Publications related to Swiss Standards for Existing Structures

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

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

High-frequency response of a hemispherical grounding electrode

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Antonio Sunjerga

The lightning discharge current is characterized by a high-frequency spectrum extending from DC to about 10 MHz. The calculation of the grounding impedance is one of the most important aspects of designing lightning protection systems. The search for analy ...

Elsevier2024

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

Shear and steel-fibre reinforcement for the punching resistance of flat slabs at internal and edge columns

Diego Hernández Fraile

Reinforced concrete flat slabs consist of a continuous, thin concrete plate that rests on a grid of columns. The supporting surface of the columns is very small compared to the floor plan dimensions, leading to concentrations of shear forces near the colum ...

EPFL2024

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

Reliability analysis and partial safety format calibration considering the characteristics of the resistance of reinforced concrete structures

Qianhui Yu

Every engineering calculation is an approximation of reality, with inevitable uncertainties involved. This fact implies that a reliability verification accounting for the uncertainties is a necessary step in the design and assessment of structures. Nowaday ...

EPFL2023

Engineering of Existing Structures: The Need and Place for Non-destructive Evaluation

Eugen Brühwiler, Numa Joy Bertola, Thomas Schumacher

Structural engineers today are still educated mainly to design new structures. This ignores the fact that structures already exist and need to be maintained. Students are thus often ill-equipped to deal with maintenance and preservation of existing structu ...

2022

Les Cahiers de l'Ibois 3 / Ibois Notebook 3

Sandra Vuilleumier, Petras Vestartas

Before the twentieth century and concrete modernity, it was stone that embodied the “well built”. Could sustainable wood one day replace concrete as the archetypal material? Will it find a place on the scale of values that gives archi- tecture its referenc ...

EPFL PRESS2022

Synthesis of Four-Membered BN3 Heterocycles by the Borylation of Triazenes

Kay Severin, Rosario Scopelliti, Abdusalom Suleymanov

Borylated triazenes were synthesized by the dehydrocoupling of triazenes with 9-borabicyclo(3.3.1)nonane, by the condensation of triazenes with BEt3, or by the reaction of sodium triazenides with dialkyl- or diarylboron halides. The structures of the produ ...

2022

Considerations on the partial safety factor format for reinforced concrete structures accounting for multiple failure modes

Aurelio Muttoni, Miguel Fernández Ruiz, Qianhui Yu

The increasing usage of nonlinear analyses for the design of reinforced concrete structures and the necessity of codes of practice to provide a consistent safety format for them is one of the challenges that new generations of codes of practice are facing. ...

ELSEVIER SCI LTD2022

Structural characterisation of nanoalloys for (photo)catalytic applications with the Sapphire library

Kevin Rossi

A non-trivial interplay rules the relationship between the structure and the chemophysical properties of a nanoparticle. In this context, characterization experiments, molecular dynamics simulations and electronic structure calculations may allow the varia ...

ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY2022

Fire performance evaluation of GFRP-balsa sandwich bridge decks

Niloufar Vahedi

Bridges are a critical component of national infrastructures and economies. A significant percentage of bridges built all around the world are made of reinforced concrete which according to building codes have a life span between 80-100 years. However, str ...

EPFL2022

A consistent safety format and design approach for brittle systems and application to textile reinforced concrete structures

Aurelio Muttoni, Miguel Fernández Ruiz, Patrick Lorenzo Valeri, Qianhui Yu

Design and verification of structures in modern codes of practice account for a safety format, ensuring that the probability of failure does not exceed a given threshold. Although specific safety formats are proposed in some cases for special types of stru ...

2021

An integrated design tool for timber plate structures to generate joints geometry, fabrication toolpath, and robot trajectories

Pierre Latteur, Yves Weinand, Nicolas Henry Pierre Louis Rogeau

This paper presents an integrated design tool for structures composed of engineered timber panels that are connected by traditional wood joints. Recent advances in computational architecture have permitted to automate the fabrication and assembly of such s ...

2021

Testing of a full-scale flat slab building for gravity and lateral loads

Aurelio Muttoni, António Manuel Pinho Ramos

Full-scale testing of a two-storey flat slab structure is reported, undertaken in the SlabSTRESS research project; the construction and testing were planned and carried out at the ELSA laboratory of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre. The dime ...

ELSEVIER SCI LTD2021

Synthesis of Kit-of-parts Structures for Reuse

Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet, Jan Friedrich Georg Brütting, Gennaro Senatore, Alex-Manuel Muresan, Ioannis Mirtsopoulos

This paper shows a computational workflow to design a kit of parts consisting of linear bars and spherical joints that can be employed to assemble, take apart, and rebuild diverse reticular structures, e.g. gridshells and space frames. Being able to reuse ...

2021

Fatigue of reinforced UHPFRC members and monitoring of fatigue action effects on bridges

Bartlomiej Wojciech Sawicki

The objective of this thesis is to develop knowledge and methods to prevent fatigue failure of bridges. The Fatigue Limit State is investigated from both the demand (S) and resistance (R) side. The S-part focuses on reduction of uncertainties through monit ...

EPFL2021

Flexural behaviour of post-tensioned glass beams: Experimental and analytical study of three beam typologies

Alain Nussbaumer, Pieter Christian Louter, Jagoda Cupac

The concept of post-tensioned glass beams builds on the concrete analogy of the reinforced glass beams. By additionally prestressing the reinforcement in a post-tensioned system, a compressive pre-stress is applied on the glass, enhancing the initial fract ...

2021

Risk-based methodology to assess bridge condition based on visual inspection

Eugen Brühwiler, Numa Joy Bertola

The visual inspection of existing infrastructure is a critical step for asset management, as the detection and quantification of damage must be useful to prioritise maintenance. In Switzerland, main inspections are made every five years for all road bridge ...

2021