News
Mladena Luković received the International SECO Magnel PhD Award
16 September 2021
On September 16th, Mladena received the International SECO Magnel PhD Award. This scientific Award is the most prestigious for the Architecture, Engineering and Construction sector in Belgium open to international competition.
The awarding ceremony took place during the SECO annual conference in Brussels, during which “our” Laureate delivered a speech. It has been mentioned that the competition has been very tough. The International SECO Magnel PhD Award was awarded to a researcher who has obtained a doctoral degree in the European Higher Education Area during the period 1st January 2016 to 31st December 2019. In a separate note candidates were supposed to show the practical applicability of the scientific work.
Mladena Luković
Read more about Mladena Luković
Gabriela Zarate Garnica and Eva Lantsoght win the fib best paper award
6 September 2021
The Organising Committee of the 13th PhD Symposium online in Paris and the fib have announced that the Best Paper Award in the “Monitoring and Structural Assessment" category goes to Gabriela and Eva for their paper entitled “Stop criteria for proof load testing of reinforced concrete structures”.
1 August 2021
Sandra Nunes, Assistant Professor in the field of Concrete Structures, recently awarded with a ‘Delft Technology Fellowship’. Her past research focused mainly on concrete technology, following the major advances of the last decades, namely, self-compacting concrete, eco-efficient concretes, and ultra-high performance fibre reinforced cementitious composites. Sandra has the ambition to open a new research path at TU Delft on data-driven concrete science to extract knowledge and gain new insights into cement-based materials behaviour.
Winners of International competition on Modeling of Recycled Aggregate Reinforced Concrete
17 June 2021
This year fib organized a blind competition on predicting capacity, deformations and cracking behavior of a continuous two-span Recycled Aggregate Concrete (RAC) beam (Figure 1).
The competition aimed to evaluate the current knowledge on numerical methods to predict the behaviour of reinforced RAC beams. 23 teams from around the globe took part in the competition and were expected to predict:
- The peak load.
- The load at L/250 deformation where L is the span of the beam.
- The crack-widths at L/250 of deformation.
- The area under the load-deformation response.
Shozab Mustafa and Dawei Gu, two PhD candidates from the Section of Concrete structures under the supervision of Mladena Lukovic, won the competition by predicting all the parameters closest to the experimental observations. They used a home-built discrete element model (lattice model) for the prediction calculations. Until now, the model, originally developed by physicist to study fracture of brittle materials, and introduced in the world of concrete by Prof. Erik Schlangen, was used to investigate the material behavior of concrete. Shozab, Dawei and Mladena are developing it further to study structural concrete.
To read more about competition and participants see the fib newsletter.
We look forward to advance knowledge on sustainable concrete construction!
Succesful Webinar about Bridge Load Testing
14 June Year 2021
On June 14th, Gabriela Zarate Garnica and Eva Lantsoght of the Concrete Structures research group taught an online webinar on Bridge Load Testing to the University of Costa Rica – Lanamme (National Laboratory of Materials and Structural Models). This invitation came after Eva worked with faculty of UCR – Lanamme on the new Costa Rican Manual for Bridge Evaluation, which includes a chapter on bridge load testing. This chapter is largely based on e-circular 257 “Primer on Bridge Load Testing” of the Transportation Research Board, instead of on the current AASHTO Manual for Bridge Evaluation, which is based on the 1998 Manual or Bridge Rating through Load Testing. The authors of the TRB e-circular are a task force chaired by Eva within TRB Committee AKB 40 “Testing and Evaluation of Transportation Structures”.
In the webinar, Eva focused on the following topics related to bridge load testing: definition of a load test, load test types and classification, feasibility analysis for using load testing, general considerations for bridge load testing, differences between load tests on new and existing bridges, and international experiences. Gabriela presented her research on stop criteria for proof load testing of reinforced concrete slab bridges, based on the experiments that are currently in progress in the Stevin II Laboratory.
Max Hendriks, new head of the concrete structures section
1 June 2021
On 1 June Max Hendriks was appointed as full professor in Concrete Structures and head of the section Concrete Structures. See announcement (in Dutch).
Marco Roosen successfully defended his PhD thesis
29 March 2021
On 29 March 2021 Marco Roosen successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled “Shear failure of prestressed girders in regions without flexural cracks”.
The compostion of the doctoral committee was Rector Magnificus of the TU Delft, Prof.dr.ir. M.A.N. Hendriks (Delft University of Technology, promotor), Dr.ir. Y. Yang (Delft University of Technology, copromotor), Prof.dr.ir. J.G. Rots (Delft University of Technology), Prof. E.C. Bentz (University of Toronto, Canada), Prof.dr.-ing J. Hegger (RWTH Aachen University, Germany), Dr.ir. S.A.A.M. Fennis (Rijkswaterstaat), Dr.ir. C. van der Veen (Delft University of Technology).
