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Stephen Brown

Research Professor, Faculty of Engineering

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Biography

Junior Engineer, Sir Robert McAlpine (South Wales) Ltd, 1960-1961

Junior Assistant Engineer, Dormon Long (Africa), 1961-1962

Junior Assistant Engineer, Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick & Partners, London, 1962-1963

Senior Research Assistant, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Nottingham, 1963-1965

Lecturer in Civil Engineering, University of Nottingham, 1965-1974

(10 months during 1968 spent on an exchange visit as ecturer in Civil Engineering, University of Natal, South Africa)

Senior Lecturer in Civil Engineering, 1974-1978

Reader in Civil Engineering, 1978-1982

Head of Department (later School) of Civil Engineering, University of Nottingham, 1989-1994 and 1999-2003.

Dean of Engineering, University of Nottingham, 1992-1994

Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Industry, University of Nottingham, 1994-1998.

Director, Scott Wilson Pavement Engineering Ltd, 1985-2006, Chairman 2003-06.

Director and President, SWK Pavement Engineering Inc., New Jersey, USA, 1995-2000.

Director, Scott Wilson Pavement Engineering Sdn Bhd, Malaysia, 1996-2004.

Director, Nottingham Centre for Pavement Engineering, 2001-05.

MTS Visiting Professor in Geomechanics, University of Minnesota, October 2003 and October 2005.

Emeritus Research Professor, 2005-

Expertise Summary

Professor Brown has been involved in extensive research on many aspects of pavement engineering (including rail track) and related soil mechanics since 1963. His work has been supported by a range of external bodies at an average value of £425k per year over this period.

He was Director of the Nottingham Centre for Pavement Engineering (NCPE) from 2001 to 2005. NCPE was established in 2001 within the School of Civil Engineering at Nottingham . and was responsible for a wide range of research contracts with Industry and Government as well as being in receipt of a number of research grants from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. NCPE was relaunched as the Nottingham Transportation Engineering Centre (NTEC) in 2007. Professor Brown continues to work part-time as a Research Professor and is also a member of the Nottingham Centre for Geomechanics. He has been particularly involved in the transfer of technology from research to practice. This resulted in the formation, in 1985, of SWK Pavement Engineering Ltd (later known as Scott Wilson Pavement Engineering Ltd), located close to the University, as a joint venture with Scott Wilson and the University. Professor Brown was also involved in two subsidiary companies in the USA and Malaysia.

Professor Brown was Director of the Nottingham Asphalt Research Consortium, an academia/industry 'club', which promotes excellence in asphalt pavement technology and supports research at Nottingham and Cambridge from its foundation in 1997 until 2005.

In 1996 Professor Brown was admitted to the Livery of the Worshipful Company of Paviors in the City of London and, since 1997, has been active on various committees and as organiser of the annual Paviors' Lecture.

Professor Brown served as a Governor of the Loughborough Endowed Schools from 1988 t0 2010.

Professor Brown has acted as a specialist pavement engineering consultant since 1968 and carried out work for a wide range of Contractors, Consultants, Local and Central Government and Universities in the UK and overseas. He has also acted for clients in arbitration and other cases as an expert witness.

As a consultant to Scott Wilson Pavement Engineering Ltd, he has been involved in advising on a wide variety of projects concerned with pavement materials and evaluation and design of remedial works and in the delivery of training courses at home and abroad, notably in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Vietnam. The company has exploited the results of research carried out at the University of Nottingham under the supervision of Professor Brown and his colleagues, covering various aspects of pavement and rail track design and structural evaluation using analytical techniques blended with experience and with the testing and design of bituminous and other materials.

Overseas projects on which Professor Brown has advised include pavement evaluation and design work in Malaysia, the Middle East and the United States and specialist pavement material problems in Africa and the U.S.A.

As an Expert Witness, he has acted on cases in the UK and Australia.

Research Summary

Shakedown Analysis of Soil and Pavement Stability and Structures (with Hai-Sui Yu).

Platform Grant in Pavement and Rail Track Engineering Mechanical and Chemical Properties of Bitumens and Asphalt (with G D Airey, A R Dawson, N H Thom, T Parry).

Mechanical properties of novel geogrid (with N H Thom).

Development of a Hollow Cylinder Apparatus to Investigate the Shearing Characteristics of Asphalt.

Selected Publications

Past Research

Pavement materials, Pavement soil mechanics, Pavement design, Structural evaluation of pavements.

Road ironwork installations.

Cyclic loading of soils.

Future Research

Shearing characteristics of asphalt.

