Publications related to Challenges in Modeling Cementitious Materials

Rising from rubble - Leveraging existing construction tools for upcycling concrete waste into slender walls

Katrin Beyer, Maxence Grangeot, Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet, Qianqing Wang, Stefana Parascho

In this paper, we present a new method for upcycling concrete rubble waste into slender walls through the lightweight digital augmentation of mainstream construction machines. By using such method, the environmental impact of concrete construction and demo ...

Springer2024

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

An explorative method to support design decisions based on carbon constraints and daylight sufficiency needs

Nazanin Rezaei Oghazi

The global construction industry contributes to 37% of carbon emissions associated to both building operations and construction. To help achieve the net-zero targets set by 2050, it is mandated to achieve a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030. As we ...

EPFL2024

Reusability Assessment of Obsolete Reinforced Concrete Structural Components

Maléna Bastien Masse, Célia Marine Küpfer, Julie Rachel Devènes, Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet

The production of concrete, the most widely used construction material, detrimentally affects the environment. Obsolete reinforced concrete (RC) load-bearing structures, even when still in good condition, are today prematurely crushed and landfilled or rec ...

Springer2023

Design of New Low-Carbon Floor Systems by Reusing Cut Cast-in-Place Concrete Pieces

Numa Joy Bertola, Célia Marine Küpfer, Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet

As floors typically account for the largest share of a building embodied carbon footprint, new strategies to build low-carbon floors must be developed and implemented. Among these strategies, the reuse of existing components is a promising circular approac ...

Novus Press2023

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

Experimental testing and structural analysis of composite tile – reinforced concrete domes

Savvas Saloustros

Conventional formworks for concrete curved shells either are expensive, complex and wasteful or have formal restrictions. Using tile vaults (also known as timbrel, Guastavino, thin-tile or Catalan vaults) as stay-in-place formwork for concrete shells could ...

2023

Experimental investigation on the bending response of reuse-ready timber slabs – The Pixel Slab System

Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet, Johnny Syriani, Edisson Xavier Estrella Arcos

Current construction practices follow linear economic models of "take-make-dispose" that result in substantial material landfilling after the end-of-life of buildings. This issue takes relevance given the construction industry's significant stake in the hi ...

International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures (IASS)2023

Lessons learned from a prediction and postdiction of a shake table test on an unreinforced masonry aggregate

Katrin Beyer, Igor Tomic

Historical centers of Europe and Croatia are often formed by unreinforced masonry building aggregates that developed as the layout of the city or village was densified. In these aggregates, adjacent buildings can share structural walls with an older and a ...

2023

Energy dissipation in fiber-polymer composites adhesive joints under cyclic loading

Ghazaleh Eslami

Sustainable development has emerged as a paramount consideration in various fields of industry, including construction, to preserve the environment and its finite resources. Lightweight structures, such as fiber-polymer composite structures, address both s ...

EPFL2023

Robotic Assembly of Integrally-Attached Timber Plate Structures: From Computational Design to Automated Construction

Nicolas Henry Pierre Louis Rogeau

The digitization of timber construction, the emergence of engineered wood products, and the urgent need to drastically reduce buildings' environmental impact have given a rebirth to wood as a construction material. On the one hand, increasing the use of ti ...

EPFL2023

Environmental and economic analysis of new construction techniques reusing existing concrete elements: two case studies

Maléna Bastien Masse, Célia Marine Küpfer, Julie Rachel Devènes, Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet

As the most widely used construction material worldwide, concrete is the main cause of greenhouse gas emissions, material depletion, and waste generation by the construction industry. Typically, concrete waste is crushed and, at best, reclaimed into recycl ...

2022

From Marshall Plan to “Hilton in the wild”: The Transnational History of a Cooperative Housing Block in Esat, Ankara

Sila Karatas

This paper concerns the planning, design, and construction history of a postwar multifamily housing block in Ankara, Turkey, viewed from the perspective of the transnational and local networks behind its realization. Built by the Mintrak Building Cooperati ...

2022

A Collaborative Workflow to Automate the Design, Analysis, and Construction of Integrally-Attached Timber Plate Structures

Pierre Latteur, Yves Weinand, Aryan Rezaei Rad, Petras Vestartas, Nicolas Henry Pierre Louis Rogeau

This paper introduces a computational framework that fosters collaboration between architects, engineers, and contractors by bridging the gap between architectural design, structural analysis, and digital construction. The present research is oriented towa ...

CAADRIA2022

Interlaboratory Test Program to Determine the Precision of the R3 Test Method (ASTM C1897-20) for Measuring Reactivity of Supplementary Cementitious Materials

Karen Scrivener, Ruben Anton Snellings, Diana Londoño Zuluaga

The substitution of portland clinker by supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) is one of the main avenues for the further decarbonization of cement production. To secure future SCM supplies, generic and performance-related test methods for SCMs are re ...

AMER SOC TESTING MATERIALS2022

Digital twins for post-earthquake damage assessment of free-standing buildings including damage information

Radhakrishna Achanta, Katrin Beyer, Amir Rezaie, Bryan German Pantoja Rosero

We present a pipeline for the automatic generation of digital twins of free-standing buildings for damage assessment. Our method takes multiple view images of the target building as input and processes them to produce a 3D model in levels of detail (LOD) f ...

2022

Roadmap on Machine learning in electronic structure

Michele Ceriotti, Andrea Grisafi, Max David Veit, Jigyasa Nigam

In recent years, we have been witnessing a paradigm shift in computational materials science. In fact, traditional methods, mostly developed in the second half of the XXth century, are being complemented, extended, and sometimes even completely replaced by ...

IOP Publishing Ltd2022

Design and temporal issues in Soil Bioengineering structures for the stabilisation of shallow soil movements

Giovanni De Cesare, Massimiliano Schwarz

In the last decades, soil bioengineering has gained considerable popularity worldwide, especially in hillslope, riverbank, and earth embankment stabilisation works. The use of plants as a building material transfers the plant multifunctionality within engi ...

2021

Upcycling Space Structures (Preface to special issue)

Olivier Baverel, Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet

The construction industry’s contribution to the deterioration of Earth’s ecosystem is huge. 11% of all anthropic greenhouse gas emissions worldwide are due to the construction, demolition, and transformation of buildings and infrastructure. Construction an ...

2021

Nature, Science, and Enterprise: The Origins of the Success of Reinforced Concrete in Switzerland. The Introduction, Diffusion, and Supersedence of the Hennebique System

Salvatore Aprea

This contribution gives an account of how concrete construction developed in French-speaking Switzerland since the end of the nineteenth century. The narrative is based on original sources from the Archives de la construction moderne (Acm) and on data and ...

EPFL Press2021