Publications related to Structural design methodology in Integrally-Attached Timber Plate structures

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

Experimental Investigation on Size-Effect of Rubble Stone Masonry Walls Under In-Plane Horizontal Loading: Overview and Preliminary Results

Katrin Beyer, Savvas Saloustros

Rubble stone masonry is a common construction typology of historical city centres and vernacular architecture. While past earthquakes have shown that it is one of the most vulnerable masonry construction typologies, there are few experimental campaigns giv ...

2024

Structure and dynamics of liquid water from ab initio simulations: adding Minnesota density functionals to Jacob's ladder

Ursula Röthlisberger, Justin Villard, Martin Peter Bircher

The accurate representation of the structural and dynamical properties of water is essential for simulating the unique behavior of this ubiquitous solvent. Here we assess the current status of describing liquid water using ab initio molecular dynamics, wit ...

Royal Soc Chemistry2024

Teaching Not To

Charlotte Malterre-Barthes

Two design studios were successively taught in two schools of architecture: one at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) and the other at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland, based on "A Global Morato ...

Taylor & Francis Inc2024

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

Influence of model uncertainty and long term deformations in action effects calculation in reinforced concrete structures

Xhemsi Malja

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

Instabilities in Elastic and Magneto-Elastic Beams and Shells: from Shell Buckling to the Design of a Programmable Braille Reader

Arefeh Abbasi

In this thesis, we conduct a comprehensive investigation into structural instabilities of both elastic and magneto-elastic beams and shells, resulting in a creative proposal to design a programmable braille reader. Methodologically, we combine numerical si ...

EPFL2024

A global framework for data-informed bridge examination

Eugen Brühwiler, Philippe Schiltz, Numa Joy Bertola

Examining the performance of an existing bridge requires information on several aspects, such as design choices, material properties, and ongoing degradation processes. It often happens that some critical information is not available. The traditional appro ...

2024

Reuse of cut concrete slabs in new buildings for circular ultra-low-carbon floor designs

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

The study explores an original idea that responds to the urgent need to reduce the detrimental environmental impacts of load-bearing floor construction in new buildings by reusing saw-cut reinforced concrete (RC) pieces salvaged from soon-to-be demolished ...

2024

Short-term behavior of glass fiber-polymer composite bending-active elastica beam under service load application

Thomas Keller, Landolf-Giosef-Anastasios Rhode-Barbarigos, Tara Habibi

Bending-active elastica beam is a structural configuration that is based on the elastic deformation of an initially straight beam. This deformation occurs when horizontal displacements are applied to a sliding support, causing the beam to bend into an arch ...

2024

A cut-cell method for the numerical simulation of 3D multiphase flows with strong interfacial effects

Alexandre Caboussat, Alexandre Masserey, Marco Picasso, Julien Hess

We present a numerical model for the approximation of multiphase flows with free surfaces and strong interfacial effects. The model relies on the multiphase incompressible Navier-Stokes equations, and includes surface tension effects on the interfaces betw ...

Academic Press Inc Elsevier Science2024

A Softening Constitutive Law and Gradient-Inelastic Fiber-Based Element for 3-Dimensional Frame Simulations Under Seismic Excitations

Diego Isidoro Heredia Rosa

Steel frame structures are essential components of modern infrastructure. Understanding their behavior under seismic loading is critical for ensuring public safety and minimizing damage that occurs during earthquakes. To accurately predict the response of ...

EPFL2024

Orbital-Resolved DFT plus U for Molecules and Solids

Nicola Marzari, Iurii Timrov, Eric Macke

We present an orbital-resolved extension of the Hubbard U correction to density-functional theory (DFT). Compared to the conventional shell-averaged approach, the prediction of energetic, electronic and structural properties is strongly improved, particula ...

Amer Chemical Soc2024

Adaptive Finite Elements with Large Aspect Ratio. Application to Aluminium Electrolysis

Paride Passelli

The goal of this work is to use anisotropic adaptive finite elements for the numerical simulation of aluminium electrolysis. The anisotropic adaptive criteria are based on a posteriori error estimates derived for simplified problems. First, we consider an ...

EPFL2024

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

Computational Conceptual Design – Typological Exploration Of Spatial Truss Systems Through Optimization

Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet, Jonas Warmuth, Pierluigi D'Acunto

Exploring a wide range of relevant design options from the outset is crucial for every sound conceptual design process. Optimization techniques are generally employed to generate well-performing structural design options. However, focusing only on performa ...

2023

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

Combined Passive and Active Ultrasonic Stress Wave Monitoring of UHPFRC Properties on a Structural Level

Eugen Brühwiler, Numa Joy Bertola, Thomas Schumacher

Ultra-High-Performance Fiber-Reinforced Cementitious Composite (UHPFRC) is becoming popular in designing lightweight and durable structures. UHPFRC structural elements remain crack-free and waterproof under service conditions, significantly improving durab ...

2023

Preliminary design of the cold mass supports for the EU DEMO feeders

Kamil Sedlák, Roberto Guarino

The Cold Mass Support (CMS) is a basic structural component of the feeder system of the EU DEMO tokamak. The function of this structural element is not only to provide support to the containment duct - wiring the cryogenic lines, electrical bus bars and in ...

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