Barzin Mobasher Research Group
Mechanics of cement-based and fiber composites, from laboratory testing and constitutive modeling to design procedures and software.
The research spans fiber and textile reinforcement, fracture and interface micromechanics, durability, and high strain rate and ballistic composites. It has been applied to structures as different as thin textile reinforced panels, precast tunnel segments, light rail track slabs, and jet engine containment fabrics.
People
Placing the rebar-free fiber reinforced concrete track slab on the Valley Metro Northwest Extension, May 2023.
Research areas
All researchFiber Reinforced Concrete Mechanics
Constitutive modeling and closed-form design of FRC and UHPC. Strain-softening and strain-hardening behavior, residual strength, and parametric design methods presented in ACI 544 guidance.
Hybrid Reinforced Concrete
Sections that combine continuous rebar with fiber reinforcement. Closed-form solutions for neutral axis depth and moment capacity enable direct design instead of iteration.
Textile Reinforced Concrete
Fabric-cement composites for thin, ductile, high-performance elements. Pultrusion manufacturing, bond mechanisms, distributed cracking, and high strain-rate behavior.
Inverse Analysis and Design Tools
Back-calculation of tensile constitutive laws from flexural tests, batch processing of large datasets, and the HRC Designer software that puts these methods in the hands of engineers.
Experimental Mechanics and DIC
Full-field measurement of strain, crack width, and crack spacing with digital image correlation. Standard and high strain-rate testing of cement composites.
Structural Applications and Sustainability
Fiber reinforced precast tunnel segments, slabs-on-ground, pavements, and durable infrastructure. Mechanics-based design that reduces material use and carbon.
Fields addressed
All fields- Textile and fabric reinforced concrete
- Fiber reinforced concrete, mechanics and design
- Impact, high strain rate and ballistic composites
- Numerical modeling and simulation
- Durability, shrinkage and damage
- Cementitious materials and sustainability
- Fiber and interface micromechanics
- Fracture mechanics of cement composites
- Ultra-high performance concrete
- Hybrid reinforced concrete
- Processing and manufacturing
- Pavements, slabs and infrastructure
- Repair, retrofit and strengthening
- Functional and specialty materials
- Natural and recycled fiber composites
- Structural engineering and design practice
- Precast tunnel lining segments
- Experimental methods and measurement
- Statistics, quality control and reliability
- Early-age behaviour of cement paste
- Engineering education
Featured work
All projects
Valley Metro track slab
Fatigue test of a full-scale fiber reinforced concrete track slab over two million load cycles, replayed in 3D with the DIC record, the route and the construction data.
UHPC beam test in 3D
One UHPC beam in four-point bending. Strain, stress and curvature from the inverse analysis are shown beside the cracks measured by digital image correlation.
Selected publications
All publicationsJournal 2026
Limit-state based design of hybrid reinforced UHPC flexural beams using parametric modeling
D. D. Patel, C. Pleesudjai, N. Neithalath, B. Mobasher
Journal 2026
Mechanism of tensile load sharing in hybrid reinforced concrete flexural members
Chidchanok Pleesudjai, Devansh Patel, Daniel L. Araujo, Carlos A. S. Oliveira, Romildo D. Toledo Filho, Barzin Mobasher
Journal 2025
Efficiency of hybrid reinforced concrete beams with low reinforcement ratios
Chidchanok Pleesudjai, Carlos A. S. Oliveira, Daniel L. Araujo, Devansh Patel, Moacir Alexandre Souza de Andrade, Romildo Toledo Filho, Barzin Mobasher
HRC Designer
Analysis and design software for members made with fiber reinforced concrete, hybrid reinforced concrete, UHPC, and textile reinforced concrete. Flexural test data gives the material properties, which then carry into section and member calculations in SI or US units.
News
HRC Designer 4.3
Version 4.3 is out as a free Windows installer. It runs on the MATLAB Runtime, so no MATLAB license is needed, and the user manual is at hrcdesigner.com.
Limit-state design of hybrid reinforced UHPC beams
Published in Engineering Structures 357, 122353, together with the companion Python package parametric-uhpc.
RILEM Spring Convention and the UHPC Symposium
Two papers on the design of textile reinforced concrete at the RILEM Spring Convention 2026, and two on reinforced UHPC beams and rural bridge decks at the Fourth International Interactive Symposium on UHPC.
Laboratory footage
UHPC beam under ASTM C1609 flexure, with strain field
Digital image correlation on a UHPC beam in four-point bending, alongside the flexural stress against net deflection curve. Several strain bands form first, then one opens into a crack and the others unload.