Associate Professor Pejman Sharafi
Biography
Associate Professor Pejman Sharafi is the head of Modular Prefab Design Laboratory (MPD-Lab) and a principal research academic in the Centre for Infrastructure Engineering (CIE) and Urban Transformation Research Centre (UTRC). He is, which is the node for research and consulting on industrialised and modular construction and offsite manufacturing in the Western Sydney University (WSU). He is the academic chair of advisory board of some major industries in the area of offsite construction and had been the chair of board of directors in some major infrastructure companies such as NIGC Co, prior to joining academia in 2010. He obtained his PhD from the University of Wollongong in 2013 and joined WSU in 2014. He obtained his bachelor degree in civil engineering from the University of Tehran, Iran, immediately followed by a Master in 1998. In 2004 he joined the Building and Housing Research Centre in Tehran, Iran, and completed a Master in Earthquake Engineering. His areas of expertise are structural systems, offsite manufacturing, prefabricated systems, modular design, and optimisation. He has led several national and international research projects in collaboration with a number of leading universities and major industries, and has been the chief investigator of over $3.9M research projects in this area. He has authored and co-authored over 130 publications in the area of building design, construction and optimisation.
Areas of Research / Teaching Expertise
- Design for Manufacture and Assembly
- Industrialised Construction
- Platform based Design
- Prefabrication and Modular Buildings
- Design Optimisation
- Efficient and low-carbon construction process
- Advanced Structural Systems
- Cost Analysis and Optimisation of Engineering Systems
- Sustainable Buildings
- Life Cycle Cost Optimisation of Structures
Grants / Current Projects
- Smart Built Hub: Collaborative digital and physical platform for offsite manufacturing network, Industry funded - 2022-2024
- Digital Platforms for Net-Zero Construction Ecosystems – Industry funded; 2023-2028
- Design for Manufacture and Assembly of high performance prefabricated prefinished modular systems for multi-storey buildings, Industry funded – 2021-2025
- DfMA of Flexible low-carbon structural backbone for building offsite manufacturing; Industry funded; 2022-2025
- Guideline for the design and assembly of moment resisting steel connections in modular buildings, 2019-2021.
- Interactions between volumetric units in modular buildings; ARC-DECRA - 2019-2022.
- Collaborative robotics for structural assembly and construction automation, ARC-LIEF - 2021-2023.
Selected Publications
Sharafi, P., et al., Automated spatial design of multi-story modular buildings using a unified matrix method. Automation in Construction, 2017. 82: p. 31-42.
Sharafi, P., et al., Identification of Factors and Decision Analysis of the Level of Modularization in Building Construction. ASCE Journal of Architectural Engineering, 2018. 24(2): p. 04018010.
Sharafi, P., et al., Interlocking system for enhancing the integrity of multi-storey modular buildings. Automation in Construction, 2018. 85: p. 263-272.
Alembagheri, M., Sharafi, P., Hajirezaei, R. and Samali, B., 2020. Collapse capacity of modular steel buildings subject to module loss scenarios: The role of inter-module connections. Engineering Structures, 210, p.110373.
Farajian, M., Sharafi, P., Eslamnia, H., Kildashti, K. and Bai, Y., 2022. Classification of inter-modular connections for stiffness and strength in sway corner-supported steel modular frames. Journal of Constructional Steel Research, 197, p.107458.
Alembagheri, M., Sharafi, P., Hajirezaei, R. and Tao, Z., 2020. Anti-collapse resistance mechanisms in corner-supported modular steel buildings. Journal of Constructional Steel Research, 170, p.106083.
Sharafi, P., et al., Lateral force resisting systems in lightweight steel frames: Recent research advances. Thin-Walled Structures, 2018. 130: p. 231-253.
Usefi, N., P. Sharafi, and H. Ronagh, Numerical models for lateral behaviour analysis of cold-formed steel framed walls: State of the art, evaluation and challenges. Thin-Walled Structures, 2019. 138: p. 252-285.
Sharafi, P., Hadi, M.N. and Teh, L.H., 2013. Cost optimization of column layout design of reinforced concrete buildings. On the Maximization of the Fundamental Eigenvalue in Topology Optimization, pp.129-146.
Sharafi, P., Teh, L.H. and Hadi, M.N., 2014. Shape optimization of thin-walled steel sections using graph theory and ACO algorithm. Journal of Constructional Steel Research, 101, pp.331-341.
