Publications related to Quantitative microstructural characterisation of cement paste submitted to different moderate temperature and loading conditions

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

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

Experimental investigation of dowel action in reinforcing bars using refined measurements

Aurelio Muttoni, Marko Pejatovic

In typical reinforced concrete design, reinforcement is designed to carry axial forces, but it can also resist transversal forces by dowel action. This is usually neglected for simplicity's sake in the design phase, but it can be accounted for either expli ...

Ernst & Sohn2024

Decarbonization potential of steel fibre-reinforced limestone calcined clay cement concrete one-way slabs

Hisham Tarek Mohamed Hafez

This study deals with a comparison of the environmental performance of one-way slabs utilizing steel fibrereinforced limestone calcined clay cement (LC3) concrete with the control case of Ordinary Portland cement concrete. The experimental program constitu ...

Elsevier Sci Ltd2024

Verification of the Fourier-enhanced 3D finite element Poisson solver of the gyrokinetic full-f code PICLS

Stephan Brunner, Laurent Villard, Alberto Bottino, Moahan Murugappan

We introduce and derive the Fourier -enhanced 3D electrostatic field solver of the gyrokinetic full -f PIC code PICLS. The solver makes use of a Fourier representation in one periodic direction of the domain to make the solving of the system easily paralle ...

Elsevier2024

Contributions to rebar-to-concrete interaction and its structural implications for design and monitoring applications

Enrique Corres Sojo

Bond between reinforcing bars and concrete has been the focus of extensive research over the last century. This is well-justified as the functioning of reinforced concrete intimately depends on the interaction between rebar and concrete, as for example cra ...

EPFL2024

Experimental and analytical investigation of shear-reinforced concrete and dowel action

Marko Pejatovic

Codes of practice can be overly conservative, particularly for the shear resistance of reinforced concrete beams with shear reinforcement when large loads act close to supports. This thesis addresses the topic by proposing a refined design approach based o ...

EPFL2024

Reusability assessment of reinforced concrete components prior to deconstruction from obsolete buildings

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

A large part of building demolitions is motivated by purely socio-economic reasons. Hence, about-to-be-demolished structures, commonly made of reinforced concrete, very often present no or little degradation. When adaptive reuse of the entire building is n ...

2024

Additively manufactured steel reinforcement for small scale reinforced concrete modeling: Tensile and bond behavior

Christian Leinenbach, Rafal Wróbel

Small scale (1:30-1:40) Reinforced Concrete is useful for centrifuge testing. However, manufacturing the reinforcing cages by hand at this scale is practically difficult. This paper suggests that small scale reinforcement can be manufactured using a metal ...

Elsevier Sci Ltd2024

A concrete answer for circular construction: three prototypes reusing saw-cut elements

Maléna Bastien Masse, Célia Marine Küpfer, Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet

Existing concrete buildings should be retained for as long as possible to reduce the environmental burden of demolition and new construction. However, when urban pressure makes demolition unavoidable, salvaging and reusing concrete elements elsewhere in ne ...

2024

Near-Room-Temperature Detection of Aromatic Compounds with Inkjet-Printed Plasticized Polymer Composites

Thomas Maeder, Jürgen Brugger, Mohammadmahdi Kiaee

Chemiresistive gas sensors composed of a thermoplastic polymer matrix and conductive fillers offer various advantages for detecting volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including low power consumption due to near-room-temperature operation, high sensitivity, ...

Amer Chemical Soc2024

Estimation of the bar stress based on crack width measurements in reinforced concrete structures

Aurelio Muttoni, Enrique Corres Sojo

Estimating the stress of reinforcing bars and its variations in service conditions can be useful to determine the reserve capacity of structures or to assess the risk of fatigue in the reinforcement. This paper investigates the use crack width measurements ...

Ernst & Sohn2024

Osmosis-driven stiffening of structured hydrogels

Esther Amstad, Ran Zhao, Alexandra Thoma

Plant cells harness osmotic pressures to stiffen their leaves through strong turgor pressures. Key to this osmosisdriven stiffening is the confinement of liquids within semipermeable membranes that can regulate the transport of water molecules and ions. In ...

Elsevier2024

A novel fatigue life prediction methodology based on energy dissipation in viscoelastic materials, synergistic effects of stress level, stress ratio, and temperature

Thomas Keller, Abdolvahid Movahedirad, Lulu Liu

This work introduces a new methodology to predict the fatigue life of viscoelastic materials by considering the creep effect on fatigue behavior under the concurrent effects of stress level, stress ratio, and temperature. The model established based on the ...

2024

Structural component reuse of precast and cast-in-place reinforced concrete in architecture since the late 1960s in Europe

Célia Marine Küpfer, Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet

The reuse of concrete pieces salvaged from structures undergoing transformation or demolition into new architectural projects has gained a sudden and visible interest over the past five years. However, the practice of reusing concrete pieces in new structu ...

vdf Hochschulverlag AG2024

Model uncertainties in action effects and load bearing capacity calculation in statically indeterminate reinforced concrete structures

Alain Nussbaumer, Aurelio Muttoni, Xhemsi Malja

For the dimensioning and assessment of structures, it is common practice to compare action effects with sectional resistances. Extensive studies have been performed to quantify the model uncertainty on the resistance side. However, for statically indetermi ...

Ernst & Sohn2024

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

Water weakening and the compressive brittle strength of carbonates: Influence of fracture toughness and static friction

Marie Estelle Solange Violay, Barnaby Padraig Fryer, Corentin Jean-Marie Rémi Noël

Water is ubiquitous within the pore space of rocks and has been shown to affect their physical and mechanical behaviour. Indeed, water can act on the rock strength via mechanical (i.e., reducing the effective stresses) or chemical effects (e.g., mineral di ...

2024

Exploring High-Performance and Energy-Efficient Architectures for Edge AI-Enabled Applications

Joshua Alexander Harrison Klein

The desire and ability to place AI-enabled applications on the edge has grown significantly in recent years. However, the compute-, area-, and power-constrained nature of edge devices are stressed by the needs of the AI-enabled applications, due to a gener ...

EPFL2024

Monitoring an Emergent Pathogen at Low Incidence in Wastewater Using qPCR: Mpox in Switzerland

Tamar Kohn, Timothy R. Julian

Wastewater-based epidemiology offers a complementary approach to clinical case-based surveillance of emergent diseases and can help identify regions with infected people to prioritize clinical surveillance strategies. However, tracking emergent diseases in ...

2024

Short-term behavior of glass fiber-polymer composite bending-active elastica beam under service load application

Thomas Keller, Landolf-Giosef-Anastasios Rhode-Barbarigos, Tara Habibi

Bending-active elastica beam is a structural configuration that is based on the elastic deformation of an initially straight beam. This deformation occurs when horizontal displacements are applied to a sliding support, causing the beam to bend into an arch ...

2024