Publications related to Multifunctional and robust composite structures for sustainable infrastructure

FLO:RE – A new floor system made of reused reinforced concrete and steel elements

Maléna Bastien Masse, Numa Joy Bertola, Célia Marine Küpfer, Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet

Carefully extracting reinforced concrete (RC) elements from soon-to-be demolished structures and reusing them as load-bearing components is an emerging circular low-carbon alternative to building new structures. As floor construction typically accounts for ...

IABSE2024

Shear and steel-fibre reinforcement for the punching resistance of flat slabs at internal and edge columns

Diego Hernández Fraile

Reinforced concrete flat slabs consist of a continuous, thin concrete plate that rests on a grid of columns. The supporting surface of the columns is very small compared to the floor plan dimensions, leading to concentrations of shear forces near the colum ...

EPFL2024

Embodied Carbon Premium for Cantilevers

David Michael Volpe Ruggiero, Paola Costanza Miglietta

This study addresses the critical need for sustainable architectural designs within the context of climate change and the significant role the built environment plays in greenhouse gas emissions. The focus of this paper is on understanding the influence of ...

2024

Influence of model uncertainty and long term deformations in action effects calculation in reinforced concrete structures

Xhemsi Malja

Most codes of practice adopt a semi probabilistic design approach for the dimensioning and assessment of structures. Accordingly, structural safety is ensured by performing limit state verifications using design values determined with adequately calibrated ...

EPFL2024

Teaching Not To

Charlotte Malterre-Barthes

Two design studios were successively taught in two schools of architecture: one at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) and the other at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland, based on "A Global Morato ...

Taylor & Francis Inc2024

Energy geotechnology: A new era for geotechnical engineering practice

Lyesse Laloui, Melis Sütman

Energy geotechnology provides low carbon, cost-effective and local energy solu-tions to structures and infrastructures, which opens a new era for the geotechnical engineering practice, by extending the conventional role of structural design to the ...

CRC Press2023

Structural topology exploration through policy-based generation of equilibrium representations

Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet, Ioannis Mirtsopoulos

Mainstream approaches to design spatial architectural forms that are structurally relevant consist either in adapting well-known and catalogued conventional types or in searching for close-to-optimum solutions of well-defined problems. Few means exist to e ...

2023

Strategies for energy-efficient frontal polymerisation processing and microstructural evaluation of fibre reinforced composites

Jacobus Gerardus Rudolph Staal

Liquid composite moulding methods are widely applied for manufacturing of fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) composites and consist of two main stages: impregnation of fibrous reinforcements by a liquid monomer resin and curing of this resin. This thesis work ...

EPFL2023

Thermo-hydro-mechanical behavior of energy barrettes: Field experiments and numerical simulations

Lyesse Laloui, Alessandro Francesco Rotta Loria, Elena Ravera

Over the past two decades, the thermo-hydro-mechanical behavior of earth-contact structures such as piles, walls, slabs, and tunnels, which simultaneously provide structural support and energy supply, has been studied through various field experiments and ...

ELSEVIER2023

Computational Conceptual Design – Typological Exploration Of Spatial Truss Systems Through Optimization

Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet, Jonas Warmuth, Pierluigi D'Acunto

Exploring a wide range of relevant design options from the outset is crucial for every sound conceptual design process. Optimization techniques are generally employed to generate well-performing structural design options. However, focusing only on performa ...

2023

Combined Passive and Active Ultrasonic Stress Wave Monitoring of UHPFRC Properties on a Structural Level

Eugen Brühwiler, Numa Joy Bertola, Thomas Schumacher

Ultra-High-Performance Fiber-Reinforced Cementitious Composite (UHPFRC) is becoming popular in designing lightweight and durable structures. UHPFRC structural elements remain crack-free and waterproof under service conditions, significantly improving durab ...

2023

Low-tech methods for the reuse of reinforced concrete structural elements

Maléna Bastien Masse, Julie Rachel Devènes, Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet, Nicole Widmer

Most of existing buildings are made of concrete, new buildings are being built with it and others are demolished when still in good structural condition. This drives increased demands for raw materials, greenhouse gas emissions, and an accumulation of demo ...

2023

Reliability analysis and partial safety format calibration considering the characteristics of the resistance of reinforced concrete structures

Qianhui Yu

Every engineering calculation is an approximation of reality, with inevitable uncertainties involved. This fact implies that a reliability verification accounting for the uncertainties is a necessary step in the design and assessment of structures. Nowaday ...

EPFL2023

A Geometric Transformer for Structural Biology: Development and Applications of the Protein Structure Transformer

Lucien Fabrice Krapp

Proteins, the central building blocks of life, play pivotal roles in nearly every biological function. To do so, these macromolecular structures interact with their surrounding environment in complex ways, leading to diverse functional behaviors. The predi ...

EPFL2023

On Multiphysical Couplings in Energy Geotechnics: Relevance and Applications

Alessio Ferrari

Energy Geotechnics includes several applications related to the recovery and storage of energy from and into the ground, energy transportation, and the management of waste and carbon dioxide generated from energy use. These applications often involve the n ...

Wei Wu, Universität für Bodenkultur2023

Analysis of barrette foundations subjected to mechanical and thermal loads

Lyesse Laloui, Alessandro Francesco Rotta Loria

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in the use of rectangular barrette foundations for the structural support and energy supply of tall buildings when circular piles become inefficient or uneconomical. In such applications, so-called energy ...

2022

Non-destructive Prediction of the Buckling Load of Cylindrical Shells

Emilio José Lozano Vazquez

The current research focuses on the prediction of the maximum axial compression load a cylindrical shell is able to bear. This maximum axial compression load is the value at which a cylindrical shell loses stability and abruptly buckles. After the buckling ...

EPFL2022

Fire performance evaluation of GFRP-balsa sandwich bridge decks

Niloufar Vahedi

Bridges are a critical component of national infrastructures and economies. A significant percentage of bridges built all around the world are made of reinforced concrete which according to building codes have a life span between 80-100 years. However, str ...

EPFL2022

European Economic impacts of cutting energy imports from Russia: A computable general equilibrium analysis

Marc Vielle, Sigit Pria Perdana

The recent economic sanctions against Russia can jeopardise the sustainability of the European Union's (EU) energy supply. Despite the EU's strong commitment to stringent abatement targets, fossil fuels still play a significant role in the EU energy policy ...

ELSEVIER2022

2.5 Hz sample rate time-domain near-infrared optical tomography based on SPAD-camera image tissue hemodynamics

Edoardo Charbon, Scott Anthony Lindner, Jingjing Jiang, Martin Wolf

Tim-domain near-infrared optical tomography (TD NIROT) techniques based on diffuse light were gaining performance over the last years. They are capable of imaging tissue at several centimeters depth and reveal clinically relevant information, such as tissu ...

OPTICAL SOC AMER2022