Universities face the challenge of developing undergraduate structural engineering students' design judgement. This study evaluates whether introducing ‘learning from failure', centralised around ‘real-world' case studies, serves to facilitate the development of engineering judgement in structural design. The study identifies the use of three characteristics of engineering judgement: diagnostic, inductive, and interpretive in the work of the first-year undergraduate structural design students. Thematic analysis, combined with a constant comparison method and the rigour of inter-researcher reliability, was used to develop coding and mapping to evaluate students' work. The majority of students correctly applied diagnostic engineering judgement to the definition of a problem for a failure case study; and displayed the inductive aspect of judgement. Students' interpretive understanding embraced multi-faceted considerations, with engineering practice, complexity in causality, and learning from history being dominant. Introducing case studies deepened students’ enquiry, stimulating the development of a more nuanced understanding of structural engineering judgement.

Fiber-reinforced composite (FRP) materials have gained an increasing success, mostly for strengthening, retrofitting and repair of existing historic masonry structures and may cause a significant enhancement of the mechanical properties of the reinforced members. This article summarizes the results of previous experimental activities aimed at investigating the effectiveness of GFRP (Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymers) grids embedded into an inorganic mortar to reinforce historic masonry. The paper also presents innovative results on the relationship between the durability and the governing material properties of GFRP grids. Measurements of the tensile strength were made using specimens cut off from GFRP grids before and after ageing in aqueous solution. The tensile strength of a commercially available GFRP grid has been tested after up 450 days of storage in deionized water and NaCl solution. A degradation in tensile strength and Young’s modulus up to 30.2% and 13.2% was recorded, respectively. This degradation indicated that extended storage in a wet environment may cause a decrease in the mechanical properties.