Aftab Mufti

Aftab Mufti (born 1940 in Karachi, Pakistan) is an engineer in Canada.

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Early years and career

Aftab Mufti is a professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Manitoba and President of ISIS Canada. He was born in Pakistan in 1940. He graduated from the NED Engineering College, Karachi, in February 1962 and worked as a Structural Engineer for the Karachi Port Trust for one year. In September 1963 he was admitted to McGill University, Montreal, Quebec and graduated with an Masters of Engineering in 1965 and a Ph.D. in 1969. During this time he also worked on the Canadian Theme Pavilions for Expo 67 as a Structural Engineer for deStien and Associates of Montreal.

In 2010 Dr. Mufti was awarded the Order of Canada, “For his contributions to and leadership in the field of civil engineering, notably for researching the use of advanced composite materials and fibre optic sensors in the construction and monitoring of bridges and other infrastructures.”

Awards and fellowships

Other awards that Mufti has received include:

-the Award of Merit from the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of the Province of Manitoba, March, 2005;

In addition to being Program leader and President of ISIS Canada, a Network of Centers of Excellence, Mufti has also served at McGill, Acadia, and Dalhousie University as a Professor and Academic Administrator. As immediate past President of ISHMII (International Society for Health Monitoring of Intelligent Infrastructures), he is also a Fellow of several associations including the International Association of Bridges and Structures (2006); the International Institute for FRP in Construction (2004); the Canadian Academy of Engineering (2000); the American Society for Civil Engineering (1995); the Engineering Institute of Canada (1985); the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (1984); and the Royal Society of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce (1980).

Innovations and publications

Mufti is the principal developer of the Steel-Free Bridge Deck Slab Concept, which has led to the development of an economical, highly durable, and novel steel-free deck slab. These decks do not require embedded steel tensile reinforcement and are therefore corrosion-free. The result is a significant reduction in the amount of on-going maintenance. During the past 15 years, many large-scale models of the steel reinforcement-free deck slabs have been tested. This research led to the construction, in 1995, of the world’s first such cast-in place deck slab on the Trans-Canada Highway over the Salmon River in Nova Scotia. Since then, other Canadian bridges now incorporate steel reinforcement-free concrete bridge deck slabs. A pre-cast slab has also been used in the reconstruction of a wharf structure in Hall’s Harbour, Nova Scotia and a forestry bridge in British Columbia. In the second generation of steel free deck slabs, GFRP bars have been included in order to reduce the size of crack widths. In 2003, the first second generation steel-free deck slab was constructed on the Red River bridge on Winnipeg's Perimeter Highway. Also in 2004, the first American steel-free deck slab was constructed in Tama County, Iowa. These economical and corrosion-free deck slabs are restrained externally by steel straps and contain nominal GFRP bars for temperature crack control. The concept of a steel-free deck slab has been patented and the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code (CHBDC) specifies a method for designing these slabs. This invention has prompted complementary research in other universities including Osaka and Akita universities in Japan, the University of Sheffield in the UK, and Iowa State University and the University of California, San Diego, in the USA.

Mufti also introduced the multi-disciplinary concept of civionics, which involves the integration of electro-photonic sensing technology into civil engineering structures. This is an important advancement in achieving safe, economical and innovative structures. By employing a structural health monitoring (SHM) system, the second-generation steel-free deck slab can be made smart, so that it can be monitored both in the field and the lab. SHM will facilitate a timely and economical maintenance and repair program. The design of a SHM system for steel-free bridge deck performance has led to the development of a weigh-in-motion (WIM) concept using the same SHM system. This system will make it possible to assess live loads on bridges and the response of the bridges to live loads.

Bibliography

Mufti is a prolific writer and has written and edited books, chapters of books, and design manuals including:

In addition Dr. Mufti has had 112 papers published in scientific journal, has presented 268 papers in conference proceedings, has given 71 keynote lectures, and has written 20 essays and reports.

Aftab Mufti is married to Zehra Mehdi. He has two children Javed Mufti and Alex Adams and two grand children Asha Mufti and Aden Mufti.

External links