Introduction

The Key Laboratory of Disaster Prevention and Structural Safety of Ministry of Education, is constructed as part of the School of Civil Engineering and Architecture at Guangxi University. It was officially approved and established by China’s Ministry of Education at the end of 2005, and passed the evaluation by the expert group of the Ministry of Education in July 2009. Finally it entered the ranks of key laboratories to the Ministry of Education.

Professor Mei Guoxiong currently serves as the director of the laboratory, and Academician Nie Jianguo from Tsinghua University serves as the director of the academic committee. The laboratory relies on high-level disciplinary platforms such as the "Double First-Class" disciplines (constructing world-class disciplines in civil engineering), the national key discipline of structural engineering, the national key construction discipline of structural engineering and hydro-resource development in the Hongshui River Basin under the "211 Project," the national-level experimental teaching demonstration center for civil engineering and architecture, doctoral programs in civil engineering, and post-doctoral research stations in civil engineering to carry out its construction. It has established a complete talent training system from undergraduate to postdoctoral level. The laboratory currently has 46 permanent staff and 44 visiting staff. It boasts a research team with high academic standards, reasonable age and knowledge structure, and strong innovation capabilities.

Covering an area of 22,000 square meters, the laboratory is equipped with instruments and equipment worth more than 80 million RMB. The goal of the laboratory construction is to focus on major engineering technical issues related to the economic construction of Guangxi and the development of the Beibu Gulf, improve the research level and capabilities of basic theories, experimental analysis, disaster prediction and forecasting, engineering disaster prevention design, structural safety inspection, etc., and serve the engineering construction and maintenance in Guangxi. The research results can be used for safety design of various structural engineering projects (such as high-rise buildings, dams, flood control projects, coastal and nearshore engineering, bridges, roads, tunnels, subways, large-scale machinery, and energy equipment), identification, reinforcement, and disaster prevention measures for existing projects, improvement of construction codes, disaster prediction, prevention, and defense, promotion of rapid economic development, and providing decision-making basis for large-scale project planning, thus serving the local economic construction of Guangxi.