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 ...
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 ...
In typical reinforced concrete design, reinforcement is designed to carry axial forces, but it can also resist transversal forces by dowel action. This is usually neglected for simplicity's sake in the design phase, but it can be accounted for either expli ...
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 ...
Biominerals are used by natural organisms for example as structural supports and optical sensors. They are produced from a limited number of elements and under ambient conditions. Nevertheless, they often possess excellent mechanical properties and sometim ...
The development of Ultra-High Performance Fibre-Reinforced Cementitious Composite (UHPFRC) has enabled the design of lightweight constructions. Although the greenhouse gas emissions of UHPFRC per volume are higher than that of conventional concr ...
Polymer optical fibre (POFs) based wearable sensors have attracted a lot of attention in the field of healthcare and biomedical applications. They are in particular envision as the next generation of sensors for the continuous, real-time n ...
Existing standards for delamination tests on composite materials typically employ one-dimensional (1D) beam specimens. However, such specimens may not represent real delamination scenarios in composite structures, where cracks tend to propagate in two dime ...
