Bronwyn Chorlton

Queen's University | QueensU · Department of Civil Engineering

Cultural heritage buildings are important reminders of our history, and timber is one of the materials commonly found within these structures. While cultural heritage buildings often hold significant aesthetic, historic, or cultural value, they are also frequently vulnerable to fire. In order to improve the fire performance of these buildings, the...

Timber buildings are becoming increasingly sought after for their aesthetic and environmental appeal. Commonly, timber elements are encapsulated using multi‐layered fire rated gypsum board in order to prevent the timber from contributing additional fuel load to the fire or to be approved by authorities. In recent studies performed in the last 5 yea...

This review aims to provide additional context to the historical narrative of the development of the standard temperature–time heating curve used for the determination of the fire resistance of structural elements. While historical narratives of the development of the standard temperature–time heating curve exist, there are portions of the timeline...

Engineered timber is being used to create increasingly taller structures, with building codes adapting to reflect this drive. While these structures continue to become more common, there has been little investigation into the possibility of repairing fire-damaged timber structural members, leaving practitioners with little guidance in the event of...

A previous study by the authors that was conducted on students in accredited undergraduate engineering programs showed significant differences between men's and women's experiences in their programs. That previous first-stage study highlighted that the causes of Canada's low retention of women in the field may be at least partially attributable to...

Trends in engineering education have shifted over time, with teaching methods adapting to facilitate student learning [1], and the importance of equity, diversity and inclusivity (EDI) coming to the forefront [2]. It is important to understand the trends in engineering education to assess where we are coming from and where things currently stand in...

Heritage timber buildings are found worldwide and their irreplaceable nature makes them of high value. A common occurrence on heritage timber members is radial shrinkage cracks resulting from changing moisture contents over time. There is little information available that can be used to assess the fire performance of heritage timber members (which...

The purpose of this research was to identify and understand the factors affecting graduate students of different genders in engineering.

In Part 1, a novel data collection exercise of a Canadian Stadium was conducted. Demographic distribution, pedestrian speed, exit and route choice, and areas of congestion were quantified using high resolution cameras. Herein, a numerical model space is built to simulate these observations in conventional software while exemplifying proper techniqu...

Large crowd sizes at stadia events require an in-depth consideration of human behaviour, since the reliability of egress models in design depends on the confidence of the input data. However, there is little contemporary public data surrounding crowd behaviour, and its implementation into pedestrian movement models, particularly focused on Canadian...

The purpose of this study is to better understand the effect of undergraduate engineering student engagement with an experiential learning opportunity on academic success in a virtual format. Students in a second year Civil Engineering Materials course that was virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic were given the option to shift a portion of the fin...

This study aims to understand student engagement with synchronous and asynchronous elements across the lecture and laboratory sections of a Civil Engineering undergraduate course. This course provided a unique chance to observe and compare synchronous andasynchronous elements as they run concurrently and in parallel. Behavioural engagement, a measu...

The purpose of this study is to better understand the effect of undergraduate engineering student engagement with an experiential learning opportunity on academic success in a virtual format. Students in a second year Civil Engineering Materials course that was virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic were given the option to shift a portion of the fin...

This study aims to understand student engagement with synchronous and asynchronous elements across the lecture and laboratory sections of a Civil Engineering undergraduate course. This course provided a unique chance to observe and compare synchronous and asynchronous elements as they run concurrently and in parallel. Behavioural engagement, a meas...

Timber use is becoming more appealing in the recent years especially ‘exposed timber’; however, the information available on the performance of engineered timber after fire is limited. This paper explores the performance of timber elements exposed to well defined thermal boundary conditions and examines the extent of adhesive degradation after heat...

Cultural heritage buildings are often recognized for holding significant heritage value; however, too often these structures are lost to fire. Timber is a building material commonly found in cultural heritage buildings, and for centuries encapsulations have been used in an attempt to improve the fire performance of timber. This research examines th...

A previous study by the authors that was conducted on students in accredited undergraduate engineering programs showed significant differences between men’s and women’s experiences in their programs. That previous first-stage study highlighted that the causes of Canada’s low retention of women in the field may be at least partially attributable to...

The demand for large and tall timber buildings is increasing across Canada. The recently constructed Brock Commons building in Vancouver and the upcoming Arbour building in Toronto are two such examples. These buildings are challenging for practitioners to design, and presently only a limited number of engineering institutions across Canada offer a...

The demand for large and tall timber buildings is increasing across Canada. The recently constructed Brock Commons building in Vancouver and the upcoming Arbour building in Toronto are two such examples. These buildings are challenging for practitioners to design, and presently only a limited number of engineering institutions across Canada offer a...

A previous study by the authors that was conducted on students in accredited undergraduate engineering programs showed significant differences between men’s and women’s experiences in their programs. That previous first-stage study highlighted that the causes of Canada’s low retention of women in the field may be at least partially attributable to...

In 2015, 56.8% of enrollments in Canadian universities for a bachelor program were women [1]. In Fall 2017, 46.7% of those who started undergraduate programs at the University of Waterloo identified as female or another gender [2]. That same term, only 30.7% of students who entered an engineering undergraduate program at UW were women or another ge...

While it is understood that there is an issue in retention of women in STEM fields, there is little research addressing why this is occurring. This warrants the need to begin identifying the root of this issue, and the direct causes. Undergraduate engineering programs are the first phase students undertake in their pursuit of a career as a professi...

As engineered timber such as Glulam is seeing increasing use in tall timber buildings, building codes are adapting to allow for this. In order for this material to be used confidently and safely in one of these applications, there is a need to understand the effects that fire can have on an engineered timber structural member. The post-fire resilie...

Magazine article in "Canadian Civil Engineer" (produced by CSCE).

While it is understood that there is an issue in retention of women in STEM fields, there is little research addressing why this is occurring. This warrants the need to begin identifying the root of this issue, and the direct causes. Undergraduate engineering programs are the first phase in the pursuit of a career as a professional engineer, and ev...