Department of Structural Engineering

Department of Structural Engineering

Department of Structural Engineering

How to keep that rolling stock rolling

Engineers Evert van Veldhuizen and Jan Moraal are experts in the area of pantograph-catenary interaction and if it’s up to them, in the future, a failing overhead line will no longer get the headline news.

Building affordable homes using local biowaste materials

People in rural India traditionally live in so-called ‘mud houses’, houses made of a blend of clay, sand and silt. This material is not water-resistant, and over time, rain causes the walls to crumble. Residents have to replaster their walls after each rainy season. There is currently no affordable alternative. However, with his TU Delft Global Research Fellowship, civil engineer Kulshreshtha hopes to see this change.

Floating homes for the Philippines

For the people living in the cities of the Philippines coping with the consequences of flooding has become a way of life. PhD Pieter Ham, under the guidance of professor of Structural and Building Engineering Rob Nijsse, is working on the construction of sustainable, modular homes in the Philippines. Floating homes.

Testing the rails

One mouse click and the iron cross behind the glass groans to life. This is a new test installation to research wear on railway material.

The strength of glass

Glass breaks, doesn’t it? It’s wonderfully suited to creating light effects and a sense of spaciousness. But can it be used in a load-bearing capacity, for instance in walls, bridges and pillars? The answer is yes: under pressure glass becomes incredibly tough. TU Delft’s Stevin II laboratory is home to one of the few teams in the world doing research into the suitability of glass as a building material. Here PhDs and professors are finding ways to make glass in construction strong and safe without compromising on transparency.

A cement free concrete canoe

A drum roll sounds in the Stevin II laboratory. 20 students and researchers in blue lab coats and safety shoes are gathered around a 6 meter long canoe mould. They have 15 minutes to properly distribute the mixture in the mould, tamp it down and do the finishing. ‘Faster!’ shouts researcher Marija Nedeljković and the rhythm of the patting hands accelerates.

Self-healing of Concrete by Bacterial Mineral Precipitation

Repairing cracks in concrete structures is a time consuming, costly but necessary business. TU Delft is researching how the self-healing capacity of concrete structures can be improved by using calcite-precipitating bacteria and what conditions are necessary for these bacteria to thrive.

Stories of Science