Usage of FBG fiber optic sensors to monitor the structural behaviour of a geopolymer concrete structural member

Geopolymer concrete, a relatively new building material has been suggested as an alternative to Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) based concretes for within the building sector, due to it having a relatively low CO2 emission during production. An issue with geopolymer concrete however, is that high amounts of early age creep, shrinkage and decrease...

Structural performance of geopolymer concrete: Shear and flexural behavior of a prestressed girder with cast in-situ topping under short-term loading

Upscaling of two geopolymer concrete mixtures in an individual prestressed girder in self-compacting geopolymer concrete (SCGC) with a topping layer cast in-situ by a ready-mix geopolymer concrete provider. The objective is to study the different material properties of the mixtures, determine their impact in the structural performance and define...

Acquiring material properties of objects for tactile simulation through point cloud scans

Tactile internet enables communication in a new layer of immersion, touch. It has the potential to transform the landscape of digital communication. However, the achievable scale of tactile internet is severely limited by its 1 ms round-trip latency. We propose a workaround for the latency through tactile simulation, which can bypass the...

The effect of thermal fatigue on mechanical properties of thermoset composites

Composite structures are used more frequently in newly designed aircrafts. This results in new difficulties compared to conventional metals during operational life. Especially, the material properties of two different materials can cause side effects, which are unwanted in a structure, for example thermal stresses. Many reports have been written...

Material property characterisation of tissue engineered fibrous cap structures: An inverse Finite Element study

Introduction: Atherosclerosis is characterised by the buildup of plaque within the arterial wall and it is often the underlying cause effect of deaths related to cardiovascular diseases. Thin cap fibroatheromas are plaques with a high risk of causing clinical events due to rupture and espousal of thrombogenic components to the bloodstream. The...

Steel 3D printing for structures: An explorative study on the tear-out strength of a pin or bolt in a Wire and Arc Additively Manufactured carbon steel plate

Additive manufacturing (AM), or 3D printing, is emerging as a technology for different applications made of steel. It is expected that in the coming years the construction industry will benefit from the free and lightweight forms that can be fabricated and the possible material savings. A few experimental results of 3D printed stainless steel...

Improving the Blade Root Laminate of a Wind Turbine

Suzlon's wind turbine blades are connected to the pitch bearing and hence the hub using a T-Bolt (Ikea) connection. The merits of this bolted connection and the experience in its usage has led to its continuous use in the wind industry. Engineers at Suzlon believe that this connection can be optimized by improving the net-tension strength and...

A Novel Approach to Estimating the Material Properties of Atherosclerotic Plaque Tissue

The majority of cardiovascular clinical events, which are the main causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide, are caused by atherosclerotic plaque rupture. This biomechanical event occurs when the local plaque stresses exceed its strength. The plaque stresses can be assessed by computational models to predict these events. Current approaches...

Effect of stochastic material properties on the structural response of laminated composite materials: following the building block approach

This report, which from now and onwards will be called the main body of the thesis, covers the core of the<br/>problem that has to be solved. Generally, the aim of this thesis is to investigate a laminated composite’s<br/>structural response, made of FRP, when its material properties are assumed stochastic instead of<br/>deterministic. The...

Seismic Assessment of a Typical Dutch Rijtjeshuis

A critical issue that is raising concern among the scientists and engineers during the last decade in the Netherlands is the occurrence of relatively small earthquakes in the North part of the Netherlands (Groningen, Drenthe and North Holland). These earthquakes that have a non-tectonic origin and are related to the gas-field depletion, have...

The Structural Feasibility of 3D-printing houses using printable polymers

At this point in time, 3D-printing techniques in general, but especially applied for the building industry, still are in a phase of early experiments. One of the experimental attempts is to print a full-scale, three-story high, house in Amsterdam, using an up scaled version of a FDM-printer that is able to print blocks of 1.8 x 1.8 x 3.0 meters...

Biodegradable materials: A research and design handbook; enhancing the use of biodegradable materials on building's envelopes in the Netherlands.

This master thesis dealt with 12 biodegradable materials that were researched extensively under various parameters, aiming to a better understanding of those materials and their potentials as future building materials in the Netherlands. The main research question of “which products and systems will enhance the use of biodegradable materials on...

Materials for Action: A Performative Material Toolkit for Social Interaction Design

Social networking sites are today playing an essential role in our daily lives. These web-based services not only focus on providing people a platform to share interests and activities, but also facilitate the process of keeping in touch with families and friends. Take Facebook, the most popular social networking website, as an example: people...

Investigation of the relation between growth mechanism and material properties of amorphous silicon solar cells

Thin film silicon solar cells are produced by using plasma deposition techniques. With this technique a thin film layer of silicon, most commonly amorphous silicon (a-Si: H), can be deposited on a substrate. The material properties depend largely on the plasma properties and the growth mechanism. The investigation of the correlation between...