Professor Zhong Tao

Western Sydney University · Centre for Infrastructure Engineering (CIE)

There is a growing interest in utilising waste glass in cement and concrete production to reduce the environmental impact. This paper studies the feasibility of incorporating a very high volume of glass powder (>=65%) in a hybrid alkaline binder (HAB) activated by sodium carbonate and sodium citrate. The HAB was optimised in two stages to achieve t...

Reinforced concrete (RC) columns made with high-strength concrete (HSC) have been increasingly used in modern high-rise buildings. This is due to the effectiveness of those columns in carrying large loads with relatively small cross-sections, which will maximise the utilisation of valuable space. However, one of the major drawbacks of HSC is its po...

Steel-concrete composite columns have attracted considerable attention in recent years due to their superior fire performance relative to conventional steel columns and enhanced seismic resilience compared to their reinforced concrete counterparts. Therefore, they are widely used in skyscrapers, bridges, underground infrastructure, offshore structu...

Temperature fluctuations pose a critical challenge for infrastructure, necessitating functional concrete to protect structures and promote sustainability. Self-heating concrete and phase change material (PCM) concrete are closely linked to thermal energy, with the former focused on heat generation and the latter on heat storage. This study aims to...

Steel-concrete composite beams with shear studs providing composite action between the concrete slabs and steel beams are widely used in modern steel-framed building construction. Three-dimensional finite element modelling has been a viable option for investigating the fire behaviour of composite beams. Although many finite element models are avail...

Steel-concrete composite beams with shear studs providing composite action between the concrete slabs and steel beams are widely used in modern steel-framed building construction. Three-dimensional finite element modelling has been a viable option for investigating the fire behaviour of composite beams. Although many finite element models are avail...

Concrete-filled steel columns have attracted considerable attention in recent years due to their superior fire performance relative to conventional steel columns and enhanced seismic resilience compared to their reinforced concrete counterparts. Therefore, they are widely used in skyscrapers, bridges, offshore structures, tunnels, and various other...

This paper presents the test results of high strength concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) columns protected by a novel fly ash-based spray-applied fire resistive material (SFRM) recently developed by the authors. Five square CFST stub columns were tested, where the steel tubes had a nominal yield stress of 690 MPa and the concrete had a cylinder c...

Silica fume (SF) is widely used in the developing of high-performance geopolymer systems. Previous studies have shown that using different types of SF may have different influences on the performance of geopolymers. What are the key factors (affecting the properties of geopolymers) still need to be clarified? This paper investigated the effects of...

I am pleased to share with you the call for papers for the upcoming Special Issue on "Advances in Structural Fire Safety" to be published in Engineering Structures Journal by Elsevier (Q1, IF 5.5, JCR 2022). It is my great honour to share my role as a Guest Editor with four other eminent researchers: Prof. Zhong Tao at Western Sydney University (A...

End-of-life vehicle (ELV) plastics pose technical challenges in conventional recycling due to their diverse polymer compositions. Consequently, landfilling remains the prevailing disposal method. This study explores an innovative approach by upcycling ELV plastics as a substitute for natural sand in concrete. The study investigates the physical, me...

Sugarcane bagasse ash is an agricultural and industrial waste material produced in millions of tonnes annually. While traditionally used as a fertilizer or buried underground, incorporating this material into concrete production not only reduces cement usage and addresses environmental concerns but also enhances the mechanical properties of concret...

High-strength steel (HSS) columns are effective in carrying large loads with relatively small cross-sections. One of the main drawbacks of HSS is its vulnerability when exposed to fire. Therefore, fire protection is often required to increase the fire resistance of HSS columns. Recently, the authors have developed a cost-effective and eco-friendly...

The ingress of water and aggressive substances is the primary reason for the chemical and physical degradation of concrete infrastructure, leading to a reduction in durability and a shortening of life span. In practice, different integral waterproofing admixtures and surface coatings have been widely used to prevent or mitigate this problem. Compar...

Spray-applied fire-resistive materials (SFRMs) are one of the most commonly used passive fire protection materials due to their low thermal conductivity, lightweight, cost-effectiveness, and ease of application. Gypsum and Portland cement are commonly used in SFRMs to bind lightweight fillers and fibres. Due to the wide application of SFRMs, their...

Globally, Portland cement (PC) is one of the most consumed materials with annual global production of approximately 4.6 billion tonnes and global demand is predicted to increase to 6 billion tonnes by 2050 [1]. However, the production of PC has significant environmental impacts and is currently responsible for approximately 8% of global CO2 emissio...

