Parametric modelling of shrinkage effects on industrial floors

Drying shrinkage can cause structural damage to concrete industrial floors. Shrinkage is caused by evaporation of moisture from the drying material. In the design- and construction-standards, this complex process is not described on a fundamental level. Using finite element modelling to simulate the flow of Moisture through the concrete, it is...

The fire safety of car parks: Focussing on structural damage

A study on the fire safety concepts used in car parks. To asses the possible damage as a result of a fire, case studies were performed and changes in the car industry were analysed. The new type of fuel systems have resulted in new risks, which are not yet covered in the current design methodology. To understand the probability of a car park...

Practical Engineering Design Tool for Vibration Sensitive Laboratory Building Structures: Development of a practical design tool based on a scientific model for an early design of vibration sensitive laboratory building structures excited by traffic induced vibrations for use in engineering practice

The prediction of structural vibrations in vibration sensitive laboratory structures is a complex problem involving computationally heavy 3D models with long computational times. However, in the early design phases of a project long computational times are undesirable. Therefore the problem statement of this Master thesis concerns the...

StructuralComponents 6: An early-stage design tool for flexible topologies of mid-rise concrete buildings

The development of computational tools to aid with early-stage design of buildings is an emerging topic of great value. Developing a good conceptual design for a building is important because it can save a great amount of time and resources over the entire building process. This report discusses the project StructuralComponents 6, a continuation...

Circular building foundations: A structural exploration of the possibilities for making building foundations contribute to a circular economy

This research investigated how traditional foundations of buildings can become circular and thus contribute to a circular economy. The current linear take-make-dispose economy results in waste, exhaustion of finite natural resources and environmental degradation. A circular economy is one way to cope with these trends. This type of economy is...

Study for a Quantitative Risk Assessment on Accidental Actions

Lately structural safety is an often discussed subject in The Netherlands. Recent collapses have made people question if our buildings are actually safe enough. Research shows that the individual probability of death due to structural failure is below the limit of 10-5 per year. However, it is unknown if every single building is safe enough as...

Structural damage to Dutch terraced houses due to flood actions

’De Watersnood van 1953’, the largest Dutch flood in recent history, caused the death of 1795 people in the Netherlands directly from the flood conditions, while in the UK, 315 were recorded. Most of them were among those whose residence collapsed due to high water depth, quick rise rate of the water or strong flow velocity. Based on historical...

Probability of damage of masonry structures due to external ground vibrations

The SBR richtlijn A states threshold values for the vibration speeds causing a 1% probability of failure of masonry structures. These threshold values are very useful for structural designers, because during the construction of new structures or the demolition of existing structures, it is important to know if these structural vibrations can...

A predictive view on Durbans flood safety: The Golden Mile protected in style

Durban is the third largest city of South-Africa, located in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The city suffers from severe floods from time to time, finding its cause in both the Indian ocean as well as the Umgeni river. The eThekwini municipality wishes a better insight in the occurrence of these floods and searches for a structural solution to...