Marco Roosen
Herbert van der Ham started as a teacher
1 July 2019
Herbert van der Ham started last July as a teacher at the section concrete structures. In the first instance, he will deal with the bachelor courses in reinforced and prestressed concrete and supervising Master graduates. In addition to working at Delft University, he works as an engineer at Boskalis and as a teacher at the 'Betonvereniging'. After graduating from Delft University in 2004, he worked as an engineer and consultant at Iv-Infra and Rijkswaterstaat, interrupted by a PhD research into 'Microstructure and transport phenomena in visco-elastic modeling of hardening cementitious materials.
Shozab Mustafa is starting his PhD
Shozab Mustafa is starting his PhD in the group of concrete structures under the supervision of Mladena Lukovic in efforts to characterise the concrete-to-concrete interface. The focus of the study is the quantification of the interfacial bond strength and its role in crack-width control of innovative composite structures consisting of Strain Hardening Cementitious Composite (SHCC) and concrete. He chose this topic as his area of focus because it combines both his interests i.e. innovative construction materials and the structural response of composite members. We look forward to working with him!
Paul Lagendijk leaving TU Delft
1 July 2019
Dear students and colleagues,
Over the past six years I had the opportunity to be involved in education on concrete structures together with you: it was an honour and it brought me a lot of pleasure. In 1985 I left the faculty of Civil Engineering at TU Delft as a student after acquiring my diploma as engineer and I never thought that I would ever return in a different role. Sometimes strange things happen in life! Thanks to you I had a great time all those years with the participation on the educational trip organised by Practische Studie for me as one of the highlights. As of now I will be focussing again on my role as structural designer at Aronsohn Constructies consulting engineers b.v.. Perhaps that I will meet some of you there or somewhere else in the world of structural engineers. I would love that!
Thanks and looking forward to meeting you,
Paul Lagendijk
The Concrete Canoe Race Weekend 2019
24 May 2019
On the weekend of the 24th of May, the Concrete Canoe Race will take place in 'S-Hertogenbosch. For this year competition, our TU Delft team has been working hard to make a marble-smooth lightweight canoe.
Now it is time to try it out and master their rowing skills (see the video below). Join the Race Weekend and support them winning the trophies!
Prof. dr.ir. D.A. Hordijk leaving TU Delft
1 March 2019
March 1, Professor Dick Hordijk left the university to focus completely on his company Adviesbureau ir. J.G. Hageman B.V. He has been a valuable person at the university for many years in the group of Concrete Structures and is known by the students from the master course Forensic Structural Engineering and other bachelor courses. Professor Hordijk looks with a great pleasure on his time at TU Delft and appreciates very much his collaboration with students and colleagues. He sends you a following message:
“Dear students and colleagues,
I feel very sorry that I am going to leave you. Combining my job in the office with the one at the university appeared to be too heavy and that is the reason that I decided to stop. The contacts with you I really appreciated very much. I wish you a bright future and all of you success with your study and in your career. And I look forward to meeting several of you in practice in the coming years!
Many thanks and kind regards,
Dick Hordijk"
René Braam Lecturer of the Year 2018
18 October 2018
René Braam was elected Lecturer of the Year 2018 of the Concrete Association during the Concrete Day 2018 in the Doelen in Rotterdam.
The Concrete Day is an annual expertise and networking event. This year's theme was: Concrete, more sustainable than ever! Sustainability is a theme that is of vital importance for the entire concrete chain – from exploration of raw materials to the final recycling of concrete.
Veni grant for research into hybrid concrete systems
20 July 2018
Mladena Luković is one of seven TU Delft scientists to be awarded a grant by NWO. The three year stipend will enable the concrete structures expert to continue her research and further develop her ideas.
Concrete structures do not meet current societal demands: fast construction, low maintenance and sustainability. Innovative systems are urgently needed. Hybrid concrete structures, combining innovative and conventional concretes, are possibly the future.
International Summer School Performance, Protection & Strengthening of Structures under Extreme Loading
6 July 2018
Professor Dick Hordijk gave four lectures at the International Summer School Performance, Protection & Strengthening of Structures under Extreme Loading (6th-11th July, 2018) in Lecco, Italy.
World Innovation in Bridge Engineering (WIBE) Prize
Our group and Albert Reitsema as a first author took part at the International Competition: World Innovation in Bridge Engineering (WIBE) Prize.
The winner of the Prize, selected by a qualified Jury, is a “Paper” that demonstrates the greatest potential of innovation and contributes to the development of Bridge Engineering worldwide.
The competition consisted of 74 papers which were submitted by more than 200 authors, from 50 countries all around the world.
We are happy to announce that our paper reached all population levels and finally was ranked 4th at WIBE Prize 2017.
Mladena Luković wins Dewis Award
10 October 2017
Mladena Luković is 2017’s best female Delft University of Technology PhD candidate. She received the Dewis Award for her research into Strain Hardening Cementitious Composite (SHCC), which she was awarded Cum Laude. How does she feel about winning this prize?
