Karl H. Frank
Professor, Structural Engineering
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Warren S. Bellows Centennial Professor in Civil Engineering
Phone: (512) 232-3592
Fax: (512) 471-1944
Email: kfrank@uts.cc.utexas.edu
Dr. Karl Frank earned his Ph.D. in civil engineering from Lehigh
University in Pennsylvania in 1971. He joined the faculty of The University
of Texas at Austin in 1974. He directs the
Ferguson
Structural Engineering Laboratory.
Dr. Frank researches the design and behavior of steel bridges, the design of
steel structures to prevent fatigue and fracture, and the behavior of bolted
connections. His recent work includes a pioneering study of the behavior of
high-strength bolted connections during and after a fire. He has recently
completed the development of a new high temperature test facility at the
Ferguson Laboratory. Dr. Frank helped develop a new modular design of tracks
for high-speed Maglevs, which are wheel-less trains propelled by
electromagnets, for the U.S. Federal Railroad Commission’s Las Vegas to
Anaheim, Calif. route. He is also further researching the development of
realistic inspection provisions for bridges that are expected to collapse if
one load-bearing section failed. This work includes the first full-size
bridge fracture test to explore the behavior of bridges when a critical
element fractures.
Research interests:
- Structural steel
- Behavior of steel connection in a fire
- Non-destructive inspection
- Fracture and fatigue behavior of metal structures