Our Stories

HERA Foundation Scholarship recipient Hafez Taheri (left) with HERA’s Welding Centre GM Dr Michail Karpenko in front of their test rigg at the University of Auckland.

HERA Foundation PhD scholarship recipient’s Hafez Taheri’s research topic is part of a long-term HERA research program managed by the New Zealand Welding Centre. Its program leader, Dr Michail Karpenko, explains the underlying strategic objectives of this research and why the Foundation contribution is so valuable:

“New Zealand’s major natural challenge is the provision of earthquake safe construction. Steel with its inherent strength, ductility, weight and environmental credentials is the material of choice especially when it comes to high rise and long span construction such as in buildings and bridges.

As a result of those advantages the New Zealand steel-based industry makes a significant contribution to our infrastructure. It provides this contribution competitively as a result of a widely supported, research-based innovation efforts.

While the technical performance remains a key steel construction research focus both nationally and internationally, recent local efforts included increased emphasis on cost effective delivery of the technical solutions with the aim of increasing competitiveness if compared to alternative solutions but also in competition with fabricated steel imports.

The HERA Foundation supported New Zealand seismic research since its inception through numerous grants. One of its most recent PhD scholarship recipients is Hafez Taheri, and his scholarship story underscores the benefits the HERA Foundation funding brings.

Hafez’s PhD topic is part of a wider research program with the objective to optimise the design of welded connections as used in New Zealand in order to make fabrication more cost effective while ensuring adequate performance also during severe earthquake loads.

The research is performed here in New Zealand at the University of Auckland under the supervision of leading seismic research gurus Ass. Prof. Dr Charles Clifton and Ass. Prof. Dr James Lim. But we are also proud to be internationally linked in this research with leading fracture mechanics experts Prof Pingsha Dong from the University of Michigan and Prof. Adolf Hobbacher from the University of Wilhelmshaven in Germany.

Hafez has just handed in his thesis for final assessment. Over the last four years he worked tireless on his project and this was only possible through the financial support of the HERA Foundation. No question without that funding we would not be able to attract the research talent required for such complex research tasks.

And for HERA this brought not only an outstanding research outcome, but we were also able to take Hafez over as a HERA researcher knowing exactly what talent we could secure for our ongoing project work. And so, one of Hafez’s current jobs is to update our HERA/SCNZ steel connection guides with the outcomes of his research.”

And here is what Hafez had to say to his part in the HERA Foundation supported research effort:

“Having completed my Bachelor degree in Iran and then getting an ME degree as structural engineer from the University Putra Malaysia with main focus on connections for precast concrete walls , I was keen to expand my professional career in a country with a sound structural engineering record but also with political stability.

Therefore, in 2016, I was over the moon to be accepted as a PhD candidate by the University of Auckland. And additionally, I was fortunate to have won the 3-year HERA Foundation scholarship allowing me to focus on my research and complete my PhD study hopefully with the awarding of the aimed-for degree.

The main aim of my research was to optimise welded joint details in order to make fabrication more cost-effective while ensuring adequate performance of the connection in-service and specifically under seismic loading. I also investigated the use of stainless steel as an architecturally attractive material for critical seismic connections.

The main challenge was a high level of complexity involved in complex welded connections. This challenge was resolved by carrying out experimental tests and employing a new finite element approach, the so-called traction stress method.

The results demonstrated that using the proposed partial penetration butt welds instead of the traditional full penetration welds, work very well under seismic loading, forcing the failure mode into the beam and enabling considerable energy to be dissipated within the beam plastic hinge. This positive equal performance efficiency confirmed our hypotheses of achieving considerable weld cost savings if the alternative partial penetration welds are used.

In order to assist design and fabrication implementation, easy-to-use tables were developed to choose joint preparations and weld details correlation to the thickness of the beam flange. The quality control procedure for examining the weld profiles before, during, and after welding was also provided.

The research also included moment resisting frames made of innovative laser-welded stainless steel structural sections which also showed excellent seismic performance.

The outcomes of these studies have been and continue to be published in journal papers and HERA/SCNZ guides and in our ongoing educational efforts. I look forward seeing our joint research effort applied daily in industrial practice and feel deeply satisfied and thankful being able to contribute to safer construction and industry advancement now as a HERA research engineer.”