This paper studied the effect of elevated temperatures on the compressive strength of alkali-activated fly ash (so-called geopolymer) with the addition of calcium aluminate cement (CAC). In the elevated temperature tests (600 and 800 °C), the unstressed test method was adopted. Taguchi analysis was used to study the effect of three parameters (cons...

This study aimed to evaluate the technical feasibility of a multilayer detention roof, namely a purple roof, in managing urban stormwater. A purple roof is conceptually and technically different from a green roof in that the former includes a low-transmissivity drainage layer and a void layer that can be designed at various depths for the temporary...

Irregular hexagonal concrete-filled steel tubes (HCFST) are suitable for corner columns in high-rise buildings. In this paper, thirteen slender HCFST columns were tested under axial or eccentric compression. The experimental parameters included the slenderness ratio and load eccentricity. A finite element model was then developed to simulate such H...

Nearly 40% of the worldwide electricity generated comes from coal; therefore, coal will remain a crucial contributor to the global security of energy supply in the following decades. In the extraction of precious coal products, 1 ton of hard coal produces 0.4 tons of extractive waste materials, including coal washery rejects, tailings, and waste ro...

There is an increasing need to improve the energy efficiency of residential buildings all around the world. Providing thermal insulation to the external walls and ceilings is a common practice for this purpose. The combined use of phase change materials (PCM) and thermal insulation in building envelopes could potentially further promote the buildin...

Engineered cementitious composite (ECC)-encased concrete filled steel tube (CFST) column, which is composed of outer steel reinforced ECC and inner CFST components, has broad application prospects in high-rise buildings due to its higher strength and ductility than the concrete-encased CFST column counterpart. This paper investigates the fire perfo...

Compared to solar panels, the current adoption rate of building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) systems in Australia is relatively low owing to their complex design, fluctuation in efficiency during operation and high cost. The efficiency of the BIPV system drops significantly with the increase of module temperature beyond 25°C. To stabilise the sys...

Spray-applied fire-resistive materials (SFRMs) are commonly used passive fire protection materials due to their low thermal conductivity, lightweight, cost-effectiveness, and ease of application. SFRMs generally contain gypsum or Portland cement binder, mineral fillers, and fibres. Binder materials account for approximately 50-75% of the total mate...

The study on geopolymers blended with silica fume is scant. This study investigates the effects of silica fume (SF) on the compressive strength of geopolymer-based ultra-high-performance concrete (G-UHPC) subject to ambient curing. Low-calcium fly ash (LCFA) and calcium aluminate cement (CAC) were activated by a combination of sodium hydroxide and...

Hybrid alkaline cement (HAC) typically has a high amount of fly ash (70-80 wt.%) and a low amount of clinker (20-30 wt.%). A small amount of activator is commonly incorporated in HAC to promote its strength development. Compared with those highly corrosive and hygroscopic alkaline activators (e.g. sodium hydroxide), sodium and potassium carbonate a...

Hybrid alkaline cement (HAC) typically has a high amount of fly ash (70–80 wt%) and a low amount of clinker (20–30 wt%). A small amount of activator is commonly incorporated in HAC to promote its strength development. Compared with those highly corrosive and hygroscopic alkaline activators (e.g. sodium hydroxide), sodium and potassium carbonate are...

Compared to solar panels, the current adoption rate of building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) systems in Australia is relatively low owing to their complex design, fluctuation in efficiency during operation and high cost. The efficiency of the BIPV system drops significantly with the increase of module temperature beyond 25°C. To stabilise the sys...

The global coal industry yields a vast amount of tailings waste, and the utilisation of these tailings necessitates innovative efforts contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. One of such novel initiatives is to reuse coal tailings (CT) safely, ecofriendly, and cost-effectively in agroecosystems as a soil conditioner to enh...

Geopolymer concrete (GPC) generally has very good fire resistance and is considered as an environmentally friendly alternative to ordinary Portland cement (OPC) concrete. However, research on geopolymer concrete-filled steel tubular columns (GCFST) is still very scarce. Accordingly, sixteen circular GCFST specimens made with GPC and carbon steel we...

The spreadsheet was developed for generating Stress-Strain Curves of Structural and Reinforcing steels after exposure to elevated temperatures. The original model was published in: Tao, Z., Wang, X. Q., & Uy, B. (2013). Stress-strain curves of structural steel and reinforcing steel after exposure to elevated temperatures. Journal of Materials in C...

To construct structures with long lifetime requirements, ferritic stainless steels are competitive candidate materials for use due to their relatively low cost to achieve high resistance to corrosion. While numerous studies have been conducted on the mechanical properties of ferritic stainless steels at ambient and elevated temperatures, informatio...

