Dr. Khaled Sennah
Areas of Academic Interest
Bridge analysis, design, evaluation and rehabilitation
Advanced composite materials in bridges and structures
Structural dynamics
Steel, concrete and timber design
Experimental Testing
Bridge Testing
Product Certification
Ultra-high-performance Concrete and Fibre-reinforced Concrete
Spotlight
Did you know that glass could be as strong as steel? Khaled Sennah does. An expert in the design, evaluation, rehabilitation and retrofit of highway bridges, a good portion of Sennah’s 15-year collaboration with Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation (MTO) has been spent demonstrating this counterintuitive truth. "Not only are glass fibre bars as strong as steel, but because of their corrosion-resistance they can save taxpayers’ money on bridge maintenance," he says.
In 2010, Sennah’s team designed a new concrete bridge safety barrier using glass bar reinforcements. Travelling to Texas, they staged a dramatic test by building a 40-metre barrier and driving a tractor trailer into it at 80 kilometres per hour. The barrier held up exactly as planned. Bolstered by those results, they moved on to similar projects with partners in Quebec and Ontario with equally positive results.
"Based on those projects, several bridge owners established new standards for that type of sustainable concrete barrier," says Sennah. Since then, contracting companies and consulting firms have been using drawings based on work done by Sennah and his team when bidding for contracts—positioning glass as the reinforcement of choice in the industry.
Khaled's LinkedIn Profile (external link, opens in new window)
“Here at TMU, they do everything possible to facilitate our teaching and research. In return, we put more into our work. We work from our hearts.”
- 2023: Recipient of the IAAM Scientist Medal from the International Association of Advanced Materials for distinctive contribution towards the fields of Structural and Engineering Materials
- 2023: Recipient of the 2023 TFA Career Achievement Award, Toronto Metropolitan Faculty Association, Toronto Metropolitan University
- 2023: Recipient of the 2022 Errol Aspevig Award for Outstanding Academic Leadership, Toronto Metropolitan University
- 2022: Elected Fellow of the International Association of Advanced Materials (FIAAM), recognizing his contribution to “Innovative Solutions in Structural Design and Construction,” Sweden
- 2020: Recipient of the 2020 P. L. Pratley Award for best paper in bridge engineering in Canada, Canadian Society for Civil Engineering
- 2017: Elected Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE)
- 2016: Elected Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC)
- 2013: Recipient of the 2013 A.B. Sanderson Award given to "recognize outstanding contributions by a civil engineer to the development and practice of structural engineering in Canada"
- 2011: Elected Fellow of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering
- 2002: Recipient of the State-Of-The-Art in Civil Engineering Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers for best journal paper published in ASCE journals
- 1999: Recipient of the Arthur Wellington Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers for the best journal paper in transportation-related infrastructure research
- 1998: Recipient of the P. L. Pratley Award for best journal paper in bridge engineering published in the Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering
- Sennah, K., and Mostafa, A. 2018. Performance of a Developed TL-5 Concrete Bridge Barrier Reinforced With GFRP Hooked Bars: Vehicle Crash Testing. ASCE Journal of Bridge Engineering, 23(2): 1-20.
- Rostami, M., Sennah, K., and Afefy, H. 2018.Ultimate Capacity of Barrier-Deck Anchorage in MTQ TL-5 Barrier Reinforced with Headed-End, High-Modulus, Sand-Coated GFRP Bars. Canadian Journal for Civil Engineering, 45: 263–278.
- Androus, A., Afefy, H., and Sennah, K. 2017. Investigation of free vibration and ultimate behavior of composite twin-box girder bridges. Journal of Constructional Steel Research, 130: 177-192.
- Wodzinowski, R., Sennah, K., and Afefy, H. 2017. Free Vibration Analysis of Horizontally Curved Composite Concrete-Steel I-Girder Bridges. Journal of Constructional Steel Research, 140 (2018) 47–61.
- Islam, S., Afefy, H., Sennah, K., and Azimi, H. 2015. Bond characteristics of straight- and headed-end ribbed-surface GFRP bars embedded in high-strength concrete. Journal of Construction & Building Materials, UK, 83: 283–298.
- Associate Editor, Canadian Journal for Civil Engineering
- Member, Subcommittee on Section 5 - Methods of analysis, CSA S6, Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code (CHBDC)
- Member, Subcommittee on Section 12 - Barriers and highway accessory Supports, CSA S6, Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code (CHBDC)
- Member, Subcommittee on Section 16 - Fibre Reinforced Concrete, CSA S6, Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code (CHBDC)
- Voting Member, ACI Subcommittee 440-D, Research Development and Applications
- Voting Member of ACI Subcommittee 440-F: FRP Repair-Strengthening
- Voting Member of ACI Subcommittee 440-H: FRP-Reinforced Concrete
- Voting Member of ACI Subcommittee 440-K: FRP-Material Characteristics
- Associate Member of ACI Committee 440: FRP
- Associate Member, ACI-ASCE(SEI) Committee 343: Concrete Bridge Design
- Chair of the International Scientific Committee and the Technical Committee of the International Conference on Short and Medium Span Bridges held in Quebec City in July/August 2018
- Ontario transportation ministry gets cracking on concrete traffic barrier test (article) (external link, opens in new window)
- PL-3 GFRP-reinforced barrier wall crash testing – Ryerson University and TemCorp Industries Inc (video) (external link, opens in new window)
- V-ROD GFRP PL-3 Barrier Crash Test (video) (external link, opens in new window)