Pang Sze Dai

Biography

Dr. Pang Sze Dai graduated from the National University of Singapore with B.Eng. (First Class Honours) and M.Eng. degrees in 2001 and 2002 respectively under the Accelerated Master’s Program (AMP), and from the Northwestern University with Ph.D. degree in 2005. He researched on the behaviour of profiled steel-concrete composite structures subjected to blast loading for his M.Eng thesis and on the size effect arising from energetic and probabilistic fracture mechanics in the mechanical properties of quasi-brittle materials for his Ph.D dissertation.

Dr. Pang joined the National University of Singapore in 2006 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and the Engineering Science Programme (ESP). He designed and taught modules for the newly set-up ESP and the fresh approach towards students’ learning was awarded the Faculty of Engineering Innovative Teaching Award. The students that he has mentored in CEE and ESP has won multiple awards at faculty and university levels which include the Faculty Innovation and Research Awards, University Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Awards, University Student Achievement Awards. At international level, the teams that he has mentored for the annual international earthquake design competition in Taiwan and has won top awards every year. On top of the teaching of modules and mentoring of students, he has been active in administrative roles as the Acting Programme Manager for the M.Sc (Civil) and M.Sc (Geotech) programmes in 2008-2010, and is currently the Curriculum Coordinator for the Design-Centric Curriculum which is delivered by Engineering Design and Innovation Centre.

Dr. Pang is currently working on research in the area of protective building and sustainable building technologies using principles from bio-mimicry and is also researching on the size effect in cementitious and metal matrix composites. He has attracted close to S$3 million in research funding as Principle Investigator and collaborator. He has served on the committees for a number of major conferences, reviewed for multiple journal articles and also served as external reviewer for national research projects. He has also provided his expertise to the industry for consultations on structural dynamics, steel structures and seismic engineering.

Qualifications

• 2001, B. Eng. (Civil, 1st Class Honours), National University of Singapore
• 2002, M. Eng. (Civil), National University of Singapore
• 2005, Ph.D. (Theoretical and Applied Mechanics), Northwestern University

Honours & Awards

• MSc (Construction Engineering) Class of 1977 Silver Medal, 2001
• Walter Murphy Fellowship 2004, 2005
• NUS Sports Awards – Supportive Staff Award 2011
• Faculty of Engineering Innovative Teaching Award 2008/09
• Faculty of Engineering Educator Award 2007/08, 2008/09, 2009/10, 2010/11
• Engineering Educator Award (Honor List) 2011/12
• University Annual Teaching Excellence Award 2007/08, 2008/09, 2010/11
• University Annual Teaching Excellence Award (Honor List) 2011/12

Professional Activities

• Member, Institution of Engineers Singapore
• Observer, Singapore Structural Steel Society Council
• Secretary, 21st KKCNN Symposium on Civil Engineering (2008)
• Treasurer, 5th Asia Pacific Symposium on Structural Reliability and its Applications (2012)
• Committee, 10th International Conference on Advances in Steel Concrete Composite and Hybrid Structures (2012)

Teaching Areas

Undergraduate Level:

• Differential Equations & Systems
• Design Projects
• Design of Structural Steel Systems

Graduate Level:

• Structural Stability & Dynamics
• Analysis & Design of Building against Hazards

Industrial and Practical Courses:

• Design of structural steel systems
• Seismic engineering

Research Interests

Computational mechanics

• size effect in cementitious and metal matrix composites
• fracture in quasibrittle engineering materials

Smart cementitious materials and structures

• self-healing for extreme loading conditions
• self-sensing with nano-particles

Protective technology

• biomimicked structural and material design

Sustainable building technology

• design for disassembly for reuse of structural elements

Research Projects

• 2006 – 2009, Bio-inspired design of engineering structures, Principal Investigator, Academic Research Grant Tier 1, S$150k
• 2009 – 2013, Design for disassembly building systems for Singapore, Collaborator, Ministry of National Development Research Grant, S$1,204k.
• 2009 – 2013, Cementitious nano-composites for the building and construction industry, Principal Investigator, A*Star SERC Research Grant, S$629k.
• 2012 – 2016, Novel cellular structural system for protection against impact and projectiles, Principal Investigator, Mindef, S$710k

Selected Publications

1. S Gupta, HW Kua and SD Pang (2018). “Healing cement mortar by immobilization of bacteria in biochar: An integrated approach of self-healing and carbon sequestration”. Cement and Concrete Composites, 86, 238-254.
2. S Gupta, SD Pang and HW Kua (2017). “Autonomous healing in concrete by bio-based healing agents – A review”. Construction and Building Materials, 146, 419-428.
3. YS Chua, E Law, SD Pang, ST Quek (2017). “Impact behaviour and design optimization of a ductile scale-cellular composite structure for protection against localized impact”. International Journal of Solids and Structures, 122-123, 162-174.
4. YS Chua, E Law, SD Pang, ST Quek (2016). “Fish scale-cellular composite system for protection against low-velocity impact”. Composite Structures, 145, 217-225.
5. H Du, HJ Gao and SD Pang (2016). “Improvement in concrete resistance against water and chloride ingress by adding graphene nanoplatelet”. Cement and Concrete Research, 83, 114-123.
6. CWR Ong, MH Zhang, H Du and SD Pang (2015). “Cellular cement composites against projectile impact”. International Journal of Impact Engineering, 86, 13-26.
7. H Du and SD Pang (2015). “Enhancement of barrier properties of cement mortar with graphene nanoplatelet”. Cement and Concrete Research, 76, 10-19.
8. JL Le, H Du and SD Pang (2014). “Use of 2D Graphene Nanoplatelets (GNP) in cement composites for structural health evaluation”. Composites Part B: Engineering, 67, 555-563.
9. KCG Ong, ZS Lin, LR Chandra, CT Tam and SD Pang (2013). “Experimental investigation of a DfD moment-resisting beam–column connection: A numerical analysis”. Engineering Structures, 56, 1676-1683.
10. FC Teo, LH Poh and SD Pang (2017). “On the Flexural Failure of Thick Ice Against Sloping Structures”. Journal of Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering, 139(4), 041501.
11. D Feng, SD Pang and J Zhang (2016). “Parameter Sensitivity in Numerical Modelling of Ice-Structure Interaction With Cohesive Element Method”. Proceedings of the ASME 2016 35th International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, 8, V008T07A012.
12. E. Law, S. D. Pang and S. T. Quek (2012). “Effects of particle arrangement and particle damage on the mechanical response of metal matrix nanocomposites: A numerical analysis”. Acta Materialia, 60(1), 8-21.
13. E. Law, S. D. Pang and S. T. Quek (2011). “Discrete dislocation analysis of the mechanical response of silicon carbide reinforced aluminum nanocomposites”. Composites Part B: Engineering, 42 (1), 92-98.
14. D. P. T. Thao, S. D. Pang and S. T. Quek (2011). “Does representative volume element exist for quasi-brittle composites?” Materials Science and Engineering A, 528 (25-26), 7757-7767.
15. J. N. Reddy and S. D. Pang (2008). “Nonlocal Continuum Theories of Beam for the Analysis of Carbon Nanotubes”. Journal of Applied Physics, 103, 023611-1:16.
16. Z. P. Bažant and S. D. Pang (2007). “Activation Energy Based Extreme Value Statistics and Size Effect in Brittle and Quasibrittle Fracture”. Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 51(1), 91-131.
17. Z. P. Bažant and S. D. Pang (2006). “Mechanics-based statistics of failure risk of quasibrittle structures and size effect on safety factors “. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 103(25), 9434-9439.