Expertise · TYLIN
Shervin Ghomi is a Senior Bridge Engineer at TYLIN in Canada. The project details stay with their owners, so this story is about a way of working: evaluating how a major bridge would behave if parts of it were damaged or lost.
In Shervin Ghomi's own words.
"The software provides the analytical capability, but it is the interaction between that capability and engineering judgment that I find most valuable."
I would describe myself as fundamentals-driven, practical and solution-oriented.
One experience that stands out was evaluating the structural redundancy of a major and complex bridge. The challenge was not simply to determine whether the structure met specific acceptance criteria, but to understand how the overall structural system would respond if individual components were damaged or lost.
The evaluation gave the client and the design team a clearer understanding of the bridge's structural behaviour, its critical components and the consequences of different damage scenarios. Beyond the immediate assessment, the findings helped the client prioritise maintenance and inspection resources and optimise construction procedures by focusing attention on the components and conditions that mattered most to the performance of the structure.
Q. What has stayed with you most from working with MIDAS?
Realising how much a powerful analysis tool can expand the way an engineer approaches a problem. Over the years, I have used MIDAS on increasingly complex bridge projects. In many of them, no single analysis could simply provide the answer. I had to develop different models, test scenarios, compare results and progressively build an understanding of how the structure was behaving.
That experience changed the way I use finite element analysis. I no longer see MIDAS simply as a tool for calculating demands. I see it as a way to investigate structural behaviour, test engineering hypotheses and support better-informed engineering decisions.
A redundancy evaluation answered more than a pass or fail. It told the client where inspection and maintenance effort belonged. MIDAS is glad to be one of the ways Shervin Ghomi tests a hypothesis about how a structure behaves.