Shakedown applied to pavements.

  • BROWN, S F, BRODRICK B V and TEKIELI, K, 2012. A novel research facility to study the permanent deformation characteristics of asphalt In: 5th Eurasphalt and Eurobitume Congress. (In Press.)
  • BROWN S F, 2012. An introduction to asphalt pavement design in the UK Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers – Transport. (In Press.)
  • BROWN S F, YU H-S, JUSPI S and WANG J, 2012. Validation experiments for lower bound shakedown theory applied to layered pavement systems Géotechnique. (In Press.)
  • PETERS T and BROWN S F, 2012. Life and Times of the Canal Engineer Arthur Brome Wilson(1866-1944) Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Engineering History and Heritage. (In Press.)
  • 2012. The Golder Archive: further insights into the birth of Géotechnique Geotechnique. (In Press.)
  • BROWN, S F, THOM, N H, KWAN, J AND MCDOWELL, G R,, 2009. Improving the performance of railway track through geogrid reinforcement of ballast In: Fourth European Geosynthetics Conference.
  • PETERS, T. J. AND BROWN, S.F., 2009. Historic use of asphalt for lining of canals Journal of the Railway and Canal Historical Society. 36(4), 46-52
  • BROWN, S.F., 2009. An assessment of geogrid use in railways and asphalt applications In: Jubilee Symposium on Geogrid Reinforcement.
  • BROWN, S F, 2008. Géotechnique 1948-2008: more than just a journal Géotechnique. 58(5), 315-326
  • PETERS,T.J. AND BROWN, S.F., 2008. Wendover Arm canal – an early hydraulic use of asphalt Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Civil Engineering. 161, 184-191
  • BROWN, S F, JUSPI, S AND YU, H-S, 2008. Experimental observations and theoretical predictions of shakedown in soils under wheel loading. In: ELLIS, YU, MCDOWELL, DAWSON AND THOM, ed., Advances in Transportation Geotechnics CRC Press. 707-712
  • BROWN, S.F., 2008. Roadmap for future research on the Mechanistic-Empirical pavement design method Asphalt Paving Technology. 77, 1037-1049
  • MCGOWN, A AND BROWN, S F, 2008. Applications of reinforced soil for transport infrastructure. In: ELLIS, YU, MCDOWELL, DAWSON AND THOM, ed., Advances in Transportation Geotechnics CRC Press. 27-36
  • BROWN, S.F., 2007. The effects of shear stress reversal on the accumulation of plastic strain in granular materials under cyclic loading. In: CORREIA, A.G., MOMOYA, Y. and TATSUOKA, F., eds., Design and construction of pavements and rail tracks: geotechnical aspects and processed materials London: Taylor and Francis. 89-108
  • BROWN, S.F., KWAN, J. and THOM, N.H., 2007. Identifying the key parameters that influence geogrid reinforcement of railway ballast. Geotextiles and Geomembranes. 25(6), 326-335
  • BRODRICK, B.V., COLLOP, A.C., BROWN, S.F. and COOPER, R., 2007. The introduction of flexibility into a road ironwork installation Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Transport. 160(3), 93-100
  • BROWN, S.F., BRODRICK, B.V., THOM, N.H. and MCDOWELL, G.R., 2007. The Nottingham railway test facility, UK Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Transport. 160(2), 59-65
  • MCDOWELL, G.R., HARIRECHE, O., KONIETZKY, H., BROWN, S.F. and THOM, N.H., 2006. Discrete element modelling of geogrid-reinforced aggregates Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Geotechnical Engineering. 159(1), 35-48
  • BROWN, S.F., THOM, N.H. and KWAN, J., 2006. Optimising the geogrid reinforcement of rail track ballast In: Railway Foundations-Railfound 06. 346-354
  • HAKIM, B AND BROWN S F, 2006. Pavement analysis using the FWD: practical difficulties and proposed simplifications In: Proceedings of the10th International Conference on Asphalt Pavements. (In Press.)
  • HAKIM, B, JONES, M AND BROWN S F, 2006. Innovative pavement solutions under new procurement systems in the United Kingdom In: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Asphalt Pavements. (In Press.)
  • BROWN, S.F., THOM, N.H. and COLLOP, A.C., 2006. Developments for a practical approach to analytically-based design of asphalt pavements In: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Asphalt Pavements. (In Press.)
  • BROWN, S F, 2006. Independent review of the mechanistic-empirical pavement design guide and software Transportation Research Board.