And no research output is useful unless it is applied. All HERA Foundation research proposals are vetted by HERA industry panels and are ranked in terms of value to industry. This applied research program scored well and had wide industry member support including for sponsoring the provision of all fabricated test structures. The Managing Director of D&H Steel, Wayne Carson, who also was a member of the HERA Structural Steel Research Panel vetting the research, has this to say.

“New Zealand’s heavy engineering industry and HERA are companions, and each relies on the other. While the NZ government was instrumental in setting up HERA, it is its industry which funds HERA’s research effort through its industry levy.

As industry member we realise there are always more promising research topics than available funds and it is our responsibility to ensure the most promising research projects make the cut. But as industry members we are also responsible for finding additional resources and therefore willingly contribute to the research.

Relating to Hafez’s program our industry provided the welded test samples and we assisted HERA in clarifying the fabrication costs. D&H Steel, and I know also other fabricators, have implemented the research outputs in our latest projects and I am able to confirm that this allowed us to reduce fabrication cost of these connections significantly. Along with our ongoing innovation efforts this allows the New Zealand steel construction industry to remain competitive.

As industry member I congratulated the research team on their excellent work. But I also want to thank the HERA Foundation team for pursuing their charitable work and leveraging industry member funding via donations. Along with us, I am sure many industry members have great ideas for promising research topics and no doubt, with research success like Hafez’s story, their support for the HERA Foundation will only increase.”

PhD student Hafez Taheri with representatives from UoA and Industry witnessing seismic test #5.

HERA Foundation scholarship recipient Hafez Taheri (left) explains the University of Auckland test rigg to HERA CEO Dr Troy Coyle and the D&H Steel team gathered around Managing Director Wayne Carson (with blue shirt)

If you think this story does appeal to you and you would like to contribute, apply for a grant if you think you have what it takes to add research value, and if you would like to make a funding contribution – donate now.

Keith Smith Memorial Award winner Warwick Downing (centre with award) and his supporters from RAM3D

The HERA Foundation rewards a wide range of achievements from student awards at our Engineering Schools to industry achievers and those who delivered outstanding service.

The Keith Smith Memorial Award for distinct service to our industry is our pre-eminent award for our industry that celebrates and honours our HERA and HERA Foundation founding Chair, Keith Smith. The 2020 award went to Warwick Downing at HERA’s Future Forum Nation Dinner at the Auckland War Memorial Museum.

He was recognised for his contributions to developing the metal additive-manufacturing industry in NZ. This journey started in 2008 with the importation of the first ever metal 3D printer to NZ.

The introduction of this ‘enabling technology’, has allowed NZ to have a significant presence on the world stage, making us world-class – if not world-leading in this space. With possibly more metal additive manufacturing machines per capita than any other nation, NZ can be enormously proud of what Warwick has achieved.

And if you want to see who has received this prestigious award in the past go to here.

The award is open to every member of the NZ metals industry (irrespective of whether a HERA member). Because this award inherently rewards renowned and outstanding service, we recognise it’s not always possible to find a suitable candidate. Which is why its only presented when its selection criteria are met.

The winner receives a free industry dinner registration for themselves and their partner, and reimbursement of associated travel costs and accommodation for the night of the Nation dinner (to an agreed level). They also are awarded a monetary prize from the Keith Smith bequest and commemorative plaque.

If you have someone in mind you think deserves to win our top award, download the nomination form, fill it in and mail to the Foundation Secretary to be considered in the next award round.

“Being recognised for services to engineering and the metals-based industry means that some former industry colleagues must have thought I am worthy of receiving such a recognised Honour. And great to see the Honour awarded for someone in a strategically important, but not so sexy, metals engineering industry niche. But also, that it was awarded across New Zealand’s multicultural landscape to a German, who after 35 years in New Zealand almost thinks like a Kiwi, but still maintains his strong German accent.

While I am of course delighted and humbled to receive this honour, I am not so sure if I really deserve it as I only did my assigned job. Yes, I did it with lots of enthusiasm and commitment and with German planning and persistence and mostly with a lot of job satisfaction and fun. Most significantly was that I was called into an industry by visionaries who wanted me there and formed the team with which I could realise my professional dream. So, my thanks are due to all the industry and public sector members but also the many international contacts which helped shape my industry vision and deliver the now recognised services to industry.  

