Vision

Existing concrete or reinforced concrete structures feature, as a rule, a relatively low resistance to various sorts of impact loading, such as shock, collision, or explosion. The primary goal of the intended Research Training Group is to bring substantial improvements in the impact-resistance of existing buildings by applying thin layers of strengthening material. By using innovative, mineral-bonded composites, public safety and the reliability of vitally important infrastructure should be significantly enhanced. The scientific basis to be developed will additionally enable to build new, impact-resistant structures economically and ecologically.

The vision of the Research Training Group (German: Graduiertenkolleg – GRK) consists of five parts, covering the entire span from construction materials to the structures themselves. More specifically, it concerns the development of the following:

  • new mineral-based composites, i.e., fine-grained concretes with different types of fiber reinforcement to yield especially high resistance to impact loading;
  • building concepts and measurement principles for the strengthening of existing concrete structures through thin layers of novel, highly ductile composites and for building new structures using these new types of concrete;
  • appropriate measuring and evaluation methods for the analysis of the processes occurring during impact, such as wave propagation, deformation, fracture etc.;
  • methods for numerically simulating the behavior of new concrete types and strengthened structures subject to impact loading by means of the coupling of different space and time scales;
  • fundamentals for safety evaluations, for assessing the economical and ecological aspects of the strengthening measures, and principles for increasing the efficiency of evaluation and assessment methods as well.