News
Smart Mobile Factories: The Future of Sustainable Infrastructure Development
From September 4-5, 2023, Bolzano, Italy played host to a workshop that brought together a diverse group of interdisciplinary researchers, including civil engineers, architects, computer scientists, and industrial engineers. The primary focus of this gathering was the Smart Mobile Factory for Infrastructure (SMF4Infra) Project, a groundbreaking initiative aimed at revolutionizing i infrastructure construction.
Student Scholar Award SFPE 2023 for Zhuojun Nan
Zhuojun Nan MSc, who will join our department as of December and will be working on the field of Fire Safety won the 2023 Student Scholar Award of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers. She was awarded because of the high quality of her PhD research and leadership and volunteerism she showed in the past years.
In her PhD research Dr Nan established a practical workflow for structural analysis under realistic fire scenarios, which involved conducting full-scale fire spread tests with non-uniform fuel distribution, developing a natural fire model with travelling behaviour of localised burning in OpenSees, and integrating the fire models with the Integrated Simulation Environment (GiD+OpenSees) for heat transfer and thermomechanical analysis. This research highlights current challenges as well as potential areas for future research that could enhance building fire safety through the development of an integrated approach for structural fire analysis, design, and collapse prediction. Next to this, Zhuojun, amongst others, acted as a member of the organizing committee of the 12th International Conference on Structures in Fire (SiF22).
Het College van Bestuur heeft Hans Ramler benoemd als TU Delft Fellow Construction Technology bij de faculteit Civiele Techniek & Geowetenschappen (CiTG).
Energie halen uit beton potentieel beste Tech-idee 2021
Golven die tegen de kust aan beuken genereren energie. Onderzoekers Branko Šavija en Yading Xu van de TU Delft willen die energie door middel van een speciaal soort beton opvangen en zo een alternatieve energiebron creëren. KIJK-magazine heeft het idee geselecteerd voor hun competitie Beste Tech-idee 2021. De winnaar wordt bepaald door het publiek. Stemmen kan van 14 september tot 15 oktober.
New research shines light on future directions for cities on sustainability and climate action
What’s in a word? ‘Smart’, ‘eco’ or ‘future’ cities? Around the world, numerous city initiatives have sprung up in recent years to signal their engagement with sustainable development and global climate change action. But what is the difference between these and other city labels? Are some more important than others? And how will they develop in the coming 50 years? Scottish and Dutch academics have carried out a global study across 35 different city labels revealing that the term ‘sustainable city’ has been the most popular and overarching one in policy and academic research until five years ago.
Brank Šavija receives Open Mind grant
During a special online edition of the annual innovation festival TEKNOWLOGY, NWO has announced the winners of the annual Open Mind funding round. Five scientists with surprising ideas for improving the world will each receive 50,000 euros to further elaborate their plan within one year.
Harvesting energy from waves breaking against the coast or from a vibrating bridge that lorries travel across. That is what dr. Branko Šavija and his team want to make possible with the new, lightweight and sustainable 3D printed concrete they have developed. For this idea, he received a k€50 Open Mind grant from NWO. Quoting the jury assessment: ‘Completely original idea to explore an interesting new source of energy.’ A short explanation of this innovative idea is given in this video.
Paul Korswagen awarded the best paper 17th International Brick and Block Masonry Conference
On the 8 of July, at the inauguration session of the 17th International Brick and Block Masonry Conference, Paul Korswagen was awarded with the first place in the competition for the best paper submitted to this online edition of the conference. The paper, about the difference in the behaviour between baked-clay and calcium-silicate walls subjected to light damage, which was deemed by the jury to have very high scientific value and/or concern important practical aspects, was written by the researcher of the department of Materials, Mechanics, Management and Design (3MD) at the group of Structural Mechanics. The topic was based on the work performed by the team looking at the light damage vulnerability of masonry walls which was composed at the time by Michele Longo, Edwin Meulman, and Paul and guided by prof. Jan Rots.
Paul’s prize consists of a book about the history of Kraków and a tour of the city, which is fortunately valid all throughout next year.
Paul Korswagen (right) with colleagues in front of a calcium-silicate wall, one of the last to be tested.
Branko Šavija awarded the Gustavo Colonnetti Medal
We like to congratulate dr. Branko Šavija with being awarded the Gustavo Colonnetti Medal of the International Union of Laboratories and Experts in Construction Materials, Systems and Structures (RILEM). Each year, max. 2 young researchers of less than 35 years, who have made an outstanding scientific contribution to the field of construction materials and structures receive this award. Branko was awarded for his high-level scientific research in the field of construction materials and structures. Apart from the medal, he will be invited to give a lecture during the RILEM Spring Convention in March.
Djonno Bresser is TU Delft Best Graduate 2019
At the TU Delft Best Graduate Award Ceremony 2019 eight recently graduated engineers presented their research and results of their excellent master thesis. Djonno Bresser, graduate of the department Materials, Mechanics, Management & Design (3MD), received the prestigious title TU Delft Best Graduate 2019. The TU Delft Best Graduate Award Ceremony is organized annually by Delft University Fund. His Graduation committee consisted of Prof. Dr. Ir. J.G. Rots, Dr. Ir. M.A.N. Hendriks, Ir. M. Pari, Dr. Ir. G.M.A. Schreppers and Ir. L.J.M. Houben.
The Delft approach to Forensic Engineering
Karel Terwel together with Michiel Schuurman (AE) and Arjo Loeve (ME), won a prestigious ICE Publishing Award for their joint work on ‘Improving reliability in forensic engineering: the Delft approach’. In the article, they describe the three main elements of the Delft approach, which in turn are based on insights gained from their respective fields of civil engineering, aerospace engineering and biomechanical engineering. Starting 19 November 2019, the MOOC ‘Forensic Engineering: Learning from Failures’ will run for the third time. This MOOC takes its lead from the insights described in the article on the Delft approach.
Research Jaap Weerheijm and Tiziano Li Piani considered among the best collaborations with European Commission
Research on mechanics of adobe structures, a joint research project of TU Delft, TNO and the Dutch Ministry of Defense, has been considered among the best collaborations with the European Commission. Both dr. Weerheijm as mr. Li Piani were interviewed on this occasion.
Erik Schlangen gives lecture at the University of the Netherlands
Can a concrete house repair its own cracks?
Erik Schlangen lectures in this course at the University of the Netherlands how he develops self-healing concrete with the help of special bacteria.