Green infrastructure could provide a suite of benefits, including stormwater management and climate change impact mitigation. While European countries, the USA and Canada are increasingly adopting green roofs, Australia is lagging behind. This study specifically reviews the performance of green roofs in terms of stormwater retention, runoff quality...

Due to the intensive use of fertilisers, soil degradation has become a global problem, leading to the depletion of organic matter and soil fertility. Meanwhile, the intensification of agriculture accompanied by urbanisation and industrialisation has drastically accelerated the waste generation rate. For instance, coal mining produces wastes in a la...

Coal production at mine sites and consumption by end users generate a considerable amount of waste. Over the past 100 years, coal production processes combined with ongoing increases in energy demands have resulted in 100's of millions of tons of waste across the world. The management of coal waste containing numerous harmful properties with potent...

According to the United Nations' report, billions of people, particularly those living in regional areas (places that lay behind major cities), are still lacking access to clean drinking water. Some of them drink rainwater without any prior treatment even though water experts are campaigning against this practice for potential health risks. As most...

Lime and Portland cement are the most widely used binders in soil stabilization projects. However, due to the high carbon emission in cement production, research on soil stabilization by the use of more environmentally-friendly binders with lower carbon footprint has attracted much attention in recent years. This research investigated the potential...

In current practice, a relatively wide range of different interconnections and assembly systems is being used for the design of modular buildings made of volumetric prefabricated frames. The integration strategies and design criteria for providing structural robustness or prevention of disproportionate collapse for such buildings are completely dif...

For the production of alkali-activated binders, the use of commercially available activators, particularly sodium silicate (SS), has a few disadvantages, such as high costs, high embodied energy and adverse environmental impacts associated with the synthesis of the activators. For example, commercial SS is commonly produced by the reaction of sodiu...

A spreadsheet is developed to generate the tensile stress-strain curves of high strength steels. The models are published in the following paper: Xing-Qiang Wang, Zhong Tao, Utsab Katwal, Chao Hou. Tensile stress-strain models for high strength steels, Journal of Constructional Steel Research, 186 (2021) 106879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcsr.2...

In recent years, high strength steels (HSSs) with a minimum nominal yield stress of 460 MPa have been increasingly used in structural applications. An HSS may exhibit continuous or discontinuous yielding, depending on the chemical composition and manufacturing process and procedure. However, no criterion has been proposed in the literature to predi...

This research evaluated the effect of different moisture conditions on the ductility, geotechnical and microstructural characteristics of the improved clayey subgrade with various lime contents and geogrid layers. The results of more than 120 tests showed that the combined application of lime and geogrid to the clayey subgrade significantly enhance...

Domestic or onshore international students in Australia are encouraged to apply for a PhD scholarship. The student will work on a DECRA project "Reusable Fire-Resistant Column Rehabilitation Scheme for Fibre Reinforced Polymer Composites" funded by the Australian Research Council.

Different from previous studies that widely explored the application of waste glass to replace natural aggregates or cement powder, this study firstly utilized waste glass particles coated with carbon nanotubes) as conductive fillers to develop novel self-sensing cement-based sensors. The coating efficiency of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and self-sensi...

Recycling waste glass for developing cementitious and geopolymeric concretes as sustainable construction materials have recently attracted increasing attentions for the construction industry. There are many previous studies on the effects of waste glass used as powder, sand or cullet based on the various sizes on the fresh and mechanical properties...

Stainless steel bolts have an underlying use in bolted connections, as they possess more significant material properties and resistance than high-strength bolts under fire and/or corrosion conditions. Appropriate estimation for fire safety design of these connections depends largely on the ability to accurately predict the fundamental material resp...

Stainless steel bolts have an underlying use in bolted connections, as they possess more significant material properties and resistance than high-strength bolts under fire and/or corrosion conditions. Appropriate estimation for fire safety design of these connections depends largely on the ability to accurately predict the fundamental material resp...

This study proposes a new reliability-based capacity factor calibration method based on the EN 1990 Annex D method in combination with Kriging for a statistical data expansion. The original EN 1990 Annex D method has been widely used in partial safety factor or capacity factor calibrations in international structural design standards by rigorously...

A spreadsheet is developed to calculate the effective stress-strain curves of steel and concrete for simplified numerical simulation of rectangular concrete-filled steel tubular columns.

In detailed three-dimensional (3D) finite-element modeling, two dimensional and/or 3D elements are widely used because of their high accuracy and ease to use despite the high computational cost. In contrast, simplified modeling based on fiber beam element (FBE) formulation is preferred for developing macro models to simulate structural frames due t...