Looking back at my professional live I would like to make the following points.

While studying in the late 70th for my PhD under a then “DSIR”-fellowship at Auckland University, I had the opportunity to investigate the New Zealand engineering industry as to its degree of mechanisation and compare this with the German industry which I previously studied as part of a research fellow position at one of the leading German technology institutes. This was still in the Muldoon area and no question the difference was striking to the negative when it came to the average company. However, there were already high performers such as Fisher and Paykel where you thought you were in a German factory.  

When after a few years in German industry I came back to New Zealand in the mid-80th, Rogernomics was in full swing and the call for productivity improvement was massive. The New Zealand welding-based industry held back by an innovation-adverse and union-influenced labour force and lowly skilled management, was particularly challenged and the threads from competing imports were massive. So, tasked by industry visionaries with setting up the New Zealand Welding Centre as a centre of excellence at the Heavy Engineering Research Association (HERA), the main task first was not research but education. Outcomes were many formally trained welding supervisors, profession welding engineers, and a system of formalised welding training based on German industry standards and adopted by the New Zealand polytechnic system.

Welding related research was next in importance with focus on productivity and weld performance issues such as weld joint performance under earthquake loads. Its outputs, together with the other HERA steel construction research, were fabrication guidelines and continuously improved welding and design standards contributing to more cost effective and reliable metals-based fabrication. The best example is the good performance of steel high rise buildings in recent earthquakes. Today structural steel’s market share of the national multilevel construction market is more than 50%, and in Christchurch, due to its seismic performance, its share of the multi-level construction market has grown to almost 80%. This us up from virtually nil before the Canterbury earthquakes and delivered by companies which are almost all certified to internationally recognised steel fabrication standards thanks to the base work performed by HERA.

Stepping up to HERA Director in 2000 gave a new professional focus and perspective. An extensive membership consultation was implemented into the first HERA Industry Strategy and a key objective was that HERA was to become a recognised industry voice for New Zealand’s metals engineering industry in areas where its research and expertise justified this.  The formation of Steel Construction New Zealand (SCNZ), the NZ Stainless Steel Development Association (NZSSDA) and overarching Metals New Zealand, the holding of industry wide metals industry conferences with celebration of our industry achievers and achievements resulted from those activities.

Most rewarding though was the fact that some of our research and advocacy formulations ended up in an Industry Position Document on Public Policy with some policies even making it into party manifestos and becoming implemented. And here I am particularly pleased with the progress made in recognising the value of local manufacturing in an industry sector disrupted without difficulty by easy to import and assemble metal-based products.  The simple fact that the heavy engineering industry continues to grow, as demonstrated by the steel volumes put through our New Zealand fabrication workshops, is a testament to industry innovation and dedication.

In my view, New Zealand metals-based engineering industry is not going to slow down as it is needed as an industry sector to grow New Zealand. It is a highly skilled, people-based industry with a bright future if it maintains its innovation-focused strive for competitiveness and, ever increasing, its sustainability beyond just using recyclable metals. HERA with its strong industry support base and under its new CEO, Dr Troy Coyle, maintains its strong innovation focus and is well placed to continue its role as being the catalyst for industry innovation.

It has been a pleasure to be part of the metals-based engineering industry. Thanks again to everyone who was with me on this journey including a family which let me do my job, and especially those who helped to make this award come true and making me feel having done a good job.”

Charles Clifton is a uniquely talented and dedicated person whose professional career is linked intimately to metals industry success and to HERA and the HERA Foundation. During his time as HERA structural engineer, he received a HERA Foundation scholarship allowing him to complete his PhD, developing two novel seismic moment resisting structural steel connections. One for low seismic regions is called the Flange Bolted Joint and is used in several landmark buildings at the University of Auckland. The other, for high seismic regions, is called the Sliding Hinge Joint and is in widespread use in Wellington and Christchurch. A very well performing and cost-effective solution now also being used increasingly around the world. Here is his story from a HERA Foundation perspective.  Read More

Charles Clifton holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering (Hons) and a Master of Civil Engineering graduated from the University of Canterbury in the 1970’s. Before starting in 1983 as HERA Structural Engineer, he gained professional experience with the predecessor firm of now Beca Consultants, and a joint UK/Saudi Arabian consulting engineering firm in London, RH Sanbar Consultants, Ltd. designing a range of rise structures throughout Saudi Arabia, including the headquarters for the Arab National Bank in Riyadh.  Following a 25-year engagement with HERA, in 2008 he joined the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering as Associate Professor specialising in structural steel and composite engineering in both heavy and light gauge steel and in 2022 received the full professorship at the same department. 

