Concrete for Modular Floating Structures – LITEFLOATCON, Horizon Europe MSCA Staff Exchange, €611.8k, 2023-2027 (Co-I, UoP lead)
  • Fatigue Failure Mechanics of Polymer-modified Concrete in the Marine Environment, EPSRC DPT ORE and University of Plymouth co-funded PhD studentship, £121k, 2023-2027 (1st Supervisor)
  • Fatigue Failure Mechanics of Carbon-fibre Textile Reinforced Concrete in the Marine Environment, Royal Society, £60.5k, 2023-2025 (PI)
  • Use of tungsten tailing waste as replacement for cement, Sustainable Earth Institute Small Collaboration Award, University of Plymouth, £3k, 2022 (PI)
  • FlexWave - Flexible Responsive Systems in Wave Energy, EPSRC, £1m, 2021-2025 (Co-I)
  • Offshore Floating Foundations Using Self-sensing Carbon Fibre Textile-reinforced Concretes, EPSRC Supergen ORE ECR fund, £5k, 2020 (PI)
  • TRAC – Tailor-made Recycled Aggregate Concrete, European H2020-RISE project, €450k, 2018-2022 (Coordinator)
  • RESET - REliability and Safety Engineering and Technology for large maritime engineering systems, European H2020-RISE project, €1.42m, 2017-2021 (participant)
  • Durability of textile reinforced concrete in marine environment, Plymouth University and China Scholarship Council co-funded PhD studentship, £96k, 2017-2021. (1st Supervisor)
  • Structural performance of floating offshore structures, Plymouth University and China Scholarship Council co-funded PhD studentship, £110k, 2017-2021. (1st Supervisor)

Supervised Research Degrees

Ongoing PhD students: 
  • Mr Saheed Yusuf (Jan 2024 - ongoing): Coupled Fluid-Structure Interaction of Large Floating Concrete Modular Systems (Director of Studies / 1st Supervisor) 
  • Ms Zhenyi Yan (Oct 2023 - ongoing): Fatigue failure mechanics of low-carbon concrete in marine environment (Director of Studies / 1st Supervisor)
  • Ms Anna Holcombe (Oct 2021 - ongoing): Motions and loads of dynamic power cables for floating offshore renewable energy applications (2nd Supervisor)
  • Mr Feiyi Shi (Oct 2021 - ongoing): Mesoscale modelling for predicting effective properties of geopolymer concrete (2nd Supervisor)
  • Mr Bin Zhang (Oct 2021 - ongoing): Coupled thermo-structural analysis of steel reinforced geopolymer concrete structural members (2nd Supervisor)

Completed PhD students: 

  • Dr Jie Ji (2023): Bond Behaviour between Carbon Fibre Strand and Mortar under Marine Environment (Director of Studies / 1st Supervisor)
  • Dr Qi Ye (2023): Structural analysis and design of semi-submersible platform for floating offshore wind turbines (Director of Studies / 1st Supervisor)

Teaching

ENGR107 - Engineering Design

CIVL201 - Civil Engineering Practice 

CIVL500 - Finite Element Modelling and Analysis

Contact Shanshan

Room 009, Reynolds Building, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA
+44 1752 586112