Advanced Technical Services (ATS)
ATS is the Applied Science hub within Robert Bird Group, an engineering innovation lab, where new ideas and unique solutions are born, developed, tested and deployed. We augment the capabilities of our Structural, Civil, Construction and Geotechnical Engineering practices, empowering them to tackle the most challenging project demands and mitigate risks in an increasingly complex word.
Our teams are staffed by professional engineers and experienced project managers who are all driven by a shared passion for engineering and construction technology. We approach every client’s brief with deep knowledge of advanced analytical methods, underpinned by an intuitive understanding of design from first principles.
Our diverse technical background fosters a transdisciplinary approach, regardless of project sector, size and scope. We thrive when operating across discipline boundaries, combining expertise from different areas to find solutions to the most complex construction projects.
Key Specialist Services
We seamlessly integrate our specialist services to solve the most sophisticated engineering challenges. Unifying our expertise in advanced analysis, structural dynamics, fire, impact and blast engineering, and specialist structures allows us to deliver holistic solutions for multifaceted projects. Whether optimising complex designs, mitigating extreme loads, or pioneering construction technologies, we approach every challenge with a multidisciplinary mindset to deliver excellent results. While we typically deliver these capabilities as part of Robert Bird Group’s large-scale projects, we are also directly appointed by private, institutional, and government clients to conduct specialist investigations.
Advanced Analysis
Advanced analysis lies at the heart of ATS capabilities. We use sophisticated computer modelling techniques to predict the behaviour of structures, components and systems under diverse loads and environmental conditions.
Our expertise includes nonlinear Finite Element Method (FEM) and other computational mechanics methods, enabling us to simulate complex phenomena across scales—from crack propagation in historical masonry to the seismic response of the world’s largest infrastructure assets.
These reliable modelling approaches underpin the performance-based design of innovative solutions for a wide range of requirements.
Illustrative applications include:
- Performance-based seismic design and retrofit of dynamically challenging structures
- Safety assessments of existing assets and justification for life-extension
- Design optimisation of complex solutions beyond conventional engineering requirements
- Independent review of engineered solutions
- Fracture and fatigue assessments
- Advanced modelling of creep, shrinkage and time-dependent effects
- Forensic investigations of complex failure mechanisms
- Soil-structure interaction for the design, upgrade and commissioning of sensitive, mission-critical assets
- Thermo-mechanical response analysis for components and structures
- Erection and Fabrication Stress Analysis to quantify and mitigate impacts of construction and production methods
- Development of bespoke monitoring solutions, especially for control of complex construction sequences
- Next-generation structural health monitoring — combining site data with high-fidelity models to deliver physics-based insights for asset management throughout its lifecycle.
Structural Dynamics
Excessive vibration is a major concern in the built environment, where controlling and limiting structural response to dynamic excitation is a crucial facet of successful project delivery. Increasingly driven towards lighter solutions and the re-use of structures for alternative occupancies, we help developers and asset owners rationally quantify vibration levels using sophisticated dynamics modelling. Leveraging our real-world construction knowledge, we calibrate our models with realistic parameters to assess risks and propose optimal mitigation strategies.
Key applications of our structural dynamics expertise include:
- Crowd-induced vibrations in stadia and music venues, accounting for human-structure interaction
- Reviewing acoustic base-isolation schemes for complex buildings in dense urban settings
- Assessing vibrations in buildings hosting sensitive equipment such as laboratories
- Assessment and design of complex structures subject to unconventional sources of dynamic excitation
- Vibration analysis for lightweight, long-span and cable structures under environmental loads
- Assessing structural response to industrial sources of dynamic excitation, such as turbo-machinery and other plant
Assessment of structures subject to railway vibrations (high-speed and conventional)
Fire, Impact and Blast
Constructed facilities worldwide can be exposed to extreme loads, particularly in the form of fire, blast and impact. Understandably, authorities and asset owners require robust mitigation measures to safeguard against these risks. However, relying solely on prescriptive methods often results in conventional design and retrofit solutions that are costly and carbon-intensive. Strict adherence to one-size-fits-all rules can stifle design creativity, limit architectural expression, and, in some cases, compromising performance against the very loads the design is intended to mitigate.
Our expertise in advanced computational mechanics, combined with extensive real-world design experience, enables us to accurately simulate how a wide range of assets respond to abnormal loads.
This sophisticated approach reveals the inherent strength and ductility reserves present in engineered systems—qualities that cannot be reliably quantified using conventional design methodologies.
With a comprehensive understanding of how structures and components behave under fire, impact and blast conditions, our teams significantly optimise physical mitigation measures while maintaining required safety levels. One area of specialisation is performance-based structural fire engineering, where we have an excellent track record of strategically optimising passive fire protection to ensure full compliance with fire safety requirements without unnecessary overdesign.
Specialist Structures, Products & Technology Transfer
The construction industry is evolving rapidly, with innovative materials and technologies constantly creating exciting new opportunities. However, safety and performance concerns can hinder adoption when solutions are constrained by conventional methods of analysis and design.
Using rigorous analytical methods and high-fidelity models, we demonstrate how specialist structures and new products perform under prescribed conditions, supporting asset owners and manufacturers in delivering innovations that challenge traditional boundaries.
Our services span from feasibility studies to detailed fabrication design and include:
- Design, Maintenance, Decommissioning and Re-use of Special Structures
- Virtual testing from concept to certification
- Topology optimisation and optioneering prior to physical prototyping
- Multi-scale analysis to assess product interactions with surrounding structures and novel composite materials
- Technology adaptation from sectors such as mechanical engineering, offshore and manufacturing to meet construction industry requirements
- Design of novel offshore structures
- B2B software/tool development for engineering applications