Professor Qing Quan (Stephen) Liang is an Associate Professor of Structural Engineering in the College of Engineering and Science at Victoria University, Australia. He's also the Founder and President of the Australian Association for Steel-Concrete Composite Structures (AASCCS), a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and has served on the ASCE Technical Committees on Optimal Structural Design and Composite Construction. In 2005 Dr Liang received the State-of-the-Art of Civil Engineering Award from ASCE.

He has been a Guest Professor at Changsha University of Science and Technology, Central South University and Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology in China since 2003 and is also a member of the editorial boards of several international journals, including Steel and Composite Structures ― An International Journal.

Before joining Victoria University in 2008, Dr Liang was a Lecturer in Structural Design, Associate Head and Program Coordinator at the University of Southern Queensland, ARC Australian Postdoctoral Fellow and Research Associate at the University of New South Wales and Research Associate at University of Western Sydney.

His research focuses on developing efficient computational methods and computer simulation technologies for the optimal structural design and nonlinear inelastic analysis of steel-concrete composite structures, steel structures and concrete structures. He has published over 90 books, book chapters, journal articles and refereed conference papers. Dr Liang is the sole author of the research book Performance-Based Optimization of Structures: Theory and Applications and of the textbook Analysis and Design of Steel and Composite Structures published by Taylor and Francis Group. He also co-authored the research book Nonlinear Analysis of Concrete-Filled Steel Tubular Columns. More than 85% of his journal articles were published in SCImago Journal Rank Q1 international journals.

Dr Liang's teaching is directly informed by the latest research in structural engineering.

Recent publications

Books

Patel, V. I., Liang, Q. Q. & Hadi, M. N. S. (2015) Nonlinear Analysis of Concrete-Filled Steel Tubular Columns(external link), Scholars’ Press, Germany, ISBN 978-3-639-66536-9.

Liang, Q. Q. (2014) Analysis and Design of Steel and Composite Structures(external link), CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group, London and New York, ISBN 9780415532204.

Liang, Q. Q. (2005) Performance-Based Optimization of Structures: Theory and Applications(external link), Spon Press, Taylor and Francis Group, London and New York, ISBN 0-415-33594-9.

Liang, Q. Q. & Patrick, M. (2001) Design of the Shear Connection of Simply-Supported Composite Beams, Design Booklet DB1.2, Composite Structures Design Manual, OneSteel, Sydney.

Refereed journal articles

Liang, Q. Q. (2018) Numerical simulation of high strength circular double-skin concrete-filled steel tubular slender columns, Engineering Structures, 168: 205-217. SCImago Journal Rank = Q1. Impact Factor = 2.258.

Kamil, G. M., Liang, Q. Q. and Hadi, M. N. S. (2018). Local buckling of steel plates in concrete-filled steel tubular columns at elevated temperatures, Engineering Structures, 168: 108-118. SCImago Journal Rank = Q1. Impact Factor = 2.258.

Patel, V. I., Liang, Q. Q. and Hadi, M. N. S. (2017). Nonlinear analysis of biaxially loaded rectangular concrete-filled stainless steel tubular slender columns, Engineering Structures, 140: 120-133. SCImago Journal Rank = Q1.  Impact Factor = 2.258.

Liang, Q. Q. (2017). Nonlinear analysis of circular double-skin concrete-filled steel tubular columns under axial compression, Engineering Structures, 131: 639-650. SCImago Journal Rank = Q1. Impact Factor = 2.258. Citations = 3.

Patel, V. I., Liang, Q. Q. and Hadi, M. N. S. (2017). Nonlinear analysis of circular high strength concrete-filled stainless steel tubular slender beam-columns, Engineering Structures, 130: 1-13. SCImago Journal Rank = Q1.  Impact Factor = 2.258.

View the full list of Associate Professor Liang’s publications(external link).

View Associate Professor Liang's ORCID profile(external link).

View Associate Professor Liang's Google Scholar profile(external link).

View Associate Professor Liang’s ResearchGate profile(external link).

Teaching responsibilities

Currently, Associate Professor Liang teaches the following units:

• NEC4102 Structural Engineering Design 2 (Steel and Composite Structures)
• NEC4202 Structural Engineering Design 3 (Prestressed Concrete Structures)
• NEC4201 Civil Engineering Design 2 (Design of Multistorey Steel Buildings)
• NEC4203 Advanced Structural Analysis (Finite Element Method)

He has previously taught the following units:

• VAN1022 Solid Mechanics 1
• VAC4021 Structural Engineering Analysis and Design 1
• VAC4022 Structural Engineering Analysis and Design 2
• VAC4091 Structural Engineering Design 1
• VAC4092 Structural Engineering Design 2
• VAC4191 Structural Engineering Design 2
• VAC4192 Structural Engineering Design 3.

Postgraduate research students and fellows

Currently supervising 2 PhD students as Principal Supervisor at Victoria University.

Research grants

• Discovery Project Grant from the Australian Research Council in 2004-2006 for the research project entitled “Advanced Analysis of Steel-Concrete Composite Frames under Extreme Loading”, $210,000.
• Large Project Grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China in 2005-2007 for the research project entitled “Study on the Theory and Applications of Structural Topology Optimization with Topological Variation and Level Set”, $270,000.
• Internal Early Career Researchers Program Grant from the University of Southern Queensland in 2006 for the research project entitled “Nonlinear analysis and behavior of thin-walled concrete-filled steel tubular beam-columns”, $6,000.
• Internal VU Researchers Development Grants Scheme from Victoria University in 2009 for the research project entitled “Nonlinear Analysis and Behaviour of Thin-Walled Concrete-Filled Stainless Steel Tubular Columns”, $26,998.

Professional memberships

• Founder and President, Australian Association for Steel-Concrete Composite Structures (AASCCS)
• Member, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
• Member, The International Society of Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization (ISSMO
• Member, The Association for Steel-Concrete Composite Structures (ASCCS)

Industry experience

Associate Professor Liang has many years of industry experience as a structural design engineer and has designed many multi-storey buildings.