  • MOHAMMED FA, COLLOP, AC AND BROWN, S F, 2005. Effects of surface cracking on responses in flexible pavements Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Transport. 158(TR2), 127-134
  • BROWN, S F, 2005. Nottingham Asphalt Research Consortium: a successful academia-industry link Asphalt Professional. 16, 5-7
  • HAU, K W, MCDOWELL, G R, ZHANG, G P AND BROWN, S F, 2005. The application of a three-surface kinematic hardening model to repeated loading of thinly surfaced pavements Granular Matter. 7(203), 145-156
  • BROWN, S.F. and RICHARDSON, I.R., 2004. A hollow cylinder apparatus to study the cyclic loading behaviour of dry granular material. In: JARDINE, R.J., POTTS, D.M. and HIGGINS, K.G., eds., Advances in Geotechnical Engineering: The Skempton conference:proceedings of a three day conference on advances in geotechnical engineering, organised by the Institution of Civil Engineers and held at the Royal Geographical Society, Londo 1. London: Thomas Telford. 369-380
  • BROWN,S.F. and NEEDHAM,D., 2004. Factors influencing the early life characteristics of bitumen emulsion mixtures In: Proceedings of the 3rd Eurasphalt/Eurobitume Congress.
  • BROWN, S.F., 2004. Design considerations for pavement and rail track foundations. In: GOMES CORREIA, A. and LOIZOS, A., eds., Geotechnics in pavement and railway design and construction. Rotterdam: Millpress. 61-74
  • DAWSON, A.R., BROWN, S.F. and LITTLE, P.H., 2004. Accelerated load testing of unsealed and reinforced pavements In: Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Accelerated Pavement Testing.
  • BROWN, S.F., HAKIM, B. and THOM, N.H., 2004. Performance and rehabilitation of heavy-duty pavements in the UK: some case studies In: Proceedings of the International Symposium on design & construction of long lasting asphalt pavement. 811-829
  • BROWN, S.F., 2004. Accelerated pavement testing in highway engineering Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Transport. 157(3), 173-180
  • BROWN, S.F., 2004. Application of soil mechanics principles to design and testing of pavement foundations In: Proceedings of the 8th Conference on Asphalt Pavements for Southern Africa, Sun City, South Africa, 12-16 September 2001. 668-680
  • BROWN, S.F., 2004. Fifty years of pavement research at Nottingham Asphalt Professional. 9, 16-19
  • MOHAMMAD, F.A., COLLOP, A.C. and BROWN, S.F., 2003. An analytical and experimental assessment of flexible road ironwork support structures Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Municipal Engineer. 156(4), 281-287
  • BROWN, S.F., 2003. Strength in numbers Ground Engineering. 4
  • BROWN, S. F. and HAKIM, B., 2003. Developments in the Procurement of Highway Construction And Maintenance Services in England Asphalt Paving Technology. VOL 72, 635-655
  • BROWN, S F, 2003. Keynote Lecture: Soil mechanics for pavement engineers. In: FROST, JEFFERSON, FARAGHER, ROFF AND FLEMING, ed., Transportation Geotechnics Thomas Telford. 1-24
  • COLLOP, A.C., SEWELL, A.J., THOM, N.H. and BROWN, S.F., 2002. Development of the compact tension test for assessing resistance to crack propagation in asphaltic materials The Asphalt Yearbook. 27-30
  • ZOOROB, S., BROWN, S.F. and COLLOP, A., eds., 2002. Performance of bituminous and hydraulic materials in pavements Rotterdam: A.A. Balkema Uitgevers B.V..
  • MCDOWELL, G.R., LIM, W.L., COLLOP, A.C. and BROWN, S.F., 2002. Micro mechanics of railway ballast degradation In: International Conference on Railway Engineering.
  • BROWN, S F AND PELL, P S, 2002. In: BRIDLE AND PORTER, ed., The motorway achievement: Frontiers of knowledge and practice Thomas Telford. 281-286
  • HAKIM, B.A., BROWN, S.F. and ARMITAGE, R.J., 2002. Pavement evaluation and strengthening: sixteen years experience In: Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Asphalt Pavements. 3: 1-1
  • BROWN, S.F, THOM, N.H. and SANDERS, P.J., 2001. A study of grid reinforced asphalt to combat reflection cracking Asphalt Paving Technology: Journal of the Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists, from the proceedings of the technical sessions.. 70, 543-570
