Rate My Professor Lewis Gooch

Dr. Lewis J. Gooch is an affiliate researcher in the Critical Infrastructure Performance and Reliability (CIPAR) group within the College of Engineering, Science and Environment, Department of Civil Engineering, at the University of Newcastle. He earned a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) with First Class Honours and a PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Newcastle. As a Research Associate, his work focuses on structural engineering applied to masonry structures, contributing to the reliability and performance assessment of critical infrastructure.

Gooch's research specializations and interests include the design and performance of masonry structures, structural reliability under extreme loading conditions, deterministic and stochastic numerical modelling, and the behaviour of civil engineering materials. Specific topics encompass masonry cavity wall ties under out-of-plane loading, friction coefficient of mortar bed joints in clay-brick masonry, unreinforced masonry shear walls, predictive models for unreinforced clay brick masonry shear wall resistance, stochastic finite element analyses for unreinforced masonry shear walls, statistical assessment of tensile and shear properties of unreinforced clay brick masonry, variability of unreinforced masonry shear wall capacities, and influence of spatially variable material properties on the in-plane shear behaviour of unreinforced masonry walls. He demonstrates expertise in experimental and probabilistic analysis, stochastic numerical analyses, finite element analyses, safety assessment of structures, and statistical assessment of material properties. Gooch has published 11 research items, garnering 55 citations and 418 reads. Notable publications are 'Experimental and probabilistic analysis of masonry cavity wall ties under out-of-plane loading with application of stochastic numerical analyses' (2026), 'Experimental characterisation of the friction coefficient of mortar bed joints in clay-brick masonry' (2025), 'Experimental Testing of Unreinforced Masonry Shear Walls and Comparison with Nominal Capacity Predictions' (2025), 'Model accuracy for the prediction of unreinforced clay brick masonry shear wall resistance' (2025), 'Accuracy of stochastic finite element analyses for the safety assessment of unreinforced masonry shear walls' (2024), and 'Statistical assessment of tensile and shear properties of unreinforced clay brick masonry' (2023). His career includes PhD research at the Centre for Infrastructure Performance and Reliability, structural engineering consultancy with Lyndsey Dynan Consulting Engineers on steel and reinforced concrete designs, lecturing in civil/structural engineering at James Cook University since 2025, attracting industry funding from masonry manufacturing and Australian insurance sectors, and chairing the 11th Australasian Masonry Conference sponsored by Think Brick Australia and the Concrete Masonry Association of Australia. Gooch's contributions impact the engineering of resilient aging infrastructure through advanced modelling and testing.