Robert Vollum

Professor Robert Vollum is a Professor of Structural Concrete at Imperial College London's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (Faculty of Engineering). He joined Imperial in 1991 after a decade in industry. His research focuses on reinforced concrete structures, including long-term deflections, beam-column joints, shear and punching shear analysis, numerical modeling, strut-and-tie methods, and thermal cracking control. He has pioneered methods for predicting slab deflections under construction loads and contributed to EPSRC-funded projects on concrete blinding struts and cracking behavior. His work has been validated through in-situ testing at BRE Cardington.

Professional Roles:

• Member of BSI Committee B/525/2 for EC2 Structural Use of Concrete
• UK Technical Expert on CEN/TC 250/SC 2 Task Group 4 (Shear/Punching/Torsion)
• Member of fib Task Group 4.2 (Concrete Structure Models)

Research Interests:

His research spans:

• Structural Concrete Behavior
• Punching Shear in Flat Slabs
• Strut-and-Tie Modeling
• Concrete Blinding Strut Design
• Disproportionate Collapse Prevention
• Thermal Cracking Control

Key Projects:

• EPSRC-funded project on blinding struts in cut-and-cover excavations (EP/D505488/1)
• EPSRC project on concrete element cracking under strain restraint (EP/T004142/1)

Grants & Collaborations:

Professor Vollum has led collaborative projects with the University of Leeds and contributed to standards development for Eurocode 2. His work integrates experimental validation with advanced numerical modeling techniques.

Labs & Affiliations:

• Affiliated with the Centre for Systems Engineering and Innovation
• Involved in large-scale testing facilities (e.g., BRE Cardington)