This paper investigates the effects of the expansive agent on recycled aggregate concrete filled steel tubular (RACFST) stub columns under axial compression. The main experimental parameters include an expansive agent ratio and recycled aggregate replacement ratio. In the current experimental study, owing to the enhanced confinement, the RACFST col...

There is an increasing interest in integrating photovoltaic cells in building components, such as roof tiles. However, conversion efficiency of photovoltaic cells is temperature-dependant and high temperature will reduce the conversion efficiency. This paper studies the performance of mortar roof tiles with integrated solar cells and protective gla...

Hybrid alkaline cement (HAC) typically contains a high amount of fly ash 70-80 wt.% and a low amount of cement clinker 20-30 wt.%. The use of fly ash significantly reduces CO2 emissions associated with cement production, while the presence of OPC reduces the amount of alkaline activator, allowing it to be made available on an industrial scale. Th...

Push tests as suggested in Eurocode 4 have been widely used to determine the shear strength of stud shear connectors. In the presence of profiled steel sheeting, however, the push load is jointly resisted by both types of components, i.e., shear studs and sheeting. As a result, the exact load carried by a shear stud remains unknown. This paper inte...

X-ray Mapping Characterisation of Hybrid Alkaline Cement Discolouration Area - Qingtao Huang, Zhong Tao, Zhu Pan, Md Kamrul Hassan, Laurel George, Richard Wuhrer

Due to different integration strategies and stability requirements, the robustness analysis of multi-story modular buildings, made of volumetric units, requires collapse capacity analysis of various scenarios, corresponding to the loss of supports and notional removal of a part of ground floor modules. In this paper the results of a parametric anal...

This study investigated the effect of elevated temperatures on the residual mechanical behaviors of geopolymer mortars with initial damage induced by mechanical load. Geopolymer mortar was prepared using different fly ash/ ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) ratios and was activated by sodium silicate and sodium hydroxide solution. The phy...

Rainwater harvesting is a well-known method of collecting and storing rainwater that can be used later for different purposes. Most of the recent studies focused on how to use the harvested rainwater effectively that can reduce the use of potable water for non-potable usage and ultimately cut down the water demand from the mains. However, studies o...

Bond between stainless steel and concrete is not reliable for load transfer in concrete-filled stainless steel tubular columns. This paper proposes the use of a full-through plate for connecting the primary beam to a stainless steel composite column, whereas half-through plates are used to connect other secondary beams. In fabricating such connecti...

The aim of the study was to devise a sustainable solution for drinking water supply in rural communities at an affordable cost, which is specifically related to the two of the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals: G3. Good health and well-being and G6. Clean water and sanitation. In this regard, the objective of this scoping review is to e...

Gypsum board with the advantages of low cost and ease of placement is widely used in buildings as ceiling and interior wall coverings. The interest in phase change material integrated gypsum board has been growing significantly over the last few years. In the present work, a composite form-stable phase change material (FSPCM) for use in gypsum boar...

Quenching and tempering (QT) are common procedures in manufacturing high strength steel for building applications to achieve structural, economic and architectural benefits. However, the tempered martensitic microstructure of QT steel can change dramatically when exposing to high temperatures, leading to significant deterioration in mechanical prop...

This is an article published on the Conversation: https://theconversation.com/we-can-make-roof-tiles-with-built-in-solar-cells-now-the-challenge-is-to-make-them-cheaper-123775 Despite being such a sunkissed country, Australia is still lagging behind in the race to embrace solar power. While solar panels adorn hundreds of thousands of rooftops th...

To improve the commercial viability of geopolymers, there is a need to develop one-part geopolymer mixes. In this research, 100% fly ash or a mixture of fly ash and slag was employed as the precursor. Meanwhile, the highly corrosive alkali solutions used as activators in conventional geopolymers were replaced by different solid activators (in powde...

Buildings consume a large portion quantity of energy. In May 2010, the European Union (EU) reported that around 40% of their energy consumption was related to building sectors, which is similar to the proportion of 39% in the United States. In Australia, buildings count 20% of its total energy consumption. Experts across the globe have been working...

Geopolymer concrete (GPC) is attracting increasing attention due to its potential to replace ordinary Portland cement (OPC) concrete to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions from cement production. Although extensive research has been conducted in this area since the 1970s, its applications in engineering practice are still very limited. This paper b...

Conductive cementitious composites with excellent conductivity and piezoresistivity can be used for pavement deicing, concrete corrosion evaluations or structural health monitoring. Inspired by the practice of recycling rubber wastes for concrete manufacturing, in this study the conductive rubbers are first added as enhanced fillers to improve the...