It was at HERA where Charles first really put to use his passion for research and communicating his knowledge to others. His focus was on building the technical foundation to grow the use of structural steel in buildings, especially multi-storey buildings. In those early days of the 1980s, structural steel was not used in multi-storey commercial or residential buildings, being considered unsuitable for response to severe earthquake, likely to collapse in severe fire and not a durable material. In large part because of this, the New Zealand heavy structural steel industry was performing below its potential. HERA’s aim was to change this through industry education and innovation. Both roles fitted Charles as he was and still is keen building his knowledge and being the most patient communicator.

Charles’ role was to understand which parts of the above barriers to structural steel use were founded on fact and which parts were incorrect perception. His R&D job description was to implement new solutions to remove real barriers and to change perceptions. This allowed and in fact required him to acquire a wide breadth and depth of knowledge around steel building behaviour, design and construction and especially suited his real passion on earthquake and fire engineering. Rather large industry and government co-funded research programs were managed by Charles and allowed him to develop new ideas for structurally better performing and more cost-effective solution. From the mid 1980s onwards, he was joined in this work by an increasing team of expert engineers, most notably Greg MacRae from the University of Canterbury, whose landmark PhD set the concepts for steel seismic design. The HERA Foundation objective to support research and emerging engineers was applied from the 1980s and provided significant additional support to Charles’ part-time PhD studies at the UoA including assisting him with the international links required to perform top class research.

The outcome of this leading example of professional development has been the creation of an extensive set of design and fabrication guidelines culminating in the Steel Structures Standard NZS 3404 and in over 140 technical reports and design guidelines, most notably HERA Report R4-76 Seismic Design Procedures for Steel Structures HERA Report R4-80 Limit State Steelwork Design Guide and the HERA Steel Design and Construction Bulletins, now replaced with Steel Advisor from Steel Construction New Zealand.

In terms of knowledge dissemination there was hardly a New Zealand structural engineer who would not have been through Charles’s HERA steel construction 101 courses and seminars or have read his Steel Design and Construction Bulletins. HERA fabrication members knew when there was a question in steel construction there always was an answer from Charles. Since 2008 with his starting at the University of Auckland, the next generation of New Zealand structural engineers are becoming structural steel design experts, with Greg MacRae doing the same at the University of Canterbury and now Shahab Ramhormozian at AUT.  And as the large number of PhD students supervised by him show, steel-based research continues to be big focus for New Zealand.

Charles’ role model work did not go unnoticed by his industry peers with his receiving the HERA Foundation sponsored, 2008 Keith Smith Award for Distinguished Service. This being the highest award offered by the Metals Industry of New Zealand and awarded to Charles for outstanding dedication and success in building the technical foundation from which to grow the market share for structural steel.

But also, the many distinctions and awards outside the metals industry are testament for his achieved recognition. These include:

• 2021 Life Membership of the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering (NZSEE),
• 2017  Vice Chancellor’s Commercialisation Medal for role in development of profession and industry,
• 2017  Life Membership of the Structural Engineering Society (SESOC).
• 2014  Faculty of Engineering Top Fifteen Teachers award.
• 2009  Engineering New Zealand Freysinnet Award for Services to Building and Construction.
• 2009  Institution of Structural Engineers 2009 Global Structural Awards prize for engineering excellence in the healthcare and education sectors.
• 2008  Standards New Zealand Meritorious Service Award.
• 2003  Fellow of the New Zealand Society of Earthquake Engineering (FNZSEE).
• 1998  Fellow of Engineering New Zealand (FEngNZ).
• 1997  EngNZ Structural Award.