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Organisation

Construction engineering

Research Group

Main organisation:Engineering Technology
Lifecycle:1 May 2013 →  Today
Organisation profile:

The research activities of the research group CERG are situated within two research lines. The first research line studies the behaviour of structural components in concrete and other quasi-brittle materials. A first research topic of this research line investigates the behaviour of building components, such as masonry walls and prestressed concrete members. The focus lies on the development of finite element models which allow for assessing the residual strength and damage in these building components. The results of this research are compared with experimental results from our own research laboratory. A second research topic is road design. This research focuses primarily on the diagnosis and prognosis of structural damage in road surfaces. The overarching goal is to develop practical recommendations as regards the implementation and design of buildings and civil-technical constructions in concrete and other quasi-brittle materials. A second research line "road design and road ergonomics" follows the recent international trend in the so-called user-friendly (i.e. ergonomical) design. The core of this research consists of analysing the effect of road construction aspects on driving behaviour. On the one hand, the effect of the actual road design (i.e. geometry and cross-section) on driving behaviour will be studied. On the other hand, the impact of extra monitoring and infrastructural arrangements (i.e. signalisation, marking, gate constructions etc.) on driving behaviour will be taken into account as well. The experimental data is collected from a driving simulator which allows for precise observation in various road environments and traffic situations (such as crossroads, intersections etc.) 
Services to industry: The services are performed in the domain of: material testing, finite element studies of civil engineering problems, experimental studies.

Keywords:concrete, failure of building materials, masonry, mobility, modelling quasi-brittle materials, road design, road ergnomics
Disciplines:Scientific computing, Construction engineering, Earthquake engineering, Infrastructure, transport and mobility engineering, Structural engineering