  • ADWAN, O.A., COLLOP, A.C., BROWN, S.F. and BRODRICK, B.V., 2001. The structural performance of road ironwork installations In: Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Inspection Appraisal Repairs and Maintenance of Buildings and Structures.
  • YU, H.., BROWN, S.F. and MCDOWELL, G.R., 2001. Dynamic coupled analysis for rutting in flexible pavement foundations under cyclic loading Chinese Journal of Geotechnical Engineering. 23(6), 757-762
  • BROWN, S.F., 2001. Creep of bituminous aggregates. In: Encyclopedia of Materials: Science and Technology Elsevier. 1795-1797
  • BROWN, S.F., 2001. Improving the performance of manhole instillations in highways Highways and Transportation: journal of the Institution of Highways and Transportation & HTTA.. 48(4), 22-24
  • BROWN, S.F., 2001. ISAP: Spreading asphalt information worldwide Hot Mix Asphalt Technology. 6(5), 53-54
  • SEWELL, A.J., COLLOP, A.C., THOM, N.H. and BROWN, S.F., 2000. Assessing crack growth in high modulus base materials In: 2nd Eurasphalt and Eurobitume Congress. 819-826
  • DUNHILL, S.T., AIREY, G.D., COLLOP, A.C. and BROWN, S.F., 2000. An investigation into the deterioration mechanisms of lightly trafficked roads In: 2nd Eurasphalt and Eurobitume Congress. 122-128
  • BROWN, S F AND NEEDHAM, D,, 2000. A study of cement modified bitumen emulsion mixtures Asphalt Paving Technology. 69, 92-121
  • SANDERS, P., BROWN, S. and THOM, N., 1999. Reinforced asphalt for crack and rut control In: 7th Conference on Asphalt Pavements for Southern Africa.
  • BROWN, S. and BRODRICK, B., 1999. 25 year's experience with the pilot-scale Nottingham Pavement Test Facility In: The International Conference on Accelerated Pavement Testing.
  • MONISMITH, C.L. and BROWN, S.F., 1999. Developments in the structural design and rehabilitation of asphalt pavements over three quarters of a century
  • BROWN, S., 1999. Innovation in asphalt mix and binder technology In: Moderators report for Theme 4 (CAPSA '99).
  • BROWN, S. and GIBB, J., 1999. Effects of compaction method on mechanical properties of asphalt mixtures In: Unknown.
  • BROWN, S.F. and AIREY, G.D., 1998. Rheological Performance of Aged Polymer Modified Bitumens Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists. Proceedings. 67, 66-100
  • AIREY, G. and BROWN, S., 1998. Laboratory Testing of PMB's and PMB Products for Pavement Construction In: Unknown.
  • BROWN, C. J. and BROWN, S. E., 1997. The performance of road ironwork installations Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Municipal Engineering. VOL 121(NUMBER 4), 175-185
  • BROWN, S.F. and GIBB, J.M., 1997. Validation experiments for permanent deformation testing of bituminous mixtures 64,
  • ROWE, G.M. and BROWN, S.F., 1997. Validation of the fatigue performance of asphalt mixtures with small scale wheel tracking experiments 65,
  • BROWN, S.F. and SCHOLZ, T.V., 1997. Rheological characteristics of bitumen in contact with mineral aggregates 64, 357-378
  • RICHARDSON, I., CHAPMAN, D. and BROWN, S., 1996. Relating failure tests performed in a hollow cylinder apparatus to inherent anisotropy In: Paper presented to 75th Transportation Research Board.
  • BROWN, S., GIBB, J., READ, J. and SCHOLZ, T., 1996. Laboratory protocols for the design and evaluation of bituminous mixtures In: Unknown.
  • BROWN, S., 1996. Design of heavy duty pavements: the use of practical asphalt mixture testing In: Unknown.
  • READ, J. and BROWN, S., 1996. Practical evaluation of fatigue strength for bituminous paving mixtures In: Unknown.
  • BROWN, S. E., 1996. Thirty-sixth Rankine Lecture: Soil mechanics in pavement engineering Geotechnique. VOL 46(NUMBER 3), 381-426
  • BROWN, S., 1996. The use of geosynthetics in pavement engineering', Geosynthetics: Applications, design and construction In: Unknown.
  • BROWN, S.F. and CHAN, F.W., 1996. Reduced rutting in unbound granular pavement layers through improved grading design
  • BROWN, S. F. and CHAN, F. W. K., 1996. Reduced rutting in unbound granular pavement layers through improved grading design Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Transport. VOL 117(NUMBER 1), 40-49
  • PETERS, T.J. AND BROWN, S.F, Wendover Arm canal – an early hydraulic use of asphalt Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Civil Engineering. 161, 184 – 191

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