Projects

FatResCon - Concrete matrices for high‑cycle‑fatigue resistant, eco‑efficient infrastructure

Project Number: 101167045
Project duration: 01.06.2025 - 31.05.2031

Description

FatResCon is an ERC Synergy Grant project funded by the European Research Council that aims to uncover the microstructural origins of concrete fatigue and develop predictive tools that enable the design of durable, eco-efficient infrastructure with extended service life.

The goal of the Synergy Grant project FATRESCON is to decode the microstructural origins of concrete fatigue and to predict its impact on the structural lifespan. By formulating new theoretical concepts and combining them with innovative computer simulations and experimental protocols, the research team will underpin guidelines for designing durable structures with extended service life using the next generation of eco-efficient concretes, promoting their adoption in the construction sector.

INODIN - Innovative methods of materials diagnostics and monitoring of engineering infrastructure to increase its durability and service time

Project Number: CZ.02.01.01/00/23_020/0008487
Project duration: 01.2025 - 12.2028

Description

The INODIN project focuses on developing the application potential of research organizations (ITAM, CTU, IGN, BUT, CeTTAV) by establishing and deepening cooperation with entities from the application sphere (EXCON, StatoTest, DIAMO, Skanska). The topic of the four-year project is the diagnostics, monitoring and modeling of engineering infrastructure, which is indispensable to our civilization and has a major impact on the living and social environment.

The objectives of the INODIN project represent major steps in the fields of diagnostics, monitoring, digitisation, analysis of materials and structures using computational models. These objectives are designed to enhance collaboration between research organisations and the application community, while addressing current challenges in the monitoring and diagnosis of materials and engineering infrastructure in the construction industry:

• Establishing and deepening cooperation with the application sphere
• Failure investigation and multi-level diagnostics of materials
• Research on intelligent sensors and non-invasive techniques for monitoring structures
• Long-term monitoring of structures from the beginning of construction
• Development of digitalization
• Use of artificial intelligence
• Engineering measures for the sustainability of structures
• Use of data for managerial decisions
• Involvement of the target users
• Preparation and submission of project applications

IREC - Integrated Research Centre for Structures

Project number: ATCZ00068
Project duration: 01.06.2024 - 30.11.2027

Description

The project will establish an Integrated Research Centre (IREC) for advanced numerical and analytical analysis of reliability, performance, and service life of existing and new civil engineering structures such as bridges, tunnels, protective barriers, etc. The IREC will aim to integrate the knowledge and tools of the cross-border partners from BOKU-IKI and BUT-STM and offer a unified and efficient access and service to the target groups on both sides of the border. This synergy will enable easy cross-border transfer of parts of solutions to complex problems. Within the framework of its activities, the Centre will offer both knowledge transfer in the form of seminars and publications and direct application and consultancy activities towards partners from engineering offices and infrastructure operators and owners. The common services, methods and tools will be intensified and adapted to the current needs of the target groups and thus prepared for an optimized operation of the research centre after the end of the project.

Lead partner of the project

Bilateral cooperation within the EEA and Norway Grants on reliability and sustainability of structures.

Description

Within the framework of the initiative No. EEA-BFNU-OVNKM-4-149-2024, funded by the Fund for Bilateral Relations under the EEA and Norway Grants 2014-2021, two two-day seminars on reliability and sustainability of civil engineering and marine structures were organised in cooperation between Brno University of Technology and University of South-Eastern Norway. The seminars were held in Brno on 23-24 May 2024 and in Porsgrunn on 3-4 June 2024. The seminars consisted of lectures by experts from both universities followed by an expert panel discussion where theoretical, practical, economic and environmental aspects of reliability and sustainability of structures were discussed. The second days of the seminars were dedicated to technical excursions. Visits were made to the experimental laboratories of both universities and to the construction site of the newly built Eifage-Nye Veier E18 motorway in south-eastern Norway.

The seminar report, which includes a summary of the lectures, a set of slides presented and the technical tour report, is available for download here.

SAFEBRIDGE - Advanced analysis of existing reinforced and pre-stressed concrete bridges: Nonlinearity, reliability, safety formats, life-time aspects

Project Number: ATCZ190
Project duration: 01.09.2018 - 31.10.2021
Spolufinancován z prostředků Evropského fondu pro regionální rozvoj

Description

The road network in the regions of Vienna, Lower Austria and Moravia faces major challenges: ageing structures, increasing traffic loads, the impact of climate change, new quality requirements and a limited budget for road infrastructure management. New, innovative approaches must be pursued to maintain a reliable road network. This is particularly true for bridge structures. At present, their maintenance is mainly based on periodic structural inspections, where damage to the structure is not discovered until it is completely obvious. This procedure is based on the retroactive action of the structural damage. Damage and structural problems often occur within the structure where they develop due to real, but often unknown, effects. In the future, bridges should be able to provide information on their condition and development early in their service life, rather than after structural inspections have been carried out.

The aim of the project ‘SAFEBRIDGE’ is to propose advanced procedures for numerical condition assessment of bridge systems based on reliability methods (based on the basic idea of ÖN B4008 Level III) and to make them available to a larger number of engineering offices as well as infrastructure operators in the regions of Vienna, Lower Austria and Moravia. A thorough numerical analysis based on reliability assessment methods will provide relevant information and a comprehensive evaluation of bridge systems and thus have a significant impact on the efficient and targeted use of the budget allocated for bridge maintenance.

The main outputs of the project for the infrastructure operators and the engineering community in the regions of Vienna, Lower Austria and Moravia will be: a) the provision of the possibility to use advanced reliability assessment of bridge structures based on numerical methods in combination with statistical methods; b) the development of a Guideline/Guide for the safe use of these methods; and c) the development of a sustainable training programme on reliability assessment of structures. Such outputs have not yet been prepared for the engineering community and infrastructure operators in any European country or any other country in the world and are therefore highly innovative.

Jointly with strategic partners, ten bridge structures from the regions of Vienna, Lower Austria and Moravia will be selected to which advanced methods of non-linear condition and reliability assessment will be applied. The results of the studies will be implemented in the proposed Guideline. Regular meetings will ensure the transfer of know-how between project and strategic partners and the calibration of a pilot training programme based on case studies of ten selected bridges. After project implementation, training courses for engineers and infrastructure managers will be organised at universities.

Lead partner of the project