Research

ISM staff has resources necessary for the practical application of recent trends promoted by the developed countries, the so-called sustainable building, life-cycle cost optimatization of structures (see, e.g, activities and EU Directives, ISO, etc.), risk analysis and design with respect to utility properties. This is done by using advanced numerical programs (also own computational tools are developed and applied) in linking with the carrying out of standard and non-standard experiments. It covers large spectrum of research area: advanced modeling of complex structures using modern and complex program systems, including reliability assessment of structures, their service life, including, e.g., fracture mechanics of quasi-brittle materials, modeling and simulation of nonlinear dynamic systems.

ISM is currently cooperating with companies SCIA and Dlubal in development of FEM software systems Scia Engineer and RFEM (covering more than 30 percent of the EU market in the area of calculations of building structures) for design, calculations and code-checking of structures.

Research Topics

Nowadays, members of the Institute of Structural Mechanics are dealing with the following topics:

• Theory of structural mechanics, i.e., improvement and automation of design methods of static and dynamic analysis of building structures with an emphasis on the real material properties and structure interaction (soil, fluid, wind) to enable the design and assessment of structures with respect to the level of reliability and durability
• Stochastic computational mechanics, reliability of structures, risk engineering
• Modeling of Structures using FEM programs, e.g., ANSYS, RFEM and SCIA Engineer
• Simulation methods of Monte Carlo type, stochastic finite element method, random fields in continuum mechanics, probabilistic optimization of structures, identification
• Theory of suspension and suspended cable structures
• Fracture mechanics of quasi-brittle and composite materials
• Long-term fracture/mechanical properties of High Strength/Performance/Fiber Concrete
• Fractal dimension of fracture surfaces/cracks
• Material model parameters identification
• Lattice models
• Discrete element method
• Artificial neural network
• Design of slender structures
• Dissipative nonlinear dynamical systems and chaotic phenomenons

Cooperation

The Institute of Structural Mechanics cooperates with Czech and foreign universities and companies:

• Červenka Consulting s.r.o. (Czech Republic)
• Dlubal (Germany)
• FEM consulting s.r.o. (Česká republika)
• Nemetschek SCIA (Germany, Belgium)
• Northwestern University (USA)
• RWTH Aachen (Germany)
• Technical University of Denmark - DTU (Denmark)
• University of Minnessota (USA)
• University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna (Austria)
• Johns Hopkins University (USA)
• Koszalin University of Technology (Polsko)